Free Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis Page B

That look a powerful lot like it got something to do with
family,
don’t it?”
    â€œIt does.”
    Cooter said, “And the last word,
con-tempt
, it looks just ’bout the same as
contest
, right?
    â€œI guess so.”
    â€œSo what’s that all sum up to?”
    I shooked my head.
    Cooter whispered, “Come on, Eli, put it all together and it come up to
family breeding contest
! He’s gonna learn us ’bout having a blanged family breeding contest!”
    â€œNo!”
    â€œWhat else could it mean?”
    Cooter saw I waren’t real convinced, he said, “My pa said that Mr. Travis is from New York City and growned up free. And that’s two reasons what folks should be suspicious ’bout him for. Pa says him and n’em other growned folks was gonna have to keep a sharp eye on what Mr. Travis tried to learn us.”
    I said, “So?”
    â€œDon’t you see, Eli? Ain’t no growned folks been checking up on Mr. Travis lately so he thinks the coast is clear and it’s safe for him to give us some of that stuff what Pa calls ‘up-north, big-city learning mess’!”
    It sounded peculiar at first, but if you started thinking like you didn’t have no common sense atall it seemed like Cooter’d put it all together real good!
    Cooter saw I was starting to believe and said, “And if family breeding contests don’t count as some up-north, big-city learning mess, I don’t know what do.”
    I couldn’t help myself from saying, “I’ll be blanged!”
    I know that’s swearing, but compared to what our lesson was gonna be ’bout, swearing didn’t seem like much of a sin no more.
    Cooter said, “I just wish he hadn’t gone and writ the lesson out on the board like that. What if that doggone Emma Collins or one n’em other persnickety girls run off and tell someone what we’re ’bout to study? What if they stops this afore he gets to the real interesting, real nasty parts?”
    By the time the school bell runged, Cooter had me so worked up that I was looking like
I
was sitting on a hot stove too!
    We both knowed something big was ’bout to happen ’cause ’stead of saying his regular “Good morning, scholars, strivers, and questers for a better future! Are you ready to learn, are you ready to grow?” the way he does every other morning, Mr. Travis was sitting at his desk holding on to his pointing stick. His eyes were closed and he was so hopping mad that it was a miracle that smoke waren’t pouring from his ears!
    I knowed why too! He must’ve figured out that once he taught us ’bout family breeding contests, the growned folks were gonna hunt him down and give him a good tar-and-feathering!
    I’d heard lots of talk ’bout such things, but hadn’t never witnessed it myself. But I knowed if I ever ran into Mr. Travis again after this I was gonna have to apologize for spreading talk that he was a boring teacher. I was gonna have to eat my blanged words ’cause couldn’t nothing in the world make you want to come to school more than learning ’bout a family breeding contest then watching the teacher that taught it to you get covered in hot tar and run out of the Settlement on a rail!
    We all settled down at our desks and waited. Even the children who didn’t know what today’s lesson was ’bout sensed something waren’t right and started looking at one the ’nother all nervous and worrisome.
    Mr. Travis stood up and me and Cooter were ’bout to bust with excitedness!
    Mr. Travis brung that pointing stick down on top of his desk so hard it was a miracle the desk didn’t split clean in two!
    All the other children were taking this in a very terrorific way. They were clenching on to the sides of their desks and looking as afeared as a horse that’s seen a three-head snake. ’Cepting for Mr. Travis’s