AN UNEXPECTED INVITATION

Having a naturally light-hearted, merry disposition, Peace did not find it hard work to “smile and talk,” but it was hard, very hard, to restrain her generous impulses to give away everything she possessed to those less fortunate than herself, and it soon became a familiar sight to see her fly excitedly into the house straight to the study where the busy President spent many hours each day, exclaiming breathlessly as she ran, “Oh, grandpa, there is a little beggar at the door in perfect rags and tatters!  Just come and look if she doesn’t need some clothes.  And she is so cold and pinched up with being empty.  Gussie has fed her, but can’t I give her some things to wear?  I’ve more than I need, truly!”

Then the good man with a patient sigh would leave his work to investigate the case, spending many minutes of his precious time in satisfying himself as to whether or not Peace’s newly found beggar was genuine and really in need of relief,-for this small maid’s thirst for discovering vagabonds seemed insatiable, and the string of tramps which haunted the President’s doorstep led poor Gussie a strenuous life for a time.  But relief came from an unexpected source at length.

Late one dull spring afternoon, as Gail sat with her chum, Frances Sherrar, in the cosy window-seat of the reception-hall, studying the next day’s Latin lesson, a shadow fell across the page.  Looking up in surprise, for neither girl had heard the sound of approaching footsteps, they beheld on the piazza the bent, shriveled, ragged form of what appeared to be a tiny, deformed, old woman.  An ancient, faded shawl, patched and darned until it had almost lost its identity, enveloped her from head to foot, and she looked more like an Indian squaw than like a civilized white being.  Her head and hands shook ceaselessly as with the palsy, and the way she tottered about made one fearful every minute last she fall.

“Oh,” cried Gail in quick sympathy, “what a feeble old creature!  It is a shame she has to beg her living.  Where is my purse?”

“Are you going to give her money?” asked Frances in surprise.

“Doesn’t she look as if she needed it?”

“She is a fake.  I’ve seen her ever since I can remember-always just like this.  She wouldn’t dare beg in town, but we are so far out-well, if you are really determined to do it, here’s a quarter.”

Gail took the proffered coin, added a shining dollar to it, and stepping to the door where the palsied beggar stood mumbling and whining a pitiful hard luck tale, she pressed the silver into the leathery, claw-like hand, smiled a sympathetic smile and bade the old woman a God-speed.

Frances stayed for dinner that evening, and as the family gathered around the table for this, the merriest hour of the whole day, the President suddenly clapped his hand against his pockets, searched rapidly through them, and finally brought forth a crumpled sheet of paper, daubed with many ink blots and tipsy hieroglyphics, which read, “No more beggars, tramps and vagabuns allowed on these promises.  We have already given away enuf to keep a army.  There are two dogs and two men in this family-so bewair!”

Even the presence of Peace, the author, did not prevent an explosion of delighted shrieks from the little company, but the child merely fixed her brown eyes, somber with reproof, upon the perfectly grave face of the Doctor of Laws, and demanded, “Now, grandpa, what made you take it down?”

“I didn’t, child,” he defended.  “It had blown down, I think, and lodged about the door-knob.  I thought it was a hand-bill, and rescued it as I came in.”

“Where had you put it?” asked Cherry, grinning superciliously at the distorted characters on the soiled paper.

“On the side of the house by the front door,” she confessed.  “That’s where I put that one.”

“That one!  Are there more?” laughed Frances, whose affection for this original bit of femininity had only increased with the months of their acquaintance.

“Of course!  There had to be one for each door, ’cause the beggars don’t all go the back way, and to be sure everyone saw the tag, I stuck one on the corner of the barn nearest the road, and another on each gate.  That surely ought’ to be enough, oughtn’t it?”

“I should think so,” Mrs. Campbell agreed, making a wry face at thought of the queer-looking signs scattered so liberally about the property “How did you come to make them?”

“’Cause of that beggar at the front door this afternoon,” Allee volunteered unexpectedly.

“What beggar?” asked the President with interest, while Gail and Frances exchanged knowing glances.

