Drusilla put down her trowel and looked interested.
"Do tell! How nice of "em. Are they paid to do it?"
"Yes; the workers who live in the Settlement get a salary. But girls like myself give a day a week, or every once in a while go there and help."
"What do you do?" asked Drusilla.
"I--I--teach sewing. I have a cla.s.s."
Drusilla looked at her a moment in astonishment.
"_You_ teach sewing? _You_ have a sewing cla.s.s? I didn"t know you sewed."
"I--don"t--_much_, but I can do enough for a cla.s.s like I have.
They"re just making gymnasium suits, and we buy the pattern and I get along some way."
Drusilla laughed.
"Well, for a girl who has all her clothes made and keeps a maid to sew on her b.u.t.tons, I think it is very nice of you to learn girls how to sew. You must be a great help in that work."
Daphne flushed.
"Now you"re laughing at me, Miss Doane."
"No, I"m not laughin"; but it seems to me--how many girls you got in your cla.s.s?"
"I have ten."
"How old are they?"
"About twelve to fourteen years."
"When do you learn "em?"
"Sat.u.r.day afternoon."
"Well--well! You must let me go down with you some day and see you learn girls to make their dresses. I"d surely enjoy the sight."
"That"s why I came to you to-day. Our Settlement wants me to bring you down."
Drusilla looked up inquiringly and a little suspiciously.
"Why do they want you to bring me down?"
Daphne said rather hesitatingly: "Well--they would like to interest you in their mother"s summer home."
"What"s that?"
"They have a home in the country where they send some of the poor mothers who live in the tenements and can"t get away for the summer."
"I s"picioned it was a subscription they want; but it sounds like a good thing, and I"d like to know about it."
"Won"t you come with me to-day? We"ll talk with Mrs. Harris, the head worker, and she"ll tell you all about it."
"Well--I don"t know--" looking at her plants. "I"d ought--"
"Oh, please come, Miss Doane. You haven"t anything to do, have you?"
"I don"t know as I have anything _particular_, though sence I got these babies, my days is as full as a wine cup. But if you want me--"
"That"s right; I knew you would! Come right away--I must get to my cla.s.s."
Drusilla wiped her hands on her ap.r.o.n and went into the house. Soon she was ready and they were being whirled swiftly toward the East Side, a part of New York that Drusilla had never visited. She was interested in the women as they sat upon the tenement steps, and in the many, many children playing in the streets. Spring was in the air, although it could hardly be recognized here except by the people loitering in the streets in order to get away from the crowded homes.
"What a lot of people!" said Drusilla. "Where do they all come from-- and the children! I never saw so many children in my life."
"Oh, but you should see it in July and August," Daphne laughed. "Then it _is_ crowded, and the people sleep on the fire-escapes and even on the sidewalks in some of the smaller streets. It is so hot in their stuffy rooms."
Soon they drew up before the door of the Settlement, and were received in the parlor by the head worker. Daphne left Drusilla, to go to her sewing-cla.s.s, and Mrs. Harris conducted Drusilla over the Settlement. She was shown the kindergarten, the club rooms where the boys and girls of the neighborhood danced in the evening, the clinic, the public baths, and the play yard. Then she asked to be taken to see Daphne with her sewing-cla.s.s, as she could not get over the idea that it was a joke of some kind for Daphne to teach sewing, knowing that the girl knew nothing about the work. They found Daphne absorbed in cutting out very full trousers and middy blouses by the aid of a paper pattern, while eight girls were basting and st.i.tching them.
Drusilla watched them for a while.
"Is this all the sewing-cla.s.s you have?" she asked.
"It is all we have at present," Mrs. Harris answered.
"Do the girls in the neighborhood, the grown girls, learn it?"
"No; they all work, and have only their evenings."
"Why don"t you have an evening cla.s.s?"
"We have thought of that, but it is hard to get a girl like Daphne to come down in the evening."
Drusilla watched Daphne frowning over the intricacies of the pattern.
"Now I think it is nice of Daphne," she said, "to want to come here and help them girls learn to sew; but it seems to me that she"d be doin" a good deal more good to the girls if she hired a woman, some one who needed the work and knowed dressmaking, to come and really learn the girls to make their dresses. Learn "em from the start, from cuttin" out the cloth to sewin" up the seams and makin" the last b.u.t.tonhole. Them girls don"t want to learn how to make them big pants and that shirt; they want to make their clothes--something pretty they can wear. I think a lot of Daphne, but she"d be doin" more good if she hired some one who knowed her business instead of tryin" to do somethin" she don"t know nothin" about. Quite likely it does _her_ good, but so far as I can see it don"t do the girls much good."
The head worker flushed, as did Daphne.
"We like to interest the girls from homes like Miss Thornton"s to come down and help the people less fortunate than themselves."
"Yes, that"s good too; interest them. I saw Daphne pay five dollars for a box of candy the other day, and it"s bad for her complexion.
Instead of buying them things let her hire some one, I say. She can come just the same, but let a dressmaker or a sewing woman learn "em to sew; not a girl who ain"t even sewed a b.u.t.ton on her own clothes or made a pocket handkerchief. And then she"d be helpin" the dressmaker too, who might need the money. If you had some sensible sewing learnt you might git some of the girls who work days to come in evenings and learn, but no girl is goin" to waste her time fiddlin" around with things like that, that they ain"t goin" to use, or don"t have no need of."
"But they do need them. They are gymnasium suits."
"What"s gymnasium suits?"