the Mansion already formed practically a large club. But she soon
understood that it was well for them to learn that organization is a
good thing. She saw, too, that it would help interest them in things
outside their regular work.
Angelina was honorary associate member, and Julia explained to her that
she was to be present at all special functions, but that on account of
her greater age--it pleased Angelina to have this set forth as an
evidence of her superiority--she might better not attend the regular
meetings, lest her presence should embarrass the younger girls. But
"honorary associate member" had such a high and mighty sound that
Angelina regarded the whole arrangement as complimentary to herself, and
thus the feelings of all were saved.
In its early meetings the club naturally had its attention set on
Bryant. Julia was pleased to find that nearly all the girls were willing
to commit verses or even long poems to memory, and that there was a
good-natured rivalry as to which of them should learn the longest. She
was surprised, too, to find that these girls who knew so little of the
real country could appreciate many of the beautiful pictures of woods
and flowers and birds presented by the poet. "The Waterfowl" and "Green
River" and "The Evening Wind" were especial favorites, and indeed they
were fond of some of the more serious poems.
The girls of the League had other interests besides their reading, and
they were encouraged to enter on certain bits of work that should not be
entirely for themselves. One group was busy making scrap-books, to be
given at Christmas to the Children's Hospital, and another was busy
dressing dolls. The best scrap-book and the best-dressed doll were to
receive a prize, and all were to be exhibited a day or two before
Christmas. On Anstiss had fallen the task of deciding which girls should
belong to the doll group, and which to the book group, and many were her
difficulties in keeping the girls to their first intention. When
Concetta, who had begun to dress a golden-haired doll, saw what a pretty
scrap-book Nellie was making on sheets of blue cambric with edges
buttonholed in red, she immediately threw down her doll with a gesture
of impatience.
"I hate sewing, and it would be much pleasanter to paste pictures in a
scrap-book."
"But if you make a scrap-book you must work at it, just as Nellie did,
and you will have to buttonhole the edges." Whereat Concetta, making a
wry face, protested that in spite of the buttonholing she would rather
make the scrap-book.
"Very well, then; when you have the leaves ready, I will give you some
directions for pasting pictures. What color will you choose for the
leaves?"
"Oh, pink, with yellow edges;" and Concetta, turning her back to the
discarded doll, sat down at the table beside Nellie.
A week or two later Anstiss was surprised to have Concetta report that
she had finished her book. "But you were not to put the pictures in
until you had shown me the buttonholed edges." Whereupon Concetta, a
little shamefacedly, be it said, displayed her book with the pictures
and embossed decorations put in fairly well, but with the edges of the
leaves merely cut in scallops.
"A book like this," said Anstiss, "would be of no good to the little
sick children. Almost as soon as they touched it, it would ravel out;"
and with a touch or two her fingers fringed the edge of one of the
pages.
Concetta hung her head. "I can buttonhole it now, only I'd rather dress
my doll."
"It isn't your doll, Concetta; Gretchen has taken it. If you work the
edges of the book now, I'm afraid that you will spoil the freshness of
the pictures. I shall let the League decide what you are to do."
Upon this the girls were called by Angelina into business session, and
the vote was that Concetta must begin a new book. It was not a unanimous
vote, and Concetta, keenly noting the hands that were raised against
her, as she determined it, registered a vow to get even.
Gretchen, who had the usual German skill with her fingers, was able to
dress two dolls, a blonde of Concetta's in addition to the brunette that
she had originally chosen, and Eliza made two scrap-books. But this was
rapid work in proportion to the time that they had before them, and
Anstiss did not encourage haste.
Concetta was not the only girl who wished to change her work, for one or
two outside members absented themselves from several meetings because
they were dissatisfied with what they accomplished.
Julia, visiting them in their homes, made them understand that there was
only a friendly rivalry in the whole competition, and that no one would
be permitted to criticise the work of another very severely.
