MISADVENTURES.
By the time Ruby had been at school a week she was quite happy, and had
been so good that Aunt Emma wrote home to her father and mother that no
one could ask for a better little girl, or one who made more progress
in her studies.
In fact, Ruby had begun to be quite proud of herself for being so good,
and quite enjoyed comparing herself with some of the other girls, who
could not learn their lessons as quickly as she did, and who did not
try so hard to be good and not give the teacher any trouble.
If Ruby's mother had been with her she would have warned the little
girl that this was the very time for her to be most watchful lest she
should do wrong, for it was generally when Ruby had the highest opinion
of herself that her pride had a fall.
If any one had told Ruby upon this particular morning that she should
laugh out loud in school, and more than that, laugh at Miss Ketchum,
she would not have believed it, and yet that is just exactly what she
did. Still, I think you will hardly blame Ruby when I tell you how it
happened.
It was quite true that, as Agnes had said, Miss Ketchum was apt to be
absent-minded sometimes. She was so interested in her studies that she
sometimes forgot about other things, and while she never forgot
anything connected with her scholars' lessons, yet she sometimes forgot
little matters about her dress.
She wore her hair in a rather unusual way, and when it was brushed back
and arranged she would pin a little round curl upon either side of her
face. This morning she had somehow forgotten to pin one of these curls
on, and as soon as the girls noticed it, they were very much amused.
If Miss Chapman had noticed it when she opened the school she would
probably have reminded Miss Ketchum of it, but she did not see it, and
none of the girls told her; so the curl was still missing when Ruby
went up with the rest of the class to the desk, to recite her grammar
lesson.
She was not quite sure that she knew it, and she had been studying so
hard up to the last minute that she had not noticed how the other girls
had been laughing behind their books and desk-covers, and had not even
looked at Miss Ketchum since school began.
Ruby was at the head of the class, and so the first question came to
her,--
"What is an adverb?"
Ruby looked up at her teacher, and was just about to answer, when her
eyes rested upon the place where the curl ought to have been. Miss
Ketchum's hair was very thin just there, and the contrast between the
round curl on one side of her head and the empty place upon the other
was so funny that before Ruby thought of what she was doing she had
laughed aloud.
Miss Ketchum had not the least idea that there was anything in her
appearance which could be amusing, and as she had often been tried by
mischievous scholars giggling or whispering, she thought that Ruby was
deliberately intending to be rude, and very naturally she was much
provoked at her. One could hardly have expected her to think anything
else, for it was not very pleasant to have one of her scholars look
straight at her and then burst out laughing.
Poor Miss Ketchum's face grew as red as Ruby's own, and she said very
sternly,--
"I am surprised at you, Ruby. I did not know that you could behave so
badly. You may carry your grammar over there in the corner, and sit
there facing the school the rest of the day. Next, what is an adverb?"
Poor Ruby was too miserable to try to explain, and she did n't like to
tell Miss Ketchum that she had left her curl off; so she took her book
and went over in the corner, feeling completely in disgrace.
After a while the door opened, and Aunt Emma looked in, to call one of
her pupils for her music lesson, and the look of grave surprise upon
her face when she saw Ruby sitting there by herself made the little
girl more miserable than ever. She had not meant to laugh. If she had
noticed the missing curl before she came to the class she never would
have laughed; but seeing it suddenly drove the adverb quite out of her
head, and before she had known what she was about she had laughed.
It seemed a long time to recess, and it was all that Ruby could do to
keep the tears out of her eyes. It was the first time in her life that
she had ever been in disgrace at school, and she felt it keenly. It
would have been bad enough if it had happened in school at home, but to
have it happen here was doubly hard.
Ruby was sure she could never be happy here again, never, after having
to stay up there all the morning in disgrace before the whole school.
At last the recess-bell rang, and the other scholars went out to play,
and Ruby and Miss Ketchum were left alone.
"I shall hear your grammar lesson in a few moments, Ruby," said Miss
Ketchum, in a stern tone, and she went to her room, leaving Ruby with
her grammar in her hand, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes long
enough to study.
She did not know nor care just now what an adverb was, and it is very
hard to study with a great lump in one's throat, and tears in one's
eyes. If she had really meant to be mischievous it would not have been
so hard to be in disgrace, but Ruby really had not intended to do
wrong, and she would not have done anything to make Miss Ketchum feel
badly for anything in the world if she had had time to think. Agnes
had cast a pitying glance at her as she went out, for she had
understood how it was, and she hoped that during recess time, when Ruby
and her teacher should be alone together, Ruby would tell Miss Ketchum
why she had laughed.
After Ruby's punishment none of the other girls had shown that they
noticed the missing curl, lest they should be sent up to the platform
too, for speaking about it, so Miss Ketchum did not discover her loss
until she went to her room at recess.
The first thing she saw when she entered her room was a dark curl lying
upon her bureau. She looked at it wonderingly for a moment, and then
put her hand up to her head. One curl was in its place, but there was
the other lying upon the bureau. She had forgotten to put it on.
Looking at herself in the glass, Miss Ketchum smiled, although she was
very much mortified to think that she had been in school all the
morning without knowing that she had not finished dressing. She
understood Ruby's behavior then.
Going back to the school-room she sat down at her desk and called Ruby
to her.
"Ruby, dear, you did not intend to be disorderly this morning in class,
did you?" she asked.
