There was much curiosity in the village concerning the new teacher, who
was reported to have come from New York, and to be exceedingly young.
Some thought the minister had made a great mistake to hire a woman, for
the school was a hard one to manage, and even a master found it
difficult to control the big boys. There was so much talk about it that
the scholars themselves were quite excited. Even the big boys, who
usually preferred to get out of the summer session although it meant
hard work in the hayfields, decided to go to school and see for
themselves.
Quite early the scholars might have been seen wending their way toward
the old red school-house. They huddled in groups about the steps or
under the great elm tree which grew in front and spread its branches far
on every side, making a lovely leafy bower for the playground. Peggy
Gillette was among the first to arrive. From her point of vantage at
the Golden Swan, she was in a position to give accurate information
concerning the new teacher, so she knew that she would be most popular
this morning. She had, therefore, packed her little dinner-pail hastily
and departed soon after breakfast, after making sure that Dawn had gone
up to her room to make ready for school.
"She's awful pretty," Peggy told the first knot of eager listeners, "and
she's got a lot of real curls on top what ain't tied on. I know, fer I
peeked through the crack of the door when she was fixin' her hair last
night, and it was down and reached ever so far below her waist. An'
she's got dimples when she laughs, and twinkles in her eyes like the
stars make, an' she ain't much bigger'n I am. She looks just like a
little girl."
"H'm! We'll soon do her up!" remarked Daniel Butterworth, the tallest
and strongest boy in the school.
Daniel had a shock of yellow hair that was roughly curly, big blue eyes
with curly yellow lashes, and an irresponsible wide mouth, always on a
defiant grin. Peggy looked up at him in terror.
"Now, Dan Butterworth," she began, "ef you boys go to playin' pranks on
her, it'll be just pusly mean. She's jest a girl, an' she's so pretty
an' don't look like she was used to rough boys like you."
"We don't want no sissy-baby to teach us," declared 'Liakim Morse, a
bold, black-eyed boy, who always followed Daniel's lead in everything
and then went a step further. "We want a _man_ to teach us. The
selectmen'll soon find out they can't put no baby teachers off on us,
fer we won't stand it."
Peggy made a face at them and turned her back, but Daniel only grinned.
He had his plan, and he knew it would be carried out. He did not need
to say much to his followers. The program was well understood by them.
One of the selectmen, who lived near the school-house, came over with
the key, and stayed about the place, opening the windows and setting the
teacher's desk in order.
The scholars were all seated demurely with books before them when the
minister came walking in with Dawn, shy and smiling, by his side. Not
one of them seemed to be looking her over curiously, for it was done
from the side of their eyes; but a kind of groan went softly over the
back rows, where the bigger boys sat, as much as to say, "This job is
too easy. It's scarcely worth our attention. Why didn't you send us
some one worthy of our valor?"
Dawn looked them over, bright-eyed, her heart beating a trifle fast, but
her face on the whole quite confident and happy. They noted the
confidence in the tilt of her chin, and it gave them intense pleasure to
think how soon they could dispel it. They failed, however, to note, the
firmness of that chin, or the determination in the line of the softly
curving red lips. They looked at their victim warily, and rejoiced in
her youth and beauty. They had vanquished many before, but never one so
lovely, so child-like, or so confident. It was an insult to their
manhood that the selectmen should have thought she could teach them.
The minister introduced Miss Montgomery to the selectman, who shook
hands with her, wished her well, and departed. Then the good old man
made a few gentle remarks to the effect that they should reflect on the
goodness of the new teacher, to whom he referred as "our young friend,"
in coming to teach them and guide them into the devious ways of
knowledge, and that they should refrain from all annoying conduct during
her stay, and behave as model scholars should.
The minister had spent much thought upon this speech, and felt that he
had worded it in such a way as to appeal to the sympathy of all the
children. In all his mild and reasonable life, he had never been able
to comprehend the sinful workings of the unregenerate heart of a boy.
He could conceive of no reason why a boy or a girl would be mischievous
in school, if the matter were presented rightly to their minds. He felt
that he had put it before them as it should be made to appear, and,
looking into the demure faces, he hoped that he had accomplished his
end, and that the sweet young stranger would have opportunity to prove
that she was capable of teaching that school. Though exceedingly
doubtful of the experiment, he wanted her to have a fair chance.
After giving one long, lingering look toward the back row of scholars
whose studious appearance was almost portentous in its gravity, the old
clergyman sighed with relief and turned with a smile of farewell toward
the new teacher.
"Miss Montgomery, I will leave you with your school," he said. "I'm
sure that they all appreciate how hard is the first day in a new school,
and that they will do their best to make it easy for you."
He bowed and went out. His last glance had shown him a vision of
serious faces bent upon open books; yet he felt a strange and apparently
most uncalled for foreboding.
Dawn surveyed the whole quiet room with a smile, then she untied her
bonnet, took off her cape, and carried them to the hook in the corner,
obviously used for that purpose by other teachers.
