The labor world. [volume], May 25, 1907, Image 6

About The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
A
S
J,
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In the Complete Story of
"The Busiest Dollar," the author, Marion Hill,
presents a decidedly piquant picture of the bright,
light-hearted girl—frivolous, if you will—brimful
of the wider life of the city* who finds herself
enrolled among the staid Dorcas workers of a
country village. It is a realistic picture, and in
this case realism gives sharper spice of humor
and surprise than highest flight of imaginative
fancy could convey.
The illustrations that accompany the story por­
tray its characters with a touch as faithful as
was that that guided the pen describing them.
They contribute another instance of the harmo­
nious, intelligent sympathy and fellowship of spirit,
that unite author and artist throughout this se­
ries of stories, and give to it a rank of its own
above any hitherto placed before the readers of
a newspaper. They are pictures that do not
merely present the characters to us as if seen
upon a stage from our seats in the auditorium
they permit us, as was permitted in Elizabethan
days, to stand beside them on their stage and be
as if at one with their living, moving presence.
Copyright, 1906, by Thomas H. McKee.
EEN from the train track which circled con-i
templatively many times around it from the
wooded distance of hills before swooping
down into the valley and cutting tri­
umphantly across its shady streets, the tree-i
fringed village across Mapledale looked ever peace-,
fully idyllic. And, in the ordinary course of events,,
peaceful it certainly was. In proof, nothing more
convincing can be offered than the statement that on
Sunday the worshipping portion of Mapledale, no mat
ter of what religious persuasion, all gathered to­
gether under one roof to listen to a service which with
discreet and broad tolerance was designated merely as
"preachin'." r*
But peace was not Mapledale's lot just at present,
and the cause of disturbance was that same unpreju­
diced little meeting house—or more properly speaking,
it was young Mr. Glynne, the dealer out of preachin'
for the term. True, the meeting house was too liberal
in its entertainments to pose as strictly sacred a
strip of bunting across its platform transformed it
into the town hall for political speakers a few- kero- I
sene lamps for footlights and a denim curtain strung
head high on a clothes line changed it into the glit
tering rostrum of school exhibitions—but still, when
hymn books were planted regularly two feet apart on
the benches, and a reading desk was adjusted solemnly
in the center of things, it had a sacred side, and it was
this side which Mr. Glynne assailed when he tacked
upon the door this notice:
To Every Member attending
the next meeting of
THE DORCAS WORKERS
The Pastor will loan
ONE DOLLAR
No one understood it. The Dorcas Workers were
as much in the dark as any one. There were but
ten of them, all told, and they attended this particular
meeting in an unbroken body. Even Miss Jerrie Benni
son went.
Jerrie's name was probably Geraldine, but as her
Torld,
called her
by
the
Pert diminutive,
Mapledale elected to do the same, though she was a
stranger to them all—the Bennisons being "city folk"
in Mapledale for the summer. Jerrie had joined the
workers, not because she was particularly inclined
either to religion or industry, but because there was
nothing else to join, and her companionable dispo­
sition was such that she had to belong to whatever
there was or else feel lonely.
Because of Jerrie's extreme prettiness, her beaming
good humor, her fashionable gowns and her genuine
and gentle aristocracy of bearing, Mapledale's ma­
trons very much desired to love her. What made it
impossible was Jerrie's language. That they condoned
with her at all is due to the fact that they imputed
her fault entirely to the account of her brothers, of
whom there were six—surely enough to corrupt the
English of an only sister.
Jerrie looked much more entertained than shocked
when she studied the placard on the meeting-house
door. She, with the others, was waiting in the open
for Mr. Glynne to appear with the key and unlock the
door for them.
"Who asked him for a dollar?" she queried. Her
voice was soft and her manner shy, for she acutely
felt her youthful lack of value among these extremely
middle-aged and aggressively active Workers. I never
did, s' help me Jehosaphat."
"Eh? What?" interrupted Grandma Transue testily.
She was a deaf old lady, and firmly of the opinion
that her inability to hear was entirely the fault of
•hose speaking to her. "Ef folks 'ud jes' quit mumblin',"
sne muttered, fumbling among the voluminous folds of
her skirt for her ear trumpet.
