“Perseverance and cheerfulness!” whispered Louise. “Who would have thought Marie needed either of them?”
“You can’t tell much about Marie, because you never can get to her to talk about herself,” answered Winona. “But she certainly is one of the hardest workers in the class at school.”
At this point the girls had to stop talking, to join in the Wood-gatherer’s verses for Marie.
Nearly all Marie’s required honors were Patriotism, for she was the student of the crowd.
“It fairly makes me shiver to think how much that girl knows,” whispered Louise. “My honors are going to be plain home-craft—making pies and chaperoning ice-chests and massaging floors, and so forth.”
“Will your mother let you?” asked Winona; for Mrs. Lane kept two maids, having the money to do it, and a big family.
“Let me!” exploded Louise. “She’ll weep tears of joy if there’s any prospect of my getting thinner!”
Just as Louise spoke there fell one of those uncanny silences which have a way of occurring at the worst possible times. Louise’s statement pealed cheerfully through the room, and poor Louise, blushing scarlet, tried to make herself very small—a hard matter.
The girls could not help laughing, but Mrs. Bryan had mercy on her embarrassment, and went on with the awarding of the honor beads each girl had won since the last meeting. Winona’s were rather various—a few from each class. Helen’s were nearly all hand-craft—stencilling and clay-modelling. She had brought along a bureau-scarf she had done, to show, and a beautiful little bowl she had modelled and painted and fired. Louise had only three beads so far, one for identifying birds, one for preserving, and one for making her ceremonial dress.
Edith Hillis, to everybody’s surprise, was given an honor for folk-dancing, and proceeded, when she was asked, to get up and demonstrate. This held up the regular course of the meeting for quite a little while, because when she showed them the Highland Fling all the girls wanted to learn it. So for at least a half-hour they practised it, till the floor over Mr. Bryan’s head, in his study beneath, must have seemed to be coming down.