Mabell S. C. Smith

“ The novices always wore a nervously doubtful smile as they left the familiar ties of earth and water behind them and a laugh of delight as they came back unafraid and joyous.
"It looks as if it must be the most perfect feeling that you could have," sighed Ethel Blue as they watched a beaming woman approach over the water and then come down from her seat beside the air chauffeur. "I'm like Roger—I could almost die happy if I could have just one fly."
"The airman has offered a prize for the best name for his machine," Ethel Brown read from the Daily at breakfast one morning. ”

“ Personally I believe in every one's exercising his own judgment."
"And I tell you the girls nowadays have plenty of it," asserted Roger. "I know lots of girls; there are twenty of them in my class at the high school and I don't see but they're just as sensible as we boys and most of them are a heap smarter in their lessons."
"Helen seems to think as you do, at any rate."
"I'm going to stand up for Helen," declared Roger. "I'll be out of college a couple of years before she is and if she wants to study anything special or do anything special I'll surely help her to it." ”

“ It bent this way and that way and crouched back into its holder and then leaped out just in time to meet a slap from a bold wind that drew heavily across the room and in passing, sent the flame, Zip! against Helen's muslin draperies.
In a second they were ablaze, shooting upward toward the ceiling. Dicky watched the fire, fascinated with its speed and its faint crackle as if it were chuckling with amusement at its own pranks.
But fun never lasts very long; Dicky had found that out before. In a minute pieces of muslin, all turned black now, began to float down on him. ”

“ Ethel Blue had a real glow when she recalled that although she had been badly scared she had pulled herself together and really driven the cow away, and Dorothy felt that since her nightmare had once had so laughable an ending perhaps it would not come again.
Because of their early rising all the girls took a nap in the afternoon.
"You want to put spirit into your folk dances to-night," Mrs. Morton replied to the Ethels' remonstrances against this hardship. "I want my girls to move with life and not as if they were half asleep." ”

“ This morning Roger's talk about his room roused her again.
"Mother," she said, "Margaret Hancock is going to take sewing from the teacher in the Hall of Pedagogy. Do you think I might, too?"
"What kind of sewing, dear? Embroidery?"
"No, Mother dear; it's the purely domestic variety; plain sewing and buttonholes and shirtwaists and middy blouses and how to hang a skirt, if I get so far along. Don't you think I'd be a more useful girl if I knew how to do some of those things?" ”

“ Up to the time of the fire the Ethels had escorted Dicky to the kindergarten and had then run on to the Girls' Club.
Roger and his grandfather strolled northward along the shore of the lake talking about Helen.
"I understand exactly how she feels," said Roger, "because I should feel exactly the same way if you people expected me to do what you expect her to do."
"But she's a girl," remonstrated Mr. Emerson.
"I guess girls nowadays are different from girls in your day, Grandfather," said Roger wisely. ”

“ Morton nodded her appreciation of Helen's understanding that a Lieutenant's pay is pretty small to bring up four children on.
"This is an age of mutual help and service," she said. "We must be a co-operative family and help [31] each other in every way we can. What you will do for me this summer will be just as much help to me as what Roger will do by providing himself with a room."
"Somehow doing things at home never seems to count," complained Helen.
"But it does count. Service is like charity; they both begin at home." ”

“ After giving a short history of the Annual Spelling Match, which dated back to the early days of the Assembly, he announced that the contest of the evening was to be between representatives of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio on one side and the Rest of the World on the other.
Amid the laughter that followed the announcement Helen whispered to Margaret who sat next to her—
"Why New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio?"
"They send more people here than any of the other states. You ought to see them stand up on Old First Night! There are hordes of them." ”

“ Over her sewing for several afternoons to come Helen thought many times of her conversation with her grandmother and she was keenly delighted when Mrs. Emerson and Mrs. Morton went to the School of Mothercraft and found themselves as pleased with its purposes and its way of carrying them out as Helen herself had been.
"We think we are making a new occupation for women out of her oldest occupation," smiled the head of the school. ”

