Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 294, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1918 — AN AWAKENING [ARTICLE]

AN AWAKENING

By JULIA A. ROBINSON.

(copyright, 19i», Uy McClure Aewepeper Syndicate.) • -i * Sally came down to breakfast at 11 o’clock. That was her usual time. She was fond of lying abed mornings—wMW did it matter? Why rise early? There was nothing to do before night; Just sitting around, going down town shopping, or to the .park. Sally yawned. “The coffee’s cold,” she complained. "I’m sorry, miss,” answered Jane. "I tried to keep it hot. Is the omelet all right?” “I don’t care for omelet, take it away,” fretted the girl. “Pm not hungry.” She pushed back her plate, rose and went into the drawing room, where her mother, In an easy chair, perused the latest novel, and her sister gazed aimlessly into the street. “I thought you were never coming,” fretted Maude, turning to her sister. “Well, I’m here, butT wish I’d stayed abed. It’s stupid sitting round waiting for something to happen.” "I’ve been up half an hour,” Maude boosted. “What’s on for tonight?” “It’s the dance at Kate Osborne’*, a great affair, but I’m getting bored with parties.” “Oh, I remember. I shall wear my pink gauze. There! I forgot to order slippers. Mamma, will yon phone for my slippers?” Her mother did not look up from her story, but answered absently: “Don’t bother me. What a chatter you make I Do be quiet.” Sally had but recently graduated from a fashionable boarding school. Maude had finished a year before. “We’ll order the car and take a ride to the park,” suggested Mande. “I can’t stay here; It's dull." “I shall stay where I am,” declared Sally from the comfort of her cushions; “you can go If you wish." “You’re always selfish!” retorted Maude. “You know papa won’t let me go alone." Hazel- Gordon was president of the young people’s Red Cross club. She had organized a circle of girls, and , they were working enthusiasticallyknitting, sewing, folding surgical dressings, taking work home, doing their utmost for the soldiers at war. To them life meant helping others. Life was earnest; they had a purpose. “Can’t we get some new members?” asked Hazel. They were gathered in her cozy parlor, sewing, their voice* buzzing. < “There’s Maude and Sally’Stimson; if we could only get them,” suggested Ida Black; “but I wouldn’t dare ask them.” “They wouldn't come,” asserted May White. “Why not?” asked Hazel, her eye* flashing. “They’ve got too much money," said May. - “They wouldn’t think they could work,” added Nina Baker. “If ’twa* a party they’d come.” “But, for the soldiers!” flashed Hazel. “We need them, and they need us, if that is the way they' fetel. Fni going to ask them to join.” “You won’t get them,” predicted Agnes Snow. "They’d feel above us, and they never work.” “It’s time they did,” asserted Hazel. “We’ll see.” Hazel did get them. She called at the Stimson mansion, walked lightly up the marble steps and rang the bell, and her heart did not falter. In glowing words she explained her mission. “We’re working for the soldiers,” she enthused, “doing the little that we can to help, and we need yon. Will you join ns? We’d so love to have yon with us!” “Why, I never sewed in my life,” confessed Sally. “I don’t know how, and I can’t knit” ’Til teach you,” smiled Hazel; “you’ll find it quite easy, and we have good times, too.” Sally became Interested. It was a new idea to be needed. “It’ll be something to do —I for one will join. What do you say, Maude?” Maude, though the elder, was led by her stronger sister,' and agreed to go for the “fun of the thing.” These girls had never thought before there was need for their help in the world. Great was the astonishment at the club when Hazel appeared with the new members, and they gave them a hearty welcome. Sally soon learned ahd worked till her unaccustomed fingers ached. When the afternoon was over she was tired, but her heart glowed with a satisfaction she had never felt before. She was good and kind; all that was needed was »the right influence to bring her out. “Isn’t it glorious, Maude?” Sally exclaimed. “I felt as though Td really been good for something. I never knew I could do so mueh.” “I pricked my fingers,” laughed Sally; “but well soon learn. Those girls must havC thought us greenhorns.” SaUy and Maude went every day to work for the soldiers. They even gave tip'dances and the theaters that they might have uaore time for work; besides, something bigger had come Into their lives and thoaghtsL Even the mother noticed the difference in her daughters. “You’re knitting all the time, Just like my grandmother,” she said. “Isn’t It better than doing nothing, mamma?” asked the sensible Sally. “T never was so happy to my life! Tm always going to work for somebody else, and not live a selfish life any longer.”