He a.s.sented promptly, and strolling out of the door as if for a breath of fresh air, wandered across the gra.s.s to the motionless figure in the hammock. "What seems to be the matter, chick?" he inquired cheerfully, rescuing the discarded paper from the dirt and handing it back to its owner.
"Oh, Saint John, this is a perfectly _dreadful_ poem! I don"t b"lieve Longfellow ever wrote it, and even if he did, I know I can _never_ learn it. The verses haven"t _any_ sense at _all_. Just listen to this!" She seized the sheet with an angry little flirt, and read to the amazed man:
""Ye open the eastern windows, That look toward the sun, Where shots are stinging swallows And the brooks in mourning run.
""What the leaves are to the forest, Where light and air are stewed, Ere their feet and slender juices Have been b.u.t.toned into food,--
""That to the world are children; Through them it feels the glow Of a brighter and stunnier slimate Than scratches the trunks below.
""Ye are better than all the ballots That ever were snug and dead; For ye are living poets, And all the blest ate bread.""
With difficulty the preacher controlled his desire to shout, and mutely held out his hand for the paper, which he studied long and carefully, for even to his experienced eyes, the hastily scribbled words were hard to decipher. But when he had finished, all he said was, "You have misread the lines, Peace. Wait and I will get you the book from the library. Then you will see your mistake."
Shaking with suppressed mirth he went back to his study, found the volume in question, and returned to the discouraged student with it open in his hands. Half-heartedly Peace reached up for it, but he shook his head, knowing how easy it was for her to misread even printed words and what ludicrous blunders it often led to, and gravely suggested, "Suppose I read it to you first. Then if there is anything you do not understand, perhaps I can explain it so it will be easier to memorize."
"Oh, if you just would!" Peace exclaimed gratefully. "I never could read Miss Peyton"s writing, and then she marks me down for her own mistakes."
So in sonorous tones, the preacher read the poet"s beautiful tribute to childhood:
""Come to me, O ye children!
For I hear you at your play, And the questions that perplexed me Have vanished quite away.
""Ye open the eastern windows, That look towards the sun, Where thoughts are singing swallows And the brooks of morning run.
""In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine, In your thoughts the brooklet"s flow, But in mine is the wind of Autumn And the first fall of the snow.
""Ah! what would the world be to us If the children were no more?
We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before.
""What the leaves are to the forest, With light and air for food, Ere their sweet and tender juices Have been hardened into wood,--
""That to the world are children; Through them it feels the glow Of a brighter and sunnier climate Than reaches the trunks below.
""Come to me, O ye children!
And whisper in my ear What the birds and the winds are singing In your sunny atmosphere.
""For what are all our contrivings, And the wisdom of our books, When compared with your caresses, And the gladness of your looks?
""Ye are better than all the ballads That ever were sung or said; For ye are living poems, And all the rest are dead.""
"Well," breathed Peace in evident relief, as he lingeringly repeated the last stanza, "that sounds a little more like it. Maybe with that book I can learn her old poem now."
"Those are beautiful verses, Peace," he rebuked her.
"Yes, I "xpect they are. I haven"t got any grudge against the verses, but it takes a beautifully long time for me to learn anything like that, too." She seized the fat volume with both hands, tipped back among the hammock cushions, and with her feet swinging idly back and forth, began an animated study of the right version of the words, while the minister strolled back to the house to enjoy the joke with Elizabeth.
But though Peace studied industriously and faithfully during the remaining days, she could not seem to master the lines in spite of all the minister"s coaching, and in spite of Miss Peyton"s struggle with her after school each day.
"There is no sense in making such hard work of a simple little poem like that," declared the teacher, closing her lips in a straight line and looking very much exasperated after an hour"s battle with the child Tuesday afternoon. "You have just made up your mind that you will learn it, and that is where the whole trouble lies."
"That"s where you are mistaken," sobbed Peace forlornly, though her eyes flashed with indignation as she wiped away her tears. "It"s you which has got her mind made up, and you and me ain"t the same people. I just can"t seem to make those words stick, and I might as well give up trying right now."
"You will have that poem perfectly learned tomorrow afternoon, or I shall know the reason why."
"Then I "xpect you"ll have to know the reason why," gulped the unhappy little scholar, who found the hill of knowledge very steep to climb.
"You can"t make a frog fly if you tried all your life. It takes me a _month_ to learn as big a poem as that, and you never gave it to me until Friday afternoon."
