"I"ll suggest it, and you find out if the magazine is willing to give us the mention I hinted at," said Mr. White.
Handing the huge book of addresses to Ike, Mrs. Talmage shook hands with Mr. White and reminded him to bring his wife to the meeting.
"Well! that was the best hour"s business yet!" exclaimed Aunt Selina, as the car sped away.
"Wonderful, isn"t it? I hope everything will glide along as nicely as it has up to the present," said Mrs. Talmage.
Being Friday, school closed an hour earlier than usual. The moment the Blue Birds could catch their hats from the pegs in the cloak-rooms, they ran out to join Ruth, who was hopping from one foot to the other in a vain effort to calm her impatience.
"Hurry, girls! Don"t you know Mother Wings went to the mills this morning for samples of paper?" called one to the other as they ran up to Ruth.
It was not long thereafter that seven eager little girls crowded about Mrs. Talmage on the veranda to hear the news.
"I"ll show you the samples, but we will wait for the mothers" opinion to-night. But this great secret I will give to you now!" and, forthwith, Mrs. Talmage told the Blue Birds all about Mr. White"s interest and ideas, and showed them the precious volume loaned them.
CHAPTER XI
THE WINTER NEST COUNCIL
Before eight o"clock that night the Blue Birds and their mothers were a.s.sembled in the living-room ready for a council. The children had not seen the den for a few days and stared in delight as they filed into the room. Mrs. Talmage had purposely had all meet together before mentioning that they might as well spend the evening in the Winter Nest.
"Why, Mother Wings, when _did_ you fix this up?" asked Ruth, as much surprised as the others.
Mrs. Talmage smiled, but said nothing.
The guests looked about and admired the unique charm of the Blue Bird quarters for the winter, and Betty ventured the question: "What has become of our other chairs?"
The room had all been renovated. The windows were hung with snow-flake madras, and the floor covered with heavy knotted white rag carpet that looked like snow freshly packed. The walls had been repapered with a sparkling white paper which glistened like ice in the electric light.
From the wainscoting to the picture rail branches of dark green spruce and pine were fastened and upon these green needles were caught flakes of make-believe snow--made of white cotton-batting with diamond dust powdered on it. The furniture of the summer Nest had been brought in late that afternoon and the slip covers, which had been made for it, were slipped over until the thick white covers hid the familiar chairs under the novelty cloth that looked like snow-drifts. The whole effect was so beautiful that the children danced about with joy.
"Well, we must get at our work," reminded Aunt Selina, after enough chairs had been brought in for all.
"I walked over with Mr. Wells and he was quite surprised to find I was coming to the house," said Mrs. Wells, laughingly.
"I never said a word to Mr. Talmage or his brother," confided Mrs.
Talmage, smiling at the secret.
"Mr. Stevens knows I am at this council with Betty, but he hasn"t the faintest idea for what," admitted Mrs. Stevens.
And so it was that not one of the men who had formed the habit of dropping in to help the Bobolinks could imagine what their wives were doing with the Blue Birds.
If the inmates of the Winter Nest that night could have seen the questioning faces of the boys and men when it was known that a meeting of mothers was being held, they would have felt the balm of satisfaction applied to wounded pride.
Mrs. Talmage showed the sample of paper and, after a discussion of merit and price, a selection was made of an artistic grey paper to be printed in blue--the colors of the Blue Birds.
"We must have envelopes to match, mother," said Ruth.
"I never thought of that, but it is so!" admitted Mrs. Talmage.
"I know the address of a firm where Mr. Wells has all of his "made-to-order" envelopes made--we will get them to do it," suggested Mrs. Wells.
"What a relief to hear that offer!" sighed Mrs. Talmage. "I was just wondering where I could find anyone who would make them for us."
"It also goes to prove that many heads gathered to discuss Blue Bird affairs are better than one, and I suggest that we meet at least once a week," suggested Aunt Selina.
So it was then and there agreed that the mothers would come regularly to hold a council in the Winter Nest with the Blue Birds.
"Just as soon as the envelopes come back we can begin to address from mother"s big book, can"t we?" asked Norma.
"If there"s only one book, how can all of this crowd read it at the same time and then write down the names?" demanded Dot Starr.
"Why, we won"t have to do that work," added Mrs. Wells. "There"s a firm in the city that addresses envelopes for a dollar a thousand."
"Another fine hint! I"m sure I"d rather pay my share than risk Dot"s ruining dozens of envelopes with ink," laughed Mrs. Starr, patting Dot on the hand.
"We wouldn"t want to write "em in here, because the snow would freeze our fingers so the ink would spatter all over," said Dot, ludicrously.
"Yes, I suppose these lovely covers would be speckled black by the time the Blue Birds completed, say, fifty thousand addresses," laughed Aunt Selina.
"I would vote against Edith"s writing--I fear the person would never get the letter--it would go straight to the Dead Letter Office," said Mrs.
Wilson, pulling Edith"s curls.
As everyone knew how Edith hated writing and never could write a legible hand, a laugh went up, in which Edith joined heartily.
So the Blue Birds were spared the arduous task of copying thousands of names.
"I have heard that these large addressing bureaus prefer to employ children--I wonder why?"
"Because children just finishing grammar school are more careful in forming letters and can write much better than adults. Besides, they have to pay children but a third that an adult would demand for his labor," explained Mrs. Wells.
"Why, isn"t that just as bad as working children in a factory?"
questioned Miss Selina.
"The rooms that I visited are just as bad. The girls are crowded close together in a wretchedly lighted room without ventilation, and they sit writing all day with their poor backs bent double and fingers grown crooked from habit," said Mrs. Wells.
"Goodness! Can"t we do something to stop it?" cried Mrs. Starr.
"They have to have the money for home needs, and it isn"t quite as bad, you know, as working all day in cold water to your knees, opening oysters at a cent a hundred."
"Oh, dear, dear! don"t tell me any more," half wept Aunt Selina. "I feel like a criminal to think I lost all of these years with money piling up in the bank that could have helped hundreds of these little workers.
Let"s get busy this minute!"
"It would be nice to take all these little workers to the country, wouldn"t it?" queried Mrs. Talmage.