 CHAPTER 6 DISTURBING ELEMENTS The next anxiety was the baby who contrived to tumble himself over in his high chair and cried loudly. Yuri ran. Dr. Mitchell was always so troubled about bumps on the head. She bathed this in cold water and in arnica, and petted and soothed and pacified as well as she could, a child who thought it a special and unendurable state of things not to have mama and nobody else. Between the petting she administered a wholesome reproof to Jenny. If you hadn't been reading, instead of attending to him, this would not have happened. I wish I had told Mother to lock up all the books before she went. You are a great help, worthwhile to stay from school and bury yourself in a book. I haven't read a dozen pages this morning, Jenny said with glowing cheeks. He was sitting in his high chair just as he always is, and I had stepped across the room to get a picture book for Robbie. How could I know that he was going to fall? I don't think you are very kind, anyway, when I am helping all that I can and losing school besides. And Miss Jenny put on an air of lofty and injured innocence. I believe she is sweeping right on the bread, said Urie. Her thoughts turned into another channel. Go and see Jenny. Jenny went and returned as full of comfort as any of Job's friends. She swept right straight at it, and she left the door open and the wind blew the cloth off, and a great hunk of dust and dirt lies right on top of one loaf, and the clothes are boiling over on the others. This bread you'll have. Before this sentence was half finished, Urie sat the baby on the floor and ran, stopping only to give orders that Jenny should not let him go to sleep for anything. The doorbell was the next sound that tried her nerves. The little parlor where they had lingered late, she and Nellis, last evening, when they had a pleasant talk together, the pleasantest she had ever had with that brother. Now she remembered how it looked, how he had said as he glanced back when they were leaving, Urie, I hope you won't have any special calls before you get around to this room in the morning. It looks as though there had been an upheaval of books and papers here. Books and papers and dust and her hat and sack and Jenny's gloves and Robbie's playthings, she had forgotten the parlor. Meantime Jenny had rushed to the door and now returned, holding the kitchen door open and talking loud enough to be heard distinctly in the parlor. Urie, Leonard Brooks is in the parlor. He says he wants to see you for just a minute and I should think that is about as long as he would care to stay. It looks like sixty in there. Oh, dear me! said Urie and she looked down at her dress. It had long black streaks running diagonally across it and dishwater and grease combined on her apron. A few drops of Arnica on her sleeves and hands did not improve the general effect. Jenny, why in the world didn't you tell him that I was engaged and couldn't see him this morning? Why, how should I know that you wanted me to say so to people? You didn't tell me. He said he was in a hurry. He isn't alone either. There's a strange gentleman with him. Worse and worse. I won't go, said Urie. But you will have to. I told him you were at home and would be in in a moment. Go on, what do you care? There was no way but to follow this advice, but she did care. She set the starch back on the stove and washed her hands and waited while Sally ran upstairs and hunted a towel. Then she went, flushed and annoyed, to the parlor. Leonard Brooks was an old acquaintance, but who was the stranger? Mr. Holden of New York, Leonard said. They would detain her but a moment as she was doubtless engaged, and then Leonard looked mystivously down at the streaked dress. He was not used to seeing Urie look so entirely awry in the matter of her toilet. Mr. Holden was going to get up a tableau entertainment and needed home talent to help him. He, Leonard, had volunteered to introduce him to some of the talented ladies of the city and had put her first on the list. Urie struggled with her embarrassment and answered in her usual way. He can see at a glance that I merit the compliment. If myself and all my surroundings don't show a marked talent for disorder, I don't know what would. Mr. Holden was courteous and gallant in the extreme. He took very little notice of the remark, ignored the state of the room entirely, apologized for the unseemly hour of their call, attributing it to his earnest desire to secure her name before there was any other engagement made. Might he depend on her influence and help? Urie was in a hurry. She smelled the starch scorching. Robbie was crying fretfully, and the baby was so quiet she feared he was asleep. The main point was to get rid of her collars as soon as possible. She asked few questions and knew as little about the projected entertainment as possible, save that she was pledged to a rehearsal on the coming Wednesday at eight o'clock. Then she bowed them out with a sense of relief, and merely remarking to Jenny that she wished she could coax Robbie and the baby into the parlor and clear it up a little before anybody more formidable arrived, she went back to the scorched starch and other trials. From that time forth a great many people wanted Dr. Mitchell. The bell rang and rang and rang. Jenny had to run, and Urie had to run to baby. Then came noon, bringing the boys home from school, hungry and in a hurry, and Urie had to go to Sally's help, who was struggling to get the table set and something on it to eat. Whereupon the bread suddenly announced itself ready for the oven by spreading over one half of the breadcloth with a sticky mass. Then the bell rang again. I hope that is someone who will send to the valley for father right away, then we shall have mother again. This was Urie's half-allowed admission that she was not equal to the stream. Then she listened for Jenny's report. The parlor door being opened and somebody being invited thither, and that room not cleared up yet. Then came Jenny with her exasperating news. It is Dr. Snowden from Morristown, and he wants father for a consultation. Says he is going to take him back with him on the two o'clock train, and he wants to know if you could let him have a mouth full of dinner with father. He met father at the crossing half a mile below, and he told him to come right on. And where is mother, said Urie, pale and almost breathless under this new calamity. Why, he didn't say, but I suppose she is with father. He stopped to call it the Newtons. I guess you'll have to hurry, won't you? Jenny was provokingly cool and composed. No sense of responsibility rested upon her. Hurry, said Urie, why, he can't have any dinner here. We haven't a thing in the house for a stranger. Well, said Jenny, balancing herself on one foot, shall I go and tell him that he must take himself off to a hotel? Nonsense, said Urie, you know better. Then she whisked into the kitchen twenty minutes of one, and the train went at ten minutes of two, and nothing to eat, and Dr. Snowden, of all particular and gentlemanly mortals, without a wife or a home, or any sense of the drawbacks of Monday, to eat it. Is it hardly to be wondered at that the boys voted Urie awfully cross? All together it was just the most horrid time that ever anybody had. That was the way Urie closed the account of it as she sat curled at the foot of Marion's bed with the three friends, who had been listening and laughing, gathered around her in different attitudes of attention. Oh, you can laugh, and so can I now that it is over, Urie said, but I should just like to have seen one of you in my place. It was no laughing matter, I can tell you. It was just the beginning of vexations, though. The whole week so far has been exasperating in every respect. Never anything went less according to planning than my program for the week has. Each of her auditors could have echoed that, but they were silent. At last Marion asked, But how did you get out of it? Tell us that. Now, a dinner of any kind is something that is beyond me. I can imagine you transfixed with horror. Tell us what you did. Why, you will wonder who came to my rescue, but I tell you girls, Nellis is the best fellow in the world. If I was half as good a Christian as he is, without any of that to help him, I should be a thankful mortal. I didn't expect him, thought he had gone away for the day. But when he came, he took in the situation at a glance. Half a dozen words of explanation set him right. Never mind, he said, tell him we didn't mean to have dinner so early, but we flew around and got them a bite, then let's do it. But what will the bite be, I asked, and I stood looking up at him like a ninny who had never gotten a meal in her life. Why, bread and butter, and coffee, and the dish of sauce, and a pickle, or something of that sort? And the things really sounded appetizing as he told them off. Come, he said, I'll grind the coffee and make it. I used to be a dabster at that dish when I was in college. Jenny, you set the table, and Ned will help. He's well enough for that, I know. And in less time than it takes to tell it, he had us all at work, baby and all. And really, we managed to get up quite a decent meal out of nothing you understand, had it ready when father drove up, and he said it was as good a dinner as he had had in a week. But oh, me, I'm glad such days don't come very often. You see, none of you know anything about it. You girls with your kitchens supplied with first class cooks, and without any more idea of what goes on in the way of work before you are fed than though you lived on the moon. What do you know about such a day as I have described? Here's Marion, to be sure, who has about as empty a purse as mine. But as for kitchens and wash days and picked up dinners, she is a novice. I know all about those last articles, so far as eating them is concerned, Marion said grimly. I know things about them that you don't and never will. But I have made up my mind that living a Christian life isn't walking on a feather bed, whether you live in a palace or a fourth-rate board house, and teach school. I shouldn't wonder if there were such things as vaccinations everywhere. I don't doubt it, Ruth Erskine said, speaking more quickly than was usual to her. The others had been more or less communicative with each other. It wasn't in Ruth's nature to tell how tried and dissatisfied she had been with herself and her life and her surroundings all the week. She was not sympathetic by nature. She couldn't tell her inward feeling to anyone, but she could endorse heartily the discovery that Marion had made. Well, I know one thing, said Urie. It requires twice the grace that I supposed it did to get through kitchen duties and exasperations and keep one's temper. I shall think, after this, that mother is a saint when she gets through the day without boxing our ears three or four times around. Come, let's go to meeting. It was Wednesday evening, and our four girls had met to talk over the events of the week and to keep each other countenance during their first prayer meeting. It is almost worse than going to Sunday school, Urie said as they went up the steps, except that we can help ourselves to seats without waiting for any attentions which would not be shown. Now the first church people were not given to going to prayer meeting. It is somewhat remarkable how many first churches there are to which that remark will apply. The chapel was large in inviting, looking as though in the days of its planning many had been expected at the social meetings, or else it was built with an eye to festivals and societies. The size of the room only made the few persons who were in it seem fewer in number than they