Part 5 (2/2)
”_MISSION TO THE HEATHEN OF HOLLOWMELL._
”A meeting of Christian friends favourable to the above scheme will be held in Hollowmell Hall, on the evening of Wednesday, the 22nd inst.
”All Christians--(especially Methodists)--are invited to attend.”
Minnie's exclamation brought all the girls then in the room to the spot, and great was the indignation of those who had been witnesses of the scene on the preceding evening, but some who as yet knew nothing about it laughed and thought it rather clever.
Minnie's first impulse was to tear down the obnoxious notice and burn it before them all, but fortunately her better sense prevailed, and after a momentary struggle with her angry feelings, and also with her keen personal distress, she looked up and read it aloud, omitting the objectionable parenthesis, and said with a smile to those who were in the secret:
”It is a very good joke, I daresay, so we'll make it a true one,” and then, with their permission, she told all about their proposed plan, and how Mona had laughed at it, and ended by inviting them all to attend the meeting advertised from so unexpected a quarter, in the Hollowmell Hall.
”Only,” she added, ”we will hold it on Friday evening instead of Wednesday as Mona suggests--not considering, I apprehend, our onerous duties in the matter of lessons on that evening.”
The teachers entered the room at this juncture, and consequently the curiosity of many who had come in during Minnie's speech was left unsatisfied except for various disconnected whispers which were exchanged during the morning with such as were better acquainted with the matter, and these, it may be supposed, were not of the most satisfactory character.
There was quite a sensation created in Minnie's favour when the girls were free again at the mid-day recess, and the whole story came out; Mona had to endure, as best she could, the spectacle of Minnie elevated to the pedestal of heroism, and finding herself all but sent to Coventry. As may be imagined, this state of affairs did not tend to soothe her already ruffled feelings, but rather the opposite, so that, by the time school was dismissed she was in no enviable frame of mind.
She did not sit at her work chatting and laughing with the others who remained behind, long after school hours, but immediately left the schoolroom, and proceeded to don her hat and ulster in haste, lest any one should come out before she could leave. Just as she lifted her glove she noticed something white on a table in one corner, and notwithstanding her haste she was moved by a strong desire to go over and look at it. It turned out to be a heap of ma.n.u.script.
”Why, it's Minnie Kimberly's,” she said to herself. ”Her Latin translation for the examination! just like her to leave it about in this manner!” she ran her eye over several lines.
”How beautiful!” she exclaimed, under her breath, ”I could do nothing like it if I tried a hundred years. I am not afraid of her in anything else, but if she sends this, I may give up hope.”
Then a strong temptation seized her to hide the ma.n.u.script, and so not only be revenged on Minnie for her humiliation, but also secure the certainty of her success in the examination.
”Why should she have everything?” she asked petulantly, ”Is it not enough for her that she has sweet temper, and popularity, and--Christianity,” and her lip did not curl at the word now that she was alone as it certainly would have done had there been others by. An expression of deep pain came into her beautiful face, and putting down the ma.n.u.script where she had found it, she laid her head on the dusty table and something like a sigh escaped her.
”No!” she said, in her excitement speaking aloud. ”Minnie _shall_ have the prize. She deserves it as she does all the gifts my selfish heart so wickedly envies her; we may not be friends, but at least we can be fair rivals.”
A step was heard in the room, and without looking round to ascertain whose it might be, Mona s.n.a.t.c.hed up her gloves and disappeared.
Minnie, for it was she, stood staring in a dazed sort of way at the place where Mona had been, not a moment before, in such an att.i.tude of dejection as no one had ever believed her capable of yielding to, and thoroughly mystified by her last words which had reached her ears. All at once she noticed the paper on the table, and recognised it at once as her Latin translation.
”So that was it,” she soliloquised. ”Poor girl, she isn't happy, I am afraid. I wish we could be friends. Mab and I would soon manage to get her into a more cheerful frame of mind. If she would only join the Mission, she was the unintentional means of forming, she would find a great deal more satisfaction in her life. However, she need not be afraid of this,” and she touched the pages of her work lovingly. ”I don't think I will send it after all.”
The meeting, so strangely convened, was held as agreed, and was numerously attended by those young ladies who lived within a convenient distance. Many who did not, sent letters expressing regret for the same, and sympathy for their object, some also sending subscriptions, and offering any other kind of aid it might be in their power to bestow.
This was all very encouraging, and the girls in a flutter of delighted excitement formed themselves into a society which was to be known to future generations as the ”Hollowmell Mission.” There was a great deal of laughing, and talking, and fun, many of them looking on it as a new, and accordingly, agreeable source of amus.e.m.e.nt, but there was also a great deal of simple, unaffected earnestness which kept the work alive when these b.u.t.terfly supporters, who hailed it as a new excitement, wearied of it and one by one dropped off.
The company was divided into committees who presided over the different branches of the work, and were, moreover, charged with the conduct of the Sat.u.r.day evening entertainments, over which each committee presided in rotation, thus relieving Mabel and Minnie of a great deal of labour, and leaving them free to apply themselves to the extension of the work.
Prizes of various descriptions were offered, the compet.i.tion lists being open to all. At first these were entirely in connection with work which could be shown out-doors, as the girls did not consider themselves warranted to go any further at present. The compet.i.tion for the best-kept garden has already been mentioned. Another was shortly announced for the best-cleaned and tidiest windows. Many of the gates and little wooden railings which separated the different plots of ground were in very bad repair, the paint being in many cases completely rubbed off, and the wood-work broken. At Minnie's request these places were mended, and Mr. Kimberly himself, who began to be quite interested in the work, supplied a certain quant.i.ty of paint to every house, while the young ladies offered a prize for its most successful use.
Although there were children in almost every house in the hollow, there were two or three where there were not any, and some also where the children were too young for work of this kind. These were consequently alloted to any who should volunteer their services for the purpose. Some one proposed that this compet.i.tion should be open to boys alone, but Minnie stood up bravely for the girls, declaring that they could do this kind of work as well as the boys, and should not be shut out from it, as the boys had not been shut out from the window-cleaning.
This was considered only fair, and it was also thrown open to all who cared to compete.
But though the young reformers did not think it right to go further than the outsides of the cottages in their endeavours after improvement, their influence began to a.s.sert itself within also. They were so young themselves that they considered it would be an arrogant and presumptuous proceeding on their part to attempt anything that would look like dictation, or interference, and might materially injure their work in directions wherein it had been successful heretofore. They contented themselves therefore with working among the young people, relying on the natural development of that work, and were encouraged to find, that such reliance was by no means misplaced, for, besides the improvements effected by the youthful compet.i.tors in the outward appearance of the cottages, a further improvement was observable in the comparative absence of drunken men and untidy women.
<script>