In Grandma's Attic Read Free Page B

boys laughed harder. When finally she had gotten down to the original milk-spattered apron, Ma was laughing as hard as the rest of us.
    “If we couldn’t remember what happened all day any other way,” Pa said when he could speak again, “we could always count on Ma’s aprons to bring us up to date!”
    Ma enjoyed the joke, but she declared that she was going to be presentable if it did take five aprons a day to do it—and one on top of the other, too!

    Grandma laughed again at the memory, and we returned to work. Such a wonderful quilt this was—much better than a magic carpet when it came to carrying us back over the years! Why, we had hardly begun to explore all the stories those squares held. Already I had my eye on several more that I knew would stir Grandma’s memory and provide us with another trip into the past.

5
    Grandma’s Mistake
    It was time for school to start, and my new plaid dress hung on the door, ready for the big day.
    “That dress reminds me of my school dress when I was about your age,” said Grandma. “Only mine was wool and had long sleeves. Here’s a piece of it in the quilt.” Grandma pointed to a plaid square in the quilt folded across my bed.
    “You didn’t have just one school dress, did you, Grandma?” I asked.
    “No,” said Grandma. “I had three that year, as I remember. We wore pinafores over our dresses then, so we didn’t need as many. But I did like that red plaid dress.”
    “Did you like school when you were little, Grandma?” I asked.
    “Oh, yes,” Grandma replied. “I couldn’t wait to get to school. It did start out as a big disappointment, though.” Grandma laughed and picked up her mending beside the rocker. I could see a story coming, so I pulled up my little chair and sat down.

    Ma had taught me my letters and how to sound out a few words before I started school. I was so anxious to read that I would sit with the boys’ schoolbooks and try to pick out words I knew. I think the whole family was glad when I was finally old enough to go to school so I wasn’t pestering them all the time to tell me what certain words were.
    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