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Brit Brinson [Dia of the Dead Dia of the Dead (epub)
Cody Goodfellow [Radiant Dawn Radiant Dawn (epub)
Cate Tiernan [Immortal Belove Immortal Beloved (epub)
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An Army of Phantoms American Mo J. Hoberman

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.The little school we went to was a one-room schoolhouse that had all eight grades together.Sometimes there would be only one or two children in a grade.The beginners sat in front, and each grade was arranged in order, with the big boys and girls in the back.The classes came to the benches around the blackboard to recite.I had a seat with my special friend, Sarah Jane, in the beginners’ row.We did our letters and numbers together and also spent a lot of time listening to the other boys and girls as they would come to the front.One day while the second reader class was reciting, the teacher called on Billy to read a sentence from the board.Billy was older than the others in his class because he had repeated the first grade.We children thought he was just dumb, but that wasn’t the reason.He had been sick most of the winter and had missed a lot of school.Of course Billy was embarrassed about being the biggest boy in his class.He stood to read the sentence, but he didn’t know all the words.Since I had been listening to the class, I read it for him.Billy sat down, red-faced and unhappy.The older children tittered.I felt rather proud of myself for having known more than Billy did.Even when the teacher said, “That’s fine, Mabel, but you finish your letters now,” I still felt bigger than the other beginners.My pride was not to last long, however.Reuben reported to Ma what had happened.“Mabel is acting too smart in school, Ma,” he said.“She made Billy feel like a fool today.She acts like she knows it all.”I tossed my head defiantly.“Well, I did know the words, and Billy didn’t,” I said proudly.“Reuben is right, Mabel,” said Ma.“You’ve no business showing off in front of the school.You made Billy feel bad by reading for him.”I hung my head.I hadn’t thought I was doing anything wrong.“After this,” said Ma, “you are not to speak up, even if you do know the answer.It’s not ladylike to act like a smart aleck.Do you understand?”I nodded my head.I understood that if I knew something, I was to keep it to myself.I also understood that Reuben and Roy would be watching out for me, and any slip would be reported to Ma.The teacher boarded around at different homes during the school year.Her first place was the minister’s home.Toward the middle of the first term, she happened to remark to the minister’s wife, “I thought Mabel O’Dell was going to be a bright student.But I guess I was mistaken.She doesn’t say anything at all in school.When I call on her, she just shakes her head and ducks behind her book.I can’t understand it.”Ma couldn’t understand it either when the news was passed on to her.She had heard me reading my book at home, and the boys drilled me on my sums until I knew them well.She approached the subject at suppertime.“Mabel, are you having trouble at school?” she asked.“No, Ma,” I replied.“I get along fine.”“Can you read your lessons every day?”“Sure, Ma.I can read the whole book!”Ma was puzzled.“Then why,” she asked, “does the teacher say you don’t recite in school?”I was surprised.“Why, Ma,” I answered, “you told me not to!”“I told you not to!” Ma exclaimed.“Why, Mabel, I did no such thing!”“Yes, Ma, you did,” I said.“You told me not to speak up, even when I knew the answer.Don’t you remember?”Ma remembered.Even though she was annoyed with me for not knowing the difference between reciting for myself or for someone else, she had to laugh.The matter was soon straightened out, and my schoolwork improved.If it hadn’t been for the minister’s wife, school would have been a big disappointment for me!6The Button BasketOf all the things in Grandma’s house that could delight a little girl, nothing could hold a candle to the button basket.It sat high on the old china cabinet and was brought down on special occasions—confinement to bed or possibly to soothe a severe case of disappointment.The basket looked rather ordinary from the floor.It was almost a foot in diameter and was tightly woven of dark brown reeds.But when one looked at the top, it was far from ordinary! Brightly colored beads were sewed in an unusual pattern.Some of the beads flopped when I ran my fingers over them, for the basket was old—almost as old as Grandma, in fact.“Where did you get the basket, Grandma?” I asked one day.“Did your mother buy it for you?”“Oh, no,” Grandma replied.“I should say not.That basket came in an unusual way.”Grandma looked fondly at the basket and continued her story.I was only five years old when it all happened, but I can remember very clearly that summer day.We lived in a new log house that Pa had just finished, way up in the northern woods of Michigan.Our nearest neighbors were more than five miles away, and we seldom had company.Although the man from whom Pa bought the land had assured Pa that the Indians thereabouts were friendly, we still had a fear of meeting one of them and never ran beyond the clearing without either Ma or Pa with us.On this morning Pa had left at dawn for the long drive into town for supplies.Ma had assured him that we would be all right alone.The boys were big (Reuben was eight and Roy was almost seven), and they would look after us womenfolk.The day was fine and warm, and the boys had hurried through their chores and were playing a game with sticks and pinecones.I was swinging in the rope swing Pa had hung for me in the tree nearest the cabin.Ma was singing as she worked, and the boys were shouting, so it was not strange that no one heard someone approaching the cabin from the woods.Suddenly it seemed too quiet.The boys were standing still and openmouthed.Ma had stopped singing and was staring toward the woods beyond the clearing.For there, slowly and softly, came a tall Indian toward us.“Children, come here,” Ma called, and we quickly ran to hide behind her skirts.“Now don’t make any noise,” she warned.“We don’t want to scare him.Maybe he’s lost or something.”She knew, of course, that he was not.Indians did not get lost in their own woods.She just needed to reassure herself as well as us.The Indian was taller than anyone I had ever seen, much taller than Pa.He wore buckskin trousers and had bright beads around his neck.His hair was in a long braid, and more beads were woven through the braid.He stood straight and broad-shouldered in front of Ma and held out his hand.Ma shrank back against the cabin, and I began to cry in terror.It was Reuben who noticed that the Indian carried a brown basket.He held it toward Ma as though he wanted her to take it.“It’s a peace offering, Ma,” said Reuben.“He wants you to have it.”Ma timidly reached out and took the basket.The Indian stood, watching her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]