The Sun Maid Part 36

"They shall be yours, Grandma dearest. You always have such happy ideas. I'd like yours best."

"No, indeed! Not this time. I want everything to be exactly as you like this year; especially since you are now to a.s.sume the main charge of some of our charities."

"I feel so unfitted for the responsibility you are giving me, Sun Maid. I'm afraid I shall make many blunders."

"Doesn't everybody? And isn't it by seeing wherein we blunder and avoiding the pitfall a second time that we learn to walk surely and swiftly? You have been well trained to know the value of the money which G.o.d has given you so plentifully and of that loving sympathy which is better and richer than the wealth. I am not afraid for you, though it is an excellent sign that you are afraid for yourself. Now a truce to sermons. Let's hear the birthday wish. I am getting an old lady and don't like to be kept waiting."

"Sunny Maid! you are not old, nor ever will be!"

"Not in my heart, darling. How can I feel so when there is so much in life to do and enjoy? I have to bring myself up short quite often and remind myself how many birthdays of my own have gone by; though it seems but yesterday that Gaspar and I were standing by the Snake-Who-Leaps and learning how to hold our bows that we might shoot skilfully, even though riding bareback and at full speed, yet----"

"I believe that you could do the very same still; and that there isn't another old lady----"

"Let me interrupt this time. Aren't you contradicting yourself? Were you speaking of 'old' ladies?"

"You funny Grandma! Well, then, I don't believe there's another young-old person in this great city can sit a horse as you do. If you would only ride somewhere besides in our own park and just for once let people see you! How many s...o...b..rds have you owned in your lifetime, Grandmother?"

"One real s...o...b..rd, with several imitations. Still, they have been pretty fair, for Gaspar selected them and he was a fine judge of horseflesh. You must remember that as long as he was with me we rode together anywhere and everywhere he wished. He was a splendid horseman."

"He was 'splendid' in all things, wasn't he, Sun Maid?" asked the girl, with a lingering tenderness upon the other's Indian name and knowing that it still was very pleasant in the ears of her who owned it.

"He was a man. He had grown to the full stature of a man. That covers all. But let's get back to birthday wishes. What are they?"

"They're pretty big; all about the new 'Girls' Home' where I am to work for you. I think if the girls knew me, not as just somebody who is richer than they and wants to do them good, but as an equal, another giddy-head like themselves, it would make things ever so much easier for all of us. I would like to go through all the big stores and factories and places and find out every single girl who is sixteen and have them out to Keith House for a real delightful holiday. And because I like boys, and presume other girls do, too--Don't stiffen your neck, please, Grandmother; remember there were you and Gaspar----"

"But we were different."

"Maybe; yet these girls have brothers, and I wish I had. Never mind, though. I'd like to invite them all out here for Sat.u.r.day and Sunday.

On Sat.u.r.day evening we'd have an old-fashioned young folks' party, with games and frolics such as were common years and years ago. Then, for Sunday, there'd be the ministers who are to stop here during that convention that's coming, and they'd be glad, I know, to speak to us young folks. It's perfect weather, and all day these young things who are shut up all the week could roam about the park, or read, or rest in the picture-gallery or library, and--eat."

The Sun Maid laughed.

"Do you really stop to think about the eating? How many do you imagine would have to be fed? And I a.s.sure you, my young dreamer, that, though it doesn't sound especially well, the feeding of her guests is one of the most important duties of every hostess. But I'll take that part off your hands. You attend to the spiritual and moral entertainment and I'll order the table part. Yet your plan calls for many sleeping accommodations. How about that?"

"I thought, Grandmother, maybe you'd let me open the 'Barrack' again.

That would do for the boys, and there's surely room enough in this great house for all the girls who'd care to stay."

A shadow pa.s.sed over the Sun Maid's face, but it--_pa.s.sed_. In a moment she looked up brightly and answered as, a few hours later, she was to be most thankful she had done:

"Very well. After the war was over and I closed it I felt as if I could never reopen the place. Though Gaspar and my boys never saw it, somehow it seemed always theirs. I suppose because it had been built for the benefit of those who had fought and suffered with them. Now I see that this was morbid; and I am glad I have never torn the building down, as I have sometimes thought I would. You may have it for your friends and should set about airing and preparing it at once. Also, if you are to give so many invitations, you would better start upon them."

