Chapter 14

THE HANKY SCHOOL

The Dovecot was a prim little cottage standing back from the steepest
brae in Thrums and hidden by high garden walls, to the top of which
another boy's shoulders were, for apple-lovers, but one step up.
Jargonelle trees grew against the house, stretching their arms round it
as if to measure its girth, and it was also remarkable for several
"dumb" windows with the most artful blinds painted on them. Miss Ailie's
fruit was famous, but she loved her flowers best, and for long a notice
board in her garden said, appealingly: "Persons who come to steal the
fruit are requested not to walk on the flower-beds." It was that old
bachelor, Dr. McQueen, who suggested this inscription to her, and she
could never understand why he chuckled every time he read it.

There were seven rooms in the house, but only two were of public note,
the school-room, which was downstairs, and the blue-and-white room
above. The school-room was so long that it looked very low in the
ceiling, and it had a carpet, and on the walls were texts as well as
maps. Miss Ailie's desk was in the middle of the room, and there was
another desk in the corner; a cloth had been hung over it, as one covers
a cage to send the bird to sleep. Perhaps Miss Ailie thought that a bird
had once sung there, for this had been the desk of her sister, Miss
Kitty, who died years before Tommy came to Thrums. Dainty Miss Kitty,
Miss Kitty with the roguish curls, it is strange to think that you are
dead, and that only Miss Ailie hears you singing now at your desk in the
corner! Miss Kitty never sang there, but the playful ringlets were once
the bright thing in the room, and Miss Ailie sees them still, and they
are a song to her.

The pupils had to bring handkerchiefs to the Dovecot, which led to its
being called the Hanky School, and in time these handkerchiefs may be
said to have assumed a religious character, though their purpose was
merely to protect Miss Ailie's carpet. She opened each scholastic day by
reading fifteen verses from the Bible, and then she said sternly,
"Hankies!" whereupon her pupils whipped out their handkerchiefs, spread
them on the floor and kneeled on them while Miss Ailie repeated the
Lord's Prayer. School closed at four o'clock, again with hankies.

Only on great occasions were the boys and girls admitted to the
blue-and-white room, when they were given shortbread, but had to eat it
with their heads flung back so that no crumbs should fall. Nearly
everything in this room was blue or white, or both. There were white
blinds and blue curtains, a blue table-cover and a white crumb-cloth, a
white sheepskin with a blue footstool on it, blue chairs dotted with
white buttons. Only white flowers