GIFT OF The Little Teachers The Little Teachers A Story for Big and Little Children By Ralph Crosman The ten Bosch Company 121 Second St.. San Francisco COPYRIGHT 1912, BY RALPH CROSMAN The Little Teachers 255955 The Little Teachers Once there was a great city in which only children lived. Some of them were big, grown-up children, called men and women ; and some of them were little children, known as boys and girls. Now the children had been told by a Great Teacher that they must always be kind and just to one an- other, and always Play Fair in their games. The Great Teacher had told them that their games would not come out right if they did not use Fair Play all the time. So, as the Big Children went about their favor- ite game the one they called Work- of-the- World many of them tried to The Little Teachers be kind and just to their playmates. But as they could remember the words of the Great Teacher only a few minutes at a time, they often quarreled with one another and said and did many unkind and unjust things. They were often resentful and did mean tricks. Now this strange city was full of trial and tribulation. Curiously enough, however, it was the big, grown-up children who were the hardest pressed by trouble. The Lit- tle Children got along with one an- other much better and were freer and happier except some of them who learned to imitate the older ones in their naughty ways. As time went on, the Big Children had so much trouble that they be- came very peevish in their play. The Little Teachers Often they said and did mean things that they knew were not Fair Play, without knowing why they said or did them. And if they were asked why they did not Play Fair, or why they did certain queer things, they would answer that it was because they had to keep the games going. They said that if they did not do unfair tricks once in a while, that if they did not bustle around and make a big stir, the games would all die out or be broken up. They said that the Little Children did not know how to look out for themselves while they played, and that they, the Big Chil- dren, sometimes had to do queer things to the little ones to protect them. Well, things went on this way for quite a while. The more trouble the The Little Teachers Big Children had, the more trouble the Next Smaller Children seemed to have also. Trouble seemed to go down from the Big Children to the Next Smaller Children, and from them to the next smaller and so on, until finally some of the Little Chil- dren, who did not want to be left out altogether, followed the example of the older ones and began to feel un- comfortable and to become peevish in their play. But there were some of the Little Children who could not learn the un- fair ways and plays of the older ones, and who would not join in the fear games and the trouble plays. Even when the Big-Girls-Who-Played- They- We re-Mothers and the Big- Boys - Who - Played - They - Were - Fathers talked loudly about Fear The Little Teachers Thoughts and Trouble Things or whispered about them just loud enough for the little ones to hear, these Little Children refused to have anything to do with the Fear Thoughts and Trouble Things. It seemed just as if clouds of Fear Thoughts and Trouble Things, com- ing from nowhere, settled down upon the heads of the cityful of Big Chil- dren first, then upon the Next Small- er Children, and so on until they came to some of the Little Chil- dren, who, without knowing anything about it, could not receive the Fear Thoughts and Trouble Things. So, not being received by these little ones, the clouds of Fear Thoughts and Trouble Things stopped, leaving the Little Children untouched, free, hap- py, and full of joy. The Little Teachers While the Big Children were all mixed up with Fear Thoughts and Trouble Things and so were full of trial and tribulation, down where the Little Children lived, all was joy and happiness. While the BigBoys played their big business games and the Big Girls played giving big dinner parties, all of them mixed up with clouds of Fear Thoughts and Trouble Things, and many of them doing mean tricks to keep the games going, the Little Children, down where the sky was blue and crystal clear and warm and sunny, Played Fair in their little games, without trying at all to keep them going when they were tired. Then by and by one or two of the Big Children who were very tired with their own play, noticed some- 8 The Little Teachers thing good and restful down where the Little Children lived, and so went down and played with them. To have the Big Children come to play with them seemed very wonderful to the Little Children, but it seemed more wonderful to the Big Children who saw for the first time how the Little Children played their games. It was the only place the Big Chil- dren had ever been in where they could look off