“Well, darling,” said Aunt Charlotte at noon, “you said you went to hear the singing, and you look as if you had enjoyed it.”
“Oh, the singing isn’t as good as Miss Pike; she’s just the best woman. Only,” added Flaxie regretfully, “I wish I could see her soul, auntie!”
Mrs. Allen smiled.
“Wait till you know her better, and then you’ll see it shine through her face. There’s a good look about her that is better than beauty.”
After she had once begun, Flaxie would not have missed a day at school for anything. She had never learned so fast before, for she had never had a teacher she loved so well.
“Oh, auntie,” said she one day, “I’ve seen her soul shine! It shines when she smiles.”
Milly and Flaxie were the best scholars, so Miss Pike told Aunt Charlotte. But they did not study all the time. Oh, no. Miss Pike understood children, and didn’t expect them to study all the time. She often drew pictures on the blackboard for them to copy on the slate, and if they wanted to bring their dinners and play at noon she was perfectly willing; only they were not to scream too loud, or go near the desks, for fear of spilling the ink. She noticed that the little girls were more noisy after Flaxie Frizzle came; but this was not strange, for Flaxie knew a great many games that the Hilltop children had never heard of before.
“Lesson? Oh, yes. I’ve got that ole thing,” she would say sometimes, as she rushed for her hat long before school-time.
“Spell ocean, then,” said studious Milly, following her with the spelling-book in her hand.
“O-s-h-u-n. There! I’m in a hurry. I want to get to school to play ‘Bloody Murder.’”