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2 THE GIRLS’ COMPANION.
SertemBer 21, 1907.
; what it means. But I’m sure it doesn’t
i mean such a horrid, condescending spirit
uA as I had at first.”
—_+—_
purpose in life, and a will to necompsleh at Loe
ot sure but this girl sets a fin .
ample at times to girls who would perhaps
toss their heads at a comparison, because she
is obedient, respectful, industrious and a good
housekeeper, so far as her opportunities per-
mit. She is not accomplished, but she knows
h to make or her father and
mother and brothers, a home they are sorry
to leave and delighted to see again. It seems ‘
to me that this is the real home girl, al-
Queer Homes and the Girls Who
Care for them
By JOHN CARVER
WHEN THE PARADE WAS LATE.
The small girl had sat for hours on the |
eurbing awaiting the parad noted mili-
tary hero was in the city, and celebrities from
foreign -shores. The small girl talked rap-
turously of the soldiers and the. floats and
ands. er face was flushed, and the
drops of perspiration dotted it; but her beam-
ing smile did not fade.
The parade, like others of its kind, was late.
he big crowd lining the sidewalk waited,
wondered and grumbled, By
small girl grew vanxious. ‘* Please,” she ap-
pealed to a tall man near her, “won't you
tell me the time?
“Sure, sissy,” said the tall man, good-
naturedly, producing a somewhat battered
silver watch. “It’s quarter past eleven,”
he announced, consulting it. “The
parade’s only an hour and a quarter late.
Guess they think we hain anything to do
but sit around and wait
The small girl on the OF dual tooked
“T've got to go at quarter of
* she said. “I've got to take my
pa his dinner.” .
“Been sitting here ever since break-
fast, hain’t you?’ asked the tall man.
“It would be a pity to.lose it now. Do
you think your pa~ would scold if you
missed his dinner for once, seeing things
are. the a they are?”
“Scold? No, of course he wouldn’t!”
said the girl. ‘‘Ife isn’t that kind, But
you don’t suppose I’d like to watch
parade, do you, and know my pa was hungry?
Like as not he’d come home with a headache
if he didn’t get his dinner.”
“Then we'll hope the parade will hurry
right along,” said the tall man genially, and
they talked of other things.
was a sound that set the small girl’s feet to
tapping, and brought a bright fight to ber
eyes—the inspiring music of a fife
Sut even at that critical moment she oun ‘not
forget, the question. ‘* What time is it?”
“Tm sorry, sissy,” sald. the big man, again
consulting his watch. “It’s what I call
hard luck, but it’s quarter of twelve this
minute.”
For an instant the girl hesitated. Tor an
instant the bright face clouded. The big man
watched her curiously as he slipped his watch
back into his pocket. Suddenly to his relief
she smiled.
“Well, I must Bor she said. “I'll tell
father I heard one of the bands anyway.
Good-by. I hope you ‘Il like it.
She slipped away, and her place was taken
in an instant, but the big man looked before
him, thinking of anything but the music and
the approaching parade. “I'll warrant that
father of hers is a pretty good sort,” he told
himself. ‘ He’d be ashamed to be anything
else, with a little girl like that to look out for
him.” “
——p——
ROBERT MORRISON AND THE LITTLE GIRL.
meng the Morrison memorabilia brought
to ‘light in connection with the China Centen-
ary Conference in Shanghai fs a bit of history
of special interest to all American women
engaged in mission work. Robert Morrison
could not proceed directly from’ England to
‘hina because of the opposition cf the East
India Company to Christian missions. This
led him to sail first to New York and thence
to Canton under the protection of the United
States Government.. Ilis visit to New York
in 1807 made a profound impression upon all
who met him and especially upon the family
who entertained him. - In the little daughter
of his host there was awakened a lifelong en-
thusiasm for missions that found adequate
expression a half century later when, widely
known as Mrs. Doremus, she started the
Woman's Union Missionary Society. This
was the first missionary organization of
women in the United States and the mother
of..the many Cenominational societies since
formed. |, Is not
wonderful that the
vast missionary
movement on
part. of the Chris-
tian womanhood of
America should_ be
directly. traceable to
the good seed
dropped in the sensi-
tive heart of a little
.girl by the pioneer
illustration
the way in which
God ke: the
wrath of men to praise him, for the very
hindrances put in the way of Morrison's mis-
sion became the providential means of rais-
ing up a host of helpers to aid in its ae
complishment.
a
Look for what is best in all. .
By and by there}
HOMES OF THE MINNESOTA INDIANS.
Wherever one may travel on the American
continent he will find the home spirit strong-
ly in evidence.. Too many of us have a way
of considering that home only means ‘the
by the! place where we can find comfort and helpful
persons to make
On the contrary,
life more pleasant for us.
home is found in some of
DEERMAN’S TENT, INDIAN POINT.
the queerest places and among people to
whom comfort, as the readers of this article
know it, is an entire stranger.
