Tillie: A Mennonite Maid

Tillie: A Mennonite Maid

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Title: Tillie: A Mennonite Maid
Author: Helen Reimensnyder Martin
Release Date: December, 2003 [EBook #4760] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 13,
2002]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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MENNONITE MAID ***

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TILLIE A MENNONITE MAID
A STORY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH
BY HELEN REIMENSNYDER MARTIN

CONTENTS
I "OH, I LOVE HER! I LOVE HER!" II "I'M GOING TO LEARN
YOU ONCE!" III "WHAT'S HURTIN' YOU, TILLIE?" IV "THE
DOC" COMBINES BUSINESS AND PLEASURE V "NOVELS
AIN'T MORAL, DOC!" VI JAKE GETZ IN A QUANDARY VII
"THE LAST DAYS OF PUMP-EYE" VIII MISS MARGARET'S
ERRAND IX "I'LL DO MY DARN BEST, TEACHER!" X ADAM
SCHUNK'S FUNERAL XI "POP! I FEEL TO BE PLAIN" XII
ABSALOM KEEPS COMPANY XIII EZRA HERR, PEDAGOGUE
XIV THE HARVARD GRADUATE XV THE WACKERNAGELS
AT HOME XVI THE WACKERNAGELS "CONVERSE" XVII THE
TEACHER MEETS ABSALOM XVIII TILLIE REVEALS HERSELF
XIX TILLIE TELLS A LIE XX TILLIE IS "SET BACK" XXI "I'LL
MARRY HIM TO-MORROW!" XXII THE DOC CONCOCTS A
PLOT XXIII SUNSHINE AND SHADOW XXIV THE REVOLT OF
TILLIE XXV GETZ "LEARNS" TILLIE XXVI TILLIE'S LAST
FIGHT

TILLIE A MENNONITE MAID
A STORY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH

I
"OH, I LOVE HER! I LOVE HER!"
Tillie's slender little body thrilled with a peculiar ecstasy as she stepped
upon the platform and felt her close proximity to the teacher--so close
that she could catch the sweet, wonderful fragrance of her clothes and
see the heave and fall of her bosom. Once Tillie's head had rested
against that motherly bosom. She had fainted in school one morning
after a day and evening of hard, hard work in her father's celery-beds,
followed by a chastisement for being caught with a "story-book"; and
she had come out of her faint to find herself in the heaven of sitting on
Miss Margaret's lap, her head against her breast and Miss Margaret's
soft hand smoothing her cheek and hair. And it was in that blissful
moment that Tillie had discovered, for the first time in her young
existence, that life could be worth while. Not within her memory had
any one ever caressed her before, or spoken to her tenderly, and in that
fascinating tone of anxious concern.
Afterward, Tillie often tried to faint again in school; but, such is
Nature's perversity, she never could succeed.
School had just been called after the noon recess, and Miss Margaret
was standing before her desk with a watchful eye on the troops of
children crowding in from the playground to their seats, when the little
girl stepped to her side on the platform.
This country school-house was a dingy little building in the heart of
Lancaster County, the home of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Miss Margaret
had been the teacher only a few months, and having come from
Kentucky and not being "a Millersville Normal," she differed quite
radically from any teacher they had ever had in New Canaan. Indeed,
she was so wholly different from any one Tillie had ever seen in her
life, that to the child's adoring heart she was nothing less than a miracle.
Surely no one but Cinderella had ever been so beautiful! And how
different, too, were her clothes from those of the other young ladies of
New Canaan, and, oh, so much prettier--though not nearly so fancy;
and she didn't "speak her words" as other people of Tillie's
acquaintance spoke. To Tillie it was celestial music to hear Miss
Margaret say, for instance, "buttah" when she meant butter-r-r, and
"windo" for windah. "It gives her such a nice sound when she talks,"
thought Tillie.

Sometimes Miss Margaret's ignorance of the dialect of the
neighborhood