CHAPTER XVII.
LEARNING.
I suppose you can hardly fancy a school where little girls were notallowed to wear their hair as they liked; where they had to courtesy toteachers when they left the room; and, what was still more surprising,had to eat whatever was given to them at the table. I think that sucha school would seem so very old-fashioned nowadays that no little girlscould be found who would be willing to go to it, and even in those daysthere were very few like it.
The dear old Quaker lady, Miss Chapman, taught the little girls to dojust as she herself had been taught to do when she were a little girl;so you can easily imagine that her ways was not quite the ways of otherteachers. And yet, since her scholars were as healthy, happy,rosy-cheeked little girls as you could find anywhere, I do not knowthat any one could complain that her ways were not very good ways.They seemed very strange to new scholars sometimes, if they hadattended other schools where the rules were not so strict; but theyvery soon grew used to them, and then they did not mind them at all,and were very happy.
If Maude had not been sitting by her friend, Mrs. Boardman, perhaps shewould have made a great fuss at dinner-time about eating the piece ofsweet potato which had been served to her.
She did not like sweet potato, and she liked the idea of having to eatit, whether she wanted it or not, still less, and the clouds began togather on her face. She glanced about the table, and saw that Ruby washaving a hard time, trying to eat a dish which she did not like, andthat some of the other girls did not look very happy when they heardthe rule.
Mrs. Boardman whispered a few encouraging words to Maude, and thelittle girl reflected that as long as she had really tried to be goodabout some other things, she might as well try to be good about thisrule, too, and so she managed to eat the small piece of potato withoutsaying anything about not liking it. After the girls had eaten theportion which was put upon their plates the first time, they were atliberty to decline any more for that meal; so you may be sure thatMaude did not take any more.
"Don't let me forget to tell you about a boy I heard about who had toeat something he did n't like, and came very near having to make hiswhole dinner upon it," whispered Mrs. Boardman. "I don't think you canimagine how it happened, and you can think about it while you areeating your potato. See, it is only a little piece, and it will soonbe gone. If I were in your place, I would eat it all up first, andthen you will enjoy the rest of your dinner more when you do not haveit to think about."
Ruby did not so very much mind anything that she had to eat at dinner;but two mornings in the week, Tuesday and Friday, there was alwaysegg-plant for breakfast, and for some weeks Ruby would think about itall the day before, and talk about it the day after, until Aunt Emmatold her that she might as well eat eggplant for every meal every day,she thought and talked so much about it.
"But I do hate it so," Ruby would say. "I don't see the use in havingto eat what one does n't like. I just can't bear it, Aunt Emma."
"But you will learn to like it after a while," Aunt Emma said. "MissChapman thinks that little girls ought to learn to like everything thatis put before them, and she tries to have a pleasant variety, and nothave anything that the girls will dislike. You will see how mucheasier it will be to eat your piece of egg plant in two or three weeks."
"And it just seems as if I always did get the very largest piece ofall," Ruby said in despair. "This morning you had a little teentypiece and mine was twice as large."
"That was so you would have twice as much practice in learning to likeit, I suppose," Aunt Emma said with a smile.
After dinner was over there was a half-hour for play and then theschool-bell rang, and the girls went back into the school-room. Someof them took music lessons, and they went one at a time to take alesson in the parlor from Miss Emma.
Ruby was to take music lessons, to her great delight. She had beensure that it would be very easy, and she was quite disappointed whenshe found how much she would have to learn before she could play as heraunt did.
When school was over for the afternoon, at four o'clock, Ruby breatheda long sigh of relief. The day had seemed a very long one to her,though it had been very pleasant, and it seemed as if it could not bepossible that only yesterday at this time she had been on her way toschool.
"What do we do next?" asked Ruby of one of her schoolmates, as theywent into the house together.
"We all go out together for a walk," answered the little girl. "Willyou walk with me to-day? I will come to your room as soon as I amready."
"All right," Ruby answered, and she ran upstairs to her own room, toput on her hat and jacket.
Every pleasant day the girls were taken out for a walk, and theteachers took turns in going with them. To-day Mrs. Boardman was goingto take them, and Maude was very glad, because she had obtainedpermission to walk with her. All the girls were very fond of Mrs.Boardman, and they would obtain her promise to walk with them so manydays ahead that she could hardly remember all the promises she had made.
When they were all ready they started out, Ruby and Agnes Van Kirk atthe head of the little procession and Maude and Mrs. Boardman at theend.
