Witch Winnie Part 13

Minestra Zuppa, } Olives.

Bistecca (Beefsteak).

Macaroni al burro (with b.u.t.ter).

Macaroni a pomidoro (with potatoes).

Testa de vitello (Calf's head).

Carciofi (Artichokes).

Cavolifiori (Cauliflower).

Salami di Bologna (Bologna Sausage).

Crostata di frutti (Fruit tarts).

Formaggio (Cheese).

Adelaide was musical director, and led the singing cla.s.s in "Dolce Napoli" and other Italian songs. The girls were dressed in costume, and there was one fisher chorus, which made a very effective tableau with a background of colored sails and nets. Vincenzo allowed his little girls to appear with a neighbor's hand-organ, and when they pa.s.sed their tambourines they gathered a goodly harvest of pennies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Drawing of the Venetian Fete.}]

Little Breeze arranged the tableaux and the dances, Mrs. Halsey sending in designs for the costumes; and Cynthia Vaughn ran a side show of stereopticon views, Professor Todd kindly working the lantern.

Milly had the flower gondola, or booth of cut flowers, supplied from her father's conservatory, and Miss Prillwitz contributed to this department a quant.i.ty of little alb.u.ms and herbaria containing pressed flowers and seaweed from different Italian cities. Our dear princess was present, beaming with happiness, and the "ten" introduced her proudly to their parents and friends. Mr. Roseveldt seemed much interested, in an amused way, in what we were trying to do. "Go ahead, my dear," he said to Milly, "and if you don't come to me to shoulder a lot of bad debts before the summer is over, I shall be greatly surprised, and have a far higher respect for what little girls can do than I now possess."

"'Little girls,' indeed!" Milly repeated, with scorn. "There are younger gentlemen, sir, who consider us young ladies, if you do not. But we will compel your respect, and we will not ask you for one penny either."

This was rather hard, for we had secretly hoped, all along, that Milly's father would help us, and now she had made it a point of pride not to ask him. He behaved very well, however, for although he bantered us cruelly on our Utopian enterprise, he bought a b.u.t.ton-hole bouquet of his own violets from Milly, paying a five-dollar bill for it and neglecting to ask for change, and then took Miss Prillwitz, Madame, Emma Jane Anton, Miss Sartoris, and Miss Hope successively out to supper. He purchased, too, an alabaster model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which Madame had contributed on condition that it should be sold for not less than twenty dollars, and which we had feared would not be disposed of, as we had voted that there should be no raffling. Madame was greatly interested in the fair; it drew attention to her school, and she smiled on everyone--a self-const.i.tuted reception committee. She was even gracious to the cadet band which had serenaded the school in the fall term. The cadets to a man invited Milly out to dinner. She went with each of them in succession, and as the viands were sold _a la carte_, she bravely ordered the more expensive dishes over and over again, enduring a martyrdom of dyspepsia for a week in consequence.

Of course Jim was present, and his mother. Adelaide was attentive to both; there seemed to be a mutual attraction that kept them together, and whenever Adelaide left Mrs. Halsey, and taking up her baton (Milly's curling-stick), led her orchestra, Mrs. Halsey's eyes followed her with a strange wistfulness. Winnie, with her usual heedlessness, had neglected to introduce Adelaide to Mrs. Halsey when she called on her in the court, and she now turned to Jim and asked her name. It happened that Jim thought that she referred to the pianist instead of to Adelaide, and he replied that the young lady in question was Miss Hope, the music-teacher. Mrs. Halsey gave a little sigh of disappointment, and continued her spell-bound gaze. I was about to correct the mistake which I was sure Jim had made, when it was announced that Mrs. Le Moyne, the celebrated interpreter of Robert Browning, would kindly recite a poem of Mrs. Browning's. Mrs. Halsey and Jim moved nearer the rostrum, and my opportunity for explanation was lost. If I had known the effect that the name of Adelaide Armstrong would have had upon Mrs. Halsey, chains could not have kept me in my gondola--so many invisible gates of opportunity are closed and opened to us all along life's pathway!

The poem recited was, most appropriately, "The Cry of the Children."

Tears welled into the eyes of many a mother as the practiced art of the speaker rendered most feelingly the pathetic words:

"But these others--children small, Spilt like blots about the city Quay and street and palace wall-- Take them up into your pity!

