XVIII
When Ruth Macdonald got back from camp she found herself utterly dissatisfied with her old life. The girls in her social set were full of war plans. They had one and all enlisted in every activity that was going. Each one appeared in some pretty and appropriate uniform, and took the new regime with as much eagerness and enthusiasm as ever she had put into dancing and dressing.
Not that they had given up either of those employments. Oh, dear no! When they were not busy getting up little dances for the poor dear soldier boys from the nearby camps, they were learning new solo steps wherewith to entertain those soldier boys when their turn came to go to camp and keep up the continuous performance that seemed to be necessary to the cheering of a good soldier. And as for dressing, no one need ever suggest again a uniform for women as the solution of the high cost of dressing.
The number of dainty devices of gold braid and red stars and silver ta.s.sels that those same staid uniforms developed made plain forever that the woman who chooses can make even a uniform distinctive and striking and altogether costly. In short they went into the war with the same superficial flightiness formerly employed in the social realms. They went dashing here and there in their high-power cars on solemn errands, with all the nonchalance of their ignorance and youth, till one, knowing some of them well, trembled for the errand if it were important. And many of them were really useful, which only goes to prove that a tremendous amount of unsuspected power is wasted every year and that unskilled labor often accomplishes almost as much as skilled. Some of them secured positions in the Navy Yard, or in other public offices, where they were thrown delightfully into intimacies with officers, and were able to step over the conventionalities of their own social positions into wildly exciting Bohemian adventures under the popular guise of patriotism, without a rebuke from their elders. There was not a dull hour in the little town. The young men of their social set might all be gone to war, but there were others, and the whirl of life went on gaily for the thoughtless b.u.t.terflies, who danced and knitted and drove motor cars, and made bandages and just rejoiced to walk the streets knitting on the Sabbath day, a gay cretonne knitting bag on arm, and knitting needles plying industriously as if the world would go naked if they did not work every minute. Just a horde of rebellious young creatures, who at heart enjoyed the unwonted privilege of breaking the Sabbath and shocking a few fanatics, far more than they really cared to knit. But n.o.body had time to pry into the quality of such patriotism. There were too many other people doing the same thing, and so it pa.s.sed everywhere for the real thing, and the world whirled on and tried to be gay to cover its deep heartache and stricken horror over the sacrifice of its sons.
But Ruth, although she bravely tried for several weeks, could not throw herself into such things. She felt that they were only superficial. There might be a moiety of good in all these things, but they were not the real big things of life; not the ways in which the vital help could be given, and she longed with her whole soul to get in on it somewhere.
The first Sabbath after her return from camp she happened into a bit of work which while it was in no way connected with war work, still helped to interest her deeply and keep her thinking along the lines that had been started while she was with John Cameron.
A quiet, shy, plain little woman, an old member of the church and noted for good work, came hurrying down the aisle after the morning service and implored a young girl in the pew just in front of Ruth to help her that afternoon in an Italian Sunday school she was conducting in a small settlement about a mile and a half from Bryne Haven:
"It"s only to play the hymns, Miss Emily," she said. "Carrie Wayne has to go to a funeral. She always plays for me. I wouldn"t ask you if I could play the least mite myself, but I can"t. And the singing won"t go at all without someone to play the piano."
"Oh, I"m sorry, Mrs. Beck, but I really can"t!" pleaded Miss Emily quickly. "I promised to help out in the canteen work this afternoon. You know the troop trains are coming through, and Mrs. Martin wanted me to take her place all the afternoon."
Mrs. Beck"s face expressed dismay. She gave a hasty glance around the rapidly emptying church.
"Oh, dear, I don"t know what I"ll do!" she said.
"Oh, let them do without singing for once," suggested the carefree Emily.
"Everybody ought to learn to do without something in war time. We conserve sugar and flour, let the Italians conserve singing!" and with a laugh at her own brightness she hurried away.
Ruth reached forward and touched the troubled little missionary on the arm:
"Would I do?" she asked. "I never played hymns much, but I could try."