Ruby felt very important as she looked up at the window and wavedgood-by to her aunt. It was great fun going out to walk this way, witha whole string of girls behind her, instead of going down the road witha hop and a skip and a jump to Ruthy's house. If Ruthy could only behere, and if at night she could kiss her mother and father good-night,Ruby was quite sure that she would think boarding-school quite thenicest place in the world.
They had a very pleasant walk. They went down the winding road,bordered upon either side with wide-reaching elm-trees, and then turneddown towards the river. After they reached the path that wound besidethe water Mrs. Boardman let the girls break their ranks, and run aboutand gather some of the wild flowers and feathery grasses that grewthere in such profusion.
Ruby gathered a beautiful bunch of plumy golden-rod for her Aunt Emma,and when she went to look for Agnes, she displayed it triumphantly.
"Just see what a beautiful bunch of goldenrod I have," she exclaimed indelight. "Won't Aunt Emma be pleased? But have n't you got anyflowers, Agnes? Why, what have you been doing? I thought you werelooking for flowers too."
Agnes opened a paper bag, which she had loosely twisted together at thetop, and which seemed to be empty, and said,--
"No, I did not get any flowers, but just see what a beautifulcaterpillar I have. Is n't that lovely?"
Ruby peeped into the bag, and saw a large mottled caterpillar walkingabout upon a leaf, apparently wondering where he was, and doubtlessthinking that the sun had gone under a cloud, since he could not see itanywhere.
"Is n't he a beauty?" repeated Agnes, in delighted tones, takinganother look at her prisoner herself, and then twisting the bagtogether again.
Ruby hesitated. She did not like to say that she thought it was thevery ugliest caterpillar she had ever seen, and that if Agnes reallywanted a caterpillar she would have thought that one of the fat brownones that she could find anywhere around the school would have beennicer, and yet Agnes seemed to admire it so much she really felt as ifshe ought to say something.
"Well," she said at last, as she found that Agnes was waiting for her,"I think it is certainly one of the biggest caterpillars I ever saw.What are you going to do with it? I don't see what you likecaterpillars for."
"Oh, it is n't for myself," Agnes answered. "It is for Miss Ketchum.She is very fond of studying about bugs and caterpillars and everythingof that kind, and nothing makes her quite as happy as to have a nicenew caterpillar to watch."
"What does she do with them?" asked Ruby.
"She puts them in little boxes with thin muslin over the top, ormosquito netting, so that she can look through and watch them, and shefeeds them every day with leaves or something else that they like, andthen after a while they spin themselves all up into cocoons, and go tosleep, and then by and by a beautiful butterfly comes out. O
h, MissKetchum just loves caterpillars."
"I wish I had a caterpillar for her," said Ruby. "Well, I will get onefor her the very next time I see one, as long as she likes them somuch. I never heard of any one liking caterpillars before, though, didyou?"
"No, I don't know as I did," said Agnes. "But I think I shall likethem very much too before long, for I like to watch the butterfliescome out, and I like to keep looking out for new caterpillars. I don'tthink I would like to bother taking care of them as Miss Ketchum does,but perhaps I won't mind that after a while. She has such a nice bookabout them."
Miss Ketchum was very much pleased with the new specimen when Agnesgave it to her, after the girls got home from their walk, and Rubylooked with great interest at the little boxes in which captivecaterpillars were walking about, apparently feeling at home and veryhappy as they nibbled at their nice fresh leaves, or sunned themselvesupon the netting.
"Isn't Miss Ketchum nice?" said Agnes, as the girls went up to theirown rooms. "Some of the girls don't like her as well as they do theother teachers, but I do. She is always so kind about helping one withlessons, and she never gets cross unless she has one of her badheadaches, and then I should think she would be cross, for the girlstease her. She was so kind to me when I first came that I just love toget her caterpillars or do anything else I can for her."
"She was so glad to get that new one, was n't she?" said Ruby. "I willhelp you get some for her, Agnes, the very next time we go out walking.We will walk together, and then we can both watch for them."
"That will be ever so nice," said Agnes. "You see most of the girlsmake fun of Miss Ketchum because she wears those little curls on herforehead, and is absent-minded sometimes, and likes caterpillars somuch, and it will please her ever so much if you like her, and help herinstead of laughing at her."
It had not occurred to Ruby before that she could please any of theteachers by showing them little kindnesses and being thoughtful ofthem, and she remembered remorsefully how she had laughed during recesswhen one of the girls had drawn on her slate a funny caricature of MissKetchum, with the two little curls that she wore on each side of herforehead standing up like ears, and her glasses on crookedly. She madeup her mind that she would never laugh at her teacher again, but try tohelp her in every way she could by being good herself and settingothers a good example.
Ruby at School Page 17