A RAINY DAY.
"'One by one the sands are flowing,'--comma--
One by one the moments fall;'--semicolon--
'Some are coming,'--comma; 'some are going;'--semicolon--
'Do not strive to grasp them all,'--period."
dictated Miriam to a group of girls in the school-room, who were
"cramming" for the February examination, and who had hurried back at
dinner time for that purpose.
"What a queer jumble that makes!" said Winnie. "I believe I'd rather
copy it from the book. Don't you think that last line's odd?--'Do not
strive to grasp them all.' I thought that was just what we ought to do,
isn't it?"
"I asked Miss Brownlow that question yesterday," said Ernestine Alroy, a
tall, pale and thoughtful-looking girl, "and she said that Miss Procter
didn't mean that we were to let any of them go, but that we are not to
try to seize them all at once; that it would be like anything else--if
our hands were too full, we'd be sure to drop something. She said we
must take this 'Memory Gem' in connection with the motto on the board,
'Do the duty that lies nearest thee,' and that if we followed the advice
in both of them, we'd be sure not to let any of our duties go undone."
"Ernestine, you always did like to preach," said Josie Thompson, making
a wry face over the pickle she was eating. "I think it's quite bad
enough to have to learn Memory Gems, with all the hideous punctuation,
and expect to stand an examination--and they always pick out the one you
know the least about--with five per cent. off for a comma left out or
put in the wrong place, ten for a misspelled word, and so on until, by
the time my 'Gems' are corrected, there's no per cent. left at all. I
say all this is bad enough, without having to understand and explain
them." And she stopped to take breath, quite exhausted by her long
speech.
"Perhaps, if you troubled yourself a little more about the meaning,
you'd get higher marks occasionally," said Miriam.
"Oh, who cares for marks anyhow? I'm getting sick of the eternal word
'Duty!' Miss Brownlow never misses an occasion to make use of it. Then
we're always learning some selection with the same word in it, and now
you girls have taken it up and there's no knowing if you will ever stop.
As for me, I'm going to enjoy myself while I'm young. I guess I'll live
just as long, if I don't worry myself to death."
The brighter girls laughed, and Miriam said, with quick mimicry, "I
think you will live just as long, if you don't worry yourself to death.
What a speech! Well, I think you're right; you'll live forever, if worry
is the only thing that can kill."
"Well, laugh as much as you please; you can all plod along, if you want
to. I'm going to have a good time."
"It is hard, though," said Winnie, plaintively; "it's much nicer to do
the things we like to do than those we ought to do, especially when none
of us want to do things that are very wrong."
"It's harder to catch up," said Ernestine, "than to keep straight on;
and I think if we'd all pray for help not to neglect our duties, we'd
find it easier."
None of the girls laughed at this, for Ernestine was so devoted to her
ideas of religion, and so brave in the profession of them, that if
she thought it was her duty, she would have knelt down right there and
prayed aloud for them all.
"Well, this isn't learning the 'Gem,'" said Fannie Allen decisively; and
then for a few moments nothing was heard but the scratching of pencils,
as Miriam went on dictating:
"One by one thy duties wait thee,
Let thy whole strength go to each,
Let no future dreams elate thee,
Learn thou first what these can teach."
After the bell had rung for school to commence, the afternoon wore
dismally away. A steady, drenching rain was pouring down as if it
intended never to stop. Under the circumstances there could be no
recess, which added to the general feeling of weariness, restlessness
and disgust.
Each recitation was a recapitulation, which made the more studious or
those with the better memories feel as if there were "nothing new
under the sun," and gave to the triflers, or those to whom study was a
continual climbing of the "Hill Difficulty," a confused impression of
hearing something they had heard before, but failed to remember just
when or where or how.
To add to the discomfort, there was much copying to be done from the
blackboard, and, as it was dark and gloomy, there was a complaint of
not being able to see, until the front seats were filled with a crowd of
tired, discontented girls, with their young faces puckered up into all
sorts of frowns and grimaces. Even the best-natured among the teachers
were conscious of an utter failure to keep from showing irritation,
and they were made to sigh for a royal road both to learning and to
teaching. It was with a general sigh of relief that the bell announcing
the hour of dismission was heard.
But the discomfort was not yet over. The halls and dressing-rooms were
filled with an odor of wet wool and rubber; rain-cloaks and rubbers were
confusedly mixed, and Miss Brownlow reminded the complainers, in a most
irritating manner, of the number of times she had urged them all to mark
their gossamers and overshoes, and positively forbade them to expect any
interference from her if anything were lost. Then some of the girls
ran down stairs, and all were ordered back; and, it being impossible to
distinguish the culprits, the innocent suffered with the guilty, so that
it was nearly five o'clock before they were finally allowed to descend
the stairs, and they had been hearing the exasperating shouts of freedom
from the boys under the windows for a full half hour.
Miriam and Winnie, walking home under the same umbrella, felt their
desire to be good and the courage to strive for it, at the lowest ebb.
Winnie said petulantly, "I wish there were no such thing as school! It's
dig, dig, dig, and then it's cram, cram, cram, until, at last, you don't
know whether you know anything or not! I'm just sick of it!"
"You'd feel more disagreeable if you'd lost the third pair of rubbers
this winter, and had wet feet. I don't see why it is that it's always my
rubbers that are gone, anyway. Mamma will say that I grow more heedless
every day of my life; that I never will learn to take care of anything;
and will wonder if I think papa is a millionaire. I wish now that I'd
marked that last pair of rubbers."
"Oh, dear! It's so hard to do right, and not to feel hateful and cross.
Everyone seems to get cross but Ernestine. But then, none of the rest
are as good as she is. I don't believe she ever feels like doing wrong;
and she always seems happy, too; not peevish or sulky like the rest of
us. Do you suppose--"
But just then, too absorbed to notice where they were going, they ran
against an old gentleman, and their umbrella was knocked out of their
hands into the gutter, where, of course, it was soon all wet and muddy.
[Illustration: Too absorbed to notice where they were going.]
Then the old gentleman sputtered and scolded, and said he wished little
girls would look where they were going once in a while, and that they
were nothing but "giggling nuisances" anyhow. Then Miriam dropped her
books, and, as both she and Winnie stooped to pick them up, they knocked
their heads together with such force that tears sprang to the eyes of
both.
As a usual thing, such occurrences would have made them laugh, but they
were far enough from being "giggling nuisances" on this occasion, and
when they turned the corner and separated, it would not have been easy
to find two muddier or crosser little girls, while both, I fear, had
forgotten all about the giants they were intending to fight.
When Winnie reached home, she spoke to Ralph so crossly, when he ran up
to her for a kiss, that his lips trembled and he turned to Mrs. Burton,
saying, "Mamma, is me bad? 'Innie 'ouldn't tiss me!"
Winnie, at sight of his grieved face, began to feel ashamed of herself,
but was still too cross to make any acknowledgments, and, without saying
a word, went up to her room to change her muddy dress.
When she came down, Mrs. Burton looked at her searchingly, but asked
no questions, and it was not until after supper that Winnie felt
sufficiently herself to tell her mother about the disagreeable
afternoon. Mrs. Burton only said: "Well, Winnie,--
'Into each life some rain must fall.
Some days be dark and dreary,'
but I hope my daughter isn't going to grow up into one of those
unpleasant women who always make it disagreeable for other people when
things do not turn out just as they would like to have them."