The staff of the Mansion, therefore, set itself at work very earnestly
to find reasons why each book and each doll should receive some special
award. So there were first prizes and second prizes: first for the
neatest, then for the prettiest books; and in the same way prizes were
given for the dolls. Besides these prizes there were honorable mention
awards and certain supplementary awards that Edith had begged to be
allowed to present, that no girl need feel that her industry had been
unappreciated.
"For after all, every one has really shown perseverance, and some, I am
sure, displayed the greatest taste. Why, some of these dolls are so
pretty that I should like to play with them myself."
"I am not so surprised at the dolls," said Miss South, "for most of
these girls have had sewing lessons in the public schools, and their
fingers have developed considerable skill along this one line. But I am
interested in the skill shown in making the scrap-books. To be sure,
some of them are daubed more than is necessary. Maggie's book, for
instance, shows a little glistening halo of dried mucilage around many
of the pictures. But what pleases me the most is their skill in grouping
and arranging."
The girls themselves chose two of their number, Inez and Concetta, to be
on the jury, and Pamela, Julia, and Nora made up the other three.
The first prize was given for the Bryant scrap-book that Phoebe had
made. No one certainly could find any fault with it, so neatly were the
pictures arranged, and so free from daubs were the broad margins.
Every one wondered where she had found so many pictures that exactly
illustrated the poems chosen, and Phoebe assured them that this had
been not at all difficult, since Miss South had let her look over dozens
and dozens of old magazines, from which she had been able to choose
those that best suited the words.
No one dissented from the award of a volume of Bryant's poems to
Phoebe, but there was more discussion when the second prize, a framed
photograph of Greuze's "Head of the Dauphin," went to Haleema for a
flower book. In this she had put a great variety of flower pictures,
some of them mere decalcomanie, embossed groups, others colored
lithographs from periodicals of all styles, while not a few were nature
pictures from the magazines in which flowers were conspicuous.
Concetta and Gretchen were partly right in thinking that the very
prettiest of all was the book of children that Nellie had made.
"The little sick children in the hospital will like it best, anyway,"
said Concetta. She did not happen to like Phoebe very well, and for
the time being Nellie was especially in her favor.
"Nellie's book certainly would be more entertaining to the little sick
ones in the hospital, and if she had only trimmed the edge of her
pictures more carefully, and had kept the margins free from mucilage,
she would have had something better than third prize."
But Nellie herself was very well contented with the award, and her
beaming face testified that she did not need a champion to stand up for
her rights. Concetta, therefore, found herself a minority on the
committee in deciding this question, for all the others were in favor of
Phoebe's having the prize.
When it came to the dolls there was less difficulty, for Miss South had
decreed that the award should go to the doll whose clothes showed the
neatest sewing. There were no two opinions, and as Concetta herself was
not on this committee of award, no one objected to her having the pretty
case of scissors that the judges handed her, after they had carefully
examined all the clothes of all the dolls--a piece of work that took
considerable time and thought.
But entertaining though the judging and awarding had been, the
pleasantest part of this whole work came when they took the books and
the dolls to the hospital.
Naturally the girls did not all go together, but in two or three
detachments, and their sympathies were moved to the utmost by the sight
of the helpless little ones. They were delighted when they learned that
this child or that would be in the hospital but a short time; and some
of them--Nellie, for example--were moved to tears on learning that one
or two whom they pitied might never be well.
"There is no harm in having their sympathies touched," said Julia, when
some one remonstrated with her for taking these girls to the hospital,
"for we older people at the Mansion intend that the outcome shall be
some practical work."
IX
NORA'S WORK--AND POLLY
When Nora visited the Mansion, every one was delighted. Nellie's face
naturally beamed at sight of her, for didn't Miss Nora belong to her
more than to any one else? But all the others were fond of the bright,
cheery young girl who not only remembered the name of each one, but had
some directly personal question to ask. She could ask about their aunts
and uncles and cousins, as well as about their nearer relatives by name,
and this meant a good deal to these younger girls, who, although happy
at the Mansion, remembered sometimes that they were among strangers, and
were glad of any word that connected them with their own homes.
Nora was an outside worker, and very proud that her last year's lessons
in a normal cooking class had fitted her to give regular lessons to a
group of the Mansion girls.