“A teenty, crooked, old woman came to the house while grandma was out this afternoon,” Peace began.  “She looked as if she might be a witch or old Grandmother, Tipsy-toe-I never did like that game-”

“We thought she was a witch,” again Allee spoke up, unmindful of the frown on her older sister’s face; “and we hid.”

“But we watched her,” Peace continued hastily, “and saw Gail give her some money.  She did look awful forlorny and squizzled up as if she never had enough to eat to make any meat on her bones, and she nearly tumbled over, trying to kiss Gail’s hand ’cause she gave her some money.  So after she was gone, we ran down to the gate to watch her, and what do you think?  Just as she turned the corner, there was a cop-”

“A what, Peace?”

“I mean a p’liceman, coming along with his club swinging around his hand, and when the beggar woman saw him, she straightened up as stiff and starchy as anybody could be, and hustled off down the street ’most as quick as I can walk.  She was a-a fraud, and Gail got cheated just like I did when I gave that hole-y shoed girl on the hill my shoes.”  Here Frances shot a look of triumph at discomfited Gail.  “So I made up my mind that grandpa is right-they are all frauds.”

“Why, Peace, child, I never said that in the world,” the President disclaimed, surprised out of his usual serenity by her words.

“That’s so,-you said only half were frauds.  Well, I guess it’s the fraud half that come here to beg of us.  Gussie is tired of feeding them, Jud’s getting ugly, and if they keep on coming I’m ’fraid they’ll really eat grandpa out of house and home.  Jud says they will.  There were seven tramps last week, and already we have had two this week, and one beggar.  So I made these signs and stuck them up where everybody’d see them and know they meant business, w’thout Jud’s having to turn the dogs loose or get his shotgun like he said he ought to.  He told me that all hoboes have some way of letting other hoboes know where they can get a square meal, and that’s why we have so many.  He says they never used to bother so until I came here to tow them along by coaxing Gussie to feed ’em.  I thought I was being good to ’em.  S’posing we had sent grandpa away when he came tramping around to our house in Parker-Faith wanted to-where would we be now?  Still grubbing in Parker trying to get enough to eat, ’most likely; or maybe in the poorhouse, for ’twas grandpa who paid the mortgage on the farm.  I guess I must wait till I’m grown way up to have any missionary sense.”

She spoke so dejectedly and her face looked so pathetic and utterly discouraged that no one had the heart to laugh, but a sudden feeling of restraint fell upon the group.  Even the President had no words in which to answer the poor, disheartened little missionary.

“Do you belong to Miss Smiley’s Gleaners?” It was Frances who spoke, and though the words themselves signified little, her tone of voice was like an electric thrill, and the faces of the whole company turned expectantly toward her as she waited for Peace’s answer.

“No, not yet.  Evelyn has been after us ever since we came here to join them, but something has always kept us away from the meetings each month, so we haven’t been ’lected yet.  Evelyn says they don’t do much but have a good time, anyway, though it is a missionary society.  That’s about all our Sunshine Club in Parker ever did, too, ’xcept make comfort powders for the sick and mained in the hospital.”

“Evelyn is right about what the Gleaners used to be, but since her aunt has taken up the work, they are doing lots of real missionary work.  Why, since Christmas they have raised enough money to take care of two orphans in India for a year.  Edith Smiley is such a beautiful girl-”

“Ain’t she, though!” Peace burst out with customary impetuosity.  “I’ve wanted her for my Sunday School teacher ever since we began to go to South Avenue Church, but she’s got a class of boys.”

“And don’t they adore her!”

“No more’n I would.”

“It is easier to get teachers for girls’ classes; and besides, Miss Edith has had these boys from the time she started to teach.  She certainly has her hands full with her Sunday School class, the Gleaners Missionary Band and the Young People’s Society, for she is our president this term.  There is no lag about her.  She is always planning something beautiful for somebody. Everyone loves her.  When Victor was in the hospital the time he was hurt by the runaway, Miss Edith took him flowers several times; and the nurse told us that she visits the children’s ward twice a month regularly and takes them fruit or flowers or scrap-books or something nice.  They always know when to expect her, and she never disappoints them.”