and see the clouds of Fear Thoughts and Trouble Things apart from themselves. When the Big Children who visit- ed the playgrounds of the Little Chil- dren went back to their own games, and told the Big Boys and the Big Girls what wonderful games they had played, and what wonderful things they had seen, most of the Big Boys The Little Teachers and Big Girls looked upon them with mild scorn and wondered how they could care for such childish things. Nevertheless, the visiting of the Kingdom of the little ones by the few Big Children who were tired of their own way of playing was a won- derful thing for the Big Children of the city. Just how the Spirit of the Little Children, as they played in their own little Kingdom of a place, where the clouds of Fear Thoughts and Trou- ble Things could not come, finally came to be the salvation of the Big Children of the City of Trial and Tribulation, we shall soon see. JO The Little Teachers II. Now it happened that one of the Big Children, who had visited the playgrounds of the Little Children, took a notion to do a very funny thing something that none of the boys on his street had ever thought of doing. He got an idea that he wanted to be up high, where he could look out over the city and over the ocean which was near at hand. So he built a great cupola on the top of his house, where he could go and look out over the city and the ocean. Here he spent much time looking down upon the great gray sea of house-tops where the children of the city played at keeping house. As he looked out over this great gray sea of house-tops, ii The Little Teachers he called the rows of houses the crests of waves, and the streets between the rows of houses, where the Big Chil- dren played street cars and truck driving and automobiling, and where the Little Children played hop- scotch and ring-around-the-roses, he called the troughs of the waves. And he became quite proud of the fact that, while the other children, in the ceaseless surging of the city's sea, seemed always to be kept in the trough of the waves, he had learned how to rise to the very crest of his house-top wave and stay there as long as he wanted to stay. When he became tired of looking out over this great gray sea of the city, splashed here and there with the red of tiled roofs, he would look out over the real sea, the sea that 12 The Little Teachers was sometimes blue and sometimes gray and sometimes green. And one night just at sunset, as he looked out over this sea, the sea was a beautiful blue. Through the beautiful blue of the sea a great ship came sailing in. And the sun shone upon the ship and made it a ship of gold sailing a sea of blue. When James Anderson for that was the Big Boy's name saw the ship of gold sailing the sea of blue, when he saw it sailing straight towards him, as it turned in at the city's golden gate, a wonderful thought flashed through his mind, and jumping up and waving his cap, he cried, "Ah-ha ah-ha ! My ship is coming in! My ship is coming in !" And before he went down stairs to play tea-table with the Big Girl The Little Teachers who played that she was his wife, James Anderson took out his jack- knife and carved the day, month and year in great big letters on the wall of the cupola. And he said aloud, as he cut the letters, "This, Jamesie, my boy, is your lucky day your lucky day. We must not forget this day." After that, almost every night at sunset, James Anderson went to his cupola and watched for his ship to come in his ship of gold sailing its sea of blue. Often he had many other Big Boys and Big Girls come to the cupola with him, and they all had great sport watching the many things that they could see from the crest of their house-top wave. But the things above all others that they loved to watch were the ships of gold sailing The Little Teachers the sea of blue. Each Big Boy and each Big Girl would pick out a ship that he or she would claim as his or her own; and when there were not ships enough to go around, there was a pretty squabble, I can tell you, among the Big Boys and the Big Girls, each claiming that it was his or her ship that was coming in. Then one day John Sanderson, a Big Boy who lived next door to James Anderson, and who had been in James Anderson's cupola many times to look out over the city to see the ships come in, decided that he would build a cupola on his own house, where he could go with other Big Boys and Big Girls and see their ships come in. But when John San- derson's cupola was built, there was The Little Teachers a great commotion in the house of James Anderson and Ann Anderson, the Big Girl who played at keeping house with him. For, what do you think, the new cupola on the top of John Sanderson's house cut off the ocean view from the cupola of James Anderson. Only a tiny strip of the ocean, with never a ship of sunset