“I just wish you could have seen the brave little patients there, some of them the most dreadful cases, but all trying to be so courageous. I admit I could scarcely keep back my tears, and when I got home and told Mother all about it, she had a good cry. I don’t think I ever have been more deeply touched.
“I felt as if I must do something—send more money, more toys, more nurses. I wanted to go out and preach children’s hospitals from morning till night, I wanted to get every girl I knew to enroll as a nurse. If you could see the way the little things depend upon those nurses! They adore them, they wait patiently till they have time to attend to them. Oh, they are wonderful!”
Marjorie herself felt near to tears, so realistic was John’s description of the little sufferers. She did not trust herself to say anything.
“And then I thought of your girl scouts, girls who have no definite aim in life, who are not preparing for anything special, and I wondered whether we couldn’t turn at least part of their interest there. Perhaps we have been thinking too much of what we could do for them; maybe if we realized that the greatest thing would be for them to do something for others, we might succeed further.”
“I believe you’re right, John,” Marjorie said, thoughtfully. “But how?”
“Well, I would begin by taking them to see the children. There are about fifteen little girls in that ward; suppose I bought a doll for each child—would your girls dress them? That would give them a chance to see the hospital from the inside, and they might be interested. You may even be able to start a course in home-nursing or first-aid, as a result.”
Marjorie was silent for a long while, pondering the idea. Was it possible, she wondered, to touch these girls, to take them outside of themselves and their own little worlds, to see someone else’s point of view? Was not John correct in thinking she had given too much attention to the good she might do them, rather than the good they might do to others? The idea was so much bigger than any she had ever conceived for them that she was almost terrified at its seriousness.
“It certainly is worth a try, John. It would be great if we could interest them, but I am not going to count on it, or expect a miracle. At least the visit to the hospital with the dolls would be worth-while, if nothing finally came of it.”
“Then you will let me send the dolls?”
“I’d love to—but you better wait till I ask the scouts. There is a chance they may turn me down.”