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It was a crude little speech, haltingly spoken, and the speaker was evidently relieved when it was over. Yet there had been amazing truth in what he had said, and it came to the two visitors with the force of newness. As he mopped his perspiring brow with a large handkerchief and sat down, adjusting his collar and necktie nervously, they watched him, and marvelled again that he had been willing to be put in so trying a position. There had been a genuineness about him that brought conviction. This young man really believed in Christ and that He walked with men.
Allison, always ready to curl his lips over anything sissified, sat watching him gravely. Here was a new specimen. He didn’t know where to place him. Did hehaveto lead a meeting? Was he a minister’s son or something, or did he just do it because he wanted to, because it seemed his duty to do it? Allison could not decide. He knew that he himself could have made a much better speech on the subject, but he would not want to. He would hate it, talking about sacred things like that out to the world; yet he was frank enough to see that a better speech might not have been so acceptable to God as this halting one full of repetition and crudities.
The girl up by the piano was singing the solo. Why did she let herself be called “Mame” in that common way? She was a rather common-looking girl, with loud colors in her garments and plenty of powder in evidence on her otherwise pretty face; but she had a good voice, and sang the words distinctly.
“In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide!Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at Jesus’ side!”
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The words were wonderful. They somehow held you through to the end. The girl named Mame had that quality of holding attention with her voice and carrying a message to a heart. There were two lines that seemed particularly impressive,
“And whene’er you leave the silence of that happy meeting-place,You must mind and bear the image of the Master in your face.”
Leslie found herself looking around the room to see whether any one present bore that image, and her eyes lingered longest on the quiet girl in the plain garments over on the other side of the room. She had a face that was almost beautiful in its repose, if it had not worn that air of utter reticence.
There was a long pause after the soloist was done, and much whispering from the back row, which at last terminated in a flutter of Bible leaves and the reading of three Bible verses containing the word “companion,” without much reference to the topic, from the three girls on the back seat, passing the Bible in turn, with much ado to find their respective places. Another hymn followed, and a prayer from a solemn-looking boy in shell-rimmed spectacles. It was a good prayer, but the young man wore also that air of reticence that characterized the girl on the other side of the room, as if he were not a part of these young people, had nothing in common with them. Allison decided that they were all dead, and surely did need some one to wake them up; but the task was not to his liking. What had he in common with a bunch like that? In fact, what had any of them in common that they should presume to form themselves into a society? It was rank nonsense. You couldn’t bring people together that had161nothing in common and make them have a good time. These were his thoughts during another painful pause, during which the pastor in the back seat half rose, then sat down and looked questioningly toward the two visitors. The young leader seemed to understand the signal; for he grew very red, looked at Allison and Leslie several times, cleared his throat, turned over his hymn-book, and finally said with painful embarrassment:
“We should be glad to hear from our visitors to-night. We’d like to know how you conduct things in your society.”
He lifted agonized eyes to Allison, and broke down in a choking cough.
Allison, chilled with amazement, filled with a sudden strange pity, looked around with growing horror to see whether it was really true that he had been called upon to speak in meeting. Then with the old nonchalance that nothing ever quite daunted he rose to his feet.
“Why, I,” he began, looking around with a frank smile, “I never was in a Christian Endeavor meeting before in my life, and I don’t know the first thing about it. My sister and I only came to-night because somebody wanted us to; so I can’t very well tell about any other society. But I belong to a college frat, and I suppose it’s a good deal the same thing in the long run. I’ve been reading that pledge up there on the wall. I suppose that’s your line. You’ve got good dope all right. If you live up to that, you’re going some.
“I remember when I first went to college the fellows began to rush me. I had bids from two or three different frats, and they had me going so hard I got bewildered. I didn’t know which I wanted to join. Then162one day one of the older fellows got hold of me, and he saw how it was with me; and he said: ‘You want to look around and analyze things. Just you look the fellows over, and see how they size up in the different frats. Then you see what they stand for, and how they live up to it; and lastly you look up their alumni.’ So I began to size things up, and I found that one frat was all for the social doings, dances, and dinners, and always having a good time; and another was pretty wild, had the name of always getting in bad with the faculty, and had the lowest marks in college; three fellows had been expelled the year before for drunkenness and disorderliness. Then another one was known as ranking highest in scholarship and having the most athletes in it. I looked over their alumni, too, for they used to come around a good bit and get in with us boys; and you could see just which were making good out in the world, and which were just in life for what they could get out of it; and I made my decision one day just because of one big man who had been out of college for ten years; but he had made good in the world, and was known all over as being a successful man and a wonderful man, and he used to come back to every game and everything that went on at the college, and sit around and talk with the fellows, and encourage them; and, if anybody was falling down on his job, he would show him where he was wrong and how to get into line again, and even help him financially if he got in a tight place. And so I thought with men like that back of it that frat was a pretty good thing to tie up to, and I joined it, and found it was even better than I expected.