The home that young people are fond of
is a house built in one of the many styles of
architecture which make the residences of
the United States both attractive and unat-
tractive, or perhaps in an apartment of a tall
city building, where the comings and goings
of many neighbors are not considered. any
more than the passing in and out of the
bees in a hive.
Still, this is not the sort of home to which
the writer has reference. The one in mind is
that situated far from the comforts and civi-
lizing influences of town and city life, whose
occupants have perhaps never seen rail-
road train, to whom books and papers are
strangers, and who would not know what
music was if they heard it. This seems, I am
sure, a place destitute of what are coy con-
sidered the first principles of a happy home.
yet happiness is to be found in this var away
place, just as sincere, just as joyous, and
fully as much appreciated as the pleasant life
of the boys and girls who make up the school
population of the thickly settled sections of
our countr,
here are in Mexico a class of natives
known as Suppis. They are far older in their
ancestry than ‘many of the tribes that help
to make up Mexico's population, and their
habits and thoughts are still simple and free.
What is called modern civilization has not
touched them to any appreciable extent, and
they are living in great measure the lives that
their ancestors found pleasure in. singu-
larly gentle people, they welcome strangers,
and those who have visited them with the idea
of learning their history—lest when the march
of progress does reach the isolated ps and
valleys where the Suppis live,
other. days be foepotten found “their
sojourn pleasant indeed.
The Suppi home is a most modest struc-
ture, as the accompanying photograph will
indicate. Its interior is equally modest, and,
what cannot be said of many native homes,
it is serupulously clean, It is not always the
mother of the household that is responsible
for this, but the Gaughter, for the girls of
the Suppi tribe are more important person-
ages than is the case with the early inhabi-
a
tants of the northern section of our conti-
nent. It is the duty of the eldest. daugh-
tbe house, as
soon as she reaches
twelve years of age,
to take upon herself
much of the responsi-
bility of the household
itself. She learns to
cook and to keep all
tidy. The Suppi is
that strange creature,
an orderly native. I
say strange, because
elsewhere in Mexico
who that
order is heaven's first
By the time she is thirteen years old this
little Suppi girl is expected to be a house-
keeper, .fully able to take any or all tasks
from her mother, and administer the house-
h
hold affairs in such a way as to please a most
exacting father. The Suppi parent believes
in stern discipline, and does not hesitate to
administer it...So it happens that at fifteen
a Suppi girl is considered quite accomplished,
for she can shave the floor, as the process
of cleansing is called, weave the mats that
are placed at different points in the hut or
home, make the vessels of clay that are used
for cooking purposes, make the baskets that
are utilized for fish, weave the blankets that
father and brothers require, as well
as the other members of the family, and
brew the brilliant dyes that have made
the Suppi blankets known and valued by
collectors. All these things the Suppi
girl can do and thinks little of the doing.
The Suppi girls do not have to hoe,
as in the case of the Indian girls of the
United States when their parents were as
near to nature as are the Suppis. Suppi
men really work, and are considered pecu-
liar by other tribes because of their indus-
try. The Suppi home is a place where
every member helps in one way
other. There are no drones, and, indeed,
the person who exhibits a tendency toward
slothfulness, soon finds his position « ex-
ceedingly uncomfortable.
ome, therefore, is one ’ worth
whites although it does not contain a book
« or paper or an article of dress or furni-
ture that is not purely homemade. The chil-
dren go to no school save that of nature.
It is a far cry from the Suppi home to the
deerman’s tent in British Columbia, but
have chosen this particular home as an illus-
tration of the fact that the home-maker is
both near and far. The deerman is more or
less of a nomad or traveler, as his name in-
dicates. His home is that’ spot most conven-
fent to the immediate prosecution of the car
ing which. he follows. Tlis household good
are therefore few in number, and his fa) wily
has barely time to gain familiarity with one
set of surroundings when there is a change,
and all about them is new and strange. The
deerman himself and his’ sons—after they
reach fifteen—are away from home all day
and perhaps several days at atime. The
home is usually isolated, and there are con-
sequently no netghbors to visit, nor is there
anyone to call Upon for aid in case of acci-
dent. The deerm
daughter, therefore,
grows up a most self-
reliant person, . and,
like the Suppi girl at
continent,
much oo mat tility a
an early age. This
girl, however, is usu-
ally expert with. the
rifle. Uer father’s
calling brings him
into contact h
white men,
whom he learns much
and obtains both guns
and ammunition. .He
makes it a rule that
every member of his
family shall learn to
be a good shot, be-
cause no one can tell
will be useful.
