EDUCATING JANE
The girls in the Big House by the
Park debated the best way to teach Jane deLacey about the world of 1904, which
was very different from the world of 1594 that she had come from. The first thing they tried was to read the
newspaper with her every morning. They quickly discovered that this had
drawbacks.
They had to stop nearly every
sentence and try to explain what was being reported. Public figures, political, cultural, and
social institutions, places, events, and new words all had to be explained to
her, and the girls found that they didn’t always know about these things
themselves.
For example, although Savannah was able to show
Jane where Japan
was on the globe, she was at a loss to explain why it was at war with Russia.
So it was suggested that Jane start
by reading elementary history books to find out all the things that she had
missed, and to get an idea of how the world had come to be the way it was. She began with Young Folks’ History of England, by Charlotte M. Yonge, which gave
her a good, simple overview (profusely illustrated), of English history up to
1879, only twenty-five years shy of were she was now. She also learned many things about history
before her time that she hadn’t know before.
While she was thus engaged one
morning, Gila came into the library.
Surprised, Jane started. Gila
stammered an apology and turned to leave.
“Stop a while, I pray,” said Jane,
“Thou art the Jewess, are thee not?”
Gila was on her guard; she had
heard about the trouble there had been between Jane and Nellie on account of
their religious differences. Gila nodded slowly.
Jane was wide-eyed with
wonder. “In sooth, never have I seen an
Hebrew ere this instant! Images of
prophets and patriarchs have I seen in glass and paint in the church at Poppets
Revel (ere they were broken and whitewashed o’er), but they were elders with
long beards and pointed hats, and certis, thou art not such an one!”
Gila, who knew very little English
yet, hadn’t understood a word, but smiled and nodded.
“Di
anderer du redn nit enlech,” she said in Yiddish, “Fun langsturik zey gezogt du bist.” ["You do not speak like the others. They say you are from long ago."]
“I ken not thy speech,” said Jane,
“From whence came thee?” Gila looked
confused.
Jane took her to the globe, and
finding England,
pointed to herself and then to England.
“Here is where I am from, deLacey
Hall, near Poppets Revel, Warwickshire.”
Then she pointed to Gila and then to the globe, “And thou?”
Gila pointed to a spot in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, near the border of East Prussia. “Fun dart ikh bin, Lialkadorf, ein kleyn shtetl in Poyln.” ["I am from there, Lialkadorf, a little Jewish village in Poland."]
Jane took Gila’s hand. “Thou’rt from far away and I am from long
ago. Let us be friends and learn of this
new world together. Thou’rt called Gila,
I trow. My name is Jane.”
“Schoen?”
“Not Shane, Jane.”
“Nein,
Schoen,” Gila smiled, “Schoen
mean pretty.”
Jane beamed, and the two new
friends hugged each other.
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