Jean Webster
Dear Enemy
UUID: 2f3d0c46-b30a-11e6-ad70-0f7870795abd
This ebook was created with StreetLib Write (http://write.streetlib.com).
Table of contents
DEAR ENEMY
DEAR ENEMY
STONE GATE, WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS,December 27.Dear Judy:Your letter is here. I have read it twice, and with
amazement. Do I understand that Jervis has given you, for a
Christmas present, the making over of the John Grier Home into a
model institution, and that you have chosen me to disburse the
money? Me—I, Sallie McBride, the head of an orphan asylum! My poor
people, have you lost your senses, or have you become addicted to
the use of opium, and is this the raving of two fevered
imaginations? I am exactly as well fitted to take care of one
hundred children as to become the curator of a zoo.And you offer as bait an interesting Scotch doctor? My dear
Judy,—likewise my dear Jervis,—I see through you! I know exactly
the kind of family conference that has been held about the
Pendleton fireside."Isn't it a pity that Sallie hasn't amounted to more since
she left college? She ought to be doing something useful instead of
frittering her time away in the petty social life of Worcester.
Also [Jervis speaks] she is getting interested in that confounded
young Hallock, too good-looking and fascinating and erratic; I
never did like politicians. We must deflect her mind with some
uplifting and absorbing occupation until the danger is past. Ha! I
have it! We will put her in charge of the John Grier Home." Oh, I
can hear him as clearly as if I were there! On the occasion of my
last visit in your delectable household Jervis and I had a very
solemn conversation in regard to (1) marriage, (2) the low ideals
of politicians, (3) the frivolous, useless lives that society women
lead.Please tell your moral husband that I took his words deeply
to heart, and that ever since my return to Worcester I have been
spending one afternoon a week reading poetry with the inmates of
the Female Inebriate Asylum. My life is not so purposeless as it
appears.Also let me assure you that the politician is not dangerously
imminent; and that, anyway, he is a very desirable politician, even
though his views on tariff and single tax and trade-unionism do not
exactly coincide with Jervis's.Your desire to dedicate my life to the public good is very
sweet, but you should look at it from the asylum's point of
view.Have you no pity for those poor defenseless little orphan
children?I have, if you haven't, and I respectfully decline the
position which you offer.I shall be charmed, however, to accept your invitation to
visit you in New York, though I must acknowledge that I am not very
excited over the list of gaieties you have planned.Please substitute for the New York Orphanage and the
Foundling Hospital a few theaters and operas and a dinner or so. I
have two new evening gowns and a blue and gold coat with a white
fur collar.I dash to pack them; so telegraph fast if you don't wish to
see me for myself alone, but only as a successor to Mrs. Lippett.
Yours as ever,Entirely frivolous,And intending to remain so,SALLIE McBRIDE.P.S. Your invitation is especially seasonable. A charming
young politician named Gordon Hallock is to be in New York next
week. I am sure you will like him when you know him better. P.S. 2.
Sallie taking her afternoon walk as Judy would like to see
her:I ask you again, have you both gone mad?THE JOHN GRIER HOME,February 15.Dear Judy:We arrived in a snowstorm at eleven last night, Singapore and
Jane and I. It does not appear to be customary for superintendents
of orphan asylums to bring with them personal maids and Chinese
chows. The night watchman and housekeeper, who had waited up to
receive me, were thrown into an awful flutter. They had never seen
the like of Sing, and thought that I was introducing a wolf into
the fold. I reassured them as to his dogginess, and the watchman,
after studying his black tongue, ventured a witticism. He wanted to
know if I fed him on huckleberry pie.It was difficult to find accommodations for my family. Poor
Sing was dragged off whimpering to a strange woodshed, and given a
piece of burlap. Jane did not fare much better. There was not an
extra bed in the building, barring a five-foot crib in the hospital
room. She, as you know, approaches six. We tucked her in, and she
spent the night folded up like a jackknife. She has limped about
today, looking like a decrepit letter S, openly deploring this
latest escapade on the part of her flighty mistress, and longing
for the time when we shall come to our senses, and return to the
parental fireside in Worcester.I know that she is going to spoil all my chances of being
popular with the rest of the staff. Having her here is the silliest
idea that was ever conceived, but you know my family. I fought
their objections step by step, but they made their last stand on
Jane. If I brought her along to see that I ate nourishing food and
didn't stay up all night, I might come—temporarily; but if I
refused to bring her—oh, dear me, I am not sure that I was ever
again to cross the threshold of Stone Gate! So here we are, and
neither of us very welcome, I am afraid.I woke by a gong at six this morning, and lay for a time