“She certainly knows how to make sunshine for those around her,” said Mrs. Campbell warmly.  “I am so pleased to think she could take charge of the Gleaners.  We ladies were really afraid the society must die.  Miss Hilliker had neither strength, time nor talent to do justice to the work; but, poor soul, she did try so hard, and she did give the children a good time, whether or not they ever accomplished anything else.”

“I am glad Miss Smiley has taken the Gleaners, too,” said Peace meditatively.  “Me and Allee ’xpect to join at next meeting.  I guess maybe Cherry and Hope will, too, though I haven’t asked them yet.”

“I think you have headed them in the right direction, Frances,” whispered the President in grateful tones, when at last the dinner was ended and the chattering group were filing out of the dining-room.  “I was beginning to wonder what in the world to do with our little Peace, but I think perhaps Miss Smiley will help solve the problem for us.”

“I know she will,” Frances replied confidently.  “I can understand how discouraged poor Peace must feel.  I’ve been there myself, only instead of giving away my own things as she does, I gave away other people’s belongings.  I can never forget the séance I had with mother the day I handed over father’s best, go-to-meeting overcoat to a dirty, evil-looking tramp, and gave away Victor’s velocipede to the ash-man’s little boy.  I came to the conclusion that the whole world was just a sham and all men-yes, and women-were liars.  Mrs. Smiley came to my rescue, and what missionary spirit there is left in me is due to her good work and untiring efforts.  Edith is a second edition of her mother.”

“And I think Frances must be second cousin at heart,” said the Doctor, gently pressing her hand.

“I don’t deserve such praise,” she protested, blushing with pleasure at his compliment.  “I have only tried to make the most of the best in me, remembering the little verse we had for a motto: 

    ’No robin but may thrill some heart,
      His dawnlight gladness voicing. 
    God gives us all some small sweet way
      To set the world rejoicing.’

“We were only children when we took that as our class motto, but we have kept it all these years, and I know there is not one of the girls who considers it childish sentiment even yet.”

“That is why I am particularly thankful for your words at the table tonight.  I want my girls to meet and mingle with and be influenced by such people as Miss Edith and her mother-and Miss Frances!”

“I shall work hard to keep the reputation you have given me,” she laughed gayly, flitting away to join Gail in the Grove, as the pink and green and brown room was called; but she was secretly much touched and helped by the President’s words, and rejoiced openly when a few days later the four younger Greenfield girls really did join the Gleaners Missionary Band and became active workers in that field.

“It is kind of a queer missionary society,” Peace reported after one of the meetings.  “Sometimes we don’t say hardly a word about heathen or poor ministers on the frontier all the time we are at the church.  We talk about how we can help each other and our families and folks who live close by us.  Miss Edith says first and foremost a good missionary must be cheerful and sunshiny.  Our motto is “Scatter Sunshine,” and our song is the prettiest music I ever heard.  She says it isn’t the music that counts, it’s the words, but just s’posing we sang: 

    ’In a world where sorrow
      Ever will be known,
    Where are found the needy,
      And the sad and lone;
    How much joy and comfort
      You can all bestow,
    If you scatter sunshine
      Everywhere you go.’

to the tune of ‘Go tell Aunt Rhody,’ it wouldn’t cheer me up very much.  “Would it you?”

“No,” laughed Mrs. Campbell, who chanced to be her confidante on this particular occasion, “I don’t think it would; but on the other hand, meaningless words would not cheer anyone, either, no matter how pretty the tune.  Is that not so?”

“Yes, I s’pose it is.  I guess it takes both together to do the work.  This week our verse is: 

    ’Can I help another
      By some word or deed? 
    Can I scatter blessings
      O’er a soul’s sore need? 
    If I can, then let me
      Now, within today,
    Help the one who needs me
      On a little way.’

“The next time we tell if we remembered the verse and worked it.”

