The Teacher's Funeral: Chapters 8–9

by Richard Peck
Teenager Russell Culver's dreams of no more school and leaving his tiny farming town seem to be within reach when the schoolhouse teacher dies right before the school year begins! To his surprise, however, his older sister, Tansy, becomes the new teacher…and gradually life begins to change.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–7, Chapters 8–9, Chapters 10–13, Chapters 14–17
15 words 14 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. privy
    a room or building equipped with one or more toilets
    As arranged, me and Charlie Parr met early that next morning behind the boys’ privy.
  2. wallow
    a puddle where animals go to roll around
    They’d spend their days at leisure in the hog wallow and nest in dry leaves by night.
  3. consternation
    sudden shock or dismay that causes confusion
    To my consternation, we heard a bell ring. It jangled the morning and summoned us to school.
  4. smug
    marked by excessive complacency or self-satisfaction
    Tansy’d be standing smug in the front door, calling us cattle to the trough of knowledge.
  5. shirtwaist
    a blouse with buttons down the front
    She was strictly business in a starchy shirtwaist and shoes. Her hair was up, and that made her an adult right there.
  6. perdition
    the place or state in which one suffers eternal punishment
    “Hey, Tansy,” some said. “Miss Tansy,” she said. I was condemned to eternal perdition if I was going to be able to call my own sister ‘Miss Tansy.’
  7. preen
    pride or congratulate oneself for an achievement
    “Getting her is not my job, and you’re not the boss of me, Tansy. I remember when you were one of us, and how long you took to get through the third reader.” Pearl preened.
  8. flounce
    walk in an emphatic or exaggerated way
    We all watched while Pearl lost the staring match. She flounced out, and you could see right there she’d reached the troublesome age, which is always worse with girls.
  9. ascend
    travel up
    Tansy looked out at us. “Flop – Floyd Lumley, ascend the rostrum and write the letter A on the blackboard.”
  10. cacophony
    loud confusing disagreeable sounds
    From out on the front step, J.W began barking his head off. It was a regular cacophony out there. Cacophony was one of our C words.
  11. smolder
    burn slowly and without a flame
    “The buggy whip you and Charlie were smoking behind the privy this morning, and one of you dropped it in the weeds where it smoldered till it caught –”
  12. filch
    make off with belongings of others
    “We done pretty good in tamping out the fire, then raking up. Me and Char – the other boys will build up the back wall of the privy as quick as we can filch – find the lumber. I will myself personally shave enough new shingles to patch the roof…”
  13. derision
    the act of treating with contempt
    “But that’s not your worst offense.” The lamp burned lower now as my time ran out. “No. Your worst crime was to hold me up to derision.”
  14. contretemps
    an awkward clash
    At the time of the crossroad contretemps, Eugene Hammond of the newly organized Overland Automobile Company of Terre Haute was the motorneer at the wheel of the car.
  15. measly
    contemptibly small in amount
    Flopears had only a measly little square of hard salt-and-water corn bread in his pail that wouldn’t fill a wood tick. We shared out with him, and he got a pickled peach off me.
Created on Wed Jan 14 18:34:42 EST 2026 (updated Tue Mar 03 12:18:51 EST 2026)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.