Part 27

For some reason, she could not have explained to them about her chance guest. But she was still thinking of her, as she walked from the shore a little later to gather firewood for supper. The sun dropped long-ribbed level beams over the russet oak-brush and buff shadows of the dunes. Crimson rifts broke in the amber ether of the west. Rich, rich, soft, and deep, the fragrance of some far autumnal bonfire breathed in the cool air.

'Where are the songs of spring? oh, where are they? Mourn not for them, thou hast thy music, too,' rang silently in the girl’s fancy as she stood looking around her. And she wondered that she never till that day had realized how deeply wild creation is the birthright of every creature, not only for the power of tooth and fang, the strength of the marauder, but for the vitality of speed and sensitiveness, ground-squirrel, deer, and cricket; and how Nature’s most profound magnificence might sing, perhaps, not in her thrilling melody to April pulses, but in her proud cadence to November hearts.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND INTERPRETATIVE NOTES

THE LIE

MARY ANTIN, ever since _The Promised Land_ first appeared in the _Atlantic Monthly_, has come to mark the highest standard of literary excellence and political idealism possible for the best and most gifted of our foreigners to attain. Born in Russia, educated in Boston and New York, her influence has been widely exerted by her books and by her public addresses.

One of the chief points of interest in Mary Antin’s story lies in the conflict of ideas about truth. David had learned that in America a good patriotic citizen should learn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The demand for this strictness, he came to learn, was more particularly severe when assertions were recorded in writing on public documents. The little boy understood equally well that the training which his father had received in Russia made it seem right in certain cases to swear falsely and deceive the government. David therefore saw the tragical significance of his father’s false record on the American public school document. In David’s conception Mr. Rudinsky had done no wrong in telling the lie; yet that lie nevertheless stood out as a bold contrast to George Washington’s idea of truth. How could the little boy be loyal to both ideas, when the ideas were diametrically opposed to each other?

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. What are some of the differences suggested between life for the Jewish person in Russia and in America?

2. How does the author indicate her own feelings in regard to the problems that confront David and his father?

3. What does citizenship mean to Mr. Rudinsky? What are some of the more concrete forms by which he makes his ideas of freedom evident? Does his conception of Americanism coincide with that of the average American?

4. Has the literalness of David’s interpretation of "America" any real connection with the time of the story? Was it necessary to give so much general detail before the question of David’s age came up?

5. Why is Bennie introduced into the story? Do you find any other characters contributing to the humor or acting as foils?

6. How does the author reveal Miss Ralston’s competence to reconcile the two ideals of truth?

STUDENT’S COMMENT ON 'THE LIE'

To me the chief interest in _The Lie_ centres in the portrayal of character. Naturally I was most interested in David, and I found myself contrasting David’s habitually serious devotion to his studies with my own rather fitful habits of attack. The contrast was not comforting. Little Bennie I liked, too. Indeed, I think that for everyday living, I should find him the more agreeable companion of the two. He bubbles over so easily and charms us with his frankness and unconscious humor. Mr. Rudinsky’s ambition for David is splendid--so splendid that we can pretty readily excuse the lie he told about David’s age. I was not so much interested in Mrs. Rudinsky, but I nevertheless felt that if I were grading her on her proficiency in motherhood, I’d have to give her an A-,--or at least a B+. And Miss Ralston was wonderful. Wouldn’t it be splendid if every teacher could have such a sympathetic understanding of children’s hearts!

The second item that interested me was the patriotic note. In these war days everything even remotely connected with the patriotic ideal stirs us. I was proud that I could think of America as the land where my fathers had freely died in order that I might live in freedom. And I rather guiltily questioned whether I have been showing by my own service any real appreciation of the sacrifice which these fathers had made. And I felt a bit ashamed when I thought that David’s admiration for George Washington somehow seemed loftier and more deeply personal than my own had been.

