Helen Grant, teacher

Front matter

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XVII. • 384

KVIII.

The Crowning of the Year .

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. 417

Illustrations

Helen Grant flourished a letter in the sunshine ( Page i ) . . . . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

She kept along by the river road ... 56

“I wish to see Miss Grant” . . . .112

Then she caught one little girl by the hand

AND THEY SPUN AROUND .... 222

“ Shall i bore you if i talk?” .... 308 Helen went straight to the side of the bed and

PUT OUT HER HAND 406

Chapter I

“ That great minds run in the same channels is most true. It is an axiom whose beginning is doubtless lost in obscurity. It is useful in the present instance to adorn my explanation and perhaps prove the truth of another — that all things come to him or her who waits.”

Helen Grant flourished a letter in the sunshine that made waves of light and shade, while a smile of amusement irradiated her face.

Miss Craven had come out on the porch, with the baby on one arm and a number of letters in the other hand. She slipped into the hammock and put the child down beside her, and with a gayety in both voice and face exclaimed :

“ Please specify the great minds and the cause of this jubilation.”

“ Yours for one. Don’t you remember you suggested we should go to Westfield incognita, like royalty, and spy out the land and the buildings thereof? And there may be a tower

on the new school. As for bulwarks ”

“ You ridiculous girl ! Are you casting up my foolish plan to my mortification, or what has dawned upon your mind? You haven’t been gently relinquished ? ”

Helen did laugh then, a rippling sound that floated off on the summer air.

“ That would have been an awful blow to my self-esteem and my numerous attainments. Here is a pleasant, friendly, dignified letter from Mr. Hildreth. Mr. Underwood, the principal, is to be in town next week with his wife, and Mr. Hildreth thinks it would be a good thing for me to meet him — him more particularly, I suppose, before I begin my labors. In a certain way I shall be under his supervision. So Mr. Hildreth invites me and any friend I would like to have accompany me, some day next week after Monday, the day being left to my convenience. I might like to see the pretty town and the school buildings, and he would be pleased to entertain us. So you see we can go boldly without a misgiving. I am to write and appoint the day and the train, and he has sent a local time-table. How fortunate we were going to New York next week instead of mountain wilds.”

“ Why, that is really delightful! Yes, I shall like to go. I want to get you placed in my mind so I can look at you with the eye of faith. And I am curious to see this Mr. Hildreth. He must be a superior kind of man. And you will not be so far from the city but that you can often come and we can enjoy some delights together. I was afraid you would go out West or somewhere. And if I cannot have you all to myself, this is next best to it.”

“ How much you love me, Juliet,” and Helen’s eyes had a soft, misty look. 4 4 1 sometimes wonder why people like me so well.

But it is very delightful, all the same. You do not regard every one with similar feelings because they have not the same qualities. I think I am formed for friendship in an eminent degree.”

“And you are never jealous or exclusive. There are many lovely people in the world when you come to know them well, and no one has quite all the virtues and graces. And I have a feeling that you will be happy at Westfield.”

“ Yes, I have an inward premonition that it will be at least satisfactory. I have a desire to try my own strength and knowledge, and the training of the past four years, to see if there really is enough backbone to me to stand upright in the new surroundings.”

She did not look as if she lacked either physical or mental fiber.

“We thought we would go to the city on Tuesday. Then I will appoint Wednesday.

i

And we are to give a day or two to our young married couple who are in the throes of selecting a home and no doubt need much good advice. I am very anxious to see Shirley, for that matter, Willard as well, though they seem very like children to me”

Juliet laughed as she raised her eyes to Helen.

“ Don’t allow yourself to grow old too fast, or to outgrow your contemporaries,” she said. “ Youth is too charming to be thrust aside for any fancied wisdom.”

“ Oh, I’m not longing for old age, nor even middle life. I mean to have a good longyouth, and we shall share it together. Now you may read your letters and I will answer mine.”

Helen read hers over again and admired the tone of it, the cordiality that was not effusiveness.

Yes, it would be quite a new experience. Hitherto she had been cast almost exclusively with girls and women. She recalled the fact that she had not liked Professor Blake at first — most of the girls had been afraid of his sharp glance that seemed to hold so much in reserve, and his sarcasms. Perhaps young girls did appear weak and puerile to learned men, and she recalled her father’s opinion of them. But they were to be the women of the future, wives and mothers doubtless, and they needed sympathy when they did not see the way clearly.

