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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38553-8.txt b/38553-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d135a1b --- /dev/null +++ b/38553-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5671 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Emmy Lou's Road to Grace, by George Madden Martin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Emmy Lou's Road to Grace + Being a Little Pilgrim's Progress + +Author: George Madden Martin + +Illustrator: G. A. Harker + +Release Date: January 11, 2012 [EBook #38553] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Kentuckiana Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + + + +EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE + +[Illustration: "'Its name,' said Miss Eustasia severely, 'is the +Highland Fling.'" + +[PAGE 152]] + + + + +EMMY LOU'S + +ROAD TO GRACE + +_BEING A LITTLE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS_ + +BY + +GEORGE MADDEN MARTIN + +AUTHOR OF EMMY LOU, ETC. + + _What danger is the pilgrim in! + How many are his foes! + How many ways there are to sin + No living mortal knows._ + --THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS + +[Illustration] + + GROSSET & DUNLAP + PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + Made in the United States of America + + + + + COPYRIGHT 1916, BY + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + Printed in the United States of America + + + + + TO + THAT HOSTAGE GIVEN TO THE FUTURE + THE AMERICAN CHILD + + + + +PREFACE + + +SOME years ago a collection of short stories under the title, "Emmy Lou: +Her Book And Heart," was offered to the American public as a plea for +and a defense of the child as affected by the then prevailing stupidity +of the public schools. + +The present series of stories is written to show that the same +conditions which in the school make for confusion in the child's mind, +exist in the home, in the Sunday school and in all its earlier points of +contact with life; the child who presents itself at six or even at five, +to the school and teacher, being already well on the way in the school +of life, and its habits of mind established. + +It is the contention of these new stories that the child comes +single-minded to the experience of life. That it brings to this +experience a fundamental, if limited, conception of ethics, justice, +consistency and obligation. That it is the possessor of an innate +conscience that teaches it to differentiate between right and wrong, +and that the failure to find an agreement between ethics and experience +confronts the child long before its entrance at school. + +Not only do its conceptions fail to square with life as it finds it, but +the practices and habits of the persons it looks up to fail to square +with what these elders claim for life. Further, the child meets with an +innate stupidity on the part of its elders that school cannot surpass, a +stupidity which assumes knowledge on the child's part that it cannot +possibly have. + +These conditions make for confusion in the child's mind, and a +consequent impairment of its reasoning faculties, before it presents +itself to the school. + +Given the very young child struggling to evolve its working rule out of +nebulę, how do its elders aid it? The isolated fact without background +or connection, the generalization with no regard to its particular +application, the specific rule that will not fit the general case--these +too often are its portion, resulting in lack of perspective, no sense of +proportion, and no grasp of values. The child's conceptions of the +cardinal virtues, the moral law, the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood +of Christ, the human relation, are true, garbled, or false, in +accordance with the interpreting of its elders. + +The child thus has been in the training of the home, the neighborhood, +and the Sunday school, for approximately four, three, and two years +respectively, before it comes to the school of letters. + +One of the intelligences thrashing out the problems of the school today, +says: + +"Education begins at the age of two or sooner, whether the parent wills +it or not. The home influence from two to six, for good or ill in +determining the mental no less than the moral status, is the most +permanent thing in the child's life. Even at the age of five, the +difficulty for the teacher in making a beginning, lies in the fact that +the beginning already has been made." + +In the original stories portraying the workings of the schoolroom on the +mind of the child, the physically normal, mentally sound but slow type +was used, in the child called Emmy Lou, and in now seeking to show that +the conditions making for more or less permanent confusion in the +child's mind antedate the schoolroom, it has seemed wise to make use of +the same child in the same environment. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. OUT OF GOD'S BLESSING INTO THE WARM SUN 3 + II. SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE 35 + III. A FEW STRONG INSTINCTS AND A FEW PLAIN RULES 65 + IV. THE TRIBUNAL OF CONSCIENCE 95 + V. LIONS IN THE PATH 131 + VI. THE IMPERFECT OFFICES OF PRAYER 161 + VII. PINK TICKETS FOR TEXTS 195 + VIII. STERN DAUGHTER OF THE VOICE OF GOD 225 + IX. SO BUILD WE UP THE BEING THAT WE ARE 255 + X. SO TRUTH BE IN THE FIELD 279 + + + + +I + +OUT OF GOD'S BLESSING INTO THE WARM SUN + + +FOR a day or two after Emmy Lou, four years old, came to live with her +uncle and her aunties, or in fact until she discovered Izzy who lived +next door and Sister who lived in the alley, Aunt Cordelia's hands were +full. But it was Emmy Lou's heart that was full. + +Along with other things which had made up life, such as Papa, and her +own little white bed, and her own little red chair, and her own window +with its sill looking out upon her own yard, and Mary the cook in Mary's +own kitchen, and Georgie the little neighbor boy next door--along with +these things, she wanted Mamma. + +Not only because she was Mamma, all-wise, all-final, all-decreeing, but +because, being Mamma and her edicts therefore supreme, she had bade her +little daughter never to forget to say her prayers. + +Not that Emmy Lou _had_ forgotten to say them. Not she! It was that when +she went to say them she had forgotten what she was to say. A terrifying +and unlooked-for contingency. + +Two days before, Papa had put his Emmy Lou into the arms of Aunt +Cordelia at the railroad station of the city where she and Aunt Katie +and Aunt Louise and Uncle Charlie lived. They had come to the train to +get her. As he did so, Mamma, for whose sake the trip south was being +made in search of health, though Emmy Lou did not know this, smiled and +tried to look brave. + +Emmy Lou's new little scarlet coat with its triple capes was martial, +and also her new little scarlet Napoleon hat, three-cornered with a +cockade, and Papa hastened to assume that the little person within this +exterior was martial also. + +"Emmy Lou is a plucky soul and will not willingly try you, Cordelia," he +told his sister-in-law. + +"Emmy Lou is a faithful soul and has _promised_ not to try you," said +Mamma. + +"Kiss Mamma and kiss me," said Papa. + +"And say your prayers every night at Aunt Cordelia's knee," said Mamma. + +"Pshaw," said Uncle Charlie, the brother of Mamma and the aunties, and +wheeling about and whipping out his handkerchief he blew his nose +violently. + +"Brother!" said Aunt Katie reproachfully. Aunt Katie was younger than +Mamma and almost as pretty. + +"Brother Charlie!" said Aunt Louise who was the youngest of them all, +even more reproachfully. + +"Shall I send her to Sunday school at our church, or at your church?" +said Aunt Cordelia, plump and comfortable, and next to Uncle Charlie in +the family succession. For Papa's church was different, though Emmy Lou +did not know this either--and when Mamma had elected to go with him +there had been feeling. + +"So she finds God's blessing, Sister Cordelia, what does it matter?" +said Mamma a little piteously. "And she'll say her prayer every night +and every morning to you?" + +On reaching home, Aunt Cordelia spoke decidedly, "Precious baby! We'll +give her her supper and put her right into her little bed. She's worn +out with the strangeness of it all." + +Aunt Cordelia was right. Emmy Lou was worn out and more, she was +bewildered and terrified with the strangeness of it all. But though her +flaxen head, shorn now of its brave three-cornered hat, fell forward +well-nigh into her supper before more than a beginning was made, and +though when carried upstairs by Uncle Charlie she yielded passively to +Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie undressing her, too oblivious, as they +deemed her, to be cognizant of where she was, they reckoned without +knowing their Emmy Lou. + +Her head came through the opening of the little gown slipped on her. + +"Shall I say it now?" she asked. + +"Her prayer. She hasn't forgotten, precious baby," said Aunt Cordelia +and sat down. Aunt Katie who had been picking up little garments, melted +into the shadows beyond the play and the flicker of the fire in the +grate, and Emmy Lou, steadied by the hand of Aunt Cordelia, went down +upon her knees. + +For there are rules. Just as inevitably as there are rites. And since +life is hedged about with rites, as varying in their nature as in their +purpose, and each according to its purpose at once inviolate and +invincible, it is for an Emmy Lou to concern herself with remembering +their rules. + +As when she goes out on the sidewalk to play "I-spy" with Georgie, the +masterful little boy from next door, and his friends. Whereupon and +unvaryingly follows the rite. The rule being that all stand in a row, +and while the moving finger points along the line, words cabalistic and +potent in their spell cryptically and irrevocably search out the quaking +heart of the one who is "It." + +So in the kitchen. The rule being that Mary, who is young and pretty and +learning to cook under Mamma's tutelage, shall chant earnestly over the +crock as she mixes, words which again are talismanic and potent in their +spell, as "one of butter, two of sugar, three of flour, four eggs," or +Mary's cake infallibly will fall in the oven, stable affair as the oven +grating seems to be. + +And again at meals, rite of a higher class, solemn and mysterious. When +Emmy Lou must bow her head and shut her eyes--what would happen if she +basely peeked she hasn't an idea--after which, Papa's "blessing" as it +is called, having been enunciated according to rule, she may now reach +out with intrepidity and touch tumbler or spoon or biscuit. + +So with prayer, highest rite of all, most solemn and most mysterious. +Prayer being that potency of the impelling word again by which Something +known as God is to be propitiated, and one protected from the fearful if +dimly sensed terrors of the dark when one comes awake in the night. + +Emmy Lou's Mamma, hitherto the never-failing refuge from all that +threatened, haven of encircling sheltering arms and brooding tender +eyes, provided this protection for her Emmy Lou before she went away +and left her. And more. She gave Emmy Lou to understand that somewhere, +if one grasped it aright, was a person tenderly in league with Mamma in +loving Emmy Lou, and in desiring to comfort her and protect her. A +person named Jesus. He was to be reached through prayer too, and, like +God in this also, through Sunday school, this being a place around the +corner where one went with Georgie, the little boy from next door. + +These things being made clear, no wonder that Mamma bade her Emmy Lou +not to fail to go to Sunday school, and never to forget to say her +prayers! + +And no wonder that Emmy Lou quite earnestly knew the rules for her +prayers. That it hurt her knees to get down upon them had nothing to do +with the case. The point with which one has to do is that she does get +down on them. And being there, as now, steadied to that position by the +hand of Aunt Cordelia, she shuts her eyes, as taught by Mamma, though +with no idea as to why, and folds her hands, as taught by Mamma, with no +understanding as to why, and lowers her head, as taught by Mamma, on +Aunt Cordelia's knee. And the rules being now all complied with, she +prays. + +But Emmy Lou did not pray. + +"Yes?" from Aunt Cordelia. + +But still Emmy Lou failed to pray. Instead her head lifted, and her +eyes, opening, showed themselves to be dilated by apprehension. "Mamma +starts it when it won't come," she faltered. + +Aunt Cordelia endeavored to start it. "Now I lay me ..." she said with +easy conviction. + +Emmy Lou, baby person, never had heard of it. Terror crept into the eyes +lifted to Aunt Cordelia, as well as apprehension. + +"Our Father . . ." said Aunt Katie, coming forward from the shadows. Emmy +Lou's attention seemed caught for the moment and held. + +". . . which art in Heaven," said Aunt Katie. + +Emmy Lou shook her head. She never had heard of that either, though for +a moment it appeared as if she thought she had. A tear rolled down. + +"Go to bed and it will come to you tomorrow," from Aunt Cordelia. + +"Say it in the morning instead," from Aunt Katie. + +But Emmy Lou shook her head, and clung to Aunt Cordelia's knees when +they would lift her up. + +Aunt Cordelia was worn out, herself. One does not say good-bye to a +loved sister, and assume the care of a chubby, clinging baby such as +this one, without tax. "Whatever is to be done about it?" she said to +Aunt Katie despairingly. Then to Emmy Lou, "Isn't there anything you +know that will do?" + +There are varying rites, differing in their nature as in their purpose, +but each according to its purpose inviolate and invincible. + +"I know Georgia's count out?" said Emmy Lou. "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo? +Will that do?" + +But Aunt Cordelia, however sorely tempted, could not bring herself, +honest soul, to agree that it would. Nor yet Aunt Katie. + +Aunt Louise came tipping in and joined them. + +"I know Mary's cake count," said Emmy Lou. "'One of butter, two of +sugar, three of flour, four eggs.' Will that do?" + +Not even Aunt Louise could agree that it would. + +Uncle Charlie came tipping in. + +"I know Papa's blessing," said Emmy Lou. "'We thank Thee, Lord, for +this provision of Thy bounty. . . ?'" + +"The very thing," said Uncle Charlie heartily. "Set her up on her knees +again, Cordelia, and let her say it." + +And Papa's blessing had served now, night and morning, since, though it +was evident to those about her that Emmy Lou was both dubious and +uneasy. + +The processes of the mind of an Emmy Lou, however, if slow, are sound, +if we know their premises. There was yet another way by which God could +be propitiated, and Jesus, who desired to love her and protect her, +reached. On the morning of her third day with her aunties, she inquired +about this. + +"When is Sunday school?" + +They told her. "Today is Saturday. Sunday school is tomorrow." + +She took this in. "Will I go to Sunday school?" + +"Certainly you will go." + +She took this in also. So far it was reassuring, and she moved to the +next point, though nobody connected the two inquiries. "There's a little +boy next door?" + +"Yes," from Aunt Katie, "a little boy with dark and lovely eyes." + +"A sweet and gentle little boy," from Aunt Cordelia. + +"A little boy named Izzy," from Aunt Louise. + +Emmy Lou, looking from auntie to auntie as each spoke, sighed deeply. +The rules in life, as she knew it, were holding good. As, for example, +was not Aunt Cordelia here for Mamma? And Uncle Charlie for Papa? And +the substitute little white bed for her little bed? And the substitute +little armchair wherein she was sitting at the moment, for her chair? + +To be sure the details varied. Hitherto the cook in the kitchen had been +Mary, pink-cheeked and pretty. Whereas now the cook in the kitchen not +only is round and rolling and colored and named Aunt M'randy, but there +is a house-boy in the kitchen, too, whose name is Bob. The stabilizing +fact remains, however, that there is a cook, and there is a kitchen. + +And now there is a little boy next door. _For you to go to Sunday school +with the little boy next door_, holding tight to his hand, while his +Mamma at his door, and your Mamma at your door, watch you down the +street. That he lords it over you, edicting each thing you shall or +shall not do along the way, is according to immutable ruling also, as +Georgie makes clear, on the incontrovertible grounds that you are the +_littler_. + +He has been to Sunday school too, before you ever heard of it, as he +lets you know, and glories in his easy knowledge of the same. And +whereas you, on your very first Sunday, get there to learn that Cain +killed Mabel, and are visibly terrified at the fate of Mabel, according +to Georgie it is a mild event and nothing to what Sunday school has to +offer at its best. + +He knows the comportment of the place, too, and at the proper moment +drags Emmy Lou to her knees with her face crushed to the wooden bench +beside his own. And later he upbraids her that she fails in the fervor +with which he and everybody else, including the lady who told Emmy Lou +she was glad to see her, pour forth a hum of words. When he finds she +does not know these words his scorn is blighting. Though when she asks +him to teach them to her, it develops that he, the mighty one, only +knows a word here and there to come in loud on himself. + +For a moment, the other night, Emmy Lou had fancied Aunt Katie was +saying these words used at Sunday school, but how could she be sure, +seeing that she did not know them herself? + +And now there was a little boy next door here! And Emmy Lou arose, her +aunties having gone about their Saturday morning affairs, and seeking +her little sacque with its scalloped edge, which she pulled on, and her +little round hat which she carried by its elastic, went forth into the +warm comfort of the Indian Summer morning to find him. + +He was at his gate! The rule again! Georgie was ever to be found even so +at his gate. Emmy Lou was shy, but not when she knew what she had to do, +and why. Opening her gate and going out, paling by paling she went along +past her house and her yard, to the little boy at the gate of his house +and his yard. When he saw her coming he even came to meet her. + +As her aunties had said, he was a dark-eyed and lovely little boy. When +she reached him and put out her hand to his, he took it and led her +back to his gate with him. His name, she remembered, was Izzy. + +"Sunday school is tomorrow?" she said, looking up at Izzy. + +"Sunday school?" said Izzy. + +"Where Cain killed Mabel?" + +Izzy's dark eyes lit. He was a gentle and kindly little boy. Emmy Lou +felt she would love Izzy. "We call it 'Temple.' But it is today. My +Mamma told me to walk ahead and she would catch up with me." + +"Today?" + +Surely. With such visible proofs of it upon Izzy. Do little boys wear +velvet suits with spotless collar and flamboyant tie but for occasions +such as Sunday school? Aunties and even Mammas know less about Sunday +school than the Georgies and Izzys, who are authorities since they are +the ones who go. Emmy Lou put on her little hat even to the elastic. +Then her hand went into Izzy's again. + +"I thought it was tomorrow?" + +Izzy's face was alight as he took in her meaning. She was going with +_him_. His face was alight as he led her along. + +"It's 'round the corner?" she asked. + +"'Round two corners," said Izzy. "How did you know?" + +A golden dome crowned this Sunday school, and wide steps led high to +great doors. They waited at their foot, Izzy and Emmy Lou, a dark-eyed +little boy in a velvet suit, and a blue-eyed little girl in a gingham +dress and scalloped sacque, while others went up and in, old men, young +men, old women, young women, little boys, little girls. Waited until +Izzy's Mamma arrived and found him. + +She was dark-eyed and lovely too. She listened while he explained. Did a +shadow, as of patient sadness, cross her face? + +"The little girl does not understand, Israel, little son," she said. +"Hold her hand carefully, and take her back to her own gate. I will wait +for you here." + +Emmy Lou, bewildered as she was led along, endeavored to understand. + +"It isn't Sunday school?" she asked Izzy. + +His face was no longer alight, only gentle and, like his mother's, +patient. "Not yours. I thought it was. Mine and my mother's and my +father's." + +Little girls left at their own gates, little girls who have come to live +at their aunties' home, go around by the side way to the kitchen door. +Emmy Lou had learned that already. If anyone had missed her there was no +evidence of it. Aunt M'randy, just emerging from this kitchen door, a +coal-bucket heaped with ashes in her hand, as Emmy Lou arrived there, +paused in her rolling gait, and invited her to go. + +Where? Emmy Lou in her little sacque and her round hat hadn't an idea, +but seeing that she was expected to accept, took Aunt M'randy's +unoccupied hand and went. + +And so it was that she found Sister. For Aunt M'randy was going down the +length of the back yard, a nice yard with a tree and a bush and what, +palpably in a milder hour had been flowers in a border, to the +alley-gate to empty the ashes. And beyond this alley gate, outside which +stood the barrel they were seeking, in the alley itself, with the +cottage shanties of the alley world for background, stood Sister! One +knew she was Sister because Aunt M'randy called her so. + +Sister was small and brown and solid. Small enough to be _littler_ than +Emmy Lou. Her face was serious and her eyes in their setting of generous +white followed one wonderingly. + +_Littler_ than Emmy Lou! The rule in life was extending itself. Hitherto +she, Emmy Lou, had been that littler one, and hers the eyes to follow +wonderingly, and the effect of meeting one thus littler than oneself is +to experience strange joys, palpably and patently peculiar to being the +larger. + +Emmy Lou dropped the hand of Aunt M'randy and went out into the alley +and straight to Sister. + +Nor did Sister seem surprised at this, but when Emmy Lou reached her and +paused, sidled closer, and her little brown hand crept into Emmy Lou's +white one and clung there. Whereupon the white one, finding itself the +bigger, closed on the brown one and Emmy Lou led Sister in through the +alley gate, past Aunt M'randy, and up through the yard with its tree and +its bush and its whilom flower border. + +More! There was a depression in the pavement leading up to the house, a +depression all of the depth of about three of Emmy Lou's fingers. +Whereat she stopped, and putting her arms about Sister, solid for all +she was a baby thing, with straining and accession of pink in the face, +lifted her over! And the joy of it was great! Emmy Lou never had met one +_littler_ than herself before! + + * * * * * + +That evening at dusk, Aunt Louise came in, brisk and animated. Her news +was for Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie, though certainly Emmy Lou had a +right to be interested. + +"I met Molly Wright, the teacher of the infant class at Sunday school," +she said, "and I stopped and told her that in the morning you would send +Emmy Lou around to her class. That our house-boy would bring her." + +Aunt Cordelia had her ready the next morning aforetime, red coat with +triple capes, martial hat and all, ready indeed before Bob, the +house-boy, had finished his breakfast. + +The day was warm and sleepily sunny and smiling. + +"You may go outside and wait for Bob at the gate if you like," Aunt +Cordelia told Emmy Lou. + +But Emmy Lou had no idea of waiting at any gate. Indecision with her was +largely a matter of not knowing what she was expected to do. She knew in +this case. By the time Bob was ready and out looking for her, she had +been down through the alley gate and back, bringing by the hand that +person _littler_ than herself, Sister. Had led her through the front +gate and along to the next gate where Izzy was standing. + +Bob afterward explained his part vociferously if lamely. But as Aunt +M'randy said, that was Bob. + +"There they wuz, the three uv 'em, strung erlong by the han's an' +waitin' foh me. Seem lak there warn't no call foh me to say nothin' tell +we got there." + +"And then?" from Aunt Cordelia, while Aunt M'randy sniffed with +skepticism. + +"When we come to the infant class door roun' on the side street like you +tol' me, there wuz a colored boy I know, drivin' a kerridge, an' he +called me. An' I tol' the chil'ren to wait while I spoke to him. When I +turned roun' ag'in I saw 'em goin' in th'ough the doah. An' I come +home." + +Emmy Lou in truth led them in. Give her something that she knew to do, +and she could do it. Holding to the rule, Izzy was due to be there +because he was the larger, and Sister, laconic little Sister, solid and +brown, was due to be there because, in the former likeness of Emmy Lou, +she was the _littler_. + +One's place at Sunday school in company with Georgie, has been the front +bench. The rule holds good, and Emmy Lou led the way to the front bench +now, where she and Izzy lifted Sister to a place, then took their own +places either side of her. If the rest of the infant class already +assembled were absorbed in these movements, Emmy Lou did not notice it, +in that she was absorbed in them herself. + +Miss Mollie Wright came in next, breezy and brisk and a minute late, and +in consequence full of zeal and business. + +Hitherto the rule has never varied. As Emmy Lou knew Sunday school, the +lady teacher now says, "Good morning, children." And these say, "Good +morning," in return. + +But the rule varied now. Miss Mollie Wright coming around to the front +before the assembled class on its several benches, stopped, looked, then +full of sureness and business came to Izzy and Emmy Lou and Sister, and +took Izzy by the hand. + +"I doubt if your mother and father would like it, Izzy," she said. "I +think you had better run home again. And this little girl next to you +doesn't belong here either." Miss Mollie Wright was lifting Sister +down. "I think she had better run along as you go." And in the very +nicest way she started Izzy and Sister toward the door. "What?" turning +back to the third little figure in a martial coat with triple capes and +a martial hat. "Why, are you going, too?" + +Aunt Cordelia explained to Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise and Uncle Charlie +afterward. "M'randy saw them when they reached home and passed her +kitchen window going back through the yard, and came and told me, and +she and I went down to the alley gate after them." + +"What were they doing?" asked Aunt Louise. + +Aunt Cordelia answered as one completely exasperated and outdone. +"Sitting right down on the ground there in the alley, in their Sunday +clothes, watching M'lissy, on her doorstep, comb Letty's hair." + +True! Around M'lissy, the mother of Sister, brown herself and kindly, +with teeth that flashed white with the smile of her there in the sun, +and Letty, the even _littler_ sister of Sister, firm planted on the +lowest step, between M'lissy's knees. + +And bliss unspeakable as Izzy and Sister and Emmy Lou in a circle on the +ground around the doorstep watched. For Letty's head, by means of the +comb in M'lissy's hand, was being criss-crossed by partings into +sections, bi-sections, and quarter-sections, and such hair as was +integral to each wrapped with string in semblance of a plait, plait +after plait succeeding one another over Letty's head. The while M'lissy +sang in a mounting, joyful chant, interrupted by Letty's outcry now and +then beneath the vigor of the ministration. + +"Ow-w, Mammy!" + +The chant would hold itself momentarily for a reply. + +"Shet up," M'lissy would say. + +Which would be too much even for laconic Sister who from her place on +the ground between Izzy and Emmy Lou would defend Letty. "When Mammy +wrops yer h'ar, she wrops hard." + +After which the combing and the wrapping and the chanting would go on +again, M'lissy's voice rising and falling in quaverings and minors: + + "Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, + Come to Jesus just now, + Ju-u-st no-o-w co-o-me to-o Jesus, + Come to Jesus ju-u-st now." + +Mamma's friend! In league with her in loving Emmy Lou and desiring to +comfort her and protect her! Found not where she had looked for Him at +all but here with M'lissy in the alley! + +That night, according to rule, as Emmy Lou's head came through the +opening of the gown slipped over it, she said: + +"Shall I say it now? Papa's blessing?" + +And Aunt Cordelia, according to rule, sitting down and steadying Emmy +Lou to her knees, waited. + +What should have brought it back, Emmy Lou's own little prayer as taught +her by Mamma? She only knew that it came of itself, and that while her +heart heaved and her breath came hard, she stopped in the midst of +Papa's blessing, "We thank Thee, Lord, for this provision of Thy +bounty,----" sobbed, caught herself, opened her eyes and looked mutely +at Aunt Cordelia, closed them and said: + + "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, + Look upon a little child; + Pity my simplicity, + Suffer me to come to Thee." + + + + +II + +SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE + + +PAPA taking Mamma south, wherever that may be, in search of health, +whatever that may be, carried a rough and wrinkled Father Bear satchel. +Mamma, pretty Mamma, taken south in search of health, carried a soft and +smooth Mother Bear satchel. And since not only do journeys demand +satchels but analogies must be made complete, Emmy Lou left on the way +in the keeping of her uncle and her aunties was made happy by a Baby +Bear _papier-maché_ satchel, clamps, straps and all. A satchel into +which a nightgown could be coaxed, her nightgown, since satchels demand +gowns, not to mention a pewter tea set put in on her own initiative, +provided she folded and refolded the gown with zeal before essaying the +attempt. + +After Emmy Lou's establishment in the new household, Aunt Cordelia +proposed that the satchel go to the attic where trunks and satchels off +duty belong. But Emmy Lou would not hear to this. "Mamma's coming by for +me as she goes home, and I want it down here so I can have it ready." + +"And she gets it ready at least once a day," Aunt Cordelia told Uncle +Charlie. "If she doesn't wear her gowns out trying to put them in it, +she will the satchel. However, since she heard that her mother lived in +this house when she was a little girl named Emily, I've had no further +trouble with her, that is, trouble of a kind. How does one go about a +child's religious training, Charlie?" + +But to Emmy Lou, Aunt Cordelia knew all about God and heaven. At her +bidding she learned a hymn, a pretty text, another prayer. + +[Illustration: "'When I turned roan' ag'in I saw 'em goin' in th'ough +the doah.'"] + +"For we must learn a little more about God and Heaven every day along +the way," Aunt Cordelia said. + +With Emmy Lou at bedtime in her lap, a blanket wrapped about her gown, +the fire flickering, Aunt Cordelia, to help her get to sleep, sang about +Heaven. + + "Thy gardens and thy goodly walks + Continually are green, + Where grow such sweet and pleasant flowers + As nowhere else are seen--" + +"Asleep?" from Aunt Cordelia. "No?" + +Emmy Lou in Aunt Cordelia's lap was amazed to hear these things. "Thy +gardens and Thy goodly walks!" Hitherto she had been afraid of heaven! +And afraid of God! + +Aunt Cordelia hearing about it was shocked. Truly shocked and no less +dismayed at how to remedy it, if Emmy Lou had but known it. + +"Afraid of God? Why, Emmy Lou! He is our Father to go to, just as you +run to meet Papa." Aunt Cordelia, gaining heart, took fresh courage. +"God is everybody's Father, just as Heaven is our home." + +The Aunt Cordelias may generalize, but the Emmy Lous will particularize. + +"Izzy's father? And Sister's father? And Minnie's?" + +Israel Judah lived next door, little colored Sister lived in the alley, +and Minnie lived with the lady next door to Izzy. + +"Their Father, and yours and mine and everyone's. Don't you think you +can go to sleep now?" + +Emmy Lou was positive she could not. God, of whom she had been afraid, +is our Father! + +Next door to Emmy Lou, at Izzy's, lives an old, old man. His brows are +white and his beard falls on his breast. He smiles on Emmy Lou when she +goes to his knee to speak to him, but he draws Izzy to him and kisses +him. Aunt Katie calls him beautiful. Uncle Charlie calls him a glorious +old patriarch. But Izzy's Mamma calls him _father_. + +And suddenly to Emmy Lou, there in Aunt Cordelia's lap, God is a Person! +He paces his goodly walks, as Papa does the flagging from the gate to +the house with Emmy Lou running to meet him. God paces his walks between +his sweet and pleasant flowers and his brows are white and his beard +falls on his breast. Will he smile on Emmy Lou? And on Izzy and Sister +and Minnie? Or will he draw them to him and kiss them? + +"And at last she went to sleep," Aunt Cordelia, coming downstairs, told +Uncle Charlie. + +Straight from the breakfast table the next morning, Emmy Lou went and +brought her cloak. + +"Izzy will be waiting for me at his gate," she told Aunt Cordelia. The +custom being for the two meeting at Izzy's gate then to go to the alley +hunting Sister. + +Aunt Katie came downstairs just here, looking for Emmy Lou. + +"Do you know where my scissors are? I can't find mine or any others." + +Emmy Lou has a way of hunting scissors for herself and Sister to cut out +pictures, but is quite sure this time that she is not culpable. + +"I ain't had nary pair," she assured Aunt Katie. + +Aunt Katie, apparently forgetting the scissors, swept round on Aunt +Cordelia who was just leaving the breakfast table. + +"There!" she said accusingly. + +"There!" echoed Aunt Louise, still in the dining-room, too. "We told you +she would be picking up such things in the alley!" + +"Emmy Lou," expostulated Aunt Cordelia, "you didn't mean to say, 'I +ain't had nary pair.' You know better. Think hard and see if you can't +say it right." + +Emmy Lou, the cloak she had brought half on, thought hard. "I ain't had +ary pair," she said. + +Aunt Katie spoke positively. "I don't think you ought to let her play so +much with Sister. Louise and I have said so right along." + +Not play with Sister! Emmy Lou was astounded. She loved Sister, smaller +than herself! She turned to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration. + +Aunt Cordelia was troubled. "Come to me, Emmy Lou, and let me put your +cloak on you, and tie your hood. If she were going to be here all the +time it would be different," this to Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise. Then to +Emmy Lou, "Suppose today you stay next door and play with Izzy?" + +Emmy Lou was amazed. "And Minnie?" she asked. "Mayn't I play with +Minnie?" + +"She means the little girl who works for Mrs. Noble," explained Aunt +Cordelia quietly. + +"Mrs. Noble is from over the river," said Aunt Louise in tones which, +however one may wonder what the river has to do with it, disqualify this +lady at once. "She speaks of the child as a little hired girl." + +"Emmy Lou," said Aunt Katie, "remember that this side of the Ohio we +have servants, not hired girls." + +"But she must not call the little girl a servant, Katie," said Aunt +Cordelia. "I won't have her hurting the child's feelings, whatever she +is." + +"I call her Minnie," said Emmy Lou, bewildered. + +"Certainly you do," said Aunt Cordelia, and kissed her. + +Aunt Louise defended Aunt Katie. "While the child is hardly to be held +responsible, she has ways, as well as Sister, we certainly do not want +Emmy Lou to imitate." + +Ways? Minnie? Marvelous, inexhaustible Minnie? Certainly she has ways, +ways that draw one, that hold one. Were Aunt Louise and Aunt Katie +casting doubts on Minnie? As they had on Sister? Emmy Lou in cloak and +hood looked to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration. + +Aunt Cordelia looked worried, "Just as she is beginning to be a little +happier, I wish, Louise, you and Katie could let the child alone." + +"But Minnie?" Emmy Lou wanted to know. + +"Yes, I suppose so. Run along out, now, and play." + +A sunny winter day it was as Emmy Lou went, a day to rejoice in, could +one at four put the feelings into thought, except that Izzy at his gate +in his stout coat and his fur cap is only mildly glad to see her. Izzy +is six years old. Usually kind, and as patient to catch her point as to +help her to his, just now he is engrossed with looking down the street. + +Without turning, he does, however, confide in her. "Minnie has just gone +by to the grocery!" + +If Emmy Lou had been disposed to be hurt, she understood now! Minnie +having gone by to the grocery would be _back_! + +They have known her to speak to now for a week. She stopped one day at +Izzy's gate when he and Emmy Lou and Sister were standing there. Her +plaits were tied with bits of calico and there was a smudge on her +wrist; under her arm was a paper bag and in her hand a bucket. She swept +the three of them, Izzy, Emmy Lou, and Sister, up and down with her +eyes. + +"You go to synagogue," she told Izzy. "An' your mother's gone away sick +an' left you," she said to Emmy Lou. Then she turned to Sister. + +"Nigger," she said. + +But Sister was what she afterward explained as "ready for her." She had +met Minnie before, so it proved, and M'lissy, her mother, had her ready +if she ever met her again. For all she was a little thing, Sister swept +Minnie up and down with _her_ eyes. + +"Po' white," she said. + +Which, while meaningless to some--Emmy Lou and Izzy for example--brought +the angry red to Minnie's cheek. + +This was a week ago. Since then Minnie had come out on the pavement +twice and joined Emmy Lou and Izzy at play. + +Wonderful Minnie! At once instigator and leader, arbiter and propounder. +Why? Because she knew. Knew what? Knew everything. About the devil who +would come right up out of the ground if you stamped three times and +said his name. Though from what Emmy Lou had heard about him at Sunday +school, and Izzy knew from some boys down at the corner, one wondered +that any would incur the risk by doing either. + +And Minnie knew about gypsies who steal little boys and girls out of +their beds! Izzy is six, and Emmy Lou is four, and Minnie is ten going +on eleven; can it be wondered that they looked up to her? + +She speaks darkly about herself. She has brothers and sisters better off +than she is, somewhere, who don't want to speak to her when she meets +them on the street! + +And she speaks darkly about the lady she lives with whom she calls Mis' +Snoble. "When Lisa Schmit from the grocery came to play with me, she +shoo'd her off with the broom," she said. + +Only yesterday she appeared at her gate for a brief moment to say she +could not come out and play. "Mis' Snoble's feelin' right up to the +mark today; we're goin' to beat rugs an' wash winders." + +But this morning as she pauses on her way home from the grocery, her +communication to Izzy and Emmy Lou at Izzy's gate is of different +import. "Mis' Snoble's not feelin' up to the mark today. Come in with me +an' ask her an' maybe she'll let me come an' play." + +Go in with Minnie! To Mrs. Noble! Emmy Lou's hand went into Izzy's, as +she for one gazed at Minnie appalled! + +Yet Minnie's face is eager and her eyes implore. Her plaits are tied +with calico, and her face behind its eagerness is thin. Izzy looses Emmy +Lou's hand, even as she draws it away, and, behold, his hand now is in +one of Minnie's, and Emmy Lou's is in the other. They are going with her +to ask Mrs. Noble. + +Through Minnie's gate, around by the side pavement, in at the kitchen +door, through a hall and to another door. Mrs. Noble has not appeared +yet with her broom to shoo them away, but she might! + +Minnie pushed this door open and led the way in--wonderful, brave +Minnie!--but Izzy and Emmy Lou paused in the doorway. + +Mrs. Noble, spare and upright in her chair, crocheting, looked up. Her +eyes, having swept up and down Minnie, traveled on to Emmy Lou and Izzy, +then returned coldly, as it were, to her work. + +"Kitchen's red up," from Minnie eagerly and hopefully in what one +supposed must be the language of over the river; "been to the grocery, +an' the sink's clean." + +If Mrs. Noble heard this she was above betraying it. + +"Fire's laid in the stove, but not lit." + +Never a sign. + +"Potatoes peeled an' in the saucepan waitin'." + +Mrs. Noble looked up. "One half-hour, or maybe three-quarters till I +call." + +And they were gone, Minnie first like a flash, Izzy next, no loiterer in +the house of Mrs. Noble himself if he could help it and only the +slower-paced because somebody had to wait for Emmy Lou. + +More wonderful day than it had been earlier, sunnier and less frosty. +Minnie, whose wrap is disturbingly nearer a sacque than a coat in its +scant nature, takes her place on the horse-block at the curb before +Izzy's house, and he and Emmy Lou take places either side of her. + +Minnie, wonderful Minnie, ten years old and over, knows it all. What, +for instance? Everything, anything. Such as this matter she brings up +now of brothers and sisters. They are a bad lot. She says so. A sort to +stop at nothing even to passing a poorer sister without knowing her on +the street! As she went to the grocery with her bucket and oil-can just +now, her brother passed _her_ on the street. Minnie heard once of a man. +When she takes this tone the time has come to draw closer. "... O'Rouke +was this man's name. He was rich and g-r-rand. So grand _he_ didn't know +_his_ own brothers when he met them on the street. An' his brothers made +up their minds they would go to his house an' hide theirselves an' watch +him when he counted his money. It was a g-r-rand house. Over the +mantelpiece was a picture of his dead mother. Over the piano was a +picture of his dead father. Over the what-not was a picture of his wife. +Over the sofa was a picture of hisself. An' his four brothers came to +hide theirselves an' watch him count his money. The room was dark in all +the corners. An' one brother clumb up on the mantelpiece an' hid hisself +behind the picture of his mother, an' cut holes th'ough the eyes so his +eyes r-o-olling could look th'ough. An' the next brother clumb up on the +piano an' hid hisself behind the picture of his father an' cut holes +th'ough the eyes so his eyes r-o-olling could look th'ough. An' the next +brother clumb up on the what-not an' hid hisself behind the picture of +the wife an'----" + +Sister appeared around the side of Izzy's house and came through the +gate. Even though her finger _was_ in her mouth, when she saw Minnie she +looked provocative. + +"Go on with the brothers, Minnie," begged Izzy. + +"Go on, Minnie," begged Emmy Lou. + +But Minnie had no idea of resuming the brothers. Nobody, it would seem, +could look provocative with impunity at her! + +"Nigger," she said to Sister. + +But M'lissy, the mother of Sister, had her ready again. Did she send her +around here for the purpose? + +"Po' white," said Sister, taking her finger out of her mouth. "An' +worser. My mammy said to tell you so. You're a _n'orphan_." + +The solid ground of the accustomed gave way. Confusion followed. Minnie, +hitherto the ready, the able, having sprung up to meet Sister's +onslaught, whatever it was to be, sank back on the horse-block, and +hiding her face in her arms, cried, and more, at touch of the quickly +solicitous arms of Izzy and Emmy Lou about her, she sobbed. + +Whereupon Emmy Lou arose, Emmy Lou in her stout little coat and her hood +and her mittens; and looking about her on the ground, found a switch +full seven inches long, and with it drove Sister, little Sister, away, +quite away. Had not Emmy Lou's own aunties cast the initial doubt on +Sister anyway? + +Then she came back to the horse-block. "What's a n'orphan, Minnie?" Izzy +was asking. + +Emmy Lou wanted to know this very thing. + +"It's livin' with Mis' Snoble an' wearin' her shoes when they're too +big for you," sobbed Minnie. "'Tain't as if anybody would be one if they +could help theirselves." + +"What makes you a n'orphan, then, Minnie, if you don't want to be one?" +from Izzy. + +"You're a n'orphan when _your mother goes to Heaven an' leaves you_ an' +forgets you," bitterly. + +Heaven? God paces his goodly walks there, between his sweet and pleasant +flowers. But would your mother _leave you to go there_? And going, +_forget you_? + +A window went up and Izzy's mamma appeared. + +"Israel," she called, "run in to the porch and give grandpa his cane and +help him start into the house. It's growing chill." + +Minnie on the horse-block flung up her head and wiped away the tears. +"That old man again!" she said. + +Did Minnie have ways? Ways that Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise did not want +their Emmy Lou to imitate? Was this one of her ways? + +For Izzy's grandpa of whom Minnie spoke disparagingly was he of the +white brows and the flowing beard. On days such as this they helped him +to the porch where he sat bundled in a chair in the sun, his cane beside +him. + +Except when this cane was not, which was the trouble as Minnie saw it. +For Izzy's grandpa was forever letting his cane slide to the floor, yet +could not get up, or down, or about, without it. + +Izzy ran in now. He was affectionate and dutiful. Aunt Cordelia said so. +And having put the cane in his grandfather's hand, though not without +several efforts at keeping it there, at which his grandfather, +slowly--Oh, so slowly this morning!--and with trembling effort, drew him +to him and kissed him, he came back. + +"Why _did_ your mother go to Heaven and leave you and forget you, +Minnie?" he asked. + +"Heaven's a better place than this, if what they tell about it's true," +bitterly. "_I ain't blamin' her for goin'_, myself." + +"Izzy," came the call in a few moments again. "Did you tell grandpa to +come in?" + +Izzy went running, for when he turned to look, the cane had slipped from +his grandfather's hand again and rolled to the foot of the steps, and +his head above the snowy beard was fallen on his breast. Nor would he in +this world lift it again, though none of the three grasped this. + +Aunt Cordelia was decided at the breakfast table the next morning. + +"They will not want you next door with Izzy today," she told Emmy Lou. + +"Mayn't he come here?" + +"I doubt if his mother will want him to come today." + +The day following, however, Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie went next door +from the breakfast table and when they came back they brought Izzy with +them, not _for a while_, but _for the day_. His dark eyes were troubled +and his cheeks were pale. He was kindly and affectionate. Aunt Cordelia +said so. + +And Aunt Cordelia agreed that after dinner Bob could ask Mrs. Noble to +let Minnie come over. + +"How can you, Sister Cordelia?" expostulated Aunt Louise. "A little +servant girl!" + +Bob came back with Minnie. "For a nour," she said as she arrived. "I can +stay until the pork-house whistle blows for four." + +She waited until Aunt Cordelia, having settled them in the sunny back +room, went out the door. + +"What's happened to your gran'pa?" then she said to Izzy. Did she say it +not as if she did not know, but as if she did? + +"He's gone to sleep," said Izzy. "He won't be sick or tired any more." + +"Sleep?" from Minnie. "Haven't they told you yet? We watched 'em start, +Bob and I, before we came in." + +Start? Start where? Izzy's eyes, already troubled, were big and startled +now. "Where's grandpa going? Where's my grandpa going?" + +Did Minnie in some way imply that she knew more than she meant to tell? +"To Heaven," virtuously. "I've told you about it. That's why he won't be +sick or tired any more. You ought to be glad. Here!" with quick change +in tone. "Where you going? What's the matter with you now? You can't +keep him back if you try!" + +But Izzy was gone. Nor when Minnie, who was nothing but a little servant +girl after all, for Aunt Louise said so, ran after him, did he pause; +only called back as he hurried down the stairs. He was a dutiful little +boy, Aunt Cordelia said so. + +"If Grandpa has to go he'll need his cane. He can't get anywhere without +his cane." + + * * * * * + +Emmy Lou, coming in through the kitchen from play, a week later, met +Uncle Charlie in the hall just arriving by the front door. + +He neither spoke to her nor saw her as he overtook her on the lowest +stair, but pushed by and hurried up. + +Emmy Lou's heart swelled. It was not like Uncle Charlie. She clambered +the curving flight after him. He had gone ahead into Aunt Cordelia's +room and she, on her way there herself, trudged after. + +What did it mean? Why did it frighten her? Aunt Katie, Aunt Louise, +weeping? Uncle Charlie now beside the fireplace, bowed against its +shelf? This bit of yellow paper at his feet on the floor? + +Aunt Cordelia, weeping herself, would know. "What is it?" faltered Emmy +Lou. + +Aunt Cordelia knew and held out her arms to the call. No evasions now; +truth for Emmy Lou. + +"Mamma will not be back. She has gone ahead to Heaven. Come to Aunt +Cordelia and let her comfort you, precious baby." + +But Emmy Lou, still in her coat and hat, did not come; she did not pause +to dally. She hurried past the various hands outstretched to stay her, +to her own little room adjoining. + +Complete her _papier-maché_ satchel was, even to its clamps and straps, +sitting beside her bed ready, her satchel which would hold a gown, and +other treasure such as pewter dishes could she stop for such now. She +dragged at a drawer of her own bureau. + +"What in the world----?" from Aunt Cordelia, who had followed. + +"What are you doing----?" from Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, who had +followed Aunt Cordelia. + +Emmy Lou knew exactly what she was doing. Izzy had known too when he +went hurrying after. Minnie in her time, had she known, might have gone +hurrying too. A nightgown, at her pull, trailed from the open drawer. + +Yet what was there in the faces about her to disturb her? To make her +loose her hold on the gown, look from one to the other of them and +falter? Uncle Charlie, too, had come into the room now. + +Were they casting doubts again? As they cast them on Sister who until +then had in truth been a little sister? As they cast them on Minnie who +until then had been neither hired girl nor servant, but Minnie? Emmy Lou +turned to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration. + +Even as she looked, she knew. We must learn a little more each day along +the way, even as Aunt Cordelia had said. + +The nightgown trailing from her hand fell limply. The satchel, +relinquished, rolled along the floor. Those goodly walks receded, their +sweet and pleasant flowers drooped their listless heads. Emmy Lou, +nearing five years old, was a step further from heaven. + +"How shall we teach a little child?" said Aunt Cordelia, weeping. + +"How indeed?" said Uncle Charlie. + + + + +III + +A FEW STRONG INSTINCTS AND A FEW PLAIN RULES + + +EVERY exigency in life save one, for an Emmy Lou at six, seemingly is +provided for by rules or admonition, the one which sometimes is +overlooked being lack of understanding. + +"'Take heed that thou no murder do,'" was the new clause of the +Commandments In Verse, she had recited at Sunday school only yesterday. + +"'The way of the transgressor is hard,'" said Dr. Angell from his pulpit +to her down in the pew between Uncle Charlie and Aunt Cordelia an hour +later. Or she took it that he was saying it to her. For while one +frequently fails to follow the words in this thing of admonition, there +is no mistaking the manner. When she came into church with Uncle Charlie +and Aunt Cordelia, in her white piqué coat and her leghorn hat, Dr. +Angell had met her in the aisle and seemed glad to see her, even to +patting her cheek, but once he was in his pulpit he shook an admonishing +finger at her and thundered. + +Nor did Emmy Lou, a big girl now for all she still was pink-cheeked and +chubby, lack for admonitions at home from Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie +and Aunt Louise above stairs, and Aunt M'randy in the kitchen below--a +world of aunts, in this respect, it might have seemed, had Emmy Lou, +faithful to those she deemed faithful to her, been one to think such +things. + +Admonitions vary. Aunt Cordelia and Aunt M'randy drew theirs from the +heart, so to put it. "When you mind what I say, you are a good little +girl. When you do not mind what I say, you are a bad little girl," said +Aunt Cordelia. + +"When I tell you to go on upstairs outer my way, I want you to go. When +I tell you to take your fingers outen thet dough, I want you to take 'em +out," said Aunt M'randy. Admonitions put in this way are entirely +comprehensible. There is no getting away from understanding mandates +such as these. + +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise drew their admonitions from a small, battered +book given to them when they were little for their guidance and known as +"Songs for the Little Ones at Home." + + "O that it were my chief delight + To do the thing I ought; + Then let me try with all my might, + To mind what I am taught," + +said Aunt Katie. + + "O dear me, Emma, how is this? + Your hands are very dirty, Miss; + I don't expect such hands to see + When you come in to dine with me," + +said Aunt Louise. + +Nor did Emmy Lou suspect that it was because their advice did not come +from the heart it reduced her to gloom; that Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise +delighted in it not because it was advice, but because it did reduce her +to gloom; that Aunt Katie, who was twenty-two, and Aunt Louise, who was +twenty, did it to tease? + +Bob, the house-boy, too, had his line of ethics for her. And while he +went to Sunday school, and to what he called Lodge, and had what he +termed fun'ral insurance, observances all entitling him to standing, he +pointed his warnings with dim survivals from an older, darker lore which +someone wiser than Bob or Emmy Lou might have recognized as hoodoo. Not +that Bob or Emmy Lou either knew this. Nor yet did Emmy Lou grasp that +he to whom she was told to go for company a dozen times a day when the +others wanted to get rid of her used the same to get rid of her himself. +On the contrary, her faith in him being what it was, his warnings sank +deep, the dire fates of his examples being guaranty for that. Moreover +his examples came close home. + +The little girl who wouldn't go play when they wanted to get rid of her. +The little boy who would stay out visiting so late they had to send the +house-boy after him. The little girl who wouldn't go 'long when told to +go, but would hang around the kitchen. Treated as a class by Bob, a +class, so his gloomy head-shakings would imply, peculiarly fitting to +his present company, their fates were largely similar. + +"They begun to peak, an' then to pine. An' still they wouldn't mind. +Thar ha'r drapped out in the comb. An' still they wouldn't mind. Thar +nails come loose. An' still they wouldn't mind. Thar teeth drapped out. +But it wuz too late. When they tried to mind _they couldn't mind_!" + +And while his audience might chafe beneath the almost too personal tone +of these remarks, she dared not question them. Examples dire as Bob's +were vouched for every day. Only the Noahs were saved in the ark. Lot's +wife turned to a pillar of salt. The bear came out of the woods and ate +the naughty children. Aunt Cordelia and Sunday school alike said so. The +wicked sisters of Cinderella were driven out of the palace. Aunt Katie +and Aunt Louise said so. The disobedient little mermaid was turned into +foam. The little girl down at the corner, named Maud, who owned the +book, said so. + +These things all considered, perhaps it came to be a matter of too many +and cumulative admonishings with Emmy Lou. Nature will revolt at too +steady a diet perhaps even of admonitions. Or it may be that even an +Emmy Lou in time rebels, when elders so persistently refuse to recognize +that there is another, an Emmy Lou's side, to most affairs. + +For at six the peripatetic instinct has awakened and the urge within is +to move on. Where? How does an Emmy Lou know? Anywhere so that the +cloying performances of outgrown baby ways are behind her. + +Many whom she knew in the receded stages of five years old, and four, +have moved on or away before this. Izzy who lived next door. Minnie who +lived next to Izzy. Lisa Schmit whose father had the grocery at the +corner but now has one at a corner farther away. + +And others have moved into Emmy Lou's present ken. Mr. Dawkins has the +grocery at the corner now, and his little girl is Maud, guarantor for +the mermaid, and his big girl is Sarah, and his little boy is Albert +Eddie. The peripatetic instinct impelling, Emmy Lou goes to see them as +often as Aunt Cordelia will permit. + +There is fascination in going if one could but convey this to Aunt +Cordelia in words. Any can live in houses; indeed most people do; or in +Emmy Lou's time did; but only the few live over a grocery. + +It argues these different. Mr. Schmit was German. Mr. Dawkins is +English. At Emmy Lou's, the teakettle, a vague part in family affairs, +boils on the stove, but at Maud's, the teakettle, a family affair of +moment, boils on the "hob," which is to say, the grate. And more, the +father and mother of Maud and Albert Eddie not only have crossed that +vague something, home of the little mermaid, the ocean, but their mother +has all but seen the Queen. + +"You know the Queen?" the two had asked Emmy Lou anxiously. + +And she had said yes. And she did know her. Knew her from long +association and by heart. She sat in her parlor at the bottom of the +page, eating bread and honey, while the maid and the blackbird were at +the top of the next page. + +"Tell her about it," Maud and Albert Eddie then had urged Sarah, their +elder sister, "about when mother all but saw the Queen?" + +Sarah complied. "'Now hurry along home with your brother in the +perambulator while I stop at the shop,' mother's mother said to her. +Mother was twelve years old. But she didn't hurry. She stopped to watch +every one else all at once hurrying and running, and so when she reached +the corner the Queen, for the Queen it was, had gone by." + +"If she had minded her mother----" from Albert Eddie. + +"And hurried on home with the perambulator----" from Maud. Proof not +only of a worthy attitude on their part towards the admonition of the +tale, but of an evident comprehension of what a perambulator was. + +But Aunt Cordelia, not always a free agent, was no longer permitting so +much visiting. + +"You are letting her actually live on the street," said Aunt Katie. + +"With any sort of children," supplemented Aunt Louise. + +Undoubtedly Aunt Cordelia came the nearest to understanding there is +another side to these affairs. "Sometimes I think she's lonesome," she +said. + + "Those children who are all the day, + Allowed to wander out, + And only waste their time in play, + Or running wild about----" + +said Aunt Katie. Aunt Louise finished it: + + "Who do not any school attend, + But trifle as they will, + Are almost certain in the end, + To come to something ill." + +And while it almost would seem that Aunt Cordelia was being admonished +too, and from the little book, in the light of what followed, it +appeared that Aunt Katie, Aunt Louise, and the little book were right. + +The day in question started wrong. In the act of getting out of bed, +life seemed a heavy and a listless thing. If Emmy Lou, less pink-cheeked +than usual if any had chanced to notice, but full as chubby, ever had +felt this way before, she would have told Aunt Cordelia that her head +ached. But if the head never has ached before? + +Her attention was distracted here, anyhow, and she, startled, let her +tongue pass along the row of her teeth. Milk teeth, those who knew the +term would have called them. There is much, however, that an Emmy Lou, +one small person in a household of elders, is supposed to know that she +does not, knowledge coming not by nature but through understanding. + +Then, reassured, her attention came back to the affairs of the moment, +the chief of these being that life is a heavy and listless affair and +the labyrinthine windings of stockings more than ever fretting in effect +upon the temper. And after stockings come garments, ending with the pink +calico dress apportioned to the day, and succeeding garments come +buttons. Aunt Katie in the next room was cheerful. + + "I love to see a little girl + Rise with the lark so bright, + Bathe, comb and dress with cheerful face----" + +One was in no mood whatever for the little book, and showed it. Aunt +Louise in the next room too, possibly grasped this. + + "Why is Sarah standing there + Leaning down upon a chair, + With such an angry lip and brow, + I wonder what's the matter now?" + +Aunt Cordelia was struggling with the buttons. "Let her alone, both of +you. Sometimes I think you are half responsible." + +The outrages of the day went on at breakfast. Emmy Lou's once prized +highchair, a tight fit now, and which, could she have had her own way, +would have been repudiated some time ago, was in itself provocative. She +climbed into it stonily. + +Bob placed a saucer before her. If she ever had suffered the qualms of +an uneasy stomach before, she would have known and told Aunt Cordelia. + +"I don't want my oatmeal," said Emmy Lou. + +"You must eat it before you can have anything else," said Aunt Cordelia. + +"I don't want anything else." + +"She's fretful," said Aunt Katie. + +"She's cross," said Aunt Louise. + +"I am coming to think you are right, Louise," said Aunt Cordelia. "What +she needs is to be at school with other children. School opens the day +after tomorrow, and I'll start her." + +"This baby?" from Uncle Charlie incredulously, his gaze seeking Emmy Lou +in her highchair. + +"Look at that oatmeal still untouched," from Aunt Cordelia. "Charlie, +_she is getting so she doesn't want to mind_!" + +The outrages went on during the morning. Emmy Lou did not know what to +do with herself, whereas Aunt Cordelia had a great deal to do with +herself. "You little hindering thing!" by and by from that person with +exasperation. "Go on out and talk with Bob. He's cleaning knives on the +kitchen doorstep." + +But Bob, occupied with his board and bath-brick and piece of raw +potato, had no idea of talking with her. He talked to himself. + +"Seems like I done forgot how it went, 'bout thet li'l boy whut would +stan' roun' listenin'. Some'n' like 'bout thet li'l girl whut wouldn't +go about her business----" + +Gathering up his knives and board, he went in to set his table. Turning +around by and by he found her behind him in the pantry. He talked to +himself some more. + +"Reckon is I done forgot how it went? 'Bout thet li'l girl got shet up +in the pantry after they tol' her to keep out? She knowed ef she coughed +they'd hear an' come an' fin' her thar. An' she hed to cough. An' she +wouldn't cough. An' she hed to. An' she wouldn't. An' she hed to. An' +she DID. But it wuz too late. The pieces of her wuz ev'ey whar, even to +the next spring when they wuz house-cleanin', an' foun' her knuckle-bone +on the fur top shelf. Looks lak to me, somebody else is gettin' ready +for a good lesson. Better watch out." + +The final outrage was yet to come. At the close of dinner Emmy Lou came +round to Aunt Cordelia's chair. Aunt Cordelia was worn out. She had +never known her Emmy Lou to behave as she had in the last day or so. + +"Now don't come asking me again," she said, forestalling the issue. +"I've gone over the matter with you several times before today. You +cannot go play with anybody. No, not with Maud at the corner or anybody +else." Then to Uncle Charlie, shaking his head over this unwonted +friction as he rose to start back down town: "They tell me there is +whooping-cough around everywhere, Charlie." Then to Emmy Lou: "Now try +and be a good girl for the rest of the day, Aunt Cordelia will have her +hands full. It is Bob's afternoon out. Try and be Aunt Cordelia's +precious baby." + +But Emmy Lou, her tongue traveling the row of her teeth anew, didn't +propose to be anybody's precious baby. She was a big girl, now, almost +six years old, and wanted it recognized that she was. And she didn't +feel good in the least, but like being quite the reverse for the rest of +the day. + +This was at two o'clock. At three Aunt Cordelia's own Emmy Lou, the pink +calico upon her person and a straw hat upon her head, turned the knob of +the front door. Having obeyed thus far in life, she was about to +disobey. + +The front door, its knob requiring both hands and her tiptoes, whereas +the kitchen door would have been open. But Aunt M'randy was in the +kitchen. + +As it chanced, Bob was leaving by the kitchen door, and coming around by +the side pavement as Emmy Lou came down the steps, they met. His idea +seemed to be that she was tagging after him, an injury in itself when +she divined it. He was of the same mind evidently when a moment later +she was still beside him outside the gate. + +He paused and addressed the air disparagingly before he went. "Looks +like to me I'll have to bresh up my ricollection 'bout thet li'l girl +whut would come outside her own gate after she was tole not to come. +Spoilin' for one good lesson, thet li'l girl wuz, an' 'pears like to me +she got it. Better watch out." And Bob was gone, up the street, whereas +it was the definite intention of the other person at that gate to go +down the street. + +Mr. Dawkins' grocery fronted on the main street while his housedoor +opened on the side-street. A few moments later a small figure in a +familiar pink dress and straw hat reached this side door, and, pausing +long enough for her tongue to pass uneasily along the row of her teeth, +opened it upon a flight of stairs and went in. + +Five o'clock it was and after when Mr. Dawkins' eldest daughter Sarah, +followed by Maud and Albert Eddie, came down these steps propelling a +visitor in a pink dress and straw hat, a visitor known from the Dawkins' +viewpoint as that little girl from up the street in the white house that +get their groceries from Schmit. + +Perhaps this fact explained Sarah's small patience with this person who +in herself would seem to invite it. She not only was pale, and her lips +pressed with unnatural while miserable firmness together, but her eyes, +uplifted when Sarah most undeniably shook her, were anguished. + +"If you'd open your mouth and speak," said Sarah with every indication +of shaking her again. + +A stout gentleman coming along the side street which led from a car-line +crossed over hastily. + +"Here, here! And what for?" Uncle Charlie asked with spirit. + +Sarah looked up at him. With her long, tidy plaits and her tidy person +she conveyed the impression that she was to be depended on. Maud looked +up at him. With her small tidy plaits and her tidy person she conveyed +the impression that she was to be depended on, too. + +Albert Eddie looked up. Mr. Dawkins was to be congratulated on his +family. There was dependability in every warm freckle of Albert Eddie's +face. + +Emmy Lou, Uncle Charlie's own Emmy Lou, had been looking up the while, +anguished. She was a reliable person in general herself, or Uncle +Charlie always had found her so. + +"If she'd open her mouth and speak," said Sarah. "Half an hour ago by +the clock it was, she gave a sound, and I turned, and here she was like +this." + +"Sister was telling us a story----" from Albert Eddie. + +"The story of naughty Harryminta----" from Maud. + +"No use your trying, sir," from Sarah. "I've been trying for half an +hour. We're taking her home." + +"Excellent idea." He took Emmy Lou's little hands. "So you won't tell +Uncle Charlie either?" + +Evidently she would not, though it was with visible increase of anguish +that she indicated this by a shake of her head. + +"We'll walk along," said Sarah. "I've my part of supper to get, but +we'll feel better ourselves to see her home." + +They walked along. + +"I was talking to them peaceful as might be----" from Sarah again. + +"Sister was telling us a story----" from Albert Eddie. + +"The story of naughty Harryminta----" from Maud. + +Was it a sound here from Uncle Charlie's Emmy Lou, or the twitch of her +hand in his, which betrayed some access to her woe? + +"And what was the story?" asked Uncle Charlie. It might afford a clue. + +Maud volunteered it. "The little girl's mother said to her, 'Don't.' And +her name was Harryminta. And when she got back from doing what she was +told not to do, her mother was waiting for her at the door. 'Whose +little girl is this?' And Harryminta said, 'Why, it's your little girl.' +But her mother shook her head. 'Not my little girl at all. _My little +girl is a good little girl._' And shut the door." + +"Talk about your coincidence," said Uncle Charlie afterward. "Talk about +your Nemesis and such!" + +For as the group came along the street--the Dawkins family, Uncle +Charlie, and Emmy Lou--and turned in at the gate, Aunt Cordelia flung +the front door open. Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise were behind her. They +had really just missed Emmy Lou. + +"Whose little girl is this?" said Aunt Cordelia, severely. But not going +as far as the mother of Araminta she did not shut the door. Instead, +Sarah explained. + +"Half an hour ago by the clock----" Sarah began. + +They led her into the hall, and Aunt Cordelia lifted her up on the +marble slab of the pier table. Aunt Cordelia's admonitions and mandates +came from the heart. "Open your mouth and speak out and tell me what's +the matter?" + +Emmy Lou opened her mouth, and in the act, though visibly against her +stoutest endeavor even to an alarming accession of pink to her face, +ominously and unmistakably--whooped; the same followed on her part by +the full horror of comprehension, and then by a wail. + +For with that whoop the worst had happened. As with the little boys and +girls in Bob's dire category of naughty little boys and girls, her sin +had found her out indeed. + +"I'm coming to pieces," wailed their terrified Emmy Lou, "because I +didn't mind." + +And according to her understanding she was, since after her vain +endeavor for half an hour by Sarah's clock to hold it in place with +tongue and lips, in her palm lay a tooth, the first she had shed or +known she had to shed, knowledge coming not by nature but through +understanding. + +Aunt Cordelia did not carry out her program the day school opened. There +was whooping-cough at her house, and a day or so after there was +whooping-cough at Mr. Dawkins'. + +"He is very indignant about it," Aunt Cordelia told Uncle Charlie. "He +stopped me as I came by this morning from my marketing. He said it +wasn't even as though we were customers." + +"Which is the least we can be after this, I'm sure you will agree," said +Uncle Charlie. + +Just here in the conversation, Emmy Lou, miserable and stuffy in a pink +sacque over her habitual garb because Aunt Cordelia most emphatically +insisted, whooped. + + "Those _good_ little girls, Marianne and Maria, + Were happy and well as _good_ girls could desire--" + +said Aunt Louise. + +Aunt Cordelia, approaching with a bottle and spoon as she did after +every cough, shook her head. "Little girls who mind are good little +girls," she said. + +"Emmy Lou is learning to be a good little girl while she is shut up in +the house sick," said Aunt Katie. "She knows all of her Commandments In +Verse for Sunday school now. Let Aunt Cordelia wipe the cough-syrup off +your mouth and say them for Uncle Charlie before he goes." + +Emmy Lou learning to be a good little girl said them obediently. + + "Thou shalt have no more gods but me; + Before no idol bow thy knee. + Take not the name of God in vain, + Nor dare the Sabbath day profane. + Give both thy parents honor due, + Take heed that thou no murder do. + Abstain from deeds and words unclean, + Nor steal though thou art poor and mean; + Nor make a willful lie nor love it, + What is thy neighbor's, dare not covet." + +Aunt Cordelia, Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise looked pleased. Emmy Lou had +said the verses without stumbling. Uncle Charlie looked doubtful. "Five +words with understanding rather than ten thousand in an unknown tongue? +How about it, Cordelia?" + +But Bob, bringing Emmy Lou's dinner upstairs to her on a tray, had the +last disturbing word. "Been tryin' to riccollect how it went, 'bout thet +li' girl kep' her tongue outer the place whar her tooth drapped out, +so's a new tooth would grow in." + + + + +IV + +THE TRIBUNAL OF CONSCIENCE + + +UNCLE CHARLIE took six blue tickets from his pocket and set them on the +dining-room mantel. His ownership of a newspaper was the explanation for +this liberality of supply to those who could put the two things +together. + +"I wonder," said he, "if anybody in this room ever heard of the circus?" + +Emmy Lou could not get down from her place at the dinner-table fast +enough. She hurried to the kitchen. She had heard of the circus from Bob +the house-boy, who had a circus bill! + +Bills, as a rule, are small affairs measurable in inches; bits of paper +which reduce Aunt Cordelia to figurings with a lead pencil, short +replies, and low spirits. + +But a circus bill, pink and pictorial, is measurable in feet. As Bob +spread his on the kitchen table yesterday and again this morning, it +fell either side well on the way to the floor. Its wonders, inexplicable +where he, spelling out the text, forebore to explain, or explicable +where he did if one knew no better than he, were measurable only by the +limits of the mind to take them in. If Emmy Lou, who started to school +last fall three weeks late owing to a popular prejudice against +whooping-cough, had caught up as Aunt Cordelia easily assumed she would, +or "caught on," in the words of Uncle Charlie, she might have been +spelling out some of the wonders of the circus bill for herself. + +Bob's finger had paused beneath a lady in myriad billowing skirts poised +mid-air between a horse and a hoop such as Emmy Lou spent hours trying +to trundle on the sidewalk. "She's jumpin' th'ough the hoop, but thet +ain't nothin'. Heah in the other picture she's jumpin' th'ough six." + +Emmy Lou, hurrying to the kitchen now and finding Bob about to start in +with the soup, borrowed the bill and hurried back with it to the +dining-room and Uncle Charlie's side. + +"This one's an elephant," she explained, her finger, even as Bob's, +beneath the picture. "He picks little children up and puts them in his +trunk." + +"I see you know, though some do call it his howdah," said Uncle Charlie. +"And no doubt about the lions and the tigers, the giraffe and the zebra +as well?" regretfully. "Even the lemonade?" + +"Lemonade?" + +"Pink. And peanuts." Uncle Charlie motioned to Bob to put his soup down +and have done with it, as it were. "Also Nella, The Child Equestrienne +in Her Triumphal Entry--here she is. And Zephine, the Wingless Wonder, +in Her Flight Through the Air----" + +"Am I going to the circus?" from Emmy Lou. + +"That's what I hoped," from Uncle Charlie, handing back the bill and +turning to his soup. "But of course if there is room for doubt about +it----" + +The very next day Emmy Lou came hurrying home from Sunday school. She +had the Dawkins, Sarah, the conscientious elder sister, Maud, and Albert +Eddie, for company as far as the grocery at the corner. Since Aunt +Cordelia had learned they were English, apparent explanation for those +who understood, they had been persuaded to go to St. Simeon's Sunday +school too. + +Sunday school was to have a--Emmy Lou in her Sunday dress and her Sunday +hat, hurrying on from the corner by herself, tried to straighten this +out before reaching home and reporting it. What was it Sunday school was +to have? In Uncle Charlie's study--a small back room, somewhat battered +and dingy but, as he claimed in its defense, his own--was a picture of a +stout little man propelled in a wheelbarrow by some other men. + +Emmy Lou had discovered that Uncle Charlie loved the little man and +prized the picture. When she asked who he was and where he was going in +the wheelbarrow, Uncle Charlie said it was _Mr. Pickwick_ going to a +_picnic_. Or, and here was the trouble, was it _Mr. Picnic_ going to a +_pickwick_? It depended on this what Sunday school was to have. + +Uncle Charlie, hat and cane in hand, waiting in the hall for Aunt +Cordelia to start to church, straightened out the matter. _Mr. Pickwick_ +was going to a _picnic_. It then followed that Emmy Lou, in general a +brief person, had such a store of information about the picnic she was +moved to share it with Uncle Charlie. This common interest about the +circus and their recurring conversations about it were drawing them +together, anyhow. Her data about the picnic on the whole was menacing in +its character. As, for example: + +It was to be in Mr. Denby's grove. He charged too much for it, but St. +Simeon's could not do any better. If you went too far away from the +swings and the benches the mamma of some little pigs would chase you. + +Further. You cannot go to St. Simeon's picnic, or, indeed, to any picnic +without a basket! Emmy Lou had endeavored to find out what sort of a +basket and Sarah had cut her short with the brief reply, "A picnic +basket." + +And, finally, "Albert Eddie wishes he'd never started to St. Simeon's. +Sarah says he has to go to the picnic and he wants to go to the circus!" + +Aunt Cordelia arriving in full church array caught this last. "I've +been meaning to speak about it myself. I find the circus is here for the +one day only and that the day for St. Simeon's picnic." + +Emmy Lou received this as applying to the Dawkins only. The information +her inquiries had enabled her to get together led her personally to +disparage picnics. + +"Albert Eddie says Sarah made him wash dishes at the last picnic he went +to. And she makes him carry baskets. That if he'd wash dishes for 'em at +the circus and carry water, they'd let him in." + +"Sarah, Maud, Albert Eddie, you, me, and one ticket to spare; such was +my idea," said Uncle Charlie, he and Aunt Cordelia preparing to start. +"The only thing we've ever given the Dawkins up to date is the +whooping-cough. Picnic or circus, duty or pleasure, we'll have to put it +to them which they want it to be." + +Aunt Cordelia, even at the risk of being late to church, stopped short. +She didn't see the matter in any such fashion at all! "Emmy Lou will +prefer to go to her own Sunday school picnic too, I hope," decidedly. +"How you distract and bother the child, Charlie!" + +"I bother Emmy Lou? She and I are as near good friends as people get to +be. We respect each other's honesty and go our own ways. I am going to +leave the tickets where I put them yesterday. I planned to take her and +the Dawkins to the circus. You and she can fight it out." He proceeded +through the open doorway to the stone steps. + +"In that case," from Aunt Cordelia as she followed him, "since you seem +to put me in the wrong, I leave it to her own conscience. She is seven +years old, a big girl going to school and Sunday school, and ought to +know right from wrong." And the two were gone. + +Conscience! Familiar shibboleth to the seventh age of little girls! +Stern front behind which Aunt Cordelia these days hides her kindly +features. + +Somewhere beyond the neighborhood where Emmy Lou lived with Aunt +Cordelia and Uncle Charlie, was the roundhouse and the yards of a +railroad. Or so Aunt Cordelia explained. The roundhouse bell, rung every +hour by the watchman on his rounds, made far-off melancholy tolling +through the night. + +The sins at seven, the chubby, endeavoring Emmy Lou's sins, her cloak on +the coat-closet floor instead of the closet peg, mucilage on Aunt +Katie's rug where a paper outspread before pasting began would have +saved it--sins such as these have no prod to reminder more poignant than +this melancholy tolling of the roundhouse bell in the night. + +"It is an uneasy conscience," Aunt Cordelia invariably claimed when Emmy +Lou, waking, came begging for permission to get in her bed. "If your +conscience was all that it should be, you'd be asleep." + +Yet did Aunt Cordelia, as a rule, leave those matters to Emmy Lou's +conscience which she thought she did? Did Emmy Lou three out of four +Sundays find herself remaining at church rather than on her road home +because she herself wanted to stay? Or taking off her new dress on +reaching home because she wanted to get into the older one? + +Or, rather, did she find her baffled if unsuspecting self, coerced and +bewildered, doing these and other things in the name of choice when the +doing was not through choice at all? + +Aunt Cordelia was going to leave the decision between the circus and the +picnic to Emmy Lou, too, because she said she was. Nor did Aunt +Cordelia, honest soul, or Emmy Lou, unquestioning and trusting one, +dream but that she did. + +"I'll see Sarah Dawkins," said Aunt Cordelia to Aunt Katie and Aunt +Louise the very next morning, "and arrange with her to look after Emmy +Lou at the picnic. We'll use the small hamper for her basket. She can +take enough for herself and them. Bob can take her and it around to the +church corner where the chartered street cars are to be waiting, and put +her in Sarah's charge there. I can't see, Katie, why you oppose a cake +with custard filling for the basket." + +"It's messy," said Aunt Katie, "both to take and to eat." + +"But if she likes it best?" from Aunt Cordelia. + +It was the first thing come to Emmy Lou's hearing lending appeal to the +picnic; or light on the purpose of the baskets. + +Uncle Charlie arriving for dinner outmatched it, however, by another +appeal. "I saw a new circus bill on the fence of the vacant lot as I +came by. A yellow bill." + +Emmy Lou hurried right down there from the dinner-table. Nella, the +Child Equestrienne, was kissing her hand right to Emmy Lou from her +horse's back. And the elephant, abandoning his customary dark business +of putting little children in his trunk, with unexpected geniality was +sitting on a stool before a table drinking tea. + +And the next day Bob outmatched this. He had been to the grocery to see +about chickens for the picnic to which Emmy Lou ought to want to go. + +"There's a Flyin' Dutchman on the outside, an' side-shows too. I seen +about it on a bill the other side of the grocery. A green bill." + +Emmy Lou hurried down there. She didn't see anything that she could +identify as a Flying Dutchman, perhaps because she was hazy as to what a +Dutchman was. But Zephine, swinging by her _teeth_, was just leaping +into space. + +"I think I will let her wear her sprigged muslin," said Aunt Cordelia at +supper that night. "A good many grown persons go in the afternoon." + +"Their excuse being to take the children----" from Uncle Charlie easily. + +"I am not talking of the circus, Charlie, and you know I am not," from +Aunt Cordelia sharply. + +"She has decided then?" + +"She certainly ought to have decided. There never should have been any +doubt. I'll put in some little tarts, Katie; all children like tarts." + +Had Emmy Lou decided? She heard it assumed that she had. Why, then, with +this sense of frustration and bewilderment was she swallowing at tears? + +"I certainly feel I may say Emmy Lou has decided," repeated Aunt +Cordelia. "I'm sure, Katie, tarts are just the thing." + +"I'll never believe it," said Uncle Charlie, emphatically, nor was he +referring to the tarts. + +Did he refuse to be party to any such idea? + +"I would not be surprised," said he to Emmy Lou the next evening, "if we +hear the circus rumbling by in the night. Our street is the one they +usually take from the railroad yards to the circus-grounds. I put six +tickets on the mantelpiece where at the most we will need only five. +Suppose I take one and see what I can do with it?" + +"Emmy Lou has no idea but of going to her own Sunday school picnic," +said Aunt Cordelia. "I wish, Charlie, you would be still about your +tickets and the circus." + +"They are not my tickets. They are going to stay right here. I merely +was to go with Emmy Lou on one of them. They are her tickets to do with +as she wants and to take whom she pleases." + +Though the circus did go by in the night, according to report next +morning, Emmy Lou failed to hear it. Nor did the melancholy of the +tolling bell disturb her. Aunt Cordelia said this was because she was +going to her Sunday school picnic as she should, and had a quiet +conscience. + +"I come roun' by the circus as I come to work," Bob said in the pantry +where Aunt Cordelia and he packed the basket with Emmy Lou for +spectator. "Gittin' them wagons with the lookin'-glass sides ready for +the perade. Thet ol' elephant come swinging erlong like he owned the +y'earth. Mr. Charlie gimme a ticket las' night to go." + +Which reminded Emmy Lou. Even though she was going to the picnic, there +was comfort in the thought those tickets yet on the mantelpiece were +hers. She went into the dining-room and pushed a chair to the hearth. +The sprigged muslin she was to wear had a pocket, and later when this +dress was put on the tickets which were her own were in the pocket. + +If one never has been to a picnic the only premises to go on are those +given you. + +"You haven't a thing to do but stay with Maud and Albert Eddie, and mind +Sarah," said Aunt Cordelia as she put Emmy Lou's hat on her head and its +elastic under her chin, "except, of course, to look after your basket. +There is pink icing on the little cakes and a good tablecloth that I +don't want anything to happen to under the beaten biscuits at the +bottom. There is ham and there's tongue and there's chicken." + +"I have to look after the basket," Emmy Lou told Sarah as she and the +Dawkins with the rest of St. Simeon's Sunday school were put aboard the +excursion cars. + +"Of course you do," said Sarah approvingly. "We all do. It's right here. +And," with the heartiness of one distributing largesse in privileges, +the meanwhile settling her three charges in their places, "when we get +off the car Albert Eddie shall carry it." + +Emmy Lou had a seat between Albert Eddie and Maud. Beyond Albert Eddie +were three little boys in knickerbockers, blouses, and straw hats, as +gloomy in face as he. + +"Not only _let_ him carry water for the elephant but gave him _a ticket_ +for doing it," the nearest one was saying to the other three. "Had it +with him when he got back. I saw it myself. He lemme take it in my hand. +A _blue_ ticket." + +"Right past the circus grounds, tents and all," from the second little +boy as their car came in sight of the beflagged tent city. "I'll betcher +they're gettin' ready for the parade right now!" + +Four glittering, turbaned beings appeared around a tent, each leading a +plumed and caparisoned horse to a place before a gilded and +high-throned edifice. "Didn't I tell you they were?" bitterly. A band +crashed. + +The heads of St. Simeon's Sunday school, regardless of danger, craned +out as one. The more venturesome left their seats. + +St. Simeon's chartered cars rolled inexorably by. Heads came in. The +venturesome returned to their places. + +"What is there to a picnic anyhow?" from the third little boy. "Nothin' +at all but what you eat." + +Albert Eddie staggered under the weight of the basket when in time the +car stopped on the track along the dusty road outside Mr. Denby's grove. +But then one out of every two persons descending from the several cars +was similarly staggering under the weight of a basket. + +Sarah and Maud, with Emmy Lou led by either hand between them, followed +Albert Eddie with their own. After which, St. Simeon's, having brought +all baskets to a common center beneath a tree in the neighborhood of the +ice-water barrel, went off and left them. + +"I'm going with a little girl who asked me," Maud told Sarah. "We won't +go too far or the mother of the little pigs will chase us." + +"Albert Eddie, I told the ladies that you would get the wood for a fire +so we can put the coffee on," said Sarah. "When you come back from that +you can take the bucket and bring us the ice-water from the barrel for +the lemonade." + +Sarah's glance came next to Emmy Lou, no mixer in the world of Sunday +school at best, as Sarah before this had observed. Sarah frowned +perturbedly. Some are picnickers by intuition, for example Maud and the +little girl gone off together; others come to it through endeavor. It +was seven-year-old Emmy Lou's first picnic, and she in her sprigged +muslin stood looking to Sarah. + +Sarah was a manager, but having yet to manage for Emmy Lou her frown was +perturbed. Then her face cleared. She fetched a flat if a trifle +over-mossy stone and put it down on the outskirts of the baskets grouped +beneath the sheltering tree, and near the ice-water barrel. "There, now! +You can sit down here and look after the baskets till I get back," she +told Emmy Lou and was gone. + +There is virtue in coming to a picnic. Aunt Cordelia plainly gave one to +understand so. + +"Why don't you go play with the others, little girl?" asked a lady who +was tying on a gingham apron as she hurried by. "Go over to the swings +and see-saws." + +But Emmy Lou, no picnicker by intuition, nor as yet by any other mode of +arrival, was grateful that she had to stay with the baskets, and, had +the lady paused long enough for a reply, could say so. + +Was there virtue in coming to the picnic for Albert Eddie too? Emmy Lou +on her stone under the tree guarding baskets saw him come back with his +load of firewood. She saw him next carrying the bucket of water from the +barrel. + +And here some ladies approaching the baskets beside Emmy Lou beneath the +tree, and casting appraising eyes over the outlay, began to help +themselves to the same! To this basket, and that basket, and carry them +away! One even approached and laid hands on Emmy Lou's own! It took +courage to speak, but she found it. + +"It's mine," from Emmy Lou. + +"And just the very nicest looking one I have seen," said the lady +heartily after raising the lid and probing into the contents. "Anyone +would be glad to say it was hers," and went off with it! St. Simeon's +with a commendable sense of fellowship made a common feast from its +picnic baskets at long tables for all, but Emmy Lou did not know this. +She only saw her cake with the custard filling, her cakes with the pink +icing, her tarts, her ham and tongue, her chicken and biscuits and +tablecloth borne off from her with a coolness astounding and appalling. + +Virtue is hers who dully endures a picnic. Emmy Lou, coming out of her +stun and daze and seeing some little boys approaching, the ice-water +barrel being a general Mecca, swallowed hard that, did they notice her, +they might not see how near she was to crying. Three little boys in +knickerbockers, blouses, and straw hats they were, still with their +common air of being more than justifiably aggrieved. + +They noticed her and at the abrupt halt of one, all stopped. + +"We saw her on the car," he said. "_What's she got?