BY the middle of the next week the Ethels were established in the Girls' Club and the Club was well under way. Dorothy went with them on the opening morning and introduced them to the director of the Club so that they felt no embarrassment in beginning their new activities. Miss Roberts was a fresh-faced, wholesome young woman whose cordial manner made the girls think of their teacher at home. They liked her at once, and so they were eager to follow any suggestions that she made.
The very first was that which Dorothy's mother had urged upon her the summer before, the suggestion which had made so good a basket-maker of her that she had been able to sell her work during the winter.
"It's a great deal better for you to work hard at one thing," said Miss Roberts in a little speech she made at the opening of the club, "than to learn a little bit about several things. Don't be a 'jack of all trades and good at none' girl; be a thorough work-woman at whatever craft you select. Pick out the thing you think is going to interest you most and put your whole strength on it."
"Stenciling for me," whispered Dorothy, "and invalids' cooking."
"Me, too," said Ethel Brown, who admired her new friend so much that she wanted to have the pleasure of being in the same class with her. Ethel Blue looked disturbed when she heard what the others were saying, for she had made up her mind to learn basketry, but it seemed rather forlorn to be in a class with girls she did not know at all. She thought she would ask Miss Roberts what she thought about it.
"Another thing I want every girl here to do," went on Miss Roberts, "is to take some physical exercise every day. You'll never have a better chance to learn to swim, for instance, and it is one of our customs to have light gymnastic movements every morning. In about a week the School of Physical Education will have an exhibition in the Amphitheatre and we must send a squad of girls to represent the Club, so the harder you work to become exact and uniform in your exercises the better showing we shall make."
When it came to enrolling in the classes both Ethels registered as wanting to swim.
"I must learn," said Ethel Blue, "because I've got an uncle in the Navy."
"And I've got to," laughed Ethel Brown, "because her uncle is my father."
Ethel Brown and Dorothy gave their names for the class in stenciling, but Ethel Blue crossed to Miss Roberts's side before she enlisted.