KATE 
 
 THURSTON'S 
 
 CHAUTAUQUA 
 
 CIRCLES
 
 UN 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 IIA. 
 -i
 
 
 
 . ,
 
 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. MARY H. FIELD 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 MEADVILLE PENNA 
 FLOOD AND VINCENT 
 
 Cbautauqua- enturp prc 0* 
 1893
 
 Copyright, 1891, 
 By Flood and Vincent. 
 
 The Chautauqua-Century Press, Meadville, Pa., U. 8, A. 
 Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by Flood & Vincent.
 
 PS 
 
 89 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAOK 
 
 I. NEW ENTERPRISES - 1 
 II. IN WHICH THE SAN BENITO 
 
 CIRCLE is FAIRLY LAUNCHED 23 
 
 III. THE CIRCLE MEETS AT THE 
 
 PARSONAGE - 33 
 
 IV. A SHUT-IN CIRCLE- - 45 
 V. A CHAUTAUQUA "BOOM" AND 
 
 A SET-BACK - 72 
 
 VI. WOMANLY WISDOM - 87 
 VII. THE ROUND TABLE IN THE 
 
 CANON 98 
 
 VIII. BY MONTEREY BAY 125 
 
 IX. THE FRIENDS' MEETING - - 156 
 
 X. THE CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY 165 
 
 XI. ON LOVERS' POINT 197 
 
 XII. AT CARMEL MISSION - - 207 
 
 XIII. THE LAST ROUND TABLE - 222 
 
 967689
 
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 KATE THURSTON'S 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NEW ENTERPRISES. 
 
 THE new schoolhouse at San Benito was done 
 at last. The carpenters had been gone a month 
 and the painters were putting on their last 
 strokes. The Chinaman who had cleared away 
 the debris from around the building was engaged 
 to give the interior as faithful a putting to 
 rights. The new school furniture was already 
 in the freight room at the railway station; and 
 now the trustees held a meeting. There was a 
 new trustee as well as a new schoolhouse; indeed 
 the new trustee was the cause of the new school- 
 house, and at the meeting the new trustee, as 
 his custom was, made himself distinctly felt. 
 
 Old Colonel Dobson, who had ruled San Ben- 
 ito's educational interests for years, reluctantly 
 now passed over the scepter to young Dr. Hall, 
 who was evidently the coming man of San Ben 
 ito, and who had recently received its unanimous
 
 2 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 vote for school trustee. At this meeting to 
 which allusion had been made, the question 
 as to what teacher should preside in the new 
 schoolhouse was to be decided. Colonel Dobson 
 said he " reckoned that Sally Parker, who had 
 taught the school for nigh on to five years and 
 would work cheap," was the proper person to 
 employ, but Dr. Hall was strongly in favor of a 
 new teacher with later methods and better edu 
 cation, a Normal School graduate with modern 
 ideas. As to salary he was heartily opposed to 
 cheap teachers, and thought San Benito could 
 afford to let the new teacher's wages match the 
 requirements of the day. "If San Benito is 
 going to hold up its head with other towns its 
 children must be well taught," he said, "and 
 no good teacher can be had for a pittance." 
 
 Dr. Hall had a way of carrying his points, 
 and thus it came to pass that Miss Kate Thurs- 
 ton brought her Normal School diploma, her new 
 trunk, her bright pleasing face, her thoughtful 
 young head, and her two years of successful 
 teaching experience, to the little California town 
 of San Benito. She found her new home very
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 3 
 
 picturesque and charming, nestling among the 
 foothills of the coast range of mountains which 
 separated it from the great Pacific, and her 
 boarding place in the town to which she went 
 on recommendation of the trustees, proved all 
 that she could desire. The family was made up 
 of a widowed mother with a gentle, patient face, 
 two slender daughters who worked at dress 
 making, and two boarders, one, a young man, 
 was a clerk in the largest dry goods store of San 
 Benito, the other a youth of brawny mold and 
 vigorous appetite, was a blacksmith's ap 
 prentice. Mrs. Brooks, the housekeeper, had a 
 look and way like Kate's own mother, with 
 much native refinement and kindliness. 
 
 So Kate settled down with scarcely a home 
 sick pang, in her pleasant little gable-windowed 
 room in Mrs. Brooks' cottage. She unpacked 
 her trunk, arranged her simple wardrobe in a 
 convenient closet and in a chest of drawers, and 
 then with a sort of cheerful zeal began to take 
 out from their wrappings her beloved books. 
 There was no special book-case in the room, but 
 this lack she seemed to have anticipated, for
 
 4 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 from the bottom of her trunk she brought out a 
 set of hanging book-shelves and a little rack 
 which could stand on a table and hold a dozen 
 volumes. Then she went down stairs for per 
 mission to put a couple of screws into the wall, 
 and coming back in a moment went to work in 
 a brisk fashion to put up the shelves. In a little 
 while she had her books all in order on them 
 and stood back with her hands behind her and 
 her head a little on one side taking a survey of 
 her accomplished work. First, of course, came 
 a well worn array of schoolbooks ; then there 
 was Hammerton's "Intellectual Life"; a volume 
 of selections from Ruskin ; a " History of Art " ; 
 half a dozen volumes of Rolfe's Shakespeare ; 
 half a dozen or more " Little Classics" ; " Bits 
 of Talk," by H. H.; a volume of Mrs. Brown 
 ing's Poems; a Lowell, Holmes, Whittier, 
 Longfellow, and Tennyson, in standard editions; 
 in a row by themselves some capital children's 
 books evidently for schoolroom reading : Haw 
 thorne's "Tanglewood Tales and Wonder Book" ; 
 Hans Andersen's Tales; "William Henry's 
 Letters to His Grandmother " ; " Hans Brinker's
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 5 
 
