Sisters

by Grace May North

  CHAPTER XI. VIEWS AND REVIEWS

  Monday morning dawned gloriously, but it was with great effort that Jennymade her mood match the day. Often her grandparents glanced at her andthen at one another as they ate their simple breakfast. At last hergrandfather asked: "What be yo' studyin' on so hard, dearie? Is itanything about yo're schoolin' that's frettin' you?"

  The girl, who had been gazing at the bowl of golden poppies on the middleof the table with unconscious abstraction, looked up with a bright smile.Luckily her grandfather's remark gave her a suggestion to enlarge upon.Turning to the little old woman whose sweet blue eyes were watchfullyinquiring, the girl said: "Something has happened, or rather it is goingto happen." She paused a moment, but her grandfather urged: "Do go on,Jenny. Don't let's stop for no guessin' contest this time. I've got toget out early to the cultivatin'."

  Jenny told how the Board of Education had required Miss Dearborn to takea teacher's examination before she had been permitted to continueinstructing her one lone pupil.

  "Tut! Tut! Wall now, yo' don' tell?" Grandma Sue was much impressed. "DidMiss Dearborn go an' take them teachin' examinations jest so she couldkeep on helpin' yo' wi' your studies?"

  The girl nodded. "She must set a power by you," the old woman concluded.Grandpa Si spoke up. "Huh, how could she help it? I reckon every critteras knows Jenny sets a power by her, but thar must be more to the yarn. Idon' see anything, so far, for you to fret about."

  "Yes, there is more," Jenny agreed, "Miss Dearborn has had a letter fromthe Board of Education saying that I must take the high schoolexaminations next month. Think of it, Granny Sue! I've got to go to thatbig new high school over in Santa Barbara where I don't know a singlesoul, and take written examinations, when I never have had even one inall my life."

  Again the grandfather's faith in his "gal" was expressed. "It's _my_notion when them examinations are tuk, _your's_ 'll be leadin' all therest. Thar ain't many gals as sober minded as _yo'_ be, Jenny, not by along ways."

  The girl's merry laughter pealed out and the twinkle in her liquid browneyes did not suggest sober-mindedness. Rising she skipped around thetable kissing affectionately her grandfather's bald spot.

  "Here's hoping that you won't be disappointed in your granddaughter. Butreally she isn't half as wise as you think she is." Then turning towardthe smiling old woman, she concluded, "Is she, Mrs. Susan Warner?"

  The sweet blue eyes told much more than the reply. "Wall, I reckon yo'won't come out tail-end."

  Again the girl laughed, then donning her hat and taking her books, shemerrily called "Good-bye." But her expression changed when she reachedthe lane and started walking briskly toward the highway.

  The real cause of her anxiety returned to trouble her thoughts. "Oh, I_must_ study so hard, so hard," she told herself. "Then I will be able tobe a teacher and make a home for my dear old grandparents. How I hope thefarm will not be sold until then."

  Jenny did not follow the highway, but took a short cut trail to MissDearborn's hillside home. It led over a rugged upland where gnarled liveoaks twisted their rough barked branches into fantastic shapes. Jennyloved low-growing oaks and she never climbed through this particulargrove of them, however occupied her thoughts might be as they were onthis troubled morning, without giving them a greeting. "I'm glad thatMiss Dearborn is teaching me mythology, for otherwise I wouldn't knowthat each of these trees is really the home of a dryad, beautiful,slender graceful sprites, born when the tree is born and dying when thetree dies. How I would love to come here some moon-lit night in thespring and watch them dance to the piping of Pan. They would have widefluttering sleeves in their garments woven of mist and moonbeams and theywould be crowned with oak leaves, but how sad it would be if awoodchopper came and chopped down one of the trees, for that night therewould be one less dryad at the dance on the hill."

  Beyond the trees there was a long sweep of meadowland down the hill sideto the highway, and beyond to the rocky edge of the sea. On this bright,spring morning it was a glittering, gleaming carpet of waving poppy cupsof gold.

  Joyfully the girl cried, pausing on the edge of it, "O, I know the poemMiss Dearborn would quote. I thought of it right away." Then she recitedaloud, though there was no one to hear.

  "I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of shining daffodils Beside the lake, beneath the trees Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

  Continuous as the stars that shine, And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never ending line, Along the margin of the bay. Ten thousand saw I at a glance Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

  The waves beside them danced, but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee. A poet could not but be gay In such a jocund company. I gazed and gazed, but little thought What wealth to me the show had brought.

  For oft when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude. And then my heart with rapture fills And dances with the daffodils.

  "If only Wordsworth had lived in California," she thought as shecontinued on her way, "he would have written just such a poem about thesefields of golden poppies."

  Ten minutes later, the girl, feeling an inward glow from so close acommunion with Nature, the greatest of artist-poets, skipped between thetwo graceful pepper trees that were the gate posts of Miss Dearborn'sattractive hillside home.

  "Well, dearie, how bright you are this morning," was the greeting thewoman, digging about in her garden, sang out. Then, standing her hoeagainst a rustic bench, she began taking off her gloves, as together theywalked toward the house. "I am indeed glad," she concluded, "for you areto have a hard testing today."

  Instantly the morning glow faded from the girl's face and a troubledexpression clouded her eyes. "Miss Dearborn, what now?"

  The older woman laughed. "No need of high tragedy," she said. "It's onlythat I have paid a visit to the principal of the high school, and haveobtained from him the questions used on examinations for several yearspast, and today I am going to give you your first written test. We havenearly a month for review, and each week I shall ask you one complete setof questions of previous years and then, at least, you will be familiarwith written examinations."

  "Oh, Miss Dearborn, how kind, how wonderfully kind you are to me. Itwould be most ungrateful of me to fail."

  "Fail? There is no such word for the earnest student who has workedfaithfully day by day all through the term as my pupil has. There will beno need of that nerve-racking system called cramming for you." Then, asthey ascended the steps to the wide veranda, Miss Dearborn exclaimed,"See, I've put a table in the glassed-in corner. I'm going to shut you inthere until noon with the questions, and I shall expect your average tobe 90 at least."

  Jenny felt a little thrill of excitement course over her, and she startedat her new task with a determination to try her best to be worthy of thefaith placed in her by the three who loved her so dearly.