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CHAPTER II.
FLOSSY "BEGINS."
FLOSSY SHIPLEY"S first day at Sabbath-school was different. She went over to the cla.s.s of boys, who were almost young men, with trepidation indeed, and yet with an a.s.sured sort of feeling that they would be quiet. Just how she was going to accomplish this she was not certain.
She had studied the words of the lesson most carefully and prayerfully; indeed, they had been more in her mind all the week than had anything else. At the same time, she by no means understood how to teach those words and thoughts to the style of young men who were now before her.
Still, there was that in Flossy which always held the attention of the young men; she knew this to be the case, and, without understanding what her peculiar power was, she felt that she had it, and believed that she could call it into service for this new work. They stared at her a little as she took her seat, then they nudged each other, and giggled, and looked down at their dusty boots, guiltless of any attempt at being black, and shuffled them in a way to make a disagreeable noise.
They knew Flossy--that is, they knew what street she lived on, and how the outside of her father"s house looked, and what her standing in society was; they knew nothing of her in the capacity of a Sunday-school teacher; and, truth to tell, they did not believe she _could_ teach. She was a doll set up before them for them to admire and pretend to listen to; they did not intend to do it; she had nothing in common with them; they had a right to make her uncomfortable if they could, and they were sure that they could. This was the mood in which she found them.
"Good-morning," she said, brightly; and they glanced at each other, and shuffled their feet louder, and some of them chuckled louder, while one of them said:
"It"s rather late in the morning, ain"t it? We got up quite a spell ago."
This pa.s.sed for a joke, and they laughed aloud. At this point Flossy caught Dr. Dennis" distressed face turned that way. It was not rea.s.suring; he evidently expected disastrous times in that corner.
Flossy ignored the discourteous treatment of her "good-morning," and opened her Bible.
"Do you know," she said, with a soft little laugh, "that I haven"t the least idea how to teach a Sunday-school lesson? I never did such a thing in my life; so you mustn"t expect wisdom from me. The very most I can do is to talk the matter over with you, and ask you what you think about it."
Whereupon they looked at each other again and laughed; but this time it was a puzzled sort of laugh. This was a new experience. They had had teachers who knew extremely little about the lesson, and proved it conclusively, but never once did they _own_ it. Their plan had rather been to a.s.sume the wisdom of Solomon, and in no particular to be found wanting in information. They did not know what answer to make to Flossy.
"Have you Bibles?" she asked them.
"No."
"Well, here are Lesson Leaves. These are pieces of the Bible, I suppose.
Are they nice? I don"t know anything about them. I have never been in Sunday-school, you see; not since I was a little girl. What are these cards for, please?"
Now, they understood all about the management of the library cards, and the method of giving out books by their means, and Flossy was so evidently ignorant, and so puzzled by their attempts at explanation, and asked so many questions, and took so long to understand it, that they really became very much interested in making it clear to her, and then in helping her carry out the programme which they had explained; and everyone of them had a queer sense of relationship to the school that they had not possessed before. They knew more than she did, and she was willing to own it.
"Now about this lesson," she said, at last. "I really don"t see how people teach such lessons."
"They don"t," said one whom they called "Rich. Johnson." "They just pretend to, and they go around it, and through it, and ask baby questions, and pretend that they know a great deal; that"s the kind of teaching that we are used to."
Flossy laughed.
"You won"t get it to-day," she said, "for I certainly don"t know a great deal, and I don"t know how to pretend that I do. But I like to read about this talk that Christ had with the people; and I should have liked of all things to have been there and heard him. I would like to go now to the place where he was. Wouldn"t you like to go to Jerusalem?"
What an awkward way they had of looking from one to the other, and nudging each other. Rich. Johnson seemed to be the speaker for the cla.s.s. He spoke now in a gruff, unprepossessing voice;
"I"d enough sight rather go to California."
The others thought this a joke, and laughed accordingly. Flossy caught at it.
"California," she said, brightly. "Oh, I"ve been there. I don"t wonder that you want to go. It is a grand country. I saw some of those great trees that we have heard about."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Flossy laid her Bible in her lap, and began."--Page 35.]