 Skates " ; " Little Women " and " Little Men " 
 and "Nellie's Silver Mine." The upper shelf 
 held the Chautauqua books for the current 
 year, '83-84: "A Brief History of Greece"; 
 " Pictures from English History " ; " The Phi 
 losophy of the Plan of Salvation "; " Lessons in 
 Vegetable Biology," and half a dozen of the well 
 known little ten-cent Chautauqua text books. 
 Miss Kate surveyed the whole miniature 
 library with an expression of entire satisfaction 
 and then altered slightly the arrangement of 
 the Chautauqua books. As she ran her hand 
 over them, evening and settling them in their 
 final places, one could easily detect a lingering 
 touch which, if it had been on the sunny head 
 of a little child, one would call a caress. She 
 then moved the small table which was part of 
 the room's furnishing near the window, opened 
 both its leaves, took out of her trunk a large 
 square of olive green flannel bordered with 
 bright-figured cretonne, and spread it on the 
 table, then set her book-rack on it and put into 
 it her Teachers' Bible, her hymn book, Peloubet's 
 Notes, Farrar's "Life of Christ," "The Imitation
 
 6 KATE THUKSTON'S 
 
 of Christ," by Thomas & Kempis, a small 
 Webster's Dictionary, a classical dictionary , and 
 a cyclopedia of English literature. Near the 
 rack she laid her Harper's Geography , a brand- 
 new classical atlas, and her portfolio of writing 
 materials. She hung her pretty calendar near 
 the window, then hung in a good light two or 
 three choice engravings, set her home photo 
 graphs on a bracket where the dear familiar eyes 
 could watch her constantly, and then sat down 
 in the little cane-seated rocker and smiled at the 
 " homey " look which the room had taken on so 
 quickly. There was white straw matting on 
 the floor, white drapery on the bed, and a white 
 muslin curtain at the window. The air of the 
 whole room was cool and pleasant and the 
 young maiden felt a sense of deep content in 
 its clean simplicity and refinement. 
 
 The next morning she went over by appoint 
 ment to the new schoolhouse and there met the 
 trustees. As she glanced around with the air of 
 one to the manor born, praised the height and 
 size of the main room and its sunny windows, 
 looked critically at the plan for ventilation, and
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 7 
 
 made sensible suggestions as to the arrangement 
 of the blackboards and desks, Dr. Hall's face 
 expressed solid pleasure, while even Colonel 
 Dobson caught a ray or two of enthusiasm. He 
 beamed upon Miss Thurston patronizingly and 
 informed the loungers at the post-office corner 
 that evening that he had got a schoolma'am 
 now for San Benito who was " smart, smart as 
 a whip!" and he smiled complacently as if to 
 himself alone San Beiiito owed this phenomenal 
 acquisition. 
 
 School opened the first day of September. 
 There were forty scholars great and small, all 
 ages, sizes, and kinds of children, mostly of 
 American parentage but with a sprinkling of 
 Germans ; two or three little Italians, half a 
 dozen black-eyed, black-haired Spanish children, 
 and one small ebony-hued son of Ham who kept 
 his white teeth almost constantly in sight, not 
 withstanding a ragged coat, bare feet, and the 
 not infrequent snubs of the superior Anglo- 
 Saxon. 
 
 The new teacher was almost appalled at the 
 amount of work to be done. She had not been
 
 8 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 long in the field, and only in a graded school, 
 but she went resolutely at the business of classi 
 fying and organizing and did the best she could 
 under the circumstances. One thing she ac 
 complished apparently without effort : she won 
 the hearts of her scholars. At the very first 
 recess the big boys pronounced her "jolly," the 
 girls said she was "perfectly splendid," and 
 little black Pete brought her in the afternoon a 
 bunch of bright marigolds, which she took with 
 cordial thanks and wore in the belt of her white 
 apron all the rest of the day. 
 
 The first few days were so full of school work 
 that there was not a moment's time for 
 anything else, but when a month had gone and 
 order had been evolved from chaos, and Miss 
 Thurston had begun to get a little acquainted in 
 San Benito, had been to church and Sunday- 
 school and undertaken there a class of big boys, 
 and had become a little familiar with the at 
 mosphere of the whole place, her heart went out 
 toward the hard-working, uncheered mothers, 
 the aimless young women, the young men 
 idling away their evenings on the street or in
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 9 
 
 the hotel bar-room, and as she sat down to her 
 pleasant " Chautauqua hour" one evening, she 
 seemed to have a sudden inspiration : " Yes," 
 she said, half aloud, " why not have a Chautau 
 qua Circle in San Benito ? It is the very place 
 for one !" 
 
 With Kate Thurston deeds followed thoughts 
 as promptly as sunrise follows dawn. She went 
 directly down stairs to talk with Mrs. Brooks, 
 whom she found in the family sitting room, 
 mending in her kind motherly fashion the 
 young blacksmith's coat. He sat by in his shirt 
 sleeves reading the San Francisco Argvx, while 
 the big, unshaded kerosene lamp shone with an 
 impartial glare into the eyes alike of mender 
 and reader. The two daughters of the house, 
 Martha and Jennie, were rocking listlessly, each 
 in a little cane-seated rocker on either side of 
 the fire-place, where a wood fire gave out its 
 cheerful glow, changing the very commonplace 
 room and scene into a pretty family picture. 
 
