The Librarian of Boone's Hollow - Kim Vogel Sawyer Page 0,38
who’d held such high hopes for him? “Exploring.”
Mr. Halcomb clapped Emmett on the shoulder. “Someone with your intellect and drive will be successful wherever you land. I’m proud of you, Emmett, and I’m sure your folks are, too.”
Emmett wasn’t so sure about Paw. He seemed to have trouble looking Emmett straight in the face. But Maw was proud, so Emmett could nod without being untruthful.
Shrill, angry shouts exploded from the play yard. Mr. Halcomb leaned sideways and peered past Emmett, frowning. “I need to bring the children in.” He gave Emmett a rueful grin and started for the door. “I’d like to talk more, though. Get caught up with you. How long will you be in Boone’s Hollow?”
Emmett fell in step with his teacher. “I don’t honestly know. But I’m pretty sure Maw won’t mind if you come to dinner one night. I’ll check with her and have Dusty let you know which evening she says.”
“That sounds fine, Emmett, real fine. We’ll talk at length then.” He yanked the frayed rope attached to the small brass bell hanging in the cupola on top of the building, and the bell clanged its call to study.
The children swarmed the porch. Emmett worked his way down the stairs, getting bumped from every angle. Dusty flung himself against Emmett’s middle for a quick hug before darting around him and disappearing inside. Emmett retraced his steps from the schoolyard to the road. As he rounded the trees, a mule emerged from the brush. Bettina Webber straddled the animal.
Her freckled face lit. When she smiled, she really was pretty, even while wearing a pair of men’s overalls over a long-sleeved pink flowered blouse and with no shoes on her dirty feet. But in a flash, her smile turned flirtatious, and just as quickly, unease attacked Emmett.
She rode up close to him, then reined in. “Hey, Emmett. What’re you doin’ out here?”
The mule snuffled his shoulder, and he scratched its prickly chin. “Dusty wanted me to walk him to school. I’m heading back home now.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Betcha you’re awful glad to be done with that place. I couldn’t hardly wait ’til Pap said I could quit.”
Emmett had noticed Bettina’s struggles. Pretty hard to miss when students of all ages shared a single room. The same sympathy he’d often experienced during their school days tiptoed through him again. He stepped free of the mule’s probing nose. “Did you graduate?”
“Nah.” She tossed her head. “I stopped goin’ halfway through my ninth year. Maw died that winter, an’ Pap said he needed me at home. An’ since I—” She looked sharply aside and clamped her lips so tight they turned white. She sat that way for several seconds, then faced Emmett again. Her self-assured smile returned. “I got as much book learnin’ as I need to be a good wife an’ maw. Don’t see no reason to be sittin’ in that classroom anymore.”
Maybe she was right. His mother had gone through only five years of school, and she did fine. But Maw didn’t have the struggles Bettina did.
She sighed and patted the leather bag draped over the mule’s neck. “Well, it’s real good to see you, an’ much as I’d like to stay an’ talk, I got books to deliver. Bye for now, Emmett.” She waggled her fingers at him, then kicked the mule into motion.
He watched her disappear into the brush, and then he set off for home. Why had Bettina not been able to absorb what she called book learnin’? The girl wasn’t dim witted. Even Emmett could tell that. So why did learning come so hard for her? The question still plagued him when he reached his family’s cabin, and he asked it of Maw when he stepped through the open doorway.
She paused at the washstand, hands in sudsy water, and gave him a thoughtful look. “Do you recall Bettina’s maw?”
An image of a quiet, sweet-faced woman formed in Emmett’s memory. He nodded.
“Me an’ Rosie growed up together. A kinder, gentler soul was never born.” She took up the soapy rag and used it on a plate while she talked. “Handy with a needle? Oh, law, that girl made the prettiest hankies you ever did see, with cutwork an’ fine stitches on the hems or little flowers embroidered on all the corners. Still have the one she give me to carry on the day I married your paw. But she never did no samplers.”