Brenda, Her School and Her Club

by Oliver Optic

  XXIII

  ALMOST READY

  Now however slowly time appears to pass, the end of any period ofwaiting is sure to come, and its last days or hours generally seem tomelt away. Thus, when The Four realized that less than two weeks laybetween a certain April afternoon when they met to sew, and the dayappointed for the opening of the Bazaar, they began to feel a littlenervous. "I wish that we hadn't set any particular day," exclaimedBrenda, "we might just have waited until we were all ready, and thenwe----"

  "Oh, Brenda, how unpractical you are," cried Edith, "that would havebeen perfectly ridiculous. You know that we have to advertise a little,and engage music and people to help us, and make all kinds ofarrangements."

  "Oh, I dare say," responded the unpractical Brenda, "but still it takesall the fun out of it to think that we must be ready by a particularday; I feel exactly as if some one were driving me on, and you know thatis not pleasant."

  "Oh, nonsense," interposed Nora, with a smile. "Just think how long wewere working without any special object. I am sure that we had all thetime we wished, and we had hardly a thing to show for it. For my ownpart I shall be awfully glad to have the Bazaar over with. The weatheris altogether too fine to waste indoors on fancy work, but until we havethat money for Manuel I suppose that none of us will feel free to do asshe likes in the afternoons. There are so many things to attend to thatI don't see how we are ever to get ready even in two weeks."

  Now the plans for the Bazaar had received much attention from the olderpersons in the families of the young workers, and the encouragement thatthey had had from their elders was now their chief incentive. Edith'smother had offered them the use of a large drawing-room in her housewhich was just adapted to an affair of this kind. It was a long roomwith hard wood floor, intended really for dancing. Its walls, paneledwith mirrors, would reflect the tables of fancy work in such a way, asto make it seem "as if we had twice as much as we really have," saidBrenda. As to other things there was a great deal to be decided. Brendaand Belle wished a small orchestra engaged to play during the evening ofthe Bazaar, and furnish music for dancing at the close of the sale.Edith and Nora were afraid that this would eat up too much of theirprofits, but Brenda was very decided in her views. "You can't expectthat we are not to have any fun out of it ourselves, after all thetrouble we've had, and I know that there is going to be plenty of moneyfor the Rosas. We shall make lots out of the flower table; we havequantities of plants and cut flowers promised us from the greenhouses ofour friends--just quantities, and then the refreshment table, and--wellyou know yourselves that we shall have more than we can sell."

  "What good will that do?" enquired the practical Nora. "We can't makemuch out of things that we can't sell."

  "Oh, I mean sell in the regular way; of course we'll have an auction,and get ever so much in that way. I shouldn't wonder if we should havemore than $500 to give to Mrs. Rosa."

  "Don't count your chickens too soon, Brenda," said Belle; "suppose itshould rain on the day of the sale, or suppose,----"

  "Oh, how tiresome you are!" cried the sanguine Brenda, "you are just asbad as the others, and it's quite as much your Bazaar as mine, and if itdoesn't succeed, you'll be just as much to blame."

  The fretful note in Brenda's voice warned her friends that she wastaking things too deeply to heart.

  "Why, Brenda, no one is probably going to be to blame, for the Bazaarwill be a great success," interposed the peace-loving Edith. "All wehave to do now is to try our very best to make it go off as well aspossible."

  Now the Bazaar was to be the Wednesday of the week following Easter, andthis year Easter fell almost in the middle of April. During the lastdays of school preceding the Easter vacation the four did muchcanvassing among their friends to see whether all the articles promisedwere finished. Of course there were several disappointments. Some girlswho had promised special things either had not finished them or hadforgotten all about them. On the other hand, there were some who had notonly done much more than they had promised themselves, but had collectedmany pretty, and even valuable articles from their friends. All theschool girls near the age of the four were invited to assist at thetables. The four resolved themselves into an executive committee, addingto their number Julia, and Frances and one or two others. Each of thesegirls was to have special charge of a table or department, and she inturn was to call on others to assist her.

  Julia had invited Ruth Roberts as her chief assistant, rather to thedistaste of Frances, who thought that this was going too far out oftheir set.

  "What do we know about Ruth Roberts?" she had said in a contemptuousway; "nobody ever heard of her, I am sure, until she came here toschool."

  "We have nothing to do with that," replied Nora, to whom the remarkhappened to be made. "I dare say that there are a great many good peoplein the world of whom we have never heard; I know all that I need toabout Ruth Roberts, that she has good manners and a pleasantdisposition, and an agreeable family. I know, for I have visitedthem----" Then, throwing a little emphasis into her voice, sheconcluded, "Really, Frances, you are growing very tiresome, and if Iwere you I should try to be less narrow-minded. Any one to hear youtalk, would think that no one in the world is worth considering who doesnot happen to live in certain streets in your neighborhood."