 11 Come right in, Miss Thurston," Mrs. Brooks 
 said cordially, " we like to have a call from you 
 at any time."
 
 10 KATE THUMSTON'8 
 
 But Kate, whose quick eyes always took in 
 everything, said, "Excuse me one moment, 
 Mrs. Brooks," and running up to her own room 
 returned in a moment with a lamp-shade of 
 green paper which she dropped lightly over the 
 uncomfortable lamp. 
 
 "There, Mrs. Brooks, try that and see if it 
 isn't pleasanter," she said, " and if you think it 
 is I'll make you a present of it. Eyes are too 
 precious to be put out just for lack of a bit of 
 green paper." 
 
 There was a chorus of thanks as Kate took a 
 proffered chair and joined the family group. 
 
 "What do you find in the newspaper, Mr. 
 Thompson ? " she asked. 
 
 " Wa'al not much of anything," responded 
 the young man, and then, as if half doubtful if 
 the fault were his or the paper's, he added, 
 " I've been reading it near an hour, and every 
 time I come to anything worth reading, I've 
 read it out loud. Just ask these ladies what it 
 amounts to," and he waved his big hand toward 
 the two girls and laughed in genuine amuse 
 ment at his and their predicament when
 
 CHA UTA Uq UA CIRCLES. 11 
 
 challenged to tell what valuable information that 
 big finely printed eight-page sheet, known as 
 The Daily Argus, had conveyed to their re 
 ceptive minds. They all joined in the laugh; 
 but Jennie, the younger of the two sisters, who 
 had a vein of originality, came to the rescue of 
 the newspaper: "There was the weather re 
 port," she said ; " we all want to know whether 
 these clouds mean rain and there " after a 
 moment's thought, " don't you remember, John, 
 about that traveling humbug with the stone to 
 put in the lamp to keep the kerosene from 
 exploding ? It was a good thing to put mother 
 on her guard about that," and they all 
 laughed again over the allusion to Mrs. Brooks' 
 well known weakness toward itinerant ped 
 dlers. 
 
 "Then there was that horrid murder in St. 
 Louis," ventured Martha, " maybe Miss Thurs- 
 ton would like to hear that." 
 
 "No, no," Miss Thurston begged in accents of 
 real distress, as young Thompson began to search 
 for it. " Please let me tell you what I was read 
 ing just before I came down stairs. It was one
 
 12 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 of my Chautauqua books. Do you know what 
 
 that means?" 
 
 There was a general confession of ignorance, 
 and she went on in her wise, pleasant way: 
 " I'm sure it's not at all strange that you don't 
 know, but this is just the time for me to tell you 
 about it " ; and in a few words she told the story 
 of Chautauqua Lake, its attractive summer 
 meetings, and the gradual development of the 
 great Chautauqua scheme for popular education. 
 As she advanced with her story she leaned 
 forward and talked earnestly and eloquently of 
 the grand possibilities which the Chautauqua 
 idea unfolded before the minds of those who 
 longed for more knowledge and broader avenues 
 of thought and life, and her little audience was 
 quite moved by her enthusiasm. She almost 
 forgot to tell them about her book, as she talked 
 on and on of her beloved Chautauqua, but was 
 recalled by Jennie's question, "What is the 
 name of your book that you are reading now 
 the one you started to tell us about ? May I go 
 up and bring it down to you ? " 
 
 "Yes, indeed, you may," said Miss Thurston,
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 13 
 
 " that will be the very best way to tell you all 
 about it. It lies right on my table and is called 
 ' Biographical Stories.' " 
 
 Jennie brought the book with cheerful alacrity. 
 Mr. Thompson put on his repaired coat and 
 changed places with Miss Thurston, who talked 
 for a few moments about the author of the book, 
 America's most original and beautiful story 
 teller, Hawthorne, and then began to read aloud 
 in a cultured, well modulated voice the simple, 
 quaint, delightful pages of her book. She did 
 not omit the li ttle thread of story on which the 
 biographical sketches are hung, but read it all, 
 explaining that, though written for children, it 
 seemed to her as true and wise and good for 
 grown people as for young folks ; nor did her 
 hearers, though far less appreciative than her 
 self, fail to catch the inimitable charm and 
 sweetness of the great master's style. If she 
 paused as if to close the evening's reading, they 
 begged her to go on, until, almost ere she knew 
 it herself, and notwithstanding the many ex 
 planatory and illustrative bits of talk into which 
 she had branched off, the little book was 
 
 V, * 
 oii- 
 
 ^
 
 14 KATE THUHSION'S 
 
 finished and the clock on the mantel struck ten. 
 
 They were all converted to the Chautauqua 
 idea. 
 
 " Let us start a Circle ! " cried Jennie. 
 
 " I'd like to join first-rate," said John. 
 
 " 'Pears like I'm too old and too busy and out 
 of the way of such things," said Mrs. Brooks, 
 her pale cheeks flushing at the vastnjess of the 
 project, " but I'd like to meet with the rest if I 
 couldn't do anything more." 
 
 " Indeed you're not ' too ' anything, dear 
 Mrs. Brooks," said Miss Thurston warmly; 
 " that is what Chautauqua is for, to help the 
 tired'and busy and over-worked people to some 
 thing fresh and restful." 
 
