ten
The classroom held forty desks, with four rows of ten each. The wrought iron frames were mounted piggyback style one on another. Scrollwork decorated the sides and on the back of each chair was stated the manufacturer and a grade number. Each row progressed in size as theoretically each student advanced in years, however that was not always the case in a classroom such as this. On occasion a first grader exceeded the scholastic development of second or third grade. Conversely, there were times when an older child was forced to occupy a chair too small for him or her because the child had failed to progress academically. On a whole however, the children were arranged by age and grade. Thus Matilda Dillon was given a chair in the second grade row, which was stamped, "Eclipse #2."
She had watched her father leave with a sinking heart, hoping beyond hope that he would take pity and rescue her from Miss Tuttwell and the Ford County Joint District School System.
As she watched Dillon's big frame duck out the door, her new classmates made their way to their desks to the usual preamble of boot scuffle, heel scrapes and the last remnants of playground good humor. A plump, pretty little girl moved into the chair across the aisle from Matilda in the third grade row. She had long flowing raven black hair pulled back and held in place by a huge pink satin ribbon. Her eyes were dark and luminous, fringed by long thick lashes. Her mouth was dainty and sweet, like a rosebud. The dress she wore was an elaborate costume of polished cotton and lace in the same hue as the ribbon. Her shoes were black kid and showed very little wear and the white stockings on her legs were pure silk. The child gave a sidelong glance across the aisle but before eye contact could be made, a plain little girl with mousy hair, wearing humble homespun appeared before the pink-ribboned beauty. Her attention caught, Matilda listened as the girls transacted business.
"Where is the penny you owe me?" Pink Ribbon asked, her voice much harsher than her appearance.
Humble Homespun shook her head. She shuffled her thin weight from one foot to the other. "I ain't got it, but my mama made cookies and you can have one."
"How many did she give you?" Pink Ribbon wanted to know.
Humble Homespun's features dropped as she replied softly, "two."
"I'll take them both, 'interest' don't you know." she pulled out a small ledger book from inside her desk and made a notation next to Homespun's name. "If you don't have the penny by tomorrow it will cost you three cookies."
Homespun opened the latch on her lunch bucket and handed over the home baked "interest'. Matilda couldn't help but notice what was left in the bucket was meager fare and her heart went out to the plain little girl.
GS GS GS GS
The teacher called the class to order using a sharp rap to her desk with a yardstick, "Attention scholars! Let us bow our heads and pray for God's blessings that we may grow strong of soul and wise of heart with today's lessons." The prayer lasted over a minute, and Matilda having been raised in a convent had long ago learned to tune out boring devotions and tune into what ever was going on around her. With her head bowed her eyes wandered. She noticed Pink Ribbon followed a similar creed. This time eye contact was made and like two terriers meeting in a park both knew fur was bound to fly. When the 'amen' had finally been sounded, Miss Tuttwell turned to address Kitty Russell's wild haired daughter, "Matilda you will come stand by my desk please." The teacher directed.
Reluctantly, Matilda slid out of the chair and walked up to Miss Tuttwell. "Boys and girls, this is Matilda. She is a new student. I would like to ask each of you welcome her to our school."
"Yes Miss Tuttwell." The children replied rising from their chairs with movements that amounted to mechanical precision and filing one by one past Matilda to shake her hand with humorless gravity. They each offered the same well-rehearsed salutation, the only difference being the insertion of the appropriate name of the welcomer. "My name is ... I am most pleased to meet you."
Matilda had a flashback to her days at the convent, she remembered an elderly nun had died and at the prompting of an older girl, she had snuck into the chapel and witnessed the Sisters performing a similar ceremony with the occupant of the coffin. Instead of shaking hands the Ladies of Holy Orders made the Sign of the Cross. Matilda would have considered trading places with the corpse had it been an option at that moment.
Pink Ribbon was the only child to offer a variation on the practiced theme, after making sure Miss Tuttwell was otherwise occupied, the girl announced with pomp, "I AM Angel Louise Bodkin, my Papa is President of the School Board and President of the Dodge City Ranchers and Merchants Bank and we have more money than anyone." The hair on the back of Matilda's neck stood on end. She felt an instinctive dislike for the girl and an overwhelming desire to let her know it. Therefore, when Angel offered her pretty plump hand Matilda took it with a vice like grip, that showed surprising strength for one so small.
"Ouuu-ch! Miss Tuttwell, Miss Tuttwell … Matilda squeezed my hand hard on purpose." Angel whined loudly.
The teacher had been writing arithmetic problems on the black board but she turned to scrutinize the saloonkeeper's child, "Matilda … you are to behave as a lady in this classroom."
"Thank you Miss Tuttwell." Angel said, as she gave Matilda a self-satisfied smirk.
The morning proceeded on course. It was during a history lesson dealing with the war of 1812, that Angel raised her hand and announced, "Miss Tuttwell, Miss Tuttwell! Herbie Heitzer's picking his nose and eating it!"
Sydney Tuttwell looked at the little boy sitting behind Matilda. Herbie had a history of nose related offenses. "Herbert, we've gone through this before, please use your handkerchief."
"Yes'm, I forgot my hanky, but I wasn't doing what she said, I just had a itch."
"Be that as it young man, let this be a reminder to everyone to please bring a clean handkerchief to school everyday."
With that matter put to rest, Miss Tuttwell moved on to Arithmetic. She turned to the problems she had written on the chalkboard and asked several of the older students to come to the front of the class to solve them while the first and second graders watched. Matilda liked numbers, they made sense to her, not like words which could have different meanings just by the way someone said them or arranged the letters. She didn't understand words at all. Numbers were exact and dependable. Miss Tuttwell then wrote a difficult subtraction problem on the board. Student after student in the third and fourth grades failed to find the correct answer to the problem. Across the aisle from her, Angel Bodkin waved her hand wildly, nearly jumping off her seat as she pleaded. "Oh pick me Miss Tuttwell, pick me.