“And I was thinking as I looked at the blackboard,163and heard you talking about the Great Companion, it was something like that man. If all that’s true that you’ve been reading and saying to-night, why, you’ve got pretty good things back of you. With an Alumnus like that”––nodding toward the blackboard––“and a line of talk like that pledge, you sure ought to have a drag with the world. All you’ve got to do is to make everybody believe that it is really so, and you’d have this room full; for, believe me, that’s the kind of dope everybody wants, especially young people, whether they own it or not.”
Allison sat down abruptly, suddenly realizing that he had just made a religious speech and had the interest of the meeting in his hands. His speech seemed to set loose something in the heart of the young leader; for he rose eagerly, alertly, his embarrassment departed, and began to speak:
“I’m glad our friend has spoken that way. I guess it’s all true what he has just said. We’ve got the right dope; only we aren’t using it. I guess it looks mighty like to the world as if we didn’t really believe it all, the way we live; but believe me, I’m going to try to make things different in my life this week, and see if I can’t make at least one person believe we have something here they want before next Sunday.”
He seemed about to give out another hymn, but the plain girl spoke up and interrupted him. She was sitting forward in her chair, an almost radiant look upon her face that quite changed it; and she spoke rapidly, breathlessly, like a shy person who had a great message to convey. She was looking straight at Allison as if she had forgotten everyone else in the room.
“I’ve got to speak,” she said earnestly. “It isn’t164right to keep still when I’ve had such a wonderful experience, and you spoke as if it might not all be true about Christ’s being our companion every day.” In spite of himself Allison met her eyes as though they were talking alone together, and waited for what she should tell.
“I’ve always been just a quiet Christian,” she went on; “and I don’t often speak here except to recite a Bible verse. I’m sort of a stranger myself. But you all ought to know what Christ has done for me. When my people died and everything in my life was changed, and troubles came very thick and fast, there wasn’t anybody in the world I could turn to for every-day help and companionship but Jesus; and one day it came to me how my mother used to feel about Him, and I just went to Him, and asked Him to be my companion, as He used to be hers. I didn’t half believe He would when I asked Him; but I was so hurt and alone I had to do something; and I found out it was all true! He helped me in so many little every-day ways, you wouldn’t believe it, perhaps, unless you could have lived it out yourself. I guess you really have to live it out to know it, after all. But I found that I could go to Him just as if I could see Him, and I was so surprised the first day when He answered a prayer in a perfectly wonderful way. It all came over me, ‘Why, He loves me!’ And at first I thought it was just happening; but I tried it again and again, and every day wonderful things began to come into my life, and it got to be that I could talk with Him and feel His answer in my heart. If it were not for Him, I couldn’t stand life sometimes. And I’m sure He’ll talk with any one that way who wants Him enough to try and find Him,”165she finished; and then, suddenly conscious of herself, she sat back, white and shy again, with trembling lips.
The meeting closed then; but, while they were singing the last hymn Allison and Leslie were watching the face of the quiet girl with the holy, uplifted light on it.
“I think she is lovely, don’t you?” whispered Leslie after the benediction, as they turned to go out. “I’d like to know her.”
“H’m!” assented Allison. “Cloudy would like her, I guess.”
“I mean to find out who she is,” declared Leslie.
The minister came up just then with cordial greeting and urgent appeal that the young people would at once join their Christian Endeavor.
“That was a great talk you gave us to-night,” he said with his hand resting admiringly on Allison’s shoulder. “We need young blood. You are the very one to stir up this society.”
“But I’m not a Christian,” said Allison, half laughing. “I don’t belong here.”
“Oh, well,” answered the smiling minister, “if you take hold of the Endeavor, perhaps you’ll find you’re more of a Christian than you think. Come, I want you to meet some of our young people.”
The young people were all gathered in groups, looking toward the strangers, and came quite willingly to have a nearer glimpse of them. Last of all, and by herself, came the plain-faced girl; and the minister introduced her as Jane Bristol. He did not speak to her more than that, and it occurred to Allison that she seemed as if she came more at the instigation of some higher power than at the call of her pastor; for she166passed quietly on again in a pleasant dignity, and did not stop to talk and joke with her pastor as some of the other young people had done.
“Who is she?” asked Allison, hardly aware that he was asking.