 " I'm sure mother can keep ahead of me in 
 reading or studying," said Martha Brooks. 
 " Don't you know, ma, how you always helped 
 us with our books when we went to school? 
 Ma was a splendid scholar when she was young, 
 Miss Thurston ; she's got a Shakespeare she won 
 for a prize when she was a girl, back in the 
 States." 
 
 " There ! there ! " cried Miss Thurston merrily,
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 15 
 
 taking Mrs. Brooks' work-worn hands in 
 her own, "we'll not let you hide your light 
 under a bushel any longer. You shall be one of 
 our charter members, and to-morrow we'll all 
 invite our friends to meet in the schoolhouse 
 some evening within a week and organize the 
 'San Benito Chautauqua Circle."' 
 
 The next morning at breakfast there was an 
 eager discussion of plans. The other member 
 of the family, Mr. Fowler, was made acquainted 
 with the scheme. He was a somewhat vain and 
 dressy young fellow with that vaguely superior 
 style which in California is universally known 
 as "high-toned," and he might naturally hesi 
 tate over joining an association not distinctly 
 aristocratic, but Miss Thurston's manifest leader 
 ship in the affair won his guarded consent and 
 his promise to invite two or three of his acquain 
 tances. Thus there was a nucleus of six members 
 to begin work for the new C. L. S. C. 
 
 When Miss Thurston went to her school that 
 morning she dropped a letter into the post-office 
 addressed to the State Chautauqua Secretary, 
 asking for fifty circulars giving the aim and
 
 16 KATE THURISTON'S 
 
 method of the society and containing the year's 
 course of study, also for two dozen application 
 blanks; and by the time appointed for the public 
 meeting she was well provided with these 
 accessories. She also took over to the meeting 
 her own set of Chautauqua books and the maga 
 zine which is the well-known organ of the 
 Circle. The schoolhouse was lighted up pleas 
 antly and some twenty-five or thirty people 
 were scattered around in little groups talking in 
 neighborly fashion when Miss Thurstxm and 
 her friends of the Brooks household arrived. It 
 required a little courage for her to walk forward 
 to her desk and deposit her books with the air 
 of a presiding officer, but she was gallantly sup 
 ported by young Thompson, who had put on his 
 Sunday clothes and was from head to foot in a 
 highly polished condition. The minister of the 
 village church, the Rev. Mr. Chapman, was also 
 present and ready to lend a hand. So, greatly 
 to Kate's relief, he consented to take the post of 
 responsibility behind the desk, provided she 
 would do all the talking. Now Kate had never 
 faced an audience of grown-up people except
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CTRCLE8. 17 
 
 upon school exhibition days, and her heart beat 
 in the most unmanageable fashion when Mr. 
 Chapman arose and said: "You will please 
 come to order, my friends, and Miss Thurston 
 will address the meeting." 
 
 Poor Kate arose, grasped a Chautauqua circu 
 lar, and, clinging to that small spar, launched 
 forth upon her maiden public speech. Her first 
 glance forward revealed to her Colonel Dobson 
 on one of the front seats, and two or three other 
 dignitaries in close proximity. She caught a 
 glimpse also of Dr. Hall's intelligent face in the 
 background, and in that kind of condensed 
 thought which characterizes the swooning 
 brain, wondered what his opinion was in regard 
 to woman on the lecture platform. 
 
 Most of the people seemed very far away and 
 the young speaker had a sudden inspiration : 
 " Will you all please come forward ? " she said, 
 11 1 can talk to you so much more easily"; and 
 by the time the little commotion of moving was 
 over she was quite ready to plunge into her 
 subject. 
 
 "You are all aware," she began, "that we have
 
 18 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 met to talk over theChautauqua idea and if pos 
 sible to organize a Chautauqua Circle. The word 
 Chautauqua doesn't mean much as yet to the 
 people west of the Rockies, except where the 
 Chautauqua idea has taken root and is bearing 
 its beautiful spiritual fruit, but at the East 
 where all our educational systems have had 
 their origin, and to which we must look for our 
 inspirations till California outgrows its material 
 age, there Chautauqua means a hope and a 
 promise to hosts of aspiring souls. It will soon 
 grow to be a familiar word with us all. We 
 have only to say it resolutely three or four times 
 and it loses its foreign and aboriginal sound. 
 Let us say it together," and she wrote Chau- 
 tauqua on the blackboard in a bold hand, and 
 gave them all an opportunity to say it over with 
 her till it was learned. Then she described to 
 them Chautauqua Lake and its great annual 
 Assembly and grew very eloquent over the 
 founders. Finally she read from the little circu 
 lar the concise statement in regard to the 
 C. L. S. V. and showed the audience her books 
 and The Chautauquan. John Thompson and
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 19 
 
 Jennie Brooks then distributed the circulars 
 and forms of application, and Kate sat down 
 feeling very warm, and sure she had said too 
 much or too little, she couldn't tell which. Her 
 distress was completed by Colonel Dobson's 
 arising in the most patronizing way and saying, 
 with much prefatory eloquence, that he con 
 sidered this plan a great thing for " people with 
 out eddication." 
 
