Fanny. And Miss Fanny's
grandpapa, talking at the gate with Uncle Charlie, struck the pavement
hard with his cane; he'd see about it, too, said her grandpapa. Emmy Lou
heard him.
But when it came time for the Board to meet, Miss Fanny, it seemed, had
resigned. Aunt Louise read it out of the paper at breakfast.
"How strange--" said Aunt Louise.
"Not at all," said Uncle Charlie.
Aunt Louise said, "Oh!" She was reading on down the column.
"--resignation by request, because the Board, in recognition of her
merit and record as Teacher, has appointed her Principal of the new
school on Elm Street."
"But she's not a man," said Emmy Lou when it had been explained to her.
Emmy Lou was bewildered.
"It's a departure," said Uncle Charlie.
"Don't tease her, Charlie," said Aunt Cordelia.
Emmy Lou felt troubled; she liked Miss Fanny; she could not bear to
contemplate her in the guise of Principal. One could never like Miss
Fanny then any more.
Miss Fanny's mamma had cried because Miss Fanny was a teacher, Emmy Lou
remembered. But that was nothing to this.
Some teachers could be nice. Miss Fanny had been nice. But to be a
Principal!
Emmy Lou had known but one type. She looked up from her plate. "I reckon
Miss Fanny's mamma will cry some more," said Emmy Lou.
THE CONFINES OF CONSISTENCY
Aunt Louise was opposed to the public school.
Uncle Charlie said he feared Aunt Louise did not appreciate the
democratic institutions of her country.
Emmy Lou caught the word--democratic; later she had occasion to consider
it further.
Aunt Louise said that Uncle Charlie was quite right in his fear, and the
end was that Emmy Lou was started at private school.
But it was not a school--it was only a Parlour; and there being a pupil
more than there were accommodations, and Emmy Lou being the new-comer,
her portion was a rocking-chair and a lap-board.
There was not even a real teacher, only an old lady who called one "my
dear."
At home Emmy Lou cried with her head buried in Aunt Cordelia's new
bolster sham; for how could she confess to Hattie and to Rosalie that it
was a parlour and a lap-board?
Upon consultation, Uncle Charlie said, let her do as she pleased, since
damage to her seemed to be inevitable either way. So, Emmy Lou,
rejoicing, departed one morning for the Grammar School.
Public school being different from private school, Emmy Lou at once
began to learn things. For in
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