Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-16


quiet and loving way of doing drastic things.
and happily FOR herself she had enough
character of her own to make not only the
clothes but the manners she assimilated fit
her own environment and the needs of her
not lesser but NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
EOR instance, the girl had the good sense
not to make q tea gown, but she did
contrive most delightful dance frock for
her senior graduation dance at the normal
school, and after long study of all my
friends slippers she came to the just con-
clusion that black ones would be her own
best buy as being suitable for most occa-
sions. The silk underthings she did not
attempt but the light featherweight of them
and their simplicity, yet their fragile pretti-
ness. gave her an idea that maturcd into
quite as delightful and practical little gar
ments. And what was true Of her adapta-
tion of clothes was even more apparent in
her adaptation of my friends theory that
there Is a right and kind and lovable way
of doing everything which needs doing. The
girl had no small problem Of her own to
face, and It met her as so many problems
DO when she came home for the first time
on her holidays from school and saw her
family and her old home for the first time
with seeing eyes.
TT WAS n kindly household and about as
l. hospitable to pigs and hens and flies and
ubiquitous children as it was to the farm
hands. the old people and the careless men,
folk the father and brothers who were
more kindly than they we're clean.
The mother of the family had long given
up the task Of getting order out Of the
chaos. And in letting the house stay In n
mess. she had pretty well lost her own sense
and in her caustic way generous, but she
was really an ''obiect" and appeared TO have
become sardonically Indifferent to her un-
kemptness The other sons and daughter
as they grew ur had fallen into the, family
sight that confronted the girl fresh from
school and from all the new learned serenity
Of an orderly environment seemed about as
hopeless as 1t was disheartening.
Her getting away TO school had been
something little short of revolution, a sort
of romantic experiment in education on the
part of family that for two generations
had been content. apparently. to forgo book
learning. Even the money necessary to
board her in the town where the normal
school was and the bare necessities of school
books and city clothes were got together by
sort of miracle from funds hid in stock
ings and held back secretively by one or
another Of the family for some cherished
object. the possession of wi iCh receded or
came to the foreground of their hopes as
crops were good or bad. or the berry season
was abundant failed or the chickens null
tiplied or dwindlcd.
In fact, the girls getting off TO school
was the result of more than one dumbly
offered sacrifice on the part Of the older
members of her family; and it was this as
much as her own frank. restless hopes over
the adventure that made tho whole thing
look so perilous TO those Of Us who were
spectators.
What if the experiment should fail with
the girl, Or what if II succeeded too well.
made her home futur" tmpossibiity. Or.
worse still, what ii she tried to change old
habits in others az they had SO easily been
changed in her. and hurt and aIienated the
queer. crochety hearts that had set her
free from a bondage which they had grown
TO ignore and even enjoy.
TALKING Of clothes with my friend she
l. talked of her dilemma with things rs
they were at home. She saw with a child
ike candor the baCkwardness and almost
degradation of it, but she also saw the family
love back Of it. and her own debt TO that
'ove. How to change things without hurt
ing--that was her main question, Whether
10 gradually dissociate herself from the
| environment. her very loyal heart never
seemed TO allow her 10 contemplate. 1t
| was plain for n family sake she could
never bring into that mess any of the
! persons who had made her new life that was
Just common sense. not snObbishneSs.
| Well, | heard fragments Of those discus
sionS, lightly steered by the older woman
and gently analyzed by the girl. and
| gathered that the thing was to be done pain
| eBsly, or not at all.
| THE child had charm, tho charm Of youth
l. and health and well-kcpt body and an
! intelligent, acquisitive mind and pretty
| ways Of using her body. In family where
| al! the teeth went in the early twenties
| her perfect ones-for she had spent her
| berry picking money MS child in visits to
| the countryside dentist-werr Of themselves
| an almost romantic asset, Sh" would have
| passed pretty fresh, schoolgirl any
| l., ,I,at ,lnr ,,V- ,lV TO-, p,
| her neat IrimneSs was II refreshing rest TO
| worried eyes,
| Perhaps if she had been a homely girl or
| an awkward one she could not have put her
difficult gam" through WIN so Hght touch.
But she used all her delightful differences
NJ so many spells Of veaben"sS, She asked
nothing Of the mat all, except to let her work
| for them,
rACII day the family moved !nro some
IL new and pleasant: renovated spot in the
! house with a kind of laughing curiosity of
pride and expectancy. The girl had stimu
| lated them into an attitude Of pleasure in
| their new old environment, liking also to
| have guests come and see. The change in :
| voivnd no additional drudgcry 10 the mother
lin fact. the things she had always frankly
hated doing, and had long only half done,
were done without her being aware of any
| hardship 10 any one.
~ the ease and amusingncss and general
| po0s feeling that the change was accom- =
| pnshed, it was as great a triumph of love
rs love ever witnessed. No doubt when
she goes back to complete her course at the
normal school. things will slip back more
than lttle, and no doubt when she goes
to her teaching next year in some distant
town. nothing much will have changed to
the outward eye in tha, queer old shack
Bur | am willing to wager that they will
lonk forward to her hOmecomings with n
comfortable assurance that she will ''rcd
them up" again in no time and set the
household wheels spinning noisleSsly while
she is in their midst.
And | feel sure. too, that if she were
asked today how she did it. she would take
none Of the credit to herself for her manner
of accomplishing 1t, but refer in grateful
sppreciatiyeness TO the happy councils oi
her adviser in manners as well as In clothes