The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-06-12

IHOlO uSl u dlAlho.
"Oh, yes, OF course, I'll run over
them to make sure l have them all
right Clarissa answered readily.
But it won't be like working up
something new"
When Clarissa spoke, she fully in
tended to go over the readings that
she had selected within a few days,
to make sure that she had them at
her tongues end, and that she hat
not forgotten the fine shades of ex-
preston on which she had been so
carefully drilled.
But it was surprising how little
spare time there was left in a week
after she had mastered her lessons,
put in the regulation five hours a day
at school, and enjoyed the auto rides
and other pleasures that helped to
embroider the full fabric of workaday
life.
When a month slipped by with no
preparation made for her program
day, Clarissa treasured herself with
the thought that she still had many
weeks to get ready, and that it
would take very little time to re-
fresh her memory of the readings
she was to give. She felt a little
uncomfortable when Mabel Brakeman
who was on the program for the
month following her own appearance,
asked her one day how she was
getting along with her practicing.
Reluctantly Clarissa admitted that she
had not done any practicing, though
she expected to get at it very soon"
Have you begun" she asked, and
was a little taken aback at Mabel's
prompt answer: "Oh, yes, indeed!
I've been averaging about an hour a
day at the piano for the last month,
and l expect to keep it up until I've
given my program.
81 shouldn't think you would need
all that practice Clarissa answered
open-eyed, for Mabel was acknowl-
edged to be a fine pianist, and had
already gathered a class of little
folks.
81 find it's not very safe to give
a program without plenty of practice
beforehand" Mabel replied. Il want
to be sure that l have memorized
every note, and that every trill and
arpeggio is as good as l can make
it."
Clarissa went home determined to
make a beginning toward her own
preparation. But soon after dinner a
friend invited her to a concert, and
it did not seem worth while to begin
anything in the intervening half-hOur.
Her day was still five weeks away
when a telephone call one evening
brought CONSERVATION. Harriet Mer-
ri1l, who was to give violin pro-
gram the following week, had cut a
cash across the tip of the middle
finger on her left hand and would
not be able to play, SO that it was
necessary to move up Clarissa and
Mabel month. Clarissa, dismayed,
but still feeling that she could get
ready within a week, promised to
take Harriet's place, and went to
work in good earnest
IL
was not so easy as she had expected
to memorize the two selections.
Whole stanZas and paragraphs eluded
her, now coming readily to mind,
now dropping tantalizingly from her
memory.
When on the appointed day she
stood before the girls of the sewing
society, busy with their hand sewing,
it was with an uncertainty that
handicapped her from beginning to
end.
When the day was over she could
say to herself honestly that she had
done fairly we'll, especially consider
ing the fact that she had taken Har-
riet's place a month ahead of her
own day. But she had wanted to do
more than fairly we'll; she had meant
to give a program that would stand
out clearly in the girls memory as
something especially enjoyable.
The girls were politely appreciative,
but when she listened to Mabel Blake
mans playing the next month, she
hupW HOW ldI SIZE lldu ldlleu SuOII
herself. Where she had hesitated and
CROPPED for word or a phrase, Mabel
had every note of her music at COM
mand; her practiced fingers never
once tripped on a run or an arpeggio;
and playing with perfect confidence
both in her memory and her fingers,
she could give full value to every deli
cate shade of expression
Clarissa went home from Mabel's
program to begin work, that very
evening, on a long and ambitious
selection which she had promised to
read before small club to which her
mother belonged. The date was still
many weeks away, and Clarissa had
not expected to begin her preparations
for some time to come. But Mabel's
playing had opened her eyes to what
preparation ought to mean.
"I'm going to be really ready next
time," Clarissa said to herself, and
L