The Mighty Miss Malone Read Online Free PDF

much forgot.
    Mrs. Needham said, “I know being a teacher is your ambition, Deza, and a fine one it is. But I can see you as a professor or, if we can pry the dictionary out of your hands, even as a writer.”
    I wiggled and the chair swiveled from side to side! Only the tips of my toes were touching the floor but it felt perfect!
    “Deza, I have been teaching longer than you could imagine, and I’ve always had the dream any teacher worth her salt has. I had thought, prior to this year, that I would have to be satisfied in coming close to the dream once, before, alas, ‘the best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley.…’
    “The dream is the gift of having one student, just one, who is capable of making a real contribution. One child who’d have no choice but to make a difference for our people.
    “Out of the thousands of students I’ve had in the thousands of years I’ve been teaching, I’ve suspected for quite a while who the child I’ve been waiting for is.”
    All I could think was, I love her like a sister, but
please
, just don’t say Clarice!
    “Miss Malone, you are that child.”
    I stopped wiggling.
    “That’s why I gave you that A minus, Deza, and it won’t be the last if you’re not up on your p’s and q’s. Any more grandstanding in your writing, there might even be a B or two down the road. Remember, much is required of her to whom much has been given.”
    My heart flew like a rocket ship!
    “These are trying times for the whole country, Miss Malone, and I’m aware that you have been dealt a pretty rough hand, but, child, with your gifts, you are the richest person I have ever had the honor of teaching.
    “I believe from the bottom of my heart that if we lose you, we’ve lost this country. If we can’t get
you
to your true path, it’s the failure of everyone from President Roosevelt right down to me.
    “And while President Roosevelt is far too busy to give a hoot, I have nothing but time on my hands. I will not sit idly by and see you fall.
    “I understand that
you
are the reason I’ve taught for all these years. We are both in the right spot at the right time.”
    Goose bumps danced all over my arms!
    “Oh, Mrs. Needham, I can do whatever needs to be done. Jimmie’s always saying if I read one more book or study one more minute my brain will explode out of my eyes, but I can work harder! Your words are like manna produced from heaven to me!”
    I hope I pronounced “manna” the right way.
    Mrs. Needham’s eyes rolled. “Oh, for the love of Pete! The first thing I have to do is wrench that dictionary and thesaurusout of your hands. And we’re going to have to work on the way you react to bad news. You have to toughen up, missy, but we’ll get by.”
    “Yes, ma’am!”
    “As you know, the board is forcing me to retire this year. So what I’d like to do is have you come to my home every day after school and weekends for private tutoring. The work here is not challenging enough for you, but I’ll take care of that.”
    It was like she was reading my mind when she said, “We’ll include Clarice if you’d like.”
    Mrs. Needham almost smiled!
    My eyes swelled with tears. I wanted to run around the desk and give her a hug, but she’d looked like she’d eaten a piece of bad fish when Clarice hugged her.
    “Oh, thank you! Clarice will be just as happy as me! But could I ask you what does the thing you said earlier about gangs mean?”
    “Gangs? Oh, it was ‘gang aft a-gley.’ That’s from Burns, my favorite Scottish poet. We’ll be studying him later. The poem is called ‘To a Mouse.’ ”
    Mrs. Needham closed her eyes.
    “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
        Gang aft a-gley
    And leave us nought but grief and pain
        For promised joy.”
    I didn’t understand a bit of it.
    Mrs. Needham said, “Mr. Burns wrote this after he wasplowing his field and accidentally destroyed a mouse’s nest. He tells the mouse that even though its home is