small allowance of money to spend each month as you pleased, I spoke of
this as 'earnings.' Although we of the staff had decided that we should
not criticise your way of spending it, we thought that by calling the
money 'earnings,' you might take better care of it. Well, I know that
two or three of you opened small accounts in a savings bank. I know that
others have spent the money in useful things for their relatives at
home, and more than one, I am sure, has nothing to show for her money
except the memory of chocolates and oranges, and perishable ribbons and
other fleeting pleasures; but we have agreed not to criticise this
expenditure, and I merely refer to them because _I_ know that one of
your number has been called a miser, because she was so intent on
hoarding that she would not spend a cent for things either useful or
frivolous."
All eyes were now turned toward Maggie, and for the moment she felt like
running from the room.
"But before I continue," added Julia, "I must tell you a story," and
then in a few words she related the episode of the broken vase; "and
now," she concluded, "I will read directly from Mrs. Weston's letter:
"'You may imagine my surprise,'" she read, "'when a letter came to me a
day or two ago from Maggie McSorley containing a post-office order for
twenty-two dollars. This was to pay for the broken vase with interest.
It seems she had been saving it all winter from that meagre little
allowance you allowed her, and to make up the whole sum she did some
work this summer--berry-picking, _I_ believe. Arthur and I were very
much touched, and I have put the post-office order away, for I am sure
that I should never feel like spending it.'"
"Sensible!" exclaimed Miss South, under her breath.
Then Julia continued to read from Brenda's letter.
"'So of course I want to make it up to Maggie, and I am sending a
twenty-dollar gold piece, which you must promise to give her as a prize,
on the same day when you give the other prizes, and she's to do exactly
what she likes with it. It's a prize for her having learned not to break
things. But I'm writing her that I am very glad she broke that vase, for
if she had not, I should never have had the chance of having the help
she gave me this last, dreadful summer.'"
Perhaps Julia need not have read so much of the letter, though in doing
so she attained what she had in mind,--to show the girls that Maggie was
not a miser, and to explain why Brenda had of late shown so much more
interest in her than in some of the other girls.
So Maggie in her turn was congratulated, the more heartily even, because
Miss South had added a word to Julia's speech by saying that, before
Brenda's letter had come, she had contemplated a special prize for
Maggie, since the latter had certainly succeeded in her efforts to
overcome some of her more decided faults,--"'A reward,' rather than 'a
prize,' perhaps we should call it, but, by whatever name, equally
deserved."
That evening, after Clarissa had accepted Lois' invitation to go with
her to her Newton home for a day or two, Julia decided to go to her
aunt's to spend the night. The family had not yet returned to town,
though the house was now ready for them. A care-taker and another
servant were in charge, and, weary from her exertions of the afternoon,
Julia was rather glad of the rest and quiet that the lonely house
afforded.
But although she enjoyed the quiet, the very freedom from interruption
gave her time for disquieting thoughts. She began to reflect upon her
own loneliness, upon the fact that she was not really necessary to
anybody. Her uncle and aunt were kindness itself, but even they did not
depend upon her.
Every one--even little Manuel Rosa--was of special importance to some
one else, while among all the people in her circle she alone seemed to
stand quite by herself. The thought wore upon her, and deepened when she
thought of Brenda's absence. Later, when she went to Brenda's room to
put away some things that she had promised to pack for her, the cover
slipped from a little pasteboard box that she had lifted from a shelf.
Glancing within she saw some bits of broken, iridescent glass. The sight
made her smile. "Brenda's bargain," she said; "how absurd that whole
thing was,--the loss of the vase, the acquisition of Maggie; and yet I
am not sure," she continued to herself, "but that Brenda gained by the
exchange. I am not sure but that Maggie was a better investment than any
of us at first realized. She has been one of the means, certainly, by
which Brenda has gained a truer knowledge of herself."
Nor was Julia wrong in this. Maggie unconsciously had helped Brenda to a
knowledge of herself; for the Brenda of the past year had been very
different from the Brenda of six years before. The earlier Brenda, as
Julia had first known her, had been unwilling to admit herself wrong,
even when her blunders stared her in the face. But the latter Brenda had
profited by her own blunders, in that she had been willing to learn from
them; and though Maggie had been only one of the elements working toward
Brenda's uplifting, she had had her part in the progress of the past
year.
Thinking of Brenda in this light, dwelling on the affection that had so
increased as the two cousins had come to understand each other, Julia
became more cheerful. She felt that she no longer stood alone, for even
setting aside her circle of warm friends (how had she dared to overlook
them?), was she not in her aunt's household a fourth daughter, and loved
as well--almost as well--as Caroline, or Agnes, or Brenda?
LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY, _Publishers_
254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
* * * * *
HELEN LEAH REED'S "BRENDA" BOOKS
BRENDA, HER SCHOOL AND HER CLUB
Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. 12mo. $1.50.
_The Boston Herald_ says: "Miss Reed's girls have all the impulses and
likes of real girls as their characters are developing, and her record
of their thoughts and actions reads like a chapter snatched from the
page of life. It is bright, genial, merry, wholesome, and full of good
characterizations."
BRENDA'S SUMMER AT ROCKLEY
Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. 12mo. $1.50.
A charming picture of vacation life along the famous North Shore of
Massachusetts.
The _Outlook_ says: "The author is one of the best equipped of our
writers for girls of larger growth. Her stories are strong, intelligent,
and wholesome."
BRENDA'S COUSIN AT RADCLIFFE
Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. 12mo. $1.20 _net._
A remarkably real and fascinating story of a college girl's career,
excelling in interest Miss Reed's first "Brenda" book. The _Providence
News_ says of it: "No better college story has been written." The author
is a graduate of Radcliffe College which she describes.
