Adopted children -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- Juvenile fiction
The things that happened in the schoolroom that morning were many and
queer. A little boy had to stand on the floor in front of the teacher's
desk because he threw a paper wad. Then when the teacher wasn't looking
he aimed another at Marian and hit her on the nose and when Marian
laughed aloud, the teacher, who didn't know what happened, shook her
head and looked cross. It distressed Marian so to have the teacher look
cross that she felt miserable and wondered what folks went to school
for anyway. A few moments later, she knew. The primer class was called
and Marian, being told to do so, followed a dozen Little Pilgrims to
the recitation seat where she was told that children go to school to
learn their letters. Marian knew her letters, having learned them from
the blocks in the nursery.
"You must learn to read," advised the teacher, and Marian stared
helplessly about the schoolroom. She felt sure it wouldn't be a bit of
fun to learn to read. Nor was it, if her first lesson was a sample.
It wasn't long before Marian was tired of sitting still. She wasn't
used to it. At last she remembered that in her pocket was a china doll,
an inch high. On her desk was the new primer. The cover was pasteboard
and of course one could chew pasteboard. The china doll needed a crib
and as there seemed nothing to make a crib of but the cover of her
primer, Marian chewed a corner of it, flattened it out and fitted the
doll in. It pleased her, and she showed it to the little girl in the
next seat. Soon the teacher noticed that Marian was turning around and
showing her primer to all the children near, and the children were
smiling.
"Marian, bring your book to me," said the teacher. Then there was
trouble. Little Pilgrims had to be taught not to chew their books. The
teacher gave Marian what one of the older girls called a "Lecture," and
Marian cried.
"I didn't have anything to do," she sobbed.
"Nothing to do?" exclaimed the teacher, "why, little girl, you should
study your lesson as you see the other children doing. That is why you
are in school--to study."
Marian went to her seat, but how to study she didn't know. She watched
the other children bending over their books, making noises with their
lips, so she bent over her primer and made so much noise the teacher
told her she must keep still.
"Why, Marian," said the young lady, "what makes you so naughty? I
thought you were a good little girl!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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