Ruby at School
Page 19
CHAPTER XIX.
SURPRISES.
When Ruby went to bed that night her last thought was of thecaterpillars and of the pleasure they would give her teacher, and shewas impatient for the morning to come that she might have Miss Ketchumtell her how much she had enjoyed them.
Miss Ketchum did not go up to her room after study hour, but aftersupper she went up for something, intending to return to thesitting-room at once, as she had charge of the girls that evening. Itwas almost dark in her room, but she did not stop to light the lamp, asshe knew where to get her work-basket in the dark. In passing thebureau she put out her hand and knocked something off, but stoopingdown on the floor and picking it up again, she concluded that it wasmerely an empty paper-box, such as Mrs. Boardman often put in her roomwhen she found one, to use as a home for her pets. The cover rolledaway, but Miss Ketchum did not stop to look for it, and went down tothe sitting room again.
Of course you can guess what happened. Whether the caterpillars wereasleep or not when the box fell, I could not tell you, but after thatthey were certainly very wide-awake, for they travelled out of the boxand all over the room. Before Miss Ketchum had come up to go to bedthey had made their way all over the room. There were some of them onthe ceiling, some crawling over the white counter-pane on MissKetchum's bed, some upon her pillow, and a very fat, large caterpillar,that Ruby had found upon a tomato-plant, had crept up on thelooking-glass and had gone to sleep there.
MISS KETCHUM AND THE CATERPILLARS (missing from book)]
Miss Ketchum was very much interested in caterpillars, but of courseshe did not want to have them walking all about her room in this way;so you can imagine how surprised and perhaps a little frightened shewas when she came upstairs to bed, and struck a light, and saw thecaterpillars making themselves quite at home all about her room. Shecould not understand it at first, and then it occurred to her thatperhaps some of the girls had been playing a trick upon her, and hadput them in the room to annoy her. Some of the scholars were unkindenough to tease Miss Ketchum sometimes, and it would not have surprisedher if this had been the case to-night.
At last she remembered the box, and picking up the cover, she sawwritten carefully upon it, "With Ruby's love," and then she knew how ithad happened.
Ruby had put them there to please her, and if the cover had stayed onthe box, the caterpillars would have been quite safe, and would havebeen in their prison yet; but she remembered having knocked the boxdown, and it was undoubtedly then that they strayed out and wanderedabout the room.
Poor Miss Ketchum! She sighed as she looked about the room. She couldnot go to bed and perhaps have the caterpillars creeping all over herin the night, and yet it seemed like a hopeless task to catch them, andshe had no idea how many there were.
But Ruby had meant to be so kind that she thought more of her littlescholar's affection for her than she did of the work she had sounintentionally given her.
One by one she patiently captured them and returned them to their box.She was not quite sure that she had got them all when she put the lastone in, but there were so many that she felt tolerably certain thatRuby could not possibly have found more in one day.
It was quite late before she finally got to bed, and while Ruby wassound asleep and dreaming of Miss Ketchum's delight when she shouldfind the addition to her pets, Miss Ketchum was smiling to herself asshe thought of Ruby's intended kindness, and how it had turned out.She made up her mind that Ruby should not know that the caterpillarshad escaped, but that she should think that her gift had given all thepleasure that it was intended to, and so Ruby never knew of poor MissKetchum's caterpillar hunt at bed-time.
The next day Miss Ketchum thanked her for them, and explained to herthat she would have to set some of them at liberty again, since she hadsome of a good many of the varieties, and two of each were all that shecould take care of; but Ruby was delighted to hear that Miss Ketchumhad never had some of the specimens before, and that she was quite surethat they would make beautiful butterflies.
After this Ruby and Miss Ketchum were as good friends as Agnes hadalways been with her teacher, and Miss Ketchum found it a great help tohave two little girls, instead of one, upon whom she could always relyfor good behavior, and who could be trusted never to wilfully annoy her.
She had a great many treasures in her room that had been brought to herfrom China by a brother who had been a missionary there, and she wasalways glad to have Agnes and Ruby come and pay her a little visit, andlook at whatever they wished. She knew they could be trusted to handlethings carefully and not be meddlesome, and many a happy hour the twogirls spent there. Miss Ketchum's room was a very large room, as itwas the only one over the school-house, so she had plenty of space tokeep all her curiosities and her pets.
There was a little cupboard that stood in a corner, just as if it hadbeen built for that particular space, and in this corner closet MissKetchum kept a little tin of delicious seed-cakes, and some cups andsaucers, and pretty little plates with butterflies, and mandarins, andpagodas, and Chinese beauties upon them; and very often when the girlscame to see her she would open this cupboard and they would have alittle treat, which seemed all the more delightful because the plateswere so odd. There was an open fireplace in the room, and when thedays were cold and there was a snapping, blazing wood-fire, they usedto ask Miss Ketchum if they might not bring their chestnuts and roastthem in the hot ashes.
Miss Ketchum knew a great many stories, too, and sometimes, on Saturdayafternoon, when the children had plenty of time, and would surely nothave to hurry away in the most interesting part of the story, she wouldlean back in her big rocking-chair, and with the little girls sittingon ottomans, one each side of her, she would tell them delightfulstories about when she was a little girl and went to school. Ruby andAgnes were glad that they did not live then, when there was no wholeholiday on Saturday, but they were very much interested in hearing allthat Miss Ketchum had to tell them, and in comparing the things thatshe did when she went to school with what they did themselves.
Altogether Miss Ketchum was a very delightful friend to have, if, shewas a little forgetful sometimes, and did like caterpillars; but Rubyand Agnes grew almost as fond of her pets as she was herself, as theylearned how much there was of interest about them. They looked forwardquite eagerly to the time when, instead of the ugly worm that had wovena chrysalis about himself and gone to sleep for the winter, thereshould burst forth a beautiful butterfly. It made them more carefulnot to hurt creeping things, and if they found a brown worm crawlingabout where he might be stepped upon, the girls would always pick himup carefully upon a stick or leaf and put him in a safe place where hemight keep out of danger.