JUNIOR KING’S BUSINESS edited by Martha S. Hooker
pended on her and Ada knew she couldn’t fail her now, even if all the boys and girls thought her odd. She bowed her head and in a low tone offered thanks. When she looked up Margaret was talking to the girl in front of her. After lunch Miss Augusta sent two of the older boys outside to get some wood. They were gone a long time and when they stumbled back, they were wet as fish. One of them explained, “Sure is pouring out side. It’s almost blinding.” “Even that short distance!” Miss Augusta exclaimed, a troubled ex pression on her face. She went to the window, wiped a clean spot on it and stared out. “The wind is coming from the northeast, but perhaps it will shift.” The afternoon dragged. The boys and girls kept glancing toward the windows but no one could see out. Ada was thankful that Miss Au gusta did not ask her to recite. She knew she would have been too em barrassed. She wondered how she and Emily would get home. When school was over, her father would still be working, and she wasn’t sure that she could find her way home in the storm. At two-thirty, Miss Augusta said, “I’m not going to send you home. By now the rain has flooded the road, and you couldn’t find your way. I think your fathers will come for you, and you are safer here than in the rain. We ■will have entertainment while we’re waiting. Won’t that be fun! How many of you r ememb e r the pieces you learned for our opening program?” Margaret went to the front and in a clear voice recited “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” “You did it even better than on the p rog ram, ” Miss Augu s t a beamed. One of the boys recited a short, funny piece, and a girl sang a song. Then Miss Augusta led them in the THE KING'S BUSINESS
da Wright ate her toast and stared at the win dow. The rain was com ing down in torrents. That meant she couldn’t
huddled close to each other on the front seat. Mr. Wright drove slow ly down the slick road. At the school, the girls tumbled out of the car and stood at the gate. Even though it was stormy, some of the children were playing outside. One of the girls had long blonde braids which bounced when she ran. The others called her “Margaret.” Ada could see that she was the leader and she thought, “If only Margaret will like me, then the others will.” When the bell rang, everyone marched into the schoolhouse. Ada and Emily went in last of all in the rather small procession. A young woman with a friendly smile came up to the girls and said, “I heard we would have two new girls this morning. I’m your teach er, Miss Augusta.” She showed the girls where to hang their coats and assigned them a double desk by the window. The girls could hear the steady drip-drip of the rain on the roof. As the morning passed, Ada watched the puddles in the yard grow bigger and finally they began to combine to form one big lake. At lunch time Miss Augusta an nounced, “Since we can’t go out this noon, we’ll eat our lunches at our desks. If the storm lets up, school will dismiss early.” Ada took her lunch out of her desk. She glanced around and won dered if Miss Augusta would “say grace” for all of them. Probably not, because over there in the cor ner a boy had started to eat. Ada felt she would have to offer her own “thanks.” Just then she saw Margaret look ing in her direction. She wondered what Margaret would think if she “said grace” when the others didn’t. Emily whi sper ed , “You say grace.” Ada glanced at Emily’s confident brown eyes. Emily had always de
wear her new coat. She would have to wear her old brown one. She wanted to look her very best! Ada was anxious to make friends at the new school, but she was afraid the girls wouldn’t pay any attention to a stranger, that is, unless there was “something special” and Ada knew that she didn’t have anything spe cial. Ada put on her old coat, pulled her red tarn over her brown curls and picked up her pencil box and books. “What are you doing?” Ada’s younger sister, Emily, called from the door. “Seeing if I have everything,” Ada answered. On the top section of the pencil box were two nicely sharpened pencils and an eraser. In the lower section was a clean handkerchief and her New Testa ment. “Dad, did you find out if there is a church here?” “I found out all right.” He put down his coffee and pushed back from the table. “There isn’t any.” “I had hoped there would be,” Ada’s mother glanced at the girls with love and encouragement. “You girls may find it lonely to be Christians but the Lord will help you.” Ada bit her lip and tucked the New Testament under her hand kerchief. In Colfax nearly every one had been a Christian. But here, what would girls who didn’t go to church think of her being a Chris tian? Perhaps she had better say nothing about it until she made friends. It meant so much to have the others like her. “Come on, girls, I’ll drive you to school on my way to work,” Mr. Wright offered. The girls ran through the rain to the car, and 20
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