were. Placie had been to prayer meeting several times before with a cousin who visited them, but none of the others had attended such a meeting since they could remember. To Urie and Ruth it was a real surprise to see the rows of empty seats. As for Marion, she had overheard sarcastic remarks enough in the watchful and critical world in which she had moved to have a shrewd suspicion that such was the case. I don't know where to sit, whispered Placie, shrinking from the gaze of several heads that were turned to see who the newcomers were. You suppose they will seat us? Not they, said Urie. Don't you remember Sunday? We must just put the courageous face on and march forward. I'm going directly to the front. I always said if I ever went to prayer meeting at all I shouldn't act as though I was ashamed that I came, saying which she led the way to the second seat from the desk directly in line with Dr. Dennis's eye. That gentleman looked down at them with troubled face. Marion looked to see it light up, for she said in her heart, Gracie has surely told him my secret. She knew little about the ways in the busy minister's household. The delightful communion of feeling that she had imagined between father and daughter was almost unknown to them. Very fond and proud of his daughter was Dr. Dennis, very careful of her health and her associations, very grateful that she was a Christian and so safe. But so busy and harassed was his life, so endless were the calls on his time and his patience and his sympathy that almost without his being aware of it his own family were the only members of his church who never received any pastoral calls. Consequently, a reserve like unto that in too many households had grown up between himself and his child, utterly unsuspected by the father, never but half owned by the daughter. He thought of her religious life with joy and thanksgiving, when she went astray was careful and tender in his admonition, yet of the inner workings of her life, of her reaching after higher and better living, of her growth in grace, or her days of disappointment and failure and decline, he knew no more than the various stranger with whom she never spoke. For while Grace Dennis loved and reverenced her father more than she did any other earthly being, she acknowledged to herself that she could not have told him even of the little conversation between her teacher and herself. She could and did tell him all about the lesson in algebra, but not a word about the lesson in Christian love. So on this evening his face expressed no satisfaction in the presence of the strangers. He was simply disturbed that they had formed a league to meet there with mischief ahead, as he verily believed. He arose and read the opening hymn, then looked about him in a disturbed way. Nobody to lead the singing. This was too often the case. The quartet choir rarely indeed found their way to the prayer meeting, and when the one who was a church member occasionally came to the weekly meeting, for reasons best known to herself, apparently the power of song for which she received so good a Sabbath-day salary had utterly gone from her, for she never opened her lips. I hope, said Dr. Dennis, that there is someone present who can start this tune. It is simple. A prayer meeting without singing loses half its spiritual force. Still everyone was dumb. I am sorry that I cannot sing at all, he said again after a moment's pause. If I could ever so little, it would be my delight to consecrate my voice to the service of God's house. Still, silence. All this made Marian remember her resolves at Chautauqua. What tunes do people sing in prayer meeting? She whispered to Urie. I don't know, I am sure. Urie whispered back, and then the ludicrous side happened to forcibly strike that young lady. Just then she shook with laughter and shook the seat. Dr. Dennis looked down at her with grave rebuking eye. Well, he began, if we can't sing. And then, before he had time to say further, a soft, sweet voice, so tremulous it almost brought the tears to think what a tremendous stretch of courage it had taken, quivered on the air. End of Chapter 6. Recording by Tricia G. Chapter 7 of the Chautauqua Girls at Home. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Chautauqua Girls at Home by Pansy. Chapter 7. Prayer Meeting and Tableaus. It was Flossy who had triumphed again over self and a strong natural timidity. Her voice trembled but for an instant, then it was literally absorbed in the rich, full tones which Marian allowed to roll out from her throat. Richer, fuller, stronger than they would have been had she not again received this sharp rebuke from the timid baby of their party. But that voice of hers, I wish I could describe it to you. It is not often that one hears such a voice. Such and one had never been heard in that room, and the few occupants were surely justified in twisting their heads to see from whence it came. It was still a new thing to Marian to sing such words as were in that hymn, and in the beauty of them and the enjoyment of their richness, she lost sight of self and the attention she was attracting and saying with all her heart. It so happened that every one of the three friends could help her not a little, so our girls had the singing in their own hands for the evening. When the next hymn was announced, Marian leaned forward smiling a little, and covered with her firm, strong hand the trembling little gloved hand of Flossy, and herself gave the key note in clear, strong tones that neither faltered nor trembled. You've taken up your little cross bravely, she whispered afterward, shown me my duty and shamed me into it. The very lightest end of it shall not rest on you any more. Notwithstanding the singing, and finding that it could be well done, Dr. Dennis took care to see that there should be much of it, that meeting dragged. The few who were in the habit of saying anything waited until the very latest moment as if hopeful that they might find a way of escape altogether, and yet when one started, talked on as though they had forgotten how to arrange a suitable closing and must therefore go on. Then the prayers seemed to our newcomers and new beginners in prayer very strange and unnatural. Do you suppose Mr. Helm really feels such a deep interest in everything under the sun, queried Yuri, or did he pray for all the world in detail because it is the proper way to do? Some way I don't feel as if I could ever learn to pray in that way. I believe I shall have to ask for just what I want and then stop. If you succeed in keeping to the latter part of your determination, you will do better than the most of them, Marianne said. I can't help thinking that the worst feature of it is the keeping on long after the person wants to stop. Now, I tell you girls, that is not the way they prayed at Shatakwa, is it? Well, said Flossie, it is not the way Dr. Dennis prays either, but then he has a theological education. That makes a difference, I suppose. Know it doesn't, you mouse, make a speck of difference. That old Uncle Billy, as they call him, who sat down by the door in the corner, hasn't a theological education nor any other sort of education. Did he speak one single sentence according to rule? Yet didn't you notice his prayer, different from most of the others? He meant it. But you wouldn't say that none of the others meant it? Ruth said, speaking hesitatingly and questioningly. No, Marianne answered slowly. I suppose not, of course. Yet there is something the matter with them. It may be that the ones who make them may feel them, but they don't succeed in making me feel. Well, honestly, said Urie, I'm disappointed. I have heard that people who were really Christians liked to go to prayer meeting better than anywhere else, but I feel awfully wicked about it. But as true as I live, I have been in places that I thought were ever so much pleasanter than it was here this evening. Now to tell the plain truth, some of the time I was dreadfully bored. I'm specially disappointed, too, for I had a plan to trying to coax Nellis into going with me, but I really don't know whether I want him to go or not. But this talk was when they were on their way homeward. Before that, as they went down the steps, Urie said, What plans have you for the evening, girls? Won't you go with me? And then she went back to that tormenting Monday and told of Leonard Brooks's call with his friend Mr. Holden, and of the tableau entertainment to which she was pledged. They had all heard more or less of it, and all in some form or other had received petitions for help, but none of them had come in direct contact with it, save Urie, and it appeared that the rest of them had given the matter very little attention. Still they were willing to go with Urie and see what was to be seen. At least they walked on in that direction. Dr. Dennis and his daughter were directly behind them. As they neared a brightly lighted street corner, he came up to Urie and Marion, who were walking together with a pleasant good evening. Something in Marion's manner of singing the hymn had interested him, and also he was interested in learning, if he could, what motive had brought them to so unusual a place as the prayer meeting. It is a lovely evening for a walk, he said. But Miss Wilbur, you don't propose to take it alone, I hope. Isn't your boarding place at some distance? She was not going directly home, Marion explained, not caring to admit the loneliness, and also what evidently seemed to Dr. Dennis the impropriety of having to traverse the street alone so often that it had failed to seem a strange thing to her. Urie volunteered further information. They are going up to Anna's Lease Hall to make arrangements for the Tableau Entertainment. Now it so happened that Dr. Dennis knew more about the Tableau Entertainment than Urie did, and his few minutes of feeling that perhaps he had misjudged those girls departed at once. So did his genial manner. Indeed, he said, in the coldest tone imaginable, and almost immediately dropped back with his daughter. There was a gentleman hurrying down the walk evidently for the purpose of overtaking him. At this moment he pronounced the doctor's name. Walk on, Grace, I will join you in a moment. The girls heard Dr. Dennis say, and Grace stepped forward alone. Marion glanced back, but a few weeks ago it would have been nothing to her that Grace Dennis or anyone else walked alone so that she had no need of their company. But the law of unselfishness, which is the very essence of a true Christian life, was already beginning to work unconsciously in this girl's heart, and it made her turn now and say to Grace, with winning voice, Have you lost your companion? Come and walk with us until you can have him again. Miss Mitchell, Miss Dennis. It was a fact that, though Urie was of the same church with Grace Dennis, and though she knew Grace by sight and vowed to her in the daytime, their familiarity with each other was not so sufficient as to ensure a gaslight recognition. We know each other, Grace said brightly, at least we ought to. We do when we see each other plainly enough. I have been meaning to call with Papa, Miss Mitchell, but I haven't been able to yet. I am only a schoolgirl, you know. Urie preferred to ignore the calling question. She had little sympathy with that phase of fashionable life. So she plunged it once into another subject. Are you going to the hall tonight, Miss Dennis, to help in getting up the tableau entertainment? Something in the quick way in which Grace Dennis said, Oh, no, made Marian anxious to question further. Why not? She asked. Miss Mitchell says they want all the ladies of talent. I'm sure you and I ought to be there. I can