"'A penny saved is a penny earned,'" she had said gayly, when she made
the offer of her services; "and if you will hear me conduct one class,
and then take a good, long look at my certificate, you will decide, I am
sure,--or rather I hope,--to let me belong to the staff."
Of course Miss South was only too happy, and she knew Nora's mental
qualities so well as to believe that she would make a good teacher; nor
was she disappointed after she had heard her conduct a class.
"I really begin to feel as if I were of some use in the world," Nora
said, after her first lesson; while Miss South remonstrated, "Why, Nora,
you always have been one of the most useful girls of my acquaintance.
You are always busy at home, and so helpful to your brothers, and--"
"Oh, in the ordinary relations of life it would be very strange if I
should not do what I can. But every one should reach out a little beyond
her immediate circle; don't you think so?"
"Yes, indeed, I do think so, Nora; but for this reaching out, the work
of the world could not be carried on, and I am more than happy when I
see so young a girl ready to do her part."
Now Nora's disposition, as Miss South had said, had always been one of
helpfulness to others. With less money to spend than most of her
intimate friends, she had managed to enjoy life thoroughly, and she had
been a most devoted sister and daughter.
Her brothers would confide their difficulties to her more readily
sometimes than to their mother, although Mrs. Gostar was herself a most
sympathetic person, and Nora was friend and adviser to half a dozen
youths of Toby's classmates in College.
Yet in spite of her many home duties she found time for much outside
work. She had a Sunday-school class of boys whose doings were a constant
surprise and almost as constant an occupation for her. Sometimes their
vagaries carried her even into the Police Court, where she was ready,
if necessary, to say a good word for some boy brought up for a petty
offence. When her brothers teased her about her burglar and highwayman
proteges, she took their teasing in good part, and replied that as yet
none of them had done anything bad enough to require her to give heavy
bonds. "Which is fortunate, considering that I am not a large owner of
real estate."
"But how much of your pocket-money goes in fines or in cab-hire when you
are called out in sudden emergencies?" whereat Nora blushed to a degree
sufficient to show that Toby had hit somewhere near the truth; for
Nora's Sunday-school class, though not in a mission, was yet made up of
boys who were remarkably free from a sense of responsibility, and it was
this sense of responsibility that Nora tried to impress upon them; and
to assure them of her interest, she did all that she could for them in
their every-day life, and not infrequently was to be met with some of
them escorting her even on one of the fashionable thoroughfares. Nora
did not flinch at the smiles that some of her friends bestowed on her
when they met her with her cavaliers.
Yet her interest in these boys did not prevent her having as great an
interest in the girls at the Mansion, and in many a little emergency she
was the right-hand helper of Julia and Miss South. It was Nora, too, who
kept up the most active communication with Mrs. Rosa and the Rosa
children at Shiloh. Manuel, indeed, was her especial pride, although she
persisted that she was not entitled to all the praise that the family
lavished on her for having rescued him years before from being run over.
Angelina's sister was not as self-sufficient as she, and was only too
glad to look up to Miss Gostar for advice and praise. Moreover, Nora
gave perhaps a little less time than the others to the work at the
Mansion, because she was especially interested in a Boys' Club. Some of
her Sunday-school boys were in it, though a few of the club thought
themselves too old for Sunday school. What Nora managed to accomplish in
the course of a week was always a wonder to her friends, who with fewer
home duties still seldom had time for outside work. Though her two elder
brothers had gone from home, one to the West and one to New York, Toby
and Stanley made constant demands upon her. "They not only expect me,"
she said, laughing, "to see that their buttons and gloves are in order,
but wish me to be at home whenever they have invited any special friends
to the house, and at pretty frequent intervals they expect me to ask
some girl or another in whom they have a special interest. But they are
very good to me, too," she would conclude, "and without one or the other
of them to escort me where I wish to go, I do not see what I should do.
I'd even have to stay away from the Mansion sometimes."
The class in invalid cookery proved a great success, and Miss South, as
she tasted one after another of the savory little dishes offered her by
the proud cooks, said that she almost wished that she might be ill
enough to have these jellies and broths recommended to her for a steady
diet.
