Chapter 4
September 1919
Fall had arrived in Hope Valley and school was back in session. Mrs. Thornton had just released her students for lunch and recess. Most of the girls had chosen a spot together so they could catch up with each other while eating their lunch. Even Angela Canfield joined the other girls now. It was a great treat for Angela to now be able to go to school full time, and having new friends to talk to every day was the best part. Angela's first year of school had been a little tricky. She had never gone to school before. Mrs. Thornton had never had a blind student in her class before. It was a year of learning for both student and teacher. Although the work was hard and sometimes frustrating to navigate, the feeling of accomplishment made it all worthwhile for the both of them.
"Did I tell you girls about the new dress I got in Hamilton over the summer?" Anna asked the crowd. "You've mentioned it" Allie boringly reminded her. "Well did I describe it, and everything I got to go with it?" Anna perked up with excitement, she so wanted to describe every last inch of it. "I want to know what it looks like." Opal declared, while Allie and Emily exchanged a look. "What color is it?" Opal continued. "It's light bluish green." Annie informed her young friend. Opal's eyes widened in wonder. "Bluish green! What does that mean." "Opal it means it looks like the ocean. The lady in the store said the color is called sea-glass because my dress shimmers like the ocean. "Wow that sounds pretty, said Opal. " I agree Anna, that does sound pretty." Emily added. "You know what the best part is?" Anna asked her friends. "Uh what's that?" Allie chimed in. "It's not a dress for a girl! My Mom let me pick it out of the Ladies section of the department store!" Anna could hardly keep from bursting, she was so excited about the fact. "And I got to pick out some new grown-up hair pins too. Oh and a new pair of shoes! The new style too. Like Miss Miller wears!" "That all sounds great Anna but where are you going to wear something so fancy?" Allie wondered out loud. Anna thought hard for a moment. "Well I guess I can wear it to church. Or maybe there will be a special occasion come up I can wear it to." "You could wear it to Mrs. Thatcher's wedding!" Opal enthusiastically suggested. "Opal!" Emily scolded. "It's okay Opal, you didn't mean anything by it. It's true Mrs. Thornton is going to marry Mr. Bouchard." Allie comforted Opal, then looked at Anna. "You should wear your new dress to the wedding Anna. It's the perfect occasion for it." The girl's fell silent for a moment. "So did anyone else do anything different this summer?" Emily asked, trying to ease the tension. "No. Not really. Nothing to do here. Went fishing." The girl's all answered. "You know what, it is kind of boring here in Hope Valley for kids. I mean we have the founder's day celebration, and Christmas, but other than that there isn't much else to do." Emily stated. "We can always have a sleepover." Opal offered. "Yeah and Uncle Nathan and me go fishing all the time." "You know what I heard about the bigger schools in Hamilton and other places?" Anna rejoined the conversation. "They have real field trips, where they actually go to museums and other places. Not just to the woods." said Anna. "Hey I liked going to the woods!" Emily stated. "What?" Anna replied. "You got lost and almost died in that windstorm! If it hadn't been for Constable Grant and Mrs. Thornton... Anna gave Emily a stern look along with the painful reminder. "Yes but I found my arrow head up there." Emily boasted. The girl's all gave Emily an inquisitive look before bursting out into giggles. When the group had composed themselves they continued their important conversation. "Well I think those schools have money to spend on trips to museums. I don't think our school can afford a field trip like that." Allie offered the group. "How about we combine two ideas and ask Mrs. Thornton if we can do it. We can take Opal's idea of a sleepover and combine it with another trip to the woods!" Allie energetically suggested. "What do you mean combine the two?" Angela, who had so far just been sitting quietly listening asked Allie. Allie stood and threw her arms in the air. "I mean a camping trip!" "A camping trip?" Angela asked. "How can we convince Mrs. Thornton that a camping trip has anything to do with our school work? Angela wanted to know.
"And besides I can't go on a camping trip" Angela added, sounding disappointed. "Yes you can!" the girl's all added. "We will help you, like here at school." Angela beamed. "But Anna can't wear her new dress camping." Opal added woefully. "We can think of something else to do to. We need more than one thing to do anyway, in my opinion." Emily offered her two cents. Anna raised her hand beside her face and snapped her fingers. "I've got it! We can have a dance! The bigger schools do that too! They have school dances! We could have a Fall Harvest school dance." At first Anna wasn't sure her idea of a school dance went over too well with her friends and was meet with smiling but quiet faces. Then all girls jumped up and began clapping and dancing. Twirling each other around and chanting, "Yay, we're going to have dance, we're going to have a dance!" Mrs. Thatcher appeared at the top of the steps and rang her bell once, informing everyone they had five minutes to finish up recess before coming back inside. Some of the boys had noticed the girl's loud behavior and wondered what was so exciting. As they made their way back in they stopped to ask the girls what was going on. The girls explained as quickly as they could and the boys seemed to be completely on board with the idea of a camping trip. But the idea of a dance would take some convincing.
