Free The Widow's Mail Order Husband (Mail Order Brides) by Susan Leigh Carlton

feelings,’ he said
     
    “I need to hear that from you,” she said.
     
    “Okay.  I love you Mary.  Do you want it in writing?”
     
    “I was going to make a joke from that line, but this isn’t the time for jokes,” she said.  “Did you sleep well?   As for me, I slept like a rock,” she said.  “It was some workout we had.”
     
    “Yes it was.  We’ll have to do it again,” he answered.  “And I did sleep well.”
     
    “I look forward to that time,” she said.
     
    He looked at the clock and said,  “It’s getting late.  I’d better get some coffee and get to work.”
     
    “You might want to get some clothes on first.  You might shock Rosa.”
     
    He answered, “I doubt it.  She used to give me baths.”
     
    “Not lately, I hope,” she said.
     
    “You’re terrible,” he said, and began putting his clothes on.  He left the room, and softly closed the door.”
     
    “Love you,” she called out and then rolled over, languorously, and went back to sleep.
     

Chapter 14: School Starts
     
    Mary met with the teacher responsible for the Grapevine Masonic elementary school.  They discussed the books, the lesson plans, and the students level of interest in school. Mary was not surprised to find the level of interest to be low, but she was surprised to find the books to be essentially the same as those she had used in Hagerstown.  They also talked about what would be expected of the students when they moved on to the next level.  She was shocked by the number of students who didn’t make it through the entire elementary level and how few of those went on to high school.
     
    She had picked up the books from the repository and taken them to the Lazy H where they would be taken to the church building on the first day of school.
     
    Later, she told Tom what she had found.  “Once they’re past the point of learning to read and write, they are ready to drop out,” she said.  “I wonder how much of that is influenced by the parents, and what we can do about it.”
     
    “Probably, but not a lot you can do about it.  When they are old enough or big enough to work on the ranch or farm, the parents are ready for the help.  James and I were lucky that Maw made us go to school.  I’m sure I would have dropped it if I had been allowed.”
     
    “You were fortunate,” Mary said.  “There is so much more to life than roping cattle.  I hope to expose you and Emily to that,”
     
    The Lonesome Dove Baptist Church had agreed to let the church building be used for school.  They only asked in return, that it always be left in condition for the Sunday services.  She and Tom made things ready for the children.
     
    On the first day, the children were in the yard early and when Mary rang the hand bell they had purchased, they moved inside the building.  Mary separated them by age and set about trying to determine where they were in the learning process.  She found some of the younger children were further along than the older ones.
     
    “I don’t want you to feel badly if some of your friends seem to know more than you do.  They have simply had more opportunity to learn.  You will catch up, if you do the assigned work and pay attention in class.  She went to each group to determine who could read and write, who knew the alphabet and about their math skills.
     
    It was worse than she expected.  She was appalled at what she found.  She decided to start with the most basic, by teaching them the alphabet and the sounds each letter carried with it.  She told them, “Some of this you are going to find easy, and you will know more than you realize.”   Not surprising, Emily, who had just turned six was one of the more advanced in reading.
     
    She couldn’t have put the name to it, but Mary was using phonetics in reading.  Sounding a letter, putting another letter with it and continuing until they created words.  By the end of the third week, all twelve of the children