 Poor Kate herself was altogether too well 
 versed in human nature not to know that even 
 a tacit confession of ignorance is an unpleasant 
 thing to require of an ordinary mortal, and in 
 her little speech she had carefully avoided say 
 ing that the Chautauqua course of reading was 
 especially intended to remedy a lack of early 
 education. She had dwelt with the tact of a 
 bright teacher on the other side of the 
 subject and presented it as an excellent 
 supplement to even a good education, and as an 
 admirable review, of which even the learned 
 were glad to avail themselves. She knew very 
 well that Colonel Dobson's remark would repel 
 all people of his own caliber who prided
 
 20 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 themselves on their learning, but she concluded 
 to let it pass unchallenged, especially as the min 
 ister followed the Colonel quickly with a kind 
 endorsement of what she had said. 
 
 Then came the usual whispering, hesitation, 
 and delay, with all of which Miss Thurston was 
 very patient, begging her friends to ask ques 
 tions which a few finally ventured- to do. At 
 the end of half an hour John and Jennie 
 gathered up the filled-out applications and be 
 hold there were ten ! Kate glanced them over 
 with interest. The names were those of the 
 minister and his wife ; Mrs. Brooks ; Jennie ; 
 Martha ; John Thompson; John's "boss," as 
 he always termed his employer, a blacksmith 
 with a good strong German face ; a Mrs. Fiske, 
 of whom Kate had heard as a bright intellectual 
 woman ; and two young ladies who were older 
 sisters of one of Kate's schoolboys, Flora and 
 Lizzie Towner. 
 
 Kate was just a little disappointed that her 
 eloquence had not persuaded more, but she said 
 with a smile that ten was a very good number 
 and they would proceed at once to organize.
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 21 
 
 Dr. Hall rose to say that nothing but his feel 
 ing that he must work in special professional 
 lines that winter kept him from joining the 
 Circle, but he would try to attend the meetings 
 if he might be allowed the privilege. Colonel 
 Dobson here got upon his feet again and said he 
 would encourage the Circle by dropping in now 
 and then, while young Fowler slipped out about 
 this tune without filling out an application, 
 thus withdrawing his support and leaving John 
 Thompson the only young man in the society. 
 
 Mr. Chapman promptly nominated Miss 
 Thurston for President, thus forestalling her 
 scheme to nominate him for the same respon 
 sible position. She was elected before she had 
 tune to think whether it was best to accept the 
 position or not. Mrs. Fiske was made Secretary, 
 John Thompson, Treasurer, and the San Benito 
 Chautauqua Circle was an established and 
 officered institution. In a few minutes more it 
 was decided to send for the needed number of 
 books and begin work directly, also to meet on 
 every other Friday evening and have as 
 thorough a review of the topics gone over as the
 
 22 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 time would permit, enlivened by the various 
 devices which the fertile brain of the President 
 and the suggestions of The Chautauquan maga 
 zine might afford. Half a dozen copies of the 
 magazine were ordered one by Dr. Hall and 
 one by Colonel Dobson, who was not to be out 
 done by the new trustee in any regard whatever. 
 Kate had offered the use of her copy to the 
 Brooks household. Nothing remained to be 
 done but to ask the blessing of the great Teacher 
 upon the new organization, which the minister 
 did with much earnestness. John Thompson 
 put out the lights, and Kate, thoroughly tired, 
 but with the blessed consciousness that she was 
 " lending a hand" to an enterprise of wide and 
 noble possibilities, walked home with Mrs. 
 Brooks along the uneven and dusty streets of 
 San Benito.
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 IN WHICH THE SAN BENITO CIRCLE IS FAIRLY 
 LAUNCHED. 
 
 THERE was a little delay about getting the 
 Chautauqua books, but before the time for the 
 first meeting they had arrived and were dis 
 tributed, and Kate had felt paid for all her 
 troubles when she saw the timid pleasure with 
 which Mrs. Brooks put on her spectacles and 
 sat down to learn her first lesson. 
 
 "'Pears like I wasn't more than sixteen," 
 she said, as she turned the pages with hands that 
 trembled with eagerness. 
 
 Nor was it any less a reward for Kate to see 
 John Thompson making an extra eflbrt to re 
 move the grime of his day's toil from his brawny 
 hands ere he took possession of his book. He 
 was washing and scrubbing at a sink on a side 
 porch where he usually performed his ablutions, 
 and talking with Jennie Brooks through the
 
 24 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 open window on which his Greek history lay. 
 
 "Who'd a thought," he exclaimed, "that I'd 
 ever tackle such a book as that ! " 
 
 "Just as likely as that we would," answered 
 Jennie. "Martha and I haven't had much 
 chance at school since pa died, and they never had 
 any history but United States in school, anyway, 
 and that was dreadful dry and hard to learn." 
 
 Kate went down into the sitting room in the 
 evening to give them all a little start. She 
 always brought an air of good cheer with her 
 and they claimed now that she was in the 
 "very nick of tune." So she drew up by the 
 lamp and taking the Greek history said : 
 
 " It is just delightful to think what a houseful 
 of Chautauquans we are. I wish Dr. Vincent 
 could see us ! Why, it's a real economy of tune 
 to have so many people living together who 
 want to do the same thing. Don't you see in 
 how many ways we can help each other? One 
 can read aloud sometimes and the others can 
 sew or crochet " 
 
 " That'll help me," said John, " crocheting is 
 right in my line."
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 25 
 
 Of course they all laughed, but Kate nothing 
 daunted went on : " Then one dictionary hunter 
 can save time and eyesight for the rest ; and 
 we'll be coming upon bright ideas in the papers 
 and everywhere that will throw light on all our 
 studies, and each one will have the benefit of all 
 that the others bring in of these gleanings ; and 
 last but not least we shall all be thinking 
 about the same things and talking them over at 
 table and everywhere, and of course we shall 
 sharpen each other's wits." 
 
