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Copyright, 1912, by David 0. Cook Publishing Company.
Vol. XI. No. 39. i:v‘;',:.’;'::.‘.E" DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING COMPANY, ELGIN, ILL., mi: 36 Wnsmnorox STREET, CHICAGO. September 28, 1912.
. to join in the general growl,” said Alice. and am very quick with my hands. It is
claimed Mabel Merriman. “You
may as well put up that story, Stel-
la,,for Tessa and Alice are coming,
and drawing a hassock close to the radia-
tor in Stella's room, she leaned comfortably
back aginst its warm coils.
Stella Whittier threw aside her book.
“It’s rather mushy, anyway,” she yawned.
'“I was ‘only reading it for lack of some-
thing better. Ilello, girls! take the chairs
and I’ll stay right here on the bed, Bo-
hemian fashion, if you don't mind. I'm
too lazy to stir. Isn't it a horrid niglit?”
“ regular witch's declared
Tessa King. v
“That creepy noise we heard on the
stairs must have been the witch's broom,"
laughed Alice Lee. “Guess she got vig-
orous and swept up a heap of little stars;
it was too noisy for cobwebs.”
“It was lonesome in our room, so Alice
and I set out to find some companions in
,misery," explained Tessa.
“Me, too," chimed in Mabel. “Evi-
dently all roads lead to Stella's room."
“W'ell, I'm miserable enough,” replied
Stella. “This is the slowest, pokiest
boarding place in the city. I work all
day behind the counter selling cheap rib-
bons and laces; come home and eat din-
ner, read some trashy novel until I'm
sleepy, then wake up next morning to be-
gin over again.”
“ The new girl was enthusing over her
good fortune in securing a room here," re-
plied Mabel. “ Say, girls, isn't she dainty
and bright-looking? I'm sure we shall like
her.”
‘(M Y how the wind does blow l” ex-
night,"
“ Poor thing," sighed Stella, “ I'm afraid
she will be disappointed in Dismal House!"
“ When Mrs. Safford said that Faith
‘ Brewster had taken the west room, I drew
her picture in my mind," observed Alice.
"Prim, precise, tall, angular, with big
solemn eyes, hair parted smoothly in the
middle-"
“Wore glasses, somber dresses, and a
condescending air,” finished Tessa gleeful-
ly. “Oh, I supposed she'd be a regular
Puritan maid by the sound! For once my
intuition failed.“
“She is busy arranging her furniture,”
continued Mabel. “Sb told me that
Mrs‘. Safford emptied the room so she
could bring her own things and make it
seem liomelike. You see, I've been getting
acquainted. You must hear her laugh,
girls! It‘s the sweetest thing-just like
the song of a thrush, yet there's some-
thing jolly and human about it.”
“You'll be writing a sonnet. if
are-n‘t careful, “label,” laughed Tessa.
Suddenly something white flltted lightly
along the dim ball past Stella's open
you
00I'.
“ The witch with her broomstick!” cried
Alice, looking comically about for a bid-
ing place.
A jubilant laugh sounded from the stair-
way and a girlish voice scolded:
“You naughty, naughty Fluif, to hide
away from mistress.’
“,Listenl" whispered Mabel; “That is
Faith. Isn‘t she a dear little thing? I'll
own up frankly that she has charmed me
7 already.”
Then Faith appeared in the doorway
holding a plump, blue-eyed kitten in her
lhggcwvggg lid
.. - W, .
She was a tiny girl, into whose
arms.
brown eyes the sunbeams seemed to have
crept and lingered; her wayward hair re-
sembling lcavcs in autumn, brown like
her eyes with glints of sunshine. She was
dressed in soft, clinging white, a bunch
of lily of the val-ley tucked in her belt.
“Oh, how comfortable you look! May
I come in?" she asked pausing upon the
threshold,
“Please do,” invited Stella. “We are
on the verge of a debate-‘ Is Life Worth
Living?’ It's doubtful if there‘s one of us
ready to champion the aliirmative. We
await any cheerful word, for we’ve all
got the blues to-night."
Faith smiled.
that question of a dirty, ragged little
fellow playing in the gutter. IIe looked
up smilingly and answered, ‘“'ell, me
and my dog has fun!’ Not being brilliant
enough for any more original remark, I’ll
simply echo his sentiment-Me and my
cat has fun! You’ve been having fun a-
plenty with mistress to-night, you bad
Fluffy-cat I"
“ Behold our witch of the creepy noises,
Tessa!" laughed Alice.
"l)on’t get up,“ protested
Faith. “I'm oing to share
the bed with Miss IVhittier, if
I may, while I hear the argu-
ments concerning the mis-
erableness of living. Isn't
this cozy! I told Mrs. Saf-
ford I was coming here just
to make some girl friends.
You see, I don't believe in
wasting a minute. Please be-
gin, Miss Whittier.”
“My name is Stella and we
shall call you Faith. Have a
pillow for your back,” offered
Stella. “I said before you
came that the life of a girl
working in 11 ten-cent store
was terribly stupid after the
new wears off. It's a monot-
onous grind, day after day,
cheap ribbon, artificial flowers,
cranky floor-walkers, and all
the rest. I'm sick and tired
of it. Now, Tessa, it's your
grumble."
