The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-23
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY z. HOUSE
tFrom Philadelphia Public Ledear.)
NEIGHBoRHooD NOTES.

lfle EEIf}CcSS 1LnIefS.
have often wished to express my
appreciation of Emma Bushro6, who
taught the Doane school for a couple
of winters along in the fading eighties.
Miss Bushrod was the first princess
ever knew. Up to the time she began
to shed her effulgent beauty and dain-
tiness upon my young life 1 had
known only the girls who lived on ad-
joining farms. They were good, SEN
sible girls, who could milk cows, make
butter and set hen, and in the pinch
of harvest time, or haying. drive the
binder or ssulky rake. But they
were, I regret to state, neither beau
tiful nor artistic. They lacked elan
and were deficient in class They wore
ill-fitting garments of coarse cloth,
big checked aprons, heavy, broad
toed shoes-even rubber boots in
muddy weather-and homemade sun
bonnets. They were always badly
tanned and in spring and fall their
hands were red and 'chapped" like
boys.
So when Miss Bushrod came from a
neighboring town to teach our school
had my first intimation that the
world was not bounded on the north
by Miller'S sawmill, on the east by the
Porter Hill bridge, on the south by
Salter's stone barn and on the west by
Rock creek. Miss BuShFod had what
have since learned to describe as an
aureole of cepper-tinted hair, a deli
cate, creamy complexion and soft,
white hands, with tapefing fingers.
She wore gowns that rustled as she
walked and fluffy things about her
neck and wrists,
In many respects Miss Bushrod was
a decided innovation in the scholastic
environment which she temporarily
adorned. Ours was a bad" school.
We had been accustomed to husky
men teachers, who whipped the boys
for the slightest infraction of the rules
and who began their days work by
repairing to a neighboring growth OF
Usage orange, from which they re-
turned bearing stout withes for use in
the exigencies of school government.
Miss Bushrod introduced new methods.
She begin by putting us on our honor,
so far as behavior was concerned
and let 1t be known that she did not
regard light infractions Of the school
code as criminal offenses. She taught
US songs, and every days we devoted a
certain portion of the study hours to
singing. At first the resultant tumult
and clamor was something awful, but
in two or three months she had the
entire school singing in concert and
in tune.
Up to the time of Miss Bushrod's
advent into the neighborhood l had
never been called anything but you
therei!" Don't be all day about it,"
or That little DEVIL" She greatly
surprised and pleased me by habitual-
ly addressing me as Mr.. CASTOR" In
fact, she gave all of the boys over
eight the title of Mr." and she add
ed the prefix Miss to the name of
every girl over six. BY Christmas she
was the most popular person have
ever known, and she finished the
school term without being criticised,
either by parent or pupil, a record
which probably will stand for all time.
On the closing day of school there
was big community dinner at the
school house, and everybody in the
Ineighborhood came in for the dinner
and the literary exercises. Just before
she dismissed the school for the year
Miss Bushrod tried to make a little
speech, but she seemed to choke up
and then broke down and cried quite
audibly. Her emotion extended itself
to the entire audience. Everybody
shiffled and the girls biubbered shame
lessly.
Ed Fought, who was the biggest
boy in school and who had a certain
amount of dignity to sustain, always
claimed he laughed while the others
were crying. But sat in the seat just
across the aisle from Ed. and l plainly
saw him wiping his eyes on his coat
sleeve. Ed took the position that.
since Miss Bushrod was only going to
her home twenty miles away to spend
the summer. there was nothing to cry
about. He couldn't fool me, but 1
could see his sisters believed him i'm
plicitly and regarded him as hero,
Miss Bushrod came back in the fall
to teach another year, and was just
as popular as before. OF course, it is
useless for me to say 1 had long be-
fore made up my mind to marry her
when I grew up, and SO when the
story that she was to be married to
man from a distant town in the spring
able. AT first l secuted the idea, say
ling I didn't believe Miss Bushrod
would marry the best man that ever
lived; but it leaked out during the
winter that he was coming to see her,
and one morning along toward the
end of the term he came to school
with her and stayed till the noon re-
cess.
1 had expected a great deal of Miss
Bushrod's sutton, but he was distinct
ly disappointing, and couldn't under
stand what she saw in him. He was
fat little man, with fierce black
mustache and wore a big watch chain,
which he persistently fingered. When
he laughed he cackled, and I know
now that he must have had an enor-
NOUS bay window by the time he was
forty. He was that sort.
At the close of school we had an
other big dinner and a tremendous
fearful, in which all of the records for
precipitation were broken. Miss Bush
rod packed up her books and papers
and went away, and / never saw her
again. I kept hoping something would
happen to break off her engagement;
but nothing did happen. and she mar
ried the fat little man in the early
summer. I recall reading the account
| of the wedding in the Grigsby City
i Weekly Clarion with a heavy heart.
| The future looked very black to me.
| But the following autumn, being then
| fifteen years old, I went to town and