 " Miss Thurston has a very nice way of saying 
 ' we,' " said John. 
 
 " To be sure I'll say we," answered she, " un 
 less you think it sounds too conceited in me to 
 take it for granted that I may have some 
 thoughts worth telling as well as the rest of you," 
 whereupon they all had another laugh. 
 
 " Now, have you a dictionary, girls, and an 
 atlas ? " asked the teacher. 
 
 Fortunately there was a good old Webster in 
 the parlor cupboard a dictionary altogether 
 too new looking for the credit of the family 
 and it was now brought forth from its hiding
 
 26 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 place. Atlas there was none, but Miss Thurston 
 thought the maps in the history would answer 
 very well, and her own good atlas was always 
 at their service. And so they chatted together 
 and made their plans and grew accustomed to 
 the idea of turning their plain little sitting 
 room into an academy and themselves into 
 scholars. 
 
 When Friday evening came the Circle 
 gathered by invitation in Mrs. Fiske's beautiful 
 parlors. Every one was on hand, for Mrs. Fiske 
 had sent a kind little note of special invitation 
 to each one including the " visiting members," 
 as she had named the two trustees. Mr. Fiske 
 was San Benito's principal lawyer, and his 
 home was far more elegant than any other in 
 the little village, but its gracious mistress was 
 never more hospitable than to the Chautauqua 
 Circle. 
 
 Mr. Fiske considered his wife as just a trifle 
 "cranky" in her philanthropies and she had 
 undergone not a little teasing in regard to this 
 new enterprise, but she had refused to be at all 
 disconcerted by it and went steadily on with
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 27 
 
 her preparations. She had heard of the Chau- 
 tauqua movement through an Eastern cousin 
 and was in just the mood to co-operate heartily 
 with Miss Thurston, with whom she had quite 
 fallen in love, as she frankly confessed to her 
 husband. That wary gentleman had lighted 
 his cigar after dinner, on this momentous 
 occasion, and started toward the door with 
 " You'll excuse me, my dear, this evening. I'll 
 go down to the office and write awhile." But 
 his wife followed him with her most winning 
 smile. " I don't believe it would bore you one 
 bit, Charlie, if you would stay at home," she 
 said. " Stay and help me, won't you ? " And 
 she looked so persuasive that Mr. Fiske, who 
 was a good deal of a courtier, found her quite 
 irresistible, so he yielded with, "Why, yes, 
 Lottie, I'll stay if you really wish it so much; 
 and just to please you I'll be a good little boy 
 and go right along to school if that's what 
 you're scheming for, but I warn you if this 
 young schoolma'am of yours is as nice and 
 pretty as you say, I may get too fond of my 
 books."
 
 28 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 He was rewarded for his good behavior in a 
 very satisfactory way, and when the guests be 
 gan to arrive, Mr. Fiske stood beside his wife, as 
 courteous a host as could be desired. 
 
 Miss Thurston introduced John Thompson, 
 who was not a little embarrassed at first by the 
 unwonted elegance of his surroundings, and 
 poor Kate's blood mounted to her temples as he 
 dropped heavily into a luxuriantly upholstered 
 chair with a crash that was truly alarming. But 
 Mrs. Fiske came to the rescue with womanly 
 tact and was not long in drawing the young 
 man into a really intelligent conversation about 
 his business. The awkward boy forgot his un- 
 wieldly hands and feet and answered Mrs. 
 Fiske's artful questions with a good sense and 
 an amount of knowledge which rewarded her 
 for her politeness. 
 
 One ring followed another in rapid succession 
 and soon the dozen friends were all assembled. 
 Martha and Jennie Brooks had often sewed for 
 Mrs. Fiske and so felt quite at home, and their 
 mother was a member of the same church as the 
 hostess and thus had the best and strongest of
 
 CHAUTAUQ,UA CIRCLES. 29 
 
 relationships with her. Altogether there was 
 not nearly so much restraint and chilliness as 
 Kate had feared. She found to her great delight 
 that Mrs. Fiske had laid upon the table a fine 
 classical atlas and a copy of Bryant's Homer, 
 also a beautiful art album with photographs of 
 the Acropolis and other famous places in Athens 
 as well as a few of the most renowned pieces of 
 ancient statuary. She had not supposed that 
 such help could be found in San Benito, but 
 was only having the experience which every 
 one has who tries to help those about them. 
 From the most unexpected quarters and often 
 with the most surprising opportuneness just the 
 needed assistance comes. 
 
 The latest arrival was Dr. Hall, and he 
 brought a priceless bit of old pottery, evidently 
 part of a once beautiful vase, which a friend had 
 sent him from the excavations at Mycenae. 
 
 The Circle was not prepared with a regular 
 lesson this evening as the books had not been 
 distributed in season, but all were now ready to 
 begin, and the young President had many plans 
 and arrangements to propose, which, with a
 
 SO KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 bright talk about the importance of the little land 
 of Hellas in the world's history, filled the even 
 ing. Mr. Fiskewas drawn into this conversation 
 and grew really eloquent over the culture, bril 
 liancy, and long renown of the old Hellenes, 
 while Dr. Hall said some equally good things 
 about the Iliad and Odyssey and their place in 
 literature. 
 