Jerrie gave her a friendly little smile but edged reso
.titelv away. It embarrassed her greatly to have to
translate herseif down that hose.
"Mr. Glynne is very inconsiderate to keep
us
ing. fretted Mrs. Setzer. She was the postmaster's
wife. She hs jj been the Tillage school teacher, man-
te"
wait­
aging forty children with ease, but married life and
one baby were proving too much for her nerves. "He
should remember that to us mothers every minute is
precious."
"Don't you call yourself no mother yet, Mis' Setzer,"
prohibited Mrs. Shunk severely. "Not till you've had
eight on 'em, like I have, all living."
"Ladies, I crave your pardon for being late, for
keeping you waiting," said a gentle voice behind them.
Mr. Glynne was there. The mere sight of him was
a balm—he was so guilelessly young. His handsome
face wore perpetually a propitiating smile, before
which resentment and criticism fled away like chaff in
a wind. The sewing society smiled back at him con­
tentedly, and followed him into the meeting house.
They trod heavily and seated themselves with busi­
ness-like thumps, very different from their devotional
caution of a Sunday. Mr. Glynne took a chair in the
aisle whence the sunlight of his smile could flitter im­
partially over each and all. That is, he strove to be
impartial, but Jerrie's charming head came into his line
of vision astonishingly more often than any other head,
and when he dropped his righteous eyes to the*'floor,
her small low shoes apparently usurped more space
than the otfcc? Dorcasses' nine pair of copper-toed
leather-laced boots—"toad-crushers" is how Jerrie men­
tioned them at home.
Incidentally, of course, she listened to Mr. Glynne.T
To-day it was the same old story—the meeting house'
had to be painted, the parish purse was empty, the cost
of painting would be the heavy sum of seventy-five
dollars, and a most heart-breaking rigorous canvass
of the community had resulted in a collection of only
»»r
But," climaxed Mr. Glynne, his voice becoming
sweetly clarion as he approached the pith of his ha­
rangue but, that small sum, matching in amount the
number composing the Dorcas Society, gave me an idea.
You nave all of you repeatedly assured me that al­
though you had no wealth at your disposal you would
gladly give your labor. And this is to be your oppor­
tunity! I intend to intrust to, each, as a consecrated
loan, one dollar. One dollar For the space of two
months you are to work your noblest to double or to
treble this dollar.
I
in devoted labor."
J,
a"d
1
expect you to invest it in labor,
MARION HIIX
Eh?" shot sharply from Grandma Transue.
"'sounds somethin' like," said Miss Piper, coughing
and chuckling happily.
'^°av" *s ''nvest'?" asked Dazalia Dewey, in a fear
ful drone. Droning was her method of showing im
pressiveness.
"Why—er, why-^-er," stammered Mr. Glynne, his
assured smile diminishing to a glimmer of pleasant
/acuity, "why—er buy crude food stuffs, for instance,
by the industry of your hands transform it into
the finished article, more valuable."
Mrs. P. Shehan, who kept the store, had an ache
definiteness, and demanded:
•. "Do you mean, buy flour for one dollar and make
into enough bread to sell for two dollars?"
'Yes!" cried Mr. Glynne radiantly. "Bread. For
two dollars." His smile "widened as he acquired hardi­
hood and said, "Or three dollars. Bake bread? Bake
bread!" he finished, beaming instructively upon them
all.
"Where all bakes none buys," observed Miss Teague
oracularly"We'll make jell." She spoke for herself
and two sisters.
The jelly of the Teague "girls" had been famous for
forty years.,
This idea of investment and rivalry seemed electrical­
ly "to suit the Workers, and they showed themselves
eager to get to their homes and begin. As many of
them arose resolutely, Mr. Glynne knew enough to
propose adjournment.
"Providence permitting us," he went on, reaching
into his pocket, "we are to reassemble here two months
from date to return this dollar, bringing with it its
earnings."
He produced ten silver coins—they were lukewarm—
and distributed them among the Dorcasses.
As hers lay' in her pink palm, Jerrie eyed it with
anything but favor. It might have been an earthworm,
and squirming, for all the pleasure she appeared to
get out of it
ill ALL THIS NOT ACCRUING FROM THE BORROWED -DOLLAR, SURELY,?1
"Be not slothful.'"Be no improvident steward. Bury,
not your talent in a napkin," exhorted Mr. Glynne,
smiling a benediction after his departing Dorcasses.
