May,Leon,and I went to do our share.Just when there were about a bushel of nut shells,and withered apple cores,and inky paper on the floor,the blackboard half cleaned,and ashes trailed deep between the stove and the window Billy Wilson was throwing them from,some one shouted:"There comes Mr.Stanton with Her."All of us dropped everything and ran to the south windows.I tell you I was proud of our big white team as it came prancing down the hill,and the gleaming patent leather trimmings,and the brass side lamps shining in the sun.Father sat very straight,driving rather fast,as if he would as lief get it over with,and instead of riding on the back seat,where mother always sat,the teacher was in front beside him,and she seemed to be talking constantly.We looked at each other and groaned when father stopped at the hitching post and got out.If we had tried to see what a dreadful muss we could make,things could have looked no worse.I think father told her to wait in the carriage,but we heard her cry:"Oh Mr.Stanton,let me see the dear children I'm to teach,and where I'm to work."Hopped is the word.She hopped from the carriage and came hopping after father.She was as tall as a clothes prop and scarcely as fat.There were gray hairs coming on her temples.
Her face was sallow and wrinkled,and she had faded,pale-blue eyes.Her dress was like my mother had worn several years before,in style,and of stiff gray stuff.She made me feel that no one wanted her at home,and probably that was the reason she had come so far away.
Every one stood dumb.Mother always went to meet people and May was old enough to know it.She went,but she looked exactly as she does when the wafer bursts and the quinine gets in her mouth,and she doesn't dare spit it out,because it costs five dollars a bottle,and it's going to do her good.Father introduced May and some of the older children,and May helped him with the others,and then he told us to "dig in and work like troopers,"and he would take Miss Pollard on home.
"Oh do let me remain and help the dear children!"she cried.
"We can finish!"we answered in full chorus.
"How lovely of you!"she chirped.
Chirp makes you think of a bird;and in speech and manner Miss Amelia Pollard was the most birdlike of any human being I ever have seen.She hopped from the step to the walk,turned to us,her head on one side,playfulness in the air around her,and shook her finger at us.
"Be extremely particular that you leave things immaculate at the consummation of your labour,"she said."`Remember that cleanliness is next to Godliness!'""Two terms of that!"gasped Leon,sinking on the stove hearth.
"Behold Job mourning as close the ashes as he can."Billy Wilson had the top lid off,so he reached down and got a big handful of ashes and sifted them over Leon.But it's no fun to do anything like that to him;he only sank in a more dejected heap,and moaned:"Send for Bildad and Zophar to comfort me,and more ashes,please.""Why does the little feathered dear touch earth at all?Why doesn't she fly?"demanded Silas Shaw.
"I'm going to get a hundred wads ready for Monday,"said Jimmy Hood."We can shoot them when we please.""Bet ten cents you can't hit her,"said Billy Wilson."There ain't enough of her for a decent mark.""Let's quit and go home,"proposed Leon."This will look worse than it does now by Monday night."Then every one began talking at once.Suddenly May seized the poker and began pounding on the top of the stove for order.
"We must clean this up,"she said."We might as well finish.
Maybe you'll shoot wads and do what you please,and maybe you won't.Her eyes went around like a cat that smells mice.If she can spell the language she uses,she is the best we've ever had."That made us blink,and I never forgot it.Many times afterward while listening to people talk,I wondered if they could spell the words they used.
"Well,come on,then!"said Leon.He seized the broom and handed it to Billy Wilson,quoting as he did so,"Work,work,my boy,be not afraid";and he told Silas Shaw as he gave him the mop,to "Look labour boldly in the face!"but he never did a thing himself,except to keep every one laughing.
So we cleaned up as well as we could,and Leon strutted like Bobby,because he locked the door and carried the key.When we reached home I was sorry I hadn't gone with father,so I could have seen mother,Sally,Candace,and Laddie when first they met the new teacher.The shock showed yet!Miss Amelia had taken off her smothery woollen dress and put on a black calico,but it wasn't any more cheerful.She didn't know what to do,and you could see plainly that no one knew what to do with her,so they united in sending me to show her the place.I asked her what she would like most to see,and she said everything was so charming she couldn't decide.I thought if she had no more choice than that,one place would do as well as another,so I started for the orchard.Quick as we got there,I knew what to do.I led her straight to our best cling peach tree,told her to climb on the fence so she could reach easily,and eat all she chose.We didn't dare shake the tree,because the pigs ran on the other side of the fence,and they chanked up every peach that fell there.Those peaches were too good to feed even father's finest Berkshires.