So the deerman’s daughter is in some
spects a modern Diana, although I am afraid
the resemblance ends with the ability to
follow the chase. She learns to treat the
skins of the animals her father. shoots. Hers
is the art of making them soft and pliable,
perfectly preserving the fur meanwhile. Her
home is carpeted with skins a princess might
enyy, but they seem little to her aside from
the comfort they give,.because she has known
nothing different.
The deerman’s home is not as orderly as
it might be. The constant shifting about
from place to place tends. toward careless-
ness,- because anything like permanent im-
provements about a home would, in the deer-
man’s estimation, be just that. much. time
wasted. IIe may remain in one spot six days,
six weeks, or six months. Ile never knows.
Of all the queer homes of which I know,
I think the most pleasant belongs to the
Indians who live up in Minnesota. me is
constructed along ‘more ro lines an
other Indians’, although, it would pokebly be
considered most crude by young people who are
familiar only. with a cultivated civilization.
t is really a modernized and enlarged tepee,
with several rooms, and constructed with an
idea to sanitary conditions, cleanliness and
comfort. Its inhabitants are not what we
have been accustomed to call blanket Indians,
but those who come witbin in-
fluence of the schools and missions. The
girls in these homes are more like the every-
when such knowledge
day girls so many of us know—girls with a
SUTTI
though we may not quite care for her dress
or her-ideas of what. constitutes refinement.
It makes little difference, after. all, how
queer the home may seem to others, so long
as it is the sort of home that makes those
who. live there gentle, kindly and courteous.
Whether it is in the Suppi country, up in
British Columbia with the deermen, or in the
better Minnesota Indian home, it is
home spirit and not the surroundings that
counts. I have seen in the darkest corners
of. great ation both in our own country and
Europe, places which I am sure would make
the ignorant Suppi girl sympathize with the
unfortunates who call them home.
—.+—_—
THE ART OF FORGETTING,
A lady, whose life in a certain well-known
educational institution has not been without
its trials and vexations, was ,talking™ about
her experience to her friends’ at home the
other day.
“ ‘Are all the people at the institute so diffi-
cult to deal with?” asked a listener.
With a bright smile she answered :
“ Somehow, I remember the pleasant things
and forget the others,”
No doubt this was in part an acquired
grace. Is it not one well worth cultivating,
if only for our own peace of mind?
As we pursue the journey of life we shall
be foolish indeed if we expect to meet with
the pleasant and enjoyable always.
seem that no situation, however favored, is
without its petty trials, vexations, and tests
of temper. To let the mind dwell only on
these crosses, while the greater. blessings
of home and friends, health and religion, are
ours, is to encourage the spirit of ingratitude.
One night at bedtime a child begged for
the, story of Daniel.
aired " vial the mother, “you will
arent “about I
“Oh, no!” reunened the little one. “1 will
dream about Daniel and leave out the lions.”
Iiow much- more cheerful and serene our
lives might be if we, too, could “leave out
It-is true that in much of our
that we cannot separate them without de-
stroying the entire
fabric. We would
not forget the grief
which opened to us
the heart
friend, nor the part-
ing which was not
all pain, nor e dy-
ing glory whieh we
saw through tears,
Over such expert-
ences we pray, “Lord
keep mem
ory green!” but co:
cerning the cutting
remarks, the cold
neglects, the unkind
we may. well
“Lord, help
me to forget.”
It is not worth
while to cherish the
memory of our mistakes and failures. Let
them serve thelr purpose of prevention for
the future and be forgotten. They should be
stepping-stones, by means of which we may
attain a higher level, and not a wall to im-
pede our progress.
HOME,
MAKING AN IDOL OF ORDER.
Aunt Mildred sat on the porch of the little
mountain cottage, glad that the long journey
by train and stage coach was at an.end.
air was spicy with the odor of pines, and an
industrious woodpecker made monotonous ©
music near. Yet she realized that there was
something which interfered with her comfort, ~
and looking about to find the reason, she dis-
covered it in Marian’s impatient voice, speaking
out sharply in ,the little kitchen... It was
George she was finding fault with because of
some tracks he had across. the floor.
Aunt’ Mildred wondered how
down the clay paths and not leave
tracks.
Marian was in a mood for exacting sym-
pathy. . Aunt Mildred soon discovered that.
She was of the opinicn that boys were very
thoughtless, and that their sisters who kept
house have a rather hard time. And when
Aunt Mildred tried to help her to see. things
from George’s standpoint, she was surprised,
and seemingly a little resentful.
“Tt reminds me of an experience of John’s
when. he was boy,” Aunt Mildred said.
“You wouldn’t want George to feel that way,
I'm sure.” .
John?" questioned Marian, looking
interested in spite of herself. She and George.