imagine you in a splendid tableau, Gracie. Perhaps you would better go and help. To be sure, I haven't been really invited myself, but I guess I can get in somehow. Won't you go with us now? I can't, Miss Wilbur. I should like to go. I enjoy tableaux ever so much, but Papa does not approve of making tableaux of scripture scenes. You know ministers have to be in advance on all these subjects. Gracie spoke in an apologetic tone and with a flushed face as one who had been obliged into saying a rude thing and must make it sound as best she could. Are they to be scripture scenes? Yuri asked, and in the same breath added, Why does he disapprove? I don't think I could give his reasons. He thinks them irreverent sometimes, I fancy, but I am not sure. I never heard him say very much on the subject, but I know quite well that he would not like me to go. Don't you know, Miss Mitchell, that clergymen always have to stand aloof from so many things because they are set up as examples for others to follow? But what is the use of it if others don't follow? said quick-witted Yuri. We must look into this question. I have never thought of it. It will have to be put down with that long list of subjects on which I have never had any thoughts. That list swells every day. At this point Dr. Dennis somewhat decidedly summoned his daughter to his side, and it was after they had turned into another street that the girls took the prayer meeting into consideration. They were still talking of it when they reached the hall. Quite a company were assembled, among them Yuri's brother, who was to meet her there, and Colonel Baker, who had come for the purpose of meeting Flossie, much to her discomforture. After Holden and Leonard Brooks came over to the seat which they had taken, then the former was presented to the rest of the party. This is capital, Nellis Mitchell said. Holden, I congratulate you. I knew Flossie would help and possibly Miss Wilbur, but I will confess to not even hoping for you, Miss Erskine. If your hopes are necessary to the completion of this scheme, I advise you not to raise them high so far as I am concerned, for they will have a grievous fall. I am the most indifferent of spectators. This from Ruth in her most formal and haughty tone. Nellis Mitchell was not one of her favorites. Oh, you will help us, will you not? Mr. Holden asked, in a tone so familiar and friendly, that Ruth flushed as she answered, Thank you, no. Whereupon Mr. Holden discovered himself to be silenced. Never mind, Leonard Brooks said, We have enough helpers promised to make the thing a grand success. Urie, let me show you the picture of one which we have planned for you. The scenic effect is really very fine, oriental, you know, and you will light up splendidly in that picture. Thank you, said Urie, in an absent-minded tone, and she had to be twice recalled from her thoughts before she turned to look at the plate spread before her. In the instant an angry flush arose, spreading itself over her face as she looked. You do not mean that you are to present this, she said at length. Why not? asked Leonard in astonishment. Mr. Holden hastened to explain. It is not often chosen for tableaus, I admit, but on that account is all the more desirable. We want to get away from the ordinary sort. This is magnificent in its working up. I had it in New York last winter, and it was one of the finest presented. It will not be presented with my help. Urie's tone was so cold and haughty that Marian turned toward her in surprise, and for the first time glanced at the plate. Why, Miss Mitchell, Mr. Holden exclaimed, I am surprised and grieved if I have annoyed you by my selection. I was thinking how well you would light up an oriental scene. Is it the representation of the Saviour that you dislike? I cannot see why that should be objectionable. It is dealing with him as a mere man, you know. It is simply an oriental dress of a male figure that we want to represent, and this figure of Christ, as he sat at the well, is so exceedingly minute and so carefully drawn that it works up finally. Christ at the well of Samaria, read Flossie, now bending over the book, and her eyes and cheeks told the story of her aversion to the idea. Who would be willing to personate the Saviour? Mr. Holden was prompt with his answer. I have not had the slightest difficulty in that matter. My friend Colonel Baker here expressed himself as entirely willing to undertake it. Why, my dear young ladies, you see it is nothing but the masculine form of dress that we want to bring out. There is really nothing more irreverent in it than there is in your looking at this picture here tonight. Then we will not look longer at the picture, Yuri said, drawing back suddenly, the color on her face deepening into crimson. It is useless for you to undertake an argument with me. I will be very plain with you, and inform you that, aside from the irreverent nature of the tableau, I consider myself insulted in being chosen to make a public representation of that character. I am certainly absolved from my promise, Mr. Holden, and I beg you to withdraw my name from your list at once. Mr. Holden turned to the leaf on the offending picture. He was amazed and grieved. He had looked at the picture purely in an artistic light. He supposed all people looked thus at tableau pictures. It was certainly a compliment that he meant to pay, and not the shadow of a discurtecy. But since they looked at it in that singular manner, of course it should be withdrawn from the lists. Nothing further should be said about it. Let him show them, just allow him to show them, one plate which was the very finest and scenic effect of anything that he had ever gotten up. The name of it was The Ancient Feast. Yuri turned hotly away, but Flossie and Ruth looked. It was a representation of Belshazzar at his impious feast, at the time when he was arrested by the handwriting on the wall. Ruth Erskine curled her handsome lip into something like a sneer. Does Colonel Baker kindly propose to aid you in representing the hand of God, she said in her haughtiest tones? He is so willing to lend himself to the other piece of sacrilege that one can hardly expect him to shrink even from this. Mr. Holden promptly closed his book. There is some mistake, he said. I suppose the ladies and gentlemen gathered here came in for the purpose of helping, not for ridiculing. Of course, if we differ so entirely on these topics, we can be a very little help to each other. So I should judge, said Marion, and that being the case, shall we go? What nonsense, said Leonard Brooks, following after the retreating party but speaking only in a low tone and addressing Urie. One expects such lofty humbug from Miss Erskine and even from Miss Wilbur. The tragic is in her line. But I thought you would enter into and enjoy the whole thing. I told Holden that you would be the backbone of the matter. Thank you, said Urie, her voice half-choped with indignation and wounded pride, and I presume you assisted in the selection of the characters that I should personate. As I said, I consider myself insulted. Please allow me to pass." Much excited and some of them very much ashamed, they all found themselves on the street again, Nellis Mitchell being the only one of the astonished gentlemen who had bethought himself or had had sufficient courage to join them. Well, what next, he said? Now, said Urie, what do you think of that? Nellis shrugged his shoulders. It is not according to my way of thinking, he said, but they told me you had promised, and I thought if you had, with your eyes open, it was none of my business. I congratulate you on being fairly out of it. That Holden is a scamp, I believe. And Colonel Baker was going to take that character, said Flossie to herself, and Urie in her heart felt grieved and hurt that her friend of long standing, Leonard Brooks, could have said and done just what he had. He could never beat to her as though he had not said and done those things. As for Marion, all she said was, I begin to have a clearer idea of what Grace Dennis and her father mean. CHAPTER VIII. They walked on in absolute silence for a few minutes, each busy with her own thoughts. Urie was the first to speak. Girls, I propose we go and call on Dr. Dennis. Ruth and Marion uttered exclamations of dismay, or it might have been of surprise. Flossie spoke. You don't mean now? Now this minute. We have an hour at our disposal, and we are all together. Why not, and have it over with? I tell you, that man is afraid of us. And when you come to think of it, why should he not be? What have we ever done to help his work? And how much we may have done to hinder it? I never realized how much until this present moment. It enrages me to think how many enterprises, like this one, I have been engaged in without giving it a thought. Just imagine how such things must look to Dr. Dennis. But Urie, you have never been mixed in with anything like that performance as it is to be. What do you mean by admitting it? It was Ruth who spoke in some heat. The association rankled in her heart. Not precisely that sort of thing, I admit, but what must be the reputation I have earned when I can be so coolly picked out for such work? I tell you, girls, I am angry. I suppose I ought to be grateful for my eyes have certainly been opened to see a good many things that I never saw before, but it was a rough opening. Shall we go to the parsonage or not? Oh, dear, I don't feel in the least like it, Flossy said timidly. Do you ever expect to feel like it? Urie asked, still speaking hotly. For myself I must say that I do. I am tired of my place. I want to be admitted and belong somewhere. It is entirely evident to me that I don't belong where I did. I have discovered that a great many things about me are changed. I feel that I shall not assimilate well. Let me get in where I can have a chance. I want to belong to that Sunday school, for instance, to be recognized as a part of it and to be counted in a place. So do you, Flossy, I am sure. Why not settle the matter? Yes, Flossy certainly wanted to belong to that Sunday school. More than that, she wanted to belong to that class. Her heart had been with it all the week. If there was a hope that she might be permitted to try it for a while, she was willing even to call on Dr. Dennis, though that act looked awfully formidable to her. I suppose it is very silly not to want to go this evening as well as any time, she admitted at last. Of course it is, said Marion energetically. Let us turn this corner at once, and in two minutes more we shall have rung his bell. Then that will settle the question. Nothing like going ahead and doing things without waiting to get into the mood. See here, said Nellis Mitchell, speaking for the first time. Please to take into consideration what you propose to do with me. I take it that you don't want me to make this call with you. My sister has been remarkably bewildering in her remarks, but I gather that it is something like a confidential talk that you are seeking with the doctor into which I am not to be admitted. I forgot that you were along, said Urie with her usual frankness. No, Nell, we don't want you to call with us, not this time. I might ask for a separate room and make my call on Miss Grace. At least I might try it, but I doubt her father's permitting such a tremendous action. So really, I don't see quite what you are to do with me. I am entirely at your disposal. See here, Nell, couldn't you call for us in half an hour, say? Girls, could we stay half an hour, do you suppose? We shall have to do something of the kind. It won't do for us to go home alone. I see what we can do, Nell. You go to father's office and wait just a