Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1930-01-09
CHAPTER w

CHAPTER w
In the living room Ginger found
her three sisters. Helen was mend
ing frayed cuff for her father as
prosaicaly as though in two weeks
she would mol be bride trembling at
the altar of her marriage Miriam
was Strengthening up the desk with an
air of great distaste Marjory was
delicately powderlng her nose. watch
ing the operation in the mirror Of
small metal case
"Marjory. where did you get that
vanity?" Ginger demanded.
Marjory closed it hastily and put it
in her pocket. But Ginger was in
sistent
"Marjory let me see that vanity.
That's brand-new Where did you
get it?''
Marjory, thus driven, produced the
article and confessed to an eXtrav-
agance. She had bought it. 1t had
cost her twenty-five cents She had
bought it from Alice Ideman. And at
last, thoroughly committed, she ex-
planned in detail.
Its really very cute idea, Helen,
she said volubly, hoping by many
words to distract attention from the
money phase Of the transaction. You
Alice had to sell four of them, and
each one of the four who bought, had
TO promise to sell four more. Then
when Alice sends her dollar to the
company, for the four she sold, they
send her a solid silver one. Just
lovely"
did you promise to sell four?
Eyes. | had to. And when l sell
them, send my dollar to the COM
pany, and they send me sterling
silver one Isn't it cute idea"
st is like the old chain letter
idea"
Exactly. Where you had to copy
the prayer"
"Or break the chain"
"And it goes on and on"
"All over the world"
"Why, they'll sell thousands and
thousands of them"
"And everybody who buys one, will
sell four more"
"And it all started from one. One,
single, solitary, little one"
The girls talked on and on. But
Ginger drew herself away from them,
sat enwrapped in impenetrable thought.
She remembered the old chain let
tiers. They had come with some fire.
quency few years ago, prayers for
almost everything, for the sick, for
foreign missions, for prohibition, for
fundamentalism, for the second com.
ing Of the Lord, for the release of
anarchistic prisoners condemned to
death
sand everybody sends it on to so
many more, and every one Of them
sends 1t to so many more. and they
send it"
Ginger got up suddenly and went
out of the room. She walked dizzily.
She went upstairs, got the short lad
der from the linen closet, and bal
anced it against the wall under the
trapdoor. She noticed that her hands
trembled. But she climbed carefully
the ladder was old-pushed up the
trapdoor, and pulled herself through
the opening. From force of habit, for
she was not then thinking Of trap
doors, she locked ii behind her, and
made her way carefully over the
beams to her sanctuary under the
dormer window. There she sat down
heavily, to think She thought, and
thought, and thought, until her bright
eyes were so wide, so bright, so blue,
that OF a sudden they seemed to hurt
her, and she shut them hard. Her two
small hands were gripped so tightly,
with fingers interlaced so closely, that
suddenly she knew they were throb-
bling with pain, half paralyzed, so that
she had to work them apart, slowly,
finger at a time. But she did not
stop thinking.
"Chain letter-on and on-all over
the world-thousands and thousands
and nobody dares to stop because no
body would dare to break the chain
for the blind-a home for the blind
on and on and on"
SUDDENLY Ginger burst into low
nervous laughter, and laughed and
cried and twisted her little hands. and
rocked back and forth on the stool
In an ecstasy.
"Oh, oh, how heavenly, how perfect
~ heavenly never could have
thought of such brilliant thing. Oh,
as father says, see the hand Of the
Lord in this! ~
She pulled the stool TO the low table
which she used as a desk, and seated
herself with a professional briskness
indicative of the oneness of purpose
which prompted her. Selecting three
pencils from a large number in the