"Oh! Would you?" A flood of relief went over the woman"s face, and Ruth was instantly glad she had offered. She took Mrs. Beck down to the settlement in her little runabout, and the afternoon"s experience opened a new world to her. It was the first time she had ever come in contact with the really poor and lowly of the earth, and she proved herself a true child of G.o.d in that she did not shrink from them because many of them were dirty and poorly clad. Before the first afternoon was over she had one baby in her arms and three others hanging about her chair with adoring glances. They could not talk in her language, but they stared into her beautiful face with their great dark eyes, and spoke queer unintelligible words to one another about her. The whole little company were delighted with the new "pretty lady" who had come among them. They openly examined her simple lovely frock and hat and touched with shy furtive fingers the blue ribbon that floated over the bench from her girdle. Mrs. Beck was in the seventh heaven and begged her to come again, and Ruth, equally charmed, promised to go every Sunday. For it appeared that the wayward pianist was very irregular and had to be constantly coaxed.
Ruth entered into the work with zest. She took the children"s cla.s.s which formerly had been with the older ones, and gathering them about her told them Bible stories till their young eyes bulged with wonder and their little hearts almost burst with love of her. Love G.o.d? Of course they would. Try to please Jesus? Certainly, if "Mrs. Ruth," as they called her, said they should. They adored her.
She fell into the habit of going down during the week and slipping into their homes with a big basket of bright flowers from her home garden which she distributed to young and old. Even the men, when they happened to be home from work, wanted the flowers, and touched them with eager reverence. Somehow the little community of people so different from herself filled her thoughts more and more. She began to be troubled that some of the men drank and beat their wives and little children in consequence. She set herself to devise ways to keep them from it. She sc.r.a.ped acquaintance with one or two of the older boys in her own church and enlisted them to help her, and bought a moving picture machine which she took to the settlement. She spent hours attending moving picture shows that she might find the right films for their use. Fortunately she had money enough for all her schemes, and no one to hinder her good work, although Aunt Rhoda did object strenuously at first on the ground that she might "catch something." But Ruth only smiled and said: "That"s just what I"m out for, Auntie, dear! I want to catch them all, and try to make them live better lives. Other people are going to France. I haven"t got a chance to go yet, but while I stay here I must do something. I can"t be an idler."
Aunt Rhoda looked at her quizzically. She wondered if Ruth was worried about one of her men friends--and which one?
"If you"d only take up some nice work for the Government, dear, such as the other girls are doing!" she sighed, "work that would bring you into contact with nice people! You always have to do something queer. I"m sure I don"t know where you got your low tendencies!"
But Ruth would be off before more could be said. This was an old topic of Aunt Rhoda"s and had been most fully discussed during the young years of Ruth"s life, so that she did not care to enter into it further.
But Ruth was not fully satisfied with just helping her Italians. The very week she came back from camp she had gone to their old family physician who held a high and responsible position in the medical world, and made her plea:
"Daddy-Doctor," she said, using her old childish name for him, "you"ve got to find a way for me to go over there and help the war. I know I don"t know much about nursing, but I"m sure I could learn. I"ve taken care of Grandpa and Auntie a great many times and watched the trained nurses, and I"m sure if Lalla Farrington and Bernice Brooks could get into the Red Cross and go over in such a short time I"m as bright as they."
"Brighter!" said the old doctor eyeing her approvingly. "But what will your people say?"
"They"ll have to let me, Daddy-Doctor. Besides, everybody else is doing it, and you know that has great weight with Aunt Rhoda."
"It"s a hard life, child! You never saw much of pain and suffering and horror."
"Well, it"s time, then."
"But those men over there you would have to care for will not be like your grandfather and aunt. They will be dirty and b.l.o.o.d.y, and covered with filth and vermin."
"Well, what of that!"
"Could you stand it?"
"So you think I"m a b.u.t.terfly, too, do you, Daddy-Doctor? Well, I want to prove to you that I"m not. I"ve been doing my best to get used to dirt and distress. I washed a little sick Italian baby yesterday and helped it"s mother scrub her floor and make the house clean."
"The d.i.c.kens you did!" beamed the doctor proudly. "I always knew you had a lot of grit. I guess you"ve got the right stuff in you. But say, if I help you you"ve got to tell me the real reason why you want to go, or else--nothing doing! Understand? I know you aren"t like the rest, just wanting to get into the excitement and meet a lot of officers and have a good time so you can say afterward you were there. You aren"t that kind of a girl. What"s the real reason you want to go? Have you got somebody over there you"re interested in?"
