The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-25
EUening Story
Emma Browns sabbatical Year.
By H. LOUIS RAYBOLp.

BY H. LOUIS RAYBOLD.
Emma Browns classmates were all
agreed that she had drawn the plum
from the pedagogical pie when, the
college. she received an appointment
to teach in the high school at Mont
rose Highlands. Not only would her
work be under the most delightful
inspiring surroundings, and draw, even
at the start, very fair salary, but
she would in time be eligible for Cur
tbs Hunts Sabbatical Year.
Curtis Hunt was the comparatively
new superintendent of schools OF
Montrose Highlands He had insti-
tuted many reforms. none of them,
however. more popular than his Sab
baticai Year. High school teachers,
as well as college professors" he
a year off. every seventh year, for re-
cuperation and study. In time we
hope to- grant this years vacation
with full pay; at present, all we can
do is to allow small bonus and hold
the position Open"
Emma. strange to say. was not
vitality interested in this feature of
her Job. Seven years! Why, by that
time she hoped to be married and
have three children at least.
Yet one year passed, then several.
And still Emma reported faithfully at
a quarter of nine in Room 206 on the
third floor. Six years added a gray
hair or two, a droop to her shoulders.
a wrinkle in her forehead. And she
woke suddenly to a real and vital in
terest in the fact that the next year
was to be hers--a whole, free year, in
which to devote herself-to what?
Why. to whatever would make her
services valuable for another six years
to the high school and Curtis Hunt
and the town of Montrose Highlands.
And so her Sabbatical Year came to
Emma. And at its. close, back in
school, she appeared at the first teach
ers' meeting of the season, where she
knew from experience she would be
called upon for report of what she
had done during her absence. And as
she sat there and viewed the motley
groups of fellow teachers, a daring
impulse to speak the truth arose
within her, to tell just how she had
spent the year gone by, and why, to
gloss over the work which was the
sort of thing expected of her. which
she had done as a sop to conscience;
postgraduate courses atthe univers-
ity, three months study in the chemi-
cal laboratory of a factory.
When her opportunity came Emma
arose and, grasping the chair back
in front of her swept her audience
with a brave glance. Some of my
Sabbatical year, she told them, was
spent at the universityi some of it was
spent taking course in Phoenician
dTChdeOlOBy, In0 rest OI II L put III
making myself ready for--for mar
riage-studying how to be compan-
ion, a thrifty helpmate and home
maker" She sat down and amid a
silence that was audible.
Then smoothly, tactfully, under John
Wentworth's hand, the meeting flowed
on in. the usual channels.
Emma had unconsciously accom-
plished a strange thing. She had
focused upon herself the attention OF
nd a n
And that attention, once captured, re-
manned riveted. For twas inpos--
sible not to observe that Emma wore
different clothes and wore them IN a
new way, and that her personal ap-
pearance had grown more youthful,
yes, more beautiful. The. women
would have understood had they
known that a course in dressmaking
and weekly visits to reliable beauty
specialist had been a part OF Emma's
past year. The men accepted the
change at face value, but were none
the less interested.
John Wentworth, walking home
with Emma, discovered that she was.
womanIy, alluring, provocative He
began to regret his many years of
bachelorhood and to wonder how soon
he could bring them to an end. Here
was a woman, drawing a good salary,
who had come out bravely and de-
clared she wished to marry. What a
treasure and a marvel such a woman
was, these modern days!
If Emma cared for wentworth she
gave no outward sign of it that win
ter, but pursued her pedagogical way
serenely. accepting equally the atten-
tons of the principal, the head of the
science department the history
teacher and the young instructor in
English. A trifIe bitterly the other
women teachers compared notes and
laid little bets among themselves as
to the final outcome. And each one
privately resolved at a try for one OF
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