Twister on Tuesday - Mary Pope Osborne [5]
“I heard him tell Miss Neely he walked five miles to get here today,” Kate said. “So he must have really wanted to come.”
“Wow,” said Annie. “How far did you and Will walk?”
“Only two,” said Kate.
“Two what?” asked Annie.
“Miles,” said Kate.
“Two miles,” Jack repeated.
The prairie kids nodded.
“It must be lonely living out here,” Annie said.
Will and Kate nodded again.
“Do you live in a sod house?” Jack asked.
“We used to,” said Will. “But it was always dirty. So our pa built us a log cabin.”
“He cut trees near the creek,” said Kate. “Then he made the cabin by hand.”
Before Annie or Jack could ask another question, thunder cracked in the sky. Then rain started to fall. It fell fast and hard.
Everyone jumped up.
“Come in! Come in!” Miss Neely called from the doorway.
They ran back inside. The wind slammed the door behind them with a BANG.
Inside the lamplit hut, it was dry and cozy.
Jack sat back on his bench. He didn’t dare look at Jeb.
“It’s time for our writing lesson now,” Miss Neely said. “I’m going to give you each a slate and a pen.”
She handed out the slates. They looked like small blackboards set in wooden frames.
Next she gave everyone a slate pen. Each pen was a thin piece of chalk.
Miss Neely opened the McGuffey Reader.
“While you were eating your noon meal, I copied a poem from the book,” she said. “Now I want you to copy it.”
Miss Neely held her own slate board up for them all to see:
Jack quickly started copying the words. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jeb writing very slowly. It took the older boy a long time just to write the letter T.
Jack slowed down, too. He didn’t want Jeb to think he was showing off.
Suddenly, loud thumping sounds came from overhead. It sounded as if someone were throwing stones against the roof.
“Oh no! Grasshopper attack!” screamed Kate. She covered her head.
“Grasshopper attack!” cried Will. He covered his head, too.
“Be calm, everyone!” said Miss Neely.
What’s a grasshopper attack? What are they talking about? Jack wondered.
Even Jeb seemed worried. As Miss Neely started toward the door, he said, “Don’t open it! They’ll come in!”
Has everyone gone crazy? Jack thought. How can grasshoppers hurt anyone?
Miss Neely opened the door and looked out. A moment later, she stuck her head back in and closed the door.
“It’s all right,” she said. “It’s only hailstones.”
“What’s that?” said Annie.
“Hailstones are small pieces of frozen rain. Sometimes they fall to earth during a thunderstorm,” said Miss Neely.
“Why did Will and Kate yell, ‘Grasshopper attack!’?” Jack asked.
“Because last spring, grasshoppers did attack us,” said Miss Neely.
“Yes! Millions and millions of them came out of the sky,” said Will. “It looked like a huge, shiny cloud.”
“They covered every inch of ground!” said Kate. “They ate everything!”
“They ate all our crops,” said Will, “our turnips and fruit trees and watermelons.”
“They even ate our clothes and bedsheets!” said Kate.
“Yuck,” said Annie.
“Oh, man,” said Jack. He’d never heard of a grasshopper attack before.
“It was very scary,” said Kate.
“But remember how we replanted and everyone helped everyone else?” said Miss Neely.
Kate and Will nodded.
“We must try to hold on to the good memories,” Miss Neely said gently, “and let go of the bad ones.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Kate.
Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then the sound of the hailstones died away.
“Let’s go back to our lesson now,” said Miss Neely.
They all returned to their writing.
Even working as slowly as he could, Jack finished first. He showed his copy of the poem to Miss Neely.
“Good work, Jack,” she said. “We can all learn from these words, can’t we?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Jack.
“Hey, this is it, Jack!” Annie blurted out. “Something to learn!”
Miss Neely looked puzzled.
But Jack smiled. He knew what Annie was talking about: They had their special writing. They could go home!
Jack stood up.
“Excuse me, ma’am, but I’m afraid we have to leave,” he said.
“So soon?” said Miss Neely.
“Yes, we have to