"Stick it out," said Uncle Charlie, who knew his Emmy Lou.
"She needn"t go back this year," said Aunt Cordelia when she heard, "my precious baby!"
"I will teach her at home," said Aunt Louise.
"There must be other Green and Gold Books," said papa, "growing on that same tree."
But Uncle Charlie, with brows drawn into a frown, was wondering.
ALL THE WINDS OF DOCTRINE
Emmy Lou was now a Big Girl. One climbed from floor to floor as one went up in Readers. With the Fifth Reader one reached the dizzy eminence of top. Emmy Lou now stood, as it were, upon a peak in Darien and stared at the great unknown, rolling ahead, called The Grammar School.
Behind, descended the grades of one"s achievements back to the A, B, C of things. One had once been a pygmy part of the Primer World on the first floor one"s self, and from there had gazed upward at the haloed beings peopling these same Fifth Reader Heights.
But Emmy Lou felt that somehow she was failing to experience the expected sense of dizzy height, or the joy of perquisite and privilege.
To be sure, being a Big Girl, she found herself at recess, one of many, taking hands in long, undulating line, and, like the a.s.syrian, sweeping down on the fold, while the fold, in the shape of little girls, fled shrieking before the onslaught.
But there had been a time when Emmy Lou had been a little girl, and had fled, shrieking, herself. The memory kept her from quite enjoying the onslaught now, though of course a little girl of the under world is only a Primary and must be made to feel it. The privileged members of the Fifth Reader World are Intermediates.
They are other things, too. They are Episcopalians or Presbyterians or some other correspondingly polysyllabic thing, as the case may be. In this case each seemed to be a different thing. Hattie first called the attention of Emmy Lou to it.
The Fifth Reader members ate lunch in groups. Without knowing it, one was growing gregarious. And as becomes a higher social state, one pa.s.sed one"s luncheon around.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Hattie took Emmy Lou aside. "It"s their religion.""]
Emmy Lou pa.s.sed her luncheon around. Emmy Lou herself knew the joys of eating; and hers, too, was a hospitable soul. She brought liberal luncheons. On this day, between the disks of her beaten biscuit showed the pinkness of sliced ham.
Mary Agatha drew back; Mary Agatha was Emmy Lou"s newest friend. "It"s Friday," said Mary Agatha.
"Of course," said Rosalie, "I forgot." Rosalie put her biscuit back.
"It"s ham," said Rebecca Steinau.
Emmy Lou was hurt. It seemed almost like preconcerted reflection on her biscuits and her ham.
Hattie took Emmy Lou aside. "It"s their religion," said Hattie, in tones of large tolerance. "We can eat anything, you and I, "Piscopalians and Presbyterians."
"But Rosalie," said Emmy Lou; Rosalie, like Emmy Lou, was Episcopalian.
But Rosalie had joined Hattie and Emmy Lou. "My little brother"s singing in the vested choir," said Rosalie, "and we"re going to be High Church."
Hattie looked at Rosalie steadily. Then Hattie took another biscuit.
Hattie took another biscuit, deliberately, aggressively. It was as though, with Hattie, to take another biscuit was a matter of conscience and protest. Hattie was Presbyterian.
But to Emmy Lou biscuits and ham had lost their savour. Emmy Lou admired Rebecca. Rebecca could reduce pounds and shillings to pence with a rapidity that Emmy Lou could not even follow. Yet Rebecca stooped from this eminence to help labouring Emmy Lou with her sums.
And Emmy Lou saw life through Rosalie"s eyes. Emmy Lou trudged unquestioningly after, where the winged feet of Rosalie"s fancy led. For yet about Rosalie"s light footsteps trailed back some clouds of glory, and through the eyes of Rosalie one still caught visions of the glory and the dream.
And high as are the peaks of the Fifth Reader Heights, Mary Agatha stood on one yet higher. Mary Agatha went to church, not only on Sundays, but on Saints" days.
Mary Agatha loved to go to church.
But, for the matter of that, Rebecca went to church on Sat.u.r.days. When did Rebecca _play_?
To Emmy Lou church meant several things. It meant going, when down in her depraved heart lay the knowledge she tried to hide even from herself that she did not want to go. It meant a sore and troubled conscience, because her eye would travel ahead on the page to the Amens. The Amens signified the end. And it meant a fierce and unholy joy that would not down, when that end came.
But Mary Agatha loved to go to church. And Rebecca gave Sat.u.r.days to church. And now Rosalie, who admired Mary Agatha, was taking to church.
No wonder that to Emmy Lou biscuits and ham were tasteless.
But the Fifth Reader is an Age of Revelation. One is more than an Intermediate. One is an Animal and a Biped. One had to confess it on paper in a Composition under the head of "Man."
One accepted the Intermediate and Biped easily, because of a haziness of comprehension, but to hear that one is an Animal was a shock.
But Miss f.a.n.n.y said so. Miss f.a.n.n.y also said the course in Language was absurd. She said it under her breath. She said it as Emmy Lou handed in her Composition on "Man."
So one was an animal. One felt confidence in Miss f.a.n.n.y"s statements.
Miss f.a.n.n.y walked lightly, she laughed in her eyes; that last fact one did not cherish against Miss f.a.n.n.y, though sometimes one smiled doubtfully back at her. Was Miss f.a.n.n.y laughing at one?
Miss f.a.n.n.y was a Real Person. The others had been Teachers. Miss f.a.n.n.y had a grandpapa. He was rich. And she had a mamma who cried about Miss f.a.n.n.y"s teaching school. But her grandpapa said he was proud of Miss f.a.n.n.y.
Emmy Lou knew all about Miss f.a.n.n.y. Miss f.a.n.n.y"s sister was Aunt Louise"s best friend.
Mr. Bryan, the Princ.i.p.al, came often to the Fifth Reader room. He came for Language Lessons. Mr. Bryan told them he had himself introduced the Course in Language into the School Curriculum.
Its purpose, he explained, was to increase the comprehension and vocabulary of the child. The paucity of vocabulary of even the average adult, he said, is lamentable.
"In all moments of verbal doubt and perplexity," said Mr. Bryan, "seek the Dictionary. In its pages you will find both vocabulary and elucidation."
Toward spring Religions became more absorbing than ever. One day Rebecca and Gertie and Rachel brought notes. Rebecca and Gertie and Rachel must thereafter be excused on certain days at an early hour for attendance at Confirmation Cla.s.s.
Miss f.a.n.n.y said "Of course." But she reminded them of Examination for the Grammar School looming ahead.
A little later a second influx of notes piled Miss f.a.n.n.y"s desk. Mary Agatha and Kitty and Nora and Anne must go at noon, three times a week, to their Confirmation Cla.s.s.
Then Yetta and Paula could not come at all on their instruction days, because the Lutheran Church was far up-town in Germanberg. They, too, were making ready for Confirmation.
Again Miss f.a.n.n.y reminded them all of Examination.
Just at this time Emmy Lou was having trouble of her own. It was Lent, which meant Church three times a week. Aunt Louise said Emmy Lou must go. She said Emmy Lou, being now a big girl, ought to want to go.
Rosalie, being High, had Church every afternoon. But Rosalie liked it.
Emmy Lou feared she was the only one in all the cla.s.s who did not like it.