How did the boys on the back seat time the minister exactly, so as to
know just the instant he reached the corner beyond the blacksmith's and
was out of hearing?
Dawn had turned from a room full of model scholars, to hang up her
mantle and bonnet. Turning back, she beheld pandemonium let loose.
Something struck her on the cheek, something else stung her forehead.
The whole room seemed white with hard little flying objects. Some of
them were of paper, wet and soft, some were bits of chalk. It was like
a summer snow-storm, and there seemed to be no end to it.
The bewildered young teacher surveyed the scene for an instant, surprise
growing into indignation at the outrage. She was young enough to like
fun as well as any one, and for an instant she felt like laughing at the
sight, then she realized that it was intended as an insult, and as an
open rebellion against her authority. It hurt her sharply that they
thus arrayed themselves against her at the outset, without giving her a
chance to show them what she was. Well, if they would be enemies, she
would show them she could fight. The crucial test of which she had been
warned was upon her. She must make good now if she would hope to at
all. This critical moment would tell whether she could ever teach that
school or any other. In her imagination she saw the regretful look in
the kindly minister's eyes, and the line of his mouth which would say,
"I told you so," and she did not mean he should be disappointed. Or,
rather, she meant that he should be happily disappointed.
In an instant she was on the alert again, her senses collected. As ever
in a crisis, she was cool and able to move deliberately.
It took but a second for her to find out who was the leader of the
unruly scholars. The tall form of Daniel Butterworth towered above the
rest in the back line, and the grin on his impudent face showed he was
enjoying the affair immensely. Without an effort, he was evidently
directing the whole thing.
A great indignation came into Dawn's eyes, and the soft lips set in
determination. Like a flash she dashed across the room, dodging the
missiles that pelted through the air from every side.
Straight at Daniel Butterworth she came, the bully and the leader. He
was the tallest and strongest boy in the school, and no teacher had ever
dared make a direct attack upon him. Usually, the teachers punished the
smaller boys for the sins that were really Daniel's. Dawn, with her
quick perception, located the cause of the trouble, and impulsively went
straight to the mark with her discipline.
The scholars paused in their entertainment to see what would happen
next, and little Peggy Gillette began to cry: "Oh, Teacher, Teacher,
don't ye! don't ye! He won't stand it, he won't."
But Peggy's voice was drowned in the general hubbub, which subsided
suddenly into ominous silence as Dawn took hold of Daniel Butterworth's
arm and jerked him into the seat.
Daniel, of course, did not expect the attack, or he would not have been
so easily thrown off his balance; but coming down on the seat so
unexpectedly bewildered him, and before he could understand what had
happened blows began to rain upon his head and face and ears. Not that
they hurt him much, for Dawn had no ruler or switch or any of the
time-honored implements wherewith to exercise discipline. She used her
hands, her small, soft, pink palms, that were daintily shaped and
delicately eared for, and had never seen any hard labor, but yet were
strong and supple.
As he sat still and allowed the new teacher to administer justice,
Daniel resembled a kitten backing off, with flattened ears and ruffled
fur, and submitting to a severe slapping for some misdemeanor.
Nothing so soft and wonderful as Dawn's hands had ever touched the boy's
face before. He sat and took the experience in a dazed delight,
subsiding and shrinking at every blow which yet gave him a delicious
sense of pleasure as if it were some kind of attention she was offering
him. Probably in no other way could she have ever won this boy's
admiration.
After the chastisement was over he sat still, blushing and smiling
sheepishly, as if he were glad of her victory, while all the rest of the
school stood gaping in amazement. Their hero had fallen! He had been
conquered by a woman, a woman who was only a girl! How could any of
them ever again hope to stand against a teacher, if the heart of the
strong Dan Butterworth melted like wax in her hands?
Dawn whirled upon them all.
"You may sit down," she commanded grandly, and they sat.
"What is your name?" she asked, turning back to Daniel.
"He'th Dan Butterwuth," volunteered an A-B-C from the front of the room.
Dawn looked Daniel straight in the eye, with a long, burning, scathing
scorn.
"You great big baby!" she said at last, her cheeks a beautiful red, her
eyes bright with the excitement of the encounter. "Aren't you ashamed?"
The rich red stole up into the boy's face, mantling cheek and brow, and
seeming to bring a glow even into the rough, tawny hair and yellow,
curling lashes, as he dropped his eyes in a kind of happy shame. It was
the first shame, perhaps, that he had ever been made to feel, and it was
real shame, yet it was so mixed with wholesome admiration of the small,
beautiful creature who had brought it upon him, that it left him unable
to understand himself. So he grew redder, though there was no look of
anger about him, and soon his habitual smile was growing again, although
this time it was tinged with reverence and quite lacked its usual
impudence.
The scholars marvelled at him as the new teacher left him with the brand
of baby, sealed with her beautiful scorn.
