Guest post by Amanda
Two more weeks! She only had to make it two more weeks and she could go home for good and never have to live with Mrs. Brewster again! One day at a time! She decided to mark the days off one at a time to help make the days go faster. She studied every evening so she could still keep up with her class in town.
Mrs. Brewster was still just as miserable and Mr. Brewster avoided the house. It kept getting colder and colder. Wednesday night she was worried that there would be no school and she would have to stay with Mrs. Brewster and Johnny all day. However, the blizzard never came. She trudged through the snow to make a path to get to the school. ( I cannot imagine this as I myself complain if I have to go start my vehicle in the cold and quickly scrape off the windshield!)
That day school had just gotten started when there was a knock on the door. It was the superintendent, Mr. Williams! Laura knew this was a test of her abilities. She was so nervous she could barely speak normally. She could also sense that the children were nervous too. (Wow! This is amazing to me that at 15 she could handle all of this.) She was so happy that the children were doing their best. (I think this shows how children respond to someone who truly cares for them, which I feel that Laura genuinely did.) Poor Laura felt that her discipline would be questioned because one student asked to go to the stove and the other who shared a book with him did not ask, but just went.
When Mr. Williams said that he had to leave Laura asked if he needed to speak to everyone. When he said yes, she was immediately worried and I am sure she had that sick feeling in her stomach right before you just know something bad is going to happen. Then he said it: “Whatever else you do, keep your feet warm.” Phew! She had passed the test!
Well, she was in the habit of succeeding, after all. But still, that is a lot for a 16 year old. I assume it was customary for the superintendent to pop in for a visit; makes me wonder why Miss Wilder (Eliza Jane) didn’t get a visit back in LTOTP. I know the school board came by, but that was after Pa gathered from Laura’s comments that it was necessary. Anyway, after all the dread, Laura must have felt some pride along with her relief.
I was just thinking much the same thing; not so much why didn’t the board visit Miss Wilder, but why they didn’t fire her out of hand, seeing the chaos in the classroom. I guess Miss Wilder was a more experienced teacher, so was assumed to be able to do a good job. (We never hear that the board visited either of Laura’s other schools later in the book, so perhaps they only evaluate first-time teachers.
I also have to wonder why Laura didn’t take advantage of the visit to have a quiet word with him. “Incidently, Mr. Williams, the house where I am boarding is inhabited by a crazy woman who runs around waving knives … can anything be done about this?”
I think she was afraid that if she complained it would make it more difficult for her to get another school and then Mary would have to leave college. Think how strict it must have been that Martha going to the stove and then not asking to return to their seat being something that would get her in trouble. OTOH, that would have been a minor thing in Miss Wilder’s classroom.
Talk about superindendents visits… Records show that Miss Garland was visited at the DeSmet schoolhouse by then superintendents, Amos Whiting & Visscher Barnes, on March 23, 1881. Whiting noted that there were 26 students in attendance & the pupils were attentive & orderly. Carrie & Laura Ingalls were in attendance that day. This occured during March of The Long Winter. Interesting.