There was at Dickinson a Doctor Wilbur who had charge of the
mathematics. He was a man of brilliant mind, sharp tongue, and a poor
opinion of the mental ability of girls in general. He had been at
Dickinson two years, not because he loved the class of students, but the
financial consideration had been the best ever offered to him.
The girls feared him and yet respected him for the power he exercised
over a class.
He did not hesitate to use sarcastic speech. Scarcely a day passed, but
some girl came from Class-room C with her feelings deeply wounded.
Hester, who had a way of "speaking up," had borne her share of Doctor
Wilbur's humor. But she forgot and forgave the instant she left his
recitation.
One day he had been particularly trying, and the sting of his words had
lingered. She had it in mind to tell Helen of the bitter words Doctor
Wilbur had hurled at her, simply because she could not explain the
projection of a perpendicular upon a plane. So far in their school
life--two months had passed--Hester and Helen had spoken to each other
only of the agreeable things. But now Hester meant to express herself
and be sympathized with.
But when she reached Sixty-two, she found Edna Bucher awaiting her. Edna
was tall and slender; long and lank, perhaps would be more nearly her
description. She was colorless and lifeless. Her one desire seemed to be
to be ladylike and to go with the best people. In her lexicon, _best_
meant those with money or influence. Her hands were always cold, and her
face expressionless. She posed as being the leader in classes. She was
literary and musical, if one might believe her own judgment of herself.
She never played, however, for the practice tired her. When she failed
to respond to an invitation to recite--sometimes the invitation was
quite urgent--it was not that she was not prepared to recite, but she
was so nervous that she could not control her voice.
"I've been waiting for you for half an hour," she began as Hester
entered the room. Her tones implied, that although the responsibility be
on Hester's head, she would be good enough to overlook it.
"Were you?" replied Hester. "You surely knew that the freshies were busy
until this hour."
"I presume I did so; but it passed entirely from my mind. I was so
absorbed in my work. I am editor-in-chief of the 'Dickinson Mirror.'"
"Oh," exclaimed Hester. She looked at Miss Bucher again. The glory of
being editor of the "Mirror" cast a halo about the head of the otherwise
unattractive girl.
"Yes, the girls selected me. I do not understand why they did. They
appeared to think I had literary ability. Of course, I do not see that I
have, but everyone speaks about it."
She had an unpleasant little mannerism of talking through closed teeth
and but slightly parted lips. In conversation, she used her lips as
little as possible. It may have been that she wished to keep them from
wearing out, or perhaps, she considered it unladylike to open her mouth
more than was absolutely necessary.
"I came to have you help. We always appoint four girls to collect news,
write special articles and poetry. Of course everything must treat of
school life. Then, when it is printed--"
"Printed," cried Hester, her eyes snapping with fire. "Do you really
have it printed and do the ones who write things have their names in
it?"
"Certainly. It is issued four times a year; once during each semester,
and a special souvenir one for commencement. What do you think you'd
like to do?"
"I'll write some poetry," said Hester. She had never written any in her
life, but she had the feeling that she could do it by half trying.
"Poetry, isn't hard," she replied airily to Miss Bucher's look of
surprise. "Just make out a list of rhymes like this." She took up a
paper and wrote:
Side
wide
right
might
knee
me.
"Then you fill them in," she continued. She held the pencil suspended in
the air. Her brow was puckered with thought. "Of course, it isn't
supposed to read as sensibly as prose. That is one of the greatest
differences between them. In poetry one must use imagination and poetic
license." Then she fell to work upon the paper and wrote steadily and
laboriously for some minutes. Her eye flashed with triumph. "Listen. Of
course this is mere rough work. I'll polish up what I write for the
'Mirror.'
"Imogen was by his side,
So they wandered far and wide,
The woods and vales stretched left and right,
He loved the girl with all his might,
So dropping on his bended knee
He cried, 'Oh, fair one, pity me.'"
A peal of laughter followed this closing line. It was a merry peal
without malice or guile. Hester turned. Erma was standing in the
doorway.
"Oh, but that is rich! He dropped on his bended knee. Could he get on
his knee if it wasn't bended?" She laughed aloud.
"You are so literal!" cried Hester with dignity. "In poetry, one is
allowed--"
"Poetry," another merry laugh. "Is that poetry? Take it to Doctor
Weldon's classes and let her put her seal of approval on it."
Erma had made her way to the door. With a mock courtesy and a sweep of
her skirts, she vanished. But as she went down the corridor, the girls
in Sixty-two caught the echo of her laugh and her song, "And dropping on
his bended knee."
Miss Bucher was a lady who arose to the occasion. She did not give way
to merriment. Her face was colorless and serene.
