In this case the elder brother’s curiosity was the outgrowth of a
healthy love of life and romance which his too narrow life was starving
into a desire to feed upon the personal affairs of the teacher. Village
gossip grows from just this condition—natural interest in the
picturesque elements of life, which the too restricted life of a small
community bound by many prejudices and traditions forces into
unwholesome channels. Miss Freeman’s pupils shared the interest of their
elders in the attractive teacher’s clothes, movements, and half-revealed
romance, besides having their own healthy curiosity in one whose life
was so much broader and richer than their own. This curiosity gave the
teacher a thousand chances to teach manners, facts, and self-control to
her boys and girls, but she did not know how to utilize them.