“Why, she is the daughter of a forger who died in prison. Her mother, I believe, died of a broken heart. Sad experience for so young a girl. She seems to be a good little thing. She is working at housework in town, I believe. I understand she has an idea of entering college in the fall. You are entering college here? That will be delightful. My wife and I will take pleasure in calling on you as soon as you are ready to receive visitors.”
Leslie’s eyes were on Jane Bristol as she moved slowly toward the door, lingering a moment in the hall. None of the other girls seemed to have anything to do with her. With her usual impulsiveness Leslie left Allison, and went swiftly down the aisle till she stood by Jane Bristol’s side.
“We are going to meet my aunt and stay to church. Would you come and sit with us to-night?” she asked eagerly. “I’d like to get acquainted with you.”
Jane Bristol shook her head with a wistful smile.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wish I could. But I take care of a little girl evenings, and I only get off long enough for Christian Endeavor. It’s dear of you to ask me.”
“Well, you’ll come and see me when I get settled in my new home, won’t you?”
Jane looked at her thoughtfully, and then gave her a beautiful smile in answer to Leslie’s brilliant one.
“Yes, if you find you want me when you get settled,167I’ll come,” she answered, and, giving Leslie’s little gloved hand an impulsive squeeze, she said, “Good-night,” and went away.
Leslie looked after her a minute, half understanding, and then turned to find her brother beside her.
“She thinks I won’t want her because she works!” she said. “But I do. I shall.”
“Sure you will, kid,” said her brother. “Just tell Cloudy about her. She’ll fix things. That old party––I mean, the reverend gentleman–––”
“Look out, Allison, that isn’t any better; and there comes Cloudy. Don’t make her feel bad again.”
“Well, parson, then––doesn’t seem to have much use for a person who’s had the misfortune to have her father commit forgery and her mother die of a broken heart, or is it because she has to work her way through college? He may be all right, sister; but I’d bank on that girl’s religion over against his any day in the week, Sundays included.”
Then Julia Cloud came up the steps, and they went in to a rather dreary evening service with a sparse congregation and a bored-looking choir, who passed notes and giggled during the sermon. Allison and Leslie sat and wondered what kind of a shock it would be to them all if the Great Companion should suddenly become visible in the room. If all that about His being always present was true, it certainly was a startling thing.
168CHAPTER XIV
The next morning dawned with a dull, dreary drizzle coming noisily down on the red and yellow leaves of the maple by the window; but the three rose joyously and their ardor was not damped.
“Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,” quoted Allison at the breakfast-table. “Cloudy, we’ve got to hustle. Do you mind if it does rain? We’ve got our car.”
But Julia Cloud smiled unconcernedly.
“I should worry,” she said with a gay imitation of Leslie’s inimitable toss of the head, and the two young people laughed so hilariously that the other staid couples already in the dining-room turned in amaze to see who was taking life so happily on a day like this.
They piled into the car, and hied themselves to town at once, chattering joyfully over their list as to which things they would buy first.
“Let’s begin with the kitchen,” said Leslie. “I’m crazy to learn how to make cookies. Cloudy, you’ll teach me how so I can make some all myself, won’t you?”
“And waffles!” said Allison from the front seat.
“Um-mmm-mmmm! I remember Cloudy’s waffles. And buckwheat cakes.”
“We’re going to have everything for the kitchen to make things easy, so that when we can’t get a maid Cloudy won’t be always overdoing,” said Leslie. “Guardy told me especially about that. He said we169were to get every convenience to make things easy, so the cook wouldn’t leave; for he’d rather pay any amount than have Cloudy work herself to death and have to break down and leave us.”
So it was the house-furnishing department of the great store to which they first repaired, and there they hovered for two hours among tins and aluminum and wooden ware, discussing the relative charms of white-enamel refrigerators and gas-ranges, vacuum cleaners and dish-washers, the new ideas against the old. Julia Cloud was for careful buying and getting along with few things; the children were infatuated with the idea of a kitchen of their own, and wanted everything in sight. They went wild over a new kind of refrigerator that would freeze its own ice, making ice-cream in the bargain, and run by an electric motor; but here Julia Cloud held firm. No such expensive experiment was needed in their tiny kitchen. A small white, old-fashioned kind was good enough for them. So the children immediately threw their enthusiasm into selecting the best kind of ice-cream freezer.
When they finally went to the tea-room for lunch, everything on Julia Cloud’s list was carefully checked off by Allison with its respective price; and, while they were waiting to be served, he added the column twice to make sure he was right.
“We’re shy five dollars yet of what we planned to spend on our kitchen, Cloudy,” he announced radiantly. “What did I tell you?”
“But where would you have been if I had let you get that refrigerator?” she retorted.
“Well, there were a lot of things we didn’t really need,” he answered.
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“Such as what?”
