The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1943-06-10
SEASONED
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DOROTHY Garfield .. reXTUaes

savoriness filled the air. Mr..
Hume hastily seated his aunt, sat
down himself, and snatched his
napkin out of its ring.
Mr.. Dewey was the oldest of the
three Trustees, the only resident
one. Mr.. Hume drew out of his
pocket the letter of resignation
from the unexpectedly married
Domesic Science teacher, and
while Mr.. Dewey glanced at it, he
confessed that he had not, as he
supposed he should, leaped to tel
egraph a teachers agency to find
some one to replace her.
Mrs. Washburn remembered
with an exclamation that she had
some news to tell, real news. Miss
Peck had decided which girl she
would take in this winter to work
for her board-not, as usual, an
Academy student, but one of the
teachers in the primary school.
Susan Barney, her name was, Mr..
Hume would certainly remember
her, she had gone through the
Normal School at Burlington, and
since her return had been teach
ing up on Churchman'S Road, that
forlorn District School where the
Searles Shelf children 60.
In Clifford, during the last GEN.
fury, as in many Vermont towns
with old seminarieS and academ-
les, a tangled web of inconsistent
relations had grown up between
the privately endowed and indie
pendent secondary school and the
unsupported primary schools
which were part of the state sys-
tenn. By the Articles of Incor-
poration of the Academy, it's three
Trustees were elected by the vot-
ers of the town. Yet the town Of
ficials had no authority over them
once they we're elected. The Aca-
deny was run on the interest
from it's small endowment and it's
tuition fees; yet by a state law
the town was obligated to pay a
large part (but not ally of the
tuition fees; and by tradition was
bound to appropriate money at
town meeting for the upkeep of
the Academy, but not for repairs
on the inside of the building.
The result, in fact, of this per-
fectly natural division in author
ity was, of course, that Mr.. HUI
me, as far as the primary school
went, was obliged to do what he
could with teachers he had not
chosen and knew nothing about.
This girl would probably be no
worse as a teacher of reading
than any other. His lack of en-
thusiasm over Mrs. Washburn's
news came from his dislike of
having teachers work for their
board. Local tradition, he knew,
saw nothing amiss in it. But he
did. He told people he disap-
| proved because homework took
time and energy needed by teach
ers in their classrooms. The truth
was that he had for various rea-
sons rather a sore sense of the
dignity of the profession and did
not like to see members Of it wait
ing on tables and washing dishes.
'Why does she work for her
board?" he asked. "The salary's
not bad. Why should she?"
"Orphan. Smart younger sister
to educate" she explained.
He took thought, and selecting
from among the accents under his
control the one of pleasant COM
pliment, said to Miss Peck as he
rose from the table, "My nightly
prayer is that God will have a
good kitchen range waiting for
you in heaven" and to his aunt,
well, Lavvie, m'lass come sad
die your horses and call out your
men. It's time for us to be off. %
He had however but a few steps
to go before a summons from his
profession called him back to the
illusion of safety power and sue
cess. A stranger was mounting the
front steps an embarrassed mid
dle-aged workingman. He came
to an uneasy halt halfway up and
wanted to know would it be all
right to ask Professor Hume was
it true about last years Domestic
Science teacher at the Academy
not coming back because his sis
ter she had graduated from Sim
mons and had been teaching for
ten years in a Massachusetts, high
school only she'd had appendicitis
this summer and her doctor
wouldn't let her work where the
classes were big-"My names
Lane. Johnnie Lane. I work in
the chair factory in, Ashley"