There had been animated discussions on coeducation. This would be one aspect of it. Boys, at what was supposed to be the most troublesome period of their lives. If only they liked to study ! If they were intent upon acquiring an education ! She had roused more than one girl to an appreciation of her opportunities, but there was a difference between a friend and a teacher.

“ But I shall not worry about it now,” she said to herself. “ Tm not going to plan how I shall cross the stream until I get to it. There will be a bridge or a boat most likely, and some one to hold out a helping hand. There always has been.”

She answered her important note first. There were several others. Now and then she paused to listen to the sweet voices and the merry baby laughter that floated up from the porch. What a lovely girlhood these Gartney children would have with Miss Craven. The many things she had missed in her own life were to bud and blossom in theirs. True she had not known them, but there had been the hunger and deprivation she did not understand clearly enough to put into words. She was enjoying the life as well as the children, making good use of the fortune that had come to her, bringing forth fruit abundantly.

Helen joined them on the porch as she slipped her letters in the box.

“ Isn’t baby just lovely ! ” cried Elma, her face flushed with delight and her eyes lustrous with affection. “ I was just a tiny bit afraid when she first came, for you see she could be all Aunt Juliet’s and we are only part. There was papa, you know, and when he talked about our own dear mamma it seemed as if she came into the room, and we could feel that she was there though we could not see her. And there is the guardian, and the school, and Mrs. Aldred, and for a long while the baby will not have any one but Aunt Juliet and grandma. But I think she can never love her any better than we do. Isn’t it curious that you can love so many people and not have the love used up?”

The little girl glanced with wondering eyes to the bright ones above her.

“ Because there is so much love in your own generous heart,” replied Helen. “ It is one of the things that doesn’t make you any poorer for giving it away, and if you hoarded it up you wouldn’t be any richer.”

“ That’s queer, too,” with a puzzled look.

Helen smiled with a tender gravity. She thought of the old schooldays, and Daisy Bell, who longed to center every affection upon herself. Poor sweet Daisy! To be laid in the cold dark earth when the world was so beautiful. Had she ever enjoyed it quite so much? It was a gladsome and lovely thing just to live in it.

The days were full of pleasure. There was a charm about the house that lured people thither. The little girls had a lawn party, but mothers and elder sisters begged to come and look on.

“ O dear ! Why do you go away ? ” and

AMONG THE BEGINNINGS Q

Wilma hung about Helen. “ Will you surely be back on Saturday ? ”

“ Surely, surely. And you must take good care of baby.”

Willard Bell met the travelers at the station. He seemed to have come up to a completer stature of manhood since his marriage and delight shone in his eyes.

“ I came for you because we dropped on something so delightful on Saturday and concluded to give you a surprise. A pretty furnished apartment, where the tenant wanted to remain away until the middle of October; one of the stenographers for the firm. That will give us plenty of time to look around and get furnished. We went in yesterday and are really housekeeping. It is simply great. Mother comes down this afternoon and will stay a while. So you are not going to any hotel.”

“ Are you sure guests will not be a bother ? ” interposed Juliet smilingly.

“ Oh, Shirley was wild over the plan. She’s grown prettier than ever. You knew, I suppose, that her parents went abroad, so she hasn’t any one to depend on but me.”

The dependence was certainly bringing out a very attractive manliness.

“ We’re up near the Park and we have green fields at our very elbows. It’s convenient, too. I begged off these two days though I’ve had grand vacations, and now must let the others take their chance. Here,” stopping the trolley, “ it’s just a bit of a walk.”

They saw a handsome row of houses joined together, in appearance like a hotel. Willard guided them up one flight, but before they reached the top Shirley flew out with a joyous exclamation.

She appeared oddly changed as well, not any older or more sedate, but with an air of experience that sat charmingly upon her.

“ Why, it seems an age to me since commencement. I’ve been just brimming over with happiness, and O dear, there’s a book full of experiences and delights, but I’ve wanted you all the same! Willard said I almost made him jealous, I loved you so.”

Helen smiled and kissed the sweet face.

II

Yes, the little labor had brought a great reward.

The rooms were certainly very pretty and not too ornately furnished. With their hats laid aside Shirley drew Helen down on the sofa.

“We were up to see mother on Sunday and she said you had taken a position in some pretty town not far from New York. I am so glad! We shall be able to see you quite often. Have you kept in touch with many of the girls? I suppose there will be a new crowd when college opens. Oh, it was real splendid, wasn’t it? I’m sure I ought to be glad, for it gave me the happiness of my life. Oh, Helen, are you quite sure you will never regret ”

“ You foolish child ! What should I regret ?”