“ With the procession seated in the auditorium the young people's work was ended. The girls and boys went off to be refreshed with ice cream cones and the older boys rested under shady trees until such time as they would have to take back the banners to the class rooms in Alumni Hall.
"It's a great show," commented Tom Watkins, passing his handkerchief over his perspiring forehead.
"A feller doesn't get tired of it if he has seen it all his life," agreed James, falling on to his back with his knees crossed high in air. ”

“ They went regularly to the bathing beach, listened attentively to their instructor's directions, practiced carefully in the water, and were caught by the family a dozen times a day taking turns lying on benches and working each other's legs, and making gestures expressive of their desire to imitate the fishes that they could see slipping through the water when they looked down into it from the dock.
"They just flip a fin and off they go," sighed Ethel Blue. ”

“ Ethel Brown flushed. She remembered times when, according to her, accidents had happened without any human assistance.
"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." ”

“ Except that we'll all travel the three miles in our trolley car or on our steamer instead of on our feet."
"Mother, Mother! Help! Help!" cried Roger, holding his hands to his distracted brow. "Are these young women mad or do my ears deceive me? Do I 'lamp' Niagara Falls? Or does my part of the trip stop at Mayville?"
"If I get your meaning through your somewhat obscure language," replied Mrs. Morton who liked to take an occasional shot at Roger's slang, "you'll not see Niagara Falls, but you will escort your sister and cousin to the train at Mayville." ”

“ Both girls sat up in their cots and listened. Nearer and nearer came the sound. It seemed too heavy for a man's breathing,—yet—they had been talking about Indians before they went to bed—perhaps Indians breathed more heavily than white men. No man would come at such an hour with a good purpose—perhaps bad men breathed more heavily than good men. Ethel Blue clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle a scream. Dorothy crawled down into the bed and drew the cover over her head. ”

“ I wish we had a club, just us youngsters, a club that would keep us doing things for other people all the time. Don't you think it would be fun?" [124]
"H'm, h'm," began Roger, but a gentle nudge from Helen stopped him.
"I think it would be splendid, Ethel Blue," she said; "I know Mother thinks it's just what I need for my complaint. Mother, dear, I'm not selfish; I'm just self-respecting, and self-respecting people want to co-operate just as much as other people. I'd love to have this club to try to prove to you that I'm not a 'greedy Jo.'"
"I'm far from-thinking you a 'greedy Jo,' Helen. ”

“ The wear of constant anxiety about bread and butter and shelter is something beyond the understanding of those who have not experienced it. It had made Dorothy older than her years and had turned her mother's hair snow-white at forty-two.
"If only you live in Rosemont," said Ethel Brown, "we can go to school together. Ethel Blue and I have been almost like twins. If you are with us all the time we'll be triplets." ”

“ Finding that their hats prevented this brotherly and cousinly attention he contented himself with tweaking each one's hair before he turned back as if he had accomplished a serious duty.
"Can't you see the picture in your mind!" murmured Helen, looking out of the window. "Just imagine all those tall brown men carrying their canoes on their shoulders and tramping through the forest that must have covered all this region then."
"More interesting men than Indians went over [14] this stretch of country in the olden days," said Mrs. Emerson. ”

“ We'll save all the very nicest picnics for your father," decided Mr. Emerson. "We'll just go across the lake. There's a place over there where we can make a fire without getting into trouble, and we can have a hot luncheon and take a swim and have a good time even if we aren't out of sight of the Miller Bell Tower."
Ethel Blue's face brightened.
"How do we get there?" she asked.
"By motor boat."
"Then can't we trail a rowboat so Roger can give me a lesson in rowing? I shall be ashamed to tell Daddy that I haven't learned all summer."
"Good work," cried Roger. ”

