A Fancy of Hers. Chapter 3, 4, 5
Chapter 3
The Granville schoolhouse was not far from the center of the village. It was wholly without architectural ornament. The people of Granville, it must be admitted, were severely practical, and were not willing to spend a dollar in the interest of beauty. Their money was the result of hard labor, and frugality was not to be wondered at. In a commercial community architecture receives more attention.
The schoolhouse was two stories in height, and contained two schools. The primary school, for children under eight, was kept in the lower room. The grammar school, for more advanced scholars, which Mabel Frost had undertaken to teach, occupied the upper portion of the building.
As Mabel approached the schoolhouse, escorted by Squire Hadley, she noticed, a few rods in advance, a tall, slender woman, with long ringlets falling over a pair of narrow shoulders.
“That lady is your colleague, Miss Frost,” said the Squire.
“My colleague?” repeated Mabel, in a tone of inquiry.
“Yes; she keeps the primary school.”
“Indeed! Then there is another school besides mine!”
“To be sure. Miss Clarissa Bassett teaches the youngest children.”
“Is she — does she live here?”
“Yes; she has taught the same school for fifteen years. All your scholars began with her.”
“Then she isn’t a very young lady?”
“Clarissa,” replied the Squire, with that familiarity which is common in small villages, “must be thirty five, though she only owns up to twenty five,” added he, chuckling. “Might spile her matrimonial prospects if she confessed her real age.”
“Fifteen years a teacher!” said Mabel enthusiastically. “Miss Bassett ought to feel proud of such a term of service. How much good she has done!”
“Well, I dunno,” said Squire Hadley, whose practical mind conceived of no other motive for teaching than the emolument to be derived from it. “Clarissa wanted to teach the grammar school — the same that you’re a goin’ to teach; but we didn’t think she was qualified to teach advanced scholars.”
“And you preferred me before a teacher of fifteen years’ experience!” said Mabel, with unaffected humility. “I am afraid, Squire Hadley, you will find that you have made a mistake.”
“You are a better scholar than Clarissa, Miss Frost. She knows enough to teach the little ones, but — — ”
“She has fifteen years’ experience, and I have none,” interrupted Mabel.
“You wouldn’t be willing to change schools with her?” suggested the Squire, with mild satire.
“Yes, I would,” said Mabel promptly.
“She don’t get but six dollars a week — a dollar less than you.”
“I don’t care for that.”
“The deestrict wouldn’t be satisfied,” said the Squire, in a decided tone. Mabel was an enigma to him. “They wouldn’t be willing to have Clarissa teach the older pupils,” he repeated.
By this time they had reached the schoolhouse. Some twenty pupils were outside, most of them Mabel’s future scholars. Miss Bassett had paused in the entry, and awaited the arrival of Squire Hadley and her fellow teacher. She had a thin face, and that prim expression regarded as the typical characteristic of an old maid. It had been her lot to see the companions of her early days sail off, one after another, on the matrimonial sea, while she had been left neglected on the shore. She had even seen some of her pupils — mere chits, as she called them — marry, while their teacher, with all her experience of life, was unappropriated.
“Miss Frost,” said Squire Hadley, with a wave of his hand toward Clarissa, “let me make you acquainted with Miss Bassett, who has kept our primary school for fifteen years with general acceptance and success.”
“You ought to be regarded as a public benefactor, Miss Bassett,” said Mabel cordially.
“I was very young when I commenced teaching,” said Miss Bassett, rather uneasy at the allusion to her term of service.
“I am a beginner,” said Mabel. I shall be glad to have an experienced teacher so near to me, to whom I can refer in cases of difficulty.”
Clarissa, who had been prejudiced against Mabel, because, although so much younger, she had been placed over the other’s head, was flattered by this acknowledgment of inferiority.