STUDYING IN VACATION
Anticipation of some unusual happening woke Ellen early on Monday
morning. She lay for an instant staring at the whitewashed walls, at
the carved pineapples tipping the posts of her huge bed, and finally
at a picture above her bureau in which General Washington, in red
trousers, a sky-blue coat, and white wig, bowed to the admiring
applause of a large throng.
She sat up, clasped her hands about her knees, and looked down upon
the wheat-field where already the first swath had been cut by hand and
where the reaper, driven by Matthew, was about to begin its more rapid
work. At once she sprang from bed. It was Monday and a harvest day and
Manda would be cross. Saturday and Sunday had been, in spite of their
woe, interesting, but to-day promised only dullness.
But to-day was to have an interest of its own. She washed the dishes
and peeled a mammoth bowl of potatoes, then she made up the beds,
spreading the covers with care and beating the pillows vigorously.
When she had finished, she heard her name called and went down to the
office. Her father sat at his desk, a score of little white papers
before him on each of which he was laying a bit of powder from a
wide-mouthed jar. He seemed to fit in less well than usual with his
surroundings, the old book-cases, the rag carpet, the worn furniture.
"Shut the door, Ellen."
Ellen did as she was bid. She lifted a corner of the ugly gingham apron
which hung far below the bottom of her skirt and wiped her perspiring
face. It was exactly a gesture of Mrs. Sassaman's.
"Take your apron out to the kitchen!" Levis spoke with unreasonable
sharpness, not toward Ellen, but toward the apron.
"Now, Ellen"--when the last of the little powders had been folded--"I
don't believe that all mental activity should cease because the weather
is warm. For two hours each day--morning or afternoon or evening,
whichever pleases you and Mrs. Sassaman--you are to sit on yonder
chair and study. Each day I shall set you a lesson which you must have
ready by the next day. The machinery in your head is good, but it needs
steady use. First we shall have an examination. I've marked on that
paper a number of sums which I selected from your arithmetic. There are
twenty of them. Then here"--Levis opened a little book--"is something
new. It's absurd that you shouldn't have been taught about your own
body. To-morrow morning at this time, I'll expect you to tell me about
these ten pages and to show me your examples. Get them done neatly."
Ellen grew pale with the intensity of her emotions. The lesson seemed
long, but she was not one to hesitate when things were hard.
"But I will get ahead of my class! I don't know whether Amos will like
that, Father."
"His likes or dislikes make very little difference."
"And Matthew will think it's silly. He says that when girls get
learning they are like peacocks spreading their tails in the air."
"In spite of Matthew we shall proceed."
Thus encouraged, Ellen crossed the room and laid her books and paper
on the little table. "Example 4, page 50," she wrote, referring to her
father's list. Then she put the tip of her pencil into her mouth and
laid herself bodily upon the table.
Levis pushed under her feet an old ottoman.
"Sit up, Ellen, sit up! And never put anything but food into your
mouth; no pencils or fingers!"
Ellen flushed. She was often offended by the habits of others; she now
saw herself sprawling, and blushed scarlet. With the blush her childish
unconsciousness of self vanished.
"And don't chew your tongue, my dear!"
"I won't," she promised, deeply mortified.
Example 4, page 50, was promptly finished and ruled off, and Example 8,
page 58, was begun. Levis fetched the morning paper and the mail from
the rural delivery box and sat down to read. It was only eight o'clock,
and he did not start upon his round till nine. Sometimes he glanced
toward the window where the scholar labored, jerking herself frequently
into the upright position which she had momentarily lost, and striving
with many backslidings to control the motions of a tongue which had
hitherto assisted in all mental processes. Presently Matthew, covered
with dust and grime and perspiration, exhibited with stoical pride a
cut hand. Frowning, Levis bathed and dressed the injury. The clean hand
and the white bandage looked out of place.
"Matthew, this is entirely unnecessary."
"The wheat must be cut."
"There are enough people to cut the wheat. We had better lose a part
than have you hurt your hands."
"It is nothing," protested Matthew.
"This work hardens your skin and a physician can't have hard hands. Get
a bath and change your clothes and don't go back."
"The men expect me back!"
Levis made no answer, and Matthew went out sullenly. He thought that
Ellen was being punished for yesterday's misbehavior and felt somewhat
mollified. But he wanted to go out to the fields. The men would laugh
at him. He didn't care about his hands and he was determined not to be
a physician.
"I could make more money farming than Father does doctoring--a great
deal more. I don't want to go away; I want to stay here."
