Children's Book Classics - Kate Douglas Wiggin Edition: 11 Novels & 120+ Short Stories for Children. Kate Douglas Wiggin
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when he is happy, he is full of fun, and then Evelyn is not afraid of him. Yes, the girl shall be called Evelyn Abercrombie, and her guardian’s name shall be Mr. Adam Ladd.”
“Do you know Mr. Ladd?” asked Miss Maxwell in surprise.
“Yes, he’s my very best friend,” cried Rebecca delightedly. “Do you know him too?”
“Oh, yes; he is a trustee of these schools, you know, and often comes here. But if I let you ‘suppose’ any more, you will tell me your whole letter and then I shall lose a pleasant surprise.”
What Rebecca thought of Miss Maxwell we already know; how the teacher regarded the pupil may be gathered from the following letter written two or three months later.
Wareham, December 1st
My Dear Father,—As you well know, I have not always been an enthusiast on the subject of teaching. The task of cramming knowledge into these self-sufficient, inefficient youngsters of both sexes discourages me at times. The more stupid they are, the less they are aware of it. If my department were geography or mathematics, I believe I should feel that I was accomplishing something, for in those branches application and industry work wonders; but in English literature and composition one yearns for brains, for appreciation, for imagination! Month after month I toil on, opening oyster after oyster, but seldom finding a pearl. Fancy my joy this term when, without any violent effort at shell-splitting, I came upon a rare pearl; a black one, but of satin skin and beautiful lustre! Her name is Rebecca, and she looks not unlike Rebekah at the Well in our family Bible; her hair and eyes being so dark as to suggest a strain of Italian or Spanish blood. She is nobody in particular. Man has done nothing for her; she has no family to speak of, no money, no education worthy the name, has had no advantages of any sort; but Dame Nature flung herself into the breach and said:—
“This child I to myself will take;
She shall be mine and I will make
A Lady of my own.”
Blessed Wordsworth! How he makes us understand! And the pearl never heard of him until now! Think of reading Lucy to a class, and when you finish, seeing a fourteen-year-old pair of lips quivering with delight, and a pair of eyes brimming with comprehending tears!
You poor darling! You, too, know the discouragement of sowing lovely seed in rocky earth, in sand, in water, and (it almost seems sometimes) in mud; knowing that if anything comes up at all it will be some poor starveling plant. Fancy the joy of finding a real mind; of dropping seed in a soil so warm, so fertile, that one knows there are sure to be foliage, blossoms, and fruit all in good time! I wish I were not so impatient and so greedy of results! I am not fit to be a teacher; no one is who is so scornful of stupidity as I am… . The pearl writes quaint countrified little verses, doggerel they are; but somehow or other she always contrives to put in one line, one thought, one image, that shows you she is, quite unconsciously to herself, in possession of the secret… . Good-by; I’ll bring Rebecca home with me some Friday, and let you and mother see her for yourselves.
Your affectionate daughter,
Emily.
Chapter XXII.
Clover Blossoms and Sunflowers
“How d’ ye do, girls?” said Huldah Meserve, peeping in at the door. “Can you stop studying a minute and show me your room? Say, I’ve just been down to the store and bought me these gloves, for I was bound I wouldn’t wear mittens this winter; they’re simply too countrified. It’s your first year here, and you’re younger than I am, so I s’pose you don’t mind, but I simply suffer if I don’t keep up some kind of style. Say, your room is simply too cute for words! I don’t believe any of the others can begin to compare with it! I don’t know what gives it that simply gorgeous look, whether it’s the full curtains, or that elegant screen, or Rebecca’s lamp; but you certainly do have a faculty for fixing up. I like a pretty room too, but I never have a minute to attend to mine; I’m always so busy on my clothes that half the time I don’t get my bed made up till noon; and after all, having no callers but the girls, it don’t make much difference. When I graduate, I’m going to fix up our parlor at home so it’ll be simply regal. I’ve learned decalcomania, and after I take up lustre painting I shall have it simply stiff with drapes and tidies and placques and sofa pillows, and make mother let me have a fire, and receive my friends there evenings. May I dry my feet at your register? I can’t bear to wear rubbers unless the mud or the slush is simply knee-deep, they make your feet look so awfully big. I had such a fuss getting this pair of French-heeled boots that I don’t intend to spoil the looks of them with rubbers any oftener than I can help. I believe boys notice feet quicker than anything. Elmer Webster stepped on one of mine yesterday when I accidentally had it out in the aisle, and when he apologized after class, he said he wasn’t so much to blame, for the foot was so little he really couldn’t see it! Isn’t he perfectly great? Of course that’s only his way of talking, for after all I only wear a number two, but these French heels and pointed toes do certainly make your foot look smaller, and it’s always said a high instep helps, too. I used to think mine was almost a deformity, but they say it’s a great beauty. Just put your feet beside mine, girls, and look at the difference; not that I care much, but just for fun.”
“My feet are very comfortable where they are,” responded Rebecca dryly. “I can’t stop to measure insteps on algebra days; I’ve noticed your habit of keeping a foot in the aisle ever since you had those new shoes, so I don’t wonder it was stepped on.”
“Perhaps I am a little mite conscious of them, because they’re not so very comfortable at first, till you get them broken in. Say, haven’t you got a lot of new things?”
“Our Christmas presents, you mean,” said Emma Jane. “The pillow-cases are from Mrs. Cobb, the rug from cousin Mary in North Riverboro, the scrap-basket from Living and Dick. We gave each other the bureau and cushion covers, and the screen is mine from Mr. Ladd.”
“Well, you were lucky when you met him! Gracious! I wish I could meet somebody like that. The way he keeps it up, too! It just hides your bed, doesn’t it, and I always say that a bed takes the style off any room—specially when it’s not made up; though you have an alcove, and it’s the only one in the whole building. I don’t see how you managed to get this good room when you’re such new scholars,” she finished discontentedly.
“We shouldn’t have, except that Ruth Berry had to go away suddenly on account of her father’s death. This room was empty, and Miss Maxwell asked if we might have it,” returned Emma Jane.
“The great and only Max is more stiff and standoffish than ever this year,” said Huldah. “I’ve simply given up trying to please her, for there’s no justice in her; she is good to her favorites, but she doesn’t pay the least attention to anybody else, except to make sarcastic speeches about things that are none of her business. I wanted to tell her yesterday it was her place to teach me Latin, not manners.”
“I wish you wouldn’t talk against Miss Maxwell to me,” said Rebecca hotly. “You know how I feel.”
“I know; but I can’t understand how you can abide her.”
“I not only abide, I love her!” exclaimed Rebecca. “I wouldn’t let the sun shine too hot on her, or the wind blow too cold. I’d like to put a marble platform in her class-room and have her sit in a velvet chair behind a golden table!”
“Well, don’t have a fit!—because she can sit where she likes for all of me; I’ve got something better to think of,” and Huldah tossed her head.
“Isn’t this your study hour?” asked Emma Jane, to stop possible discussion.
“Yes, but I lost my Latin grammar yesterday; I left it in the hall half an hour while I was having a regular scene with Herbert Dunn. I haven’t spoken to him for a week and gave him back his class pin. He was simply furious. Then