“Oh, yes! He’s one o’ that kind that don’t have anyfing to do but take care o’ folks,” said Posy, her face brightening.
And then her class was called. How her little heart beat under her white frock! and how the blushes came in her soft cheeks! She could hardly read above her breath; but Pollio, who had never been to school before any more than she had, and didn’t know quite so much, poked her with his elbow, and whispered, “What you ’fraid of?” And, when his turn came, he read so loud, you could have heard him in the street.
“Well, how do you like it, my dears?” asked papa at night.
“Oh, she’s the best teacher _I_ ever had!” said Pollio promptly.
“Indeed! Have you learned any thing to-day?”
“Yes, sir,” said Posy, eager to speak: “_the world walks!_”
“You know what she means; ‘the earth moves,’” laughed Teddy. “She heard ’em say that in the jography-class.”
Posy could see no difference between walking and moving; but she did wish Teddy wouldn’t laugh at every thing she said.
Papa shook his head at Teddy, and went on questioning Posy, who sat on his knee.
“Hush, Teddy! Did you carry your slate, Pollio?”
“Yes, sir; and I can make pictures better’n any of ’em.”
His father presumed this was true; for Pollio’s drawings were rather remarkable for a small child.
“And I draw horses for the fellow that sits with me. He’s a jolly boy,—fires ’tatoes out of a gun.”
“Well, the girl with me hops lame,” said Posy, determined not to be outdone by Pollio. “She’s a _hypocrite_.”
“I think it must be the little girl I meet on the street so often,” said Nunky. “I call her ‘Hop-clover.’ She has a very sweet face.”
“Her father’s an awful drunkard,” remarked Teddy.
“Well, he isn’t her truly papa, and she hasn’t any truly mamma. Her name’s _Lucy-vindy_, and she hasn’t anybody to take care of her but just God. I wish I could give her my pink dress,” begged Posy.
Next day it “rained so hard, the water couldn’t catch its breath;” but the little Pitchers were so eager for school, that their mother let them go. They marched off very proudly under an umbrella; while Teddy walked before them with the books, and Beppo behind with the dinner-pail.
“Hop-clover” carried her dinner too; but at noon, when she saw Posy giving Beppo a piece of cold lamb, she thought,—