Only Jerrie was left. She alone got the benefit of
the reference to the unfaithful steward.
"That man must have been pretty much, of an all
'round Slouch any way you look at him," she remarked
diffidently. Conversing with divines was contrary to
her general practice, but she felt that her remarks
should be biblical or nothing. "An out and out slouch
—don't you think? Or he wouldn't have buried a nap­
kin when any old rag would have done as well"
Mr. Glynne's smile sternly died.
"Surely my young friend does not presume to criti­
cise,1 in levity and slang, a passage from Holy Writ??'
"My good gracious, no! Is that what I was doing?
Chew it up and forget it," Pegged Jerrie, flushing with
honest contrition.
In her shocked penitence she looked so spiritually
fair and flight that Mr. Glynne falteringly restored
her to grace. No, this old-fashioned young pastor .failed
to realize how very dearly he inclined towards Jerrie.
Bennison but, compared with the ample solidity of
form of the older Dorcusei, her slender pn
IISlppl^
seemed to make an especial appeal to his protective
chivalry. She was his mostbeloved worker. Not that
she was one particle of actual assistance to him or to
the society. No Wren on an ostrich farm could have
been more useless. And yet—and yet—had the chance
been his, how gladly would he have swapped off any,
every, ostrich for'this tiny wren!
Her shining hair tied with its big black bow, heir
innocent face upturned to his, were so magnetically
fascinating to him that he easily credited her with
power to satisfy him in all.directions, and he therefore
burst out enthusiastically:
"Who knows? It may be you, the youngest sister
in our busy circle, to be blest above the rest in energy
and success—your dollar may earn much, even more
than any, for this good cause of ours."
Jerrie looked far from hopeful.
"I haven't a useful stunt in my bag," she protested.
"Can't sew, can't cook. Wouldn't if I could. Won't
it do if I just dig down in my own pocket at the end
of the two months and cough up another plunk—or
three—to match this?"
Shuddering his way. through the corrupted portions
of this speech, Mr. Glynne grasped at the decent ex­
pression "my own pocket" and replied to it.
"Oh, no, no, no. Miss Jerrie. By so doing you would
defeat the very object of this crusade whfch is to prove
that organized endeavor pays its own wage in coin.
You say that you cannot earn money pray, and a way
will be shown. Hard work, perhaps, but that is what
I expect of you—work, labor, toil."
"Toil?" Her long lashes fluttered far up, and she
gazed- at him in blank dismay.
"Toil," he repeated.
"Great jumping Jerusalem," she murmured sadly, and
turning quickly, followed the others.
His glance strayed with -her as she sauntered down
the lane and he thought, first, that she was fairer and
fresher than the hedge roses which she kissed in pass­
ing secondly, that he had done ill for his cause in in­
sisting that she contribute from the fruit of her industry
rather than of her generosity. The'Bennisons were
rich.
It is impossible to do more than merely hint at the
wide excitement which thrilled Mapledale for the next
two months. The entire village espoused the scheme
and each soul in it stood by the Dorcas Workers as
valiantly as circumstances allowed. Whenever a family
purse permitted, that family's table boasted a loaf of
Mrs. P. Shehan's special bread or a glass of the
Teague girls' jam.
"'Tis said them Teagues be making money hand
over fist and I don't rightly .know as it's fair, seeing
they have the fhiit on the place and don't need to buy
nothin' but the sugar," shouted Mrs. Shunk confi­
dentially down Grandma Transue's hose.
Mrs. Shunk was embroidering doilies and finding
them hard to finish and more hard to sell.
"'Baores Is mighty few and far, mighty few and far,"
crooned Grandma, "baking her head dismally. She was
answering the underlying current of the conversation,
not the froth on top, and she was explaining the rea­
son why she too might be behind the Teague girl's in
profits. Grandma was knitting infants' bootees and
socks and sacks.
A topic for conversation quite as absorbing as the
work done by the older Dorcasses was the lick 'of
work done by Jerrie. Her brothers had come down to
Mapledale, bringing with them two or three school-:
fellows apiece, and. Jerrie chummed with the whole
boyish -bunch, so that she hadT a very good time, but
found her parish interests shoved into the background..