“ Giving up Willard.”

“ Hush, Shirley. Don’t ever think of that,” and Helen kissed her tenderly. “ Can’t you see now that you are the very one for him, that you suit him, that you make him happy with the sort of love I never could have given him? We can be splendid friends. I don’t know that I should feel so well satisfied if it had been any other girl. And you must never have a misgiving about all the joy that can be put into both lives.”

“ You are such a grand sort of a girl, Helen. Oh, I want some one just magnificent to fall in love with you some day.”

Helen laughed. Willard had been showing Juliet about with the pride of a householder. Then he said to Helen, “ You see it is so long since I have had a real home. That was given up when father died. Dear father! I often think now how much his heart was in it and how happy he made us children. I shall take him for my ideal, my pattern. He seems so near to me, and to mother as well. We always have a good talk about him when we meet. And I think he would have loved Shirley, though his heart was set upon you,” and Willard flushed a little. “ You should have been born in our household, though then you couldn’t have been Helen Grant,” with a rather amused intonation.

“ No, I might have been very different.”

“ And I like you just as you are. I’m so glad we can see a little of each other, and I do wonder how you will like the school.”

“ It will be quite a new experience, of course. I am interested in trying my strength, finding out whether I have really learned anything worth while for others and for the world. For we all have a duty toward it and the people in it.”

“ You are always taking in the outside people,” half-admiringly, half- jealously.

“ I find so many delightful ones,” she returned.

Then Willard went for his mother, and Shirley wanted to hear about the girls. Leslie was to keep her position another year, Lorraine was to stay at home and try society.

“ And that girl who gave up the prize ? ”

“ Oh, she is going through and will be an honor girl, I know, Miss Powers. And she is one of the girls who is not the least bit arrogant because her father is a rich man. She is a wholesome, happy-hearted girl, and will make others happy as well.”

“ How many girls you come to know ! And you can’t be real friends with them all. Then they do drop out of themselves. I answered a lot of congratulatory letters from girls who thought they loved me a great deal, and only a few of them seemed to care about keeping up a correspondence. But you wouldn’t want to with so many.”

“ No, indeed ! We have to weed them out, or they weed us out,” with a comprehensive smile.

They were very glad to see Mrs. Bell again. Shirley made a dainty housemistress and the supper was most enjoyable. The husband and wife would not listen to any separation for the night, indeed Mrs. Bell declared she must have a visit with Helen, and was delighted to hear that she would be at no great distance.

“ And Willard insists that I shall spend the winter with them when they are settled in their own house. I am so glad to keep my son’s love, and I think Shirley will make him very happy,” said the mother.

“ They will be happy because they truly love each other so well. And Shirley is not a silly, sentimental girl if she is enthusiastic. She has a fine strength that will increase with the using.”

But Helen knew she would always be very dear to the mother’s heart.

The two guests took their train the next morning and found, after leaving the ferry behind, that the road was through a pleasant section of the country, with a number of small thriving towns, and one of considerable note on the way. There was a pretty river running in and out, fed by some smaller stream. And presently the conductor called out their station.

Mr. Hildreth stood on the platform, so tall and erect that one could easily distinguish him, even if he had not lifted his hat at the first moment.

“ I hope you had a comfortable journey. I am very glad to greet you,” he exclaimed.

Helen introduced her friend, who was cordially welcomed.

“ It is a fine morning and we have some time on our hands, so I propose to drive you about a little. We think our town very pretty, though we do not ape the grandeur of the larger cities. Indeed we are quite rural, even if we are more than two hundred years old. ,,

He assisted them into the surrey. “ What a splendid team ! ” exclaimed Helen. “ And such a perfect match ! ”

He looked pleased, and seated himself a little sidewise so that he could talk to them without much effort. He had not over-estimated her.

Below the station there were some factories and a paper mill, interspersed with cottages. The fine residential part lay above with a gentle ascent for several streets, then a level stretching off to some rather sharply rising ground making a long reach of woodland. Even now the older people said — “ Upon the mountain.” There were several wide handsome streets with beautiful grounds and spacious old-time houses. They crossed two that were devoted to stores and business offices. A fine clubroom with well-kept surroundings and a field for athletic sports, two very quaint churches, and some more modern ones. Then Mr. Hildreth turned a little farther south.

“ Here is our school, though there is a smaller one over to the west. This has had several additions beside the corner, which is the high school.” It really was an imposing building. The corner was of three stories surmounted by a tower, and though plain was not stiff.

