Part 25 (1/2)

”Nowhere is there the _Laetus Sorte Mea_ book,” she said sadly.

”That's so!” exclaimed Catherine, regretfully. ”We'll put it on the suggestion list at once. Do you see any other lack, any of you?”

They all laughed, looking about at the few hundred volumes on the shelves, but Frieda said earnestly:

”There are many Germans here, Dr. Harlow told me. And the older ones cannot read English. Can they have no share in the library?”

”That's right,” said Alice. ”They are taxpayers and I should think you ought to get a few German books every year, Catherine. It's done in other places.”

Algernon was at liberty for a moment, and came over to the group.

”Are we talking too much?” asked Catherine.

”No, no. There's no one at the reading-table. What are you discussing?”

”Frieda thinks there should be German books here for the people in town who can't read English.”

”There ought,” said Algernon gravely. ”But I don't know what to order. I don't want to start out with Goethe and Schiller. I asked the German minister, and he gave a list of religious books, but that isn't what we want, either.”

Frieda's eyes shone. ”Please let me make you a list,” she said eagerly.

”And I have two or three books in my trunk which I would gladly give, O, gladly.”

Algernon's pleasure was as great as her own.

”That would be simply bully! We can order one each time we send for new books, and it won't be long before we have a good supply. I say, Catherine, would you mind taking the desk for a few minutes? There come the program committee of the Study Club, and I ought to be free to talk with them.”

Catherine consented willingly, always liking to manipulate the simple machinery of the loan desk. Frieda sat down at once with a pencil and paper to make out her list, and Alice and Hannah helped themselves to magazines and waited.

Catherine looked about her at the little room and her heart swelled with pride and pleasure. So much had come of her thought of making Algernon useful. He was already quite a different person, with a dignity that became him well. The pile of cards in the charging tray before her showed that the library was being used by a goodly number of borrowers.

The program committee was evidence that part, at least, of its use, was for more than mere recreation.

”O, I am so glad, so glad!” sang Catherine's heart. ”There are so many things to be glad about. And see my dear, dear Wide-Awakes. I think they really are the most beautiful girls I ever beheld!”

A stranger might have thought that rather an extravagant speech, for Catherine herself was the only one of the four who could be called beautiful. But Frieda's face was unusual and interesting, Alice's sweet, though plain, and Hannah's the sort that always called for a second glance and a smile of pleasure.

”Have you anything in the library on the Past, the Present and the Future?” asked a voice, and Catherine stopped her musing.

”The what?” she asked, not believing her ears. She had been thinking of the past, the present and the future as she watched her three friends'

faces, but that was quite a different matter.

”I have to write a paper on that subject,” said a complacent young woman, rather showily dressed, ”and I thought I'd maybe better read up on it a little.”

”I should think it would be wise,” murmured Catherine. ”But I hardly know--the Past, the Present, and the Future of what?”

”Why, not of anything. Just the Past, the Present and the Future,” said the other, with a shade of impatience in her tone. ”Maybe I'd better wait till the real librarian is at liberty. He always knows what to give out.”

”Perhaps that would be best,” faltered Catherine. ”It is such a very large subject, you know.”