Country Girls 2/5

Mary and Laura arrive in town and stop when they see all the children playing in front of the school. Mary tells Laura to go first. Laura counters with a “nuh-uh, you go.” Mary asks why her, and Laura reminds her that she is the older sister. Mary decides that they should just go together. We get a couple of views of all the playing happening around the school and how it all screeches to a halt once the girls arrive. There would have been a record scratch sound if the record player had been invented yet. Laura breaks the ice by saying that judging by the sound the girls might have wandered into a flock of prairie chickens. Mary immediately chastises her sister and the crowd seems unimpressed. Some boy, who surprisingly is not Willie Oleson, walks up to the girls and declares “Snipes for sale. Long-legged snipes!” The kids start chanting “Snipes, snipes, long-legged snipes.” Mary and Laura look at their feet, not in embarrassment but in confusion. I guess they have never heard of a snipe. I hadn’t either until I saw Up last week – and that was after I had recorded this episode. Anyway, Miss Beadle steps out onto the porch and starts ringing a small bell. The chanting kind of fades away as the kids head to the school and get bored. This one girl runs over and grabs the snipe-master, telling him to leave the new girls alone or she’ll tell Ma. “Go ahead, Kristy, see if I care,” he responds. That was nice of her. Too bad we’ll never see her again. As everyone files into the building, a blonde girl with a dour expression walks over to the Ingalls kids and looks them over. “Country girls,” she surmises. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Also, that must be Nellie Oleson. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! You know, as first days of school go, this is a particularly weird one.

The kids take their seats in the classroom. Laura and Mary are a bit slow to take off their hats and Miss Beadle doesn’t really notice them standing in the back until she restores order in the classroom. When she does see the girls, Miss Beadle invites them up to the front of room. All the kids turn to stare. I was lucky growing up – although I was the “new kid” several times, it was always at the beginning of the year rather than in the middle. That was bad enough and I could not imagine having to go through the situation Mary and Laura are going through now. As Mary and Laura walk down the aisle we see Nellie giving them a death glare. Geez, blondie, chill out.

When the girls reach the front, Miss Beadle introduces herself and begins the registration process. As Miss Beadle writes down the girls’ names, Laura notices Nellie’s death glare and snottily says “we have our own books.” Mary shushes her sister and hands the books to the teacher. Miss Beadle takes a look at them and acknowledges that they are very special. She sets the books down and asks about the girls’ prior schooling. Or lack thereof, as Mary explains it: She can read and Laura knows the alphabet and that’s about it. Miss Beadle assures Laura that she’ll learn how to read and will help her out as best she can. Laura seems to be quite fond of Miss Beadle already.

Miss Beadle stands and formally introduces the girls to the class. The class mumbles a “hello” and Miss Beadle is unimpressed. She instructs the class to say “Good morning, Mary” and they do. “And...” Miss Beadle goads, mouthing “Laura”. Everyone except Nellie says “Good morning, Laura.” The girls take a seat on the front bench. Miss Beadle asks if they have a slate and offers to loan them one when they say they do not have one. “Country girls,” Nellie says again. Both Laura and Miss Beadle turn when they hear this but neither one directly confronts the brat. While the rest of the class gets to work on sums, Miss Beadle provides Laura with a list of spelling words to practice at home.

After dinner, Pa is helping Laura with her “-at” words. Caroline and Mary are rolling yarn into balls. The fun times never stop at the Ingalls homestead. When Pa finishes the list, he commends Laura and says that she must really like school. Laura starts gushing about her experience thus far. Miss Beadle “is the best teacher in the whole world. And she smiles all the time. And she smells as good as she looks.” Okay, that’s getting a little creepy there, Half-pint. Oh, she’s referring to the perfume that her teacher wears which is called Lemon Verbena. “She’s the most beautiful lady I ever saw,” Laura states. Pa shoots a worried glance Caroline’s way and Laura catches herself, adding “except for Ma.” Pa says “she must be something special to be even close to your Ma.” Caroline smiles at the compliment. Pa asks Mary how her day went and she tells him about how that Kristy chick will probably be her new best friend. Nope. Pa asks if Laura has any instant BFF’s and Laura says there is someone she does not like: Nellie Oleson. Caroline starts to chastise Laura, but the girl goes on to tell the story of being called a “country girl”. Pa says there’s nothing wrong with that title, but Laura says there is given the way that Nellie uses the term: “Made me so mad I wanted to smack her good.” Pa tells his daughter that he doesn’t want to hear her talking like that and that school is for learning and not for fighting. Really? Are you sure?

Anyway, Caroline explains that part of going to school is learning how to get along with many different types of people, and Laura says she’ll try. Pa wants her to do more than try and Caroline reminds her of the golden rule. Once Laura agrees to this, Pa hands her a coin. He instructs the girls to take the money to the Mercantile to buy a slate and a paper tablet. Mary thanks him effusively. Pa sends the girls to bed. The parents talk about how surprised they were at just how much Laura loved school and how feisty she was about Nellie. Caroline wonders why Laura would get so riled up about her and Charles explains that he has a pretty good idea why since he met Mrs. Oleson. Laura calls down with one more spelling word, followed by Pa spelling “B-E-D”.