Patient children--think what pain Makes a young child patient yonder; Wronged too commonly to strain After right, or wish or wonder;

Sickly children, that whine low To themselves and not their mothers, From mere habit, never so-- Hoping help or care from others;

Healthy children, with those blue English eyes, fresh from their Maker, Fierce and ravenous, staring through At the brown loaves of the baker.

Can we smooth down the bright hair, O my sisters, calm, unthrilled in Our hearts' pulses? Can we bear The sweet looks of our own children?

O my sisters! Children small, Blue-eyed, wailing through the city-- Our own babes cry in them all; Let us take them into pity!"

That poem was worth a great deal to our cause. Those of the mothers of our Ten who were present were won to us at once.

Mrs. Middleton, our vice-president's mother, and the wife of a clergyman, entered into our scheme with enthusiasm, and felt sure that her husband's church would a.s.sist us.

Mrs. Seligman and Mrs. Roseveldt put their heads together and planned to interest their society friends. One of hers, Mrs. Roseveldt was sure, would contribute the coal, and another the flour, while Mrs. Seligman would provide the blankets, and a friend of her acquaintance would certainly a.s.sume the butcher's bill. Madame Celeste, the dress-maker, who was present, was about to refurnish her parlors, and would contribute curtains. Madame Celeste bought a quant.i.ty of my photographs of old Italian portraits, and I have no doubt that they were very serviceable to her in the way of suggestions for aesthetic costumes.

We knew before the evening closed that the fair must have realized more than we had hoped, and Emma Jane, the Treasurer of the new society, announced at our next meeting that the fair had cleared six hundred dollars. Vociferous applause followed, and we immediately adjourned to Miss Prillwitz's to report the unexpectedly happy result.

Our princess had talked over the scheme with such of our mothers as were present at the fair; and she now advised that we create them a board of managers of the proposed Home, to carry it on for us, as we were all minors, and lacked the necessary experience, we to labor for it harder than ever. This was immediately done, and after this, affairs marched with great rapidity. The Home of the Elder Brother was licensed and fitted up for its little guests within a week. The vacant floors in Miss Prillwitz's house were rented--not for the summer only, as we had at first planned, but, to our great surprise, for a year. An "unknown friend," who had admired our efforts, sent in a subscription of nine hundred dollars, thereby more than doubling the amount obtained by the fair, and guaranteeing that amount annually as long as the Home was continued.

Mr. Roseveldt had been better than his word, and the Home was placed on an a.s.sured basis for a year. What it would be after that we could not tell. It was only permitted to see one step ahead, but that step we could take with thankful a.s.surance.

Madame sent over a quant.i.ty of furniture, as she intended to refit the students' rooms during the summer vacation. Donations of every kind poured in, and twenty-five little iron bedsteads were dressed in white, and set in the sunny rooms which were to be used as dormitories. Madame Celeste had said that she would not require Mrs. Halsey during the three summer months, and the little woman offered her services for that interim as nursery care-taker.

Another surprise came when Emma Jane Anton announced that she had written home and obtained permission to remain as matron. She had a talent for housekeeping, and she gave her services freely. "I am not rich," she said. "I can't give money, but I can give myself. I am not used to children; I don't believe they will like me, for I don't care for them overmuch; but Mrs. Halsey will mother them, and I can keep the house sweet and clean; I can market economically, and keep accounts exactly, and I mean that the princess shall not give up her visit to Tib. She must go to the country for a part of the summer at least."

"And when she comes back," I said, "you must take your turn, Emma Jane; we will be so glad to have you!"

"Oh, immensely! I am a genial, sweet creature, I know, an addition to society; but I thank you, all the same, and if I feel run down, I will come and get a sniff of sea air."

The King's Daughters' Ten held their last meeting before the breaking up of the school. The money gained was entrusted to Emma Jane's care for the summer, and each of the members bound herself to carry the scheme with her wherever she went, to interest others, to gather and forward funds, and to work for the Home in every possible way.

Then we paid our last visit, for that term, to Miss Prillwitz, and our first to our little guests, and returning, packed our trunks, attended the graduating exercises of the senior cla.s.s (the Amen Corner and the Hornets were all juniors and soph.o.m.ores, with the exception of Emma Jane, who graduated), hugged and wept over each other, and elected Winnie corresponding secretary for the summer, and promised to write to her every month, reporting work done for the Home, and separated with mingled hilarity and depression of spirits.

