The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-08
EMMY LOU In HIGH SCHOOL.
TX.
a Ballad in Print O. LILO

ing place. but are nomadic in their habits
and enforced wanderers between shrines
OF learning. changing quarters as well as.
teachers for every recitation; and the con-
slant readjustment OF mood to meet the
varied temperaments OF successive teach
ers Is wearing on the temper.
Yet there is a law in the high school SUI
perior to that OF the teacher At the die
tates Of gong classes arise in the face OF
q teachers incompleted peroration and de-
part As for the pupils. there is no rest for
the soles OF their feet; freshman I'm the
high school Is a mere abecedarian part Of
an ever-moving line. which tolls. weighted
with pounds Of textbooks, up and down the
stairways OF knowledge, climbing to the
mansard heights for rhetoric, to descend.
past doors to which II must later return,
TO the foundation floor for ancient history.
Looking back at the undulating line wind
ing in dizzy spiral about the stairways,
Emily, at times, seemed TO herself to be a
vertebrate part OF some long. forever un-
coiling monster, one OF those prehistoric,
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. affairs. She chose
her figures knowingly. for she was study
ing zoology now.
Glasses went to the laboratory for this
subject. fling into an amphitheater of
benches about Miss Carmichael, who stood
in the center Of things and wasted no time;
she even clipped her words, perhaps, that
they might not impede each other in their
flow, which lent a disconcerting curtness
of enunciation to an amazing rapidity of the
game Indeed, Miss Carmichael talked so
fast that Emily got but a blurred impress
sion of her surroundings, carrying away
dazed Consciousness that the contents of
certain jars to the right and left Of the lady
were amphibian in their nature, and that
certain other objects in skin ieering down
from dusty shelves were there because OF
saurian claims. And because man is a YER
tebrate. having an internal, jotnted, bony
skeleton, man stood in glass case behind
the oracular priestess of the place in awful,
articuIated bony whole, from which the
newly initiated had constantly to drag their
fascinated, shuddering gaze. Not that Emily
wanted to look; indeed, she had no time to
be looking. needing 1t all to keep up with
Mss Carmichael discowsing in unpunc-
tuated. polysyllablic flow of things batrach-
ian and things repellant. which. like the syl-
tables falling from the lips Of the wicked
daughter in the story books, proved later to
be toads and lizards
Miss Carmichael was short and square,
and her nose was large. She rubbed 1t with
her knuckle like a man. She had rubbed ii
one dey as she looked at Emily, whom
she had called upon as ''the girl who an
swers to the name OF MacLauren."
It was not flattering way to be desig-
mated. but freshmen learn to be grateful for
any identity. Then, too. Miss Carmichael
was famed for her wit and much is to be
overlooked IN a wit which in another might
eeem to be bad manners. Once Emily had
been hazy about the word wit, but now she
knew. II you understand it once it is not
wit: but IL. as you begin to understand, you
find you don't, that is apt to be wit. Miss
Carmichael was famed for hers.
Thus called upon, the girl who answered
to the name OF MacLauren stood up. The
lecture under discussion was concerned
with a matter called perpetuation OF type.
Under fire of questions 1t developed that the
pupil in hand was sadly muddled over it.
Under such circumstances it was way
with Miss Carmichael to play with the
pupils mystifcation. BE kitten and
cry new" said she, her eyes swapping
with the humor OF IL. why NEW and not
baa? Why does the family OF cow continue
to wear horns?'
Why. indeed7 There wasn't any sense.
Emily felt wild. Miss Carmichael here evil
IDENTIFY decided IL was time to temper glee
with something else. Emily was prepared
for that. having discovered that wit is I'M
certain in its humors.
"An organ not exercised loses power to
perform its functions. Think" said Miss
Carmichael. Haven't you taken down the
lecturer
Emily had taken down the lecture, but she
had not taken in the lecture. She looked
unhappy. II don't think 1 understand it,"
she confessed.
Then why don't you have IL explained? 30
"I did try" Which was true, for Emily
had gone with questions concerning per-
petuation OF type TO her Aunt Cordelia.
What did you want to know" demanded
Miss Carmichael
"About-about the questions at the end for
us TO answer-about that one. What makes
types repeat themselves?
And what does?' said Miss Carmichael
THAT is exactly what I'm trying to find
out"
Emily looked embarrassed. Aunt Cor
delias answer was the same one that she
gave TO all the puzzling why's, but Emily
did not want to give 1t here.
''Come. come. come" said Miss Car
michael. She was standing by her table.
anc she raped II sharply. "And what
does?'
God" said Emily desperately.
She felt the general embarrassment ms
she sat down. She felt Hattie give a quick
look at her. then saw her glance around.
Was IL for her? Hattie's cheek was red.
Rosalie. with her cheek crimson, was look
Ing I'm her lap.
In the high school some have passed out
OF Eden. while others are only approaching
the fruit OF the tree.
Hattie glanced at her protectingly and,
though Emily did not understand Just why,
she was glad. for OF late she had been feel
ing apart from Hattie and estranged from
Rosaiie. and altogether alone and aggrieved.
Hattie now wrote herself Harriet and had
seemed to change In the process. though
Emily. who had once been Emily Louise