From the diary of "Gwendolyn" Albers

Dear Diary,


I woke up at the crack o' dawn this morning.I got out of bed and I was surprised to see Bartholomew, my younger brother, up before me. He looked starved, and was wondering what's for breakfast. "Good morning, sister......." he said in a weak voice as I passed by him. I stepped out the door and fetched some eggs from the chicken coop. There weren't too many eggs, since we forgot to gather some one day. We didn't pay too much attention.....and so most of the eggs hatched. We weren't too happy to find out that there wasn't much food for us to eat, but we at least got to keep the chicks. Then I went to draw a large jug of water from the stream. Then I went back home. Then Bartholomew and I both had breakfast. After I ate, I looked at our old clock that we bought before we left Europe. "We're late for school!" I said. "We must hurry!" We then ran off as fast as our little legs could carry. In a few minutes, Bartholomew and I arrived at Dameschool. "Welcome to class, darlings!" a voice said. "Please sit down!" I realized it was the Schoolmaster's voice. "Young ones, I'd be happy if you introduce yourselves!" she told us. "My name's Gwendolyn-" I couldn't finish my sentience. "And who is this fine gentleman you have with you?" the woman asked. "This is my brother, Bartholomew." I replied. "Hey there!" the little boy said. "I'm so glad to meet you two!" "My, I should have introduced myself!" the teacher told us. My name's Rebbecca." "And here are our wonderful students!" "...?" I interrupted. "Oh, apologies for those big words." " So, Here are our pupils." she told us. "This is Priscilla." she pointed to one of the children. "And here we have Nathaniel, Malory, Jeremiah, Abagail, Johnathan, Zacharia, Peter, Felicity and Amelia." You'll be wearing these." she told us. She handed me a bonnet and an apron. She handed my brother a breech and a vest. "Okay, now let's begin our first lesson." The Schoolmaster said. She gave us some books. "This is the New England Primer." she said. "Use these books for class." she told us. "Now, Let's flip to page 4." "This rhyme uses the letter D." "Can you find it in this poem?" She flipped to the fourth page in the book. 'A dog will bite a thief at night' was written in the book. I tried to read it. I was reading below grade level, so this was quite a challenge for me. ".........A-a-a.....dog....w-w-will....bit-t-ttttte.........a
th-th-thief......a-a-atttt...........n-n-night-t-t." I finished the sentence. "That's pretty good...-" the schoolmaster said. The day wasn't that bad after all!