little while, and if we are not there in half an hour, you can call for us at Dr. Dennis's. And if we find we are not equal to a call of that length, we will come to the office. Will that do? The obliging brother made a low bow of mock ceremony, assured her that he was entirely at her service, that she might command him and he would serve to the best of his knowledge and ability, made a careful minute of the present time in order to be exact at the half hour, and as they laughingly declined his offer to ring the doctor's bell for them, he lifted his hat to them, with the lowest of bows, and disappeared around the corner. He is such a dear fellow, said Urie, looking fondly after him. I don't see in what respect, muttered Ruth in an aside to flossy. Ruth had a special aversion to this young man. Possibly it might have been because he treated her with a most good humored indifference, despite all her dignity and coldness. Meantime in Dr. Dennis's study, his daughter was hovering around among the books, trying to bring order out of confusion on the shelves and table, and at the same time find a favorite volume she was reading. The doctor turned on a brighter flame of gas, then lowered it and seemed in a disturbed state of mind. At last he spoke. I don't know that my caution is needed, daughter. I have no reason to think that it is, from anything in your conduct at least. But I feel like saying to you that I have less and less liking for those young ladies, who seem, since their unfortunate freak of attending that Chautauqua meeting, to have banded themselves together, I can hardly imagine why. They are certainly unlike enough. But I distrust them in almost every way. I am sorry that you are at school under Miss Wilbur's influence. Not that I dread her influence on you, except in a general way. At this point Grace opened her bright lips to speak. There was an eager sentence glowing on her tongue, but her father had not finished his. I know all that you can say, that you have nothing to do with her religious or non-religious views, and that she is a splendid teacher. I don't doubt it, but I repeat to you that I distrust all of them. I don't know why they have seen fit to come to our Sabbath school and to our meeting this evening, unless it be to gain an unhappy influence over some whom they desire to lead astray. I can hardly think so meanly of them as that, either. I do not say that such was their motive, but simply that I do not understand it, and am afraid of it, and I desire you to have just as little to do with any of them as ordinary civility will admit. Either too I have thought of Ruth Erskine as simply a leader of fashion and of Flossy Shipley as the tool of the fashionable world, but I am afraid their dangerous friends are leading them to be more. The Tableau affair tonight I have investigated to a certain degree, and I consider it one of the worst of its kind. I would not have you associated with it for, well, any consideration that I can imagine, and yet, if I mistake not, I heard them urging you to join them. Again Grace is said to speak, but the peeling of the doorbell interrupted her. Who is it, Hannah? Dr. Dennis questioned, as that personage peaked her head in at the door. It is four young ladies, Dr. Dennis, and they want to see you. Grace arose to depart. Do you know any of them, Hannah? The doctor asked. Well, sir, one of them is the Miss Wilbur who teaches, and I think another is Dr. Mitchell's daughter. I don't know the others. Show them in here, said Dr. Dennis promptly, and daughter, will you please remain? They have doubtless come to petition me for your assistance in the Tableaus, and I have not the least desire to be considered a household tyrant or to have them suppose that you are my prisoner. I would much rather you should give them your own opinions on the subject like a brave little woman. But father, Grace said, and there was a gleam of mischief in her eye, I haven't any opinions on this subject. The most that I can say is that you don't wish me to have anything to do with them, and so like a dutiful daughter I decline. Well, then, he said, smiling back on her in a satisfied way, show them how gracefully you can play the part of a dutiful daughter. While you are so young, and while I am here to have opinions for you, the dutiful part cheerfully done is really all that is necessary. And this was the introduction that the four girls had to the pastor's study. How shy they felt! Ruth could hardly ever remember of feeling so very much embarrassed. As for Yuri, she began to feel that distressing sense of the ludicrous creeping over her, and so was horribly afraid that she should laugh. Marian went forward to Grace, and in the warm glad greeting that this young girl gave, felt her heart melted and warmed. Dr. Dennis, confident in the errand that had brought them, decided to lead the conversation himself and give them no chance to approach the topic smoothly. Have you done up the tableaus so promptly? He asked, and while he addressed this question to Marian, Yuri felt that he looked right at her. Marian's answer was prompt and to the point. Yes, sir, we have. Miss Mitchell was the only one of us who was pledged, and I believe she was entirely dissatisfied with the character of the entertainment and withdrew her support. Indeed! Dr. Dennis's manner of pronouncing this word was, in effect, saying, is it possible that there can be an entertainment of so questionable a character that Miss Mitchell will withdraw from it? At least that was the way the word sounded to Yuri, but she had been roused to unusual sensitiveness. The effect was to rouse her still further, to put to flight every trace of embarrassment and every desire to laugh. She spoke in a clear, strong voice. Dr. Dennis, we shall be talking at cross purposes if we do not make some explanation of our object in calling this evening. We feel that we do not belong in the society where you are classing us. In fact, we do not belong anywhere. Our views and feelings have greatly changed within a short time. We want to make a corresponding change in our associations, at least so far as is desirable. Our special object in calling just now is that we know it will soon be time for the communion in your church, and we have thought that perhaps we ought to make a public profession of our changed views. Was ever a man more bent on misunderstanding plain English than was Dr. Dennis this evening? He looked at his collars in an astonished and embarrassed way for a moment, as if uncertain whether to consider them lunatics or not, and then said, addressing himself to Yuri, My dear young lady, I fear you are laboring under a mistake as to the object in uniting with the Church of Christ and the preparation necessary. You know, as a church, we hold that something more than a desire to change one's social relations should actuate the person to take such a step, that indeed there should be a radical change of heart. Poor Yuri, she thought she had been so plain in her explanation. She flushed and commenced a stammering sentence, then paused and looked appealingly at Ruth and Marion. Finally, she did what, for Yuri Mitchell to do, was unprecedented, lost all self-control, and broke into a sudden and passionate gust of tears. Yuri don't, Marion said, to her it was actual pain to see tears. As for Dr. Dennis, he was very much at his wit's end, and Ruth's embarrassment grew upon her every moment. Lucy came to the rescue. Dr. Dennis, she said, and he noticed even then that her voice was strangely sweet and winning, Yuri means that we love Jesus and we believe he has forgiven us and called us by name. We mean we want to be his and to serve him forever, and we want to acknowledge him publicly because we think he has so directed. How simple and sweet the story was, after all, when one just gave up attempting to be proper and gave the quiet truth. Ruth was struck with the simplicity and the directness of the words. She began to have not only an admiration, but an unfeigned respect for Flossy Shipley. But you should have seen Dr. Dennis's face. It is a pity Yuri could not have seen it at that moment. If she had not had hers buried in the sofa pillow, she would have caught the quick, glad look of surprise and joy and heartfelt thankfulness that spoke in his eyes. He arose suddenly and, holding out his hand to Flossy, said, Let me greet you and thank you and ask you to forgive me in the same breath. I have been very slow to understand and strangely stupid and unsympathetic. I feel very much as I fancy poor doubting Thomas must have done. Forgive me. I am so astonished and so glad that I don't know how to express the feeling. Do you speak for all your friends here, Miss Flossy? And may I ask something about the wonderful experience that has drawn you all into the arc? But Flossy's courage had forsaken her. It was born of sympathy with Yuri's tears. She looked down now, tearful herself and trembling like a leaf. Ruth found voice to answer for her. Our experience, Dr. Dennis, can be summed up in one word, shatakwa. Dr. Dennis gave a little start, another astonishment. Do you mean that you were converted during the meeting? Marian smiled. We do not know enough about terms to really be sure that that is the right one to use, she said. At least I do not. But we do know this, that we met the Lord Jesus there, and that, as Flossy says, we love him and have given our lives into his keeping. You cannot say more than that after a hundred years of experience, he said quickly. Well, dear friends, I cannot, as I said, express to you my gratitude and joy. And you are coming into the church and are ready to take up work for the master and live for him. Thank the Lord. Little need had our girls to talk of Dr. Dennis's coldness and dignity after that, how entirely his heart had melted. What a blessed talk they had! So many questions about shatakwa, so much to tell that delighted him. They had not the least idea that it was possible to feel so much at ease with a minister as they grew to feel with him. The bell rang and was answered, and yet no one intruded on their quiet, and the talk went on until Marian, with a sudden recollection of Nellis Mitchell and their appointment with him, Shola glanced at her watch and was astonished into the announcement. Girls, we have been here an hour and a quarter. Is it possible, Ruth said, rising at once, father will be alarmed, I am afraid. Dr. Dennis rose also. I did not know I was keeping you so, he said. Our theme was a fascinating one. Will you wait a moment and let me make ready to see you safely home? But it appeared on opening the door that Nellis Mitchell occupied an easy chair in the parlor just across the hall. I am a patient young man and at your service, he said, coming toward them as they emerged. Please give me credit for promptness. I was here at the half hour. As they walked home, Nellis with his sister on one arm and flossy shively on the other, he said, Now what am I to understand by this sudden and violent intimacy at the parsonage? Miss Flossy, my sister has hitherto made yearly calls of two seconds duration on the doctor's sister when she is not home to receive them. A great many things are to be different from what they have hitherto been, Flossy said with a soft little laugh. So I begin to perceive. Nell, said Urie, turning back when she was halfway up the stairs, having said good night, are you going to help them with those tableaus? Not much, said Nellis. And Urie, as she went on, said, I shouldn't be surprised if Nell felt differently about some things from what he used to. Oh, I wonder if I can't coax him in. CHAPTER IX A WHITE SUNDAY Among other topics that were discussed with great interest during that call at Dr. Dennis's was the Sunday school and the place that our girls were to take in it, Flossy was not likely to forget that matter. Her heart was too full of plans concerning those boys. Early in the talk she overwhelmed and embarrassed Dr. Dennis with the request that she might be allowed to try that class. Now if it had been Ruth or Marion who had made the same request, it would have been unhesitatingly granted. The doctor had a high opinion of the intellectual abilities of both these young ladies, and now that they had appeared to consecrate those abilities, he was willing to receive them. But this little summer butterfly, with her small sweet ways in winning smile, he had no more idea that she could teach than that a hummingbird could, and of all classes in the school, to expect to do anything with those large, wild boys. It was preposterous. My dear friend, he said, and he could hardly keep from smiling even though he was embarrassed, you have no idea what you are asking. It is altogether the most difficult class in the school. Some of our best teachers have failed there. The fact is, those boys don't want to be instructed. They are in search of fun. They are a hard set I am really afraid. I wouldn't have you tried and discouraged by them. We are at a loss what to do with them I will admit, for no one who can do it seems willing to try them. In fact, I am not sure that we have anyone who can. I understand your motive, Miss Flossie, and appreciate your zeal, but you must not crush yourself in that way. Since you have been out of the Sunday School for so many years, and I presume have not made the Bible a study, unhappily it is not used as a textbook in many of our schools. Would it not be well for you to join some excellent Bible class for a while? I think you would like it better and grow faster, and we really have some superior teachers among the Bible classes. And while he said this, the wise doctor hoped in his heart that she would not be offended with his plain speaking, and that some good angel would suggest to Marion Wilbur the propriety of trying that class of boys. Flossie was not offended, though Marion Wilbur, spoken to in the same way, would have been certain to have felt it. Little Flossie, though sorely disappointed, so much so that she could hardly keep the tears from rising, admitted that she did not know how to teach, and that, of course, she ought to study the Bible, and would like ever so much to do so. It so happened that the other girls were more than willing to be enrolled as pupils. Indeed, had not an idea of taking any other position. So after a little more talk, it was decided that they all joined Dr. Dennis's class, every one of them expressing a prompt preference for that class above the others. In his heart Dr. Dennis entirely approved of this arrangement, for he wanted the training of Flossie and Urie, and he meant to make teachers of the other two as soon as possible. Now it came to pass that an unlooked-for element came into all this planning, none other than the boys themselves. They had ideas of their own, and they belonged to that part of the world which is hard to govern. They would have Ms. Flossie Shipley to be their teacher, and they would have no one else. She suited them exactly, and no one else did. But, my dear boys, Dr. Dennis said, Ms. Shipley is new to the work of teaching. She is but a learner herself. She feels that her place is in the Bible class so that she may acquire the best ways of presenting lessons. Did she say she wouldn't teach us? She buried Rich Johnson with his keen eyes fixed on the doctor's face. What could that embarrassed but truthful man do but slowly shake his head and say hesitatingly? No, she didn't say that, but I advised her to join a Bible class for a while. Then we want her, Rich said stoutly. Don't we, boys? She just suits us, Dr. Dennis, and she is the first one we ever had that we cared a snap for. And just about made up our minds to quit it, but on the whole, if we can have her, we will give it another trial. This strange sentence was uttered in a most matter-of-fact business way, and the perplexed doctor, quite unused to dealing with that class of brain and manners, was compelled to beat a retreat and come to Flossie with his novel report. A gleam of satisfaction, not to say triumph, lighted up her pretty face, and aglow with smiles and blushes, she made her way with alacrity to her chosen class. Teachers and scholars thoroughly suited with each other. Surely they could do some work during that hour which would tell on the future. Meantime, the superintendent was having his perplexities over in another corner of the room. He came to Dr. Dennis at last for advice. Miss Hart is absent today. Her class is almost impossible to supply. No one is willing to try the little midgets. Miss Hart, Dr. Dennis repeated thoughtfully. The primary class, eh? It is hard to manage, and yet with all the sub-teachers present, one would think it might be done. They are not all present, Mr. Stewart said. They never are. Dr. Dennis ignored this remark. I'll tell you what to do, he said, with a sudden lighting up of his thoughtful face. Get Miss Wilbur to go in there. She is equal to the emergency, or I am much mistaken. Mr. Stewart started an unqualified astonishment. I thought, he said, recovering his voice, that you seriously objected to her as a teacher in Sabbath school. I have changed my mind, Dr. Dennis said, with a happy smile, or the Lord has changed her heart. Ask her to take the class. So two of our girls found work. Another thing occurred to make that Sabbath a memorable one. The evening was especially lovely, and there happening to be no other attraction, a much larger number than usual of the first church people got out to the second service. Our girls were all present, and, what was unusual, other representatives from their families were with them. Also Colonel Baker had obliged himself to endure the infliction of another sermon from Dr. Dennis in order that he might have the pleasure of a walk home in the glorious moonlight with Miss Flossie. The sermon was one of special solemnity and power. The pastor's recent communion with newborn souls had quickened his own heart and increased the longing desire for the coming of the Spirit of God into their midst. At the sermon's close he took what, for the first church, was a very wide and startling departure from the beaten track. After a tender personal appeal, especially addressed to the young people of his flock, he said, Now, impelled by what I cannot but feel is the voice of the Lord Jesus by his Spirit, I want to ask if there are any present who feel so much of a desire to be numbered with the Lord's friends that they are willing to ask us to pray for them to the end that they may be found of him. Is there anyone in this audience who, by rising and standing but for a moment, will thus simply and quietly indicate to us such a desire and willingness? Whoever heard of the first church pastor doing so strange a thing? His people had voted for festivals and concerts and lectures and picnics and entertainments of all sorts and shades. They had taken rising votes and they had voted by raising the hand. They had made speeches, many of them, on the questions to be presented. They had added their voice to the pastor's explanations. They had urged the wisdom and the propriety of the question presented. They had said they earnestly hoped the matter would meet careful attention, and no one in the church had thought such proceedings strange. But to ask people to rise in their seats and thus signify that they were thinking of the question of eternal life and home and peace and unutterable blessedness, what innovation was this? Much rustling and coughing took place, then solemn silence prevailed. Not a deacon there, or officer of any sort, had the least idea of audibly hoping that the pastor's words would receive thoughtful attention. Not a person arose. The silence was felt to be embarrassing and oppressive to the last degree. Dr. Dennis relieved them at last by reading the closing hymn. During the reading, when startled thoughts became sufficiently composed to flow in their accustomed channels, many, almost unconsciously to themselves, prepared speeches which they meant to utter the moment their lips were unsealed by the pronouncing of the benediction. A very strange thing to do. What could Dr. Dennis be thinking of? A most unwise effort to force the private lives of people before the public. An unfortunate attempt to get up in excitement. Well meant, but most ill-timed and mistaken zeal, which would have a reaction that would do harm. These and a dozen other mental comments that roved through people's brains, while they were supposed to be joining in the hymn of praise, were suddenly cut short by the sound of Dr. Dennis's voice again, not in benediction, as surely they had a right to expect by this time, but with another appeal. I am still of the impression that there are those present who are doing violence to their convictions of right and to good judgment by not responding to my invitation. Let us remember to pray for all such. Now I want to ask if there are any in this congregation who have lately proved the truth of the doctrine that there is a savior from sin and a peace that the world cannot give. If there are those present who have decided this question recently, will they rise for a moment, thus testifying to the truth of the words which have been spoken this evening, and thus witnessing that they have chosen the Lord Jesus for their portion? Another sensation, Dr. Dennis must have taken leave of his senses. This was more embarrassing than the last. The wise ones were sure that there had been no conversions in a long time. So far as they knew and believed, entirely other thoughts were occupying the minds of the people. Then into the midst of this commotion of thought, there stole that solemn hush, almost of heart beatings, which betokens a new revelation that astonishes and thrills and solemnizes. There were persons standing, ladies, one, two, three, yes, one in the gallery. There were four of them. Who were they? Why, that little volatile flossy shipply was one. How strange! And that girl in the gallery was the teacher at one of the ward schools. It had been rumored that she was an infidel. Who in the world was that beside Judge Erskine? It couldn't be his daughter. Yet it certainly was. And behold, in the doctor's pew stood Yuri, the young lady who was so free and careless in her manners and address, that were it not for the fact that she was the doctor's daughter, her very respectability would have stood a chance of being questioned. As it was, there were mothers in the church who were quite willing that their daughters should have as little to do with her as possible. Yet tonight their daughters sat beside them, unable to rise in any way to testify to the truth of the religion of Jesus Christ. And Yuri Mitchell, with grave earnest face, in which decision and determination were plainly written, stood up to testify that the Lord was true to his promises. Gradually they're dawned upon the minds of many who knew these girls, the remembrance that they had been together to that great Sunday school meeting at Shatakwa, how foolish the scheme had seemed to them when they heard of it, how sneeringly they had commented on the absurdity of such supposed representatives from the Sunday school world. Surely this seeming folly had been the power of God and the wisdom of God. There were those in the first church, as indeed there are many in every church of Christ, who rejoiced with all their souls at the sound of this good news. There was another