Marion opened hers, pushed the few things it contained carefully into a corner, and said,—
“You are very welcome to all the room you want. Remember, I am only here on sufferance; it is really all yours.”
“Nonsense! help me, can’t you? I shall pitch them in any way, and you are so tidy!”
Help her Marion did, and when the jumbled but valuable contents of the drawer were all transferred, Gladys shut it up with a gleeful laugh. 180
“Oh, how splendid it is,” she said, “to have the drawer clean and clear again! Never one of those duds is going back, and you can use them or throw them away; put them in a rag-bag if you want to; I’ve nothing more to do with them.”
Then Sue and Dorothy understood what the extravagance meant, but Marion did not; she only stood still, staring at Gladys, wondering what she could have said or done to vex her kind-hearted room-mate. And it was not until hours afterward, when she was alone with Dorothy, and Dorothy told her they were gifts to her, that she knew how rich in Christmas treasures she had suddenly become.
And here it is pleasant to tell, that this was only one of Gladys’s thoughtful kindnesses. Little bundles of similar gifts were constantly going from her to the doors of the girls whose small means made Christmas presents luxuries in which they could not indulge. Even Gladys’s liberal father wondered often over the amount of money which she wished for these holidays; but he trusted her, and in truth felt proud and glad that this only child had a noble, generous nature, which could, and did, think of others more than of herself; for in the account which she always sent him of the expenditure of these moneys, while there were many “give aways,” there were few dollars spent on herself.
One day, in the regular mail-bag, there came this note to Miss Ashton:— 181
We, the undersigned, grateful for the undeserved kindnesses with which you have made our repentant days so happy, request the pleasure of your company in the parlor, Tuesday evening, December 22.
Jenny Barton, Sophy Kane,
Kate Underwood, Mamie Smythe,
Lucy Snow, Lilly White,
Martha Dodd,