He looked at her keenly, with loving, anxious eyes as her father"s friend who had known her from birth might look.
Ruth"s face grew rosy, and her eyes dropped, but lifted again undaunted:
"And if I have, Daddy-Doctor, is there anything wrong about that?"
The doctor frowned:
"It isn"t that fat chump of a Wainwright, is it? Because if it is I shan"t lift my finger to help you go."
But Ruth"s laugh rang out clear and free.
"Never! dear friend, never! Set your mind at rest about him," she finished, sobering down. "And if I care for someone, Daddy-Doctor, can"t you trust me I"d pick out someone who was all right?"
"I suppose so!" grumbled the doctor only half satisfied, "but girls are so dreadfully blind."
"I think you"d like him," she hazarded, her cheeks growing pinker, "that is, you would if there _is_ anybody," she corrected herself laughing.
"But you see, it"s a secret yet and maybe always will be. I"m not sure that he knows, and I"m not quite sure I know myself----"
"Oh, I see!" said the doctor watching her sweet face with a tender jealousy in his eyes. "Well, I suppose I"ll help you to go, but I"ll shoot him, remember, if he doesn"t turn out to be all right. It would take a mighty superior person to be good enough for you, little girl."
"That"s just what he is," said Ruth sweetly, and then rising and stooping over him she dropped a kiss on the wavy silver lock of hair that hung over the doctor"s forehead.
"Thank you, Daddy-Doctor! I knew you would," she said happily. "And please don"t be too long about it. I"m in a great hurry."
The doctor promised, of course. No one could resist Ruth when she was like that, and in due time certain forces were set in operation to the end that she might have her desire.
Meanwhile, as she waited, Ruth filled her days with thoughts of others, not forgetting Cameron"s mother for whom she was always preparing some little surprise, a dainty gift, some fruit or flowers, a book that she thought might comfort and while away her loneliness, a restful ride at the early evening, all the little things that a thoughtful daughter might do for a mother. And Cameron"s mother wrote him long letters about it all which would have delighted his heart during those dreary days if they could only have reached him then.
Ruth"s letters to Cameron were full of the things she was doing, full of her sweet wise thoughts that seemed to be growing wiser every day. She had taken pictures of her Italian friends and introduced him to them one by one. She had filled every page with little word pictures of her daily life. It seemed a pity that he could not have had them just when he needed them most. It would have filled her with dismay if she could have known the long wandering journey that was before those letters before they would finally reach him; she might have been discouraged from writing them.
Little Mrs. Beck was suddenly sent for one Sunday morning to attend her sister who was very ill, and she hastily called Ruth over the telephone and begged her to take her place at the Sunday school. Ruth promised to secure some one to teach the lesson, but found to her dismay that no one was willing to go at such short notice. And so, with trembling heart she knelt for a hasty pet.i.tion that G.o.d would guide her and show her how to lead these simple people in the worship of the day.
As she stood before them trying to make plain in the broken, mixed Italian and English, the story of the blind man, which was the lesson for the day, there came over her a sense of her great responsibility. She knew that these people trusted her and that what she told them they would believe, and her heart lifted itself in a sharp cry for help, for light, to give to them. She felt an appalling lack of knowledge and experience herself. Where had she been all these young years of her life, and what had she been doing that she had not learned the way of life so that she might put it before them?
Before her sat a woman bowed with years, her face seamed with sorrow and hard work, and grimed with lack of care, a woman whose husband frequently beat her for attending Sunday school. There were four men on the back seat, hard workers, listening with eager eyes, a.s.senting vigorously when she spoke of the sorrow on the earth. They, too, had seen trouble. They sat there patient, sad-eyed, wistful; what could she show them out of the Book of G.o.d to bring a light of joy to their faces? There were little children whose future looked so full of hard knocks and toil that it seemed a wonder they were willing to grow up knowing what was before them. The money that had smoothed her way thus far through life was not for them. The comfortable home and food and raiment and light and luxury that had made her life so full of ease were almost unknown to them. Had she anything better to offer them than mere earthly comforts which probably could never be theirs, no matter how hard they might strive?