The Dolores star., 1910-02-25
The First and the
Second Isabella
By EV ELYN SHARP

Copyright. by Short Stories Co. Ltd)
Isabella the First was not, to the
ordinary observer at least. pre-
possessing in appearance. She was
lanky without being exactly tall, and
gave one the impression of having
grown up in a great hurry and taken
her dress with her; and when | first
saw her sitting at the bottom OF her
class, the most noticeable thing about
her was the length of black stock
Ing that she managed most ingenious
ly to curl round each of the front legs
of her chair. She had the kind of hair
that suggests the rough-haired ter
rier; it was full OF short ends, and
neither curled nor lay smooth, but
stood straight out from her head In
little tufts. and so earned for its own
er her school nickname OF Pen
wiper"
For more reasons than one, Isabella
made an Illuminating spot in my life.
at the time that happened to meet
her. She was the most ignorant men,
ber of the first class ! ever taught.
was particularly grateful to Isabella
for being ignorant, for. as luck would
have It. the school that had rashly ac-
cepted my untried services insisted on
my beginning course OF arithmetic
lessons. protested that arithmetic
was my weakest point. and that had
repeatedly been bottom of my own
school in arithmetic, while carrying
of prizes for German. botany, and
variety Of ornamental subjects. But
my principal who was rather an un-
usual sort of person, said that she
never wanted people to teach subjects
that were not their weakest points.
So the end of it was that I had to
teach IsAbellas class the subject that
was mine. So I braved the critical
gaze of the front row of experts, and
began to make conversation by way
of putting of the evil moment
1T is highly important that you
should know how to do areas" con-
tinued in an impressive tone. Every
woman should know how to do areas.
/ Think how useful 1t would be when
you're married and have houses of
your own. to be able to calculate how
much carpet you will want for your
floors"
Here the class laid down its pencil
and looked interested.
A yawn from Isabella, and the slow
uncurling of one of the long black
legs. reminded me sadly that arith-
metic would in the end be expected of
me, and | ran my finger down the
page of sums with a horrible sensa-
tlon of incapacity, as | saw by the
clock that had filled up exactly four
minutes of the time, and that the class
still had Sc in which to find me out.
Just as l was facing that awful pos
sibi!ity of having to give them sum
that l had not prepared beforehand.
Isabella came to my aid.
Il can't think what's happened to
the stupid thing" she remarked, un-
curling the other leg, SO that they
now both stuck out straight In front
of her; I've got yards and yards more
carpet in my answer than anybody
else has,
This, I felt certain, was going to
be the moment when my class would
find me out. l had mastered my own
NAhiSoieiCo oFSihiSha, Jul udu hot a.
lowed for private and particular diff
culties on the part of mere pupil.
So walked down. quaking. to the bot
tom of my class, tripped over Isa-
bella's legs. and arrived at her ink
besmeared sum.
could almost have hugged her
when l saw what she had done. It
was SO delightful of her to make the
same old familiar mistake that had
made myself, time after time, in my
own school days. am not even quite
sure that in the watches Of the night
before l had not made 1t over again.
Anyhow, there it was. staring at me
from page of misshapen figures that
might have been torn from my own
notebook just five years earlier. The
mere sight Of 1t was enough to put
me back suddenly in Isabella's place
at the bottom of Sae class-long legs,
inky fingers and all.
You see you have multiplied the
walls and the ceiling together. as
well as the foor." pointed out to her.