"Good Morning everyone!" Mrs. Thornton addressed her students the following morning. The children returned the greeting, with a few of the older students exchanging knowing glances. Today they would make their case for the camping trip and school dance. Emily, Allie, Anna, Harper, Timmy, and Paul all met after school the previous afternoon where the girls explained their ideas more clearly to the boys. The group then discussed how they would lay out everything to Mrs. Thornton. They practiced what to say to their teacher's every objection. They had a well thought out plan!
Mrs. Thornton began explaining the morning's lessons when Harper raised his hand to speak. "Yes, Harper." Mrs. Thornton asked. "Umm Mrs. Thornton." Harper cleared his voice. "I, I mean we, the entire class, we have something we want to ask you." "This sounds serious", Mrs. Thornton thought as she lowered herself into the chair at her desk. "Yes, go ahead Harper, what is it that you all want to ask me?" "Well it's just all us kids were talking and we all agreed that there isn't enough to do around here for us kids. And well we decided we need more school activities." "Like what, Harper?" Mrs. Thornton asked. "Like field trips. We want more field trips, and we want to go to places like some of the bigger schools go to. We know our school can't afford that now but we have some ideas." "Oh you do? Well I'd love to hear them. I think we can take a little time this morning to discuss them further, but then it's back to your schoolwork." Mrs. Thornton obliged. Mrs. Thornton had no idea her students had been feeling this way. She had always felt her students were for the most part happy with school and were far too busy at home to worry about not having anything to do. She gave Harper and the rest of the class the floor. Harper continued to explain their ideas. He and some of the other boys explained the idea of the camping trip. And just as they expected Mrs. Thornton stopped them. "I agree boys that does sound like fun, but a field trip has to be educational. You tell me how a camping trip could be a learning experience." "Mrs. Thornton." Timmy spoke up. "I always wanted to know more about the Indians. I would like to know what it was like to live in a teepee like the Sioux and the Cheyenne that lived in the American West. My Dad once told me we could build a teepee ourselves. Hey we could do that on our camping trip!" Timmy announced with great enthusiasm. Elizabeth stood, she was excited that her students were so eager to learn something new. She picked up her chalk and wrote several words in big letters on the chalkboard. NATIVE PEOPLE, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, INUIT, NATIVES, and TRIBES. When she had finished she turned and faced the class again. "Children, I want you all to know how proud I am, of all you for sharing your ideas with me. I am so very happy to hear all about the things you want to learn." It's what every teacher dreams of! Hearing that their students want to learn more! "I'm not sure about an overnight camping trip. I think we can defiantly squeeze in some lessons on the Native Peoples of both the United States and Canada though. That's a great idea, and maybe some of your parents can help out with that. But right now even an overnight camping trip would take money. Not to mention the help I would need." Mrs. Thornton explained. "What kind of help?" Opal asked. "Opal, I would need help taking care of all of you! Especially overnight. We would need at least one more adult chaperone." Timmy spoke up with a suggestion of his own. He asked if Robert could come as a chaperone. Reminding his teacher that since Robert was no longer a student he could help her watch over them. "I appreciate that idea Timmy, but I'm afraid Robert still isn't quite old enough. We need someone older, like me." The children fell quiet for a moment, realizing they may be loosing this battle. Then Opal had a suggestion of her own. "Mrs. Thornton." "Yes Opal?" I just wondered if Mr. Bouchard could come with us since he is your fi...fi?" "Fiancé Opal?" "Yes Fiancé. Mountie Jack used to do things with us all the time, remember!" Opal stated, very proudly. Allie actually felt her stomach lurch. "Oh no!" she thought to herself . That wouldn't be any fun at all. Allie thought Mr. Bouchard was okay but she didn't exactly want to spend two days with the man...out in the woods! Besides that, he was a painful reminder to her. Her father was still hurting from Mrs. Thornton's acceptance of Mr. Bouchard's proposal. She didn't want to be sad on a camping trip, and seeing Mr. Bouchard made her feel sad for her father. "Oh Opal you are so sweet. I remember the things that Mountie Jack did with us too. But that was different, we didn't go that far away, and there were others close by if we needed them." Opal lowered her eyes in sadness at the memory. Allie sat and listened, thinking about what they should do. She thought about what she could do. Then it came to her, like a bolt of lighting straight from the sky. Crisp and clear it crashed through her brain. "I have the perfect idea, Mountie Jack! Allie thought to herself.