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Dash of Gab by Pauline Presley Just the memory of it gives me the shudders, round the table are fourteen little dynamoes, 8 and 9- years-old. Another type of machine would be well on the road to non repair, but not these. These are little human dynamoes and they’ve got a good start with no limit to their abilities and expectations. But they don’t know that. At present their main aim in life is to have fan and outwit Mrs. Pres ley which is no task to speak of. Mrs. Presley is ahead of them by about 25 years, but from there they have an even start. Except for the days when Mrs. Presley is half a step behind. They are taught a lesson which they learn; they prove this by an swering each question faithfully. How can they do this and manage to cripple one kid and bruise ano ther, unseat one and depart with a handful of hair from the head of another, grab all the pencils and sit on them while another manages with no effort whatever to grab a pair of sisters and whack off what had been his bangs, kicking the kid across from him, mean while? The girls are little angels except for one who has brought lipstick and offers to paint the lips of every boy present, barring none. Another little female makes a nui sance of herself by always offering to “help.” (I’ll take one crippler any day before accepting a helper on her own grounds!) One “Can’t do it’? even when told how to apply the pattern to the paper and the pencil to the hand, key in the basement his mother One tells of the bottle of whis found and hastily poured down the drain. Another says Mama says he will always be her baby even if he gets to be 80 years old. One is perfectly dependable ex cept for his premeditated urge to visit the bathroom three times in two hours every day for ten days. One asked me if my feet hurt be cause I’m frowning and people frown when their feet hurt. (Peo ple frown when they’re at their wit’s end, too, but you don’t throw that into the faces of babes and sucklings unless prepared for a game of pitch and catch!) One little girl says she ‘doesn’t mind having freckles on her nose since Mrs. Presley has them in her ears. As I said, the memory of it gives me the shudders. But it gives me a warm feeling around ‘what used to be my heart, except I think it mel ted that ten days I taught Bible School. Because the little dynamies are living, breathing little mach ines with souls and warm hands, and fresh voices which greet me anywhere they see me, now; and I’m ashamed of the days when I had to put my foot down and thankful, too, for I learned more than they did. 3. Adrian Westbrook
Newspaper Details
Cobden Review
Cobden, Illinois, US
Thu, Jun 19, 1958
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Robert P.
USA 06 Jul 2026
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Cobden Review