“ This will be your temple of learning,” smiling over to Helen. “ If you find us unduly proud you must excuse our provincialism, and please do not dwarf it by comparison with your college. It has been quite a struggle to get it, and having achieved it, we exact admiration from all newcomers.”

“ It is very handsome, certainly. And it was a large school before.”

“ Yes. The lower end is a kindergarten and primary. Then the Roman Catholics have a large parochial school connected with their church, which takes in many of the mill households. We have been a rather old- . fashioned, perhaps unprogressive, town until of late years, satisfied to let the world rush madly on so long as it did not disturb us. Still we have a very nice free library, our churches are well sustained, and the clubhouse has a fine auditorium where there are lectures, concerts, sometimes a play, and altogether we do not stagnate.”

“ I should think not,” Helen replied, with a sense of amusement at his tone and the gleam of humor in his eyes. “ And it is a beautiful town.”

“ We will inspect the interiors after luncheon, when you may be better fortified.”

They turned into one of the old streets, bordered with wide-branching maples, the houses standing back a short distance with well-kept lawns in front and ornamented with beds of choice flowers. One on the corner was rather picturesque, with an added wing surmounted by a tower large enough for an observatory. Mr. Hildreth turned into a driveway and paused at the broad porch, handing out his two guests. A tidy middle-aged woman opened the door.

The addition had set the hall in the middle, which was spacious enough for a room, finished in oak with a broad Eastlake staircase. On one side was a sitting-room with the din-

AMONG THE BEGINNINGS I9

ing-room back of it, on the other the library and a sort of music-room. There were some fine pictures, two or three elegant vases, but it was a man’s room, with no small feminine adornments.

“ Mrs. Ruden,” he said, “ will you take the ladies upstairs and see that they have whatever will render them comfortable ? ”

She motioned to them to follow her. The chamber was rich in old-time belongings, the china appointments being remarkably beautiful, the mahogany furniture polished and carved to a degree.

“ Really, it is very grand,” began Helen when Mrs. Ruden had left them. “ But I’d like to explore the library downstairs. And all this for one man. Why, he should have sons and daughters to enjoy this great house.”

“ Has he never been married ? ” asked Juliet.

Helen lapsed into thought. “ It seemed to me Professor Yarrow suggested there had been an unfortunate marriage in early life, but I was not really paying attention.”

There was a lively greeting in the hall presently — a woman’s rather merry voice, and a man’s stronger one. The girls began to smooth their ruffled hair and hasten their adorning.

“ I suppose that is my future — it will not do to call him compeer, nor preceptor, but I do suppose he will be the head of all things; the great Mogul.”

“ Oh, I hope you will like him, Helen ”

“ I know my way about,” and a light step with the rustle of silken garments mounted the stairs. Helen came to the doorway.

A bright fresh-faced woman of five-andthirty perhaps, with an abundance of fuzzy light hair which the wind had blown about, blue eyes that just now looked curious yet pleasant, a mouth that still dimpled at the corners, a rather youthful figure in a light summer frock frilled and adorned with lace, paused and glanced at them with a smile.

“ May I have the pleasure of guessing? I think this is Miss Grant,” looking squarely at Juliet.

Both girls laughed.

“A blunder the first thing! And I prided myself on my penetration. But you look so young and girlish, Miss Grant, and I think we are apt to settle upon an idea of how a person should be,” flushing a little at her mistake.

“ This is my friend, Miss Craven, who has adopted me into sisterhood,” explained Helen in a bright tone. “ I am very glad to meet you,” she continued.

“ I hope you will like us and the place, though I dare say it will seem lonesome at first after being with such a host of girls. I was two years at a boarding school and liked it very much. But it seems long ago. I have been married fifteen years. And we have spent seven of them here, so I may be considered quite an old resident. But you would hardly believe how the place has changed, improved I ought to own candidly. It wore quite a country aspect then. But I suppose your college was not in the midst of a city.”

“ Oh, no. In fact there were only little towns around, so that we should not be plunged into temptation, I suppose,” with an arch smile.

“ Mr. Hildreth was very enthusiastic about it. And a friend he had there who married a college president somewhere at the west, and whose home-making charmed him. I suppose you know her?”

“ Oh, yes. She is a most delightful person.”

“ I shouldn’t think it would be much fun to come down to simple every-day living, getting meals and fussing about a house, and looking after a husband, who I dare say is always forgetting where he put things. I suppose she was not very young and no doubt glad to give up her honors.”

