Dreadful Start

Mary Ingalls On Her Own~Elizabeth Kimmel Willard
I read from page 86 to page 114

Mary decided to enroll in beadwork, organ, knitting, sewing, English Literature, Higher Mathematics, and Political Economy.  Mary's first class was to be beadwork.  Someone was going to bring her down to the room because neither Hannah or Blanche were taking beadwork.  After lunch the door opened without a knock.  The girl said come on and Mary realized that it was Mattie the rude and mean girl that was to take her to her first class ever at the college.  This was a dreadful start that Mary had not be wanting.  She got her down there after telling her that she had to walk and not just move slowly.  She was walking slowly because of her fall earlier that day (or week.)  Mattie left her at the door and Mary didn't know if this was the right one or not. Thankfully, Charlotte who is a friend of Hannah's, Blanche's and I think Mary's came and asked if she was going in.  Mary asked if it was the beadwork room and she said yes.  They went in and found a nice warm seat.  Their teacher started and welcomed Mary.  Mary wondered if their teacher, Miss Hennick was blind or if she could see because some teachers at the college are blind, partially blind, or they can see clear as day.  She handed out everybody else's pieces and then came and explained things to Mary.  She had her just string some because for a little while and then taught her the Daisy Chain stitch.  She said that it takes a bunch of tries to get it just right so don't be depressed when it doesn't come out the first time.  But, much to Miss Hennick and Mary's surprise, Mary did it just right the first time.  She was pleased with herself until Mattie said a mean comment back to Mary.  Mary started to learn the Braille and started to write a letter to Laura but then threw it into the fire.  She did feel like she had had a real conversation with Laura.  Mary also had a very nice organ lesson teacher.  His name was Mr. Locke and he said that Mary was a very promising musician.

Question:  I wonder how hard it would have been for Mary to write a letter back home even though she had a guide to help her.  I would find it hard because I think that my hand writing wouldn't stay in a straight line and my words might overlap.

Prediction:  I predict that Mary will have a very good Christmas at the college even though she can't go home for Christmas.

Connection:  My connection this week what I did last week.  I am going to put myself in Mary's position.  If I were Mary this week, I might have taken Hannah's offer to go to her house for Christmas. I might have sent the letter to Laura.  I might have burst out crying because of what Mattie did to "me."

Key Question:  For our Key Question this week, we had a choice whether we wanted to write a paragraph comparing two of our characters, a paragraph on a problem that occurred and they had many different solutions for it, or if there was something that happened to the character that had a lot of effects on them.  I am going to compare and contrast Mary and Mattie.

             Mary and Mattie are mostly different, but I can find some similarities with them.  Mary is a kind sweet, nice, compassionate, considerate "little" girl.  Mattie on the other hand is very rude, not considerate, bold with what she says, mean, short tempered, not patient.  Mary is nice, Mattie is rude.  That describes the differences in one sentence, but what about their similarities?  Well, for one thing they are both at the college for the blind.  Now Mary is actually blind, but Mattie can still see, but not very well.  So, they are both "blind."  I can imagine that deep down inside of Mattie there is love and compassion.  I think that someone said in the book that Mattie is angry and mean because she doesn't want to be where she is or she doesn't want to go blind.  Someone even said that she might be jealous of how Mary and others look because her eyes are "cloudy."  Those are some differences and similarities about Mary and Mattie.