Dawn went back to her seat on the platform, behind the big desk, and
Daniel sat still, only lifting his curly lashes to get another glimpse
of the loveliness and daring which had attacked and conquered him. Bug
Higginson, a small, round imp, who adored Daniel, seemed to feel that
the erstwhile leader would expect something of his followers, so he
delivered himself of a fiendish grimace toward the teacher, which set
the girls near him to giggling, and of which Dawn had the full benefit
just as she sat down.
"You may come here," commanded Dawn, pointing straight at Bug with a
ruler she found on the desk. "Come here and sit on this stool."
She placed a stool near her own chair and waited for him to obey.
Bug made another grimace, and responded pertly, "I won't!"
It was very quietly and swiftly done, and no one in the school saw the
beginning, because they were watching Bug and the teacher; but somehow
an instant after Bug had declined to obey he was taken by the nape of
his neck and the seat of his trousers, and deposited on the required
stool, while Daniel Butterworth was making his way back to his seat,
with a look of unconcern upon his face. Bug was too astonished and too
much afraid of Daniel to make a sound or move a muscle.
Dawn looked at the long, lank boy as he sprawled back into his seat and
raised his curly eyelashes, to see how she would take his action, and
there flashed into her eyes a kindling of surprise, gratitude, and
understanding. The school sat in mild dismay. The fun had vanished,
and before their halting eyes stretched a monotonous vista of
uninteresting school days. For they saw plainly that the leader had
gone over to the enemy, and they must surrender.
At intervals during the day some boy would attempt to bring about
another insurrection, but he would be promptly silenced by Daniel, who
every time received as reward a look of gratitude from Dawn's expressive
eyes; and every time the beautiful glance gave him a new thrill of
pleasure. He sat docile as a lamb and let her make him study, a thing
he had never done before in his whole life. Now and then he raised his
eyes, dumb, submissive, and met hers, and the shock of a great
revolution reverberated through his nature. He did not know what it
meant; he did not know why he was enjoying the morning so keenly; but he
entered into the new state of things as in a dream of bliss.
At recess time the boys who had always followed his lead in everything
began to jeer at him about the way he had given in to a girl and let her
whip him. He did not turn red nor look embarrassed. He promptly
settled the boldest of them with a few blows from his loosely hung arms,
and the others considered it wise to desist. It was plain that the
former bully of the school had fallen in the new teacher's snare, and as
it was well known to be unsafe to arouse his fiery temper, the other
boys had no choice but to follow in his lead.
"If you fellers say a word about her"--he nodded toward the
school-house--"I'll lick every last one of yeh, an' I mean it, too!" he
threatened, and then he walked away and sat down under the big elm to
whittle. He always sat down to whittle after he had presented an
ultimatum to the other boys.
At her desk opposite the schoolroom door, Dawn heard this deliverance,
as he intended she should, and her eyes grew bright. She understood
that Daniel Butterworth was her champion, and felt her courage grow
stronger at the thought. In a moment more she stood at the school-house
door, looking out. Daniel looked up from his whittling and met her
gaze. She was smiling, and he felt that she no longer considered him a
baby. The diminutive had rankled in his heart, and henceforth his
purpose was to prove to her that it was undeserved. If good behavior
and hard study alone could do that, then he would behave and study,
though it was a new mode of procedure for him.
The most interesting fact of the morning was that Daniel Butterworth had
given in to the new "school-marm," and all the school knew it.
"Teatcher, thshe licked Dan Butterwuth," announced the precocious A-B-C
scholar that evening, as she devoured her supper of mush and milk.
"Thshe licked him real hard--jetht thlapped hith fathe an' eyeth an'
earth eth hard eth ever thshe could."
Her father dropped his knife and fork on his plate resoundingly. He was
the selectman who had unlocked the school-house. He felt in a measure
responsible for the new teacher.
"The teacher whipped Daniel Butterworth!" he exclaimed. "Well, that
settles her hash, I s'pose. I didn't much think she'd do, such a little
whiffet tryin' to manage great lunkin boys. It ain't in conscience to
expect it. We need a _man_. I told Parson so, but he insisted we try
her, an' this is how it comes out. Well, it's no more'n I expected. Of
course Dan'l's father'll never stand that."
"What did Dan do?" inquired the A-B-C.'s mother practically. She knew
how to get at the root of the matter.
"He jeth thet thtill an' took it."
"Dan'l Butterwuth set still an' took a whippin' off'n a girl-teacher!"
exclaimed the mother. "Are you sure you're tellin' the truth?"
"Yeth, an' then teatcher, thshe thaid he wath a _great big baby_, an' he
jeth thet thtill an' got red, an' then he took Bug Higginthon an' thet
him down hard where teacher thaid, when he'd thaid, 'I won't' to her.
An' then he filled the water-pail fer her, an' licked all the other
boyth."
"Well, I snum!" said the selectman gravely. "Mebbe she'll do, after
all. If Dan'l's took up fer her, there's a chance."