“Oh, clothes-pins and––well, all those pans. Did you need so many?” he answered helplessly.
They laughed his masculine judgment out of countenance, and chatted away about what they should do next, until their order arrived.
They were like three children as they ate their lunch, recalling now and then some purchase which gave them particular pleasure.
Suddenly Julia Cloud lifted her hands in mock distress. “I know what we’ve forgotten! Dish-towels!” she said.
“Dish-towels! Why, sure. We have to have a lot so we can all wipe dishes when the cook goes out. Will five dollars buy them, Cloudy?” asked Leslie distressingly.
“Well, I certainly should hope so!” said Julia Cloud, laughing. “The idea! Five dollars’ worth of dish-towels!”
“Well, we’ll go and get them at once,” said Leslie; “and after that we’ll do the bedrooms.”
Five o’clock found them wending their way homeward once more, tired but happy.
“Now, to-morrow,” said Julia Cloud, leaning back on the soft cushions, “I think we had better stay at home and receive the things. The house must be cleaned at once, and then we can put things right where they are going to belong. Allison, you ought to be able to get a man to wash windows. I’ll ask the chambermaid about a woman to help clean, and Leslie and I will make curtains while you put up the rods.”
They were so interesting a trio at their table in the inn dining-room that night that people around began171to ask who were those two charming young people and their beautiful mother. Little ripples of query went around the room as they entered, for they were indeed noticeable anywhere. The young people were bubbling over with life and spirits and kindliness, and Julia Cloud in her silvery robes and her white hair made a pleasant picture. But they were so wholly wrapped up in their own housekeeping plans that they were utterly unaware of the interest they excited in their fellow-boarders. Just at present they had no time to spare on other people. They were playing a game, just as they used to play house when they were little, with their aunt; and they wanted no interruption until they should have completed the home and were ready to move in and begin to live. After that other people might come in for their attention.
The next morning bright and early Allison was up and out, hunting his man, and announced triumphantly at the breakfast-table that he was found and would be down at the house and ready for work in half an hour. Breakfast became a brief ceremony after that. For Julia Cloud also had not been idle, and had procured the address of a good woman to clean the house. Allison rushed off after the car, and in a few minutes they were on their way, first to leave Julia Cloud and Leslie at the house to superintend the man, and then to hunt the woman. He presently returned with a large colored woman sitting imposingly in the back seat, her capable hands folded in her lap, a look of intense satisfaction on her ample countenance.
Julia Cloud had thoughtfully brought from home a large bundle of cleaning-rags, and a little canned-alcohol heater presently supplied hot water. Leslie made a172voyage of discovery, and purchased soap and scouring-powder; and soon the whole little house was a hive of workers.
“Now,” said Julia Cloud, opening the bundle of curtain material, “where shall we begin?”
“Right here,” said Leslie, looking around the big white living-room with satisfaction. “I’m just longing to see this look like a home; and you must admit, Cloudy, that this room is the real heart of the house. We’ll eat and sleep and work and study in the other rooms; but here we’ll really live, right around that dear fireplace. I’m just crazy to see it made up and burning. Oh, won’t it be great?”
Busy hands and shining scissors went to work, measuring, cutting, turning hems; and presently a neat pile of white curtains, the hems all turned ready for stitching, lay in the wide back window-seat. Then they went at the other rooms, the sun-porch room and the dining-room. But before that was quite finished a large furniture-truck arrived, and behold the sewing-machine had come! Leslie was so eager to get at it that she could hardly wait until the rest of the load was properly disposed.
She was not an experienced sewer, but she brought to her work an enthusiasm that stood loyally beside her aunt’s experience, and soon some of the curtains were up.
They could not bear to stop and go back to the inn for lunch; so Allison ran down to the pie-shop with the car, and brought back buns cut into halves and buttered, with great slices of ham in them, a pail of hot sweetened coffee, a big cocoanut pie, a bag of cakes and a basket of grapes; and they made a picnic of it.
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“Our first meal in our own house! Isn’t it great?” cried Leslie, dancing around with a roll sandwich in one hand and a wedge of pie in the other.
By night every clean little window in that many-windowed house was curtained with white drapery, and in some rooms also with inner curtains of soft silk. The house began to look cozy in spite of its emptiness, and they could hardly bear to leave it when sunset warned them that it was getting near dinner-time and they must return to the inn to freshen up for the evening.
Another day at the little house completed the cleaning and curtaining, and by this time all the furniture so far purchased had arrived, and they had no need to be there to watch for anything else; so another day of shopping was agreed upon.
“And I move we pick out the piano first of all,” said Leslie. “I’m just crazy to get my fingers on the keys again, and you don’t know how well Allison can sing, Cloudy. You just ought to hear him. Oh, boy!”
