A SCHOOLGIRL'S JOKE
The school to which Helen went--and where Bessie went with her--was
not like the great schoolhouses they have now. It had but two rooms,
one for girls and the other for boys. Some of the school windows
opened on the street, and one morning when all was quiet in the
schoolroom an organ-grinder suddenly began to play under the open
windows.
The girls looked up from their books and listened, the teacher looked
annoyed, but thinking he would soon go on, she waited. The girls began
to get restless; study was at an end; and at last when the grinder had
played all his airs and begun again, the teacher went to the door to
ask him to go. In the hall she met the teacher of the boys, who was on
the same errand, for the boys were all excited and getting very
noisy. In fact school work was stopped in both rooms.
The man refused to move on, and at last gave as his excuse, that he
had been hired by one of the scholars to play there an hour.
The teachers tried to make him tell who had hired him, and finally he
said it was a small boy with red hair. Finding him determined to earn
his money by playing the whole hour, the teachers went back to their
rooms, sure that they knew the culprit and that he should be punished.
There was only one small boy with red hair in the school, and he was
called up and accused of the prank. He declared that he knew nothing
about it,--that he never did it,--and began to cry when the teacher
brought from his desk a long ruler which the boys knew too well, for
when one broke the rules he was punished by being first lectured
before the whole school, and then ordered to hold out his hand and
receive several blows from it.
The poor little red-haired boy cried harder than ever when this
appeared, and again protested that he did not do it. Then a voice
from the back of the room spoke timidly: "Perhaps the girls know
something about it."
This was a new idea; it had not occurred to the master that the man
might have told a falsehood to shield the real culprit, and he laid
down the ruler, telling the sobbing boy that he might go to his seat
while he inquired into it. Meanwhile the organ-grinder went on with
his work and the whole school was in an uproar.
When the girls' teacher heard the suggestion that perhaps some of her
pupils might be guilty, she was very much vexed. But ordering all
books put aside, she gave them a serious lecture on the trouble that
had been made by that mischief, and then called upon the guilty one,
if she were there, to rise and receive her sentence, and save the
small boy sobbing in the next room from a punishment that he did not
deserve.
Upon this, sixty girls--the whole room full--rose together as one
girl.
The teacher was amazed--almost in consternation. She first made one
of them tell the story, when it came out that it was the prank of one
of their number--whose name she would not give.
* * * * *
"Who was it?" interrupted Kristy eagerly; "was it Bessie?"
"No," answered her mother, "not alone; but it was her cousin Helen who
was full of such foolish jokes, seconded by Bessie. She had asked the
organ-grinder how much he would charge to play under the school
windows an hour, and when he said sixty cents, she had gone around
among the girls and got a penny from each so that all should be
guilty."
* * * * *
The teacher's next thought was how to punish sixty girls, but she was
quick-witted, and bidding them resume their seats, she gave them
another lecture, and then said: "Since you are all guilty, you shall
all be punished."
She then ordered text-books to be laid aside and slates and pencils to
be brought out--for this happened before quiet paper had taken the
place of noisy slates.
Each girl produced from her desk a large slate, and waited further
orders. Then the teacher wrote in large letters on the blackboard
these words:--
I LOVE TO HEAR THE ORGAN-GRINDER PLAY
and ordered each girl to write that upon her slate over and over and
over again for one hour.
This seemed like a very easy punishment, and then began a vigorous
scratching of pencils, with shy laughing glances between the culprits,
while the teacher took a book and began to read, keeping, however, a
sharp eye on the pupils to see that no one shirked her work. When one
announced that her slate was full, she was told to sponge it off and
begin again.
Never was an hour so long! The lively scratching of pencils soon began
to lag, and the teacher had to spur them on again, and now and then
she walked down between the desks and looked at the slates to see that
no one failed to obey orders.
Many eager glances were turned upon the clock; recess-time came--and
went; the boys were let out and their shouts and calls came in at the
window, but the silence in the room of the girls was broken only by
the scratching of slate-pencils and the sighs of weary girls,--for it
had long ceased to be funny.
When at last that tiresome old clock struck the hour, they were made
to put away their slates and resume their lessons, and no recess at
all did they have that morning.
* * * * *
"That was an awful funny prank," said Kristy; "and wasn't it a cute
punishment!" she added, getting up to look out of the window again.
"Rain! rain! rain!" she said, in a vexed tone, "nothing but rain
to-day."
"There are worse storms than rain, Kristy," said her mother.
"I don't see what can be worse," said Kristy, returning to her seat.
"What would you say to a blizzard?" asked mamma.
"What's a blizzard?" said Kristy.
"It's a kind of storm they have out on the western prairies; let me
tell you about one."