“YOURN'S THE WAY!”
You are not to suppose, because this first Monday evening (which, by the
way, was concluded with sandwiches and coffee) was a success, pronounced
so by all concerned, that therefore the ones which followed were all
rose-color.
Fortunately, not one of the workers expected this, and so were brave and
cheerful under drawbacks.
These were numerous and varied.
After the first novelty wore off, it took at times only the most trivial
excuses to keep the boys away. Sometimes when they called their conduct
was anything but encouraging. They lolled in the easy-chairs, smelling
strongly of tobacco and other bar-room odors, refused insolently to
apply themselves to any work at hand, audibly pronounced the whole
thing “slow,” and in numberless ways severely tried the patience of both
Alfred and Gracie.
For the others, they had counted the cost,--at least the gentlemen
had,--and expected to move slowly, even to appear to go backward some
of the time. As for Mrs. Roberts, I have told you that she worked in a
peculiar manner, with the motto, “This one thing I do,” apparently ever
before her.
Each evening was distinct in itself, with efforts to make and obstacles
to overcome; and at its close she had a way of laying it aside, as
something with which her part was done, not attempting even to calculate
results; then she was ready to turn to a new day, and work steadily for
that.
The winter was slipping away and Gracie Dennis lingered. She could
hardly have told you why, yet there were many apparent reasons. Mrs.
Roberts wanted her, rejoiced in her, and coaxed irresistibly as often
as the thought of going home was mentioned. Then Gracie, laugh over the
peculiar work going on as she might, was undeniably interested in those
boys. She was working for them, therefore of course she was interested.
“I don't see how you can go this week?” would young Ried say to her,
with a perplexed air; “you know we have that matter all planned for next
Monday evening. How can we carry out the scheme if you are not there to
do your part?”
Then would Gracie laugh and demur and admit, to herself only, that it
was very pleasant to be needed--as she certainly was--for one night
more; and so the nights passed.
Her work was to be “Professor of Elocution,” as Mr. Roberts gaily called
her when the workers were alone together. It had been discovered that
she could read both prose and poetry with effect. So a reading-class was
organized, and they chose for the first evening, not one of Bryant's or
Whittier's gems, nor selections from Milton or Shakespeare, which would
have suited part of the company, nor yet the “Easy Readings” in some
standard spelling-book, which would have fitted the capacity of the
others, but with great care and much discussion, one of Will Carleton's
descriptive poems, full of homely, yet tender language, full of pathos
and of humor, was unanimously selected.
The first evening reading had been commenced with nuts and apples. There
are those who can see no connection between this and the intellectual;
happily for the characters with whom she had to deal, Mrs. Roberts was
not one of them. While the others were still enjoying the refreshments
she took the book and read. This was her quiet little sacrifice. It was
not pleasant to her to become a public reader. It required courage
to get through with one verse, with Dr. Everett sitting opposite, and
Gracie Dennis on a low seat at her side, and her husband listening
intently. Mrs. Roberts was not a good reader, and was aware of it. She
pronounced the words correctly, it is true; but when you had said that,
you had said all that there was to offer in praise of her effort. She
had some exasperating faults. But she bravely read the two verses, and
some of the boys listened, and one of them laughed; he had caught a
gleam of the fun in the poem. This, of course, was Nimble Dick.
Then Alfred Ried made the same effort on the same verses; his
performance was very little better, and he, too, knew it. He could
write, but he was by no means a public reader; this was his offering to
the general good. If those fellows, by reason of his mistakes, could
be induced to climb, he was willing to offer his pride on the altar. No
matter by what petty trials they were caught so that they were really
caught.
Then followed Gracie Dennis, and her own father, acceptable preacher
though he was, might with credit to himself have taken lessons of her.
She was certainly, for one so young and so unprofessional, a magnificent
reader. So indeed was Marion Wilbur, and she had enjoyed teaching
Gracie.
The poem blossomed in her hand. The crunching of nuts and apples
entirely ceased. The boys sat erect and listened and laughed and flushed
and swallowed suspiciously over some of the homely pathos. They had
never heard anything like that before, and they evidently appreciated
it. She read through to the end.
Then were unloosed the tongues! They exclaimed in delight:--
“What an accomplishment it is!” said Mr. Roberts; “and how few possess
it. Doctor, how many really fine readers have you heard in your life?”
“About three,” said the doctor, laconically.
“Well,” said Mrs. Roberts, “let us all be exceptions. Gracie, teach us
how. I will try again.”
And she did, on the first verse of the poem; with better success than
before; but how sharp the contrast between her reading and Gracie's, she
knew! It was not easy for her to read.
I don't know, possibly I am mistaken, but it seems to me that I have
known people ready for large sacrifices, who yet would shrink painfully
from these little ones.
In discussing the programme for the evening, the question had been, when
each had done his part, How were they to influence the boys to join?
_Could_ they join? Was it probable that they knew enough about reading
to attempt to speak the words of the poem? With reference to this
obstacle a poem had been chosen full of simple, homely words, such as
are in common use; especially was the first verse free from what Mr.
Roberts called “shoals.” Having heard the verse read several times, it
was hoped that some one of the seven might have courage to attempt it,
but Gracie did not believe that such would be the case.
“I don't see how we can ask them, and do it naturally,” said Dr.
Everett. “It is such an unheard-of thing, you know; and I am afraid, do
our best, it will present itself to them as a patronage, and that will
be fatal. The people who are low enough to need patronage are the very
ones who won't endure it.”
Whereupon various ways of managing the matter were discussed and
discarded; suddenly Mrs. Roberts turned to her young lieutenant, who had
been silent for some time, and said:--
“What are you thinking of, Mr. Ried? Do you see a way out?”
