[Sidenote: Familiarity]
Miss Grace Eddy was a second grade teacher in Randolph, Vermont. It was
her first term and she so feared to be known as “a teacher who can’t
keep order” that she felt obliged to be always on the alert against any
appearance of evil. The school was working on the Christmas exercises
which were to be given a few days later. Full of the thought of
Christmas, one of the children wrote on the blackboard one day, “A Merry
Christmas to Grace Eddy.” As Miss Eddy came back from dinner she spied
the sentence on the board and resenting a little the familiar use of her
name, said, “Who wrote that?” The roguish face of Roland Churchill
looked up into hers and Roland answered, “I did.” “Rub it off,” said
Miss Eddy, severely. Unconscious of having done anything wrong and
feeling rebuffed by the severe tone, Roland turned and ran out of the
schoolroom. Miss Eddy not wishing to have the other children notice the
writing, erased the sentence herself and said to Roland later, “Roland,
you may stay in at recess, this afternoon.”