And forthwith she launched into an eager description of the mammoth tree; and as they leaned forward, and asked now and then an intelligent question, Flossy blessed the good fortune that had made her her father"s chosen companion on his hasty trip to California the year before. What had all the trees in California to do with the Sabbath-school lesson?
Nothing, of course; but Flossy saw with a little thrill of satisfaction that the boys were becoming interested in _her_.
"But for all that," she said, coming back suddenly, "I should like ever so much to go to Jerusalem. I felt so more and more, after I went to that meeting at Chautauqua, and saw the city all laid out and a model of the very temple, you know, where Jesus was when he spoke these words."
They did not laugh this time; on the contrary, they looked interested.
She could describe a tree, perhaps she had something else worth hearing.
"What"s that?" said Rich. "That"s something I never heard of."
And then Flossy laid her Bible in her lap, and began to describe the living picture of the Holy Land, as she had seen and loved it at Chautauqua. Of course you know that she did _that_ well. Was not her heart there? Had she not found a new love, and life, and hope, while she walked those sunny paths that led to Bethany, and to the Mount of Olives? Every one of the boys listened, and some of them questioned, and Rich. said, when she paused:
"Well, now, that"s an idea, I declare. I wouldn"t mind seeing it myself."
And to each one of them came a glimmering feeling that there actually _was_ such a city as Jerusalem, and such a person as Jesus Christ did really live, and walk, and talk here on the earth. Then Flossy took up her Bible again.
"But, of course, the next best thing to going to places, and actually seeing people, is to read about them, and find out what the people said and did. I like these verses especially, because they mean us as well as those to whom they were spoken. Look at this verse. I have been all the week over it, and I don"t see but I shall have to stay over it all my life. "Then said Jesus, If ye _continue_ in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." Just think how far that reaches! All through the words of Jesus. So many of them, so many things to do, and so many _not_ to do; and then not only to begin to follow them, but to _continue_; day after day getting a little farther, and knowing a little more. After all, it"s very fascinating work, isn"t it? If it _is_ hard, like climbing a mountain, one gets nearer the top all the while; and when you do really reach the top, how splendid it is! Or, doing a hard piece of work, it"s so nice to get nearer and nearer to the end of it, and feel that you have done it."
One of the boys yawned. It was not so interesting as the description of the miniature Jerusalem. One of them looked sarcastic. This was Rich.
"Do you suppose there ever was anybody like that?" he asked, and the most lofty incredulity was in his voice.
"Like what?"
"Why, that followed out that kind of talk. I know enough about the Bible to know they are mighty scarce. I"d go to Jerusalem on foot to see a real one. Where"s the folks, I"d like to know, that live up to half of the things it says in the Bible? Why, they even say it _can"t_ be done, and that"s why it seems all bosh to me. What was the use of putting it in there if it can"t be done?"
Here was one who had evidently thought, and thought seriously about these things. Is there a boy of seventeen in our country who has not?
Flossy felt timid. How should she answer the sharp, sarcastic words? He had been studying inconsistencies, and had grown bitter. The others looked on curiously; they had a certain kind of pride in Rich. He was their genius who held all the teachers at bay with his ingenious tongue.
But Flossy had been at a morning meeting in Chautauqua where there was talk on this very subject. It came back to her now.
"As for being _able_ to do it," she said, quickly, "I don"t feel sure that we have anything to do with that, until we have convinced ourselves that we have been just as good as we possibly could. Honestly, now, do you think you have been?"
"No," said Rich., promptly; "of course not. And, what is more, I never pretended that I was."
"Well, I know _I_ haven"t been; I am perfectly certain that in a hundred ways I could have done better. Why, there is nothing that I could not have improved upon if I had tried. So by our own confessions what right have you and I to stumble over not being able to be perfect, so long as we have not begun to be as near it as we could?"
How was he to answer this?
"Oh, well," he said, "I haven"t made any pretensions; I"m talking about those who have."
"That"s exactly like myself; and, as nearly as I can see, we both belong to the cla.s.s who knew our duty, and had nothing to do with it. Now, I want to tell you that I have decided not to stand with that cla.s.s any longer."