The teacher finally acquiesced, "Angel Louise Bodkin, please solve the problem." Angel strutted to the front of the class, tossing her hair as she moved. At the blackboard, she made a great show out of ciphering, turning the exhibition into something almost theatrical in nature, despite her performance she failed to solve the computation. Matilda felt some pleasure in seeing her new arch-nemesis fall short. Sydney Tuttwell noticed the insolent grin on Matilda's face and said, "Do you think you can do better Miss Dillon?"
"Who me?" Matilda asked in wide-eyed innocence. "I'm just a little second grader."
"Yes, Matilda you are, please step to the blackboard. Angel Louise, kindly hand Matilda the chalk."
The daughter of Matt Dillon held out her hand, but Angel, with a devilish sneer dimpling her cherub like cheeks, dropped the chalk just to the left of Matilda's outstretched fingers. The white stick shattered into small pieces. Matilda fell to the floor to pick up the largest chunks. Angel's allies tittered at the entertainment.
Matilda didn't appreciate being laughed at. To show her displeasure she stood up and gave Angel the same look her father had used on hardened criminals for the past 20 years.
The teacher cleared her throat, "Try to solve the problem." Miss Tuttwell prompted. Matilda rewarded the teacher with a carbon copy of the stare Angel had received. Despite that, she moved to the black board and without a moment's hesitation, wrote down the answer with the largest fragment of the shattered stick of chalk.
Sydney Tuttwell felt a moment's worth of shock before she reminded herself about Kitty Russell. She had been acquainted with the saloon owner and on several occasions both women were involved in the same community events. There was no doubt the shrewd businesswoman had been highly intelligent. Sydney recalled one occasion when the committee was working out a budget for an upcoming fund raiser, Miss Russell had added multiple figures in her head faster than Miss Tuttwell had with pencil and paper. Matilda must have inherited her mother's fine mathematical mind. The teacher stared pointedly at Angel Louise; "It looks like you will have a little competition for the arithmetic medal this year." Miss Tuttwell turned to her first graders. "Samuel Grimmick, please come to the black board."
Matilda returned to her seat. With the teacher occupied teaching Sammy and his peers, the concept of subtracting pennies from a dollar, Angel Louise felt emboldened to gibe in a soft sing song melody, "Tillie is a smarty pants, Tillie is a farty pants." The little boy to the back of Angel joined in, and soon half the class was hissing the same rude tune.
Miss Tuttwell turned around and grabbed her yardstick, smacking it across her desk to get the attention of her students, "That will be enough children unless you prefer to spend recess inside working sums." Of course no one did and the taunting ceased. The teacher waited a few moments standing at the front of the class with a countenance warning of dire consequences should any student fail to heed her orders. Finally she elevated her thick eyebrows slightly and said, "Scholars stand." The children stood up next to their desks. "Scholars about face." The children turned to face the door at the rear of the class. "In honor of Matilda's fine mathematical effort, the order for recess exit will be as follows, Grade two, Grade one, Grade four and finally Grade three."
The filing out was orderly, not a peep was made until they crossed over the schoolhouse threshold. Then whoops and war cries equal to a marauding band of renegades erupted. Set free for twenty minutes, children dashed for the modest playground equipment eager to capture a swing or prime spot on the merry go round for the length of their liberation.
Matilda however stood back in the shadows of the doorway, tucked behind one of the twin pillars that bracketed the front door until Angel Louise skipped by. As she did, Matilda grabbed for the pretty satin ribbon holding Angel's hair in place. "Ouch" the dark haired girl squealed. "Let go!" She turned around expecting to see one of the legions of admirers who were always vying for her attention. She was startled and suddenly a little frightened to see Matilda glaring at her. "Listen you, don't go calling me names. I don't like it."
Angel sucked in her fear, she wasn't going to let a little second grader intimidate her, especially when she was privileged to information she'd heard her parents talking about the evening before. The Bodkin girl was four inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than Matilda and she drew her frame to a dominating stance. "You can't tell me what to do. My Mama told my Papa that your father and mother were fornicators."
"There you go with that name calling again, and it's not true. My father is a Dillon and my mama's name was a Russell."
By this point they had drawn a crowd of spectators, Angel Louise searched for nerve, it would never do for her social standing in class to be put down by an upstart. She bit at the side of her lip, unsure of exactly what she was accusing Matilda's parentage of, so she was hesitant to respond to the second grader's statement and then a sort of worldly knowledge came to her. She exclaimed, "That's it! They had different last names, they weren't married, and folks are supposed to be married when they have babies, everybody knows that!"
Some of the swarm of kids nodded and even the youngest observer voiced agreement, "Yup, every one knows that!"Indignant anger welled up in Matilda, and she could think of nothing else to do but shove Angel. It was a push hard enough to send the older child to the ground. It is unfortunate that it was just then the teacher looked out the window.
By the time Sydney Tuttwell had made her way to the front entrance, an all out brawl was taking place between the defenders of Angel Louise Bodkin and those children delighted to see the tyranny of the banker's daughter put to a test.
FYI - "The Dodge City School had an enrollment of 284 pupils for December, 1882. The number of persons of school age in the district was 450. Five teachers are employed; the principal, John Groendyke, has $65 per month; the four female teachers have an average of $41 per month. The school building is a neat, roomy structure in the southwest part of the city, built of brick.- William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas was first published in 1883 by A. T. Andreas, Chicago , IL.
(FYI- The Pledge of Allegiance was not written until 1892)