Gretchen, to whom she said this, seemed greatly amused by the idea, and
smiled and smiled, and finally broke into a loud laugh.
"Would you really like to be sick in your bed," she asked, "just so's
you could eat my jelly?" And then Miss South repeated her praise of
Gretchen's work.
"By and by," continued Miss South, "you may wish to have an exhibition
of your work, and before spring I am sure you will probably have learned
to make several new things."
"Oh, yes, indeed," and Gretchen's face beamed with delight, for it
really was her wish to excel in cooking, and the progress that she had
made was one of the things that so pleased her grandfather, that he was
likely to consent to her staying a second year. As to Gretchen herself,
she was now quite determined to be a cook when she should be older, and
Julia had made plans to send her to a regular cooking school at the end
of a year. Her grandfather had said that he would gladly pay the cost of
tuition, if Julia and the others would help in some other ways. The old
man had several persons dependent on him, and it was his constant
anxiety lest Gretchen should be left unable to earn a living when he
should be taken away.
Though it was clear what Gretchen's future occupation should be, it was
less easy for Miss South and her staff to decide about the others.
Concetta's one talent for fine needlework seemed to imply that she was
intended to be a seamstress, and the aim of those interested should be
to train her, that her work might place her in a good position. As to
the others, it was too early to decide what they should do or be.
Prompted by a spirit of mischief, one evening when Mrs. Blair asked her,
Julia replied:
"How can I tell just what we are training them for? One or two are very
fond of music, Inez is devoted to art, Angelina is sure that she would
love to travel, and Gretchen is the only one who seems a born cook."
"But you don't mean that you would let all these girls follow their own
tastes? Please pardon me for saying it, Julia. But I fear that you will
not have the sympathy of--yes, of your friends, unless you turn all
these girls into first-rate domestics. When you think how much need
there is of good servants--really it is the most pressing problem."
"I wish that I could help solve it," Julia replied gravely; "and if I
can, you may be sure that I will. The girls at the Mansion have
certainly a greater love for all kinds of household duties than they had
six months ago, and every one of them could be very useful in her own
home or any other. But they are too young yet to decide on the future
profession, just as I am sure that you would consider it too early for
the average schoolgirl to decide her whole future life when she is only
fifteen."
"Oh, but this is different; you have the chance of influencing these
girls, and really it is your duty, when you consider the servant
question--" and so _ad infinitum_; and, indeed, others of Julia's
friends would continue the discussion. Usually Julia turned all
criticism aside with a smiling and indefinite reply, although at times
she would say, "Ah, I hope that I shall always be found ready to do what
is best for each girl."
Casual criticisms like this from those who did not really understand her
aim did not greatly disturb Julia. They were more than balanced by the
cordial appreciation of her aunt and Mrs. Gostar, and others who knew
what she was really striving for. Then at intervals--though rather long
intervals--she had a cheering word or two from Ruth, who, in spite of
being on a protracted wedding tour in extremely interesting countries,
evidently kept her thoughts constantly in touch with her Boston friends.
"Of course I mean to be part of your experiment when I return home, and
I mean to work like a Trojan to make up for my absence this year. Also,
as I have written you before, I am collecting all kinds of weird
receipts that I mean to have your poor little victims--for I am sure
they call themselves victims--fed on next season."
One afternoon, after a rather hard morning in which everything had
happened just as it should not, Julia heard a tap at her study door.
When she answered it Angelina ushered in--but no, Angelina had nothing
to do with it--a flying figure flung itself upon Julia, and before its
arms had been removed from her neck she recognized the soft accents of
Polly Porson.
"It seems like I hadn't seen you for a century, although now that I do
see you, you look as natural as life, and not a bit as if you were
weighed down by the care of a hundred girls, such as I hear you have
taken under your wing."
"Not a quarter nor an eighth of a hundred; but where in the world have
you dropped from, Polly Porson? Have you come North, as you used to
threaten, to buy a trousseau, or is your novel ready to offer to a
publisher?"
