THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT'S VISIT
The annual visit of the County Superintendent of Schools always
carries with it some degree of anxiety for the teacher. Sometimes the
visit comes unexpectedly, but generally the news is sent round in some
manner, and last minute polish and coachings are given for the hour of
trial. The teacher, naturally eager to make a creditable showing, never
knows what vagaries of stupidity will seize her brightest pupils and
cause them to stand helpless and stranded as she questions them in the
presence of the distinguished visitor and critic.
The Superintendent came to the Crow Hill school on a blustery March day
of the sort that blows off hats and tries the tempers of the sweetest
natured people. Amanda thought she never before lived through hours so
long as those in which she waited for the visitors. But at length came
the children's subdued, excited announcement, "Here they come!" as the
grind of wheels sounded outside the windows. A few minutes later the
hour was come--the County Superintendent and the directors, Mr.
Mertzheimer in the lead, stepped into the little room, shook hands with
the teacher, then seated themselves and waited for Amanda to go on with
her regular lessons and prove her efficiency.
Amanda, stirred by the underhand workings of Mr. Mertzheimer, was on
her mettle. She'd just show that man she could teach! Two years'
experience in handling rural school classes came to her support. With
precision, yet unhurried, she conducted classes in geography, grammar,
reading, arithmetic, some in beginners' grades and others in the
advanced classes.
She saved her trump card for the last, her nature class, in which the
children told from the colored pictures that formed a frieze above the
blackboard, the names of fifty native birds and gave a short sketch of
their habits, song or peculiarities.
After that the pupils sang for the visitors. During that time the eyes
of the Superintendent traveled about the room, from the pressed and
mounted leaves and flowers on the walls to the corn-husk and grass
baskets on a table in the rear of the room.
When the children's part was ended came the time they loved best, that
portion of the visit looked forward to each year, the address of the
County Superintendent. He was a tall man, keen-eyed and kindly, and as
he stood before the little school the eyes of every child were upon
him--he'd be sure to say something funny before he sat down--he always
did!
"Well, boys and girls, here we are again! And, as the old Pennsylvania
Dutch preacher said, 'I'm glad that I can say that I'm glad that I'm
here.' "He rattled off the words in rapid Pennsylvania Dutch, at which
the children laughed and some whispered, "Why, he can talk the Dutch,
too!" Then they listened in rapt attention as the speaker went on:
"Last year my hour in this schoolroom was one of the high-lights of my
visits to the rural schools of the county. So I expected big things
from you this year, and it gives me great pleasure to tell you that I
am not disappointed. I might go farther and tell you the truth--I am
more than pleased with the showing of this school. I listened
attentively while all the classes were in session, and your answers
showed intelligent thinking and reasoning. You had a surprise for me in
that bird class. I like that! It's a great idea to learn from colored
pictures the names of our birds, for by so doing you will be able to
identify them readily when you meet them in the fields and woods. No
lover of birds need fear that one of you will rob a bird's nest or use
a sling-shot on a feathered neighbor. You show by your stories about
the birds that a proper regard and appreciation for them has been
fostered in you by your teacher. You all know that it has long been
acknowledged that 'An honest confession is good for the soul,' so I'm
going to be frank and tell you that as Miss Reist pointed to the birds
there were thirty out of the fifty that I did not know. I have learned
something of great value with you here to-day, and I promise you that
I'm going to buy a book and study about them so that when I come to see
you next year I'll know every one of your pictures. You make me feel
ashamed of my meagre knowledge of our feathered neighbors on whom,
indirectly, our very existence depends.
"I made mention last year about your fine work in basketry, and am glad
to do so again. I like your teacher's idea of utilizing native
material, corn husk, dried grasses and reeds, all from our own Garden
Spot, and a few colored strands of raffia from Madagascar, and forming
them into baskets. This faculty of using apparently useless material
and fashioning from it a useful and beautiful article is one of our
Pennsylvania Dutch heritages and one we should cherish and develop.
"I understand there has been some adverse criticism among a few of the
less liberal patrons of the community in regard to the basket work and
nature study Miss Reist is teaching. Oh, I suppose we must expect that!
