The Madcap of the School

by Angela Brazil

“Some of us are leaving this term, and at any rate in a few years we shall all have left, and be scattered about in various places. Wouldn’t it be nice to make a kind of League, and undertake that every girl who has belonged to this school will do her very best to help the world? It should be a ‘Marlowe Grange’ pledge, and we’d bind ourselves to keep it. If a whole school makes up its mind to a thing, it ought to have some effect, and it would be splendid to feel that our school had been an inspiration, and helped to build up a new and better nation after the war. There are only twenty-six of us here at present, but suppose when we leave we each influence ten people, that makes two hundred and sixty, and if they each influence ten people more, it makes two thousand six hundred, so the thing grows like circles in a pond. I don’t mean that we’re to be a set of prigs, and go about criticizing everybody and telling them they are slackers—that’s not the right way at all; but if we stick up constantly for all that we know is best, people will probably begin to sympathize, and want to do the same.”

Hermie’s and Linda’s idea appealed to the Sixth. They instituted the League at once, and persuaded the entire school to join. They put their heads together, and drew up a short code which they considered should explain the attitude of their society. It ran as follows:— 241

MARLOWE GRANGE LEAGUE

AFTER-THE-WAR RULES

To do some definite, sensible work, and not to spend all my time in golf, dances, and other amusements. To read wholesome books, study Nature, and be content with simple pleasures. Not to judge my friends by the standards of clothes and money, but by their real worth. To strive to be broad-minded, and to look at things from other people’s points of view as well as my own. To do all I can to help others. To understand that character is the most useful possession I can have, to speak the truth, be charitable to my neighbours’ faults, and avoid gossip. To cultivate and cherish the faculty of appreciating all the beautiful in life, and to enjoy innocent pleasures. To realize that as a soldier is one of an army, so I am a unit of a great nation, and must play my part bravely and nobly for the sake of my country. To remember that I can do good and useful work in my own home as well as out in the world. To keep my heart open, and take life cheerfully, kindly, and smilingly, trying to make my own little circle better and happier, and to forget myself in pleasing others. Not to moan and groan over what is inevitable, but to make the best of things as they are. To be faithful to my friends, loyal to my King and my Country, and true to God.

1. To do some definite, sensible work, and not to spend all my time in golf, dances, and other amusements.
2. To read wholesome books, study Nature, and be content with simple pleasures.
3. Not to judge my friends by the standards of clothes and money, but by their real worth.
4. To strive to be broad-minded, and to look at things from other people’s points of view as well as my own.
5. To do all I can to help others.
6. To understand that character is the most useful possession I can have, to speak the truth, be charitable to my neighbours’ faults, and avoid gossip.
7. To cultivate and cherish the faculty of appreciating all the beautiful in life, and to enjoy innocent pleasures.
8. To realize that as a soldier is one of an army, so I am a unit of a great nation, and must play my part bravely and nobly for the sake of my country.
9. To remember that I can do good and useful work in my own home as well as out in the world.
10. To keep my heart open, and take life cheerfully, kindly, and smilingly, trying to make my own little circle better and happier, and to forget myself in pleasing others.
11. Not to moan and groan over what is inevitable, but to make the best of things as they are.
12. To be faithful to my friends, loyal to my King and my Country, and true to God.

God Save the King

In order to make the League a binding and lasting affair, the monitresses decided to give each 242 member a copy of the code, and ask her to sign her name to it. For this purpose they made twenty-six dainty little books of exercise paper, with covers of cardboard (begged from the drawing cupboard) decorated with Japanese stencils of iris, chrysanthemums, birds and reeds, or other artistic designs, the backs being tied with bows of baby ribbon. After the list of rules, were appended a few suitable quotations, and blank pages were left, so that each individual could fill them up with extracts that she liked, either cut out of magazines or written in her own hand. Most of the girls admired Robert Louis Stevenson, so the selections began with his wise and tender epitome of life:—

“To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation. Above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself. Here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy.”

As Linda and Hermie could not agree whether this ideal of life or the one by William Henry Channing was the more beautifully expressed, it was agreed to put the latter’s as well:—

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, 243 grow up through the common—this is to be my symphony.”

As the League was to be nothing if not practical, everyone felt that the best way of upholding its principles at the present moment was to raise a good collection for the fund for the blinded soldiers. The Sixth determined to give a theatrical performance, the juniors a display of gymnastics and dancing, and the Fifth concentrated their minds upon a concert.