After changing his clothes, he sat by the window. His room was on the
opposite side of the house from the wheat-field and the men would not
see him. It was bad enough that they should see his father idling. And
Ellen should not be writing; they would think that she was playing. A
host of angry protests crowded into his mind. He had been for a long
time critical of his father and now his father's opposition to the true
religion gave him the right to express his disapproval.
He reached out and took his Bible from the little stand. It had been
given him by his grandfather, who had marked many of the passages, and
he turned from page to page. There was one verse about being persecuted
and reviled for conscience' sake which he smoothed with his hand. Other
verses came into his mind about separating one's self from one's family
on account of their disbelief. He saw himself a hero, admired and set
on high by the church people. He might leave his home and go to live
with Grandfather. He thought of Millie whose eyes gleamed at him so
pleasantly and so strangely.
But before he had got beyond the most vague of speculations, he found
himself rising from his chair in response to a summons from below. Even
yet his father lingered!
"Matthew," said Levis cheerfully, "I think that you, too, should do
some studying. Here is the University catalogue showing the character
of your examinations. Get your books together and after dinner we'll go
over the subjects and see whether you are entirely prepared."
"I have all my examples done already," announced Ellen proudly at this
ill-selected moment. "Now I'm to study physiology."
Matthew flushed. So Ellen had not been punished at all! And he was to
be set down beside a baby to study in vacation. But again he moved
obediently.
The examination proved that Amos had done his work well. Matthew's
mind, if mechanical in its operations, was tenacious of that which it
had once grasped. Mathematics he found difficult, but not impossible;
German was one of his native tongues; Latin had been easy, thanks to
the fact that some of the early writings of the Seventh-Day Baptists
were in that language and that Amos, poring over them, had acquired
thorough knowledge and had imparted it to his pupil. In elementary
science, he was not well prepared and his father made ready to remedy
the deficiency.
"We can easily rig up a little laboratory, and when you see these
experiments and perform them, you won't find them hard."
"I don't see any use in it," complained Matthew, almost in tears.
"But you will. And you must do more English reading. Both you and Ellen
use abominable idioms. Here are a dozen prescribed books."
"I don't like to read," said Matthew. "I don't believe it's meant for
us to read much except the Word of God."
Levis looked at his son with an intense, satiric amusement. But he made
no comment. In a few months Matthew would be sitting under teachers
whose elaborate astonishment at stupidity Levis remembered. He would
like to hurry him away to-day. He needed to see himself as others
saw him; he needed to meet amused and astonished eyes, to hear the
smothered laughter of fellow students at his boorish ways. It could not
be that the boy was irreclaimable who yesterday was playing with his
blocks on the floor!
"You'd better go to your room, Matthew. You should study four or five
hours a day and you're likely to be interrupted here."
Matthew went slowly upstairs. For a while he sat idle; then hearing his
father's voice, he opened his books. They proved hateful; a few weeks
without mental effort had made thinking difficult. He heard Ellen, now
that her father had driven away, chanting the names of bones and he
shouted fiercely to her to be still. He was even young enough to shed
tears. Then he prayed for strength to bear the extraordinary burdens of
his lot and it seemed to him that his task was lighter. Once, lifting
his eyes from his book, he looked steadily for a long time at the wall.
He was following a pleasant train of thought which had for some time
received a subconscious attention. He was planning what should be done
with the farm if he had it. It was a delightful occupation.
After dinner Ellen, who had hitherto always obeyed Matthew and every
one else who had given her commands, ceased her singing and studying
and went upstairs, creeping softly on hands and knees. It could not be
that Matthew would continue "mad" much longer. At other times he had
been angry for a day and a night, but now a day and a night had passed.
Unfortunately she did not let her approach be known and Matthew,
looking up from his meditations, saw her standing in the doorway. As
much startled and alarmed as though she had read his thoughts, he flew
into a rage.
"You sneak on me, do you? I just tell you this, Ellen, you'll get your
punishment, never fear! A girl to run out of church and refuse to
listen to the words of her good grandfather! You know what happens to
bad people--that will happen to you unless you repent. The Bible says
we shan't have anything to do with people who don't do right. I'll
speak to you, but I won't have anything more to do with you until you
say you are sorry for the way you acted. Get out of my room!"
Ellen got out quickly and went down the stairs. In the office she hid
her face in the pillows of the old sofa. She understood now that the
house was divided; she felt division in her own heart. The teaching of
the Seventh-Day Baptists was the only religious teaching she had ever
had--perhaps Matthew was right. Then what would become of her father
who did not go to church? And what would become of her who fled from
church?