Page 23 - 1916 February - To Dragma

102 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

no time before had a story been told within its walls, where there is
no Robinson Crusoe, not a Fairy Tale, no Alice in Wonderland,
nothing in the library but a few old books—the selfsame ones that
decorated the shelves when I was a little girl, for I attended the same
school with the same teacher.

Even Poets At The Breakfast Table stands just as high up on the
top shelf. How well I remembered it. I have always liked break-
fasts best of the three meals, and that is why I chose it one day. I
returned it the next morning! The teacher says the children do not
care about books. I know why.

The biggest boy, (and the "baddest") who sat in the boys' row in
the back, not wanting to be bored, pulled from his desk a yellow-
backed novel for I was about to tell The Little Red Hen to the
Chart A Class. When I imitated the animals and the fowls, he
thought me quite funny, as did others too, but not the "Chart A
Class." Their longing for another one was so great I saw it in their
eyes. One even ventured that I tell it again. She told me she liked
pancakes when I asked and indeed, so many of them called out that
they had more for breakfast than I , that I began on "The Pancake."

The biggest and baddest, forgetting to live up to his reputation,
had his arms folded over the yellow-backed novel, and with his head
low on his arms drank it all in. The oldest girl wiped her eyes
with the youngest over Little Snow White, and the boys straightened
and thrilled at The Red Thread of Courage.

Friday afternoon in this school is devoted to readings by the
teacher in an attempt, as the teacher said, to impress "morals" upon
his flock. He pointed with pride to signs hung around the room—
"Honesty," "Truthfulness," "Courage," and so on. He showed me
the books he read f r o m ; dry sordid facts, over which the children
yawned, played hooky, I wager.

Had they not in Storyland heard how selfishness, untruthfulness,
and intrigue were punished? Had he failed to catch the expression
on the faces of his grown boys as The Red Thread of Courage ended?

I t is not hard to read children's faces. I could guess well they had
grasped the meaning of each story told. I t isn't ever necessary to
point a moral. I t is always sure to be resented. " I guess I know,"
a little boy once said, and kicked over the waste-basket, when his
teacher after reading the story had tacked on the moral. Poor little
boy. He had been bad !

One of the mothers, who lives near the school, told me the children,
including her own, were repeating phrases and sentences from the
stories. She was a past teacher. "Stories do increase the vocabu-
lary," she said reflectively.