The Teacher's Funeral Quotes

“I seen but little of this world,
Except my corner of it;
The city never drew me,
For I knew I could not love it.

What I loved best was watching
The garden getting ripe
And a pouch of sweet tobacco
And my old cob pipe.

What I loved best was a harvest moon
Before a frosty morn
And lamplight in the barn lot
And them long, straight rows of corn.

I was plain and country;
That's where it starts and ends,
But nobody loved her family more,
Or treasured more her friends.

I loved the changing seasons,
And looking for life's reasons,
And honey in the comb,
and home.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

“We'd gotten him wrong. He wasn't a dunce. He was an artist. According to these pages, he'd seen us all a good deal clearer than we'd ever seen him.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

“Why she hankered to be a teacher, I couldn't tell you. But she had chalk dust in her veins, and she deserved to get that certificate. It was only fair.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

“So there is some justice in this world, though not a lot.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

“The sobs came then, faster than she could swallow. A teacher dares not cry, not a real teacher.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

“I am here to help her learn," Tansy said, "not to keep her from it.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

“That's the way people is who ain't goin' anyplace in life theirselves. They don't want you goin' anyplace either.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

“Elsewhere, they called them spelling bees. We always called it Spelling School. As a school study, it was known as “orthography.” It was the most important subject in the education of that time. You may not have anything to say, but you dadburn better know how to spell it.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral

“Clearing his throat, Preacher Parr intoned: Alas, Miss Myrt has shuffled off this sad and mortal coil, Free at last from a spinster’s lot And a teacher’s toil. In her day she was never meek And rarely if ever mild; How well she knew that to spare the rod Was to spoil the ignorant child. We trusted her with our young’uns, And for goodness sake Some of the kids around here Are meaner than a snake. She was plainer than a pikestaff And rougher than a cob, But at her sad departure We all fetch up a sob. Though we take a solemn solace That in the sweet by and by Miss Myrt’s a-cuttin’ switches For that Schoolhouse in the Sky. Sincerely yours, The Sweet Singer of Sycamore Township”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral

“You got me,” Charlie said. “All I know for sure is she’s cut her last switch.”
― Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral