DEMOSTHENIC CLUB.
"Well! what of that! If college boys can have secret societies, and
the Faculties, to say the least, wink at them, why can't academy
girls? I don't see!"
This is what Jenny Barton said one evening to a group of girls out in
the pretty grove back of the academy building.
There were six of them there. Jenny had culled them from the school,
as best fitted for her purpose. She had two brothers in Harvard
College, and she had been captivated by their stories of the "Hasty
Pudding Club," of which they were both members. "So much fun! such a
jolly good time! why not, then, for girls, as well as for boys?"
When, after the long summer vacation, Jenny came back to school to
establish one of these societies, to be called in after years its
founder, and at the present time to be its head, this was the height
of her ambition, the one thing that she determined to accomplish.
These six girls that in the gloaming of this September night are
waiting to hear what she has to say were well chosen. There was Lucy
Snow, the one great mischief-maker in the school. No teacher but
wished her out of her corridor; in truth, no teacher, not even Miss
Ashton, who never shrank from the task of trying to make over spoiled
pupils, was glad to see her back at the beginning of a new year. There
was Kate Underwood, a brilliant girl, a fine scholar, and the best
writer in the school. There was Martha Dodd, whose parents were
missionaries at Otaheite; but Martha will never put her foot on
missionary ground. There was Sophy Kane, who held her head very high
because she was second cousin of Kane, the Arctic explorer, and who
talked in a grand manner of what she intended to do in her future.
There was Mamie Smythe, "chock-full of fun," the girls said, and was
never afraid, teachers or no teachers, rules or no rules, of carrying
it out. There was Lilly White, red as a peony, large as a travelling
giantess, with hands that had to have gloves made specially to fit
them, and feet that couldn't hide themselves even in a number ten
boot. She was as good-natured as she was uncouth, and never happier
than when she was being made a butt of. These were to be the nucleus
around which this society was to be formed; and as they threw
themselves down on the bed of pine-leaves which carpeted the old stump
of a tree upon which Jenny Barton was seated, they were the most
characteristic group that could have been chosen out of the school.
Jenny had shown her powers of leadership when she made the
selection.
The opening sentence of this chapter was what she said in reply to
some objection which Kate Underwood had offered. Kate liked to be
popular, to be admired and courted for her talents: it was the
_secret_ society that would prevent this. This, Jenny Barton
understood; and in the long debate that followed she met it well.
There should be a public occasion now and then. Did not the Harvard
societies give splendid spreads, and have an abundance of good times
generally?
The society was established, and its name, after a long and warm
debate, chosen: "The Demosthenic Club." "For we are going to debate,
you know; train for lecturers, public readers, ministers, actresses,
lawyers, and whatever needs public speaking," said President Jenny.
Vice-President Kate Underwood gave her head an expressive toss, and,
if it hadn't been too dark to see her smile, there might have been
seen something more than the toss; for while they talked, the long
twilight had faded away, the little ripples of the lake by whose side
they were sitting had gone to sleep on its quiet bosom. The air was
full of the chirrup of innumerable insects; two frogs, creeping up
from the water, adding a sonorous bass, and the long, slender
pine-leaves chimed into this evening lullaby with their sad, sweet,
AEolian notes.
But little of all of this did this Demosthenic Club notice as, coming
out at length from the darkness of the grove, they saw the sky full of
stars, the academy windows blazing with gas-light, and knew study
hours had been begun.
Not to be in their rooms punctually at that hour was an infringement
upon the "regulations" not easily excused, and to begin the formation
of their society by incurring the displeasure of their teachers did
not promise well for their future.
"Take off your boots," whispered Mamie Smythe, as they stood
hesitating at the door. In a moment every pair of boots was in the
girls' hands, and they were creeping softly through the empty
corridors toward their respective rooms. As fate would have it, the
only one who reached her room was Lilly White. To be sure, Fraeulein
Sausmann, the German teacher, heard steps in her corridor, and,
opening her door a crack, peeped out. When she saw Lilly White
creeping along on the toes of her great feet, her boots, like two
boats, held one in each hand, she only smiled, and said to herself,
"Oh, Fraeulein White! She matters not. She studies no times at all,"
and shut her door.
All the others were taken in the very act; and their shoeless feet,
their confession of a guilty conscience, were reported to Miss
Ashton.
"Seven of the girls! that means a conspiracy of some sort," said this
wise teacher. "I must keep an eye upon them."
How much any one of this "Demosthenic Club" suspected of their
detection by their corridor teachers it would be difficult to say,
for, except by a glance, no notice was taken of them at the time.
Jenny Barton told the others triumphantly at their next secret
session, how she had hidden her shoes behind her, and taken little,
mincing steps, so to hide her feet, and imitated the whole
performance, much to the amusement of the others. "Ah, but!" said
Mamie Smythe, "that wasn't half as good as what I did. When I met Miss
Stearns pat in the face, and she looked me through and through with
those great goggle eyes of hers, I just said, 'O Miss Stearns, I was
so thirsty I couldn't study; I had to go and get a drink of
ice-water!'