_" + +[Illustration: "Why should that monstrous bulk of elephant have +trumpeted just then?"] + +For Emmy Lou's hand some time since had brought forth for comfort +from her pocket the blue tickets which were her own. That hand closed on +them at the question now. She'd just seen her basket go! + +"_Are_ they circus tickets? Sure? Lemme see them? Aw, what you scared +of, lettin' me see 'em in my hand?" + +Emmy Lou did not know just what. The ways of a picnic and those +attending were new to her, but what she had learned discouraged +confidence. Her hand and the tickets in it went behind her. + +"Where'd she get 'em?" the boy asked now of Albert Eddie, arriving with +his bucket for more water. + +He set the bucket down by the barrel and joined the group. + +"Do you s'pose they are really hers?" was the query put to him as he got +there. + +Emmy Lou knew Albert Eddie, had known him for a long time as time is +measured at seven years. He looked after her on the way to and from +Sunday school even though he did it at Sarah's bidding, whereas Maud +forgot her. Moreover, he had not wanted to come to the picnic, and, bond +firmly established between them, neither had she. She surrendered her +tickets into his hands to be inspected. She even credentialed them. The +others had doubted them! "They're mine. My Uncle Charlie said so. To +take anybody I wanted to take if I hadn't had to come here!" + +Her tickets! Five by actual count and actual touch! To do what she +pleased with! This plump little girl with the elastic of her hat under +her chin, sitting alone at the picnic on a stone! + +The conversation in the group became choric and to some extent Delphic, +Emmy Lou, with her eyes on the tickets in Albert Eddie's hands, alone +excluded. + +"Aw, we could!" + +"Follow the track!" + +"Could she do it?" + +"'Tain't so far she couldn't if we start now." + +Four little boys, nearing nine, Albert Eddie, Logan, John, and Wharton, +made Machiavellian through longing, turned to this little girl on her +stone and made court to her as they knew how. + +"Aw, you ask her! You know her!" from Logan to Albert Eddie. + +Albert Eddie cleared his throat. He'd carried the basket. He'd carried +the wood. He'd carried the water. He was bitter to desperate lengths, +indeed, and in the rebound no good and obedient little boy at all but +one gloriously afloat on seas of dire and reckless abandon. + +"We'll take you to the circus, these boys and me, and let you see +everything, if you want us to," with a _diablerie_ of cunning so +appalling and so convicting in its readiness he knew he must falter if +he stopped to consider it. + +"'Tain't as if we hadn't been before, every one of us," from Logan, with +that yet greater cunning of the practiced and the artist, indifference; +"but we wouldn't mind taking you." + +"I been twice," from Wharton mightily. + +"I been once, last year," from Albert Eddie. + +"I been twice in _one_ year," from John, "here at home and when I went +to visit my grandmother." + +"I been twice to one show," from Logan, eclipsing them all. "One day +with one uncle, and the next day with another!" + +And Emmy Lou never had been at all! The tickets, most cunning play of +all, had been put back in her own hand. + +"Old clown he threw his hat up, turned a handspring, and come up and +caught it on his head," from Wharton. "We'll show you the clown." + +"--rode one horse standing and driving five and kissed her hand every +time she came by--" Logan, forgetting his cue and his cunning, was +saying to Albert Eddie and John. + +"--picks out the letters, that dog does, and spells his own name--" +John, forgetting his cue and his cunning, was saying to Albert Eddie and +Logan. + +Emmy Lou moved on her stone. + +"--rolls in a big keg, that elephant does, and turns it up and sits down +on it. We'll show you the elephant too," Wharton, faithful to his cue, +was saying to her. + +Emmy Lou stood up. She handed the tickets to whoever might be to take +charge of them. She put her hand in Albert Eddie's. "I didn't want to +come to the picnic and not go to the circus," she said. + +They were grateful and solicitous little boys. They hurried her unduly, +perhaps, in getting her out of the grounds, but once upon the safer +territory of road beside the track they were mindful of her. + +"I'll take her by one hand," said Logan to Albert Eddie, "and you keep +hold of her by the other hand, because she knows you." + +Whatever that hot, dusty, shadeless, that appalling stretch of country +road meant to Emmy Lou, she never afterward referred to it. But then +there were reasons making silence more natural on her part. + +Yet she saw the circus! Emmy Lou saw the circus! Come what might, she +had that! + +What that they arrived at the circus entrance dinnerless, dust-laden, +and, but for a stop along the way at a pump and trough, thirsty! + +What that the man sitting at the mouth of the passage between canvas +walls, to whom the tickets were handed, eyed them, four unattended +little boys taking marked care of one little girl in their midst--since +he let them by and in! + +Sawdust, orange-peel, flaring gas jets, camel, lions, big pussy-tiger, +Oh, glorious and unmatchable blend of circus aroma! Oh, vast circling +sweep and reach of seats and faces, with four little boys guarding one +little girl in their midst, wandering along looking for places! + +Oh, blare of brass, Oh, fanfare of trumpets, Oh, triumphant entry of all +hitherto but dimly sensed and hauntingly visioned, color, pageant, +rhythm, triumph, glory, heretofore lost as they came, but now palpable, +tangible, and existent! + +Oh, pitiful, a bit terrifying, white-faced clown! The butt, the mock, +the bear-all! Emmy Lou does not laugh at the clown! Because she pities +him and is sorry for him, her heart goes out to him instead! And she +trembles for Nella as her horse urged by the snapping, menacing whip +sweeps by faster and even faster--and she cries out when at the crash of +the kettle-drums, Zephine leaps---- + +"But I didn't see the elephant like I did the lions and the camel and +the tiger," she tells Logan and Albert Eddie and the others. Nor had +she. The elephant had gone to take his place in the triumphal entry when +Emmy Lou and her four cicerones, in their progress through the animal +tent before the program, reached his roped-in inclosure. + +And so they made their way back to him through the surging crowd as they +went out, four solicitous little boys conducting Emmy Lou. Made their +way as near as might be, then pushed her through the row of spectators +in front of them to the rope. + +"He picks little children up and puts them in his trunk," she was saying +as one fascinated by the very awfulness of that she dwelt on, as they +squeezed her through. + +Why should that monstrous bulk of elephant have trumpeted just then--as +Emmy Lou emerged at the rope--have flung his trunk out in all the lordly +condescension of a mighty one willing to stoop, in the accustomed quest +of peanuts? + + * * * * * + +Aunt Louise, returning from a futile trip to the church corner to meet +Emmy Lou, had just explained that the picnic had not returned, being +delayed, so rumor said, by the search for five missing children, when +Bob walked in bringing a dust-laden Emmy Lou. + +"Came on her at the circus?" from Aunt Cordelia incredulously. + +"In the animal tent roun' there whar thet elephunt is," Bob diagrammed. + +Emmy Lou's face, bearing marks of recent agitation, showed agitation +anew. + +"Good work," from Uncle Charlie, just arrived himself. "Who was with +her?" + +"Some li'l boys, she says. She warn't with nobody when I come on her +runnin' f'om thet elephunt toward me without knowin' it, an' +screamin'." + +Emmy Lou's agitation broke into speech mingled with tears. "He picks +little children up and puts them in his trunk. And he tried to pick up +me!" + + * * * * * + +Along in the night Emmy Lou awaking found that she wanted a drink. These +warm June nights the water bottle and tumbler sat on the sill of the +open window in Aunt Cordelia's room, which meant that Emmy Lou must get +out of bed and patter in there to them. + +Reaching the window--was Emmy Lou in her nightgown and her bare feet +really there and awake or in her bed in reality and direly dreaming? + +Was it so or not so, this looming, swinging, menacing bulk, palpably +after her again, approaching adown the silent, dusky street? + +Seven years old and a little, little girl, Emmy Lou fled to Aunt +Cordelia's bedside and tugged at her arm to get her awake. + +Aunt Cordelia, taking her into her bed, soothed her, her hand massaging +up and down back, shoulders, little thighs, comfortingly enough, even +the while she scolds. She takes it without question that Emmy Lou has +been dreaming. + +"It is what comes of being a naughty little girl again. We never sleep +well when our conscience is uneasy." + +Emmy Lou lay close. Conscience! Aunt Cordelia said so! + +Nor did Aunt Cordelia dream, nor Emmy Lou suspect, that the monstrous, +looming shape padding along the silent street beyond the open window +with its broad sill was the circus elephant making his way to the +railroad yard and his traveling car, the yard where the roundhouse bell +even now made melancholy tolling in the night. + + + + +V + +LIONS IN THE PATH + + +EMMY LOU came home at close of her first day in the Second Reader. "I +sit with Hattie," she said. + +"Who is she?" asked Aunt Katie. + +"Where does she come from?" added Aunt Louise. + +Emmy Lou was perplexed. Who is Hattie? In her pink-sprigged dress with +her plaits tied behind her either ear? Breathing briskness and +conviction? Why, Hattie is _Hattie_. But how convey this to Aunt Katie? + +And where does she come from? How does Emmy Lou know? Or how is she +expected to know? The population of school, in common with the parallel +world of Sunday school, has no background other than school itself, but +assembling out of the unknown and segregated into Primer Class, First +Reader, Second Reader, even as Sunday school is segregated into Infant +Class, Big Room, and Bible Class, performs its functions and disperses. +Where, then, does Hattie come from? + +"She came out of the cloakroom, and she asked me to sit with her." + +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise laughed. They have laughed at Emmy Lou before +in this sense and so have others. She has said "Madam and Eve" happily +and unsuspectingly all these years until Aunt Katie discovered it and +not only laughed but _told_, and Aunt Louise, in whose person and +carriage Emmy Lou takes pride, was a "blunette" until she found it out +and laughed and told. + +A little boy at school as long ago as last year laughed and told a boy +named Billy who Emmy Lou had believed was her friend: "Ho, Teacher told +her to wait there for the present, and she thinks it's a present," And +at Sunday school a little girl laughed and told: "She thinks her nickel, +that nickel in her hand, is going up to God." + +In consequence of these betrayals of a heart too faithfully shown and a +confidence too earnestly given, Emmy Lou is cautious now, laughter +having become a lion in the path and ridicule a bear in the bush. + +A picture hangs above Aunt Cordelia's mantelpiece. It has been there +ever since Emmy Lou came to make her home with her aunties, but she was +seven years old when she asked about it. + +"Where is the man going?" she said then to Aunt Cordelia. "What will the +lions do to him?" + +"He is going _right onward_. The lions in his path will turn him aside +if they can." + +"Correct," said Uncle Charlie overhearing. "But the lions can't turn +the trick. See the man's sword? And his buckler? The sword of his +courage, and the buckler of the truth." + +"Who is the man?" Emmy Lou wanted to know. + +"The anxious pilgrim of all time," said Uncle Charlie. + +But Aunt Cordelia, taking Emmy Lou on her lap, explained. "The man is +any one of us--you, me, Uncle Charlie, your little friends Maud and +Albert Eddie down at the corner, everybody. If we meet our lions as we +should, with courage and the truth, they, nor anything, can prevent our +going right onward." + + "Oh, let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims then, + Be vigilant and quit themselves like men!" + +said Uncle Charlie. + +And now laughter has become a lion in Emmy Lou's path. Will Hattie, her +new friend, laugh at her? One can refrain from showing one's heart to +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, but in the world of school Emmy Lou needs a +friend. + +Omniscience at home is strangely wanting about this world of school, +perhaps because Emmy Lou's aunties in their days went to establishments +such as Mr. Parson's Select Academy, where the pupil is the thing, and +school and teachers even a bit unduly glad to have and hold her, whereas +Emmy Lou at her school has not found herself in the least the thing. + +In saying she was to sit with Hattie she was implying that she was +grateful indeed for the overture, whereas Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, +taking it the other way, ask who Hattie is and where she comes from. + +Aunt Katie said more: "We must find out something about her. Suppose you +try?" + +But Emmy Lou in one short day has divined all she needs to know, though +she does not know how to tell this to Aunt Katie. Hattie is Hattie, +life a foe to be overcome, this world the lists, and Hattie the +challenged, her colors lowered or surrendered never, though the lance of +her spirit be shivered seventy times seven and her helmet of conviction +splintered. + +And Emmy Lou?--who, as complement to this divination, loves +Hattie?--Emmy Lou, what with over-anxious debate, what with caution, +what with weight of evidence and its considering, is the anxious pilgrim +of all time, lions in the path and bears in the bush. + +Hurrying off to school the next morning to resume the grateful business +of sharing a desk with this new friend, Emmy Lou found Hattie waiting +for her at the gate even as she had said she would be, and life today, +even as life yesterday from the initial moment of acquaintance with +Hattie, became crowded at once, even jostled and elbowed with happening +and information. + +As the two took their places in the line forming at the sound of the +school-bell, a little girl pushed in ahead of them where there was no +place until she by crowding made one. But she did not care for that and +showed it, her curls, which shone like Aunt Cordelia's copper hot-water +jug, tossing themselves, and her skirts flaunting. + +Hattie explained this. "She asked me to sit with her, that's why she's +crowding us now. Her name is Sally Carter. But I choose, I don't take my +friends." Her voice lowered and one gathered that following was an +accusation, even an indictment. "She's the richest little girl in the +class and wants you to know it. And she is an Episcopalian, too." + +Emmy Lou felt anxious. Would Hattie laugh? "I don't know what an +Episcopalian is." + +But she seemed to regard the admission as commendable. "Sally's church +gave an entertainment and called it for the orphans' fund, and she did +the Highland Fling on the stage." + +Emmy Lou had no idea what the Highland Fling was, either, but the line +had reached the entrance doorway beyond which speech is forbidden. +Except for this, must she have said she did not know? Or might she +refrain from committing herself? + +For there are different ways of meeting your lions. Emmy Lou knew two +ways. Last year at school a little girl stood up in the aisle for no +reason but a disposition to do so. Promptly and sharp came the rap of a +pencil on the teacher's desk. + +Lion in the path of the little girl! Lion of reprimand! But the little +girl threw dust in the lion's eyes. "Oh, didn't the bell ring for +everyone to stand?" she inquired. And sat down. + +There is another way. Emmy Lou walked in on her friends the Dawkins one +day, over the grocery at the corner, to find Albert Eddie in trouble. +Possibly more than any person of Emmy Lou's acquaintance, he seemed an +anxious pilgrim of all time too. + +"Stand right where you are," Sarah his big sister was saying to him. +"You've had something in your mouth again that you shouldn't. Don't tell +me. Can't I smell it now I try?" + +Albert Eddie was sniffling, which with a little boy is the first step on +the road to crying. But he met his lion. + +"It's cigars off the catalpa tree," he wept, and went on into the next +room and to bed even as Sarah had forewarned him. + +And so, as soon as Emmy Lou is free to speak, she must tell Hattie that +she does not know what the Highland Fling is? Alas, that in the +exigencies of sharing a desk with this person and incidentally +fulfilling the functions of the Second Reader she forgot to do so! + +At the school gate at the close of the day Hattie said, "Come go to the +corner with me, and I'll show you where I live." + +Go with Hattie? Her friend and more, her monitor and protector? Who the +day through had steered her by the Charybdis of otherwise certain +mistake, and past the Scylla of otherwise inevitable blunder? Go with +her at her asking? Did rescued squire follow his protecting knight in +fealty of gratitude? Did faithful _Sancho_ fall in at heel at his +_Quixote's_ bidding? Emmy Lou, who always went hurrying home because she +was bidden so to do, faced around today and went the other way. + +Hattie lived in a brick house in a yard. Pausing at her gate she made a +proposition. "If you could go to my Sunday school I can come by and get +you." + +"I go to Sunday school," said Emmy Lou. + +Hattie was regretful but acquiescent. "Of course, if you go. I didn't +know. I'll walk back with you and see where you live. I'm Presbyterian. +What are you?" + +Having no idea what Presbyterian was, how could Emmy Lou say in kind +what she was? + +A little girl just arrived at a neighboring gate, an _habitué_ of the +Second Reader also, though Emmy Lou did not know her, joined Hattie and +Emmy Lou as they passed. Hattie knew her and, such is the open sesame of +one achieved friend, Emmy Lou found that she was to be considered as +knowing her also. Her name was Sadie. + +"I've just told her I'm Presbyterian," Hattie explained. + +"I'm Methodist," said Sadie. "That's my church across the street." + +Methodist is Sadie's church, and Presbyterian then is Hattie's? The +names in both cases being abbreviated without doubt, and in seemlier +phrase, St. Methodist and St. Presbyterian? Emmy Lou is on ground +entirely familiar to her now, and she shifts her school-bag and her +lunch-basket relievedly, for while the pilgrim must not fail to say she +does not know when she does not, yet surely she may take advantage of a +knowledge gained through finding out? + +"I go to St. Simeon's P. E. Church," she stated. "It's 'round on Plum +Street." + +"What sort of church is that?" said Hattie. + +"It's a stone church with a vine," said Emmy Lou, nor even under +questioning could she give further information. + +Reversing the idea of Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, Hattie would seem to +be gradually finding out who and what Emmy Lou is? Friendship evidently +must rest upon declared foundations. Emmy Lou goes to Sunday school and +her church is on Plum Street. So far so good. But one and yet another +lion faced, another and another spring up. + +"Have you taken the pledge?" asks Hattie. + +Emmy Lou in her time has taken the measles and also the chicken-pox, and +more latterly the whooping-cough. And also given it. But the pledge? Has +she taken it, and failed to recall it? And is it desirable or +undesirable that she should have taken it? + +"I've taken it," says Sadie in a tone that leaves no doubt that one +should have taken it. + +While the pilgrim must scorn to throw dust in the eyes through evasion, +may she not hope for advantage through finding out again? Or must she +definitely draw her sword and face this lion by saying that she does not +know? + +Bob, the house-boy, sent to hunt her, is the instrument of her respite. +He brought up before the advancing group. Time was when he would have +said, "Reckon you is done forgot whut happened to thet li'l girl whut +didn't come straight home like she was tol'." But Emmy Lou is a big girl +and Bob acknowledges it. "Reckon you is done forgot whut happens about +dessert for them that don't come on time to get it." + +The implication dismaying even Hattie and Sadie, they took leave of Emmy +Lou hastily. + +"You can tell us about your pledge another time," Hattie called. "Maybe +we will come around to see you this afternoon to get better acquainted." + +Despite Bob's implication, Aunt Cordelia had saved some dessert for Emmy +Lou. By diligent application to her dinner she even caught up with the +others and thus achieved time for an inquiry. Was it on her mind that +Hattie and Sadie might come around this afternoon? + +"What's the pledge?" + +"Which variety?" from Uncle Charlie. "It might be a toast." + +"Or a pawn," said Aunt Louise. + +"Or a surety," said Aunt Katie. + +"And also an earnest," from Uncle Charlie. "Take your choice." + +"Now stop mystifying her," said Aunt Cordelia. "There is altogether too +much of it. I won't allow it. A pledge, Emmy Lou, such as you probably +are thinking about, is a promise. I daresay some of the little boys you +know have taken one. I hear it's quite the thing. Now, hurry. That's why +I sent Bob after you. Dancing school has been changed from Saturday to +Friday afternoon, and you have only half an hour to dress and get there. +Aunt Katie is going with you." + +"But," dismayed, "two little girls said maybe they would come to see +me." + +"Well, I'm sorry. I will see them for you if they come. Now, hurry." + +And Emmy Lou accordingly hurried. For while the claims of school are all +very well in Aunt Cordelia's regard, the claims of church, as Emmy Lou +understands these claims, are imperative. And, moreover, while school +centers itself and its activities within five days and its own four +walls, St. Simeon's is the center of a clustering and revolving +seven-day system. + +On Monday Aunt Cordelia herself takes Emmy Lou to old Mrs. Angell's +sewing class for the little girls of the Sunday school at the rectory +next door to the church. On Thursday Aunt Louise takes her to the +singing class for the children of the Sunday school at the organist's, +across the street from the church. And her aunties share among them the +duty of getting her twice a week to dancing school, taught by Miss +Eustasia, the niece of Dr. Angell, at her home next door on the other +side of St. Simeon's. The Church assembles its youthful populace here in +force as Emmy Lou grasps it, old Mr. Pelot, who taught Miss Eustasia +herself in her day and the mammas and papas of St. Simeon's in their day +too, wielding a bow and violin and being her assistant. + +Dancing school! Emmy Lou, hurrying, is getting ready. School among +schools, secular, sewing, singing, or Sunday, of endeavor, effort, and +anxious perturbation! Aunt Cordelia does her best to help Emmy Lou +along. She takes her in the parlor from time to time, after dinner, +after supper, and, sitting down to the piano, strikes the chords. Aunt +Cordelia's playing has a tinkling, running touch, and her tunes have an +old-fashioned sound. + +"_One_, two, three, start now--" Aunt Cordelia says. "Why didn't you +start when I said? Katie, go away from the door, you and Louise both. +You have laughed at her dancing, and she won't do a thing while you are +here." + +Then again to the endeavor. _One_, two, three, _one_, two, three, alike +the chant and hope and stay of dancing. Emmy Lou starts right; she is +sure that her right foot leads out on time: but the difficulty is, the +while she pantingly counts, to bring up the left foot on the moment. + +Uncle Charlie stops in the parlor doorway while he lights a cigar before +returning downtown. "We might think the left foot was faithful to the +Church and only the right given over to the World, but that Eustasia +plys her art in the shadow of St. Simeon's." + +One foot to the Church and the other to the World? What does Uncle +Charlie mean? Are aspersions to be cast on dancing by other than its +victims? Or can it be that Uncle Charlie, too, like Aunt Katie and Aunt +Louise, is laughing at her? + +But today Emmy Lou and Aunt Katie go hurrying off to dancing school, +Emmy Lou in her Sunday dress devoted to St. Simeon's functions, carrying +her slippers in their bag. + +Miss Eustasia's house is old and shabby. She lives here with her mother +who is Dr. Angell's sister, a lady who crosses her hands resignedly and +says to the mammas and visitors at dancing school, "Eustasia was not +brought up to this; Eustasia was raised with a right to the best." + +Aunt Katie and Emmy Lou hurry in the front door. Miss Eustasia in the +long parlor on one side of the hall is hurrying here and hurrying there, +a little frown of bother and of earnestness between her brows, +marshalling some classes into line, whirling others about face to face +in couples. And old Mr. Pelot, tall and thin, with a grand manner and an +arched nose, is rapping with his bow on the mantel and calling for +order. Mammas and visitors are in place along the wall, and Dr. Angell, +who sometimes, as now, comes over from the rectory to look on, beams and +takes off his glasses and rubs them, and, putting them on, beams again. + +All of which is as it should be, as Emmy Lou understands it; and Miss +Eustasia, born and baptized, brought up and confirmed, as it were, in +the church next door, had to have something to do. And St. Simeon's, +gathering its children together, offered her this, and at the same time +provided for Mr. Pelot, who, being on everybody's mind in his old age, +also had to have something to do. + +And St. Simeon's did itself proud. As Aunt Katie and Emmy Lou came in, +its Infant Class, as Emmy Lou from long association knew it, was out on +the floor taking its first position, while St. Simeon's Big Room, +resolved into skirts, sashes, and curls, or neat shoes, smooth +stockings, knickerbockers, jackets, broad collars, and ties, was waiting +its turn to flutter lightly to places, or, bowing stiffly, go into duty +stoutly. After which its Bible Class, now standing about in confidential +pairs, would go through their new figure in the cotillion sedately. Or +so it was that Emmy Lou coming in in her Sunday dress and her slippers +understood it. + +"Just in time," said Miss Eustasia to her briefly. "Get into line." + +The Infant Class withdrawing to get its breath, Emmy Lou finds herself +between Logan and Wharton in a newly forming line stretching across the +room. She is glad, because they are her friends, having gone with her on +occasion to the circus, and she can ask them about the pledge. + +To each nature of school its vernacular: rudiments and digits, head and +foot, medals and deportment, to the secular; bias and hem, whipping and +backstitch, to the sewing; chorus and refrain, louder please, now +softer, to the singing; sponsors, catechism, texts, to the Sunday; and +Miss Eustasia now is speaking to the class in the vernacular of the +dancing school. + +"No, no, no," in discouragement of all attempts at conversation. "Eyes +in front, everybody, on me, and take the first position. Now, right hand +on right hip, so. Left hand lifted above left shoulder, so. Right foot +out, heel first----" + +"What do you call it?" from Logan, desperate with his efforts. "Have we +had it before? What's its name?" + +"Its name," said Miss Eustasia severely, "is the Highland Fling." + +Emmy Lou found a moment before dispersal to interview Logan and Wharton. +"What's the pledge? Have you taken it?" + +"No, I haven't," said Logan, not so much curt as embittered, so one +gathered, by his share in the afternoon. + +Wharton was more explicit. "We don't have pledges at our Sunday school." + +Emmy Lou knew another little boy, Albert Eddie. She went down to the +corner the next morning to see him. If the truth be told, she still +preferred the snugness of life over a grocery to a house in a yard. + +Mrs. Dawkins, on what she called a pinch, went down in the grocery and +helped. She was there this Saturday morning, and Maud with her. Sarah in +the kitchen upstairs was mixing the Saturday baking in a crock, and +Albert Eddie, being punished, was in a corner on a stool. + +Politeness dictating that the person in durance be ignored, under these +circumstances Emmy Lou immediately addressed herself to Sarah. + +"What's the pledge? Do you know anybody who's taken it?" + +Sarah brought Albert Eddie right into it, stool, corner, and all. +"Albert Eddie can tell you for he's just taken one. He's been a bad boy +again, and it wasn't catalpa cigars this time either. And after he's +been warned. I've made him promise now. Albert Eddie, turn round here +and say your pledge." + + * * * * * + +Monday morning found Emmy Lou at the school gate betimes. "I've got my +pledge now," she told Hattie and Sadie eagerly, as together they +arrived. + +"Of course you have," from Hattie commendingly, "I knew you must have +taken one. Say yours." + +Emmy Lou said hers: + + "I'll never use tobacco, no, + It is a filthy weed, + I'll never put it in my mouth----" + +She stopped. As could be seen in the horrified faces of Hattie and +Sadie, something was wrong. + +"They taught you that at your Sunday school?" from Hattie. + +"You, a little girl----?" from Sadie. + +Whereupon the pilgrim, the pilgrim Emmy Lou, saw it all, saw that she +had but endeavored to throw dust into eyes, beginning with her own. + +"I didn't get my pledge at Sunday school, I got it from a little boy. I +asked him and he taught it to me. We don't have pledges at my Sunday +school." + +"We went to see you on Friday like we said, and you were out," said +Hattie severely. + +"They changed the day and I had to go," from Emmy Lou. "I was at dancing +school." + +"Dancing school? Your Sunday school doesn't have pledges and you go to +dancing school? Your church lets you go? Like Sally Carter's? And you +didn't tell us?" + +"My church might give up pledges if it had to," said Sadie, "but its +foot is down on dancing." + +Yet Hattie would be fair. "Your minister knows? What sort of dancing? +What did you dance on Friday?" + +"Our minister was there. It is the Sunday school that dances. We danced +the Highland Fling." + +The school bell rang. + +"Well," said Hattie as she turned to go, "I'm Presbyterian." + +Sadie bore witness as she turned to follow. "And I'm Methodist." + +Emmy Lou lifted her buckler and drew her sword. Never dust in the eyes +again. For she knew now what she was over and above being a St. +Simeonite, having asked Aunt Cordelia. In this company it bore not only +the odium of disapproval and the hall-mark of condemnation, but from the +qualifying term applied to it by Aunt Cordelia would seem to merit both. + +"I'm a low church Episcopalian," said Emmy Lou, the pilgrim, stoutly if +wretchedly. + +When Emmy Lou reached home that day Aunt Katie brought up an old matter. +"Aunt Cordelia rather likes the looks of the little girl named Hattie +who came here. So I suppose it is all right for you to go on sitting +with her. What have you found out about her?" + +What Emmy Lou would have liked to find out was, would Hattie go on +sitting with her? But how make those things clear to Aunt Katie? + +"Charlie," said Aunt Cordelia to her brother that night, "what on earth +do children mean? Emmy Lou as she was getting ready for bed asked me why +Hattie's church and Sadie's church have the pledge and hers has the +Highland Fling? It isn't possible that she has confused dancing and +Sunday school?" + +Uncle Charlie stared at his sister, then his shout rang to heaven. + + + + +VI + +THE IMPERFECT OFFICES OF PRAYER + + +RECRUITING Sunday occurred at Emmy Lou's Sunday school the winter she +was eight. The change to this nature of thing was sudden. Hitherto when +Hattie, her best friend, who was Presbyterian, spoke of Rally Day, or +Sadie, her next best friend, who was Methodist, spoke of Canvassing Day, +Emmy Lou of St. Simeon's refrained from dwelling on Septuagesima, or +Sexagesima, or Quinquagesima Sunday, as the case might be, for fear it +appear to savor of the elect. As, of course, if one has been brought up +in St. Simeon's, and by Aunt Cordelia, one has begun to feel it does. + +Hattie and Sadie, on the contrary, full of the business and zeal of +Rally Day and Canvassing Sunday, looked with pity on Emmy Lou and St. +Simeon's, and at thought of Quinquagesima and such kindred Sundays shook +their heads. Which is as it should be, too. + +For, while there is one common world of everyday school in the firmament +of the week, drawing the Emmy Lous and Hatties and Sadies into the fold +of its common enterprise and common fellowship, there are varying worlds +in the firmament of Sundays, withdrawing the Emmy Lous and Hatties and +Sadies into the differing folds of rival enterprises, Hattie to the +First Presbyterian Church North, Sadie to the Second Avenue M. E. Church +South, and Emmy Lou with no status or bias as to pole at all, if we +except polemics, to St. Simeon's P. E. + +And each one within her fold is so convinced her fold is the only fold, +it is her part to make all others feel this. Which is as it should be, +too. And, as Hattie pointed out when Sadie got worsted in being made to +feel it and cried, is only the measure of each one's proper Christian +zeal! + +And Hattie, being full of data about her Rally Day, and Sadie, being +full of grace from her Canvassing Day, were equipped at seemingly every +point for making another feel it. Whereas when Sadie asked Emmy Lou what +Quinquagesima or fifty days before Easter had to do with saving souls, +and Hattie asked her to spell it, Quinquagesima not only died on her +lips but she and it seemed indefensibly and reprehensibly in the wrong. +Which Emmy Lou endeavored to remember was but a measure of Christian +zeal again. + +And now St. Simeon's, awakening to its needs in such zeal, was to have, +not a Rally nor yet a Canvassing, but a Recruiting Sunday. For every +Sunday school with any zeal whatever has a nomenclature of its own and +looks with pity and contumely on the nomenclature of any other Sunday +school. So that Emmy Lou heard with a shock of incredulity that what she +knew as the Infant Class was spoken of by Hattie as the Primary, and by +Sadie as the Beginners. + +But this department of Sunday school, whatever its designation, belongs +to the early stages of faith. Emmy Lou is in the Big Room, now, and here +has heard about St. Simeon's Recruiting Sunday. + +Mr. Glidden, the superintendent, announced it. He was a black-haired, +slim, brisk young man. Emmy Lou knew him well. She liked Mr. Glidden. He +came to see Aunt Louise, and admired her. Week days he was a young man +who was going to do credit to his father and mother. Aunt Cordelia said +so. Sundays, if he let his Christian zeal carry him too far, his betters +at St. Simeon's would have to call him down. Uncle Charlie who was a +warden at St. Simeon's said so, curtly, in a way most disturbing. + +In announcing Recruiting Sunday, Mr. Glidden spoke with feeling. "In the +business-run world of today," he told his Sunday school, "St. Simeon's +must look at things in a business way. What with Rally Day and +Canvassing Day in the other Sunday schools, St. Simeon's stands no +chance. Emulation must be met with emulation. Let St. Simeon's get out +and work. And while it works,"--Mr. Glidden colored; he was young--"let +it not forget it shall be its Superintendent's earnest and also daily +prayer that it be permitted to bring even the least of these into the +fold." + +Furthermore, there should be inducements. "For every new scholar brought +in," said Mr. Glidden, "there shall be an emblazoned card. For every +five emblazoned cards there shall be a prize. Cards and prizes I shall +take pleasure in giving out of my own pocket." + +In the light of after events, as Emmy Lou grasped them, the weakness in +the affair lay in Mr. Glidden's failure sufficiently to safeguard his +prayer. + +Emmy Lou had considerable data about prayer, gathered from her two +friends, Hattie being given to data, and Sadie being given to prayer. As +Hattie expounded prayer as exemplified through Sadie, one fact stands +paramount. You should be specifically certain in both what you ask and +how you ask it. For the answer can be an answer and yet be calamitous +too. Hattie used the present disturbing case with Sadie for her proof. + +Sadie and her brother decided they wanted a little sister, and would +pray for one. They did pray, fervently and trustfully, being Methodists, +as Hattie pointed out, night after night, each beside her or his little +white bed. And each was answered. It was twin little sisters. Since +when, Sadie was almost as good as lost to her two friends, through +having to hold one little sister while her mother held the other. + +"You've got to make what you want clear," Hattie argued. "They both +prayed for a little sister at the same time. If they'd prayed, Sadie one +night, and Anselm the next, or if they'd said it was the same little +sister, they wouldn't 'a' had a double answer and so been oversupplied." + +Sadie was torn with conflict over it herself. Her little sisters weren't +justified to her yet, but she wasn't going to admit they might not still +be, though the strain on her Christian zeal was great. + +For at Sadie's Sunday school you did not get a prize for the new +scholars you brought in on Canvassing Day. You got a prize when the next +Canvassing Day came around, if they were still there. And Canvassing Day +was nearly here again, and her scholars were failing her. + +"It's no easy thing to be a Methodist," she said in one of her moments +of respite from a little sister, talking about it with pride through her +gloom. "You work for all you get! When I could look my scholars up every +week, and go by for 'em with Tom and the barouche when the weather was +bad, I had them there for roll-call every Sunday. But now that I have to +hold my little sisters and we haven't Tom or the barouche either because +on account of my little sisters we can't afford them, they've backslid +and dropped out." + +Hattie had data as to that, too. "You needn't be so bitter about it, +Sadie. I know you mean me! You went around and picked your scholars up +anywhere you could find 'em, and I did too. It wasn't as if any one of +'em had a call to your Sunday school. Or as if they had a conviction. +Except Mamie Sessums whose conviction took her away." + +Sadie spoke even more bitterly. "You needn't count on Mamie. Because +she had had a conviction that took her away from where she was, I +counted on her the most of any of mine." + +Hattie was positive. "But the conviction she has now took her away from +yours. Her mother thinks there is too much about falling from grace at +your Sunday school; she doesn't think it nice for little girls to hear +so much about sin." + +"She wouldn't have fallen from grace herself if I could have kept after +her," from Sadie. "If I hadn't to hold my little sisters Mamie wouldn't +be a backslider now. But my little sisters will be justified to me yet. +I'm not going back on prayer." + +It all emphasized the need of exceeding caution in prayer. Emmy Lou +never had thought of it so. Time was, in fact, when, praying her "Gentle +Jesus," at Aunt Cordelia's knee, she poured it out in Aunt Cordelia's +lap, so to speak, and left it there. Not that Aunt Cordelia had not +made her understand that prayer goes to God. But that Aunt Cordelia who +attended to everything else for her would see about getting it there. + +But that was when Emmy Lou was a baby thing, and God the nebulous center +of a more nebulous setting, with the kindly and cheery aspect as well as +the ivory beard of---- Was it Dr. Angell, the rector of St. Simeon's? Or +was there in the background of Emmy Lou's memory a yet more patriarchal +face, reverent through benignity, with flowing ivory beard? A memory +antedating her acquaintance with Dr. Angell? She was a big girl now, and +God was not quite so nebulous nor quite so cheery. His ivory beard was +longer, and in the midst of nebulę for support was a throne. But He yet +could be depended on to be kindly. Aunt Cordelia was authority for that. + +Her concept of prayer, too, had moved forward; prayer in her mind's eye +now taking the form of little white cocked-hat _billets-doux_ winging +out of the postbox of the heart, and, like so many white doves, speeding +up to the blue of Heaven. If God was not too busy, or too bothered, as +grown people sometimes are on trying days, she even could fancy Him +smiling pleasantly, if absently, as grown-up people do, when the +cocked-hat _billets-doux_, a sort of morning mail, were brought in to +Him. + +And so she was glad that Sadie was not going back on prayer, but was +sure that her little sisters would be justified to her. Indeed, her +heart had gone out to Sadie about it, and she had sent up _billets-doux_ +of her own, and would send more, that the little sisters should be +justified to her. + +But from this new point of view supplied by Hattie, the winging +_billets-doux_, as in the mind's eye they sailed upward, seemed to +droop a little, weighted with the need of exceeding caution in prayer. +And in the light of this revelation God in His aspect changed once more, +again gaining in ivory beard and in throne what He again lost in cheer. + +Long ago Aunt Cordelia used to rock her to sleep with a hymn. Emmy Lou +had thought she knew its words, "Behind a frowning providence, He hides +a smiling face." Could she have reversed it? She had been known to do +such things before. All this while had it been saying: "Behind a smiling +providence, He hides a frowning face?" + +At Emmy Lou's own home Aunt M'randy the cook, like Hattie, seemed to +feel that prayer not sufficiently set around with safeguards and +specifications could prove a boomerang. "Didn't I w'ar myse'f out with +prayer to get rid er that no-account nigger house-boy Bob? To hev' thet +prayer swing eroun' with this worse-account house-boy, Tom?" + +Tom had gone to Hattie's house from Sadie's where they no longer could +afford to have him, but he had not stayed there. He didn't get along +with the cook. From there he came to be house-boy for Aunt Cordelia +where Bob couldn't get along with the cook. Tom's idea of his importance +apparently was in the number of places he had lived, and his +qualifications he summed up in a phrase: "I ca'ies my good-will with me +to the pussons I wuks foh." + +The morning after Recruiting Sunday had been announced at St. Simeon's +Sunday school, Uncle Charlie spoke of it at the breakfast table. He +didn't seem to think much of it, and referred to it by another name, +calling it an innovation. + +Aunt Louise, on the contrary, defended it. She was teaching in the +Sunday school now. "If everyone would show the energy and +progressiveness of Mr. Glidden since he took the Sunday school," she +said with spirit, "St. Simeon's would soon look up." + +"Glidden!" said Uncle Charlie. "Willie Glidden! Pshaw!" + +"Why you speak of him in that tone I don't see, unless it is because you +are determined to oppose every innovation he proposes." + +"I oppose his innovations?" heatedly. "On the contrary I am in favor of +giving him his way so he may hang himself in his innovations the +sooner." And Uncle Charlie, getting up to go downtown, slammed the door. + +Which would have been astounding, Uncle Charlie being jocular and not +given to slamming doors, had it not to do with that one of the many +worlds in the firmament of the Sundays, St. Simeon's. Emmy Lou was glad +she understood these things better now. For persons altogether amiable +in the affairs of the week-days to grow touchy and heated over the +affairs of Sundays is only a measure of their Christian zeal. There was +comfort and reassurance in the knowledge. Time was when it would have +frightened her to have Uncle Charlie slam the door, and made her choke +over her waffle, and sent her down from her chair and round to Aunt +Cordelia for comfort and reassurance. + +Aunt Louise, addressing herself to Aunt Cordelia in her place behind the +coffeepot, still further defended Mr. Glidden. + +"He is even waking dear old Dr. Angell a bit. Not that we don't love Dr. +Angell as he is, of course," hastily, "but he does lack +progressiveness." + +"Which may be why some of us do love him," said Aunt Cordelia tartly. +Aunt Cordelia! Pleasant soul! Who rarely was known to sacrifice good +temper even to Christian zeal! Emmy Lou choked on her waffle despite +all! "But don't draw me into it! I decline to take sides." + +"Which means, of course, that you've taken one," said Aunt Louise. "As +if I could ever expect you to side with me against Brother Charlie." + +"And if I do agree with Charlie, what then? To have the running of St. +Simeon's passed over his head to Willie Glidden! The church our own +grandfather gave the ground for! And he the senior warden who has run +St. Simeon's his way for thirty faithful years!" + +And Aunt Cordelia, getting up from behind the coffeepot and going toward +the pantry to see about the ordering, broke forth into hymn, as was her +way when ruffled. Emphatic hymn. And always the same hymn, too, Aunt +Cordelia, like Uncle Charlie, objecting to innovations. Emmy Lou was +long familiar with this hymn as barometer of Aunt Cordelia's state of +being: + + "Let the fiery, cloudy _pillow_," + +sang Aunt Cordelia, flinging open the refrigerator door. + +What it meant, a fiery, cloudy pillow, further than that Aunt Cordelia +was outdone, was another thing. Emmy Lou always intended to ask, but the +very fact that Aunt Cordelia only sang it when outdone prevented--that +and the additional fact that when Aunt Cordelia was outdone Emmy Lou in +distress of mind was undone. + +Aunt Louise waited until Aunt Cordelia, who could be seen through the +open doorway, straightened up from her inspection of the refrigerator. +"Still," she said, "you won't object that I entered Emmy Lou's name at +Sunday school yesterday as a recruiter? To try her best and get a +prize?" + +"I do object if there are tickets about it," emphatically. "You can take +care of them for her if so. Willie Glidden has gone mad over tickets. +What with her blue tickets for attendance one place in my bureau +drawer, and her pink tickets for texts in another place, I won't be +bothered further." + +Yet what were Sunday schools without tickets? Emmy Lou getting down from +the breakfast table, her still unfinished waffle abandoned for all time +now, was dumbfounded. The one thing common to all Sunday schools was +tickets. Though St. Simeon's under the accelerating progressiveness of +Mr. Glidden had gone further, and whereas in ordinary your accumulated +tickets for every sort of prowess only got you on the honor roll, a +matter of names on a blackboard, Mr. Glidden had instituted what he +called "a drawing card." At St. Simeon's, now, when your blue tickets +for attendance numbered four--or five those months when the calendar +played you false and ran in another Sunday--you carried these back and +got the Bible in Colors, a picture at a time. And, incidentally, a color +at a time, too. Emmy Lou had a gratifying start in these, last month +having achieved a magenta Daniel facing magenta lions in a magenta den, +and this month adding a blue David with a blue sword cutting off the +head of a not unreasonably bluer Goliath. + +Pink tickets grow more slowly. Aunt Cordelia said that she could see to +it that Emmy Lou got to Sunday school, but she could only do her best +about the texts. + +And she did do her best, Emmy Lou felt that she did. + +"Say the text over on the way as you go," Aunt Cordelia had said to her +as she started only yesterday. "That way you won't forget it before you +get there." + +And she had said it on the way, and had said it in the class, too, when +called on by Miss Emerine. + +Aunt Cordelia, plump and pleasant soul, had ways of her own, and Emmy +Lou in ways even beyond the plumpness was modeled on her. Aunt Cordelia +said "were" as though it were spelled w-a-r-e, and Emmy Lou said it that +way too. + +"'And five ware wise, and five ware foolish,'" Emmy Lou told Miss +Emerine. + +"Five what?" Miss Emerine asked, which was unfortunate, this being what +Emmy Lou had failed to remember. + +It was Tom, the new house-boy, who really started Emmy Lou's recruiting +for St. Simeon's. Hearing Aunt Louise ask her what she was doing about +looking up new scholars, he volunteered his help. + +"There's a li'l girl up the street whar I wuked once is thinkin' about +changin' her Sunday school. I'll tell her to come aroun' an' see you." + +The little girl came around promptly. It was Mamie Sessums. Emmy Lou +knew her at week-day school. Far from being without a conviction, as +Hattie had claimed, she now had two. + +"My mother says Tom don't do anything but try to have her change my +Sunday school. He lived with us before he went to live at Sadie's. But +she says she's very glad to have me stop Hattie's and go with you. She +didn't send me there to have the minister go by our house every day and +never come in. Sadie's minister never came to call on her when I went to +that Sunday school either. Do you have tickets at your Sunday school?" + +Tickets were vindicated. Emmy Lou hurried upstairs and came back with +all her trophies of this nature. Mamie seemed impressed by the Bible in +Colors. + +"You get them a picture at a time," Emmy Lou explained. "The first one +is Adam in buff." + +"Buff?" said Mamie doubtfully. + +"Buff," repeated Emmy Lou firmly, since it was so, and not to be helped +because Mamie didn't seem to like it. "My Uncle Charlie says so." + +But it was only lack of familiarity with buff on the part of Mamie. As a +prize, it impressed her. "I'll meet you on your church steps on +Recruiting Sunday," she said. + +After Mamie left, Emmy Lou went around to see Hattie. "Don't let it make +you feel bad, taking Mamie away from me," Hattie told her. "I never +expected anything else. When it's not a call, nor even a conviction, +they're like as not to fail you on the very doorstep." + +Sadie, at her window holding a little sister, waved to Emmy Lou and +Hattie on the sidewalk. It was hard Sadie couldn't be with her friends +any more. Emmy Lou sent up a _billet-doux_ that the little sisters might +be justified to Sadie yet. Poor Sadie! + +It was Tom who told Emmy Lou where to go for her next recruit. She had +no idea it would be so easy. Sadie had worked hard for all she got but +it didn't seem hard to Emmy Lou. "There's a li'l girl roun' on Plum +Street where I wuked once, too. I'll speak to her, an' then you go roun' +an' see her." + +With Aunt Cordelia's permission, Emmy Lou went around. It proved that +she knew this little girl at school, too. Her name was Sallie Carter. +She was the richest little girl in the class and said so. Her curls +shone like Aunt Cordelia's copper hot-water jug, and her skirts stood +out and flaunted. + +Sallie had convictions too. She had tried Sadie's Sunday school while +her own church was being rebuilt, and she was just about through trying +Hattie's. + +"My mother thinks it's strange that Tom should be sending you after me +too. Though he did live with us before he lived with any of you. She is +surprised at some of the little girls who go to Sadie's Sunday school. +And after she took me away they were the first little girls I met on the +steps at Hattie's Sunday school. My mother says I'm a Carter on one side +and a Cannon on the other, and everybody knows what that means. We're +high church and you are low, but she's glad to have me go with you to +St. Simeon's for a while and try it. Do you have tickets?" + +Tickets and more, the Bible in Colors. Emmy Lou, explaining it, felt +again she couldn't sufficiently uphold tickets to Aunt Cordelia. + +The very next day Tom came to Aunt Cordelia and said if she would let +Emmy Lou go with him to Mr. Schmit's when he went to get the ice, he +knew of some other little girls who might be persuaded to go to her +Sunday school. At Aunt Cordelia's word, Emmy Lou got her hat and joined +Tom with his basket. + +The accustomed place to get extra ice before Tom came was Mr. Dawkins' +at the corner. But Tom wouldn't hear of going to Mr. Dawkins'. He +argued about it until Aunt Cordelia gave in. He said he used to live +with Mr. Schmit and drive his wagon. + +Emmy Lou knew Mr. Schmit herself. Tom, after an inquiry at the counter, +took her through the store to the back yard where he left her, a back +yard full of boxes and crates and empty coops. Mr. Schmit's little girl +Lisa was here with a baby brother in her arms, and another holding to +her skirts, Yetta, her little sister, and Katie O'Brien from next door +completing the group. Emmy Lou knew Lisa and Katie at school, too. +Lisa's round cheeks were mottled and red, and the plaits hanging down +her back were yellow. She did not seem overly glad to see Emmy Lou +though she came forward. + +"Well?" she said. + +It made it hard to begin. And even after Emmy Lou had explained that she +had come to get them to go to Sunday school Lisa was unmoved. + +"What do we want to go to Sunday school for? If we wanted to go to +Sunday school we'd be going. We go to our grandfather's in the country +now on Sundays. That way we get a ride in my papa's grocery wagon and we +get to the country too." + +"But if you would," urged Emmy Lou, "it would get me a prize." + +"Sure I see," said Lisa. "I see that. But if Katie here and Yetta and me +give up our ride out to my grandfather's, what do we get?" + +"Oh!" said Emmy Lou, and hastened to set forth St. Simeon's largesse and +system in tickets. + +"What do we do to get the tickets?" asked Lisa. "We're Lutheran and +Katie's Dominican. I don't know as we'd be allowed to. We wouldn't mind +four Sundays and get a picture, would we, Katie?" + +Katie, whose hair was black and whose eyes were blue, agreed. + +"Sure, we'd like a picture. But I don't know as they'd let me at home. +They said I shouldn't go to no more Sunday schools. The little girl who +was sassy to us and said they didn't want us there was at two Sunday +schools we've been to now." + +"Still," said Lisa, "we'd like a picture. Which one is your Sunday +school?" + +When Emmy Lou rejoined Tom, she was overjoyed. "And they'll meet me on +the church steps too. All of 'em will meet me on the church steps, Mamie +and Sally and Lisa and Yetta and Katie." + +And now it was Recruiting Sunday. But the shortness of manner with which +Aunt Cordelia tied Emmy Lou's hair-ribbons was not on account of this, +Recruiting Sunday for her having taken its place among the minor evils. +Late on Saturday evening she had lost Tom, a case again of the +house-boy not getting on with the cook. + +"After I wore myse'f out with prayer to git rid of thet no-account Bob, +to have thet prayer swing aroun' with this worse-account Tom," was Aunt +M'randy's explanation of the disagreement. + +"They want me over at Sadie's house tomorrow, anyway," Tom said with +feeling as he went. "'Count of their grandfather walkin' in on 'em f'om +Kansas City sudden there's big doin's hurried up about the twins. +They're goin' to have a barouche roun' f'om the livery stable too, an' +they want me to drive." + +Then Tom became darkly cryptic. "I tol' you when I come, I ca'ies my +goodwill with me to the pussons I wuks foh." + +And now it was Sunday morning and no house-boy. "Charlie," said Aunt +Cordelia to this person, "I wish you'd walk around to the Sunday school +door with Emmy Lou. She's never been so far alone. Louise is not ready, +and she's to meet all those children on the church step where they'll be +waiting for her, and thinks she ought to be early." + +"Surely," said Uncle Charlie. "I'm glad to. I've an idea it's about time +for Willie Glidden to be hanging himself in some of his innovations." + +At the corner Uncle Charlie and Emmy Lou met Tom coming back towards +Sadie's with the barouche from the livery stable. One felt Tom saw them, +though he looked the other way. + +At the second corner they met Sally Carter. Her curls shone like Aunt +Cordelia's copper hot-water jug, and her skirts stood out and flaunted. +She stopped when Emmy Lou stopped, but with reluctance, since it was +palpable she was in a hurry. + +"I've decided I didn't treat Sadie right. My name's still on her roll. +Those little girls my mother didn't want me to associate with at the +other Sunday schools were on your church steps, anyway, and she wouldn't +want me to stay." + +At the next corner they met Lisa and Yetta and Katie, scoured and +braided and in their Sunday dresses. They didn't want to stop either, +palpably being in even a greater hurry. + +"As long as we're goin' to Sunday school we think well go back to the +one we started from," said Lisa. "That sassy little girl our mothers +said we shouldn't put up with was on your church steps anyhow, and was +sassy to us some more." + +At St. Simeon's itself they met Mamie. "I didn't want to wait, but I +felt I ought to. I'm going back to Sadie's, and I'm late. Tom called to +us here on the steps as he went by in the barouche, and said Sadie's +little twin sisters were going to be baptized at her church right after +Sunday school." + +"Which," said Uncle Charlie the while his Emmy Lou swallowed tears, +"hangs Willie Glidden neatly in his own innovations." + +When Sadie and Hattie and Emmy Lou met at school the next day, Sadie's +eyes were bright and her face shone. Why not? As she pointed out, her +little sisters were justified to her, her erring scholars were returned, +her grandfather said he'd see to it that they _could_ afford to have Tom +back and the barouche too, and it all went to prove the efficacy of +prayer. + +It would seem to. That is, of Sadie's prayer. Emmy Lou could see that. +She indeed had sent up _billets-doux_ in Sadie's behalf herself. But it +did not explain everything. + +"Mr. Glidden at my Sunday school prayed too, that the least of these be +brought into the fold." + +Hattie forgot her own right to grievance in the joy of this additional +data in support of her position. Had she not claimed that an answer to +prayer can be an answer and yet be calamitous too? + +"Exactly," said Hattie. "'The least of these into the fold.' But he +didn't say which fold!" + +Did not say which fold? To God who knows everything? For Mr. Glidden +meant his fold. Hattie, then, was right? + +The concepts of Emmy Lou, eight years old, a big girl now, moved on +again. Behind a smiling providence God hides a frowning face. And those +winging _billets-doux_, already weighted with caution and now heavy with +doubt, in the mind's eye faltered, hung, and came fluttering, drifting, +so many falling white doves, wings broken, down from the blue. + + + + +VII + +PINK TICKETS FOR TEXTS + + +THE walls of St. Simeon's conservatism had fallen. St. Simeon's, with +its arches above, its pews below, their latched doors, as it were, +symbolic, the Old Dispensation depicted in the window above its entrance +doors, and St. Paul, the apostle of the personal revelation, smitten to +his knees by light from Heaven, the figure of the window above its +chancel. Modern progressiveness, the battering-ram in the hands of +Willie Glidden, come up through the Sunday school himself but yesterday, +had assailed the defenses of an older generation successfully. + +Or so Uncle Charlie seemed to think as he repeated the news brought from +Sunday school by Aunt Louise and Emmy Lou. "Dr. Angell came into the +Sunday school room this morning and offered a rector's prize for pink +tickets earned for texts? Each child receiving a pink ticket for every +Sunday throughout the year to be thus rewarded? Willie Glidden has +goaded him to this." + +Mr. Glidden had goaded the rector of St. Simeon's to other things which +Emmy Lou, nearing nine years, had heard discussed at home. + +"Popular heads to my sermons for the newspapers and the bulletin board?" +it was reported that Dr. Angell had said indignantly. "Who but Glidden +wants notices in the papers or a bulletin board either? For forty years +I have sedulously refrained from being popular, and I'll not begin it +now." + +But he came to it, popular heads being furnished by him weekly, in a +dazed pother at finding himself doing it, but still doing it. + +"Prizes to encourage the Sunday school?" so report said his comment was +to this last proposition. "Pay the children of my church for doing their +duty?" + +But the report also said that he calmed down on grasping that the +proposition centered about texts. + +When Dr. Angell met the little people of his flock in the company of +their elders he addressed them much after the same fashion. "A big girl, +now!" or "Quite a little man!" he would say. "Old enough to be coming to +church every Sunday and profiting by service and sermon." + +"Sermon," said he, on occasion to a little boy who said he didn't like +sermons. "The sooner you realize and profit by the knowledge that life +is one unending sermon, sirrah, the better for you." + +Dr. Angell had gathered his own sermons into a book, as Aunt Cordelia +told proudly to strangers, a stout volume bound in cloth, with a golden +sun in a nimbus of rays stamped on the cover, entitled "Rays from the +Sun of Righteousness." + +And now, his attention caught and held by the word "text," since from +his viewpoint to every sermon its text, and possibly to every text its +sermon, he was offering a rector's prize for a year's quiver of pink +tickets, these being the visible show of as many correctly recited +texts. + +"Will you have Emmy Lou try?" Aunt Louise said to Aunt Cordelia. "We in +the Sunday school feel we should do all we can to support Mr. Glidden." + +But Aunt Cordelia needed no urging from Aunt Louise. She did not feel +that respect for the institutions introduced at St. Simeon's by Mr. +Glidden that Aunt Louise felt, and did not hesitate to say so. But +anything inaugurated by the rector of her church she did respect. + +"If Dr. Angell is offering the prize, certainly Emmy Lou will try. A +rector's, not a Willie Glidden prize, is a different thing. It will be +something for her to esteem and value all her life. I am sorry it is for +texts." Evidently the word had the same associations for Aunt Cordelia +that it had for Dr. Angell. "I have trouble enough as it is in making +her want to stay to church." + +Aunt Louise explained. "The prizes are for the weekly texts heading the +Sunday school lessons. They have no connection with church or the +sermon." + +"Well, maybe not," Aunt Cordelia conceded, "but if she is going to take +a prize from Dr. Angell for texts, and I shall see to it that she does, +it is no more than she ought to be willing to do, to listen cheerfully +to his sermons. I have been too lenient in excusing her from church." + +On this same Sunday afternoon Emmy Lou went around to talk the matter +over with Hattie, and found Sadie there. + +Emmy Lou and Hattie had been estranged, their first misunderstanding, +Emmy Lou, with St. Simeon's back of her, having taken one stand, and +Hattie another. + +Emmy Lou spoke of kneeling at her church to pray and standing to sing +and Hattie corrected her. "Who ever beard of such a thing? You mean +stand to pray and sit down to sing." + +Emmy Lou didn't mean anything of the kind and said so. + +Hattie faced her down. "Don't I go to church? Doesn't Sadie go?" turning +to this person as referee. "Don't we know?" + +Sadie was obliged to qualify her support. "We don't _stand_ to pray, we +lean our foreheads on the next pew." + +Emmy Lou refused to be coerced. "I don't stand to pray, or lean forward +either. I kneel down." + +"Then," said Hattie, "it must be because you are what my father calls a +bigoted Episcopalian, that you don't. Everybody else stands up or leans +forward." + +Emmy Lou had faced the chancel of her church for four years. "St. Paul +doesn't. He's kneeling above our chancel." + +"Then he must be a bigoted Episcopalian too," said Hattie with feeling, +and went home. + +But today Hattie and Sadie, if anything, were envious of Emmy Lou's +opportunity. A rector's prize! + +Hattie, to be sure, with the books of the Bible in her memory as were +David's pebbles in his scrip, once had felled the giant, Contest, and +won the banner for the girls over the boys at her Sunday school. For +which act of prowess her teacher had rewarded her with a little gold +pin. + +And Sadie had a workbox, a little affair complete, scissors, thimble, +and all, a recognition of faithfulness at large, from her Sunday school +teacher, the same delivered to her by the superintendent before the +assembled Sunday school. And as she pointed out, the calling of her name +and the walk up and down the aisle to receive the gift were no small +part of the reward. + +It did stagger them both that Emmy Lou should have to stay to church. +"Still," argued Hattie, "it will be worth it, a rector's prize. Though +why you don't say preacher!" + +"Or minister," said Sadie. + +"My brother once got a silver dollar for a prize that wasn't a dollar at +all but a watch made to look like a dollar," said Hattie. + +"But not from church," Sadie reminded her. + +"No, from the President Dollar Watch Company for guessing the pictures +of the presidents. But still it was a prize." + +Sadie could supplement this. "My mamma heard of a little girl who sold +tickets for a picnic and won a locket on a chain." + +Emmy Lou went home cheered. Aunt Cordelia had put the emphasis on the +texts whereas Hattie and Sadie had put it on the prize. + +"A silver dollar that wasn't a dollar but a watch, and a locket on a +chain," said Uncle Charlie, overhearing her tell about it. "Well, well!" + +A rector's prize should indeed be something worth the working for. +Fifty-two pink tickets standing for fifty-two correctly recited texts, +and attendance at church for fifty-two Sundays! + +For Aunt Cordelia was as good as her word. The next Sunday she and Uncle +Charlie on their road to St. Simeon's met Emmy Lou returning from Sunday +school. Hitherto on these weekly encounters it was a toss-up whether she +should be allowed to proceed, or must return to church. + +With Emmy Lou, face and eyes uplifted to Aunt Cordelia, mutely +interceding for herself, while Uncle Charlie articulately interceded for +her, it was a stand-off whether or not she should be required to go. And +when the worst happened and she must turn about and accompany Aunt +Cordelia, the propinquity of Uncle Charlie in the pew beside her had +helped her through. Until recently he had slipped smoothly rounded +peppermints banded in red from his vest pocket to her, or, the supply +running low, passed her his pencil and an envelope to amuse herself. But +she was a big girl now and Aunt Cordelia no longer permitted these +indulgences. + +"Sermons in pencils too, perhaps, Cordelia," Uncle Charlie pleaded, "and +good in peppermints." + +But in vain. "Charlie!" Aunt Cordelia but remonstrated, shocked. + +Nor was Emmy Lou to be excused today. Aunt Cordelia, plump and comely +in her furs and ample cloak and seemly bonnet, and Uncle Charlie in his +top-coat, gray trousers, silk hat, and natty cane, brought up short on +meeting her. Not that she, in a chinchilla coat suitable for the big +girl she was, and a gray plush hat, with her hair tied with scarlet +ribbons, had much hope herself. + +"I see you have your pink ticket in your hand, a good beginning," said +Aunt Cordelia. "I'm glad you walked to meet us. You can do so every +Sunday; the change and relaxation will do you good. Now, Charlie, not a +word. From now on, while she is trying for Dr. Angell's prize, she will +go back with us to church." + +Emmy Lou found herself there within a very few minutes, the +parallelograms of pews about her filled with the assembled congregation, +she in her place between Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Charlie. + +And at home, where she now would be had Aunt Cordelia relented, what? +Her children doomed to sit in a wooden row against the baseboard until +she arrived to release them. The new book, for Emmy Lou is reading now, +left where one begins to divine that the white cat in reality is a +beautiful lady. Also at home on Aunt Cordelia's table that Sunday +institution never forgotten by Uncle Charlie, the box of candy, from +whose serried layers Emmy Lou may take one piece in Aunt Cordelia's +absence. Furthermore at home the realm of the kitchen with its rites of +Sunday preparation, Aunt M'randy its priestess, and delectable odors and +savory steam arising from its altar, the cooking-stove. + +And in the stead for Emmy Lou a morning spent in church. Still she can +settle down and think of the prize which as reward for all this +faithfulness will be hers. Think of Hattie's gold pin, and Sadie's +work-basket, of the silver dollar which in reality was a watch, and the +locket on the chain. + +Aunt Cordelia touches Emmy Lou, and, brought to herself, she stands up. +Aunt Cordelia finds the place and hands her a prayer book. Church has +begun. + +Amid form without meaning, and symbol without clue, the mind of Emmy Lou +wanders again, this time to that puzzle, the adult, no less impenetrable +to the mind of nine than the shrouded mystery of ancient Egypt to the +adult. For adults, Aunt Cordelia for one, here beside her in the pew, +love to go to church. The proof? That they of their own volition, since +the adult acts of himself, are here. + +Aunt Cordelia touches Emmy Lou. She and Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Charlie +and the congregation of St. Simeon's, Hattie to the contrary, kneel +down. + +But the mind continues to wander. The adult is here because it wants to +be here, whereas Emmy Lou is here because Aunt Cordelia says she must +be. Her eyes, too, will travel ahead on the prayer book page to the +amen. What amen? Any and all, since amens wherever occurring signify the +end of the especial thing of the moment, whether said, sung or prayed. +The thought sustaining one being that, amen succeeding amen, the final +and valedictory one is bound to come in time. + +"Get up for the Venite," whispers Aunt Cordelia, and Emmy Lou who has +lost herself on her knees gets up, pink with the defection. Not that the +Venite has any significance to her which brings her to her feet, but +that to find herself in the wrong situation at church, or anywhere, is +embarrassing. + +This pitfall of ritual is called the service, though it might be worse +since the more service the less sermon. As nearly as Emmy Lou can grasp +it, at Hattie's church, beyond a sparse standing up to pray, and +sitting down to sing, it is all sermon. + +Aunt Cordelia has to speak to her by and by again: "Get up for the +Jubilate," Emmy Lou having lost herself during the second lesson. + +And yet? And yet? Can it be there is more in this business of church +than an Emmy Lou suspects? The congregation now going down on its knees +for that matter called the Litany, a tear presently splashes on the +glove of Aunt Cordelia kneeling beside Emmy Lou, her head bowed above +the big, cross-emblazoned prayer book that she always uses. + +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise wear white gloves or gray or brown as the +case may be, and feathers and flowers, and their dresses are varied and +cheery. But Aunt Cordelia still wears black in memory of Emmy Lou's +mother who went away when Emmy Lou was four. The tear falling on her +black glove and sliding off to the book makes a stain tinged with +purple from the kid. + +Then Emmy Lou remembers this is the anniversary of the day her mother +went forever, and understands why the prayer book in Aunt Cordelia's +hand is open at the flyleaf bearing the name of its first owner, Emily +Pope McLaurin. + +Are we nearer our dead at church? And being nearer, are we comforted? +For when Aunt Cordelia arises from her knees her face is happy. + +"The four hundred and ninety-fourth hymn," she whispers. "Find the +place." Then in refutation of Hattie, "Stand up." + +And Emmy Lou, finding the hymn for herself, stands up and with Aunt +Cordelia and Uncle Charlie and the congregation, sings heartily: + + "The Church's one foundation + Is Jesus Christ her Lord----" + +While the service thus drags its length along, the hymn which Emmy Lou +both can find for herself and can sing heartily being the only oasis in +the desert of her morning, there is worse ahead. Between two uprising +peaks of the amens, one of which is reached with the close of the hymn, +lies that valley of dry bones called the sermon. + +Dr. Angell is beginning it now. "'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a +light unto my path.'" + +This seems a reasonably clear and definite statement even to Emmy Lou, +not quite nine and slow to follow. But no. + +"The Psalmist was given to imagery, which is to say, was an Oriental," +begins Dr. Angell. And so one goes down with him into the valley of dry +bones. + +The mind wanders anew. How can it help wandering? Albert Eddie Dawkins +is across the church in a side pew with his big sister, Sarah. She has +decided that he shall try for a rector's prize too. He is low in his +mind about it, and said so to Emmy Lou coming out of Sunday school this +morning. + +Joe Kiffin made a proposition to him that he could not accept, Joe being +the big boy who drove the wagon and delivered for the Dawkins grocery. + +"He said he would take me and another boy this morning to a place where +we can get all the honey locusts we want. A place where the ground is +covered with 'em. But we both had to come to Sunday school and stay to +church, and Joe says we can't expect him to take us in the afternoon +when it's the only afternoon he's got. You know honey locusts?" + +Emmy Lou was compelled to admit that she did not. + +"Well," a little anxiously, "I don't either. But if I and the other boy +could have gone with Joe, I'd have found out." + +[Illustration: "With one pink ticket in hand, fifty-one yet to be +achieved for texts."] + +The other boy was at church too. By turning her head the least bit Emmy +Lou could see him. His name was Logan. But he wasn't trying for a prize. +He said they might make him stay to church--"they" meaning the grown +persons in the pew with him--but they couldn't make him try for pink +tickets, or walk up an aisle to get a prize he mightn't want anyway. + +Mightn't Logan want it? Was there any chance that Emmy Lou would not +want hers? Fifty-two--no, fifty-one--Sundays now to come, and with one +pink ticket in hand, fifty-one yet to be achieved for texts. + +Dr. Angell is ending his sermon. ". . . and so it comes that the words of +the Psalmist occurring in the liturgy of our service, are a lamp unto +our feet, and a light unto our path." And he and his congregation come +up out of the valley of dry bones. + +And yet? And yet? Emmy Lou's eyes, fixed on Dr. Angell, are registering +on the retina of her mind for all time a figure which for her shall be +a type, dominant in its attitude of beneficent authority, hands +outspread above its people, rumpled hair white, beard white, robes +white, a shaft of light from a common window into heaven shared with him +by St. Paul, the bigoted Episcopalian, searching him out where he +stands. + +As void of meaning to her, these gettings up and these sittings down, +these venites, jubilates, and amens, as the purpose of Dr. Angell in his +chancel. Yet who shall say at what moment Emmy Lou in her pew, +struggling along in the darkness though she is, shall sense the symbol +of the one, and behold in the other the office and the appointment? + +And the adult who is here of self-actuated volition? The Aunt Cordelia +ever in her place in the family pew? Emmy Lou's eyes turn to this +person, and behold, her face is touched as by a light, too, and her eyes +are shining. + +"Get up," she whispers as she herself arises, "it is the benediction." + +Uncle Charlie is jocular on the way home. "And what did you think of the +sermon?" he asks Emmy Lou. + +She does not know that he is jocular, nor that she too, unwittingly, is +the same in her reply. "I thought I understood the text until Dr. Angell +began to explain it, and then I lost it." + +Fifty-one more Sundays, fifty-one more sermons, fifty-one more texts +between Emmy Lou and her reward! The next Sunday and there would be +fifty, and the next forty-nine! + +As the weeks went by Emmy Lou discussed the prize with Aunt Cordelia, +and incidentally with Uncle Charlie who overheard the conversations. + +"When Albert Eddie's mamma won a prize for catechism in England where +she lived when she was little, it was tea to take home to her mother, +and a flannel petticoat for her grandma, and she cried." + +And again. "Sadie says it's an awful thing when your name is called, to +get up and walk up the aisle, but Hattie says that you don't mind it so +much if you keep thinking about the prize." + + * * * * * + +Papa came down once a month from his home city a hundred miles away, to +stay over Sunday and see Emmy Lou. "I was going to propose," he said on +one of these visits, "that the next time, you and Aunt Cordelia and +Uncle Charlie get on the train and come up to visit me. But it's no use, +I see." + +"Not until I get my prize," said Emmy Lou. "I have forty-one pink +tickets in Aunt Cordelia's bureau drawer, and today will make +forty-two." + +"I am almost sorry I let her try," Aunt Cordelia told her brother-in-law +and Uncle Charlie. "She begins to study the text for the next Sunday as +soon as she gets home on this." + +Aunt Louise, as the allotted Sunday drew near, brought home news of a +tiff between Dr. Angell and Mr. Glidden. + +"Mr. Glidden told Dr. Angell today that he had been looking over a +printed list of Sunday school prizes sent to superintendents, and had +noticed some excellent suggestions. Dr. Angell was ruffled and said, 'If +I'm fool enough to come to prizes, bribes for duty, I'm nevertheless +still capable of providing them.' I'm afraid he is getting old." + +"Old," retorted Uncle Charlie. "It's being goaded by Willie Glidden. +Drive even a saint too far and he will show his manhood." + +"Hattie's is a little pin," remarked Emmy Lou, even irrelevantly, "and +Sadie's is a workbox, and that other little girl's was a locket on a +chain." + +The morning of the fifty-third Sunday came. "I don't know which she is +the more, proud, or alarmed, at thought of walking up the aisle this +morning for her prize," said Aunt Cordelia after Emmy Lou left the +breakfast table. "There are only three children who have come through +successfully in the whole Sunday school, Charlie. A little girl named +Puggy Western, according to Emmy Lou, she herself, and Albert Eddie +Dawkins. Two of the three are thanks to Sarah and myself, if I do say +it." + + * * * * * + +The moment was come. The Sunday school--Bible Class, Big Room, and +Infant Class--was assembled. Mr. Glidden, with Dr. Angell beside him, +had arisen. + +"One at a time, Puggy Western, Emily Louise McLaurin, and Albert Edward +Dawkins come forward and receive their prizes." + +Puggy Western went up first, in a brand-new hat and coat for the +occasion, and came back. + +Emily Louise McLaurin went up next in a next-to-new coat and hat and +dress, and came back. + +Albert Edward Dawkins, in a new suit and his first high collar, went up +and came back. A hymn, and Sunday school was over, and all ages and +sizes crowded around the three to see their similar rewards. + + * * * * * + +When Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Charlie on their road to church met Emmy +Lou this morning, her eyes, like her late accumulation of tickets, were +pink. She to whom tears came hard and seldom had been crying. + +"And how about the prize?" asked Uncle Charlie. + +Emmy Lou, tears stoutly held back, handed it to him. He looked it over, +opened it, read her name in inscription within, then lifted his gaze to +her. + +"Well, I'll be doggoned!" + +"Charlie!" from Aunt Cordelia. + +"I surely will. The same to the other two?" + +Emmy Lou nodded. There are times when one cannot trust oneself to speak. + +And when Uncle Charlie handed back the volume stoutly bound in cloth, +stamped with a golden sun in a nimbus of rays, and bearing for title, +"Rays From the Sun of Righteousness," the nimbus surrounded, not a +golden sun, but a silver dollar held in place by Uncle Charlie's thumb. + +"A dollar that is only a dollar, and not a watch," he explained +regretfully. "But somewhere in the week ahead we may be able to overtake +a locket on a chain." Then to Aunt Cordelia, "I'll decide it this +morning, Cordelia. Emmy Lou is excused for today from anything further +in the nature of sermons." + +The next Sunday Albert Eddie Dawkins was absent from Sunday school. He +had run off, so his sister Maud explained, and could not be found. + +Emmy Lou heard more about it later on from Albert Eddie himself. She +also found out what a honey locust is, though she had had to wait a year +to do so. + +"I told Joe Kiffen if he'd take us to that honey locust place now, that +he said he would last year, I'd stay away from Sunday school. And he +did. And here's one for you." + +Emmy Lou took the pod and bit into it. As solace and recompense she +could have wished for something more delectable. + + + + +VIII + +STERN DAUGHTER OF THE VOICE OF GOD + + +HATTIE'S rule of life was simple, but severe. She set it forth for Emmy +Lou. "Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and you have to draw the line +between. And when you've chosen which side you're on, you have to stand +by your colors." + +She went on to diagram her meaning. "I heard my father tell my brothers +what it means to stand by your colors. He said they couldn't be too +careful in their associates. That now they've joined the League for the +Right they must show their faith by their works. You and I can't +associate with anyone who chooses the other side either. If Lisa Schmit +will go to Sunday picnics, she's wrong, and you and I have to show our +colors and tell her so." + +Emmy Lou hesitated at such consignment of Lisa to the limbo defined as +wrong, but Hattie said she didn't dare hesitate. She even showed a +disposition to take Emmy Lou's right of election into her keeping, +saying if she felt this way about it she'd speak for her. + +"No, we won't come into your game of prisoner's base," she told Lisa and +Yetta at recess; "we're going to have a game of our own." + +The contumely for the unfriendly act nevertheless fell on Emmy Lou who +knew them best. "She's getting to be stuck up," Lisa said bitterly to +her own group, with a jerk of her head toward Emmy Lou standing by +Hattie. "She won't play with Yetta and me any more because our papa +keeps a grocery." + +"No such thing!" said Hattie. "She won't play with you because you go to +picnics on Sunday." + +Was this true? Or was it because Hattie had told her she must not play +with them because they went to picnics on Sunday? + +Hattie called this bringing of Lisa and Yetta to judgment "drawing the +line." It was a painful process to the rejected. Lisa went off with her +face suffused and Yetta who followed her was crying. + +Next followed the case of Mittie Heinz whose mamma kept a little shop +for general notions, a stock that Emmy Lou never had been able to +identify, often as she had been there to buy needles or thread or +cambric for Aunt Cordelia. + +Mittie read her storybook on the steps of the shop on Sunday and Hattie +explained to her that this made it impossible to include her in a game +of catcher. + +"Right's right, and wrong's wrong," she said. "If we are going to draw +the line we have to draw it." + +"I read my books on Sunday," expostulated Emmy Lou, for Mittie's +startled face showed surprise as she turned away, and her eyes looked +reproach at Emmy Lou. + +"But they are books you get out of your Sunday school library, and don't +count anyway because you say you don't like them," from Hattie. + +This lamentable and unhappy knowledge of good and evil was forced on +Emmy Lou when in the ascending scale of years she simultaneously reached +her ninth birthday, the Fourth Reader, and the estate of bridesmaid to +Aunt Katie. + +Life from this eminence appeared broad-spread and beautiful, and +diversified by variant paths within the sweep of a far horizon until now +never suspected. But Hattie, youthful Virgil to her youthful Dante, +permitted personally conducted excursions only, and these along a +somewhat monotonous because strait and narrow path--all other roads, +whether devious or parallel, flower-bedecked or somber, ascending or +descending, leading but to questionable ends. + +The first travelers pointed out by Hattie as trudging these alien roads +were Lisa, Yetta, and Mittie, as has been shown. The second group +journeying on an upland, flowery way paralleling the strait and narrow +path in general direction, at least, were Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus. +Charming names! Enchanting figures! + +School opened early in September. Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus, who were +newcomers, were given desks across the aisle from Emmy Lou. Alice, +seeing her earnestly scrubbing her desk each morning before school and +arranging it for the day, laughed in her eyes. Amanthus, seeing her test +her pen and try her ink for the coming ordeal of copybook, laughed in +her dimple. And Rosalie, asking her what she was hunting on the +outspread page of her geography, laughed aloud when Emmy Lou replied +that it was Timbuctoo, and that she could find it easier if she knew +whether it was a country, or a mountain, or a river. On which they all +came across the aisle and hugged her. + +"You said in class that the plural of footnote was feetnotes," said +Rosalie. + +"You said, when the teacher held you down about the spelling in your +composition, that a dog didn't have fore-feet but four feet," said +Amanthus. + +"It's so funny and so dear," said Alice. + +"What?" asked Emmy Lou. + +"You," said Amanthus, and they all kissed her. + +"Come and see us," said Rosalie; "we're your neighbors now. We've moved +in the white house with the big yard on your square, and Alice, our +cousin, and her mother have come to live with us. We've never been to a +public school before. You live in a white house at the other end of the +square. We saw you in the yard." + +"I'll come this afternoon," said Emmy Lou, "and I'll bring Hattie. I'll +get her now so she'll know you." + +But Hattie declined to come. She shook her head decidedly. "They've +light dispositions and I've not. My mamma said so about some other +little girls I couldn't get along with. I don't want to come, and +besides I'm not sure I want to know them." + +Which would imply that light dispositions were undesirable apart from +Hattie's inability to get along with them! Hattie could be most +disturbing. + +Towards noon a sudden shower fell, and the class was told to remain in +its room for recess and eat its luncheons at its desks. + +Across the aisle on the other side of Emmy Lou sat Charlotte Wright. +She, too, had shown every disposition to be friendly but Hattie +discouraged this also. She leaned from her desk now. "Will you have a +piece of my homemade hickory-nut candy?" She spoke with pride. "My mamma +let me make it myself on the grate." + +On the grate? Why not in the kitchen on the stove? Still that was +Charlotte's own affair. More showy than tidy in her dress, she seemed +one of those detached and anxious little girls hunting for friends. The +kindly impulse was to respond to overtures, Emmy Lou knowing a past +where she had needed friends. And besides there was the candy. +Hickory-nut candy does not have to look tidy to look good. She had a +liberal lunch outspread on the napkin upon her desk, but she had no +candy. + +But Hattie leaving her desk and approaching, held her back. "No, she +won't have any candy," she said, and gathering up Emmy Lou's lunch in +the napkin and thus forcing her to follow, walked away. + +Whereupon Rosalie and Amanthus, arising and going around to Charlotte, +flung back their curls as they crowded into her desk, one on either side +of her, and _asked_ for a piece of her candy. + +"I don't say it wasn't hard to do," said Hattie, flushed and even +apologetic. "But I had to. She's not your kind, and she's not mine." + +Yet Rosalie and Amanthus were sharing Charlotte's desk and her candy. +Was she their kind? + +Hattie's voice had dropped and was even awe-struck as she explained. +"Charlotte's papa and her mamma don't live together. I heard my mother +and my aunt say so. She and her mother live in a boarding house next to +the confectionery." + +In a boarding house? Charlotte through necessity making her candy on a +grate, therefore, and not in the kitchen! And proof indeed that she was +not their kind, even to Emmy Lou, in a day when the home, however small, +was the measure of standing and the rule! + +Yet Alice has arisen and is looking across at Charlotte. Emmy Lou loves +Alice. Light disposition or not, she is drawn to her. Her hair is a pale +gold while the curls of her cousins are sunny, and her smile is in her +reflective eyes while theirs is in lip and dimple. Of the three she +loves Alice. Why? She has no idea why. Alice moves forward suddenly and +going around to Charlotte leans to her and kisses her. + +"Is Charlotte their kind?" Emmy Lou asks Hattie who also was watching. + +"Ask them; they ought to know," tersely. "We can't afford to care, even +if it does make us sorry. My father said people have to stand by their +colors." + +Later as school was dismissed and the class was filing out, Rosalie +called to Emmy Lou, "If you will go by for Charlotte, she says she will +come this afternoon, too." + +Emmy Lou went home disturbed. Charlotte's father and mother did not live +together, and because of this Charlotte was not their kind. + +Marriage then is not a fixed and static fact? As day and night, winter +and summer? Would she yet learn that the other family relations as +brother and sister, parent and child, are subject to repudiation and +readjustment, too? + +Emmy Lou was just through serving as bridesmaid for Aunt Katie, in a +filmy dress with a pink sash around what Uncle Charlie said was by +common consent and courtesy her waist, whatever his meaning by this, and +carrying a basket from which she earnestly scattered flowers up the +aisle of St. Simeon's in the path of the bride, and incidentally in the +path of Mr. Reade, the bridegroom, and had supposed she now knew +something about marriage. + +The sanction of St. Simeon's was upon the bride, crowned with the veil +and orange blossoms of her solemn dedication, or so the bridesmaid had +understood it. + + "Behold, whiles she before the altar stands, + Hearing the holy priest that to her speakes, + And blesseth her with his two happy hands!" + +Such in substance was the bridesmaid's understanding of it, if not in +just these words. + +To be sure the occasion held its disappointment. The concentration of +gifts upon the bride would argue that others shared with Emmy Lou a +sense of the inadequacy of the bridegroom in his inglorious black +clothes. + +There was a steel engraving above the mantel in the dining-room called +"The Cavalier's Wedding," at which Emmy Lou glanced again today as she +came in, and in which the bridegroom has a hat in his hand with a +feather which sweeps the ground, and wears a worthy lace-trimmed coat. + +At the dinner-table she repeated the news which had so dismayed and +astounded her. + +"There's a little girl in my class named Charlotte Wright whose papa and +mamma don't live together." + +"Dear, dear!" expostulated Aunt Cordelia, "I don't like you to be +hearing such things." + +This would seem to ratify Hattie's position. "Then I mustn't play with +her?" + +"Why, Emmy Lou, what a thing for you to say!" + +"Then I can play with her?" + +"The simple code of yea, yea, and nay, nay," said Uncle Charlie. + +"Charlie, be quiet." Then to Emmy Lou, "You mustn't pin me down so; I +will have to know more about it." + +"I fancy I know the case and the child," said Uncle Charlie. "The father +worked on my paper for a while, a fine young fellow with a big chance to +have made good." Then to Emmy Lou, "Uncle Charlie wants you to be as +nice to the little girl as you know how, for the sake of the father who +was that fine young fellow." + +Emmy Lou was glad to get her bearings. Hattie would be glad to get them +too. The status is fixed by a father and they could play with Charlotte. +One further item troubled. "What are light dispositions?" she inquired. + +"Leaven for the over-anxious ones," said Uncle Charlie. "If you meet +any, pin to them." + +Emmy Lou turned to Aunt Cordelia. "May I get Charlotte, then, and go to +see Alice Pulteney and Rosalie and Amanthus Maynard? They've just moved +on our square?" + +"Agree, Cordelia, agree," urged Uncle Charlie as he arose from the +table. "If we are to infer they have light dispositions, drive her to +see Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus." + +Emmy Lou started forth by and by. The shower of the morning was over and +the September afternoon was fresh and clear. It was heartening to feel +that she was standing by her colors, by Charlotte, and going to see her +new friends. + +The boarding house was unattractive and the vestibule where Emmy Lou +stood to ring the bell embarrassed her by its untidiness. As Charlotte +joined Emmy Lou at the door, her mother who had followed her halfway +down the stairs called after her. She was almost as pretty as Aunt +Katie, though she was in a draggled wrapper more showy than tidy, and +she seemed fretful and disposed to blame Charlotte on general +principles. + +"Now do remember when it's time to come home. Though why I should +expect anybody to remember in order to save me----" + +Rosalie and Alice and Amanthus were waiting at their gate and led them +in, not to the house, but across the clipped lawn gleaming in the +slanting light of the mid-afternoon, to a clump of shrubberies so old +and hoary that beneath their branches was the spaciousness of a room. +Here the ground was heaped with treasure, a lace scarf, some trailing +skirts, a velvet cape, slippers with spangled rosettes, feathers, fans, +what not? + +"I am the goose-girl waiting until the prince comes," said Amanthus. + +"I am the beggar-maid waiting for the king," said Rosalie. + +"I am the forester's foster-daughter lost in the woods until the prince +pursuing the milk-white doe finds her," said Alice. + +"Then in the twinkling of an eye our rags will be changed to splendor," +said Amanthus. "There is a skirt for everyone and a feather and a fan. +Who will you be?" to Emmy Lou and Charlotte. + +They were embarrassed. "I never heard of the goose-girl and the others," +said Emmy Lou. Nor had Charlotte. + +Dismay ensued and incredulous astonishment. + +A lady came strolling from the house across the lawn. She was tall and +fair, and as she drew near one saw that her smile was in her quiet eyes. +Emmy Lou felt promptly that she loved her. + +"Mother," cried Alice. + +"Cousin Adeline," cried Rosalie and Amanthus. + +"Emmy Lou and Charlotte never have heard of the goose-girl and the +beggar-maid----" + +"May we have the green and gold book that was yours when you were +little, to lend them?" + +Alice's mother, who was Mrs. Pulteney, smiled at the visitors. "And this +is Emmy Lou? And this is Charlotte? Certainly you may get the book to +lend them." + +Emmy Lou felt that one not only did well to love Mrs. Pulteney but might +go further and adore her. + +It was agreed that Charlotte should take the book first. She kept it two +days and brought it to Emmy Lou, her small, thin face alight. "I read it +in school and got a bad mark, but I've finished it. It all came right +for everybody." + +She left an overlooked bookmark between the leaves at the story of the +outcast little princess who went wandering into the world with her +mother. + +Emmy Lou in her turn finished the book. Charlotte got one thing out of +it and she got another. For Charlotte it all came right. Emmy Lou +entered its portals and the glory of understanding came upon her. +Looking back from this land which is that within the sweep of the far +horizon, to the old and baffling world left behind, all was made plain. + +Even as Hattie drew a line between those who are right and those who are +wrong, so a line is drawn between those who have entered this land of +the imagination and those who are left behind. One knew now why Alice +flits where others walk, why the hair of Amanthus gleams, why laughter +dwells in the cheek of Rosalie, why the face of Charlotte is +transfigured. And one realizes why she instinctively loves Mrs. +Pulteney. It is because she owned the green and gold book when she was +little! + +Emmy Lou also felt that she understood at last why Mr. Reade made so +poor a showing as a bridegroom. It is because while every goose-girl, +beggar-maid, princess or queen may be and indeed is a bride, there is +nothing less than a prince sanctioned for bridegroom, in any instance, +by the green and gold book! + +The glory of the green and gold book upon her, Emmy Lou went to Hattie. +But she declined the loan of it, saying she didn't believe in fairy +tales. She had not believed in Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus at first, +either, though she had accepted them now. + +Emmy Lou took this new worry home. "Hattie doesn't believe in fairy +tales." + +"She will," from Uncle Charlie confidently. + +"When?" + +"When she gets younger, with time, like us, or when she overtakes a +light disposition looking for an owner. But I wouldn't be hard on her. +Keep up heart and coax her along." + +Hard on Hattie? Her best friend? Coax her along? When were she and +Hattie apart? + +At Thanksgiving, Mrs. Maynard, the mother of Amanthus and Rosalie, a +close rival herself to Aunt Katie in prettiness, gave a party for her +two little daughters, a party calling for white dresses and sashes and +slippers. + +"Hattie doesn't want to go, but I've coaxed her," Emmy Lou reported at +home. + +"Doesn't want to go?" from Aunt Cordelia. "Why not?" + +"She says she hasn't got a disposition for white dresses and slippers, +she'd rather go to parties with candy-pulling and games." + +Christmas came, with a Christmas Eve pantomime at the theater, which was +given, so Uncle Charlie said, because so many of what he called the +stock company were English. + +Mrs. Pulteney gave a party to this pantomime for Alice and her friends, +and though Uncle Charlie had asked Emmy Lou to go with him, in the face +of this later invitation he withdrew his. + +"You may give our tickets to Hattie and Sadie if they are not already +going." + +Hattie had to be coaxed again. She said she didn't believe in theaters +and felt she had to stand by her colors. Her papa who chanced along at +the moment helped her decide. "There's such a thing as making a nuisance +of your colors," he said, and took the tickets for her from Emmy Lou. + +A dreadful thing happened at school the day before the Christmas +holidays. A little girl got mad at Alice. "We've all known something +about you and wouldn't tell it," she said, while the group about the two +stood aghast. "Your papa and your mamma don't live together, and that's +why you live with Rosalie and Amanthus. And it's true because it was all +in the paper." + +Emmy Lou hurried home all but weeping and told it. + +"Hush, my dear, hush," said Aunt Cordelia. "For the sake of Alice's +brave mother we must forget it. I hoped you would not hear it." + +Alice's brave mother? Now the status is fixed by a mother. Life is +perplexing. One must explain to Hattie. + + * * * * * + +The Christmas pantomime! Emmy Lou had been to the theater before. Aunt +Cordelia had taken her to see "Rip Van Winkle." + +"Uncle Charlie wants you to be able to say you have seen certain of the +great actors," she had said, but Emmy Lou did not grasp that she was +seeing the actor until it was explained to her afterward. She had no +idea that a great actor would be a poor, tottering old man, white-haired +and ragged, who brought tears to the onlooker as he lifted his hand to +his peering eyes, standing there bewildered upon the stage. + +Aunt Louise took her to another play called "The Two Orphans." She +understood this less. "The name on the program is _Henriette_. Why do +they call it 'Onriette'? Is it a cold in their heads?" She was cross and +spoke fretfully because she was bothered. + +But the pantomime! Christmas Eve, the theater brilliant with lights and +garlands, evergreens wreathing the box wherein she sat in her new +crimson dress with Alice, Rosalie, Amanthus, and Charlotte, and Mrs. +Pulteney just behind--fair and lovely Mrs. Pulteney who, like the mother +of Charlotte, did not live with her husband, though Emmy Lou is doing +her best to forget it. + +The lights go down, the curtain rises, the pantomime is beginning! + +Can it be so? Palace and garden, an open market-place, the public +fountain, the shops and dwellings of a town, and threading the space +thus set about, a crowding, circling throng, jugglers, giants, dwarfs, +fairies, a crutch-supported witch, a white-capped baker! It is the world +of the green and gold book! + +The goose-girl is here, about to put her teeth into an apple. The +beggar-maid and her king are recognized. A princess and a prince, +kissing their finger-tips to the boxes, are the center of the stage. + +No, _Harlequin_ in his parti-colored clothes with his dagger, whoever +_Harlequin_ may be, is that center, causing the baker at a touch to take +off his head and carry it under his arm, striking the apple from the +lips of the goose-girl, tipping the crown from the head of the prince, +twitching the scepter from the fingers of the princess. + +Clownery? Buffoonery? _Grotesquerie?