Julia Cloud smiled adoringly at the two, and agreed that the piano was as good a place as any to begin.
That day was the best of all the wonderful shopping to Julia Cloud. To be actually picking out wonderful mahogany furniture such as she had seen occasionally in houses of the rich, such as she had admired in pictures and read of in magazine articles, seemed too wonderful to be true. For the first time in her life she was to live among beautiful things, and she felt as if she had stepped into at least the anteroom of heaven. It troubled her a little to be allowing the children to spend so much, even though their guardian had made it plain that they had plenty to spend; for it did not174seem quite right to use so much on one’s self when so many were in need; but gradually her viewpoint began to change. It was true that these things were only relative, and what seemed much to her was little to another. Perhaps coming directly from her exceedingly limited sphere she was no fit judge of what was right and necessary. And of course there was always the fact that good things lasted, and were continually beautiful if well chosen. Also much good might be done to a large circle of outsiders by a beautiful home.
So Julia Cloud, because the matter of expenditure was not, after all, in her hands, decided just to have a good time and enjoy picking out these wonderful things, interfering only where she thought the article the children selected was not worth buying, or was foolish and useless. But on the whole they got along beautifully, and agreed most marvellously about what fitted the little pink-and-white stone “villa,” as Leslie had named it. “‘Cloud Villa,’ that’s what we’ll call it,” she cried one day in sudden inspiration; and so it was called thereafter in loving jest.
Two days more of hard work, and their list was nearly finished. By this time they were almost weary of continually trying to decide which thing to get. A bewildering jumble of French gray bedsteads and mahogany tables and dining-room chairs swung around in their minds when they went to sleep at night, and smilingly met their waking thoughts. They were beginning to long for the time when they could sit down in the dining-room chairs, and get acquainted with their beds and tables, and feel at home.
“I wish we could get in by Sunday,” grumbled175Allison. “It’s fierce hanging around this hotel with nothing to do.”
“Well, why not?” assented Julia Cloud as she buttered her breakfast muffin. “The bedding was promised to come out this morning, and I don’t see why we couldn’t make up the beds and sleep there to-night, although I don’t know whether we can get the gas-range connected in time to do much cooking.”
“Oh, we can come back here for our meals till next week,” declared Leslie. “Then we’ll have time to get the dishes unpacked and washed and put in that lovely china-closet. Perhaps we’ll be able to get at that to-day. The curtains are every blessed one up, inside and out, now; and, if we succeed in getting that maid that you heard of, why, we’ll be all fixed for next week. I do wish those California things would arrive and we could get the rugs down. It doesn’t look homey without rugs and pictures.”
And, sure enough, they had not been at work ten minutes before the newly-acquired telephone bell rang, and the freight agent announced that their goods were at the station, and asked whether they wanted them sent up to-day, for he wanted to get the car out of his way.
In two hours more the goods arrived, and right in the midst of their unloading the delivery-wagons from the city brought a lot more articles; and so the little pink-and-white house was a scene of lively action for some time.
When the last truck had started away from the house, Allison drove the car up.
“Now, Cloudy, you jump in quick, and we’re going back to the inn for lunch. Then you lie down and rest176a whole hour, and sleep, or I won’t let you come back,” he announced. “I saw a tired look around your eyes, and it won’t do. We are not going to have you worked out, not if we stay in that old inn for another month. So there!”
He packed them in, and whirled them away to the inn in spite of Julia Cloud’s protest that she was not tired and wanted to work; but, when they came back at two o’clock, they all felt rested and fit for work again.
“Now, I’m the man, and I’m going to boss for a while,” said Allison. “You two ladies go up-stairs, and make beds. Here, which are the blankets and sheets? I’ll take the bundles right up there, and you won’t have any running up and down to do. These? All of them? All right. Now come on up, and I’ll be undoing the rugs and boxes from California. When you come down, they’ll be all ready for you to say where they shall go.”
Leslie and her aunt laughingly complied, and had a beautiful time unfolding and spreading the fine white sheets, plumping the new pillows into their cases, laying the soft, gay-bordered blankets and pretty white spreads, till each bed was fair and fit for a good night’s sleep. And then at the foot of each was plumped, in a puff of beauty, the bright satin eiderdowns that Leslie had insisted upon. Rose-color for Julia Cloud’s, robin’s-egg blue for Leslie’s, and orange and brown for Allison’s, who had insisted upon mahogany and quiet colors for his room. Leslie’s furniture was ivory-white, and Julia Cloud’s room was furnished in French gray enamel, with insets of fine cane-work. She stood a moment in the open doorway, and looked about the place; soft gray walls, with a trellis of roses at the177top, filmy white draperies with a touch of rose, a gray couch luxuriously upholstered, with many pillows, some rose, some gray, a thick, gray rug under her feet, and her own little gray desk drawn out conveniently when she wanted to write. Over all a flood of autumn sunshine, and on the wall a great water-color of a marvellous sunset that Leslie had insisted belonged in that room and must be bought or the furnishing would not be complete.
