Hannah Read Online Free

quiet.
    Miss Robbin said for our history lesson she was going to tell the class a story about the first president of the United States, George Washington. She wanted us all to listen carefully, and then she would ask us questions. If we knew the answers, we must raise our hands.
    She told us lots of things. George Washington was born in 1732. He grew up in a four-room farmhouse on a river with a pretty name—the Rappahannock. He couldn’t spell very well. He liked to wrestle and dance and act in plays. In the French and Indian War he had two horses shot from under him. Then she told us all about the Revolutionary War and how Washington didn’t want to be president. When she finished, Miss Robbin started to ask us questions. I kept putting my hand up. I was used to listening hard and memorizing what I heard so I wouldn’t lose it. Sometimes I was the only one who had the answer.
    At recess Effie asked, “How did you know all those things?” Some girls took my hand and asked me to walk around the schoolyard with them. They said I had pretty hair and wanted to know if I minded not being able to see, and I told them, “Sure I do.” Then they wanted to know if I just saw darkness, and I told them I didn’t see anything. Pretty soon they stopped asking all those questions and started to talk about which boys they liked best. Effie said she had a new baby sister that cried all night. Another girl said she wished she lived in a big city, and someone else said they hated to gather eggs because the hens had fleas.

    Verna started to take me back to class, and the other girls ran on ahead. Halfway across the playground I heard Carl Kleino’s voice. I stood still, holding tightly on to Verna’s hand. Carl said, “I didn’t want to come up to you when those dumb girls were there, but I want to tell you I’m sorry about what I said to you the other day.” Then I heard him hurrying away.
    At the table that night I could hardly stop talking about school. Finally, Mama told me to eat my supper and let them have some peace. Miss Robbin had been quiet all through the meal. Just as we were finishing dessert, she said, “I know what I’ll do.” I heard her get up from the table, and then Iheard the kitchen door slam. In no time she was back and a lot of things rattled onto the table.
    “What are you doing with those acorns?” Papa asked her.
    “Well,” she said, “I’ve been worrying about how I can teach Hannah arithmetic. Mr. Thomas, could you drill holes in these acorns for me? And Mrs. Thomas, could you loan me three knitting needles?”
    Papa said to Miss Robbin, “You got some funny ideas.” He went and drilled the holes anyhow. Mama got the knitting needles, and Johnny and Verna and I waited to find out what Miss Robbin was going to do.
    “I’m sticking these needles through this heavy cardboard, Hannah, so they will stand up all by themselves. Then we’ll make an abacus with the acorns. This is the way people counted two thousand years ago. This first needle will stand for ones, and the second one for tens, and the third one for hundreds.” She began to show me how I could add and subtract by adding and taking away acorns from the three needles.

    “Well!” said Papa. “That’s a clever trick if ever I saw one. It didn’t cost a penny, either.”
    “There’s one other thing, Mr. Thomas,” Miss Robbin said. “There was a blind teacher, a Mr. Braille, who invented a way of printing books so that blind people could read. I know where I can get some books, but I wonder if we could send away for his device that lets blind people write?”
    “Is it free?” Papa asked.
    “No. I’m afraid it costs money.”
    “Well, you’ll have to forget about that.”
    “Yes, sir,” said Miss Robbin. But she didn’t sound like she would forget. And I knew she hadn’t, because one day she told all of us at school about Braille. She showed the class pictures of a contraption that made raised dots that let blind