gold, could now be seen from James Anderson's cupola. Perhaps it is no wonder that there was a great com- motion in the home where Big Boy James Anderson and Big Girl Ann Anderson played at keeping house. So it came about that the Big Boy Anderson and the Big Boy Sander- son, who had played together and who had been good friends for a long time, would now have nothing to do with each other. And of course the 16 The Little Teachers Big Girl Ann Anderson and the Big Girl Susan Sanderson would not have anything to do with each other. The Andersons said that the Sandersons had no right to build the cupola where it would cut off the Anderson's view; and the Sandersons said that the land and the house and the cupola were theirs and that they had a right to do with them just as they pleased. So the clouds of Fear Thoughts hung heavily and the Trouble Things flew thick and fast in the Anderson- Sanderson neighborhood for many months. Then one day James Anderson and Ann Anderson were sitting quietly in their cupola, looking out over the great gray city. Little Charity An- derson, who played that she was the little daughter of the Big Boy James The Little Teachers Anderson and the Big Girl Ann An- derson, was contentedly playing in the nursery just below them. Susan, playing housewife, and anxious to have everything very nice, reached up to change the position of a pic- ture that hung on the wall of the cupola. As she took it down, the letters and figures that had been cut in the wall by James many months before, were revealed. "Why, James," said Susan, "when did you carve Charity's birthday on this wall?" "I didn't carve Charity's birthday on the wall," replied James. "Yes you did too," asserted Ann. "There it is right up there in big let- ters December 25 th, 1909." "Oh! that!" said James. "Why, that is not Charity's birthday or 18 The Little Teachers rather, it was not intended to cele- brate her birthday. That, my dear, is the first day I saw my ship come in, before that rascal of a" "Dad-ah Dad-ah !" called a small voice from the nursery below, please come play with me." "Before that rascal of a Sander- son" "Dah-ah! Dad-ah!" called the same small voice again. And before "Dad-ah" could finish what he was going to say, the little one appeared in her own tiny person, and tugged strongly at the big finger of the Big Boy who played that he was her father, and at the gold chain of the Big Girl who played that she was her mother. The little one explained that it was time for school to begin and that the scholars must come in The Little Teachers right away so that they would not be late and have to have a tardy mark. So the Big, Grown-Up Boy and the Big, Grown-Up Girl, who played that they were much too old to go to school, went down to the play-room of the Little One. The little chairs were all in a row, and the tiny rock- ing chair of the Little Teacher sat out in front. The Little Teacher took her place and the Big Boy and the Big Girl solemnly but gingerly seat- ed themselves on the school-room chairs. Then school began. "What is God? Dad-ah, you may answer, if you please," said the Little Teacher. "Please, Teacher," said the Big Boy, "I didn't know this was Sunday School, er I wouldn't er come." 20 The Little Teachers "I bet you wouldn't," said the Big Girl, behind her hand, so that the Little Teacher might not hear. The rather rude reply of the Big Boy pupil, instead of hurting the feelings of the Little Teacher, seemed to please her very much. It seemed so very funny to her, that she did something that Big Girl teachers never would think of doing in the school-room: she doubled almost up double in her little chair and filled the air with soft gurgles of merri- ment and tiny shrieks of laughter. But she soon remembered her dignity as a teacher, and instead of running to clasp the knees of the Big Boy pupil, as she would have done if school had not been keeping, she stood up straight beside her little teacher's desk, took her little teach- 21 The Little Teachers er's ruler firmly in her right hand, and said with as much seriousness as possible: "Don't you know, Dad-ah, dat Sunday School comes first 'fore day school? Child'n allus goes t' Sunday School 'fore they goes t' day school. Didn't you know dat, Dad-ah? I's s'prised at you. After you goes t' Sunday School, then you may go t' day school." Then the Big Girl pupil raised her hand. "What is it, Ann," said the Little Teacher, gravely. u james didn't answer your ques- tion. He missed. He gets a goose- egg for that." But the Little Teacher evidently did not want the Big Boy to miss, so she looked at him a bit reproachfully 22 The Little Teachers and said, "Don't you know what God is, Dad-ah?" And as the Big Boy hitched in his chair, scratched his head, and looked at the ceiling, the Little Teacher went on, something of the sternness