listening to the racket that twenty-five little girls made in the
lavatory over my head. It appears that they do not get baths,—just
face-washes,—but they make as much splashing as twenty-five puppies
in a pool. I rose and dressed and explored a bit. You were wise in
not having me come to look the place over before I
engaged.While my little charges were at breakfast, it seemed a happy
time to introduce myself; so I sought the dining room. Horror piled
on horror—those bare drab walls and oil-cloth-covered tables with
tin cups and plates and wooden benches, and, by way of decoration,
that one illuminated text, "The Lord Will Provide"! The trustee who
added that last touch must possess a grim sense of
humor.Really, Judy, I never knew there was any spot in the world so
entirely ugly; and when I saw those rows and rows of pale,
listless, blue-uniformed children, the whole dismal business
suddenly struck me with such a shock that I almost collapsed. It
seemed like an unachievable goal for one person to bring sunshine
to one hundred little faces when what they need is a mother
apiece.I plunged into this thing lightly enough, partly because you
were too persuasive, and mostly, I honestly think, because that
scurrilous Gordon Hallock laughed so uproariously at the idea of my
being able to manage an asylum. Between you all you hypnotized me.
And then of course, after I began reading up on the subject and
visiting all those seventeen institutions, I got excited over
orphans, and wanted to put my own ideas into practice. But now I'm
aghast at finding myself here; it's such a stupendous undertaking.
The future health and happiness of a hundred human beings lie in my
hands, to say nothing of their three or four hundred children and
thousand grandchildren. The thing's geometrically progressive. It's
awful. Who am I to undertake this job? Look, oh, look for another
superintendent!Jane says dinner's ready. Having eaten two of your
institution meals, the thought of another doesn't excite
me.LATER.The staff had mutton hash and spinach, with tapioca pudding
for dessert. What the children had I hate to consider.I started to tell you about my first official speech at
breakfast this morning. It dealt with all the wonderful new changes
that are to come to the John Grier Home through the generosity of
Mr. Jervis Pendleton, the president of our board of trustees, and
of Mrs. Pendleton, the dear "Aunt Judy" of every little boy and
girl here.Please don't object to my featuring the Pendleton family so
prominently. I did it for political reasons. As the entire working
staff of the institution was present, I thought it a good
opportunity to emphasize the fact that all of these upsetting,
innovations come straight from headquarters, and not out of my
excitable brain.The children stopped eating and stared. The conspicuous color
of my hair and the frivolous tilt of my nose are evidently new
attributes in a superintendent. My colleagues also showed plainly
that they consider me too young and too inexperienced to be set in
authority. I haven't seen Jervis's wonderful Scotch doctor yet, but
I assure you that he will have to be VERY wonderful to make up for
the rest of these people, especially the kindergarten teacher. Miss
Snaith and I clashed early on the subject of fresh air; but I
intend to get rid of this dreadful institution smell, if I freeze
every child into a little ice statue.This being a sunny, sparkling, snowy afternoon, I ordered
that dungeon of a playroom closed and the children out of
doors."She's chasin' us out," I heard one small urchin grumbling as
he struggled into a two-years-too-small overcoat.They simply stood about the yard, all humped in their
clothes, waiting patiently to be allowed to come back in. No
running or shouting or coasting or snowballs. Think of it! These
children don't know how to play.STILL LATER.I have already begun the congenial task of spending your
money. I bought eleven hot-water bottles this afternoon (every one
that the village drug store contained) likewise some woolen
blankets and padded quilts. And the windows are wide open in the
babies' dormitory. Those poor little tots are going to enjoy the
perfectly new sensation of being able to breathe at
night.There are a million things I want to grumble about, but it's
half-past ten, and Jane says I MUST go to bed.Yours in command,SALLIE McBRIDE.P.S. Before turning in, I tiptoed through the corridor to
make sure that all was right, and what do you think I found? Miss
Snaith softly closing the windows in the babies' dormitory! Just as
soon as I can find a suitable position for her in an old ladies'
home, I am going to discharge that woman.Jane takes the pen from my hand.Good night.THE JOHN GRIER HOME,February 20.Dear Judy:Dr. Robin MacRae called this afternoon to make the
acquaintance of the new superintendent. Please invite him to dinner
upon the occasion of his next visit to New York, and see for
yourself what your husband has done. Jervis grossly misrepresented
the facts when he led me to believe that one of the chief
advantages of my position would be the daily intercourse with a man
of Dr. MacRae's polish and brilliancy and scholarliness and
charm.He is tall and thinnish, with sandy hair and cold gray eyes.