It filled Julia Cloud’s eyes with tears of wonder and gratitude to think that such a princess’s abode should have come to be her abiding-place after her long years of barren living in dreary surroundings. She lifted her eyes to the sunset picture on the wall, and it reminded her of the evening when she had stood at her own home window in her distress and sorrow, looking into the gray future, and had watched it break into rose-color before her eyes. For just an instant after Leslie had run down-stairs she closed her door, and dropped upon her knees beside the lovely bed to thank her Lord for this green and pleasant pasture where He had led her tired feet.
Allison had all the rugs spread out on the porch and lawn, and he and Leslie were hard at work giving them a good sweeping. They were wonderful rugs, just such as one would expect to come from a home of wealth where money had never been a consideration. Julia Cloud looked at them almost with awe, recognizing by instinct the priceless worth of them, and almost afraid at the idea of living a common, daily life on them. For Julia Cloud had read about rugs. She knew that in far lands poor peasant people, whole families, sometimes wove their history into them for a mere178pittance; and they had come to mean something almost sacred in her thoughts.
But Allison and Leslie had no such reverence for them; and they swept away gayly, and slammed them about familiarly, in a happy hurry to get them in place. So presently the big blue Chinese rug covered the living-room, almost literally; for it was an immense one, and left very little margin around it. A handsome Kermanshah in old rose and old gold with pencillings of black was spread forth under the mahogany dining-table, and a rich dark-red and black Bokhara runner fitted the porch-room as if it had been bought for it. The smaller rugs were quickly disposed here and there, a lovely little rose-colored silk prayer rug being forced upon Julia Cloud for her bedroom as just the finishing touch it needed, and Leslie took possession of two or three smaller blue rugs for her room. Then they turned their attention to pictures, bits of jade and bronze, a few rare pieces of furniture, a wonderful old bronze lamp with a great dragon on a sea of wonderful blue enamel, with a shade that cast an amber light; brass andirons and fender, and a lot of other little things that go to make a lovely home.
“Now,” said Allison, “when we get our books unpacked, and some magazines thrown around, it will look like living. Cloudy, can we sleep here to-night?”
“Why, surely,” said Julia Cloud with a child-like delight in her eyes. “What’s to hinder? I feel as if I was in a dream, and if I didn’t go right on playing it was true I would wake up and find it all gone.”
So they rode back to the inn for their supper, hurried their belongings into the trunk, and moved bag179and baggage into the new house at nine o’clock on Saturday night.
While Leslie and her aunt were up-stairs putting away their clothes from the trunk into the new closets and bureau-drawers, Allison brought in a few kindlings, and made a bit of a fire on the hearth; and now he called them down.
“We’ve got to have a housewarming the first night, Cloudy,” he called. “Come down and see how it all looks in the firelight.”
So the two came down-stairs, and all three sat together on the deep-blue velvet settee in front of the fireplace, Julia Cloud in the middle and a child on either side.
They were all very tired and did not say much, just sat together happily, watching the wood blaze up and flicker and fall into embers. Presently both children nestled closer to her, and put down a head on each of her shoulders. So they sat for a long time quietly.
“Now,” said Julia Cloud, as the fire died down and the room grew dusky with shadows, “it is time we went to bed. But there is something I wish we could do this first night in our new home. Don’t you think we ought to dedicate it to God, or at least thank God for giving it to us? Would you be willing to kneel down with me, and––we might just all pray silently, if you don’t feel like praying out loud. Would you be willing to do that?”
There was a tender silence for a moment while the children thought.
“Sure!” growled Allison huskily. “You pray out, Cloudy. We’d like it.”
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“Yes,” whispered Leslie, nestling her hand in her aunt’s.
And so, trembling, half fearful, her heart in her throat, but bravely, Julia Cloud knelt with a child on either side, hiding wondering, embarrassed, but loyal faces.
There was a tense silence while Julia Cloud struggled for words to break through her unwilling lips, and then quite softly she breathed:
“O dear Christ, come and dwell in this home, and bless it. Help us to live to please Thee. Help me to be a wise guide to these dear children–––”
She paused, her voice suddenly giving way with a nervous choke in her throat, and two young hands instantly squeezed her hands in sympathy.
Then a gruff young voice burst out on one side,
“Help me to be good, and not hurt her or make it hard for her.”
