The Children's Story by James Clavell Page B

moment,” the New Teacher said. “What does pledge mean?”
    The children stood openmouthed; Miss Worden had never interrupted them before. They stood and stared at the New Teacher. Wordless. And silent.
    “What does allegiance mean?” the New Teacher asked, her hand over her heart.
    The children stood in silence. Then Mary put up her hand. “Well, pledge is, ah, well, something like—sort of when you want to do something very good. You sort of pledge you’re going to do something like not suck your thumb ’cause that makes your teeth bend and you’ll have to wear a brace and go to the dentist, which hurts.”
    “That’s very good, Mary. Very, very good. To pledge means to promise. And allegiance? ”
    Mary shrugged helplessly and looked at her best friend, Hilda, who looked back at her and then at the teacher and shrugged helplessly too.
    The New Teacher waited, and the silence hung in the room, hurting. Then she said, “I think it’s quite wrong for you to have to say something with long words in it if you don’t understand what you’re saying.”
    So the children sat down and waited expectantly.
    “What did your other teacher tell you that it meant?”
    After a long silence Danny put up his hand. “She never said nothing, miss.”
    “One of my teachers at the other school I went to before this one,” Joan said in a rush, “well, she sort of said what it all meant, at least she said something about it just before recess one day and then the bell went and afterwards we had spellin’.”
    Danny said, “Miss Worden—well, she never told us. We just hadta learn it and then say it, that’s all. Our real teacher didn’t say anything at all.”
    All the children nodded. Then they waited again.
    “Your teacher never explained to you?” All the children shook their heads.
    “I don’t think that was very good. Not to explain. You can always ask me anything. That’s what a real teacher should do.” Then the New Teacher said, “But didn’t you ask your daddies and mommies?”
    “Not about ‘I pledge.’ We just hadta learn it,” Mary said. “Once I could say it, Daddy gave me a nickel for saying it good.”
    “That’s right,” Danny said. “So long as you could say it all, it was very good. But I never got no nickel.”
    “Did you ask each other what it meant?”
    “I askt Danny once and he didn’t know and none of us knowed really. It’s grown-up talk, and grown-ups talk that sort of words. We just havta learn it.”
    “The other schools I went to,” Hilda said, “they never said anything about it. They just wanted us to learn it. They didn’t ask us what it meant. We just hadta say it every day before we started school.”
    “It took me weeks and weeks and weeks to say it right,” Mary said.
    So the New Teacher explained what allegiance meant, “…so you are promising or pledging support to the flag and saying that it is much more important than you are. How can a flag be more important than a real live person?”
    Johnny broke the silence. “But the next thing is—well, where it says ‘and to the republic for which it stands.’ That means it’s like a, like a…” He searched for the word and could not find it. “Like a well, sort of sign, isn’t it?”
    “Yes. The real word is a symbol. ” The New Teacher frowned. “But we don’t need a sign to remind us that we love our country, do we? You’re all good boys and girls. Do you need a sign to remind you?”
    “What’s remind mean?” Mary asked.
    “It means to make you remember. To make you remember that you’re all good boys and girls.”
    The children thought about this and shook their heads.
    Johnny put up his hand. “Its our flag,” he said fiercely. “We always pledge.”
    “Yes,” the New Teacher said. “It is a very pretty one.” She looked at it a moment and then said, “I wish I could have a piece of it. If it’s so important, I think we should all have a piece of it. Don’t you?”
    “I’ve a