During the hour he spent in my society (and I was very sprightly)
no shadow of a smile so much as lightened the straight line of his
mouth. Can a shadow lighten? Maybe not; but, anyway, what IS the
matter with the man? Has he committed some remorseful crime, or is
his taciturnity due merely to his natural Scotchness? He's as
companionable as a granite tombstone!Incidentally, our doctor didn't like me any more than I liked
him. He thinks I'm frivolous and inconsequential, and totally
unfitted for this position of trust. I dare say Jervis has had a
letter from him by now asking to have me removed.In the matter of conversation we didn't hit it off in the
least. He discussed broadly and philosophically the evils of
institutional care for dependent children, while I lightly deplored
the unbecoming coiffure that prevails among our girls.To prove my point, I had in Sadie Kate, my special errand
orphan. Her hair is strained back as tightly as though it had been
done with a monkey wrench, and is braided behind into two wiry
little pigtails. Decidedly, orphans' ears need to be softened. But
Dr. Robin MacRae doesn't give a hang whether their ears are
becoming or not; what he cares about is their stomachs. We also
split upon the subject of red petticoats. I don't see how any
little girl can preserve any self-respect when dressed in a red
flannel petticoat an irregular inch longer than her blue checked
gingham dress; but he thinks that red petticoats are cheerful and
warm and hygienic. I foresee a warlike reign for the new
superintendent.In regard to the doctor, there is just one detail to be
thankful for: he is almost as new as I am, and he cannot instruct
me in the traditions of the asylum. I don't believe I COULD have
worked with the old doctor, who, judging from the specimens of his
art that he left behind, knew as much about babies as a veterinary
surgeon.In the matter of asylum etiquette, the entire staff has
undertaken my education. Even the cook this morning told me firmly
that the John Grier Home has corn meal mush on Wednesday
nights.Are you searching hard for another superintendent? I'll stay
until she comes, but please find her fast.Yours,With my mind made up,SALLIE McBRIDE.SUP'T'S OFFICE, JOHN GRIER HOME,February 27.Dear Gordon:Are you still insulted because I wouldn't take your advice?
Don't you know that a reddish-haired person of Irish forebears,
with a dash of Scotch, can't be driven, but must be gently led? Had
you been less obnoxiously insistent, I should have listened
sweetly, and been saved. As it is, I frankly confess that I have
spent the last five days in repenting our quarrel. You were right,
and I was wrong, and, as you see, I handsomely acknowledge it. If I
ever emerge from this present predicament, I shall in the future be
guided (almost always) by your judgment. Could any woman make a
more sweeping retraction than that?The romantic glamour which Judy cast over this orphan asylum
exists only in her poetic imagination. The place is AWFUL. Words
can't tell you how dreary and dismal and smelly it is: long
corridors, bare walls; blue-uniformed, dough-faced little inmates
that haven't the slightest resemblance to human children. And oh,
the dreadful institution smell! A mingling of wet scrubbed floors,
unaired rooms, and food for a hundred people always steaming on the
stove.The asylum not only has to be made over, but every child as
well, and it's too herculean a task for such a selfish, luxurious,
and lazy person as Sallie McBride ever to have undertaken. I'm
resigning the very first moment that Judy can find a suitable
successor, but that, I fear, will not be immediately. She has gone
off South, leaving me stranded, and of course, after having
promised, I can't simply abandon her asylum. But in the meantime I
assure you that I'm homesick.Write me a cheering letter, and send a flower to brighten my
private drawing room. I inherited it, furnished, from Mrs. Lippett.
The wall is covered with a tapestry paper in brown and red; the
furniture is electric-blue plush, except the center table, which is
gilt. Green predominates in the carpet. If you presented some pink
rosebuds, they would complete the color scheme.I really was obnoxious that last evening, but you are
avenged.Remorsefully yours,SALLIE McBRIDE.P.S. You needn't have been so grumpy about the Scotch doctor.