thing that occurred that night over which the angels at least rejoiced. There was another witness. He was only a poor young fellow, a day laborer in one of the machine shops, a newcomer to the city. He knew almost nobody in that great church where he had chance to be a worshipper, and literally no one knew him. When the invitation was first given, he had shrunken from it. Satan, with ever-ready skill, and with that consummate wisdom, which makes him as eager after the common-day laborers, as he is among the wealthy and influential, had whispered to him that the pastor did not mean such as he. No one knew him. His influence would be nothing. This church was too large and too grand, and it was not meant that he should make himself so conspicuous as to stand alone in that great audience-room and testify that the Lord Jesus had called him. So he sat still, but as one and another of those young ladies arose quietly with true dignity and sweet composure testifying to their love for the Lord, John Warden's earnest soul was moved to shame at his own shrinking, and from his obscure seat, back under the gallery, he rose up, and Satan, foiled that time, shrunk away. As for our girls, they had no parley with their consciences or with the tempter. They did not even think of it. On the contrary, they were glad, every one, that this way was made so plain and so easy to them. Each of them had friends whom they especially desired to have no of the recent and great change that had come to their lives. With some of these friends, they shrank unaccountably from talking about this matter. With others of them, they did not understand how to make the matter plain. But here it was explained for them, so plainly, so simply, that it seemed that every one must understand, and their own future determination as to life was carefully explained for them. There was nothing to do but to rise up, and by that simple act subscribe their names to the explanation, so making it theirs. I declare to you that the thought of its being across to do so did not once occur to them. Neither did the thought that they were occupying a conspicuous position affect them. They were used to conspicuous positions. They had been twice as prominent in that very church when other subjects than religion had been under consideration. At a certain festival, years before, they had every one taken part in a musical entertainment that brought them most conspicuously before an audience three times the size of the evening congregation. So you see they were used to it. And as for the fancy that it becomes a more conspicuous and unladylike matter to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ, then it does to stand up for anything else under the sun, Satan was much too wise and knew his material entirely too well to suggest any such absurdity to them. Flossy had been the only one of their number in the least likely to be swayed by such arguments, but Flossy had set herself with earnest soul and solemn purpose to follow the light wherever it should shine without allowing her timid heart time for questioning, and the father of all evil finds such people exceedingly hard to manage. How do you do? said Dr. Dennis to John Warden two minutes after the benediction was fully pronounced. I was very glad to see you tonight. I am not sure that I have ever met you. No. I thought so. A stranger? Well, we welcome you. Where do you board? And a certain black book came promptly out of the doctor's pocket. John Warden's name and street and number and business were written therein, and John Warden felt for the first time in his life as though he had a Christian brother in that great city and a name and a place with the people of God. Another surprise awaited him. Marian and Yuri were right behind him. Marian came up boldly and held out her hand. We seemed to have started on the road together, she said. We ought to shake hands and wish each other a safe journey. Then she and Yuri and John Warden shook each other heartily by the hand, and Flossie, standing watching, led by this bolder spirit into that which would not have occurred to her to do, slipped from her place beside Colonel Baker, and holding her lavender-kitted little hand out to his broad-brown palm, said, with a grace and a sweetness that belonged to neither of the others, I am one of them, whereupon John Warden was not sure that he had not shaken hands with an angel. CHAPTER 10 THE RAINY EVENING A cool rainy evening, one of those sudden and sharp reminders of autumn that in our variable climate come to us in the midst of summer. The heavy clouds had made the day shut down early, and the rain was so persistent that it was useless to plan walks or rides or entertainments of that nature. Also, it was an evening when none but those who are habitual collars at special homes are expected. One of these was Colonel Baker. The idea of being detained by rain from spending the evening with Flossie Shipley did not occur to him. On the contrary, he rejoiced over the prospect of a long and uninterrupted talk. The more indifferent Flossie grew to these long talks, the more eager was Colonel Baker to enjoy them. The further she slipped away from him, the more eagerly he followed after. Perhaps that is human nature, at least it was Colonel Baker's nature. In some of his plans he was disappointed. Mrs. Shipley had gone for a three-days visit to a neighboring city, and Flossie was snugly settled in the back parlor entertaining her father. Show him right in here. Directed her father as soon as Colonel Baker was announced. Then to Flossie. Now we can have a game of cards as soon as Charlie comes in. Where is he? Rainy evenings, when four people could be secured sufficiently disengaged to join in his favorite amusement, was the special delight of Mr. Shipley. So behold them, half an hour after, deep in the game of cards, Colonel Baker accepting the situation with as good a grace as he could assume, notwithstanding the fact that playing cards, simply for amusement, in that quiet way in a back parlor, was a good deal of a bore to him. But it would be bad policy to tell Mr. Shipley so. Their game was interrupted by a ring of the doorbell. Oh dear, said Mr. Shipley, I hope that is no nuisance on business. One would think nothing but business would call people out on such a disagreeable night. As for instance myself, Colonel Baker said, laughingly, oh you, of course, special friends are an exception. And Colonel Baker was well pleased to be ranked among the exceptions. Meantime the ringer was heralded. It is Dr. Dennis, sir, shall I show him in here? I suppose so, Mr. Shipley said gloomily, as one not well pleased, and he added in undertone, what on earth can the man want? Meantime Colonel Baker, with a sudden dexterous move, unceremoniously swept the whole pack of cards out of sight under a paper by his side. It so happened that Dr. Dennis's call was purely one of business, some item connected with the financial portion of the church, which Dr. Dennis desired to report in a special sermon that was being prepared. Mr. Shipley, although he was so rarely an attendant at church, and made no secret of his indifference to the whole subject of personal religion, was yet a power in the financial world, and as such recognized and deferred to by the first church. Dr. Dennis was in haste, and beyond a specially cordial greeting for Flossy, and an expression of satisfaction at her success with the class the previous Sabbath, he had no more to say, and Mr. Shipley soon had the pleasure of bowing him out, rejoicing in his heart, as he did so, that the clergyman was so prompt a man. He would have made a capital businessman, he said, returning to his seat. I never came in contact with him that I don't notice a sort of executive ability about him that makes me think what a success he might have been. There was no one to ask whether that remark meant that he was at present supposed to be a failure. There was another subject which presently engrossed several of them. Now be so kind as to give an account of yourself, Charlie Shipley said, addressing Colonel Baker, what on earth did you mean by making a muddle of our game in that way? I was in a fair way for winning. I suppose you won't own that that was your object. Colonel Baker laughed. My object was a purely benevolent one. I had a desire to shield your sister from the woe-begone lecture she would have been sure to receive on the sinfulness of her course. If he had found her play in cards, what would have been the result? Mr. Shipley was the first to make answer in a somewhat testy tone. Your generosity was uncalled for, Colonel. My daughter, when she is in her father's house, is answerable to him and not to Dr. Dennis or any other divine. I don't in the least understand what you are talking about, said mystified Flossie, of what interest could it have been to Dr. Dennis what I am doing, and why should he have delivered a lecture? Colonel Baker and Charlie Shipley exchanged amused glances, and the former quoted significantly, where ignorance is bliss to his folly to be wise, then he added, as Flossie still waited with questioning gaze, why, Miss Flossie, of course you know that the clergy think cards are synonyms for the deadly sin, and that to hold one in one's hands is equivalent to being poisoned body and soul. I am sure I did not know it, why I knew, of course, that gambling houses were not proper, but what is the harm in a game of cards? What can Dr. Dennis see, for instance, in our playing together here in this room, and simply for amusement? Colonel Baker shrugged his handsome shoulders. That shrug meant a great deal, accomplished a great deal. It was nearly certain to silence a timid opposer. There was something so expressively sarcastic about it, it hid so much one felt sure Colonel Baker might say if he deemed it prudent or worthwhile. It had often silenced Flossie into a conscious little laugh. Tonight she was in earnest, she paid no attention to the shrug, but waited questioningly for her answer, and as it was her turn to play next, it seemed necessary to answer her if one wanted the game to go on. I am sure I don't know, Colonel Baker said at last. I have very little idea what he would consider the harm. I am not sure that he would be able to tell. It is probably a narrow, straight-laced way that the cloth have of looking at this question, in common with all other questions, save prayer meetings and almsgiving. Her lives are very much narrowed down, Miss Flossie. Flossie was entirely unsatisfied. She had a higher opinion of Dr. Dennis's breath than she had of Colonel Baker's. She thought his life had a very much higher range. She was very much puzzled and annoyed. Her father came into the conflict. Come, come, Flossie, how long are you going to keep us waiting? It is of no particular consequence what Dr. Dennis thinks or does not think. She has a right to his own opinions. It is a free country. Ah, but it did make a tremendous difference to Flossie. She had accepted Dr. Dennis as her pastor. She had determined to look to him for help and guidance in this new and strange path on which her feet had so lately entered. She wondered if Colonel Baker could be right. Was it possible that Dr. Dennis disapproved of cards played at home in this quiet way? If he did, why did he? And another puzzling point, how did Colonel Baker know it? They too certainly did not come in contact that they should understand each other's ideas. She went on with her card playing, but she played very badly. More than once Colonel Baker rallied her with good humored sarcasm, and her father spoke impatiently. Flossie's interest in the game was gone. Instead, her heart was busy with this new idea. She