“Good morning, boys. How are the Lord’s little helpers this morning?” Miss Quiggly asked.
We all just looked at her. How could anybody be that cheery at 9 am Sunday morning?
Miss Quiggly was an old maid. “It’s no wonder she never got married, “ Skippy Wilson whispered, “Who could stand that confounded chatter this early in the morning?” Skippy complained about everything.
I liked Sunday school. Sunday was the only day I could sleep in, but I preferred to come to church. There was always something to do. Miss Quiggly wasn’t the best Sunday school teacher we ever had, but she was interesting. Mr. Davis was the best, but he left mysteriously after finding Lenny Wilson’s (Skippy’s brother) sinking eyeball in the bottom of his coffee cup. We noticed Mr. Davis seemed to develop a slight twitch just after that.
It was Miss Quiggly’s responsibility to see that we all grew up to be respectful, God-fearing young men, and she took that challenge with great with enthusiasm. Being a Sunday school teacher for 10 fifth grade boys was a daring exploit. Some boys seemed to enjoy the opportunity to break in another teacher. I liked the consistency of the same teacher week after week, but it seemed that wasn’t destined to be.
“Today, we are going to study about the Ark of the Covenant. Doesn’t that sound exciting?” Miss Quiggly’s words were filled with excitement. We looked at each other with puzzled looks. “Oh, I see, you don’t know what the ark was, do you?”
Miss Quiggly set out to explain the ark and its purpose in God’s plan. It was very interesting.
“Do you know what God put in the ark?” Miss Quiggly raised her eyebrows as she quizzed the class. We were lost.
“I just happen to have a replica of the original ark in my bag. Would you like to see it?” We were breathless.
Barney Malone leaned over and told me he left his frog in the little box in Miss Quiggly’s bag. I chuckled. Barney’s mother encouraged him to leave his frog at home, but he managed to bring it. Barney was first to arrive at Sunday school. It was his responsibility to put our snack together for Miss Quiggly. That morning he noticed Miss Quiggly’s bag. Yielding to the great temptation, he peeked into the bag to see what we would be doing. The little box made a great cage for his frog while he prepared the morning snack.
In the midst of all the morning activity, he forgot to retrieve Ribbets from the box in Miss Quiggly’s bag.
Miss Quiggly said, “God put something very special in this box. Do you know what it is?”
Barney was tempted to tell her, but he was afraid she would get mad and take away his snack privileges. So we sat there with great anticipation.
Miss Quiggly held the little box up so we could all see it clearly. Some of the boys spoke out possible contents, but no one guessed the original items.
Miss Quiggly was having a lot of fun with our guessing game. She held the box close to her face as if to peek at the contents without showing the rest of us.
“Do you give up?” Her smile told us that she was tickled to know something we didn’t. “Let me see, what did God put in here?”
She closed her eyes and opened the box just enough to see the contents. Her final comment was, “What could it be?” She opened her eyes real wide and stuck her face right in the box, and there Ribbets sat, staring back at her.
It was hard to tell which one screamed the loudest. Miss Quiggly’s hair seemed to stand straight up on her head. For a brief moment, she seemed to rise above the desk. At the same time, the frog let out a roaring “Ribbbbbet,” as he jumped out of the box. It gets a little fuzzy from here on. The frog managed to jump right between the top two buttons on Miss Quiggly’s best Sunday dress. She immediately began to throw her arms in the air, stomp her feet and spin around in circles.
Skippy leaned over and said, “Didn’t we see this dance on a National Geographic special in school?”
“I’m not sure, “ I replied.
It was quite a sight. The boys scrambled for cover as Miss Quiggly darted out of the classroom. We noticed that as she disappeared down the hall, she seemed to have a slight twitch. We’re not sure what happened to Miss Quiggly, or Barney’s frog, but rumor has it that she vowed to never teach Sunday school again, at least not fifth-grade boys
Comments(4)