Part 18 (1/2)
”Oh, you wouldn't do that!” said she, with another toss of the head.
”Before I'd run away from an earthquake! Besides, what good would it do?”
By afternoon the news had spread about among the children that there was to be a terrible earthquake that day. They huddled together like frightened lambs. The little teacher, wis.h.i.+ng to rea.s.sure them, planted herself against the wall, and made what Edith would have called a ”little preach.”
She pointed out of the window to the clear sky and said she ”could not see the least sign of an earthquake.” But even if one should come they need not be afraid, for their heavenly Father would take care of them.
”And you mustn't think for a moment of running away! No, children, be quiet! Look at me, _I_ am quiet. I wouldn't run away if there were fifty earthquakes!”
Strange to say, she had hardly spoken these words when the house began to shake! They all knew too well what it meant, that frightful rocking and rumbling; the ground was opening under their feet!
Kyzie, though she may have feared it vaguely all along, was taken entirely by surprise, and did--what do you think? As quick as a flash, without waiting for a second thought, she turned and jumped out of the window!
Next moment, remembering the children, she screamed for them to follow her, and they poured out of the house, some by the window, some by the door, all shrieking like mad.
It was a wild scene,--the frantic teacher, the terrified children,--and Kyzie will never cease to blush every time she recalls it. For there was no earthquake after all! It was only the new ”colonel” and his men blasting a rock in the mine!
Of course this escapade of the young teacher amused the people of Castle Cliff immensely. They called it ”the little schoolma'am's earthquake”; and the little schoolma'am heard of it and almost wished it had been a real earthquake and had swallowed her up.
”Oh, Papa Dunlee! Oh, Mamma Dunlee!” she cried, her cheeks crimson, her eyelids swollen from weeping. ”I keep finding out that I'm not half so much of a girl as I thought I was! What does make me do such ridiculous things?”
”You are only very young, you dear child,” replied her parents.
They pitied her sincerely and did their best to console her. But they were wise people, and perhaps they knew that their eldest daughter needed to be humbled just a little. It was hard, very hard, yet sometimes it is the hard things which do us most good.
”O mamma, don't ask me to go down to dinner. I can't, I can't!”
”No indeed, darling, your dinner shall be sent up to you. What would you like?”
”No matter what, mamma--I don't care for eating. I can't ever hold up my head any more. And as for going into that school again, I never, never, never will do it.”
”I think you will, my daughter,” said Mr. Dunlee, quietly. ”I think you'll go back and live this down and 'twill soon be all forgotten.”
”O papa, do you really, really think 'twill ever be forgotten? Do you think so, mamma? A silly, disgraceful, foolish, outrageous, abominable,--there, I can't find words bad enough!”
As her parents were leaving the room she revived a little and added:--
”Remember, mamma, just soup and chicken and celery. But a full saucer of ice-cream. I hope 'twill be vanilla.”
XIII
NATE'S CAVE
The little teacher went back to her school the very next day. It was a hard thing, but she knew her parents desired it. Her proud head was lowered; she could not meet the eyes of the children, who seemed to be trying their best not to laugh. At last she spoke:--
”I got frightened yesterday. I was not very brave; now was I? Hark! The people in the mine are blasting rocks again, but we won't run away, will we?”
They laughed, and she tried to laugh, too. Then she called the cla.s.ses into the floor; and no more did she ever say to the scholars about the earthquake. She helped Nate in his arithmetic, and he treated her like a queen. He was coming to Aunt Vi's room that evening to show his knee-buckles and c.o.c.ked hat and find out just what he was to do on the stage.
Kyzie wanted to see the c.o.c.ked hat and felt interested in her own white cap which Mrs. McQuilken was making. It was a good thing for Katharine that she had ”Jimmy's play” to think of just now. It helped her through that long forenoon. After this the forenoons did not drag; school went on as usual, and Kyzie was glad she had had the courage to go back and ”live down” her foolish behavior.