“ So Dicky marched bravely in among the hundreds of boys who help to make lively the southern part of the Assembly Grounds, and was duly registered as a member of the Boys' Club. If his rompers seemed to give him a too youthful air at one end the blue sweater adorned with the Boys' Club monogram which he insisted on donning at once, evened up his status. For a day or two Roger had happened in at the Club to see whether the little chap was holding [138] his own and he had been so satisfied with what he saw that he no longer felt it necessary to exercise a daily watchfulness. ”

“ But if the few senses that you possess—"
"Thank you!"
"—have left you then I have two things to do instead of one; first, I must start up your breathing once more, and second I must stir up your circulation."
"Yes, sir," agreed both girls meekly.
"You keep his nose out of the sand by putting his arm under his own forehead."
"When a person is unconscious his tongue is apt to fall back and stop up his throat. To prevent that you turn your victim over on his face."
"Ow! My nose!" cried Ethel Blue as Roger suited the action to the word. ”

“ Slowly she pushed back her blanket and looked down whence the clamor had come. The roar was followed by a tearing sound and a noise of struggle.
"Oh, girls," cried Ethel Blue, "it's a cow! It's nothing but a cow! Poor old thing, she's caught her horns under the edge of the tent and she can't get loose."
Dorothy's head came out from its covering.
"A cow!" she breathed with relief and sank back, weak but thankful. [221]
"She's going to pull the tent down!" screamed Della.
"Can't you shoo her out, Ethel Blue?" asked Ethel Brown. "You're nearest." ”

“ THE PAGEANT
"GRANDFATHER," cried Roger as he sat down to dinner one day, "do you remember that when we were in the trolley coming here from Westfield you promised that some time you would tell us about Celoron?"
"I forgot all about it, son. Shall I tell you now?"
"You won't have to now. There's going to be a pageant of the history of Chautauqua Lake and we'll learn the whole thing from that. There'll be historical scenes, and Francis Wilson, the actor, will wind it up with a real play. ”

“ You and Helen might get up a minuet when your club has some sort of party next winter," suggested Mrs. Morton.
"That's so," agreed Helen; "and Margaret and James are both going to learn it, and it will be a lot easier to drill the new ones if four of us know it already."
"All right," Roger accepted the proposal promptly. "I'll tell them after dinner that they can order one of those white monkey wigs for me, too."
"You won't look any sillier than you will as a red Indian," urged Helen. ”

“ What's the matter with Ethel Brown?"
"I know," answered Ethel Brown before her mother had time to reply; "Mother's going to tell you that I like to do things for people not to give them pleasure, but because it gives me pleasure and so I don't do things the way they like them but the [125] way I like them. And that's really selfish and not unselfish."
"Upon my word," exclaimed Grandfather Emerson, "these children seem to be able to analyze themselves mighty closely! They agree on one thing, though—this club of Ethel Blue's is the cure that they all need for their different ailments." ”

“ This time it was remarkable for its number of old people, for it seemed as if everybody who ever had been at Chautauqua made a point of returning to join in the celebration of the Fortieth Anniversary.
The service arranged by Bishop Vincent for the opening night was used for the forty-first time, and tears ran down the cheeks of old men and women who recalled the passing of the intervening years and gave their memento of esteem to the Chautauquans of bygone days when they joined the rest of [146] the huge audience in lifting their handkerchiefs in a drooping salute to the dead. ”

“ Ethel Blue obeyed miserably, for her very soul was ashamed of her fear. Her father a soldier and [78] she this weeping, curled-up bunch of cowardice! She burst into tears again as she crossed the green. Dicky, whom Mrs. Emerson had only partially succeeded in quieting, broke into renewed cries and the two soon became the center of a group of women whose sympathy served to increase the children's demonstrations.
"Poor lambs, they're frightened to death," said a cool, sweet voice, and a pink-cheeked, white-haired woman made her way through the throng and spoke to Ethel Blue. ”