“O, my goodness gracious!” said thoughtless Flindy Jenkins to herself in a loud whisper, “I’ll get caught sure.” And sure enough she did, for down went her name in Miss Kelsey’s “black book.”
Whispering was Patty’s besetting sin, and on hearing Miss Kelsey’s decision she buttoned up her mouth very tightly indeed, and resolved not to open it again until some one else was caught, and she would no doubt have kept this politic resolution had she not soon after spied little Biddy Maginnis in the act of whisking out of a knot-hole in the desk a bunch of violets that Patty had, a short time before, fastened there. They were the first violets of the season and Biddy wanted to smell of them, but Patty did not like to have her treasures so roughly handled and in the excitement of a moment forgot everything else.
“Give those back here,” she said, fiercely, and almost aloud.
“Patty Curtis,” said Miss Kelsey, as she wrote her name under that of Flindy Jenkins, “I am sorry to say that you will have to sweep again to-night.” And Patty with a gasp of shame and surprise, sank back into her seat with her rescued flowers.
“It’s too bad,” she said to herself as she heard the children around her giggle, and in spite of her efforts the tears chased each other down her cheeks, giving the pretty violets a salt bath. The tears stopped after a while, but Patty did not recover from her vexation: she sulked all day, and was sulky still when she took the broom in hand after school. She would show Miss Kelsey, she thought in her naughty little heart, that the school-room would look but precious little better for her being kept to sweep it.
Flindy Jenkins was a poor companion for a little girl in such a frame of mind, and she really fell in with Patty’s suggestion that they sweep so the school-room should “look like Biddy Maginnises’ house in the Hollow;” and when Miss Kelsey came to school early the next morning she found the room looking worse, if possible, than if it had not been swept at all.
That afternoon Miss Kelsey sat at her desk thinking so intently about the sweeping, that she did not see Aggie Bentley standing beside her until the little girl spoke timidly:
“Please, Miss Kelsey, may Patty Curtis and I go out and play a little while? we have got all our lessons.”
Miss Kelsey glanced over to Patty and saw an eager face shadowed by a very doubting expression, for the little girl knew she deserved no play-time after her conduct of the night before. So she was surprised to see Miss Kelsey’s face brighten, and to hear her give a cordial consent. The truth was that Miss Kelsey had suddenly solved the problem that had been troubling her for several days. Offer as reward to the two that would sweep, a half hour’s extra recess when lessons were learned! Why had she not thought of it before? for if there was anything more coveted than “reward cards,” it was these “half hours.” Before school closed she made a simple statement of her new plan, and was amused to see what an electrifying effect it had upon the children; and when they were dismissed what a scramble there was for the brooms! if there had been thirty-six of these, thirty-six children would soon have been sweeping away at the floor of the little school-room; as there were but two, great was the pulling and twisting they received, and loud the uproar among those who wanted to use them. The trouble was soon settled by Miss Kelsey, who took possession of the brooms and said the two should sweep who came first in the morning.
Patty Curtis was now in luck, for the fact that her mother had nothing for her to do at home, which had been such a draw-back to her before, would be the greatest help now; she could come to the school-house as early as she liked while other little girls had to wash dishes, or rock cradles, and the boys had wood to split and cows to drive to pasture.