After the picnickers had finished luncheon they still sat about the remains of the feast, talking busily of what they hoped to accomplish during the coming year.
Elfreda was full of plans as to what she intended to do when she had finished her course in the law school and passed the bar. “When I’m a full-fledged lawyer——” she began.
“You mean a lawyeress,” corrected Emma. “Don’t contradict me. Let me explain. True the word’s not in the dictionary. I just coined it. I’m going to teach it and its uses in my classes this fall. I shall begin by referring to my friend, Miss J. Elfreda Briggs, the distinguished lawyeress. That will excite the curiosity of my classes. Then instead of satisfying that curiosity as to Lawyeress Briggs’ personal and private history I shall gently lead them to a serious contemplation of the word itself. Once in use, I’ll have it put in a revised edition of the dictionary. It’s high time there were a few new words introduced into the English language. I can make up beautiful ones and not half try. It’s so easy.”
“And the faculty trusted her to teach English,” murmured Miriam.
There was a chorus of giggles at this observation, in which even Emma joined.
“Make up some new words now,” challenged Julia Emerson.
“Not when I’m on a picnic,” refused Emma firmly. “‘Work while you work and play while you play.’ I came out to play.”
“Our play days end to-night,” smiled Grace. “At least mine do.”
“Mine, too,” echoed Arline. “Really, girls, you haven’t any idea of how busy settlement work keeps one. I spend several hours each day at the rooms which Father let me have fitted up for a Girls’ Club, and I visit the very poor people, and almost every evening I have a class or a meeting. One evening I go to a little chapel on the East Side to tell stories to children, and I teach classes two other nights. There’s always something extra coming up, too. Father isn’t exactly pleased over it. He thinks I work too hard. Now that Ruth is going to spend the winter with me I’ll make her help. She is the laziest person. She hasn’t accomplished a single thing since she found her father.”
“He wouldn’t let me,” defended Ruth. “It has been hard labor to persuade him to allow me to stay in New York this winter. Besides I believe that my business of life, for the present, at least, is to try to make up for some of the years we spent apart.”