Mabell S. C. Smith

“ Helen reassured her. "What you are to do is to dip the fingers of your left hand into one of these saucers. If it proves to be the one with the clear water you'll marry a bachelor; if it's the sandy one he'll be a widower, and if it's the empty one you'll be a spinster to your dying day."
"You have three tries," cried Ethel Blue, "and the saucers are changed after each trial, so you have to touch the same one twice to be sure you really know your fate. Are you ready?" ”

“ Ethel Brown was quite breathless. She could not entirely understand Katharine's point of view, but she seemed to be hinting that Miss Merriam was serving in a menial capacity. The idea made loyal Ethel Brown, who had not a snobbish bone in her body, extremely angry. Service she understood—her father and her uncle and Katharine's father, too, for that matter, were serving their country and were under orders. One kind of service might be less responsible than another kind, but that any service that was honest and useful could be unworthy was not in her creed. ”

“ Ethel Blue gave Gertrude Merriam's message to Edward Watkins who was as much puzzled by it as she had been.
"What does she mean?" he asked. "Does she care for me or doesn't she?"
"She doesn't know herself. I asked her."
Edward whistled a long, soft whistle.
"Aren't girls the queerest things ever made!" ”

“ When the club went to bid farewell to Mademoiselle Millerand on the steamer they learned that she hoped to be sent to some hospital in Belgium. Ethel Blue, who had been reading a great deal about the suffering of the women and children in Belgium, cried, "Belgium! Oh, do send us a Belgian baby!" The rest had taken up the cry and James had had the discomfiture of being kissed by an enthusiastic French woman on the pier who was delighted with their warmheartedness. ”

“ Helen and Margaret nodded.
"What do you say, then, if we decide to limit our Christmas work as a club to doing something for the orphanage and for Elisabeth? And I should like to suggest that no one of us gives a personal present that costs more than ten cents to any relative or friend. Then we can place in the club treasury whatever we had intended to spend more than that, and do the best we can with whatever amount that puts into James's hands for the Glen Point orphans and Elisabeth. Am I clear?" ”

“ Mother says I may," cried Helen, delighted that her favorite school was on the point of proving its usefulness in her own family.
"Can you get mother helpers from there?"
"You can, and they're scientifically trained young women. Many of them are college graduates who are taking this as graduate work."
"Then I should say that the thing for us to do," said Mrs. Smith, "was to leave the baby in Mary's care tomorrow and go in to New York and see what we can find at the School of Mothercraft. Will the students be willing to break in on their course?" ”

“ They sank down on the steps of the porch and panted.
"You're tired out," exclaimed their grandmother. "Roger, bring out that pitcher of lemonade you'll find in the dining-room. How far have you walked?"
"About a thousand miles, I should say," declared Helen. "We were bound we'd get out-of-door decorations if they were to be had, and they weren't to be had except by hunting."
"You're like me—I like to use out-of-door things as late as I can; there are so many months when you have to go to the greenhouse or to draw on your house plants." ”

“ Again the voice was heard:—"Gather, gather about the festal board."
"We must obey the witches," urged Helen, and they sat down in the chairs which they found placed at the table in just the right number. Into the dim room from the kitchen came two figures dressed in long black capes and pointed red hats and bearing each a dish heaped high with cakes of some sort.
"I just have to tell you what these are," said Ethel Brown in her natural voice as she and Ethel Blue marched around the table and placed one dish before Roger at one end and another before Helen at the other. "It's sowens." ”

“ Emerson asked.
"We used to do a few little things when we were children," Helen answered; "but for the last few years we've been asked somewhere."
"And with all due respect to our hosts we did a lot of the stupidest and meanest things we ever got let in for," declared Roger. "I was telling Grandfather about some of them coming over."
"So we made up our minds that we'd celebrate as a club this year, and do whatever we wanted to. There's a lot more to a party than just the party," said Ethel Brown wisely.
Her grandmother nodded.
"You're right. The preparation is half the fun," she agreed. ”

“ Helen decided. "It's the Spring getting into their bones; and here are some of the people who are benefited by the park."
The table and chairs disappeared and a bench took their place. There followed a procession of folk apparently passing through the park. A workman, shovel and pick over his shoulder, stopped to look up at the trees. That was James. A young man and his sweetheart—Roger and Ethel Brown—strolled slowly along. Dicky rolled a hoop. Margaret, carrying a baby borrowed from the audience, sat down on a bench and put it to sleep. ”

“ Roger's graduation was more formal. A speaker came out from New York, a man of affairs who had an interest in education and who liked to say a word of encouragement to young people about to step from one stage of their education into another.
"Of course education never ends as long as you live," Roger said thoughtfully to Ethel Brown, "but there is a big feeling of jump when you go from one school to another, and you can't deny it."113
"I don't want to deny it," retorted Ethel Brown. "I'm all full of excitement at the idea of going into the high school next autumn." ”

