THE HOME CIRCLE | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 22, 1878

THE HOME CIRCLE.

Miss Lilly and Her Pupil.

My father was a farmer, and a practical man, who always had as good crops and large as the country produced. He wished his children to be educated well, so far as the stone school-house of the district afforded facilities. It pleased him to see them stand at the head of the spelling class, and to hear that they wrote the best hand in school. He was one of the trustees of the district and was very particular in selecting teachers, so much so that it came to be understood, that if Captain Humphreys was pleased, that was at once a passport to the favor of the whole district. A man was employed to teach the school in winter, when large boys and girls were in attendance, and a woman filled the post in summer. To the former four dollars a week was paid without a murmur, but to the latter one dollar was considered ample compensation. My father was usually a just and benevolent man, but like many others, he had never thought of the injustice done to a woman in the small compensation allowed her.

When I was in my tenth year, full of fun and frolic, a perfect hater of fractions and syntax, and at enmity with teachers in general, there came to teach our summer school a delicate looking girl who could not have numbered more than seventeen years. Her fair face, deep blue eyes, and clustering auburn curls, her soft manners and graceful movements, at once won the admiration of the little girls, who treated her with the most gentle affection.

The older heads of the district were shaken in doubt that one so youthful and gentle could control and teach the band of mischief-loving children that thronged the school-house. Miss Carey, or Miss Lilly, as she wished to be called, was soon so firmly enthroned in the hearts of all, both old and young, that their doubts gave place to earnest efforts for her success. A disobedient urchin soon found himself so unpopular, that he was glad to pay his way back to favor by becoming a pattern of propriety.

I saw all this, yet I could not consent to yield my independence, as I thought, for I considered myself too much of a man to be longer under woman's government. I assumed a lawless air, and amused myself by playing various tricks upon my more obedient neighbors. Miss Lilly reproved me gently, but I was not willing to acknowledge the power of kindness.

One day, in class, the word patch was given me to spell. In rapid succession I spelled patch, patched, patched dress, pointing at the same time to her well worn garment, which had been neatly darned in various places. Instead of the laugh which I expected to raise, a feeling of horror like an electric shock, pervaded every member of the school. Little faces, pale with anger, and eyes flashing indignation, were turned upon me from all sides.

Miss Lilly first blushed to her eyes, then pale and trembling sank to her chair, while she forced back the tears that gathered in her eyes. Suddenly that little band gathered around her, twining their arms about her neck, kissing her face and hands, and showing every kindness that little sympathizing hearts could devise. It being the hour for dismissing the evening school, Miss Lilly sent all away with a kind kiss, until I alone remained; she then said gently, "Albert you may be dismissed." I was completely subdued, and quietly leaving the house seated myself under a tree by which she must pass.

When she came, with tears trickling down my cheeks, I begged pardon for my misdeeds. She wiped the tears from my eyes, and seating me by her side, talked to me as I never before had heard woman talk. In that hour I felt myself a changed being; and ambition was born to become good, great and rich, that I might help such women as Miss Lilly.

She told me of her infirm father, of her mother's labors to support her little ones, and of the effort she had made to give her, the eldest child, sufficient education to teach. She told me of her own efforts to assist her mother by sending her nearly all her little wages, and of her nightly studies to prepare herself for teaching a higher school.

I went home that night with my head full of grave reflections and good resolutions, some of which I strictly kept. Ever after I was ready to fight any boy who showed the least disrespect to a female teacher.

In after years, when wealth and opportunity were mine, I carried an open hand, heart and purse, for women striving against difficulties to gain honorable positions. Miss Lilly lived to earn wealth and fame, and a rich store of love from all with whom she mingled.—Sel.