Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-09-11

brick school. It is a good school.
From $3.50 am. until 3 pm. each
day. Gayle will be under the
discipline Of Mrs. Helen Saw
yer. the principal and also the
teacher Of the 9Th grade.
Like scores Of millions Of
other young Americans, her
ears will be assaulted with
knowledge from now until the
third week Of next June. A
little Of II will stick. A lot Of
it win be vague the day after
1t is absorbed. Some Of 1t win
never be understood.
Doesn't Like School
Gayle doesn't like school.
She looks toward graduation
as a convict looks toward pa
role. She is fairly well be-
haved. is inclined to try to do
as she is told. but. to her,
homework is drudgery. She viii
sit at the kitchen table from
8 pm. until 9 with books open,
pencil in left hand. eyes
dreaming at the ceiling.
What she is dreaming about.
i do not know. can guess.
She dreams. I would say, Of
swimming outside the break
ers in the Atlantic Ocean.
steering our boat outside Sandy
Hook. pitching a game of soft
ball. riding a horse, laughing
fit to kill when someone slips
on a banana peel. riding a
bicycle with no hands to the
amazement Of the neighbor-
hood boys.
To me. she is the most low
able thing in the world. To
Ginny. she is a pain in the
neck. To her mother. she is
what you look at and wonder
why you prayed for girls. To
Rocky. our German shepherd,
she is the one person who
can run your ears of and who
will tease you and wrestle with
you and pretend TO be angry
at you. To the merchants. she
is the nervy little thing who
comes in and says: Il don't
want something just as good.
My mother will send me back
with IT,"
To the teacher. she is very
bright or idiotic, depending
upon what time Of day you ask.
Gayle knows all of the answers
If you have a headache. a fam
lily problem. are short of money,
or have a stomach ache. But
when you ask how much is
seven times nine, she is a mute
Mau Mau who no understand
much the language.
Moved 10 Pity
She is easily moved to pity
by anyone in distress. BY the
very same token. she has the
shortest fuse I've ever known.
No one brides as quickly as she.
At the hint Of a detracting re-
mark, she will go of to her
room and play records. II you
want anything from another
room--a cup Of tea, a sweater.
nail polish, or just TO turn the
lights off-no one can beat
her bouncing to her feet to do
1t.
When her Nanny was III last
winter. 1t was Gayle who tore
herself away from the tele-
vision set to get the glass of
water, or to run upstairs and
help Nanny to the bathroom,
or to run to the store for the
second or third time, or TO lie
on the bed beside her grand
mother. hands cupped under
head. ankles crossed, to relate
the latest gossip from school.
She is impossible; she is
wonderful. She is not a little
girl and not big one. She is
as innocent as an infant, and
as wise as an old shrew, as
good as saint and as mean as
a tomcat. She walks as awk-
wardly as though she had bed
springs under her heels, and
yet, in repose, she is Just
graceful girl in frilly pajamas. |
Her biggest pride is that, in
emergencies she does not panic.
If mother slices her finger in
stead Of the steak, 1t is Gayle
who stops staring at It in
horror and runs TO the medicine
chest and knows exactly how
ITO clean the wound, FIX a dress !