Mrs. Wopp had a request from Mrs. Williams. She, the requestor, was ill with a touch of “pewmonia,” as Mrs. Wopp related, and would Mrs. Wopp the requestee oblige by taking her Sunday-school class for the following Sunday afternoon.  
Mrs. Williams was a round-faced dimpled lady; and Mrs. Wropp, being non-coax-proof and flattered by the request, consented.
 
That daughter of Jubal sighed, not for the on her Sunday afternoon leisure hour, but because she had found out the lesson was to be on Jonah and the whale. She had always been partial to the story of the feeding Elijah and to the of the Son. She felt that her inclined her most to stories where hospitality and mouthwatering descriptions of hunger provided the dramatic interest. Well she knew that the Tishbite and the son who returned to the feast of fatted would have received full justice at her hands. As for Jonah, and the whale with the oesophagus, she would do her best.
 
After the opening exercises of the Sunday-school session, Mrs. Wopp was pained to notice that some of her scholars did not consider attention to the lesson any part of their duty. However, that strict disciplinarian had a vast store of startling reprimands that set all eyes gazing on her sincere .
 
But minds may stray though eyes seem . Two boys began to indulge surreptitiously in the mild amusement of extracting toothsome from shells. Cracking nuts not being to alertness of mind, Mrs. Wopp a large bag of filberts which proved to be the property of Pat Bliggins and Pete Stolway.
 
The infant class which was to be under the guidance of Mrs. Wopp for the day, consisted of seven small pupils. They were seated on a low bench in one corner of the church. Green curtains were hung in such a way that, after the preliminary devotional exercises, the little class could be screened from the adults and older pupils. A blackboard stood on the floor, and upon a table near by were many colored crayons. The infantile mind required such aids to the imagination.
 
Mrs. Wopp viewed with the ornate writing not yet from the previous lesson. She feared her own handwriting would suffer by comparison.
 
“Mith Wopp,” offered Lila Williams with a dignity befitting her eight years and her enviable position as daughter of the regular teacher, “my ma let Pete and Pat thit together, they act too thilly.”
 
on this timely suggestion, Mrs. Wopp deposited the youths on small chairs, one on each side of her table, directly under her eye. Cracking nuts seemed to have been the special proposed form of amusement for the afternoon. By the end of five minutes the substitute teacher had set several large noisy paper bags on the window .
 
It took some time to focus her intellect on the proper placing of mirthful youngsters, but at last, after singing “Like a little candle burning in the night,” all were in readiness to biblical learning.
 
Mrs. Wopp drew the green curtains together and turned to the smallest girl in the class.
 
“What’s the Golden Text, Norer?”
 
Norah Bliggins, whose nose was already moist from the effects of domestic , thrust a finger into her mouth and began to up her eyes preparatory to emitting a howl of dismay at being singled out for the first question. Her brother Pat, sensing the situation, put up his hand eagerly and answered for her.
 
Mrs. Wopp repeated the words, slowly rolling them on her tongue as though to extract every ounce possible of scriptural nutriment, “So they took up Joner and carst him the sea.”
 
Choosing a piece of bright yellow chalk she began to the golden text on the blackboard. She pressed too hard and the chalk cracked and fell to the floor. Pete Stolway out of his chair to capture the yellow pencil, but he had the misfortune to step on both the pieces of crayon, crushing them to sand, a heap of yellow .
 
“Never min’, Pete, an’ thank you anyways, but sence the lesson’s a lot about the sea, I’ll jist write with blue chork.”
 
The light shone through the colored glass window, casting a bluish over the large earnest countenance of the teacher, and a distinct whisper was heard to the effect that “Mrs. Wopp’s face was blue moulderin’.”
 
Impressed with the importance of her task of wisdom into the minds of her young listeners, Mrs. Wopp ignored this remark and continued the into which she had already launched.
 
“Here was Joner scourin’ down to Jopper to take the ship to Tarshidge arter the Lord hed distinctly told him to go to Niniver, an’ fer punishment the Lord hed him swallered by a whale.”
 
The teacher looked to see some effect from this bald statement of the result of Jonah’s disobedience, and during her gazed sternly on Pat Bliggins and Pete Stohway as objects the most in need of her .
 
“When Joner got to Jopper, bein’ an honest man, he paid his fare.”
 
A hand shot up at this point in the lesson and a thin voice piped, “Please, Mis’ Wopp, I was to the Fair last year.”
 
Not to notice this interruption the teacher proceeded.
 
“But the Lord hed his eye on Joner an’ put an orful wind on the sea.”
 
Several hands waved wildly and a chorus of voices eagerly broke in; through the childish babel could be heard a lisping narrative.
 
“Please, Mith Wopp, the latht windthorm upthet our hen-houth.”
 
Mrs. Wopp lurched heavily in her endeavor to calm the of excited voices. Quiet was at length restored after several pupils had given thrilling accounts of caused by windstorms.
 
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