Posted February 16 & 21, 2021
"Yes, exactly! Probably most boys don't like school, least from what I know about boys - which ain't much at all. I have all my dealings with men and many of them liquored up," Caroline shrugged.
Addy then revealed that she too was planning on taking lessons, apparently from the local school marm so that indicated the woman did not know how to read and write? Well, she would hardly be alone in that, a lot of folks never went to school. To the common folk especially, education was a luxury more than a necessity.
"Ya oughta join me, so it won't seem so lonely, an' we can practice tagether. Can't hurt none. "
"Oh, well ya see I already know how to read and write. I'm pretty good at arithmetic too. My ma - God rest her soul - taught me. Now granted there are a lot of fancy words I don't know the meaning of but if I need to I can get thru a book decently enough. And when Ma took ill, I kept the place's books too. It's really just adding, subtracting more than anything," Caroline explained.
"And then there's the other fly in the ointment. Your school marm might not want to be seen with the likes of my sort, saloon folk. Or even if she doesn't care, if word got around she is mingling with me, there might well be a sizeable number of parents upset with her then. She could even lose her job. There are a lot of folk like the Emdens in every town."
"I've been told to leave a church, insulted on the streets, not sold to in some shops, and once an old bat even spat upon me. It comes with my life, I'm used to it... mostly."
The last part was a lie, you never got used to it.
At this point the town, their destination, came into sight and it did not take long before the stagecoach pulled up at the station building on the main street to let the passengers disembark along with whatever luggage they had with them. Caroline thanked Addy for the conversation and once more reminded the woman she should make it a point to come into the saloon on occasion to visit if nothing else. Oh and get that drink on the house.
Caroline soon spotted her welcoming committee and a familiar face it was too. Mr. Crabbe and his Chinaman, they both looked the same, some things did not change it appeared. As for this town of Kalispell, well it was no Chicago or even Helena but if she could get that job here, she'd be fine with the place.