"Then the ugly old thing stared at the boots I had forgotten to hide,
as much as to say, 'It was very necessary, in order to go over these
uncarpeted floors, to take off your boots, I suppose, Mamie Smythe!'
If she had only said so right out, I should have answered,--
"'Why, Miss Stearns, I did it so not to make a noise;' that's true,
isn't it, now?" looking round among the laughing girls.
"And you ought to have added," put in Kate Underwood, "you didn't want
to disturb any one in study hours; that was true, wasn't it?"
"Exactly what I would have said; but then, when she only goggle-eyed
me, what could a girl do?"
"Do? Why, do what I did," said Lucy Snow. "I walked right up to Miss
Palmer, she's so ill-natured, and likes so much to have us all hate
her, that you can do anything with her, and I said,--
"'Miss Palmer! I know it's study hours, but I ate too much of that
berry shortcake for tea, and I went to find the matron, to see if she
couldn't give me something to ease the pain.'
"'I think' said she (the horrid thing), 'if you would put on your
boots, it might alleviate the pain; but for fear it should not--you
didn't find the matron, I suppose?'
"'No, ma'am,' I said, 'I didn't see her; I had to come away no better
than I went.'
"'I am very sorry for you; you appear to be in great pain.'
"I was doubling up like--like a contortionist," and she smiled, and
said,--
"'Come into my room, as you can't find the matron, perhaps I can help
you.'
"So in I had to go; and, girls, if you can believe it, after fumbling
around among her phials, she brought me something in a tumbler. It was
half full and looked horrid! I tell you, I shook in my stocking feet,
and I began to straighten up, and whimpered,--I could have cried right
out, it looked so awful, so _awful_, but I only whimpered,--'I'm
better, a good deal, Miss Palmer; I'll go to my room, and if I can't
study, I'll go to bed.'
"'You must take this first. I don't like to send you away in such
severe pain, particularly as you couldn't find the matron, without
doing something to help you. You know I am responsible to your parents
for your health!'
"'My parents never give me any medicine,' I snarled, for I was getting
ruxy by this time.
"'Perhaps you would have enjoyed better health if they had, and would
have been less liable to these sudden attacks of pain,' she said; and,
girls, if you can believe it, when I looked up in her face, there she
was in a broad grin, holding the tumbler, too, close to my mouth.
"'I'm--I'm lots better,' I whimpered.
"'I'm glad to hear it,' the ugly old thing said; 'but I must insist on
your drinking this at once, or I shall have to take you down to Miss
Ashton's room; she is more responsible than I am, and I am sure would
not pass any neglect on my part over.'
"By this time the tumbler touched my lips, and, girls, I was so sure
that she would take me down to Miss Ashton,--and there is no such
thing as keeping anything away from her, for you know how she hates
what she calls a 'prevarication,'--that I just had my choice, to drink
that nasty stuff, or to betray the Demosthenic Club, or to tell a fib,
and have my walking-ticket given me, so I opened my mouth wide, and
swallowed one swallow, then was going to turn away my head, but Miss
Palmer held the tumbler tight to my lips, as I have seen people do to
children when they were giving castor oil. I took another, and tried
again, but there was the tumbler tighter still, so down with it I
went, and--and--she had no mercy; she made me drain it to the last
drop; then she put it on the table, and said,--
"'Now, Lucy, you can go to your room; I think you will feel well
enough to study your lesson, but if you do not, come back in a
half-hour, and I will give you another, and a stronger dose. Put on
your boots before you go; you may take cold on the bare floors, in
your condition. Good-night.'
"She opened her door, and held it open in the politest way until I had
passed out, then I heard her laugh--laugh out loud, a real merry,
ringing laugh, every note of which said as plainly as words could,--
"'I've caught you now, old lady. How is the pain? Did the medicine
help you?'
"I tell you, girls, it was the hardest pain I ever had in my life, and
I never want another."
"Tell us how the medicine tasted," said Lilly White.
"Tasted! why, like rhubarb, castor oil, assafoetida, ginger, mustard,
epicac, boneset, paregoric, quinine, arsenic, rough on rats, and every
other hideous medicine in the pharmacopoeia."
"Good enough for you; you oughtn't to have lied," said Martha Dodd,
her missionary blood telling for the moment.
But the other girls only laughed; the joke on Lucy was a foretaste of
the fun which this club was to inaugurate.
Now, if Miss Palmer did not report to Miss Ashton, and she break up
the whole thing, how splendid it would be!
Undaunted, as after a week nothing had been said to them in the way of
disapproval, they went on to choose the other members of the club; to
appoint times and places for meeting; and to organize in as methodic
and high-sounding a manner as their limited experience would allow.