Thank you ever so much for the Hand Fund, I feel quite rich with it. These
children are willing to work and the parents are glad to have them do so.
They know very little about doing things properly, and the teaching which
they have in industrial work may do them as much good as their books, but
if you count that, then I am teaching from eight o’clock to five.
You may wish to ask if we feel isolated and lonely. No, we are too busy
for that. The scholars begin to come on the grounds before we are through
breakfast, and we don’t have time to wish for other company. You ask how I
find things. One can’t find out everything in two months, but as far as I
can judge it is as needy a field as we have heard about.
Of course the best work cannot be done in school until we can have another
room, but now scholars come four or five miles, cross creeks on logs, or,
when the water is too high, their folks bring them across the water and
they walk the rest of the way.
So far, the parents find no fault with the governing at school. One girl
had troubled me by laughing and playing, and I told her at noon if she
couldn’t study more she would better stay at home and work. Somebody told
her mother what was said, and the stepfather came down and begged me to
keep her, said that they couldn’t read and write and needed to have her
know how, that they would attend "stricter" to her, that she would behave
better when they were through with her, etc. I consented to keep her and
she confided to Jennie, when she came to school, that she had had four
switches "wore out" on her that morning.
Everybody is very poor, of all races, and what is more discouraging they
don’t know how to improve their condition. This year the Christmas freeze
spoiled almost all their vegetables, and they lost all their melon crop
last year, and the cold two or three weeks ago froze what garden things
were started; what they are to live on till crops grow is not visible. The
children evidently think our washbasins and soap and towels a great
luxury, for they scrub and rub at every opportunity.
We are putting out flowers and trees and planting grass in the yard to
make it more comfortable looking, the grass, partly to prevent the water
from washing off so much. The church lot is higher than that of the house
and in a heavy rain the water pours down on our lot, but I think we can
stop it in part at least. Our "home" is an "unmixed" blessing. I don’t
know how we could get on here without a pleasant resting place, and the
people watch everything we do and everything we have.