Show THE SAIIIN 3IAAB The Story of My One Schoolday in Old Kentucky By Martha McCulloeh Williams I was spent in a Kentucky oldfield where the school a square log building twenty odd scholars got their lessons I out loud from the big boys who wore beards and studied algebra and surveying i to the beginners who paid more attention atten-tion to pictures than to text I was a great girl five years old but I had never been to school What I knew I had learned at the bedside of my invalid inva-lid mother But now it was decided that I must go to school So one morning morn-ing I was put into my best Scotch plaid frock my ruffled white linen apron mv quilted hood with pale blue silk lining and sent off under black Susans convoy to begin my education educa-tion My two older sisters had run off as soon after breakfast as possible eager to meet and frolic with their mates before school took upI up-I think they were secretly a little proud of me as I came up the hill with my good Susan panting at my back Yet neither of them took the slightest notice of me until Joe Wray cried out Look there theres a new little child a gal child too Wonder whar she came frum I fetched her an dont you cum a meddlin wid er She aint none o yo business Susan retorted waddling to my sisters to whom she gave me over saying Take dis chile an ten ter er good dont let her cum back ter me an vo mother with no tales bout high hidoes dis day Go way Susan youre cross as two sticks this mornin my sister Kitty said putting out her hand to me As I clung to it a fat pale girl o her own size who stood a little way off began to giggle disagreeably dis-agreeably and say between gasps Oh Kit youll have a time now nussin that big baby trying learn her ab abs I wouldnt alet my mother let er come i Id been in your place We cant have no fun at all now with that thing taggin after you Ef youd been in her place maybe youd a had some mannerswhich you aint got now Joe Wry said and then he came in front of me saying Howdy little gal Ef ye want it Ill make ye a nice cedar pint r sos ye kin toiler easy yer a b o sf At that Patty my younger sister giggled gig-gled outright even Kit had to turn her head from the big kind blundering fellow fel-low I know now ha was kind but then little prig that 1 was piped out You had better keep your pointer for yourself I can spell immateriality and say the multiplication table backwards i you like J I In the laugh that followed Joe slunk away very red The fat girl whom our Patty called Reny began to ask incredulously incredu-lously Can she shorenough do that when Cousin Tom as everybody called the teacher who had come up the back way rapped loudly upon the door he was unlocking and uPn Books books bo ksl Instantly ttiere was a rdsh for the door The rule of recitation was to hear first the first who set foot inside This particular morning Joe Wray won the race Before t Q < I had found a seat betwixt my two sisters he had planted himself slate in hand at Cousin Toms elbow and was asking Please sir how must I do them sums that aint got no answer in the bookan pap says ef the man thet made the rithmetic didnt know the answers lthmetc hissef how did he reckon boys like me could find out Cousin Tom turned to one of his bearded pupils Jackson said he take Joe and go outside under the trees You had pretty much the same sort of time he has now see i you cant help him a bit on his sums Meanwhile Reny the fat girl was nod dingvehemently toward me and whispering whisper-ing to Kit 1 I l say you orter take her right up to Cousin Tom an tell him yer mother sent her to school not jes fer fun like some er the little uns comes Kit turned her back on Reny and gave me a little reassuring squeeze and went on studying her lessous out loud her voice lose in the ceneral hum Humph retorted Reny yer mother is so stuck up she dontgo ter see her neighbors j Reny said this so shrilly thatCousin i Tom actually looked in our direction j How he heard her was a puzzle for by this time twenty scholars at least were studying aloud each voice unconsciously r raised to the pitch of the general drone Its key note came from the boys spelling I ing cla > s Jack Ware aud Felix Grant their hands locked together were marCI ing up and down the floor their thumbs betwixt the pages of their bluebacked spelling books committing their lessons 1ilibabtitionshun libation ro rotatationshun rotation and soon so-on through the column Reny loosed at them with curling lip Jest look at them boys books she said contemptuously Yar wouldnt think thar paps buy m new ones cvy Saddy of this immortial world but its IEO j soKitty frowned and went on learning her lesson Patty too bent steadily to her book As it was Friday she wa learning thus early the piece of poetry the recitation of which was to finish up the school week Suddenly Reny snatched me from my I seat and dragged me up to Cousin Tom saying with a hateful laugh Pat and 1 Kit must be shamed er thisvere yuan un I reckon I thought Id bring Jer to you before she set up the cry for her mother Oh no Betty is not the crying sort Besides we are great friends arent we Betty the teacher said taking me upon his knee He was indeed a friend one of the few visitors with whom my parents were intimately familiar Looking up at him I said nodding toward Reny Send her awayshe is forward All the school set up snch a discomfiting laugh that I dropped the third reader to which I had clung ever since leaving home Indeed In-deed I was so nervous that Cousin Tom called recess twenty minutes earlier and bade Kitty take me down to the spring through play time After that he would see about lessons and classes All my child heart went out to him ingratitude in-gratitude After the noise the