Another characteristic struck me: Miss Antin portrayed her separate scenes with such graphic power. I am sure that I shall always remember the whimsical figure of David in the George Washington coat that was so much too big for the tiny figure. But I was almost afraid to laugh for fear of hurting David’s feelings, for David somehow seemed so very near. This touch of reality is equally strong in the passage which describes Mrs. Rudinsky and her hasty toilet, and her hands on which the scrubbing brush and paring knife had left their unmistakable marks.

I, of course, find that I was interested in the plot. Indeed, I read stories principally for the fun of seeing how the events shape themselves at the close. It doesn’t matter here that we are not told exactly what happened in that conversation between Miss Ralston and David. We know that the trouble was all smoothed out. Personally, I feel quite sure that David finally took part in that school entertainment.

BLUE REEFERS

ELIZABETH ASHE is the pen name of Georgiana Pentlarge, a young and promising story-writer, living in Boston.

A reefer properly belongs in the category useful. Even in its second or third season of usefulness, it retains certain warm and comforting qualities. How its sphere of endeavor may be extended to include a divine mission of poetic justice, Miss Ashe unfolds in a delightfully humorous experience of two little girls--one very pretty and habitually urbane, the other very homely and rather crude. With reefers smothering all glories of Persian lawn and fine silk slips, we have two little girls arrived at the height of ecstatic self-forgetfulness in the excitement of giving a recitation for the Christmas entertainment.

Complete satisfaction, too, is the reader’s. What a delightful chuckle he gives over Aunt Emma’s chagrin at discovering that, in the matter of little girls, golden hair and pink cheeks, or freckles and a 'jaw,' make very little difference! Yet his chuckle, after all, is only an echo from an adult world, a world suggested to Martha by the vague whisperings of Father and Mother after she has gone to bed. Far more real is the world Miss Ashe has created, where Miss Miriam’s black dress and gold cross present a charming but insoluble mystery; where one is forced, however regretfully, to reconcile cotton-batting with a Sunday-School Christmas tree, and where 'it is so nice to be in things.'

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. Comment on the author’s use of detail. Does it create a real atmosphere?

2. Is the author successful in her interpretation of the mind of the small girl? Is the author’s own personality ever intruded? How is she able to secure the larger view of the events that take place?

3. Is the climax made more or less effective by the children’s unconsciousness of their act? Would you have preferred a more startling dénouement?

4. Why is Luella sketched so lightly? Is the contrast only between the two little girls?

5. How does Miss Miriam contribute to the interest in the story?

6. Comment on the skillful ending of the story.

THE DEBT

KATHLEEN CARMAN (Mrs. L. N. Dodge), a writer of interesting short stories, lives in Evanston, Illinois. _The Debt_ is her first contribution to _The Atlantic_.

Certain of the old Flemish painters present a canvas which seems to suggest that a peaceful meadow-land, a winding river, or a distant mountain-slope, exists only as a background for the figure in which they are interested. The relative importance is indicated by the proportions that make the figure loom large and masterful within the scene. Miss Carman, too, has cleared her canvas for the presentation of her figure; but her heroine is very small, very insignificant, in the presence of greater realities of expansive sea, cloud-fancies, or the rising moon. The interest of the story centres in the relation between Nature--more exactly God in Nature--and patient, plodding Sister Anne.

Nothing else matters. The problem itself is clear to Sister Anne; only the solution is difficult. To one whose life has seen all the unloveliness of heavy manual labor, there exists a pressing necessity to pay for the joy of living that is in her: a strange, absorbing joy in the beauty that God has created. Praise and prayer are not her instruments. A loving attendance at chapel and early matins cannot translate her feelings. Love and worship must be transmuted into the thing she knows--service.

The time comes. Simply, consciously, unquestioning, she risks her life to return another’s to God--a small payment for what He has given her. The problem is between them. Her devout companions may admire, the wealthy landowner wonder; nothing can be given to this 'poor, lonely, ignorant, toil-worn being, who in her starved existence had found more joy than she could make return for.'

