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Show pj LEE NELSON v.. jing the Church didn't change CL,v lite in the '"i1" ; . ;s still dlfiictllt lor me to . onv'ttilh any regularity or intensi-l intensi-l ' vhe Hook of Mormon lulled me C,0 0Cp just as the Uible had done. St-rhe biggest change wasn't in me. Wjutinim friends. Now that I uasa Mnrnwn. most of them were (old lot to plav with me any more, that 1 .;-MS lilTerent" and a bad inllu-" inllu-" :ncc. I DIDN'T like being shunned. Hut. combined with my desire to 4 K bold and brave like I Ider Pratt. SurieJ getting me into an inereas-number inereas-number of fights with the other iosat school. I had a ehii on m . .houkler. and it didn't take lone . iniihill the boys knew that il they aid am thing about the Mormon Church they could expect a fight nth me. " . The lighting Kept me in constant rouble" with Miss I inch, our cacher. She was a tall, skinny lady tithamouih like a prune, eyes like emit. Her hair was always the ante, pulled straight back and tiei a hard knot al the back of he cad. She whipped me on I tic rear iith a willow whenever I fought nd cracked me across the knuck-;s knuck-;s with a hickory stick w henev er I ae a wrong answer to her ques-ons. ques-ons. I didn't has e much inteiest in chool. somy answers were usual-I usual-I wrong. I MISS FINCH was supported in )er work by the parents of the choolchildren. Some gave her lioncy. but most paid with food nd clothing. She lived in the omes of the students, changing to r-ncw home every month." Our turn came up once or tvv ice ich year, but after we joined the 3"C lormons. she never stayed with s again, not once, tlven though I ad never been glad to have her .. . ay with us. it hurt w hen she stop-." stop-." .'d coming: I assumed that she. '''io. was shunning us because of jr religion. rr I BEGAN to feel that she vvhip-a;:d vvhip-a;:d me more frequently than she d the other students, and with t :--'itcr intensity, because I was a lormon. 1 couldn't light her like 1 Xtld the boys, so my resentment tw and festered within. I became a loner. The only per- in I talked to was my brother -:-avid. who was experiencing simi-h simi-h r difficulties. Fortunately for m. he was old enough to gel fT: ay. He landed a job with the udson Bay Fur Company and 1 as sent to the Rocky Mountains 6: trap furs. If there w as any way I .g -;uld have gone w ith him. I would ;iedone it. He promised to come 1c:"ick and get me when I was 16. I DIDN'T know if I could wait nt long: three y ears seemed like nq rever. I moped around for a w eek 3" ' two feeling sorry for myself. jrjwable and alone. I" I hen one day the thought occur-5;; occur-5;; dtome that, even though I had to "' Imcc years before joining my i.? other. I didn't have to wait three ars to learn how to trap. I found rusty muskrat traps in the ri- oiled and cleaned them, and 'pin my career as a trapper. fTTHF.RE weren't any valuable JUj m the vicinity: they had been .Wed out years earlier, but there I glK plenty of big Canadian river V- I he local creeks became mv Mison and Yellowstone Rivers: huge rats, my beavers. V'metimes when I caueht an ex-higune. ex-higune. I d skin it. salt and dry f Pell and hang il from the rafters "V sleeping compartment in the l "l the cabin. p RAT trapping continued for pal years, and J was getting A W pl'd at conceal inu 'traps in rh the riyhl places to""catch the varmints. One afternoon, af-fj af-fj jreeciving a severe beating with f billow rmm Miss Hnch was on the bank of a nearby ck carefully skinning one ol the " rats I had ever caught. It I Cc,avc weighed nearly three Uncle Henry and Aunt Sarah were getting ready to join the Mormons Mor-mons in Missouri, and I was going with them. I was thinking how glad I would be to get away from Miss Finch, hopefully never to see her again. 1 remember trying to figure out how often she had whipped me - certainly more than a hundred times. AS I pulled the last of the skin from the rat's head. 1 noticed for a moment the striking resemblance between the rat's face and the lace of my teacher. Holding the skinless carcass up in front of me. I began to giv e it a piece of my mind. "Miss Finch, what a pleasant surprise, meeting y ou dow n here at the creek. I always suspected there was some rat in you. but such a striking resemblance. I never dreamed..." 