Welcome to sleep stories with Steph your go-to podcast.
That offers you a calm and relaxing transition.
Into a great night's sleep.
It is time to relax and fully let go.
There is nothing you need to be doing now.
And know where you need to go.
Close your eyes.
And feel yourself sink into the support beneath you.
And let all the worries of the day go.
Drift away.
This is your time.
And your space.
Take a deep breath in through your nose.
And let it out with a long sigh.
That's it!
There is nothing you need to be doing now.
And know where you need to go.
Happy listening.
Chapter 8 Trial by fire.
Aunt Elizabeth drove Emily to school the next morning.
Aunt Laura had thought that since there was only a month before vacation,
It was not worthwhile for Emily to start school.
But Aunt Elizabeth did not feel comfortable with a small niece skipping around New Moon,
Poking into everything insatiably.
And was resolved that Emily must go to school to get her out of the way.
Emily herself,
Always avid for new experiences,
Was quite keen to go.
But for all that she was seething with rebellion as they drove along.
Aunt Elizabeth had produced a terrible gingham apron and an equally terrible gingham sung bonnet from somewhere in the New Moon garret and made Emily put them on.
The apron was a long sack-like garment,
High in the neck with sleeves.
Those sleeves were the crowning indignity.
Emily had never seen any girl wearing an apron with sleeves.
She rebelled to the point of tears over wearing it,
But Aunt Elizabeth was not going to have any nonsense.
Emily saw the Murray look then,
And when she saw it she buttoned her rebellious feelings tightly up in her sole and let Aunt Elizabeth put the apron on her.
It was one of your mother's aprons when she was a little girl,
Emily,
" said Aunt Laura comfortingly.
Then said Emily,
Uncomforted.
I don't wonder she ran away with father when she grew up.
Aunt Elizabeth finished buttoning the gown.
And gave Emily a none too gentle push away from her.
Put on your sun bonnet,
She ordered.
Please Aunt Elizabeth,
Don't make me wear that horrid thing!
Aunt Elizabeth,
Wasting no further words,
Picked up the bonnet and tied it on Emily's head.
Emily had to yield.
But from the depths of the sun bonnet issued a voice,
Defiant though tremulous,
Anyway Aunt Elizabeth,
You can't boss God!
Aunt Elizabeth was too cross to speak all the way to the schoolhouse.
She introduced Emily to Miss Bromwell and drove away.
School was already in,
So Emily hung her sun bonnet on the porch nail and went to the desk Miss Brunwell assigned her.
She had already made up her mind she did not like Miss Brunwell and never would.
Miss Bronwell had the reputation in Blair Water of being a fine teacher.
Due mainly to the fact she was a strict disciplinarian and kept excellent order.
She was a thin,
Middle-aged person with a colourless face,
Prominent teeth,
Most of which she showed when she laughed,
And cold,
Watchful grey eyes.
Colder even than Aunt Ruth's.
Emily felt as if those merciless agate eyes saw clean through her to the core of her sensitive little soul.
Emily could be fearless enough on occasion.
But in the presence of a nature which she instinctively felt to be hostile to hers,
She shrank away in something that was more repulsion than fear.
Emily was a target for curious glances all that morning.
The Blair Water School was large and there were at least 20 little girls of about her own age.
Emily looked back curiously at them all and thought the way they whispered to each other behind their hands was very ill-mannered.
She felt suddenly unhappy and homesick and lonesome.
She wanted her father and her old home and all those dear things that she loved.
The new moon girl's crying,
Whispered a black-eyed girl across the aisle.
Then came a cruel little giggle.
"'What is the matter with you,
Emily?
' said Miss Bromwell suddenly and accusingly.
Emily was silent.
She could not tell Miss Bromwell what was the matter,
Especially when Miss Bromwell used such a tone.
When I ask one of my pupils a question,
I'm accustomed to having an answer,
Emily.
Now,
Why are you crying?
There was another little giggle from across the aisle.
Emily lifted miserable eyes and in her extremity fell back on a phrase of her father's.
It is a matter that concerns only myself.
She said.
Her red spots suddenly appeared amidst Bronwyn's sallow cheek.
Her eyes gleamed with cold fire.
You will remain in during recess as a punishment for your impertinence,
" she said.
Emily did not in the least mind staying in at recess.
She realised that for some reason she could not fathom.
The atmosphere of the school was antagonistic.
The glances cast at her were not only curious but ill-natured.
She did not want to go to the playground with those girls.
She did not want to go to school in Blair Water at all.
But she would not cry anymore.
She just sat erect and kept her eyes on her book.
Suddenly,
A soft malignant kiss after recess came across the aisle.
Ms.
Pridy!
Ms.
Pridy!
Emily looked across at the girl.
Large steady purplish grey eyes gazed into beady twinkling black ones gazed unqualingly with something in them that cowed and compelled.
The black eyes wavered and fell,
Their owner covering her retreat with another giggle and toss of her short braid of hair.
I can master her,
Thought Emily,
With a thrill of triumph.
But there is strength in numbers and at noon hour Emily found herself standing alone in the playground facing a crowd of unfriendly faces.
Children can be the most cruel creatures alive.
They have the herd instinct to prejudice against any outsider and they're merciless in its indulgence.
Emily was a stranger and one of the proud Murries.
Two counts against her.
And there was about her,
Small and ginghamed and sun-bonneted as she was,
A certain reserve and dignity and fineness they resented.