“Worked it?” Mrs. Campbell was not yet accustomed to Peace’s queer speeches, and often did not understand her meaning.

“Yes.  Miss Edith says just helping Gussie carry the dishes away nights, or buttoning Marie’s dress when she is cross and in a hurry, or getting grandpa’s slippers ready for him when he comes home from the University all cold and tired, or holding that squirmy yarn for you when you knit those ugly shawls, or talking nice to Jud when he makes me mad, is being a missionary.  She says it is the little, everyday things that count; for some of us may never get a chance to do anything real big and splendid, and if we wait all our lives for such a time to come along, we will be just wasting our talents.  But all of us have hundreds of little things each day to do, and if we do them cheerfully and sweetly, we are being sunshine missionaries and are making others happier all the time.  She says Abr’am Lincoln’s greatest wish was to have it said of him when he died that he had always tried to pull up a thistle and plant a flower wherever he got a chance.  Thistles mean hard feelings and mean acts, and the flowers are kind words and deeds.”

“Miss Edith has found the key to true happiness,” murmured Mrs. Campbell, glancing out of the window at a tall, slender, gray-eyed young lady hurrying down the street, surrounded by a bevy of bright-faced, adoring boys and girls.

“Yes, she’s another Saint Elspeth, isn’t she?  How nice it is to have her here as long as I can’t have my dear Mrs. Strong!  And do you know, grandma, she and Mrs. Strong were chums when they went to college?  Isn’t that queer?”

“How did you happen to find that out?”

“’Cause on my list of missionary doings this week I had ’not getting mad when Gray chawed up St. Elspeth’s letter ’fore I had read it more’n three times.’  And she asked me who Saint Elspeth was.”

“Do you make out a list of missionary doings each week?” asked Mrs. Campbell, amused at Peace’s version of the occurrence, for the child had been so angry at the destruction of the letter from this beloved friend that she had seized a heavy club and rushed at the cowering pup as if bent on crushing its skull.  Before the blow descended, however, she dropped her weapon, bounced into a nearby chair, and glared wrathfully at poor Gray until he shrank from her almost as if she had struck him.  Then suddenly the anger died from her eyes, and clutching the surprised animal about the neck she fell to petting him energetically, exclaiming in pitying tones, “Poor Gray, I don’t s’pose you know how near I came to knocking your head off any more’n you know how much I wanted that letter you’ve just swallowed, but I’m sorry just the same.  Shake hands and be friends!”

Peace, not understanding the smile that crept over the gentle face of the dear old lady, hastened to explain, “We write them so’s folks won’t laugh.  We don’t mean to laugh at each other, but sometimes children do say the funniest things.  There is Bernice Platte for one.  She can’t say anything the way she wants to, and it makes her feel bad when we giggle.  So Miss Edith took to having us write our lists.  I don’t care how much they laugh at me, I get so much of that at home that I am used to it, but some folks ain’t brought up that way and I s’pose it hurts.”

Mrs. Campbell caught her breath sharply.  It had never occurred to her before that Peace was sensitive, but the gusty sigh with which these words were spoken told her companion much, and slipping her arm about the little figure crouched at her side, the woman said gently, “Would you mind telling grandma some of the bits of sunshine you have been scattering this week?”

The wistful round face brightened quickly.  “Would you care to hear?”

“I should love to, dearie.”

“I didn’t make much sunshine, I guess, ’nless ’twas here at home where folks know me, but I tried.  You know Hope has been taking flowers to one of her teachers at High School, and the other day Miss Pope told her that she gave them all to her brother who is lame and can’t walk, and he spends all his days drawing and painting the pretty things he sees.  Well, there is a teacher in our school who looks awful turned-down at the mouth, and kind of sour like, and last week Minnie Herbert told me that it was ’cause the woman had lost her brother in a wreck.  So I thought maybe she’d like some flowers, and I took her some.  I didn’t know her name, but she was sitting in the hall to keep order during recess time, and I carried the bouquet right up to her and laid them in her lap.  I ’xpected to see her smile, but instead, she picked them up and looked kind of red as she asked me what made me bring them to her.  I meant to tell her I was sorry she looked so lonely and sad, but what I really said was ‘homely and bad.’  I don’t see why it is I always twist things up so, but that made her mad and I couldn’t explain it so’s she would take the flowers again, and I had to give them to one of the girls whose mother has delirious tremors.”

