"Oh, I"d like to see it all again," sighed Ethel Blue, looking about for Ethel Brown as the party moved with the crowd up the hill to the Amphitheatre.
Helen sat and looked and laughed and wept a tear or two as the story of "The Little Father of the Wilderness" came to its pathetic, triumphant end. Yet through it all her heart was light because the days of the pageant with all their hurry and labor had brought her a glimpse of the future, a glimpse of a work that might be hers when she was free to choose--a glimpse of a work that would help others as well as herself and that would mean a career and yet the life of home.
CHAPTER XVI
THINK HELP!
ETHEL BROWN"S head had been turned by the praise she received after the fire. So many people complimented her on her coolness and daring that she began to think that she had done something extraordinary. Her feeling was increased by Ethel Blue"s att.i.tude of humiliation over her own terror on that occasion. She told her cousin frankly that she thought she had been perfectly wonderful and Ethel Brown could see that Ethel Blue had never forgotten that she herself made but a poor showing in the emergency. She did not stop to think that Ethel Blue was a far more nervous girl than she, and that it was entirely natural for her to do without thinking what required a distinct effort on the part of Ethel Blue.
As a result of holding this extremely good opinion of herself, Ethel Brown"s manner had become so condescending that Mrs. Morton was obliged to call her attention to it. It was a painful enlightenment for Ethel Brown. She loved Ethel Blue as if she were a sister, and she never consciously would have been unkind to her; yet not only had she been behaving in a way that would not help the more delicate girl to better her failing but she was becoming not an agreeable young person to have about.
"Oh, Mother," she sobbed, "I must be just awful! What can I do? Tell me what to do!"
"The very first thing to do is to houseclean your mind."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You must first rid your mind of the idea that you are a remarkable young woman. You did your duty well, but there is nothing so astonishing in doing one"s duty that a person need dwell on it forever after. Do your duty as a matter of course and then forget that you have done it and go on to the next duty."
"But it"s exciting to think that you"ve done something very well."
"If you keep up excitement a long time you get very tired of it. If you follow my suggestion you have a comfortable feeling all the time. My process is just like housecleaning a room; before you clean the walls and floor you remove the furniture. When the bare room is fresh once more you move in the articles that you want there for use or adornment."
"Clean out bad thoughts and put in--"
"Only such thoughts as you are going to find valuable. For instance, after you have cleaned out of your mind the idea that you are very superior to Ethel Blue you ought to fill your mind with thoughts of helpfulness for her. You must think of all the good points she has; think how gentle she is and truthful and how brave she is about taking blame when she deserves it. You never find Ethel Blue failing to admit her responsibility for accidents or mistakes even when it takes a good deal of moral courage to do it."
Ethel Brown flushed. She remembered times when, according to her, accidents had happened without any human a.s.sistance.
"You must give Ethel Blue a feeling that you believe in her physical courage as well as her moral courage. You must always think of her as brave and when you talk with her on any such subjects you must take it for granted that she is brave. It is natural for a person to try to live up to the opinion that other people hold of him."
"That is true, I believe," said Ethel thoughtfully. "Is that why you said "d.i.c.ky is quite old enough to do that errand for me" yesterday after I had said, "d.i.c.ky, you"re such a baby, you"ll never remember that"?"
"It was. If you treat d.i.c.ky as a baby he"ll stay a baby long after he ought to. He"s not a baby now just because Roger has always treated him as a companion and Helen has let him help her when he could. Don"t you remember that Roger went to the Boys" Club with d.i.c.ky for three or four days after he entered? That was to see how d.i.c.ky behaved. He didn"t say to d.i.c.ky, "You"re just a baby so I"m going to see whether you act like a baby." If he had said that d.i.c.ky probably would have behaved like the baby he was told he was. But Roger told d.i.c.ky that no babies were allowed in the Boys" Club, and the result was that d.i.c.ky stood on his own feet and met the other youngsters as boy to boy and not as if they were real boys and he was just a baby there on sufferance."
"I never thought before that we had any influence on other people like that."