And Leslie gasped out, “And me, too, dear God!”
Then a moment more, and they all rose, tears on their faces. In the dying firelight they kissed Julia Cloud fervently, and said good-night.
181CHAPTER XV
Leslie and Allison did not go to the Christian Endeavor meeting that second Sunday. They were tired out, and wanted to stay at home all the evening, and Julia Cloud felt that it would be unwise to urge them; so they sat around the fire and talked. Leslie sat down at the new piano, and played softly old hymns that Julia Cloud hummed; and they all went to bed early, having had a happy Sabbath in their new home.
But Monday evening quite early, just after they had come back from supper and were talking about reading a story aloud, there came a knock at the door. Their first caller! And behold, there stood the inefficient-looking young man who had led the Christian Endeavor meeting, the boy with the goggles who had prayed, and the two girls who had sat by the piano.
“We’re a committee,” announced the young man, quite embarrassed. “My name’s Herricote, Joe Herricote. I’m president of our Christian Endeavor Society, and this is Roy Bryan; he’s the secretary. This is Mame Beecher. I guess you remember her singing. She’s chairman of our social committee, and Lila Cary’s our pianist and chairman of the music committee. We’ve come to see if you won’t help us.”
“Come in,” said Allison cordially, but with a growing disappointment. Now, here were these dull people coming to interrupt their pleasant evening, and there wouldn’t be many of them, for college would soon begin, and they would be too busy then to read stories and just enjoy themselves.
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Leslie, too, frowned, but came forward politely to be introduced. She knew at a glance that these were not people of the kind she cared to have for friends.
“We’re a committee,” repeated young Herricote, sitting down on the edge of a chair, and looking around most uncomfortably at the luxurious apartment. He had not realized it would be like this. He was beginning to feel like a fish out of water. As for the rest of the committee, they were overawed and dumb, all except the little fellow with the tortoise-rimmed glasses. He was not looking at anything but Allison, and was intent on his mission. When he saw that his superior had been struck dumb, he took up the story.
“They appointed us to come and interview you, and see if you wouldn’t give us some new ideas how to run our society so it would be a success,” he put in. “They all liked your speech so much the other night they felt you could help us out of the rut we’ve got into.”
“Me?” asked Allison, laughing incredulously. “Why, I told you I didn’t know the first thing about Christian Endeavor.”
“But we’ve gotta have your help,” said the young secretary earnestly. “This thing’s gotta go! It’s needed in our church, and it’s the only thing in the town to help some of the young people. It’s justgottago!”
“Well, if you feel that way, you’ll make it go, I’m sure,” encouraged Allison. “You’re just the kind of a fellow to make it go. You know all about it. Not I. I never heard of the thing till last week, except just in a casual way. Don’t know much about it yet.”
“Well, s’pose it was one of your frats, and it wasn’t183succeeding. What would you do? You saw what kind of a dead-and-alive meeting we had, only a few there, and nobody taking much interest. How would you pull up a frat that was that way?”
“Well,” said Allison, speaking at random, “I’d look around, and find some of the right kind of fellows, and rush ’em. Get in some new blood.”
“That’s all right,” said Bryan doggedly. “I’m rushin’ you. How do you do it? I never went to college yet; so I don’t know.”
Allison laughed now. He rather liked this queer boy.
“He’s a nut!” he said to himself, and entered into the talk in earnest.
“Why, you have parties, and rides, and good times generally, and invite a fellow, and make him feel at home, and make him want to belong. See?”
“I see,” said Bryan, with a twinkling glance at the rest of his committee. “We have a party down at my house Friday night. Will you come?”
Allison saw that the joke was on him, and his reserve broke down entirely.
“Well, I guess it’s up to me to come,” he said. “Yes, I’m game. I’ll come.”
Bryan turned his big goggles on Leslie.
“Will you come?”
“Why, yes, if Allison does, I will,” agreed Leslie, dimpling.
“That’s all right,” said Bryan, turning back to Allison. “Now, what do you do when you rush? You’ll have to teach us how.”
“Well,” said Allison thoughtfully, “we generally pick out our best rushers, the ones that can talk best,184and put them wise. We never let the fellow that’s rushed know what we’re doing. Oh, if he has brains, he always knows, of course; but you don’t say you’re rushing him in so many words. At college we meet a fellow at the train, and show him around the place, and put him onto all the little things that will make it easy for him; and we invite him to eat with us, and help him out in every way we can. We appoint some one to look after him specially, and a certain group have him in their charge so the other frats won’t have a chance to rush him–––”
“I see. The other frats being represented by the devil, I suppose,” said the round-eyed boy keenly without a smile.