  "Perhaps that is what I do think," answered Frances. "We can't makeintimate friends of every one in the world, and we might as well havenothing to do with those who are not in our own set. I hate these peoplewho are always trying to push in."

  "If you mean Ruth, you are entirely wrong. She is the last girl in theworld likely to try to push in. She thinks quite as well of herself asyou do of yourself, and I dare say that she had some ancestors, even ifthey were not governors of Massachusetts."

  Now despite the fact that this speech, when quoted, sounds ratheracrimonious, Frances took no offence at it. She could not afford toquarrel with so popular a girl as Nora, and besides she knew that theGostars had a good claim to the same kind of pride of descent that shehad herself. So, although both girls turned away from each other with anannoyed expression on their faces, their next meeting was perfectlyamicable.

  When Nora repeated this conversation to her mother, Mrs. Gostar smiled.

  "If I were you, Nora, I would not take anything that Frances says tooseriously. She has been brought up rather unfortunately."

  "But it is so tiresome to have her going around most of the time withher head in the air, saying, 'Oh, I cannot do this, or I cannot do that,because I am a Pounder.'"

  Mrs. Gostar laughed at this speech, and the gesture and tossing back ofthe head with which Nora emphasized it.

  "Frances hardly says that, does she?" she enquired.

  "Yes, she does, she really does--sometimes," replied Nora, "and I amsure that she feels like saying it all the time. Of course we all knowthat there have been two governors, and one or two generals, and otherpeople like that in her family somewhere in the dim past. I am sure thatwe have heard enough about it. But there is nothing very great aboutFrances' own family so far as I have ever heard, and some one told methat her father could not even get his degree at college. If they hadn'tso much money----"

  "There, there," interrupted her mother, "aren't you growing uncharitableyourself? It is really true that Frances had ancestors who were of greatservice to the country, and her family has had position for a long time,and all the advantages of education. But among your schoolmates and hersthere are probably other girls of good descent, who have had advantageshardly inferior to those that Frances has enjoyed. They may have namesthat are not so well known, and yet their ancestors may have been almostas useful in building up this country as those of Frances."

  "Well," said Nora, "I don't value people for their ancestors, but forwhat they are themselves."

  "That is the right spirit, and yet neither you nor I should blameFrances for having pride in what her ancestors have done. It is well toremember such things, if remembering them makes one more ambitious ormore helpful to tho
se around him. But when this pride in his own peopleleads one to belittle all others whose part in making history may havebeen almost as important, if less conspicuous--then I would rather see agirl or a boy without family pride. In connection with this, let me tellyou a story. Years ago a murder was committed by a member of a good, oldfamily, and sometime afterwards a lady who bore the same name, thoughshe was not closely related to the murderer, was out shopping. It seemedto her a certain clerk was not sufficiently deferential, and so toreprove him, she said, in a rather haughty tone, 'Perhaps you do notknow who I am.' 'No, madame, I do not,' was his reply. 'I am a_Blenkinsop_,' she responded, thinking probably that this wouldoverwhelm him. 'Indeed,' he answered, 'you surprise me. I thought thatall the Blenkinsops had been hanged.' So you see that it does not alwaysdo to boast of one's family name. Of course this does not apply toFrances, and I should be sorry if either she or you should forget allthe good things which her ancestors did for the commonwealth. Yet itwould be a great deal better to forget it than to have the remembranceof the distinction of your ancestors so elate you as to make youcontemptuous of your schoolmates."

  "I know that, mother dear," replied Nora, "and I believe that some day Imay be able to have a little talk with Frances, and perhaps I can gether to see things as I do."

  "You might tell her," responded Mrs. Gostar, with a smile, "about theVirginia lady of whom I was reading the other day. Her little niece wasremarking with pride that her grandfather had been the son of a baronet,and that in consequence she had a right to feel superior to many of herneighbors. 'Yes,' responded the aunt, 'he was the son of a baronet, whowas the son of a manufacturer, who was the son of an apothecary'sapprentice.' 'Oh, dear,' sighed the niece, 'is it really true? Am Idescended from an apothecary's apprentice? I thought that all myancestors were gentlemen.'

  "'I haven't finished,' returned the aunt. 'The apprentice was thegrandson of a baronet, who in turn was said to trace his descent from aking of England.' The aunt smiled at the expression of relief on herniece's face on hearing this, as she said, 'I always knew that we wereof good family.' My own moral," concluded Mrs. Gostar, "would be thesame as that which the aunt tried to impress on her niece. We all cantrace our descent through a variety of families, and while we can oftenfind ancestors to boast of, as often we find others who are what Francesmight call 'very plain people.'"

