Four Girls at Chautauqua

d." It was Eurie who whispered this, and she nud

n lau

ou think h

t know-roug

Marion lau

en one writes about people of culture and elegance you think straightway that he is the personification of those ideas. You forget, you

either, according t

be a sinner anywhere.

e Dr. Eggleston their attention at the moment when he was drawling out in his most nasal a

road that le

ds walk tog

shows a n

and there

in through endless cracks and crannies; where it was not always possible to get enough to eat during the hardest times; but there was a large, old-fashioned arm-chair, covered with frayed and faded calico, and in this chair sat often of a winter evening a clean-faced old man, with thin and many-patched clothes, with a worn and sickly face, with a few gray hairs straggling sadly about on his smooth crown: and that old man used often and often to drone out in a cracked voice and in a tune pitched too low by half an octave the very words which had just been repeated in Marion's hearing. What of all that? Why, that little gloomy kitchen was Marion's memory of home; that old, tired man was her father, and he used to sing those words while his hand wandered tenderly through the curls of her brown head, and patted softly the white forehead over which they fell; and all of love that there was in life, all that the word "tenderness" meant, all that was dear, or sweet or to be reverenced,

ismay. "He is not making fun of religion, you know; he is simply

there that there are two roads, one broad and the other narrow; and that many people are on one

g put through a course of logic. "Only, you know, I suppo

re are two ways to go, and one is harder and safer than the other. I understood it when it was sung to me-and I was a very little child

ed forward from the sea

ng the attention of all the people a

us truth, that leaves a somber, dismal impression on youthful hearts? Apparently she could not, since she did not. As for being absurd and illogical, I did not say that she wasn't. I am simply giving you facts as they occurred. I think myself that she was dishonoring the memory of her father ten thousand times more than any chance and unmeant word of the speakers could possibly have done. The only trouble was, that she was such an idiot she did not see it; and she prided herself on her powers of reasoning, too! But the world is full of idiots. She sat like a stone during the rest of the brilliant l

, as soon as their children grew a little too restless, had b

r in a whining fit in their lives that father didn't at once thin

that women were shut in with

are always just at the very point of explosion. I mean to wr

ey could make wonderful yellow dogs, with green tails and blue eyes, her deligh

s the very first thing I do when I get home; it is ju

way. "Give the speaker credit for his own ideas, please. Half

ned back to the speaker in time to hear his description of the superintendent that was so long in fin

ndure them, and I shall have less patience with them in future than ever

d feeling of impatience toward slow people. Unfortunately for you they are in the worl

this, and her tone wa

ed to her

s line. She has so much to say about teaching children by rote in a dull and uninteresting way. You couldn't forgive him for reciting that horrid old hymn in such a funny way.

verse, and they certainly are Bible sentiments, he shouldn't make fun of it. But I'm sure it is of no consequence to me. He may make fun of the whole Bible if he chooses, v

he, Ruth? I say he didn't make fun of religio

guilty of doing that. He was simply comparing the advanc

hen she was a child and learned verses. And that was all that this discussion amounted to. Nobody had appeal

s very anxious to get out of it something for our 's

d child, flushed and then pa

ence, 'Rock-firm, God-trust, has died out of the world.' I wa

er in astonished silence; such a

ly. "What if it has? or, rather, w

it that I thought about.

what

see the person who had it, ju

hed somewha

am amazingly afraid you are destined never to discover how it will seem. So I would

lled with as many comforts as the necessities of the occasion could furnish. To Miss Erskine the word "hotel" had only one sort of association. She had been a traveler in her own country only, and it had been her fort

would have tickets for the hotel or one of the boardin

anything to do with boarding-houses. The

as a girl who needed some lessons in the practical things of this l

as they made their way with much difficulty down the lo

, or, if you were good natured and crowded, for six people. He was just as polite in his attentions as if the unplaned seat had been a carved chair of graceful shape and pattern. One would suppose that

m a hotel!" and she carefully and disdainfully spread

others looked and smiled in sympa

omical! I verily believe you expected Brussels carpets, and mirrors

at is what is advertised, and people naturally do not look for so much dece

on her composed, gracefully dignified way of receiving things. She never hurried, she never was breathless and flushed, and apologetic over something that she ought or ought not to have done, which was a chronic state with Eurie. She never was in a thorough and undisguised rage, as Marion was quite likely to

here as this. They are not the lowest type of nature by any means. The small, petty trials that come to every life are beneath them. If it rains when they want to walk they can go in a handsome carriage, and keep their tempers. If their elegant new robes prove to be badly made they can have them remodeled and made more elegant with a superior composure. In ju