Allison stared at him, and then broke into a laugh again.
“Exactly,” he cried; “you’ve got onto the idea. It’s your society over against the other things that can draw them away from what you stand for. See? And then there’s another thing. You want to have something ready to show them when you get them there. That’s where our alumni come in. They often run down to college for a few days and help us out with money and influence and experience. If you’ve got good working alumni, you’re right in it, you see. We generally appoint a committee to talk things over with the alumni.”
“You mean,” said Bryan, drawing his brows together in a comical way behind his goggles, “you mean––pray, I suppose.”
“Why,” said Allison, flushing, “I suppose that would be a good idea. I hadn’t thought of it just in that way.”
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“You called Christ our alumnus the other night,” reminded the literal youth solemnly.
“So I did,” acknowledged Allison embarrassedly. “Well, I guess you’re right. But I don’t know much about that kind of line.”
“I’m afraid there don’t many of us,” put in the bashful president. “I wouldn’t hardly know who to appoint on such a committee. There’s only two or three like to pray in our meetings. There’s Bryan; we always ask him because he doesn’t mind, and I––well, I do sometimes when there’s no one else, but it comes hard; and there’s old Miss Ferby, but she always prays so long, and gets in the president and all the missionary stations–––”
“I should think you’d ask that Jane Bristol,” spoke up Leslie earnestly. “I know she must be able to. She talked that way.”
“I suppose she would,” responded the president hesitatingly, looking toward the two ladies of the committee with a half apology. “What do you girls think about it?”
“Oh, I suppose she couldpray,” said the girl called Mame, with a shrug. “She does, you know, often in meeting.”
Then with a giggle toward Leslie she added as if in explanation, “She worksout, you know.”
“It must be very hard for her,” said Leslie, purposely ignoring the inference.
“Well, you know she isn’t in our set. Nobody has much to do with her.”
“Why not? I think she is very unusual,” said Leslie with just the least bit of hauteur.
“Well, it wouldn’t be wise to get her into things.186It might keep some others out if we made her prominent,” put in Lila Cary with some asperity. “We must have some social distinction, you know.”
“In our frat one fellow is as good as another if he has the right kind of character,” remarked Allison dryly. “That girl sounded to me as if she had some drag with your alumni. But of course you know her better than I.”
“She is a good girl all right and real religious,” hastened Lila to amend. “I suppose she’d be real good on a prayer committee, and would help to fill up there, as you haven’t many.”
“Well, I’ll tell you one thing,” said Allison, “if you really want to succeed, you’ve got to pull together, every member of you, or you won’t get anywhere. And I should think that you’d have to be careful now at first whom you get in. Of course after you’re pretty strong you can take in a few just to help them; but, if you get in too many of that lame kind, your society’ll go bad. The weak kind will rule, and the mischief will be to pay. I shouldn’t think it would help you any just now to get in any folks that would feel that way about a good girl just because she earns her living.”
Mame Beecher and Lila Cary looked at each other in alarm, and hastened to affirm that they never felt that way about Jane Bristol.Theythought she was a real good sort, and had always meant to get acquainted with her; only she always slipped out as soon as meeting was over.
Back in the dining-room behind the rose-lined blue-velvet hangings Julia Cloud lingered and smiled over the way her two children were developing opinions and character. How splendid of them to take this stand!187And who was Jane Bristol? Assuredly she must be looked up and helped if that was the way the town felt about her, poor child!
“Well,” said Bryan in a business-like tone, “I’m secretary. Joe, you call that prayer committee together Thursday night at your house at half-past seven, and I’ll send a notice to each one. You make Jane Bristol chairman, and I’ll be on the committee; and I’ll go after her and take her home. Now, who else are you going to have on it?”
The president assented readily. He was one not used to taking the initiative, but he eagerly did as he was told when a good idea presented itself.
“We want you on it,” he said, nodding to Allison and then, looking shyly at Leslie, added, “And you?”
“Oh!” said Leslie, flushing in fright, “what would we have to do? I never prayed before anybody in my life. I’m not sure I even know how to pray, only just to say ‘Thank you’ to God sometimes. I think you could find somebody better.”
“We’ve got to have you this time,” said the president, shaking his head. “You needn’t pray if you don’t want to, but you must come and help us through.”
“But I couldn’t go and be a––a sort of slacker!” said Leslie, her cheeks quite beautifully red.
“That’s all right! You come!” said Bryan, looking solemnly at her.
When the visitors finally took themselves away, Allison, polite to the last, closed the door with a courteous “Good-night,” and then stood frowning at the fire.
Julia Cloud came softly into the room, and went and stood beside him with loving question in her eyes. He met her gaze with a new kind of hardness.