“I WONDER WHAT THEY'RE ALL AFTER!”
In the library waited Gracie and Mr. Ried, while Mrs. Roberts went
merrily to see whether the boys or their host had proved the stronger.
“I don't believe this part of the programme will work,” Alfred said,
confidently, the moment the door closed after Mrs. Roberts. “Those
fellows will all be afraid of Mr. Roberts, and we shall lose what little
hold we have on them.”
“They don't look to me as though it ever occurred to them to be afraid
of anything,” Gracie said; but Alfred Ried, who had studied deeper into
this problem of the different classes of society, was ready with his
answer.
“Yes they are; they can be awed, and made to feel uncomfortable to the
degree that they will resolve not to appear in that region again.
One cannot judge from their behavior in Sabbath-school. Some way they
recognize a mission school as being in a sense their property, and
behave accordingly; but in a man's own house, surrounded by things of
which they do not even know the name, he has them at a disadvantage, and
can easily rouse within them the feeling that they are 'trapped.' Than
which there is nothing those fellows dread so much, I believe.”
“But they were not afraid of Flossy last week, even surrounded by the
elegances of her parlors and dining-room.”
“Ah!” he said, his eyes alight, “she has a wisdom born of God, I think,
for managing these and all other concerns. She is unlike everybody
else.”
Whereupon Gracie Dennis laughed; not a disagreeable laugh, but there
came to her just then a sense of the strangeness of thinking that pretty
Flossy Shipley, whom she had known all her life, and half-scorned from
the heights of her childhood because she was a silly little thing, who
could not do her problems in class, should have a wisdom unlike any
others. Yet, almost immediately her laugh was stayed, because the change
in Flossy was so great that she, too, recognized it as born of God.
Sometimes it came with force to this proud young girl that if God could
do so much for Flossy, what might he not be willing to do with those
whom he had made intellectually her superior, if they were but ready to
be led?
The young man, who was studying her, watched the grave look deepen on
her face, and wondered at its source. What a pretty face it was. Oh,
much more than pretty; there was great strength in it and sweetness,
too, of a certain sort, but he could not help comparing the sort with
that in some other faces, and he wondered over the difference. This
young lady was a Christian. Why should her Christian experience stamp
her with such a different expression from that which others wore? He
always finished this sort of sentence with a blank space first, as
though he did not choose to have himself tell himself any names. Yet he
spoke a name forcibly enough, still gazing earnestly at Gracie.
“Did you ever meet Miss Joy Saunders?”
Gracie turned toward him a laughing face.
“No, but we are very anxious to, Flossy and I. We have both been told
that we ought to know her, and told so earnestly that we really think we
ought. Who is she? Is she, too, unlike anybody else?”
“Very,” he said, promptly. “I know her very little; she is the daughter
of our landlady; I meet her in the hall on rare occasions, and sometimes
catch glimpses of her just vanishing from some room as I enter; but as
for being acquainted with her, I suppose I am not. I think--though of
that I am by no means sure--that she is engaged to Dr. Everett.
“Oh, then, of course he would think naturally that people ought to know
her. What is she like?”
“Like nothing,” said Alfred, with great promptness. “Did you ever know a
person named Joy?”
“No;--what a singular name.”
“Well, it fits. She is very far removed from mirth, and she is not
what people call gay, and she is not outspoken apparently at any time,
though, as I say, I do not know her; but there is something in her face
that fits the name; I do not know what it is. Sometimes I think it is
the shining of Christ's face reflected in her; but the puzzle is, why do
not other faces have it? Faces which belong to him?”
“Perhaps there is a difference in the degree of belonging.”
Gracie spoke the words very gently, wondering meanwhile at the way in
which this thought chimed in with hers about Flossy.
“Oh, there is. But why should there be? If I belong to Christ, I
_belong_, don't I? There is no half-way service possible. Why do I not
so look that others take knowledge of me that I have been with Jesus?”
“How do you know but they do?”
“Ah, I know. I know too well. They are more likely a great deal to take
knowledge that I have been with Satan. I feel the frown all over my face
a great deal of the time; and the world goes astray a great many times,
when I suppose it is just myself that is wrong. But, Miss Dennis, I
hunger for the shining of his face in me.”
“That must be the meaning of the beatitude which puzzled my childhood,”
she answered trying to speak lightly, to hide feelings that were deeply
moved: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled.”
“Thank you,” he said, smiling; “there is actually a promise! I had
not thought of it. And yet”--the thoughtful frown gathering almost
immediately--“do you suppose that a person who really hungered for a
certain thing could be satisfied with anything else? I often have an
hour of what at the moment seems to me like hunger for Him, but the hour
passes, and I get filled--with business, or with plans, or possibly with
annoyances, and feel nothing but a general irritation for everybody. Do
you think there can be anything genuine about such desires, so easily
turned aside?”
