THE GREEK SPIRIT
"What is the Greek spirit, Mr. Fenton?" During one of the rehearsals
for the presentation of Odysseus, Lance McClain made this inquiry.
No one else among the group of boys and girls surrounding Mr. Fenton
at the moment would have asked the question. Yet, overhearing Lance, a
number of them stood waiting for the answer.
The weeks of outdoor work and study had awakened new ideas and
interests.
Mr. Fenton did not reply immediately; instead, he appeared to be
considering the question deeply.
Frequently he had talked of the Greek spirit. Therefore, what did he
actually mean?
"I am glad you put that query to me, Lance," he returned finally.
"Half a dozen times since we began our rehearsals I have spoken of the
'Greek spirit.' I have emphasized the wish that we reveal it in the
presentation of our tableaux. One ought not to talk glibly and be
unable to offer a simple definition.
"At least I can tell you what the 'Greek spirit' means to me and why I
want us to give expression to it in our pageant.
"Try not to be bored if I discuss the subject seriously for a few
moments. You know I have been a student, not a speaker, all my life,
and there are times when we all wish for the gift of tongues."
Observing that Mr. Fenton was addressing not Lance alone who had asked
the question, but the crowd of young people nearby, Memory Frean and
Sheila Mason, Captain Curtis and several others came and stood on the
edge of the crowd.
This afternoon they were together on the side of the stream of water
where the tableaux would be presented.
In nearly every detail Tory had been correct in her original
conception. The pageant would be presented in the clear green space
with the grove of shadowy trees as background.
Across the water the audience were to be seated in a natural outdoor
auditorium. On a slight elevation of land near the stream the Father of
the Scouts, who had promised to appear for the evening's entertainment,
would read aloud portions of the Odyssey.
This afternoon, however, the Scouts were busy building and arranging
details of the outdoor scenery.
It must be as simple as possible to serve their purpose.
Observing the crowd gathering about Mr. Richard Fenton, the builders
also stopped their toil to join the others.
A rare experience had come to Mr. Fenton late in life, and although
she never realized the fact, Tory Drew was chiefly responsible.
Almost as a recluse Mr. Fenton had spent the years of his middle age.
He was under the impression that he was not sympathetic with most
people and that they did not care for him. With a sufficient fortune
for his needs, he had not found it necessary to engage in an
occupation for the sake of making money. Therefore he had devoted most
of his time to study and thought.
The result had not brought him a deep satisfaction. In his young
manhood he had not planned this kind of existence.
He had contemplated being a public man, a statesman should he reveal
the necessary ability. In those days he had been young and meant to
make Memory Frean proud of him. They had separated and he had sought
consolation among his books.
Then into his own and his sister's well regulated lives Tory had
entered the winter before. She was not Tory to them then, but Victoria
Drew, as Miss Victoria Fenton still insisted upon calling her niece.
To Mr. Fenton the young girl had made an unconscious appeal. Lonely
and feeling herself out of place in a new and strange environment, she
appeared like a gay little tropical bird or flower transferred to a
harsher environment. When he and Tory became friends the coldness of
the old maid and old bachelor establishment changed to a pleasanter
warmth.
Introduced to her girl friends, Mr. Fenton had become a member of
their Scout Council. But not until this summer had he developed into
their chief mentor, and fairy godfather.
Now to his surprise, added to his other unsought honors, he found
himself the director of the Greek pageant, one of the performers as
well, and far more popular with his fellow-players than he yet
appreciated.
Daily they were coming to him with their problems and their ambitions.
As yet their confidences related only to the approaching performance.
Lance's question was more general than any other that had been
propounded. While Mr. Fenton was replying he looked at Lance with more
interest than he had felt in the boy before.
If no one else understood what he was endeavoring to make plain, he
believed that Tory and Lance would catch the import of his words.
"Among the nations the Greeks are rarely fortunate," Mr. Fenton began.
"They left us such inheritances that we have remembered their great
days; with other nations we are too apt to recall the years of their
decay, their mistakes.
"Perhaps one reason for this is that the Greeks were our forefathers,
a branch of the Aryan-speaking peoples who in the faint twilight of
early history, a nomadic, wandering people, moved southward, and
combined with the inhabitants of Crete. This gives us the story of the
Odyssey, one of the two great Greek poems, but more filled with legend
than the story of the Iliad, which is the siege of Troy."
Mr. Fenton paused.
"I am not tiring you too much? Still I must go on. We must try as far
as we can to understand what we have undertaken to present to others.
And I have not yet told you what I mean by the Greek spirit.
"It revealed itself even as far back as these two poems. The Greeks
were then possessed of two great passions, the love of adventure and
the love of beauty. Those two possessions I want to be equally the
heritage of the American Girl and Boy Scouts.
"Later, in what is known as the Age of Pericles, the Greeks entered
into their third ardor, Democracy, the love of freedom. So what I call
the Greek spirit is the love and pursuit of these three things:
Beauty, Adventure, Freedom.
"I might talk longer and you would understand me less well. Understand,
there may be danger in these three desires. One must not seek beauty,
adventure and freedom at the expense of other people, but in order to
share it with others as the Greeks have done.
"Now I am through with my lecture, will some one give me a hammer?
I'll try to assist Don in building a footstool for one of Penelope's
maids. I'm afraid I am no better carpenter than I am lecturer. Do you
understand what I have been trying to explain, Lance? We may talk the
question over together some other time."
Lance nodded.
"I think I do understand what it means in regard to the Scouts."
A moment he stood dreaming when the others went back to work. Beauty,
adventure, freedom, the Scouts were finding in the outdoors during the
weeks of their summer camp.
At present in front of the grove of trees Mrs. Phillips was starting a
rehearsal of the Greek dance that was to form a part of the coming
pageant.
Fascinated, Lance stood watching.