Four Girls at Chautauqua

w and stood looking out

heart deepened w

sick and am going to die. It feels almost like that, and I am not fit to die-I am afraid. I wonder if Ruth Erskine is afraid to die? I have almost a mind to ask her. I wonder if she ever prays? People who are not afr

ut Ruth did not pray. She went around with the composed air of one who was at peace with all the world; and when

and who was acting entirely out of accordance with anything she had ever seen in her before. "What can you possibly find to keep you gazing out of that window?

did not move nor turn her head; but pres

d you be afr

telling you what an astonished face and voic

course we have got to die, and everybody knows it; and what I

ng to beat it into shape before she spoke furthe

? You might have to die to-night

from the 'religious impressions' that they harp about being so great here, the less religion they have the better, and there is quite little enough you may be sure." Saying which, Ruth turned her pillow again and her h

Ruth, and as she lay down on her prayerless pillow she said to herself, "If she had only knelt down I should certainly have done so, too; and perhaps

those quiet words: "You might have to die to-night; people do, you know." To actually have to do something that she had not planned to do and was not quite ready for, would be a new experience to this girl. Yet when would she be

ul cashmere! It rains yet and you will just be going around with fi

. Flossy, though kept her strangely quiet face and manner; the night had not brought her peace; she had tossed restlessly for hours, and when at last she slept it wa

an absent, bewildered way of Euri

suited to the rain? Let me go fishing in that po

a heavy black silk, elaborately trimmed, and looki

rounds at Chautauqua. By reason of their superior knowledge Marion and Flo

over here and board. We'll have a tent or a cottage. A tent will b

roposal, they started in much glee to loo

look for the tent afterward? The meeti

a Bible service? We have Bibles enough at home. We want to be on hand at eleven o'clock, because Edward Eggleston is to spe

he party went in search of tents and accommodations. It was no easy

rskine said. Of course she was the hardest to suit. "W

the guest t

, in surprise. "I wonder if they e

xercises, of course. You did not suppose that they paid

e of her experience as reporter was better versed i

great meeting. Being a person of distinction, you know; so that peop

uld choose some other department than Sunday-school books; they are all so horridly good-the people in them, I mean-that one

h was questioning the Presid

f the tents on that

hs ago. This is a larg

go back to the hotel. I thought you would be g

ent here carefully rep

had evidently misun

am sorry to say. Our best tents were secured many months ago. Still, we will

as to the meaning of that wor

her tent, over which s

ade up! Pray, are we

verything that you need, and to do it very reasonably. Of course we can not know what degree of expense those requiring tents care to incu

y this one room?" There was an expression

bedsteads set up in it; and the necessity seems to be upon us to crowd as much as we can conve

ilet stands or toilet accommo

ow, which was the very em

sn't lighted with gas! I'm sure I don't see how we c

ng outright. Suddenly Ruth discovered that she was acting the part of a simpleton, and with flushed face

it a look. "I presume it is as good as any of them, and, since w

d, still laughing. "You are bent

joke that had been turned toward herself. At least the effect was splendid. The reasons, therefore, might have been better. It was because her sharp brain saw the better effect that her ability to do this thing immediately produced

y to get settled, Marion and Eurie taking the lead. Both were used to both planning and working, and Marion at least

ant refinement all her life, accepting the luxuries of life as common necessities until they had really become such to her, and the idea of doing without many things that people during camp life necessarily find themselves obliged

so indifferent to her dress before. See her now, bringing that three-legged stand, without regard to rain! There is one comfort in this perpetual rain, we shall have less dust. After all, though, I don't know as that is any improvement, so long as it goes and makes itself up into mud. Look at the mud on my dress! That tent we were looking at first would have been ever so much the be

o Ruth, especially, it came like a revelation. She looked around her with surprised eyes. There were intellectual faces on every hand. There was the hum of conversation all about her, for the meeting was not yet opened, and the tone of their words was different from any with which her life had been familiar; they seemed lifted up, enthused; they seemed to have found something worthy of ent

ong the rows and rows of faces. "They look as though they

stion which she had banished the night before, and she wondered

Marion and Eurie, they hoped with all their hearts that the "Hoosier Schoolmaster" would give them a rich intellectual treat, at least Marion was after the intellectual. Eurie woul