Once, questioned by Dazalia as to her progress, Jerrie
had made the startling admission that she feared-she
had lost the original dollar! As for adding to it, sjie
had not a shred of hope left
This piece of gossip relentlessly went the rounds,
and Jerrie's natne was dropped from popular discussion
Before the summer was over, Mapledale's excitement
•ew health-disturbing for, added to the exasperation
fhat' always accoqapanies competition, there Was finally
ies»^
mm.
fear. The visionary Mr Glynne, relying too implidtljr
1
1
upon the financieringGf fcliHldck, had had tin paint!
applied, and had thereby thrown his penniless
into the bondage of actual debt If they could not raised
the fatal sum of seventy-fivedollars by the allotted time
they would become a rfp|b|i^||s^|hemselves and
a
to parishes near by/'
The summer sped :ine*oraf^ its close and brought
the day for the final showing^-or rather the night, for
Mapledale made an evening function of it And it was
a function! The little meeting house, brazenly immacu-!
late in its new, unpaid-fort white paint, was packed.
As was the custom Whenever the building was
for a 'estival or a reception or a lecture, Mr. Glynne toi
show hat it was not "church," forsook the platform!
and the reading desk and sat fci secular places. He had'
before him a common kitchen table, borrowed for the'
occasion, to serve as a counter-for the disposition of the
dollars and the profits.
The exercises were opened with an invocation by the
pastor, and he invoked such an awful amount of success]
that the listeners who. were most directly interested'
moved restlessly. .!
Then came business.
I
"Are we all assembled?" asked Mr. Glynne
OU«ly,', r"slIW
his
croaked Mrs. Shunk, hoping for the worst
"Jerrie said," continued Dazalia, still droning unctu-'
ously, as how she an her folks 'd have to pass the1
meetm house on their way to the deppo near by, an' as
how she'd leave 'em a moment an' attend to her dutvi
here leastwise, that's not what she said. Jerrie said'
as how 'she'd bust a string an' fly the coop to roost
on the gospel perch an' cackle a spell.'"
A reproachful sigh rumbled around the little building
As for Mrs. Setzer, hastily interposed Mr. Glynne*
drawinfe a letter from his note book, "I have a commu-'
nication from her here which- it will be my pleasure to
read to you." His smile was so wide and deep as to1
hint at big riches. It proved, however, to be but the
Christian smile of resignation, for Mrs. Setzer wrote
that owing to the teething of her baby she had. been too
worried to occupy herself with'money making and here­
with returned the original dollar, regretting that it had
earned nothing.
This was a dampeherarid aroused subdued but scath­
ing comment
"The idee of one child inulflatherin' a woman out of
her few wits," hissed Mrs. Shunk. "What Mis' Setzer
needs to bring her back to her senses is twins!"
Dazalia had brought twelve and a half yards'of gine
ham at eight cents a yard, and had fashioned it into a
dozen aprons which retailed at twenty-five cents—three
dollars. Thus she was enabled to return the loaned
dollar increased by two others
With high color, Dazalia stepped to the table and
laid thereon her coins.
The assembly rustled approvingly.
"Well done, good and faithful worker," said Mr
Glynne, beaming.
Then the doxology was sung. This was to arouse in
the whole company a feeling that they were actively
participating the proceedings.
Miss Piper's recital reduced that usually jovial wom­
an to tears. She had invested in chickens. But thev
had eaten much, laid little, set not at all, and fought
fatally. Fifty cents was the sum total of profit She
meekly waddled to the table with it, so unutterly crushed
that Mr. Glynne felt impressed to press comfortingly
I her trembling fat hand.
"Well done," he said, and so cheerily that Miss Pioer
heartened in spite of herself.
Next, Mrs. P. Shehan's bread had not only paid for
itself but had netted the fund one dollar and ninetv
nve cents extra.
"Well done, good and faithful worker," said Mr
.Glynne, who, by the masterly expedient of shifting his
accents, managed to give a special and individual appli­
cation to his words of praise and yet not run the risk
of sowing dissension by saying more to one than to an­
other.
Mrs. Shunk's doilies had brought the magnificent
profit of two dollars and a half, clear. -i
S "Good and faithful," was Mr. Glynne's verdict the
doxology going with a vim.
