Love for Sale

one. All but two of the boys, Bob and Bill, succeeded, and neither of them were very far off. It obviously wasn’t Bob’s favorite challenge. Lily assumed he’d far rather be racketing around town in his father’s truck.
    She hardly needed to test them on deportment. She wasn’t sure how she could anyway. They were all amazingly well mannered, with the exception of the slightly surly Bob. They went back to their arithmetic books and started the lesson where Miss Langston had left a green ribbon marker in the teacher copy.
    The morning seemed to fly by. Lily had never thought of being a teacher, but was enjoying herself with this well-behaved group of children. She gave them a short mid-morning break on whispered advice from one of the girls. After that she read to them aloud from a book on the desk that likewise had a green ribbon marker.
    She hadn’t read the book herself, so when something interesting happened in the plot and one of the younger boys, Ted, asked a question about it, she turned it over to his classmates to discuss.
    After that she had them all get up and do a few stretching exercises because a few of them were looking tired and hungry. Then they went on to talk about how you should introduce people to each other.
    She called Josie and Ted to the front of the room and said to Josie, “Mrs. Roosevelt, allow me to introduce you to Ted.“ Josie giggled and blushed and shook his hand.
    “You always say the woman’s name first, you see. Now, let’s have Susie in place of Ted. Mrs. Roosevelt, I’d like to introduce you to Susie. The older woman’s name first, especially when the older woman is far more famous.”
    She set them up in different combinations: older man to younger man, young woman to older man.
    Lunch break followed this and they were all calling Josie “Mrs. Roosevelt“ and opening doors for her to go first.
    The school had a lunchroom but no kitchen, and all the children had brought food in their paper bags, which they carefully folded up to take home and use again. There was a refrigerator where milk was kept and a sink to wash out the cups they brought from home. Lily would have lunch at home, so she roamed around the room chatting with her students and noticed there was a difference in what came out of the bags.
    Some had sandwiches with thick homemade bread and a meager slice of cheese. Others had more generous meals. A few children even had a peppermint or a lollipop for dessert. Lily observed that some of the larger, more substantial sandwiches were being shared with other children. Those who were a little better off had probably been told by their parents to do this.
    Or maybe this was another of Miss Langston’s deportment lessons.
    They talked among themselves in the room where they ate. Lily soon realized they were talking about her from the badly concealed looks she was getting. They all seemed very cheerful about their substitute teacher, she guessed from their smiles.
    Mrs. Tarkington came along and sat down beside her. I must admit that I eavesdropped a bit on your class. You did an admirable job. Especially since you had so little time to prepare.”
    Lily posed a question. “I’ve never spent much time with children. Are these unusually polite and bright ones?“
    “Not until Miss Langston started teaching them. And some of the boys aren’t really tamed yet except when they’re in class.“
    “That surprises me.”
    Lily tried to be tactful. “I’ve only met Miss Langston once and found her a bit of a—well- tartar.”
    She was afraid she’d offend, but Mrs. Tarkington smiled sadly. “She is, with adults. But she’s really in her proper element with children. She’s a natural-born teacher. She’s firm and unrelenting, but sympathetic with the slower ones, mostly the boys. And she’s remarkably kind and even sometimes humorous. I often hear them laughing in class. She’s a very strange person, I have to admit. Socially inept around adults, and wonderful with children of this age. I’m not sure she could get along so well with very young children and would probably be a disaster with the older ones.”
    She glanced up and said, “Here’s your brother. Ahead of time.”
    There was an undercurrent of excitement when Robert came into the lunchroom, especially with the girls, who giggled and blushed. “Your sister did a good job this morning,“ Mrs. Tarkington said to him. “I’m sure you will as well.”
    Robert ruffled through a wad of