[Sidenote: Of Flower]
(4) _Stealing—Acquiring dishonorably._ Cora Krebs was in the first
grade. She dearly loved her teacher, Miss Bowman. It seemed to the
little girl that Miss Bowman’s face was perfectly beautiful, her voice
delightful and her smile worth securing, even at a great sacrifice.
Myron Ware often brought flowers from his mother’s large garden to
present to Miss Bowman. She always thanked him so kindly and cared for
the flowers so tenderly that Cora longed for an opportunity to give
something beautiful to her teacher. Mrs. Krebs, her mother, had no
flowers. Cora’s best loved treasure was her character doll. She had
decided to give this doll to her teacher, but on second thought she knew
that Miss Bowman was too big to care for a doll. How often she had
thought of the joy it would be to give something fine to her teacher,
only she herself knew.
One morning, Cora walked to school behind Myrtle Dean, a ten-year-old
girl, who was taking a beautiful rose to school. When Cora first saw the
rose, she thought, “Oh, how I wish I had that rose to give to Miss
Bowman.” With this thought in mind, she kept close to Myrtle, eying the
rose longingly.
When they reached the schoolhouse, Myrtle hung her hat on a hook in the
hall, stuck the stem of the rose through the ribbon on the hat and
hurried on with one of the girls into the little library opening into
the hall. As soon as the girls closed the library door, Cora snatched
the rose from its place and dodged into the first grade room, where she
presented it to Miss Bowman, who graciously received it.
Myrtle hunted for her lost rose, and as soon as school began, asked her
teacher’s permission to go to the various rooms and inquire if any one
had seen it. Of course, she wanted the fun of going into the various
rooms more than she wanted the lost flower. When she entered the first
grade room and asked if Miss Bowman would inquire if anybody had seen
her red rose, Miss Bowman would not have suspected that the one given
her by Cora was the lost one, had not Cora blushed and nervously opened
and shut her hands and in every way appeared guilty. The sight of Cora,
thus confused, recalled to Miss Bowman’s mind that the child had given
her just such a rose, so she said,
“Cora, where did you get this rose?” holding it up before the school.
“From home,” answered Cora.
“I saw her standing in the hall looking at me when I put it into my hat,
and she didn’t have any rose in her hand,” said Myrtle.
“Cora, are you sure you brought it from home?” asked Miss Bowman,
looking at Cora accusingly.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Cora.
“Let me see it,” said Myrtle. “I pulled the thorns off of mine as I
walked to school. Has this one thorns?”
Miss Bowman examined it and found it had not. She gave it to Myrtle and
said:
“Shame, shame, Cora, you have done an awful thing. You have stolen and
then lied about it. You may stay after school.”
A very tearful, sad, little girl was whipped by her teacher that evening
after school. The whipping cured Cora, not only of stealing, but also of
ever caring again to give her teacher a present.