Mr. Roseveldt called at the Home with Milly and Adelaide before they left town. It was a little plan of the girls to interest him in Jim, and it succeeded admirably. After a number of other questions, Mr. Roseveldt asked Jim if he could drive.

"I managed the milkman's nag," the boy replied, "and he was an awfully hardmouthed, ugly brute."

"Then I fancy you will have no trouble with Milly's pony, which is as gentle as a kitten," Mr. Roseveldt replied. "I want a boy in b.u.t.tons just to sit in the rumble while the girls drive about the country." And so Jim was engaged to go to Narragansett Pier, and would have a happy summer with Milly and Adelaide.

CHAPTER X.

THE LANDLORD OF RICKETT'S COURT.

"And yet it was never in my soul To play so ill a part: But evil is wrought by want of thought As well as by want of heart."

--_Thos. Hood._

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Drawing of Solomon Meyer.}]

Solomon Meyer, who collected the rents at Rickett's Court, was looked upon by the tenants as the landlord, though he distinctly disclaimed that honor, explaining that he was only the agent, empowered merely to receive money, never to disburse. According to Mr. Meyer the landlord was a heartless miser, whom he had entreated to make repairs and to lower rents, but who always turned a deaf ear to such appeals. If he, Solomon Meyer, only owned Rickett's Court, there would be no end to the reforms which his tender heart would cause him to inst.i.tute; as it was, there was no hope for anything of the kind; his orders were explicit--if tenants could not pay, they must leave.

Many of the tenants believed that Mr. Meyer was really the owner of their building, and that the landlord whom he represented as responsible for all their discomfort was purely imaginary, but in this they wronged the agent. Solomon Meyer had no scruples against telling a lie whenever it would serve his purpose, but here the truth did very well. Rickett's Court had a landlord who, although he was not the inhuman wretch which Solomon represented him, still cared nothing for his tenants, and, while the agent had never suggested any reforms or repairs, might well have guessed that they were needed. Adelaide Armstrong would have been shocked beyond expression if she had known that the true landlord of Rickett's Court was no other than her own father. Mr. Armstrong would have been no less shocked if he had known of the abuses for which he was really responsible. He had never seen his own property. It had been represented to him as a profitable investment, and had proved so. He was only in New York for brief intervals each year, and he left the entire management of Rickett's Court to Solomon Meyer, well pleased with the returns which he rendered, and not suspecting that they were less than the sums wrung from the tenants.

He had mentally set aside Rickett's Court as Adelaide's property, and he used its proceeds to defray her expenses. There was a neat little surplus left over each quarter-day, which he placed in the savings bank to her credit, and with which he intended to endow her on her marriage.

But of all this Adelaide of course knew nothing. Mr. Armstrong's more important business ventures were in western railroad speculations. These absorbed his attention, and needed the closest application of his faculties. He was glad of this. The East had grown distasteful to him since the loss of his wife and infant son. He felt that he might have been a different man if his wife, whom he tenderly loved, had lived; and Adelaide had never ceased to mourn her mother, whom she could not remember. "What shall I ever do," she frequently asked, "when I finish school? If I only had a mother to be my companion and counselor! but I shall be so lonely, and so unfit to take care of myself!"

The circ.u.mstances which I relate in this chapter because they belong here in sequence of time, did not come to my knowledge until long after their occurrence.

Mr. Armstrong came on from the West the evening of our fair. He was weary and much occupied by matters of business, and he did not attend it, much to our regret. He lent a kindly ear to Adelaide's description of it, for he was fond and proud of his beautiful daughter, and he liked to see her a leader in everything.

He manifested apparently little interest, however, in what she had to tell him of Rickett's Court. "There, there, Puss!" he said, lightly, "you must not get fanatical, and rant. I hardly think things are as bad down there as you make them out."

"But, papa," Adelaide interrupted, "I went there myself. I saw it with my own eyes. It is horrible to think that human beings should be obliged to live in such filth and misery. I think the landlord of Rickett's Court ought to be prosecuted. I wish I knew that old Rickett!

I would give him a piece of my mind."