 Mrs. Fiske brought a book from the library 
 describing ancient Greek life and customs and 
 read interesting extracts, after which the book 
 was passed around to give all an opportunity to 
 see the old dress, houses, utensils, and other 
 matters of everyday life. Finally Miss Thurs- 
 ton read from the Iliad, at Mrs. Fiske's request, 
 the parting of Hector and Andromache, and 
 charmed them all with her simple, natural, ex 
 pressive reading of the exquisite story. 
 
 The lesson was assigned for the next meeting; 
 a very brief one, as it was the first, and Miss 
 Thurston was wise enough not to let any one 
 be discouraged at the outset. A topic was as 
 signed to each regular member and an essayist 
 appointed to prepare a ten-minute paper upon
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 31 
 
 the laws of Solon. This essayist was selected by 
 drawing slips of paper from a box and the honor 
 fell upon our friend John Thompson. 
 
 Miss Thurston then distributed some "Chau- 
 tauqua Songs," and they all made their first 
 attempt at some genuine Chautauqua music. 
 "With the help of Mrs. Fiske's piano it went off 
 extremely well. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chapman invited the Circle to 
 meet next time at the parsonage, which offer was 
 accepted, and the Circle after a cordial and grate 
 ful good night to its hosts, straightened itself out 
 into a procession and then diverged into little 
 groups of two or more homeward bound people. 
 We may be sure there were no unfavorable 
 criticisms on the evening's entertainment. 
 
 "I never saw anything like it in all my life," 
 said Mrs. Brooks with genuine enthusiasm ; 
 " 'pears like the most sensible, improving 
 Christian-like evenin' I ever spent outside of a 
 regular prayer meetin'." 
 
 John Thompson was unusually still as they 
 walked along. He was thinking that he would 
 see whether a fellow of his age could begin down
 
 32 KATE THURSTON 1 S 
 
 at the foot and little by little learn how to talk 
 as Dr. Hall and Mr. Fiske did "sort of easy 
 and yet so smart." 
 
 Kate Thurston was saying over and over to 
 herself: "I am so glad I thought of a Chau- 
 tauqua Circle in San Benito." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fiske were lingering over the 
 little fire still glowing in their grate. " Were 
 you bored, Charlie? Now tell the truth," she 
 asked. 
 
 11 Well," he laughingly admitted, " one doesn't 
 need to be a very great sufferer when your friend 
 Miss Thurston reads Homer ! "
 
 CHAPTEE IIL 
 
 THE CIRCLE MEETS AT THE PARSONAGE. 
 
 IT is very certain that the land of Hellas 
 received most unwonted attention in San Ben- 
 ito during the next two months, but nowhere 
 was it discussed with quite so much earnestness 
 and enthusiasm as in the plain little home of 
 Mrs. Brooks. The young blacksmith did not 
 study up the subject of old Solon and his laws 
 without enlisting the lively interest of all the 
 family. There was great ransacking of old his 
 tories, of neighbors' encyclopedias, and of other 
 possible sources of information. Then John, 
 having thus secured his material, wrote and re 
 wrote in the seclusion of his own room for 
 several evenings, until with an air of immense 
 relief, yet with a humility really pathetic, he 
 brought his completed essay to Miss Thurston 
 for criticism and correction. His honest face
 
 34 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 was suffused with blushes and his hands fairly 
 trembled as he gave his half dozen pages of 
 foolscap to the schoolmistress, with the apolo 
 getic remark that he "always was dreadful 
 awkward with his pen." 
 
 Ah ! the tact and good sense, the frankness 
 and yet the kindliness, with which that gentle 
 critic corrected the spelling, straightened the 
 grammar, and improved the rhetoric of that 
 paper, and then made John supremely happy 
 by saying: "Now re- write this, John, and then 
 read it to the Circle as well as it deserves to be 
 read, and we'll all be proud of you.". 
 
 This literary effort had seriously affected 
 John's appetite for a whole week, and Mrs. 
 Brooks was growing quite alarmed about his 
 health, but when the great enterprise was fairly 
 off his mind her anxiety was entirely relieved ; 
 John's favorite viands disappeared with their 
 old rapidity. 
 
 The table conversation at Mrs. Brooks' be 
 came decidedly classical. Young Fowler grew 
 more and more ill at ease as the family talked of 
 old Hellenic mythology, of Homer and Hesiod,
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 35 
 
 of Lycurgus and Solon. For several days he 
 maintained a dignified silence, and then, as 
 Thompson's dawning superiority grew more 
 evident, he quietly succumbed to the prevailing 
 current, asked Miss Thurston one morning for 
 a form of application, paid his fee, and sent for 
 the books. Alas ! the supply in San Francisco 
 was exhausted, and for several weeks Fowler 
 meekly borrowed his rival's history and caught 
 up with the rest as fast as he could. His even 
 ings were not so much his own as if he had 
 been in other business, but he found that there 
 was many an odd minute, when no customer 
 was in, that could be put to excellent use. His 
 Greek history went regularly to the store with 
 him, and he soon equaled John Thompson in 
 his interest in Dr. Schliemann and other archae 
 ologists. 
 