At which confusing double question the usually nonchalant Polly blushed
so exceedingly that Julia knew which part of the question had been
answered.
"Who is he?" she asked so pointedly, that Polly, nothing loath, sat down
to tell the story. She had sprained her ankle, it seemed, early in the
autumn. "Why, I am sure I wrote you about it," she added, when Julia
expressed her surprise, "and I'm sure that I told you about the doctor;
didn't I say a great deal about him?"
"Well, perhaps you did, but I was so unsuspicious that I did not attach
much importance to what you said, or I thought what you wrote was in
mere appreciation for his skill. Besides, I begin to remember that you
told me that he was a cousin, and one whom you especially disliked,
though you believed that he had saved you from being permanently lame."
"Well, he is a cousin, as cousins go in the South, several degrees
removed; and he was perfectly disagreeable at first because I had gone
to College; but I've brought him round, so that he has made his own
younger sister begin her preparation for Radcliffe."
"So in gratitude to him you are going to give up all your plans for
independence and fame. Alas, poor Polly!"
"Oh, no, indeed; he says that I may write novels or do anything I like.
You never saw such a changed man. I just wish that you had known him a
year ago, so that you could mark the improvement."
Thus Polly rattled on, and yet, as in their College days, there was an
undercurrent of wisdom in all that she said.
"To tell the truth," she explained, "one thing I came for was to see
just how your experiment is working, for I have an idea that I shall be
able to do something of the same kind in Atlanta--in a very small way,"
she added hastily, "not at all in this magnificent style; but it's very
much needed, and I have some original ideas to combine with yours."
So Polly spent several days at the Mansion, learning, and teaching too;
for her words of encouragement taught Julia that she had been unduly
discouraged by various things outside, as well as by a certain amount of
friction among her protegees. Polly's visit drew her away from her
cares.
One evening Julia arranged a reunion of all the members of the class
that she could collect at short notice, and though there were many gaps
in the ranks, it was altogether a delightful evening, and each one
present told all that she could, not only about herself, but about the
absent.
All too soon Polly flew away, and though she protested that her shopping
in New York was not to be regarded as preparation for a trousseau, Julia
was sure that when the two should meet again there would be no longer a
Polly Porson. "Not that your new name will not be just as becoming as
the old one," she added, as they said their last words, "but for some
selfish reason I do wish that I could have Polly Porson stay Polly
Porson a few years longer."
"Nonsense!" cried Polly, as she bade her good-bye.
X
ARTHUR'S ABSENCE
When Arthur wrote that he should be away Christmas, Brenda seemed
undisturbed, although Ralph and Agnes were annoyed by his absence.
"But he has been in Washington less than a month, and probably he wishes
to stay over New Year's. We'll keep his Christmas presents until he
returns."
Ralph and Agnes exchanged a glance.
"Hasn't he written you?"
"Why, yes--but what?"
Then Ralph explained that Arthur had had an offer to be private
secretary to a certain senator, and that this would keep him in
Washington all winter. "I received my letter only last night," Ralph
hastened to add, lest Brenda should feel slighted. Brenda's own letter
arrived that very day, but as it was second to Ralph's she read it in no
very gracious spirit.
Then, too, Arthur seemed to take it too much a matter of course that she
would praise his remaining in Washington. Brenda, forgetting that she
herself had really reproached him for his idleness in Boston, began to
complain to her mother of his lack of dignity in taking the position of
private secretary.
"My dear," Mrs. Barlow had responded, "I am glad to hear that Arthur is
busy. As there is no likelihood of his practising law, it is much better
for him to have his mind occupied. It would be bad for you both were he
to spend the winter in Boston with nothing to do but walk or drive or go
to dinners and dances."
"But he isn't very strong, Mamma."
"Perhaps not; on that account the climate of Washington will be better
for him. We have the assurance, however, that his health will be
completely built up in a year, and your father has plans for him. It is
no secret, so I may tell you that a new branch of the business is to be
established next winter, and it is of such a nature that Arthur's
knowledge of law will be valuable, and he will be put in charge of the
office work."
"Does Arthur know?"
"Yes."