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From: Wtynf <>
Subject: [GenChat-L] Fwd: Aunt Charlotte's book ( teachers )
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 19:56:38 EST
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This story has to be the cutest, most touching of all the Aunt Charlotte
Series. Thank You Walt55 for sending it again.
Warren
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Subject: Aunt Charlotte's book ( teachers )
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One of our teachers was a frail looking young man, whose name was John
Seward. People said that he had "liver trouble". Like the rest of the
teachers, he stayed at our house. Our school was about a mile and a half away
and across an open prairie. The district was poorly drained and in the winter,
the water stood in puddles everywhere. The wind had a clear sweep and always
seemed to blow harder there than anywhere else. One very dark, blustery,
rainy day, Mr. Seward said: "I'll let you all go home early because of the
storm." It was only the middle of the afternoon, but was almost dark. The wind
driven rain was beating against the split board roof till we could scarcely
hear what was said. So school was dismissed and everyone started for home.
Mother had anticipated the storm and had made me take a huge cotton
umbrella. It was a gigantic umbrella, when I raised it over me, clutching the
crooked handle in both hands and swinging on with all my might and weight, the
outer edge of it came almost to the ground itself. In calmer weather, it would
have made a very fine tent for one as small as I was, but it was never
intended for the kind of a day that I was out in. Back and forth, and sideways
and up and down it went as the wind caught under it and tried to pull it away
from me. Sometimes my feet were almost off the ground.
The determination to save Mother's umbrella at any cost to myself, was all
that kept me from letting go of it. Mr. Seward saw that I was having a pretty
wild time with it and came to help me. He said something, but the wind carried
the words away and I did not understand. He took the handle out of my hands,
intending, of course, to hold it over me, but I knew that I could never walk
under the same umbrella with a person who had liver trouble, I did not know
what liver trouble was, but I knew that it was something that Mother always
said in a whisper. He had no sooner taken it out of my hands than I ducked out
from under it and was gone. Away I went through the mud, and wind, and rain,
puddles, shallow or deep, were all the same to me in my wild panic. I ran
straight for home, mud and water splashing in every direction. The young
teacher tried to overtake me and called, but I was strong in the wind and limb
and outdistanced him easily.
He felt terribly about it, and told Mother over and over again that he was
only trying to help me, that he would not have taken my umbrella for anything.
So far as I was concerned, he had only taken a "white elephant" off of my
hands. I hadn't wanted it in the first place, besides that, he had liver
trouble and for all I knew it might be catching. I would take no chances.
Mother was provoked at me about it. She was always talking to me about how a
lady should behave. I listened to the scolding, but I could not see why a lady
should not be just as much afraid of liver trouble as a person who was not a
lady. I was afraid of it, the matter was quite easy enough for anyone to
understand, I simply was not a lady. I felt kind of sorry about it, but I
could not help it.
Walt Davies
Monmouth, OR
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