CHAPTER VI
PEARL'S UNRULY CONSCIENCE
We turn unblessed from faces fresh with beauty, Unsoftened yet by fears, To those whose lines are chased by love and duty And know the touch of tears.
_----Ella Wheekr Wikox._
THE Watson family attended school faithfully all winter. Pearl tookno excuses from the boys. When Tommy came home bitterly denouncingMiss Morrison, his teacher, because she had applied the externalmotive to him to get him to take a working interest in the"Duke--Daisy--Kitty" lesson, Pearl declared that he should be gladthat the teacher took such a deep interest in him. When Bugsey wastaken sick one morning after breakfast and could not go to school,but revived in spirits just before dinner-time, only to be "took bad"again at one o'clock, Pearl promulgated a rule, and in this Aunt Katerendered valuable assistance, that no one would be excused fromschool on account of sickness unless they could show a coated tongue,and would take a tablespoonful of castor oil and go to bed with amustard plaster (this was Aunt Kate's suggestion), missing all meals.There was comparatively little sickness among the Watsons after that.
Aunt Kate was a great help in keeping the household clothes in order.She insisted on the children hanging up their own garments, takingcare of their own garters, and also she saw to it that each one ateup every scrap of food on his or her plate, or else had it set awayfor the next meal. But in spite of all this Aunt Kate was becomingmore popular.
Thus relieved of family cares, Pearl had plenty of time to devote toher lessons and the progress she made was remarkable. She had alsomore time to see after the moral well-being of her young brothers,which seemed to be in need of some attention--at least she thought sowhen Patsey came home one day and signified his intention of being ahotel-keeper when he grew up, because Sandy Braden had a diamond asbig as a marble. Patsey had the very last Sunday quite made up hismind to be a missionary. Pearl took him into her mother's room, andtalked to him very seriously, but the best she could do with him wasto get him to agree to be a drayman; higher than that he would notgo--the fleshpots called him!
Jimmy became enamored of the railway and began to steal rides inbox-cars, and once had been taken away and had to walk back fivemiles. It was ten o'clock when he got home, tired happy. He said hewas "hungry enough to eat raw dog," which is a vulgar expression fora little boy nine years old.
Even Danny began to show signs of the contamination of the world, andcame swaggering home one night feeling deliciously wicked smoking aliquorice pipe, and in reply to his mother's shocked remonstrance hadtold her to "cut it out."
Those things had set Pearl thinking. The boys were growing up andthere was no work for them to do. It was going to be hard to raisethem in the town. Pearl talked it over with Mr. Burrell, theminister, and he said the best place to raise a family of boys wasthe farm, where there would be plenty of employment for them. SoPearl decided in her own mind that they would get a farm. It wouldmean that she would have to give up her chance of an education, andthis to her was a very bitter sacrifice.
One night, when everyone else was asleep, even Aunt Kate, Pearlfought it all out. Every day was bringing fresh evidences of the evileffects of idleness on the boys. Jimmy brought home a set of"Nations" and offered to show her how to play pedro with them. Teddywas playing on the hockey team, and they were in Brandon that night,staying at a hotel, right within "smell of the liquor," Pearlthought. The McSorley boys had stolen money from the restaurant man,and Pearl had overheard Tommy telling Bugsey that Ben McSorley was abig fool to go showing it, and Pearl thought she saw from this howTommy's thoughts were running.
All these things smote Pearl's conscience and seemed to call on herto renounce her education to save the family. "Small good yourlearnin' 'll be to ye, Pearl Watson, if yer brothers are behind thebars," she told herself bitterly. "It's not so fine ye'll look, alldressed up, off to a teachers' convention in Brandon, readin' a paperon 'How to teach morals,' and yer own brother Tommy, or maybe Patsey,doin' time in the Brandon jail! How would ye like, Pearlie, to havesome one tap ye on the shoulder and say, 'Excuse me for troublin' ofye, Miss Watson, but it's visitor's day at the jail, and yer brotherThomas would like ye to be after stepping, over. He's a bit lonesome.He's Number 23!'"