BRENDA'S BARGAIN
Illustrated. 12mo. $1.20 _net._
The fourth of the "Brenda" books by Helen Leah Reed, which will bring
this popular series to a close. It introduces a group of younger girls,
pupils in the domestic science school conducted by Brenda's cousin and
her former teacher, Miss South. The story also deals with social
settlement work.
* * * * *
_Anna Chapin Ray's "Teddy" Stories_
TEDDY: HER BOOK. A Story of Sweet Sixteen
Illustrated by Vesper L. George. 12mo. $1.50.
Miss Ray's work draws instant comparison with the best of Miss Alcott's:
first, because she has the same genuine sympathy with boy and girl life;
secondly, because she creates real characters, individual and natural,
like the young people one knows, actually working out the same kind of
problems; and, finally, because her style of writing is equally
unaffected and straightforward.--_Christian Register_, Boston.
PHEBE: HER PROFESSION
A Sequel to "Teddy: Her Book"
Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. 12mo. $1.50.
This is one of the few books written for young people in which there is
to be found the same vigor and grace that one demands in a good story
for older people.--_Worcester Spy._
TEDDY: HER DAUGHTER
A Sequel to "Teddy: Her Book," and "Phebe: Her Profession"
Illustrated by J. B. Graff. 12mo. $1.50.
Introduces a new generation of girls and boys, all well bred and gifted
with good manners, takes them through much fun and such adventures as
one may find on a small sandy island, and gives the girl a page or two
of saving common sense about her duties to boys and her obligation to be
true and womanly.--_New York Times Saturday Review._
NATHALIE'S CHUM
Illustrated by Ellen Bernard Thompson. 12mo. $1.20 _net._
A charming story of a courageous fifteen-year-old girl's effort to help
her older brother support an orphaned family of five. "Nathalie is the
sort of a young girl whom other girls like to read about," says the
_Hartford Courant_.
URSULA'S FRESHMAN. A Sequel to "Nathalie's Chum"
Illustrated by Harriet Roosevelt Richards. 12mo. $1.20 _net._
A hot-tempered, domineering girl, yet full of common sense and capable
of loyal love, and Jack, her cousin, who stoically accepts the loss of
his father's fortune, and begins to earn his own way through Yale, are
the two principal characters in Miss Ray's new book.
* * * * *
_Myra Sawyer Hamlin's Stories_
NAN AT CAMP CHICOPEE; or, Nan's Summer with the Boys
Illustrated by Jessie McDermott. 16mo. $1.25.
The story is one of free, outdoor life, characterized by a deal of fine
descriptive writing and many bits of local color that invest the whole
book with an atmosphere which is actually fragrant.--_Bangor
Commercial._
NAN IN THE CITY; or, Nan's Winter with the Girls
Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman. 16mo. $1.25.
A bright story in which children and animals play an equal part.--_The
Outlook._
She is a womanly girl, and we have met her like outside of story-books.
A wonderfully healthy, thoroughly womanly maiden, standing at the point
in life where childhood and womanhood meet, one follows with interest
the account of her first winter at school in a great city, where she
made new friends and found some old ones.--_Chicago Advance._
NAN'S CHICOPEE CHILDREN
Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman. 16mo. $1.25.
Myra Sawyer Hamlin's stories are full of outdoor life, redolent of the
woods, the fields, and the mountain lakes, and her characters are very
natural young folk.--_Cambridge Tribune._
Full of happiness and helpfulness, with experiences in doors and out
that will interest all young people.--_Evening Standard, New Bedford._
CATHARINE'S PROXY. A Story of Schoolgirl Life
Illustrated by Florence E. Plaisted. 12mo. $1.20 _net._
An entertaining story of a very modern young American girl of wealth who
fails to appreciate the advantages of an expensive education, and at the
suggestion of her father gives her educational advantage to another
girl, who for a year becomes her proxy.
The girl characters are from fifteen to seventeen years of age, the boys
are preparing for college, and all are instilled with the spirit of
modern life in our best schools.
* * * * *
NEW BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
JO'S BOYS, And How They Turned Out
A Sequel to "Little Men." By LOUISA M. ALCOTT. _New Illustrated
Edition._ With ten full-page plates by Ellen Wetherald Ahrens. Crown
8vo. $2.00.
_Uniform with Jo's Boys_
LITTLE WOMEN. Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens.
LITTLE MEN. Illustrated by Reginald B. Birch.
AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL. Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith.
The four volumes put up in box, $8.00.
THE GOLDEN WINDOWS
A Book of Fables for Old and Young. By LAURA E. RICHARDS. Illustrated.
12mo. $1.50.
This charming book will be a source of delight to those who love the
best literature, and in its pages there is much that will be helpful in
shaping children's lives. The stories are simply and gracefully told.
THE AWAKENING OF THE DUCHESS
By FRANCES CHARLES. With illustrations in color by I. H. Caliga. 12mo.
$1.50.
A pretty and touching story of a lonely little heiress, Roselle, who
called her mother, a society favorite, "the Duchess"; and the final
awakening of a mother's love for her own daughter.
A DAUGHTER OF THE RICH
By M. E. WALLER, author of "The Little Citizen." Illustrated. 12mo.
$1.50.
A delightful book, telling the story of a happy summer in the Green
Mountains of Vermont and a pleasant winter in New York. The two girl
characters are Hazel Clyde, the daughter of a New York millionaire, and
Rose Blossom, a Vermont girl.