“I Didn’t Cheat”

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Friday, February 9, 1912:  I am disgusted with the marks I made in my examination, but although my marks are low I am not losing faith for I can truthfully say, “I didn’t cheat.” I had not much of a desire to cheat after that awful lecture and what desire I had left I managed to trample down. I intend to improve for next month and make my next teacher happy.  Jake is going to stay one week longer.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

In January Grandma got caught cheating. Even though these events happened a hundred years ago and logically it makes no sense—I feel bad that Grandma wasn’t rewarded with good grades when she studied hard.

Jake was Grandma’s teacher. It sounds like he was quitting and that she was soon going to have a new teacher.

Grandma indicated that she was going to continue studying hard to impress her new teacher. Hmm . . . I can’t help wondering if she might have failed to trample all temptation at some point and “tested” her new teacher to see if he let her get away with cheating.