“I Like This School!”
Totto chan was very happy looking the train-school. She wanted to run in soon, but her mother didn’t allow because totto chan had not been accepted yet. “I think I like this school”, said Totto chan. Mother felt like telling her that it wasn't a matter of whether she liked the school but whether the headmaster liked her. Mother just said, “if you want to get on this train, you have to be nice and polite to the headmaster”.
The headmaster office was not in the railroad car, but it was in the small building on the right-hand side. Before meeting the headmaster, Totto chan whispered to her mother "The man we're going to see must be a stationmaster because he owned these trains!". There was no time to explain, mother simply said “anyway, what about Daddy? He plays the violin and owns several violins, but that doesn't make our house a violin shop, does it?"
The Headmaster
When Mother and Totto-chan went in, the man in the office got up from his chair. With a hasty bow, Totto-chan asked him spiritedly "What are you, a schoolmaster or a stationmaster?". Mother was embarrassed, but before she had time to explain, he laughed and replied, "I'm the headmaster of this school."
The headmaster offered her a chair and turned to Mother and asked her to go home because he wanted to talk to Totto-chan.
The headmaster got closer to tottochan and asked her to tell everything about her.
Totto chan tells him everything, about her dog, Rocky, about how fast her train, about her father who could swim well, about her scar dress because she always passing the iron fence. There’s no one listen to Totto chan enthusiastically like headmaster did.
Lunchtime
Headmaster took totto chan where the children had lunch. They didn’t lunch on the train but in the Assembly Hall. There are fifty children in that school. When everyone was seated, the headmaster asked the pupils if they had all brought something from the ocean and something from the hills. Totto chan wondered what kind of menu that was. She never thought that lunchtime could be this fun.
Totto chan starts school
After the headmaster said “now you are a pupil of this school”, Totto chan can't wait for the next day. She had never looked forward to a day so much. Mother usually had trouble getting Totto-chan out of bed in the morning, but that day she was up before anyone else, all dressed and waiting with her schoolbag snapped to her back.
Mother had a lot to do. She busily made up a box lunch containing "something from the ocean and something from the hills" while she gave Totto-chan her breakfast. Mother also put Totto-chan's train pass in a plastic case and hung it around Tottochan's neck on a cord so she wouldn't lose it. Rocky, her dog took totto chan into the train station.
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