The man is everything dour that the word "Scotch" implies. I detest
him on sight, and he detests me. Oh, we're going to have a sweet
time working togetherTHE JOHN GRIER HOME,February 22.My dear Gordon:Your vigorous and expensive message is here. I know that you
have plenty of money, but that is no reason why you should waste it
so frivolously. When you feel so bursting with talk that only a
hundred-word telegram will relieve an explosion, at least turn it
into a night lettergram. My orphans can use the money if you don't
need it.Also, my dear sir, please use a trifle of common sense. Of
course I can't chuck the asylum in the casual manner you suggest.
It wouldn't be fair to Judy and Jervis. If you will pardon the
statement, they have been my friends for many more years than you,
and I have no intention of letting them go hang. I came up here in
a spirit of—well, say adventure, and I must see the venture
through. You wouldn't like me if I were a short sport. This doesn't
mean, however, that I am sentencing myself for life; I am intending
to resign just as soon as the opportunity comes. But really I ought
to feel somewhat gratified that the Pendletons were willing to
trust me with such a responsible post. Though you, my dear sir, do
not suspect it, I possess considerable executive ability, and more
common sense than is visible on the surface. If I chose to put my
whole soul into this enterprise, I could make the rippingest
superintendent that any 111 orphans ever had.I suppose you think that's funny? It's true. Judy and Jervis
know it, and that's why they asked me to come. So you see, when
they have shown so much confidence in me, I can't throw them over
in quite the unceremonious fashion you suggest. So long as I am
here, I am going to accomplish just as much as it is given one
person to accomplish every twenty-four hours. I am going to turn
the place over to my successor with things moving fast in the right
direction.But in the meantime please don't wash your hands of me under
the belief that I'm too busy to be homesick; for I'm not. I wake up
every morning and stare at Mrs. Lippett's wallpaper in a sort of
daze, feeling as though it's some bad dream, and I'm not really
here. What on earth was I thinking of to turn my back upon my nice
cheerful own home and the good times that by rights are mine? I
frequently agree with your opinion of my sanity.But why, may I ask, should you be making such a fuss? You
wouldn't be seeing me in any case. Worcester is quite as far from
Washington as the John Grier Home. And I will add, for your further
comfort, that whereas there is no man in the neighborhood of this
asylum who admires red hair, in Worcester there are several.
Therefore, most difficult of men, please be appeased. I didn't come
entirely to spite you. I wanted an adventure in life, and, oh dear!
oh dear! I'm having it! PLEASE write soon, and cheer me up. Yours
in sackcloth,SALLIE. THE JOHN GRIER HOME,February 24. Dear Judy:You tell Jervis that I am not hasty at forming judgments. I
have a sweet, sunny, unsuspicious nature, and I like everybody,
almost. But no one could like that Scotch doctor. He NEVER
smiles.He paid me another visit this afternoon. I invited him to
accommodate himself in one of Mrs. Lippett's electric-blue chairs,
and then sat down opposite to enjoy the harmony. He was dressed in
a mustard-colored homespun, with a dash of green and a glint of
yellow in the weave, a "heather mixture" calculated to add life to
a dull Scotch moor. Purple socks and a red tie, with an amethyst
pin, completed the picture. Clearly, your paragon of a doctor is
not going to be of much assistance in pulling up the esthetic tone
of this establishment.During the fifteen minutes of his call he succinctly outlined
all the changes he wishes to see accomplished in this institution.
HE forsooth! And what, may I ask, are the duties of a
superintendent? Is she merely a figurehead to take orders from the
visiting physician?It's up wi' the bonnets o' McBride and MacRae!I am,Indignantly yours, SALLIE.THE JOHN GRIER HOME,Monday.Dear Dr. MacRae:I am sending this note by Sadie Kate, as it seems impossible
to reach you by telephone. Is the person who calls herself Mrs.
McGur-rk and hangs up in the middle of a sentence your housekeeper?
If she answers the telephone often, I don't see how your patients
have any patience left.As you did not come this morning, per agreement, and the
painters did come, I was fain to choose a cheerful corn color to be
placed upon the walls of your new laboratory room. I trust there is
nothing unhygienic about corn color.Also, if you can spare a moment this afternoon, kindly motor
yourself to Dr. Brice's on Water Street and look at the dentist's
chair and appurtenances which are to be had at half-price. If all
of the pleasant paraphernalia of his profession were here,—in a
corner of your laboratory,—Dr. Brice could finish his 111 new
patients with much more despatch than if we had to transport them
separately to Water Street. Don't you think that's a useful idea?