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. The reader will find it interesting to contrast the ways in which Sister Anne and The Princess, in Miss Donnell’s story of _The Princess of Make-Believe_, reconcile themselves to the drudgery of dish-washing and similar tasks of kitchen routine.

2. What various manifestations of nature especially impressed Sister Anne? What appeal did these make to her companions?

3. Do you regard the author’s prolonged analytical method of characterization--as employed in the first part of the story--as the most effective means of bringing the reader into an understanding of the deeper personality of Sister Anne?

4. What special detail in this analysis most strongly impresses you?

5. What other method might have been adopted?

6. Characterize fully the spirit and the motive which impel Sister Anne’s final deed of sacrifice. What impresses you as the finest element in her act?

7. Comment upon the author’s way of ending the story.

SETH MILES AND THE SACRED FIRE

CORNELIA A. P. COMER, accomplished critic, essayist, and writer of short stories, was educated at Vassar, and afterwards engaged in journalistic work in the Middle West and California. She now lives in Seattle.

There are really three stories in one: Cynthia’s and Dick’s we put together from suggestions; that of Seth Miles we know from his own detailed narrative; Richard’s remains for our forming. All the details are woven into a tale of one day. A day hot and sultry in itself is made to coincide with the grumblings and self-pitying of a pampered son; both day and character are cleared without the arrival of the threatened storm, and duty is made as splendid and beautiful as the sun emerging from a darkened sky. A dilettante, conceiving in his cultured self an appropriate offering from Mammon to the Muses, learns that even the heir of millions has work to do. The place and the teacher emphasize the greatness of the lesson. There is little doubt in the reader’s mind that Seth Miles’s sacrifice has been worth while. To him comes a double reward: the realization that Cynthia and Dick have lived lives worth his self-denial, and the satisfaction that to their son, through his own wise teachings, has come the ability to 'sense things.'

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. Comment upon the advantages secured by opening the story with direct quotations.

2. What light do these quotations throw upon the character of Richard’s father?

3. Note how quickly the transfer is made from the office of Mr. Bonniwell, Senior, to Seth Miles’s farm house. Such compression is necessary in a short story.

4. How do you explain Richard’s first attitude toward his teaching and toward all his surroundings at Garibaldi?

5. What was the first surprise Richard received concerning the character of Seth Miles?

6. What, according to Mr. Miles, was the marked change which the young teacher, 'Earnin' money to get through college,' effected?

7. Was Seth Miles’s sacrifice--the sacrifice he made when he gave up Cynthia--a natural one under the circumstances? Why? What helped to console him for his loss?

8. What was the second sacrifice, and in what spirit was it met?

9. Contrast Seth Miles’s spirit with the spirit of Sister Anne in Miss Carman’s The Debt.

BURIED TREASURE

MISS MAZO DE LA ROCHE has attained her most notable literary success in _Buried Treasure_. So apparent is this success, that a moving-picture company has recently asked the privilege of producing this story.

One suspects that Mrs. Mortimer Pegg never was a little girl; one is surprised to learn that Mr. Mortimer Pegg was, in a mysterious long ago, 'just so high'; that Mrs. Handsomebody issued from some unnamable monstrosity a fullfledged, much-starched governess, is beyond doubt. If not, how could they fail to enter with zest into the midnight treasure-hunt? What a wonderful scene it is: a burly old pirate in leather jerkin, breeches, and top-boots, not to mention a gleaming cutlass, surrounded by an Angel, a Seraph, and 'just John,' with as bloodthirsty appointments, all intent on the treasure-trove mysteriously located in Mrs. Handsomebody’s back yard. And then come the Grown-Ups! Poor Mr. Pegg must return to the disguise of an archæologist and the realms of respectable age.

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. Divide the story into scenes for a motion-picture production. What would be the most regrettable loss in such a representation?