Something caught in her throat, and her eyes were too full to becomfortable. She slipped out of bed and quietly knelt on the barefloor. "Dear God," she prayed, "ye needn't say another word. I'll go,so I will. It's an awful thing to be ignorant, but it's nothin' likeas bad as bein' wicked. No matter how ignorant ye are ye can stilllook up and ask God to bless ye, but if ye are wicked ye're re deadout of it altogether, so ye are; so I'll go ignorant, dear Lord, tothe end o' my days, though ye know yerself what that is like to me,an I'll try never to be feelin' sorry or wishin' myself back. Justlet me get the lads brought up right. Didn't ye promise someone theheathen for their inheritance? Well, all right, give the heathen tothat one, whoever it was ye promised it to, but give me thelads--there's seven of them, ye mind. I guess that's all. Amen."
The next day Pearl went to school as usual, determined to make thebest use of the short time that remained before the spring opened.All day long the path of knowledge seemed very sweet and alluring toher. She had been able to compute correctly how long eighteen cowscould feed on a pasture that twenty-six horses had lived on eighteendays last year, the grass growing day and night, three cows eating asmuch as one horse; in Literature they were studying "The Lady of theLake," and Alan-bane's description of the fight had intoxicated herwith its stirring enthusiasm. Knowledge was a passion with Pearl;"meat and drink to her," her mother often said, and now how was sheto give it up?
She sat in her seat and idly watched the children file out. She heardthem racing down the stairs. Outside, children called gaily to eachother, the big doors slammed so hard the windows rattled and at lastall was still with the awful stillness of a deserted school.
It was a warm day in March, a glorious day of melting sunshine, whenthe rivers begin to think of spring, and 'away below the snow thelittle flowers smile in their sleep.
Pearl went to the window and looked out at the familiar scene. Herown home, straggling and stamped with poverty, was before her. "Itdoes look shacky but it's home, and I love it, you bet," she said."Nobody would ever know to look at it the good times that goes oninside." Then she turned and looked around the schoolroom, with itssolemn-looking blackboards, and its deserted seats littered withbooks. The sun poured into the room from the western windows anda thousand motes danced in its beams. The room smelled of chalkand ink and mothballs, but Pearl liked it, for to her it was theschool-smell.
"I'll purtend I am the teacher," Pearl said, "just for once. I'llnever be one now; I'm goin' to give up that hope, at least I'm goin'to try to give it up, maybe, but I'll see how it feels anyway." Shesat in the teacher's chair and saw the seats filled with shadowyforms. She saw herself, well-dressed and educated, earning a salaryand helping to raise her family from ignorance and poverty.
"I am Miss Watson now," she said, as she opened the register andcalled the names of her own making. "Me hair is done like MissMorrison's, all wadded out around me head, wid a row of muskrathouses up the back, the kind I can take off and comb on the palm o'me hand. I've got gold-fillin' in me teeth which just shows when Ilaugh wide, and I'll do it often, and I've got a watch wid a deer'shead on it and me name on it, R. J. P. Watson, and I can talk likethey do in books. I won't ever say 'I've often saw,' I'll say 'I haveinvariably observed.' I suppose I could say it now, but it doesn'tseem to fit the rest of me; and I'll be sittin' here now plannin' mywork for to-morrow, and all the children are wonderin' hard what I'mthinkin' of. Now I'll purtend school is out. There's three littlegirls out there in the hall waitin' to take me hand home, nice littlethings about the size I used to be meself. I may as well send themhome, for I won't be goin' for a long time yet." She went into thehall and in a very precise Englishy voice dismissed her admiringpupils. "I am afraid I will be here too long for you to wait, childerdear," she said, "
I have to correct the examination papers that theEntrance class wrote on to-day on elementary and vulgar fractions,and after that I am goin' for a drive with a friend"--she smiled, butforgot about the gold filling. "My friend, Dr. Clay, is coming totake me. So good-bye, Ethel, and Eunice, and Claire," bowing to eachone.
Pearl heard the scamper of little feet down the stairs, and kissedher hand three times to them.
"I'll just see if he's coming," she murmured to herself, going to thewindow.
He was coming, in her imagination and in reality. Dr. Clay wasdriving up to the school, looking very handsome in his splendidturn-out, all a-jingle with sleigh-bells. Pearl was so deep in herrainbow dream she tapped gaily on the window. He looked up smilingand waved his hand to her.
Just then Miss Morrison came out and he helped her into the cutterand they drove away. At the same moment Miss Watson with thegold-filled teeth, and the merry widow puffs, disappeared and PearlWatson, caretaker of the Millford School, in a plain little sergedress, beginning to wear in spite of sateen sleeve protectors, turnedfrom the window with a sudden tightening of the heart, and sought therefuge of her own seat, and there on the cool desk she laid her head,sobbing softly, strange new tears that were not all pain!