CHAPTER XII
"GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW"
Mercy Curtis was one of the older girls quartered in Mrs. Tellingham'ssuite. She told her close friends how Doctor Tellingham walked the floorof the inner office and bemoaned his absent-mindedness that had broughtdisaster upon Mrs. Tellingham and the whole school.
"I know that Mrs. Tellingham is becoming more worried about the doctorthan about the lapsed insurance," said Mercy. "Of course, he's a foolishold man without any more head than a pin! But why did she leave thebusiness of renewing the insurance in his charge, in the first place?"
"Oh, Mercy!" protested Ruth.
"No more head than a pin!" repeated Nettie Parsons, in horror. "Why! whoever heard the like? He writes histories! He must be a very brainy man."
"Who ever _reads_ them?" grumbled Mercy.
"They look awfully solid," confessed Lluella Fairfax. "Did you ever lookat the whole row of them in the office bookcase?"
Jennie Stone began to giggle. "I don't care," she said, "the doctor may bea great historian; but his memory is just as short as it can be. Do youknow what happened only last half when he and Mrs. Tellingham were invitedto the Lumberton Association Ball?"
"What was it?" asked Helen.
"I suppose it is something perfectly ridiculous, or Heavy wouldn't haveremembered it," Ruth suggested.
"Thank you!" returned the plump girl, making a face. "I have a bettermemory than Dr. Tellingham, I should hope."
"Come on! tell the joke, Heavy," urged Mary Cox.
"Why, when he came into the office ready to escort Mrs. Tellingham to theball, Mrs. T. criticised his tie. 'Do go back, Doctor, and put on a blacktie,' she said. You know, he's the best natured old dear in the world,"Jennie pursued, "and he went right back into his bedroom to make thechange. They waited, and they waited, and then they waited some more,"chuckled Jennie. "The doctor did not reappear. So Mrs. Tellingham finallywent to his bedroom and opened the door. She saw that the old doctor,having removed the tie she didn't like, had continued the process ofundressing, and just as Mrs. Tellingham looked in, he climbed placidlyinto bed."
"I can believe that," said Ann Hicks, when the laughter had subsided.
"And I can believe that both he and Mrs. Tellingham are just as worriedabout the destruction of the dormitory as they can be," Nettie added. "Alltheir money is invested in the school, is it not?"
"Except that invested in the doctor's useless histories," said Mercy, whowas inclined to be most unmerciful of speech on occasion.
"Is there nobody to help them rebuild?" asked Ann, tentatively.
"Not a soul," declared Ruth.
"I believe I'll write to Uncle Bill Hicks. He'll help, I know," said Ann."Next to Heavy's Aunt Kate, Uncle Bill thinks that the finest woman onthis footstool is Mrs. Tellingham."
"And I'll ask papa for some money," Nettie said quickly. "I had that inmind from the first."
"My father will give some," Helen said.
"We'll write to Madge Steele," said Belle. "Her father might help, too."
"I guess all our folks will be willing to help," Lluella Fairfax added.
"And," said Jennie, "here's Ruth, with a fortune in her own right."
But Ruth did not make any rejoinder to Jennie's remark and that surprisedthem all; for they knew Ruth Fielding was not stingy.
"We are going about this thing in the wrong way, girls," she said quietly."At least, I think we are."
"How are we?" demanded Helen. "Surely, we all want to help Mrs.Tellingham."
"And Old Briarwood," cried Belle Tingley.
"And all the students of our Alma Mater will want to join in," maintainedLluella.
"Now you've said it!" cried Ruth, with a sudden smile. "Every girl who isnow attending the dear old Hall will want to help rebuild the WestDormitory."
"All can give their mites, can't they?" demanded Jennie. "And the rich cangive of their plenty."
"That is just it," Ruth went on, still seriously. "Nettie's father willgive a good sum; so will Helen's; so will Mr. William Hicks, who is one ofthe most liberal men in the world. Therefore, the little gifts of theother girls' parents will look terribly small."
"Oh, Ruth! don't say that our folks can't give," cried Jennie, whosefather likewise was rich.
"It is not in my province to say who shall, or who shall not give,"declared Ruth, hastily. "I only want to point out to you girls that if therich give a great deal the poorer will almost be ashamed to give what theycan."
"That's right," said Mary Cox, suddenly. "We haven't much; so we couldn'tgive much."
The girls looked rather troubled; but Ruth had not finished. "There isanother thing," she said. "If all your fathers give to the dormitory fund,what will you girls personally give?"
"Oh! how's that, Ruth?" cried Helen.
"Say," drawled Jennie Stone, the plump girl, "we're not all fixed likeyou, Ruth--with a bank account to draw on."
Ruth blushed; but she did not lose her temper. "You don't understand whatI mean yet," she said. "Either I am particularly muddy in my suggestions,or you girls are awfully dense to-day."
"How polite! how polite!" murmured Jennie.
"What I am trying to get at," Ruth continued earnestly, "is the fact thatthe rebuilding of the West Dormitory should interest us girls more thananybody else in the world, save Mrs. Tellingham."
"Well--doesn't it?" demanded Mary Cox, rather sharply.
"Does it interest us all enough for each girl to be willing to dosomething personally, or sacrifice something, toward the new building?"asked Ruth.
"I getcha, Steve!" exclaimed the slangy Jennie.
"Oh, dear me, Ruthie! we _are_ dense," said Nettie. "Of course! every girlshould be able to do as much as the next one. Otherwise there may be hardfeelings."
