The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-01-24
into the stream. Her face was trought-

| full.
Suppose, ''-she began Then stopped
| with dreamy eyes and sat down on the
! doorstep with her chin in her hand.
| "Just supposing," she began again, and
| then fell to digging the toe of her shoe
| into the soft earth.
Suddenly she jumped up and disap-
| peared inside; an hour passed with little
more sound than before.
Then Hetty came hurricdly out with a
queer expression on her face, and almost
flew from the cabin stH light to her home.
She was ut her place at school as usual
next morning. SO was the teacher. There
was q subdued and painful atmosphere
in the room. The classes moved to and
from their seats seeming to keep watch
full eye upon the teacher as though she
might do something strange at any mo-
ment.
Suddenly every head turned at a ire
mcD1ouS knock al the door.
Hprty CuInmings's heart gave one leap
and then she commenced to work arith-
metic as she had never worked it before.
AT a look FROM the teacher one Of the
boys opened the door. A tall man edged
in and made his way to the desk where
the teacher stood He had bent shout
ders, struggling gray whiskers uncer-
tain, light eyes. If Hetty had looked up
she would have seen a scared expression
in them to match that in her own. The
teacher waited, standing The children
dropped every thing to listen
"AlOm," he began, one big hand on
the desk and his eyes looking out Of the
window, Il come down t thank We for
what ye did to my cabin. 'Taint had a
wOmans hand ont since it was built, an
Wen l come home tired plumb out n
foun that room a-lookin like my mothers
sittin'-r0om at home tn cupboard
Strengthened out, N the store swept up,
n the bed made like a white mans, II
the sugar bowl clean-why, just darSent
stay II. An [ sat down on the doorstep,
an the crickets or suthin' KEEP a talkn',
an it got to seemin' like | was sittn'
on the doorstep t home, n the Sunday
school teacher | had when | was Il boy
why, she KEEP a-comin up, an suthin'
run through my mind about Goals O fire
bein' heaped on peoples heads. an l
says, It's that school teacher, that's who
it is! She's been a-heapin' Goals O fire
onto my head An then the criclIets or
suthin' seemed to say, 'Supposin' it was
that Sunday-SchOOl teacher that was a.
tryin' to teach way out here in the WildS
'thout nobody to care whether she lived
or died-iust supposin' somebody sent
her a letter like that'-here the old man
Strengthened and turned steadler eye
on the teachcr-'n so | thank you, young
woman, n the hull of you kin come to
mI3X papch y # t,.. dot give T9r the rasy
He turned at the last words, ana WIN
two shaky strides was out OF me uooi,
before the astonshcd teacher cotilu say
a word. -, rosto,,
She looked dazed until her eye res'sN
ciant ia fell her that with Hetty lay some
nart Of The mystery. Just what Hetty
loo,[ was like / could never tell you-h"W
ostonished and delighted, how WlueeSeu
and Glowing with intelligence! anyway
that look enabled the teacher TO say
conlv. ."rhe third class In arthllleuc
viii please step to the front ,+,,
# was hard for Ietty to wait uii'h
noon Vet when noon came ana She was
caIlpd TO the desk she felt uncohl"rttuic'
MO teacher looked into her flushed face
and downcast eyes and a half smile caiilt
~ bnr lins "lictty," she SAID, 'Wliat
40 Won know about Mr.. Johnson mousse
T,,o littl,. touch of demand in the teicll-
ers tone Thought Hetty's ire 10 d 9lo".
She threw back her head. wv ny. / M"e
COIN to fix old Johnson TOT Wil',n t'.'
moan letter to you, that's ali-ahu y d.
done 1t tOO-OniS, raS, N'''
+oachar 9,-drawing closer in an nWed
way-.that's just what l said about e., MN an
His house was just awful, teacher an 80
lonesome, an got to thinking now gus.
snnsin il was my father livin' like that.
an | lust couldn't help tiNln. II up an. am
say-you won't tel! him. WHO WI tn 1T w sae N to
him. Wasn't it funny that be Sald sup,
pnsin' about you: II must be 1o a s ,,ou
Thing to suppose about people, don 7 ro ou
think? Cause / felt fearful happy ai.ei y,
ward. 1t must be a fearful good way! Va
shn added dreamily. remembering the olo
MANS face as he went out. ,..o
i'i The teacher stood quite still a Hetle
while. Then she put both hands on
fIpttv's shoulders and looked down WI mo
tbe brave black eyes and said: "Hetty,
I'm not going home, I'm going TO, TO wy Wy.
'supposin' about everyone here. I'm a go,
inc ny to stay, Hetty' The teacher ana i, =
Johnson and the whole school slien ~,
agreed in their minds on the day 81 ,len ane
nirnic that ''iust supposin' " was rear
ful good way Of looking at things