1 laughed out loud. then resumed my one-w ay conversation, conver-sation, say ing all the things I had never been able to say to her face. I DON'T know how long 1 talked to (hat dead rat. but after I had said everything I fell like saying to Miss Finch. 1 felt spent, but good, like a load had been lifted from my shoulders. shoul-ders. It was getting late. 1 lucked the pelt under my bell and was about to throw the carcass into the creek, when the thought occurred to me that I might be able to have some-more some-more fun with it at school. I KNKW 1 could get in a lot of trouble, but we were moving to Missouri soon anyway, and it would be nice toget even w ith Miss Finch and get even for some of the many vv hippings she had given me. I decided to be bold like Klder Pratt and do the thing that was on my mind, regardless of the consequences. consequ-ences. I carefully washed the skinned rat in the creek, wrapped it in a piece of oil cloth, and shoved it in my coat, chuckling in anticipation of what was going to happen at school the next day. IT WAS early spring, still cold during the day. which meant the students and Miss Finch were still eating their lunches al their desks in the classroom, instead of outside. out-side. When the students were dismissed dis-missed for the mid-morning recess. 1 lingered a little longer than usual in the coat room until I was alone. I checked back in the classroom (o make sure Miss Finch was still at her desk correcting papers. She was. Quickly I took her green lunch pail down from the top shelf and opened it. I unwrapped the skinned rat. still wet and slippery, and placed it in the lunch pail, belly up. Actually, it looked quite comfortable, comfort-able, stretched out on a egg sandwich sand-wich w ith an apple pillow. I closed the lunch box. returned it to the shelf, and joined the students outside. out-side. WHEN THE lunch break finally arrived. I was half wishing 1 had left the rat at home, but it was too late for second thoughts now as the students and Miss Finch filed into the coat room to get their lunch pails. Miss Finch's response was better bet-ter than expected. First she screamed, loud-and shrill. Then she sprang out of herchair. violently violent-ly shoving the lunch pail away from her over the edge of the desk. As the box hit the floor, the skinned rat popped out. sliding down the aisle between two rows.of student desks, kids scattering in every direction. MISS FINCH was backed up against the blackboard, still screaming, both hands pressed against the sides of her face, when the slippery rat came to rest in the middle of the room. Many of the girls were screaming too. Most of the boys had bewildered expressions, still trying to figure out what was happening. I was the only one wearing a bright smile, and the instant Miss Finch looked at me. I realized my mistake in smiling and knew 1 had been discovered. disco-vered. SHE DIDN'T even ask me to admit my guilt. After I had deposited depo-sited the rat in the trash can. she marched me to the front of the room when I automatically bent over and grabbed my tinkles, waiting wait-ing for the expected whipping w hich for once I felt was fully deserved. de-served. She whipped me until her arm was too tired to do it any longer. . After the first five or six lashes. I didn't mind the thrashingat all. She could have continued for it week iind not inflicted enough punishment punish-ment to compensate for the fear and embarrassment 1 had brought upon her with that skinned rat. IN THE hours and days that followed, fol-lowed, as 1 thought about the rat incident, i realized that in striking out against Miss I'inch 1 had hurt her far mote than she had ever hurl me with the many whippings and thrashings. I realized that 1 could stand up to her, in my own way, and be victorious. victo-rious. With this new confidence, my fear.of her was suddenly gone. AND WI THOUT the fear, my feelings towards her began to change. She was no longer the wicked witch trying to torture her student captives, bul rather a dedicated dedi-cated old lady trying desperately to teach her students to read, write and figure -- believing that the whippings and thrashings were essential for maintaining classroom clas-sroom discipline. For the llrst time in my life I wanted to be a good student, to master the subjects, to get good marks, to please poor Miss I inch. Unfortunately. I never had the chance to show her how I had changed. It was the spring of IX3X. and we moved to Far West. Missouri Mis-souri to join the Stunts. |