Courting Miss Amsel Read Online Free PDF Page A

Pole.”
    Ada waved her hand over her head and crowed, “He forgot the Tropic of Capper-corn!” She pointed to Andrew’s knees. “It’s right there!”
    “Hey!” Lewis bolted up, his hands balled on his hips. “What about the Ant – Ant – Ant-ar-dic Circle?”
    “Ant-arc - tic Circle,” Edythe corrected.
    “Yep, that.” Lewis darted forward and tapped his palm against Andrew’s shins. “It’s right about here.”
    Laughter rang, but Edythe held up both hands, squelching it before it got out of hand. She spent a few more minutes reviewing the purpose for latitude and longitude and how the cross-hatch patterns on the globe made it possible to find any location on the earth. Then she instructed the children to form a line with her oldest student, Martha Sterbinz, at the end to encourage stragglers to stay with the class.
    She retrieved a box of cut pieces of rope that she’d left beside the back door and marched the children to the side yard. There, she put them to work running the ropes along the pegs – red to red serving as lines of longitude, and green to green representing lines of latitude. When the section of ground looked like a maze of ropes, Edythe had the children post paper signs marking the major lines of latitude and their degrees from the North Pole to the South Pole. Then they put small numbered signs representing degrees on the ropes meant to signify lines of longitude.
    The children buzzed, advising one another and tripping over each other’s feet, but eventually the ropes and signs took on the appearance of a huge globe. When it was complete, Edythe announced, “And now we will play ‘Where Am I?’ ”
    “Where is she?” William Sholes held both arms toward Edythe. “Teacher’s right there!”
    Several of the boys broke into laughter.
    “William!” Edythe pointed to a spot away from the group. “Go sit down.”
    The boy stared at her, openmouthed.
    She took three steps closer to him. “You’ve been disruptive, so you’ve forfeited your opportunity to participate in our activity. You now have two choices. You may do as I instructed and go sit on the ground and watch, or you may walk home. If you choose to go home, I will come by your house after school to tell your parents why you were dismissed from school early.”
    Edythe hoped William would go sit away from the group rather than leave. Sending a student home the very first week of school might be interpreted as her inability to handle the class. Each second seemed to stretch into eternity while William stood, his chin jutted stubbornly, staring at the ground. Finally he began to move on stiff legs. Edythe held her breath until he reached the spot she had indicated and plopped down. He folded his arms over his chest and glared at her, but he’d made his choice.
    Relieved, she turned back to the other students to explain the rules of the game. It was really quite simple, something she’d concocted while reviewing a map. Each student would take a turn standing at the point where ropes crossed one another. He or she would call out, “Where am I?” and another student would name the spot by reciting the degrees.
    They played for half an hour while the morning sun warmed their heads and a ground squirrel chattered from a nearby mound. Edythe kept one eye on the game and the other on William, who toyed with blades of dry grass and pretended he wasn’t watching. But twice she caught him looking longingly toward the group. She hid a smile. Surely after having to miss such fun, he’d be more cooperative.
    By the end of the game, even some of the younger children were calling out the locations. They groaned when she indicated they must go inside and begin their next lesson.
    Robert Townsend put his clasped hands beneath his chin. “Aw, Miss Amsel, can’t we play just a little longer?” The other children swarmed around her, taking up the cry to be allowed to continue.
    Edythe waved her hands, silencing the group. “We have