of the real teacher creeping into her voice, "Don't you know dat, Dah- ah? My goodness - 1' - graceless, Dad-ah, I's s'prised at you." The Big Girl raised her hand again, and shook it frantically, trying to let the Little Teacher see that she could answer the question. But the Little Teacher kept her serious eyes and eager questions pointed at the Big Boy. "What is Love, Dad-ah?" But "Dad-ah" was not more prompt in answering this question than he was in answering the other The Little Teachers one. So the Little Teacher was forced to fall back upon her usual expression of astonishment, "Good- ness-t'-graceless, Dad-ah, I certainly is s'prised at you." Then, in an evidently gentle dis- gust at the deep ignorance of her scholars, the Little Teacher under- took to tell them the answers to her questions. When school was dismissed a few minutes later, the pupils did not say much to each other. They only in- quired very seriously of the Little Teacher if she would keep school at the same time next day. And as they were going out of the school-room the Big Girl said to the Big Boy, "I think, James, that your ship did come in, that Christmas night the time The Little Teachers you carved the date in the cupola wall." So it came about that the Big Boy James Anderson and the Big Girl Ann Anderson, instead of going up to the cupola as they used to do, at the sunset hour, very often stopped at the nursery and went to school to the Little Teacher. They forgot the great gray sea of the city and the sunset sea with its ships of gold, and they forgot, too for the time their Fear Thoughts and felt not the sting of Trouble Things. In the school- room with the Little Teacher who was not always very strict and who sometimes climbed on the laps of her pupils the Big Boy and the Big Girl could see some things very clear- ly. After playing all day with the Big Children, where the clouds of The Little Teachers Fear Thoughts and Trouble Things always hung, in the city of trial and tribulation, the Big Boy Anderson and the Big Girl Anderson found it very refreshing although they did not know just why to go down to the place where the Little Teacher played school and lived as in a little Kingdom apart. Here they could not see the sea of beautiful blue or its stately ships of sunset gold. But they did not miss these things very much, for the eyes of the Little Teacher were very very blue and very very deep. And when they had been to her school for many days they found themselves looking far into the silent depths of these deep blue places ; and as they looked they saw a tiny, pearly glow a tiny light like a speck of a sail on a far horizon. 26 The Little Teachers But as they looked into these deep blue places day after day, they found that the light that they saw was not like a sail it was just a Light a very restful Light. And as the Big Boy and the Big Girl looked at the Light in the eyes of the Little Teach- er day after day, it seemed to them that her eyes were little openings through which they looked out of a darkened world into a Wonderful Place of Light. Then after many more days it seemed to the Big Boy and the Big Girl that they could see this Wonderful Place of Light every- where, even when they were not look- ing through the places of the Little Teacher's eyes. And when they could see this Wonderful Place of Light everywhere, of course they could not see the clouds of Fear 27 The Little Teachers Thoughts or feel the sense of Trouble Things anywhere. When they played the big games with the other Big Boys and Big Girls, they always Played Fair, and they always knew when they were Playing Fair. And when they Played Fair, their games always came out right. Gradually other Big Boys and Big Girls of the great city went down to play with the Little Children, and learned to see the Wonderful Place of Light, just as the Big Boy James Anderson and the Big Girl Ann An- derson had learned to see it through the Little Teacher, Charity. And the strange thing about it was that after they got used to going down to the Little Children's playground, it did not seem to them that they had to "go down" to get there. It did not 28 The Little Teachers seem condescension or a waste of time for them to be with Little Chil- dren. Indeed, it seemed to them that they "went up" to get where the Little Children lived and when they got there, it seemed as though they were up very high higher than when they were where they could look out over the great cities or over blue seas where treasure ships came in. And that was the way, as time went on, that the strange city where only Big Children and Next Smaller Children and Little Children lived, changed from a city of trial and trib- ulation to a Wonderful Place of Light. 29 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. FEB21 19873 LD 21-100w-7,'52(A2528sl6)476 13451