Chapter 20

Back to School

Elizabeth woke up ready to start the day. She fixed a quick breakfast and spent some time reading her Bible and talking to God this morning. She got all ready to go,locked the door and was on her way. She was excited to start teaching again,even though she only missed a few days.

She passed all the businesses this morning and waved at all the people of the town. She saw Jack and Lee coming out of the merchantile and they were talking to on the stairs. They both saw Elizabeth and waved.

" was robbed again last night.I can't say what was taken,but I thought you might want to know." She smiled her thanks and told the that she would see them later on in the day. She waved and told them goodbye.

She went into the school and made sure that everything was ready for the day. She went to call in the kids and was so happy to seee that they seemed to be in good moods today. She sat down and was surprised to see how well and how far the kids had come in the last few days.

"Would anyone like to tell me what you all learned while I was away?"She looked at all the eyes and faces of the the children,who didn't seem to want to say anything.

"Alrighty then, it's time for math. The amount of groans in the room could've been heard all the way across town. They worked for abut an hour ,and then she told them about a project that they were going to work on.

"Since it is fall,we are going to go on a field trip into the woods just a little ways,and we are going to see what kind of things that we can find that have to do with fall that are outside." Elizabeth explained.

"So we are going to try to find fall things?" asked nodded and started to hand out jackets and a bag that they would use to collect things in.

They filed out the door and came to the edge of town. They saw Frank outside the church,Abigail sweeping the sidewalk of her restaurant and they saw Lee outside the adults all waved at the children and their teacher. Abigail came running out of the restaurant and gave Elizabeth a thermos of lemonade and a bag full of snickerdoodles. They walked and walked until they got to the edge of the woods, and started looking for things that they could use on the colage that Miss Thatcher told them they would make later. They searched and explored for about an hour.

"Miss Thatcher,did I see Miss Abigail give us something to eat and drink?" Hattie wanted to know.

"She sure did!" We have been searching for awhile now,let's stop for a snack."While they were eating,Elizabeth looked up,felt a rain drop on her nose,and then another and another.

"Oh no Miss Thatcher,it's starting to rain! What are we going to do?"asked Laura

She really wasn't to familiar with the woods around Hope Valley,so she wasn't sure where to go for shelter. She glanced at the children,but she didn't want them to know that she didn't know where to go.

"Miss Thatcher,I'm getting really wet," said little Opal. She looked down right scared and now that she looked,all of the children looked pretty scared too. Some of the children had on a light jacket since it was fall,but a couple of the children had nothing extra on but a long sleeve shirt.

"Come on boys and are going to look for some shelter so we can wait out this storm." Elizabeth took Opal and Maggie's hands as they both started to cry.

"It will be ok,we'll find somewhere." She said this statement and questioned herself as it started to rain buckets. Since it was October,the rain was chilly. So the children all got cold rather quickly.

"Robert,Cody,I have the little girls. Would you both mind taking charge of a group of children? Make sure they all hold hand and keep everyone together." she almost felt like she was yelling at them because it was raining so hard. Right now,they were under a bunch of trees but considering it was fall,most of the leaves had fallen off,not giving much shelter.

"Misss Thatcher,said Robert the mine is near here."

"Ok,she thought for a didn't know where else to go or what else to do,so she said,let's go."