PERSIMMONS.
The September days passed away and the October days came and found Ruby
both happy and good. She had not forgotten her home nor her dear
mother and father, but she was learning to love her new home very
dearly, and she had tried so hard to be good and give the teachers as
little trouble as possible that they were all very fond of her. She
found her lessons very pleasant, and as she loved study and was
ambitious to always have perfect lessons she was very near the head in
all her classes.
Twice a week she wrote long letters home to her mother, and told her
all about her doings; and her mother was so much better that she was
able to write to Ruby two or three times a week,--such loving letters
that Ruby always wished for a little while that she could put herself
in an envelope and send herself home to her mother, instead of waiting
for Christmas. Ruby was doing so well that both her Aunt Emma and her
father and mother wanted her to stay until the end of the term at any
rate. Ruby hoped that when she went home she would be able to take
with her at least one of the five prizes which were to be given at
Christmas. There was a composition prize, a deportment prize, a prize
for grammar, one for spelling, and one for improvement in music. Ruby
had worked so hard in all her classes, and had been so careful to keep
all the rules, that she was quite sure that she should take at least
one prize home with her to show her father and mother how hard she had
tried to be good.
If Ruthy could only have been with her, Ruby would have been quite
contented; but with all her new friends she still missed the dear
little friend who had been like a sister to her all her life.
A great many things that had seemed hard to Ruby when she first came
were becoming so natural to her now that she never thought anything
about them. The courtesying was no longer any trouble to her; on the
contrary, she really liked it, and she amused her Aunt Emma one day by
telling her that she thought that when she went home she should always
courtesy to her father and mother when she went out of the room; for if
it was respectful to courtesy to her teachers, it was certainly
respectful to courtesy to any one else of whom she thought a great
deal. She had learned to like egg-plant just as well as she did
anything else, so her trouble over that had melted away into thin air;
and she had found Agnes Van Kirk a very good friend to have, for she
was a little girl who tried very hard to do right herself, and helped
Ruby to do right, too.
Agnes was going to be a teacher some day, she hoped, and she was very
fond of talking to Ruby about her plans. She was going to have a large
boarding-school, and she was not quite sure whether she would have her
girls courtesy or not when they went out of a room.
"Perhaps it will be old-fashioned by that time, you know," she said to
Ruby, when the two girls had counted how many years must pass away
before Agnes should have completed her education and opened her school.
"Of course I should not teach my girls to do old-fashioned things, that
would make people laugh at them, but I want them to do everything that
is nice. I mean to be such a teacher as Miss Chapman. She never
scolds, but all the girls mind her, and even those who break the rules
always wish they had n't when she looks at them. I can hardly wait, I
am in such a hurry to begin my school."
"And I will come and see you, and look at the girls the way that lady
looked at us the other day when she came to visit the school," said
Ruby. "Do you remember how beautifully she was dressed, Agnes, and how
pretty she was? I wonder if she meant to send her little girl here,
and that was why she came. Won't it be fun to go and visit your school
when I don't have any of the lessons to study, nor anything. I will be
very grand, and they will never guess that we used to be little girls
and go to school together. I don't want to be a school-teacher,
though."
"What do you want to be?" asked Agnes.
"I think I shall write books," announced Ruby.
"Why, what ever made you think of that?" asked Agnes, in astonishment.
"You don't even like to write compositions, and how could you ever
write books?"
"Oh, compositions are different from books," returned Ruby, airily. "I
am sure I could write poetry, I like it so much. There is n't anything
I like better than poetry day. I wish it was poetry day every Friday,
instead of every other one being compositions. I don't think
compositions are at all interesting. We have to write a composition
for next time upon one of our walks. I think I will write about our
walk this afternoon. I don't think there is ever very much to write
about the walks we take. We just go out two and two, and we see the
same things every time, and that is all there is of it."
"Perhaps something may happen to-day to give you something to write
about," Agnes answered; and though she had only spoken in fun, without
any idea that her words would come true, something did happen that
afternoon, quite out of the usual course, and I am not sure but that
Ruby would have rather that it had not happened, and that she would
have had less to write about.
Miss Ketchum announced at the close of the afternoon school that the
girls would go for their walk half an hour earlier than usual, as they
were going to gather persimmons, and would want to have more time than
for their regular walk.
This gathering of persimmons was a treat looked forward to by the
girls, and they were very much pleased when they heard that they were
to go this afternoon. They each had a little basket in which to bring
home their spoils, and Ruby was quite as excited as the rest of them,
wondering whether she would find enough to fill her basket. It was the
first of November, and there had been several slight frosts, which,
Ruby heard the teachers say, ought to ripen the persimmons.
