THINK HELP!
ETHEL BROWN'S head had been turned by the praise she received after the
fire. So many people complimented her on her coolness and daring that
she began to think that she had done something extraordinary. Her
feeling was increased by Ethel Blue's attitude of humiliation over her
own terror on that occasion. She told her cousin frankly that she
thought she had been perfectly wonderful and Ethel Brown could see that
Ethel Blue had never forgotten that she herself made but a poor showing
in the emergency. She did not stop to think that Ethel Blue was a far
more nervous girl than she, and that it was entirely natural for her to
do without thinking what required a distinct effort on the part of Ethel
Blue.
As a result of holding this extremely good opinion of herself, Ethel
Brown's manner had become so condescending that Mrs. Morton was obliged
to call her attention to it. It was a painful enlightenment for Ethel
Brown. She loved Ethel Blue as if she were a sister, and she never
consciously would have been unkind to her; yet not only had she been
behaving in a way that would not help the more delicate girl to better
her failing but she was becoming not an agreeable young person to have
about.
"Oh, Mother," she sobbed, "I must be just awful! What can I do? Tell me
what to do!"
"The very first thing to do is to houseclean your mind."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You must first rid your mind of the idea that you are a remarkable
young woman. You did your duty well, but there is nothing so astonishing
in doing one's duty that a person need dwell on it forever after. Do
your duty as a matter of course and then forget that you have done it
and go on to the next duty."
"But it's exciting to think that you've done something very well."
"If you keep up excitement a long time you get very tired of it. If you
follow my suggestion you have a comfortable feeling all the time. My
process is just like housecleaning a room; before you clean the walls
and floor you remove the furniture. When the bare room is fresh once
more you move in the articles that you want there for use or adornment."
"Clean out bad thoughts and put in--"
"Only such thoughts as you are going to find valuable. For instance,
after you have cleaned out of your mind the idea that you are very
superior to Ethel Blue you ought to fill your mind with thoughts of
helpfulness for her. You must think of all the good points she has;
think how gentle she is and truthful and how brave she is about taking
blame when she deserves it. You never find Ethel Blue failing to admit
her responsibility for accidents or mistakes even when it takes a good
deal of moral courage to do it."
Ethel Brown flushed. She remembered times when, according to her,
accidents had happened without any human assistance.
"You must give Ethel Blue a feeling that you believe in her physical
courage as well as her moral courage. You must always think of her as
brave and when you talk with her on any such subjects you must take it
for granted that she is brave. It is natural for a person to try to live
up to the opinion that other people hold of him."
"That is true, I believe," said Ethel thoughtfully. "Is that why you
said 'Dicky is quite old enough to do that errand for me' yesterday
after I had said, 'Dicky, you're such a baby, you'll never remember
that'?"
"It was. If you treat Dicky as a baby he'll stay a baby long after he
ought to. He's not a baby now just because Roger has always treated him
as a companion and Helen has let him help her when he could. Don't you
remember that Roger went to the Boys' Club with Dicky for three or four
days after he entered? That was to see how Dicky behaved. He didn't say
to Dicky, 'You're just a baby so I'm going to see whether you act like a
baby.' If he had said that Dicky probably would have behaved like the
baby he was told he was. But Roger told Dicky that no babies were
allowed in the Boys' Club, and the result was that Dicky stood on his
own feet and met the other youngsters as boy to boy and not as if they
were real boys and he was just a baby there on sufferance."
"I never thought before that we had any influence on other people like
that."
"Once I knew a girl who was rather slow in speech. It gave people an
impression that she was not very bright, and they began to treat her as
if she were stupid."
"Wasn't she really?"
"She had a good mind. But after a while people outside of her family
took up the family's attitude of constantly under-rating everything she
said and did. The result was that she lost all confidence in herself.
She believed that if older people in whom she had faith thought she was
stupid she must be stupid; and she was really becoming stupid."
"What happened?"
"Some one suggested that she go to a certain boarding school. There no
one knew of this family attitude toward her and she was treated just
like all the other girls. It gave her self-confidence and as she made
one success after another in school she developed in every way like a
flower in the sunshine."
"I'm going to try to help Ethel Blue if I can; and I guess you're right
about being more comfortable with a house-cleaned mind; I feel better
already, somehow."
"You'll feel better all the time. Now this coming week I want you to see
if you can't be of special help to your grandmother. It's Recognition
Week and your grandfather and I will be busy with the graduating class
every day so we can't go about with Grandmother as much as we usually
do. She will miss it if she doesn't have a companion."
"I'll remember. I'll go whenever she wants me."
"You may have to go with her sometimes when you'd rather go somewhere
with the girls."
"I'll do it. When we got up the Service Club we were all telling why it
would be good for us and I said then that I liked to do things for
people just for selfish reasons."
"You'll be a Service Club member of the right sort when you do
kindnesses that you don't like to do."
"So far all the services that the Club has performed have been things
that were fun. We haven't been tried out yet."
"Here's your chance, then. There are teas for the Dickens Class on
Friday and Saturday afternoons so you must be on call then while
Grandfather and I are away. On Saturday evening there is a large
reception at the hotel for all the C. L. S. C. people and Helen is to
help serve the lemonade, so you and Ethel Blue will have to stay at home
with Dicky."
"What happens on Sunday?"
"Grandmother will march with her own class, the 1908's, and sit with
them in the Amphitheatre to listen to the Baccalaureate sermon. In the
afternoon at the C. L. S. C. Vesper Service Bishop Vincent is to give a
special address to the graduates. There will be room for others so
Grandmother will be there and will not need you, but you'd better go
home with her after the Song Service in the evening, for Grandfather and
I will go from the Amphitheatre to the Hall of Philosophy where the
Vigil of the Class of '14 is to be held."
"The graduates are busy just about every minute, aren't they?"
"Not on Monday; that day is quite an ordinary Chautauqua day; but on
Tuesday the class holds its annual breakfast. At that hour Grandmother
won't want you especially. In the evening she will be receiving with her
own class in their room in Alumni Hall so you will be free to take a
table in the Hall of Philosophy and help serve the ice cream."
"Margaret is trying to arrange it so that all the Service Club girls can
have tables near each other, and the boys are going to hang around and
be ready to carry the heaviest trays."
"Wednesday is Recognition Day and Grandmother will be occupied all day,
so you need not be disturbed about her."
"I'll look in the C. L. S. C. column in the _Daily_ every morning, just
as Miss Kimball said that Grandmother ought to do, and then I'll ask her
what her plans are."