It came to me in the middle of the night, but as I never happened
to buy a dentist's chair before, I'd appreciate some professional
advice. Yours truly,S. McBRIDE.THE JOHN GRIER HOME,March 1.Dear Judy:Do stop sending me telegrams!Of course I know that you want to know everything that is
happening, and I would send a daily bulletin, but I truly don't
find a minute. I am so tired when night comes that if it weren't
for Jane's strict discipline, I should go to bed with my clothes
on.Later, when we slip a little more into routine, and I can be
sure that my assistants are all running off their respective jobs,
I shall be the regularest correspondent you ever had.It was five days ago, wasn't it, that I wrote? Things have
been happening in those five days. The MacRae and I have mapped out
a plan of campaign, and are stirring up this place to its sluggish
depths. I like him less and less, but we have declared a sort of
working truce. And the man IS a worker. I always thought I had
sufficient energy myself, but when an improvement is to be
introduced, I toil along panting in his wake. He is as stubborn and
tenacious and bull-doggish as a Scotchman can be, but he does
understand babies; that is, he understands their physiological
aspects. He hasn't any more feeling for them personally than for so
many frogs that he might happen to be dissecting.Do you remember Jervis's holding forth one evening for an
hour or so about our doctor's beautiful humanitarian ideals? C'EST
A RIRE! The man merely regards the J. G. H. as his own private
laboratory, where he can try out scientific experiments with no
loving parents to object. I shouldn't be surprised anyday to find
him introducing scarlet fever cultures into the babies' porridge in
order to test a newly invented serum.Of the house staff, the only two who strike me as really
efficient are the primary teacher and the furnace-man. You should
see how the children run to meet Miss Matthews and beg for
caresses, and how painstakingly polite they are to the other
teachers. Children are quick to size up character. I shall be very
embarrassed if they are too polite to me.Just as soon as I get my bearings a little, and know exactly
what we need, I am going to accomplish some widespread discharging.
I should like to begin with Miss Snaith; but I discover that she is
the niece of one of our most generous trustees, and isn't exactly
dischargeable. She's a vague, chinless, pale-eyed creature, who
talks through her nose and breathes through her mouth. She can't
say anything decisively and then stop; her sentences all trail off
into incoherent murmurings. Every time I see the woman I feel an
almost uncontrollable desire to take her by the shoulders and shake
some decision into her. And Miss Snaith is the one who has had
entire supervision of the seventeen little tots aged from two to
five! But, anyway, even if I can't discharge her, I have reduced
her to a subordinate position without her being aware of the
fact.The doctor has found for me a charming girl who lives a few
miles from here and comes in every day to manage the kindergarten.
She has big, gentle, brown eyes, like a cow's, and motherly manners
(she is just nineteen), and the babies love her.At the head of the nursery I have placed a jolly, comfortable
middle-aged woman who has reared five of her own and has a hand
with bairns. Our doctor also found her. You see, he is useful. She
is technically under Miss Snaith, but is usurping dictatorship in a
satisfactory fashion. I can now sleep at night without being afraid
that my babies are being inefficiently murdered.You see, our reforms are getting started; and while I
acquiesce with all the intelligence at my command to our doctor's
basic scientific upheavals, still, they sometimes leave me cold.
The problem that keeps churning and churning in my mind is: How can
I ever instil enough love and warmth and sunshine into those bleak
little lives? And I am not sure that the doctor's science will
accomplish that.One of our most pressing INTELLIGENT needs just now is to get
our records into coherent form. The books have been most
outrageously unkept. Mrs. Lippett had a big black account book into
which she jumbled any facts that happened to drift her way as to
the children's family, their conduct, and their health. But for
weeks at a time she didn't trouble to make an entry. If any
adopting family wants to know a child's parentage, half the time we
can't even tell where we got the child!"Where did you come from, baby dear?""The blue sky opened, and I am here,"is an exact description of their arrival.We need a field worker to travel about the country and pick
up all the hereditary statistics she can about our chicks. It will
be an easy matter, as most of them have relatives. What do you
think of Janet Ware for the job? You remember what a shark she was
in economics; she simply battened on tables and charts and
surveys.I have also to inform you that the John Grier Home is
undergoing a very searching physical examination, and it is the
shocking truth that out of the twenty-eight poor little rats so far
examined only five are up to specification. And the five have not
been here long.Do you remember the ugly green reception room on the first
floor? I have removed as much of its greenness as possible, and
fitted it up as the doctor's laboratory. It contains scales and
drugs and, most professional touch of all, a dentist's chair and
one of those sweet grinding machines. (Bought them second-hand from
Doctor Brice in the village, who is putting in, for the
gratification of his own patients, white enamel and nickel-plate.)