"Couldn't I just put an advertis.e.m.e.nt in the papers? That's so easy and short."

"And--rude!"

"Rude?"

"Yes. There would be no compliment in a newspaper invitation. Would you fancy one for yourself?"

"No, indeed, I should not. That rule of yours, to 'put yourself in his place,' is a pretty good one, after all, isn't it?"

"Yes. Now order the carriage and I'll go with you on your rounds and make a list as we do so of how many will need to be provided for. We shall have a busy week before us."

"But a happy one, Grandmother. Your face is shining already, even more than usual. I believe in your heart of hearts you love girls better than anything else in this world."

"Maybe. Except--boys."

"And flowers, and animals. How they will enjoy the conservatories! And it wouldn't be wrong, would it, to have out the horses between times on Sunday and let these young things, who'd never had a chance, see how glorious a feeling it is to ride a fine horse? Just around the park, you know."

"Which would be quite as far as most of them would care to ride, I fancy, for there are very few people who call their first experience on horseback a 'glorious' one."

It was a busy week indeed, but a joyful one, full of antic.i.p.ation concerning the coming festivities. Never had the Sun Maid appeared younger or gayer or entered more heartily into the preparations for entertainment. A dozen times, maybe, during those mornings of shopping and ordering and superintending, did she exclaim with fervor:

"Thank G.o.d for Gaspar's money, that makes us able to give others pleasure!"

"Grandmother, even for a foreign n.o.bleman you wouldn't do half so much!"

"Foreign? No, indeed. To all their due; and to our own young Americans, these toilers who are the glory of our nation, let every deference be paid. Did you write about the orchestra? That was to play during Sat.u.r.day's supper?"

"Yes, indeed. I believe nothing is forgotten."

To the guests, who came at the appointed time, it certainly did not seem so; and almost every one was there who had been asked.

"I did not believe that there could be found so many working girls in Chicago who are just sixteen," cried the gay young hostess, standing upon the great stair and looking down across the wide parlor, crowded with bright, graceful figures.

"I did. My Chicago is a wonderful city, child. But I do not believe that in any other city in the world could be gathered another such a.s.semblage. Typical American girls, every one. May G.o.d bless them!

Their beauty, their bearing, even their attire, would compare most favorably with any company of young women who are far more richly dowered by dollars. And the boys; even with their greater shyness, how did they ever learn to be so courteous, so----"

"Oh, my Sun Maid! Answer yourself, in your own words. 'It's in the air. It's just--Chicago!'"

When the fun was at the highest, there came a belated guest who brought news that greatly disquieted the elder hostess, though none of the merrymakers about her seemed to think it a matter half as important as the next game on the list.

"A fire, broken out in the city? That is serious. The season is so dry and there are many buildings in Chicago that would burn like kindlings. However, let us hope it will soon be subdued; and there is somebody calling you, I think."

Although anything which menaced the prosperity of the town she loved so well always disturbed the Sun Maid, she put this present matter from her almost as easily as she dismissed the youth who had brought the bad tidings. The housing and entertaining of Kitty's guests was an engrossing affair; and all Sunday was occupied in these duties; but on Sunday night came a time of leisure.

It was then, while resting among her girls and discussing their early departure in the morning--which their lives of labor rendered necessary--that a second messenger arrived with a second message of disaster.

"There's another fire downtown, and it's burning like a whirlwind!"

"We have an excellent fire department," answered the hostess, with confident pride.

"It can't make much show against this blaze. I think those of us who can should get home at once."

The Sun Maid's heart sank. The coming event had cast its shadow upon her and, foreseeing evil, she replied instantly:

"Those who must go shall be conveyed at once; but I urge all who will to remain. Keith House is as safe as any place can be if this fire continues to spread. It is not probable, even at the best, that any of you will be wanted at your employers' in the morning. The excitement will not be over, even if the conflagration is."