They resented the level way she looked at them,
With that disdainful face under cloudy black hair.
Instead of being shy and drooping as became an interloper on probation.
You're a proud one,
" said Black Eyes.
You may have butt and boots,
But you're living on charity.
Emily had not wanted to put on the button boots.
She wanted to go barefoot as she'd done every summer.
But Aunt Elizabeth told her no child from New Moon had ever gone barefoot to school.
Just look at the baby apron!
" laughed another girl with her head of chestnut curls.
Now Emily flushed.
This was indeed the vulnerable point in her armour.
Delighted at her success in drawing blood,
The cold one tried again.
Is that your grandmother's sun bonnet?
There was a chorus of giggles.
She wears a sun bonnet to save her complexion,
Said the bigger girl.
That's the Murray pride.
The Murrays are rotten with pride,
My mother says.
You're awful ugly,
Said a fat,
Squat little miss nearly as broad as she was long.
Your ears look like a cat's.
You needn't be so proud,
" said Black Eyes.
Your ceiling isn't even blasted yet.
And your cousin Jimmy is an idiot.
He isn't,
Cried Emily.
He has more sense than any of you.
You can say what you like about me,
But you're not going to insult my family.
If you say one more word about them,
I'll look you over with the evil eye.
No one understood what this threat meant,
But it made it all the more effective.
It produced a brief silence.
Then the baiting began again in a different form.
Can you sing?
Asked a thin freckled girl.
Can you dance?
Can you sew?
No.
Can you cook?
No.
Can you knit lace?
No.
Can you crochet?
No.
Then what can you do?
I can write poetry,
Said Emily,
Without in the least meaning to say it.
But at that instant she knew she could write poetry.
And then,
With this queer,
Unreasonable conviction,
Came the flash.
Right there,
Surrounded by hostility and suspicion,
Fighting alone for her standing,
Without backing or advantage,
Came that wonderful moment when soul seemed to cast aside the bonds of flesh and spring upward to the stars.
The rapturing delight on Emily's face amazed and enraged her foes.
They thought in a manifestation of Murray pride.
You're lying.
Said Black Eyes.
A star does not lie,
The taunted Emily.
The flash was gone but its uplift remained.
She looked them all over with a cool detachment.
That quelled them temporarily.
Why don't you like me?
She asked directly.
There was no reply.
Emily looked straight at Chestnut Curls and repeated her question.
Chestnut Curls felt herself compelled to answer.
"'Because you ain't a bit like us,
' she muttered.
" I wouldn't want to be,
Said Emily scornfully.
Oh my,
You're one of the chosen people.
Mocked black eyes.
Of course I am,
Retorted Emily.
Then she walked away to the schoolhouse,
Conqueror in that battle.
An agreeable sense of victory in the afterglow of the flash carried Emily through the afternoon.
All the girls in the class giggled except one who had not been there in the morning and was consequently at the tail.
Emily had been wondering who she was.
She was as unlike the rest of the girls as Emily herself.
But in a totally different style.
She was tall,
Oddly dressed in an overlong dress of faded striped print.
And she was barefooted.
Her thick hair cut short,
Fluffed all around her head in a bushy wave.
That seemed to be of brilliant spun gold.
And her glowing eyes were of a brown so light and translucent as to be almost a hamper.
Her mouth was large and she had a saucy,
Pronounced chin.
Pretty she might not be called,
But her face was so vivid and mobile that Emily could not drag her fascinated eyes from it.
And she was the only girl in class who did not get a barb of sarcasm from Miss Bromwell,
Even though she made as many mistakes as the rest of them.
After school,
Rhoda Stewart.
Who Emily thought was very pretty and sweet.
Had been in the crowd around her at the noon bar but not said anything and was there again.
She was dressed in a pretty pink gingham and had smooth lustrous braids of sugar brown hair.
If Miss Bromwell could have said to have a favourite,
It was Rhoda Stewart.
Here is a present for you,
Emily,
" she said sweetly.
And Emily took the box unsuspectingly.
Rhoda's smile would have disarmed any suspicion.
And for a moment Emily was happily anticipant as she removed the cover.
Then with a shriek she flung the box from her and stood pale and trembling from head to foot.
There was only a snake in it.
Emily had a horror and repulsion she could not overcome.
The very sight of one almost paralysed her.
Then suddenly there was Ilse Burnley.
Clear out all of you she said and leave the new moon girl alone after this or I'll cut off your ears and wear them pinned on my dress cowed by these ferocious threats or by something in Ilse's personality.
Emily's persecutors drifted away.
Only Rhoda remained.
"'Emily,
I'm awfully sorry,
' she said as Ilsy thwarted the fence and tore off into the maple bush without another glance.
I didn't know there was a snake in that box.
Crossed my heart.
The girls told me it was a present for you.
You're not mad at me,
Are you?
Because I do like you.
Emily had been mad and hurt and outraged,
But this little bit of friendliness melted her instantly and in a moment she and Rhoda were friends.
I'm going to ask Miss Bronwell to let you sit with me,
" said Rhoda.
I used to sit with Annie Gregg but she's moved away.
You'd like to sit with me,
Wouldn't you?
I'd love it!
Sid Emilly warmly.
And now she was as happy as she had been miserable.
He was the friend of her dreams.
Maybe school?
Wouldn't be so bad.
After all.