Ruby burst into tears, and hid her face. In a moment Miss Ketchum's
arm was about her, and she was crying on her teacher's shoulder.
"Indeed I did n't," she answered, between her sobs. "I never thought
of such a thing. I was just going to tell you what an adverb was, and
when I looked up I saw--I saw--"
"That my hair was not arranged properly?" asked Miss Ketchum.
"Yes'm," said Ruby, "and then before I knew what I was going to do I
had laughed. I am so sorry, and oh, I wish I could go home. I never
was bad in school before, and I did not mean to be this time. Indeed I
am so sorry I laughed, Miss Ketchum. I could n't help it and I did n't
know I was going to, truly I did n't."
"Ruby, dear, I feel as if it was more my fault than yours," said Miss
Ketchum, gently wiping away the little girl's tears. "Now you may go
out to play and I will hear your lesson some time after school, when
you feel like coming up to my room to say it, and you shall have your
good mark, if you know it, just as if you had recited it in class. I
shall not consider that you have done anything wrong this morning, for
I can understand that you would not have laughed if you had had time to
think about it for a moment. But you will try after this always to be
quiet, will you not?"
"Yes 'm," answered Ruby, earnestly, and returning Miss Ketchum's kiss,
she wiped her eyes and ran out to play, happier than she had had any
idea that she could ever be again.
She thought to herself that she would never smile again in school, even
if such a thing should happen as that Miss Ketchum should leave both of
her curls off at once. When she went out to play she found that the
girls were disposed to make much of her for her trouble of the
morning.
"It was too bad for anything, Ruby Harper, that you had to get into
trouble all on account of Miss Ketchum's curl," said one of the girls.
"I don't wonder you laughed. If you had seen it before you might have
been able to help it, but to look up and see her hair looking that way
was enough to make any one laugh, whether they meant to or not.
"Miss Ketchum knows now that I did not mean to," Ruby answered. "I
truly could not help it, but you see if I am ever in disgrace again."
"Never mind, all the girls knew how it was," answered her friend,
comfortingly. "Come and play puss in the corner. I am glad she let
you out instead of keeping you in all recess."
Ruby was quite happy again now, and when she had a moment in which to
run up and tell Aunt Emma that Miss Ketchum said that she had not
really done anything naughty, she felt much better.
But she was sorry that she had laughed, even if she did not intend to,
and she wanted to make up to Miss Ketchum for her seeming rudeness; so
she made up her mind that that very afternoon she would gather all the
caterpillars she could find anywhere, and give them to Miss Ketchum, to
show her how sorry she was, and how happy she would like to make her.
That afternoon, as soon as she had finished practising, she took an
empty cardboard box, and went down to the end of the garden. She was
quite sure that in the vegetable garden she would find ever so many
caterpillars, and there they were,--great brown ones, crawling lazily
about in the sun, smaller green ones, that travelled about more
actively, and upon the tomato-plants Ruby found some that she was quite
sure Miss Ketchum would like, because they were so remarkably large and
ugly.
She was a very happy little girl as she filled her box, feeling almost
as delighted as if she was finding something for herself with every
caterpillar that she captured and put into her box.
After she had put as many as thirty or forty in their prison she found
it was quite hard to put one in without another coming out, and she did
not get along quite as fast. Before the bell rang for study hour,
however, she had captured fifty-five, and fifty-five caterpillars
looked like a great many when Ruby carefully opened one side of the box
and peeped in. Ruby wrote upon the top of the box, in her very best
hand, "For Miss Ketchum, with Ruby's love," and then she punched little
holes in the cover that her caterpillars might have some air to breathe.
She ran upstairs to Miss Ketchum's room, which was over one end of the
schoolhouse, and knocked at the door, which was partly opened. No one
answered, and Ruby knocked again. She pushed the door open a little
farther and looked in, and found that Miss Ketchum had gone out. She
was to have charge of the study hour that afternoon, and she had
probably gone downstairs. Ruby laid the box on the bureau, and ran
away as the bell rang to call the scholars together, feeling quite
delighted at the thought of Miss Ketchum's happiness when she should
find so large an addition to her "menagerie," as the girls called it.
She thought she would not tell Miss Ketchum about it, but let her have
the pleasure of a surprise when she should go up to her room. Of all
the little girls, no one studied more diligently than Ruby that
afternoon, for she wanted to make up for the morning in every way that
she could; and the thought of the caterpillars walking about in their
prison, all ready to make Miss Ketchum happy when she should find them,
made Ruby very glad; so she felt like singing a little song as she
studied her grammar, and looked out the map questions in her geography.
The day which had begun so disastrously was going to have a very
pleasant ending after all, and Ruby no longer felt as if she must go
home. When the girls had come into the school-room after recess Miss
Ketchum had said what Ruby had not in the least expected her to say,
that she had found out why Ruby laughed, and if she had known sooner
she would not have sent her out of the class for it, as she felt as if
it was her own fault instead of Ruby's, and that therefore, she should
give Ruby perfect marks for deportment, since she had not intended to
make any disorder during school-time. Ruby was so grateful to Miss
Ketchum for thus clearing her before the school that she made up her
mind that she would never, never give her teacher the least bit of
trouble, but would always be good, and learn her lessons perfectly, so
that she should never have any occasion to reprove her.