went back to it again in one of her pauses in the game. Colonel Baker, don't you really know at all what arguments clergymen have against card playing for amusement? Again that expressive shrug, but it had lost its power over Flossie and its owner saw it and made haste to answer her waiting eyes. I really am not familiar with their weapons of warfare. Probably I could not appreciate them if I were. I only know that the entire class frowned upon all such innocent devices for passing a rainy evening. But it never struck me as strange, because the fact is, they frown equally on all pastimes and entertainments of any sort. That is, a certain class do, fanatics I believe, is the name they are known by. They believe, as nearly as I am capable of understanding their belief, that life should be spent in psalm singing and praying. Whereupon Flossie called to mind the witty things she had heard, and the merry laughs which had rung around her at Chautauqua, given by the most intense of these fanatics. She even remembered that she had seen two of the most celebrated in that direction, playing with a party of young men and boys on the croquet ground, and laughing most uproariously over their defeat. It was all nonsense to try to compass her brain with such an argument as that. She shook her head resolutely. They do know such thing. I know some of them very well. I don't know of any people who have nicer times. How do you know these things, Colonel Baker? Colonel Baker is said to be serious. Miss Flossie, he said, leaning over and fixing his handsome eyes impressively on her face. Is it possible you do not know that, as a rule, clergymen set their faces like a flint against all amusements of any sort? I do not mean that there are not exceptions, but I do mean most assuredly that Dr. Dennis is not one of them. He is as rigid as it is possible for mortal man to be. Herein is where the church does harm. In my own opinion, it is to blame for the most, if not for all, of the excesses of the day. They are the natural rebound of nerves that have been strained too tightly by the over-tension of the church. Surely this was a fine sentence. The Flossie of a few weeks ago would have admired the smooth-sounding words and the exquisitely modulated voice as it rolled them forth. How had the present Flossie been quickened as to her sense of the fitness of things? She laughed mischievously. She couldn't argue. She did not attempt it. All she said was simply, Colonel Baker, on your honor, as a gentleman of truth and veracity, do you think the excesses of which you speak occur as a rule in those whose lives have been very tightly bound by the church or by anything else save their own reckless fancies? Charlie Shipley laughed outright at this point. He always enjoyed a sharp thing whenever heard and without regard to whether he felt himself thrust at or not. Baker, you are getting the worst of it, he said gaily. Sis, upon my word, that two weeks in the woods has made you real keen in argument, but you play abominably. There is no pleasure in the game now, this the father said, throwing down his cards somewhat testily. Flossie, I hope you will not get to be a girl of one idea tied to the professional conscience. What is proper for you could hardly be expected to be just the thing for Dr. Dennis, and you have nothing to do, as I said before, with what he approves or disapproves. But father, Flossie said, speaking somewhat timidly, as she could not help doing when she talked about these matters to her father, if we call clergymen our spiritual guides and look up to them to set examples for us to follow, what is the use of the example if we don't follow it at all, but conclude that they are simply doing things for their own benefit. I never call them my spiritual guides, and I have not the least desire to have my daughter do so. I consider myself capable of guiding my own family, especially my own children, without any help. This was said in Mr. Shipley's stiffest tone. He was evidently very much tried with this interruption to his evening's entertainment. Whatever might be said of the others, he was certainly very fond of cards. He, however, threw down the remaining ones, declaring that the spirit of the game was gone. Merged into a theological discussion, Charlie said with a half laugh, half sneer, and of all the people to indulge in one, this particular circle would be supposed to be the last. Well, I am certainly very sorry that I was the innocent cause of such an upheaval, Colonel Baker said, in the half serious, half mocking tone that was becoming especially trying to flossy. It seems that I unwittingly burst a bombshell when I overturned those cards. I hadn't an idea of it. Miss Flossy, what can I do to atone for making you so uneasy? I assure you it was really pure benevolence on my part. What can I do to prove it? Nothing, Flossy said, smiling pleasantly. She was very much obliged. He had awakened thought about a matter that had never before occurred to her. She began to think there were a good many things in her life that had not been given very much thought. She meant to look into this thing and understand it if she could. Indeed, that was what she wanted of all things to do. Nothing could be simpler and sweeter and nothing could be more unlike the Flossy of Colonel Baker's former acquaintance. I shouldn't wonder a bit if you had roused a hornet's nest about your ears, Charlie Shipley said to his friend. Now I tell you, you may not believe it, but my little sister is just exactly the stuff out of which they made martyrs in those unenlightened days when everybody thought there was enough truth in anything to take the trouble to suffer for it. She can be made by skillful handling into a very queen of martyrs, and if you fall in the ruins, it will be your own fault. But he did not say this until Flossy had suddenly and unceremoniously excused herself and the two gentlemen were alone over their cigars. Khan found that Chautauqua scheme, Colonel Baker said, kicking an innocent hassak half across the room with his indignant foot. That is where all these new ideas started. I wish there was a law against fanaticism. Those young women of strong mind and disagreeable manners are getting a most uncomfortable influence over her too. If I were you, Charlie, I would try to put an end to that intimacy. Charlie whistled softly. Which do you mean? He asked at last. The Erskine girl or the Wilbur one. I tell you, Baker, with all the years of your acquaintance, you don't know that little Flossy as well as you think you do. Let me tell you, my man, there is something about her or in her that is capable of development and that is being developed or I am mistaken that will make her the leader in a quiet way of a dozen decided and outspoken girls like those two and of several men like yourself besides if she chooses to lead you. Well, Khan found the development then. I liked her better as she was before. More congenial, I admit. At least I should think so, but not have so interesting to watch. I have real good times now. I am continually wondering what she will do next. End of chapter 10, recording by Tricia G. Chapter 11 of the Chautauqua Girls at Home. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Chautauqua Girls at Home by Pansy. Chapter 11, The Next Thing. What she did next that night was to sit with her elbows in her lap and her chin resting on her hands and stare into vacancy for half an hour. She was very much bewildered. Colonel Baker had awakened a train of thought that would never slumber again. He'd need not hope for such a thing. Her brother Charlie saw deeper into her nature than she did herself. She was tenacious of an idea. She had grasped at this one, which of itself would perhaps never have occurred to her. Hitherto she had played cards as she had played on the piano or worked at her worsted cats and dogs or frittered away in evening in the smallest of small talk or done a hundred other things without thought of results, without so much as realizing that there were such things as results connected with such trifling common places. At least so far as the matter of cards was concerned, she would never do so again. Her quiet had been disturbed. The process of reasoning by which she found herself disturbed was very simple. She had discovered, as if by accident, that her pastor, as she loved to call Dr. Dennis, lingering on the word, now that it had such a new meaning for her, disapproved of card-playing, not only for himself, but for her, at least that Colonel Baker so supposed. Now there must be some foundation for this belief of his. Either there was something in the nature of the game which Colonel Baker recognized, and which she did not, that made him understand as by instinct that it would be disapproved by Dr. Dennis, or else he had heard him so express himself, or else he was totally mistaken and was misrepresenting that gentleman's character. She thought all this over as she sat staring into space and she went one step further. She meant to discover which of these three statements was correct. If Dr. Dennis thought it wrong to play cards, then he must have reasons for so thinking. She accepted that at once as a necessity to the man. They must also have been carefully weighed reasons else he would not have given them a place in his creed. This also was a necessity to a nature like his. Clearly there was something here for her to study, but how to set about it? Over this she puzzled a good deal. She did not like to go directly to Dr. Dennis and ask for herself. She did not know how to set to work to discover for herself the truth. She could pray for light that to be sure, but having brought her common sense with her into religious matters, she no more expected light to blaze upon her at the moment of praying for it than she expected the sun to burst into the room despite the closing of blinds and dropping of curtain merely because she prayed that it might shine. Clearly if she wanted the sun, it was her part to open blinds and draw back curtains. Clearly if she wanted mental light, it was her part to use the means that God had placed at her disposal. Thus much she realized, but not being a self-reliant girl, it resulted in her saying to Urie Mitchell when she slipped in the next evening to spend an hour. I wish we girls could get together somewhere this evening. I have something to talk over that puzzles me a great deal. You are to understand that the expression we girls meant the four who had lived Chautauqua together. From henceforth and forever, we girls who went through the varied experiences of life together that are crowded into those two weeks would be separated from all other girls and their intercourse would necessarily be different from any other friendships colored always with that which they had lived together under the trees. Well, said Urie, quick as usual to carry out what another only suggested, I'm sure that is easily managed. We can call for Ruth and go around to Marion's den. She is always in and she never has any company. But Ruth nearly always has, objected Flossie, who had an instant vision of herself among the fashionable collars in the Erskine parlor, unable to get away without absolute rudeness. I'll ask Ruth if she happens to want to come with us, Urie said, nodding her head sagely. She will dispose of her collars in some way, strangle them or what is easier and safer, simply ignore their existence and beg to be excused. Ruth is equal to any amount of well-bred rudeness. All that is necessary is the desire to perform a certain action and she will do it. This prophecy of Urie's proved to be the case. Nellis Mitchell was called into service to see the girls safely