"Once I knew a girl who was rather slow in speech. It gave people an impression that she was not very bright, and they began to treat her as if she were stupid."
"Wasn"t she really?"
"She had a good mind. But after a while people outside of her family took up the family"s att.i.tude of constantly under-rating everything she said and did. The result was that she lost all confidence in herself.
She believed that if older people in whom she had faith thought she was stupid she must be stupid; and she was really becoming stupid."
"What happened?"
"Some one suggested that she go to a certain boarding school. There no one knew of this family att.i.tude toward her and she was treated just like all the other girls. It gave her self-confidence and as she made one success after another in school she developed in every way like a flower in the sunshine."
"I"m going to try to help Ethel Blue if I can; and I guess you"re right about being more comfortable with a house-cleaned mind; I feel better already, somehow."
"You"ll feel better all the time. Now this coming week I want you to see if you can"t be of special help to your grandmother. It"s Recognition Week and your grandfather and I will be busy with the graduating cla.s.s every day so we can"t go about with Grandmother as much as we usually do. She will miss it if she doesn"t have a companion."
"I"ll remember. I"ll go whenever she wants me."
"You may have to go with her sometimes when you"d rather go somewhere with the girls."
"I"ll do it. When we got up the Service Club we were all telling why it would be good for us and I said then that I liked to do things for people just for selfish reasons."
"You"ll be a Service Club member of the right sort when you do kindnesses that you don"t like to do."
"So far all the services that the Club has performed have been things that were fun. We haven"t been tried out yet."
"Here"s your chance, then. There are teas for the d.i.c.kens Cla.s.s on Friday and Sat.u.r.day afternoons so you must be on call then while Grandfather and I are away. On Sat.u.r.day evening there is a large reception at the hotel for all the C. L. S. C. people and Helen is to help serve the lemonade, so you and Ethel Blue will have to stay at home with d.i.c.ky."
"What happens on Sunday?"
"Grandmother will march with her own cla.s.s, the 1908"s, and sit with them in the Amphitheatre to listen to the Baccalaureate sermon. In the afternoon at the C. L. S. C. Vesper Service Bishop Vincent is to give a special address to the graduates. There will be room for others so Grandmother will be there and will not need you, but you"d better go home with her after the Song Service in the evening, for Grandfather and I will go from the Amphitheatre to the Hall of Philosophy where the Vigil of the Cla.s.s of "14 is to be held."
"The graduates are busy just about every minute, aren"t they?"
"Not on Monday; that day is quite an ordinary Chautauqua day; but on Tuesday the cla.s.s holds its annual breakfast. At that hour Grandmother won"t want you especially. In the evening she will be receiving with her own cla.s.s in their room in Alumni Hall so you will be free to take a table in the Hall of Philosophy and help serve the ice cream."
"Margaret is trying to arrange it so that all the Service Club girls can have tables near each other, and the boys are going to hang around and be ready to carry the heaviest trays."
"Wednesday is Recognition Day and Grandmother will be occupied all day, so you need not be disturbed about her."
"I"ll look in the C. L. S. C. column in the _Daily_ every morning, just as Miss Kimball said that Grandmother ought to do, and then I"ll ask her what her plans are."
CHAPTER XVII
RECOGNITION WEEK
ALTHOUGH the young people had but a small part in the proceedings of Recognition week, they took a vivid interest in all the festivities in which Mr. Emerson and Mrs. Morton took part, and they never failed to notice the rose-bedecked men and women whose numbers increased every day.
"Everybody who has ever read the Chautauqua Course seems to be wearing some sort of C. L. S. C. badge," said Ethel Blue at the table on Sat.u.r.day evening.
"Only those who have graduated," explained Mrs. Emerson, "wear garnet badges like mine. The 1914"s are wearing their cla.s.s flower, the English rose, and the new cla.s.s just forming has an olive green bow."
"Wouldn"t it be fun if all the 1914 cla.s.s members from all over the world could be here to graduate!"
"What a flock there would be!"