“Oh, Peace, you have made a mistake.”

“What is it, then?”

“I presume the poor woman is delirious with a fever of some sort.”

“Tryfoid,” supplied Peace.  “Stella told teacher so.  That same day on my way home from school I saw a little girl lugging a heavy pail, and the handle kept cutting her hands, so she had to set it down every few steps and change to the other side.  When I asked her to let me help, she gave me hold, and we carried the bucket down the alley to a chicken-coop, where it had to be dumped, ’cause it was slops for the hens.  There was a big box there to stand on, and I lifted the pail to the top of the fence and emptied it, but the woman which owns the chickens was right under where the stuff fell, and she didn’t like it a bit, and scolded us both good.

“Then there was Birdie Holden who wanted a bite of my apple, and when I turned it around to give her a good chance at it, she bit straight into a worm, and said I did it on purpose, though I never knew the worm was there any more’n she did.

“But the worst of all was the day teacher sent me to the office for thumb tacks to fasten up our drawings around the room.  She told me to see how quick I could get back, but she never counted on the principal’s not being there, which she wasn’t.  So I had to wait.  Then all at once I saw a big sign on the wall which said if Miss Lisk wasn’t in and folks were in a hurry, to ring the bell twice.

“I was in a big hurry for I had waited so long already that I thought sure Miss Allen would be after me in a minute to see if I was making the tacks; so I grabbed the cord and jerked the bell hard twice, and then twice again, and then twice the third time.  I ’xpected she’d come a-running at that, but what do you think, grandma?  Everyone in that schoolhouse just got up and hustled out of doors as fast as they could march.  We never used to have fire drill in Parker and I hadn’t heard of such a thing here, either, so I was dreadfully s’prised to find what my gong-ringing had done.  Maybe Miss Lisk wasn’t mad for a minute, when she saw me hanging out of the window yelling to know what was the matter, ’cause I was in a hurry for my thumb-tacks!  But afterwards she laughed like anything and said the children made record time in getting out, ’cause no one, not even she herself, knew whether it was just a fire drill or whether the janitor had rung the gong on account of the school’s really being burned up.”

No one could blame the good dame for smiling at the vivid pictures Peace had painted of her missionary efforts, but Mrs. Campbell knew how sore the little heart must be over these seeming failures, so she pressed the nestling head closer to her shoulder and said comfortingly, “But think of all the smiles you have won from the washerwoman.  When I paid her last night, she showed me the big bunch of flowers you had cut from your hyacinths and lilies in the conservatory, and told me how eagerly her poor, sick little girl watched for her home-coming the days she washed here, knowing that you would never forget to send her something.  And Jud was telling your grandpa only this morning how the ash-man’s horse always whinnies when the team stops in the alley, because you never fail to be there with a lump of sugar or a handful of oats.  Mrs. Dodds says it is a real pleasure to make dresses for you, just to hear you praise her work.  I was in the kitchen this morning when the grocer brought our order, and after he was gone, Gussie showed me a sack of candy he had slipped in for you, because you are so kind to his little girl at school.  I don’t need Jud’s words to tell me how the horses and other animals on the place love you.  And why?  Because you love them and never hurt them.”

“But, grandma,” interrupted Peace, her eyes wide with amazement at this recital; “you don’t call those things scattering sunshine, do you?”

“What would you call it, dear?”