buzzing the uncouth ways what delight to sit on a big rock entirely cushioned with moss and hear birds sing and waters tinkle The schoolhouse stood on top of a steep rocky hill among tall rocks A clear creek ran at the foot And half way down the spring burst out and ran away over by black ledges fringed with dainty ferns Kit bathed my hothead hot-head until I was cool and happy She bent down a couple of saplings for ridy goes sat me upon one and herself mounted the other By springing ever so lightly with our toes on the ground they woulr < ke us quite a way in the air We called i riding We went a great pace until veering voice said behind us WhoeeI reckon Kit 11 be goin on all fours next ter please the progidy Yistiddy she sad nobodey but a torn boy would git on a ridygo Well me and Pattys gon ter ride the sailin maar You aint Patty shant Kit said decisively jumping off her ridygo Come long Betsey baby well go find Patty before she breaks her neck Vhat is a sailin maar I demanded de-manded Reny laughed disagreeably saying over her shoulder as she went up the nath Better watch out Kit the young un 1 be on it too J Come along baby run quick Kit called to me as she too darted up the hill I Following at my best speed I found her I some way from the schoolhouse holding Patty last and pleading to her Patty dont you musnt mother never would get over it if anything happened hap-pened to yer Oh come on Pat dont mind old Miss Mulligrub Reny said with a taunting taunt-ing laugh holding out her hand Patty made as i to follow her when Joe Wray came between He stopped short set his hat a little to one side and I said Say yer dry that all up Reny I helped build that thar min maar but not fer no gals ter ride on Efyar go an try it and try ter git Patty on it too dog bite my skin i I dont cut the whole thing down I Oh Joe I wish you would said Kit anxiously 1 am scared every play time Patty gets out of my sight Joe set his hat more rakishly than ever stuck out his chin and answered Well from this out yer neenter be You hear my racket Renys got to let that alone why wheres that mizzable gal Shes gone down ter the creekto fish Patty said promptly An Im going too Patty was running away down hill Joe eyedmo for a minute as though I were a strange wild animal then lurched away to join in agame of bull pen Perhaps ten minutes later a shrill scream startled us and set everybody running run-ning toward the spot whenc it came Following as last as my little legs would carry me I came very shortly to the mysterious sailin maar To make this sailingmare tho boys had cut off a young hickory some four feet above the ground and trimmed down I the stump at top to a stout shouldered peg Then a smaller trunk stripped of I limbs and slightly flattened had been bored through with a twoinch auger midway its length And set so as to revolve re-volve easily upon the peg The sport lay in mounting a rider upon the lighter end of the maar Then two or three others took hold of the heavy end and and tramped round andround pushing it before them I l So long as they walked all was well When they broke into running the danger dan-ger was very real for then the strength of their swelling muscles their supple bodies was transmitted into centrifugal force So long as the rider held on all I was well even then But i for any cause he grew giddy or lost his grip his chance gew ota broken head wasvery excellent wasver I 4 Upon this peculiar contrivance poor I Patty sat clinging with arms and legs l while Reny and two other girls as wild a I herself were sending her spinning around at racing speed After her first shrill r t cry she had made no noise only clung with all her strength sick and white t the flying timber Perhaps the others thought she had recovered J re-covered from the fright or it may b Rsny was so full of spite against Kitty i that she stuck at nothing to give her an noyauce At any rate whenshe saw the others coming she but went the faster heedless even that Cousin Tom was coming com-ing stop running and crying Stop stop I wish you were a boy Oh wouldnt I jes lick you Joe Wray panted a he ran past us without hat or coat Ease up you wild cats He was shaking his fist at Reny and she was screaming with laughter pushing push-ing the sailinmaar with all her might Even a he spoke everybody cried out for Patty was flung heavily to earth at least three feet beyond the sail inmacrs arm Oh shes dead and theyll hang me for it Reny cried out standing stock still and white a a ghost Kit tried to raise Patty but she lay without breath r tfjll gi t I SIDYGOS or motion For five minutes there was no sign of life Then Cousin Tarn who was bending over her said Thank 1 I God she breathes there is a little flutter ain a-in the wrist 7 After that there was no more school hat day for anybody all were too full of Patty and her broken arm She went home like a princess propped with shawls and coats in Cousin Toms armchair which he and the big boys eared so gently as to save her the slightest jar One of tho older girls walked beside the chair holding a bottle of smelling salts The doctor whom Jack Ware roda post haste to fetch said there was no great harm done young bones knit easily but added to Cousin Tom who waited for his report I you dont have contrivance cut down at once sir Ill present you to the grand jury for manslaughter You wont have the chance doctor Joe Ware got an as before we left the schoolhouse This performance broke up my school lag for all time Safe in mothers arms that night I pleaded Please dont send me to school I had rather be dead like than more 7 Patty was go any You shall study at home with me J mother said And that is how I have come to gray hairs with this one eventful schoolday |