2. What do the names of the characters contribute to the charm of the story? Are they any help to your interpretation of the characters?

3. Comment on the characterization of Mary Ellen. Is she a type? Are there any other characters that you recognize as types? Do the presence of these detract from the real interest of the story?

4. Discuss the author’s power of word-selection and striking comparisons. What does this power add to her style?

THE PRINCESS OF MAKE-BELIEVE

ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL was born in Maine, where much of her life has been spent. She has, however, lived in the Middle West, and her present home is in Framingham, Massachusetts. She has been a frequent contributor to many of our best periodicals.

It is the charm of perfect understanding that lifts Annie Hamilton Donnell’s story, out of the many, into that enchanting region inhabited by such bewildering creatures as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne of the famed Green Gables. To the author must be attributed that same responsive gift that makes the Prince really a Prince. For the Princess there is no evil to her who will not see it; so there is no harsh stepmother or horrid witch--only a Queen who 'never enjoys herself on wash-days.' The author’s delightful touches of humor make an easy and comfortable medium from Make-Believe to a no less interesting world of Little Willow Twins and fishing pools.

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. What is the most marked characteristic of the Princess?

2. What foils are introduced to bring this characteristic into bolder view?

3. In what particular items is the author’s sense of humor best displayed?

4. Where is the emotion of the Princess most intense?

5. Is this emotion suddenly or gradually destroyed?

6. What are the points of strongest contrast between the imagined Prince and the real little neighbor-boy?

7. Comment on the sudden ending of the story.

THE TWO APPLES

JAMES EDWARD DUNNING, journalist and publicist, is the author of many reviews, government reports, essays, and short stories. He has had a long and honorable connection with the Department of State at Washington.

What has happened before the sixteenth day, what ship it was, what its destination, who its crew, how they had been wrecked, we are not told; nor are we particularly concerned with the history of those preceding events. We are intent on one man living with half-mad intensity a whole life in a single day. It is not so much that he knows the pain of diminishing vitality, the scorchings of hunger and thirst, as it is the spiritual tortures he undergoes. Everything that treacherous Desire can mean, he feels. It is only an apple, but as he, in his hungered, famished state, gazes upon it, every sense is alive with an intense elemental desire. At the moment of severest trial, with the clearness of vision of those near death, he sees himself, knows his sin, feels the mercy of God. And as the day closes, he experiences the happiness of sacrifice. Beside him Zadoc sleeps, perhaps drifts off into the Unknown.

Suggested Points for Study and Comment

1. If the author had wished to make a much longer story of this, what episode or episodes could he have greatly elaborated? Can you surmise why he did not do this, but preferred rather to develop the situation he had selected?

2. What artistic effect is created by the description of the Cape Cod farm? Analyze the sensory imagery.

3. Why does Zadoc command that the last apple be placed 'under the tin cup in the middle of the raft'?

4. What had previously been Jeems’s attitude toward the sea? Has his attitude now changed? Why, or why not?

5. From the standpoint of mere sense-impression, what is the most significant moment in the story?

6. What is the point of highest spiritual interest?

THE PURPLE STAR

MRS. REBECCA HOOPER EASTMAN, a magazine writer of distinction, lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, the late Dr. Hooper, was for many years president of the Brooklyn Institute.

The judgment of his peers proved fatal to the glory of Charley Starr. Miss Prawl, the sixth-grade teacher, learned, too, with surprise, that if one is a dutiful child who neither disobeys nor deceives, he thereby lessens his opportunity to achieve the heroic. The literalness of Theodora and her zealots destroys any romantic impulse to make reckless synonymous with brave. One is reminded that the youthful escapades which brighten the biographies of certain national heroes--always making notable exception of the Father of Our Country--would not have met the rigorous demands of Theodora’s approval. The conclusion is obvious: it is difficult to become a hero and at the same time retain all the virtues--particularly the much-desired charity. And who would be judge? Let the order of the Purple Star be abolished!