  Nora realized that she was fortunate in having a mother who was alwaysready to advise her in the small matters that seem so important toschoolgirls, as well as in those larger things that really are ofconsequence. Without encouraging anything approaching gossip ortale-bearing Mrs. Gostar always permitted Nora to talk very freely onall the subjects that interested her, and the confidence between motherand daughter was almost ideal. Mrs. Blair and Mrs. Barlow were alsoready to advise their daughters, although they both were a little moreoccupied with society than Mrs. Gostar and had less time at home. Thewilful Brenda, too, was more apt to seek her mother's advice after shehad done a certain thing than to ask it in advance. Yet although herdoings were sometimes a little annoying to others, she always admittedto herself that she could depend on her mother's sympathy. Edith, with arather phlegmatic disposition, seldom did anything wrong. She had beenbrought up rather strictly in accordance with prescribed rules, and shewas always confident that whatever her mother had arranged or advisedwas exactly right. Belle alone, of the Four, was unfortunate in her homesurroundings. Her mother, a nervous invalid, had permitted Belle'sgrandmother to rule the household with a rod of iron, and knowing thatthe old lady was often unjust the former did not reprove Bellesufficiently when she broke some of her grandmother's rules. Belle inthis way came to be a law to herself. She obeyed her grandmother whenthere was no escape for it, but oftener she took the chance ofdisregarding her authority, saying to herself,--or even to others--"Ifmamma could do as she liked, she would let me do this." It was notalways a legitimate excuse, although the conditions in her familyenabled many of her acquaintances to make excuses for Belle.

  As to Frances, those who knew her best, realized that her family pridehad been nurtured at home, and that her unfortunate way of looking atthings was not wholly her own fault.

  Yet that Nora had been able to influence her somewhat was proved by aslight change in Frances' demeanor towards others. The latter was evenknown one day to offer to go out to Ruth Roberts' house to help herfinish a piece of work for the Bazaar. In those last days, too, beforethe Easter vacation there seemed to be an unusual unity among theschoolgirls. Even those in the older classes, who seldom interestedthemselves in the "small fry," as they called the Four and theircontemporaries, came forward with many contributions for the Bazaar.

  "Dear me!" moaned Brenda one day, "I am afraid that we won't have peopleenough to sell all these things to, and a while ago I was afraid that weshouldn't have things enough to sell to all those who might come to ourBazaar."

  "That shows," said Miss South, who had come up behind Brenda while shewas talking, "that it is never worth while to borrow trouble aboutanything."

  "That is true," interposed the placid Edith, to whom Brenda had beentalking. "For my own part, I am never surprised or disappointed aboutanything, for I never expect too much beforehand. I find that I canalways put up with things when they come."

  "Then you are really a philosopher, Edith," said Miss South, "somepersons take almost a lifetime to learn this simple lesson, and indeedsome persons never learn it at all."

  As the preparations for the Bazaar advanced it was very pleasant forJulia to find herself counted in among the band of workers.

  It is true that she often had to take a sharp word from Brenda, or acold glance from Belle, but these things did not disturb her.

  She had become accustomed to her cousin's little ways, and she realizedthat her "bark was worse than her bite," as Nora was in the habit ofsaying.

  There was one thing about which Brenda was very decided, and that wasthat no older person, that is no parent or teacher, was to have any partin managing the Bazaar.

  "We want all the credit ourselves, and I think it will be a fine thingto show how much we can do all by ourselves." If she could have had herown way, I believe that she would have refused the offer of Edith'smother to provide a room for the Bazaar, and she would have been quitewilling to pay for a hotel drawing-room from her own allowance--althoughto do so would have run her several months in debt. But this wasevidently so unwise a plan, that she contented herself with simplybroaching it to her friends. "The idea!" had been their criticism, "ofthrowing money away like that when we can have such a beautiful room fornothing."

  "It certainly would be foolish," said Belle, "and besides my motherwould not think a hotel a proper place for girls like us to hold abazaar; it would be different if we were in society, or if some olderwomen were managing it."

  "Oh, I suppose you are right," Brenda acknowledged with a sigh, "but Ishould be ever so much better pleased with a hotel. It would seem somuch more as if we were grown up. I hope that this won't seem like achildren's party. You know that Edith always had her birthday parties inthat room."

  "Yes, but she'll have her coming out party, there, too, I heard hermother say so the other day, and really I think that it is very, verykind in her to offer the room, because there will be strangers comingand going all day long through the house." So Brenda had to professherself grateful for the room, and was obliged to turn in otherdirections for an outlet for the energy which she was anxious to show inmanaging the Bazaar.