03 One-Room Schoolhouse

3 One-Room Schoolhouse “ Let's check it out, " said Annie. She and Jack walked up the little hill. At the top, they saw that the rusty pipe was rising out of a wooden roof. They walked around to the other side of the hill. Beneath the wooden roof was a door. The door seemed to open into the hill itself. “ What is this?" said Annie. “ Let's find out, " said Jack.

He studied their research book until he found a black-and-white photograph. The photograph showed the same hill with the door.

Jack read aloud: Since the prairie did not have many trees, wood was hard to find. So pioneers often made their houses out of sod bricks, which were blocks of earth cut out of the prairie. Sometimes a sod house was dug out of the side of a hill, It was called a “ dugout. ” Jack pulled out his notebook. He wrote: sod bricks = blocks of earth dugout = sod house carved out of hillside Then Jack read more to Annie: Tornados, or twisters, are common on the prairie, so many dugouts had storm cellars. A storm cellar was like a rough basement below the ground. During a twister, a storm cellar is the safest place to be.

“ Wow, maybe well see a twister, " said Annie. “ I hope not, " said Jack. Then he read on: A pioneer family built this dugout for a home. When they moved, the dugout became a schoolhouse. The schoolhouse had only one room. It also had a storm cellar beneath it. Jack quickly wrote: some dugouts have storm cellars “ Hey! This is the place! " said Annie. Jack looked up from his writing. “ What place?” he asked.

“ Where's the best place to find our special writing-something to learn?" asked Annie. Jack smiled. “ A school, " he said. Annie ran to the wooden door and knocked loudly. A moment later, the door creaked open. A girl peeked out. Her hair was in a tight bun. as if she were a grownup. But she didn't look more than sixteen or seventeen years old. “ Hi, I'm Annie, " said Annie. “ This is my brother, Jack. " The girl opened the door wider. “ Hello, Jack and Annie, ” she said. “ I'm your teacher, Miss Neely. " “ You're the teacher?” said Jack. Miss Neely seemed way too young to be a teacher. “ Yes! " she said, smiling. “ Come in. You're late. ”