_ Emmy Lou never suspects it if it +be. Rather it is life, which with the same perversity baffles the +single-hearted, bewilders the seeker, and juggles with and decapitates +the ideas even as _Harlequin_ dismembers the well-meaning and +unoffending baker. With this difference, that in the world Emmy Lou is +gazing on all will be made right before the end. + +The play moves on. Who are these who now are the center of the scene? +Emmy Lou has not met them before? Sad and lovely _Gabriella_ at her +wheel in her woodland cottage, in reality a princess stolen when in the +cradle, and _Bertram_ her husband, forester of the ignoble deeds, whose +hands have wrung the white doe's neck in wantonness. + +And who are these as the play moves on? _Florizel_, once high-hearted +prince, forced to dig in the nether world for gold to replace that +forever slipping through the unmended pocket of _Gonderiga_ his wife, +standing by, princess of the slovenly heart, who is no princess in truth +at all, but a goose-girl changed in the cradle. + +The play moves on to its close. The curtain falls, the lights come up, +the pantomime is over. + + * * * * * + +Hattie and Sadie joined the box party at the door of the theater and all +went home together on the street car. It was Christmas Eve and the +shops and streets were alight and crowded. As the car reached the +quieter sections the lights of the homes shone through the dusk. + +Charlotte left the car at her corner which was reached first, to go home +to her mother in the boarding house. Mrs. Pulteney and her group of +three said good-bye at the next corner. At the third, Hattie, Sadie, and +Emmy Lou got off together. + +Hattie detained the others ere they could go their separate ways. Her +voice was awed. + +"Maybe Charlotte's father was like _Florizel_, once high-hearted +prince----" + +Emmy Lou and Sadie gazed at Hattie. They caught the point. No wonder +Hattie was awed. + +"--and maybe Mrs. Pulteney is beautiful _Gabriella_----?" + + * * * * * + +That night after supper Emmy Lou paused before the picture of "The +Cavalier's Wedding." She was far from satisfied with Aunt Katie's +choice. + +"Why did Mr. Reade wear those black clothes?" she asked. + +"What are you talking about?" from Aunt Cordelia. + +But Uncle Charlie seemed to comprehend in part, at least. "Those were +the trappings and the suits of woe." + +"Woe?" + +"Certainly. He was the bridegroom." + + * * * * * + +Hattie came around the day after Christmas. Stern daughter of the voice +of God in general, today she was hesitant. "If you haven't returned that +book of fairy tales, I'll take it home and read it." + + + + +IX + +SO BUILD WE UP THE BEING THAT WE ARE + + +AUNT CORDELIA stood behind Emmy Lou who was seated at the piano with +"Selections From the Operas, for Beginners," open on the rack. She +paused in her counting. "Now try it again by yourself. You have to keep +time if you want harmony." + +Harmony? The mind of the performer dwelt on the word as she started over +again. What is harmony? + +Aunt Cordelia relaxing her attention for the moment turned to speak to +Uncle Charlie who was reading his paper by the droplight. "It's no easy +thing to bring up a child, Charlie." As it happened, she was not +referring to the practicing. "Louise thinks Emmy Lou ought to be +confirmed. She says now that she is eleven years old she surely ought to +know where she stands." + +It is no easy thing to be the child brought up either, as Emmy Lou on +the piano-stool could have rejoined. Life and Aunt Cordelia might perch +her on the stool but, as events were proving, that did not make her a +musician. Would going up the aisle of St. Simeon's to kneel at the rail, +she had watched the confirmation class for some years now, make her----? + +What was it supposed to make her? An Episcopalian? What is an +Episcopalian? Did she want to be one? Or did she want to be what Papa +is? + +"Repeat, repeat," said Aunt Cordelia behind her. "Don't you see the dots +at the end of the passage?" + +Emmy Lou repeated, came to the end of her selection, and, to the relief +of herself, at least, got down. She was thinking about Papa. + +She had gathered from somewhere that when Mamma after marriage left her +church and went with Papa to his church, there was feeling. + +Emmy Lou adored Papa. Aunt Cordelia had a brother and two sisters to go +with her to St. Simeon's. Surely there should be someone to go with +Papa? But where? What was he? + +Emmy Lou had asked this question outright a good while ago. Papa was +paying her a visit at the time. Unknown to her he had looked over her +head at Aunt Cordelia and laid a finger on his lips. Considering the +extent and the nature of his obligation to Aunt Cordelia, possibly his +idea was there must be no more feeling, though Emmy Lou could not know +this. + +Having thus communicated with Aunt Cordelia, he answered the question. +"Had my two grandfathers elected to be born on one side of the Tweed +and not the other, I probably would have been an Episcopalian," he said. + +"Tweedledee, in other words, instead of Tweedledum," said Uncle Charlie. + +All of which meant that Papa was not an Episcopalian. What was he? Emmy +Lou, eight years old then and eleven now, was still asking the question. + +At bedtime Aunt Cordelia spoke again about confirmation. "Think it over +for the rest of the week and then come tell me what you have decided." + +Emmy Lou was glad to be alone in bed. At eleven there is need for +constant adjustment and readjustment of the ideas and also for +pondering. The relations of one little girl to Heaven and of Heaven to +one little girl call for pondering. People assort themselves into +Episcopalians, Methodists, and the like. Rebecca Steinau is a Jew, Katie +O'Brien is a Dominican, Aunt M'randy in the kitchen is an +Afro-American, her insurance paper entitling her to one first-class +burial says so. Mr. Dawkins' brother is a Canadian; Maud and Albert +Eddie say their father sometimes is sorry he's not a Canadian, too. + +Is each of these assortments a religion? Or all the assortments +religion? Has God a special feeling about having Emmy Lou an +Episcopalian when Papa is something else? Is it not strange that He +never, never speaks? In which case she could ask Him and He would tell +her. + +When Emmy Lou arrived at the grammar school the next morning, for she is +thus far on the road of education now, Sadie and Hattie had something to +tell her. + +There is a pupil in the class this year named Lorelei Ritter. Emmy Lou +has heard it claimed by some that she can speak French, by others that +she speaks German. The fact is self-evident that she speaks English. +She is given to minding her own affairs and in other ways seems +sufficient to herself. Miss Amanda, the teacher, is pronouncedly cold to +her; they do not seem to get along. + +"Where is the Rio de la Plata River, and how does it flow?" Miss Amanda +asked her in the class only yesterday. + +Lorelei had hesitated a moment. She was plainly bothered. + +"I thought _Rio_ was river----?" she began, and stopped. Miss Amanda's +face was red. + +"Go to your seat," she said. + +For what? How had Lorelei offended? The class had no idea. + +Miss Amanda had shown steady disapproval of Lorelei before this, and +this morning Sadie and Hattie knew why. + +"A girl in a class upstairs told us," said Sadie. "Her name is Sally +White and she lives near Lorelei. She says Miss Amanda lives next door +to Lorelei and they play the piano at Lorelei's house all day Sunday +with the windows wide open." + +"Tunes," Sadie went on to qualify. "It isn't even as if it were hymns." + +"Or voluntaries," said Hattie. Voluntaries were permitted at Hattie's +church before service and Sadie did not approve of them. + +Sadie was continuing. "Sally said the neighbors sent word to the Ritters +that it was a thing a Christian neighborhood couldn't and wouldn't put +up with, but the Ritters go right on playing." + +This was more painful to Emmy Lou than Sadie could know. Papa who comes +to see her once a month keeps the piano open on Sunday, and plays what +Sadie and Hattie differentiate as "tunes" as opposed to hymns and +voluntaries, often as not dashing into what he explains to Uncle Charlie +is this or that from this or that new opera. + +He plays at any and all times on Sunday, dropping his paper or magazine +to stroll to the piano to pick and try, strum and hum, or jerking the +stool into place, to fall into sustained, and to Emmy Lou who herself is +still counting aloud, breathless and incredible performance. + +She is aware that Aunt Cordelia does not willingly consent to this use +of the piano on Sunday, and she also is aware of a definite stand taken +by Uncle Charlie in the matter, to which Aunt Cordelia reluctantly +yields. + +In the past Papa has been Papa, personality with no detail, accepted and +adored, just as Aunt Cordelia has been and is Aunt Cordelia, supreme and +undisputed. But now Papa's personality is beginning to have its details. +He still is Papa, but he is more. He is tall and slight and has quick, +clever hands, and impatient motions of the head, together with oddly +regardful, considering, debating eyes, fixed on their object through +rimmed eye-glasses. + +Papa is "brilliant," vague term appropriated from Uncle Charlie who says +so. If he were not a brilliant editor he would have been a brilliant +musician. Uncle Charlie says this also. + +And today at school Emmy Lou hears from Sadie that piano playing on +Sunday is a thing a Christian neighborhood can't and won't put up with! + +"Aren't the Ritters Christians?" she asked anxiously. + +"How can they be when they play all day Sunday?" Sadie returned. +"Lorelei told Sally that her father, Signor Ritter, was _Fra Diavolo_ in +an opera once. And Sally says they are proud of it and can't forget it. +Every one of the family plays on some instrument and they take Sunday +when they're all home to play _Fra Diavolo_ till the neighbors can't +stand it. Sally asked Lorelei what _Fra Diavolo_ means, and she said +Brother Devil." + +This again was information more painful to Emmy Lou than Sadie could +know. Papa on his visits, while dressing in the mornings, or later when +wandering about the house or running through the contents of some book +picked up from the table, breaks into song, palpably familiar and +favored song even if absently and disjointedly rendered. Emmy Lou has +heard it often as not on Sunday. Uncle Charlie in speaking of it once +said it was "in vogue"--another term appropriated by Emmy Lou--when Papa +was a young man studying in Paris. + +The song favored thus ended with up-flung and gayly defiant notes and +words that said and resaid with emphatic and triumphant finality, "_Fra +Diavolo_"! Though what the words meant Emmy Lou had no idea until now. + +"If the Ritters are not Christians, what are they?" she asked. + +Sadie had information about this. "Sally says the neighbors say they are +Bohemians." + +Unfortunately Emmy Lou has heard this term before, though she had not +grasped that it was a religion. Aunt Cordelia frequently worries over +Papa. + +"He's a regular Bohemian," she frets to Uncle Charlie. + +Before school was dismissed on this same Friday, there were other +worries for Emmy Lou. When in time she arrived home, full of chagrin, +Papa was there for his usual visit and wanted to hear about the chagrin +and its cause. + +Words are given out in class at grammar school, as Papa knows, to be +defined and illustrated by a sentence. One may be faithful to the +meaning as construed from the dictionary, and lose out in class too. + +"A girl in the class named Lorelei Ritter laughed at my sentence, and +then the rest laughed too." + +"What was the word?" inquired Papa. + +"Concomitant." + +"And what did you say?" + +"'A thing that accompanies.' He played the concomitant to her song." + +Uncle Charlie shouted, but Papa's laugh was a little rueful. "Poor +little mole working i' the dark. Will the light never break for her, +Charlie, do you suppose?" + +What did he mean, and why is he rueful? Is the trouble with her who +would give all she is or hopes to be in adoring offering to Papa? Can +he, even in the light of what she has heard today, be open to criticism? +Certainly not. Papa may be a Bohemian, and a Bohemian may not be a +Christian, but what he is that shall Emmy Lou be also. + +To decide is to act. Papa went down town after dinner with Uncle +Charlie, and Emmy Lou took her place at the piano. Ordinarily she is +loath to practice, going through the ordeal because Aunt Cordelia +requires it. But today she goes about it as a practical matter with a +definite purpose. + +Papa brought her the "Selections From the Operas" some while back, with +the remark that a little change from exercises to melody might introduce +cheer into a melancholy business all around. But so far this had not +been the result, "Selection No. 1--Sextette from Lucia," reducing her to +tears, and "Selection No. 2--I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls," +doing almost as much for Aunt Cordelia. + +But now that Emmy Lou had a purpose, the matter was different. There was +a table of contents to the "Selections From the Operas," and a certain +title therein had caught her eye in the past. Seated on the piano-stool, +leaning over the book on her lap, she passed her finger down the list. + +Selection 13. She thought so. She found the page and replaced the open +book upon the rack. _Fra Diavolo_. She set to work. What Papa is that +will she be also. + +She desisted by and by long enough to go and ask a question of Aunt +Cordelia. + +"If I were to be confirmed at St. Simeon's could I practice my +selections on Sunday?" + +"Practice them on Sunday?" Aunt Cordelia had enough trouble getting her +to practice on week-days to be outdone with the question. "Why do you +ask such a thing? You know you could not." + +That night Emmy Lou asked Papa a question a little falteringly: "Are you +a Bohemian?" + +"Instead, the veriest drudge you ever knew," he said. "There's too much +on me, making a living for us both, to be so glorious a thing." + +Then what was Papa? + +She went around to ask a question of Sadie the next morning. She had +been to Sadie's church often enough to know that she liked to go. The +prayers were long but the singing was frequent and hearty. No one need +mark the time at Sadie's church, the singing marking its own time warmly +and strongly until it seemed to swing and sway, and Sadie sang and Emmy +Lou sang and everybody sang, and Emmy Lou for one wasn't sure she did +not swing and sway too, and her heart was buoyant and warm. She loved +the songs at Sadie's church; what matter if she did not know what they +meant? + + "Oh, there's honey in the Rock, my brother, + There's honey in the Rock for you, + Leave your sins for the blood to cover, + There is honey in the Rock for you, for you." + +She could wish that Papa might be a Methodist. It hardly was likely, all +things considered, but one could make sure. + +"Would 'Selections From the Operas' be allowed by your church on +Sunday?" she asked Sadie. + +Sadie not only was horrified but, like Aunt Cordelia, was outdone. "Why, +Emily Louise McLaurin, you know they would not be!" she said +indignantly. + +Emmy Lou had no such desire for Papa to be a Presbyterian. She had been +with Hattie often enough to know that the emphasis is all on the sermon +there. Hattie knew her feeling and when inviting her to go put the +emphasis on the voluntary of which she was proud. + +This very Saturday afternoon she came around full of information and +enthusiasm. "Our soprano has done so well with her new teacher, he is +going to play our organ tomorrow by request and she is going to sing a +solo during the collection. I want you to come from Sunday school and +go." + +She had other news. "I asked Lorelei Ritter yesterday after school if +she was a Bohemian and she got mad. She said no, she wasn't, she was a +Bavarian." + +Aunt Louise spoke to Aunt Cordelia that night. "Emmy Lou must decide in +the next day or two if she is going to enter the confirmation class this +year; I have to report for her." + +The next day was Sunday, and Emmy Lou heard Papa humming and singing in +his room as he dressed, _Fra Diavolo_ the burden of it. + +The chimes at Sadie's church two squares away, were playing, + + "How beauteous are their feet + Who stand on Zion's hill, + Who bring salvation on their tongues + And words of peace reveal!" + +From afar the triple bells of St. Simeon's flung their call on the +morning air. Nor Methodist nor yet Episcopalian would be singing _Fra +Diavolo_ on Sunday morning as he dressed. What was Papa? + +What was he? As he and Emmy Lou went down the stairs together to +breakfast, she caught his hand to her cheek in a sudden passion of +adoring. What Papa was, she would be! + +She hurried from Sunday school around to Hattie's church on Swayne +Street. Hattie defended the absence of a bell by saying they didn't need +a bell to tell them when to go to church; they knew and went. + +It was a brick church, long built, and a trifle mossy as to its +foundations, discreet in its architecture, and well-kept. + +Hattie was waiting for Emmy Lou at the door. Her very hair-ribbons, a +serviceable brown, exact and orderly, seemed to stand for steadiness and +reliability in conviction. + +What did Emmy Lou's blue hair-ribbons stand for? Blue is true, and she +would be true to whatever the conviction of Papa. + +"The strange organist is going to play the voluntary too," Hattie +explained. "It's almost time for him to begin. Hurry." + +As they went in, she told another thing: "Lorelei and her mother are +here, sitting in a back pew." + +There were two points of cheer in the service at Hattie's church as Emmy +Lou saw it, the voluntary and the collection. She had referred to this +last as the offertory on a visit long ago, but never would make the +mistake again, so sharply had Hattie corrected her. + +Hardly were they settled in their places in the pew with Hattie's father +and mother, when a large man with black hair and shaggy brows made his +way to the organ in the loft behind the minister, and the voluntary +began. + +This the voluntary that along with hymns is advocated for Sundays? This +that stole over the keys hunting the melody, to find it here and lose +it there, with a promise that baffled and a familiarity which eluded, to +overtake it at length and proffer it in high and challenging measure +that said gayly and triumphantly above the thunderous beat supporting +it, in all but words, _Fra Diavolo_! + +Hattie's face was shining! And the faces of her mother, of her father, +and of the congregation around, radiated approval and satisfaction! + +And in time the soprano of Hattie's church arose in the loft above the +minister, supported by the choir. It was the collection. + +It was more. It was "Selection No. 1--Sextette from Lucia"! Though the +words did not say so! + +Hattie, then, had not been blaming Lorelei but defending her? It was +Sadie who disapproved of voluntaries and Lorelei? + +Emmy Lou with heightened color, resolute face, and blue bows, arrived +at home. She went straight to Papa just returned from Uncle Charlie's +office and strumming on the piano. + +"You're a Presbyterian," she said. + +"It sounds like an indictment," said Uncle Charlie. "But he will have to +own up. Admit your guilt, Alec. How did you find it out?" + +"Presbyterians play and sing 'Selections From the Operas' on Sunday, and +so does he." + +"You look ruffled, Alec," from Uncle Charlie, "But so does someone else. +Your cheeks are hot," to Emmy Lou. "Something else is disturbing; out +with it." + +"The girl named Lorelei Ritter who laughed at me Friday in class was at +church and spoke to me coming out." + +"What did she say?" + +"She said did I know it was her father who played the concomitant to the +soprano's song?" + +"Invite her round, and urge her to be friendly," begged Uncle Charlie +when he stopped shouting. "We need her badly. Besides I'm sure I'd like +to know her." + +Aunt Cordelia came downstairs that night after seeing Emmy Lou to bed. +"Whatever is to be done with the child? Has she talked to you, Alec? She +says she can't be confirmed because she is going to be a Presbyterian. +And then she cried bitterly. They stand up to pray and sit down to sing, +she told me desperately. That if it was right--which it wasn't, of +course,--she'd wish people didn't have to be Episcopalians or Bohemians +or Presbyterians, but just Christians. I told her I thought we would +drop the question of confirmation until next year." + + + + +X + +SO TRUTH BE IN THE FIELD + + +A YEAR later Sarah, the sister of Albert Eddie Dawkins, saw him through +the six weeks of the confirmation class, up the aisle of St. Simeon's +and confirmed. The next day she started to England to visit her mother's +people who had prospered. + +"In a way I can feel he is safe now," she said to Aunt Louise at Sunday +school on the day of his confirmation. "I wasn't easy about him before, +if he is my brother. If he'll only go ahead now, he'll do." + +Aunt Cordelia saw Emmy Lou through the same class of preparation, up the +aisle and confirmed, and then came home and had a hearty cry. She who +always claimed she was too busy seeing to meals, the house, and those +within it, to give way! + +"I am sure she is where her mother would have her," she said to Aunt +Louise through her tears. "And her father would not hear to the +alternative when I offered to discuss it. If only I can feel that in +time she will be _what_ her mother would have her!" + +This seemed to put the odium on Emmy Lou in the event of failure. She +would be thirteen years old in another month, her cheek-line was +changing from round to oval, she was preparing for the high school, and +her waist, according to Miss Anna Williams, the seamstress who made her +confirmation dress, is coming round to be a waist. + +She looked in distress at Aunt Cordelia who was drying her eyes in vain +since the tears were continuing, and who seemed far from reassured that +she will be what her mother would have her. There was nothing for it in +the face of the implication but for Emmy Lou to throw herself into Aunt +Cordelia's lap and cry too. After which the atmosphere cleared, the +normal was resumed, and everybody felt better. + +Sarah, who spoke with more flattering certainty about the future of +Albert Eddie, wore her hair coiled on her head now, and her skirts were +long. Capable, dependable, and to the point as ever, she was a young +lady. + +When Aunt Cordelia, accompanied by Emmy Lou, went to do her marketing +the Saturday before Sarah left for England, her mother called her down +to say good-bye. + +"It's a long journey for you at eighteen, Sarah," said Aunt Cordelia, +"and we will be glad when we hear you have reached its end safely." + +"I can trust Sarah; I always could," said her mother. "If anything goes +wrong she'll just have to remember what her grandmother, my mother, used +to say to her when she was a wee 'un, and prone to fret when matters +snarled and she found she couldn't right 'em, 'When you get to wit's end +you'll always find God lives there.'" + +Aunt Cordelia shook hands with Sarah, but Emily Louise, as many persons +now called her, went up on her toes and kissed her. + +"You must ask the prayers of the church for the preservation of all who +travel by land and by water," Aunt Cordelia said to Mrs. Dawkins, "and +we ourselves must remember her in our prayers. We will miss you, Sarah, +in the singing of the hymns on special days and Wednesday evenings when +we haven't a choir. I'm glad you went to the organist and had those +lessons. A fresh young voice, sweet and strong and sure, like yours, can +give great comfort and pleasure." + +Hattie was a member of her church now, and Sadie of hers. Rosalie, +Alice, and Amanthus were making ready for confirmation at St. Philip's +which was high church. All had gone their ways, each to the portal of +her own persuasion, as it were, and knocked and said, "I am informed +that by this gate is the way thither." + +And in answer the gate which is the way thither, according to the +understanding of each, had opened and taken the suppliant in and closed +behind her. + +Which, then, is the gate? And which the way? Each and all so sure? + +Time was, before the eyes of Emmy Lou were opened, when she supposed +there was but one way. She even had pictured it, sweet and winding and +always upward. + +This was at a time when Sarah gathering Maud and Albert Eddie and Emmy +Lou around her in the sitting-room above the grocery, about the hob, +which is to say the grate, sang them hymns. It was from one of these +hymns that Emmy Lou had pictured the way. + + By cool Siloam's shady rill + How fair the lily grows, + How sweet the breath beneath the hill + Of Sharon's dewy rose. + +According to Sarah's hymns there were two classes of travelers on this +sweet and goodly way. + + Children of the Heavenly King, + As ye journey sweetly sing! + +These Emmy Lou conceived of first. Later she saw others of whom Sarah +sang, less buoyant, less tripping, but with upturned faces no less +expectant. + + And laden souls by thousands meekly stealing + Kind Shepherd turn their weary steps to Thee. + +Emmy Lou listening to Sarah's hymns even saw these welcomed. + + Angels of Jesus, + Angels of light, + Singing to welcome + The pilgrims of the night. + +But that was time ago. There is no one and common road whose dust as it +nears Heaven is gold and its pavement stars. Each knocks at the portal +of his own persuasion and says, "I am informed that by this gate is the +way thither." + +But Albert Eddie, having entered his portal, was in doubt. "What is it +she wants me to do now I'm in?" he said to Emmy Lou, by "she" meaning +Sarah, and by "in," the church of his adoption. His question began in a +husky mutter of desperation and ended in a high treble of exasperation. +Or was it merely that his voice was uncertain? + +For to each age its phenomena, as inevitable as inexplicable. Albert +Eddie's voice these days was undependable. Emmy Lou felt an +uncharacteristic proneness to tears. Rosalie said it would be wisdom +teeth next for everybody all round. + +But if Albert Eddie seemed baffled and hazy as to what his duties were +following confirmation, Aunt Louise left no doubt with Emmy Lou. The +confirmation had been in May, and now a week later lawns were green and +lilacs and snowballs in bloom. + +"Now that you are a member of the church you can't begin too soon to +take your place and do your part," Aunt Louise told her. "The lawn fźte +is Thursday night on the Goodwins' lawn. I am going to give you ten +tickets to sell, and send ten by you to Albert Eddie since Sarah is not +here to give them to him." + +Emmy Lou took the tickets prepared to do the best she could. She had had +experience with them before. It is only your friends who take them of +you, as a necessity and a matter of course, a recognized and expected +tax on friendship, as it were. + +Associates who are not intimates decline. One named Lettie Grierson, in +declining Emmy Lou's tickets now, voiced it all. + +"Why should I buy tickets from you? You never bought any from me." + +Hattie took one and said she'd go home and get the money and bring it +round. + +When she arrived that afternoon she brought a message from home with the +money. "Mamma says to tell you our church is going to have a lecture on +the Holy Land on the twenty-fifth." + +Sadie was present, having come to pay for her ticket. "Our Sunday school +is going to have a boat excursion up the river in June. The tickets will +be twenty-five cents," she told Emmy Lou. + +Rosalie arrived a bit later with the money for her ticket. "Alice and +Amanthus can't go. They went to Lettie Grierson's church concert last +week and I didn't. I can go if I may come and go with you from your +house." + +These three tickets thus disposed of, Emmy Lou's own, and the three +taken by Uncle Charlie for the rest of the household made a fairly +creditable showing. + +Albert Eddie had less luck. Maud, his sister, so he explained, had been +ahead of him, and wherever he might have gone, she had been. + +"Joe Kiffin, our driver, took one, though he won't go, and the other one +I've sold is for myself." + +He seemed worried. "I tried," he said. "I promised Sarah I'd try every +time it was put up to me." + +It was arranged that not only Rosalie but Hattie and Sadie should come +and go with Emmy Lou. When they arrived, on the day, about five o'clock, +each had her ticket and her money. + +A lawn fźte for the church is no unmercenary matter. Your ticket only +admits you to the lantern-hung grounds, which is enough for you to +expect, and once within you have to buy your supper. That it is paid for +and eaten largely by those whose homes have donated it has nothing to do +with the matter, Aunt Cordelia having been notified that her +contribution would be beaten biscuit, a freezer of ice-cream and +chickens. + +In this case there must be carfare also, the Goodwins and their lawn +being half an hour's ride by street car from the center of things. + +Aunt Cordelia came to the door with Emmy Lou to meet the three. "Go +ahead," she said. "Louise is already there and will look after you. Eat +your suppers when you prefer. Charlie and I will come later and bring +you home." + +The four found Albert Eddie at the corner waiting for the car. His hair +was very, very smooth, and his Sunday suit was spick and span as if +Sarah were home to see to it instead of well on her way to England, her +rules and regulations evidently being of a nature to stay by one. + +Perhaps it was an ordeal for Albert Eddie to have four girls descend on +him, for he turned red and cleared his throat as though forced into +declaring himself in maintaining his ground. Emmy Lou was his friend, +and ignoring the others he addressed her. + +"Maud went ahead with some friends of her own," he explained. "She said +they wouldn't want me." + +The obvious thing was to ask him to go with them. Had Emily Louise been +speaking for herself alone, she would have done so, Albert Eddie being +her friend and going to her Sunday school. On the other hand, his father +kept a grocery at the corner just passed, and lived over it with his +family. He wasn't the friend of her three companions and he didn't go +to their Sunday school. Emily Louise understood many things which Emmy +Lou wot not of. Would they want him? + +Verging' on thirteen, one has heard this nature of thing and its +distinctions discussed at home. + +Aunt Louise objected to certain associates of Emily Louise not long ago. +"It's why I am and always have been opposed to the public school for +her. She picks up with every class and condition." + +"And why I have opposed your opposition," returned Uncle Charlie, "since +it is her best chance in life to know every class and condition." + +"I'm sure I don't know why she should," Aunt Louise had said. + +"An argument in itself in that you _don't_ know," from Uncle Charlie. + +Fortunately for Emily Louise in the present case of Albert Eddie, twelve +verging on thirteen was yet democratic. "We'll all go together," said +Hattie as a matter of course, and the others agreed. + +Hattie, as ever, was marshal and spokesman. They boarded the car and sat +down. "Fifty cents all around to begin with," she stated after fares +were paid and the common wealth displayed. "Five cents put in for +carfare. Forty-five cents left all around. Five cents to come home on, +five cents to spend, and thirty-five cents for supper just makes it." + +Church creeds and nomenclatures may vary but the laws of church fźtes +and fairs are the same. As the five left the car and approached the +Goodwins' home, Whitney and Logan were patrolling the sidewalk outside +the gate and the lantern-hung yard from whence arose the hustle and +chatter of the lawn fźte. + +Logan wore a baker's cap and carried a tray hung from his neck and piled +with his wares, which a placard set there among proclaimed to be +"Homemade Caramel Taffy, Five a Bag." Whitney was assisting Logan to +dispose of his wares. + +The two stopped the five. "We haven't a show against the girls on the +inside to sell anything," they said. "Buy from us." + +"Five cents for a bag all around and forty cents left, five cents to get +home and thirty-five cents for supper," from Hattie the calculator, who +liked to keep things clear. + +Five bags were being exchanged for five cents all around when an elderly +gentleman came along. Negotiations with the five being held up while he +was pressed to buy candy, he brusquely replied that he had no change. + +Neither had Logan or Whitney, business having been brisker than they +admitted. But they did not let that deter them from cornering the +gentleman into a showdown. Nor did a two-dollar bill, when produced, +bother them. + +Whitney had heard the financial status of the five just outlined by +Hattie, and did some creditable calculating himself. Like Hattie he was +good at figures. + +"You have five forties between you," he said. "You take the bill and let +us have the change. You'll get it fixed all right when you get your +suppers." + +The party of five was loath but saw no way out of it. Held up, as it +were, they reluctantly gave over their forty cents around and pinned +their gazes anxiously on the two-dollar bill in the hand of the elderly +gentleman. + +He seemed no better pleased than they, showing indeed a degree of temper +unbecoming under the circumstances and using language somewhat heated +for a church fair. + +"What in heaven's name do I want with caramel taffy without a tooth in +my head that's my own?" + +He thrust the bill at Albert Eddie who took it hastily, and the five +moved on. + +"Who was it?" Sadie asked Emmy Lou and Albert Eddie, since this was +their lawn fźte. "He's coming in the gate behind us. Do you know?" + +Unfortunately they did. It seemed to detract from that cordiality of +welcome they would prefer to associate with their lawn fźte. + +"It's Mr. Goodwin," Emily Louise told them. "It's his house and yard. He +must just be getting home." + +One's friends are loyal. Hattie covered the silence. "His wife must have +said they could have it here before she asked him. I've known it to +happen so before." + +"We'll go get our suppers," said Albert Eddie anxiously. "That way we'll +each get our carfare back and it'll be off our minds." + +They found Emmy Lou's Aunt Louise under a grape-arbor, dishing ice-cream +from a freezer into saucers on the ground around it. A great many +things are in order at a church fźte that would not be tolerated at +home. + +"Go get your suppers," she said to the group. "I'm busy and will be; +don't depend on me for anything." + +The party of five took their places about a table a few moments after. +Two of them were familiar figures in the Big Room at St. Simeon's Sunday +school. The three young ladies who rushed up, tray in hand, to wait on +them, were far, far older--eminent representatives of that superior +caste of St. Simeon's Sunday school, the Bible Class. + +It was a friendly rivalry that was on among the three, each waitress of +the evening endeavoring in her earnings to outstrip and eclipse all +other waitresses and so carry off the glory of the occasion. In the +present instance the swiss apron and cap with the yellow ribbons won +out, and the other two waitresses withdrew with laughter and +recrimination of a vigorous nature, leaving the party of five +overwhelmed by the notice from the surrounding tables and the publicity +thus brought upon them. + +The wearer of the swiss apron with the yellow ribbons was an arch and +easy person, overwhelming her five charges further with offhand and +jocose remarks indicative of condescension as she brought five suppers, +substantial, lemonade, ice cream and cake, put them down, and, as it +were, got through with it. + +Even to the payment. And as Albert Eddie produced a two-dollar bill and +she took it, she was easily, superlatively, meaningly arch as she said, + +"We don't give change at church fairs to gentlemen." + + * * * * * + +Uncle Charlie, with Aunt Cordelia, taking the party home, paid +everyone's carfare but Albert Eddie's. When the time came for leaving +he could not be found. + +"We lost him right after supper," Hattie explained. + +"As soon as he heard us say you were coming to get us," from Emmy Lou. + +"He didn't eat any supper, just pretended to," from Sadie. "He was +trying not to cry." + +"Sadie!" from Rosalie. + +"We never, never should tell it if he was," from Hattie. + +"Logan and Whitney said he left early," said Rosalie, "that he told them +he would have to walk home." + +Uncle Charlie deposited the members of the party at their several homes +and then, being the editor of a newspaper, went back downtown. + +Emmy Lou, oftener than she could enumerate, had waked in the past to +hear him on his return in the late, or, to be exact, the early hours, +stop at Aunt Cordelia's door with news that the world would hear the +next morning. + +She waked at his return tonight. He did more than tap at Aunt Cordelia's +door, he went in. Hearing Aunt Cordelia cry out at his words, Emmy Lou +went hurriedly pattering in from her adjoining room. As she entered, the +door on the opposite side of the room opened and Aunt Louise came in, +slipping on her bedroom wrapper. + +The light was on and Aunt Cordelia was sitting up in bed with tears +running unrestrainedly down her face. + +Uncle Charlie, about to explain to Aunt Louise, looked at Emmy Lou and +hesitated. + +"No, go on," Aunt Cordelia told him. "She is a big girl and must hear +these things from now on with the rest of us." + +Uncle Charlie, reflective for a moment, seemed to conclude she was right +and went on. + +"The ship on which Sarah Dawkins crossed foundered on the rocks off the +Irish coast in a heavy sea this morning and went to pieces against the +cliffs in the sight of shore. The dispatches report only three persons +saved, and tell of a cook who went about with pots of coffee, and of a +girl named Sarah Dawkins who gathered some children about her and whose +voice could be clearly heard by those on shore in the lulls of the storm +singing hymns to them to the end." + +Something happened to Uncle Charlie's voice. After finding it he went +on. "I hurried right home. It's past twelve, Cordelia, but don't you +think you had better dress and let me take you up to Mrs. Dawkins at +once?" + +Emmy Lou crept into Aunt Cordelia's bed as Uncle Charlie went out and +Aunt Cordelia got up and began to dress hastily. + +Strange tremors were seizing Emmy Lou, but she must not weep, must not +detain or distract Aunt Cordelia. She was a big girl and must hear and +bear these things now with the rest. + +"The child, the poor, poor child, alone on that great ship without kith +or kin!" said Aunt Cordelia as she fastened her collar, still weeping. +Then she came and kissed Emmy Lou. + +"I may be gone some time. Stay where you are and I'll leave the light." + +Did the tears come before or after Aunt Louise kissed and soothed her +and then went back to bed? Emmy Lou rather thought they came after she +was gone. And after the tumult of tears had spent themselves? + +A picture arose in her mind, unbidden and unexpected, of Albert Eddie, +hurt, mortified, and outraged, walking home block after block from the +lawn fźte because church fairs do not give any change. + +"What is it she wants me to do now I'm in?" he had asked following his +confirmation. + +And what was it that Sarah did want of Albert Eddie? Sarah who saw him +confirmed and left next day? Sarah assembling the children on the ship +and singing hymns to them to the end? + +And suddenly Emmy Lou, twelve years old verging on thirteen, saw for the +first time! + +Sarah dependably mixing the Saturday baking in the crock, Sarah looking +after her younger sister and brother as best she knew how, Sarah singing +hymns to them sitting about the hob, which is the grate, was being made +into that Sarah who could gather the children about her on the sinking +ship and sing to them to the end. Not Sarah mixing the baking in the +crock, but Sarah _dependably_ mixing the baking in the crock. Herein +came the light. + +And all the while Emmy Lou had thought the digit on the slate in its day +was the thing, and later the copybook, and only yesterday, the +conjugation of the verb. Whereas Sarah now had shown her what nor home, +nor school, nor Sunday school, nor confirmation class had made her see, +that the faithfulness with which the digit is put on the slate, the +script in the copybook, and the conjugation of the verb on the tablets +of the mind, is the education and the thing! + +This, then, is the gate? This the way that leads thither? The sweet and +common road along which the children of the Heavenly King are +journeying? Faithful little Sister from the alley of so long ago, gentle +and loving Izzy of that same far-gone day, Hattie helping a schoolmate +comrade over the hard places? This is the road whereon those older, +laden souls are stealing? The road, if once gained by the pilgrim, +whether he be Episcopalian, Bohemian, Presbyterian, or Afro-American, on +which he will go straight onward. The path where, like bells at evening +pealing, the voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea. + +Sea? Prayers of the church were asked that Sarah be preserved from the +perils of land and water! And Sarah was lost! + +Lost? Was Sarah lost? + +"We'll miss your voice, so sweet and strong and true, in the hymns," +Aunt Cordelia had told Sarah. + +Would her voice be missed? Her voice singing to the children to the end? +It came with a flash of sudden comprehension to Emmy Lou, lying there in +Aunt Cordelia's big bed waiting for her return, that Sarah's voice would +not be missed but heard forever, singing hymns to the end to those +little children of the King. + +"What does she want me to do now I'm in?" asked Albert Eddie. Sarah had +answered him. Make himself ready for whatsoever part should be his. + +"The child, the poor, poor child, alone on that great ship without kith +or kin!" Aunt Cordelia had said, weeping. + +Was she thus alone? "When you get to wit's end you will always find God +lives there," her grandmother had told her when she was a wee 'un. Had +not Sarah given proof that when she got to wit's end God did live there? + +Emmy Lou was weeping no longer. She lay still. A wonder and an awe +suffused her. To the far horizon the landscape of life was irradiated. +She was tranquil. The Silence had spoken at last. + + * * * * * + +Aunt Louise remarked to Aunt Cordelia a few days later, "Did I tell you +that we made a hundred and fifty dollars at the lawn fźte?" + +"By fair means or foul?" asked Uncle Charlie, overhearing. "I must say, +Louise, in the name of the church I stand for, I don't like your +methods." + +Perhaps Uncle Charlie and Emily Louise were seeing the same thing, +Albert Eddie, hurt, mortified, and outraged, walking home in the night +because St. Simeon's lawn fźte didn't give change to gentlemen. + +Aunt Cordelia spoke after Emmy Lou went up to bed. "She brought home her +report of the final examinations from school today. She got through!" + +"By the skin of her teeth as usual?" from Uncle Charlie. + +"Just that. She works so hard to so little end, Charlie. I don't +understand it. But at least she is always faithful." + + Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so: + Some said, It might do good; others said, No. + --_The Pilgrim's Progress._ + + + + + "_The Books You Like to Read + at the Price You Like to Pay_" + + + _There Are Two Sides + to Everything_-- + +--including the wrapper which covers every Grosset & Dunlap book. When +you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected +list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent +writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset & +Dunlap book wrapper. + +You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from--books for +every mood and every taste and every pocketbook. + +_Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to +the publishers for a complete catalog._ + + _There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book + for every mood and for every taste_ + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Repeated chapter titles were removed. Text uses both "Heaven" and +"heaven," "Sally" and "Sallie." Text uses the archaic spelling of +"strait" for "straight." + +Page 125, "diagramed" changed to "diagrammed" (Bob diagrammed) + +Page 170, "nebulae" changed to "nebulę" (of nebulę for support) + +Page 292, "thereamong" changed to "there among" (placard set there +among) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Emmy Lou's Road to Grace, by George Madden Martin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE *** + +***** This file should be named 38553-8.txt or 38553-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/5/5/38553/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Kentuckiana Digital Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Emmy Lou's Road to Grace + Being a Little Pilgrim's Progress + +Author: George Madden Martin + +Illustrator: G. A. Harker + +Release Date: January 11, 2012 [EBook #38553] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Kentuckiana Digital Library) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> + +<h1>EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE</h1> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 388px;"> +<img src="images/ill-003.jpg" width="388" height="600" alt=""'Its name,' said Miss Eustasia severely, 'is the Highland Fling.'"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'Its name,' said Miss Eustasia severely, 'is the Highland Fling.'"</span> + +<div class='ref'><br />[<a href="#Page_152">PAGE 152</a>]</div> +</div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> +<div class='bbox'> +<h1><span class='big'>EMMY LOU'S</span><br /> + +ROAD TO GRACE<br /></h1> + +<div class='center'> +<i>BEING A LITTLE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS</i><br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +BY<br /> + +<span class='author'>GEORGE MADDEN MARTIN</span><br /> + +<span class='small'>AUTHOR OF EMMY LOU, <span class="smcap">Etc.</span></span> +<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class='poem'> +<i>What danger is the pilgrim in!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How many are his foes!</span><br /> +How many ways there are to sin<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No living mortal knows.</span></i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">—<span class="smcap">The Pilgrim's Progress</span></span><br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 142px;"> +<img src="images/emblem.png" width="142" height="57" alt="Emblem" title="" /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class='center'> +GROSSET & DUNLAP<br /> +<span class='small'>PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</span><br /> +<br /></div></div> +<div class='center'><span class='small'>Made in the United States of America</span><br /></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + + +<div class='copyright'> +<span class="smcap">Copyright 1916, by</span><br /> +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br /> +Printed in the United States of America<br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<span class='small'>TO</span><br /> +<span class='small'>THAT HOSTAGE GIVEN TO THE FUTURE</span><br /> +THE AMERICAN CHILD<br /> +</div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Some</span> years ago a collection of short stories under +the title, "Emmy Lou: Her Book And Heart," was +offered to the American public as a plea for and a +defense of the child as affected by the then prevailing +stupidity of the public schools.</p> + +<p>The present series of stories is written to show +that the same conditions which in the school make for +confusion in the child's mind, exist in the home, +in the Sunday school and in all its earlier points of +contact with life; the child who presents itself at +six or even at five, to the school and teacher, being +already well on the way in the school of life, and +its habits of mind established.</p> + +<p>It is the contention of these new stories that +the child comes single-minded to the experience of +life. That it brings to this experience a fundamental, +if limited, conception of ethics, justice, consistency +and obligation. That it is the possessor of +an innate conscience that teaches it to differentiate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +between right and wrong, and that the failure to +find an agreement between ethics and experience confronts +the child long before its entrance at school.</p> + +<p>Not only do its conceptions fail to square with +life as it finds it, but the practices and habits of +the persons it looks up to fail to square with what +these elders claim for life. Further, the child meets +with an innate stupidity on the part of its elders +that school cannot surpass, a stupidity which assumes +knowledge on the child's part that it cannot +possibly have.</p> + +<p>These conditions make for confusion in the child's +mind, and a consequent impairment of its reasoning +faculties, before it presents itself to the school.</p> + +<p>Given the very young child struggling to evolve +its working rule out of nebulæ, how do its elders +aid it? The isolated fact without background or +connection, the generalization with no regard to +its particular application, the specific rule that will +not fit the general case—these too often are its portion, +resulting in lack of perspective, no sense of proportion, +and no grasp of values. The child's conceptions +of the cardinal virtues, the moral law, the +fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of Christ, +the human relation, are true, garbled, or false, +in accordance with the interpreting of its elders.</p> + +<p>The child thus has been in the training of the +home, the neighborhood, and the Sunday school, +for approximately four, three, and two years respectively, +before it comes to the school of letters.</p> + +<p>One of the intelligences thrashing out the problems +of the school today, says:</p> + +<p>"Education begins at the age of two or sooner, +whether the parent wills it or not. The home influence +from two to six, for good or ill in determining +the mental no less than the moral status, is the +most permanent thing in the child's life. Even at the +age of five, the difficulty for the teacher in making +a beginning, lies in the fact that the beginning already +has been made."</p> + +<p>In the original stories portraying the workings +of the schoolroom on the mind of the child, the +physically normal, mentally sound but slow type +was used, in the child called Emmy Lou, and in now +seeking to show that the conditions making for more +or less permanent confusion in the child's mind antedate +the schoolroom, it has seemed wise to make +use of the same child in the same environment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><span class='small'>CHAPTER</span></td><td align='right'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Out of God's Blessing into the Warm Sun</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Shades of the Prison House</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">A Few Strong Instincts and a Few Plain Rules</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">The Tribunal of Conscience</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Lions in the Path</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">The Imperfect Offices of Prayer</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Pink Tickets for Texts</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Stern Daughter of the Voice of God</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">So Build We Up the Being that We Are</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">So Truth Be in the Field</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2>I</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>OUT OF GOD'S BLESSING INTO THE WARM SUN</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">For</span> a day or two after Emmy Lou, four +years old, came to live with her uncle and her +aunties, or in fact until she discovered Izzy +who lived next door and Sister who lived in +the alley, Aunt Cordelia's hands were full. +But it was Emmy Lou's heart that was full.</p> + +<p>Along with other things which had made +up life, such as Papa, and her own little white +bed, and her own little red chair, and her own +window with its sill looking out upon her own +yard, and Mary the cook in Mary's own kitchen, +and Georgie the little neighbor boy next +door—along with these things, she wanted +Mamma.</p> + +<p>Not only because she was Mamma, all-wise,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +all-final, all-decreeing, but because, being +Mamma and her edicts therefore supreme, she +had bade her little daughter never to forget to +say her prayers.</p> + +<p>Not that Emmy Lou <i>had</i> forgotten to say +them. Not she! It was that when she went +to say them she had forgotten what she was to +say. A terrifying and unlooked-for contingency.</p> + +<p>Two days before, Papa had put his Emmy +Lou into the arms of Aunt Cordelia at the +railroad station of the city where she and Aunt +Katie and Aunt Louise and Uncle Charlie +lived. They had come to the train to get her. +As he did so, Mamma, for whose sake the trip +south was being made in search of health, +though Emmy Lou did not know this, smiled +and tried to look brave.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou's new little scarlet coat with its +triple capes was martial, and also her new +little scarlet Napoleon hat, three-cornered with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +a cockade, and Papa hastened to assume that +the little person within this exterior was martial +also.</p> + +<p>"Emmy Lou is a plucky soul and will not +willingly try you, Cordelia," he told his sister-in-law.</p> + +<p>"Emmy Lou is a faithful soul and has <i>promised</i> +not to try you," said Mamma.</p> + +<p>"Kiss Mamma and kiss me," said Papa.</p> + +<p>"And say your prayers every night at Aunt +Cordelia's knee," said Mamma.</p> + +<p>"Pshaw," said Uncle Charlie, the brother +of Mamma and the aunties, and wheeling +about and whipping out his handkerchief he +blew his nose violently.</p> + +<p>"Brother!" said Aunt Katie reproachfully. +Aunt Katie was younger than Mamma and almost +as pretty.</p> + +<p>"Brother Charlie!" said Aunt Louise who +was the youngest of them all, even more reproachfully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Shall I send her to Sunday school at our +church, or at your church?" said Aunt Cordelia, +plump and comfortable, and next to +Uncle Charlie in the family succession. For +Papa's church was different, though Emmy +Lou did not know this either—and when +Mamma had elected to go with him there had +been feeling.</p> + +<p>"So she finds God's blessing, Sister Cordelia, +what does it matter?" said Mamma a +little piteously. "And she'll say her prayer +every night and every morning to you?"</p> + +<p>On reaching home, Aunt Cordelia spoke +decidedly, "Precious baby! We'll give her +her supper and put her right into her little +bed. She's worn out with the strangeness of +it all."</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia was right. Emmy Lou was +worn out and more, she was bewildered and +terrified with the strangeness of it all. But +though her flaxen head, shorn now of its brave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +three-cornered hat, fell forward well-nigh into +her supper before more than a beginning was +made, and though when carried upstairs by +Uncle Charlie she yielded passively to Aunt +Cordelia and Aunt Katie undressing her, too +oblivious, as they deemed her, to be cognizant +of where she was, they reckoned without knowing +their Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>Her head came through the opening of the +little gown slipped on her.</p> + +<p>"Shall I say it now?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Her prayer. She hasn't forgotten, precious +baby," said Aunt Cordelia and sat down. +Aunt Katie who had been picking up little +garments, melted into the shadows beyond +the play and the flicker of the fire in the +grate, and Emmy Lou, steadied by the +hand of Aunt Cordelia, went down upon her +knees.</p> + +<p>For there are rules. Just as inevitably as +there are rites. And since life is hedged about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +with rites, as varying in their nature as in their +purpose, and each according to its purpose at +once inviolate and invincible, it is for an Emmy +Lou to concern herself with remembering their +rules.</p> + +<p>As when she goes out on the sidewalk to +play "I-spy" with Georgie, the masterful +little boy from next door, and his friends. +Whereupon and unvaryingly follows the rite. +The rule being that all stand in a row, and +while the moving finger points along the line, +words cabalistic and potent in their spell cryptically +and irrevocably search out the quaking +heart of the one who is "It."</p> + +<p>So in the kitchen. The rule being that +Mary, who is young and pretty and learning +to cook under Mamma's tutelage, shall chant +earnestly over the crock as she mixes, words +which again are talismanic and potent in their +spell, as "one of butter, two of sugar, three of +flour, four eggs," or Mary's cake infallibly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +will fall in the oven, stable affair as the oven +grating seems to be.</p> + +<p>And again at meals, rite of a higher class, +solemn and mysterious. When Emmy Lou +must bow her head and shut her eyes—what +would happen if she basely peeked she hasn't +an idea—after which, Papa's "blessing" as +it is called, having been enunciated according +to rule, she may now reach out with intrepidity +and touch tumbler or spoon or biscuit.</p> + +<p>So with prayer, highest rite of all, most +solemn and most mysterious. Prayer being +that potency of the impelling word again by +which Something known as God is to be propitiated, +and one protected from the fearful if +dimly sensed terrors of the dark when one +comes awake in the night.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou's Mamma, hitherto the never-failing +refuge from all that threatened, haven +of encircling sheltering arms and brooding +tender eyes, provided this protection for her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +Emmy Lou before she went away and left her. +And more. She gave Emmy Lou to understand +that somewhere, if one grasped it aright, +was a person tenderly in league with Mamma +in loving Emmy Lou, and in desiring to comfort +her and protect her. A person named +Jesus. He was to be reached through prayer +too, and, like God in this also, through Sunday +school, this being a place around the corner +where one went with Georgie, the little boy +from next door.</p> + +<p>These things being made clear, no wonder +that Mamma bade her Emmy Lou not to fail +to go to Sunday school, and never to forget to +say her prayers!</p> + +<p>And no wonder that Emmy Lou quite earnestly +knew the rules for her prayers. That +it hurt her knees to get down upon them had +nothing to do with the case. The point with +which one has to do is that she does get down +on them. And being there, as now, steadied to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +that position by the hand of Aunt Cordelia, +she shuts her eyes, as taught by Mamma, +though with no idea as to why, and folds her +hands, as taught by Mamma, with no understanding +as to why, and lowers her head, as +taught by Mamma, on Aunt Cordelia's knee. +And the rules being now all complied with, she +prays.</p> + +<p>But Emmy Lou did not pray.</p> + +<p>"Yes?" from Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>But still Emmy Lou failed to pray. Instead +her head lifted, and her eyes, opening, +showed themselves to be dilated by apprehension. +"Mamma starts it when it won't come," +she faltered.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia endeavored to start it. "Now +I lay me . . ." she said with easy conviction.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou, baby person, never had heard +of it. Terror crept into the eyes lifted to Aunt +Cordelia, as well as apprehension.</p> + +<p>"Our Father . . ." said Aunt Katie, coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +forward from the shadows. Emmy Lou's +attention seemed caught for the moment and +held.</p> + +<p>". . . which art in Heaven," said Aunt +Katie.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou shook her head. She never had +heard of that either, though for a moment it +appeared as if she thought she had. A tear +rolled down.</p> + +<p>"Go to bed and it will come to you tomorrow," +from Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>"Say it in the morning instead," from Aunt +Katie.</p> + +<p>But Emmy Lou shook her head, and clung +to Aunt Cordelia's knees when they would lift +her up.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia was worn out, herself. One +does not say good-bye to a loved sister, and +assume the care of a chubby, clinging baby +such as this one, without tax. "Whatever +is to be done about it?" she said to Aunt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +Katie despairingly. Then to Emmy Lou, +"Isn't there anything you know that will +do?"</p> + +<p>There are varying rites, differing in their +nature as in their purpose, but each according +to its purpose inviolate and invincible.</p> + +<p>"I know Georgia's count out?" said Emmy +Lou. "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo? Will that +do?"</p> + +<p>But Aunt Cordelia, however sorely tempted, +could not bring herself, honest soul, to agree +that it would. Nor yet Aunt Katie.</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise came tipping in and joined +them.</p> + +<p>"I know Mary's cake count," said Emmy +Lou. "'One of butter, two of sugar, three of +flour, four eggs.' Will that do?"</p> + +<p>Not even Aunt Louise could agree that it +would.</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie came tipping in.</p> + +<p>"I know Papa's blessing," said Emmy Lou.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +"'We thank Thee, Lord, for this provision +of Thy bounty. . . ?'"</p> + +<p>"The very thing," said Uncle Charlie heartily. +"Set her up on her knees again, Cordelia, +and let her say it."</p> + +<p>And Papa's blessing had served now, night +and morning, since, though it was evident to +those about her that Emmy Lou was both dubious +and uneasy.</p> + +<p>The processes of the mind of an Emmy Lou, +however, if slow, are sound, if we know their +premises. There was yet another way by +which God could be propitiated, and Jesus, +who desired to love her and protect her, +reached. On the morning of her third day +with her aunties, she inquired about this.</p> + +<p>"When is Sunday school?"</p> + +<p>They told her. "Today is Saturday. Sunday +school is tomorrow."</p> + +<p>She took this in. "Will I go to Sunday +school?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Certainly you will go."</p> + +<p>She took this in also. So far it was reassuring, +and she moved to the next point, +though nobody connected the two inquiries. +"There's a little boy next door?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," from Aunt Katie, "a little boy with +dark and lovely eyes."</p> + +<p>"A sweet and gentle little boy," from Aunt +Cordelia.</p> + +<p>"A little boy named Izzy," from Aunt +Louise.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou, looking from auntie to auntie +as each spoke, sighed deeply. The rules in +life, as she knew it, were holding good. As, +for example, was not Aunt Cordelia here for +Mamma? And Uncle Charlie for Papa? And +the substitute little white bed for her little +bed? And the substitute little armchair wherein +she was sitting at the moment, for her chair?</p> + +<p>To be sure the details varied. Hitherto the +cook in the kitchen had been Mary, pink-cheeked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +and pretty. Whereas now the cook +in the kitchen not only is round and rolling and +colored and named Aunt M'randy, but there +is a house-boy in the kitchen, too, whose name +is Bob. The stabilizing fact remains, however, +that there is a cook, and there is a +kitchen.</p> + +<p>And now there is a little boy next door. <i>For +you to go to Sunday school with the little boy +next door</i>, holding tight to his hand, while his +Mamma at his door, and your Mamma at +your door, watch you down the street. That +he lords it over you, edicting each thing you +shall or shall not do along the way, is according +to immutable ruling also, as Georgie makes +clear, on the incontrovertible grounds that you +are the <i>littler</i>.</p> + +<p>He has been to Sunday school too, before +you ever heard of it, as he lets you know, and +glories in his easy knowledge of the same. +And whereas you, on your very first Sunday,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +get there to learn that Cain killed Mabel, and +are visibly terrified at the fate of Mabel, according +to Georgie it is a mild event and nothing +to what Sunday school has to offer at its +best.</p> + +<p>He knows the comportment of the place, +too, and at the proper moment drags Emmy +Lou to her knees with her face crushed to the +wooden bench beside his own. And later he +upbraids her that she fails in the fervor with +which he and everybody else, including the +lady who told Emmy Lou she was glad to see +her, pour forth a hum of words. When he +finds she does not know these words his scorn +is blighting. Though when she asks him to +teach them to her, it develops that he, the +mighty one, only knows a word here and there +to come in loud on himself.</p> + +<p>For a moment, the other night, Emmy Lou +had fancied Aunt Katie was saying these +words used at Sunday school, but how could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +she be sure, seeing that she did not know them +herself?</p> + +<p>And now there was a little boy next door +here! And Emmy Lou arose, her aunties having +gone about their Saturday morning affairs, +and seeking her little sacque with its scalloped +edge, which she pulled on, and her little round +hat which she carried by its elastic, went forth +into the warm comfort of the Indian Summer +morning to find him.</p> + +<p>He was at his gate! The rule again! +Georgie was ever to be found even so at his +gate. Emmy Lou was shy, but not when she +knew what she had to do, and why. Opening +her gate and going out, paling by paling she +went along past her house and her yard, to the +little boy at the gate of his house and his yard. +When he saw her coming he even came to meet +her.</p> + +<p>As her aunties had said, he was a dark-eyed +and lovely little boy. When she reached him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +and put out her hand to his, he took it and led +her back to his gate with him. His name, she +remembered, was Izzy.</p> + +<p>"Sunday school is tomorrow?" she said, looking +up at Izzy.</p> + +<p>"Sunday school?" said Izzy.</p> + +<p>"Where Cain killed Mabel?"</p> + +<p>Izzy's dark eyes lit. He was a gentle and +kindly little boy. Emmy Lou felt she would +love Izzy. "We call it 'Temple.' But it is +today. My Mamma told me to walk ahead +and she would catch up with me."</p> + +<p>"Today?"</p> + +<p>Surely. With such visible proofs of it upon +Izzy. Do little boys wear velvet suits with +spotless collar and flamboyant tie but for occasions +such as Sunday school? Aunties and +even Mammas know less about Sunday school +than the Georgies and Izzys, who are authorities +since they are the ones who go. Emmy +Lou put on her little hat even to the elastic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +Then her hand went into Izzy's again.</p> + +<p>"I thought it was tomorrow?"</p> + +<p>Izzy's face was alight as he took in her +meaning. She was going with <i>him</i>. His face +was alight as he led her along.</p> + +<p>"It's 'round the corner?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"'Round two corners," said Izzy. "How +did you know?"</p> + +<p>A golden dome crowned this Sunday school, +and wide steps led high to great doors. They +waited at their foot, Izzy and Emmy Lou, a +dark-eyed little boy in a velvet suit, and a +blue-eyed little girl in a gingham dress and +scalloped sacque, while others went up and in, +old men, young men, old women, young +women, little boys, little girls. Waited until +Izzy's Mamma arrived and found him.</p> + +<p>She was dark-eyed and lovely too. She listened +while he explained. Did a shadow, as +of patient sadness, cross her face?</p> + +<p>"The little girl does not understand, Israel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +little son," she said. "Hold her hand carefully, +and take her back to her own gate. I +will wait for you here."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou, bewildered as she was led along, +endeavored to understand.</p> + +<p>"It isn't Sunday school?" she asked Izzy.</p> + +<p>His face was no longer alight, only gentle +and, like his mother's, patient. "Not yours. +I thought it was. Mine and my mother's and +my father's."</p> + +<p>Little girls left at their own gates, little girls +who have come to live at their aunties' home, +go around by the side way to the kitchen door. +Emmy Lou had learned that already. If anyone +had missed her there was no evidence of +it. Aunt M'randy, just emerging from this +kitchen door, a coal-bucket heaped with ashes +in her hand, as Emmy Lou arrived there, +paused in her rolling gait, and invited her to +go.</p> + +<p>Where? Emmy Lou in her little sacque and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +her round hat hadn't an idea, but seeing that +she was expected to accept, took Aunt M'randy's +unoccupied hand and went.</p> + +<p>And so it was that she found Sister. For +Aunt M'randy was going down the length of +the back yard, a nice yard with a tree and a +bush and what, palpably in a milder hour had +been flowers in a border, to the alley-gate to +empty the ashes. And beyond this alley gate, +outside which stood the barrel they were +seeking, in the alley itself, with the cottage +shanties of the alley world for background, +stood Sister! One knew she was Sister because +Aunt M'randy called her so.</p> + +<p>Sister was small and brown and solid. Small +enough to be <i>littler</i> than Emmy Lou. Her +face was serious and her eyes in their setting +of generous white followed one wonderingly.</p> + +<p><i>Littler</i> than Emmy Lou! The rule in life +was extending itself. Hitherto she, Emmy +Lou, had been that littler one, and hers the eyes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +to follow wonderingly, and the effect of +meeting one thus littler than oneself is to experience +strange joys, palpably and patently +peculiar to being the larger.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou dropped the hand of Aunt +M'randy and went out into the alley and +straight to Sister.</p> + +<p>Nor did Sister seem surprised at this, but +when Emmy Lou reached her and paused, +sidled closer, and her little brown hand crept +into Emmy Lou's white one and clung there. +Whereupon the white one, finding itself the +bigger, closed on the brown one and Emmy +Lou led Sister in through the alley gate, past +Aunt M'randy, and up through the yard with +its tree and its bush and its whilom flower +border.</p> + +<p>More! There was a depression in the pavement +leading up to the house, a depression all +of the depth of about three of Emmy Lou's +fingers. Whereat she stopped, and putting her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +arms about Sister, solid for all she was a +baby thing, with straining and accession of +pink in the face, lifted her over! And the joy +of it was great! Emmy Lou never had met +one <i>littler</i> than herself before!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>That evening at dusk, Aunt Louise came +in, brisk and animated. Her news was for +Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie, though certainly +Emmy Lou had a right to be interested.</p> + +<p>"I met Molly Wright, the teacher of the +infant class at Sunday school," she said, "and +I stopped and told her that in the morning you +would send Emmy Lou around to her class. +That our house-boy would bring her."</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia had her ready the next morning +aforetime, red coat with triple capes, martial +hat and all, ready indeed before Bob, the +house-boy, had finished his breakfast.</p> + +<p>The day was warm and sleepily sunny and +smiling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You may go outside and wait for Bob at +the gate if you like," Aunt Cordelia told +Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>But Emmy Lou had no idea of waiting at +any gate. Indecision with her was largely a +matter of not knowing what she was expected +to do. She knew in this case. By the time Bob +was ready and out looking for her, she had +been down through the alley gate and back, +bringing by the hand that person <i>littler</i> than +herself, Sister. Had led her through the front +gate and along to the next gate where Izzy +was standing.</p> + +<p>Bob afterward explained his part vociferously +if lamely. But as Aunt M'randy said, +that was Bob.</p> + +<p>"There they wuz, the three uv 'em, strung +erlong by the han's an' waitin' foh me. Seem +lak there warn't no call foh me to say nothin' +tell we got there."</p> + +<p>"And then?" from Aunt Cordelia, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +Aunt M'randy sniffed with skepticism.</p> + +<p>"When we come to the infant class door +roun' on the side street like you tol' me, there +wuz a colored boy I know, drivin' a kerridge, +an' he called me. An' I tol' the chil'ren to +wait while I spoke to him. When I turned +roun' ag'in I saw 'em goin' in th'ough the doah. +An' I come home."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou in truth led them in. Give her +something that she knew to do, and she could +do it. Holding to the rule, Izzy was due to +be there because he was the larger, and Sister, +laconic little Sister, solid and brown, was due +to be there because, in the former likeness of +Emmy Lou, she was the <i>littler</i>.</p> + +<p>One's place at Sunday school in company +with Georgie, has been the front bench. The +rule holds good, and Emmy Lou led the way +to the front bench now, where she and Izzy +lifted Sister to a place, then took their own +places either side of her. If the rest of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +infant class already assembled were absorbed +in these movements, Emmy Lou did not notice +it, in that she was absorbed in them herself.</p> + +<p>Miss Mollie Wright came in next, breezy +and brisk and a minute late, and in consequence +full of zeal and business.</p> + +<p>Hitherto the rule has never varied. As +Emmy Lou knew Sunday school, the lady +teacher now says, "Good morning, children." +And these say, "Good morning," in return.</p> + +<p>But the rule varied now. Miss Mollie +Wright coming around to the front before the +assembled class on its several benches, stopped, +looked, then full of sureness and business came +to Izzy and Emmy Lou and Sister, and took +Izzy by the hand.</p> + +<p>"I doubt if your mother and father would +like it, Izzy," she said. "I think you had better +run home again. And this little girl next +to you doesn't belong here either." Miss Mollie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +Wright was lifting Sister down. "I think +she had better run along as you go." And in +the very nicest way she started Izzy and Sister +toward the door. "What?" turning back to +the third little figure in a martial coat with +triple capes and a martial hat. "Why, are +you going, too?"</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia explained to Aunt Katie +and Aunt Louise and Uncle Charlie afterward. +"M'randy saw them when they reached +home and passed her kitchen window going +back through the yard, and came and told +me, and she and I went down to the alley +gate after them."</p> + +<p>"What were they doing?" asked Aunt +Louise.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia answered as one completely +exasperated and outdone. "Sitting right down +on the ground there in the alley, in their Sunday +clothes, watching M'lissy, on her doorstep, +comb Letty's hair."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> + +<p>True! Around M'lissy, the mother of Sister, +brown herself and kindly, with teeth that +flashed white with the smile of her there in the +sun, and Letty, the even <i>littler</i> sister of Sister, +firm planted on the lowest step, between +M'lissy's knees.</p> + +<p>And bliss unspeakable as Izzy and Sister +and Emmy Lou in a circle on the ground +around the doorstep watched. For Letty's +head, by means of the comb in M'lissy's hand, +was being criss-crossed by partings into sections, +bi-sections, and quarter-sections, and +such hair as was integral to each wrapped with +string in semblance of a plait, plait after plait +succeeding one another over Letty's head. The +while M'lissy sang in a mounting, joyful +chant, interrupted by Letty's outcry now and +then beneath the vigor of the ministration.</p> + +<p>"Ow-w, Mammy!"</p> + +<p>The chant would hold itself momentarily for +a reply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Shet up," M'lissy would say.</p> + +<p>Which would be too much even for laconic +Sister who from her place on the ground between +Izzy and Emmy Lou would defend +Letty. "When Mammy wrops yer h'ar, she +wrops hard."</p> + +<p>After which the combing and the wrapping +and the chanting would go on again, M'lissy's +voice rising and falling in quaverings and +minors:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Come to Jesus, come to Jesus,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Come to Jesus just now,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ju-u-st no-o-w co-o-me to-o Jesus,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Come to Jesus ju-u-st now."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>Mamma's friend! In league with her in +loving Emmy Lou and desiring to comfort her +and protect her! Found not where she had +looked for Him at all but here with M'lissy in +the alley!</p> + +<p>That night, according to rule, as Emmy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +Lou's head came through the opening of the +gown slipped over it, she said:</p> + +<p>"Shall I say it now? Papa's blessing?"</p> + +<p>And Aunt Cordelia, according to rule, sitting +down and steadying Emmy Lou to her +knees, waited.</p> + +<p>What should have brought it back, Emmy +Lou's own little prayer as taught her by +Mamma? She only knew that it came of itself, +and that while her heart heaved and her breath +came hard, she stopped in the midst of Papa's +blessing, "We thank Thee, Lord, for this provision +of Thy bounty,——" sobbed, caught +herself, opened her eyes and looked mutely at +Aunt Cordelia, closed them and said:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Look upon a little child;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pity my simplicity,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Suffer me to come to Thee."</span><br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Papa</span> taking Mamma south, wherever that +may be, in search of health, whatever that may +be, carried a rough and wrinkled Father Bear +satchel. Mamma, pretty Mamma, taken +south in search of health, carried a soft and +smooth Mother Bear satchel. And since not +only do journeys demand satchels but analogies +must be made complete, Emmy Lou left +on the way in the keeping of her uncle and her +aunties was made happy by a Baby Bear +<i>papier-maché</i> satchel, clamps, straps and all. +A satchel into which a nightgown could be +coaxed, her nightgown, since satchels demand +gowns, not to mention a pewter tea set put in +on her own initiative, provided she folded and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +refolded the gown with zeal before essaying +the attempt.</p> + +<p>After Emmy Lou's establishment in the +new household, Aunt Cordelia proposed that +the satchel go to the attic where trunks and +satchels off duty belong. But Emmy Lou +would not hear to this. "Mamma's coming by +for me as she goes home, and I want it down +here so I can have it ready."</p> + +<p>"And she gets it ready at least once a day," +Aunt Cordelia told Uncle Charlie. "If she +doesn't wear her gowns out trying to put them +in it, she will the satchel. However, since she +heard that her mother lived in this house when +she was a little girl named Emily, I've had +no further trouble with her, that is, trouble of +a kind. How does one go about a child's religious +training, Charlie?"</p> + +<p>But to Emmy Lou, Aunt Cordelia knew +all about God and heaven. At her bidding she +learned a hymn, a pretty text, another prayer.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 305px;"> +<img src="images/ill-050.jpg" width="305" height="500" alt=""'When I turned roan' ag'in I saw 'em goin' in th'ough the doah.'"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'When I turned roan' ag'in I saw 'em goin' in th'ough the doah.'"</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>"For we must learn a little more about God +and Heaven every day along the way," Aunt +Cordelia said.</p> + +<p>With Emmy Lou at bedtime in her lap, a +blanket wrapped about her gown, the fire flickering, +Aunt Cordelia, to help her get to sleep, +sang about Heaven.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Thy gardens and thy goodly walks<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Continually are green,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Where grow such sweet and pleasant flowers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">As nowhere else are seen—"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>"Asleep?" from Aunt Cordelia. "No?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou in Aunt Cordelia's lap was +amazed to hear these things. "Thy gardens +and Thy goodly walks!" Hitherto she had +been afraid of heaven! And afraid of God!</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia hearing about it was shocked. +Truly shocked and no less dismayed at how +to remedy it, if Emmy Lou had but known it.</p> + +<p>"Afraid of God? Why, Emmy Lou! He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +is our Father to go to, just as you run to meet +Papa." Aunt Cordelia, gaining heart, took +fresh courage. "God is everybody's Father, +just as Heaven is our home."</p> + +<p>The Aunt Cordelias may generalize, but +the Emmy Lous will particularize.</p> + +<p>"Izzy's father? And Sister's father? And +Minnie's?"</p> + +<p>Israel Judah lived next door, little colored +Sister lived in the alley, and Minnie lived with +the lady next door to Izzy.</p> + +<p>"Their Father, and yours and mine and +everyone's. Don't you think you can go to +sleep now?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou was positive she could not. God, +of whom she had been afraid, is our Father!</p> + +<p>Next door to Emmy Lou, at Izzy's, lives +an old, old man. His brows are white and his +beard falls on his breast. He smiles on Emmy +Lou when she goes to his knee to speak to +him, but he draws Izzy to him and kisses him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +Aunt Katie calls him beautiful. Uncle Charlie +calls him a glorious old patriarch. But Izzy's +Mamma calls him <i>father</i>.</p> + +<p>And suddenly to Emmy Lou, there in Aunt +Cordelia's lap, God is a Person! He paces +his goodly walks, as Papa does the flagging +from the gate to the house with Emmy Lou +running to meet him. God paces his walks between +his sweet and pleasant flowers and his +brows are white and his beard falls on his +breast. Will he smile on Emmy Lou? And +on Izzy and Sister and Minnie? Or will he +draw them to him and kiss them?</p> + +<p>"And at last she went to sleep," Aunt +Cordelia, coming downstairs, told Uncle +Charlie.</p> + +<p>Straight from the breakfast table the next +morning, Emmy Lou went and brought her +cloak.</p> + +<p>"Izzy will be waiting for me at his gate," she +told Aunt Cordelia. The custom being for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +the two meeting at Izzy's gate then to go to +the alley hunting Sister.</p> + +<p>Aunt Katie came downstairs just here, looking +for Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"Do you know where my scissors are? I +can't find mine or any others."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou has a way of hunting scissors +for herself and Sister to cut out pictures, +but is quite sure this time that she is not +culpable.</p> + +<p>"I ain't had nary pair," she assured Aunt +Katie.</p> + +<p>Aunt Katie, apparently forgetting the scissors, +swept round on Aunt Cordelia who was +just leaving the breakfast table.</p> + +<p>"There!" she said accusingly.</p> + +<p>"There!" echoed Aunt Louise, still in the +dining-room, too. "We told you she would +be picking up such things in the alley!"</p> + +<p>"Emmy Lou," expostulated Aunt Cordelia, +"you didn't mean to say, 'I ain't had nary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +pair.' You know better. Think hard and see +if you can't say it right."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou, the cloak she had brought half +on, thought hard. "I ain't had ary pair," she +said.</p> + +<p>Aunt Katie spoke positively. "I don't think +you ought to let her play so much with Sister. +Louise and I have said so right along."</p> + +<p>Not play with Sister! Emmy Lou was +astounded. She loved Sister, smaller than herself! +She turned to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia was troubled. "Come to me, +Emmy Lou, and let me put your cloak on you, +and tie your hood. If she were going to be +here all the time it would be different," this to +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise. Then to +Emmy Lou, "Suppose today you stay next +door and play with Izzy?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou was amazed. "And Minnie?" +she asked. "Mayn't I play with Minnie?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She means the little girl who works +for Mrs. Noble," explained Aunt Cordelia +quietly.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Noble is from over the river," said +Aunt Louise in tones which, however one may +wonder what the river has to do with it, disqualify +this lady at once. "She speaks of the +child as a little hired girl."</p> + +<p>"Emmy Lou," said Aunt Katie, "remember +that this side of the Ohio we have servants, not +hired girls."</p> + +<p>"But she must not call the little girl a servant, +Katie," said Aunt Cordelia. "I won't +have her hurting the child's feelings, whatever +she is."</p> + +<p>"I call her Minnie," said Emmy Lou, bewildered.</p> + +<p>"Certainly you do," said Aunt Cordelia, and +kissed her.</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise defended Aunt Katie. "While +the child is hardly to be held responsible, she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +has ways, as well as Sister, we certainly do not +want Emmy Lou to imitate."</p> + +<p>Ways? Minnie? Marvelous, inexhaustible +Minnie? Certainly she has ways, ways that +draw one, that hold one. Were Aunt Louise +and Aunt Katie casting doubts on Minnie? +As they had on Sister? Emmy Lou in cloak +and hood looked to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia looked worried, "Just as she +is beginning to be a little happier, I wish, +Louise, you and Katie could let the child +alone."</p> + +<p>"But Minnie?" Emmy Lou wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose so. Run along out, now, +and play."</p> + +<p>A sunny winter day it was as Emmy Lou +went, a day to rejoice in, could one at four +put the feelings into thought, except that +Izzy at his gate in his stout coat and his fur +cap is only mildly glad to see her. Izzy is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +six years old. Usually kind, and as patient +to catch her point as to help her to his, just +now he is engrossed with looking down the +street.</p> + +<p>Without turning, he does, however, confide +in her. "Minnie has just gone by to the grocery!"