Part 24 (1/2)
”Oh, yes, yes!” cried some of the girls.
After a little talk the suggestion was adopted. They all wanted Marty to be the one to write; but she said, though of course she was going to write to Evaline, she could not write a good enough letter to be read at the band, and would rather Mary Cresswell wrote. Miss Walsh decided that would be the better way, as Mary was so much older and more accustomed to writing. It was too much to expect Marty to do.
So Mary wrote a very nice letter--the Twigs were very proud of their bright secretary--inclosing a note of introduction from Marty. In course of time a reply was received from Almira thanking them all for their kind interest in the mountain band, and accepting the invitation to enter into a correspondence. This correspondence proved to be very pleasant and profitable to both parties.
What pleased the Twigs particularly was that Almira told them the mountain band was very much indebted to one of their members, and it was likely the band would not have been formed that summer if it had not been for that member's help. Of course she meant Marty.
It must not be supposed Marty had boasted that she had done much towards getting the band organized. She only told in her childish way how it had come about, and the girls could not help seeing she had given all the aid possible.
Some of the other girls heard from members of bands they had met during the summer, and in this way several suggestions of ways of doing things were gathered up and acted upon. Miss Walsh said the whole summer experience had been very helpful.
One of Marty's earliest visits after her return was paid to Jennie in company with Cousin Alice. They found the invalid sitting up in the comfortable rocking-chair, looking very much better. She was overjoyed to see them and had a great deal to say. She was so pleased that she happened to be up, and insisted on showing how she could take the three or four steps necessary to get from the bed to the chair. She told them the doctor said that after a while, if she was very careful, she would be able to walk. ”Not, of course, that skippy way you do,” she said to Marty, ”but to kind o' get along.”
She also showed the crocheting she had done, and it was really very well done. As she seemed so much better, Miss Alice asked the doctor if it would hurt her to study a little. He said it would not, and Miss Alice undertook to teach her to read better, so that she could enjoy reading to herself. Jennie was glad of the chance to learn and made good progress, so that by Christmas, when Marty and Edith gave her the Bible they had talked of in the summer, she could read it quite well.
”I think, after a while, when Jennie gets still stronger,” said Miss Alice one day at Mrs. Ashford's, ”I will teach her something of arithmetic and writing, because she will never be able to go to school, and some knowledge of the kind will be useful to her. I will teach her to sew nicely, too, and when she is older she may be able to earn her living, even if she is lame and delicate.”
”What a good work you will be doing, Alice,” cried Mrs. Ashford, ”if you help a poor, sickly, ignorant child to develop into an intelligent, self-helpful, and I hope Christian woman. Jennie will bless the day she first saw you.”
”Ah, but she never would have seen me but for you and Marty. In fact I don't think I should have taken much interest in her if my attention had not been attracted to her by Marty's self-denying gift of that doll.”
”And I don't believe _I'd_ have taken much interest in her if it hadn't been for hearing about the poor foreign children at the mission-band,”
said Marty.
”Everything comes around to the mission-band first or last, doesn't it?”
said Cousin Alice, laughing.
”Pretty near everything,” replied Marty seriously. ”And then there's Jimmy Torrence,” she added presently. ”I don't believe I'd have been willing to have my ulster pieced for his sake if I hadn't been hearing about those other forlorn children.”
She was glad to see Jimmy looking so much brighter and better. Though he did not know he owed his country visit to her, he remembered the cake she had given him and the kind words she had more than once spoken to him, so he often lingered on the stairs to see her as she pa.s.sed in and out of Mrs. Scott's room, always greeting her with a bright smile.
One Sunday Mrs. Scott made him and his next older sister as clean and respectable as possible, and took them to church with her. The result was, some of the ladies of the church came around to see the Torrences, fitted the older ones out with decent clothes, and gathered them into the Sunday-school.
Soon after this, one afternoon Miss Alice came into Mrs. Ashford's sitting-room, half laughing, and exclaimed as she sank into a chair, ”Oh, Marty, how you and your mission work are getting me into business!”
”Why, how?” demanded Marty.
”Oh, those Torrences!” said Miss Alice, still laughing.
”What about them? Do tell us,” Marty insisted.
”Well, one day as I was going to see Jennie, I saw the two little girls younger than Jimmy on the stairs, and they did look so cold this kind of weather in their ragged calico frocks, and not much else on. So I just went home, got my old blue flannel dress, bought a few yards of cotton flannel, and took them to Mrs. Torrence to make some comfortable clothes for those poor children. And, Cousin Helen, will you believe it? I found the woman didn't know the first thing about cutting and making clothes!”
”That is very strange,” said Mrs. Ashford. ”How has she been getting along all this time with such a family?”
”She depends on people giving her things, and on buying cheap ready-made clothing.”
”That is very thriftless.”
”Yes. But I've heard it is the way so many poor people do. A great many of those women work in factories or shops before they are married, and afterwards, too, sometimes, and they have no time to learn to sew. When I found out about Mrs. Torrence I thought I would offer to show her how to cut and make those things. I thought doing that would be far greater charity than making them for her would be.”