The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-27
EMMY LOU in the FIRST
READER
A Little Feminine Cssabianca


NEENI round, chubby self, like pink
- checked period. ending the long
line of intermingled little boys and girls
making what was known. twenty-five years
ago, as the first reader class. Emmy Lou
had spent her first year IN the primer
class, where the teacher, Miss Clara by
name. had concealed the kindliest Of hearts
behind q brusque and energetic manner.
and had possessed, along with her red hair
and a temper tinged with that color also,
q sharp voice that, by Its unexpected snap
IN attacking some small sinner that caused
Ernmy LOUIS little heart to jump many times
= day. Here Emmy Lou had spent the year
IN strenuously guiding squeaking pencil
across protesting slate. or singing in
cnorus as Miss Clara's long wooden pointer
went up and down the rows OF words on
fhe spelling chart: "A-t, at; bat. bat;
cat. cat" or IAN. an; ban. ban: can.
can. Emmy Lou herself had so little idea
of what 1t was all about that she was de-
pendent on her neighbor to give her the
key to the proper starting point heading
the various coiumns-"a-t, at" or an, an"
or set, et," or ION, on" after that it was
easy sailing. But one awful day, while the
class stopped suddenly at Miss Clara's
Emmy Lou. her eyes squeezed tight shut.
her little body rocking TO and fro to the
rhythm, went right on, imam. man,
"p-a-n. pan''-until at the sound of her
own sing-song little voice rising with ap-
paIling fervor upon the silence. she stopped.
10 find that the page in the meantime
had been turned and that the pointer was
directed to a column beginning 'o-v, ov.''
oth to hat frsf
year. too had been recess. At that time
everybody was turned out into a brick
paved yard, the boys on one side of high
fence, the girls on the other. And here.
waiting without the wooden shed where
stood a row Of buckets each holding shiny
tin dipper, Emmy Lou would stop on the
sloppy outskirts for the thirst of the larger
girls to be assuaged. that the little girls
opportunity might come-together with the
dregs in the buckets. And at recess, too,
along with the danger of being run into by
the larger girls at play and having the
breath knocked out of ones little body,
which made 1t necessary to seek seques-
tered corners and peep out thence. there
was the man to be watched for and avoid
ed-the low, square, black-browed, black
bearded man, who brandished a broom at
the little girls who dropped their apple
cores and crusts on the pavements, and
who shook his fist at the jeering little boys
who dared to swarm to the forbidden top
and sit straddle the dividing fence. That
Uncle Michael. the janitor, was getting old
and had rheumatic twinges was indeed
Uncle MichaePs excuse. but Emmy Lou did
not know this, and her fear Of Uncle Mi
chael was great accordingly.
But somehow the primer year wore away;
and one day, toward its close, in the pres
srce of Miss Clara, two solemn-loohing
gentlemen requested certain little boys to
cipher and several little girls to SPELL and
sent others to the blackboard or the chart,
while to Emmy Lou was handed primer.
open at Page IL. which she was told to
read Knowing Page II by heart, and iden-
tifying it by it's picture, Emmy Lou arose,
and her small voice droned forth in sing
song fashion:
How old are YOU Sue?
/ as old as my cat
And how old Is your cat?
And how old Is your dogf
My dog Is as old as am
Having so delivered herself, Emmy Lou
cat down, not at all disconnected to find
that she had been holding her primer up
side down.
EOAOHAI6 tHiSs 1lAIit1y AOQ WdS lOlQ tHdt
she had passed. and seeing from the
tubilance OF the otksr children that 1t was
q matter to be joyful over, Emmy Lou
went home and told the elders OF her fam
lily that she had passed. And these elders,
three aunties and an uncle, an uncle who
was disposed to look at Emmy Louis
chubby self and her concerns in jocular
fashion, laughed: and Emmy Lou went on
s&
never would have been the case had there
been a mother among the elders. for
mothers have a way of understanding
these things. But to Emmy Lou mother
had come to mean but a memory which
faded as it came, vague consciousness of
encircling arms. of brooding, tender face,
OF yearning eyes; and 1t was only because
they told her that Emmy Lou remembered
how mother had gone away South, one
winter. to get well. That they afterward
told her IL was heaven, In no wise con-
fused Emmy Leu. because. for aught she
knew, South and heaven and much else
might be included In these points of the
compass. Ever since then Emmy Lou had
lived with the three aunties and the uncle:
and papa had been coming hundred miles
once month to see her.
w nen Emmy Lou went Dack to school for
the second year, she was told that she was
now In the first reader. If her heart had
jumped at the sharp accents of Miss Clara.
Il now grew still within her at the slow.
awful enunciation OF the large lady In black
bombazne, who reigned over the depart
ment or the first reader. pointing her morals
with a heavy forefinger. before which
Emmy Louis eyes lowered with every as
Feet OF conscious gilt. Nor did Emmy Lou
dream that the large lady. whose black
bombazine was the visible sign OF n loss
by death that had made 1T necessary for
her 10 enter the schoolroom to earn a Iiy-
Ing. was finding the duties incident to the
crst reader almost as strange and perplex-
Ing as Emmy Lou herself.
Emmy Lou. from the first day. found her.
SELF descending steadily TO the foot OF the
class and there she remained until the aw-
fEi day. At the close OF the first week,
when the large lady. realizing perhaps that