</p> + +<p>If Emmy Lou had been disposed to be hurt, +she understood now! Minnie having gone by +to the grocery would be <i>back!</i></p> + +<p>They have known her to speak to now for +a week. She stopped one day at Izzy's gate +when he and Emmy Lou and Sister were +standing there. Her plaits were tied with bits +of calico and there was a smudge on her wrist; +under her arm was a paper bag and in her hand +a bucket. She swept the three of them, Izzy, +Emmy Lou, and Sister, up and down with her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"You go to synagogue," she told Izzy. "An' +your mother's gone away sick an' left you,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +she said to Emmy Lou. Then she turned to +Sister.</p> + +<p>"Nigger," she said.</p> + +<p>But Sister was what she afterward explained +as "ready for her." She had met Minnie before, +so it proved, and M'lissy, her mother, had +her ready if she ever met her again. For all +she was a little thing, Sister swept Minnie up +and down with <i>her</i> eyes.</p> + +<p>"Po' white," she said.</p> + +<p>Which, while meaningless to some—Emmy +Lou and Izzy for example—brought the angry +red to Minnie's cheek.</p> + +<p>This was a week ago. Since then Minnie +had come out on the pavement twice and joined +Emmy Lou and Izzy at play.</p> + +<p>Wonderful Minnie! At once instigator and +leader, arbiter and propounder. Why? Because +she knew. Knew what? Knew everything. +About the devil who would come right +up out of the ground if you stamped three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +times and said his name. Though from what +Emmy Lou had heard about him at Sunday +school, and Izzy knew from some boys down +at the corner, one wondered that any would +incur the risk by doing either.</p> + +<p>And Minnie knew about gypsies who steal +little boys and girls out of their beds! Izzy is +six, and Emmy Lou is four, and Minnie is +ten going on eleven; can it be wondered that +they looked up to her?</p> + +<p>She speaks darkly about herself. She has +brothers and sisters better off than she is, somewhere, +who don't want to speak to her when +she meets them on the street!</p> + +<p>And she speaks darkly about the lady she +lives with whom she calls Mis' Snoble. "When +Lisa Schmit from the grocery came to play +with me, she shoo'd her off with the broom," +she said.</p> + +<p>Only yesterday she appeared at her gate for +a brief moment to say she could not come out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +and play. "Mis' Snoble's feelin' right up to +the mark today; we're goin' to beat rugs an' +wash winders."</p> + +<p>But this morning as she pauses on her way +home from the grocery, her communication to +Izzy and Emmy Lou at Izzy's gate is of different +import. "Mis' Snoble's not feelin' up +to the mark today. Come in with me an' ask +her an' maybe she'll let me come an' play."</p> + +<p>Go in with Minnie! To Mrs. Noble! Emmy +Lou's hand went into Izzy's, as she for one +gazed at Minnie appalled!</p> + +<p>Yet Minnie's face is eager and her eyes implore. +Her plaits are tied with calico, and her +face behind its eagerness is thin. Izzy looses +Emmy Lou's hand, even as she draws it away, +and, behold, his hand now is in one of Minnie's, +and Emmy Lou's is in the other. They +are going with her to ask Mrs. Noble.</p> + +<p>Through Minnie's gate, around by the side +pavement, in at the kitchen door, through a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +hall and to another door. Mrs. Noble has not +appeared yet with her broom to shoo them +away, but she might!</p> + +<p>Minnie pushed this door open and led the +way in—wonderful, brave Minnie!—but Izzy +and Emmy Lou paused in the doorway.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Noble, spare and upright in her chair, +crocheting, looked up. Her eyes, having swept +up and down Minnie, traveled on to Emmy +Lou and Izzy, then returned coldly, as it were, +to her work.</p> + +<p>"Kitchen's red up," from Minnie eagerly +and hopefully in what one supposed must be +the language of over the river; "been to the +grocery, an' the sink's clean."</p> + +<p>If Mrs. Noble heard this she was above betraying +it.</p> + +<p>"Fire's laid in the stove, but not lit."</p> + +<p>Never a sign.</p> + +<p>"Potatoes peeled an' in the saucepan waitin'."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Noble looked up. "One half-hour, or +maybe three-quarters till I call."</p> + +<p>And they were gone, Minnie first like a +flash, Izzy next, no loiterer in the house of Mrs. +Noble himself if he could help it and only the +slower-paced because somebody had to wait for +Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>More wonderful day than it had been earlier, +sunnier and less frosty. Minnie, whose wrap +is disturbingly nearer a sacque than a coat in +its scant nature, takes her place on the horse-block +at the curb before Izzy's house, and he +and Emmy Lou take places either side of her.</p> + +<p>Minnie, wonderful Minnie, ten years old and +over, knows it all. What, for instance? Everything, +anything. Such as this matter she +brings up now of brothers and sisters. They +are a bad lot. She says so. A sort to stop at +nothing even to passing a poorer sister without +knowing her on the street! As she went +to the grocery with her bucket and oil-can just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +now, her brother passed <i>her</i> on the street. +Minnie heard once of a man. When she takes +this tone the time has come to draw closer. +". . . O'Rouke was this man's name. He was +rich and g-r-rand. So grand <i>he</i> didn't know +<i>his</i> own brothers when he met them on the +street. An' his brothers made up their minds +they would go to his house an' hide theirselves +an' watch him when he counted his money. It +was a g-r-rand house. Over the mantelpiece +was a picture of his dead mother. Over the +piano was a picture of his dead father. Over +the what-not was a picture of his wife. Over +the sofa was a picture of hisself. An' his four +brothers came to hide theirselves an' watch him +count his money. The room was dark in all the +corners. An' one brother clumb up on the +mantelpiece an' hid hisself behind the picture +of his mother, an' cut holes th'ough the eyes so +his eyes r-o-olling could look th'ough. An' the +next brother clumb up on the piano an' hid hisself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +behind the picture of his father an' cut +holes th'ough the eyes so his eyes r-o-olling +could look th'ough. An' the next brother +clumb up on the what-not an' hid hisself behind +the picture of the wife an'——"</p> + +<p>Sister appeared around the side of Izzy's +house and came through the gate. Even +though her finger <i>was</i> in her mouth, when she +saw Minnie she looked provocative.</p> + +<p>"Go on with the brothers, Minnie," begged +Izzy.</p> + +<p>"Go on, Minnie," begged Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>But Minnie had no idea of resuming the +brothers. Nobody, it would seem, could look +provocative with impunity at her!</p> + +<p>"Nigger," she said to Sister.</p> + +<p>But M'lissy, the mother of Sister, had her +ready again. Did she send her around here +for the purpose?</p> + +<p>"Po' white," said Sister, taking her finger +out of her mouth. "An' worser. My mammy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +said to tell you so. You're a <i>n'orphan</i>."</p> + +<p>The solid ground of the accustomed gave +way. Confusion followed. Minnie, hitherto +the ready, the able, having sprung up to meet +Sister's onslaught, whatever it was to be, sank +back on the horse-block, and hiding her face in +her arms, cried, and more, at touch of the +quickly solicitous arms of Izzy and Emmy +Lou about her, she sobbed.</p> + +<p>Whereupon Emmy Lou arose, Emmy Lou +in her stout little coat and her hood and her +mittens; and looking about her on the ground, +found a switch full seven inches long, and with +it drove Sister, little Sister, away, quite away. +Had not Emmy Lou's own aunties cast the +initial doubt on Sister anyway?</p> + +<p>Then she came back to the horse-block. +"What's a n'orphan, Minnie?" Izzy was asking.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou wanted to know this very thing.</p> + +<p>"It's livin' with Mis' Snoble an' wearin' her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +shoes when they're too big for you," sobbed +Minnie. "'Tain't as if anybody would be one +if they could help theirselves."</p> + +<p>"What makes you a n'orphan, then, Minnie, +if you don't want to be one?" from Izzy.</p> + +<p>"You're a n'orphan when <i>your mother goes +to Heaven an' leaves you</i> an' forgets you," bitterly.</p> + +<p>Heaven? God paces his goodly walks there, +between his sweet and pleasant flowers. But +would your mother <i>leave you to go there?</i> And +going, <i>forget you?</i></p> + +<p>A window went up and Izzy's mamma appeared.</p> + +<p>"Israel," she called, "run in to the porch and +give grandpa his cane and help him start into +the house. It's growing chill."</p> + +<p>Minnie on the horse-block flung up her head +and wiped away the tears. "That old man +again!" she said.</p> + +<p>Did Minnie have ways? Ways that Aunt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +Katie and Aunt Louise did not want their +Emmy Lou to imitate? Was this one of her +ways?</p> + +<p>For Izzy's grandpa of whom Minnie spoke +disparagingly was he of the white brows and +the flowing beard. On days such as this they +helped him to the porch where he sat bundled +in a chair in the sun, his cane beside him.</p> + +<p>Except when this cane was not, which was +the trouble as Minnie saw it. For Izzy's +grandpa was forever letting his cane slide to +the floor, yet could not get up, or down, or +about, without it.</p> + +<p>Izzy ran in now. He was affectionate and +dutiful. Aunt Cordelia said so. And having +put the cane in his grandfather's hand, though +not without several efforts at keeping it there, +at which his grandfather, slowly—Oh, so slowly +this morning!—and with trembling effort, +drew him to him and kissed him, he came back.</p> + +<p>"Why <i>did</i> your mother go to Heaven and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +leave you and forget you, Minnie?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Heaven's a better place than this, if what +they tell about it's true," bitterly. "<i>I ain't +blamin' her for goin'</i>, myself."</p> + +<p>"Izzy," came the call in a few moments +again. "Did you tell grandpa to come in?"</p> + +<p>Izzy went running, for when he turned to +look, the cane had slipped from his grandfather's +hand again and rolled to the foot of +the steps, and his head above the snowy beard +was fallen on his breast. Nor would he in this +world lift it again, though none of the three +grasped this.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia was decided at the breakfast +table the next morning.</p> + +<p>"They will not want you next door with +Izzy today," she told Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"Mayn't he come here?"</p> + +<p>"I doubt if his mother will want him to come +today."</p> + +<p>The day following, however, Aunt Cordelia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +and Aunt Katie went next door from the +breakfast table and when they came back they +brought Izzy with them, not <i>for a while</i>, but +<i>for the day</i>. His dark eyes were troubled +and his cheeks were pale. He was +kindly and affectionate. Aunt Cordelia said +so.</p> + +<p>And Aunt Cordelia agreed that after dinner +Bob could ask Mrs. Noble to let Minnie +come over.</p> + +<p>"How can you, Sister Cordelia?" expostulated +Aunt Louise. "A little servant girl!"</p> + +<p>Bob came back with Minnie. "For a nour," +she said as she arrived. "I can stay until the +pork-house whistle blows for four."</p> + +<p>She waited until Aunt Cordelia, having settled +them in the sunny back room, went out +the door.</p> + +<p>"What's happened to your gran'pa?" then +she said to Izzy. Did she say it not as if she +did not know, but as if she did?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He's gone to sleep," said Izzy. "He won't +be sick or tired any more."</p> + +<p>"Sleep?" from Minnie. "Haven't they told +you yet? We watched 'em start, Bob and I, +before we came in."</p> + +<p>Start? Start where? Izzy's eyes, already +troubled, were big and startled now. "Where's +grandpa going? Where's my grandpa going?"</p> + +<p>Did Minnie in some way imply that she +knew more than she meant to tell? "To +Heaven," virtuously. "I've told you about +it. That's why he won't be sick or tired any +more. You ought to be glad. Here!" with +quick change in tone. "Where you going? +What's the matter with you now? You can't +keep him back if you try!"</p> + +<p>But Izzy was gone. Nor when Minnie, who +was nothing but a little servant girl after all, +for Aunt Louise said so, ran after him, did he +pause; only called back as he hurried down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +the stairs. He was a dutiful little boy, Aunt +Cordelia said so.</p> + +<p>"If Grandpa has to go he'll need his cane. +He can't get anywhere without his cane."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Emmy Lou, coming in through the kitchen +from play, a week later, met Uncle Charlie +in the hall just arriving by the front door.</p> + +<p>He neither spoke to her nor saw her as he +overtook her on the lowest stair, but pushed +by and hurried up.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou's heart swelled. It was not like +Uncle Charlie. She clambered the curving +flight after him. He had gone ahead into +Aunt Cordelia's room and she, on her way +there herself, trudged after.</p> + +<p>What did it mean? Why did it frighten +her? Aunt Katie, Aunt Louise, weeping? Uncle +Charlie now beside the fireplace, bowed +against its shelf? This bit of yellow paper at +his feet on the floor?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia, weeping herself, would +know. "What is it?" faltered Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia knew and held out her arms +to the call. No evasions now; truth for Emmy +Lou.</p> + +<p>"Mamma will not be back. She has gone +ahead to Heaven. Come to Aunt Cordelia +and let her comfort you, precious baby."</p> + +<p>But Emmy Lou, still in her coat and hat, did +not come; she did not pause to dally. She hurried +past the various hands outstretched to +stay her, to her own little room adjoining.</p> + +<p>Complete her <i>papier-maché</i> satchel was, +even to its clamps and straps, sitting beside +her bed ready, her satchel which would hold +a gown, and other treasure such as pewter +dishes could she stop for such now. She +dragged at a drawer of her own bureau.</p> + +<p>"What in the world——?" from Aunt Cordelia, +who had followed.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing——?" from Aunt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +Katie and Aunt Louise, who had followed +Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou knew exactly what she was doing. +Izzy had known too when he went hurrying +after. Minnie in her time, had she known, +might have gone hurrying too. A nightgown, +at her pull, trailed from the open drawer.</p> + +<p>Yet what was there in the faces about her +to disturb her? To make her loose her hold on +the gown, look from one to the other of them +and falter? Uncle Charlie, too, had come into +the room now.</p> + +<p>Were they casting doubts again? As they +cast them on Sister who until then had in truth +been a little sister? As they cast them on Minnie +who until then had been neither hired girl +nor servant, but Minnie? Emmy Lou turned +to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration.</p> + +<p>Even as she looked, she knew. We must +learn a little more each day along the way, +even as Aunt Cordelia had said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>The nightgown trailing from her hand fell +limply. The satchel, relinquished, rolled along +the floor. Those goodly walks receded, their +sweet and pleasant flowers drooped their listless +heads. Emmy Lou, nearing five years old, +was a step further from heaven.</p> + +<p>"How shall we teach a little child?" said +Aunt Cordelia, weeping.</p> + +<p>"How indeed?" said Uncle Charlie.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> +<h2>III</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>A FEW STRONG INSTINCTS AND A FEW PLAIN RULES</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Every</span> exigency in life save one, for an +Emmy Lou at six, seemingly is provided for +by rules or admonition, the one which sometimes +is overlooked being lack of understanding.</p> + +<p>"'Take heed that thou no murder do,'" was +the new clause of the Commandments In +Verse, she had recited at Sunday school only +yesterday.</p> + +<p>"'The way of the transgressor is hard,'" +said Dr. Angell from his pulpit to her down +in the pew between Uncle Charlie and Aunt +Cordelia an hour later. Or she took it that he +was saying it to her. For while one frequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +fails to follow the words in this thing of admonition, +there is no mistaking the manner. +When she came into church with Uncle Charlie +and Aunt Cordelia, in her white piqué coat +and her leghorn hat, Dr. Angell had met her +in the aisle and seemed glad to see her, even to +patting her cheek, but once he was in his pulpit +he shook an admonishing finger at her and +thundered.</p> + +<p>Nor did Emmy Lou, a big girl now for all +she still was pink-cheeked and chubby, lack for +admonitions at home from Aunt Cordelia and +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise above stairs, and +Aunt M'randy in the kitchen below—a world +of aunts, in this respect, it might have seemed, +had Emmy Lou, faithful to those she deemed +faithful to her, been one to think such +things.</p> + +<p>Admonitions vary. Aunt Cordelia and +Aunt M'randy drew theirs from the heart, so +to put it. "When you mind what I say, you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +are a good little girl. When you do not mind +what I say, you are a bad little girl," said Aunt +Cordelia.</p> + +<p>"When I tell you to go on upstairs outer my +way, I want you to go. When I tell you to +take your fingers outen thet dough, I want you +to take 'em out," said Aunt M'randy. Admonitions +put in this way are entirely comprehensible. +There is no getting away from +understanding mandates such as these.</p> + +<p>Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise drew their admonitions +from a small, battered book given +to them when they were little for their guidance +and known as "Songs for the Little Ones +at Home."</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"O that it were my chief delight<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To do the thing I ought;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Then let me try with all my might,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To mind what I am taught,"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>said Aunt Katie.</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +"O dear me, Emma, how is this?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Your hands are very dirty, Miss;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I don't expect such hands to see</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">When you come in to dine with me,"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>said Aunt Louise.</div> + +<p>Nor did Emmy Lou suspect that it was because +their advice did not come from the heart +it reduced her to gloom; that Aunt Katie and +Aunt Louise delighted in it not because it was +advice, but because it did reduce her to gloom; +that Aunt Katie, who was twenty-two, and +Aunt Louise, who was twenty, did it to tease?</p> + +<p>Bob, the house-boy, too, had his line of +ethics for her. And while he went to Sunday +school, and to what he called Lodge, and had +what he termed fun'ral insurance, observances +all entitling him to standing, he pointed his +warnings with dim survivals from an older, +darker lore which someone wiser than Bob +or Emmy Lou might have recognized as hoodoo. +Not that Bob or Emmy Lou either knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +this. Nor yet did Emmy Lou grasp that he +to whom she was told to go for company a +dozen times a day when the others wanted to +get rid of her used the same to get rid of her +himself. On the contrary, her faith in him +being what it was, his warnings sank deep, the +dire fates of his examples being guaranty for +that. Moreover his examples came close home.</p> + +<p>The little girl who wouldn't go play when +they wanted to get rid of her. The little boy +who would stay out visiting so late they had +to send the house-boy after him. The little +girl who wouldn't go 'long when told to go, +but would hang around the kitchen. Treated +as a class by Bob, a class, so his gloomy head-shakings +would imply, peculiarly fitting to his +present company, their fates were largely similar.</p> + +<p>"They begun to peak, an' then to pine. An' +still they wouldn't mind. Thar ha'r drapped +out in the comb. An' still they wouldn't mind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +Thar nails come loose. An' still they wouldn't +mind. Thar teeth drapped out. But it wuz +too late. When they tried to mind <i>they +couldn't mind!</i>"</p> + +<p>And while his audience might chafe beneath +the almost too personal tone of these remarks, +she dared not question them. Examples dire +as Bob's were vouched for every day. Only +the Noahs were saved in the ark. Lot's wife +turned to a pillar of salt. The bear came out +of the woods and ate the naughty children. +Aunt Cordelia and Sunday school alike said +so. The wicked sisters of Cinderella were +driven out of the palace. Aunt Katie and +Aunt Louise said so. The disobedient little +mermaid was turned into foam. The little +girl down at the corner, named Maud, who +owned the book, said so.</p> + +<p>These things all considered, perhaps it came +to be a matter of too many and cumulative admonishings +with Emmy Lou. Nature will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +revolt at too steady a diet perhaps even of admonitions. +Or it may be that even an Emmy +Lou in time rebels, when elders so persistently +refuse to recognize that there is another, an +Emmy Lou's side, to most affairs.</p> + +<p>For at six the peripatetic instinct has awakened +and the urge within is to move on. +Where? How does an Emmy Lou know? +Anywhere so that the cloying performances +of outgrown baby ways are behind her.</p> + +<p>Many whom she knew in the receded stages +of five years old, and four, have moved on or +away before this. Izzy who lived next door. +Minnie who lived next to Izzy. Lisa Schmit +whose father had the grocery at the corner but +now has one at a corner farther away.</p> + +<p>And others have moved into Emmy Lou's +present ken. Mr. Dawkins has the grocery +at the corner now, and his little girl is Maud, +guarantor for the mermaid, and his big girl +is Sarah, and his little boy is Albert Eddie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +The peripatetic instinct impelling, Emmy +Lou goes to see them as often as Aunt Cordelia +will permit.</p> + +<p>There is fascination in going if one could +but convey this to Aunt Cordelia in words. +Any can live in houses; indeed most people +do; or in Emmy Lou's time did; but only the +few live over a grocery.</p> + +<p>It argues these different. Mr. Schmit was +German. Mr. Dawkins is English. At Emmy +Lou's, the teakettle, a vague part in family +affairs, boils on the stove, but at Maud's, the +teakettle, a family affair of moment, boils on +the "hob," which is to say, the grate. And +more, the father and mother of Maud and Albert +Eddie not only have crossed that vague +something, home of the little mermaid, the +ocean, but their mother has all but seen the +Queen.</p> + +<p>"You know the Queen?" the two had asked +Emmy Lou anxiously.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<p>And she had said yes. And she did know +her. Knew her from long association and by +heart. She sat in her parlor at the bottom of +the page, eating bread and honey, while the +maid and the blackbird were at the top of the +next page.</p> + +<p>"Tell her about it," Maud and Albert Eddie +then had urged Sarah, their elder sister, +"about when mother all but saw the Queen?"</p> + +<p>Sarah complied. "'Now hurry along home +with your brother in the perambulator while I +stop at the shop,' mother's mother said to her. +Mother was twelve years old. But she didn't +hurry. She stopped to watch every one else +all at once hurrying and running, and so when +she reached the corner the Queen, for the +Queen it was, had gone by."</p> + +<p>"If she had minded her mother——" from +Albert Eddie.</p> + +<p>"And hurried on home with the perambulator——" +from Maud. Proof not only of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +worthy attitude on their part towards the admonition +of the tale, but of an evident comprehension +of what a perambulator was.</p> + +<p>But Aunt Cordelia, not always a free agent, +was no longer permitting so much visiting.</p> + +<p>"You are letting her actually live on the +street," said Aunt Katie.</p> + +<p>"With any sort of children," supplemented +Aunt Louise.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly Aunt Cordelia came the nearest +to understanding there is another side to +these affairs. "Sometimes I think she's lonesome," +she said.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Those children who are all the day,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Allowed to wander out,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And only waste their time in play,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Or running wild about——"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>said Aunt Katie. Aunt Louise finished it:</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"Who do not any school attend,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">But trifle as they will,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Are almost certain in the end,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To come to something ill."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>And while it almost would seem that Aunt +Cordelia was being admonished too, and from +the little book, in the light of what followed, +it appeared that Aunt Katie, Aunt Louise, and +the little book were right.</p> + +<p>The day in question started wrong. In the +act of getting out of bed, life seemed a heavy +and a listless thing. If Emmy Lou, less pink-cheeked +than usual if any had chanced to notice, +but full as chubby, ever had felt this way +before, she would have told Aunt Cordelia that +her head ached. But if the head never has +ached before?</p> + +<p>Her attention was distracted here, anyhow, +and she, startled, let her tongue pass along +the row of her teeth. Milk teeth, those who +knew the term would have called them. There +is much, however, that an Emmy Lou, one +small person in a household of elders, is supposed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +to know that she does not, knowledge +coming not by nature but through understanding.</p> + +<p>Then, reassured, her attention came back to +the affairs of the moment, the chief of these +being that life is a heavy and listless affair and +the labyrinthine windings of stockings more +than ever fretting in effect upon the temper. +And after stockings come garments, ending +with the pink calico dress apportioned to the +day, and succeeding garments come buttons. +Aunt Katie in the next room was cheerful.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"I love to see a little girl<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rise with the lark so bright,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bathe, comb and dress with cheerful face——"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>One was in no mood whatever for the little +book, and showed it. Aunt Louise in the +next room too, possibly grasped this.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Why is Sarah standing there<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leaning down upon a chair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">With such an angry lip and brow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I wonder what's the matter now?"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia was struggling with the buttons. +"Let her alone, both of you. Sometimes +I think you are half responsible."</p> + +<p>The outrages of the day went on at breakfast. +Emmy Lou's once prized highchair, a +tight fit now, and which, could she have had +her own way, would have been repudiated some +time ago, was in itself provocative. She +climbed into it stonily.</p> + +<p>Bob placed a saucer before her. If she ever +had suffered the qualms of an uneasy stomach +before, she would have known and told Aunt +Cordelia.</p> + +<p>"I don't want my oatmeal," said Emmy +Lou.</p> + +<p>"You must eat it before you can have anything +else," said Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>"I don't want anything else."</p> + +<p>"She's fretful," said Aunt Katie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She's cross," said Aunt Louise.</p> + +<p>"I am coming to think you are right, Louise," +said Aunt Cordelia. "What she needs +is to be at school with other children. School +opens the day after tomorrow, and I'll start +her."</p> + +<p>"This baby?" from Uncle Charlie incredulously, +his gaze seeking Emmy Lou in her +highchair.</p> + +<p>"Look at that oatmeal still untouched," from +Aunt Cordelia. "Charlie, <i>she is getting so she +doesn't want to mind!</i>"</p> + +<p>The outrages went on during the morning. +Emmy Lou did not know what to do with herself, +whereas Aunt Cordelia had a great deal +to do with herself. "You little hindering +thing!" by and by from that person with exasperation. +"Go on out and talk with Bob. +He's cleaning knives on the kitchen doorstep."</p> + +<p>But Bob, occupied with his board and bath-brick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +and piece of raw potato, had no idea of +talking with her. He talked to himself.</p> + +<p>"Seems like I done forgot how it went, 'bout +thet li'l boy whut would stan' roun' listenin'. +Some'n' like 'bout thet li'l girl whut wouldn't +go about her business——"</p> + +<p>Gathering up his knives and board, he went +in to set his table. Turning around by and by +he found her behind him in the pantry. He +talked to himself some more.</p> + +<p>"Reckon is I done forgot how it went? +'Bout thet li'l girl got shet up in the pantry +after they tol' her to keep out? She knowed +ef she coughed they'd hear an' come an' fin' +her thar. An' she hed to cough. An' she +wouldn't cough. An' she hed to. An' she +wouldn't. An' she hed to. An' she DID. +But it wuz too late. The pieces of her wuz +ev'ey whar, even to the next spring when they +wuz house-cleanin', an' foun' her knuckle-bone +on the fur top shelf. Looks lak to me, somebody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +else is gettin' ready for a good lesson. +Better watch out."</p> + +<p>The final outrage was yet to come. At the +close of dinner Emmy Lou came round to +Aunt Cordelia's chair. Aunt Cordelia was +worn out. She had never known her Emmy +Lou to behave as she had in the last day or so.</p> + +<p>"Now don't come asking me again," she +said, forestalling the issue. "I've gone over +the matter with you several times before today. +You cannot go play with anybody. No, +not with Maud at the corner or anybody else." +Then to Uncle Charlie, shaking his head over +this unwonted friction as he rose to start back +down town: "They tell me there is whooping-cough +around everywhere, Charlie." Then to +Emmy Lou: "Now try and be a good girl +for the rest of the day, Aunt Cordelia will +have her hands full. It is Bob's afternoon out. +Try and be Aunt Cordelia's precious baby."</p> + +<p>But Emmy Lou, her tongue traveling the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +row of her teeth anew, didn't propose to be +anybody's precious baby. She was a big girl, +now, almost six years old, and wanted it recognized +that she was. And she didn't feel good +in the least, but like being quite the reverse for +the rest of the day.</p> + +<p>This was at two o'clock. At three Aunt +Cordelia's own Emmy Lou, the pink calico +upon her person and a straw hat upon her +head, turned the knob of the front door. Having +obeyed thus far in life, she was about to +disobey.</p> + +<p>The front door, its knob requiring both +hands and her tiptoes, whereas the kitchen door +would have been open. But Aunt M'randy +was in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>As it chanced, Bob was leaving by the +kitchen door, and coming around by the side +pavement as Emmy Lou came down the steps, +they met. His idea seemed to be that she was +tagging after him, an injury in itself when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +she divined it. He was of the same mind evidently +when a moment later she was still beside +him outside the gate.</p> + +<p>He paused and addressed the air disparagingly +before he went. "Looks like to me I'll +have to bresh up my ricollection 'bout thet li'l +girl whut would come outside her own gate +after she was tole not to come. Spoilin' for +one good lesson, thet li'l girl wuz, an' 'pears +like to me she got it. Better watch out." And +Bob was gone, up the street, whereas it was +the definite intention of the other person at +that gate to go down the street.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dawkins' grocery fronted on the main +street while his housedoor opened on the side-street. +A few moments later a small figure in +a familiar pink dress and straw hat reached +this side door, and, pausing long enough for +her tongue to pass uneasily along the row of +her teeth, opened it upon a flight of stairs and +went in.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<p>Five o'clock it was and after when Mr. +Dawkins' eldest daughter Sarah, followed by +Maud and Albert Eddie, came down these +steps propelling a visitor in a pink dress and +straw hat, a visitor known from the Dawkins' +viewpoint as that little girl from up the street +in the white house that get their groceries +from Schmit.</p> + +<p>Perhaps this fact explained Sarah's small +patience with this person who in herself would +seem to invite it. She not only was pale, and +her lips pressed with unnatural while miserable +firmness together, but her eyes, uplifted when +Sarah most undeniably shook her, were anguished.</p> + +<p>"If you'd open your mouth and speak," said +Sarah with every indication of shaking her +again.</p> + +<p>A stout gentleman coming along the side +street which led from a car-line crossed over +hastily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Here, here! And what for?" Uncle Charlie +asked with spirit.</p> + +<p>Sarah looked up at him. With her long, +tidy plaits and her tidy person she conveyed +the impression that she was to be depended +on. Maud looked up at him. With her small +tidy plaits and her tidy person she conveyed +the impression that she was to be depended +on, too.</p> + +<p>Albert Eddie looked up. Mr. Dawkins was +to be congratulated on his family. There was +dependability in every warm freckle of Albert +Eddie's face.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou, Uncle Charlie's own Emmy +Lou, had been looking up the while, anguished. +She was a reliable person in general herself, or +Uncle Charlie always had found her so.</p> + +<p>"If she'd open her mouth and speak," said +Sarah. "Half an hour ago by the clock it was, +she gave a sound, and I turned, and here she +was like this."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Sister was telling us a story——" from Albert +Eddie.</p> + +<p>"The story of naughty Harryminta——" +from Maud.</p> + +<p>"No use your trying, sir," from Sarah. +"I've been trying for half an hour. We're +taking her home."</p> + +<p>"Excellent idea." He took Emmy Lou's +little hands. "So you won't tell Uncle Charlie +either?"</p> + +<p>Evidently she would not, though it was with +visible increase of anguish that she indicated +this by a shake of her head.</p> + +<p>"We'll walk along," said Sarah. "I've my +part of supper to get, but we'll feel better ourselves +to see her home."</p> + +<p>They walked along.</p> + +<p>"I was talking to them peaceful as might +be——" from Sarah again.</p> + +<p>"Sister was telling us a story——" from Albert +Eddie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The story of naughty Harryminta——" +from Maud.</p> + +<p>Was it a sound here from Uncle Charlie's +Emmy Lou, or the twitch of her hand in his, +which betrayed some access to her woe?</p> + +<p>"And what was the story?" asked Uncle +Charlie. It might afford a clue.</p> + +<p>Maud volunteered it. "The little girl's +mother said to her, 'Don't.' And her name was +Harryminta. And when she got back from +doing what she was told not to do, her mother +was waiting for her at the door. 'Whose little +girl is this?' And Harryminta said, 'Why, +it's your little girl.' But her mother shook +her head. 'Not my little girl at all. <i>My little +girl is a good little girl.</i>' And shut the door."</p> + +<p>"Talk about your coincidence," said Uncle +Charlie afterward. "Talk about your Nemesis +and such!"</p> + +<p>For as the group came along the street—the +Dawkins family, Uncle Charlie, and Emmy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +Lou—and turned in at the gate, Aunt Cordelia +flung the front door open. Aunt Katie and +Aunt Louise were behind her. They had really +just missed Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"Whose little girl is this?" said Aunt Cordelia, +severely. But not going as far as the +mother of Araminta she did not shut the door. +Instead, Sarah explained.</p> + +<p>"Half an hour ago by the clock——" Sarah +began.</p> + +<p>They led her into the hall, and Aunt Cordelia +lifted her up on the marble slab of the +pier table. Aunt Cordelia's admonitions and +mandates came from the heart. "Open your +mouth and speak out and tell me what's the +matter?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou opened her mouth, and in the +act, though visibly against her stoutest endeavor +even to an alarming accession of pink +to her face, ominously and unmistakably—whooped; +the same followed on her part by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +the full horror of comprehension, and then by +a wail.</p> + +<p>For with that whoop the worst had happened. +As with the little boys and girls in +Bob's dire category of naughty little boys +and girls, her sin had found her out indeed.</p> + +<p>"I'm coming to pieces," wailed their terrified +Emmy Lou, "because I didn't mind."</p> + +<p>And according to her understanding she +was, since after her vain endeavor for half an +hour by Sarah's clock to hold it in place with +tongue and lips, in her palm lay a tooth, the +first she had shed or known she had to shed, +knowledge coming not by nature but through +understanding.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia did not carry out her +program the day school opened. There was +whooping-cough at her house, and a day or +so after there was whooping-cough at Mr. +Dawkins'.</p> + +<p>"He is very indignant about it," Aunt Cordelia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +told Uncle Charlie. "He stopped me as +I came by this morning from my marketing. +He said it wasn't even as though we were customers."</p> + +<p>"Which is the least we can be after this, I'm +sure you will agree," said Uncle Charlie.</p> + +<p>Just here in the conversation, Emmy Lou, +miserable and stuffy in a pink sacque over her +habitual garb because Aunt Cordelia most emphatically +insisted, whooped.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Those <i>good</i> little girls, Marianne and Maria,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Were happy and well as <i>good</i> girls could desire—"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>said Aunt Louise.</div> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia, approaching with a bottle +and spoon as she did after every cough, shook +her head. "Little girls who mind are good +little girls," she said.</p> + +<p>"Emmy Lou is learning to be a good little +girl while she is shut up in the house sick," +said Aunt Katie. "She knows all of her Commandments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +In Verse for Sunday school now. +Let Aunt Cordelia wipe the cough-syrup off +your mouth and say them for Uncle Charlie +before he goes."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou learning to be a good little girl +said them obediently.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Thou shalt have no more gods but me;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Before no idol bow thy knee.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Take not the name of God in vain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nor dare the Sabbath day profane.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Give both thy parents honor due,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Take heed that thou no murder do.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Abstain from deeds and words unclean,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nor steal though thou art poor and mean;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nor make a willful lie nor love it,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">What is thy neighbor's, dare not covet."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia, Aunt Katie and Aunt +Louise looked pleased. Emmy Lou had said +the verses without stumbling. Uncle Charlie +looked doubtful. "Five words with understanding +rather than ten thousand in an unknown +tongue? How about it, Cordelia?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Bob, bringing Emmy Lou's dinner upstairs +to her on a tray, had the last disturbing +word. "Been tryin' to riccollect how it went, +'bout thet li' girl kep' her tongue outer the +place whar her tooth drapped out, so's a new +tooth would grow in."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>THE TRIBUNAL OF CONSCIENCE</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Uncle Charlie</span> took six blue tickets from +his pocket and set them on the dining-room +mantel. His ownership of a newspaper was +the explanation for this liberality of supply +to those who could put the two things together.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said he, "if anybody in this +room ever heard of the circus?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou could not get down from her +place at the dinner-table fast enough. She hurried +to the kitchen. She had heard of the circus +from Bob the house-boy, who had a circus +bill!</p> + +<p>Bills, as a rule, are small affairs measurable +in inches; bits of paper which reduce Aunt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +Cordelia to figurings with a lead pencil, short +replies, and low spirits.</p> + +<p>But a circus bill, pink and pictorial, is measurable +in feet. As Bob spread his on the +kitchen table yesterday and again this morning, +it fell either side well on the way to the +floor. Its wonders, inexplicable where he, +spelling out the text, forebore to explain, or +explicable where he did if one knew no better +than he, were measurable only by the limits +of the mind to take them in. If Emmy Lou, +who started to school last fall three weeks late +owing to a popular prejudice against whooping-cough, +had caught up as Aunt Cordelia +easily assumed she would, or "caught on," in +the words of Uncle Charlie, she might have +been spelling out some of the wonders of the +circus bill for herself.</p> + +<p>Bob's finger had paused beneath a lady in +myriad billowing skirts poised mid-air between +a horse and a hoop such as Emmy Lou spent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +hours trying to trundle on the sidewalk. "She's +jumpin' th'ough the hoop, but thet ain't +nothin'. Heah in the other picture she's +jumpin' th'ough six."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou, hurrying to the kitchen now +and finding Bob about to start in with the soup, +borrowed the bill and hurried back with it to +the dining-room and Uncle Charlie's side.</p> + +<p>"This one's an elephant," she explained, her +finger, even as Bob's, beneath the picture. "He +picks little children up and puts them in his +trunk."</p> + +<p>"I see you know, though some do call it his +howdah," said Uncle Charlie. "And no doubt +about the lions and the tigers, the giraffe and +the zebra as well?" regretfully. "Even the +lemonade?"</p> + +<p>"Lemonade?"</p> + +<p>"Pink. And peanuts." Uncle Charlie motioned +to Bob to put his soup down and have +done with it, as it were. "Also Nella, The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +Child Equestrienne in Her Triumphal Entry—here +she is. And Zephine, the Wingless +Wonder, in Her Flight Through the Air——"</p> + +<p>"Am I going to the circus?" from Emmy +Lou.</p> + +<p>"That's what I hoped," from Uncle Charlie, +handing back the bill and turning to his soup. +"But of course if there is room for doubt +about it——"</p> + +<p>The very next day Emmy Lou came hurrying +home from Sunday school. She had the +Dawkins, Sarah, the conscientious elder sister, +Maud, and Albert Eddie, for company as far +as the grocery at the corner. Since Aunt +Cordelia had learned they were English, apparent +explanation for those who understood, +they had been persuaded to go to St. Simeon's +Sunday school too.</p> + +<p>Sunday school was to have a—Emmy Lou +in her Sunday dress and her Sunday hat, hurrying +on from the corner by herself, tried to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +straighten this out before reaching home and +reporting it. What was it Sunday school was +to have? In Uncle Charlie's study—a small +back room, somewhat battered and dingy but, +as he claimed in its defense, his own—was a +picture of a stout little man propelled in a +wheelbarrow by some other men.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou had discovered that Uncle Charlie +loved the little man and prized the picture. +When she asked who he was and where he +was going in the wheelbarrow, Uncle Charlie +said it was <i>Mr. Pickwick</i> going to a <i>picnic</i>. +Or, and here was the trouble, was it <i>Mr. Picnic</i> +going to a <i>pickwick?</i> It depended on this what +Sunday school was to have.</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie, hat and cane in hand, waiting +in the hall for Aunt Cordelia to start to church, +straightened out the matter. <i>Mr. Pickwick</i> +was going to a <i>picnic</i>. It then followed that +Emmy Lou, in general a brief person, had such +a store of information about the picnic she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +was moved to share it with Uncle Charlie. +This common interest about the circus and their +recurring conversations about it were drawing +them together, anyhow. Her data about the +picnic on the whole was menacing in its character. +As, for example:</p> + +<p>It was to be in Mr. Denby's grove. He +charged too much for it, but St. Simeon's could +not do any better. If you went too far away +from the swings and the benches the mamma +of some little pigs would chase you.</p> + +<p>Further. You cannot go to St. Simeon's +picnic, or, indeed, to any picnic without a basket! +Emmy Lou had endeavored to find out +what sort of a basket and Sarah had cut her +short with the brief reply, "A picnic basket."</p> + +<p>And, finally, "Albert Eddie wishes he'd +never started to St. Simeon's. Sarah says he +has to go to the picnic and he wants to go to +the circus!"</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia arriving in full church array<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +caught this last. "I've been meaning to +speak about it myself. I find the circus is +here for the one day only and that the day for +St. Simeon's picnic."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou received this as applying to the +Dawkins only. The information her inquiries +had enabled her to get together led her personally +to disparage picnics.</p> + +<p>"Albert Eddie says Sarah made him wash +dishes at the last picnic he went to. And she +makes him carry baskets. That if he'd wash +dishes for 'em at the circus and carry water, +they'd let him in."</p> + +<p>"Sarah, Maud, Albert Eddie, you, me, and +one ticket to spare; such was my idea," said +Uncle Charlie, he and Aunt Cordelia preparing +to start. "The only thing we've ever given +the Dawkins up to date is the whooping-cough. +Picnic or circus, duty or pleasure, +we'll have to put it to them which they want +it to be."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia, even at the risk of being late +to church, stopped short. She didn't see the +matter in any such fashion at all! "Emmy +Lou will prefer to go to her own Sunday +school picnic too, I hope," decidedly. "How +you distract and bother the child, Charlie!"</p> + +<p>"I bother Emmy Lou? She and I are as +near good friends as people get to be. We +respect each other's honesty and go our own +ways. I am going to leave the tickets where +I put them yesterday. I planned to take her +and the Dawkins to the circus. You and she +can fight it out." He proceeded through the +open doorway to the stone steps.</p> + +<p>"In that case," from Aunt Cordelia as she +followed him, "since you seem to put me in +the wrong, I leave it to her own conscience. +She is seven years old, a big girl going to +school and Sunday school, and ought to know +right from wrong." And the two were gone.</p> + +<p>Conscience! Familiar shibboleth to the seventh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +age of little girls! Stern front behind +which Aunt Cordelia these days hides her kindly +features.</p> + +<p>Somewhere beyond the neighborhood where +Emmy Lou lived with Aunt Cordelia and +Uncle Charlie, was the roundhouse and the +yards of a railroad. Or so Aunt Cordelia explained. +The roundhouse bell, rung every +hour by the watchman on his rounds, made +far-off melancholy tolling through the night.</p> + +<p>The sins at seven, the chubby, endeavoring +Emmy Lou's sins, her cloak on the coat-closet +floor instead of the closet peg, mucilage on +Aunt Katie's rug where a paper outspread +before pasting began would have saved it—sins +such as these have no prod to reminder +more poignant than this melancholy tolling of +the roundhouse bell in the night.</p> + +<p>"It is an uneasy conscience," Aunt Cordelia +invariably claimed when Emmy Lou, waking, +came begging for permission to get in her bed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +"If your conscience was all that it should be, +you'd be asleep."</p> + +<p>Yet did Aunt Cordelia, as a rule, leave those +matters to Emmy Lou's conscience which she +thought she did? Did Emmy Lou three out +of four Sundays find herself remaining at +church rather than on her road home because +she herself wanted to stay? Or taking off her +new dress on reaching home because she +wanted to get into the older one?</p> + +<p>Or, rather, did she find her baffled if unsuspecting +self, coerced and bewildered, doing +these and other things in the name of choice +when the doing was not through choice at all?</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia was going to leave the decision +between the circus and the picnic to Emmy +Lou, too, because she said she was. Nor did +Aunt Cordelia, honest soul, or Emmy Lou, +unquestioning and trusting one, dream but that +she did.</p> + +<p>"I'll see Sarah Dawkins," said Aunt Cordelia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +to Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise the very +next morning, "and arrange with her to look +after Emmy Lou at the picnic. We'll use the +small hamper for her basket. She can take +enough for herself and them. Bob can take her +and it around to the church corner where the +chartered street cars are to be waiting, and +put her in Sarah's charge there. I can't see, +Katie, why you oppose a cake with custard +filling for the basket."</p> + +<p>"It's messy," said Aunt Katie, "both to take +and to eat."</p> + +<p>"But if she likes it best?" from Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>It was the first thing come to Emmy Lou's +hearing lending appeal to the picnic; or light +on the purpose of the baskets.</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie arriving for dinner outmatched +it, however, by another appeal. "I +saw a new circus bill on the fence of the vacant +lot as I came by. A yellow bill."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<p>Emmy Lou hurried right down there from +the dinner-table. Nella, the Child Equestrienne, +was kissing her hand right to Emmy +Lou from her horse's back. And the elephant, +abandoning his customary dark business of +putting little children in his trunk, with unexpected +geniality was sitting on a stool before +a table drinking tea.</p> + +<p>And the next day Bob outmatched this. He +had been to the grocery to see about chickens +for the picnic to which Emmy Lou ought to +want to go.</p> + +<p>"There's a Flyin' Dutchman on the outside, +an' side-shows too. I seen about it on a bill +the other side of the grocery. A green bill."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou hurried down there. She didn't +see anything that she could identify as a Flying +Dutchman, perhaps because she was hazy +as to what a Dutchman was. But Zephine, +swinging by her <i>teeth</i>, was just leaping into +space.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I think I will let her wear her sprigged +muslin," said Aunt Cordelia at supper that +night. "A good many grown persons go in +the afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Their excuse being to take the children——" +from Uncle Charlie easily.</p> + +<p>"I am not talking of the circus, Charlie, and +you know I am not," from Aunt Cordelia +sharply.</p> + +<p>"She has decided then?"</p> + +<p>"She certainly ought to have decided. There +never should have been any doubt. I'll put +in some little tarts, Katie; all children like +tarts."</p> + +<p>Had Emmy Lou decided? She heard it assumed +that she had. Why, then, with this +sense of frustration and bewilderment was she +swallowing at tears?</p> + +<p>"I certainly feel I may say Emmy Lou has +decided," repeated Aunt Cordelia. "I'm sure, +Katie, tarts are just the thing."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll never believe it," said Uncle Charlie, +emphatically, nor was he referring to the +tarts.</p> + +<p>Did he refuse to be party to any such idea?</p> + +<p>"I would not be surprised," said he to Emmy +Lou the next evening, "if we hear the circus +rumbling by in the night. Our street is the +one they usually take from the railroad yards +to the circus-grounds. I put six tickets on +the mantelpiece where at the most we will need +only five. Suppose I take one and see what +I can do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Emmy Lou has no idea but of going to +her own Sunday school picnic," said Aunt Cordelia. +"I wish, Charlie, you would be still +about your tickets and the circus."</p> + +<p>"They are not my tickets. They are going +to stay right here. I merely was to go with +Emmy Lou on one of them. They are her +tickets to do with as she wants and to take +whom she pleases."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> + +<p>Though the circus did go by in the night, +according to report next morning, Emmy Lou +failed to hear it. Nor did the melancholy +of the tolling bell disturb her. Aunt Cordelia +said this was because she was going to +her Sunday school picnic as she should, and +had a quiet conscience.</p> + +<p>"I come roun' by the circus as I come to +work," Bob said in the pantry where Aunt +Cordelia and he packed the basket with Emmy +Lou for spectator. "Gittin' them wagons with +the lookin'-glass sides ready for the perade. +Thet ol' elephant come swinging erlong like +he owned the y'earth. Mr. Charlie gimme a +ticket las' night to go."</p> + +<p>Which reminded Emmy Lou. Even though +she was going to the picnic, there was comfort +in the thought those tickets yet on the mantelpiece +were hers. She went into the dining-room +and pushed a chair to the hearth. The +sprigged muslin she was to wear had a pocket,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +and later when this dress was put on the tickets +which were her own were in the pocket.</p> + +<p>If one never has been to a picnic the only +premises to go on are those given you.</p> + +<p>"You haven't a thing to do but stay with +Maud and Albert Eddie, and mind Sarah," +said Aunt Cordelia as she put Emmy Lou's +hat on her head and its elastic under her chin, +"except, of course, to look after your basket. +There is pink icing on the little cakes and a +good tablecloth that I don't want anything to +happen to under the beaten biscuits at the bottom. +There is ham and there's tongue and +there's chicken."</p> + +<p>"I have to look after the basket," Emmy +Lou told Sarah as she and the Dawkins with +the rest of St. Simeon's Sunday school were +put aboard the excursion cars.</p> + +<p>"Of course you do," said Sarah approvingly. +"We all do. It's right here. And," with the +heartiness of one distributing largesse in privileges,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +the meanwhile settling her three charges +in their places, "when we get off the car Albert +Eddie shall carry it."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou had a seat between Albert Eddie +and Maud. Beyond Albert Eddie were three +little boys in knickerbockers, blouses, and straw +hats, as gloomy in face as he.</p> + +<p>"Not only <i>let</i> him carry water for the elephant +but gave him <i>a ticket</i> for doing it," the +nearest one was saying to the other three. +"Had it with him when he got back. I saw +it myself. He lemme take it in my hand. A +<i>blue</i> ticket."</p> + +<p>"Right past the circus grounds, tents and +all," from the second little boy as their car +came in sight of the beflagged tent city. "I'll +betcher they're gettin' ready for the parade +right now!"</p> + +<p>Four glittering, turbaned beings appeared +around a tent, each leading a plumed and +caparisoned horse to a place before a gilded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +and high-throned edifice. "Didn't I tell you +they were?" bitterly. A band crashed.</p> + +<p>The heads of St. Simeon's Sunday school, +regardless of danger, craned out as one. The +more venturesome left their seats.</p> + +<p>St. Simeon's chartered cars rolled inexorably +by. Heads came in. The venturesome +returned to their places.</p> + +<p>"What is there to a picnic anyhow?" from +the third little boy. "Nothin' at all but what +you eat."</p> + +<p>Albert Eddie staggered under the weight +of the basket when in time the car stopped on +the track along the dusty road outside Mr. +Denby's grove. But then one out of every +two persons descending from the several cars +was similarly staggering under the weight of +a basket.</p> + +<p>Sarah and Maud, with Emmy Lou led by +either hand between them, followed Albert Eddie +with their own. After which, St. Simeon's,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +having brought all baskets to a common center +beneath a tree in the neighborhood of the ice-water +barrel, went off and left them.</p> + +<p>"I'm going with a little girl who asked me," +Maud told Sarah. "We won't go too far or +the mother of the little pigs will chase us."</p> + +<p>"Albert Eddie, I told the ladies that you +would get the wood for a fire so we can put +the coffee on," said Sarah. "When you come +back from that you can take the bucket and +bring us the ice-water from the barrel for the +lemonade."</p> + +<p>Sarah's glance came next to Emmy Lou, no +mixer in the world of Sunday school at best, as +Sarah before this had observed. Sarah frowned +perturbedly. Some are picnickers by intuition, +for example Maud and the little girl +gone off together; others come to it through +endeavor. It was seven-year-old Emmy Lou's +first picnic, and she in her sprigged muslin +stood looking to Sarah.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sarah was a manager, but having yet to +manage for Emmy Lou her frown was perturbed. +Then her face cleared. She fetched a +flat if a trifle over-mossy stone and put it down +on the outskirts of the baskets grouped beneath +the sheltering tree, and near the ice-water barrel. +"There, now! You can sit down here +and look after the baskets till I get back," she +told Emmy Lou and was gone.</p> + +<p>There is virtue in coming to a picnic. Aunt +Cordelia plainly gave one to understand so.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go play with the others, +little girl?" asked a lady who was tying on a +gingham apron as she hurried by. "Go over +to the swings and see-saws."</p> + +<p>But Emmy Lou, no picnicker by intuition, +nor as yet by any other mode of arrival, was +grateful that she had to stay with the baskets, +and, had the lady paused long enough for a +reply, could say so.</p> + +<p>Was there virtue in coming to the picnic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +for Albert Eddie too? Emmy Lou on her +stone under the tree guarding baskets saw +him come back with his load of firewood. She +saw him next carrying the bucket of water from +the barrel.</p> + +<p>And here some ladies approaching the baskets +beside Emmy Lou beneath the tree, and +casting appraising eyes over the outlay, began +to help themselves to the same! To this basket, +and that basket, and carry them away! +One even approached and laid hands on Emmy +Lou's own! It took courage to speak, but she +found it.</p> + +<p>"It's mine," from Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"And just the very nicest looking one I have +seen," said the lady heartily after raising the +lid and probing into the contents. "Anyone +would be glad to say it was hers," and went off +with it! St. Simeon's with a commendable +sense of fellowship made a common feast from +its picnic baskets at long tables for all, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +Emmy Lou did not know this. She only saw +her cake with the custard filling, her cakes +with the pink icing, her tarts, her ham and +tongue, her chicken and biscuits and tablecloth +borne off from her with a coolness astounding +and appalling.</p> + +<p>Virtue is hers who dully endures a picnic. +Emmy Lou, coming out of her stun and daze +and seeing some little boys approaching, the +ice-water barrel being a general Mecca, swallowed +hard that, did they notice her, they +might not see how near she was to crying. +Three little boys in knickerbockers, blouses, +and straw hats they were, still with their common +air of being more than justifiably aggrieved.</p> + +<p>They noticed her and at the abrupt halt of +one, all stopped.</p> + +<p>"We saw her on the car," he said. "<i>What's +she got?</i>"</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/ill-132.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt=""Why should that monstrous bulk of elephant have trumpeted just then?"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"Why should that monstrous bulk of elephant have trumpeted just then?"</span> +</div> + +<p>For Emmy Lou's hand some time since had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +brought forth for comfort from her pocket +the blue tickets which were her own. That +hand closed on them at the question now. She'd +just seen her basket go!</p> + +<p>"<i>Are</i> they circus tickets? Sure? Lemme +see them? Aw, what you scared of, lettin' me +see 'em in my hand?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou did not know just what. The +ways of a picnic and those attending were new +to her, but what she had learned discouraged +confidence. Her hand and the tickets in it +went behind her.</p> + +<p>"Where'd she get 'em?" the boy asked now +of Albert Eddie, arriving with his bucket for +more water.</p> + +<p>He set the bucket down by the barrel and +joined the group.</p> + +<p>"Do you s'pose they are really hers?" was +the query put to him as he got there.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou knew Albert Eddie, had known +him for a long time as time is measured at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +seven years. He looked after her on the way +to and from Sunday school even though he did +it at Sarah's bidding, whereas Maud forgot +her. Moreover, he had not wanted to come to +the picnic, and, bond firmly established between +them, neither had she. She surrendered +her tickets into his hands to be inspected. She +even credentialed them. The others had +doubted them! "They're mine. My Uncle +Charlie said so. To take anybody I wanted to +take if I hadn't had to come here!"</p> + +<p>Her tickets! Five by actual count and actual +touch! To do what she pleased with! +This plump little girl with the elastic of her +hat under her chin, sitting alone at the picnic +on a stone!</p> + +<p>The conversation in the group became choric +and to some extent Delphic, Emmy Lou, with +her eyes on the tickets in Albert Eddie's hands, +alone excluded.</p> + +<p>"Aw, we could!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Follow the track!"</p> + +<p>"Could she do it?"</p> + +<p>"'Tain't so far she couldn't if we start now."</p> + +<p>Four little boys, nearing nine, Albert Eddie, +Logan, John, and Wharton, made Machiavellian +through longing, turned to this little girl +on her stone and made court to her as they +knew how.</p> + +<p>"Aw, you ask her! You know her!" from +Logan to Albert Eddie.</p> + +<p>Albert Eddie cleared his throat. He'd carried +the basket. He'd carried the wood. He'd +carried the water. He was bitter to desperate +lengths, indeed, and in the rebound no good +and obedient little boy at all but one gloriously +afloat on seas of dire and reckless abandon.</p> + +<p>"We'll take you to the circus, these boys +and me, and let you see everything, if you want +us to," with a <i>diablerie</i> of cunning so appalling +and so convicting in its readiness he knew he +must falter if he stopped to consider it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Tain't as if we hadn't been before, every +one of us," from Logan, with that yet greater +cunning of the practiced and the artist, indifference; +"but we wouldn't mind taking you."</p> + +<p>"I been twice," from Wharton mightily.</p> + +<p>"I been once, last year," from Albert Eddie.</p> + +<p>"I been twice in <i>one</i> year," from John, "here +at home and when I went to visit my grandmother."</p> + +<p>"I been twice to one show," from Logan, +eclipsing them all. "One day with one uncle, +and the next day with another!"</p> + +<p>And Emmy Lou never had been at all! The +tickets, most cunning play of all, had been put +back in her own hand.</p> + +<p>"Old clown he threw his hat up, turned a +handspring, and come up and caught it on +his head," from Wharton. "We'll show you +the clown."</p> + +<p>"—rode one horse standing and driving five +and kissed her hand every time she came by—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +Logan, forgetting his cue and his cunning, was +saying to Albert Eddie and John.</p> + +<p>"—picks out the letters, that dog does, and +spells his own name—" John, forgetting his +cue and his cunning, was saying to Albert Eddie +and Logan.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou moved on her stone.</p> + +<p>"—rolls in a big keg, that elephant does, and +turns it up and sits down on it. We'll show +you the elephant too," Wharton, faithful to his +cue, was saying to her.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou stood up. She handed the tickets +to whoever might be to take charge of +them. She put her hand in Albert Eddie's. +"I didn't want to come to the picnic and not +go to the circus," she said.</p> + +<p>They were grateful and solicitous little boys. +They hurried her unduly, perhaps, in getting +her out of the grounds, but once upon the +safer territory of road beside the track they +were mindful of her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll take her by one hand," said Logan to +Albert Eddie, "and you keep hold of her by +the other hand, because she knows you."</p> + +<p>Whatever that hot, dusty, shadeless, that appalling +stretch of country road meant to Emmy +Lou, she never afterward referred to it. +But then there were reasons making silence +more natural on her part.</p> + +<p>Yet she saw the circus! Emmy Lou saw +the circus! Come what might, she had that!</p> + +<p>What that they arrived at the circus entrance +dinnerless, dust-laden, and, but for a stop +along the way at a pump and trough, thirsty!</p> + +<p>What that the man sitting at the mouth of +the passage between canvas walls, to whom +the tickets were handed, eyed them, four unattended +little boys taking marked care of one +little girl in their midst—since he let them by +and in!</p> + +<p>Sawdust, orange-peel, flaring gas jets, +camel, lions, big pussy-tiger, Oh, glorious and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +unmatchable blend of circus aroma! Oh, vast +circling sweep and reach of seats and faces, +with four little boys guarding one little girl +in their midst, wandering along looking for +places!</p> + +<p>Oh, blare of brass, Oh, fanfare of trumpets, +Oh, triumphant entry of all hitherto but dimly +sensed and hauntingly visioned, color, pageant, +rhythm, triumph, glory, heretofore lost as they +came, but now palpable, tangible, and existent!</p> + +<p>Oh, pitiful, a bit terrifying, white-faced +clown! The butt, the mock, the bear-all! Emmy +Lou does not laugh at the clown! Because +she pities him and is sorry for him, her heart +goes out to him instead! And she trembles +for Nella as her horse urged by the snapping, +menacing whip sweeps by faster and even faster—and +she cries out when at the crash of +the kettle-drums, Zephine leaps——</p> + +<p>"But I didn't see the elephant like I did the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +lions and the camel and the tiger," she tells +Logan and Albert Eddie and the others. Nor +had she. The elephant had gone to take his +place in the triumphal entry when Emmy Lou +and her four cicerones, in their progress +through the animal tent before the program, +reached his roped-in inclosure.</p> + +<p>And so they made their way back to him +through the surging crowd as they went out, +four solicitous little boys conducting Emmy +Lou. Made their way as near as might be, +then pushed her through the row of spectators +in front of them to the rope.</p> + +<p>"He picks little children up and puts them +in his trunk," she was saying as one fascinated +by the very awfulness of that she dwelt on, as +they squeezed her through.</p> + +<p>Why should that monstrous bulk of elephant +have trumpeted just then—as Emmy Lou +emerged at the rope—have flung his trunk +out in all the lordly condescension of a mighty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +one willing to stoop, in the accustomed quest +of peanuts?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Aunt Louise, returning from a futile trip +to the church corner to meet Emmy Lou, had +just explained that the picnic had not returned, +being delayed, so rumor said, by the +search for five missing children, when Bob +walked in bringing a dust-laden Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"Came on her at the circus?" from Aunt +Cordelia incredulously.</p> + +<p>"In the animal tent roun' there whar thet +elephunt is," Bob <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'diagramed'">diagrammed</ins>.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou's face, bearing marks of recent +agitation, showed agitation anew.</p> + +<p>"Good work," from Uncle Charlie, just arrived +himself. "Who was with her?"</p> + +<p>"Some li'l boys, she says. She warn't with +nobody when I come on her runnin' f'om thet +elephunt toward me without knowin' it, an' +screamin'."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + +<p>Emmy Lou's agitation broke into speech +mingled with tears. "He picks little children +up and puts them in his trunk. And he tried +to pick up me!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Along in the night Emmy Lou awaking +found that she wanted a drink. These warm +June nights the water bottle and tumbler sat +on the sill of the open window in Aunt Cordelia's +room, which meant that Emmy Lou +must get out of bed and patter in there to +them.</p> + +<p>Reaching the window—was Emmy Lou in +her nightgown and her bare feet really there +and awake or in her bed in reality and direly +dreaming?</p> + +<p>Was it so or not so, this looming, swinging, +menacing bulk, palpably after her +again, approaching adown the silent, dusky +street?</p> + +<p>Seven years old and a little, little girl, Emmy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +Lou fled to Aunt Cordelia's bedside and +tugged at her arm to get her awake.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia, taking her into her bed, +soothed her, her hand massaging up and down +back, shoulders, little thighs, comfortingly +enough, even the while she scolds. She takes +it without question that Emmy Lou has been +dreaming.</p> + +<p>"It is what comes of being a naughty little +girl again. We never sleep well when our +conscience is uneasy."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou lay close. Conscience! Aunt +Cordelia said so!</p> + +<p>Nor did Aunt Cordelia dream, nor Emmy +Lou suspect, that the monstrous, looming +shape padding along the silent street beyond +the open window with its broad sill was the +circus elephant making his way to the railroad +yard and his traveling car, the yard where the +roundhouse bell even now made melancholy +tolling in the night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> +<h2>V</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>LIONS IN THE PATH</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Emmy Lou</span> came home at close of her first +day in the Second Reader. "I sit with Hattie," +she said.</p> + +<p>"Who is she?" asked Aunt Katie.</p> + +<p>"Where does she come from?" added Aunt +Louise.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou was perplexed. Who is Hattie? +In her pink-sprigged dress with her plaits +tied behind her either ear? Breathing briskness +and conviction? Why, Hattie is <i>Hattie</i>. +But how convey this to Aunt Katie?</p> + +<p>And where does she come from? How does +Emmy Lou know? Or how is she expected to +know? The population of school, in common +with the parallel world of Sunday school, has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +no background other than school itself, but assembling +out of the unknown and segregated +into Primer Class, First Reader, Second Reader, +even as Sunday school is segregated into +Infant Class, Big Room, and Bible Class, performs +its functions and disperses. Where, +then, does Hattie come from?</p> + +<p>"She came out of the cloakroom, and she +asked me to sit with her."</p> + +<p>Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise laughed. +They have laughed at Emmy Lou before in +this sense and so have others. She has said +"Madam and Eve" happily and unsuspectingly +all these years until Aunt Katie discovered +it and not only laughed but <i>told</i>, and +Aunt Louise, in whose person and carriage +Emmy Lou takes pride, was a "blunette" until +she found it out and laughed and told.</p> + +<p>A little boy at school as long ago as last +year laughed and told a boy named Billy who +Emmy Lou had believed was her friend: "Ho,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +Teacher told her to wait there for the present, +and she thinks it's a present," And at Sunday +school a little girl laughed and told: "She +thinks her nickel, that nickel in her hand, is +going up to God."</p> + +<p>In consequence of these betrayals of a heart +too faithfully shown and a confidence too +earnestly given, Emmy Lou is cautious now, +laughter having become a lion in the path and +ridicule a bear in the bush.</p> + +<p>A picture hangs above Aunt Cordelia's mantelpiece. +It has been there ever since Emmy +Lou came to make her home with her aunties, +but she was seven years old when she asked +about it.</p> + +<p>"Where is the man going?" she said then to +Aunt Cordelia. "What will the lions do to +him?"</p> + +<p>"He is going <i>right onward</i>. The lions in his +path will turn him aside if they can."</p> + +<p>"Correct," said Uncle Charlie overhearing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +"But the lions can't turn the trick. See the +man's sword? And his buckler? The sword of +his courage, and the buckler of the truth."</p> + +<p>"Who is the man?" Emmy Lou wanted to +know.</p> + +<p>"The anxious pilgrim of all time," said Uncle +Charlie.</p> + +<p>But Aunt Cordelia, taking Emmy Lou on +her lap, explained. "The man is any one of +us—you, me, Uncle Charlie, your little friends +Maud and Albert Eddie down at the corner, +everybody. If we meet our lions as we should, +with courage and the truth, they, nor anything, +can prevent our going right onward."</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Oh, let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims then,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Be vigilant and quit themselves like men!"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>said Uncle Charlie.</div> + +<p>And now laughter has become a lion in Emmy +Lou's path. Will Hattie, her new friend, +laugh at her? One can refrain from showing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +one's heart to Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, +but in the world of school Emmy Lou needs a +friend.</p> + +<p>Omniscience at home is strangely wanting +about this world of school, perhaps because +Emmy Lou's aunties in their days went to establishments +such as Mr. Parson's Select Academy, +where the pupil is the thing, and school +and teachers even a bit unduly glad to have +and hold her, whereas Emmy Lou at her school +has not found herself in the least the thing.</p> + +<p>In saying she was to sit with Hattie she +was implying that she was grateful indeed for +the overture, whereas Aunt Katie and Aunt +Louise, taking it the other way, ask who Hattie +is and where she comes from.</p> + +<p>Aunt Katie said more: "We must find out +something about her. Suppose you try?"</p> + +<p>But Emmy Lou in one short day has divined +all she needs to know, though she does +not know how to tell this to Aunt Katie. Hattie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +is Hattie, life a foe to be overcome, this +world the lists, and Hattie the challenged, her +colors lowered or surrendered never, though +the lance of her spirit be shivered seventy times +seven and her helmet of conviction splintered.</p> + +<p>And Emmy Lou?—who, as complement to +this divination, loves Hattie?—Emmy Lou, +what with over-anxious debate, what with caution, +what with weight of evidence and its considering, +is the anxious pilgrim of all time, +lions in the path and bears in the bush.</p> + +<p>Hurrying off to school the next morning to +resume the grateful business of sharing a desk +with this new friend, Emmy Lou found Hattie +waiting for her at the gate even as she had +said she would be, and life today, even as life +yesterday from the initial moment of acquaintance +with Hattie, became crowded at once, +even jostled and elbowed with happening and +information.</p> + +<p>As the two took their places in the line forming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +at the sound of the school-bell, a little girl +pushed in ahead of them where there was no +place until she by crowding made one. But +she did not care for that and showed it, her +curls, which shone like Aunt Cordelia's copper +hot-water jug, tossing themselves, and her +skirts flaunting.</p> + +<p>Hattie explained this. "She asked me to +sit with her, that's why she's crowding us now. +Her name is Sally Carter. But I choose, I +don't take my friends." Her voice lowered +and one gathered that following was an accusation, +even an indictment. "She's the richest +little girl in the class and wants you to know it. +And she is an Episcopalian, too."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou felt anxious. Would Hattie +laugh? "I don't know what an Episcopalian +is."</p> + +<p>But she seemed to regard the admission as +commendable. "Sally's church gave an entertainment +and called it for the orphans' fund,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +and she did the Highland Fling on the stage."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou had no idea what the Highland +Fling was, either, but the line had reached the +entrance doorway beyond which speech is +forbidden. Except for this, must she have +said she did not know? Or might she refrain +from committing herself?</p> + +<p>For there are different ways of meeting your +lions. Emmy Lou knew two ways. Last year +at school a little girl stood up in the aisle for +no reason but a disposition to do so. Promptly +and sharp came the rap of a pencil on the +teacher's desk.</p> + +<p>Lion in the path of the little girl! Lion of +reprimand! But the little girl threw dust in +the lion's eyes. "Oh, didn't the bell ring for +everyone to stand?" she inquired. And sat +down.</p> + +<p>There is another way. Emmy Lou walked +in on her friends the Dawkins one day, over +the grocery at the corner, to find Albert Eddie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +in trouble. Possibly more than any person of +Emmy Lou's acquaintance, he seemed an anxious +pilgrim of all time too.</p> + +<p>"Stand right where you are," Sarah his big +sister was saying to him. "You've had something +in your mouth again that you shouldn't. +Don't tell me. Can't I smell it now I try?"</p> + +<p>Albert Eddie was sniffling, which with a +little boy is the first step on the road to crying. +But he met his lion.</p> + +<p>"It's cigars off the catalpa tree," he wept, +and went on into the next room and to bed +even as Sarah had forewarned him.</p> + +<p>And so, as soon as Emmy Lou is free to +speak, she must tell Hattie that she does not +know what the Highland Fling is? Alas, +that in the exigencies of sharing a desk with +this person and incidentally fulfilling the functions +of the Second Reader she forgot to +do so!</p> + +<p>At the school gate at the close of the day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +Hattie said, "Come go to the corner with me, +and I'll show you where I live."</p> + +<p>Go with Hattie? Her friend and more, her +monitor and protector? Who the day through +had steered her by the Charybdis of otherwise +certain mistake, and past the Scylla of otherwise +inevitable blunder? Go with her at her +asking? Did rescued squire follow his protecting +knight in fealty of gratitude? Did faithful +<i>Sancho</i> fall in at heel at his <i>Quixote's</i> +bidding? Emmy Lou, who always went +hurrying home because she was bidden so to +do, faced around today and went the other +way.</p> + +<p>Hattie lived in a brick house in a yard. Pausing +at her gate she made a proposition. "If +you could go to my Sunday school I can come +by and get you."</p> + +<p>"I go to Sunday school," said Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>Hattie was regretful but acquiescent. "Of +course, if you go. I didn't know. I'll walk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +back with you and see where you live. I'm +Presbyterian. What are you?"</p> + +<p>Having no idea what Presbyterian was, how +could Emmy Lou say in kind what she was?</p> + +<p>A little girl just arrived at a neighboring +gate, an <i>habitué</i> of the Second Reader also, +though Emmy Lou did not know her, joined +Hattie and Emmy Lou as they passed. Hattie +knew her and, such is the open sesame of +one achieved friend, Emmy Lou found that +she was to be considered as knowing her also. +Her name was Sadie.</p> + +<p>"I've just told her I'm Presbyterian," Hattie +explained.</p> + +<p>"I'm Methodist," said Sadie. "That's my +church across the street."</p> + +<p>Methodist is Sadie's church, and Presbyterian +then is Hattie's? The names in both cases +being abbreviated without doubt, and in seemlier +phrase, St. Methodist and St. Presbyterian? +Emmy Lou is on ground entirely familiar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +to her now, and she shifts her school-bag and +her lunch-basket relievedly, for while the pilgrim +must not fail to say she does not know +when she does not, yet surely she may take +advantage of a knowledge gained through finding +out?</p> + +<p>"I go to St. Simeon's P. E. Church," she +stated. "It's 'round on Plum Street."</p> + +<p>"What sort of church is that?" said Hattie.</p> + +<p>"It's a stone church with a vine," said Emmy +Lou, nor even under questioning could she +give further information.</p> + +<p>Reversing the idea of Aunt Katie and Aunt +Louise, Hattie would seem to be gradually +finding out who and what Emmy Lou is? +Friendship evidently must rest upon declared +foundations. Emmy Lou goes to Sunday +school and her church is on Plum Street. So +far so good. But one and yet another lion +faced, another and another spring up.</p> + +<p>"Have you taken the pledge?" asks Hattie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p> + +<p>Emmy Lou in her time has taken the measles +and also the chicken-pox, and more latterly +the whooping-cough. And also given it. But +the pledge? Has she taken it, and failed to +recall it? And is it desirable or undesirable +that she should have taken it?</p> + +<p>"I've taken it," says Sadie in a tone that +leaves no doubt that one should have taken it.</p> + +<p>While the pilgrim must scorn to throw dust +in the eyes through evasion, may she not hope +for advantage through finding out again? Or +must she definitely draw her sword and face +this lion by saying that she does not know?</p> + +<p>Bob, the house-boy, sent to hunt her, is the +instrument of her respite. He brought up +before the advancing group. Time was when +he would have said, "Reckon you is done forgot +whut happened to thet li'l girl whut didn't +come straight home like she was tol'." But +Emmy Lou is a big girl and Bob acknowledges +it. "Reckon you is done forgot whut happens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +about dessert for them that don't come on +time to get it."</p> + +<p>The implication dismaying even Hattie and +Sadie, they took leave of Emmy Lou +hastily.</p> + +<p>"You can tell us about your pledge another +time," Hattie called. "Maybe we will come +around to see you this afternoon to get better +acquainted."</p> + +<p>Despite Bob's implication, Aunt Cordelia +had saved some dessert for Emmy Lou. By +diligent application to her dinner she even +caught up with the others and thus achieved +time for an inquiry. Was it on her mind that +Hattie and Sadie might come around this +afternoon?</p> + +<p>"What's the pledge?"</p> + +<p>"Which variety?" from Uncle Charlie. "It +might be a toast."</p> + +<p>"Or a pawn," said Aunt Louise.</p> + +<p>"Or a surety," said Aunt Katie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And also an earnest," from Uncle Charlie. +"Take your choice."</p> + +<p>"Now stop mystifying her," said Aunt Cordelia. +"There is altogether too much of it. +I won't allow it. A pledge, Emmy Lou, such +as you probably are thinking about, is a promise. +I daresay some of the little boys you know +have taken one. I hear it's quite the thing. +Now, hurry. That's why I sent Bob after +you. Dancing school has been changed from +Saturday to Friday afternoon, and you have +only half an hour to dress and get there. Aunt +Katie is going with you."</p> + +<p>"But," dismayed, "two little girls said maybe +they would come to see me."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm sorry. I will see them for you +if they come. Now, hurry."</p> + +<p>And Emmy Lou accordingly hurried. For +while the claims of school are all very well in +Aunt Cordelia's regard, the claims of church, +as Emmy Lou understands these claims, are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +imperative. And, moreover, while school centers +itself and its activities within five days and +its own four walls, St. Simeon's is the center +of a clustering and revolving seven-day system.</p> + +<p>On Monday Aunt Cordelia herself takes +Emmy Lou to old Mrs. Angell's sewing class +for the little girls of the Sunday school at the +rectory next door to the church. On Thursday +Aunt Louise takes her to the singing class for +the children of the Sunday school at the organist's, +across the street from the church. +And her aunties share among them the duty of +getting her twice a week to dancing school, +taught by Miss Eustasia, the niece of Dr. Angell, +at her home next door on the other side +of St. Simeon's. The Church assembles its +youthful populace here in force as Emmy Lou +grasps it, old Mr. Pelot, who taught Miss Eustasia +herself in her day and the mammas and +papas of St. Simeon's in their day too, wielding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +a bow and violin and being her assistant.</p> + +<p>Dancing school! Emmy Lou, hurrying, is +getting ready. School among schools, secular, +sewing, singing, or Sunday, of endeavor, effort, +and anxious perturbation! Aunt Cordelia +does her best to help Emmy Lou along. +She takes her in the parlor from time to time, +after dinner, after supper, and, sitting down +to the piano, strikes the chords. Aunt Cordelia's +playing has a tinkling, running touch, +and her tunes have an old-fashioned sound.</p> + +<p>"<i>One</i>, two, three, start now—" Aunt Cordelia +says. "Why didn't you start when I +said? Katie, go away from the door, you and +Louise both. You have laughed at her dancing, +and she won't do a thing while you are +here."</p> + +<p>Then again to the endeavor. <i>One</i>, two, +three, <i>one</i>, two, three, alike the chant and hope +and stay of dancing. Emmy Lou starts right; +she is sure that her right foot leads out on time:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +but the difficulty is, the while she pantingly +counts, to bring up the left foot on the moment.</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie stops in the parlor doorway +while he lights a cigar before returning downtown. +"We might think the left foot was +faithful to the Church and only the right given +over to the World, but that Eustasia plys her +art in the shadow of St. Simeon's."</p> + +<p>One foot to the Church and the other to the +World? What does Uncle Charlie mean? Are +aspersions to be cast on dancing by other than +its victims? Or can it be that Uncle Charlie, +too, like Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, is laughing +at her?</p> + +<p>But today Emmy Lou and Aunt Katie go +hurrying off to dancing school, Emmy Lou +in her Sunday dress devoted to St. Simeon's +functions, carrying her slippers in their +bag.</p> + +<p>Miss Eustasia's house is old and shabby.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +She lives here with her mother who is Dr. +Angell's sister, a lady who crosses her hands +resignedly and says to the mammas and visitors +at dancing school, "Eustasia was not +brought up to this; Eustasia was raised with +a right to the best."</p> + +<p>Aunt Katie and Emmy Lou hurry in the +front door. Miss Eustasia in the long parlor +on one side of the hall is hurrying here and +hurrying there, a little frown of bother and of +earnestness between her brows, marshalling +some classes into line, whirling others about +face to face in couples. And old Mr. Pelot, +tall and thin, with a grand manner and an +arched nose, is rapping with his bow on the +mantel and calling for order. Mammas and +visitors are in place along the wall, and Dr. +Angell, who sometimes, as now, comes over +from the rectory to look on, beams and takes +off his glasses and rubs them, and, putting +them on, beams again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p>All of which is as it should be, as Emmy Lou +understands it; and Miss Eustasia, born and +baptized, brought up and confirmed, as it were, +in the church next door, had to have something +to do. And St. Simeon's, gathering its children +together, offered her this, and at the +same time provided for Mr. Pelot, who, being +on everybody's mind in his old age, also had +to have something to do.</p> + +<p>And St. Simeon's did itself proud. As Aunt +Katie and Emmy Lou came in, its Infant +Class, as Emmy Lou from long association +knew it, was out on the floor taking its first +position, while St. Simeon's Big Room, resolved +into skirts, sashes, and curls, or neat +shoes, smooth stockings, knickerbockers, jackets, +broad collars, and ties, was waiting its +turn to flutter lightly to places, or, bowing +stiffly, go into duty stoutly. After which its +Bible Class, now standing about in confidential +pairs, would go through their new figure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +in the cotillion sedately. Or so it was that +Emmy Lou coming in in her Sunday dress and +her slippers understood it.</p> + +<p>"Just in time," said Miss Eustasia to her +briefly. "Get into line."</p> + +<p>The Infant Class withdrawing to get its +breath, Emmy Lou finds herself between Logan +and Wharton in a newly forming line +stretching across the room. She is glad, because +they are her friends, having gone with +her on occasion to the circus, and she can ask +them about the pledge.