“Oh, I do not know,” said Gracie, hastily. “Why do you ask me such
things? Did not I tell you I was not good? Ask those people who are
unlike all others. Why don't you ask this Joy? She could tell you, I
presume. I can tell you nothing, save that this is a very strange world,
not half so nice as I once thought it, and I don't like to think about
things.”
How _different_ he was from other young men with whom she had spent
fifteen minutes many a time in gay banter! This was, after all, the
thought uppermost in her mind at the moment. Nice Christian men, of whom
her father spoke well, and who, people said, were young men to be proud
of. It seemed to her that she knew them by the dozens, yet with which
one of them had she ever carried on such a conversation as this? With
which one could she have attempted any thing of the kind, without
leading him to suppose that she was taking leave of her senses?
She recalled some of the gay words that she had spoken with these
others, and tried, hurriedly, to decide why it would sound to her
perfectly absurd to talk with Alfred Ried in that way. However, she
did not want to talk with him; he was too full of questionings. “And
questions,” said poor Gracie, “are all that I can ask myself. I want
somebody to talk with who is assured of the ground on which he stands,
and can tell me why he stands there.”
There was not time for further talk--they were summoned to the new room.
Bursts of laughter greeted their ears as they made their way eagerly
across the hall, and Gracie took time to remark that the boys were
certainly not awed into silence, before the opening door let them into
the brightly-lighted scene. Every boy was laughing, not quietly, but
immoderately, and the centre of attraction was evidently Mr. Roberts.
“I have been giving our friends an account of an old army experience,”
he said, in explanation to Gracie, “and we have been enjoying a laugh
together over the old memory. You are all acquainted with Miss Dennis, I
think, young gentlemen?”
Clearly there was no need for any one to introduce Mr. Roberts to the
boys; apparently they knew him now better than they did any of the
others. Yet as Gracie, after shaking hands with each of the guests,
took a vacant seat by Nimble Dick, she was greeted with a confidential
whisper:--
“That's a jolly chap as ever I saw; and I never heard anything to beat
the yarn he told us, for cuteness. Who is he?”
“Why, he is Mr. Evan Roberts, the owner of this house.”
“My eyes!” said Dick, gazing about him in a startled way. “Look here; he
ain't that Roberts from the big store on Fourth Street?”
“Yes, he is; he is one of the partners in that store.”
Then did Nimble Dick give a low whistle,--suddenly cut short, as the
other boys looked at him,--and sat up straight in his chair, and for at
least a minute was awed; or else was bewildered. If his mind could have
been looked into for a moment something like this might have been seen
there: “And here I am sittin' in one of his chairs, and been laughin' to
kill over his funny story! If this ain't the greatest lark out! I wonder
what they're all after, anyhow!”
Then the real business of the evening commenced.
I should like to describe that evening; but it is really worse to
describe than the boys. It was designed to be one of those most
difficult evenings, where every act and almost every word has been
previously arranged, but arranged in such a manner as to appear like an
impromptu effort, the result of merely the happenings of the hour.
For instance, Mrs. Roberts aimed at nothing less formidable than the
teaching of these boys to read and write; and know as well as ever I
know it, that to frankly own that she was ready and willing to give her
time and patience in so teaching them would be to outwit herself. They
did not belong to the class who can be beguiled into evening schools.
There are such; Mark Calkins would have seized such an opportunity
and rejoiced over it, but these were lower in the scale; they did
not realize their need, and they had what they in ignorance called
“independence”; they were not to be “trapped” by evening schools.
Therefore it required diplomacy; and no people can be more diplomatic,
on occasion, than certain most innocent-looking little women. Mrs.
Roberts had studied her way step by step.
Therefore it was, that by the most natural passage possible, she led the
way to a discussion of different styles of writing, bringing forth to
aid her a certain old autograph album which had been to many places
of note, among others Chautauqua, and had the names of distinguished
persons, as well as of many who were not distinguished, except for
Christian endurance in consenting to write in an autograph album. Good
writers were talked about and selected, and poor writers were talked
about, and it was said by some one, accidentally of course, that a good
hand was really an accomplishment.
“It is more than that!” declared Mr. Roberts. “A man's business life
often turns on it. I have myself had to turn away from several otherwise
suitable helpers in our business because they really could not write a
good, clear hand, that could be read without studying.”
“Are you a good writer, Miss Gracie?”
This remark, coming suddenly to Gracie from her host, almost embarrassed
her, for you are not to suppose that the very words by which these
themes should be introduced had been planned, and it had not occurred to
Gracie that so personal a question might be asked her. But she rallied
quickly.
“No, sir; I am sorry to say that I am not. I write what papa calls a
mincing hand; all jumbled up together, you know, or running into each
other, the letters are, and so difficult to read that papa said when I
came away he hoped I would call on his friend, Dr. Stuart, every day,
and write a letter on his type-writer.”
“What is that?” interrupted Nimble Dick, his face curious.
“What? A type-writer? Oh, it is a strange little machine used instead of
the pen--at least, a very few people use it. It is quite new, I think,
and must be very curious. I never saw one, but the writing looks just
like print. Dr. Stuart, a pastor in the city, is my papa's friend, and
writes to him on his, and papa reads the letter with great satisfaction,
saying to me, 'There, daughter, that is something like! People who
cannot write well enough for others to read should print.'”
