Tillie: A Mennonite Maid

Tillie: A Mennonite Maid

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tillie: A Mennonite Maid
by Helen Reimensnyder Martin Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
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
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TILLIE: A MENNONITE MAID ***

Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

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 led to complications, as in her conversation just now with Tillie.
"Well?" she inquired, lifting the little girl's chin with her forefinger as Tillie stood at her side and thereby causing that