Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1894-08-02
THE TEACHERS STORY.

Mary f. wilkins, in Romance.
cY have taught school "A years. Now
delivered the keys of my school.
house to the committee, l have
packed away on the top-shelf of my
closet row of primers and readers,
a biographies, spelling-books, and
arithmetics, and have stopped work
for the rest of my life Through all
these A years, have squeezed reso.
lutely all the sweets out of existence,
and stored them up to make kind OF
tasteless, but DEMONSTRATING honey fol
old age. l have never spent one penny
unless for the barest necessaries. have
added term by term to the sum on my
handbook, until l have been able to
build this house, and have a sufficient
sum at interest to live upon. l need
little, very little, to eat, and I wear my
clothes carefully and long.
| was never eXtravagant in clothes,
but once. That was 25 years ago, when
l was 35, and expected to be married
in the spring. l had a green silk dress
then,-a bright green. But 1 had it
dyed black, and, after all, got consider
able wear out of it, although it was
fiimsy. Colored silk is apt to be. l
had blue woollen, too, color L should
never have bought, if l had not expect.
ed to be married, and that faded. l
also had black velvet cloak, some
thing that was very costly, and should
not have bought it under any circum-
stances, but | was foolish. However,
that has made my winter bonnets evei
since it was good piece, and not cut
up much.
Looking backward "A years, / cannot
remember any other extravaganza than
this outlay in clothes when [ expected
to be married at 30. l never have
bought any candy except few cough
drops when l had a cold. L have never
bought ribbon even, or a breast-pin.
L have always worn my mothers old
hair pin, although it was SO old-fash-
Toned, and the other girls had pretty
gold and coral, or cameo ones.
My mother died when / was IA +; my
father, when | was Is; then [ began to
teach. My father left me nothing
Mother was sick all her life nearly,
and he could not lay up cent. How
ever, there was enough to pay his
funeral expenses, and was thankful
for that. I sometimes wonder what
my father would say IF he could see
me now, and know how am situated.
1 wonder if he would think / had done
pretty we'll. / don't know how it can
make any difference to him now; he is
past all such earthly vanities, even if
he knows about them, but l do some
times feel glad L have done SO well, on
his account. Anybody has to have
some account beside their own, even if
it is somebody's that's dead.
I have built this house, with six
rooms in it, and woodshed. | have a
little land, too. l keep kens, and am
going to have vegetable-garden back
of the house, and fower-garden,
front. / have good wooden carpets, all
over the house except the kitchen.
have stuffed parlor furniture, and a
handicapped table, and marble shell
with worked plush scarf on it.
have handsome dining-set, and two
nice characteristics, and two beautiful
silk quilts 1 pieced from bits my schol
ars gave me. shouldn't be ashamed
to have anybody go over my house
And / keep it nice, too; you could MOI
find speck of dust anywhere. O.
course, l have nobody to put it out OF
order, and that makes difference. i
has always been my habit to look at al
the advantage there is in life, and
have found there is an advantage-sidt
to almost everything. | can keep my
house great deal nicer than 1 could i
I were not all alone in the world.
sometimes wonder what | should do, i
[ had man coming in with muddy
boots, or children tracking in dirt, anC
stumbling out my carpets, or kicking thu
paint off my new doors.
To tell the truth, 1 have never careC
much about children, though [ have
been teaching them A years. l neve
dared to say so before, but it is true
Once in while | saw child that
thought good deal of, but taking then
all together, have often wondered how
their own mothers could stand them
/ would have worked my fingers to tn
bone for the few did take notion to
I fairly grudged them to their folks, blu
the others land l had to hide it, too
If wouldn't have done for the children
to think / was partial. They had al
the meanness of grown-up folks, with
out knowing enough to hide it. Grab
hing each others apple-cOres, and teas
ing away each others candy, and tn
big ones plagueing the little ones
throwing paper-balls, and marking u
the walls, and everything else. know
for one. that there's something in tn
doctrine of original sin. l guess mos
women that have taught distric
school A years do.
I have never been sure, either, tina
they learned anything SOS to remembe
it. and have it do them any good.
have always been afraid that, no mat
ter how hard tried to do my duty b.
them, it was never quite done, an
that [ was teaching myself more tina
ANYBODY else, just as | always SCENE
to hit my own hand harder than
scholars when had to ferule one.
/ could travel all over the earth, o.
the map, and never once lose my way
but wonder if my scholars could.
can spell through the spelling-boo
without missing a word, but kno'
that not one of my scholars can do i
/ can do every sum in the arithmetic
measure the depths of all the well, ca
culate the speed of all the dogs an
foxes, and say the multiplication-tablt
by heart, but / am quite sure that n
boy or girl ever left my school VIII