The Dragon in the Cliff Read Free Page A

seven, ma’am,” I answered with a curtsy.
    â€œOld enough to attend school so that she can learn to read and write,” Mrs. Gleed said to Mama.
    â€œI already know how to read,” I told her proudly. But I was speaking out of turn, and Mrs. Gleed paid no attention to me.
    â€œI’ve been teaching her myself,” Mama said.
    â€œSchool attendance is daily. She will make more progress there.”
    â€œShe is doing well here, Mrs. Gleed,” Mama said quietly, holding firmly onto John, who was struggling to get out of her arms. “I’ve begun to teach her to make lace. She has a deft hand and learns quickly. She helps me with the little ones so that I can do my work.”
    I took John from her arms and put him on the floor where he could practice walking and I could watch him without being sent away.
    â€œThat may be, Mrs. Anning,” Mrs. Gleed said, “but what I hear from others is that the child goes down to the beach to collect curiosities. It is even said that she sometimes goes there by herself.”
    Red blotches appeared on Mama’s cheeks. “She does not go to the beach alone, only with Mr. Anning and her brother Joseph. And that is because she cries and begs until we let her go. She loves her brother and wishes to do whatever he does.”
    â€œHer will must be broken,” Mrs. Gleed insisted. “And the school will do it if you are too fond to do it yourself. Spoiled children are ripe for the devil’s harvesting.”
    Mama sighed, “I suppose you are right, Mrs. Gleed.” She looked down at her hands. “It seemed no harm. She is but little still and she so wants to go.…” She stopped for a moment. Then in a low voice as if speaking to herself, she said, “Sometimes it seems a pity that she is a girl, she is so quick.”
    Mrs. Gleed’s face did not soften. Rising from her chair, she replied, “Mrs. Harris will take care of that. She will teach her what is proper.” At the door Mama said, “I must speak to Mr. Anning about it.”
    â€œIf you explain it to him, Mr. Anning will see that it is for the girl’s own good,” Mrs. Gleed replied.
    When Mama told Papa that people did not think it right that I went to the beach to hunt for curiosities, he replied scornfully, “There are always people who think they know how others should live, people who would hold everyone to their own narrow, ignorant ideas of what is proper. Let me see them live their own lives as they should, and then I will follow their good advice. The child is under my roof, and it is my duty to raise her as I think best. I see no harm in her gathering curiosities on the beach.”
    Mama met his icy blue glare with her own gentle gaze. “But the child must live among these people, Richard, and they talk and condemn her for it.”
    â€œWho are these people you speak of?” Papa asked angrily. “Ignorant old gossips who know nothing of science, care nothing for knowledge, and foolish young ones who follow them. Certainly Miss Philpot does not say anything against curiosity hunting, and she is respectable. I have seen her on the beach myself. I have even seen some of the London ladies venture out to hunt for curiosities.”
    â€œBut Mary is not the daughter of a wealthy London merchant as is Miss Philpot, nor is she a London lady,” Mama countered. “She is a cabinetmaker’s daughter who lives here among people who disapprove.”
    The result of this discussion was a compromise: I was allowed to go curiosity hunting, but I was also enrolled in the chapel school, where Joseph was already a pupil in the boys’ class. There, in that low building behind the chapel, I spent my days in a small, noisy room filled with girls, learning to read the Holy Scriptures, to write, sum, embroider, and knit. School was daily, except Sunday, when we went to chapel in the morning and again in the afternoon. The