Youth cannot stay for long in a condition of inactivity; and so, for
only about a month did things so stand, until a particularly bright
girl in our Organization, thought out a plan for caring for infants of
folks who had to go out, to work; and this bright kid soon had a group
of girls who would join, during vacation, in voluntarily giving up four
days a month to such work. With about fifty girls collaborating, all
districts had this most gracious aid; and a girl would not only watch
and guard, but would also instruct, as far as practical, any such tot
as had not had its first schooling. Such work by young girls still
in school was a grand thing; and Gadsby not only stood up for such
loyalty, but got at his boys to find a similar plan; and soon had a
full troop of Boy Scouts; uniforms and all. This automatically brought
about a Girl Scout unit; and, through a collaboration of both, a form
of club sprang up. It was a club in which any boy or girl of a family
owning a car would call mornings for pupils having no cars, during
school days, for a trip to school and back. This was not only a saving
in long walks for many, but also took from a young back, that hard,
tiring strain from lugging such armfuls of books as you find pupils
laboriously carrying, today. Upon arriving at a school building, many
cars would unload so many books that Gadsby said:--
"You would think that a Public Library branch was moving in!" This car
work soon brought up a thought of giving similar aid to ailing adults;
who, not owning a car, could not know of that vast display of hill and
plain so common to a majority of our townsfolks. So a plan was laid, by
which a car would call two days a month; and for an hour or so, follow
roads winding out of town and through woods, farm lands and suburbs;
showing distant ponds, and that grand arch of sky which "shut-ins"
know only from photographs. Ah; _how_ that plan did stir up joyous
anticipation amongst such as thus had an opportunity to call upon old,
loving pals, and talk of old customs and past days! Occasionally such a
talk would last so long that a youthful motorist, waiting dutifully at
a curb, thought that a full family history of both host and visitor was
up for an airing. But old folks always _will_ talk and it will not do a
boy or girl any harm to wait; for, you know, that boy or girl will act
in just that way, at a not too far-off day!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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