Progress is always hampered by sluggish stupidity and contrariness. We
who can see into the future and read the demands of the times must
surely note that the children must be taught more than the knowledge
contained between the covers of our school books. The teacher who can
instil into the hearts of her pupils a feeling of kinship with the wild
creatures of the fields and woods, who can waken in the children an
appreciation of the beauty and symmetry of the flowers, even the weeds,
and at the same time not fail in her duty as a teacher of arithmetic,
history, and so forth, is a real teacher who has the proper conception
of her high calling and is conscientiously striving to carry that
conception into action.
"Directors, let me make this public statement to you, that in Miss
Reist you have a teacher well worthy of your heartiest cooperation. The
danger with us who have been out of school these thirty years or more
is that we expect to see the antiquated methods of our own school days
in operation to-day. We would have the schools stand still while the
whole world moves.
"I feel it is only just to commend a teacher's work when it deserves
commendation, as I consider it my duty to point out the flaws and name
any causes for regret I may discover in her teaching. In this school I
have found one big cause for regret---"
The hard eyes of Mr. Mertzheimer flashed. All through the glowing
praise of the County Superintendent the schemer had sat with head cast
down and face flushed in mortification and anger. Now his head was
erect. Good! That praise was just a bluff! That red-head would get a
good hard knock now! Good enough for her! Now she'd wish she had not
turned down the son of the leading director of Crow Hill school!
Perhaps now she'd be glad to accept the attentions of Lyman. Marriage
would be a welcome solution to her troubles when she lost her position
in the school so near home. The Superintendent was not unmindful of
that "flea in his ear," after all.
"I have found one cause for regret," the speaker repeated slowly, "one
big cause."
His deep, feeling voice stopped and he faced the school while the
hearts of pupils and teacher beat with apprehension.
"And that regret is," he said very slowly so that not one word of his
could be lost, "that I have not a dozen teachers just like Miss Reist
to scatter around the county!"
Amanda's lips trembled. The relief and happiness occasioned by the
words of the speaker almost brought her to tears. The children,
appreciating the compliment to their teacher, clapped hands until the
little room resounded with deafening noise.
"That's good," said the distinguished visitor, smiling, as the applause
died down. "You stick to your teacher like that and follow her lead and
I am sure you will develop into men and women of whom Lancaster County
will be proud."
After a few more remarks, a joke or two, he went back to his seat with
the directors. Mr. Mertzheimer avoided meeting his eyes. The father of
Lyman Mertzheimer, who had been so loud in his denunciation of the
tomfoolery baskets and dried weeds, suddenly developed an intense
interest in a tray of butterflies and milkweed.
In a few minutes it was time for dismissal. One of the older girls
played a simple march on the little organ and the scholars marched from
the room. With happy faces they said good-bye, eager to run home and
tell all about the visit of the County Superintendent and the things he
said.
As the visitors rose to go the County Superintendent stepped away from
the others and went to Amanda.
"You have been very kind," she told him, joy showing in her animated
face.
"Honor to whom honor is due, Miss Reist," he said, with that winning
smile of approval so many teachers worked to win. "I have here a little
thing I want you to read after we leave. It is a copy of a letter you
might like to keep, though I feel certain the writer of it would feel
embarrassed if told of your perusal of it. I want to add that I should
have felt the same and made similar remarks to-day if I had not read
that letter, but probably I should not have expressed my opinion quite
so forcibly. Keep the letter. I intend to keep the original. It renews
faith in human nature in general. It makes me feel anew how good a
thing it is to have a friend. Good-bye, Miss Reist. I have enjoyed my
visit to Crow Hill school, I assure you."
Amanda looked at him, wondering. What under the sun could he mean? Why
should she read a letter written to him? She smiled, shook the hand he
offered, but was still at a loss to understand his words. The directors
came up to say good-bye. Mr. Mertzheimer bowed very politely but
refrained from meeting her eyes as he said, "Good-afternoon." The other
men did not bow but they added to their good-bye, "I'm going to vote
for you. We don't want to lose you."
Amanda's heart sang as the two carriages rolled away and she was left
alone in the schoolroom. She had seen the device of the wicked come to
naught, she gloried in the fact that the mean and unfair was once more
overbalanced by the just and kind. After the tribute from the County
Superintendent and the promises from all the directors but Mr.