That drilling machine is looked upon as an infernal engine, and I
as an infernal monster for instituting it. But every little victim
who is discharged FILLED may come to my room every day for a week
and receive two pieces of chocolate. Though our children are not
conspicuously brave, they are, we discover, fighters. Young Thomas
Kehoe nearly bit the doctor's thumb in two after kicking over a
tableful of instruments. It requires physical strength as well as
skill to be dental adviser to the J. G. H. . . . . . . . . .
.Interrupted here to show a benevolent lady over the
institution. She asked fifty irrelevant questions, took up an hour
of my time, then finally wiped away a tear and left a dollar for my
"poor little charges."So far, my poor little charges are not enthusiastic about
these new reforms. They don't care much for the sudden draft of
fresh air that has blown in upon them, or the deluge of water. I am
shoving in two baths a week, and as soon as we collect tubs enough
and a few extra faucets, they are going to get SEVEN.But at least I have started one most popular reform. Our
daily bill of fare has been increased, a change deplored by the
cook as causing trouble, and deplored by the rest of the staff as
causing an immoral increase in expense. ECONOMY spelt in capitals
has been the guiding principle of this institution for so many
years that it has become a religion. I assure my timid co-workers
twenty times a day that, owing to the generosity of our president,
the endowment has been exactly doubled, and that I have vast sums
besides from Mrs. Pendleton for necessary purposes like ice cream.
But they simply CAN'T get over the feeling that it is a wicked
extravagance to feed these children.The doctor and I have been studying with care the menus of
the past, and we are filled with amazement at the mind that could
have devised them. Here is one of her frequently recurring
dinners:BOILED POTATOES BOILED RICE BLANC MANGEIt's a wonder to me that the children are anything more than
one hundred and eleven little lumps of starch.Looking about this institution, one is moved to misquote
Robert Browning."There may be heaven; there must be hell;Meantime, there is the John Grier—well!"S. McB.THE JOHN GRIER HOME,Saturday.Dear Judy:Dr. Robin MacRae and I fought another battle yesterday over a
very trivial matter (in which I was right), and since then I have
adopted for our doctor a special pet name. "Good morning, Enemy!"
was my greeting today, at which he was quite solemnly annoyed. He
says he does not wish to be regarded as an enemy. He is not in the
least antagonistic—so long as I mold my policy upon his
wishes!We have two new children, Isador Gutschneider and Max Yog,
given to us by the Baptist Ladies' Aid Society. Where on earth do
you suppose those children picked up such a religion? I didn't want
to take them, but the poor ladies were very persuasive, and they
pay the princely sum of four dollars and fifty cents per week per
child. This makes 113, which makes us very crowded. I have half a
dozen babies to give away. Find me some kind families who want to
adopt.You know it's very embarrassing not to be able to remember
offhand how large your family is, but mine seems to vary from day
to day, like the stock market. I should like to keep it at about
par. When a woman has more than a hundred children, she can't give
them the individual attention they ought to have.Monday.This letter has been lying two days on my desk, and I haven't
found the time to stick on a stamp. But now I seem to have a free
evening ahead, so I will add a page or two more before starting it
on a pleasant journey to Florida.I am just beginning to pick out individual faces among the
children. It seemed at first as though I could never learn them,
they looked so hopelessly cut out of one pattern, with those
unspeakably ugly uniforms. Now please don't write back that you
want the children put into new clothes immediately. I know you do;
you've already told me five times. In about a month I shall be
ready to consider the question, but just now their insides are more
important than their outsides.There is no doubt about it—orphans in the mass do not appeal
to me. I am beginning to be afraid that this famous mother instinct
which we hear so much about was left out of my character. Children
as children are dirty, spitty little things, and their noses all
need wiping. Here and there I pick out a naughty, mischievous
little one that awakens a flicker of interest; but for the most
part they are just a composite blur of white face and blue
check.With one exception, though. Sadie Kate Kilcoyne emerged from
the mass the first day, and bids fair to stay out for all time. She
is my special little errand girl, and she furnishes me with all my
daily amusement. No piece of mischief has been launched in this
institution for the last eight years that did not originate in her
abnormal brain. This young person has, to me, a most unusual
history, though I understand it's common enough in foundling
circles. She was discovered eleven years ago on the bottom step of
a Thirty-ninth Street house, asleep in a pasteboard box labeled,
"Altman & Co.""Sadie Kate Kilcoyne, aged five weeks. Be kind to her," was
neatly printed on the cover.The policeman who picked her up took her to Bellevue where
the foundlings are pronounced, in the order of their arrival,
"Catholic, Protestant, Catholic, Protestant," with perfect
impartiality. Our Sadie Kate, despite her name and blue Irish eyes,
was made a Protestant. And here she is growing Irisher and Irisher
every day, but, true to her christening, protesting loudly against
every detail of life.Her two little black braids point in opposite directions; her
little monkey face is all screwed up with mischief; she is as
active as a terrier, and you have to keep her busy every moment.
