SCHOOL.
Miss Stiefbach and her sister Christine, were two excellent German
ladies who, owing to a sudden reverse of fortune, were obliged to leave
their mother-country, hoping to find means of supporting themselves in
America. They were most kindly received by the gentlemen to whom they
brought letters of introduction, and with their assistance they had been
able to open a school for young ladies; and now, at the end of seven
years, they found themselves free from debt, and at the head of one of
the best boarding-schools in the United States.
Miss Stiefbach, the head and director of the establishment, was a stern,
cold, forbidding woman; acting on what she considered to be the most
strictly conscientious principles, but never unbending in the slightest
degree her frigid, repelling manner. To look at her was enough to have
told you her character at once. She was above the medium height,
excessively thin and angular in her figure, and was always dressed in
some stiff material, which, as Marion Berkley expressed it, "looked as
if it had been starched and frozen, and had never been thawed out."
Miss Christine was fifteen years her junior, and her exact opposite in
appearance as well as in disposition: she was short and stout, and
rosy-cheeked, not at all pretty; but having such a kind smile, such a
thoroughly good-natured face, that the girls all thought she was really
beautiful, and would feel more repentance at one of her grieved looks,
than they would for forty of Miss Stiefbach's frigid reprimands. And
well they might love her, for she certainly was a kind friend to them.
Many a school-girl trick or frolic had she concealed, which, if it had
come under the searching eyes of her sister, would have secured the
perpetrators as stern a rebuke, and perhaps as severe a punishment, as
if they had committed some great wrong.
Miss Stiefbach's school was by no means what is generally called a
"fashionable school." The parents of the young girls who went there
wished that their daughters should receive not only a sound education,
but that they should be taught many useful things not always included in
the list of a young lady's accomplishments.
There were thirty scholars, ranging from the ages of seventeen to ten;
two in each room. They were obliged to make their own beds, and take all
the care of their rooms, except the sweeping. Every Saturday morning
they all assembled in the school-room to darn their stockings, and do
whatever other mending might be necessary. Formerly Miss Stiefbach
herself had superintended their work, but for the last year she had put
it under the charge of Miss Christine; an arrangement which was
extremely pleasing to the girls, making for them a pleasant pastime of
what had always been an irksome duty. After their mending was done, and
their Bible lesson for the following Sabbath learned, the rest of the
day was at their own disposal. Those who had friends in the neighborhood
generally went to visit them; while the others took long walks, or
occupied themselves in doing whatever best pleased them. There were of
course some restrictions; but these were so slight, and so reasonable,
that no one ever thought of complaining, and the day was almost always
one of real enjoyment. Miss Stiefbach herself was an Episcopalian, and
always required that every one, unless prevented by illness, should
attend that church in the morning; but, in the afternoon, any girl who
wished might go to any other church, first signifying her intention to
one or the other of the sisters.
Some of Miss Stiefbach's ancestors had suffered from religious
persecutions in Germany, and, although she felt it her duty to have her
scholars attend what she considered to be the "true church," she could
not have it on her conscience to be the means of preventing any one from
worshipping God in whatever manner their hearts dictated.