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. What is the author’s purpose in writing this story?

2. What are the chief points of interest, besides this well-defined purpose?

3. Are you satisfied with the outcome of the story? Could you suggest any other way of meeting the problem?

4. Do you find the characters real? Is Theodora typical?

5. Why is it necessary to make character and setting somewhat subordinate?

6. Do you like the introduction? What is the basis of its charm?

7. Do you find the author critical of other things outside the immediate purpose of the story?

RUGGS--R. O. T. C.

WILLIAM A. GANOE, now stationed at West Point, is a captain in the Regular Army. When _Ruggs--R. O. T. C._ was printed in the _Atlantic_, it was immediately tried out in the class-room, where it won the instant favor of high-school pupils. It was the first story to be issued in the series of _Atlantic Readings_.

Amusing situations, with lively dialogue a-plenty, in this training-camp story of Mr. Ganoe, are the conveyances for a splendid lesson in pluck. Ruggs, the successful bank-manager, knew that only the best in the individual is worthy of recognition when it comes to government service. He meant to give that best. The trial came. Despite the confusion and the jeers, Ruggs came through; brains and thorough-going effort counted. To Ruggs it meant a first lieutenancy for his pluck, something to tell Alice, and a ride in a blanket for the glorious 'sell' he had practised on his jeering comrades. Underneath the fun and the hazing, there is, on all sides, sincere appreciation of merit.

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. What purpose does the opening dream serve, besides that of arousing immediate interest?

2. Besides his ability for quick decision, what is the outstanding feature of Ruggs’s character?

3. How is the character of the Meter drawn? Is there any advantage in not naming him?

4. Are you prepared for the Meter’s decision in regard to the Duke? Is the latter introduced into the story for any purpose other than to amuse?

5. What are the author’s chief means of keeping suspense?

6. What ends do Squirmy’s nightly exercises serve?

7. Would it have added to the interest of the study to have Alice more fully characterized? Why is she introduced?

THE WAY OF LIFE

LUCY HUFFAKER is a short-story writer of distinction, who has recently been devoting her principal interest to the drama. She is connected with the Washington Square players in New York City.

In the short space of a May evening, Emmeline Black, mother of eight children, a good wife for a farmer, careful and industrious, lives through her girlhood aspirations and the complete shattering of her dreams. Finally, there comes to her the greater tragedy of the realization that, in spite of what she can do, her daughter faces the same career of fantasy and disillusionment. For the first time in twenty-one years, Jake Black finds his wife different, almost a bit untractable. Yet he can find no solution for the problem. 'Em' has been a good wife, their marriage has been successful, his daughter’s possible engagement augurs well for the future; but 'Em' is worried about something. It is the daughter herself who sets their small world aright. Her gratitude for the dreams her mother has given her brings to Emmeline the realization of the value of inspiration where accomplishment proves impossible. The years of hard work before her, and the prospect of a similar life for her daughter, grow insignificant before the new consciousness that dreams do last.

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. Comment on the general atmosphere produced by the opening paragraphs.

2. What descriptive details contribute particularly to the realism of the scene?

3. How is this realism more fully brought out in the conversation between the wife and husband?

4. What feelings prompted the lie which Mrs. Black told? What can be said in extenuation of this lapse?

5. What contrasts were prominent in her mind?

6. What in Victoria’s character, makes the strongest appeal?

7. Do we feel that Victoria is more likely than her mother to keep the youthful dreams and visions?

8. What is Mrs. Black’s greatest consolation?

9. Comment on the author’s way of ending her story.

A YEAR IN A COAL MINE

JOSEPH HUSBAND has, since his graduation from Harvard in 1907, been engaged in industrial pursuits. He has, however, found time to contribute frequently to The _Atlantic Monthly_. At present Mr. Husband is an ensign in the United States Navy. The first account of his naval experience is published in the May (1918) _Atlantic_.