Runaway Heart by Jane Peart

Author:Jane Peart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: Zondervan

Chapter 15

Riverbend, Oregon; October 1882

"Dearest Mama," Holly wrote,

I have now been a full-fledged teacher for over a month! From your letter, which I received today, I am aware of the full extent of your and Papa's surprise at the news. It is so like Papa to say, as you quote him: "Well, well, maybe all the hefty fees I paid out to Blue Ridge Female Academy are being put to some practical use after all." I can just see his eyes twinkle while he says that. But in all seriousness I seem to have taken to teaching like the proverbial duck to water.

"Of course, I would not be entirely truthful if I didn't relate some of the mishaps that have occurred, although in retrospect some of them have been quite comical. For example, I have certainly been put to the test as people tell me all new teachers are. Particularly by some of the older boys. Because they only attend school sporadically, when they are not needed on the farms, they do not have the desire to learn as do most of the other children. The three who are most troublesome have played some tricks. I will not go into full detail but just mention a few—such as putting old rags in the classroom stove so that one chilly morning when I decided to light a cozy fire, it smoked terribly creating such a cloud of fumes that I had to evacuate the building and conduct the rest of the school day outdoors. Thankfully, the weather here is still warm in the middle of the day so we all rather enjoyed the change of location! Another time a small garter snake was found in the bottom of the drinking water bucket, much to the horror of two screaming little girls.

But I think my stern reprimand and threat of worse has straightened these youngsters out sufficiently—at least temporarily. Nothing untoward has happened recently. They are woefully behind in their studies, so I have separated them from their usual places in the back of the classroom and set them to practicing their letters and doing sums.

The children who come to school are all ages, so I have to be quite versatile in planning each day's schedule. On the whole, I find them all anxious to learn and attentive. I try not to have favorites, but two of the children are especially appealing—a little boy named Joel and his younger sister, whom he calls Cissy. He is about eight, I think; she about six. Both have angelic expressions on not-always-too-clean faces, curly golden hair, large brown eyes. Sadly enough, they are the poorest-dressed children at school. There is an air of neglect about them, although it is touching to see how Joel, such a manly little fellow, is so protective of his sister.

Holly stopped writing for a minute as she thought about Joel and Cissy. How to explain children like these to her comfortable, well-fed family? How could they possibly understand? Try as she might, Holly could not remember having seen any really poor people in Willow Springs.

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