</p> + +<p>To each nature of school its vernacular: +rudiments and digits, head and foot, medals +and deportment, to the secular; bias and hem, +whipping and backstitch, to the sewing; chorus +and refrain, louder please, now softer, to +the singing; sponsors, catechism, texts, to the +Sunday; and Miss Eustasia now is speaking to +the class in the vernacular of the dancing +school.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, no, no," in discouragement of all attempts +at conversation. "Eyes in front, everybody, +on me, and take the first position. Now, +right hand on right hip, so. Left hand lifted +above left shoulder, so. Right foot out, heel +first——"</p> + +<p>"What do you call it?" from Logan, desperate +with his efforts. "Have we had it before? +What's its name?"</p> + +<p>"Its name," said Miss Eustasia severely, "is +the Highland Fling."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou found a moment before dispersal +to interview Logan and Wharton. +"What's the pledge? Have you taken it?"</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't," said Logan, not so much +curt as embittered, so one gathered, by his +share in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>Wharton was more explicit. "We don't +have pledges at our Sunday school."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou knew another little boy, Albert +Eddie. She went down to the corner the next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +morning to see him. If the truth be told, she +still preferred the snugness of life over a grocery +to a house in a yard.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dawkins, on what she called a pinch, +went down in the grocery and helped. She +was there this Saturday morning, and Maud +with her. Sarah in the kitchen upstairs was +mixing the Saturday baking in a crock, and +Albert Eddie, being punished, was in a corner +on a stool.</p> + +<p>Politeness dictating that the person in durance +be ignored, under these circumstances +Emmy Lou immediately addressed herself to +Sarah.</p> + +<p>"What's the pledge? Do you know anybody +who's taken it?"</p> + +<p>Sarah brought Albert Eddie right into it, +stool, corner, and all. "Albert Eddie can tell +you for he's just taken one. He's been a bad +boy again, and it wasn't catalpa cigars this +time either. And after he's been warned. I've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +made him promise now. Albert Eddie, turn +round here and say your pledge."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Monday morning found Emmy Lou at the +school gate betimes. "I've got my pledge +now," she told Hattie and Sadie eagerly, as +together they arrived.</p> + +<p>"Of course you have," from Hattie commendingly, +"I knew you must have taken one. +Say yours."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou said hers:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"I'll never use tobacco, no,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">It is a filthy weed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I'll never put it in my mouth——"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>She stopped. As could be seen in the horrified +faces of Hattie and Sadie, something was +wrong.</div> + +<p>"They taught you that at your Sunday +school?" from Hattie.</p> + +<p>"You, a little girl——?" from Sadie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> + +<p>Whereupon the pilgrim, the pilgrim Emmy +Lou, saw it all, saw that she had but endeavored +to throw dust into eyes, beginning with +her own.</p> + +<p>"I didn't get my pledge at Sunday school, +I got it from a little boy. I asked him and +he taught it to me. We don't have pledges +at my Sunday school."</p> + +<p>"We went to see you on Friday like we +said, and you were out," said Hattie severely.</p> + +<p>"They changed the day and I had to go," +from Emmy Lou. "I was at dancing +school."</p> + +<p>"Dancing school? Your Sunday school +doesn't have pledges and you go to dancing +school? Your church lets you go? Like Sally +Carter's? And you didn't tell us?"</p> + +<p>"My church might give up pledges if it had +to," said Sadie, "but its foot is down on dancing."</p> + +<p>Yet Hattie would be fair. "Your minister<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +knows? What sort of dancing? What did you +dance on Friday?"</p> + +<p>"Our minister was there. It is the Sunday +school that dances. We danced the Highland +Fling."</p> + +<p>The school bell rang.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Hattie as she turned to go, +"I'm Presbyterian."</p> + +<p>Sadie bore witness as she turned to follow. +"And I'm Methodist."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou lifted her buckler and drew her +sword. Never dust in the eyes again. For +she knew now what she was over and above +being a St. Simeonite, having asked Aunt Cordelia. +In this company it bore not only the +odium of disapproval and the hall-mark of +condemnation, but from the qualifying term +applied to it by Aunt Cordelia would seem to +merit both.</p> + +<p>"I'm a low church Episcopalian," said Emmy +Lou, the pilgrim, stoutly if wretchedly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Emmy Lou reached home that day +Aunt Katie brought up an old matter. "Aunt +Cordelia rather likes the looks of the little girl +named Hattie who came here. So I suppose +it is all right for you to go on sitting with her. +What have you found out about her?"</p> + +<p>What Emmy Lou would have liked to find +out was, would Hattie go on sitting with her? +But how make those things clear to Aunt +Katie?</p> + +<p>"Charlie," said Aunt Cordelia to her brother +that night, "what on earth do children mean? +Emmy Lou as she was getting ready for bed +asked me why Hattie's church and Sadie's +church have the pledge and hers has the Highland +Fling? It isn't possible that she has confused +dancing and Sunday school?"</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie stared at his sister, then his +shout rang to heaven.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>THE IMPERFECT OFFICES OF PRAYER</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Recruiting</span> Sunday occurred at Emmy +Lou's Sunday school the winter she was eight. +The change to this nature of thing was sudden. +Hitherto when Hattie, her best friend, +who was Presbyterian, spoke of Rally Day, +or Sadie, her next best friend, who was Methodist, +spoke of Canvassing Day, Emmy Lou of +St. Simeon's refrained from dwelling on Septuagesima, +or Sexagesima, or Quinquagesima +Sunday, as the case might be, for fear it appear +to savor of the elect. As, of course, if +one has been brought up in St. Simeon's, and +by Aunt Cordelia, one has begun to feel it +does.</p> + +<p>Hattie and Sadie, on the contrary, full of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +the business and zeal of Rally Day and Canvassing +Sunday, looked with pity on Emmy +Lou and St. Simeon's, and at thought of Quinquagesima +and such kindred Sundays shook +their heads. Which is as it should be, too.</p> + +<p>For, while there is one common world of +everyday school in the firmament of the week, +drawing the Emmy Lous and Hatties and Sadies +into the fold of its common enterprise and +common fellowship, there are varying worlds +in the firmament of Sundays, withdrawing the +Emmy Lous and Hatties and Sadies into the +differing folds of rival enterprises, Hattie to +the First Presbyterian Church North, Sadie to +the Second Avenue M. E. Church South, and +Emmy Lou with no status or bias as to pole +at all, if we except polemics, to St. Simeon's +P. E.</p> + +<p>And each one within her fold is so convinced +her fold is the only fold, it is her part to make +all others feel this. Which is as it should be,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +too. And, as Hattie pointed out when Sadie +got worsted in being made to feel it and cried, +is only the measure of each one's proper Christian +zeal!</p> + +<p>And Hattie, being full of data about her +Rally Day, and Sadie, being full of grace from +her Canvassing Day, were equipped at seemingly +every point for making another feel it. +Whereas when Sadie asked Emmy Lou what +Quinquagesima or fifty days before Easter +had to do with saving souls, and Hattie asked +her to spell it, Quinquagesima not only died +on her lips but she and it seemed indefensibly +and reprehensibly in the wrong. Which Emmy +Lou endeavored to remember was but a measure +of Christian zeal again.</p> + +<p>And now St. Simeon's, awakening to its +needs in such zeal, was to have, not a Rally nor +yet a Canvassing, but a Recruiting Sunday. +For every Sunday school with any zeal whatever +has a nomenclature of its own and looks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +with pity and contumely on the nomenclature +of any other Sunday school. So that Emmy +Lou heard with a shock of incredulity that +what she knew as the Infant Class was spoken +of by Hattie as the Primary, and by Sadie as +the Beginners.</p> + +<p>But this department of Sunday school, whatever +its designation, belongs to the early stages +of faith. Emmy Lou is in the Big Room, now, +and here has heard about St. Simeon's Recruiting +Sunday.</p> + +<p>Mr. Glidden, the superintendent, announced +it. He was a black-haired, slim, brisk young +man. Emmy Lou knew him well. She liked +Mr. Glidden. He came to see Aunt Louise, +and admired her. Week days he was a young +man who was going to do credit to his father +and mother. Aunt Cordelia said so. Sundays, +if he let his Christian zeal carry him too far, +his betters at St. Simeon's would have to call +him down. Uncle Charlie who was a warden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +at St. Simeon's said so, curtly, in a way most +disturbing.</p> + +<p>In announcing Recruiting Sunday, Mr. +Glidden spoke with feeling. "In the business-run +world of today," he told his Sunday school, +"St. Simeon's must look at things in a business +way. What with Rally Day and Canvassing +Day in the other Sunday schools, St. +Simeon's stands no chance. Emulation must +be met with emulation. Let St. Simeon's get +out and work. And while it works,"—Mr. +Glidden colored; he was young—"let it not forget +it shall be its Superintendent's earnest and +also daily prayer that it be permitted to bring +even the least of these into the fold."</p> + +<p>Furthermore, there should be inducements. +"For every new scholar brought in," said Mr. +Glidden, "there shall be an emblazoned card. +For every five emblazoned cards there shall be +a prize. Cards and prizes I shall take pleasure +in giving out of my own pocket."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the light of after events, as Emmy Lou +grasped them, the weakness in the affair lay +in Mr. Glidden's failure sufficiently to safeguard +his prayer.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou had considerable data about +prayer, gathered from her two friends, Hattie +being given to data, and Sadie being given to +prayer. As Hattie expounded prayer as exemplified +through Sadie, one fact stands paramount. +You should be specifically certain in +both what you ask and how you ask it. For +the answer can be an answer and yet be calamitous +too. Hattie used the present disturbing +case with Sadie for her proof.</p> + +<p>Sadie and her brother decided they wanted +a little sister, and would pray for one. They +did pray, fervently and trustfully, being +Methodists, as Hattie pointed out, night after +night, each beside her or his little white bed. +And each was answered. It was twin little sisters. +Since when, Sadie was almost as good as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +lost to her two friends, through having to hold +one little sister while her mother held the other.</p> + +<p>"You've got to make what you want clear," +Hattie argued. "They both prayed for a little +sister at the same time. If they'd prayed, +Sadie one night, and Anselm the next, or if +they'd said it was the same little sister, they +wouldn't 'a' had a double answer and so been +oversupplied."</p> + +<p>Sadie was torn with conflict over it herself. +Her little sisters weren't justified to her yet, +but she wasn't going to admit they might not +still be, though the strain on her Christian zeal +was great.</p> + +<p>For at Sadie's Sunday school you did not +get a prize for the new scholars you brought +in on Canvassing Day. You got a prize when +the next Canvassing Day came around, if they +were still there. And Canvassing Day was +nearly here again, and her scholars were failing +her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It's no easy thing to be a Methodist," she +said in one of her moments of respite from a +little sister, talking about it with pride through +her gloom. "You work for all you get! When +I could look my scholars up every week, and +go by for 'em with Tom and the barouche when +the weather was bad, I had them there for +roll-call every Sunday. But now that I have +to hold my little sisters and we haven't Tom +or the barouche either because on account of +my little sisters we can't afford them, they've +backslid and dropped out."</p> + +<p>Hattie had data as to that, too. "You +needn't be so bitter about it, Sadie. I know +you mean me! You went around and picked +your scholars up anywhere you could find 'em, +and I did too. It wasn't as if any one of 'em +had a call to your Sunday school. Or as if +they had a conviction. Except Mamie Sessums +whose conviction took her away."</p> + +<p>Sadie spoke even more bitterly. "You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +needn't count on Mamie. Because she had had +a conviction that took her away from where +she was, I counted on her the most of any of +mine."</p> + +<p>Hattie was positive. "But the conviction +she has now took her away from yours. Her +mother thinks there is too much about falling +from grace at your Sunday school; she doesn't +think it nice for little girls to hear so much +about sin."</p> + +<p>"She wouldn't have fallen from grace herself +if I could have kept after her," from Sadie. +"If I hadn't to hold my little sisters Mamie +wouldn't be a backslider now. But my little +sisters will be justified to me yet. I'm not going +back on prayer."</p> + +<p>It all emphasized the need of exceeding caution +in prayer. Emmy Lou never had thought +of it so. Time was, in fact, when, praying +her "Gentle Jesus," at Aunt Cordelia's knee, +she poured it out in Aunt Cordelia's lap, so to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +speak, and left it there. Not that Aunt Cordelia +had not made her understand that prayer +goes to God. But that Aunt Cordelia who attended +to everything else for her would see +about getting it there.</p> + +<p>But that was when Emmy Lou was a baby +thing, and God the nebulous center of a more +nebulous setting, with the kindly and cheery +aspect as well as the ivory beard of—— Was +it Dr. Angell, the rector of St. Simeon's? Or +was there in the background of Emmy Lou's +memory a yet more patriarchal face, reverent +through benignity, with flowing ivory beard? +A memory antedating her acquaintance with +Dr. Angell? She was a big girl now, and God +was not quite so nebulous nor quite so cheery. +His ivory beard was longer, and in the midst +of <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'nebulae'">nebulæ</ins> for support was a throne. But He +yet could be depended on to be kindly. Aunt +Cordelia was authority for that.</p> + +<p>Her concept of prayer, too, had moved forward;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +prayer in her mind's eye now taking the +form of little white cocked-hat <i>billets-doux</i> +winging out of the postbox of the heart, and, +like so many white doves, speeding up to the +blue of Heaven. If God was not too busy, or +too bothered, as grown people sometimes are +on trying days, she even could fancy Him +smiling pleasantly, if absently, as grown-up +people do, when the cocked-hat <i>billets-doux</i>, a +sort of morning mail, were brought in to +Him.</p> + +<p>And so she was glad that Sadie was not +going back on prayer, but was sure that her +little sisters would be justified to her. Indeed, +her heart had gone out to Sadie about it, and +she had sent up <i>billets-doux</i> of her own, and +would send more, that the little sisters should +be justified to her.</p> + +<p>But from this new point of view supplied +by Hattie, the winging <i>billets-doux</i>, as in the +mind's eye they sailed upward, seemed to droop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +a little, weighted with the need of exceeding +caution in prayer. And in the light of this +revelation God in His aspect changed once +more, again gaining in ivory beard and in +throne what He again lost in cheer.</p> + +<p>Long ago Aunt Cordelia used to rock her +to sleep with a hymn. Emmy Lou had thought +she knew its words, "Behind a frowning providence, +He hides a smiling face." Could she +have reversed it? She had been known to do +such things before. All this while had it been +saying: "Behind a smiling providence, He +hides a frowning face?"</p> + +<p>At Emmy Lou's own home Aunt M'randy +the cook, like Hattie, seemed to feel that +prayer not sufficiently set around with safeguards +and specifications could prove a boomerang. +"Didn't I w'ar myse'f out with prayer +to get rid er that no-account nigger house-boy +Bob? To hev' thet prayer swing eroun' with +this worse-account house-boy, Tom?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> + +<p>Tom had gone to Hattie's house from Sadie's +where they no longer could afford to +have him, but he had not stayed there. He +didn't get along with the cook. From there +he came to be house-boy for Aunt Cordelia +where Bob couldn't get along with the cook. +Tom's idea of his importance apparently was +in the number of places he had lived, and his +qualifications he summed up in a phrase: "I +ca'ies my good-will with me to the pussons I +wuks foh."</p> + +<p>The morning after Recruiting Sunday had +been announced at St. Simeon's Sunday school, +Uncle Charlie spoke of it at the breakfast table. +He didn't seem to think much of it, and referred +to it by another name, calling it an innovation.</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise, on the contrary, defended it. +She was teaching in the Sunday school now. +"If everyone would show the energy and progressiveness +of Mr. Glidden since he took the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +Sunday school," she said with spirit, "St. Simeon's +would soon look up."</p> + +<p>"Glidden!" said Uncle Charlie. "Willie +Glidden! Pshaw!"</p> + +<p>"Why you speak of him in that tone I don't +see, unless it is because you are determined to +oppose every innovation he proposes."</p> + +<p>"I oppose his innovations?" heatedly. "On +the contrary I am in favor of giving him his +way so he may hang himself in his innovations +the sooner." And Uncle Charlie, getting up +to go downtown, slammed the door.</p> + +<p>Which would have been astounding, Uncle +Charlie being jocular and not given to slamming +doors, had it not to do with that one of +the many worlds in the firmament of the Sundays, +St. Simeon's. Emmy Lou was glad she +understood these things better now. For persons +altogether amiable in the affairs of the +week-days to grow touchy and heated over the +affairs of Sundays is only a measure of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +Christian zeal. There was comfort and reassurance +in the knowledge. Time was when +it would have frightened her to have Uncle +Charlie slam the door, and made her choke +over her waffle, and sent her down from her +chair and round to Aunt Cordelia for comfort +and reassurance.</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise, addressing herself to Aunt +Cordelia in her place behind the coffeepot, still +further defended Mr. Glidden.</p> + +<p>"He is even waking dear old Dr. Angell +a bit. Not that we don't love Dr. Angell as +he is, of course," hastily, "but he does lack +progressiveness."</p> + +<p>"Which may be why some of us do love him," +said Aunt Cordelia tartly. Aunt Cordelia! +Pleasant soul! Who rarely was known to sacrifice +good temper even to Christian zeal! +Emmy Lou choked on her waffle despite all! +"But don't draw me into it! I decline to take +sides."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Which means, of course, that you've taken +one," said Aunt Louise. "As if I could ever +expect you to side with me against Brother +Charlie."</p> + +<p>"And if I do agree with Charlie, what then? +To have the running of St. Simeon's passed +over his head to Willie Glidden! The church +our own grandfather gave the ground for! +And he the senior warden who has run St. +Simeon's his way for thirty faithful years!"</p> + +<p>And Aunt Cordelia, getting up from behind +the coffeepot and going toward the pantry to +see about the ordering, broke forth into hymn, +as was her way when ruffled. Emphatic hymn. +And always the same hymn, too, Aunt Cordelia, +like Uncle Charlie, objecting to innovations. +Emmy Lou was long familiar with +this hymn as barometer of Aunt Cordelia's +state of being:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Let the fiery, cloudy <i>pillow</i>,"<br /></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p> + +<div class='unindent'>sang Aunt Cordelia, flinging open the refrigerator +door.</div> + +<p>What it meant, a fiery, cloudy pillow, further +than that Aunt Cordelia was outdone, +was another thing. Emmy Lou always intended +to ask, but the very fact that Aunt +Cordelia only sang it when outdone prevented—that +and the additional fact that when Aunt +Cordelia was outdone Emmy Lou in distress +of mind was undone.</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise waited until Aunt Cordelia, +who could be seen through the open doorway, +straightened up from her inspection of the +refrigerator. "Still," she said, "you won't +object that I entered Emmy Lou's name at +Sunday school yesterday as a recruiter? To +try her best and get a prize?"</p> + +<p>"I do object if there are tickets about it," +emphatically. "You can take care of them +for her if so. Willie Glidden has gone mad +over tickets. What with her blue tickets for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +attendance one place in my bureau drawer, +and her pink tickets for texts in another place, +I won't be bothered further."</p> + +<p>Yet what were Sunday schools without tickets? +Emmy Lou getting down from the breakfast +table, her still unfinished waffle abandoned +for all time now, was dumbfounded. The one +thing common to all Sunday schools was tickets. +Though St. Simeon's under the accelerating +progressiveness of Mr. Glidden had gone +further, and whereas in ordinary your accumulated +tickets for every sort of prowess only +got you on the honor roll, a matter of names +on a blackboard, Mr. Glidden had instituted +what he called "a drawing card." At St. Simeon's, +now, when your blue tickets for attendance +numbered four—or five those months +when the calendar played you false and ran in +another Sunday—you carried these back and +got the Bible in Colors, a picture at a time. +And, incidentally, a color at a time, too. Emmy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +Lou had a gratifying start in these, last +month having achieved a magenta Daniel facing +magenta lions in a magenta den, and this +month adding a blue David with a blue sword +cutting off the head of a not unreasonably +bluer Goliath.</p> + +<p>Pink tickets grow more slowly. Aunt Cordelia +said that she could see to it that Emmy +Lou got to Sunday school, but she could only +do her best about the texts.</p> + +<p>And she did do her best, Emmy Lou felt +that she did.</p> + +<p>"Say the text over on the way as you go," +Aunt Cordelia had said to her as she started +only yesterday. "That way you won't forget +it before you get there."</p> + +<p>And she had said it on the way, and had said +it in the class, too, when called on by Miss +Emerine.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia, plump and pleasant soul, had +ways of her own, and Emmy Lou in ways<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +even beyond the plumpness was modeled on +her. Aunt Cordelia said "were" as though it +were spelled w-a-r-e, and Emmy Lou said it +that way too.</p> + +<p>"'And five ware wise, and five ware foolish,'" +Emmy Lou told Miss Emerine.</p> + +<p>"Five what?" Miss Emerine asked, which +was unfortunate, this being what Emmy Lou +had failed to remember.</p> + +<p>It was Tom, the new house-boy, who really +started Emmy Lou's recruiting for St. Simeon's. +Hearing Aunt Louise ask her what +she was doing about looking up new scholars, +he volunteered his help.</p> + +<p>"There's a li'l girl up the street whar I +wuked once is thinkin' about changin' her Sunday +school. I'll tell her to come aroun' an' +see you."</p> + +<p>The little girl came around promptly. It +was Mamie Sessums. Emmy Lou knew her at +week-day school. Far from being without a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +conviction, as Hattie had claimed, she now had +two.</p> + +<p>"My mother says Tom don't do anything but +try to have her change my Sunday school. He +lived with us before he went to live at Sadie's. +But she says she's very glad to have me stop +Hattie's and go with you. She didn't send +me there to have the minister go by our house +every day and never come in. Sadie's minister +never came to call on her when I went to that +Sunday school either. Do you have tickets at +your Sunday school?"</p> + +<p>Tickets were vindicated. Emmy Lou hurried +upstairs and came back with all her trophies +of this nature. Mamie seemed impressed +by the Bible in Colors.</p> + +<p>"You get them a picture at a time," Emmy +Lou explained. "The first one is Adam in +buff."</p> + +<p>"Buff?" said Mamie doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Buff," repeated Emmy Lou firmly, since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +it was so, and not to be helped because Mamie +didn't seem to like it. "My Uncle Charlie +says so."</p> + +<p>But it was only lack of familiarity with buff +on the part of Mamie. As a prize, it impressed +her. "I'll meet you on your church steps on +Recruiting Sunday," she said.</p> + +<p>After Mamie left, Emmy Lou went around +to see Hattie. "Don't let it make you feel +bad, taking Mamie away from me," Hattie +told her. "I never expected anything else. +When it's not a call, nor even a conviction, +they're like as not to fail you on the very +doorstep."</p> + +<p>Sadie, at her window holding a little sister, +waved to Emmy Lou and Hattie on the sidewalk. +It was hard Sadie couldn't be with her +friends any more. Emmy Lou sent up a <i>billet-doux</i> +that the little sisters might be justified +to Sadie yet. Poor Sadie!</p> + +<p>It was Tom who told Emmy Lou where to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +go for her next recruit. She had no idea it +would be so easy. Sadie had worked hard for +all she got but it didn't seem hard to Emmy +Lou. "There's a li'l girl roun' on Plum Street +where I wuked once, too. I'll speak to her, an' +then you go roun' an' see her."</p> + +<p>With Aunt Cordelia's permission, Emmy +Lou went around. It proved that she knew +this little girl at school, too. Her name was +Sallie Carter. She was the richest little girl +in the class and said so. Her curls shone like +Aunt Cordelia's copper hot-water jug, and +her skirts stood out and flaunted.</p> + +<p>Sallie had convictions too. She had tried +Sadie's Sunday school while her own church +was being rebuilt, and she was just about +through trying Hattie's.</p> + +<p>"My mother thinks it's strange that Tom +should be sending you after me too. Though +he did live with us before he lived with any of +you. She is surprised at some of the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +girls who go to Sadie's Sunday school. And +after she took me away they were the first little +girls I met on the steps at Hattie's Sunday +school. My mother says I'm a Carter on one +side and a Cannon on the other, and everybody +knows what that means. We're high church +and you are low, but she's glad to have me go +with you to St. Simeon's for a while and try +it. Do you have tickets?"</p> + +<p>Tickets and more, the Bible in Colors. Emmy +Lou, explaining it, felt again she couldn't +sufficiently uphold tickets to Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>The very next day Tom came to Aunt Cordelia +and said if she would let Emmy Lou +go with him to Mr. Schmit's when he went to +get the ice, he knew of some other little girls +who might be persuaded to go to her Sunday +school. At Aunt Cordelia's word, Emmy Lou +got her hat and joined Tom with his basket.</p> + +<p>The accustomed place to get extra ice before +Tom came was Mr. Dawkins' at the corner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +But Tom wouldn't hear of going to Mr. Dawkins'. +He argued about it until Aunt Cordelia +gave in. He said he used to live with Mr. +Schmit and drive his wagon.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou knew Mr. Schmit herself. Tom, +after an inquiry at the counter, took her +through the store to the back yard where he +left her, a back yard full of boxes and crates +and empty coops. Mr. Schmit's little girl Lisa +was here with a baby brother in her arms, and +another holding to her skirts, Yetta, her little +sister, and Katie O'Brien from next door completing +the group. Emmy Lou knew Lisa +and Katie at school, too. Lisa's round cheeks +were mottled and red, and the plaits hanging +down her back were yellow. She did not seem +overly glad to see Emmy Lou though she came +forward.</p> + +<p>"Well?" she said.</p> + +<p>It made it hard to begin. And even after +Emmy Lou had explained that she had come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +to get them to go to Sunday school Lisa was +unmoved.</p> + +<p>"What do we want to go to Sunday school +for? If we wanted to go to Sunday school +we'd be going. We go to our grandfather's +in the country now on Sundays. That way we +get a ride in my papa's grocery wagon and we +get to the country too."</p> + +<p>"But if you would," urged Emmy Lou, "it +would get me a prize."</p> + +<p>"Sure I see," said Lisa. "I see that. But +if Katie here and Yetta and me give up our +ride out to my grandfather's, what do we get?"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Emmy Lou, and hastened to set +forth St. Simeon's largesse and system in tickets.</p> + +<p>"What do we do to get the tickets?" asked +Lisa. "We're Lutheran and Katie's Dominican. +I don't know as we'd be allowed to. We +wouldn't mind four Sundays and get a picture, +would we, Katie?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p>Katie, whose hair was black and whose eyes +were blue, agreed.</p> + +<p>"Sure, we'd like a picture. But I don't +know as they'd let me at home. They said +I shouldn't go to no more Sunday schools. +The little girl who was sassy to us and said +they didn't want us there was at two Sunday +schools we've been to now."</p> + +<p>"Still," said Lisa, "we'd like a picture. +Which one is your Sunday school?"</p> + +<p>When Emmy Lou rejoined Tom, she was +overjoyed. "And they'll meet me on the +church steps too. All of 'em will meet me on +the church steps, Mamie and Sally and Lisa +and Yetta and Katie."</p> + +<p>And now it was Recruiting Sunday. But +the shortness of manner with which Aunt Cordelia +tied Emmy Lou's hair-ribbons was not +on account of this, Recruiting Sunday for her +having taken its place among the minor evils. +Late on Saturday evening she had lost Tom,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +a case again of the house-boy not getting on +with the cook.</p> + +<p>"After I wore myse'f out with prayer to +git rid of thet no-account Bob, to have thet +prayer swing aroun' with this worse-account +Tom," was Aunt M'randy's explanation of the +disagreement.</p> + +<p>"They want me over at Sadie's house tomorrow, +anyway," Tom said with feeling as +he went. "'Count of their grandfather walkin' +in on 'em f'om Kansas City sudden there's +big doin's hurried up about the twins. They're +goin' to have a barouche roun' f'om the livery +stable too, an' they want me to drive."</p> + +<p>Then Tom became darkly cryptic. "I tol' +you when I come, I ca'ies my goodwill with +me to the pussons I wuks foh."</p> + +<p>And now it was Sunday morning and no +house-boy. "Charlie," said Aunt Cordelia to +this person, "I wish you'd walk around to the +Sunday school door with Emmy Lou. She's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +never been so far alone. Louise is not ready, +and she's to meet all those children on the +church step where they'll be waiting for her, +and thinks she ought to be early."</p> + +<p>"Surely," said Uncle Charlie. "I'm glad +to. I've an idea it's about time for Willie +Glidden to be hanging himself in some of his +innovations."</p> + +<p>At the corner Uncle Charlie and Emmy Lou +met Tom coming back towards Sadie's with +the barouche from the livery stable. One felt +Tom saw them, though he looked the other +way.</p> + +<p>At the second corner they met Sally Carter. +Her curls shone like Aunt Cordelia's copper +hot-water jug, and her skirts stood out and +flaunted. She stopped when Emmy Lou +stopped, but with reluctance, since it was +palpable she was in a hurry.</p> + +<p>"I've decided I didn't treat Sadie right. +My name's still on her roll. Those little girls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +my mother didn't want me to associate with +at the other Sunday schools were on your +church steps, anyway, and she wouldn't want +me to stay."</p> + +<p>At the next corner they met Lisa and Yetta +and Katie, scoured and braided and in their +Sunday dresses. They didn't want to stop +either, palpably being in even a greater hurry.</p> + +<p>"As long as we're goin' to Sunday school +we think well go back to the one we started +from," said Lisa. "That sassy little girl our +mothers said we shouldn't put up with was on +your church steps anyhow, and was sassy to +us some more."</p> + +<p>At St. Simeon's itself they met Mamie. "I +didn't want to wait, but I felt I ought to. +I'm going back to Sadie's, and I'm late. Tom +called to us here on the steps as he went by +in the barouche, and said Sadie's little twin +sisters were going to be baptized at her church +right after Sunday school."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Which," said Uncle Charlie the while his +Emmy Lou swallowed tears, "hangs Willie +Glidden neatly in his own innovations."</p> + +<p>When Sadie and Hattie and Emmy Lou +met at school the next day, Sadie's eyes were +bright and her face shone. Why not? As she +pointed out, her little sisters were justified to +her, her erring scholars were returned, her +grandfather said he'd see to it that they <i>could</i> +afford to have Tom back and the barouche too, +and it all went to prove the efficacy of prayer.</p> + +<p>It would seem to. That is, of Sadie's prayer. +Emmy Lou could see that. She indeed had +sent up <i>billets-doux</i> in Sadie's behalf herself. +But it did not explain everything.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Glidden at my Sunday school prayed +too, that the least of these be brought into the +fold."</p> + +<p>Hattie forgot her own right to grievance in +the joy of this additional data in support of +her position. Had she not claimed that an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +answer to prayer can be an answer and yet +be calamitous too?</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said Hattie. "'The least of +these into the fold.' But he didn't say which +fold!"</p> + +<p>Did not say which fold? To God who knows +everything? For Mr. Glidden meant his fold. +Hattie, then, was right?</p> + +<p>The concepts of Emmy Lou, eight years old, +a big girl now, moved on again. Behind a +smiling providence God hides a frowning face. +And those winging <i>billets-doux</i>, already +weighted with caution and now heavy with +doubt, in the mind's eye faltered, hung, and +came fluttering, drifting, so many falling white +doves, wings broken, down from the blue.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>PINK TICKETS FOR TEXTS</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> walls of St. Simeon's conservatism had +fallen. St. Simeon's, with its arches above, its +pews below, their latched doors, as it were, +symbolic, the Old Dispensation depicted in +the window above its entrance doors, and St. +Paul, the apostle of the personal revelation, +smitten to his knees by light from Heaven, the +figure of the window above its chancel. Modern +progressiveness, the battering-ram in the +hands of Willie Glidden, come up through the +Sunday school himself but yesterday, had assailed +the defenses of an older generation successfully.</p> + +<p>Or so Uncle Charlie seemed to think as he +repeated the news brought from Sunday<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +school by Aunt Louise and Emmy Lou. "Dr. +Angell came into the Sunday school room this +morning and offered a rector's prize for pink +tickets earned for texts? Each child receiving +a pink ticket for every Sunday throughout the +year to be thus rewarded? Willie Glidden has +goaded him to this."</p> + +<p>Mr. Glidden had goaded the rector of St. +Simeon's to other things which Emmy Lou, +nearing nine years, had heard discussed at +home.</p> + +<p>"Popular heads to my sermons for the newspapers +and the bulletin board?" it was reported +that Dr. Angell had said indignantly. "Who +but Glidden wants notices in the papers or a +bulletin board either? For forty years I have +sedulously refrained from being popular, and +I'll not begin it now."</p> + +<p>But he came to it, popular heads being furnished +by him weekly, in a dazed pother at finding +himself doing it, but still doing it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Prizes to encourage the Sunday school?" +so report said his comment was to this last +proposition. "Pay the children of my church +for doing their duty?"</p> + +<p>But the report also said that he calmed down +on grasping that the proposition centered +about texts.</p> + +<p>When Dr. Angell met the little people of +his flock in the company of their elders he +addressed them much after the same fashion. +"A big girl, now!" or "Quite a little man!" +he would say. "Old enough to be coming to +church every Sunday and profiting by service +and sermon."</p> + +<p>"Sermon," said he, on occasion to a little +boy who said he didn't like sermons. "The +sooner you realize and profit by the knowledge +that life is one unending sermon, sirrah, the +better for you."</p> + +<p>Dr. Angell had gathered his own sermons +into a book, as Aunt Cordelia told proudly to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +strangers, a stout volume bound in cloth, with +a golden sun in a nimbus of rays stamped on +the cover, entitled "Rays from the Sun of +Righteousness."</p> + +<p>And now, his attention caught and held by +the word "text," since from his viewpoint to +every sermon its text, and possibly to every +text its sermon, he was offering a rector's prize +for a year's quiver of pink tickets, these being +the visible show of as many correctly recited +texts.</p> + +<p>"Will you have Emmy Lou try?" Aunt +Louise said to Aunt Cordelia. "We in the +Sunday school feel we should do all we can +to support Mr. Glidden."</p> + +<p>But Aunt Cordelia needed no urging from +Aunt Louise. She did not feel that respect for +the institutions introduced at St. Simeon's by +Mr. Glidden that Aunt Louise felt, and did not +hesitate to say so. But anything inaugurated +by the rector of her church she did respect.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If Dr. Angell is offering the prize, certainly +Emmy Lou will try. A rector's, not a Willie +Glidden prize, is a different thing. It will be +something for her to esteem and value all her +life. I am sorry it is for texts." Evidently +the word had the same associations for Aunt +Cordelia that it had for Dr. Angell. "I have +trouble enough as it is in making her want to +stay to church."</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise explained. "The prizes are +for the weekly texts heading the Sunday school +lessons. They have no connection with church +or the sermon."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe not," Aunt Cordelia conceded, +"but if she is going to take a prize from +Dr. Angell for texts, and I shall see to it that +she does, it is no more than she ought to be +willing to do, to listen cheerfully to his sermons. +I have been too lenient in excusing her +from church."</p> + +<p>On this same Sunday afternoon Emmy Lou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +went around to talk the matter over with Hattie, +and found Sadie there.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou and Hattie had been estranged, +their first misunderstanding, Emmy Lou, with +St. Simeon's back of her, having taken one +stand, and Hattie another.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou spoke of kneeling at her church +to pray and standing to sing and Hattie corrected +her. "Who ever beard of such a thing? +You mean stand to pray and sit down to sing."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou didn't mean anything of the +kind and said so.</p> + +<p>Hattie faced her down. "Don't I go to +church? Doesn't Sadie go?" turning to this +person as referee. "Don't we know?"</p> + +<p>Sadie was obliged to qualify her support. +"We don't <i>stand</i> to pray, we lean our foreheads +on the next pew."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou refused to be coerced. "I don't +stand to pray, or lean forward either. I kneel +down."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then," said Hattie, "it must be because +you are what my father calls a bigoted Episcopalian, +that you don't. Everybody else stands +up or leans forward."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou had faced the chancel of her +church for four years. "St. Paul doesn't. He's +kneeling above our chancel."</p> + +<p>"Then he must be a bigoted Episcopalian +too," said Hattie with feeling, and went home.</p> + +<p>But today Hattie and Sadie, if anything, +were envious of Emmy Lou's opportunity. A +rector's prize!</p> + +<p>Hattie, to be sure, with the books of the +Bible in her memory as were David's pebbles +in his scrip, once had felled the giant, Contest, +and won the banner for the girls over the boys +at her Sunday school. For which act of prowess +her teacher had rewarded her with a little +gold pin.</p> + +<p>And Sadie had a workbox, a little affair +complete, scissors, thimble, and all, a recognition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +of faithfulness at large, from her Sunday +school teacher, the same delivered to her by +the superintendent before the assembled Sunday +school. And as she pointed out, the calling +of her name and the walk up and down the +aisle to receive the gift were no small part of +the reward.</p> + +<p>It did stagger them both that Emmy Lou +should have to stay to church. "Still," argued +Hattie, "it will be worth it, a rector's prize. +Though why you don't say preacher!"</p> + +<p>"Or minister," said Sadie.</p> + +<p>"My brother once got a silver dollar for a +prize that wasn't a dollar at all but a watch +made to look like a dollar," said Hattie.</p> + +<p>"But not from church," Sadie reminded +her.</p> + +<p>"No, from the President Dollar Watch +Company for guessing the pictures of the +presidents. But still it was a prize."</p> + +<p>Sadie could supplement this. "My mamma<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +heard of a little girl who sold tickets for a +picnic and won a locket on a chain."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou went home cheered. Aunt Cordelia +had put the emphasis on the texts whereas +Hattie and Sadie had put it on the prize.</p> + +<p>"A silver dollar that wasn't a dollar but a +watch, and a locket on a chain," said Uncle +Charlie, overhearing her tell about it. "Well, +well!"</p> + +<p>A rector's prize should indeed be something +worth the working for. Fifty-two pink tickets +standing for fifty-two correctly recited texts, +and attendance at church for fifty-two Sundays!</p> + +<p>For Aunt Cordelia was as good as her word. +The next Sunday she and Uncle Charlie on +their road to St. Simeon's met Emmy Lou +returning from Sunday school. Hitherto on +these weekly encounters it was a toss-up whether +she should be allowed to proceed, or must +return to church.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> + +<p>With Emmy Lou, face and eyes uplifted to +Aunt Cordelia, mutely interceding for herself, +while Uncle Charlie articulately interceded for +her, it was a stand-off whether or not she +should be required to go. And when the worst +happened and she must turn about and accompany +Aunt Cordelia, the propinquity of Uncle +Charlie in the pew beside her had helped her +through. Until recently he had slipped +smoothly rounded peppermints banded in red +from his vest pocket to her, or, the supply running +low, passed her his pencil and an envelope +to amuse herself. But she was a big girl now +and Aunt Cordelia no longer permitted these +indulgences.</p> + +<p>"Sermons in pencils too, perhaps, Cordelia," +Uncle Charlie pleaded, "and good in peppermints."</p> + +<p>But in vain. "Charlie!" Aunt Cordelia but +remonstrated, shocked.</p> + +<p>Nor was Emmy Lou to be excused today.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +Aunt Cordelia, plump and comely in her furs +and ample cloak and seemly bonnet, and Uncle +Charlie in his top-coat, gray trousers, silk hat, +and natty cane, brought up short on meeting +her. Not that she, in a chinchilla coat suitable +for the big girl she was, and a gray plush +hat, with her hair tied with scarlet ribbons, had +much hope herself.</p> + +<p>"I see you have your pink ticket in your +hand, a good beginning," said Aunt Cordelia. +"I'm glad you walked to meet us. You can +do so every Sunday; the change and relaxation +will do you good. Now, Charlie, not a word. +From now on, while she is trying for Dr. Angell's +prize, she will go back with us to +church."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou found herself there within a +very few minutes, the parallelograms of pews +about her filled with the assembled congregation, +she in her place between Aunt Cordelia +and Uncle Charlie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> + +<p>And at home, where she now would be had +Aunt Cordelia relented, what? Her children +doomed to sit in a wooden row against the +baseboard until she arrived to release them. +The new book, for Emmy Lou is reading now, +left where one begins to divine that the white +cat in reality is a beautiful lady. Also at +home on Aunt Cordelia's table that Sunday +institution never forgotten by Uncle Charlie, +the box of candy, from whose serried layers +Emmy Lou may take one piece in Aunt Cordelia's +absence. Furthermore at home the +realm of the kitchen with its rites of Sunday +preparation, Aunt M'randy its priestess, and +delectable odors and savory steam arising from +its altar, the cooking-stove.</p> + +<p>And in the stead for Emmy Lou a morning +spent in church. Still she can settle down and +think of the prize which as reward for all this +faithfulness will be hers. Think of Hattie's +gold pin, and Sadie's work-basket, of the silver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +dollar which in reality was a watch, and +the locket on the chain.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia touches Emmy Lou, and, +brought to herself, she stands up. Aunt +Cordelia finds the place and hands her a +prayer book. Church has begun.</p> + +<p>Amid form without meaning, and symbol +without clue, the mind of Emmy Lou wanders +again, this time to that puzzle, the adult, +no less impenetrable to the mind of nine than +the shrouded mystery of ancient Egypt to the +adult. For adults, Aunt Cordelia for one, here +beside her in the pew, love to go to church. +The proof? That they of their own volition, +since the adult acts of himself, are here.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia touches Emmy Lou. She +and Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Charlie and the +congregation of St. Simeon's, Hattie to the +contrary, kneel down.</p> + +<p>But the mind continues to wander. The +adult is here because it wants to be here,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +whereas Emmy Lou is here because Aunt Cordelia +says she must be. Her eyes, too, will +travel ahead on the prayer book page to the +amen. What amen? Any and all, since amens +wherever occurring signify the end of the +especial thing of the moment, whether said, +sung or prayed. The thought sustaining one +being that, amen succeeding amen, the final +and valedictory one is bound to come in +time.</p> + +<p>"Get up for the Venite," whispers Aunt Cordelia, +and Emmy Lou who has lost herself +on her knees gets up, pink with the defection. +Not that the Venite has any significance to her +which brings her to her feet, but that to find +herself in the wrong situation at church, or +anywhere, is embarrassing.</p> + +<p>This pitfall of ritual is called the service, +though it might be worse since the more service +the less sermon. As nearly as Emmy Lou can +grasp it, at Hattie's church, beyond a sparse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +standing up to pray, and sitting down to sing, +it is all sermon.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia has to speak to her by and +by again: "Get up for the Jubilate," Emmy +Lou having lost herself during the second lesson.</p> + +<p>And yet? And yet? Can it be there is more +in this business of church than an Emmy Lou +suspects? The congregation now going down +on its knees for that matter called the Litany, +a tear presently splashes on the glove of Aunt +Cordelia kneeling beside Emmy Lou, her head +bowed above the big, cross-emblazoned prayer +book that she always uses.</p> + +<p>Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise wear white +gloves or gray or brown as the case may be, +and feathers and flowers, and their dresses are +varied and cheery. But Aunt Cordelia still +wears black in memory of Emmy Lou's mother +who went away when Emmy Lou was four. +The tear falling on her black glove and sliding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +off to the book makes a stain tinged with purple +from the kid.</p> + +<p>Then Emmy Lou remembers this is the +anniversary of the day her mother went forever, +and understands why the prayer book in +Aunt Cordelia's hand is open at the flyleaf +bearing the name of its first owner, Emily +Pope McLaurin.</p> + +<p>Are we nearer our dead at church? And +being nearer, are we comforted? For when +Aunt Cordelia arises from her knees her face +is happy.</p> + +<p>"The four hundred and ninety-fourth +hymn," she whispers. "Find the place." +Then in refutation of Hattie, "Stand up."</p> + +<p>And Emmy Lou, finding the hymn for herself, +stands up and with Aunt Cordelia and +Uncle Charlie and the congregation, sings +heartily:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"The Church's one foundation<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Is Jesus Christ her Lord——"</span><br /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p> + +<p>While the service thus drags its length along, +the hymn which Emmy Lou both can find for +herself and can sing heartily being the only +oasis in the desert of her morning, there is +worse ahead. Between two uprising peaks of +the amens, one of which is reached with the +close of the hymn, lies that valley of dry bones +called the sermon.</p> + +<p>Dr. Angell is beginning it now. "'Thy word +is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my +path.'"</p> + +<p>This seems a reasonably clear and definite +statement even to Emmy Lou, not quite nine +and slow to follow. But no.</p> + +<p>"The Psalmist was given to imagery, which +is to say, was an Oriental," begins Dr. Angell. +And so one goes down with him into the +valley of dry bones.</p> + +<p>The mind wanders anew. How can it help +wandering? Albert Eddie Dawkins is across +the church in a side pew with his big sister,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +Sarah. She has decided that he shall try for +a rector's prize too. He is low in his mind +about it, and said so to Emmy Lou coming out +of Sunday school this morning.</p> + +<p>Joe Kiffin made a proposition to him that +he could not accept, Joe being the big boy who +drove the wagon and delivered for the Dawkins +grocery.</p> + +<p>"He said he would take me and another boy +this morning to a place where we can get all +the honey locusts we want. A place where the +ground is covered with 'em. But we both had +to come to Sunday school and stay to church, +and Joe says we can't expect him to take us +in the afternoon when it's the only afternoon +he's got. You know honey locusts?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou was compelled to admit that she +did not.</p> + +<p>"Well," a little anxiously, "I don't either. +But if I and the other boy could have gone with +Joe, I'd have found out."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 383px;"> +<img src="images/ill-230.jpg" width="383" height="600" alt=""With one pink ticket in hand, fifty-one yet to be achieved for texts."" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"With one pink ticket in hand, fifty-one yet to be achieved for texts."</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> + +<p>The other boy was at church too. By turning +her head the least bit Emmy Lou could see +him. His name was Logan. But he wasn't +trying for a prize. He said they might make +him stay to church—"they" meaning the grown +persons in the pew with him—but they couldn't +make him try for pink tickets, or walk up an +aisle to get a prize he mightn't want anyway.</p> + +<p>Mightn't Logan want it? Was there any +chance that Emmy Lou would not want hers? +Fifty-two—no, fifty-one—Sundays now to +come, and with one pink ticket in hand, fifty-one +yet to be achieved for texts.</p> + +<p>Dr. Angell is ending his sermon. ". . . and +so it comes that the words of the Psalmist occurring +in the liturgy of our service, are a lamp +unto our feet, and a light unto our path." +And he and his congregation come up out of +the valley of dry bones.</p> + +<p>And yet? And yet? Emmy Lou's eyes, +fixed on Dr. Angell, are registering on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +retina of her mind for all time a figure which +for her shall be a type, dominant in its attitude +of beneficent authority, hands outspread +above its people, rumpled hair white, beard +white, robes white, a shaft of light from a +common window into heaven shared with him +by St. Paul, the bigoted Episcopalian, searching +him out where he stands.</p> + +<p>As void of meaning to her, these gettings up +and these sittings down, these venites, jubilates, +and amens, as the purpose of Dr. Angell +in his chancel. Yet who shall say at what moment +Emmy Lou in her pew, struggling along +in the darkness though she is, shall sense the +symbol of the one, and behold in the other the +office and the appointment?</p> + +<p>And the adult who is here of self-actuated +volition? The Aunt Cordelia ever in her place +in the family pew? Emmy Lou's eyes turn +to this person, and behold, her face is touched +as by a light, too, and her eyes are shining.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Get up," she whispers as she herself arises, +"it is the benediction."</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie is jocular on the way home. +"And what did you think of the sermon?" he +asks Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>She does not know that he is jocular, nor +that she too, unwittingly, is the same in her +reply. "I thought I understood the text until +Dr. Angell began to explain it, and then I +lost it."</p> + +<p>Fifty-one more Sundays, fifty-one more +sermons, fifty-one more texts between Emmy +Lou and her reward! The next Sunday and +there would be fifty, and the next forty-nine!</p> + +<p>As the weeks went by Emmy Lou discussed +the prize with Aunt Cordelia, and incidentally +with Uncle Charlie who overheard the conversations.</p> + +<p>"When Albert Eddie's mamma won a prize +for catechism in England where she lived when +she was little, it was tea to take home to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +mother, and a flannel petticoat for her grandma, +and she cried."</p> + +<p>And again. "Sadie says it's an awful thing +when your name is called, to get up and walk +up the aisle, but Hattie says that you don't +mind it so much if you keep thinking about the +prize."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Papa came down once a month from his +home city a hundred miles away, to stay over +Sunday and see Emmy Lou. "I was going to +propose," he said on one of these visits, "that +the next time, you and Aunt Cordelia and +Uncle Charlie get on the train and come up to +visit me. But it's no use, I see."</p> + +<p>"Not until I get my prize," said Emmy Lou. +"I have forty-one pink tickets in Aunt Cordelia's +bureau drawer, and today will make +forty-two."</p> + +<p>"I am almost sorry I let her try," Aunt +Cordelia told her brother-in-law and Uncle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +Charlie. "She begins to study the text for the +next Sunday as soon as she gets home on +this."</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise, as the allotted Sunday drew +near, brought home news of a tiff between Dr. +Angell and Mr. Glidden.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Glidden told Dr. Angell today that +he had been looking over a printed list of Sunday +school prizes sent to superintendents, and +had noticed some excellent suggestions. Dr. +Angell was ruffled and said, 'If I'm fool +enough to come to prizes, bribes for duty, I'm +nevertheless still capable of providing them.' +I'm afraid he is getting old."</p> + +<p>"Old," retorted Uncle Charlie. "It's being +goaded by Willie Glidden. Drive even a saint +too far and he will show his manhood."</p> + +<p>"Hattie's is a little pin," remarked Emmy +Lou, even irrelevantly, "and Sadie's is a workbox, +and that other little girl's was a locket on +a chain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p> + +<p>The morning of the fifty-third Sunday came. +"I don't know which she is the more, proud, or +alarmed, at thought of walking up the aisle +this morning for her prize," said Aunt Cordelia +after Emmy Lou left the breakfast table. +"There are only three children who have come +through successfully in the whole Sunday +school, Charlie. A little girl named Puggy +Western, according to Emmy Lou, she herself, +and Albert Eddie Dawkins. Two of the +three are thanks to Sarah and myself, if I do +say it."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The moment was come. The Sunday school—Bible +Class, Big Room, and Infant Class—was +assembled. Mr. Glidden, with Dr. Angell +beside him, had arisen.</p> + +<p>"One at a time, Puggy Western, Emily +Louise McLaurin, and Albert Edward +Dawkins come forward and receive their +prizes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p> + +<p>Puggy Western went up first, in a brand-new +hat and coat for the occasion, and came +back.</p> + +<p>Emily Louise McLaurin went up next in a +next-to-new coat and hat and dress, and +came back.</p> + +<p>Albert Edward Dawkins, in a new suit and +his first high collar, went up and came back. +A hymn, and Sunday school was over, and all +ages and sizes crowded around the three to +see their similar rewards.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Charlie on +their road to church met Emmy Lou this morning, +her eyes, like her late accumulation of +tickets, were pink. She to whom tears came +hard and seldom had been crying.</p> + +<p>"And how about the prize?" asked Uncle +Charlie.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou, tears stoutly held back, handed +it to him. He looked it over, opened it, read<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +her name in inscription within, then lifted his +gaze to her.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be doggoned!"</p> + +<p>"Charlie!" from Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>"I surely will. The same to the other two?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou nodded. There are times when +one cannot trust oneself to speak.</p> + +<p>And when Uncle Charlie handed back the +volume stoutly bound in cloth, stamped with +a golden sun in a nimbus of rays, and bearing +for title, "Rays From the Sun of Righteousness," +the nimbus surrounded, not a golden +sun, but a silver dollar held in place by Uncle +Charlie's thumb.</p> + +<p>"A dollar that is only a dollar, and not a +watch," he explained regretfully. "But somewhere +in the week ahead we may be able to +overtake a locket on a chain." Then to Aunt +Cordelia, "I'll decide it this morning, Cordelia. +Emmy Lou is excused for today from +anything further in the nature of sermons."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p> + +<p>The next Sunday Albert Eddie Dawkins +was absent from Sunday school. He had run +off, so his sister Maud explained, and could +not be found.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou heard more about it later on +from Albert Eddie himself. She also found +out what a honey locust is, though she had had +to wait a year to do so.</p> + +<p>"I told Joe Kiffen if he'd take us to that +honey locust place now, that he said he would +last year, I'd stay away from Sunday school. +And he did. And here's one for you."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou took the pod and bit into it. +As solace and recompense she could have +wished for something more delectable.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>STERN DAUGHTER OF THE VOICE OF GOD</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Hattie's</span> rule of life was simple, but severe. +She set it forth for Emmy Lou. "Right is +right, and wrong is wrong, and you have to +draw the line between. And when you've +chosen which side you're on, you have to stand +by your colors."</p> + +<p>She went on to diagram her meaning. "I +heard my father tell my brothers what it means +to stand by your colors. He said they couldn't +be too careful in their associates. That now +they've joined the League for the Right they +must show their faith by their works. You and +I can't associate with anyone who chooses the +other side either. If Lisa Schmit will go to +Sunday picnics, she's wrong, and you and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +I have to show our colors and tell her so."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou hesitated at such consignment +of Lisa to the limbo defined as wrong, but Hattie +said she didn't dare hesitate. She even +showed a disposition to take Emmy Lou's +right of election into her keeping, saying if +she felt this way about it she'd speak for her.</p> + +<p>"No, we won't come into your game of +prisoner's base," she told Lisa and Yetta at +recess; "we're going to have a game of our +own."</p> + +<p>The contumely for the unfriendly act nevertheless +fell on Emmy Lou who knew them +best. "She's getting to be stuck up," Lisa said +bitterly to her own group, with a jerk of her +head toward Emmy Lou standing by Hattie. +"She won't play with Yetta and me any more +because our papa keeps a grocery."</p> + +<p>"No such thing!" said Hattie. "She won't +play with you because you go to picnics on +Sunday."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> + +<p>Was this true? Or was it because Hattie +had told her she must not play with them because +they went to picnics on Sunday?</p> + +<p>Hattie called this bringing of Lisa and +Yetta to judgment "drawing the line." It +was a painful process to the rejected. Lisa +went off with her face suffused and Yetta who +followed her was crying.</p> + +<p>Next followed the case of Mittie Heinz +whose mamma kept a little shop for general +notions, a stock that Emmy Lou never had +been able to identify, often as she had been +there to buy needles or thread or cambric for +Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>Mittie read her storybook on the steps of +the shop on Sunday and Hattie explained to +her that this made it impossible to include her +in a game of catcher.</p> + +<p>"Right's right, and wrong's wrong," she +said. "If we are going to draw the line we +have to draw it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I read my books on Sunday," expostulated +Emmy Lou, for Mittie's startled face showed +surprise as she turned away, and her eyes +looked reproach at Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"But they are books you get out of your +Sunday school library, and don't count anyway +because you say you don't like them," from +Hattie.</p> + +<p>This lamentable and unhappy knowledge of +good and evil was forced on Emmy Lou when +in the ascending scale of years she simultaneously +reached her ninth birthday, the Fourth +Reader, and the estate of bridesmaid to Aunt +Katie.</p> + +<p>Life from this eminence appeared broad-spread +and beautiful, and diversified by variant +paths within the sweep of a far horizon until +now never suspected. But Hattie, youthful +Virgil to her youthful Dante, permitted personally +conducted excursions only, and these +along a somewhat monotonous because strait<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +and narrow path—all other roads, whether +devious or parallel, flower-bedecked or somber, +ascending or descending, leading but to questionable +ends.</p> + +<p>The first travelers pointed out by Hattie +as trudging these alien roads were Lisa, Yetta, +and Mittie, as has been shown. The second +group journeying on an upland, flowery way +paralleling the strait and narrow path in general +direction, at least, were Alice, Rosalie, +and Amanthus. Charming names! Enchanting +figures!</p> + +<p>School opened early in September. Alice, +Rosalie, and Amanthus, who were newcomers, +were given desks across the aisle from Emmy +Lou. Alice, seeing her earnestly scrubbing +her desk each morning before school and arranging +it for the day, laughed in her eyes. +Amanthus, seeing her test her pen and try her +ink for the coming ordeal of copybook, laughed +in her dimple. And Rosalie, asking her what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +she was hunting on the outspread page of her +geography, laughed aloud when Emmy Lou +replied that it was Timbuctoo, and that she +could find it easier if she knew whether it was +a country, or a mountain, or a river. On which +they all came across the aisle and hugged her.</p> + +<p>"You said in class that the plural of footnote +was feetnotes," said Rosalie.</p> + +<p>"You said, when the teacher held you down +about the spelling in your composition, that a +dog didn't have fore-feet but four feet," said +Amanthus.</p> + +<p>"It's so funny and so dear," said Alice.</p> + +<p>"What?" asked Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"You," said Amanthus, and they all kissed +her.</p> + +<p>"Come and see us," said Rosalie; "we're your +neighbors now. We've moved in the white +house with the big yard on your square, and +Alice, our cousin, and her mother have come +to live with us. We've never been to a public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +school before. You live in a white house at +the other end of the square. We saw you in +the yard."</p> + +<p>"I'll come this afternoon," said Emmy Lou, +"and I'll bring Hattie. I'll get her now so +she'll know you."</p> + +<p>But Hattie declined to come. She shook +her head decidedly. "They've light dispositions +and I've not. My mamma said so about +some other little girls I couldn't get along with. +I don't want to come, and besides I'm not sure +I want to know them."</p> + +<p>Which would imply that light dispositions +were undesirable apart from Hattie's inability +to get along with them! Hattie could be most +disturbing.</p> + +<p>Towards noon a sudden shower fell, and the +class was told to remain in its room for recess +and eat its luncheons at its desks.</p> + +<p>Across the aisle on the other side of Emmy +Lou sat Charlotte Wright. She, too, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +shown every disposition to be friendly but Hattie +discouraged this also. She leaned from +her desk now. "Will you have a piece of my +homemade hickory-nut candy?" She spoke +with pride. "My mamma let me make it myself +on the grate."</p> + +<p>On the grate? Why not in the kitchen on +the stove? Still that was Charlotte's own affair. +More showy than tidy in her dress, she +seemed one of those detached and anxious little +girls hunting for friends. The kindly impulse +was to respond to overtures, Emmy Lou knowing +a past where she had needed friends. And +besides there was the candy. Hickory-nut +candy does not have to look tidy to look +good. She had a liberal lunch outspread on +the napkin upon her desk, but she had no +candy.</p> + +<p>But Hattie leaving her desk and approaching, +held her back. "No, she won't have any +candy," she said, and gathering up Emmy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +Lou's lunch in the napkin and thus forcing +her to follow, walked away.</p> + +<p>Whereupon Rosalie and Amanthus, arising +and going around to Charlotte, flung back their +curls as they crowded into her desk, one on +either side of her, and <i>asked</i> for a piece of her +candy.</p> + +<p>"I don't say it wasn't hard to do," said Hattie, +flushed and even apologetic. "But I had +to. She's not your kind, and she's not mine."</p> + +<p>Yet Rosalie and Amanthus were sharing +Charlotte's desk and her candy. Was she their +kind?</p> + +<p>Hattie's voice had dropped and was even +awe-struck as she explained. "Charlotte's +papa and her mamma don't live together. I +heard my mother and my aunt say so. She +and her mother live in a boarding house next +to the confectionery."</p> + +<p>In a boarding house? Charlotte through +necessity making her candy on a grate, therefore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +and not in the kitchen! And proof indeed +that she was not their kind, even to Emmy +Lou, in a day when the home, however small, +was the measure of standing and the rule!</p> + +<p>Yet Alice has arisen and is looking across +at Charlotte. Emmy Lou loves Alice. Light +disposition or not, she is drawn to her. Her +hair is a pale gold while the curls of her cousins +are sunny, and her smile is in her reflective +eyes while theirs is in lip and dimple. Of +the three she loves Alice. Why? She has +no idea why. Alice moves forward suddenly +and going around to Charlotte leans to her +and kisses her.</p> + +<p>"Is Charlotte their kind?" Emmy Lou asks +Hattie who also was watching.</p> + +<p>"Ask them; they ought to know," tersely. +"We can't afford to care, even if it does make +us sorry. My father said people have to stand +by their colors."</p> + +<p>Later as school was dismissed and the class<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +was filing out, Rosalie called to Emmy Lou, +"If you will go by for Charlotte, she says she +will come this afternoon, too."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou went home disturbed. Charlotte's +father and mother did not live together, +and because of this Charlotte was not their +kind.</p> + +<p>Marriage then is not a fixed and static fact? +As day and night, winter and summer? +Would she yet learn that the other family relations +as brother and sister, parent and child, +are subject to repudiation and readjustment, +too?</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou was just through serving as +bridesmaid for Aunt Katie, in a filmy dress +with a pink sash around what Uncle Charlie +said was by common consent and courtesy her +waist, whatever his meaning by this, and carrying +a basket from which she earnestly scattered +flowers up the aisle of St. Simeon's in +the path of the bride, and incidentally in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +path of Mr. Reade, the bridegroom, and had +supposed she now knew something about marriage.</p> + +<p>The sanction of St. Simeon's was upon the +bride, crowned with the veil and orange blossoms +of her solemn dedication, or so the bridesmaid +had understood it.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Behold, whiles she before the altar stands,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hearing the holy priest that to her speakes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And blesseth her with his two happy hands!"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>Such in substance was the bridesmaid's understanding +of it, if not in just these words.</p> + +<p>To be sure the occasion held its disappointment. +The concentration of gifts upon the +bride would argue that others shared with +Emmy Lou a sense of the inadequacy of the +bridegroom in his inglorious black clothes.</p> + +<p>There was a steel engraving above the mantel +in the dining-room called "The Cavalier's +Wedding," at which Emmy Lou glanced again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +today as she came in, and in which the bridegroom +has a hat in his hand with a feather +which sweeps the ground, and wears a worthy +lace-trimmed coat.</p> + +<p>At the dinner-table she repeated the news +which had so dismayed and astounded her.</p> + +<p>"There's a little girl in my class named Charlotte +Wright whose papa and mamma don't +live together."</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear!" expostulated Aunt Cordelia, +"I don't like you to be hearing such things."</p> + +<p>This would seem to ratify Hattie's position. +"Then I mustn't play with her?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Emmy Lou, what a thing for you +to say!"</p> + +<p>"Then I can play with her?"</p> + +<p>"The simple code of yea, yea, and nay, nay," +said Uncle Charlie.</p> + +<p>"Charlie, be quiet." Then to Emmy Lou, +"You mustn't pin me down so; I will have to +know more about it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I fancy I know the case and the child," +said Uncle Charlie. "The father worked on +my paper for a while, a fine young fellow with +a big chance to have made good." Then to +Emmy Lou, "Uncle Charlie wants you to be +as nice to the little girl as you know how, for +the sake of the father who was that fine young +fellow."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou was glad to get her bearings. +Hattie would be glad to get them too. The +status is fixed by a father and they could play +with Charlotte. One further item troubled. +"What are light dispositions?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"Leaven for the over-anxious ones," said +Uncle Charlie. "If you meet any, pin to +them."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou turned to Aunt Cordelia. "May +I get Charlotte, then, and go to see Alice +Pulteney and Rosalie and Amanthus Maynard? +They've just moved on our square?"</p> + +<p>"Agree, Cordelia, agree," urged Uncle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +Charlie as he arose from the table. "If we +are to infer they have light dispositions, +drive her to see Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou started forth by and by. The +shower of the morning was over and the September +afternoon was fresh and clear. It was +heartening to feel that she was standing by +her colors, by Charlotte, and going to see her +new friends.</p> + +<p>The boarding house was unattractive and +the vestibule where Emmy Lou stood to ring +the bell embarrassed her by its untidiness. +As Charlotte joined Emmy Lou at the door, +her mother who had followed her halfway +down the stairs called after her. She was almost +as pretty as Aunt Katie, though she was +in a draggled wrapper more showy than tidy, +and she seemed fretful and disposed to blame +Charlotte on general principles.</p> + +<p>"Now do remember when it's time to come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +home. Though why I should expect anybody +to remember in order to save me——"</p> + +<p>Rosalie and Alice and Amanthus were waiting +at their gate and led them in, not to the +house, but across the clipped lawn gleaming +in the slanting light of the mid-afternoon, to +a clump of shrubberies so old and hoary that +beneath their branches was the spaciousness of +a room. Here the ground was heaped with +treasure, a lace scarf, some trailing skirts, +a velvet cape, slippers with spangled rosettes, +feathers, fans, what not?</p> + +<p>"I am the goose-girl waiting until the prince +comes," said Amanthus.</p> + +<p>"I am the beggar-maid waiting for the +king," said Rosalie.</p> + +<p>"I am the forester's foster-daughter lost in +the woods until the prince pursuing the milk-white +doe finds her," said Alice.</p> + +<p>"Then in the twinkling of an eye our rags +will be changed to splendor," said Amanthus.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +"There is a skirt for everyone and a feather +and a fan. Who will you be?" to Emmy Lou +and Charlotte.</p> + +<p>They were embarrassed. "I never heard of +the goose-girl and the others," said Emmy +Lou. Nor had Charlotte.</p> + +<p>Dismay ensued and incredulous astonishment.</p> + +<p>A lady came strolling from the house across +the lawn. She was tall and fair, and as she +drew near one saw that her smile was in her +quiet eyes. Emmy Lou felt promptly that she +loved her.</p> + +<p>"Mother," cried Alice.</p> + +<p>"Cousin Adeline," cried Rosalie and Amanthus.</p> + +<p>"Emmy Lou and Charlotte never have +heard of the goose-girl and the beggar-maid——"</p> + +<p>"May we have the green and gold book that +was yours when you were little, to lend them?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p> + +<p>Alice's mother, who was Mrs. Pulteney, +smiled at the visitors. "And this is Emmy +Lou? And this is Charlotte? Certainly you +may get the book to lend them."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou felt that one not only did well +to love Mrs. Pulteney but might go further +and adore her.</p> + +<p>It was agreed that Charlotte should take +the book first. She kept it two days and +brought it to Emmy Lou, her small, thin face +alight. "I read it in school and got a bad +mark, but I've finished it. It all came right +for everybody."</p> + +<p>She left an overlooked bookmark between +the leaves at the story of the outcast little +princess who went wandering into the world +with her mother.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou in her turn finished the book. +Charlotte got one thing out of it and she got +another. For Charlotte it all came right. +Emmy Lou entered its portals and the glory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +of understanding came upon her. Looking +back from this land which is that within the +sweep of the far horizon, to the old and baffling +world left behind, all was made plain.</p> + +<p>Even as Hattie drew a line between those +who are right and those who are wrong, so a +line is drawn between those who have entered +this land of the imagination and those who are +left behind. One knew now why Alice flits +where others walk, why the hair of Amanthus +gleams, why laughter dwells in the cheek of +Rosalie, why the face of Charlotte is transfigured. +And one realizes why she instinctively +loves Mrs. Pulteney. It is because she +owned the green and gold book when she was +little!</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou also felt that she understood at +last why Mr. Reade made so poor a showing +as a bridegroom. It is because while every +goose-girl, beggar-maid, princess or queen +may be and indeed is a bride, there is nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +less than a prince sanctioned for bridegroom, +in any instance, by the green and gold book!</p> + +<p>The glory of the green and gold book upon +her, Emmy Lou went to Hattie. But she declined +the loan of it, saying she didn't believe +in fairy tales. She had not believed in Alice, +Rosalie, and Amanthus at first, either, though +she had accepted them now.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou took this new worry home. +"Hattie doesn't believe in fairy tales."</p> + +<p>"She will," from Uncle Charlie confidently.</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"When she gets younger, with time, like us, +or when she overtakes a light disposition looking +for an owner. But I wouldn't be hard +on her. Keep up heart and coax her along."</p> + +<p>Hard on Hattie? Her best friend? Coax +her along? When were she and Hattie apart?</p> + +<p>At Thanksgiving, Mrs. Maynard, the +mother of Amanthus and Rosalie, a close rival +herself to Aunt Katie in prettiness, gave a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +party for her two little daughters, a party calling +for white dresses and sashes and slippers.</p> + +<p>"Hattie doesn't want to go, but I've coaxed +her," Emmy Lou reported at home.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't want to go?" from Aunt Cordelia. +"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"She says she hasn't got a disposition for +white dresses and slippers, she'd rather go to +parties with candy-pulling and games."</p> + +<p>Christmas came, with a Christmas Eve pantomime +at the theater, which was given, so +Uncle Charlie said, because so many of what +he called the stock company were English.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pulteney gave a party to this pantomime +for Alice and her friends, and though +Uncle Charlie had asked Emmy Lou to go +with him, in the face of this later invitation he +withdrew his.</p> + +<p>"You may give our tickets to Hattie and +Sadie if they are not already going."</p> + +<p>Hattie had to be coaxed again. She said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +she didn't believe in theaters and felt she had +to stand by her colors. Her papa who chanced +along at the moment helped her decide. +"There's such a thing as making a nuisance of +your colors," he said, and took the tickets for +her from Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>A dreadful thing happened at school the day +before the Christmas holidays. A little girl +got mad at Alice. "We've all known something +about you and wouldn't tell it," she said, +while the group about the two stood aghast. +"Your papa and your mamma don't live together, +and that's why you live with Rosalie +and Amanthus. And it's true because it was +all in the paper."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou hurried home all but weeping +and told it.</p> + +<p>"Hush, my dear, hush," said Aunt Cordelia. +"For the sake of Alice's brave mother we must +forget it. I hoped you would not hear it."</p> + +<p>Alice's brave mother? Now the status is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +fixed by a mother. Life is perplexing. One +must explain to Hattie.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The Christmas pantomime! Emmy Lou had +been to the theater before. Aunt Cordelia had +taken her to see "Rip Van Winkle."</p> + +<p>"Uncle Charlie wants you to be able to say +you have seen certain of the great actors," she +had said, but Emmy Lou did not grasp that +she was seeing the actor until it was explained +to her afterward. She had no idea that a +great actor would be a poor, tottering old man, +white-haired and ragged, who brought tears to +the onlooker as he lifted his hand to his peering +eyes, standing there bewildered upon the stage.</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise took her to another play called +"The Two Orphans." She understood this +less. "The name on the program is <i>Henriette</i>. +Why do they call it 'Onriette'? Is it a cold +in their heads?" She was cross and spoke fretfully +because she was bothered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the pantomime! Christmas Eve, the +theater brilliant with lights and garlands, evergreens +wreathing the box wherein she sat in +her new crimson dress with Alice, Rosalie, +Amanthus, and Charlotte, and Mrs. Pulteney +just behind—fair and lovely Mrs. Pulteney +who, like the mother of Charlotte, did not live +with her husband, though Emmy Lou is doing +her best to forget it.</p> + +<p>The lights go down, the curtain rises, the +pantomime is beginning!</p> + +<p>Can it be so? Palace and garden, an open +market-place, the public fountain, the shops +and dwellings of a town, and threading the +space thus set about, a crowding, circling +throng, jugglers, giants, dwarfs, fairies, a +crutch-supported witch, a white-capped baker! +It is the world of the green and gold book!</p> + +<p>The goose-girl is here, about to put her teeth +into an apple. The beggar-maid and her king +are recognized. A princess and a prince, kissing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +their finger-tips to the boxes, are the center +of the stage.</p> + +<p>No, <i>Harlequin</i> in his parti-colored clothes +with his dagger, whoever <i>Harlequin</i> may be, +is that center, causing the baker at a touch +to take off his head and carry it under his arm, +striking the apple from the lips of the goose-girl, +tipping the crown from the head of the +prince, twitching the scepter from the fingers +of the princess.</p> + +<p>Clownery? Buffoonery? <i>Grotesquerie?</i> +Emmy Lou never suspects it if it be. Rather +it is life, which with the same perversity baffles +the single-hearted, bewilders the seeker, and +juggles with and decapitates the ideas even as +<i>Harlequin</i> dismembers the well-meaning and +unoffending baker. With this difference, that +in the world Emmy Lou is gazing on all will +be made right before the end.</p> + +<p>The play moves on. Who are these who now +are the center of the scene? Emmy Lou has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +not met them before? Sad and lovely <i>Gabriella</i> +at her wheel in her woodland cottage, +in reality a princess stolen when in the cradle, +and <i>Bertram</i> her husband, forester of the ignoble +deeds, whose hands have wrung the white +doe's neck in wantonness.</p> + +<p>And who are these as the play moves on? +<i>Florizel</i>, once high-hearted prince, forced to +dig in the nether world for gold to replace that +forever slipping through the unmended pocket +of <i>Gonderiga</i> his wife, standing by, princess +of the slovenly heart, who is no princess in +truth at all, but a goose-girl changed in the +cradle.</p> + +<p>The play moves on to its close. The curtain +falls, the lights come up, the pantomime is +over.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Hattie and Sadie joined the box party at +the door of the theater and all went home together +on the street car. It was Christmas Eve<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +and the shops and streets were alight and +crowded. As the car reached the quieter sections +the lights of the homes shone through +the dusk.</p> + +<p>Charlotte left the car at her corner which +was reached first, to go home to her mother in +the boarding house. Mrs. Pulteney and her +group of three said good-bye at the next corner. +At the third, Hattie, Sadie, and Emmy Lou +got off together.</p> + +<p>Hattie detained the others ere they could +go their separate ways. Her voice was awed.</p> + +<p>"Maybe Charlotte's father was like <i>Florizel</i>, +once high-hearted prince——"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou and Sadie gazed at Hattie. +They caught the point. No wonder Hattie +was awed.</p> + +<p>"—and maybe Mrs. Pulteney is beautiful +<i>Gabriella</i>——?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>That night after supper Emmy Lou paused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +before the picture of "The Cavalier's Wedding." +She was far from satisfied with Aunt +Katie's choice.</p> + +<p>"Why did Mr. Reade wear those black +clothes?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about?" from Aunt +Cordelia.</p> + +<p>But Uncle Charlie seemed to comprehend in +part, at least. "Those were the trappings and +the suits of woe."</p> + +<p>"Woe?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. He was the bridegroom."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Hattie came around the day after Christmas. +Stern daughter of the voice of God in +general, today she was hesitant. "If you +haven't returned that book of fairy tales, I'll +take it home and read it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p> +<h2>IX</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>SO BUILD WE UP THE BEING THAT WE ARE</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Aunt Cordelia</span> stood behind Emmy Lou +who was seated at the piano with "Selections +From the Operas, for Beginners," open on the +rack. She paused in her counting. "Now try +it again by yourself. You have to keep time +if you want harmony."</p> + +<p>Harmony? The mind of the performer +dwelt on the word as she started over again. +What is harmony?</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia relaxing her attention for the +moment turned to speak to Uncle Charlie who +was reading his paper by the droplight. "It's +no easy thing to bring up a child, Charlie." As +it happened, she was not referring to the practicing. +"Louise thinks Emmy Lou ought to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +be confirmed. She says now that she is eleven +years old she surely ought to know where she +stands."</p> + +<p>It is no easy thing to be the child brought up +either, as Emmy Lou on the piano-stool could +have rejoined. Life and Aunt Cordelia might +perch her on the stool but, as events were +proving, that did not make her a musician. +Would going up the aisle of St. Simeon's +to kneel at the rail, she had watched the +confirmation class for some years now, make +her——?</p> + +<p>What was it supposed to make her? An +Episcopalian? What is an Episcopalian? Did +she want to be one? Or did she want to be +what Papa is?</p> + +<p>"Repeat, repeat," said Aunt Cordelia behind +her. "Don't you see the dots at the end +of the passage?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou repeated, came to the end of +her selection, and, to the relief of herself, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +least, got down. She was thinking about +Papa.</p> + +<p>She had gathered from somewhere that +when Mamma after marriage left her church +and went with Papa to his church, there was +feeling.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou adored Papa. Aunt Cordelia +had a brother and two sisters to go with her to +St. Simeon's. Surely there should be someone +to go with Papa? But where? What was he?</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou had asked this question outright +a good while ago. Papa was paying her a visit +at the time. Unknown to her he had looked +over her head at Aunt Cordelia and laid a +finger on his lips. Considering the extent and +the nature of his obligation to Aunt Cordelia, +possibly his idea was there must be no more +feeling, though Emmy Lou could not know +this.</p> + +<p>Having thus communicated with Aunt Cordelia, +he answered the question. "Had my two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +grandfathers elected to be born on one side of +the Tweed and not the other, I probably would +have been an Episcopalian," he said.</p> + +<p>"Tweedledee, in other words, instead of +Tweedledum," said Uncle Charlie.</p> + +<p>All of which meant that Papa was not an +Episcopalian. What was he? Emmy Lou, +eight years old then and eleven now, was still +asking the question.</p> + +<p>At bedtime Aunt Cordelia spoke again +about confirmation. "Think it over for the +rest of the week and then come tell me what +you have decided."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou was glad to be alone in bed. At +eleven there is need for constant adjustment +and readjustment of the ideas and also for +pondering. The relations of one little girl to +Heaven and of Heaven to one little girl call +for pondering. People assort themselves into +Episcopalians, Methodists, and the like. Rebecca +Steinau is a Jew, Katie O'Brien is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +Dominican, Aunt M'randy in the kitchen is an +Afro-American, her insurance paper entitling +her to one first-class burial says so. Mr. Dawkins' +brother is a Canadian; Maud and Albert +Eddie say their father sometimes is sorry he's +not a Canadian, too.</p> + +<p>Is each of these assortments a religion? Or +all the assortments religion? Has God a special +feeling about having Emmy Lou an Episcopalian +when Papa is something else? Is it +not strange that He never, never speaks? In +which case she could ask Him and He would +tell her.</p> + +<p>When Emmy Lou arrived at the grammar +school the next morning, for she is thus far on +the road of education now, Sadie and Hattie +had something to tell her.</p> + +<p>There is a pupil in the class this year named +Lorelei Ritter. Emmy Lou has heard it +claimed by some that she can speak French, +by others that she speaks German. The fact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +is self-evident that she speaks English. She +is given to minding her own affairs and in +other ways seems sufficient to herself. Miss +Amanda, the teacher, is pronouncedly cold to +her; they do not seem to get along.</p> + +<p>"Where is the Rio de la Plata River, and +how does it flow?" Miss Amanda asked her in +the class only yesterday.</p> + +<p>Lorelei had hesitated a moment. She was +plainly bothered.