“ In an effort not to show it she was not always happy in her remarks.57
"Is this your car?" she asked.
"It's Grandmother Emerson's," replied Ethel Brown. "She lets us have it very often."
"I don't care for a touring car in cold weather. My grandmother has a limousine."
"We're glad to have a ride in any kind of car," responded Ethel Blue happily.
"Roger, get out that other rug for Katharine," directed Mrs. Morton, "she's chilly."
"Oh, no," demurred Katharine, now ashamed at having made a remark that seemed to reflect upon the comfort of her friends' automobile. "I'm used to a Ford, any way." ”

“ By the time you're ready to start that may be a favored occupation for girls," said Dr. Watkins.
"Here are several things that we can do one at a time while the rest of us are doing something else," said Helen. "They have to be done alone or the spell won't work."
"Let's hear them," begged Gregory, while he and the others grouped themselves about the open fire in the living room and prepared to burn nuts.
"The first one, according to Burns, is to go alone to the kiln and put a clew of yarn in the kiln pot."
"What does that mean translated into Rosemont language?" demanded James. ”

“ The parcels bearing the children's names were filled with candy and goodies and were all alike.
"Didn't I tell you they'd like foolishnesses!" she said to Helen in an undertone. "Look at those boys with jumping jacks. They love them!"
"See those youngsters with those silly twirling things Tom made," said Della. "He's right about the charm of those little flat objects. They'll twirl them by the hour I really believe."
All the gifts were of the simplest sort. There were the Danish twins that Ethel Blue had made for the real Ship—little worsted elves fastened together by a cord ”

“ Emerson saw at once that if she wanted a nursling she must look for another, not Elisabeth of Belgium.
"After all, perhaps it is better for her," she admitted. "Here she will have the children and will grow up among young people. Are you ready?"
When they picked up Helen she had a request to make of her grandmother.
"I telephoned about the baby to Margaret at recess, just to tell her Elisabeth was well this morning, and she was awfully interested in the idea of the helper from the School of Mothercraft. She gets out of school earlier than we do—she'd be just home. ”

“ James pronounced after some work with pencil and paper. "We can't give them anything that the wildest imagination could call handsome."
"There are plenty of people interested in the orphanage who give the children clothes and all their necessities, you know," Margaret reminded her brother. "Don't you remember when we talked this over before we said that what we'd do for them would be to give them some foolishnesses—just silly things that all children enjoy and that no one ever seems to think it worth while to give to youngsters in an institution." ”

“ That right hand nut is you and the left hand is me—no, I." Conscientious Ethel Blue interrupted herself to correct her grammar. "If we burn cosily side by side we'll stay friends a long time, but if one of us jumps or burns up before the other, she'll be the one to break the friendship."
"I hope I shan't be the one," and both girls sat down on the rug to watch their namesakes closely.
"Here are Margaret and her cabbage man," laughed Tom. "This delicate, slender chestnut is Margaret and this big round one is Mr. Stalk of the Cabbage Patch. Now we'll see how that match is going to turn out." ”

“ On the shore there can be groups of girls who will undo the large bundles and take out the small ones that they contain. Other groups of girls can go about giving out the presents."
"I'll bet they'll have such a good time playing the game they won't notice whether the presents are ten centers or fifties," shouted Roger. "I believe we've got the right notion."
"We must do everything up nicely so they'll have fun opening the parcels," insisted Helen.
"Here's where James begins pasting again. Where's my pastepot, Dorothy?" ”

“ Helen answered. "I'm content to let the boys have this entirely to themselves."
While the half drowned boys went up to Roger's room to dry their faces the girls prepared nut boats to set sail upon the same ocean that had floated the apples. They had cracked English walnuts carefully so that the two halves fell apart neatly, and in place of the meats they had packed a candle end tightly into each.
"We have the comfort of the apple even when we're defeated," said Gregory, coming down stairs, eating the fruit that he had not been able to capture without the use of his hands. ”

“ Ethel Brown reminded them and they all laughed, remembering James and his Gallic salute.
"Don't take her tonight, Aunt Louise," begged Ethel Blue. "Let us have her just one night. We can put Dicky's crib into our room between Ethel Brown's bed and mine."35
It was finally decided that Elisabeth should not be taken to Dorothy's until the next day, but Mrs. Morton insisted on keeping her in her own room for the night.
"She has such a slight hold on life that she ought to have an experienced eye watching her for some time to come," she said. ”

“ The power of a body of interested alumni is a force worth having by any school.
The graduating class found the idea of the banner most attractive, but when it came to the making they were aghast at the expense. A committee examined the prices at places in New York where such decorations were made and returned horrified.
It was then that the Ethels offered to do their best to help out the Class of 1915.
"We'll do what we can, and I know Helen and Margaret and Della will help us," they said and fell to work. ”