"Nine four-line stanzas!" snapped the weary instructor, privately thinking Peace the greatest, trial she had ever had to endure.
"It might as well be ninety," sighed the child. "If Elizabeth was my teacher, or the Lilac Lady, I could get it in no time, but I never could learn anything for some people. Just the sight of them knocks everything I know clean out of my head."
Longfellow slammed shut with a terrific bang, and Miss Peyton rose from her chair, choking with indignation. "You may go now, Peace Greenfield," she said icily, "but that poem must be perfect by tomorrow afternoon, remember."
So with a heavy heart Peace trudged home and took up her struggle once more in the hammock; but was at last rewarded by being able to say every line perfectly and without much hesitation. Elizabeth and her spouse both heard her repeat it many times that evening and again the next morning, and sent her on her way rejoicing to think the task was conquered.
But when it came to the afternoon"s rehearsal, poor Peace could only stare at the ceiling, and open and shut her lips in agony, waiting for the words which would not come, while Miss Peyton impatiently tapped the floor with her slippered toe and frowned angrily at the miserable figure. Finally Peace blurted out, "P"raps if you"d go out of the room, I could say it all right."
"You will say it all right with me in the room!" retorted the woman grimly.
"Then s"posing you look out of the window and quit staring so hard at me. All I can think of is that scowl, and it doesn"t help a bit."
The dazed teacher shifted her gaze, and Peace slowly began, ""Come to me, O ye children!"" speaking very distinctly and with more expression than Miss Peyton had thought possible.
"There!" exclaimed the woman, much mollified, when the child had finished. "I knew you could say it if you wanted to. Now try it again."
So with the teacher staring out of the window, and Peace gazing at the ceiling, the poem was recited without a flaw six times in succession, and she was finally excused to put in some more practice at home.
Elizabeth thought the day was won, but poor Peace took little comfort in the knowledge that she had acquitted herself creditably at the last rehearsal. "It would be different if that was tomorrow afternoon," she sighed. "But I just know she"ll look at me when I get up to speak, and with her eyes boring holes through me, I"ll be sure to forget some part of it. None of my other teachers were like her a bit. Miss Truesdale and Miss Olney and Miss Allen all liked children; but I don"t b"lieve Miss Peyton does. There"s lots of the scholars that she ain"t going to let pa.s.s, and the only reason they didn"t have better lessons is "cause she scares it out of "em. Oh, dear, school is such a funny thing!"
"Would you like to have me come to visit you tomorrow?" suggested Elizabeth, who dreaded the ordeal almost as much as did Peace.
"No, you needn"t mind. S"posing I should make a _frizzle_ of everything, you"d feel just terribly, I know, and I should, too. I guess it will be bad enough with all the other mothers there. But I wish there wasn"t _going_ to be any exercises. I"m sick of "em already. And what do you think now! She told us only this afternoon that we must all have an _antidote_ for some of the Presidents to tell tomorrow for General Lesson."
"A what!"
"An _antidote_. A short story about some of the Presidents of the United States."
"You mean anecdote, child. I didn"t suppose you were old enough to be studying history in your room."
"Oh, this ain"t hist"ry! We have a calendar each month telling what big men or women were born and why. Then teacher tells us something about their lives. Lots of "em are very int"resting, but I can"t remember which were Presidents and which were only _manner-fracturers_. That"s my trouble."
"Well, it just happens that I can help you out there, my girlie," smiled Elizabeth, smoothing the damp curls back from the flushed cheeks. "John has a book in his library of just such things as that. We"ll get it and hunt up some nice, new stories that aren"t h.o.a.ry with age."
The volume was quickly found, and several quaint anecdotes were selected for the next day"s program, so if by chance other pupils had come prepared with some of them, there would be still others for Peace to choose from. And when school-time came the next day, she departed almost happily, with the Presidential book tucked under one arm and the well-fingered Longfellow under the other; for she meant to make sure that the words were fresh in her mind before her turn came to recite.
The session began very auspiciously with some happy songs, and Peace"s spirits rose. Then came the drawing lesson. Peace was no more of an artist than she was an elocutionist, but she tried hard, and was working away industriously trying to paint the group of grape leaves Miss Peyton had arranged on her desk, when one of the little visitors slipped from his seat in his mother"s lap and wandered across the room to his sister"s desk, which chanced to be directly in front of Peace; so he could easily see what she was doing. He watched her in silence a moment, and then demanded in a stage whisper, "What you d"awing?"
"Grape leaves," Peace stopped chewing her tongue long enough to answer.