</p> + +<p>"I thought <i>Rio</i> was river——?" she began, +and stopped. Miss Amanda's face was red.</p> + +<p>"Go to your seat," she said.</p> + +<p>For what? How had Lorelei offended? +The class had no idea.</p> + +<p>Miss Amanda had shown steady disapproval +of Lorelei before this, and this morning Sadie +and Hattie knew why.</p> + +<p>"A girl in a class upstairs told us," said +Sadie. "Her name is Sally White and she +lives near Lorelei. She says Miss Amanda<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +lives next door to Lorelei and they play the +piano at Lorelei's house all day Sunday with +the windows wide open."</p> + +<p>"Tunes," Sadie went on to qualify. "It +isn't even as if it were hymns."</p> + +<p>"Or voluntaries," said Hattie. Voluntaries +were permitted at Hattie's church before service +and Sadie did not approve of them.</p> + +<p>Sadie was continuing. "Sally said the +neighbors sent word to the Ritters that it was +a thing a Christian neighborhood couldn't and +wouldn't put up with, but the Ritters go right +on playing."</p> + +<p>This was more painful to Emmy Lou than +Sadie could know. Papa who comes to see +her once a month keeps the piano open on +Sunday, and plays what Sadie and Hattie differentiate +as "tunes" as opposed to hymns and +voluntaries, often as not dashing into what he +explains to Uncle Charlie is this or that from +this or that new opera.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p> + +<p>He plays at any and all times on Sunday, +dropping his paper or magazine to stroll to +the piano to pick and try, strum and hum, or +jerking the stool into place, to fall into sustained, +and to Emmy Lou who herself is still +counting aloud, breathless and incredible performance.</p> + +<p>She is aware that Aunt Cordelia does not +willingly consent to this use of the piano on +Sunday, and she also is aware of a definite +stand taken by Uncle Charlie in the matter, to +which Aunt Cordelia reluctantly yields.</p> + +<p>In the past Papa has been Papa, personality +with no detail, accepted and adored, just as +Aunt Cordelia has been and is Aunt Cordelia, +supreme and undisputed. But now Papa's +personality is beginning to have its details. +He still is Papa, but he is more. He is +tall and slight and has quick, clever hands, +and impatient motions of the head, together +with oddly regardful, considering, debating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +eyes, fixed on their object through rimmed eye-glasses.</p> + +<p>Papa is "brilliant," vague term appropriated +from Uncle Charlie who says so. If he +were not a brilliant editor he would have been +a brilliant musician. Uncle Charlie says this +also.</p> + +<p>And today at school Emmy Lou hears from +Sadie that piano playing on Sunday is a thing +a Christian neighborhood can't and won't put +up with!</p> + +<p>"Aren't the Ritters Christians?" she asked +anxiously.</p> + +<p>"How can they be when they play all day +Sunday?" Sadie returned. "Lorelei told Sally +that her father, Signor Ritter, was <i>Fra Diavolo</i> +in an opera once. And Sally says they +are proud of it and can't forget it. Every one +of the family plays on some instrument and +they take Sunday when they're all home to +play <i>Fra Diavolo</i> till the neighbors can't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +stand it. Sally asked Lorelei what <i>Fra Diavolo</i> +means, and she said Brother Devil."</p> + +<p>This again was information more painful +to Emmy Lou than Sadie could know. Papa +on his visits, while dressing in the mornings, +or later when wandering about the house or +running through the contents of some book +picked up from the table, breaks into song, +palpably familiar and favored song even if +absently and disjointedly rendered. Emmy +Lou has heard it often as not on Sunday. +Uncle Charlie in speaking of it once said it +was "in vogue"—another term appropriated +by Emmy Lou—when Papa was a young man +studying in Paris.</p> + +<p>The song favored thus ended with up-flung +and gayly defiant notes and words that said +and resaid with emphatic and triumphant +finality, "<i>Fra Diavolo</i>"! Though what the +words meant Emmy Lou had no idea until +now.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If the Ritters are not Christians, what are +they?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Sadie had information about this. "Sally +says the neighbors say they are Bohemians."</p> + +<p>Unfortunately Emmy Lou has heard this +term before, though she had not grasped that +it was a religion. Aunt Cordelia frequently +worries over Papa.</p> + +<p>"He's a regular Bohemian," she frets to +Uncle Charlie.</p> + +<p>Before school was dismissed on this same +Friday, there were other worries for Emmy +Lou. When in time she arrived home, full of +chagrin, Papa was there for his usual visit +and wanted to hear about the chagrin and its +cause.</p> + +<p>Words are given out in class at grammar +school, as Papa knows, to be defined and illustrated +by a sentence. One may be faithful to +the meaning as construed from the dictionary, +and lose out in class too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p> + +<p>"A girl in the class named Lorelei Ritter +laughed at my sentence, and then the rest +laughed too."</p> + +<p>"What was the word?" inquired Papa.</p> + +<p>"Concomitant."</p> + +<p>"And what did you say?"</p> + +<p>"'A thing that accompanies.' He played +the concomitant to her song."</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie shouted, but Papa's laugh was +a little rueful. "Poor little mole working i' +the dark. Will the light never break for her, +Charlie, do you suppose?"</p> + +<p>What did he mean, and why is he rueful? +Is the trouble with her who would give all she +is or hopes to be in adoring offering to Papa? +Can he, even in the light of what she has heard +today, be open to criticism? Certainly not. +Papa may be a Bohemian, and a Bohemian +may not be a Christian, but what he is that +shall Emmy Lou be also.</p> + +<p>To decide is to act. Papa went down town<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +after dinner with Uncle Charlie, and Emmy +Lou took her place at the piano. Ordinarily +she is loath to practice, going through the ordeal +because Aunt Cordelia requires it. But +today she goes about it as a practical matter +with a definite purpose.</p> + +<p>Papa brought her the "Selections From the +Operas" some while back, with the remark that +a little change from exercises to melody might +introduce cheer into a melancholy business +all around. But so far this had not been +the result, "Selection No. 1—Sextette from +Lucia," reducing her to tears, and "Selection +No. 2—I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble +Halls," doing almost as much for Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>But now that Emmy Lou had a purpose, the +matter was different. There was a table of +contents to the "Selections From the Operas," +and a certain title therein had caught her eye +in the past. Seated on the piano-stool, leaning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +over the book on her lap, she passed her +finger down the list.</p> + +<p>Selection 13. She thought so. She found +the page and replaced the open book upon the +rack. <i>Fra Diavolo</i>. She set to work. What +Papa is that will she be also.</p> + +<p>She desisted by and by long enough to go +and ask a question of Aunt Cordelia.</p> + +<p>"If I were to be confirmed at St. Simeon's +could I practice my selections on Sunday?"</p> + +<p>"Practice them on Sunday?" Aunt Cordelia +had enough trouble getting her to practice +on week-days to be outdone with the question. +"Why do you ask such a thing? You +know you could not."</p> + +<p>That night Emmy Lou asked Papa a question +a little falteringly: "Are you a Bohemian?"</p> + +<p>"Instead, the veriest drudge you ever knew," +he said. "There's too much on me, making a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +living for us both, to be so glorious a +thing."</p> + +<p>Then what was Papa?</p> + +<p>She went around to ask a question of Sadie +the next morning. She had been to Sadie's +church often enough to know that she liked +to go. The prayers were long but the singing +was frequent and hearty. No one need mark +the time at Sadie's church, the singing marking +its own time warmly and strongly until it +seemed to swing and sway, and Sadie sang and +Emmy Lou sang and everybody sang, and +Emmy Lou for one wasn't sure she did not +swing and sway too, and her heart was buoyant +and warm. She loved the songs at Sadie's +church; what matter if she did not know what +they meant?</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Oh, there's honey in the Rock, my brother,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">There's honey in the Rock for you,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leave your sins for the blood to cover,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">There is honey in the Rock for you, for you."</span><br /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p> + +<p>She could wish that Papa might be a Methodist. +It hardly was likely, all things considered, +but one could make sure.</p> + +<p>"Would 'Selections From the Operas' be allowed +by your church on Sunday?" she asked +Sadie.</p> + +<p>Sadie not only was horrified but, like Aunt +Cordelia, was outdone. "Why, Emily Louise +McLaurin, you know they would not be!" she +said indignantly.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou had no such desire for Papa to +be a Presbyterian. She had been with Hattie +often enough to know that the emphasis is all +on the sermon there. Hattie knew her feeling +and when inviting her to go put the emphasis +on the voluntary of which she was proud.</p> + +<p>This very Saturday afternoon she came +around full of information and enthusiasm. +"Our soprano has done so well with her new +teacher, he is going to play our organ tomorrow +by request and she is going to sing a solo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +during the collection. I want you to come +from Sunday school and go."</p> + +<p>She had other news. "I asked Lorelei Ritter +yesterday after school if she was a Bohemian +and she got mad. She said no, she +wasn't, she was a Bavarian."</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise spoke to Aunt Cordelia that +night. "Emmy Lou must decide in the next +day or two if she is going to enter the confirmation +class this year; I have to report for her."</p> + +<p>The next day was Sunday, and Emmy Lou +heard Papa humming and singing in his room +as he dressed, <i>Fra Diavolo</i> the burden of it.</p> + +<p>The chimes at Sadie's church two squares +away, were playing,</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"How beauteous are their feet<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Who stand on Zion's hill,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Who bring salvation on their tongues</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And words of peace reveal!"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>From afar the triple bells of St. Simeon's +flung their call on the morning air. Nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +Methodist nor yet Episcopalian would be singing +<i>Fra Diavolo</i> on Sunday morning as he +dressed. What was Papa?</p> + +<p>What was he? As he and Emmy Lou went +down the stairs together to breakfast, she +caught his hand to her cheek in a sudden passion +of adoring. What Papa was, she would +be!</p> + +<p>She hurried from Sunday school around to +Hattie's church on Swayne Street. Hattie +defended the absence of a bell by saying +they didn't need a bell to tell them when to +go to church; they knew and went.</p> + +<p>It was a brick church, long built, and a +trifle mossy as to its foundations, discreet in +its architecture, and well-kept.</p> + +<p>Hattie was waiting for Emmy Lou at the +door. Her very hair-ribbons, a serviceable +brown, exact and orderly, seemed to stand for +steadiness and reliability in conviction.</p> + +<p>What did Emmy Lou's blue hair-ribbons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +stand for? Blue is true, and she would be true +to whatever the conviction of Papa.</p> + +<p>"The strange organist is going to play the +voluntary too," Hattie explained. "It's almost +time for him to begin. Hurry."</p> + +<p>As they went in, she told another thing: +"Lorelei and her mother are here, sitting in a +back pew."</p> + +<p>There were two points of cheer in the service +at Hattie's church as Emmy Lou saw it, +the voluntary and the collection. She had referred +to this last as the offertory on a visit +long ago, but never would make the mistake +again, so sharply had Hattie corrected her.</p> + +<p>Hardly were they settled in their places in +the pew with Hattie's father and mother, when +a large man with black hair and shaggy brows +made his way to the organ in the loft behind +the minister, and the voluntary began.</p> + +<p>This the voluntary that along with hymns is +advocated for Sundays? This that stole over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +the keys hunting the melody, to find it here +and lose it there, with a promise that baffled +and a familiarity which eluded, to overtake it +at length and proffer it in high and challenging +measure that said gayly and triumphantly +above the thunderous beat supporting it, in +all but words, <i>Fra Diavolo!</i></p> + +<p>Hattie's face was shining! And the faces +of her mother, of her father, and of the congregation +around, radiated approval and satisfaction!</p> + +<p>And in time the soprano of Hattie's church +arose in the loft above the minister, supported +by the choir. It was the collection.</p> + +<p>It was more. It was "Selection No. 1—Sextette +from Lucia"! Though the words did +not say so!</p> + +<p>Hattie, then, had not been blaming Lorelei +but defending her? It was Sadie who disapproved +of voluntaries and Lorelei?</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou with heightened color, resolute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +face, and blue bows, arrived at home. She +went straight to Papa just returned from +Uncle Charlie's office and strumming on the +piano.</p> + +<p>"You're a Presbyterian," she said.</p> + +<p>"It sounds like an indictment," said Uncle +Charlie. "But he will have to own up. Admit +your guilt, Alec. How did you find it out?"</p> + +<p>"Presbyterians play and sing 'Selections +From the Operas' on Sunday, and so does he."</p> + +<p>"You look ruffled, Alec," from Uncle +Charlie, "But so does someone else. Your +cheeks are hot," to Emmy Lou. "Something +else is disturbing; out with it."</p> + +<p>"The girl named Lorelei Ritter who laughed +at me Friday in class was at church and spoke +to me coming out."</p> + +<p>"What did she say?"</p> + +<p>"She said did I know it was her father who +played the concomitant to the soprano's +song?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Invite her round, and urge her to be +friendly," begged Uncle Charlie when he +stopped shouting. "We need her badly. Besides +I'm sure I'd like to know her."</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia came downstairs that night +after seeing Emmy Lou to bed. "Whatever +is to be done with the child? Has she talked +to you, Alec? She says she can't be confirmed +because she is going to be a Presbyterian. And +then she cried bitterly. They stand up to pray +and sit down to sing, she told me desperately. +That if it was right—which it wasn't, of course,—she'd +wish people didn't have to be Episcopalians +or Bohemians or Presbyterians, but +just Christians. I told her I thought we would +drop the question of confirmation until next +year."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> +<h2>X</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>SO TRUTH BE IN THE FIELD</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">A year</span> later Sarah, the sister of Albert Eddie +Dawkins, saw him through the six weeks +of the confirmation class, up the aisle of St. +Simeon's and confirmed. The next day she +started to England to visit her mother's people +who had prospered.</p> + +<p>"In a way I can feel he is safe now," she said +to Aunt Louise at Sunday school on the day +of his confirmation. "I wasn't easy about him +before, if he is my brother. If he'll only go +ahead now, he'll do."</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia saw Emmy Lou through the +same class of preparation, up the aisle and +confirmed, and then came home and had a +hearty cry. She who always claimed she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +too busy seeing to meals, the house, and those +within it, to give way!</p> + +<p>"I am sure she is where her mother would +have her," she said to Aunt Louise through +her tears. "And her father would not hear to +the alternative when I offered to discuss it. If +only I can feel that in time she will be <i>what</i> +her mother would have her!"</p> + +<p>This seemed to put the odium on Emmy Lou +in the event of failure. She would be thirteen +years old in another month, her cheek-line was +changing from round to oval, she was preparing +for the high school, and her waist, according +to Miss Anna Williams, the seamstress +who made her confirmation dress, is coming +round to be a waist.</p> + +<p>She looked in distress at Aunt Cordelia who +was drying her eyes in vain since the tears were +continuing, and who seemed far from reassured +that she will be what her mother would +have her. There was nothing for it in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +face of the implication but for Emmy Lou to +throw herself into Aunt Cordelia's lap and cry +too. After which the atmosphere cleared, the +normal was resumed, and everybody felt better.</p> + +<p>Sarah, who spoke with more flattering certainty +about the future of Albert Eddie, wore +her hair coiled on her head now, and her skirts +were long. Capable, dependable, and to the +point as ever, she was a young lady.</p> + +<p>When Aunt Cordelia, accompanied by +Emmy Lou, went to do her marketing the Saturday +before Sarah left for England, her +mother called her down to say good-bye.</p> + +<p>"It's a long journey for you at eighteen, +Sarah," said Aunt Cordelia, "and we will be +glad when we hear you have reached its end +safely."</p> + +<p>"I can trust Sarah; I always could," said +her mother. "If anything goes wrong she'll +just have to remember what her grandmother, +my mother, used to say to her when she was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +wee 'un, and prone to fret when matters snarled +and she found she couldn't right 'em, 'When +you get to wit's end you'll always find God +lives there.'"</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia shook hands with Sarah, but +Emily Louise, as many persons now called +her, went up on her toes and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"You must ask the prayers of the church for +the preservation of all who travel by land and +by water," Aunt Cordelia said to Mrs. Dawkins, +"and we ourselves must remember her in +our prayers. We will miss you, Sarah, in the +singing of the hymns on special days and Wednesday +evenings when we haven't a choir. I'm +glad you went to the organist and had those +lessons. A fresh young voice, sweet and strong +and sure, like yours, can give great comfort +and pleasure."</p> + +<p>Hattie was a member of her church now, and +Sadie of hers. Rosalie, Alice, and Amanthus +were making ready for confirmation at St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +Philip's which was high church. All had gone +their ways, each to the portal of her own persuasion, +as it were, and knocked and said, "I +am informed that by this gate is the way +thither."</p> + +<p>And in answer the gate which is the way +thither, according to the understanding of +each, had opened and taken the suppliant in +and closed behind her.</p> + +<p>Which, then, is the gate? And which the +way? Each and all so sure?</p> + +<p>Time was, before the eyes of Emmy Lou +were opened, when she supposed there was but +one way. She even had pictured it, sweet and +winding and always upward.</p> + +<p>This was at a time when Sarah gathering +Maud and Albert Eddie and Emmy Lou +around her in the sitting-room above the grocery, +about the hob, which is to say the grate, +sang them hymns. It was from one of these +hymns that Emmy Lou had pictured the way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +By cool Siloam's shady rill<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How fair the lily grows,</span><br /> +How sweet the breath beneath the hill<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Sharon's dewy rose.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>According to Sarah's hymns there were two +classes of travelers on this sweet and goodly +way.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +Children of the Heavenly King,<br /> +As ye journey sweetly sing!<br /> +</div> + +<p>These Emmy Lou conceived of first. Later +she saw others of whom Sarah sang, less buoyant, +less tripping, but with upturned faces no +less expectant.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +And laden souls by thousands meekly stealing<br /> +Kind Shepherd turn their weary steps to Thee.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Emmy Lou listening to Sarah's hymns even +saw these welcomed.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +Angels of Jesus,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>Angels of light,<br /> +Singing to welcome<br /> +The pilgrims of the night.<br /> +</div> + +<p>But that was time ago. There is no one and +common road whose dust as it nears Heaven is +gold and its pavement stars. Each knocks at +the portal of his own persuasion and says, "I +am informed that by this gate is the way +thither."</p> + +<p>But Albert Eddie, having entered his portal, +was in doubt. "What is it she wants me to do +now I'm in?" he said to Emmy Lou, by "she" +meaning Sarah, and by "in," the church of his +adoption. His question began in a husky mutter +of desperation and ended in a high treble +of exasperation. Or was it merely that his +voice was uncertain?</p> + +<p>For to each age its phenomena, as inevitable +as inexplicable. Albert Eddie's voice these +days was undependable. Emmy Lou felt an +uncharacteristic proneness to tears. Rosalie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +said it would be wisdom teeth next for everybody +all round.</p> + +<p>But if Albert Eddie seemed baffled and hazy +as to what his duties were following confirmation, +Aunt Louise left no doubt with Emmy +Lou. The confirmation had been in May, and +now a week later lawns were green and lilacs +and snowballs in bloom.</p> + +<p>"Now that you are a member of the church +you can't begin too soon to take your place +and do your part," Aunt Louise told her. +"The lawn fête is Thursday night on the Goodwins' +lawn. I am going to give you ten tickets +to sell, and send ten by you to Albert Eddie +since Sarah is not here to give them to him."</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou took the tickets prepared to do +the best she could. She had had experience +with them before. It is only your friends who +take them of you, as a necessity and a matter +of course, a recognized and expected tax on +friendship, as it were.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p> + +<p>Associates who are not intimates decline. +One named Lettie Grierson, in declining Emmy +Lou's tickets now, voiced it all.</p> + +<p>"Why should I buy tickets from you? You +never bought any from me."</p> + +<p>Hattie took one and said she'd go home and +get the money and bring it round.</p> + +<p>When she arrived that afternoon she +brought a message from home with the money. +"Mamma says to tell you our church is going +to have a lecture on the Holy Land on the +twenty-fifth."</p> + +<p>Sadie was present, having come to pay for +her ticket. "Our Sunday school is going to +have a boat excursion up the river in June. +The tickets will be twenty-five cents," she told +Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>Rosalie arrived a bit later with the money +for her ticket. "Alice and Amanthus can't +go. They went to Lettie Grierson's church +concert last week and I didn't. I can go if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +I may come and go with you from your house."</p> + +<p>These three tickets thus disposed of, Emmy +Lou's own, and the three taken by Uncle +Charlie for the rest of the household made a +fairly creditable showing.</p> + +<p>Albert Eddie had less luck. Maud, his sister, +so he explained, had been ahead of him, +and wherever he might have gone, she had +been.</p> + +<p>"Joe Kiffin, our driver, took one, though he +won't go, and the other one I've sold is for +myself."</p> + +<p>He seemed worried. "I tried," he said. "I +promised Sarah I'd try every time it was put +up to me."</p> + +<p>It was arranged that not only Rosalie but +Hattie and Sadie should come and go with +Emmy Lou. When they arrived, on the day, +about five o'clock, each had her ticket and her +money.</p> + +<p>A lawn fête for the church is no unmercenary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +matter. Your ticket only admits you to +the lantern-hung grounds, which is enough for +you to expect, and once within you have to buy +your supper. That it is paid for and eaten +largely by those whose homes have donated it +has nothing to do with the matter, Aunt Cordelia +having been notified that her contribution +would be beaten biscuit, a freezer of ice-cream +and chickens.</p> + +<p>In this case there must be carfare also, the +Goodwins and their lawn being half an hour's +ride by street car from the center of things.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia came to the door with Emmy +Lou to meet the three. "Go ahead," she said. +"Louise is already there and will look after +you. Eat your suppers when you prefer. +Charlie and I will come later and bring you +home."</p> + +<p>The four found Albert Eddie at the corner +waiting for the car. His hair was very, very +smooth, and his Sunday suit was spick and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +span as if Sarah were home to see to it instead +of well on her way to England, her rules and +regulations evidently being of a nature to stay +by one.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was an ordeal for Albert Eddie +to have four girls descend on him, for he turned +red and cleared his throat as though forced into +declaring himself in maintaining his ground. +Emmy Lou was his friend, and ignoring the +others he addressed her.</p> + +<p>"Maud went ahead with some friends of her +own," he explained. "She said they wouldn't +want me."</p> + +<p>The obvious thing was to ask him to go with +them. Had Emily Louise been speaking for +herself alone, she would have done so, Albert +Eddie being her friend and going to her Sunday +school. On the other hand, his father kept +a grocery at the corner just passed, and lived +over it with his family. He wasn't the friend +of her three companions and he didn't go to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +their Sunday school. Emily Louise understood +many things which Emmy Lou wot not of. +Would they want him?</p> + +<p>Verging' on thirteen, one has heard this nature +of thing and its distinctions discussed at +home.</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise objected to certain associates +of Emily Louise not long ago. "It's why I +am and always have been opposed to the public +school for her. She picks up with every class +and condition."</p> + +<p>"And why I have opposed your opposition," +returned Uncle Charlie, "since it is her best +chance in life to know every class and condition."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I don't know why she should," +Aunt Louise had said.</p> + +<p>"An argument in itself in that you <i>don't</i> +know," from Uncle Charlie.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for Emily Louise in the present +case of Albert Eddie, twelve verging on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +thirteen was yet democratic. "We'll all go +together," said Hattie as a matter of course, +and the others agreed.</p> + +<p>Hattie, as ever, was marshal and spokesman. +They boarded the car and sat down. "Fifty +cents all around to begin with," she stated +after fares were paid and the common wealth +displayed. "Five cents put in for carfare. +Forty-five cents left all around. Five cents +to come home on, five cents to spend, and +thirty-five cents for supper just makes it."</p> + +<p>Church creeds and nomenclatures may vary +but the laws of church fêtes and fairs are the +same. As the five left the car and approached +the Goodwins' home, Whitney and Logan +were patrolling the sidewalk outside the gate +and the lantern-hung yard from whence arose +the hustle and chatter of the lawn fête.</p> + +<p>Logan wore a baker's cap and carried a tray +hung from his neck and piled with his wares, +which a placard set <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'thereamong'">there among</ins> proclaimed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +be "Homemade Caramel Taffy, Five a Bag." +Whitney was assisting Logan to dispose of his +wares.</p> + +<p>The two stopped the five. "We haven't a +show against the girls on the inside to sell anything," +they said. "Buy from us."</p> + +<p>"Five cents for a bag all around and forty +cents left, five cents to get home and thirty-five +cents for supper," from Hattie the calculator, +who liked to keep things clear.</p> + +<p>Five bags were being exchanged for five +cents all around when an elderly gentleman +came along. Negotiations with the five being +held up while he was pressed to buy candy, he +brusquely replied that he had no change.</p> + +<p>Neither had Logan or Whitney, business +having been brisker than they admitted. But +they did not let that deter them from cornering +the gentleman into a showdown. Nor did +a two-dollar bill, when produced, bother them.</p> + +<p>Whitney had heard the financial status of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +the five just outlined by Hattie, and did some +creditable calculating himself. Like Hattie +he was good at figures.</p> + +<p>"You have five forties between you," he +said. "You take the bill and let us have the +change. You'll get it fixed all right when you +get your suppers."</p> + +<p>The party of five was loath but saw no way +out of it. Held up, as it were, they reluctantly +gave over their forty cents around and pinned +their gazes anxiously on the two-dollar bill in +the hand of the elderly gentleman.</p> + +<p>He seemed no better pleased than they, +showing indeed a degree of temper unbecoming +under the circumstances and using language +somewhat heated for a church fair.</p> + +<p>"What in heaven's name do I want with +caramel taffy without a tooth in my head that's +my own?"</p> + +<p>He thrust the bill at Albert Eddie who took +it hastily, and the five moved on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Who was it?" Sadie asked Emmy Lou and +Albert Eddie, since this was their lawn fête. +"He's coming in the gate behind us. Do you +know?"</p> + +<p>Unfortunately they did. It seemed to detract +from that cordiality of welcome they +would prefer to associate with their lawn +fête.</p> + +<p>"It's Mr. Goodwin," Emily Louise told +them. "It's his house and yard. He must just +be getting home."</p> + +<p>One's friends are loyal. Hattie covered the +silence. "His wife must have said they could +have it here before she asked him. I've known +it to happen so before."</p> + +<p>"We'll go get our suppers," said Albert +Eddie anxiously. "That way we'll each get +our carfare back and it'll be off our minds."</p> + +<p>They found Emmy Lou's Aunt Louise under +a grape-arbor, dishing ice-cream from a +freezer into saucers on the ground around<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +it. A great many things are in order at a +church fête that would not be tolerated at +home.</p> + +<p>"Go get your suppers," she said to the +group. "I'm busy and will be; don't depend +on me for anything."</p> + +<p>The party of five took their places about a +table a few moments after. Two of them +were familiar figures in the Big Room at St. +Simeon's Sunday school. The three young +ladies who rushed up, tray in hand, to wait on +them, were far, far older—eminent representatives +of that superior caste of St. Simeon's +Sunday school, the Bible Class.</p> + +<p>It was a friendly rivalry that was on among +the three, each waitress of the evening endeavoring +in her earnings to outstrip and eclipse +all other waitresses and so carry off the glory +of the occasion. In the present instance the +swiss apron and cap with the yellow ribbons +won out, and the other two waitresses withdrew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +with laughter and recrimination of a +vigorous nature, leaving the party of five +overwhelmed by the notice from the surrounding +tables and the publicity thus brought upon +them.</p> + +<p>The wearer of the swiss apron with the yellow +ribbons was an arch and easy person, overwhelming +her five charges further with offhand +and jocose remarks indicative of condescension +as she brought five suppers, substantial, lemonade, +ice cream and cake, put them down, and, +as it were, got through with it.</p> + +<p>Even to the payment. And as Albert Eddie +produced a two-dollar bill and she took it, +she was easily, superlatively, meaningly arch +as she said,</p> + +<p>"We don't give change at church fairs to +gentlemen."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Uncle Charlie, with Aunt Cordelia, taking +the party home, paid everyone's carfare but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +Albert Eddie's. When the time came for leaving +he could not be found.</p> + +<p>"We lost him right after supper," Hattie +explained.</p> + +<p>"As soon as he heard us say you were coming +to get us," from Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"He didn't eat any supper, just pretended +to," from Sadie. "He was trying not to cry."</p> + +<p>"Sadie!" from Rosalie.</p> + +<p>"We never, never should tell it if he was," +from Hattie.</p> + +<p>"Logan and Whitney said he left early," +said Rosalie, "that he told them he would have +to walk home."</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie deposited the members of +the party at their several homes and then, being +the editor of a newspaper, went back downtown.</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou, oftener than she could enumerate, +had waked in the past to hear him on his +return in the late, or, to be exact, the early<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +hours, stop at Aunt Cordelia's door with news +that the world would hear the next morning.</p> + +<p>She waked at his return tonight. He did +more than tap at Aunt Cordelia's door, he went +in. Hearing Aunt Cordelia cry out at his +words, Emmy Lou went hurriedly pattering +in from her adjoining room. As she entered, +the door on the opposite side of the room +opened and Aunt Louise came in, slipping on +her bedroom wrapper.</p> + +<p>The light was on and Aunt Cordelia was +sitting up in bed with tears running unrestrainedly +down her face.</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie, about to explain to Aunt +Louise, looked at Emmy Lou and hesitated.</p> + +<p>"No, go on," Aunt Cordelia told him. "She +is a big girl and must hear these things from +now on with the rest of us."</p> + +<p>Uncle Charlie, reflective for a moment, +seemed to conclude she was right and went on.</p> + +<p>"The ship on which Sarah Dawkins crossed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +foundered on the rocks off the Irish coast in +a heavy sea this morning and went to pieces +against the cliffs in the sight of shore. The +dispatches report only three persons saved, +and tell of a cook who went about with pots of +coffee, and of a girl named Sarah Dawkins +who gathered some children about her and +whose voice could be clearly heard by those on +shore in the lulls of the storm singing hymns to +them to the end."</p> + +<p>Something happened to Uncle Charlie's +voice. After finding it he went on. "I hurried +right home. It's past twelve, Cordelia, but +don't you think you had better dress and let +me take you up to Mrs. Dawkins at once?"</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou crept into Aunt Cordelia's bed +as Uncle Charlie went out and Aunt Cordelia +got up and began to dress hastily.</p> + +<p>Strange tremors were seizing Emmy Lou, +but she must not weep, must not detain or distract +Aunt Cordelia. She was a big girl and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +must hear and bear these things now with the +rest.</p> + +<p>"The child, the poor, poor child, alone on +that great ship without kith or kin!" said Aunt +Cordelia as she fastened her collar, still weeping. +Then she came and kissed Emmy Lou.</p> + +<p>"I may be gone some time. Stay where you +are and I'll leave the light."</p> + +<p>Did the tears come before or after Aunt +Louise kissed and soothed her and then went +back to bed? Emmy Lou rather thought they +came after she was gone. And after the tumult +of tears had spent themselves?</p> + +<p>A picture arose in her mind, unbidden and +unexpected, of Albert Eddie, hurt, mortified, +and outraged, walking home block after block +from the lawn fête because church fairs do not +give any change.</p> + +<p>"What is it she wants me to do now I'm in?" +he had asked following his confirmation.</p> + +<p>And what was it that Sarah did want of Albert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +Eddie? Sarah who saw him confirmed +and left next day? Sarah assembling the children +on the ship and singing hymns to them to +the end?</p> + +<p>And suddenly Emmy Lou, twelve years old +verging on thirteen, saw for the first time!</p> + +<p>Sarah dependably mixing the Saturday baking +in the crock, Sarah looking after her +younger sister and brother as best she knew +how, Sarah singing hymns to them sitting +about the hob, which is the grate, was being +made into that Sarah who could gather the +children about her on the sinking ship and sing +to them to the end. Not Sarah mixing the +baking in the crock, but Sarah <i>dependably</i> +mixing the baking in the crock. Herein came +the light.</p> + +<p>And all the while Emmy Lou had thought +the digit on the slate in its day was the thing, +and later the copybook, and only yesterday, +the conjugation of the verb. Whereas Sarah<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +now had shown her what nor home, nor school, +nor Sunday school, nor confirmation class had +made her see, that the faithfulness with which +the digit is put on the slate, the script in the +copybook, and the conjugation of the verb on +the tablets of the mind, is the education and +the thing!</p> + +<p>This, then, is the gate? This the way that +leads thither? The sweet and common road +along which the children of the Heavenly King +are journeying? Faithful little Sister from +the alley of so long ago, gentle and loving Izzy +of that same far-gone day, Hattie helping a +schoolmate comrade over the hard places? This +is the road whereon those older, laden souls are +stealing? The road, if once gained by the pilgrim, +whether he be Episcopalian, Bohemian, +Presbyterian, or Afro-American, on which he +will go straight onward. The path where, like +bells at evening pealing, the voice of Jesus +sounds o'er land and sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sea? Prayers of the church were asked that +Sarah be preserved from the perils of land and +water! And Sarah was lost!</p> + +<p>Lost? Was Sarah lost?</p> + +<p>"We'll miss your voice, so sweet and strong +and true, in the hymns," Aunt Cordelia had +told Sarah.</p> + +<p>Would her voice be missed? Her voice singing +to the children to the end? It came with +a flash of sudden comprehension to Emmy Lou, +lying there in Aunt Cordelia's big bed waiting +for her return, that Sarah's voice would not be +missed but heard forever, singing hymns to +the end to those little children of the King.</p> + +<p>"What does she want me to do now I'm in?" +asked Albert Eddie. Sarah had answered him. +Make himself ready for whatsoever part should +be his.</p> + +<p>"The child, the poor, poor child, alone on +that great ship without kith or kin!" Aunt Cordelia +had said, weeping.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p> + +<p>Was she thus alone? "When you get to wit's +end you will always find God lives there," her +grandmother had told her when she was a wee +'un. Had not Sarah given proof that when +she got to wit's end God did live there?</p> + +<p>Emmy Lou was weeping no longer. She +lay still. A wonder and an awe suffused her. +To the far horizon the landscape of life was +irradiated. She was tranquil. The Silence +had spoken at last.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Aunt Louise remarked to Aunt Cordelia a +few days later, "Did I tell you that we made +a hundred and fifty dollars at the lawn fête?"</p> + +<p>"By fair means or foul?" asked Uncle Charlie, +overhearing. "I must say, Louise, in the +name of the church I stand for, I don't like +your methods."</p> + +<p>Perhaps Uncle Charlie and Emily Louise +were seeing the same thing, Albert Eddie, hurt, +mortified, and outraged, walking home in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +night because St. Simeon's lawn fête didn't +give change to gentlemen.</p> + +<p>Aunt Cordelia spoke after Emmy Lou went +up to bed. "She brought home her report of +the final examinations from school today. She +got through!"</p> + +<p>"By the skin of her teeth as usual?" from +Uncle Charlie.</p> + +<p>"Just that. She works so hard to so little +end, Charlie. I don't understand it. But at +least she is always faithful."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so:<br /> +Some said, It might do good; others said, No.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;">—<i>The Pilgrim's Progress.</i></span><br /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class='bbox'><div class='center'> +"<i>The Books You Like to Read</i><br /> +<i>at the Price You Like to Pay</i>"<br /> +</div></div><div class='bbox'><br /> +<br /> +<div class='adtitle'><i><span style="margin-left: 5em;">There Are Two Sides</span></i><br /> +<i><span style="margin-left: 5em;">to Everything—</span></i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>—including the wrapper which covers +every Grosset & Dunlap book. When +you feel in the mood for a good romance, +refer to the carefully selected list +of modern fiction comprising most of +the successes by prominent writers of +the day which is printed on the back of +every Grosset & Dunlap book wrapper.</div> + +<p>You will find more than five hundred +titles to choose from—books for every +mood and every taste and every pocketbook.</p> + +<p><i>Don't forget the other side, but in case +the wrapper is lost, write to the publishers +for a complete catalog.</i></p> +</div><div class='bbox'> +<div class='center'> +<i>There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book<br /> +for every mood and for every taste</i><br /> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p> +<p>Repeated chapter titles were removed. Text uses both "Heaven" and "heaven," "Sally" and +"Sallie." Text uses the archaic spelling of "strait" for the more modern "straight."</p> +<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Emmy Lou's Road to Grace, by George Madden Martin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE *** + +***** This file should be named 38553-h.htm or 38553-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/5/5/38553/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Kentuckiana Digital Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Emmy Lou's Road to Grace + Being a Little Pilgrim's Progress + +Author: George Madden Martin + +Illustrator: G. A. Harker + +Release Date: January 11, 2012 [EBook #38553] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Kentuckiana Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + + + +EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE + +[Illustration: "'Its name,' said Miss Eustasia severely, 'is the +Highland Fling.'" + +[PAGE 152]] + + + + +EMMY LOU'S + +ROAD TO GRACE + +_BEING A LITTLE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS_ + +BY + +GEORGE MADDEN MARTIN + +AUTHOR OF EMMY LOU, ETC. + + _What danger is the pilgrim in! + How many are his foes! + How many ways there are to sin + No living mortal knows._ + --THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS + +[Illustration] + + GROSSET & DUNLAP + PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + Made in the United States of America + + + + + COPYRIGHT 1916, BY + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + Printed in the United States of America + + + + + TO + THAT HOSTAGE GIVEN TO THE FUTURE + THE AMERICAN CHILD + + + + +PREFACE + + +SOME years ago a collection of short stories under the title, "Emmy Lou: +Her Book And Heart," was offered to the American public as a plea for +and a defense of the child as affected by the then prevailing stupidity +of the public schools. + +The present series of stories is written to show that the same +conditions which in the school make for confusion in the child's mind, +exist in the home, in the Sunday school and in all its earlier points of +contact with life; the child who presents itself at six or even at five, +to the school and teacher, being already well on the way in the school +of life, and its habits of mind established. + +It is the contention of these new stories that the child comes +single-minded to the experience of life. That it brings to this +experience a fundamental, if limited, conception of ethics, justice, +consistency and obligation. That it is the possessor of an innate +conscience that teaches it to differentiate between right and wrong, +and that the failure to find an agreement between ethics and experience +confronts the child long before its entrance at school. + +Not only do its conceptions fail to square with life as it finds it, but +the practices and habits of the persons it looks up to fail to square +with what these elders claim for life. Further, the child meets with an +innate stupidity on the part of its elders that school cannot surpass, a +stupidity which assumes knowledge on the child's part that it cannot +possibly have. + +These conditions make for confusion in the child's mind, and a +consequent impairment of its reasoning faculties, before it presents +itself to the school. + +Given the very young child struggling to evolve its working rule out of +nebulae, how do its elders aid it? The isolated fact without background +or connection, the generalization with no regard to its particular +application, the specific rule that will not fit the general case--these +too often are its portion, resulting in lack of perspective, no sense of +proportion, and no grasp of values. The child's conceptions of the +cardinal virtues, the moral law, the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood +of Christ, the human relation, are true, garbled, or false, in +accordance with the interpreting of its elders. + +The child thus has been in the training of the home, the neighborhood, +and the Sunday school, for approximately four, three, and two years +respectively, before it comes to the school of letters. + +One of the intelligences thrashing out the problems of the school today, +says: + +"Education begins at the age of two or sooner, whether the parent wills +it or not. The home influence from two to six, for good or ill in +determining the mental no less than the moral status, is the most +permanent thing in the child's life. Even at the age of five, the +difficulty for the teacher in making a beginning, lies in the fact that +the beginning already has been made." + +In the original stories portraying the workings of the schoolroom on the +mind of the child, the physically normal, mentally sound but slow type +was used, in the child called Emmy Lou, and in now seeking to show that +the conditions making for more or less permanent confusion in the +child's mind antedate the schoolroom, it has seemed wise to make use of +the same child in the same environment. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. OUT OF GOD'S BLESSING INTO THE WARM SUN 3 + II. SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE 35 + III. A FEW STRONG INSTINCTS AND A FEW PLAIN RULES 65 + IV. THE TRIBUNAL OF CONSCIENCE 95 + V. LIONS IN THE PATH 131 + VI. THE IMPERFECT OFFICES OF PRAYER 161 + VII. PINK TICKETS FOR TEXTS 195 + VIII. STERN DAUGHTER OF THE VOICE OF GOD 225 + IX. SO BUILD WE UP THE BEING THAT WE ARE 255 + X. SO TRUTH BE IN THE FIELD 279 + + + + +I + +OUT OF GOD'S BLESSING INTO THE WARM SUN + + +FOR a day or two after Emmy Lou, four years old, came to live with her +uncle and her aunties, or in fact until she discovered Izzy who lived +next door and Sister who lived in the alley, Aunt Cordelia's hands were +full. But it was Emmy Lou's heart that was full. + +Along with other things which had made up life, such as Papa, and her +own little white bed, and her own little red chair, and her own window +with its sill looking out upon her own yard, and Mary the cook in Mary's +own kitchen, and Georgie the little neighbor boy next door--along with +these things, she wanted Mamma. + +Not only because she was Mamma, all-wise, all-final, all-decreeing, but +because, being Mamma and her edicts therefore supreme, she had bade her +little daughter never to forget to say her prayers. + +Not that Emmy Lou _had_ forgotten to say them. Not she! It was that when +she went to say them she had forgotten what she was to say. A terrifying +and unlooked-for contingency. + +Two days before, Papa had put his Emmy Lou into the arms of Aunt +Cordelia at the railroad station of the city where she and Aunt Katie +and Aunt Louise and Uncle Charlie lived. They had come to the train to +get her. As he did so, Mamma, for whose sake the trip south was being +made in search of health, though Emmy Lou did not know this, smiled and +tried to look brave. + +Emmy Lou's new little scarlet coat with its triple capes was martial, +and also her new little scarlet Napoleon hat, three-cornered with a +cockade, and Papa hastened to assume that the little person within this +exterior was martial also. + +"Emmy Lou is a plucky soul and will not willingly try you, Cordelia," he +told his sister-in-law. + +"Emmy Lou is a faithful soul and has _promised_ not to try you," said +Mamma. + +"Kiss Mamma and kiss me," said Papa. + +"And say your prayers every night at Aunt Cordelia's knee," said Mamma. + +"Pshaw," said Uncle Charlie, the brother of Mamma and the aunties, and +wheeling about and whipping out his handkerchief he blew his nose +violently. + +"Brother!" said Aunt Katie reproachfully. Aunt Katie was younger than +Mamma and almost as pretty. + +"Brother Charlie!" said Aunt Louise who was the youngest of them all, +even more reproachfully. + +"Shall I send her to Sunday school at our church, or at your church?" +said Aunt Cordelia, plump and comfortable, and next to Uncle Charlie in +the family succession. For Papa's church was different, though Emmy Lou +did not know this either--and when Mamma had elected to go with him +there had been feeling. + +"So she finds God's blessing, Sister Cordelia, what does it matter?" +said Mamma a little piteously. "And she'll say her prayer every night +and every morning to you?" + +On reaching home, Aunt Cordelia spoke decidedly, "Precious baby! We'll +give her her supper and put her right into her little bed. She's worn +out with the strangeness of it all." + +Aunt Cordelia was right. Emmy Lou was worn out and more, she was +bewildered and terrified with the strangeness of it all. But though her +flaxen head, shorn now of its brave three-cornered hat, fell forward +well-nigh into her supper before more than a beginning was made, and +though when carried upstairs by Uncle Charlie she yielded passively to +Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie undressing her, too oblivious, as they +deemed her, to be cognizant of where she was, they reckoned without +knowing their Emmy Lou. + +Her head came through the opening of the little gown slipped on her. + +"Shall I say it now?" she asked. + +"Her prayer. She hasn't forgotten, precious baby," said Aunt Cordelia +and sat down. Aunt Katie who had been picking up little garments, melted +into the shadows beyond the play and the flicker of the fire in the +grate, and Emmy Lou, steadied by the hand of Aunt Cordelia, went down +upon her knees. + +For there are rules. Just as inevitably as there are rites. And since +life is hedged about with rites, as varying in their nature as in their +purpose, and each according to its purpose at once inviolate and +invincible, it is for an Emmy Lou to concern herself with remembering +their rules. + +As when she goes out on the sidewalk to play "I-spy" with Georgie, the +masterful little boy from next door, and his friends. Whereupon and +unvaryingly follows the rite. The rule being that all stand in a row, +and while the moving finger points along the line, words cabalistic and +potent in their spell cryptically and irrevocably search out the quaking +heart of the one who is "It." + +So in the kitchen. The rule being that Mary, who is young and pretty and +learning to cook under Mamma's tutelage, shall chant earnestly over the +crock as she mixes, words which again are talismanic and potent in their +spell, as "one of butter, two of sugar, three of flour, four eggs," or +Mary's cake infallibly will fall in the oven, stable affair as the oven +grating seems to be. + +And again at meals, rite of a higher class, solemn and mysterious. When +Emmy Lou must bow her head and shut her eyes--what would happen if she +basely peeked she hasn't an idea--after which, Papa's "blessing" as it +is called, having been enunciated according to rule, she may now reach +out with intrepidity and touch tumbler or spoon or biscuit. + +So with prayer, highest rite of all, most solemn and most mysterious. +Prayer being that potency of the impelling word again by which Something +known as God is to be propitiated, and one protected from the fearful if +dimly sensed terrors of the dark when one comes awake in the night. + +Emmy Lou's Mamma, hitherto the never-failing refuge from all that +threatened, haven of encircling sheltering arms and brooding tender +eyes, provided this protection for her Emmy Lou before she went away +and left her. And more. She gave Emmy Lou to understand that somewhere, +if one grasped it aright, was a person tenderly in league with Mamma in +loving Emmy Lou, and in desiring to comfort her and protect her. A +person named Jesus. He was to be reached through prayer too, and, like +God in this also, through Sunday school, this being a place around the +corner where one went with Georgie, the little boy from next door. + +These things being made clear, no wonder that Mamma bade her Emmy Lou +not to fail to go to Sunday school, and never to forget to say her +prayers! + +And no wonder that Emmy Lou quite earnestly knew the rules for her +prayers. That it hurt her knees to get down upon them had nothing to do +with the case. The point with which one has to do is that she does get +down on them. And being there, as now, steadied to that position by the +hand of Aunt Cordelia, she shuts her eyes, as taught by Mamma, though +with no idea as to why, and folds her hands, as taught by Mamma, with no +understanding as to why, and lowers her head, as taught by Mamma, on +Aunt Cordelia's knee. And the rules being now all complied with, she +prays. + +But Emmy Lou did not pray. + +"Yes?" from Aunt Cordelia. + +But still Emmy Lou failed to pray. Instead her head lifted, and her +eyes, opening, showed themselves to be dilated by apprehension. "Mamma +starts it when it won't come," she faltered. + +Aunt Cordelia endeavored to start it. "Now I lay me ..." she said with +easy conviction. + +Emmy Lou, baby person, never had heard of it. Terror crept into the eyes +lifted to Aunt Cordelia, as well as apprehension. + +"Our Father . . ." said Aunt Katie, coming forward from the shadows. Emmy +Lou's attention seemed caught for the moment and held. + +". . . which art in Heaven," said Aunt Katie. + +Emmy Lou shook her head. She never had heard of that either, though for +a moment it appeared as if she thought she had. A tear rolled down. + +"Go to bed and it will come to you tomorrow," from Aunt Cordelia. + +"Say it in the morning instead," from Aunt Katie. + +But Emmy Lou shook her head, and clung to Aunt Cordelia's knees when +they would lift her up. + +Aunt Cordelia was worn out, herself. One does not say good-bye to a +loved sister, and assume the care of a chubby, clinging baby such as +this one, without tax. "Whatever is to be done about it?" she said to +Aunt Katie despairingly. Then to Emmy Lou, "Isn't there anything you +know that will do?" + +There are varying rites, differing in their nature as in their purpose, +but each according to its purpose inviolate and invincible. + +"I know Georgia's count out?" said Emmy Lou. "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo? +Will that do?" + +But Aunt Cordelia, however sorely tempted, could not bring herself, +honest soul, to agree that it would. Nor yet Aunt Katie. + +Aunt Louise came tipping in and joined them. + +"I know Mary's cake count," said Emmy Lou. "'One of butter, two of +sugar, three of flour, four eggs.' Will that do?" + +Not even Aunt Louise could agree that it would. + +Uncle Charlie came tipping in. + +"I know Papa's blessing," said Emmy Lou. "'We thank Thee, Lord, for +this provision of Thy bounty. . . ?'" + +"The very thing," said Uncle Charlie heartily. "Set her up on her knees +again, Cordelia, and let her say it." + +And Papa's blessing had served now, night and morning, since, though it +was evident to those about her that Emmy Lou was both dubious and +uneasy. + +The processes of the mind of an Emmy Lou, however, if slow, are sound, +if we know their premises. There was yet another way by which God could +be propitiated, and Jesus, who desired to love her and protect her, +reached. On the morning of her third day with her aunties, she inquired +about this. + +"When is Sunday school?" + +They told her. "Today is Saturday. Sunday school is tomorrow." + +She took this in. "Will I go to Sunday school?" + +"Certainly you will go." + +She took this in also. So far it was reassuring, and she moved to the +next point, though nobody connected the two inquiries. "There's a little +boy next door?" + +"Yes," from Aunt Katie, "a little boy with dark and lovely eyes." + +"A sweet and gentle little boy," from Aunt Cordelia. + +"A little boy named Izzy," from Aunt Louise. + +Emmy Lou, looking from auntie to auntie as each spoke, sighed deeply. +The rules in life, as she knew it, were holding good. As, for example, +was not Aunt Cordelia here for Mamma? And Uncle Charlie for Papa? And +the substitute little white bed for her little bed? And the substitute +little armchair wherein she was sitting at the moment, for her chair? + +To be sure the details varied. Hitherto the cook in the kitchen had been +Mary, pink-cheeked and pretty. Whereas now the cook in the kitchen not +only is round and rolling and colored and named Aunt M'randy, but there +is a house-boy in the kitchen, too, whose name is Bob. The stabilizing +fact remains, however, that there is a cook, and there is a kitchen. + +And now there is a little boy next door. _For you to go to Sunday school +with the little boy next door_, holding tight to his hand, while his +Mamma at his door, and your Mamma at your door, watch you down the +street. That he lords it over you, edicting each thing you shall or +shall not do along the way, is according to immutable ruling also, as +Georgie makes clear, on the incontrovertible grounds that you are the +_littler_. + +He has been to Sunday school too, before you ever heard of it, as he +lets you know, and glories in his easy knowledge of the same. And +whereas you, on your very first Sunday, get there to learn that Cain +killed Mabel, and are visibly terrified at the fate of Mabel, according +to Georgie it is a mild event and nothing to what Sunday school has to +offer at its best. + +He knows the comportment of the place, too, and at the proper moment +drags Emmy Lou to her knees with her face crushed to the wooden bench +beside his own. And later he upbraids her that she fails in the fervor +with which he and everybody else, including the lady who told Emmy Lou +she was glad to see her, pour forth a hum of words. When he finds she +does not know these words his scorn is blighting. Though when she asks +him to teach them to her, it develops that he, the mighty one, only +knows a word here and there to come in loud on himself. + +For a moment, the other night, Emmy Lou had fancied Aunt Katie was +saying these words used at Sunday school, but how could she be sure, +seeing that she did not know them herself? + +And now there was a little boy next door here! And Emmy Lou arose, her +aunties having gone about their Saturday morning affairs, and seeking +her little sacque with its scalloped edge, which she pulled on, and her +little round hat which she carried by its elastic, went forth into the +warm comfort of the Indian Summer morning to find him. + +He was at his gate! The rule again! Georgie was ever to be found even so +at his gate. Emmy Lou was shy, but not when she knew what she had to do, +and why. Opening her gate and going out, paling by paling she went along +past her house and her yard, to the little boy at the gate of his house +and his yard. When he saw her coming he even came to meet her. + +As her aunties had said, he was a dark-eyed and lovely little boy. When +she reached him and put out her hand to his, he took it and led her +back to his gate with him. His name, she remembered, was Izzy. + +"Sunday school is tomorrow?" she said, looking up at Izzy. + +"Sunday school?" said Izzy. + +"Where Cain killed Mabel?" + +Izzy's dark eyes lit. He was a gentle and kindly little boy. Emmy Lou +felt she would love Izzy. "We call it 'Temple.' But it is today. My +Mamma told me to walk ahead and she would catch up with me." + +"Today?" + +Surely. With such visible proofs of it upon Izzy. Do little boys wear +velvet suits with spotless collar and flamboyant tie but for occasions +such as Sunday school? Aunties and even Mammas know less about Sunday +school than the Georgies and Izzys, who are authorities since they are +the ones who go. Emmy Lou put on her little hat even to the elastic. +Then her hand went into Izzy's again. + +"I thought it was tomorrow?" + +Izzy's face was alight as he took in her meaning. She was going with +_him_. His face was alight as he led her along. + +"It's 'round the corner?" she asked. + +"'Round two corners," said Izzy. "How did you know?" + +A golden dome crowned this Sunday school, and wide steps led high to +great doors. They waited at their foot, Izzy and Emmy Lou, a dark-eyed +little boy in a velvet suit, and a blue-eyed little girl in a gingham +dress and scalloped sacque, while others went up and in, old men, young +men, old women, young women, little boys, little girls. Waited until +Izzy's Mamma arrived and found him. + +She was dark-eyed and lovely too. She listened while he explained. Did a +shadow, as of patient sadness, cross her face? + +"The little girl does not understand, Israel, little son," she said. +"Hold her hand carefully, and take her back to her own gate. I will wait +for you here." + +Emmy Lou, bewildered as she was led along, endeavored to understand. + +"It isn't Sunday school?" she asked Izzy. + +His face was no longer alight, only gentle and, like his mother's, +patient. "Not yours. I thought it was. Mine and my mother's and my +father's." + +Little girls left at their own gates, little girls who have come to live +at their aunties' home, go around by the side way to the kitchen door. +Emmy Lou had learned that already. If anyone had missed her there was no +evidence of it. Aunt M'randy, just emerging from this kitchen door, a +coal-bucket heaped with ashes in her hand, as Emmy Lou arrived there, +paused in her rolling gait, and invited her to go. + +Where? Emmy Lou in her little sacque and her round hat hadn't an idea, +but seeing that she was expected to accept, took Aunt M'randy's +unoccupied hand and went. + +And so it was that she found Sister. For Aunt M'randy was going down the +length of the back yard, a nice yard with a tree and a bush and what, +palpably in a milder hour had been flowers in a border, to the +alley-gate to empty the ashes. And beyond this alley gate, outside which +stood the barrel they were seeking, in the alley itself, with the +cottage shanties of the alley world for background, stood Sister! One +knew she was Sister because Aunt M'randy called her so. + +Sister was small and brown and solid. Small enough to be _littler_ than +Emmy Lou. Her face was serious and her eyes in their setting of generous +white followed one wonderingly. + +_Littler_ than Emmy Lou! The rule in life was extending itself. Hitherto +she, Emmy Lou, had been that littler one, and hers the eyes to follow +wonderingly, and the effect of meeting one thus littler than oneself is +to experience strange joys, palpably and patently peculiar to being the +larger. + +Emmy Lou dropped the hand of Aunt M'randy and went out into the alley +and straight to Sister. + +Nor did Sister seem surprised at this, but when Emmy Lou reached her and +paused, sidled closer, and her little brown hand crept into Emmy Lou's +white one and clung there. Whereupon the white one, finding itself the +bigger, closed on the brown one and Emmy Lou led Sister in through the +alley gate, past Aunt M'randy, and up through the yard with its tree and +its bush and its whilom flower border. + +More! There was a depression in the pavement leading up to the house, a +depression all of the depth of about three of Emmy Lou's fingers. +Whereat she stopped, and putting her arms about Sister, solid for all +she was a baby thing, with straining and accession of pink in the face, +lifted her over! And the joy of it was great! Emmy Lou never had met one +_littler_ than herself before! + + * * * * * + +That evening at dusk, Aunt Louise came in, brisk and animated. Her news +was for Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie, though certainly Emmy Lou had a +right to be interested. + +"I met Molly Wright, the teacher of the infant class at Sunday school," +she said, "and I stopped and told her that in the morning you would send +Emmy Lou around to her class. That our house-boy would bring her." + +Aunt Cordelia had her ready the next morning aforetime, red coat with +triple capes, martial hat and all, ready indeed before Bob, the +house-boy, had finished his breakfast. + +The day was warm and sleepily sunny and smiling. + +"You may go outside and wait for Bob at the gate if you like," Aunt +Cordelia told Emmy Lou. + +But Emmy Lou had no idea of waiting at any gate. Indecision with her was +largely a matter of not knowing what she was expected to do. She knew in +this case. By the time Bob was ready and out looking for her, she had +been down through the alley gate and back, bringing by the hand that +person _littler_ than herself, Sister. Had led her through the front +gate and along to the next gate where Izzy was standing. + +Bob afterward explained his part vociferously if lamely. But as Aunt +M'randy said, that was Bob. + +"There they wuz, the three uv 'em, strung erlong by the han's an' +waitin' foh me. Seem lak there warn't no call foh me to say nothin' tell +we got there." + +"And then?" from Aunt Cordelia, while Aunt M'randy sniffed with +skepticism. + +"When we come to the infant class door roun' on the side street like you +tol' me, there wuz a colored boy I know, drivin' a kerridge, an' he +called me. An' I tol' the chil'ren to wait while I spoke to him. When I +turned roun' ag'in I saw 'em goin' in th'ough the doah. An' I come +home." + +Emmy Lou in truth led them in. Give her something that she knew to do, +and she could do it. Holding to the rule, Izzy was due to be there +because he was the larger, and Sister, laconic little Sister, solid and +brown, was due to be there because, in the former likeness of Emmy Lou, +she was the _littler_. + +One's place at Sunday school in company with Georgie, has been the front +bench. The rule holds good, and Emmy Lou led the way to the front bench +now, where she and Izzy lifted Sister to a place, then took their own +places either side of her. If the rest of the infant class already +assembled were absorbed in these movements, Emmy Lou did not notice it, +in that she was absorbed in them herself. + +Miss Mollie Wright came in next, breezy and brisk and a minute late, and +in consequence full of zeal and business. + +Hitherto the rule has never varied. As Emmy Lou knew Sunday school, the +lady teacher now says, "Good morning, children." And these say, "Good +morning," in return. + +But the rule varied now. Miss Mollie Wright coming around to the front +before the assembled class on its several benches, stopped, looked, then +full of sureness and business came to Izzy and Emmy Lou and Sister, and +took Izzy by the hand. + +"I doubt if your mother and father would like it, Izzy," she said. "I +think you had better run home again. And this little girl next to you +doesn't belong here either." Miss Mollie Wright was lifting Sister +down. "I think she had better run along as you go." And in the very +nicest way she started Izzy and Sister toward the door. "What?" turning +back to the third little figure in a martial coat with triple capes and +a martial hat. "Why, are you going, too?" + +Aunt Cordelia explained to Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise and Uncle Charlie +afterward. "M'randy saw them when they reached home and passed her +kitchen window going back through the yard, and came and told me, and +she and I went down to the alley gate after them." + +"What were they doing?" asked Aunt Louise. + +Aunt Cordelia answered as one completely exasperated and outdone. +"Sitting right down on the ground there in the alley, in their Sunday +clothes, watching M'lissy, on her doorstep, comb Letty's hair." + +True! Around M'lissy, the mother of Sister, brown herself and kindly, +with teeth that flashed white with the smile of her there in the sun, +and Letty, the even _littler_ sister of Sister, firm planted on the +lowest step, between M'lissy's knees. + +And bliss unspeakable as Izzy and Sister and Emmy Lou in a circle on the +ground around the doorstep watched. For Letty's head, by means of the +comb in M'lissy's hand, was being criss-crossed by partings into +sections, bi-sections, and quarter-sections, and such hair as was +integral to each wrapped with string in semblance of a plait, plait +after plait succeeding one another over Letty's head. The while M'lissy +sang in a mounting, joyful chant, interrupted by Letty's outcry now and +then beneath the vigor of the ministration. + +"Ow-w, Mammy!" + +The chant would hold itself momentarily for a reply. + +"Shet up," M'lissy would say. + +Which would be too much even for laconic Sister who from her place on +the ground between Izzy and Emmy Lou would defend Letty. "When Mammy +wrops yer h'ar, she wrops hard." + +After which the combing and the wrapping and the chanting would go on +again, M'lissy's voice rising and falling in quaverings and minors: + + "Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, + Come to Jesus just now, + Ju-u-st no-o-w co-o-me to-o Jesus, + Come to Jesus ju-u-st now." + +Mamma's friend! In league with her in loving Emmy Lou and desiring to +comfort her and protect her! Found not where she had looked for Him at +all but here with M'lissy in the alley! + +That night, according to rule, as Emmy Lou's head came through the +opening of the gown slipped over it, she said: + +"Shall I say it now? Papa's blessing?" + +And Aunt Cordelia, according to rule, sitting down and steadying Emmy +Lou to her knees, waited. + +What should have brought it back, Emmy Lou's own little prayer as taught +her by Mamma? She only knew that it came of itself, and that while her +heart heaved and her breath came hard, she stopped in the midst of +Papa's blessing, "We thank Thee, Lord, for this provision of Thy +bounty,----" sobbed, caught herself, opened her eyes and looked mutely +at Aunt Cordelia, closed them and said: + + "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, + Look upon a little child; + Pity my simplicity, + Suffer me to come to Thee." + + + + +II + +SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE + + +PAPA taking Mamma south, wherever that may be, in search of health, +whatever that may be, carried a rough and wrinkled Father Bear satchel. +Mamma, pretty Mamma, taken south in search of health, carried a soft and +smooth Mother Bear satchel. And since not only do journeys demand +satchels but analogies must be made complete, Emmy Lou left on the way +in the keeping of her uncle and her aunties was made happy by a Baby +Bear _papier-mache_ satchel, clamps, straps and all. A satchel into +which a nightgown could be coaxed, her nightgown, since satchels demand +gowns, not to mention a pewter tea set put in on her own initiative, +provided she folded and refolded the gown with zeal before essaying the +attempt. + +After Emmy Lou's establishment in the new household, Aunt Cordelia +proposed that the satchel go to the attic where trunks and satchels off +duty belong. But Emmy Lou would not hear to this. "Mamma's coming by for +me as she goes home, and I want it down here so I can have it ready." + +"And she gets it ready at least once a day," Aunt Cordelia told Uncle +Charlie. "If she doesn't wear her gowns out trying to put them in it, +she will the satchel. However, since she heard that her mother lived in +this house when she was a little girl named Emily, I've had no further +trouble with her, that is, trouble of a kind. How does one go about a +child's religious training, Charlie?" + +But to Emmy Lou, Aunt Cordelia knew all about God and heaven. At her +bidding she learned a hymn, a pretty text, another prayer. + +[Illustration: "'When I turned roan' ag'in I saw 'em goin' in th'ough +the doah.'"] + +"For we must learn a little more about God and Heaven every day along +the way," Aunt Cordelia said. + +With Emmy Lou at bedtime in her lap, a blanket wrapped about her gown, +the fire flickering, Aunt Cordelia, to help her get to sleep, sang about +Heaven. + + "Thy gardens and thy goodly walks + Continually are green, + Where grow such sweet and pleasant flowers + As nowhere else are seen--" + +"Asleep?" from Aunt Cordelia. "No?" + +Emmy Lou in Aunt Cordelia's lap was amazed to hear these things. "Thy +gardens and Thy goodly walks!" Hitherto she had been afraid of heaven! +And afraid of God! + +Aunt Cordelia hearing about it was shocked. Truly shocked and no less +dismayed at how to remedy it, if Emmy Lou had but known it. + +"Afraid of God? Why, Emmy Lou! He is our Father to go to, just as you +run to meet Papa." Aunt Cordelia, gaining heart, took fresh courage. +"God is everybody's Father, just as Heaven is our home." + +The Aunt Cordelias may generalize, but the Emmy Lous will particularize. + +"Izzy's father? And Sister's father? And Minnie's?" + +Israel Judah lived next door, little colored Sister lived in the alley, +and Minnie lived with the lady next door to Izzy. + +"Their Father, and yours and mine and everyone's. Don't you think you +can go to sleep now?" + +Emmy Lou was positive she could not. God, of whom she had been afraid, +is our Father! + +Next door to Emmy Lou, at Izzy's, lives an old, old man. His brows are +white and his beard falls on his breast. He smiles on Emmy Lou when she +goes to his knee to speak to him, but he draws Izzy to him and kisses +him. Aunt Katie calls him beautiful. Uncle Charlie calls him a glorious +old patriarch. But Izzy's Mamma calls him _father_. + +And suddenly to Emmy Lou, there in Aunt Cordelia's lap, God is a Person! +He paces his goodly walks, as Papa does the flagging from the gate to +the house with Emmy Lou running to meet him. God paces his walks between +his sweet and pleasant flowers and his brows are white and his beard +falls on his breast. Will he smile on Emmy Lou? And on Izzy and Sister +and Minnie? Or will he draw them to him and kiss them? + +"And at last she went to sleep," Aunt Cordelia, coming downstairs, told +Uncle Charlie. + +Straight from the breakfast table the next morning, Emmy Lou went and +brought her cloak. + +"Izzy will be waiting for me at his gate," she told Aunt Cordelia. The +custom being for the two meeting at Izzy's gate then to go to the alley +hunting Sister. + +Aunt Katie came downstairs just here, looking for Emmy Lou. + +"Do you know where my scissors are? I can't find mine or any others." + +Emmy Lou has a way of hunting scissors for herself and Sister to cut out +pictures, but is quite sure this time that she is not culpable. + +"I ain't had nary pair," she assured Aunt Katie. + +Aunt Katie, apparently forgetting the scissors, swept round on Aunt +Cordelia who was just leaving the breakfast table. + +"There!" she said accusingly. + +"There!" echoed Aunt Louise, still in the dining-room, too. "We told you +she would be picking up such things in the alley!" + +"Emmy Lou," expostulated Aunt Cordelia, "you didn't mean to say, 'I +ain't had nary pair.' You know better. Think hard and see if you can't +say it right." + +Emmy Lou, the cloak she had brought half on, thought hard. "I ain't had +ary pair," she said. + +Aunt Katie spoke positively. "I don't think you ought to let her play so +much with Sister. Louise and I have said so right along." + +Not play with Sister! Emmy Lou was astounded. She loved Sister, smaller +than herself! She turned to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration. + +Aunt Cordelia was troubled. "Come to me, Emmy Lou, and let me put your +cloak on you, and tie your hood. If she were going to be here all the +time it would be different," this to Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise. Then to +Emmy Lou, "Suppose today you stay next door and play with Izzy?" + +Emmy Lou was amazed. "And Minnie?" she asked. "Mayn't I play with +Minnie?" + +"She means the little girl who works for Mrs. Noble," explained Aunt +Cordelia quietly. + +"Mrs. Noble is from over the river," said Aunt Louise in tones which, +however one may wonder what the river has to do with it, disqualify this +lady at once. "She speaks of the child as a little hired girl." + +"Emmy Lou," said Aunt Katie, "remember that this side of the Ohio we +have servants, not hired girls." + +"But she must not call the little girl a servant, Katie," said Aunt +Cordelia. "I won't have her hurting the child's feelings, whatever she +is." + +"I call her Minnie," said Emmy Lou, bewildered. + +"Certainly you do," said Aunt Cordelia, and kissed her. + +Aunt Louise defended Aunt Katie. "While the child is hardly to be held +responsible, she has ways, as well as Sister, we certainly do not want +Emmy Lou to imitate." + +Ways? Minnie? Marvelous, inexhaustible Minnie? Certainly she has ways, +ways that draw one, that hold one. Were Aunt Louise and Aunt Katie +casting doubts on Minnie? As they had on Sister? Emmy Lou in cloak and +hood looked to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration. + +Aunt Cordelia looked worried, "Just as she is beginning to be a little +happier, I wish, Louise, you and Katie could let the child alone." + +"But Minnie?" Emmy Lou wanted to know. + +"Yes, I suppose so. Run along out, now, and play." + +A sunny winter day it was as Emmy Lou went, a day to rejoice in, could +one at four put the feelings into thought, except that Izzy at his gate +in his stout coat and his fur cap is only mildly glad to see her. Izzy +is six years old. Usually kind, and as patient to catch her point as to +help her to his, just now he is engrossed with looking down the street. + +Without turning, he does, however, confide in her. "Minnie has just gone +by to the grocery!" + +If Emmy Lou had been disposed to be hurt, she understood now! Minnie +having gone by to the grocery would be _back_! + +They have known her to speak to now for a week. She stopped one day at +Izzy's gate when he and Emmy Lou and Sister were standing there. Her +plaits were tied with bits of calico and there was a smudge on her +wrist; under her arm was a paper bag and in her hand a bucket. She swept +the three of them, Izzy, Emmy Lou, and Sister, up and down with her +eyes. + +"You go to synagogue," she told Izzy. "An' your mother's gone away sick +an' left you," she said to Emmy Lou. Then she turned to Sister. + +"Nigger," she said. + +But Sister was what she afterward explained as "ready for her." She had +met Minnie before, so it proved, and M'lissy, her mother, had her ready +if she ever met her again. For all she was a little thing, Sister swept +Minnie up and down with _her_ eyes. + +"Po' white," she said. + +Which, while meaningless to some--Emmy Lou and Izzy for example--brought +the angry red to Minnie's cheek. + +This was a week ago. Since then Minnie had come out on the pavement +twice and joined Emmy Lou and Izzy at play. + +Wonderful Minnie! At once instigator and leader, arbiter and propounder. +Why? Because she knew. Knew what? Knew everything. About the devil who +would come right up out of the ground if you stamped three times and +said his name. Though from what Emmy Lou had heard about him at Sunday +school, and Izzy knew from some boys down at the corner, one wondered +that any would incur the risk by doing either. + +And Minnie knew about gypsies who steal little boys and girls out of +their beds! Izzy is six, and Emmy Lou is four, and Minnie is ten going +on eleven; can it be wondered that they looked up to her? + +She speaks darkly about herself. She has brothers and sisters better off +than she is, somewhere, who don't want to speak to her when she meets +them on the street! + +And she speaks darkly about the lady she lives with whom she calls Mis' +Snoble. "When Lisa Schmit from the grocery came to play with me, she +shoo'd her off with the broom," she said. + +Only yesterday she appeared at her gate for a brief moment to say she +could not come out and play. "Mis' Snoble's feelin' right up to the +mark today; we're goin' to beat rugs an' wash winders." + +But this morning as she pauses on her way home from the grocery, her +communication to Izzy and Emmy Lou at Izzy's gate is of different +import. "Mis' Snoble's not feelin' up to the mark today. Come in with me +an' ask her an' maybe she'll let me come an' play." + +Go in with Minnie! To Mrs. Noble! Emmy Lou's hand went into Izzy's, as +she for one gazed at Minnie appalled! + +Yet Minnie's face is eager and her eyes implore. Her plaits are tied +with calico, and her face behind its eagerness is thin. Izzy looses Emmy +Lou's hand, even as she draws it away, and, behold, his hand now is in +one of Minnie's, and Emmy Lou's is in the other. They are going with her +to ask Mrs. Noble. + +Through Minnie's gate, around by the side pavement, in at the kitchen +door, through a hall and to another door. Mrs. Noble has not appeared +yet with her broom to shoo them away, but she might! + +Minnie pushed this door open and led the way in--wonderful, brave +Minnie!--but Izzy and Emmy Lou paused in the doorway. + +Mrs. Noble, spare and upright in her chair, crocheting, looked up. Her +eyes, having swept up and down Minnie, traveled on to Emmy Lou and Izzy, +then returned coldly, as it were, to her work. + +"Kitchen's red up," from Minnie eagerly and hopefully in what one +supposed must be the language of over the river; "been to the grocery, +an' the sink's clean." + +If Mrs. Noble heard this she was above betraying it. + +"Fire's laid in the stove, but not lit." + +Never a sign. + +"Potatoes peeled an' in the saucepan waitin'." + +Mrs. Noble looked up. "One half-hour, or maybe three-quarters till I +call." + +And they were gone, Minnie first like a flash, Izzy next, no loiterer in +the house of Mrs. Noble himself if he could help it and only the +slower-paced because somebody had to wait for Emmy Lou. + +More wonderful day than it had been earlier, sunnier and less frosty. +Minnie, whose wrap is disturbingly nearer a sacque than a coat in its +scant nature, takes her place on the horse-block at the curb before +Izzy's house, and he and Emmy Lou take places either side of her. + +Minnie, wonderful Minnie, ten years old and over, knows it all. What, +for instance? Everything, anything. Such as this matter she brings up +now of brothers and sisters. They are a bad lot. She says so. A sort to +stop at nothing even to passing a poorer sister without knowing her on +the street! As she went to the grocery with her bucket and oil-can just +now, her brother passed _her_ on the street. Minnie heard once of a man. +When she takes this tone the time has come to draw closer. "... O'Rouke +was this man's name. He was rich and g-r-rand. So grand _he_ didn't know +_his_ own brothers when he met them on the street. An' his brothers made +up their minds they would go to his house an' hide theirselves an' watch +him when he counted his money. It was a g-r-rand house. Over the +mantelpiece was a picture of his dead mother. Over the piano was a +picture of his dead father. Over the what-not was a picture of his wife. +Over the sofa was a picture of hisself. An' his four brothers came to +hide theirselves an' watch him count his money. The room was dark in all +the corners. An' one brother clumb up on the mantelpiece an' hid hisself +behind the picture of his mother, an' cut holes th'ough the eyes so his +eyes r-o-olling could look th'ough. An' the next brother clumb up on the +piano an' hid hisself behind the picture of his father an' cut holes +th'ough the eyes so his eyes r-o-olling could look th'ough. An' the next +brother clumb up on the what-not an' hid hisself behind the picture of +the wife an'----" + +Sister appeared around the side of Izzy's house and came through the +gate. Even though her finger _was_ in her mouth, when she saw Minnie she +looked provocative. + +"Go on with the brothers, Minnie," begged Izzy. + +"Go on, Minnie," begged Emmy Lou. + +But Minnie had no idea of resuming the brothers. Nobody, it would seem, +could look provocative with impunity at her! + +"Nigger," she said to Sister. + +But M'lissy, the mother of Sister, had her ready again. Did she send her +around here for the purpose? + +"Po' white," said Sister, taking her finger out of her mouth. "An' +worser. My mammy said to tell you so. You're a _n'orphan_." + +The solid ground of the accustomed gave way. Confusion followed. Minnie, +hitherto the ready, the able, having sprung up to meet Sister's +onslaught, whatever it was to be, sank back on the horse-block, and +hiding her face in her arms, cried, and more, at touch of the quickly +solicitous arms of Izzy and Emmy Lou about her, she sobbed. + +Whereupon Emmy Lou arose, Emmy Lou in her stout little coat and her hood +and her mittens; and looking about her on the ground, found a switch +full seven inches long, and with it drove Sister, little Sister, away, +quite away. Had not Emmy Lou's own aunties cast the initial doubt on +Sister anyway? + +Then she came back to the horse-block. "What's a n'orphan, Minnie?" Izzy +was asking. + +Emmy Lou wanted to know this very thing. + +"It's livin' with Mis' Snoble an' wearin' her shoes when they're too +big for you," sobbed Minnie. "'Tain't as if anybody would be one if they +could help theirselves." + +"What makes you a n'orphan, then, Minnie, if you don't want to be one?" +from Izzy. + +"You're a n'orphan when _your mother goes to Heaven an' leaves you_ an' +forgets you," bitterly. + +Heaven? God paces his goodly walks there, between his sweet and pleasant +flowers. But would your mother _leave you to go there_? And going, +_forget you_? + +A window went up and Izzy's mamma appeared. + +"Israel," she called, "run in to the porch and give grandpa his cane and +help him start into the house. It's growing chill." + +Minnie on the horse-block flung up her head and wiped away the tears. +"That old man again!" she said. + +Did Minnie have ways? Ways that Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise did not want +their Emmy Lou to imitate? Was this one of her ways? + +For Izzy's grandpa of whom Minnie spoke disparagingly was he of the +white brows and the flowing beard. On days such as this they helped him +to the porch where he sat bundled in a chair in the sun, his cane beside +him. + +Except when this cane was not, which was the trouble as Minnie saw it. +For Izzy's grandpa was forever letting his cane slide to the floor, yet +could not get up, or down, or about, without it. + +Izzy ran in now. He was affectionate and dutiful. Aunt Cordelia said so. +And having put the cane in his grandfather's hand, though not without +several efforts at keeping it there, at which his grandfather, +slowly--Oh, so slowly this morning!