Mertzheimer she felt assured that she would not be ignominiously put
out of the school she loved. Then she thought of the letter and opened
it hastily, her eyes traveling fast over the long sheet.
"DEAR MISTER,
Maybe it ain't polite to write to you when you don't know me but I got
a favor to ask you and I don't know no other way to do it. Amanda Reist
is teacher of the Crow Hill school and she is a good one, everybody
says so but a few old cranks that don't know nothing. There's one of
the directors on the school board has got a son that ain't worth a
hollow bean and he wants Amanda should take him for her beau. She's got
too much sense for that, our Amanda can get a better man than Lyman
Mertzheimer I guess. But now since she won't have nothing to do with
him he's got his pop to get her out her school. The old man has asked
another girl to ask for the job and he's talked a lot about Amanda till
some of the other directors side with him. He's rich and a big boss and
things got to go his way. Most everybody says Amanda's a good teacher,
the children run to meet her and they learn good with her. I heard her
say you was coming to visit the school soon and that the directors
mostly come with you and I just found out where you live and am writing
this to tell you how it is. Perhaps if you like her school and would do
it to tell them directors so it would help her. It sometimes helps a
lot when a big person takes the side of the person being tramped on.
Amanda is too high strung to ask any of the directors to stick to her.
She says they can see what kind of work she does and if they want to
let one man run the school board and run her out she'll go out. But she
likes that school and it's near her home and we'd all feel bad if she
got put out and went off somewheres far to teach. I'm just the hired
girl at her house but I think a lot of her. I will say thanks very much
for what you can do.
And oblige, AMELIA HESS.
P. S. I forgot to say Amanda don't know I have wrote this. I guess she
wouldn't leave me send it if she did."
Tears of happiness rolled down the girl's face as she ended the reading
of the letter. "The dear thing! The loyal old body she is! So that was
why she borrowed my dictionary and shut herself up in her room one
whole evening! Just a hired girl she says--could any blood relative do
a kinder deed? Oh, I don't wonder he said it renews faith in human
nature! I guess for every Mertzheimer there's a Millie. I'll surely
keep this letter but I won't let her know I have any idea about what
she did. I'm so glad he gave it to me. It takes the bitter taste from
my mouth and makes life pleasant again. Now I'll run home with the news
of the Superintendent's visit and the nice things he said."
She did run, indeed, especially when she reached the yard of her home.
By the time the gate clicked she was near the kitchen door. Millie was
rolling out pies, Mrs. Reist was paring apples.
"Mother," the girl twined an arm about the neck of the white-capped
woman and kissed her fervently on the cheek, "I'm so excited! Oh,
Millie," she treated the astonished woman to the same expression of
love.
"What now?" said Millie. "Now you got that flour all over your nice
dress. What ails you, anyhow?"
"Oh, just joy. The Superintendent was here and he puffed me way up to
the skies and the directors, all but Mr. Mertzheimer, promised to vote
for me. I didn't ask them too, either."
"I'm so glad," said Mrs. Reist.
"Ach, now ain't that nice! I'm glad," said Millie, her face bright with
joy. "So he puffed you up in front of them men? That was powerful nice
for him to do, but just what you earned, I guess. I bet that settled
the Mertzheimer hash once! That County man knows his business. He ain't
goin' through the world blind. What all did he say?"
"Oh, he was lovely. He liked the baskets and the classes and the
singing and--everything! And Mr Mertzheimer looked madder than a
setting hen when you take her off the nest. He hung his head like a
whipped dog."
"Na-ha!" exulted Millie. "That's one time that he didn't have his own
way once! I bet he gets out of the school board if he can't run it."
Her prediction came true. Mr. Mertzheimer's dignity would not tolerate
such trampling under foot. If that red-headed teacher was going to keep
the school he'd get out and let the whole thing go to smash! He got
out, but to his surprise, nothing went to smash. An intelligent farmer,
more amenable to good judgment, was elected to succeed him and the Crow
Hill school affairs went smoothly. In due time Amanda Reist was elected
by unanimous vote to teach for the ensuing year and the Mertzheimers,
thwarted, nursed their wrath, and sat down to think of other avenues of
attack.