Her record of badnesses occupies pages in the Doomsday Book. The
last item reads:"For stumping Maggie Geer to get a doorknob into her
mouth—punishment, the afternoon spent in bed, and crackers for
supper."It seems that Maggie Geer, fitted with a mouth of unusual
stretching capacity, got the doorknob in, but couldn't get it out.
The doctor was called, and cannily solved the problem with a
buttered shoe-horn. "Muckle-mouthed Meg," he has dubbed the patient
ever since.You can understand that my thoughts are anxiously occupied in
filling every crevice of Sadie Kate's existence.There are a million subjects that I ought to consult with the
president about. I think it was very unkind of you and him to
saddle me with your orphan asylum and run off South to play. It
would serve you right if I did everything wrong. While you are
traveling about in private cars, and strolling in the moonlight on
palm beaches, please think of me in the drizzle of a New York
March, taking care of 113 babies that by rights are yours—and be
grateful.I remain (for a limited time),S. McBRIDE.SUP'T JOHN GRIER HOME.Dear Enemy:I am sending herewith (under separate cover) Sammy Speir, who
got mislaid when you paid your morning visit. Miss Snaith brought
him to light after you had gone. Please scrutinize his thumb. I
never saw a felon, but I have diagnosed it as such. Yours truly, S.
McBRIDE.SUP'T JOHN GRIER HOME,March 6.Dear Judy:I don't know yet whether the children are going to love me or
not, but they DO love my dog. No creature so popular as Singapore
ever entered these gates. Every afternoon three boys who have been
perfect in deportment are allowed to brush and comb him, while
three other good boys may serve him with food and drink. But every
Saturday morning the climax of the week is reached, when three
superlatively good boys give him a nice lathery bath with hot water
and flea soap. The privilege of serving as Singapore's valet is
going to be the only incentive I shall need for maintaining
discipline.But isn't it pathetically unnatural for these youngsters to
be living in the country and never owning a pet? Especially when
they, of all children, do so need something to love. I am going to
manage pets for them somehow, if I have to spend our new endowment
for a menagerie. Couldn't you bring back some baby alligators and a
pelican? Anything alive will be gratefully received.This should by rights be my first "Trustees' Day." I am
deeply grateful to Jervis for arranging a simple business meeting
in New York, as we are not yet on dress parade up here; but we are
hoping by the first Wednesday in April to have something visible to
show. If all of the doctor's ideas, and a few of my own, get
themselves materialized, our trustees will open their eyes a bit
when we show them about.I have just made out a chart for next week's meals, and
posted it in the kitchen in the sight of an aggrieved cook. Variety
is a word hitherto not found in the lexicon of the J.G.H. You would
never dream all of the delightful surprises we are going to have:
brown bread, corn pone, graham muffins, samp, rice pudding with
LOTS of raisins, thick vegetable soup, macaroni Italian fashion,
polenta cakes with molasses, apple dumplings, gingerbread—oh, an
endless list! After our biggest girls have assisted in the
manufacture of such appetizing dainties, they will almost be
capable of keeping future husbands in love with them.Oh, dear me! Here I am babbling these silly nothings when I
have some real news up my sleeve. We have a new worker, a gem of a
worker.Do you remember Betsy Kindred, 1910? She led the glee club
and was president of dramatics. I remember her perfectly; she
always had lovely clothes. Well, if you please, she lives only
twelve miles from here. I ran across her by chance yesterday
morning as she was motoring through the village; or, rather, she
just escaped running across me.I never spoke to her in my lif [...]