--and with trembling effort, drew him +to him and kissed him, he came back. + +"Why _did_ your mother go to Heaven and leave you and forget you, +Minnie?" he asked. + +"Heaven's a better place than this, if what they tell about it's true," +bitterly. "_I ain't blamin' her for goin'_, myself." + +"Izzy," came the call in a few moments again. "Did you tell grandpa to +come in?" + +Izzy went running, for when he turned to look, the cane had slipped from +his grandfather's hand again and rolled to the foot of the steps, and +his head above the snowy beard was fallen on his breast. Nor would he in +this world lift it again, though none of the three grasped this. + +Aunt Cordelia was decided at the breakfast table the next morning. + +"They will not want you next door with Izzy today," she told Emmy Lou. + +"Mayn't he come here?" + +"I doubt if his mother will want him to come today." + +The day following, however, Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie went next door +from the breakfast table and when they came back they brought Izzy with +them, not _for a while_, but _for the day_. His dark eyes were troubled +and his cheeks were pale. He was kindly and affectionate. Aunt Cordelia +said so. + +And Aunt Cordelia agreed that after dinner Bob could ask Mrs. Noble to +let Minnie come over. + +"How can you, Sister Cordelia?" expostulated Aunt Louise. "A little +servant girl!" + +Bob came back with Minnie. "For a nour," she said as she arrived. "I can +stay until the pork-house whistle blows for four." + +She waited until Aunt Cordelia, having settled them in the sunny back +room, went out the door. + +"What's happened to your gran'pa?" then she said to Izzy. Did she say it +not as if she did not know, but as if she did? + +"He's gone to sleep," said Izzy. "He won't be sick or tired any more." + +"Sleep?" from Minnie. "Haven't they told you yet? We watched 'em start, +Bob and I, before we came in." + +Start? Start where? Izzy's eyes, already troubled, were big and startled +now. "Where's grandpa going? Where's my grandpa going?" + +Did Minnie in some way imply that she knew more than she meant to tell? +"To Heaven," virtuously. "I've told you about it. That's why he won't be +sick or tired any more. You ought to be glad. Here!" with quick change +in tone. "Where you going? What's the matter with you now? You can't +keep him back if you try!" + +But Izzy was gone. Nor when Minnie, who was nothing but a little servant +girl after all, for Aunt Louise said so, ran after him, did he pause; +only called back as he hurried down the stairs. He was a dutiful little +boy, Aunt Cordelia said so. + +"If Grandpa has to go he'll need his cane. He can't get anywhere without +his cane." + + * * * * * + +Emmy Lou, coming in through the kitchen from play, a week later, met +Uncle Charlie in the hall just arriving by the front door. + +He neither spoke to her nor saw her as he overtook her on the lowest +stair, but pushed by and hurried up. + +Emmy Lou's heart swelled. It was not like Uncle Charlie. She clambered +the curving flight after him. He had gone ahead into Aunt Cordelia's +room and she, on her way there herself, trudged after. + +What did it mean? Why did it frighten her? Aunt Katie, Aunt Louise, +weeping? Uncle Charlie now beside the fireplace, bowed against its +shelf? This bit of yellow paper at his feet on the floor? + +Aunt Cordelia, weeping herself, would know. "What is it?" faltered Emmy +Lou. + +Aunt Cordelia knew and held out her arms to the call. No evasions now; +truth for Emmy Lou. + +"Mamma will not be back. She has gone ahead to Heaven. Come to Aunt +Cordelia and let her comfort you, precious baby." + +But Emmy Lou, still in her coat and hat, did not come; she did not pause +to dally. She hurried past the various hands outstretched to stay her, +to her own little room adjoining. + +Complete her _papier-mache_ satchel was, even to its clamps and straps, +sitting beside her bed ready, her satchel which would hold a gown, and +other treasure such as pewter dishes could she stop for such now. She +dragged at a drawer of her own bureau. + +"What in the world----?" from Aunt Cordelia, who had followed. + +"What are you doing----?" from Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, who had +followed Aunt Cordelia. + +Emmy Lou knew exactly what she was doing. Izzy had known too when he +went hurrying after. Minnie in her time, had she known, might have gone +hurrying too. A nightgown, at her pull, trailed from the open drawer. + +Yet what was there in the faces about her to disturb her? To make her +loose her hold on the gown, look from one to the other of them and +falter? Uncle Charlie, too, had come into the room now. + +Were they casting doubts again? As they cast them on Sister who until +then had in truth been a little sister? As they cast them on Minnie who +until then had been neither hired girl nor servant, but Minnie? Emmy Lou +turned to Aunt Cordelia for corroboration. + +Even as she looked, she knew. We must learn a little more each day along +the way, even as Aunt Cordelia had said. + +The nightgown trailing from her hand fell limply. The satchel, +relinquished, rolled along the floor. Those goodly walks receded, their +sweet and pleasant flowers drooped their listless heads. Emmy Lou, +nearing five years old, was a step further from heaven. + +"How shall we teach a little child?" said Aunt Cordelia, weeping. + +"How indeed?" said Uncle Charlie. + + + + +III + +A FEW STRONG INSTINCTS AND A FEW PLAIN RULES + + +EVERY exigency in life save one, for an Emmy Lou at six, seemingly is +provided for by rules or admonition, the one which sometimes is +overlooked being lack of understanding. + +"'Take heed that thou no murder do,'" was the new clause of the +Commandments In Verse, she had recited at Sunday school only yesterday. + +"'The way of the transgressor is hard,'" said Dr. Angell from his pulpit +to her down in the pew between Uncle Charlie and Aunt Cordelia an hour +later. Or she took it that he was saying it to her. For while one +frequently fails to follow the words in this thing of admonition, there +is no mistaking the manner. When she came into church with Uncle Charlie +and Aunt Cordelia, in her white pique coat and her leghorn hat, Dr. +Angell had met her in the aisle and seemed glad to see her, even to +patting her cheek, but once he was in his pulpit he shook an admonishing +finger at her and thundered. + +Nor did Emmy Lou, a big girl now for all she still was pink-cheeked and +chubby, lack for admonitions at home from Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Katie +and Aunt Louise above stairs, and Aunt M'randy in the kitchen below--a +world of aunts, in this respect, it might have seemed, had Emmy Lou, +faithful to those she deemed faithful to her, been one to think such +things. + +Admonitions vary. Aunt Cordelia and Aunt M'randy drew theirs from the +heart, so to put it. "When you mind what I say, you are a good little +girl. When you do not mind what I say, you are a bad little girl," said +Aunt Cordelia. + +"When I tell you to go on upstairs outer my way, I want you to go. When +I tell you to take your fingers outen thet dough, I want you to take 'em +out," said Aunt M'randy. Admonitions put in this way are entirely +comprehensible. There is no getting away from understanding mandates +such as these. + +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise drew their admonitions from a small, battered +book given to them when they were little for their guidance and known as +"Songs for the Little Ones at Home." + + "O that it were my chief delight + To do the thing I ought; + Then let me try with all my might, + To mind what I am taught," + +said Aunt Katie. + + "O dear me, Emma, how is this? + Your hands are very dirty, Miss; + I don't expect such hands to see + When you come in to dine with me," + +said Aunt Louise. + +Nor did Emmy Lou suspect that it was because their advice did not come +from the heart it reduced her to gloom; that Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise +delighted in it not because it was advice, but because it did reduce her +to gloom; that Aunt Katie, who was twenty-two, and Aunt Louise, who was +twenty, did it to tease? + +Bob, the house-boy, too, had his line of ethics for her. And while he +went to Sunday school, and to what he called Lodge, and had what he +termed fun'ral insurance, observances all entitling him to standing, he +pointed his warnings with dim survivals from an older, darker lore which +someone wiser than Bob or Emmy Lou might have recognized as hoodoo. Not +that Bob or Emmy Lou either knew this. Nor yet did Emmy Lou grasp that +he to whom she was told to go for company a dozen times a day when the +others wanted to get rid of her used the same to get rid of her himself. +On the contrary, her faith in him being what it was, his warnings sank +deep, the dire fates of his examples being guaranty for that. Moreover +his examples came close home. + +The little girl who wouldn't go play when they wanted to get rid of her. +The little boy who would stay out visiting so late they had to send the +house-boy after him. The little girl who wouldn't go 'long when told to +go, but would hang around the kitchen. Treated as a class by Bob, a +class, so his gloomy head-shakings would imply, peculiarly fitting to +his present company, their fates were largely similar. + +"They begun to peak, an' then to pine. An' still they wouldn't mind. +Thar ha'r drapped out in the comb. An' still they wouldn't mind. Thar +nails come loose. An' still they wouldn't mind. Thar teeth drapped out. +But it wuz too late. When they tried to mind _they couldn't mind_!" + +And while his audience might chafe beneath the almost too personal tone +of these remarks, she dared not question them. Examples dire as Bob's +were vouched for every day. Only the Noahs were saved in the ark. Lot's +wife turned to a pillar of salt. The bear came out of the woods and ate +the naughty children. Aunt Cordelia and Sunday school alike said so. The +wicked sisters of Cinderella were driven out of the palace. Aunt Katie +and Aunt Louise said so. The disobedient little mermaid was turned into +foam. The little girl down at the corner, named Maud, who owned the +book, said so. + +These things all considered, perhaps it came to be a matter of too many +and cumulative admonishings with Emmy Lou. Nature will revolt at too +steady a diet perhaps even of admonitions. Or it may be that even an +Emmy Lou in time rebels, when elders so persistently refuse to recognize +that there is another, an Emmy Lou's side, to most affairs. + +For at six the peripatetic instinct has awakened and the urge within is +to move on. Where? How does an Emmy Lou know? Anywhere so that the +cloying performances of outgrown baby ways are behind her. + +Many whom she knew in the receded stages of five years old, and four, +have moved on or away before this. Izzy who lived next door. Minnie who +lived next to Izzy. Lisa Schmit whose father had the grocery at the +corner but now has one at a corner farther away. + +And others have moved into Emmy Lou's present ken. Mr. Dawkins has the +grocery at the corner now, and his little girl is Maud, guarantor for +the mermaid, and his big girl is Sarah, and his little boy is Albert +Eddie. The peripatetic instinct impelling, Emmy Lou goes to see them as +often as Aunt Cordelia will permit. + +There is fascination in going if one could but convey this to Aunt +Cordelia in words. Any can live in houses; indeed most people do; or in +Emmy Lou's time did; but only the few live over a grocery. + +It argues these different. Mr. Schmit was German. Mr. Dawkins is +English. At Emmy Lou's, the teakettle, a vague part in family affairs, +boils on the stove, but at Maud's, the teakettle, a family affair of +moment, boils on the "hob," which is to say, the grate. And more, the +father and mother of Maud and Albert Eddie not only have crossed that +vague something, home of the little mermaid, the ocean, but their mother +has all but seen the Queen. + +"You know the Queen?" the two had asked Emmy Lou anxiously. + +And she had said yes. And she did know her. Knew her from long +association and by heart. She sat in her parlor at the bottom of the +page, eating bread and honey, while the maid and the blackbird were at +the top of the next page. + +"Tell her about it," Maud and Albert Eddie then had urged Sarah, their +elder sister, "about when mother all but saw the Queen?" + +Sarah complied. "'Now hurry along home with your brother in the +perambulator while I stop at the shop,' mother's mother said to her. +Mother was twelve years old. But she didn't hurry. She stopped to watch +every one else all at once hurrying and running, and so when she reached +the corner the Queen, for the Queen it was, had gone by." + +"If she had minded her mother----" from Albert Eddie. + +"And hurried on home with the perambulator----" from Maud. Proof not +only of a worthy attitude on their part towards the admonition of the +tale, but of an evident comprehension of what a perambulator was. + +But Aunt Cordelia, not always a free agent, was no longer permitting so +much visiting. + +"You are letting her actually live on the street," said Aunt Katie. + +"With any sort of children," supplemented Aunt Louise. + +Undoubtedly Aunt Cordelia came the nearest to understanding there is +another side to these affairs. "Sometimes I think she's lonesome," she +said. + + "Those children who are all the day, + Allowed to wander out, + And only waste their time in play, + Or running wild about----" + +said Aunt Katie. Aunt Louise finished it: + + "Who do not any school attend, + But trifle as they will, + Are almost certain in the end, + To come to something ill." + +And while it almost would seem that Aunt Cordelia was being admonished +too, and from the little book, in the light of what followed, it +appeared that Aunt Katie, Aunt Louise, and the little book were right. + +The day in question started wrong. In the act of getting out of bed, +life seemed a heavy and a listless thing. If Emmy Lou, less pink-cheeked +than usual if any had chanced to notice, but full as chubby, ever had +felt this way before, she would have told Aunt Cordelia that her head +ached. But if the head never has ached before? + +Her attention was distracted here, anyhow, and she, startled, let her +tongue pass along the row of her teeth. Milk teeth, those who knew the +term would have called them. There is much, however, that an Emmy Lou, +one small person in a household of elders, is supposed to know that she +does not, knowledge coming not by nature but through understanding. + +Then, reassured, her attention came back to the affairs of the moment, +the chief of these being that life is a heavy and listless affair and +the labyrinthine windings of stockings more than ever fretting in effect +upon the temper. And after stockings come garments, ending with the pink +calico dress apportioned to the day, and succeeding garments come +buttons. Aunt Katie in the next room was cheerful. + + "I love to see a little girl + Rise with the lark so bright, + Bathe, comb and dress with cheerful face----" + +One was in no mood whatever for the little book, and showed it. Aunt +Louise in the next room too, possibly grasped this. + + "Why is Sarah standing there + Leaning down upon a chair, + With such an angry lip and brow, + I wonder what's the matter now?" + +Aunt Cordelia was struggling with the buttons. "Let her alone, both of +you. Sometimes I think you are half responsible." + +The outrages of the day went on at breakfast. Emmy Lou's once prized +highchair, a tight fit now, and which, could she have had her own way, +would have been repudiated some time ago, was in itself provocative. She +climbed into it stonily. + +Bob placed a saucer before her. If she ever had suffered the qualms of +an uneasy stomach before, she would have known and told Aunt Cordelia. + +"I don't want my oatmeal," said Emmy Lou. + +"You must eat it before you can have anything else," said Aunt Cordelia. + +"I don't want anything else." + +"She's fretful," said Aunt Katie. + +"She's cross," said Aunt Louise. + +"I am coming to think you are right, Louise," said Aunt Cordelia. "What +she needs is to be at school with other children. School opens the day +after tomorrow, and I'll start her." + +"This baby?" from Uncle Charlie incredulously, his gaze seeking Emmy Lou +in her highchair. + +"Look at that oatmeal still untouched," from Aunt Cordelia. "Charlie, +_she is getting so she doesn't want to mind_!" + +The outrages went on during the morning. Emmy Lou did not know what to +do with herself, whereas Aunt Cordelia had a great deal to do with +herself. "You little hindering thing!" by and by from that person with +exasperation. "Go on out and talk with Bob. He's cleaning knives on the +kitchen doorstep." + +But Bob, occupied with his board and bath-brick and piece of raw +potato, had no idea of talking with her. He talked to himself. + +"Seems like I done forgot how it went, 'bout thet li'l boy whut would +stan' roun' listenin'. Some'n' like 'bout thet li'l girl whut wouldn't +go about her business----" + +Gathering up his knives and board, he went in to set his table. Turning +around by and by he found her behind him in the pantry. He talked to +himself some more. + +"Reckon is I done forgot how it went? 'Bout thet li'l girl got shet up +in the pantry after they tol' her to keep out? She knowed ef she coughed +they'd hear an' come an' fin' her thar. An' she hed to cough. An' she +wouldn't cough. An' she hed to. An' she wouldn't. An' she hed to. An' +she DID. But it wuz too late. The pieces of her wuz ev'ey whar, even to +the next spring when they wuz house-cleanin', an' foun' her knuckle-bone +on the fur top shelf. Looks lak to me, somebody else is gettin' ready +for a good lesson. Better watch out." + +The final outrage was yet to come. At the close of dinner Emmy Lou came +round to Aunt Cordelia's chair. Aunt Cordelia was worn out. She had +never known her Emmy Lou to behave as she had in the last day or so. + +"Now don't come asking me again," she said, forestalling the issue. +"I've gone over the matter with you several times before today. You +cannot go play with anybody. No, not with Maud at the corner or anybody +else." Then to Uncle Charlie, shaking his head over this unwonted +friction as he rose to start back down town: "They tell me there is +whooping-cough around everywhere, Charlie." Then to Emmy Lou: "Now try +and be a good girl for the rest of the day, Aunt Cordelia will have her +hands full. It is Bob's afternoon out. Try and be Aunt Cordelia's +precious baby." + +But Emmy Lou, her tongue traveling the row of her teeth anew, didn't +propose to be anybody's precious baby. She was a big girl, now, almost +six years old, and wanted it recognized that she was. And she didn't +feel good in the least, but like being quite the reverse for the rest of +the day. + +This was at two o'clock. At three Aunt Cordelia's own Emmy Lou, the pink +calico upon her person and a straw hat upon her head, turned the knob of +the front door. Having obeyed thus far in life, she was about to +disobey. + +The front door, its knob requiring both hands and her tiptoes, whereas +the kitchen door would have been open. But Aunt M'randy was in the +kitchen. + +As it chanced, Bob was leaving by the kitchen door, and coming around by +the side pavement as Emmy Lou came down the steps, they met. His idea +seemed to be that she was tagging after him, an injury in itself when +she divined it. He was of the same mind evidently when a moment later +she was still beside him outside the gate. + +He paused and addressed the air disparagingly before he went. "Looks +like to me I'll have to bresh up my ricollection 'bout thet li'l girl +whut would come outside her own gate after she was tole not to come. +Spoilin' for one good lesson, thet li'l girl wuz, an' 'pears like to me +she got it. Better watch out." And Bob was gone, up the street, whereas +it was the definite intention of the other person at that gate to go +down the street. + +Mr. Dawkins' grocery fronted on the main street while his housedoor +opened on the side-street. A few moments later a small figure in a +familiar pink dress and straw hat reached this side door, and, pausing +long enough for her tongue to pass uneasily along the row of her teeth, +opened it upon a flight of stairs and went in. + +Five o'clock it was and after when Mr. Dawkins' eldest daughter Sarah, +followed by Maud and Albert Eddie, came down these steps propelling a +visitor in a pink dress and straw hat, a visitor known from the Dawkins' +viewpoint as that little girl from up the street in the white house that +get their groceries from Schmit. + +Perhaps this fact explained Sarah's small patience with this person who +in herself would seem to invite it. She not only was pale, and her lips +pressed with unnatural while miserable firmness together, but her eyes, +uplifted when Sarah most undeniably shook her, were anguished. + +"If you'd open your mouth and speak," said Sarah with every indication +of shaking her again. + +A stout gentleman coming along the side street which led from a car-line +crossed over hastily. + +"Here, here! And what for?" Uncle Charlie asked with spirit. + +Sarah looked up at him. With her long, tidy plaits and her tidy person +she conveyed the impression that she was to be depended on. Maud looked +up at him. With her small tidy plaits and her tidy person she conveyed +the impression that she was to be depended on, too. + +Albert Eddie looked up. Mr. Dawkins was to be congratulated on his +family. There was dependability in every warm freckle of Albert Eddie's +face. + +Emmy Lou, Uncle Charlie's own Emmy Lou, had been looking up the while, +anguished. She was a reliable person in general herself, or Uncle +Charlie always had found her so. + +"If she'd open her mouth and speak," said Sarah. "Half an hour ago by +the clock it was, she gave a sound, and I turned, and here she was like +this." + +"Sister was telling us a story----" from Albert Eddie. + +"The story of naughty Harryminta----" from Maud. + +"No use your trying, sir," from Sarah. "I've been trying for half an +hour. We're taking her home." + +"Excellent idea." He took Emmy Lou's little hands. "So you won't tell +Uncle Charlie either?" + +Evidently she would not, though it was with visible increase of anguish +that she indicated this by a shake of her head. + +"We'll walk along," said Sarah. "I've my part of supper to get, but +we'll feel better ourselves to see her home." + +They walked along. + +"I was talking to them peaceful as might be----" from Sarah again. + +"Sister was telling us a story----" from Albert Eddie. + +"The story of naughty Harryminta----" from Maud. + +Was it a sound here from Uncle Charlie's Emmy Lou, or the twitch of her +hand in his, which betrayed some access to her woe? + +"And what was the story?" asked Uncle Charlie. It might afford a clue. + +Maud volunteered it. "The little girl's mother said to her, 'Don't.' And +her name was Harryminta. And when she got back from doing what she was +told not to do, her mother was waiting for her at the door. 'Whose +little girl is this?' And Harryminta said, 'Why, it's your little girl.' +But her mother shook her head. 'Not my little girl at all. _My little +girl is a good little girl._' And shut the door." + +"Talk about your coincidence," said Uncle Charlie afterward. "Talk about +your Nemesis and such!" + +For as the group came along the street--the Dawkins family, Uncle +Charlie, and Emmy Lou--and turned in at the gate, Aunt Cordelia flung +the front door open. Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise were behind her. They +had really just missed Emmy Lou. + +"Whose little girl is this?" said Aunt Cordelia, severely. But not going +as far as the mother of Araminta she did not shut the door. Instead, +Sarah explained. + +"Half an hour ago by the clock----" Sarah began. + +They led her into the hall, and Aunt Cordelia lifted her up on the +marble slab of the pier table. Aunt Cordelia's admonitions and mandates +came from the heart. "Open your mouth and speak out and tell me what's +the matter?" + +Emmy Lou opened her mouth, and in the act, though visibly against her +stoutest endeavor even to an alarming accession of pink to her face, +ominously and unmistakably--whooped; the same followed on her part by +the full horror of comprehension, and then by a wail. + +For with that whoop the worst had happened. As with the little boys and +girls in Bob's dire category of naughty little boys and girls, her sin +had found her out indeed. + +"I'm coming to pieces," wailed their terrified Emmy Lou, "because I +didn't mind." + +And according to her understanding she was, since after her vain +endeavor for half an hour by Sarah's clock to hold it in place with +tongue and lips, in her palm lay a tooth, the first she had shed or +known she had to shed, knowledge coming not by nature but through +understanding. + +Aunt Cordelia did not carry out her program the day school opened. There +was whooping-cough at her house, and a day or so after there was +whooping-cough at Mr. Dawkins'. + +"He is very indignant about it," Aunt Cordelia told Uncle Charlie. "He +stopped me as I came by this morning from my marketing. He said it +wasn't even as though we were customers." + +"Which is the least we can be after this, I'm sure you will agree," said +Uncle Charlie. + +Just here in the conversation, Emmy Lou, miserable and stuffy in a pink +sacque over her habitual garb because Aunt Cordelia most emphatically +insisted, whooped. + + "Those _good_ little girls, Marianne and Maria, + Were happy and well as _good_ girls could desire--" + +said Aunt Louise. + +Aunt Cordelia, approaching with a bottle and spoon as she did after +every cough, shook her head. "Little girls who mind are good little +girls," she said. + +"Emmy Lou is learning to be a good little girl while she is shut up in +the house sick," said Aunt Katie. "She knows all of her Commandments In +Verse for Sunday school now. Let Aunt Cordelia wipe the cough-syrup off +your mouth and say them for Uncle Charlie before he goes." + +Emmy Lou learning to be a good little girl said them obediently. + + "Thou shalt have no more gods but me; + Before no idol bow thy knee. + Take not the name of God in vain, + Nor dare the Sabbath day profane. + Give both thy parents honor due, + Take heed that thou no murder do. + Abstain from deeds and words unclean, + Nor steal though thou art poor and mean; + Nor make a willful lie nor love it, + What is thy neighbor's, dare not covet." + +Aunt Cordelia, Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise looked pleased. Emmy Lou had +said the verses without stumbling. Uncle Charlie looked doubtful. "Five +words with understanding rather than ten thousand in an unknown tongue? +How about it, Cordelia?" + +But Bob, bringing Emmy Lou's dinner upstairs to her on a tray, had the +last disturbing word. "Been tryin' to riccollect how it went, 'bout thet +li' girl kep' her tongue outer the place whar her tooth drapped out, +so's a new tooth would grow in." + + + + +IV + +THE TRIBUNAL OF CONSCIENCE + + +UNCLE CHARLIE took six blue tickets from his pocket and set them on the +dining-room mantel. His ownership of a newspaper was the explanation for +this liberality of supply to those who could put the two things +together. + +"I wonder," said he, "if anybody in this room ever heard of the circus?" + +Emmy Lou could not get down from her place at the dinner-table fast +enough. She hurried to the kitchen. She had heard of the circus from Bob +the house-boy, who had a circus bill! + +Bills, as a rule, are small affairs measurable in inches; bits of paper +which reduce Aunt Cordelia to figurings with a lead pencil, short +replies, and low spirits. + +But a circus bill, pink and pictorial, is measurable in feet. As Bob +spread his on the kitchen table yesterday and again this morning, it +fell either side well on the way to the floor. Its wonders, inexplicable +where he, spelling out the text, forebore to explain, or explicable +where he did if one knew no better than he, were measurable only by the +limits of the mind to take them in. If Emmy Lou, who started to school +last fall three weeks late owing to a popular prejudice against +whooping-cough, had caught up as Aunt Cordelia easily assumed she would, +or "caught on," in the words of Uncle Charlie, she might have been +spelling out some of the wonders of the circus bill for herself. + +Bob's finger had paused beneath a lady in myriad billowing skirts poised +mid-air between a horse and a hoop such as Emmy Lou spent hours trying +to trundle on the sidewalk. "She's jumpin' th'ough the hoop, but thet +ain't nothin'. Heah in the other picture she's jumpin' th'ough six." + +Emmy Lou, hurrying to the kitchen now and finding Bob about to start in +with the soup, borrowed the bill and hurried back with it to the +dining-room and Uncle Charlie's side. + +"This one's an elephant," she explained, her finger, even as Bob's, +beneath the picture. "He picks little children up and puts them in his +trunk." + +"I see you know, though some do call it his howdah," said Uncle Charlie. +"And no doubt about the lions and the tigers, the giraffe and the zebra +as well?" regretfully. "Even the lemonade?" + +"Lemonade?" + +"Pink. And peanuts." Uncle Charlie motioned to Bob to put his soup down +and have done with it, as it were. "Also Nella, The Child Equestrienne +in Her Triumphal Entry--here she is. And Zephine, the Wingless Wonder, +in Her Flight Through the Air----" + +"Am I going to the circus?" from Emmy Lou. + +"That's what I hoped," from Uncle Charlie, handing back the bill and +turning to his soup. "But of course if there is room for doubt about +it----" + +The very next day Emmy Lou came hurrying home from Sunday school. She +had the Dawkins, Sarah, the conscientious elder sister, Maud, and Albert +Eddie, for company as far as the grocery at the corner. Since Aunt +Cordelia had learned they were English, apparent explanation for those +who understood, they had been persuaded to go to St. Simeon's Sunday +school too. + +Sunday school was to have a--Emmy Lou in her Sunday dress and her Sunday +hat, hurrying on from the corner by herself, tried to straighten this +out before reaching home and reporting it. What was it Sunday school was +to have? In Uncle Charlie's study--a small back room, somewhat battered +and dingy but, as he claimed in its defense, his own--was a picture of a +stout little man propelled in a wheelbarrow by some other men. + +Emmy Lou had discovered that Uncle Charlie loved the little man and +prized the picture. When she asked who he was and where he was going in +the wheelbarrow, Uncle Charlie said it was _Mr. Pickwick_ going to a +_picnic_. Or, and here was the trouble, was it _Mr. Picnic_ going to a +_pickwick_? It depended on this what Sunday school was to have. + +Uncle Charlie, hat and cane in hand, waiting in the hall for Aunt +Cordelia to start to church, straightened out the matter. _Mr. Pickwick_ +was going to a _picnic_. It then followed that Emmy Lou, in general a +brief person, had such a store of information about the picnic she was +moved to share it with Uncle Charlie. This common interest about the +circus and their recurring conversations about it were drawing them +together, anyhow. Her data about the picnic on the whole was menacing in +its character. As, for example: + +It was to be in Mr. Denby's grove. He charged too much for it, but St. +Simeon's could not do any better. If you went too far away from the +swings and the benches the mamma of some little pigs would chase you. + +Further. You cannot go to St. Simeon's picnic, or, indeed, to any picnic +without a basket! Emmy Lou had endeavored to find out what sort of a +basket and Sarah had cut her short with the brief reply, "A picnic +basket." + +And, finally, "Albert Eddie wishes he'd never started to St. Simeon's. +Sarah says he has to go to the picnic and he wants to go to the circus!" + +Aunt Cordelia arriving in full church array caught this last. "I've +been meaning to speak about it myself. I find the circus is here for the +one day only and that the day for St. Simeon's picnic." + +Emmy Lou received this as applying to the Dawkins only. The information +her inquiries had enabled her to get together led her personally to +disparage picnics. + +"Albert Eddie says Sarah made him wash dishes at the last picnic he went +to. And she makes him carry baskets. That if he'd wash dishes for 'em at +the circus and carry water, they'd let him in." + +"Sarah, Maud, Albert Eddie, you, me, and one ticket to spare; such was +my idea," said Uncle Charlie, he and Aunt Cordelia preparing to start. +"The only thing we've ever given the Dawkins up to date is the +whooping-cough. Picnic or circus, duty or pleasure, we'll have to put it +to them which they want it to be." + +Aunt Cordelia, even at the risk of being late to church, stopped short. +She didn't see the matter in any such fashion at all! "Emmy Lou will +prefer to go to her own Sunday school picnic too, I hope," decidedly. +"How you distract and bother the child, Charlie!" + +"I bother Emmy Lou? She and I are as near good friends as people get to +be. We respect each other's honesty and go our own ways. I am going to +leave the tickets where I put them yesterday. I planned to take her and +the Dawkins to the circus. You and she can fight it out." He proceeded +through the open doorway to the stone steps. + +"In that case," from Aunt Cordelia as she followed him, "since you seem +to put me in the wrong, I leave it to her own conscience. She is seven +years old, a big girl going to school and Sunday school, and ought to +know right from wrong." And the two were gone. + +Conscience! Familiar shibboleth to the seventh age of little girls! +Stern front behind which Aunt Cordelia these days hides her kindly +features. + +Somewhere beyond the neighborhood where Emmy Lou lived with Aunt +Cordelia and Uncle Charlie, was the roundhouse and the yards of a +railroad. Or so Aunt Cordelia explained. The roundhouse bell, rung every +hour by the watchman on his rounds, made far-off melancholy tolling +through the night. + +The sins at seven, the chubby, endeavoring Emmy Lou's sins, her cloak on +the coat-closet floor instead of the closet peg, mucilage on Aunt +Katie's rug where a paper outspread before pasting began would have +saved it--sins such as these have no prod to reminder more poignant than +this melancholy tolling of the roundhouse bell in the night. + +"It is an uneasy conscience," Aunt Cordelia invariably claimed when Emmy +Lou, waking, came begging for permission to get in her bed. "If your +conscience was all that it should be, you'd be asleep." + +Yet did Aunt Cordelia, as a rule, leave those matters to Emmy Lou's +conscience which she thought she did? Did Emmy Lou three out of four +Sundays find herself remaining at church rather than on her road home +because she herself wanted to stay? Or taking off her new dress on +reaching home because she wanted to get into the older one? + +Or, rather, did she find her baffled if unsuspecting self, coerced and +bewildered, doing these and other things in the name of choice when the +doing was not through choice at all? + +Aunt Cordelia was going to leave the decision between the circus and the +picnic to Emmy Lou, too, because she said she was. Nor did Aunt +Cordelia, honest soul, or Emmy Lou, unquestioning and trusting one, +dream but that she did. + +"I'll see Sarah Dawkins," said Aunt Cordelia to Aunt Katie and Aunt +Louise the very next morning, "and arrange with her to look after Emmy +Lou at the picnic. We'll use the small hamper for her basket. She can +take enough for herself and them. Bob can take her and it around to the +church corner where the chartered street cars are to be waiting, and put +her in Sarah's charge there. I can't see, Katie, why you oppose a cake +with custard filling for the basket." + +"It's messy," said Aunt Katie, "both to take and to eat." + +"But if she likes it best?" from Aunt Cordelia. + +It was the first thing come to Emmy Lou's hearing lending appeal to the +picnic; or light on the purpose of the baskets. + +Uncle Charlie arriving for dinner outmatched it, however, by another +appeal. "I saw a new circus bill on the fence of the vacant lot as I +came by. A yellow bill." + +Emmy Lou hurried right down there from the dinner-table. Nella, the +Child Equestrienne, was kissing her hand right to Emmy Lou from her +horse's back. And the elephant, abandoning his customary dark business +of putting little children in his trunk, with unexpected geniality was +sitting on a stool before a table drinking tea. + +And the next day Bob outmatched this. He had been to the grocery to see +about chickens for the picnic to which Emmy Lou ought to want to go. + +"There's a Flyin' Dutchman on the outside, an' side-shows too. I seen +about it on a bill the other side of the grocery. A green bill." + +Emmy Lou hurried down there. She didn't see anything that she could +identify as a Flying Dutchman, perhaps because she was hazy as to what a +Dutchman was. But Zephine, swinging by her _teeth_, was just leaping +into space. + +"I think I will let her wear her sprigged muslin," said Aunt Cordelia at +supper that night. "A good many grown persons go in the afternoon." + +"Their excuse being to take the children----" from Uncle Charlie easily. + +"I am not talking of the circus, Charlie, and you know I am not," from +Aunt Cordelia sharply. + +"She has decided then?" + +"She certainly ought to have decided. There never should have been any +doubt. I'll put in some little tarts, Katie; all children like tarts." + +Had Emmy Lou decided? She heard it assumed that she had. Why, then, with +this sense of frustration and bewilderment was she swallowing at tears? + +"I certainly feel I may say Emmy Lou has decided," repeated Aunt +Cordelia. "I'm sure, Katie, tarts are just the thing." + +"I'll never believe it," said Uncle Charlie, emphatically, nor was he +referring to the tarts. + +Did he refuse to be party to any such idea? + +"I would not be surprised," said he to Emmy Lou the next evening, "if we +hear the circus rumbling by in the night. Our street is the one they +usually take from the railroad yards to the circus-grounds. I put six +tickets on the mantelpiece where at the most we will need only five. +Suppose I take one and see what I can do with it?" + +"Emmy Lou has no idea but of going to her own Sunday school picnic," +said Aunt Cordelia. "I wish, Charlie, you would be still about your +tickets and the circus." + +"They are not my tickets. They are going to stay right here. I merely +was to go with Emmy Lou on one of them. They are her tickets to do with +as she wants and to take whom she pleases." + +Though the circus did go by in the night, according to report next +morning, Emmy Lou failed to hear it. Nor did the melancholy of the +tolling bell disturb her. Aunt Cordelia said this was because she was +going to her Sunday school picnic as she should, and had a quiet +conscience. + +"I come roun' by the circus as I come to work," Bob said in the pantry +where Aunt Cordelia and he packed the basket with Emmy Lou for +spectator. "Gittin' them wagons with the lookin'-glass sides ready for +the perade. Thet ol' elephant come swinging erlong like he owned the +y'earth. Mr. Charlie gimme a ticket las' night to go." + +Which reminded Emmy Lou. Even though she was going to the picnic, there +was comfort in the thought those tickets yet on the mantelpiece were +hers. She went into the dining-room and pushed a chair to the hearth. +The sprigged muslin she was to wear had a pocket, and later when this +dress was put on the tickets which were her own were in the pocket. + +If one never has been to a picnic the only premises to go on are those +given you. + +"You haven't a thing to do but stay with Maud and Albert Eddie, and mind +Sarah," said Aunt Cordelia as she put Emmy Lou's hat on her head and its +elastic under her chin, "except, of course, to look after your basket. +There is pink icing on the little cakes and a good tablecloth that I +don't want anything to happen to under the beaten biscuits at the +bottom. There is ham and there's tongue and there's chicken." + +"I have to look after the basket," Emmy Lou told Sarah as she and the +Dawkins with the rest of St. Simeon's Sunday school were put aboard the +excursion cars. + +"Of course you do," said Sarah approvingly. "We all do. It's right here. +And," with the heartiness of one distributing largesse in privileges, +the meanwhile settling her three charges in their places, "when we get +off the car Albert Eddie shall carry it." + +Emmy Lou had a seat between Albert Eddie and Maud. Beyond Albert Eddie +were three little boys in knickerbockers, blouses, and straw hats, as +gloomy in face as he. + +"Not only _let_ him carry water for the elephant but gave him _a ticket_ +for doing it," the nearest one was saying to the other three. "Had it +with him when he got back. I saw it myself. He lemme take it in my hand. +A _blue_ ticket." + +"Right past the circus grounds, tents and all," from the second little +boy as their car came in sight of the beflagged tent city. "I'll betcher +they're gettin' ready for the parade right now!" + +Four glittering, turbaned beings appeared around a tent, each leading a +plumed and caparisoned horse to a place before a gilded and +high-throned edifice. "Didn't I tell you they were?" bitterly. A band +crashed. + +The heads of St. Simeon's Sunday school, regardless of danger, craned +out as one. The more venturesome left their seats. + +St. Simeon's chartered cars rolled inexorably by. Heads came in. The +venturesome returned to their places. + +"What is there to a picnic anyhow?" from the third little boy. "Nothin' +at all but what you eat." + +Albert Eddie staggered under the weight of the basket when in time the +car stopped on the track along the dusty road outside Mr. Denby's grove. +But then one out of every two persons descending from the several cars +was similarly staggering under the weight of a basket. + +Sarah and Maud, with Emmy Lou led by either hand between them, followed +Albert Eddie with their own. After which, St. Simeon's, having brought +all baskets to a common center beneath a tree in the neighborhood of the +ice-water barrel, went off and left them. + +"I'm going with a little girl who asked me," Maud told Sarah. "We won't +go too far or the mother of the little pigs will chase us." + +"Albert Eddie, I told the ladies that you would get the wood for a fire +so we can put the coffee on," said Sarah. "When you come back from that +you can take the bucket and bring us the ice-water from the barrel for +the lemonade." + +Sarah's glance came next to Emmy Lou, no mixer in the world of Sunday +school at best, as Sarah before this had observed. Sarah frowned +perturbedly. Some are picnickers by intuition, for example Maud and the +little girl gone off together; others come to it through endeavor. It +was seven-year-old Emmy Lou's first picnic, and she in her sprigged +muslin stood looking to Sarah. + +Sarah was a manager, but having yet to manage for Emmy Lou her frown was +perturbed. Then her face cleared. She fetched a flat if a trifle +over-mossy stone and put it down on the outskirts of the baskets grouped +beneath the sheltering tree, and near the ice-water barrel. "There, now! +You can sit down here and look after the baskets till I get back," she +told Emmy Lou and was gone. + +There is virtue in coming to a picnic. Aunt Cordelia plainly gave one to +understand so. + +"Why don't you go play with the others, little girl?" asked a lady who +was tying on a gingham apron as she hurried by. "Go over to the swings +and see-saws." + +But Emmy Lou, no picnicker by intuition, nor as yet by any other mode of +arrival, was grateful that she had to stay with the baskets, and, had +the lady paused long enough for a reply, could say so. + +Was there virtue in coming to the picnic for Albert Eddie too? Emmy Lou +on her stone under the tree guarding baskets saw him come back with his +load of firewood. She saw him next carrying the bucket of water from the +barrel. + +And here some ladies approaching the baskets beside Emmy Lou beneath the +tree, and casting appraising eyes over the outlay, began to help +themselves to the same! To this basket, and that basket, and carry them +away! One even approached and laid hands on Emmy Lou's own! It took +courage to speak, but she found it. + +"It's mine," from Emmy Lou. + +"And just the very nicest looking one I have seen," said the lady +heartily after raising the lid and probing into the contents. "Anyone +would be glad to say it was hers," and went off with it! St. Simeon's +with a commendable sense of fellowship made a common feast from its +picnic baskets at long tables for all, but Emmy Lou did not know this. +She only saw her cake with the custard filling, her cakes with the pink +icing, her tarts, her ham and tongue, her chicken and biscuits and +tablecloth borne off from her with a coolness astounding and appalling. + +Virtue is hers who dully endures a picnic. Emmy Lou, coming out of her +stun and daze and seeing some little boys approaching, the ice-water +barrel being a general Mecca, swallowed hard that, did they notice her, +they might not see how near she was to crying. Three little boys in +knickerbockers, blouses, and straw hats they were, still with their +common air of being more than justifiably aggrieved. + +They noticed her and at the abrupt halt of one, all stopped. + +"We saw her on the car," he said. "_What's she got?_" + +[Illustration: "Why should that monstrous bulk of elephant have +trumpeted just then?"] + +For Emmy Lou's hand some time since had brought forth for comfort +from her pocket the blue tickets which were her own. That hand closed on +them at the question now. She'd just seen her basket go! + +"_Are_ they circus tickets? Sure? Lemme see them? Aw, what you scared +of, lettin' me see 'em in my hand?" + +Emmy Lou did not know just what. The ways of a picnic and those +attending were new to her, but what she had learned discouraged +confidence. Her hand and the tickets in it went behind her. + +"Where'd she get 'em?" the boy asked now of Albert Eddie, arriving with +his bucket for more water. + +He set the bucket down by the barrel and joined the group. + +"Do you s'pose they are really hers?" was the query put to him as he got +there. + +Emmy Lou knew Albert Eddie, had known him for a long time as time is +measured at seven years. He looked after her on the way to and from +Sunday school even though he did it at Sarah's bidding, whereas Maud +forgot her. Moreover, he had not wanted to come to the picnic, and, bond +firmly established between them, neither had she. She surrendered her +tickets into his hands to be inspected. She even credentialed them. The +others had doubted them! "They're mine. My Uncle Charlie said so. To +take anybody I wanted to take if I hadn't had to come here!" + +Her tickets! Five by actual count and actual touch! To do what she +pleased with! This plump little girl with the elastic of her hat under +her chin, sitting alone at the picnic on a stone! + +The conversation in the group became choric and to some extent Delphic, +Emmy Lou, with her eyes on the tickets in Albert Eddie's hands, alone +excluded. + +"Aw, we could!" + +"Follow the track!" + +"Could she do it?" + +"'Tain't so far she couldn't if we start now." + +Four little boys, nearing nine, Albert Eddie, Logan, John, and Wharton, +made Machiavellian through longing, turned to this little girl on her +stone and made court to her as they knew how. + +"Aw, you ask her! You know her!" from Logan to Albert Eddie. + +Albert Eddie cleared his throat. He'd carried the basket. He'd carried +the wood. He'd carried the water. He was bitter to desperate lengths, +indeed, and in the rebound no good and obedient little boy at all but +one gloriously afloat on seas of dire and reckless abandon. + +"We'll take you to the circus, these boys and me, and let you see +everything, if you want us to," with a _diablerie_ of cunning so +appalling and so convicting in its readiness he knew he must falter if +he stopped to consider it. + +"'Tain't as if we hadn't been before, every one of us," from Logan, with +that yet greater cunning of the practiced and the artist, indifference; +"but we wouldn't mind taking you." + +"I been twice," from Wharton mightily. + +"I been once, last year," from Albert Eddie. + +"I been twice in _one_ year," from John, "here at home and when I went +to visit my grandmother." + +"I been twice to one show," from Logan, eclipsing them all. "One day +with one uncle, and the next day with another!" + +And Emmy Lou never had been at all! The tickets, most cunning play of +all, had been put back in her own hand. + +"Old clown he threw his hat up, turned a handspring, and come up and +caught it on his head," from Wharton. "We'll show you the clown." + +"--rode one horse standing and driving five and kissed her hand every +time she came by--" Logan, forgetting his cue and his cunning, was +saying to Albert Eddie and John. + +"--picks out the letters, that dog does, and spells his own name--" +John, forgetting his cue and his cunning, was saying to Albert Eddie and +Logan. + +Emmy Lou moved on her stone. + +"--rolls in a big keg, that elephant does, and turns it up and sits down +on it. We'll show you the elephant too," Wharton, faithful to his cue, +was saying to her. + +Emmy Lou stood up. She handed the tickets to whoever might be to take +charge of them. She put her hand in Albert Eddie's. "I didn't want to +come to the picnic and not go to the circus," she said. + +They were grateful and solicitous little boys. They hurried her unduly, +perhaps, in getting her out of the grounds, but once upon the safer +territory of road beside the track they were mindful of her. + +"I'll take her by one hand," said Logan to Albert Eddie, "and you keep +hold of her by the other hand, because she knows you." + +Whatever that hot, dusty, shadeless, that appalling stretch of country +road meant to Emmy Lou, she never afterward referred to it. But then +there were reasons making silence more natural on her part. + +Yet she saw the circus! Emmy Lou saw the circus! Come what might, she +had that! + +What that they arrived at the circus entrance dinnerless, dust-laden, +and, but for a stop along the way at a pump and trough, thirsty! + +What that the man sitting at the mouth of the passage between canvas +walls, to whom the tickets were handed, eyed them, four unattended +little boys taking marked care of one little girl in their midst--since +he let them by and in! + +Sawdust, orange-peel, flaring gas jets, camel, lions, big pussy-tiger, +Oh, glorious and unmatchable blend of circus aroma! Oh, vast circling +sweep and reach of seats and faces, with four little boys guarding one +little girl in their midst, wandering along looking for places! + +Oh, blare of brass, Oh, fanfare of trumpets, Oh, triumphant entry of all +hitherto but dimly sensed and hauntingly visioned, color, pageant, +rhythm, triumph, glory, heretofore lost as they came, but now palpable, +tangible, and existent! + +Oh, pitiful, a bit terrifying, white-faced clown! The butt, the mock, +the bear-all! Emmy Lou does not laugh at the clown! Because she pities +him and is sorry for him, her heart goes out to him instead! And she +trembles for Nella as her horse urged by the snapping, menacing whip +sweeps by faster and even faster--and she cries out when at the crash of +the kettle-drums, Zephine leaps---- + +"But I didn't see the elephant like I did the lions and the camel and +the tiger," she tells Logan and Albert Eddie and the others. Nor had +she. The elephant had gone to take his place in the triumphal entry when +Emmy Lou and her four cicerones, in their progress through the animal +tent before the program, reached his roped-in inclosure. + +And so they made their way back to him through the surging crowd as they +went out, four solicitous little boys conducting Emmy Lou. Made their +way as near as might be, then pushed her through the row of spectators +in front of them to the rope. + +"He picks little children up and puts them in his trunk," she was saying +as one fascinated by the very awfulness of that she dwelt on, as they +squeezed her through. + +Why should that monstrous bulk of elephant have trumpeted just then--as +Emmy Lou emerged at the rope--have flung his trunk out in all the lordly +condescension of a mighty one willing to stoop, in the accustomed quest +of peanuts? + + * * * * * + +Aunt Louise, returning from a futile trip to the church corner to meet +Emmy Lou, had just explained that the picnic had not returned, being +delayed, so rumor said, by the search for five missing children, when +Bob walked in bringing a dust-laden Emmy Lou. + +"Came on her at the circus?" from Aunt Cordelia incredulously. + +"In the animal tent roun' there whar thet elephunt is," Bob diagrammed. + +Emmy Lou's face, bearing marks of recent agitation, showed agitation +anew. + +"Good work," from Uncle Charlie, just arrived himself. "Who was with +her?" + +"Some li'l boys, she says. She warn't with nobody when I come on her +runnin' f'om thet elephunt toward me without knowin' it, an' +screamin'." + +Emmy Lou's agitation broke into speech mingled with tears. "He picks +little children up and puts them in his trunk. And he tried to pick up +me!" + + * * * * * + +Along in the night Emmy Lou awaking found that she wanted a drink. These +warm June nights the water bottle and tumbler sat on the sill of the +open window in Aunt Cordelia's room, which meant that Emmy Lou must get +out of bed and patter in there to them. + +Reaching the window--was Emmy Lou in her nightgown and her bare feet +really there and awake or in her bed in reality and direly dreaming? + +Was it so or not so, this looming, swinging, menacing bulk, palpably +after her again, approaching adown the silent, dusky street? + +Seven years old and a little, little girl, Emmy Lou fled to Aunt +Cordelia's bedside and tugged at her arm to get her awake. + +Aunt Cordelia, taking her into her bed, soothed her, her hand massaging +up and down back, shoulders, little thighs, comfortingly enough, even +the while she scolds. She takes it without question that Emmy Lou has +been dreaming. + +"It is what comes of being a naughty little girl again. We never sleep +well when our conscience is uneasy." + +Emmy Lou lay close. Conscience! Aunt Cordelia said so! + +Nor did Aunt Cordelia dream, nor Emmy Lou suspect, that the monstrous, +looming shape padding along the silent street beyond the open window +with its broad sill was the circus elephant making his way to the +railroad yard and his traveling car, the yard where the roundhouse bell +even now made melancholy tolling in the night. + + + + +V + +LIONS IN THE PATH + + +EMMY LOU came home at close of her first day in the Second Reader. "I +sit with Hattie," she said. + +"Who is she?" asked Aunt Katie. + +"Where does she come from?" added Aunt Louise. + +Emmy Lou was perplexed. Who is Hattie? In her pink-sprigged dress with +her plaits tied behind her either ear? Breathing briskness and +conviction? Why, Hattie is _Hattie_. But how convey this to Aunt Katie? + +And where does she come from? How does Emmy Lou know? Or how is she +expected to know? The population of school, in common with the parallel +world of Sunday school, has no background other than school itself, but +assembling out of the unknown and segregated into Primer Class, First +Reader, Second Reader, even as Sunday school is segregated into Infant +Class, Big Room, and Bible Class, performs its functions and disperses. +Where, then, does Hattie come from? + +"She came out of the cloakroom, and she asked me to sit with her." + +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise laughed. They have laughed at Emmy Lou before +in this sense and so have others. She has said "Madam and Eve" happily +and unsuspectingly all these years until Aunt Katie discovered it and +not only laughed but _told_, and Aunt Louise, in whose person and +carriage Emmy Lou takes pride, was a "blunette" until she found it out +and laughed and told. + +A little boy at school as long ago as last year laughed and told a boy +named Billy who Emmy Lou had believed was her friend: "Ho, Teacher told +her to wait there for the present, and she thinks it's a present," And +at Sunday school a little girl laughed and told: "She thinks her nickel, +that nickel in her hand, is going up to God." + +In consequence of these betrayals of a heart too faithfully shown and a +confidence too earnestly given, Emmy Lou is cautious now, laughter +having become a lion in the path and ridicule a bear in the bush. + +A picture hangs above Aunt Cordelia's mantelpiece. It has been there +ever since Emmy Lou came to make her home with her aunties, but she was +seven years old when she asked about it. + +"Where is the man going?" she said then to Aunt Cordelia. "What will the +lions do to him?" + +"He is going _right onward_. The lions in his path will turn him aside +if they can." + +"Correct," said Uncle Charlie overhearing. "But the lions can't turn +the trick. See the man's sword? And his buckler? The sword of his +courage, and the buckler of the truth." + +"Who is the man?" Emmy Lou wanted to know. + +"The anxious pilgrim of all time," said Uncle Charlie. + +But Aunt Cordelia, taking Emmy Lou on her lap, explained. "The man is +any one of us--you, me, Uncle Charlie, your little friends Maud and +Albert Eddie down at the corner, everybody. If we meet our lions as we +should, with courage and the truth, they, nor anything, can prevent our +going right onward." + + "Oh, let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims then, + Be vigilant and quit themselves like men!" + +said Uncle Charlie. + +And now laughter has become a lion in Emmy Lou's path. Will Hattie, her +new friend, laugh at her? One can refrain from showing one's heart to +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, but in the world of school Emmy Lou needs a +friend. + +Omniscience at home is strangely wanting about this world of school, +perhaps because Emmy Lou's aunties in their days went to establishments +such as Mr. Parson's Select Academy, where the pupil is the thing, and +school and teachers even a bit unduly glad to have and hold her, whereas +Emmy Lou at her school has not found herself in the least the thing. + +In saying she was to sit with Hattie she was implying that she was +grateful indeed for the overture, whereas Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, +taking it the other way, ask who Hattie is and where she comes from. + +Aunt Katie said more: "We must find out something about her. Suppose you +try?" + +But Emmy Lou in one short day has divined all she needs to know, though +she does not know how to tell this to Aunt Katie. Hattie is Hattie, +life a foe to be overcome, this world the lists, and Hattie the +challenged, her colors lowered or surrendered never, though the lance of +her spirit be shivered seventy times seven and her helmet of conviction +splintered. + +And Emmy Lou?--who, as complement to this divination, loves +Hattie?--Emmy Lou, what with over-anxious debate, what with caution, +what with weight of evidence and its considering, is the anxious pilgrim +of all time, lions in the path and bears in the bush. + +Hurrying off to school the next morning to resume the grateful business +of sharing a desk with this new friend, Emmy Lou found Hattie waiting +for her at the gate even as she had said she would be, and life today, +even as life yesterday from the initial moment of acquaintance with +Hattie, became crowded at once, even jostled and elbowed with happening +and information. + +As the two took their places in the line forming at the sound of the +school-bell, a little girl pushed in ahead of them where there was no +place until she by crowding made one. But she did not care for that and +showed it, her curls, which shone like Aunt Cordelia's copper hot-water +jug, tossing themselves, and her skirts flaunting. + +Hattie explained this. "She asked me to sit with her, that's why she's +crowding us now. Her name is Sally Carter. But I choose, I don't take my +friends." Her voice lowered and one gathered that following was an +accusation, even an indictment. "She's the richest little girl in the +class and wants you to know it. And she is an Episcopalian, too." + +Emmy Lou felt anxious. Would Hattie laugh? "I don't know what an +Episcopalian is." + +But she seemed to regard the admission as commendable. "Sally's church +gave an entertainment and called it for the orphans' fund, and she did +the Highland Fling on the stage." + +Emmy Lou had no idea what the Highland Fling was, either, but the line +had reached the entrance doorway beyond which speech is forbidden. +Except for this, must she have said she did not know? Or might she +refrain from committing herself? + +For there are different ways of meeting your lions. Emmy Lou knew two +ways. Last year at school a little girl stood up in the aisle for no +reason but a disposition to do so. Promptly and sharp came the rap of a +pencil on the teacher's desk. + +Lion in the path of the little girl! Lion of reprimand! But the little +girl threw dust in the lion's eyes. "Oh, didn't the bell ring for +everyone to stand?" she inquired. And sat down. + +There is another way. Emmy Lou walked in on her friends the Dawkins one +day, over the grocery at the corner, to find Albert Eddie in trouble. +Possibly more than any person of Emmy Lou's acquaintance, he seemed an +anxious pilgrim of all time too. + +"Stand right where you are," Sarah his big sister was saying to him. +"You've had something in your mouth again that you shouldn't. Don't tell +me. Can't I smell it now I try?" + +Albert Eddie was sniffling, which with a little boy is the first step on +the road to crying. But he met his lion. + +"It's cigars off the catalpa tree," he wept, and went on into the next +room and to bed even as Sarah had forewarned him. + +And so, as soon as Emmy Lou is free to speak, she must tell Hattie that +she does not know what the Highland Fling is? Alas, that in the +exigencies of sharing a desk with this person and incidentally +fulfilling the functions of the Second Reader she forgot to do so! + +At the school gate at the close of the day Hattie said, "Come go to the +corner with me, and I'll show you where I live." + +Go with Hattie? Her friend and more, her monitor and protector? Who the +day through had steered her by the Charybdis of otherwise certain +mistake, and past the Scylla of otherwise inevitable blunder? Go with +her at her asking? Did rescued squire follow his protecting knight in +fealty of gratitude? Did faithful _Sancho_ fall in at heel at his +_Quixote's_ bidding? Emmy Lou, who always went hurrying home because she +was bidden so to do, faced around today and went the other way. + +Hattie lived in a brick house in a yard. Pausing at her gate she made a +proposition. "If you could go to my Sunday school I can come by and get +you." + +"I go to Sunday school," said Emmy Lou. + +Hattie was regretful but acquiescent. "Of course, if you go. I didn't +know. I'll walk back with you and see where you live. I'm Presbyterian. +What are you?" + +Having no idea what Presbyterian was, how could Emmy Lou say in kind +what she was? + +A little girl just arrived at a neighboring gate, an _habitue_ of the +Second Reader also, though Emmy Lou did not know her, joined Hattie and +Emmy Lou as they passed. Hattie knew her and, such is the open sesame of +one achieved friend, Emmy Lou found that she was to be considered as +knowing her also. Her name was Sadie. + +"I've just told her I'm Presbyterian," Hattie explained. + +"I'm Methodist," said Sadie. "That's my church across the street." + +Methodist is Sadie's church, and Presbyterian then is Hattie's? The +names in both cases being abbreviated without doubt, and in seemlier +phrase, St. Methodist and St. Presbyterian? Emmy Lou is on ground +entirely familiar to her now, and she shifts her school-bag and her +lunch-basket relievedly, for while the pilgrim must not fail to say she +does not know when she does not, yet surely she may take advantage of a +knowledge gained through finding out? + +"I go to St. Simeon's P. E. Church," she stated. "It's 'round on Plum +Street." + +"What sort of church is that?" said Hattie. + +"It's a stone church with a vine," said Emmy Lou, nor even under +questioning could she give further information. + +Reversing the idea of Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise, Hattie would seem to +be gradually finding out who and what Emmy Lou is? Friendship evidently +must rest upon declared foundations. Emmy Lou goes to Sunday school and +her church is on Plum Street. So far so good. But one and yet another +lion faced, another and another spring up. + +"Have you taken the pledge?" asks Hattie. + +Emmy Lou in her time has taken the measles and also the chicken-pox, and +more latterly the whooping-cough. And also given it. But the pledge? Has +she taken it, and failed to recall it? And is it desirable or +undesirable that she should have taken it? + +"I've taken it," says Sadie in a tone that leaves no doubt that one +should have taken it. + +While the pilgrim must scorn to throw dust in the eyes through evasion, +may she not hope for advantage through finding out again? Or must she +definitely draw her sword and face this lion by saying that she does not +know? + +Bob, the house-boy, sent to hunt her, is the instrument of her respite. +He brought up before the advancing group. Time was when he would have +said, "Reckon you is done forgot whut happened to thet li'l girl whut +didn't come straight home like she was tol'." But Emmy Lou is a big girl +and Bob acknowledges it. "Reckon you is done forgot whut happens about +dessert for them that don't come on time to get it." + +The implication dismaying even Hattie and Sadie, they took leave of Emmy +Lou hastily. + +"You can tell us about your pledge another time," Hattie called. "Maybe +we will come around to see you this afternoon to get better acquainted." + +Despite Bob's implication, Aunt Cordelia had saved some dessert for Emmy +Lou. By diligent application to her dinner she even caught up with the +others and thus achieved time for an inquiry. Was it on her mind that +Hattie and Sadie might come around this afternoon? + +"What's the pledge?" + +"Which variety?" from Uncle Charlie. "It might be a toast." + +"Or a pawn," said Aunt Louise. + +"Or a surety," said Aunt Katie. + +"And also an earnest," from Uncle Charlie. "Take your choice." + +"Now stop mystifying her," said Aunt Cordelia. "There is altogether too +much of it. I won't allow it. A pledge, Emmy Lou, such as you probably +are thinking about, is a promise. I daresay some of the little boys you +know have taken one. I hear it's quite the thing. Now, hurry. That's why +I sent Bob after you. Dancing school has been changed from Saturday to +Friday afternoon, and you have only half an hour to dress and get there. +Aunt Katie is going with you." + +"But," dismayed, "two little girls said maybe they would come to see +me." + +"Well, I'm sorry. I will see them for you if they come. Now, hurry." + +And Emmy Lou accordingly hurried. For while the claims of school are all +very well in Aunt Cordelia's regard, the claims of church, as Emmy Lou +understands these claims, are imperative. And, moreover, while school +centers itself and its activities within five days and its own four +walls, St. Simeon's is the center of a clustering and revolving +seven-day system. + +On Monday Aunt Cordelia herself takes Emmy Lou to old Mrs. Angell's +sewing class for the little girls of the Sunday school at the rectory +next door to the church. On Thursday Aunt Louise takes her to the +singing class for the children of the Sunday school at the organist's, +across the street from the church. And her aunties share among them the +duty of getting her twice a week to dancing school, taught by Miss +Eustasia, the niece of Dr. Angell, at her home next door on the other +side of St. Simeon's. The Church assembles its youthful populace here in +force as Emmy Lou grasps it, old Mr. Pelot, who taught Miss Eustasia +herself in her day and the mammas and papas of St. Simeon's in their day +too, wielding a bow and violin and being her assistant. + +Dancing school! Emmy Lou, hurrying, is getting ready. School among +schools, secular, sewing, singing, or Sunday, of endeavor, effort, and +anxious perturbation! Aunt Cordelia does her best to help Emmy Lou +along. She takes her in the parlor from time to time, after dinner, +after supper, and, sitting down to the piano, strikes the chords. Aunt +Cordelia's playing has a tinkling, running touch, and her tunes have an +old-fashioned sound. + +"_One_, two, three, start now--" Aunt Cordelia says. "Why didn't you +start when I said? Katie, go away from the door, you and Louise both. +You have laughed at her dancing, and she won't do a thing while you are +here." + +Then again to the endeavor. _One_, two, three, _one_, two, three, alike +the chant and hope and stay of dancing. Emmy Lou starts right; she is +sure that her right foot leads out on time: but the difficulty is, the +while she pantingly counts, to bring up the left foot on the moment. + +Uncle Charlie stops in the parlor doorway while he lights a cigar before +returning downtown. "We might think the left foot was faithful to the +Church and only the right given over to the World, but that Eustasia +plys her art in the shadow of St. Simeon's." + +One foot to the Church and the other to the World? What does Uncle +Charlie mean? Are aspersions to be cast on dancing by other than its +victims? Or can it be that Uncle Charlie, too, like Aunt Katie and Aunt +Louise, is laughing at her? + +But today Emmy Lou and Aunt Katie go hurrying off to dancing school, +Emmy Lou in her Sunday dress devoted to St. Simeon's functions, carrying +her slippers in their bag. + +Miss Eustasia's house is old and shabby. She lives here with her mother +who is Dr. Angell's sister, a lady who crosses her hands resignedly and +says to the mammas and visitors at dancing school, "Eustasia was not +brought up to this; Eustasia was raised with a right to the best." + +Aunt Katie and Emmy Lou hurry in the front door. Miss Eustasia in the +long parlor on one side of the hall is hurrying here and hurrying there, +a little frown of bother and of earnestness between her brows, +marshalling some classes into line, whirling others about face to face +in couples. And old Mr. Pelot, tall and thin, with a grand manner and an +arched nose, is rapping with his bow on the mantel and calling for +order. Mammas and visitors are in place along the wall, and Dr. Angell, +who sometimes, as now, comes over from the rectory to look on, beams and +takes off his glasses and rubs them, and, putting them on, beams again. + +All of which is as it should be, as Emmy Lou understands it; and Miss +Eustasia, born and baptized, brought up and confirmed, as it were, in +the church next door, had to have something to do. And St. Simeon's, +gathering its children together, offered her this, and at the same time +provided for Mr. Pelot, who, being on everybody's mind in his old age, +also had to have something to do. + +And St. Simeon's did itself proud. As Aunt Katie and Emmy Lou came in, +its Infant Class, as Emmy Lou from long association knew it, was out on +the floor taking its first position, while St. Simeon's Big Room, +resolved into skirts, sashes, and curls, or neat shoes, smooth +stockings, knickerbockers, jackets, broad collars, and ties, was waiting +its turn to flutter lightly to places, or, bowing stiffly, go into duty +stoutly. After which its Bible Class, now standing about in confidential +pairs, would go through their new figure in the cotillion sedately. Or +so it was that Emmy Lou coming in in her Sunday dress and her slippers +understood it. + +"Just in time," said Miss Eustasia to her briefly. "Get into line." + +The Infant Class withdrawing to get its breath, Emmy Lou finds herself +between Logan and Wharton in a newly forming line stretching across the +room. She is glad, because they are her friends, having gone with her on +occasion to the circus, and she can ask them about the pledge. + +To each nature of school its vernacular: rudiments and digits, head and +foot, medals and deportment, to the secular; bias and hem, whipping and +backstitch, to the sewing; chorus and refrain, louder please, now +softer, to the singing; sponsors, catechism, texts, to the Sunday; and +Miss Eustasia now is speaking to the class in the vernacular of the +dancing school. + +"No, no, no," in discouragement of all attempts at conversation. "Eyes +in front, everybody, on me, and take the first position. Now, right hand +on right hip, so. Left hand lifted above left shoulder, so. Right foot +out, heel first----" + +"What do you call it?" from Logan, desperate with his efforts. "Have we +had it before? What's its name?" + +"Its name," said Miss Eustasia severely, "is the Highland Fling." + +Emmy Lou found a moment before dispersal to interview Logan and Wharton. +"What's the pledge? Have you taken it?" + +"No, I haven't," said Logan, not so much curt as embittered, so one +gathered, by his share in the afternoon. + +Wharton was more explicit. "We don't have pledges at our Sunday school." + +Emmy Lou knew another little boy, Albert Eddie. She went down to the +corner the next morning to see him. If the truth be told, she still +preferred the snugness of life over a grocery to a house in a yard. + +Mrs. Dawkins, on what she called a pinch, went down in the grocery and +helped. She was there this Saturday morning, and Maud with her. Sarah in +the kitchen upstairs was mixing the Saturday baking in a crock, and +Albert Eddie, being punished, was in a corner on a stool. + +Politeness dictating that the person in durance be ignored, under these +circumstances Emmy Lou immediately addressed herself to Sarah. + +"What's the pledge? Do you know anybody who's taken it?" + +Sarah brought Albert Eddie right into it, stool, corner, and all. +"Albert Eddie can tell you for he's just taken one. He's been a bad boy +again, and it wasn't catalpa cigars this time either. And after he's +been warned. I've made him promise now. Albert Eddie, turn round here +and say your pledge." + + * * * * * + +Monday morning found Emmy Lou at the school gate betimes. "I've got my +pledge now," she told Hattie and Sadie eagerly, as together they +arrived. + +"Of course you have," from Hattie commendingly, "I knew you must have +taken one. Say yours." + +Emmy Lou said hers: + + "I'll never use tobacco, no, + It is a filthy weed, + I'll never put it in my mouth----" + +She stopped. As could be seen in the horrified faces of Hattie and +Sadie, something was wrong. + +"They taught you that at your Sunday school?" from Hattie. + +"You, a little girl----?" from Sadie. + +Whereupon the pilgrim, the pilgrim Emmy Lou, saw it all, saw that she +had but endeavored to throw dust into eyes, beginning with her own. + +"I didn't get my pledge at Sunday school, I got it from a little boy. I +asked him and he taught it to me. We don't have pledges at my Sunday +school." + +"We went to see you on Friday like we said, and you were out," said +Hattie severely. + +"They changed the day and I had to go," from Emmy Lou. "I was at dancing +school." + +"Dancing school? Your Sunday school doesn't have pledges and you go to +dancing school? Your church lets you go? Like Sally Carter's? And you +didn't tell us?" + +"My church might give up pledges if it had to," said Sadie, "but its +foot is down on dancing." + +Yet Hattie would be fair. "Your minister knows? What sort of dancing? +What did you dance on Friday?" + +"Our minister was there. It is the Sunday school that dances. We danced +the Highland Fling." + +The school bell rang. + +"Well," said Hattie as she turned to go, "I'm Presbyterian." + +Sadie bore witness as she turned to follow. "And I'm Methodist." + +Emmy Lou lifted her buckler and drew her sword. Never dust in the eyes +again. For she knew now what she was over and above being a St. +Simeonite, having asked Aunt Cordelia. In this company it bore not only +the odium of disapproval and the hall-mark of condemnation, but from the +qualifying term applied to it by Aunt Cordelia would seem to merit both. + +"I'm a low church Episcopalian," said Emmy Lou, the pilgrim, stoutly if +wretchedly. + +When Emmy Lou reached home that day Aunt Katie brought up an old matter. +"Aunt Cordelia rather likes the looks of the little girl named Hattie +who came here. So I suppose it is all right for you to go on sitting +with her. What have you found out about her?" + +What Emmy Lou would have liked to find out was, would Hattie go on +sitting with her? But how make those things clear to Aunt Katie? + +"Charlie," said Aunt Cordelia to her brother that night, "what on earth +do children mean? Emmy Lou as she was getting ready for bed asked me why +Hattie's church and Sadie's church have the pledge and hers has the +Highland Fling? It isn't possible that she has confused dancing and +Sunday school?" + +Uncle Charlie stared at his sister, then his shout rang to heaven. + + + + +VI + +THE IMPERFECT OFFICES OF PRAYER + + +RECRUITING Sunday occurred at Emmy Lou's Sunday school the winter she +was eight. The change to this nature of thing was sudden. Hitherto when +Hattie, her best friend, who was Presbyterian, spoke of Rally Day, or +Sadie, her next best friend, who was Methodist, spoke of Canvassing Day, +Emmy Lou of St. Simeon's refrained from dwelling on Septuagesima, or +Sexagesima, or Quinquagesima Sunday, as the case might be, for fear it +appear to savor of the elect. As, of course, if one has been brought up +in St. Simeon's, and by Aunt Cordelia, one has begun to feel it does. + +Hattie and Sadie, on the contrary, full of the business and zeal of +Rally Day and Canvassing Sunday, looked with pity on Emmy Lou and St. +Simeon's, and at thought of Quinquagesima and such kindred Sundays shook +their heads. Which is as it should be, too. + +For, while there is one common world of everyday school in the firmament +of the week, drawing the Emmy Lous and Hatties and Sadies into the fold +of its common enterprise and common fellowship, there are varying worlds +in the firmament of Sundays, withdrawing the Emmy Lous and Hatties and +Sadies into the differing folds of rival enterprises, Hattie to the +First Presbyterian Church North, Sadie to the Second Avenue M. E. Church +South, and Emmy Lou with no status or bias as to pole at all, if we +except polemics, to St. Simeon's P. E. + +And each one within her fold is so convinced her fold is the only fold, +it is her part to make all others feel this. Which is as it should be, +too. And, as Hattie pointed out when Sadie got worsted in being made to +feel it and cried, is only the measure of each one's proper Christian +zeal! + +And Hattie, being full of data about her Rally Day, and Sadie, being +full of grace from her Canvassing Day, were equipped at seemingly every +point for making another feel it. Whereas when Sadie asked Emmy Lou what +Quinquagesima or fifty days before Easter had to do with saving souls, +and Hattie asked her to spell it, Quinquagesima not only died on her +lips but she and it seemed indefensibly and reprehensibly in the wrong. +Which Emmy Lou endeavored to remember was but a measure of Christian +zeal again. + +And now St. Simeon's, awakening to its needs in such zeal, was to have, +not a Rally nor yet a Canvassing, but a Recruiting Sunday. For every +Sunday school with any zeal whatever has a nomenclature of its own and +looks with pity and contumely on the nomenclature of any other Sunday +school. So that Emmy Lou heard with a shock of incredulity that what she +knew as the Infant Class was spoken of by Hattie as the Primary, and by +Sadie as the Beginners. + +But this department of Sunday school, whatever its designation, belongs +to the early stages of faith. Emmy Lou is in the Big Room, now, and here +has heard about St. Simeon's Recruiting Sunday. + +Mr. Glidden, the superintendent, announced it. He was a black-haired, +slim, brisk young man. Emmy Lou knew him well. She liked Mr. Glidden. He +came to see Aunt Louise, and admired her. Week days he was a young man +who was going to do credit to his father and mother. Aunt Cordelia said +so. Sundays, if he let his Christian zeal carry him too far, his betters +at St. Simeon's would have to call him down. Uncle Charlie who was a +warden at St. Simeon's said so, curtly, in a way most disturbing. + +In announcing Recruiting Sunday, Mr. Glidden spoke with feeling. "In the +business-run world of today," he told his Sunday school, "St. Simeon's +must look at things in a business way. What with Rally Day and +Canvassing Day in the other Sunday schools, St. Simeon's stands no +chance. Emulation must be met with emulation. Let St. Simeon's get out +and work. And while it works,"--Mr. Glidden colored; he was young--"let +it not forget it shall be its Superintendent's earnest and also daily +prayer that it be permitted to bring even the least of these into the +fold." + +Furthermore, there should be inducements. "For every new scholar brought +in," said Mr. Glidden, "there shall be an emblazoned card. For every +five emblazoned cards there shall be a prize. Cards and prizes I shall +take pleasure in giving out of my own pocket." + +In the light of after events, as Emmy Lou grasped them, the weakness in +the affair lay in Mr. Glidden's failure sufficiently to safeguard his +prayer. + +Emmy Lou had considerable data about prayer, gathered from her two +friends, Hattie being given to data, and Sadie being given to prayer. As +Hattie expounded prayer as exemplified through Sadie, one fact stands +paramount. You should be specifically certain in both what you ask and +how you ask it. For the answer can be an answer and yet be calamitous +too. Hattie used the present disturbing case with Sadie for her proof. + +Sadie and her brother decided they wanted a little sister, and would +pray for one. They did pray, fervently and trustfully, being Methodists, +as Hattie pointed out, night after night, each beside her or his little +white bed. And each was answered. It was twin little sisters. Since +when, Sadie was almost as good as lost to her two friends, through +having to hold one little sister while her mother held the other. + +"You've got to make what you want clear," Hattie argued. "They both +prayed for a little sister at the same time. If they'd prayed, Sadie one +night, and Anselm the next, or if they'd said it was the same little +sister, they wouldn't 'a' had a double answer and so been oversupplied." + +Sadie was torn with conflict over it herself. Her little sisters weren't +justified to her yet, but she wasn't going to admit they might not still +be, though the strain on her Christian zeal was great. + +For at Sadie's Sunday school you did not get a prize for the new +scholars you brought in on Canvassing Day. You got a prize when the next +Canvassing Day came around, if they were still there. And Canvassing Day +was nearly here again, and her scholars were failing her. + +"It's no easy thing to be a Methodist," she said in one of her moments +of respite from a little sister, talking about it with pride through her +gloom. "You work for all you get! When I could look my scholars up every +week, and go by for 'em with Tom and the barouche when the weather was +bad, I had them there for roll-call every Sunday. But now that I have to +hold my little sisters and we haven't Tom or the barouche either because +on account of my little sisters we can't afford them, they've backslid +and dropped out." + +Hattie had data as to that, too. "You needn't be so bitter about it, +Sadie. I know you mean me! You went around and picked your scholars up +anywhere you could find 'em, and I did too. It wasn't as if any one of +'em had a call to your Sunday school. Or as if they had a conviction. +Except Mamie Sessums whose conviction took her away." + +Sadie spoke even more bitterly. "You needn't count on Mamie. Because +she had had a conviction that took her away from where she was, I +counted on her the most of any of mine." + +Hattie was positive. "But the conviction she has now took her away from +yours. Her mother thinks there is too much about falling from grace at +your Sunday school; she doesn't think it nice for little girls to hear +so much about sin." + +"She wouldn't have fallen from grace herself if I could have kept after +her," from Sadie. "If I hadn't to hold my little sisters Mamie wouldn't +be a backslider now. But my little sisters will be justified to me yet. +I'm not going back on prayer." + +It all emphasized the need of exceeding caution in prayer. Emmy Lou +never had thought of it so. Time was, in fact, when, praying her "Gentle +Jesus," at Aunt Cordelia's knee, she poured it out in Aunt Cordelia's +lap, so to speak, and left it there. Not that Aunt Cordelia had not +made her understand that prayer goes to God. But that Aunt Cordelia who +attended to everything else for her would see about getting it there. + +But that was when Emmy Lou was a baby thing, and God the nebulous center +of a more nebulous setting, with the kindly and cheery aspect as well as +the ivory beard of---- Was it Dr. Angell, the rector of St. Simeon's? Or +was there in the background of Emmy Lou's memory a yet more patriarchal +face, reverent through benignity, with flowing ivory beard? A memory +antedating her acquaintance with Dr. Angell? She was a big girl now, and +God was not quite so nebulous nor quite so cheery. His ivory beard was +longer, and in the midst of nebulae for support was a throne. But He yet +could be depended on to be kindly. Aunt Cordelia was authority for that. + +Her concept of prayer, too, had moved forward; prayer in her mind's eye +now taking the form of little white cocked-hat _billets-doux_ winging +out of the postbox of the heart, and, like so many white doves, speeding +up to the blue of Heaven. If God was not too busy, or too bothered, as +grown people sometimes are on trying days, she even could fancy Him +smiling pleasantly, if absently, as grown-up people do, when the +cocked-hat _billets-doux_, a sort of morning mail, were brought in to +Him. + +And so she was glad that Sadie was not going back on prayer, but was +sure that her little sisters would be justified to her. Indeed, her +heart had gone out to Sadie about it, and she had sent up _billets-doux_ +of her own, and would send more, that the little sisters should be +justified to her. + +But from this new point of view supplied by Hattie, the winging +_billets-doux_, as in the mind's eye they sailed upward, seemed to +droop a little, weighted with the need of exceeding caution in prayer. +And in the light of this revelation God in His aspect changed once more, +again gaining in ivory beard and in throne what He again lost in cheer. + +Long ago Aunt Cordelia used to rock her to sleep with a hymn. Emmy Lou +had thought she knew its words, "Behind a frowning providence, He hides +a smiling face." Could she have reversed it? She had been known to do +such things before. All this while had it been saying: "Behind a smiling +providence, He hides a frowning face?" + +At Emmy Lou's own home Aunt M'randy the cook, like Hattie, seemed to +feel that prayer not sufficiently set around with safeguards and +specifications could prove a boomerang. "Didn't I w'ar myse'f out with +prayer to get rid er that no-account nigger house-boy Bob? To hev' thet +prayer swing eroun' with this worse-account house-boy, Tom?" + +Tom had gone to Hattie's house from Sadie's where they no longer could +afford to have him, but he had not stayed there. He didn't get along +with the cook. From there he came to be house-boy for Aunt Cordelia +where Bob couldn't get along with the cook. Tom's idea of his importance +apparently was in the number of places he had lived, and his +qualifications he summed up in a phrase: "I ca'ies my good-will with me +to the pussons I wuks foh." + +The morning after Recruiting Sunday had been announced at St. Simeon's +Sunday school, Uncle Charlie spoke of it at the breakfast table. He +didn't seem to think much of it, and referred to it by another name, +calling it an innovation. + +Aunt Louise, on the contrary, defended it. She was teaching in the +Sunday school now. "If everyone would show the energy and +progressiveness of Mr. Glidden since he took the Sunday school," she +said with spirit, "St. Simeon's would soon look up." + +"Glidden!" said Uncle Charlie. "Willie Glidden! Pshaw!" + +"Why you speak of him in that tone I don't see, unless it is because you +are determined to oppose every innovation he proposes." + +"I oppose his innovations?" heatedly. "On the contrary I am in favor of +giving him his way so he may hang himself in his innovations the +sooner." And Uncle Charlie, getting up to go downtown, slammed the door. + +Which would have been astounding, Uncle Charlie being jocular and not +given to slamming doors, had it not to do with that one of the many +worlds in the firmament of the Sundays, St. Simeon's. Emmy Lou was glad +she understood these things better now. For persons altogether amiable +in the affairs of the week-days to grow touchy and heated over the +affairs of Sundays is only a measure of their Christian zeal. There was +comfort and reassurance in the knowledge. Time was when it would have +frightened her to have Uncle Charlie slam the door, and made her choke +over her waffle, and sent her down from her chair and round to Aunt +Cordelia for comfort and reassurance. + +Aunt Louise, addressing herself to Aunt Cordelia in her place behind the +coffeepot, still further defended Mr. Glidden. + +"He is even waking dear old Dr. Angell a bit. Not that we don't love Dr. +Angell as he is, of course," hastily, "but he does lack +progressiveness." + +"Which may be why some of us do love him," said Aunt Cordelia tartly. +Aunt Cordelia! Pleasant soul! Who rarely was known to sacrifice good +temper even to Christian zeal! Emmy Lou choked on her waffle despite +all! "But don't draw me into it! I decline to take sides." + +"Which means, of course, that you've taken one," said Aunt Louise. "As +if I could ever expect you to side with me against Brother Charlie." + +"And if I do agree with Charlie, what then? To have the running of St. +Simeon's passed over his head to Willie Glidden! The church our own +grandfather gave the ground for! And he the senior warden who has run +St. Simeon's his way for thirty faithful years!" + +And Aunt Cordelia, getting up from behind the coffeepot and going toward +the pantry to see about the ordering, broke forth into hymn, as was her +way when ruffled. Emphatic hymn. And always the same hymn, too, Aunt +Cordelia, like Uncle Charlie, objecting to innovations. Emmy Lou was +long familiar with this hymn as barometer of Aunt Cordelia's state of +being: + + "Let the fiery, cloudy _pillow_," + +sang Aunt Cordelia, flinging open the refrigerator door. + +What it meant, a fiery, cloudy pillow, further than that Aunt Cordelia +was outdone, was another thing. Emmy Lou always intended to ask, but the +very fact that Aunt Cordelia only sang it when outdone prevented--that +and the additional fact that when Aunt Cordelia was outdone Emmy Lou in +distress of mind was undone. + +Aunt Louise waited until Aunt Cordelia, who could be seen through the +open doorway, straightened up from her inspection of the refrigerator. +"Still," she said, "you won't object that I entered Emmy Lou's name at +Sunday school yesterday as a recruiter? To try her best and get a +prize?" + +"I do object if there are tickets about it," emphatically. "You can take +care of them for her if so. Willie Glidden has gone mad over tickets. +What with her blue tickets for attendance one place in my bureau +drawer, and her pink tickets for texts in another place, I won't be +bothered further." + +Yet what were Sunday schools without tickets? Emmy Lou getting down from +the breakfast table, her still unfinished waffle abandoned for all time +now, was dumbfounded. The one thing common to all Sunday schools was +tickets. Though St. Simeon's under the accelerating progressiveness of +Mr. Glidden had gone further, and whereas in ordinary your accumulated +tickets for every sort of prowess only got you on the honor roll, a +matter of names on a blackboard, Mr. Glidden had instituted what he +called "a drawing card." At St. Simeon's, now, when your blue tickets +for attendance numbered four--or five those months when the calendar +played you false and ran in another Sunday--you carried these back and +got the Bible in Colors, a picture at a time. And, incidentally, a color +at a time, too. Emmy Lou had a gratifying start in these, last month +having achieved a magenta Daniel facing magenta lions in a magenta den, +and this month adding a blue David with a blue sword cutting off the +head of a not unreasonably bluer Goliath. + +Pink tickets grow more slowly. Aunt Cordelia said that she could see to +it that Emmy Lou got to Sunday school, but she could only do her best +about the texts. + +And she did do her best, Emmy Lou felt that she did. + +"Say the text over on the way as you go," Aunt Cordelia had said to her +as she started only yesterday. "That way you won't forget it before you +get there." + +And she had said it on the way, and had said it in the class, too, when +called on by Miss Emerine. + +Aunt Cordelia, plump and pleasant soul, had ways of her own, and Emmy +Lou in ways even beyond the plumpness was modeled on her. Aunt Cordelia +said "were" as though it were spelled w-a-r-e, and Emmy Lou said it that +way too. + +"'And five ware wise, and five ware foolish,'" Emmy Lou told Miss +Emerine. + +"Five what?" Miss Emerine asked, which was unfortunate, this being what +Emmy Lou had failed to remember. + +It was Tom, the new house-boy, who really started Emmy Lou's recruiting +for St. Simeon's. Hearing Aunt Louise ask her what she was doing about +looking up new scholars, he volunteered his help. + +"There's a li'l girl up the street whar I wuked once is thinkin' about +changin' her Sunday school. I'll tell her to come aroun' an' see you." + +The little girl came around promptly. It was Mamie Sessums. Emmy Lou +knew her at week-day school. Far from being without a conviction, as +Hattie had claimed, she now had two. + +"My mother says Tom don't do anything but try to have her change my +Sunday school. He lived with us before he went to live at Sadie's. But +she says she's very glad to have me stop Hattie's and go with you. She +didn't send me there to have the minister go by our house every day and +never come in. Sadie's minister never came to call on her when I went to +that Sunday school either. Do you have tickets at your Sunday school?" + +Tickets were vindicated. Emmy Lou hurried upstairs and came back with +all her trophies of this nature. Mamie seemed impressed by the Bible in +Colors. + +"You get them a picture at a time," Emmy Lou explained. "The first one +is Adam in buff." + +"Buff?" said Mamie doubtfully. + +"Buff," repeated Emmy Lou firmly, since it was so, and not to be helped +because Mamie didn't seem to like it. "My Uncle Charlie says so." + +But it was only lack of familiarity with buff on the part of Mamie. As a +prize, it impressed her. "I'll meet you on your church steps on +Recruiting Sunday," she said. + +After Mamie left, Emmy Lou went around to see Hattie. "Don't let it make +you feel bad, taking Mamie away from me," Hattie told her. "I never +expected anything else. When it's not a call, nor even a conviction, +they're like as not to fail you on the very doorstep." + +Sadie, at her window holding a little sister, waved to Emmy Lou and +Hattie on the sidewalk. It was hard Sadie couldn't be with her friends +any more. Emmy Lou sent up a _billet-doux_ that the little sisters might +be justified to Sadie yet. Poor Sadie! + +It was Tom who told Emmy Lou where to go for her next recruit. She had +no idea it would be so easy. Sadie had worked hard for all she got but +it didn't seem hard to Emmy Lou. "There's a li'l girl roun' on Plum +Street where I wuked once, too. I'll speak to her, an' then you go roun' +an' see her." + +With Aunt Cordelia's permission, Emmy Lou went around. It proved that +she knew this little girl at school, too. Her name was Sallie Carter. +She was the richest little girl in the class and said so. Her curls +shone like Aunt Cordelia's copper hot-water jug, and her skirts stood +out and flaunted. + +Sallie had convictions too. She had tried Sadie's Sunday school while +her own church was being rebuilt, and she was just about through trying +Hattie's. + +"My mother thinks it's strange that Tom should be sending you after me +too. Though he did live with us before he lived with any of you. She is +surprised at some of the little girls who go to Sadie's Sunday school. +And after she took me away they were the first little girls I met on the +steps at Hattie's Sunday school. My mother says I'm a Carter on one side +and a Cannon on the other, and everybody knows what that means. We're +high church and you are low, but she's glad to have me go with you to +St. Simeon's for a while and try it. Do you have tickets?" + +Tickets and more, the Bible in Colors. Emmy Lou, explaining it, felt +again she couldn't sufficiently uphold tickets to Aunt Cordelia. + +The very next day Tom came to Aunt Cordelia and said if she would let +Emmy Lou go with him to Mr. Schmit's when he went to get the ice, he +knew of some other little girls who might be persuaded to go to her +Sunday school. At Aunt Cordelia's word, Emmy Lou got her hat and joined +Tom with his basket. + +The accustomed place to get extra ice before Tom came was Mr. Dawkins' +at the corner. But Tom wouldn't hear of going to Mr. Dawkins'. He +argued about it until Aunt Cordelia gave in. He said he used to live +with Mr. Schmit and drive his wagon. + +Emmy Lou knew Mr. Schmit herself. Tom, after an inquiry at the counter, +took her through the store to the back yard where he left her, a back +yard full of boxes and crates and empty coops. Mr. Schmit's little girl +Lisa was here with a baby brother in her arms, and another holding to +her skirts, Yetta, her little sister, and Katie O'Brien from next door +completing the group. Emmy Lou knew Lisa and Katie at school, too. +Lisa's round cheeks were mottled and red, and the plaits hanging down +her back were