Adelaide's interest in her tenement did not wean her away from the Home, and I have since observed that it is always those who, seemingly, are already doing as much as they can in the way of charity who are always ready to lend a helping hand to other enterprises, and that it is the earnest workers of little means, as well as the wealthy philanthropists, who
"To the ages
Fair bequests, and costly, make."
The Armstrongs went West, and Adelaide created an interest for the Home in her new surroundings, while Milly kept up the enthusiasm of the tennis club at the Pier. That club flourished in a manner unheard of, heretofore, in a place where everyone was so busy doing nothing that even the exertion of tennis had been voted a bore. It was not tennis, however, that kept them together, or gave the members their bright, jolly looks, but the Paradiso Cottage.
"For we may find a zest
In any true employ
Which, like a whetstone in the breast,
Shall give an edge to joy."
But while we all worked in our different ways, it was our corresponding secretary who was the clasp to the necklace, or rather, the central battery which sent currents of life pulsating through the connecting wires. The scapegrace who plotted and schemed mischief, she who had erstwhile reveled in the name of "the malicious, seditious, insubordinate, disreputable, skeptical Queen of the Hornets," had become a wise and enterprising central manager of a helpful charity.
The summer vacation is over, and we have all met again for another winter at Madame's; Amen Corner and Hornets all filled with a fine enthusiasm for our work, and a deep, true affection for one another.
The Home rests, we are told, on very slender foundations. There is no financier as a backer, no estate, no great endowment, nothing to ensure its existence from year to year but the hearts and hands of ten young girls. Nothing else? They forget that we have behind us and with us the Elder Brother, with all the estates del Paradiso.
"By each saving word unspoken,
By Thy will, yet poorly done,
Hear us, hear us,
Thou Almighty! help us on."
THE END.