England, Northern -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Jews -- Fiction
Something of this early stupefaction remained with him, even though he
had passed from the infants' hall to the upstairs department.
"Pleaseteacher" had long been attenuated into "teacher," and Miss
Green, who was the genius president over Standard Two, had entertained
for him more than a teacherly regard ever since Philip had raised his
hand in the middle of a lesson and inquired from her, "Please, Miss
Green, can pupils marry teachers?" They frequently maintained long
conversations when school was over, until Philip suddenly would bethink
himself of the duties his racial tongue demanded and which awaited him
in _chayder_ under the unremitting vigilance of Reb Monash; whereon,
with a troubled "Please, good afternoon, teacher!" he would scamper
off. Miss Green liked the sonority with which he delivered the
recitations she taught in class. He had a premature sense of tragedy.
_On Linden when the sun was low,
All darkly lay the untrodden snow--_
he delivered with the long modulations of a funeral dirge. He seemed
to have discovered a new delight in the mere utterance of rhythmic
lines. "On Linden when the sun was low," he chanted on his way home
from school, bringing his right foot down heavily upon the iambic
stresses of the line. There was a Saturday morning when Reb Monash
tested his knowledge of the Bible portion to be read in the synagogue
that day with "Say then, Feivele, what is the chapter in _shool_
to-day?"
Philip was abstracted. His mind was recreating his latest conversation
with Miss Green.
"On Linden when the sun was low!" he replied. Reb Monash stared at
him. "Proselytized one!" he exclaimed. "What means this?" He led
Philip to a copy of the Pentateuch and summarily refreshed his mind.
They were great friends, Miss Green and Philip, a fact which did not
leave Philip's behaviour uninfluenced. The class was filing through
the open door, (in the upstairs department the classes had single rooms
instead of a common hall). He had not noticed that an unfamiliar
teacher was standing at the door in Miss Green's place, and just before
entering he turned round to exchange a few words with his successor in
the procession.
"You bad boy!" exclaimed the voice of the strange lady. "Do not sit
down in your place! You will stand in the corner till I ask for you!"
Philip's ears were rimmed with hot shame. The procession ended. "Come
here!" said the lady. "Hold your hand out! Now!" Five, ten, twenty
times, she brought a ruler down on his knuckles. It was not the pain
which mattered. It was the disgrace! He, Miss Green's young
friend--or, as his class-mates with characteristic envy and vulgarity
called it, her "sucker-up!" Acute as his humiliation was, he kept
strict count of the ruler's descent upon his knuckles. Twenty-four!
Wouldn't Miss Green have something to say about it!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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