“I like the insurance busi-
ness well enough," began Tes-
sa, “and I supposed that was
what Mr. I‘rutt
stenographer for.
most eccentric man on cnrth.
Ilc has a. literary streak. For
days at a time, the insurance
business waits while I am
busy at the typewriter copying
genealogies. Ile ' always
hunting up somebody‘s ances-
tors and building a family tree.
Or else it's a eulogy of some
man, prominent or otherwise,
who has recently died. It
helps fill the newspapers and
he enjoys it.
I shall run away from his musty little of-
fice out into the sunshine and beyond the
reach of his quavering old voice calling
‘Miss King, copy this on your typewriter
at once, pleaso!"’ -
“Your views next, Alice," called Stella.
“ I’m afraid that I am only too willing
“A pessimist once asked .
But some day, I'm thinking ’
“I work in a shoe factory odice, Faith,
writing the tiny slips, millions of them,
by which the cutters and stitchers work.
Just one mistaken figure may mean that a
lot of expensive leather will be out wrong
and spoiled. We must work fast to keep
ahead of the cutting room so the men
won‘t have to be idle, yet every word and
hgure must be accurate. Some of the
drummers’ orders look as if they employed
a fly to walk across the paper, instead of
using a pen. It is blucher, bal, congress,
back-stay, patent tip, orange stitch, velour,
mat calf, etc., ad mmaeum! It is hardest
in summer time when it would be such
sport to be out autoing, and we must sit
at our desks and watch the automobiles
whiz by. ‘Vc cannot even open the win-
dows if there's much breeze, because those
miserable little slips would go flying about
the room like so many snowdakes."
“And when your trial balance won’t
come right, you think that bookkeeping is
the worst job ever invented,” added Mabel.
“ It's no fun to sit at your desk, adding up
rows of figures like a counting machine,
until you wonder whether you are really
a girl, or just an aching head and back.
Now, Faith, tell us what you do. Your
work must be easy. You've been house-
clcaning since dinner and you don't look a.
bit tired.”
Faith made a comical face. “Come to
the packing room of Field and Munson to-
morrow and watch me stand at a bench,
only a means to an end. My brother is
working his way through college. Ile is
studying medicine. That is my ambition,
too, so you see I'm willing to work hard.”
“ But why aren't you all tired out? Tell
us the secret," demanded Tessa.
“I never thought there was any secret
to tell," smiled Faith. “Perhaps my
mother's motto helps as much as anything.
She said once to Robert and me, ‘Try al-
ways to get the most out of things. Some
people try to make the best of things.
That is good, but it is likely to simmer
down to more resignation without much of
joy. Learn the lesson of getting the great-
est possible good out of every experience,
and you will be richer and enjoy life more
keenly than the millionaire who fails to
catch that secret. If you are happy, you
will help others, for joy is contagious.‘ I
wrote my mother's words in a notebook
and have always remembered ' them.
Mother lived that way herself. “'42 were
not wealthy, but she did enjoy her life!
Not a bird song or bczlutiful sunset es-
capcd her. She enjoyed the leaves budding
in the spring, but she loved also the bare
tree branches in winter, especially when
they sparkled with ice crystals.
“ We had a small yard, but she made
the most of that. A vegetable garden was
in one Corner, and the loveliest flowers,
mostly perennials that came up every
year and needed little care. She knew all
the pretty wood paths and brooks, the
meadows with violets, the
mountain laurel bushes and
swamp pinks. Often we had
picnics under the trees in the
orchard.
“If it stormed, mother was
happy indoors with her sewing
and books. She had few lux-
urics and never took expensive
trips or vacations. She.needed
very little to give her pleasure.
because she knew so well
how to enjoy everything. And
she taught Rob and me, not only
in words, but by her living to
get the most out of our lives.
“So in the shop while my
fingers fly, I dream dreams, or
the girl beside me teaches me a
little I‘olish song, or I learn a
few Italian phrases-the girls
are all friendly in their way.
After the whistle blows, I am
free. I come home and bathe
my face in cold water, arrange
my hair and slip into a fresh
dress. I love soft, frilly things
and the change rests me. Then
I lie back in an easy-chair,
dinner. I try to forget my
pillows, is very alluring some
evenings when I decide to stay
at home and read or study.
.
"am! I COME IN?"
wrapping shoes in tissue paper and pack-
ng them in cartons An Italian girl
works on one side, a I'olander on the
other, a Swede woman and a German
girl in front. Want to exchange jobs? I
took the place because I could earn more
money than in any other position for
which I was fitted. I work by the piece
Sometimes I entertain
or go somewhort-a
or social, or perhaps
just or a brisk walk. All
these things refresh me. I am
looking forward to a delicious
summer with you girls. I found
Mrs. Safford at the church I now attend,
tandd shfe toldlmte‘ about you. Aren't you
ll’? 0 my CH1 El‘
‘.‘ ut we don't have many good limos,"
objected Stella. “ Sometimes we go to the
moving pictures, but usually we just eat
and sleep outside of working hours. And
you see, it doesn't satisfy us."
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