“No,” he said; “I have neither knowledge nor skill in such matters,
but my thoughts just then were far away; I was thinking how curiously,
certain apparently trivial instances of one's childhood will stand out
with almost startling prominence.”
“What sent you off in that direction?” questioned Dr. Everett. “There
must have been an association of ideas.”
“Oh, there was; I was thinking how vividly I remembered a discussion
between my mother and my sister, younger than Ester, in regard to some
matter which perplexed them; and when they could come to no satisfactory
conclusion they appealed to my sister Ester, who was resting as usual on
her lounge. I can seem to hear her voice as she said: 'We haven't to do
anything about it until to-morrow; perhaps to-morrow will have a light
of its own for our direction.”
“Thank you!” Mrs. Roberts said, her eyes lighting with an appreciative
smile; “we have not to do anything about this until Monday night, and
perhaps Monday night will see us wise.”
I don't know how many thought of this little conversation when Monday
evening came, but certainly Alfred Ried and Mrs. Roberts did, for
she glanced at him and smiled significantly when Dr. Everett, having
apparently forgotten that anything beyond their own pleasure was in
contemplation, challenged Gracie to a discussion as to the emphasis on
a certain word in the second line; he had never heard it so read, and he
called for an analysis that would sustain the reading, and received it,
and was not yet prepared to yield the point, but read the verse as he
had imagined it should be read, and then Gracie, at Mr. Roberts' call,
repeated it with her rendering, and I am not sure but all parties
concerned actually forgot their final object in the interest of the
discussion until they were suddenly called to it by an interrupting
voice:--
“Your'n's the way,” it said, with an emphatic nod of a shock of matted
hair, “your'n's the way.”
It was Dirk Colson. He had forgotten for the moment that anybody was
listening to him, save the two readers. He was looking directly at
Gracie, and the nods were evidently intended for her.
“Of course it is!” she said, eagerly, her face flushing with a triumph
that had nothing to do with the right emphasis; “you read it, won't you,
and show these people that we are right?”
Afterward Mrs. Roberts confessed that she involuntarily placed her hand
on her heart with a dim idea of hushing its beating lest others would
hear, so important to her did the moment seem. Dr. Everett looked
dismayed. The least hopeful one of the seven seemed Dirk. None of them
knew of his dangerous talent for imitation. None of them believed that
he would make any attempt at reading, but thought he would shrink into
deeper sullenness. All of them were mistaken. He reached for the book,
glanced for a moment over the lines, and then read the verse, with so
complete an imitation of Gracie Dennis, and yet with a voice and manner
that so fitted the homely words and the homely scene described that the
effect was actually better than when Gracie read.
Instinctively the cultured portion of his audience greeted the effort
with a clapping of hands. The blood, meantime, rolled in dark waves over
Dirk's face. He had been cheered before. None of his present applauders
could imagine what a set had often clapped their hands over his
successful imitations; but Dirk, who liked applause as well as other
human beings do, had never, in his wildest stretches of imagination,
placed himself before such people as listened now and received their
approval.
Great was the excitement and satisfaction. The six companions, far from
feeling any emotion of jealousy, seemed greatly elated, believing that
one of their number had made a “hit,” and increased their importance.
No one else could be found to attempt the verse. Nimble Dick shook his
head good-naturedly, and declared that he would rather “undertake to run
an engine to Californy” than try it; and the others were of like mind.
Then came Gracie to the front again:--
“I'll tell you what you must all do. I have been experimenting with that
type-writer, Mr. Roberts, all the week. You know it will manifold, with
the use of carbon paper, and it chances that when I was seized with a
desire to try its powers in that direction I choose this very verse to
copy; so I have fifteen good copies in print. You must each take a copy
and make this verse a study until next Monday; then I shall challenge
you all to sustain me in my reading.”
This proposition was hailed with such satisfaction by the older members
that it immediately became popular, and each boy received his copy
mechanically and gazed at it curiously: but Dirk Colson's thoughts were
turned in a new channel.
“Look here!” he said, detaining Gracie by an imperious inclination of
his head, as she handed him the copy; “how did you make these? didn't
you print them fifteen times? I didn't understand what you said.”
“Why no!” said Gracie, “the machine will _manifold_. I'll show you; come
over to the end window; it stands there waiting to be displayed, and it
is a little wonder.”
Then they crowded around the type-writer, and Gracie, really proud
of the skill she had acquired in a week's time, showed off the little
wonder to great advantage.
The fact that the type-writer was new to most of the others, that they
were decidedly ignorant as to its working, increased the comfort of the
hour by doing away with the embarrassing feeling that any one of
them was playing a part. Dr. Everett was no more familiar with the
type-writer than was Dirk Colson, and was just as eager to know about
it.
Also everybody, apparently, felt an equally strong desire to write his
name on the marvellous little creature, and each in turn sat down before
it and moved his awkward hands with nearly equal slowness over the keys,
picking out the magic letters.
It was this episode that made the workers during their next conference
branch out in new lines.
“We need something,” said Dr. Everett, walking up and down the floor
in puzzled thought, “we need something that shall be a genuine
common interest, of which we are all, or all but one, equally
ignorant--something that we can take hold of with zest, on as low a
platform as the most ignorant of those seen. I was convinced of that
when I saw the abandon with which we all went into the type-writer
business, with a naturalness and equality that, in the matter of reading
and writing, it is impossible for us to feel. If the machine were
complicated, so that it would take us each three months or so to master
it, that would do. What can we take up that will place us on a level?”