When her mother could spare her, 'Tildy
came,--a midnight beauty, with starry eyes and tapering
limbs; and her brother, correspondingly homely. And then the
big boys,--the hulking Lawrences; the lazy Neills, unfa-
thered sons of mother and daughter; Hickman, with a stoop in
his shoulders; and the rest.
There they sat, nearly thirty of them, on the rough benches,
their faces shading from a pale cream to a deep brown, the
little feet bare and swinging, the eyes full of expectation,
with here and there a twinkle of mischief, and the hands
grasping Webster's blue-black spelling-book. I loved my school,
and the fine faith the children had in the wisdom of their
teacher was truly marvellous. We read and spelled together,
wrote a little, picked flowers, sang, and listened to stories of
the world beyond the hill. At times the school would dwindle
away, and I would start out. I would visit Mun Eddings, who
lived in two very dirty rooms, and ask why little Lugene,
whose flaming face seemed ever ablaze with the dark-red hair
uncombed, was absent all last week, or why I missed so often
the inimitable rags of Mack and Ed.
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