“ She was thirty-five and looked young for that. I think she was very much in love,” Helen returned rather triumphantly.

Mrs. Underwood laughed gayly. “ It always seems as if youth and love should be compeers. And when a man has won a standing place for himself he is proud to go on. But a woman doesn’t appear so eager for a career after all.”

“ Laura, are you going to keep Miss Grant upstairs for the next hour ? ” inquired a voice down in the hall,

“ Oh, good gracious ! That’s the man of it when he considers that he has the right to order your comings and goings. So let us march down. I’m quite at home in this house, and I think it just grand,” and Mrs. Underwood led the way.

Chapter II

Mr. Hildreth stood at the foot of the stairs and made the introductions. Then he escorted the two strangers into the dining-room, and seated Helen on his right hand as the guest of honor, asking Mrs. Underwood to take the head of the table, to pour the tea when it came in.

The appointments of the room were handsome and on the antique order. The carved mahogany sideboard almost filled the end of the apartment. On either side of the wide chimney were recesses whose shelves were filled with choice china and glass. There were a few fine pictures, two small stands with bowls of flowers, and in one corner an immense palm.

“ I hope you are going to like our little town and the inhabitants thereof, Miss Grant/’ Mr.

Underwood began with a half smile. He had a strong resolute face midway in coloring, hazel eyes, brown hair, and mustache with rather long curling ends. Helen hesitated a little now about first impressions, and the assurance of early youth.

“ I like what I have seen of the town. Mr. Hildreth has kindly given us a drive about. Some of the pretty streets suggest the place where I was first at school — boarding-school.”

“ Yes,” appended Miss Craven. “ I thought of that also.”

“Did you go from there to college?” Mr. Underwood inquired of Helen.

“Yes. But meanwhile a great surprise occurred to me. My father, who had been abroad many years, returned for a brief visit to oversee a book on Orientalism which was being published in this country, and died. I was a sort of amanuensis to him. Afterward I went back to school.”

“ Did you get in without any conditions ? ” he asked.

“ There were two, but they hinged on a different method of teaching,” she answered quietly.

“ And she went from the freshmen to the juniors, skipping a year,” explained Mr. Hildreth with a touch of satisfaction.

“ Some of that was due to my father’s training. It was excellent, but not altogether pleasant,” and Helen glanced up with a half smile.

“ The difference between a man’s and a woman’s training, I suppose.”

Now Helen really laughed. “ I think there isn’t so much difference after all. We had both kinds at the college. Two of the women were very exigent, rigid, and hard to get on with. The men frighten you a little at first, they do not seem to understand how ignorant you are and forget how many years they have gone over the same thing. I thought Greek simply awful when I began it with my father, but a Columbia student took me in hand while I was visiting his sister, and smoothed the way so that I went on quite readily.”

Helen blushed with a feeling of undue frankness.

“ I suppose you were both in college,” looking at Miss Craven.

“ Oh, no,” she answered readily. “ I became convinced that I was not meant for a college girl and there were other things for me, other duties. We were at school together.”

“ And we have made a league of friendship that has lasted almost seven years,” Helen exclaimed eagerly. “ She has offered me her home ” then she paused.

“ Why, this is quite a romance,” declared Mrs. Underwood mirthfully. “ Don’t you mean ever to marry ? ”

“ I think it depends greatly upon who asks us,” returned Helen archly. “ Since careers are open to women, there may be a choice.”

“ But do you not think married life the ideal for women ? ” asked Mrs. Underwood. “ Oh, you are so young yet ! ”

“ I have seen some marriages that were not ideal at all, and one charming one came to our college last year.”

Helen glanced up at Mr. Hildreth.

“ You mean Professor Yarrow? Underwood, I had him up here three or four years ago, a Columbia man, rather overworked then. We had met in Germany. ,,

“ Yes,” Mr. Underwood nodded.

“ And he has a rarely attractive wife who was president of a college. She makes a most genial and felicitous home,” said Mr. Hildreth.

“ That scores one for me,” laughed Mrs. Underwood. “ You see she wasn’t satisfied with a career.”

“ And she was in a State where the women voted, and had the right to hold office,” appended Helen.

“ Oh, Miss Grant, did she convert you to suffrage?” asked Mr. Underwood. “Are you strong-minded?”

“ Well — I think I am not quite the ivy kind,” she returned deliberately. “ I like strength enough to stand up straight and decide some things for myself. Suffrage didn’t seem to spoil Mrs. Yarrow — do you not agree with me, Mr. Hildreth ? ”