"I understand fully, Miss Alden, the point you wish to make. Miss Thomas
has no literary appreciation." She paused. There is but one thing worse
in the world than adverse just criticism, and that is praise so faint
that it is damaging. Miss Bucher paused as though to weigh her words.
Then she spoke: "Miss Thomas means well enough, but--well, nature has
not gifted us all in the same way."
It was fair enough, or seemed to be. Yet Hester felt that intangible
something to which one cannot respond, because one feels rather than
knows of its existence.
Miss Bucher arose. She was not given to furbelows. Each line of her
attire accentuated her angles and height.
"I will go now. I am glad you will help me. Could you have your poem or
whatever you decide upon ready by Monday?"
"I shall have it ready to give you when we go into chapel. I shall have
something. Do not fear."
Scarcely had the door closed upon the caller, when Hester was at her
study-table with pencil and writing-pad. Inspiration had seized her. She
would write a poem that would be worthy the name. It would appear in the
"Mirror" with her name below, "Hester Alden." On second thought, decided
to write it Hester Palmer Alden. The Palmer gave an added dignity to
her name. How pleased Aunt Debby would be! What a pleasure it would be
to write! Perhaps in time she might be editor-in-chief. Then when she
left school--at that instant a part of Hester Alden which had been
dormant awoke. The desire for expression came to her. What beautiful
glorious things she would write--some day! Just what they would be or
when she would write them, she knew not. But they were so beautiful that
the tears came to her eyes as she dreamed of them.
Helen did not come back to her rooms until barely time to dress for
dinner. She found Hester with her head on the table, and a huge tablet
before her.
"Sick, little roommate?" asked Helen, bending over her.
"No; I have been writing a poem--that is, I have begun to write one. I
have sat here for an hour and all I have written is the first line. It
was easy."
"First lines usually are," said Helen smiling. In many ways, she was
more years older than Hester than the calendar gave her credit for.
"What is the first line? May I read it?"
"'Doc Dixon had a Freshman Class.' It begins fairly well; but you will
startle your leaders with such a sudden burst into facts. Why not lead
up to the subject and break the news gently?"
"You may all ridicule; but I intend writing a poem. All the ridicule you
cast upon me will make me but the more determined."
"I believe that. I have observed that trait on several occasions. You
make me think of Rob Vail in that way."
"I shall finish after dinner," was Hester's sole comment. "I presume I
had better prepare for it now. Are you wearing a silk dress?" she asked
as she turned toward Helen and saw that she was getting into a little
one-piece suit of checked silk instead of her customary white.
"Yes, mother thinks I dress too thinly. If I wear the white I cannot
wear long sleeves. So I have promised to keep to this dark silk, though
I do not like it nearly so well."
She had slipped into her dress and was looking about for her pins and
rings. "I had a little old pin on my dresser. Did you see anything of
it, Hester?"
"No, indeed. I never presume to touch anything there without your
permission."
"I did not mean to suggest that, little roommate. I carelessly let it
lie there several days ago, and now I cannot find it."
"I have not seen it," said Hester. She spoke quickly and perhaps, with
unusual curtness. At least it seemed so to Helen, who attributed the
curtness to Hester's being hurt at being asked such a question. She let
the subject drop and no further word passed between them until they were
called to dinner.
When study hour came again, Hester pushed aside her text books and fell
to writing. The door of the study, during this time, was always open and
no words were permitted between roommates. Helen, observing that her
roommate was not working at her lessons, gave her several warning
glances; but Hester was unaffected. The muse had laid its hands upon her
and she was helpless in its clutches. She wrote and erased, only to
rewrite and erase again.
It was not until the study period was over that she raised her head and
with a smile of triumph read aloud:
"Doctor Dixon had a freshman class,
Whose minds were soft like snow.
He tried to teach them geometry,
But he could not make it go.
He scolded them in class one day;
He shocked the entire school.
The tears ran down one sweet girl's face,
When he called her a mule."
A look of surprise flashed over Helen's face. "Surely Hester, he never
would do that. He is critical and sarcastic, but surely he is a
gentleman."
"Do what?" asked Hester. "Why surely he is a gentleman."
"Surely, he never would dare address one of the pupils in that way. A
mule!"
Hester laughed. "You are taking matters seriously. You must remember
that this is poetry, and allowance must be made. In poetry, one cannot
describe matters as they are. One cannot be too realistic. One must use
what fits in. I was compelled to use the word mule because it was the
only one I could think of which rhymed with school. Now listen to the
rest, please Helen." She continued reading wholly unconscious that her
roommate was not in sympathy with her.
