Atlantic Narratives Part 57

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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 pa.s.sage 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 denouement?

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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d has created. Praise and prayer are not her instruments. A loving attendance at chapel and early matins cannot translate her feelings. Love and wors.h.i.+p must be trans.m.u.ted into the thing she knows--service.

The time comes. Simply, consciously, unquestioning, she risks her life to return another's to G.o.d--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-was.h.i.+ng 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 a.n.a.lytical 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 a.n.a.lysis 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 Va.s.sar, 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 d.i.c.k'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 d.i.c.k 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 att.i.tude 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 circ.u.mstances? 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.