“But-but-I didn’t do those things on purpose, grandma.  They-they just did themselves.  I like to see Mrs. O’Flaherty’s eyes shine and hear her say, ‘May the saints in Hivin bliss ye, darlint,’ when I give her anything for Maggie; and the ash-man’s horse doesn’t get enough to eat-really, it is ’most starved, I guess; and Mrs. Dodds does look so tickled when I say anything she makes is pretty.  They are pretty, too.  And the grocer’s little girl is so scared if anyone speaks to her that a lot of the bigger girls got to teasing her dreadfully and I couldn’t help lighting into them and telling them they ought to be ashamed of themselves; and-”

“That is what I call scattering sunshine, dear.  It is these little acts of ours which count, these acts done unconsciously, without any thought of others seeing, done simply because our hearts are so full of love and sympathy that they bubble over without our knowing it, and others are made happy because of our unselfishness.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Peace thoughtfully; “’cause when folks are watching and I want to be ’specially sweet and nice and helpful, I just make a dreadful bungle of it, and everyone laughs.  It’s the things we do without thinking that make folks happiest.  That is what Saint Elspeth used to tell me.  Some way I could understand her better than Miss Edith, I guess; but maybe it was ’cause I knew her better.  When do you s’pose we can go to see her, grandma?  Saint Elspeth, I mean.  It has been such a long time since-”

“She wants you next week, you and Allee.”

It was the President who spoke, and with a startled cry, Peace leaped up to find him in the doorway behind them.  “Why, Grandpa Campbell, how did you sneak in here so softly?  I never heard you at all, you came so catty.  Did you hear what we were talking about?”

“Not much of it.  I arrived just in time to catch your remarks about Mrs. Strong, and as I happen to have a note in my pocket this minute from your Saint John, I spoke right out without thinking.  I was intending to make you and grandma jump a little.”

“You made me jump a lot,” she retorted, throwing her arms about him and giving him a rapturous hug.  “Did you really mean that Mrs. Strong wants me next week?  That is our spring vacation here in Martindale.”

“Yes, so the letter said.  You see, the Strongs are living in Martindale now, too.”

“Grandpa!  You’re fooling!”

“Not this time.  I have known for a whole month that there was some prospect of their coming to the city, but I waited until I was sure before saying anything, because I knew you girls would be disappointed if they did not get the place.”

“What place?  How did it happen?  What will Parker do without him?  Will he live near us?  Can we see them often?  Where did you get the note?”

“One question at a time, please,” he cried laughingly.  “Mr. Strong dropped in at the University a minute this afternoon.  He has been called to fill the vacancy at Hill Street Church, and has accepted, but as his pastorate is about three miles from this part of the city, he will not live very close to us.  However, it will be possible for you to see each other more frequently than if they had remained at Parker.  They moved yesterday into the new parsonage, and Mrs. Strong wants to borrow our two youngest next week to help her with the baby while they are getting settled.  Do you want to go?”

“Oh, I can hardly wait!  Can we really stay the whole week?”

“You ungrateful little vagabond!” he thundered in pretended anger.  “You want to leave your old grandpa for a whole week, do you?”

“Yes,” she giggled.  “A change would do us both good.  Besides, we live with you all the time, and I don’t get a chance to see Saint Elspeth and Glen very often-but I’d lots rather have my home with you, though I do like to go visiting once in a while, same as you do.”

“Teaser!  Well, if grandma thinks it wise, you and Allee may go next week to visit your patron saints-What is the matter, Dora?  Doesn’t the plan please you?”

For grandma looked unusually grave and thoughtful, but at his question she merely answered, “Peace may accept if she wishes, but unless Allée’s cold is much better by Monday, I don’t think it best for her to go.  I kept her home from school today.”

For a moment the brown-haired child stood silent and hesitating on one foot in the middle of the floor.  It would be hard to be separated from this golden-haired sister for a whole week, but-it had been such a long time since she had seen these other precious friends; and anyway, Elspeth needed someone to help her.  Besides, Allee might be well enough to go by Monday, or perhaps she could come later in the week.  It would be wisest to accept the invitation at once, so with a little hop of decision, she announced serenely, “Tell Saint John I’ll come, and prob’ly Allee will, too.  Her colds don’t usu’ly last long, and she’ll be all right by Monday.”