“Ten. Put me down for ten thousand, Miss Rhinelander,” another.
“Even one thousand will help. It takes a heap of money to build a substantial ‘home’ in this city and I’d like to make it more. But my subscription is, for the present, one thousand dollars. Have you my name correct, Miss Rhinelander,” cried still a third.
Experienced persons say that sympathy goes in waves. Many a big sum has been raised by the sympathetic wave set in motion just as this one has been; and, before the benediction was pronounced over that assembly, sufficient money had been guaranteed to make the dream of Jessica Trent a future reality.
As for that happy girl, she could not at all realize this fact, though her fancy had again returned to the pitiful small faces which she had never forgotten and always hoped to help. Not till Helen sought her and drew her into a quiet spot did she begin to understand.
“You see, Jessica dear, I thought, well I thought you were a ‘charity’ and I told Madame that I wanted to pay for all your stay in the hospital. Then she told me that you were, or would be, a great deal richer than any of us; and she suggested that if I wanted to please you I could best do it by furthering some of your ‘dreams’ about other people. Then I remembered hearing the girls talk of your being so touched by the Avenue A babies, and I hoped that since I couldn’t do anything for you, personally, I might for them. That’s all. My part is a thank-offering. I think all the rest is pure charity. Are you glad?”
“Glad, Helen? I’m so glad I can hardly breathe. And I can almost hear my mother saying: ‘Just a link in life’s chain, Jessica.’ I, Buster I mean, ran away and I went to Avenue A. Just a little thing like that, yet out of it came—all this! Oh! isn’t it grand? isn’t it beautiful just to be alive, helping in the ‘chain,’ seeing the happiness grow! Oh! I thank you, Helen, more than words can tell. And—and how soon do you think that home can be built? Do you suppose I’ll see it done before I, too, graduate? I can hardly wait till I get a chance to write home to my mother and ask her to put her own name down on that list. She will, she’ll help. O Helen! What a happy day this is!”
“Yes. But a sad one, too. Just as I begin to know you I must lose you. Even now, within this hour. My mother is waiting—Good-by, good-by!”
CHAPTER XIX.
THE DREAM AND THE REALITY.
Thus ended Jessica Trent’s first year at school. It was the forerunner of others so like it that no record is needed. There were summer vacation trips in various directions, visits to the homes of schoolmates, and one year—the third of her absence from Sobrante—was spent in Europe.