over to the Erskine mansion where they found two gentlemen calling on Ruth and her father. No sooner did she hear of their desire to be together than feeling instant sympathy with it. She said, I'll go in five minutes. Then they heard her quiet voice in the parlor. Father, will you and our friends excuse me for the remainder of the evening and will you enjoy my part of the call and yours too? I have just had a summons elsewhere that demands attention. Isn't that perfect in its propriety besides bringing things to the exact point where she wants them to be? Whispered Urie to Flossie as they waited in the hall. Oh, it takes Ruth to manage. I wonder, said Flossie with her far away look and half distressed, wholly perplexed curve of the lip. I wonder if it is strictly true. That is what troubles me a good deal. Oh, Dr. Hurlbit, your address to the children that summer day under the trees was the germ of this shoot of sensitiveness for the strict truth that shall bloom into conscientious fruit. It was by this process that they were altogether in Marion's den as Urie called her stuffed and uninviting little room. Never was mortal more glad to be interrupted than she as she unceremoniously tossed aside schoolbooks and papers and made room for them around the table. You are a blessed trio, she said exultantly. What good angel put it into your hearts to come to me just now and here? I am in the dismal, have been down all day in the depths of swamp land, feeling as if I hadn't a friend on earth and didn't want one, and here you are, you blessed three. But we didn't come for fun or to comfort you or anything of that sort, explained Flossie earnestly, true to the purpose that had started her. We came to talk something over. I don't doubt it, talk it over then by all means. I'll talk at it with all my heart. We generally talk something over I have observed when we get together, at least we do of late years, which one wants to talk. Thus introduced, Flossie explained the nature of her perplexities, her occupation the evening before, the interruption from Dr. Dennis, the sweeping action of Colonel Baker and the consequent talk. Now, do you suppose that is true? She said, suddenly breaking off at the point where Colonel Baker had assured her that all clergymen looked with utter disfavor on cards. Marion glanced from one to another of the faces before her with an amused air. None of them spoke. It is rather queer, she said at last, that I have to be authority or that I seem to be the only one posted when I have but just emerged from a state of unbelief in the whole subject. But I tell you truly, my blessed little innocent, Colonel Baker is well posted. Not only the clergy, but he will find a large class of the most enlightened Christians look with disapproval on the whole thing in all its variations. Why do they, this from Flossie with a perplexed and troubled tone? Well, said Marion, now that question is more easily asked than answered. It requires an argument. An argument is just what I want. I like to have things explained. Before that, though, one thing that puzzles me is how should Colonel Baker be so familiar with the views of clergymen? That is a curious fact, my mousy. You will find it, I fancy, in all sorts of strange places. People who are not Christians seem to have an intuitive perception of the fitness of things. It is like dancing in theater going and a dozen other questions. It is very unusual to meet people who do not sneer at Christians for upholding such amusements. They seem to realize an incongruity between them and the Christian profession. It was just as plain to me, I know, and I have sneered many a time over card-playing Christians, and here you are, dear little Flossie, among them just for the purpose of teaching me not to judge. Ruth, for the first time, took up the subject. If your statement is true, Marion, how is it that so many professed Christians indulge in these very things? Precisely the question that I just asked myself while I was talking, by what means they become destitute of that keen insight into consistencies and inconsistencies, the moment they enter the lists as Christian people, is more than I can understand, unless it is because they decide to succumb to the necessity of doing as other people do and let any special thinking alone as inconvenient and unprofitable. I don't know how it is. Only you watch this question and think about it and you will discover that just so surely as you come in contact with any who are active and alert in Christian work, whose religion you respect as amounting to something, you are almost sure to see them avoiding all these amusements. Whoever heard of a minister being asked to spend an evening in social card playing, I presume that even Colonel Baker himself knows that that would be improper and he would be the first to sneer. Of course, Ruth said, ministers are expected to be examples for other people to follow. Well then, Flossie said, her perplexity in no way lessened, but we not to follow? Whereupon Marion clapped her hands. Little Flossie among the logicians, she said, that is the point, Rutherskin, if the example is for us to follow, why don't we follow? Now, what do you honestly think about this question yourself? Why, said Ruth hesitatingly, I have always played cards in select circles, being careful, of course, with whom I played, just as I am careful with whom I associate and contrary to your supposition, I have always supposed these people who frowned on such amusements to be a set of narrow-minded fanatics and I didn't know that Christian people did frown on such amusements. Though, to be sure, now that I think of it, there are certain ones who never came to card parties nor to dancing parties. I guess the difficulty is that I have never thought anything about it. Marion was looking sober. The fact is, she said gravely, that with all my loneliness and poverty and general forlornness, I have had a different bringing up from any of you. My father did not believe in any of these things. And he was a Christian man, Flossie said quickly, then he must have had a reason for his belief. That is what I want to get at, what is it? He found it in an old book, said Marion, looking at her brightly through shining eyes. He found most of his knowledge and his hope and joy in that same book. The Bible was almost the only book he had and he made much of that. And yet you hated the Bible. Yuri said this almost involuntarily with a surprised tone. I hated the way in which people lived it so different from my father's way. I don't think I ever really discarded the book itself but I was a fool, I don't mind owning that. Flossie brought them back to the subject. But about this question, she said, the Bible is just where I went for help but I didn't find it. I looked in the concordance for cards and for amusements and for every word which I could think of that would cover it but I couldn't find anything. Marion laughed again. This little morsel's ignorance of the Bible was to this girl who had been an avowed infidel for more than a dozen years, something very strange. The Bible is a big book, darling, she said, still laughing. But after all, I fancy you will find something about the principle that governs cards even if you cannot find the word. Meantime, Ruth had been for some minutes regarding Yuri's grave face and attentive eyes with no small astonishment in her gaze. At this point, she interrupted. Yuri Mitchell, what can be the matter with you? Were you ever known to be so quiet? I haven't heard you speak on this theme or any other since you came into the room, yet you look as though you had some ideas if you chose to advance them. Where do you stand on this card question? We never play cards at home, Yuri said quickly and we never go where we know they are to be played. Flossie turned upon her the most surprised eyes. Dr. Mitchell's family was the most decidedly unconventional and free and easy of any represented there. Flossie had supposed that they, of all others, would make cards a daily pastime. Why not? She asked, briefly and earnestly, as one eager to learn. It is on Nell's account, Yuri said, still speaking very gravely. Nell has but one fault and that is card playing. He is just passionately fond of it. He is tempted everywhere. Father says grandfather Mitchell was just so and Nell inherits the taste. It is a great temptation to him and we do not like to foster it at home. But home card playing is so different. That isn't gambling. This from Flossie, questioningly. Nell learned to play at home, Yuri said quickly. That is, he learned at grandfather Mitchell's when he was a little boy. We have no means of knowing whether he would have been led into gambling but for that early education. I know that Robbie shall never learn if we can help it. We never mean to allow him to go where any sort of cards are played so long as we have him under control. All this was utterly new to Flossie. Then if your little Robbie should come with other children to see me and I should teach them a game of cards to amuse them, I might be doing you a positive injury, she said thoughtfully. I certainly should so consider it, Yuri said with quickness and with feeling. Girls, I speak vehemently on this subject always. Having one serious lesson at home makes people think. It is a question whether we have any right to indulge in an amusement that has the power to lead people astray. Ruth said, grave and thoughtful, especially when it is impossible to tell what boy may be growing up under that influence to whom it will become a snare. Marion added, Flossie, do you begin to see? I see in every direction, Flossie said. There is no telling when we may be doing harm, but now let me be personal. I played with father a great deal. He is an old man and he has no special temptation, certainly. I have heard him say he never played for anything of more value than a pin in his life. What harm can there possibly be in my spending an evening with him in such an amusement if it rests and entertains him? Imagine some of your Sunday school boys accepting your invitation to call on you and finding you playing a social game with your father. Then imagine them quoting you in support of their game at the billiard saloon that same evening a little later. Marion said quickly, you see my little Flossie, we don't live in nutshells or sealed cans. We are at all times liable to be broken in upon by people whom we may influence and whom we may harm. I confess I don't want to do anything at home that will have to be pushed out of sight in haste and confusion because someone happens to come in. I want to be honest even in my play. Over this Flossie looked absolutely aghast. Those boys of hers, they were getting a strong hold upon her already. She longed to lead them. Was it possible that by her very amusements she might lead them astray? Another point was that Nellis Mitchell could never be invited to join them in a game. She had invited him often and she winced at the thought. Did his sister think she had helped him into temptation? Following these trains of thought, she was led into another over which she thought aloud. And suppose any of them should ask me if I ever played cards, I should have to say yes. Precisely said Marion and don't you go to thinking that you can ever hide behind that foolish little explanation. I play simply for amusement. I think it is wrong to play for money. It won't do. It takes logical brains to see the difference and some even of those won't see it. But they can readily see that having plenty of money. Of course you have no temptation to play cards for it and they see that with them it is different. End of chapter 11, recording by Trisha G.