"And then they ran to him and asked,
As he came forth from school,
'Doctor, dear, which is it best to be,
A driver or the mule?'
"'The mule has the best of it,' he said,
'So I'm inclined to think,
It can be driven to the water's edge,
But it can't be made to drink.'"
"There, don't you think that is fine, Helen? That will appear in the
next issue of the 'Mirror' with my name at the bottom. Aunt Debby will
be delighted."
There was no enthusiastic response. Hester waited a moment, then looked
at her roommate, and again asked, "Don't you think she will be
delighted? She has never suspected that I was poetic. Indeed, I never
knew it until Miss Bucher asked me to write this."
"If Aunt Debby is the kind of woman I think she is, I am sure she will
not be at all pleased." Helen spoke slowly. Then at the look of surprise
in Hester's eyes, she crossed the room, and sitting down on the arm of
her roommate's chair drew Hester's head close against her and held her
thus in a tender protective embrace, while she continued.
"No, little roommate, I do not believe she will be pleased. I am not. It
is fun--mere fun, I know. Were you and I the only two to know of it, it
would do no harm at all. But consider, little roommate, the 'Mirror'
goes out to all the old students. Hundreds read it. Among them, are many
just as I who took the matter seriously, without considering that the
poet was put to straits to find some word to rhyme with school.
"They will think that we have grown lax here. Many will wonder what sort
of man this Doctor Wilbur is that he dare use such terms in addressing a
student. Do you see now why I wish this would not appear in the
'Mirror'?"
"I see why you think it should not. But really people are very foolish
to cavil over such matters. If I might have my way, I would pay no
attention to them. I would go my way, do as I please and let such people
think as they please."
"It is a very independent way of doing, but it is not at all practical.
We must consider public opinion a great many times. We must hedge
ourselves about with convention when we would be independent, for always
there are some minds which put evil construction upon the slightest
careless act."
"Perhaps you are right," said Hester slowly. Before her faded the dreams
of greatness. Taking up the paper, she deliberately and slowly tore it
into pieces and threw them into the wastebasket. She expressed no word
of regret. She expected no expression of admiration for her fortitude.
She was no weakling. If she believed a thing were right, she would have
performed it, regardless of the sacrifice to herself. She was the
expression of Debby Alden's high ideals and rigid discipline.
"I'll get up earlier than usual to-morrow," said Hester lightly. "I
promised on my word of honor to have a copy ready for Miss Bucher. If I
may not write poetry, at least I can write personals. Let us go to bed
now before the retiring bell rings."
A hurried knock came to the door. Before either girl could respond,
Renee entered. She wore a gay kimona of embroidered silk. Her dark wavy
hair hung over her shoulders. She looked like a goddess as she paused an
instant on the threshold. Then advancing, she cried, "Oh, girls, do you
happen to have any cold cream? I'm out and I do need some particularly
badly."
"Yes, I have some." Helen took a small box from the dresser and gave it
to Renee.
"Thank you ever so much." Without further words, Renee went her way.
Hester waited until the sound of her footsteps had died away.
"I was thinking," she began slowly. Her brow was puckered as though she
were greatly perplexed. "I've been thinking that I never heard Renee say
anything but 'Will you lend me?' Does she not know anything else?"
"I presume she does, but she has allowed the habit to grow. Each year,
she grows worse. I fancy by the time she graduates, she will borrow our
diplomas and essays. It may be that by that time, Renee will have
particular need of them."
Hester had prepared for bed and was sitting on the edge of her own
little iron cot waiting until Helen was ready to say good-night.
"I am going to remain up some time, little roommate. But you need not
wait for me." She crossed the room and kissed Hester affectionately.
Somehow Helen had fallen into the older sister attitude toward her
roommate. Since the first week of school, Hester had never gone to sleep
without Helen's kiss warm on her lips. This had never been done after
the fashion of a sentimental school girl who caresses everything which
comes in her way. Helen was not demonstrative, and what her lips
touched, touched strongly her affections.
[Illustration: "OH, GIRLS, DO YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE ANY COLD CREAM?"--_Page
121._]
"I must make a thorough search for my pin," she said, going back to her
dressing-table, to begin the search. "I must not lose it. It is a
peculiar design. It was once an earring belonging to Grandma Hobart. It
has her hair woven about it. When Aunt Harriet and mama were
babies--they were babies at the same time, you know--grandma had the
earrings made into pins. Mama wore this for years, and then gave it to
me. I should feel bad if I should lose it."
Hester scarcely heard what Helen said. Her mind was busy with thoughts
of the literary work to be ready before chapel. She was running over in
her mind all the material at hand which could be worked into personals
to appear in the "Mirror."