Ethel Morton at Chautauqua

by Mabell S. C. Smith

"She is to march with Dorothy, and Ethel Brown and Della are to be together in the butterfly dance."

"And Helen?"

"She is in one of the folk dances. She must be in this division wearing gymnasium suits."

"Or in the next one; that first detachment looked to me as if it was made up of teachers of gymnastics who are taking a normal course here."

The program continued with a set of exercises by the smallest members of the Boys' Club who executed a flag drill with precision and general success, although Dicky wandered from the fold when Cupid Watkins trotted his bowlegged way on to the stage looking for some member of his human family. Nevertheless, Dicky won the applause of the audience by seizing Cupid in his arms and planting a kiss on the cross-piece of his muzzle before leading him off on his search.

The butterfly dance was charming, the little girls waving in exact time to the music the filmy wings that hung from shoulder and wrist. Mrs. Morton never succeeded in making out Ethel Brown and Della but the whole effect was delicately graceful. Ethel Blue and Dorothy were equally indistinguishable among the pierrots who stamped and whirled and stretched arms and legs with funny rapid motions.

Ethel Brown had a part in a dance in which rubber balls were bounced in time with a difficult series of steps. Helen and Margaret and Tom Watkins were in one of the folk dances, and Roger and James, with some other large boys and young men, illustrated various wrestling holds in a fashion both graceful and exact. On the whole, the audience seemed to think the program was well worth their commendation.

Into this busy week was crowded yet one more event of especial interest to the Morton household and its friends—the annual circus of the Athletic Club. Roger had been playing baseball on the second team all summer and this team was asked to take part in a burlesque game which was to be one of the numbers on the program. There had been much practicing in private and Roger had come home one day with a black eye which seemed to promise that when he made his slide for base in the show it would be a spectacular performance.

The baseball teams, absurdly dressed, and taking Dicky and Cupid with them for mascots, had a float to themselves in the procession that wound about the grounds in the early part of the afternoon. The Superintendent of Grounds and Buildings led the way in his buggy and behind him came a detachment of Chautauqua police, one man strong. The special features were led by another buggy, this one drawn by a mule wearing a pair of overalls on his front legs.

A pretty pink and white float was filled with small children from the Elementary School; another was laden with a host of Girls' Club members in the pierrot costume of the Exhibition dance. Ethel Blue and Ethel Brown were among them, Ethel Brown wearing Della's dress because Della preferred to ride with Dorothy on the float with the Model Cooking Class.