By the time Miss Amelia had eaten nine or ten,she was so happy to think she was there,she quit tilting her head and using big words.Of course she couldn't know how I loved to hear them,and maybe she thought I wouldn't know what they meant,and that they would be wasted on me.If she had understood how much spelling and defining I'd heard in my life,I guess she might have talked up as big as she could,and still I'd have got most of it.When she reached the place where she ate more slowly,she began to talk.She must have asked me most a hundred questions.What all our names were,how old we were,if our girls had lots of beaus,and if there were many men in the neighbourhood,and dozens of things my mother never asked any one.She always inquired if people were well,if their crops were growing,how much fruit they had,and how near their quilts were finished.
I told her all about Sally and the wedding,because no one cared who knew it,after I had been pounded to mince-meat for telling.
She asked if Shelley had any beaus,and I said there wasn't any one who came like Peter,but every man in the neighbourhood wanted to be her beau.Then she asked about Laddie,and I was taking no risks,so I said:"I only see him at home.I don't know where he goes when he's away.You'll have to ask him.""Oh,I never would dare,"she said."But he must.He is so handsome!The girls would just compel him to go to see them.""Not if he didn't want to go,"I said.
"You must never,never tell him I said so,but I do think he is the handsomest man I ever saw.""So do I,"I said,"and it wouldn't make any difference if I told him.""Then do you mean you're going to tell him my foolish remark?"she giggled.
"No use,"I said."He knows it now.Every time he parts his hair he sees how good looking he is.He doesn't care.He says the only thing that counts with a man is to be big,strong,manly,and well educated.""Is he well educated?"
"Yes,I think so,as far as he's gone,"I answered."Of course he will go on being educated every day of his life,same as father.He says it is all rot about `finishing'your education.
You never do.You learn more important things each day,and by the time you are old enough to die,you have almost enough sense to know how to live comfortably.Pity,isn't it?""Yes,"said Miss Amelia,"it's an awful pity,but it's the truth.
Is your mother being educated too?"
"Whole family,"I said."We learn all the time,mother most of any,because father always looks out for her.You see,it takes so much of her time to manage the house,and sew,and knit,and darn,that she can't study so much as the others;so father reads all the books to her,and tells her about everything he finds out,and so do all of us.Just ask her if you think she doesn't know things.""I wouldn't know what to ask,"said Miss Amelia.
"Ask how long it took to make this world,who invented printing,where English was first spoken,why Greeley changed his politics,how to make bluebell perfumery,cut out a dress,or cure a baby of worms.Just ask her!"Miss Amelia threw a peach stone through a fence crack and hit a pig.It was a pretty neat shot.
"I don't need ask any of that,"she said scornfully."I know all of it now.""All right!What is best for worms?"I asked.
"Jayne's vermifuge,"said Miss Amelia.
"Wrong!"I cried."That's a patent medicine.Tea made from male fern root is best,because there's no morphine in it!"The supper bell rang and I was glad of it.Peaches are not very filling after all,for I couldn't see but that Miss Amelia ate as much as any of us.For a few minutes every one was slow in speaking,then mother asked about cleaning the schoolhouse,Laddie had something to explain to father about corn mould,Sally and the dressmaker talked about pipings--not a bird--a new way to fold goods to make trimmings,and soon everything was going on the same as if the new teacher were not there.I noticed that she kept her head straight,and was not nearly so glib-tongued and birdlike before mother and Sally as she had been at the schoolhouse.Maybe that was why father told mother that night that the new teacher would bear acquaintance.
Sunday was like every other Sabbath,except that I felt so sad all day I could have cried,but I was not going to do it.Seemed as if I never could put on shoes,and so many clothes Monday morning,quite like church,and be shut in a room for hours,to try to learn what was in books,when the world was running over with things to find out where you could have your feet in water,leaves in your hair,and little living creatures in your hands.
In the afternoon Miss Amelia asked Laddie to take her for a walk to see the creek,and the barn,and he couldn't escape.
I suppose our barn was exactly like hundreds of others.It was built against an embankment so that on one side you could drive right on the threshing floor with big loads of grain.On the sunny side in the lower part were the sheep pens,cattle stalls,and horse mangers.It was always half bursting with overflowing grain bins and haylofts in the fall;the swallows twittered under the roof until time to go south for winter,as they sailed from the ventilators to their nests plastered against the rafters or eaves.The big swinging doors front and back could be opened to let the wind blow through in a strong draft.From the east doors you could see for miles across the country.
I said our barn was like others,but it was not.There was not another like it in the whole world.Father,the boys,and the hired men always kept it cleaned and in proper shape every day.
The upper floor was as neat as some women's houses.It was swept,the sun shone in,the winds drifted through,the odours of drying hay and grain were heavy,and from the top of the natural little hill against which it stood you could see for miles in all directions.
