Part 12 (1/2)
Jim had pa.s.sed the crisis of the fever, and recovered rapidly. Neither of the other Hettermans was taken ill. The house was thoroughly cleansed and disinfected, and after a few weeks we took up our interrupted botany lessons. But Jim's illness had made more than a transient impression, and Adelaide's suggestion that we should broaden and deepen our work was talked over amongst us.
”There is a society,” said Emma Jane, ”which I have heard of somewhere, which is called 'The King's Daughters.' I think they have much the same idea that Miss Prillwitz has expressed. It is formed of separate links of ten members, bound together by the common purpose of doing good. Now, I think, we might form such a link, with Miss Prillwitz for our president. There are five of us, but we need five more. Whom shall we ask?”
”Girls,” said Winnie, ”I'm afraid you won't agree, but there is real good stuff in those Hornets.”
”The Hornets! Oh, never!”
”What an idea!”
”Why, they hate us!”
”No, they simply think that we despise them.”
”Well, so we do. I am sure, the way that Cynthia Vaughn behaves is simply despicable.”
”Perhaps so,” Winnie admitted, ”but the other three girls are not so bad. Little Breeze”--that was our nickname for Tina Gale--”is a real good-natured girl, and a perfect genius for getting up things. When I roomed in the Nest she was devoted to me; so they all were, for that matter. I could make them do whatever I pleased, and Rosaria Ricos, the Cuban heiress, is just as generous as she can be. 'Trude Middleton is a great Sunday-school worker when she is at home, and Puss Seligman's mother has a longer calling-list than Milly's, I do believe. Don't you remember what a lot of tickets she sold for the theatricals? If we are going to get up a charitable society we must use some brains to make it succeed, and those girls are a power. You know very well that it is the Hornets' Nest and the Amen Corner which support the literary society, and when we unite on any ticket-selling or other enterprise it is sure to succeed.”
”Yes,” replied Emma Jane Anton, ”that is because we appeal to entirely different sets of girls--between us we carry the entire school.”
”I will take all in,” said Adelaide, ”except Cynthia. She has been too hateful to Tib and Milly for anything!”
”Oh, don't mind me,” murmured Milly; ”I dare say she could not help laughing when I made that mistake about Paul and Virginia.”
”I don't believe she will join us,” I said, doubtfully; ”but I am sure I would a great deal rather have her for a friend than an enemy.”
”She will be so surprised and flattered that she will be as sweet as jam,” said Winnie, confidently. ”You have no idea what a lofty reputation you girls have. I used to reverence and envy you until it amounted to positive hatred. That is what made me behave so badly. I knew we couldn't approach you in good behavior, and I determined to take the lead in something. That's just the way with Cynthia. She imagines that you would not touch her with a ten-foot pole, and she wants you to think that she doesn't care, but she does.”
Milly promptly furnished the wherewithal for a spread, and the Hornets were invited. Adelaide said that they acted as if a sense of gratification were struggling with a sneaking consciousness of unworthiness, and it was all that she could do not to display the scorn which she was afraid she felt. But Milly was as sweetly gracious as only Milly knew how to be, and Winnie put them all at their ease with her rollicking good-fellows.h.i.+p. I was sure that Cynthia at first suspected some trick, but even she succ.u.mbed at last to our praise of her banjo-playing, which was really admirable. They melted completely with the ice-cream--little ducks with strawberry heads and pistache wings; and when Winnie told them the entire story of the little prince they were greatly interested.
”Now,” said Winnie, ”I have been talking with Jim, and he says that the tenement house in which he lived swarms with children who ought not to pa.s.s the summer there, who will die if they do; and what I want to propose is, that we club together and have some sort of entertainment, to send them to the country, or do something else for them.”
The proposition met with favor, as did the plan for the King's Daughters society, which was organized at once, and officered as follows, the ”spoils” being divided equally between the Amen Corner and the Hornets:
President--Miss Prillwitz.
Vice-Presidents--Adelaide Armstrong and Gertrude Middleton.
Secretary--Cynthia Vaughn.
Treasurer--Emma Jane Anton.
Executive Committee--The foregoing officers and the rest of the society.
”Little Breeze” then made a practical suggestion: ”You know,” said she, ”that the literary society is always allowed to give an entertainment the week before the graduating exercises, to put the treasury in funds, or, rather, to pay old debts. We have no debts this year, and I am sure that the society will let us have the occasion. Whatever we ten favor is sure to be carried in the literary society.”
”That is what I said,” remarked Winnie.
”So if Miss Anton will get Madame's permission for the change, I have no doubt we can make at least three hundred dollars.”
”Nonsense! we will make twice that,” said Puss Hastings.
”But what shall we have?”