"That is funny," she said to herself. "I should think it would spoil
persimmons to be frozen. I never heard of anything being better
because it had been out in the frost. I wonder what persimmons are
like, anyway."
Ruby had never seen any persimmons in her life, as they did not grow
near her home, and she had a vague idea that they were like apples,
only smaller, perhaps. It did not take the girls very long to get
ready, and in a little while they were all on their way, so happy that
it was hard work to keep in procession, and not lose step with each
other.
It was a beautiful day. The sky was so blue that not the tiniest
little white cloud was floating about upon it anywhere, and the air was
not very cold. There was just enough frostiness to make warm wraps
very pleasant, and to make the girls find a brisk gait delightful.
The leaves had all dropped from the trees, and their bare, brown limbs
stood out sharp and clear against the sky, and Ruby wondered whether
the persimmons would not have fallen from the tree, too. She did n't
ask any questions, however, but made up her mind to wait and see for
herself. It was very hard for Ruby to admit that she did not know
anything; and although Agnes could have told her all about the
persimmons, she preferred to wait rather than ask her.
It was quite a long walk to the field where the persimmon-tree grew
which was considered the special property of the school. In the woods
there were several persimmon-trees, but the boys knew where those
persimmons grew, and gathered them as soon as they ripened, and very
often before they were ready to eat; so it was of no use going there to
look for any. This tree stood in a field that belonged to a friend of
Miss Chapman's, and he always kept it just for the girls, and was
willing to send out his man to shake the tree and knock the persimmons
down for them, if Jack Frost had not done it already. As soon as they
reached the field, and the bars were let down, the girls could break
their ranks and rush for the persimmon-tree, which grew in the middle
of the field. It did not look very inviting, Ruby thought, as she ran
along with the others. All the leaves had dropped off except a few
which dangled as if the next puff of wind would send them down upon the
ground with the others; and the persimmons, which hung thickly upon the
branches, did not look at all as Ruby had fancied that they would.
There were several lying upon the ground, and Ruby wondered at the
girls for picking them up so eagerly. They were all shrivelled, and
the least touch would break their skins. Indeed some of them in
falling had broken, and were lying in bunches, all mashed together.
Ruby did not want any such looking persimmons as those, and she looked
carefully about for nice round ones, that were firm and hard.
"Come over here, Ruby," called Agnes. "Here are ever so many, and such
nice ones. I am getting lots."
Ruby glanced over and saw that those in Agnes' basket were just the
kind that she did not want.
"I see some here," she answered, and so she picked up the firm, hard
fruit as quickly as she could.
Presently she wondered what they tasted like, and she put one in her
mouth.
Did you ever have your mouth puckered up by a green persimmon? If you
have, then you will know just how Ruby's mouth felt; and if you have
not, you must imagine it, for I am sure I cannot tell you about it. It
was a very green persimmon that Ruby had tasted, and she had taken such
a bite of it before she could stop herself that it seemed to her as
though she would never be able to open her mouth again. She was quite
frightened at the way her mouth felt, and her eyes filled with tears as
she went over to Agnes.
"Oh, it has done something to my mouth, and puckered it all up," she
said, trying to keep from crying. "I never had such a dreadful feeling
in my mouth. Do you suppose it will ever come out again? Oh, it is
worse than a toothache, it truly is."
[Illustration: "OH, IT HAS DONE SOMETHING TO MY MOUTH!" (missing from
book)]
"You must have eaten one that was not quite ripe," said Agnes. "Let me
see; oh, that one would pucker your mouth dreadfully, for it is n't
nearly ready to eat yet. See, it is only these soft ones that are
ripe, and the hard ones will all pucker one's mouth."
"And I thought that these soft ones were n't good," said Ruby, in
dismay, "and I have gathered only these old puckery ones. I could not
think what you picked up the squashed ones for."
How many times that afternoon Ruby wished she had known more about
persimmons, or that she had asked some of the other girls something
about them.
Her mouth seemed to grow more puckery every moment, and she wondered
whether it would ever be any better. It did not feel as if it would,
and she could not be persuaded to taste a ripe persimmon, for she had
had enough of persimmons. She emptied her basket out, and did not want
to touch another, though the girls assured her that the ripe ones were
delicious.
She was very glad when at last the girls had gathered as many as they
wanted, and they were ready to go home again.
She went upstairs to her room, and Aunt Emma did what she could to
relieve the puckered little mouth; but there was but little that could
be done except to wait patiently for time to take the puckers out of it.
Ruby was quite sure that it would take a year, and when she woke up the
following morning and found that there was nothing to remind her of the
persimmon, she was delighted as well as surprised, but it was a long
time before she wanted to hear any more about persimmons.