yellow. She did not seem overly glad to see Emmy Lou +though she came forward. + +"Well?" she said. + +It made it hard to begin. And even after Emmy Lou had explained that she +had come to get them to go to Sunday school Lisa was unmoved. + +"What do we want to go to Sunday school for? If we wanted to go to +Sunday school we'd be going. We go to our grandfather's in the country +now on Sundays. That way we get a ride in my papa's grocery wagon and we +get to the country too." + +"But if you would," urged Emmy Lou, "it would get me a prize." + +"Sure I see," said Lisa. "I see that. But if Katie here and Yetta and me +give up our ride out to my grandfather's, what do we get?" + +"Oh!" said Emmy Lou, and hastened to set forth St. Simeon's largesse and +system in tickets. + +"What do we do to get the tickets?" asked Lisa. "We're Lutheran and +Katie's Dominican. I don't know as we'd be allowed to. We wouldn't mind +four Sundays and get a picture, would we, Katie?" + +Katie, whose hair was black and whose eyes were blue, agreed. + +"Sure, we'd like a picture. But I don't know as they'd let me at home. +They said I shouldn't go to no more Sunday schools. The little girl who +was sassy to us and said they didn't want us there was at two Sunday +schools we've been to now." + +"Still," said Lisa, "we'd like a picture. Which one is your Sunday +school?" + +When Emmy Lou rejoined Tom, she was overjoyed. "And they'll meet me on +the church steps too. All of 'em will meet me on the church steps, Mamie +and Sally and Lisa and Yetta and Katie." + +And now it was Recruiting Sunday. But the shortness of manner with which +Aunt Cordelia tied Emmy Lou's hair-ribbons was not on account of this, +Recruiting Sunday for her having taken its place among the minor evils. +Late on Saturday evening she had lost Tom, a case again of the +house-boy not getting on with the cook. + +"After I wore myse'f out with prayer to git rid of thet no-account Bob, +to have thet prayer swing aroun' with this worse-account Tom," was Aunt +M'randy's explanation of the disagreement. + +"They want me over at Sadie's house tomorrow, anyway," Tom said with +feeling as he went. "'Count of their grandfather walkin' in on 'em f'om +Kansas City sudden there's big doin's hurried up about the twins. +They're goin' to have a barouche roun' f'om the livery stable too, an' +they want me to drive." + +Then Tom became darkly cryptic. "I tol' you when I come, I ca'ies my +goodwill with me to the pussons I wuks foh." + +And now it was Sunday morning and no house-boy. "Charlie," said Aunt +Cordelia to this person, "I wish you'd walk around to the Sunday school +door with Emmy Lou. She's never been so far alone. Louise is not ready, +and she's to meet all those children on the church step where they'll be +waiting for her, and thinks she ought to be early." + +"Surely," said Uncle Charlie. "I'm glad to. I've an idea it's about time +for Willie Glidden to be hanging himself in some of his innovations." + +At the corner Uncle Charlie and Emmy Lou met Tom coming back towards +Sadie's with the barouche from the livery stable. One felt Tom saw them, +though he looked the other way. + +At the second corner they met Sally Carter. Her curls shone like Aunt +Cordelia's copper hot-water jug, and her skirts stood out and flaunted. +She stopped when Emmy Lou stopped, but with reluctance, since it was +palpable she was in a hurry. + +"I've decided I didn't treat Sadie right. My name's still on her roll. +Those little girls my mother didn't want me to associate with at the +other Sunday schools were on your church steps, anyway, and she wouldn't +want me to stay." + +At the next corner they met Lisa and Yetta and Katie, scoured and +braided and in their Sunday dresses. They didn't want to stop either, +palpably being in even a greater hurry. + +"As long as we're goin' to Sunday school we think well go back to the +one we started from," said Lisa. "That sassy little girl our mothers +said we shouldn't put up with was on your church steps anyhow, and was +sassy to us some more." + +At St. Simeon's itself they met Mamie. "I didn't want to wait, but I +felt I ought to. I'm going back to Sadie's, and I'm late. Tom called to +us here on the steps as he went by in the barouche, and said Sadie's +little twin sisters were going to be baptized at her church right after +Sunday school." + +"Which," said Uncle Charlie the while his Emmy Lou swallowed tears, +"hangs Willie Glidden neatly in his own innovations." + +When Sadie and Hattie and Emmy Lou met at school the next day, Sadie's +eyes were bright and her face shone. Why not? As she pointed out, her +little sisters were justified to her, her erring scholars were returned, +her grandfather said he'd see to it that they _could_ afford to have Tom +back and the barouche too, and it all went to prove the efficacy of +prayer. + +It would seem to. That is, of Sadie's prayer. Emmy Lou could see that. +She indeed had sent up _billets-doux_ in Sadie's behalf herself. But it +did not explain everything. + +"Mr. Glidden at my Sunday school prayed too, that the least of these be +brought into the fold." + +Hattie forgot her own right to grievance in the joy of this additional +data in support of her position. Had she not claimed that an answer to +prayer can be an answer and yet be calamitous too? + +"Exactly," said Hattie. "'The least of these into the fold.' But he +didn't say which fold!" + +Did not say which fold? To God who knows everything? For Mr. Glidden +meant his fold. Hattie, then, was right? + +The concepts of Emmy Lou, eight years old, a big girl now, moved on +again. Behind a smiling providence God hides a frowning face. And those +winging _billets-doux_, already weighted with caution and now heavy with +doubt, in the mind's eye faltered, hung, and came fluttering, drifting, +so many falling white doves, wings broken, down from the blue. + + + + +VII + +PINK TICKETS FOR TEXTS + + +THE walls of St. Simeon's conservatism had fallen. St. Simeon's, with +its arches above, its pews below, their latched doors, as it were, +symbolic, the Old Dispensation depicted in the window above its entrance +doors, and St. Paul, the apostle of the personal revelation, smitten to +his knees by light from Heaven, the figure of the window above its +chancel. Modern progressiveness, the battering-ram in the hands of +Willie Glidden, come up through the Sunday school himself but yesterday, +had assailed the defenses of an older generation successfully. + +Or so Uncle Charlie seemed to think as he repeated the news brought from +Sunday school by Aunt Louise and Emmy Lou. "Dr. Angell came into the +Sunday school room this morning and offered a rector's prize for pink +tickets earned for texts? Each child receiving a pink ticket for every +Sunday throughout the year to be thus rewarded? Willie Glidden has +goaded him to this." + +Mr. Glidden had goaded the rector of St. Simeon's to other things which +Emmy Lou, nearing nine years, had heard discussed at home. + +"Popular heads to my sermons for the newspapers and the bulletin board?" +it was reported that Dr. Angell had said indignantly. "Who but Glidden +wants notices in the papers or a bulletin board either? For forty years +I have sedulously refrained from being popular, and I'll not begin it +now." + +But he came to it, popular heads being furnished by him weekly, in a +dazed pother at finding himself doing it, but still doing it. + +"Prizes to encourage the Sunday school?" so report said his comment was +to this last proposition. "Pay the children of my church for doing their +duty?" + +But the report also said that he calmed down on grasping that the +proposition centered about texts. + +When Dr. Angell met the little people of his flock in the company of +their elders he addressed them much after the same fashion. "A big girl, +now!" or "Quite a little man!" he would say. "Old enough to be coming to +church every Sunday and profiting by service and sermon." + +"Sermon," said he, on occasion to a little boy who said he didn't like +sermons. "The sooner you realize and profit by the knowledge that life +is one unending sermon, sirrah, the better for you." + +Dr. Angell had gathered his own sermons into a book, as Aunt Cordelia +told proudly to strangers, a stout volume bound in cloth, with a golden +sun in a nimbus of rays stamped on the cover, entitled "Rays from the +Sun of Righteousness." + +And now, his attention caught and held by the word "text," since from +his viewpoint to every sermon its text, and possibly to every text its +sermon, he was offering a rector's prize for a year's quiver of pink +tickets, these being the visible show of as many correctly recited +texts. + +"Will you have Emmy Lou try?" Aunt Louise said to Aunt Cordelia. "We in +the Sunday school feel we should do all we can to support Mr. Glidden." + +But Aunt Cordelia needed no urging from Aunt Louise. She did not feel +that respect for the institutions introduced at St. Simeon's by Mr. +Glidden that Aunt Louise felt, and did not hesitate to say so. But +anything inaugurated by the rector of her church she did respect. + +"If Dr. Angell is offering the prize, certainly Emmy Lou will try. A +rector's, not a Willie Glidden prize, is a different thing. It will be +something for her to esteem and value all her life. I am sorry it is for +texts." Evidently the word had the same associations for Aunt Cordelia +that it had for Dr. Angell. "I have trouble enough as it is in making +her want to stay to church." + +Aunt Louise explained. "The prizes are for the weekly texts heading the +Sunday school lessons. They have no connection with church or the +sermon." + +"Well, maybe not," Aunt Cordelia conceded, "but if she is going to take +a prize from Dr. Angell for texts, and I shall see to it that she does, +it is no more than she ought to be willing to do, to listen cheerfully +to his sermons. I have been too lenient in excusing her from church." + +On this same Sunday afternoon Emmy Lou went around to talk the matter +over with Hattie, and found Sadie there. + +Emmy Lou and Hattie had been estranged, their first misunderstanding, +Emmy Lou, with St. Simeon's back of her, having taken one stand, and +Hattie another. + +Emmy Lou spoke of kneeling at her church to pray and standing to sing +and Hattie corrected her. "Who ever beard of such a thing? You mean +stand to pray and sit down to sing." + +Emmy Lou didn't mean anything of the kind and said so. + +Hattie faced her down. "Don't I go to church? Doesn't Sadie go?" turning +to this person as referee. "Don't we know?" + +Sadie was obliged to qualify her support. "We don't _stand_ to pray, we +lean our foreheads on the next pew." + +Emmy Lou refused to be coerced. "I don't stand to pray, or lean forward +either. I kneel down." + +"Then," said Hattie, "it must be because you are what my father calls a +bigoted Episcopalian, that you don't. Everybody else stands up or leans +forward." + +Emmy Lou had faced the chancel of her church for four years. "St. Paul +doesn't. He's kneeling above our chancel." + +"Then he must be a bigoted Episcopalian too," said Hattie with feeling, +and went home. + +But today Hattie and Sadie, if anything, were envious of Emmy Lou's +opportunity. A rector's prize! + +Hattie, to be sure, with the books of the Bible in her memory as were +David's pebbles in his scrip, once had felled the giant, Contest, and +won the banner for the girls over the boys at her Sunday school. For +which act of prowess her teacher had rewarded her with a little gold +pin. + +And Sadie had a workbox, a little affair complete, scissors, thimble, +and all, a recognition of faithfulness at large, from her Sunday school +teacher, the same delivered to her by the superintendent before the +assembled Sunday school. And as she pointed out, the calling of her name +and the walk up and down the aisle to receive the gift were no small +part of the reward. + +It did stagger them both that Emmy Lou should have to stay to church. +"Still," argued Hattie, "it will be worth it, a rector's prize. Though +why you don't say preacher!" + +"Or minister," said Sadie. + +"My brother once got a silver dollar for a prize that wasn't a dollar at +all but a watch made to look like a dollar," said Hattie. + +"But not from church," Sadie reminded her. + +"No, from the President Dollar Watch Company for guessing the pictures +of the presidents. But still it was a prize." + +Sadie could supplement this. "My mamma heard of a little girl who sold +tickets for a picnic and won a locket on a chain." + +Emmy Lou went home cheered. Aunt Cordelia had put the emphasis on the +texts whereas Hattie and Sadie had put it on the prize. + +"A silver dollar that wasn't a dollar but a watch, and a locket on a +chain," said Uncle Charlie, overhearing her tell about it. "Well, well!" + +A rector's prize should indeed be something worth the working for. +Fifty-two pink tickets standing for fifty-two correctly recited texts, +and attendance at church for fifty-two Sundays! + +For Aunt Cordelia was as good as her word. The next Sunday she and Uncle +Charlie on their road to St. Simeon's met Emmy Lou returning from Sunday +school. Hitherto on these weekly encounters it was a toss-up whether she +should be allowed to proceed, or must return to church. + +With Emmy Lou, face and eyes uplifted to Aunt Cordelia, mutely +interceding for herself, while Uncle Charlie articulately interceded for +her, it was a stand-off whether or not she should be required to go. And +when the worst happened and she must turn about and accompany Aunt +Cordelia, the propinquity of Uncle Charlie in the pew beside her had +helped her through. Until recently he had slipped smoothly rounded +peppermints banded in red from his vest pocket to her, or, the supply +running low, passed her his pencil and an envelope to amuse herself. But +she was a big girl now and Aunt Cordelia no longer permitted these +indulgences. + +"Sermons in pencils too, perhaps, Cordelia," Uncle Charlie pleaded, "and +good in peppermints." + +But in vain. "Charlie!" Aunt Cordelia but remonstrated, shocked. + +Nor was Emmy Lou to be excused today. Aunt Cordelia, plump and comely +in her furs and ample cloak and seemly bonnet, and Uncle Charlie in his +top-coat, gray trousers, silk hat, and natty cane, brought up short on +meeting her. Not that she, in a chinchilla coat suitable for the big +girl she was, and a gray plush hat, with her hair tied with scarlet +ribbons, had much hope herself. + +"I see you have your pink ticket in your hand, a good beginning," said +Aunt Cordelia. "I'm glad you walked to meet us. You can do so every +Sunday; the change and relaxation will do you good. Now, Charlie, not a +word. From now on, while she is trying for Dr. Angell's prize, she will +go back with us to church." + +Emmy Lou found herself there within a very few minutes, the +parallelograms of pews about her filled with the assembled congregation, +she in her place between Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Charlie. + +And at home, where she now would be had Aunt Cordelia relented, what? +Her children doomed to sit in a wooden row against the baseboard until +she arrived to release them. The new book, for Emmy Lou is reading now, +left where one begins to divine that the white cat in reality is a +beautiful lady. Also at home on Aunt Cordelia's table that Sunday +institution never forgotten by Uncle Charlie, the box of candy, from +whose serried layers Emmy Lou may take one piece in Aunt Cordelia's +absence. Furthermore at home the realm of the kitchen with its rites of +Sunday preparation, Aunt M'randy its priestess, and delectable odors and +savory steam arising from its altar, the cooking-stove. + +And in the stead for Emmy Lou a morning spent in church. Still she can +settle down and think of the prize which as reward for all this +faithfulness will be hers. Think of Hattie's gold pin, and Sadie's +work-basket, of the silver dollar which in reality was a watch, and the +locket on the chain. + +Aunt Cordelia touches Emmy Lou, and, brought to herself, she stands up. +Aunt Cordelia finds the place and hands her a prayer book. Church has +begun. + +Amid form without meaning, and symbol without clue, the mind of Emmy Lou +wanders again, this time to that puzzle, the adult, no less impenetrable +to the mind of nine than the shrouded mystery of ancient Egypt to the +adult. For adults, Aunt Cordelia for one, here beside her in the pew, +love to go to church. The proof? That they of their own volition, since +the adult acts of himself, are here. + +Aunt Cordelia touches Emmy Lou. She and Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Charlie +and the congregation of St. Simeon's, Hattie to the contrary, kneel +down. + +But the mind continues to wander. The adult is here because it wants to +be here, whereas Emmy Lou is here because Aunt Cordelia says she must +be. Her eyes, too, will travel ahead on the prayer book page to the +amen. What amen? Any and all, since amens wherever occurring signify the +end of the especial thing of the moment, whether said, sung or prayed. +The thought sustaining one being that, amen succeeding amen, the final +and valedictory one is bound to come in time. + +"Get up for the Venite," whispers Aunt Cordelia, and Emmy Lou who has +lost herself on her knees gets up, pink with the defection. Not that the +Venite has any significance to her which brings her to her feet, but +that to find herself in the wrong situation at church, or anywhere, is +embarrassing. + +This pitfall of ritual is called the service, though it might be worse +since the more service the less sermon. As nearly as Emmy Lou can grasp +it, at Hattie's church, beyond a sparse standing up to pray, and +sitting down to sing, it is all sermon. + +Aunt Cordelia has to speak to her by and by again: "Get up for the +Jubilate," Emmy Lou having lost herself during the second lesson. + +And yet? And yet? Can it be there is more in this business of church +than an Emmy Lou suspects? The congregation now going down on its knees +for that matter called the Litany, a tear presently splashes on the +glove of Aunt Cordelia kneeling beside Emmy Lou, her head bowed above +the big, cross-emblazoned prayer book that she always uses. + +Aunt Katie and Aunt Louise wear white gloves or gray or brown as the +case may be, and feathers and flowers, and their dresses are varied and +cheery. But Aunt Cordelia still wears black in memory of Emmy Lou's +mother who went away when Emmy Lou was four. The tear falling on her +black glove and sliding off to the book makes a stain tinged with +purple from the kid. + +Then Emmy Lou remembers this is the anniversary of the day her mother +went forever, and understands why the prayer book in Aunt Cordelia's +hand is open at the flyleaf bearing the name of its first owner, Emily +Pope McLaurin. + +Are we nearer our dead at church? And being nearer, are we comforted? +For when Aunt Cordelia arises from her knees her face is happy. + +"The four hundred and ninety-fourth hymn," she whispers. "Find the +place." Then in refutation of Hattie, "Stand up." + +And Emmy Lou, finding the hymn for herself, stands up and with Aunt +Cordelia and Uncle Charlie and the congregation, sings heartily: + + "The Church's one foundation + Is Jesus Christ her Lord----" + +While the service thus drags its length along, the hymn which Emmy Lou +both can find for herself and can sing heartily being the only oasis in +the desert of her morning, there is worse ahead. Between two uprising +peaks of the amens, one of which is reached with the close of the hymn, +lies that valley of dry bones called the sermon. + +Dr. Angell is beginning it now. "'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a +light unto my path.'" + +This seems a reasonably clear and definite statement even to Emmy Lou, +not quite nine and slow to follow. But no. + +"The Psalmist was given to imagery, which is to say, was an Oriental," +begins Dr. Angell. And so one goes down with him into the valley of dry +bones. + +The mind wanders anew. How can it help wandering? Albert Eddie Dawkins +is across the church in a side pew with his big sister, Sarah. She has +decided that he shall try for a rector's prize too. He is low in his +mind about it, and said so to Emmy Lou coming out of Sunday school this +morning. + +Joe Kiffin made a proposition to him that he could not accept, Joe being +the big boy who drove the wagon and delivered for the Dawkins grocery. + +"He said he would take me and another boy this morning to a place where +we can get all the honey locusts we want. A place where the ground is +covered with 'em. But we both had to come to Sunday school and stay to +church, and Joe says we can't expect him to take us in the afternoon +when it's the only afternoon he's got. You know honey locusts?" + +Emmy Lou was compelled to admit that she did not. + +"Well," a little anxiously, "I don't either. But if I and the other boy +could have gone with Joe, I'd have found out." + +[Illustration: "With one pink ticket in hand, fifty-one yet to be +achieved for texts."] + +The other boy was at church too. By turning her head the least bit Emmy +Lou could see him. His name was Logan. But he wasn't trying for a prize. +He said they might make him stay to church--"they" meaning the grown +persons in the pew with him--but they couldn't make him try for pink +tickets, or walk up an aisle to get a prize he mightn't want anyway. + +Mightn't Logan want it? Was there any chance that Emmy Lou would not +want hers? Fifty-two--no, fifty-one--Sundays now to come, and with one +pink ticket in hand, fifty-one yet to be achieved for texts. + +Dr. Angell is ending his sermon. ". . . and so it comes that the words of +the Psalmist occurring in the liturgy of our service, are a lamp unto +our feet, and a light unto our path." And he and his congregation come +up out of the valley of dry bones. + +And yet? And yet? Emmy Lou's eyes, fixed on Dr. Angell, are registering +on the retina of her mind for all time a figure which for her shall be +a type, dominant in its attitude of beneficent authority, hands +outspread above its people, rumpled hair white, beard white, robes +white, a shaft of light from a common window into heaven shared with him +by St. Paul, the bigoted Episcopalian, searching him out where he +stands. + +As void of meaning to her, these gettings up and these sittings down, +these venites, jubilates, and amens, as the purpose of Dr. Angell in his +chancel. Yet who shall say at what moment Emmy Lou in her pew, +struggling along in the darkness though she is, shall sense the symbol +of the one, and behold in the other the office and the appointment? + +And the adult who is here of self-actuated volition? The Aunt Cordelia +ever in her place in the family pew? Emmy Lou's eyes turn to this +person, and behold, her face is touched as by a light, too, and her eyes +are shining. + +"Get up," she whispers as she herself arises, "it is the benediction." + +Uncle Charlie is jocular on the way home. "And what did you think of the +sermon?" he asks Emmy Lou. + +She does not know that he is jocular, nor that she too, unwittingly, is +the same in her reply. "I thought I understood the text until Dr. Angell +began to explain it, and then I lost it." + +Fifty-one more Sundays, fifty-one more sermons, fifty-one more texts +between Emmy Lou and her reward! The next Sunday and there would be +fifty, and the next forty-nine! + +As the weeks went by Emmy Lou discussed the prize with Aunt Cordelia, +and incidentally with Uncle Charlie who overheard the conversations. + +"When Albert Eddie's mamma won a prize for catechism in England where +she lived when she was little, it was tea to take home to her mother, +and a flannel petticoat for her grandma, and she cried." + +And again. "Sadie says it's an awful thing when your name is called, to +get up and walk up the aisle, but Hattie says that you don't mind it so +much if you keep thinking about the prize." + + * * * * * + +Papa came down once a month from his home city a hundred miles away, to +stay over Sunday and see Emmy Lou. "I was going to propose," he said on +one of these visits, "that the next time, you and Aunt Cordelia and +Uncle Charlie get on the train and come up to visit me. But it's no use, +I see." + +"Not until I get my prize," said Emmy Lou. "I have forty-one pink +tickets in Aunt Cordelia's bureau drawer, and today will make +forty-two." + +"I am almost sorry I let her try," Aunt Cordelia told her brother-in-law +and Uncle Charlie. "She begins to study the text for the next Sunday as +soon as she gets home on this." + +Aunt Louise, as the allotted Sunday drew near, brought home news of a +tiff between Dr. Angell and Mr. Glidden. + +"Mr. Glidden told Dr. Angell today that he had been looking over a +printed list of Sunday school prizes sent to superintendents, and had +noticed some excellent suggestions. Dr. Angell was ruffled and said, 'If +I'm fool enough to come to prizes, bribes for duty, I'm nevertheless +still capable of providing them.' I'm afraid he is getting old." + +"Old," retorted Uncle Charlie. "It's being goaded by Willie Glidden. +Drive even a saint too far and he will show his manhood." + +"Hattie's is a little pin," remarked Emmy Lou, even irrelevantly, "and +Sadie's is a workbox, and that other little girl's was a locket on a +chain." + +The morning of the fifty-third Sunday came. "I don't know which she is +the more, proud, or alarmed, at thought of walking up the aisle this +morning for her prize," said Aunt Cordelia after Emmy Lou left the +breakfast table. "There are only three children who have come through +successfully in the whole Sunday school, Charlie. A little girl named +Puggy Western, according to Emmy Lou, she herself, and Albert Eddie +Dawkins. Two of the three are thanks to Sarah and myself, if I do say +it." + + * * * * * + +The moment was come. The Sunday school--Bible Class, Big Room, and +Infant Class--was assembled. Mr. Glidden, with Dr. Angell beside him, +had arisen. + +"One at a time, Puggy Western, Emily Louise McLaurin, and Albert Edward +Dawkins come forward and receive their prizes." + +Puggy Western went up first, in a brand-new hat and coat for the +occasion, and came back. + +Emily Louise McLaurin went up next in a next-to-new coat and hat and +dress, and came back. + +Albert Edward Dawkins, in a new suit and his first high collar, went up +and came back. A hymn, and Sunday school was over, and all ages and +sizes crowded around the three to see their similar rewards. + + * * * * * + +When Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Charlie on their road to church met Emmy +Lou this morning, her eyes, like her late accumulation of tickets, were +pink. She to whom tears came hard and seldom had been crying. + +"And how about the prize?" asked Uncle Charlie. + +Emmy Lou, tears stoutly held back, handed it to him. He looked it over, +opened it, read her name in inscription within, then lifted his gaze to +her. + +"Well, I'll be doggoned!" + +"Charlie!" from Aunt Cordelia. + +"I surely will. The same to the other two?" + +Emmy Lou nodded. There are times when one cannot trust oneself to speak. + +And when Uncle Charlie handed back the volume stoutly bound in cloth, +stamped with a golden sun in a nimbus of rays, and bearing for title, +"Rays From the Sun of Righteousness," the nimbus surrounded, not a +golden sun, but a silver dollar held in place by Uncle Charlie's thumb. + +"A dollar that is only a dollar, and not a watch," he explained +regretfully. "But somewhere in the week ahead we may be able to overtake +a locket on a chain." Then to Aunt Cordelia, "I'll decide it this +morning, Cordelia. Emmy Lou is excused for today from anything further +in the nature of sermons." + +The next Sunday Albert Eddie Dawkins was absent from Sunday school. He +had run off, so his sister Maud explained, and could not be found. + +Emmy Lou heard more about it later on from Albert Eddie himself. She +also found out what a honey locust is, though she had had to wait a year +to do so. + +"I told Joe Kiffen if he'd take us to that honey locust place now, that +he said he would last year, I'd stay away from Sunday school. And he +did. And here's one for you." + +Emmy Lou took the pod and bit into it. As solace and recompense she +could have wished for something more delectable. + + + + +VIII + +STERN DAUGHTER OF THE VOICE OF GOD + + +HATTIE'S rule of life was simple, but severe. She set it forth for Emmy +Lou. "Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and you have to draw the line +between. And when you've chosen which side you're on, you have to stand +by your colors." + +She went on to diagram her meaning. "I heard my father tell my brothers +what it means to stand by your colors. He said they couldn't be too +careful in their associates. That now they've joined the League for the +Right they must show their faith by their works. You and I can't +associate with anyone who chooses the other side either. If Lisa Schmit +will go to Sunday picnics, she's wrong, and you and I have to show our +colors and tell her so." + +Emmy Lou hesitated at such consignment of Lisa to the limbo defined as +wrong, but Hattie said she didn't dare hesitate. She even showed a +disposition to take Emmy Lou's right of election into her keeping, +saying if she felt this way about it she'd speak for her. + +"No, we won't come into your game of prisoner's base," she told Lisa and +Yetta at recess; "we're going to have a game of our own." + +The contumely for the unfriendly act nevertheless fell on Emmy Lou who +knew them best. "She's getting to be stuck up," Lisa said bitterly to +her own group, with a jerk of her head toward Emmy Lou standing by +Hattie. "She won't play with Yetta and me any more because our papa +keeps a grocery." + +"No such thing!" said Hattie. "She won't play with you because you go to +picnics on Sunday." + +Was this true? Or was it because Hattie had told her she must not play +with them because they went to picnics on Sunday? + +Hattie called this bringing of Lisa and Yetta to judgment "drawing the +line." It was a painful process to the rejected. Lisa went off with her +face suffused and Yetta who followed her was crying. + +Next followed the case of Mittie Heinz whose mamma kept a little shop +for general notions, a stock that Emmy Lou never had been able to +identify, often as she had been there to buy needles or thread or +cambric for Aunt Cordelia. + +Mittie read her storybook on the steps of the shop on Sunday and Hattie +explained to her that this made it impossible to include her in a game +of catcher. + +"Right's right, and wrong's wrong," she said. "If we are going to draw +the line we have to draw it." + +"I read my books on Sunday," expostulated Emmy Lou, for Mittie's +startled face showed surprise as she turned away, and her eyes looked +reproach at Emmy Lou. + +"But they are books you get out of your Sunday school library, and don't +count anyway because you say you don't like them," from Hattie. + +This lamentable and unhappy knowledge of good and evil was forced on +Emmy Lou when in the ascending scale of years she simultaneously reached +her ninth birthday, the Fourth Reader, and the estate of bridesmaid to +Aunt Katie. + +Life from this eminence appeared broad-spread and beautiful, and +diversified by variant paths within the sweep of a far horizon until now +never suspected. But Hattie, youthful Virgil to her youthful Dante, +permitted personally conducted excursions only, and these along a +somewhat monotonous because strait and narrow path--all other roads, +whether devious or parallel, flower-bedecked or somber, ascending or +descending, leading but to questionable ends. + +The first travelers pointed out by Hattie as trudging these alien roads +were Lisa, Yetta, and Mittie, as has been shown. The second group +journeying on an upland, flowery way paralleling the strait and narrow +path in general direction, at least, were Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus. +Charming names! Enchanting figures! + +School opened early in September. Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus, who were +newcomers, were given desks across the aisle from Emmy Lou. Alice, +seeing her earnestly scrubbing her desk each morning before school and +arranging it for the day, laughed in her eyes. Amanthus, seeing her test +her pen and try her ink for the coming ordeal of copybook, laughed in +her dimple. And Rosalie, asking her what she was hunting on the +outspread page of her geography, laughed aloud when Emmy Lou replied +that it was Timbuctoo, and that she could find it easier if she knew +whether it was a country, or a mountain, or a river. On which they all +came across the aisle and hugged her. + +"You said in class that the plural of footnote was feetnotes," said +Rosalie. + +"You said, when the teacher held you down about the spelling in your +composition, that a dog didn't have fore-feet but four feet," said +Amanthus. + +"It's so funny and so dear," said Alice. + +"What?" asked Emmy Lou. + +"You," said Amanthus, and they all kissed her. + +"Come and see us," said Rosalie; "we're your neighbors now. We've moved +in the white house with the big yard on your square, and Alice, our +cousin, and her mother have come to live with us. We've never been to a +public school before. You live in a white house at the other end of the +square. We saw you in the yard." + +"I'll come this afternoon," said Emmy Lou, "and I'll bring Hattie. I'll +get her now so she'll know you." + +But Hattie declined to come. She shook her head decidedly. "They've +light dispositions and I've not. My mamma said so about some other +little girls I couldn't get along with. I don't want to come, and +besides I'm not sure I want to know them." + +Which would imply that light dispositions were undesirable apart from +Hattie's inability to get along with them! Hattie could be most +disturbing. + +Towards noon a sudden shower fell, and the class was told to remain in +its room for recess and eat its luncheons at its desks. + +Across the aisle on the other side of Emmy Lou sat Charlotte Wright. +She, too, had shown every disposition to be friendly but Hattie +discouraged this also. She leaned from her desk now. "Will you have a +piece of my homemade hickory-nut candy?" She spoke with pride. "My mamma +let me make it myself on the grate." + +On the grate? Why not in the kitchen on the stove? Still that was +Charlotte's own affair. More showy than tidy in her dress, she seemed +one of those detached and anxious little girls hunting for friends. The +kindly impulse was to respond to overtures, Emmy Lou knowing a past +where she had needed friends. And besides there was the candy. +Hickory-nut candy does not have to look tidy to look good. She had a +liberal lunch outspread on the napkin upon her desk, but she had no +candy. + +But Hattie leaving her desk and approaching, held her back. "No, she +won't have any candy," she said, and gathering up Emmy Lou's lunch in +the napkin and thus forcing her to follow, walked away. + +Whereupon Rosalie and Amanthus, arising and going around to Charlotte, +flung back their curls as they crowded into her desk, one on either side +of her, and _asked_ for a piece of her candy. + +"I don't say it wasn't hard to do," said Hattie, flushed and even +apologetic. "But I had to. She's not your kind, and she's not mine." + +Yet Rosalie and Amanthus were sharing Charlotte's desk and her candy. +Was she their kind? + +Hattie's voice had dropped and was even awe-struck as she explained. +"Charlotte's papa and her mamma don't live together. I heard my mother +and my aunt say so. She and her mother live in a boarding house next to +the confectionery." + +In a boarding house? Charlotte through necessity making her candy on a +grate, therefore, and not in the kitchen! And proof indeed that she was +not their kind, even to Emmy Lou, in a day when the home, however small, +was the measure of standing and the rule! + +Yet Alice has arisen and is looking across at Charlotte. Emmy Lou loves +Alice. Light disposition or not, she is drawn to her. Her hair is a pale +gold while the curls of her cousins are sunny, and her smile is in her +reflective eyes while theirs is in lip and dimple. Of the three she +loves Alice. Why? She has no idea why. Alice moves forward suddenly and +going around to Charlotte leans to her and kisses her. + +"Is Charlotte their kind?" Emmy Lou asks Hattie who also was watching. + +"Ask them; they ought to know," tersely. "We can't afford to care, even +if it does make us sorry. My father said people have to stand by their +colors." + +Later as school was dismissed and the class was filing out, Rosalie +called to Emmy Lou, "If you will go by for Charlotte, she says she will +come this afternoon, too." + +Emmy Lou went home disturbed. Charlotte's father and mother did not live +together, and because of this Charlotte was not their kind. + +Marriage then is not a fixed and static fact? As day and night, winter +and summer? Would she yet learn that the other family relations as +brother and sister, parent and child, are subject to repudiation and +readjustment, too? + +Emmy Lou was just through serving as bridesmaid for Aunt Katie, in a +filmy dress with a pink sash around what Uncle Charlie said was by +common consent and courtesy her waist, whatever his meaning by this, and +carrying a basket from which she earnestly scattered flowers up the +aisle of St. Simeon's in the path of the bride, and incidentally in the +path of Mr. Reade, the bridegroom, and had supposed she now knew +something about marriage. + +The sanction of St. Simeon's was upon the bride, crowned with the veil +and orange blossoms of her solemn dedication, or so the bridesmaid had +understood it. + + "Behold, whiles she before the altar stands, + Hearing the holy priest that to her speakes, + And blesseth her with his two happy hands!" + +Such in substance was the bridesmaid's understanding of it, if not in +just these words. + +To be sure the occasion held its disappointment. The concentration of +gifts upon the bride would argue that others shared with Emmy Lou a +sense of the inadequacy of the bridegroom in his inglorious black +clothes. + +There was a steel engraving above the mantel in the dining-room called +"The Cavalier's Wedding," at which Emmy Lou glanced again today as she +came in, and in which the bridegroom has a hat in his hand with a +feather which sweeps the ground, and wears a worthy lace-trimmed coat. + +At the dinner-table she repeated the news which had so dismayed and +astounded her. + +"There's a little girl in my class named Charlotte Wright whose papa and +mamma don't live together." + +"Dear, dear!" expostulated Aunt Cordelia, "I don't like you to be +hearing such things." + +This would seem to ratify Hattie's position. "Then I mustn't play with +her?" + +"Why, Emmy Lou, what a thing for you to say!" + +"Then I can play with her?" + +"The simple code of yea, yea, and nay, nay," said Uncle Charlie. + +"Charlie, be quiet." Then to Emmy Lou, "You mustn't pin me down so; I +will have to know more about it." + +"I fancy I know the case and the child," said Uncle Charlie. "The father +worked on my paper for a while, a fine young fellow with a big chance to +have made good." Then to Emmy Lou, "Uncle Charlie wants you to be as +nice to the little girl as you know how, for the sake of the father who +was that fine young fellow." + +Emmy Lou was glad to get her bearings. Hattie would be glad to get them +too. The status is fixed by a father and they could play with Charlotte. +One further item troubled. "What are light dispositions?" she inquired. + +"Leaven for the over-anxious ones," said Uncle Charlie. "If you meet +any, pin to them." + +Emmy Lou turned to Aunt Cordelia. "May I get Charlotte, then, and go to +see Alice Pulteney and Rosalie and Amanthus Maynard? They've just moved +on our square?" + +"Agree, Cordelia, agree," urged Uncle Charlie as he arose from the +table. "If we are to infer they have light dispositions, drive her to +see Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus." + +Emmy Lou started forth by and by. The shower of the morning was over and +the September afternoon was fresh and clear. It was heartening to feel +that she was standing by her colors, by Charlotte, and going to see her +new friends. + +The boarding house was unattractive and the vestibule where Emmy Lou +stood to ring the bell embarrassed her by its untidiness. As Charlotte +joined Emmy Lou at the door, her mother who had followed her halfway +down the stairs called after her. She was almost as pretty as Aunt +Katie, though she was in a draggled wrapper more showy than tidy, and +she seemed fretful and disposed to blame Charlotte on general +principles. + +"Now do remember when it's time to come home. Though why I should +expect anybody to remember in order to save me----" + +Rosalie and Alice and Amanthus were waiting at their gate and led them +in, not to the house, but across the clipped lawn gleaming in the +slanting light of the mid-afternoon, to a clump of shrubberies so old +and hoary that beneath their branches was the spaciousness of a room. +Here the ground was heaped with treasure, a lace scarf, some trailing +skirts, a velvet cape, slippers with spangled rosettes, feathers, fans, +what not? + +"I am the goose-girl waiting until the prince comes," said Amanthus. + +"I am the beggar-maid waiting for the king," said Rosalie. + +"I am the forester's foster-daughter lost in the woods until the prince +pursuing the milk-white doe finds her," said Alice. + +"Then in the twinkling of an eye our rags will be changed to splendor," +said Amanthus. "There is a skirt for everyone and a feather and a fan. +Who will you be?" to Emmy Lou and Charlotte. + +They were embarrassed. "I never heard of the goose-girl and the others," +said Emmy Lou. Nor had Charlotte. + +Dismay ensued and incredulous astonishment. + +A lady came strolling from the house across the lawn. She was tall and +fair, and as she drew near one saw that her smile was in her quiet eyes. +Emmy Lou felt promptly that she loved her. + +"Mother," cried Alice. + +"Cousin Adeline," cried Rosalie and Amanthus. + +"Emmy Lou and Charlotte never have heard of the goose-girl and the +beggar-maid----" + +"May we have the green and gold book that was yours when you were +little, to lend them?" + +Alice's mother, who was Mrs. Pulteney, smiled at the visitors. "And this +is Emmy Lou? And this is Charlotte? Certainly you may get the book to +lend them." + +Emmy Lou felt that one not only did well to love Mrs. Pulteney but might +go further and adore her. + +It was agreed that Charlotte should take the book first. She kept it two +days and brought it to Emmy Lou, her small, thin face alight. "I read it +in school and got a bad mark, but I've finished it. It all came right +for everybody." + +She left an overlooked bookmark between the leaves at the story of the +outcast little princess who went wandering into the world with her +mother. + +Emmy Lou in her turn finished the book. Charlotte got one thing out of +it and she got another. For Charlotte it all came right. Emmy Lou +entered its portals and the glory of understanding came upon her. +Looking back from this land which is that within the sweep of the far +horizon, to the old and baffling world left behind, all was made plain. + +Even as Hattie drew a line between those who are right and those who are +wrong, so a line is drawn between those who have entered this land of +the imagination and those who are left behind. One knew now why Alice +flits where others walk, why the hair of Amanthus gleams, why laughter +dwells in the cheek of Rosalie, why the face of Charlotte is +transfigured. And one realizes why she instinctively loves Mrs. +Pulteney. It is because she owned the green and gold book when she was +little! + +Emmy Lou also felt that she understood at last why Mr. Reade made so +poor a showing as a bridegroom. It is because while every goose-girl, +beggar-maid, princess or queen may be and indeed is a bride, there is +nothing less than a prince sanctioned for bridegroom, in any instance, +by the green and gold book! + +The glory of the green and gold book upon her, Emmy Lou went to Hattie. +But she declined the loan of it, saying she didn't believe in fairy +tales. She had not believed in Alice, Rosalie, and Amanthus at first, +either, though she had accepted them now. + +Emmy Lou took this new worry home. "Hattie doesn't believe in fairy +tales." + +"She will," from Uncle Charlie confidently. + +"When?" + +"When she gets younger, with time, like us, or when she overtakes a +light disposition looking for an owner. But I wouldn't be hard on her. +Keep up heart and coax her along." + +Hard on Hattie? Her best friend? Coax her along? When were she and +Hattie apart? + +At Thanksgiving, Mrs. Maynard, the mother of Amanthus and Rosalie, a +close rival herself to Aunt Katie in prettiness, gave a party for her +two little daughters, a party calling for white dresses and sashes and +slippers. + +"Hattie doesn't want to go, but I've coaxed her," Emmy Lou reported at +home. + +"Doesn't want to go?" from Aunt Cordelia. "Why not?" + +"She says she hasn't got a disposition for white dresses and slippers, +she'd rather go to parties with candy-pulling and games." + +Christmas came, with a Christmas Eve pantomime at the theater, which was +given, so Uncle Charlie said, because so many of what he called the +stock company were English. + +Mrs. Pulteney gave a party to this pantomime for Alice and her friends, +and though Uncle Charlie had asked Emmy Lou to go with him, in the face +of this later invitation he withdrew his. + +"You may give our tickets to Hattie and Sadie if they are not already +going." + +Hattie had to be coaxed again. She said she didn't believe in theaters +and felt she had to stand by her colors. Her papa who chanced along at +the moment helped her decide. "There's such a thing as making a nuisance +of your colors," he said, and took the tickets for her from Emmy Lou. + +A dreadful thing happened at school the day before the Christmas +holidays. A little girl got mad at Alice. "We've all known something +about you and wouldn't tell it," she said, while the group about the two +stood aghast. "Your papa and your mamma don't live together, and that's +why you live with Rosalie and Amanthus. And it's true because it was all +in the paper." + +Emmy Lou hurried home all but weeping and told it. + +"Hush, my dear, hush," said Aunt Cordelia. "For the sake of Alice's +brave mother we must forget it. I hoped you would not hear it." + +Alice's brave mother? Now the status is fixed by a mother. Life is +perplexing. One must explain to Hattie. + + * * * * * + +The Christmas pantomime! Emmy Lou had been to the theater before. Aunt +Cordelia had taken her to see "Rip Van Winkle." + +"Uncle Charlie wants you to be able to say you have seen certain of the +great actors," she had said, but Emmy Lou did not grasp that she was +seeing the actor until it was explained to her afterward. She had no +idea that a great actor would be a poor, tottering old man, white-haired +and ragged, who brought tears to the onlooker as he lifted his hand to +his peering eyes, standing there bewildered upon the stage. + +Aunt Louise took her to another play called "The Two Orphans." She +understood this less. "The name on the program is _Henriette_. Why do +they call it 'Onriette'? Is it a cold in their heads?" She was cross and +spoke fretfully because she was bothered. + +But the pantomime! Christmas Eve, the theater brilliant with lights and +garlands, evergreens wreathing the box wherein she sat in her new +crimson dress with Alice, Rosalie, Amanthus, and Charlotte, and Mrs. +Pulteney just behind--fair and lovely Mrs. Pulteney who, like the mother +of Charlotte, did not live with her husband, though Emmy Lou is doing +her best to forget it. + +The lights go down, the curtain rises, the pantomime is beginning! + +Can it be so? Palace and garden, an open market-place, the public +fountain, the shops and dwellings of a town, and threading the space +thus set about, a crowding, circling throng, jugglers, giants, dwarfs, +fairies, a crutch-supported witch, a white-capped baker! It is the world +of the green and gold book! + +The goose-girl is here, about to put her teeth into an apple. The +beggar-maid and her king are recognized. A princess and a prince, +kissing their finger-tips to the boxes, are the center of the stage. + +No, _Harlequin_ in his parti-colored clothes with his dagger, whoever +_Harlequin_ may be, is that center, causing the baker at a touch to take +off his head and carry it under his arm, striking the apple from the +lips of the goose-girl, tipping the crown from the head of the prince, +twitching the scepter from the fingers of the princess. + +Clownery? Buffoonery? _Grotesquerie?_ Emmy Lou never suspects it if it +be. Rather it is life, which with the same perversity baffles the +single-hearted, bewilders the seeker, and juggles with and decapitates +the ideas even as _Harlequin_ dismembers the well-meaning and +unoffending baker. With this difference, that in the world Emmy Lou is +gazing on all will be made right before the end. + +The play moves on. Who are these who now are the center of the scene? +Emmy Lou has not met them before? Sad and lovely _Gabriella_ at her +wheel in her woodland cottage, in reality a princess stolen when in the +cradle, and _Bertram_ her husband, forester of the ignoble deeds, whose +hands have wrung the white doe's neck in wantonness. + +And who are these as the play moves on? _Florizel_, once high-hearted +prince, forced to dig in the nether world for gold to replace that +forever slipping through the unmended pocket of _Gonderiga_ his wife, +standing by, princess of the slovenly heart, who is no princess in truth +at all, but a goose-girl changed in the cradle. + +The play moves on to its close. The curtain falls, the lights come up, +the pantomime is over. + + * * * * * + +Hattie and Sadie joined the box party at the door of the theater and all +went home together on the street car. It was Christmas Eve and the +shops and streets were alight and crowded. As the car reached the +quieter sections the lights of the homes shone through the dusk. + +Charlotte left the car at her corner which was reached first, to go home +to her mother in the boarding house. Mrs. Pulteney and her group of +three said good-bye at the next corner. At the third, Hattie, Sadie, and +Emmy Lou got off together. + +Hattie detained the others ere they could go their separate ways. Her +voice was awed. + +"Maybe Charlotte's father was like _Florizel_, once high-hearted +prince----" + +Emmy Lou and Sadie gazed at Hattie. They caught the point. No wonder +Hattie was awed. + +"--and maybe Mrs. Pulteney is beautiful _Gabriella_----?" + + * * * * * + +That night after supper Emmy Lou paused before the picture of "The +Cavalier's Wedding." She was far from satisfied with Aunt Katie's +choice. + +"Why did Mr. Reade wear those black clothes?" she asked. + +"What are you talking about?" from Aunt Cordelia. + +But Uncle Charlie seemed to comprehend in part, at least. "Those were +the trappings and the suits of woe." + +"Woe?" + +"Certainly. He was the bridegroom." + + * * * * * + +Hattie came around the day after Christmas. Stern daughter of the voice +of God in general, today she was hesitant. "If you haven't returned that +book of fairy tales, I'll take it home and read it." + + + + +IX + +SO BUILD WE UP THE BEING THAT WE ARE + + +AUNT CORDELIA stood behind Emmy Lou who was seated at the piano with +"Selections From the Operas, for Beginners," open on the rack. She +paused in her counting. "Now try it again by yourself. You have to keep +time if you want harmony." + +Harmony? The mind of the performer dwelt on the word as she started over +again. What is harmony? + +Aunt Cordelia relaxing her attention for the moment turned to speak to +Uncle Charlie who was reading his paper by the droplight. "It's no easy +thing to bring up a child, Charlie." As it happened, she was not +referring to the practicing. "Louise thinks Emmy Lou ought to be +confirmed. She says now that she is eleven years old she surely ought to +know where she stands." + +It is no easy thing to be the child brought up either, as Emmy Lou on +the piano-stool could have rejoined. Life and Aunt Cordelia might perch +her on the stool but, as events were proving, that did not make her a +musician. Would going up the aisle of St. Simeon's to kneel at the rail, +she had watched the confirmation class for some years now, make her----? + +What was it supposed to make her? An Episcopalian? What is an +Episcopalian? Did she want to be one? Or did she want to be what Papa +is? + +"Repeat, repeat," said Aunt Cordelia behind her. "Don't you see the dots +at the end of the passage?" + +Emmy Lou repeated, came to the end of her selection, and, to the relief +of herself, at least, got down. She was thinking about Papa. + +She had gathered from somewhere that when Mamma after marriage left her +church and went with Papa to his church, there was feeling. + +Emmy Lou adored Papa. Aunt Cordelia had a brother and two sisters to go +with her to St. Simeon's. Surely there should be someone to go with +Papa? But where? What was he? + +Emmy Lou had asked this question outright a good while ago. Papa was +paying her a visit at the time. Unknown to her he had looked over her +head at Aunt Cordelia and laid a finger on his lips. Considering the +extent and the nature of his obligation to Aunt Cordelia, possibly his +idea was there must be no more feeling, though Emmy Lou could not know +this. + +Having thus communicated with Aunt Cordelia, he answered the question. +"Had my two grandfathers elected to be born on one side of the Tweed +and not the other, I probably would have been an Episcopalian," he said. + +"Tweedledee, in other words, instead of Tweedledum," said Uncle Charlie. + +All of which meant that Papa was not an Episcopalian. What was he? Emmy +Lou, eight years old then and eleven now, was still asking the question. + +At bedtime Aunt Cordelia spoke again about confirmation. "Think it over +for the rest of the week and then come tell me what you have decided." + +Emmy Lou was glad to be alone in bed. At eleven there is need for +constant adjustment and readjustment of the ideas and also for +pondering. The relations of one little girl to Heaven and of Heaven to +one little girl call for pondering. People assort themselves into +Episcopalians, Methodists, and the like. Rebecca Steinau is a Jew, Katie +O'Brien is a Dominican, Aunt M'randy in the kitchen is an +Afro-American, her insurance paper entitling her to one first-class +burial says so. Mr. Dawkins' brother is a Canadian; Maud and Albert +Eddie say their father sometimes is sorry he's not a Canadian, too. + +Is each of these assortments a religion? Or all the assortments +religion? Has God a special feeling about having Emmy Lou an +Episcopalian when Papa is something else? Is it not strange that He +never, never speaks? In which case she could ask Him and He would tell +her. + +When Emmy Lou arrived at the grammar school the next morning, for she is +thus far on the road of education now, Sadie and Hattie had something to +tell her. + +There is a pupil in the class this year named Lorelei Ritter. Emmy Lou +has heard it claimed by some that she can speak French, by others that +she speaks German. The fact is self-evident that she speaks English. +She is given to minding her own affairs and in other ways seems +sufficient to herself. Miss Amanda, the teacher, is pronouncedly cold to +her; they do not seem to get along. + +"Where is the Rio de la Plata River, and how does it flow?" Miss Amanda +asked her in the class only yesterday. + +Lorelei had hesitated a moment. She was plainly bothered. + +"I thought _Rio_ was river----?" she began, and stopped. Miss Amanda's +face was red. + +"Go to your seat," she said. + +For what? How had Lorelei offended? The class had no idea. + +Miss Amanda had shown steady disapproval of Lorelei before this, and +this morning Sadie and Hattie knew why. + +"A girl in a class upstairs told us," said Sadie. "Her name is Sally +White and she lives near Lorelei. She says Miss Amanda lives next door +to Lorelei and they play the piano at Lorelei's house all day Sunday +with the windows wide open." + +"Tunes," Sadie went on to qualify. "It isn't even as if it were hymns." + +"Or voluntaries," said Hattie. Voluntaries were permitted at Hattie's +church before service and Sadie did not approve of them. + +Sadie was continuing. "Sally said the neighbors sent word to the Ritters +that it was a thing a Christian neighborhood couldn't and wouldn't put +up with, but the Ritters go right on playing." + +This was more painful to Emmy Lou than Sadie could know. Papa who comes +to see her once a month keeps the piano open on Sunday, and plays what +Sadie and Hattie differentiate as "tunes" as opposed to hymns and +voluntaries, often as not dashing into what he explains to Uncle Charlie +is this or that from this or that new opera. + +He plays at any and all times on Sunday, dropping his paper or magazine +to stroll to the piano to pick and try, strum and hum, or jerking the +stool into place, to fall into sustained, and to Emmy Lou who herself is +still counting aloud, breathless and incredible performance. + +She is aware that Aunt Cordelia does not willingly consent to this use +of the piano on Sunday, and she also is aware of a definite stand taken +by Uncle Charlie in the matter, to which Aunt Cordelia reluctantly +yields. + +In the past Papa has been Papa, personality with no detail, accepted and +adored, just as Aunt Cordelia has been and is Aunt Cordelia, supreme and +undisputed. But now Papa's personality is beginning to have its details. +He still is Papa, but he is more. He is tall and slight and has quick, +clever hands, and impatient motions of the head, together with oddly +regardful, considering, debating eyes, fixed on their object through +rimmed eye-glasses. + +Papa is "brilliant," vague term appropriated from Uncle Charlie who says +so. If he were not a brilliant editor he would have been a brilliant +musician. Uncle Charlie says this also. + +And today at school Emmy Lou hears from Sadie that piano playing on +Sunday is a thing a Christian neighborhood can't and won't put up with! + +"Aren't the Ritters Christians?" she asked anxiously. + +"How can they be when they play all day Sunday?" Sadie returned. +"Lorelei told Sally that her father, Signor Ritter, was _Fra Diavolo_ in +an opera once. And Sally says they are proud of it and can't forget it. +Every one of the family plays on some instrument and they take Sunday +when they're all home to play _Fra Diavolo_ till the neighbors can't +stand it. Sally asked Lorelei what _Fra Diavolo_ means, and she said +Brother Devil." + +This again was information more painful to Emmy Lou than Sadie could +know. Papa on his visits, while dressing in the mornings, or later when +wandering about the house or running through the contents of some book +picked up from the table, breaks into song, palpably familiar and +favored song even if absently and disjointedly rendered. Emmy Lou has +heard it often as not on Sunday. Uncle Charlie in speaking of it once +said it was "in vogue"--another term appropriated by Emmy Lou--when Papa +was a young man studying in Paris. + +The song favored thus ended with up-flung and gayly defiant notes and +words that said and resaid with emphatic and triumphant finality, "_Fra +Diavolo_"! Though what the words meant Emmy Lou had no idea until now. + +"If the Ritters are not Christians, what are they?" she asked. + +Sadie had information about this. "Sally says the neighbors say they are +Bohemians." + +Unfortunately Emmy Lou has heard this term before, though she had not +grasped that it was a religion. Aunt Cordelia frequently worries over +Papa. + +"He's a regular Bohemian," she frets to Uncle Charlie. + +Before school was dismissed on this same Friday, there were other +worries for Emmy Lou. When in time she arrived home, full of chagrin, +Papa was there for his usual visit and wanted to hear about the chagrin +and its cause. + +Words are given out in class at grammar school, as Papa knows, to be +defined and illustrated by a sentence. One may be faithful to the +meaning as construed from the dictionary, and lose out in class too. + +"A girl in the class named Lorelei Ritter laughed at my sentence, and +then the rest laughed too." + +"What was the word?" inquired Papa. + +"Concomitant." + +"And what did you say?" + +"'A thing that accompanies.' He played the concomitant to her song." + +Uncle Charlie shouted, but Papa's laugh was a little rueful. "Poor +little mole working i' the dark. Will the light never break for her, +Charlie, do you suppose?" + +What did he mean, and why is he rueful? Is the trouble with her who +would give all she is or hopes to be in adoring offering to Papa? Can +he, even in the light of what she has heard today, be open to criticism? +Certainly not. Papa may be a Bohemian, and a Bohemian may not be a +Christian, but what he is that shall Emmy Lou be also. + +To decide is to act. Papa went down town after dinner with Uncle +Charlie, and Emmy Lou took her place at the piano. Ordinarily she is +loath to practice, going through the ordeal because Aunt Cordelia +requires it. But today she goes about it as a practical matter with a +definite purpose. + +Papa brought her the "Selections From the Operas" some while back, with +the remark that a little change from exercises to melody might introduce +cheer into a melancholy business all around. But so far this had not +been the result, "Selection No. 1--Sextette from Lucia," reducing her to +tears, and "Selection No. 2--I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls," +doing almost as much for Aunt Cordelia. + +But now that Emmy Lou had a purpose, the matter was different. There was +a table of contents to the "Selections From the Operas," and a certain +title therein had caught her eye in the past. Seated on the piano-stool, +leaning over the book on her lap, she passed her finger down the list. + +Selection 13. She thought so. She found the page and replaced the open +book upon the rack. _Fra Diavolo_. She set to work. What Papa is that +will she be also. + +She desisted by and by long enough to go and ask a question of Aunt +Cordelia. + +"If I were to be confirmed at St. Simeon's could I practice my +selections on Sunday?" + +"Practice them on Sunday?" Aunt Cordelia had enough trouble getting her +to practice on week-days to be outdone with the question. "Why do you +ask such a thing? You know you could not." + +That night Emmy Lou asked Papa a question a little falteringly: "Are you +a Bohemian?" + +"Instead, the veriest drudge you ever knew," he said. "There's too much +on me, making a living for us both, to be so glorious a thing." + +Then what was Papa? + +She went around to ask a question of Sadie the next morning. She had +been to Sadie's church often enough to know that she liked to go. The +prayers were long but the singing was frequent and hearty. No one need +mark the time at Sadie's church, the singing marking its own time warmly +and strongly until it seemed to swing and sway, and Sadie sang and Emmy +Lou sang and everybody sang, and Emmy Lou for one wasn't sure she did +not swing and sway too, and her heart was buoyant and warm. She loved +the songs at Sadie's church; what matter if she did not know what they +meant? + + "Oh, there's honey in the Rock, my brother, + There's honey in the Rock for you, + Leave your sins for the blood to cover, + There is honey in the Rock for you, for you." + +She could wish that Papa might be a Methodist. It hardly was likely, all +things considered, but one could make sure. + +"Would 'Selections From the Operas' be allowed by your church on +Sunday?" she asked Sadie. + +Sadie not only was horrified but, like Aunt Cordelia, was outdone. "Why, +Emily Louise McLaurin, you know they would not be!" she said +indignantly. + +Emmy Lou had no such desire for Papa to be a Presbyterian. She had been +with Hattie often enough to know that the emphasis is all on the sermon +there. Hattie knew her feeling and when inviting her to go put the +emphasis on the voluntary of which she was proud. + +This very Saturday afternoon she came around full of information and +enthusiasm. "Our soprano has done so well with her new teacher, he is +going to play our organ tomorrow by request and she is going to sing a +solo during the collection. I want you to come from Sunday school and +go." + +She had other news. "I asked Lorelei Ritter yesterday after school if +she was a Bohemian and she got mad. She said no, she wasn't, she was a +Bavarian." + +Aunt Louise spoke to Aunt Cordelia that night. "Emmy Lou must decide in +the next day or two if she is going to enter the confirmation class this +year; I have to report for her." + +The next day was Sunday, and Emmy Lou heard Papa humming and singing in +his room as he dressed, _Fra Diavolo_ the burden of it. + +The chimes at Sadie's church two squares away, were playing, + + "How beauteous are their feet + Who stand on Zion's hill, + Who bring salvation on their tongues + And words of peace reveal!" + +From afar the triple bells of St. Simeon's flung their call on the +morning air. Nor Methodist nor yet Episcopalian would be singing _Fra +Diavolo_ on Sunday morning as he dressed. What was Papa? + +What was he? As he and Emmy Lou went down the stairs together to +breakfast, she caught his hand to her cheek in a sudden passion of +adoring. What Papa was, she would be! + +She hurried from Sunday school around to Hattie's church on Swayne +Street. Hattie defended the absence of a bell by saying they didn't need +a bell to tell them when to go to church; they knew and went. + +It was a brick church, long built, and a trifle mossy as to its +foundations, discreet in its architecture, and well-kept. + +Hattie was waiting for Emmy Lou at the door. Her very hair-ribbons, a +serviceable brown, exact and orderly, seemed to stand for steadiness and +reliability in conviction. + +What did Emmy Lou's blue hair-ribbons stand for? Blue is true, and she +would be true to whatever the conviction of Papa. + +"The strange organist is going to play the voluntary too," Hattie +explained. "It's almost time for him to begin. Hurry." + +As they went in, she told another thing: "Lorelei and her mother are +here, sitting in a back pew." + +There were two points of cheer in the service at Hattie's church as Emmy +Lou saw it, the voluntary and the collection. She had referred to this +last as the offertory on a visit long ago, but never would make the +mistake again, so sharply had Hattie corrected her. + +Hardly were they settled in their places in the pew with Hattie's father +and mother, when a large man with black hair and shaggy brows made his +way to the organ in the loft behind the minister, and the voluntary +began. + +This the voluntary that along with hymns is advocated for Sundays? This +that stole over the keys hunting the melody, to find it here and lose +it there, with a promise that baffled and a familiarity which eluded, to +overtake it at length and proffer it in high and challenging measure +that said gayly and triumphantly above the thunderous beat supporting +it, in all but words, _Fra Diavolo_! + +Hattie's face was shining! And the faces of her mother, of her father, +and of the congregation around, radiated approval and satisfaction! + +And in time the soprano of Hattie's church arose in the loft above the +minister, supported by the choir. It was the collection. + +It was more. It was "Selection No. 1--Sextette from Lucia"! Though the +words did not say so! + +Hattie, then, had not been blaming Lorelei but defending her? It was +Sadie who disapproved of voluntaries and Lorelei? + +Emmy Lou with heightened color, resolute face, and blue bows, arrived +at home. She went straight to Papa just returned from Uncle Charlie's +office and strumming on the piano. + +"You're a Presbyterian," she said. + +"It sounds like an indictment," said Uncle Charlie. "But he will have to +own up. Admit your guilt, Alec. How did you find it out?" + +"Presbyterians play and sing 'Selections From the Operas' on Sunday, and +so does he." + +"You look ruffled, Alec," from Uncle Charlie, "But so does someone else. +Your cheeks are hot," to Emmy Lou. "Something else is disturbing; out +with it." + +"The girl named Lorelei Ritter who laughed at me Friday in class was at +church and spoke to me coming out." + +"What did she say?" + +"She said did I know it was her father who played the concomitant to the +soprano's song?" + +"Invite her round, and urge her to be friendly," begged Uncle Charlie +when he stopped shouting. "We need her badly. Besides I'm sure I'd like +to know her." + +Aunt Cordelia came downstairs that night after seeing Emmy Lou to bed. +"Whatever is to be done with the child? Has she talked to you, Alec? She +says she can't be confirmed because she is going to be a Presbyterian. +And then she cried bitterly. They stand up to pray and sit down to sing, +she told me desperately. That if it was right--which it wasn't, of +course,--she'd wish people didn't have to be Episcopalians or Bohemians +or Presbyterians, but just Christians. I told her I thought we would +drop the question of confirmation until next year." + + + + +X + +SO TRUTH BE IN THE FIELD + + +A YEAR later Sarah, the sister of Albert Eddie Dawkins, saw him through +the six weeks of the confirmation class, up the aisle of St. Simeon's +and confirmed. The next day she started to England to visit her mother's +people who had prospered. + +"In a way I can feel he is safe now," she said to Aunt Louise at Sunday +school on the day of his confirmation. "I wasn't easy about him before, +if he is my brother. If he'll only go ahead now, he'll do." + +Aunt Cordelia saw Emmy Lou through the same class of preparation, up the +aisle and confirmed, and then came home and had a hearty cry. She who +always claimed she was too busy seeing to meals, the house, and those +within it, to give way! + +"I am sure she is where her mother would have her," she said to Aunt +Louise through her tears. "And her father would not hear to the +alternative when I offered to discuss it. If only I can feel that in +time she will be _what_ her mother would have her!" + +This seemed to put the odium on Emmy Lou in the event of failure. She +would be thirteen years old in another month, her cheek-line was +changing from round to oval, she was preparing for the high school, and +her waist, according to Miss Anna Williams, the seamstress who made her +confirmation dress, is coming round to be a waist. + +She looked in distress at Aunt Cordelia who was drying her eyes in vain +since the tears were continuing, and who seemed far from reassured that +she will be what her mother would have her. There was nothing for it in +the face of the implication but for Emmy Lou to throw herself into Aunt +Cordelia's lap and cry too. After which the atmosphere cleared, the +normal was resumed, and everybody felt better. + +Sarah, who spoke with more flattering certainty about the future of +Albert Eddie, wore her hair coiled on her head now, and her skirts were +long. Capable, dependable, and to the point as ever, she was a young +lady. + +When Aunt Cordelia, accompanied by Emmy Lou, went to do her marketing +the Saturday before Sarah left for England, her mother called her down +to say good-bye. + +"It's a long journey for you at eighteen, Sarah," said Aunt Cordelia, +"and we will be glad when we hear you have reached its end safely." + +"I can trust Sarah; I always could," said her mother. "If anything goes +wrong she'll just have to remember what her grandmother, my mother, used +to say to her when she was a wee 'un, and prone to fret when matters +snarled and she found she couldn't right 'em, 'When you get to wit's end +you'll always find God lives there.'" + +Aunt Cordelia shook hands with Sarah, but Emily Louise, as many persons +now called her, went up on her toes and kissed her. + +"You must ask the prayers of the church for the preservation of all who +travel by land and by water," Aunt Cordelia said to Mrs. Dawkins, "and +we ourselves must remember her in our prayers. We will miss you, Sarah, +in the singing of the hymns on special days and Wednesday evenings when +we haven't a choir. I'm glad you went to the organist and had those +lessons. A fresh young voice, sweet and strong and sure, like yours, can +give great comfort and pleasure." + +Hattie was a member of her church now, and Sadie of hers. Rosalie, +Alice, and Amanthus were making ready for confirmation at St. Philip's +which was high church. All had gone their ways, each to the portal of +her own persuasion, as it were, and knocked and said, "I am informed +that by this gate is the way thither." + +And in answer the gate which is the way thither, according to the +understanding of each, had opened and taken the suppliant in and closed +behind her. + +Which, then, is the gate? And which the way? Each and all so sure? + +Time was, before the eyes of Emmy Lou were opened, when she supposed +there was but one way. She even had pictured it, sweet and winding and +always upward. + +This was at a time when Sarah gathering Maud and Albert Eddie and Emmy +Lou around her in the sitting-room above the grocery, about the hob, +which is to say the grate, sang them hymns. It was from one of these +hymns that Emmy Lou had pictured the way. + + By cool Siloam's shady rill + How fair the lily grows, + How sweet the breath beneath the hill + Of Sharon's dewy rose. + +According to Sarah's hymns there were two classes of travelers on this +sweet and goodly way. + + Children of the Heavenly King, + As ye journey sweetly sing! + +These Emmy Lou conceived of first. Later she saw others of whom Sarah +sang, less buoyant, less tripping, but with upturned faces no less +expectant. + + And laden souls by thousands meekly stealing + Kind Shepherd turn their weary steps to Thee. + +Emmy Lou listening to Sarah's hymns even saw these welcomed. + + Angels of Jesus, + Angels of light, + Singing to welcome + The pilgrims of the night. + +But that was time ago. There is no one and common road whose dust as it +nears Heaven is gold and its pavement stars. Each knocks at the portal +of his own persuasion and says, "I am informed that by this gate is the +way thither." + +But Albert Eddie, having entered his portal, was in doubt. "What is it +she wants me to do now I'm in?" he said to Emmy Lou, by "she" meaning +Sarah, and by "in," the church of his adoption. His question began in a +husky mutter of desperation and ended in a high treble of exasperation. +Or was it merely that his voice was uncertain? + +For to each age its phenomena, as inevitable as inexplicable. Albert +Eddie's voice these days was undependable. Emmy Lou felt an +uncharacteristic proneness to tears. Rosalie said it would be wisdom +teeth next for everybody all round. + +But if Albert Eddie seemed baffled and hazy as to what his duties were +following confirmation, Aunt Louise left no doubt with Emmy Lou. The +confirmation had been in May, and now a week later lawns were green and +lilacs and snowballs in bloom. + +"Now that you are a member of the church you can't begin too soon to +take your place and do your part," Aunt Louise told her. "The lawn fete +is Thursday night on the Goodwins' lawn. I am going to give you ten +tickets to sell, and send ten by you to Albert Eddie since Sarah is not +here to give them to him." + +Emmy Lou took the tickets prepared to do the best she could. She had had +experience with them before. It is only your friends who take them of +you, as a necessity and a matter of course, a recognized and expected +tax on friendship, as it were. + +Associates who are not intimates decline. One named Lettie Grierson, in +declining Emmy Lou's tickets now, voiced it all. + +"Why should I buy tickets from you? You never bought any from me." + +Hattie took one and said she'd go home and get the money and bring it +round. + +When she arrived that afternoon she brought a message from home with the +money. "Mamma says to tell you our church is going to have a lecture on +the Holy Land on the twenty-fifth." + +Sadie was present, having come to pay for her ticket. "Our Sunday school +is going to have a boat excursion up the river in June. The tickets will +be twenty-five cents," she told Emmy Lou. + +Rosalie arrived a bit later with the money for her ticket. "Alice and +Amanthus can't go. They went to Lettie Grierson's church concert last +week and I didn't. I can go if I may come and go with you from your +house." + +These three tickets thus disposed of, Emmy Lou's own, and the three +taken by Uncle Charlie for the rest of the household made a fairly +creditable showing. + +Albert Eddie had less luck. Maud, his sister, so he explained, had been +ahead of him, and wherever he might have gone, she had been. + +"Joe Kiffin, our driver, took one, though he won't go, and the other one +I've sold is for myself." + +He seemed worried. "I tried," he said. "I promised Sarah I'd try every +time it was put up to me." + +It was arranged that not only Rosalie but Hattie and Sadie should come +and go with Emmy Lou. When they arrived, on the day, about five o'clock, +each had her ticket and her money. + +A lawn fete for the church is no unmercenary matter. Your ticket only +admits you to the lantern-hung grounds, which is enough for you to +expect, and once within you have to buy your supper. That it is paid for +and eaten largely by those whose homes have donated it has nothing to do +with the matter, Aunt Cordelia having been notified that her +contribution would be beaten biscuit, a freezer of ice-cream and +chickens. + +In this case there must be carfare also, the Goodwins and their lawn +being half an hour's ride by street car from the center of things. + +Aunt Cordelia came to the door with Emmy Lou to meet the three. "Go +ahead," she said. "Louise is already there and will look after you. Eat +your suppers when you prefer. Charlie and I will come later and bring +you home." + +The four found Albert Eddie at the corner waiting for the car. His hair +was very, very smooth, and his Sunday suit was spick and span as if +Sarah were home to see to it instead of well on her way to England, her +rules and regulations evidently being of a nature to stay by one. + +Perhaps it was an ordeal for Albert Eddie to have four girls descend on +him, for he turned red and cleared his throat as though forced into +declaring himself in maintaining his ground. Emmy Lou was his friend, +and ignoring the others he addressed her. + +"Maud went ahead with some friends of her own," he explained. "She said +they wouldn't want me." + +The obvious thing was to ask him to go with them. Had Emily Louise been +speaking for herself alone, she would have done so, Albert Eddie being +her friend and going to her Sunday school. On the other hand, his father +kept a grocery at the corner just passed, and lived over it with his +family. He wasn't the friend of her three companions and he didn't go +to their Sunday school. Emily Louise understood many things which Emmy +Lou wot not of. Would they want him? + +Verging' on thirteen, one has heard this nature of thing and its +distinctions discussed at home. + +Aunt Louise objected to certain associates of Emily Louise not long ago. +"It's why I am and always have been opposed to the public school for +her. She picks up with every class and condition." + +"And why I have opposed your opposition," returned Uncle Charlie, "since +it is her best chance in life to know every class and condition." + +"I'm sure I don't know why she should," Aunt Louise had said. + +"An argument in itself in that you _don't_ know," from Uncle Charlie. + +Fortunately for Emily Louise in the present case of Albert Eddie, twelve +verging on thirteen was yet democratic. "We'll all go together," said +Hattie as a matter of course, and the others agreed. + +Hattie, as ever, was marshal and spokesman. They boarded the car and sat +down. "Fifty cents all around to begin with," she stated after fares +were paid and the common wealth displayed. "Five cents put in for +carfare. Forty-five cents left all around. Five cents to come home on, +five cents to spend, and thirty-five cents for supper just makes it." + +Church creeds and nomenclatures may vary but the laws of church fetes +and fairs are the same. As the five left the car and approached the +Goodwins' home, Whitney and Logan were patrolling the sidewalk outside +the gate and the lantern-hung yard from whence arose the hustle and +chatter of the lawn fete. + +Logan wore a baker's cap and carried a tray hung from his neck and piled +with his wares, which a placard set there among proclaimed to be +"Homemade Caramel Taffy, Five a Bag." Whitney was assisting Logan to +dispose of his wares. + +The two stopped the five. "We haven't a show against the girls on the +inside to sell anything," they said. "Buy from us." + +"Five cents for a bag all around and forty cents left, five cents to get +home and thirty-five cents for supper," from Hattie the calculator, who +liked to keep things clear. + +Five bags were being exchanged for five cents all around when an elderly +gentleman came along. Negotiations with the five being held up while he +was pressed to buy candy, he brusquely replied that he had no change. + +Neither had Logan or Whitney, business having been brisker than they +admitted. But they did not let that deter them from cornering the +gentleman into a showdown. Nor did a two-dollar bill, when produced, +bother them. + +Whitney had heard the financial status of the five just outlined by +Hattie, and did some creditable calculating himself. Like Hattie he was +good at figures. + +"You have five forties between you," he said. "You take the bill and let +us have the change. You'll get it fixed all right when you get your +suppers." + +The party of five was loath but saw no way out of it. Held up, as it +were, they reluctantly gave over their forty cents around and pinned +their gazes anxiously on the two-dollar bill in the hand of the elderly +gentleman. + +He seemed no better pleased than they, showing indeed a degree of temper +unbecoming under the circumstances and using language somewhat heated +for a church fair. + +"What in heaven's name do I want with caramel taffy without a tooth in +my head that's my own?" + +He thrust the bill at Albert Eddie who took it hastily, and the five +moved on. + +"Who was it?" Sadie asked Emmy Lou and Albert Eddie, since this was +their lawn fete. "He's coming in the gate behind us. Do you know?" + +Unfortunately they did. It seemed to detract from that cordiality of +welcome they would prefer to associate with their lawn fete. + +"It's Mr. Goodwin," Emily Louise told them. "It's his house and yard. He +must just be getting home." + +One's friends are loyal. Hattie covered the silence. "His wife must have +said they could have it here before she asked him. I've known it to +happen so before." + +"We'll go get our suppers," said Albert Eddie anxiously. "That way we'll +each get our carfare back and it'll be off our minds." + +They found Emmy Lou's Aunt Louise under a grape-arbor, dishing ice-cream +from a freezer into saucers on the ground around it. A great many +things are in order at a church fete that would not be tolerated at +home. + +"Go get your suppers," she said to the group. "I'm busy and will be; +don't depend on me for anything." + +The party of five took their places about a table a few moments after. +Two of them were familiar figures in the Big Room at St. Simeon's Sunday +school. The three young ladies who rushed up, tray in hand, to wait on +them, were far, far older--eminent representatives of that superior +caste of St. Simeon's Sunday school, the Bible Class. + +It was a friendly rivalry that was on among the three, each waitress of +the evening endeavoring in her earnings to outstrip and eclipse all +other waitresses and so carry off the glory of the occasion. In the +present instance the swiss apron and cap with the yellow ribbons won +out, and the other two waitresses withdrew with laughter and +recrimination of a vigorous nature, leaving the party of five +overwhelmed by the notice from the surrounding tables and the publicity +thus brought upon them. + +The wearer of the swiss apron with the yellow ribbons was an arch and +easy person, overwhelming her five charges further with offhand and +jocose remarks indicative of condescension as she brought five suppers, +substantial, lemonade, ice cream and cake, put them down, and, as it +were, got through with it. + +Even to the payment. And as Albert Eddie produced a two-dollar bill and +she took it, she was easily, superlatively, meaningly arch as she said, + +"We don't give change at church fairs to gentlemen." + + * * * * * + +Uncle Charlie, with Aunt Cordelia, taking the party home, paid +everyone's carfare but Albert Eddie's. When the time came for leaving +he could not be found. + +"We lost him right after supper," Hattie explained. + +"As soon as he heard us say you were coming to get us," from Emmy Lou. + +"He didn't eat any supper, just pretended to," from Sadie. "He was +trying not to cry." + +"Sadie!" from Rosalie. + +"We never, never should tell it if he was," from Hattie. + +"Logan and Whitney said he left early," said Rosalie, "that he told them +he would have to walk home." + +Uncle Charlie deposited the members of the party at their several homes +and then, being the editor of a newspaper, went back downtown. + +Emmy Lou, oftener than she could enumerate, had waked in the past to +hear him on his return in the late, or, to be exact, the early hours, +stop at Aunt Cordelia's door with news that the world would hear the +next morning. + +She waked at his return tonight. He did more than tap at Aunt Cordelia's +door, he went in. Hearing Aunt Cordelia cry out at his words, Emmy Lou +went hurriedly pattering in from her adjoining room. As she entered, the +door on the opposite side of the room opened and Aunt Louise came in, +slipping on her bedroom wrapper. + +The light was on and Aunt Cordelia was sitting up in bed with tears +running unrestrainedly down her face. + +Uncle Charlie, about to explain to Aunt Louise, looked at Emmy Lou and +hesitated. + +"No, go on," Aunt Cordelia told him. "She is a big girl and must hear +these things from now on with the rest of us." + +Uncle Charlie, reflective for a moment, seemed to conclude she was right +and went on. + +"The ship on which Sarah Dawkins crossed foundered on the rocks off the +Irish coast in a heavy sea this morning and went to pieces against the +cliffs in the sight of shore. The dispatches report only three persons +saved, and tell of a cook who went about with pots of coffee, and of a +girl named Sarah Dawkins who gathered some children about her and whose +voice could be clearly heard by those on shore in the lulls of the storm +singing hymns to them to the end." + +Something happened to Uncle Charlie's voice. After finding it he went +on. "I hurried right home. It's past twelve, Cordelia, but don't you +think you had better dress and let me take you up to Mrs. Dawkins at +once?" + +Emmy Lou crept into Aunt Cordelia's bed as Uncle Charlie went out and +Aunt Cordelia got up and began to dress hastily. + +Strange tremors were seizing Emmy Lou, but she must not weep, must not +detain or distract Aunt Cordelia. She was a big girl and must hear and +bear these things now with the rest. + +"The child, the poor, poor child, alone on that great ship without kith +or kin!" said Aunt Cordelia as she fastened her collar, still weeping. +Then she came and kissed Emmy Lou. + +"I may be gone some time. Stay where you are and I'll leave the light." + +Did the tears come before or after Aunt Louise kissed and soothed her +and then went back to bed? Emmy Lou rather thought they came after she +was gone. And after the tumult of tears had spent themselves? + +A picture arose in her mind, unbidden and unexpected, of Albert Eddie, +hurt, mortified, and outraged, walking home block after block from the +lawn fete because church fairs do not give any change. + +"What is it she wants me to do now I'm in?" he had asked following his +confirmation. + +And what was it that Sarah did want of Albert Eddie? Sarah who saw him +confirmed and left next day? Sarah assembling the children on the ship +and singing hymns to them to the end? + +And suddenly Emmy Lou, twelve years old verging on thirteen, saw for the +first time! + +Sarah dependably mixing the Saturday baking in the crock, Sarah looking +after her younger sister and brother as best she knew how, Sarah singing +hymns to them sitting about the hob, which is the grate, was being made +into that Sarah who could gather the children about her on the sinking +ship and sing to them to the end. Not Sarah mixing the baking in the +crock, but Sarah _dependably_ mixing the baking in the crock. Herein +came the light. + +And all the while Emmy Lou had thought the digit on the slate in its day +was the thing, and later the copybook, and only yesterday, the +conjugation of the verb. Whereas Sarah now had shown her what nor home, +nor school, nor Sunday school, nor confirmation class had made her see, +that the faithfulness with which the digit is put on the slate, the +script in the copybook, and the conjugation of the verb on the tablets +of the mind, is the education and the thing! + +This, then, is the gate? This the way that leads thither? The sweet and +common road along which the children of the Heavenly King are +journeying? Faithful little Sister from the alley of so long ago, gentle +and loving Izzy of that same far-gone day, Hattie helping a schoolmate +comrade over the hard places? This is the road whereon those older, +laden souls are stealing? The road, if once gained by the pilgrim, +whether he be Episcopalian, Bohemian, Presbyterian, or Afro-American, on +which he will go straight onward. The path where, like bells at evening +pealing, the voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea. + +Sea? Prayers of the church were asked that Sarah be preserved from the +perils of land and water! And Sarah was lost! + +Lost? Was Sarah lost? + +"We'll miss your voice, so sweet and strong and true, in the hymns," +Aunt Cordelia had told Sarah. + +Would her voice be missed? Her voice singing to the children to the end? +It came with a flash of sudden comprehension to Emmy Lou, lying there in +Aunt Cordelia's big bed waiting for her return, that Sarah's voice would +not be missed but heard forever, singing hymns to the end to those +little children of the King. + +"What does she want me to do now I'm in?" asked Albert Eddie. Sarah had +answered him. Make himself ready for whatsoever part should be his. + +"The child, the poor, poor child, alone on that great ship without kith +or kin!" Aunt Cordelia had said, weeping. + +Was she thus alone? "When you get to wit's end you will always find God +lives there," her grandmother had told her when she was a wee 'un. Had +not Sarah given proof that when she got to wit's end God did live there? + +Emmy Lou was weeping no longer. She lay still. A wonder and an awe +suffused her. To the far horizon the landscape of life was irradiated. +She was tranquil. The Silence had spoken at last. + + * * * * * + +Aunt Louise remarked to Aunt Cordelia a few days later, "Did I tell you +that we made a hundred and fifty dollars at the lawn fete?" + +"By fair means or foul?" asked Uncle Charlie, overhearing. "I must say, +Louise, in the name of the church I stand for, I don't like your +methods." + +Perhaps Uncle Charlie and Emily Louise were seeing the same thing, +Albert Eddie, hurt, mortified, and outraged, walking home in the night +because St. Simeon's lawn fete didn't give change to gentlemen. + +Aunt Cordelia spoke after Emmy Lou went up to bed. "She brought home her +report of the final examinations from school today. She got through!" + +"By the skin of her teeth as usual?" from Uncle Charlie. + +"Just that. She works so hard to so little end, Charlie. I don't +understand it. But at least she is always faithful." + + Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so: + Some said, It might do good; others said, No. + --_The Pilgrim's Progress._ + + + + + "_The Books You Like to Read + at the Price You Like to Pay_" + + + _There Are Two Sides + to Everything_-- + +--including the wrapper which covers every Grosset & Dunlap book. When +you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected +list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent +writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset & +Dunlap book wrapper. + +You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from--books for +every mood and every taste and every pocketbook. + +_Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to +the publishers for a complete catalog._ + + _There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book + for every mood and for every taste_ + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Repeated chapter titles were removed. Text uses both "Heaven" and +"heaven," "Sally" and "Sallie." Text uses the archaic spelling of +"strait" for "straight." + +Page 125, "diagramed" changed to "diagrammed" (Bob diagrammed) + +Page 170, "nebulae" changed to "nebulae" (of nebulae for support) + +Page 292, "thereamong" changed to "there among" (placard set there +among) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Emmy Lou's Road to Grace, by George Madden Martin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMMY LOU'S ROAD TO GRACE *** + +***** This file should be named 38553.txt or 38553.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/5/5/38553/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Kentuckiana Digital Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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