What Every Girl Should Know by J. Albert Mann

Author:J. Albert Mann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

The Gloves

A poor girl from Corning would become a poor woman from Corning. This was a truth I’d lived every day of my life. A poor girl from Corning becoming a doctor? It would take strength. Strength that I might not yet have, but I knew how to grow.

My secret successes were mounting. I was slowly learning to control myself. My manners and conduct were impeccable because I had made them so. I dwelt inside a fortress of my own building, a place no insult could penetrate. Nor could anyone else’s idea of who I was—or was not—ever again find its way inside. Even Mary and Nan had noticed the changed me, and they’d bought me the most special gift: a pair of beautiful silk gloves.

Creamy white, they hugged each of my fingers and slipped softly up my arms and around my elbows. I would have cherished them whether or not they’d come from Mary and Nan. But I adored them even more because they did.

“Margaret Louise!”

I kept them under my bed in their golden box where I pulled them out to try them on each morning before school, if only for a moment.

“Margaret Louise!”

I admit they were an indulgence. But they were such a lovely indulgence coming from my sisters, who had no money for such folly, but spent it anyway.

“Margaret Louise!”

My mother. Just shouting my name meant so many things. There are diapers to change. An ashpan to empty. Water to fetch. Chickens to feed.

I waved good-bye to congenial imaginary people on a charming imaginary city street just to admire my gloves in action one last time before I needed to place them away for the day.

“Margaret Louise!”

“Coming!” I shouted, resisting the urge to shriek it.

The only time she ever spoke to me was when she wanted something. Was a single peaceful moment alone with my beautiful gloves too much to ask?

I sighed and then carefully removed finger after finger. Folding one on top of the other, I gently laid them on the silky paper inside their golden box. I replaced the lid, and slid the box under my bed. It was going to be a very long day without them.

After I dumped the ash bucket, I headed out to feed the chickens. On my return trip, I passed my brothers hurrying off to work.

“You left the chicken gate open,” said Joseph.

“Close it on your way out?” I asked.

“No time,” John said.

“Some of us work for a living,” Thomas chimed in.

I dropped the empty ash bucket at my feet and stomped back to the coop. I was sweating from both the heat and anger. But I said nothing, because I owned and commanded my inner self.

Inside, I wiped Richard’s runny nose and released him from his high chair while Arlington screamed for my attention from his cradle.

“Clio, can you grab him, please?”

“I’m late for school,” he said, heading out the door.

I wanted to shout that I was late, too, but I stayed calmly inside my fortress. That is, until I called for my little sister.

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