Amnesiacs -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Trials -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
"People talk about training girls for the home," said Sard. She was
standing close by him now. "Why don't they see that the World is our
home? All our own separate little homes are just so many leaves and
petals on the great World-Flower. It isn't enough to know how to run a
little house with two floors and a bathroom and a kitchen," said the
girl. "We must train our minds and our muscles to be ready to help
anywhere; in foreign countries--to make homes in Hell, if need be."
It was said not recklessly or rantingly, but with a New Conviction,
the conviction of clean, honest youth awake to the larger demand of
the future and anxious not to be surprised or appalled, but to meet
those demands. Shipman, something young and aching in his own breast,
something that had not been touched for years, looked down upon the
tawny head so close to his shoulder; he caught his breath, "Winged
Victory," he murmured.
"What?" asked practical Sard.
For answer the lawyer growled, "Nothing." He wandered restlessly
about pulling back the low screening maple branches, peering into the
depths of the woods where low sunset bird notes sounded over the wild
geraniums and the ferns sent out strange bracken scents.
"Miss Bogart, do you know the character of the swamps through this
section? Are there quick-sands?"
The girl stared. "I don't know," then suddenly startled, "Why?"
"Just because,"--the man was listening intently--"H'm! Yes, that's your
man Colter's voice. I thought I heard it once before. Do you suppose
he needs us?" He looked smilingly at her, anxious not too greatly to
disturb her. "Would Miss Minga take chances with a bog or whatever?
She'd do almost any fool thing, wouldn't she?"
"Chances--Minga!" Sard laughed while she frowned. "That's all Minga
ever takes--chances; her life is like a little patchwork quilt, full
of queer little bright pieces that don't match." Now the girl herself
listened, staring into her companion's face, noting its strength and
grimness. "I--I like him, sort of," admitted Sard to herself. Aloud
she said, "Why, that's funny; just now I thought I heard someone too,
but it was down there," indicating the direction of the canoes that
could be heard farther down the creek. The sound of the mandolins and
ukuleles had stopped, but wrangling voices sounded from time to time
and once more came the raucous screams that Shipman had noted earlier
in the afternoon.
"That's Cinny," said Sard, frowning in good earnest. "Ugh!" said the
girl irritatedly, "I wish she wouldn't be so queer. I wish----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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