B,ut Teague
At this juncture the far off whistle of the approaching I
passenger train brought to all present a mental picture
of the worldly little Dorcas who had promised to come
and cackle. Simultaneously with the vision the reality
appeared.
Looking smaller and sweeter than ever in her trim
dark traveling gown, her black bows rampant like wings
°u
slc^e
mock
used.!
sonor-'
Workers who sat well up in front!
All but Jerrie Bennison an' Mis' Setzer," annm.^
droning her joy of being spokeswoman.
The Bennisons,' interjected Mrs. P. Shehan, "are'
packed up and go off on to-night's train." 1
"You don't reckon the dollar's packed too, does
youMi
1
1
6 3
3
girls bfdke the record, returning
twelve dollars—their original three and nine to boot
Fruit was on the place," muttered Mrs. Shunk,
darkly.
It is to be feared that the three Teague girls did not:
get their full meed ot praise for the reason that it was
now borne in upon the listeners, who of course had been
adding returns, that the total profits would come far
short of twenty dollars.
They already felt the millstone of debt about their
bowed necks, and a haggard look of gloom crept over
the faces of the most conscientious. What could be
done? When paint was on it was on, and had to be
paid for.
The doxolog^r harbored a wail.
Lastly, Grandma Transue bellowed an inspiring tale,
of Saxony wool which, though knitted into the finest 1
of bootees and garments, had yet failed to bring in more I
than one dollar and seventy-five cents. She repeated
and repeated this tale until Mr. Glynne seized the'
hosfe and conveyed down it his words of conclusive
praise.
1
her sleek little head, Jerrie darted in at
the door, and, after a swift glance around to assure
ii1"8 that the meeting was entirely social and not at
all religious, sped joyously up the aisle to the receiving
table, rattling in her hand a bag well filled with money.
-The keenest excitement followed her.
'Guess how much I have!"-she cried gleefully, ptiS
ing the string from the, mouth of She bag.
"4^, ,thi.s *s
not
accruing frOm the loaned dollar,
surely!' ejaculated Mr. Glynne in an undertone.
"Every last red," Jefry solemnly assured him.
"Earned by the work of your own hands?" he in­
credulously insisted.
"On the de^d. I held birds."
"You 'held—?" I
"Birds!"
•She poured her money on the table in a cheery jlhgle
'of halves, quarters and dimes._ The villagers craned
their necks to see, and fin'ally'^umped to their feet, while
oft all sides was heard the whisper, "How muph?"
"Forty-seven dollars and 'riinety cents," announced!
Jerrie.' The impossible had happened. The debt was
lifted. Something like a cheer went up.
"Well done, good and faithful worker. Enter thou
intp the joy of the unselfish/' Saidr Mr. Glynne, choking
witn fervor.
This emphasis seemed to admit "thou" only, and to-*
tally to exclude! the less fortunate but the grateful
Mapledalians did not begrudge Jerrie this distinction
and something like another cheer went up.
But one voice which refrained from joining in either
demonstration now grimly spoke.
"How was that there- forty-seven dollars an* ninety
cents rxs? demanded'Mrs. SHufik. 1
"How? By toil," said Jerrie. She drew out her]
watch, gasped when she noted the time, and walked)
gradually to the door while she explained.
"I taiew I could not earn money like the rest of you,]
yet daren let that dollar Toft I had to do something,
and Im fine at poker.. So
I
spent my dollar in a stack!
of chips—bought theth from the boys—we've had a*
menagerie of boys at our house this summer—and I!
jttst made then! play freeze-out with me every night
wouldn let them go to a dance or a straw ride or any-!
thing. I kept them working for the Lord whether they
wanted to or not. Last night
Goodby"~n t'
I
thats what I got. Good-bye, everybody.
lovely time here. I'mjdOming back next year.
for that
.Nodding her pretty, beribboned head, waving herj
friendly little hand, with an affectionate smile of fare-j
her spiritual face, Jerrie Bennison was gone
There was no doxology. vi
While the c^gre^ted Mapledalians stUl sat eyeSncj
each other dumb dismay, atshnek from the outgoing
I
cashed in, and, whee!
I've
had a
I'd
stay
Pullman.