“They are not so very uncommon, Miss Dennis,” explained Dr. Everett,
who saw the eagerness on Nimble Dick's face. “It is a comparatively new
invention, but is being caught up very promptly. I think nearly all
the leading lawyers use them, and those who do not own them are
getting their copying done at the rooms. They are very ingenious little
instruments.”
“Did you say you never saw one?”
This question from Mr. Roberts to Gracie, and he added:--
“Mrs. Roberts, I believe you have never had other than the first glimpse
I showed you in the Parker Building. I have an idea. Suppose I rent one
of the little fellows to interest us? It would be pleasant to look into
it and see how it works. Did none of you ever see one? Well, now, we'll
try for that on next Monday evening. I'll have one sent up to-morrow,
and, Miss Gracie, we'll appoint you showman for the following Monday; so
it is to be hoped that you will employ your leisure in learning how to
manage the creature, and perhaps send your father a readable letter at
the same time.”
Now, as may readily be supposed, all this about machinery had not been
arranged for beforehand, but was a side issue, born of the fact that the
watchful servant of his Master saw an eager look in the eyes of the boy
Dick directly there was anything said that suggested machinery. One
of the great aims of these evenings was to study character, however
developed.
Having turned his company from the regular channel, Mr. Roberts made
haste to put them skilfully back where they were before:--
“Still, it would be a pity to resort to machinery simply because one did
not know how to write well. I would rather set to work to correct the
error. I happen to know one of our number who can write a very enviable
hand. Do you know, Ried, that the letter you wrote me was the first
thing which attracted me to you? I remember I showed the note to one of
our senior partners, who was particularly disturbed by poor writing, and
he said: 'Engage him, Roberts, do! A young man who can write like that
will be a relief.' Mrs. Roberts, I move you that we resolve ourselves at
this moment into a writing-class, to be taught by Mr. Ried. My dear sir,
will you take us in hand?”
Something of this kind had been planned--at least, it had been planned
that Ried should be asked to do this thing; but he found the actual
asking embarrassing, and struggled with it with flushing cheeks. Gracie
came to his aid:--
“I don't know whether I'll take lessons or not. Who wants to expose
one's ignorance? Will you teach? Must we each give a specimen of our
present attainments?”
Instantly Ried divined the reason for the question.
“No,” he said, eagerly; “oh, no; I should begin with those horrors of
your childhood, pothooks or something of that sort; lines and curves,
you know. There are not many of them after all in our letters, and when
once a person has conquered them it is easy to put them together.”
There was more talk, easy and social. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, the doctor,
and Gracie seemed equally interested in the project, and questioned
young Ried, until he assured them that he began to feel like a veritable
professor. Apparently the boys were forgotten. This very fact put them
at their ease, and they listened, interested and amused over the thought
that these ladies and gentlemen wanted to go to school!
At first I do not think it occurred to one of them that he was included
in the proposal to form an writing-class.
How was it done? I am not sure that any one of the eager group of
workers could have told you afterward, so excited did they become over
this first scheme. Nobody could remember just what words were said, nor
who said them, nor whether the boys all looked equally startled when
paper and pen were put into each hand. They remembered that some shook
their heads emphatically, and that Nimble Dick spoke plainly: “No you
don't! I can't write any more than a duck can, and I never expect to.”
Mrs. Roberts knew that Dirk Colson's dark face turned a fierce red, and
he snapped the offered pen half-way across the table with his indignant
thumb and finger. But of these words and acts nobody apparently took any
notice. The writing began, and the first marks given as copies were
so simple, looked so easy to do, and the attempts of the ladies and
gentlemen fell so far short of what the teacher desired, and were so
unmercifully criticised by him, and the criticisms were so merrily
received by the writers, that at last the whole thing took the form of
a joke to Nimble Dick's mind, and he became possessed with a burning
desire to try. One by one the boys stealthily followed his example;
Alfred taking care to watch eagerly, to commend both Stephen Crowley
and Gracie Dennis in the same breath for some true stroke, and criticise
both Mrs. Roberts and Nimble Dick for not holding the pen aright.
The entire party became so interested that only Mrs. Roberts knew just
when Dirk Colson stealthily filliped back his pen from the distance to
which it had been rolled, and, sitting upright that he might attract
the less notice, tried his hand on the curve which was giving even Dr.
Everett trouble.
When the young teacher discovered it he made also another discovery,
which he proclaimed:--
“Upon my word, I beg the pardon of each of you, but Colson here has made
the only respectable _R_-curve there is in the company.”
Then if his sister Mart had seen the glow on Dirk's face, I am not sure
that she would have known him. There was a momentary transformation.
As for Mrs. Roberts, she bowed low over the letter she was carefully
forming, but it was to say in soft whisper heard by one ear alone:--
“Thank God!”