The watchful teacher saw that something was going wrong, and when she looked at the line or two that the little girl had written, she knew what it was.
“Writing is a little hard for you, isn’t it,” she said, “just as arithmetic is hard for Alice?” The teacher was ahead of her times, and as she looked at the cramped little letters, she added:
“Did you ever guess that you were making your fingers work too hard, while there was a good strong muscle here”—and she touched Ella’s forearm—“that would be glad to help them? Just let the muscle lie on the table in this way and try to make some curves like these,” and she gave her a slip of paper with a whole line of curves and loops. “Hold the pen so,” she continued, “but don’t hold it too tight. No one will try to take it away from you.”
“Oh, I see! I see!” exclaimed Ella. “If that muscle is right and not rolled over on its side, the pen has to be right; it can’t point the wrong way if it tries”; and she went to work on the impossible writing with fresh courage, for now she had a definite idea of what she was to do.
The spelling and writing lasted from two until a quarter of three. Then came the geography and the reading.
The geography lesson was a review of questions on the Central and Pacific States. Ella had been over and over these questions till she was sure that she could answer every one of them. She stood at the foot of the class of course as the newest arrival, and she never dreamed of going up any higher; but a boy who stood three above her recited:
“Iron and lead are found in Indiana, and the richest mines in the world are found in Michigan.”
Not one pupil raised a hand. Those below the boy did not know that there was anything wrong, and those near the head had nothing to gain and were not watching so closely as they would have done if there had been a chance to move up. Very timidly Ella put up her hand.
“What is it, Ella?” asked the teacher.
“He should have said, ‘the richest copper mines in the world,’” she answered in a voice that trembled a little, for they were all looking at her.