"Secret heartburnings," added Helen.
"Of course," Mercy said, "Ruth would see _that_ side of it. I don't expectmy folks could give ten dollars toward the fund; but I should want to doas much as any girl here. Nobody loves Briarwood Hall more than I do,"added the lame girl, fiercely.
"I believe you, dear," Ruth said. "And what we want to do is to inventsome way of earning money in which every girl will have her part, and doher part, and feel that she has done her full share in rebuilding the WestDormitory."
"Hurrah!" cried Jennie. "That's the talk! I tell you, Ruth, you are theonly bright girl in this school!"
"Thank you," said Ruth. "You cannot flatter me into believing that."
"But what's the idea, dear?" demanded Helen, eagerly. "You have some niceinvention, I am sure. You always do have."
"Another base flatterer!" cried Ruth, laughing gaily. "I believe you girlssay such things just to jolly me along, and so that you will not have toexercise any gray matter yourselves."
"Oh! oh!" groaned Jennie. "How ungrateful."
"Of course you have something to suggest?" Nettie said.
"No, not a thing. My idea is, merely, that we start something that everygirl in the school can have her share in. Of course, that does not cutout contributions from those who have money to spare; but the new buildingmust be erected by the efforts of the girls of Briarwood Hall as----"
"As a bunch of briars," chuckled Jennie. "Isn't that a sharp one?"
"Just as sharp as you are, my dear," said Helen.
"You know what that means, Heavy," said Mary Cox. "You're all curves."
"Oh! ouch! I know that hurt me," declared the plump girl, altogether toogood-natured to be offended by anything her mates said to her.
"So that's how it is," Ruth finished "Call the girls together. Put theidea before them. Let's hear from everybody, and see which girl has thebest thought along this line. We want a way of making money in whicheveryone can join."
"I--don't--see," complained Nettie, "how you are going to do it."
"Never mind. Don't worry," said Mercy. "'Great oaks from little acornsgrow,' and a fine idea will sprout from the germ of Ruth's suggestion, Ihave no doubt."
It did; but not at all in the way any of them expected. The whole schoolwas called together after recitations on this afternoon, which was severaldays following the fire. The teachers had no part in the assembly, leastof all Mrs. Tellingham.
But the older girls--all of them S.B.'s--were very much in earnest; andfrom them the younger pupils, of course, took their cue. The WestDormitory must be built--and within the time originally specified by Mrs.Tellingham when she had thought the insurance would fully pay for the workof reconstruction.
Many girls, it seemed, had already written home begging contributions tothe fund which they expected would be raised for the new building. Someeven were ready to offer money of their very own toward the amountnecessary to start the work.
Even Ruth agreed to this first effort to get money. She pledged a hundreddollars herself and Nettie Parsons quietly put down the same sum as herown personal offering.
"Oh, gracious, goodness, me, girls!" gasped Jennie Stone, who had beenfiguring desperately upon a sheet of paper. "Wait till I get this sumdone; then I can tell you what I will give. There! Can it be possible?"
"What is it, Jennie?" asked Belle Tingley, looking over her shoulder."Why! look at all those figures. Are you weighing the sun or counting thehairs of the sun-dogs?"
"Don't laugh," begged the plump girl. "This is a serious matter. I've beenfiguring up what I should probably have spent for candy from now till Juneif I'd been left to my own will."
"What is it, Heavy?" asked somebody. "I wager it would pay for erectingthe new dormitory without the rest of us putting up a cent."
"No," said the plump girl, gravely. "But it figures up to a good roundsum. I never would have believed it! Girls, I'll give fifty dollars."
"Oh, Heavy! you _never_ could eat so much sweets before graduation,"gasped one.
"I could; but I sha'n't," declared Miss Stone, with continued gravity."I'll practise self-denial."
With all the fun and joking, the girls of Briarwood Hall were very much inearnest. They elected a committee of five--Ruth, Nettie, Lluella, SarahFish and Mary Cox--to have charge of the collection of the fund, and to goimmediately to Mrs. Tellingham and show her what money was alreadypromised and how much more could be expected within ten days.
There was enough, they knew, to warrant the preceptress in having the workof tearing away the ruins begun. Meanwhile, the girls were each urged tothink up some new way of earning money, and as a committee of the whole totry to invent a novel scheme of including the whole school in a planwhereby much money might be raised.
"How we're to do it, nobody knows," said Helen gloomily, walking alongbeside Ruth after the meeting. "I expected _you_ would have just the thingto suggest."
"I wish I had," her chum returned thoughtfully.
"Mercy says, 'Great oaks from little acorns grow'----"
They turned into the hall and saw that the mail had been distributed. Ruthwas handed a letter with Mr. Hammond's name upon it. She had almostforgotten the moving picture man and her own scenario, in these three orfour very busy days.
Ruth eagerly tore the envelope open. A green slip of paper fluttered out.It was a check for twenty-five dollars from the Alectrion FilmCorporation. With it was a note highly praising Ruth's first effort atscenario writing for moving pictures.
"What is it?" demanded Helen. "You look so funny. There's no--nobodydead?"
"Do I look like that?" asked Ruth. "Far from it! Just look at these,dear," and she thrust both the note and the check into Helen's hands. "Ibelieve I've struck it!"
"Struck what?" demanded her puzzled chum.
"'Great oaks from little acorns grow' sure enough! Eureka! I have it,"Ruth cried. "I believe I know how we all--every girl in Briarwood--canhelp earn the money to rebuild the West Dormitory."