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Home Memories on Parade Meet the Family A Town is Born The Growing McCullough Family A Church Becomes a Reality A Closing Word The Man Called Guelcksie A is for Arthur The Coffin House Poet and Philosopher -- Aged Seven The Two Room School House Open the Windows and Open the Doors Sixteen Girls in White Four Girls and Five Boys The Poet in Hot Water Windows Open for Edith The Great Decision Bo Peep Epilogue Notes |
WINDOWS OPEN FOR EDITH When the time came for Edith to leave the two-room school at Alicia, she was invited to come to Poplar Bluff, Missouri to continue in school and live with a family named Tucker. The Tuckers had a daughter Edith's age, and had lived in Alicia while Mr. Tucker was Missouri-Pacific agent for the station there. Edith was delighted to accept. I watched every step in preparation for her to go away from home to school. three others had gone and had returned after short stays. But Edith might stay longer. She was a friendly girl who liked people. I would be next and the thought terrified me. I was timid and withdrawn. I liked to be alone, and often cried when frustrated. Mama read aloud the letters that came from Edith, but they did not console me. At the end of the school year I was invited to come to Poplar Bluff for the closing exercises of school and return home with Edith. I wanted to go, but felt that it might be a secret way of preparing me to accept an invitation from the Tuckers in a short time. I went alone, by train, and enjoyed the most wonderful school I had ever seen … clean black-boards, indoor plants, borders of pupil art on every wall, a bowl of goldfish on the teacher's desk. The children marched to piano music. They sang! It would be like heaven to go to a school like that. But not if I had to leave home to get it. For the year that followed, Lizzie took Edith to St. Louis. Lizzie took a course in millinery and Edith again attended a big public school. She was introduced to the art of watercoloring, and brought paints, brushes and special paper home with her. Edith was always considered to be the artist of the family, and in later years worked with charcoal sketching, oils, and china painting. |