 Miss Thurston was made very happy by the 
 reports which John brought home in regard to 
 his employer, Christian Leib. He had been 
 well educated in "the fatherland," and was 
 delighted to be again doing some intellectual 
 work. He and John had exchanged ideas
 
 36 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 about Solon and the Athenian democracy, 
 and when this conversation was repeated by 
 John to Miss Thurston, she said: "Mr. Leib 
 must be called out at our next meeting. His 
 ideas are worth telling and we must not let his 
 diffidence keep him in the background any 
 longer. I for one like his strong German 
 accent." 
 
 At the parsonage there was careful preparation 
 for the next meeting of the Circle. The good 
 minister and his wife made a great effort to do 
 the reading faithfully, but it was a heroic per 
 formance for a busy country pastor with his 
 multifarious duties ; still more heroic for the 
 minister's wife with her three little children, 
 house work, sewing, calling, church work, con 
 stant interruptions, only two hands and two 
 feet and work enough for a dozen pairs of each. 
 It was one of those blessed families, however, 
 where they bear one another's burdens, and so 
 the burdens never seemed unbearable. Mrs. 
 Chapman had a way of guarding her husband's 
 study door for a few hours every morning, thus 
 diverting from him a thousand needless calls.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 87 
 
 And he had an equally considerate way of see 
 ing that she, too, had a little tune each day for 
 the books and music which had been so dear to 
 her girlish heart, a fact which he well knew had 
 made no small part of her charm to his own 
 book-loving taste. Sometimes he carried off the 
 three babies for an hour or two of outdoor or in 
 door play ; sometimes he lent a hand, without 
 the slightest loss of dignity, at almost any kind 
 of domestic work ; and always when the chil 
 dren were tucked up in bed he brought a book 
 or paper and read aloud to the busy young 
 mother whose mending and making often lasted 
 through the whole evening. 
 
 The parsonage was a rather small house with 
 a decidedly small parlor which Mr. Chapman 
 used as a study, a smaller sitting room, two or 
 three bed rooms, and a kitchen which was by 
 far the largest room in the house, so that Mrs. 
 Chapman used it also for a dining room ; and 
 in summer, when the cooking range went into 
 a rear kitchen, it was the family gathering 
 place more frequently than any other. As they 
 planned for the Circle they surveyed the study
 
 38 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 and the little sitting room with equal disfavor. 
 
 " Could the kitchen possibly do ? " suggested 
 the minister in a sort of despairing tone, and 
 with no thought that his wife would tolerate 
 the idea. 
 
 "Why, I never thought of such a thing," she 
 answered, " but do let us take a look at it." 
 
 It was Friday morning and in the evening 
 their guests were due. They had been talking 
 in the study, and now they proceeded to view 
 the kitchen in the role of a reception room. It 
 was a long and rather narrow room extending 
 entirely across the house, a cooking stove at one 
 end with cupboard and cooking table ; at the 
 other end a small extension table. A new 
 bright-checked matting was on the floor and 
 pretty, modern shades were at the windows. 
 
 "It would hardly do to ask Mr. and Mrs. 
 Fiske out here, I suppose," said Mr. Chapman, 
 half laughing, as his wife stood with a look of 
 deep calculation knitting her smooth brow. 
 
 "Dexter," she exclaimed, "now is the time 
 to make me that screen frame you promised me 
 last winter. If you'll go right over to the
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 39 
 
 carpenter's shop and have that done by noon I'll 
 tack the cloth on this afternoon. I'll go out and 
 buy it the minute baby goes to sleep. This 
 room will do splendidly !" 
 
 When evening came an artistic dark red 
 screen, with long peacock feathers laid diagon 
 ally across it, shut off every suggestion of 
 culinary appointments. The extension table 
 was made its full size and had the piano cover 
 on it, chairs were drawn around it and a 
 student's lamp in the center lighted the room 
 pleasantly. Ivy was twined around the one 
 picture on the wall, an excellent engraving of 
 Bolton Abbey in the olden time. A great vase 
 of chrysanthemums, yellow, white, and pink, 
 brightened one corner of the room, while the 
 baby, who had discovered the commotion in the 
 air and therefore resolutely refused to go to 
 sleep, made another picture, so beautiful that 
 the entire San Benito Chautauqua Circle, which 
 came in almost in a body, declared that there 
 was never anything lovelier in art or story not 
 even the "starry" little Astyanax of whom 
 Miss Thurston had read at the last meeting.
 
 40 KATE THURSTON' 8 
 
 The Circle had nearly doubled in numbers. 
 The Misses Towner brought a cousin, a sensible 
 young man who was teaching in the country a 
 few miles out of San Benito, but having a pony 
 at his disposal, thought he could attend the 
 meetings of the Circle. Dr. Hall brought two 
 more young men two of the very ones Miss 
 Thurston had noticed and sighed over as she 
 had glanced at the post-office corner whenever 
 she was on the street in the evening young 
 men with apparently no occupation but to lean 
 against a building or a lamp post and watch 
 passers-by. Mrs. Fiske brought her husband, 
 still protesting that he would be just " a looker- 
 on in Vienna," and Christian Leib brought his 
 wife, who, to the surprise of Miss Thurston, was 
 not a German but a tall, slender and rather deli 
 cate looking woman with a decided Yankee look 
 and manner. She still further demonstrated 
 her nationality by saying as soon as she was in 
 troduced to the company, that she had " always 
 been calculating to do some more reading and 
 now she guessed she'd join the Circle if the rest 
 were agreeable. ' ' There were also several visitors.
 
 OHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 41 
 
 The young President made haste to welcome 
 all the newcomers and the Secretary was 
 equally cordial, while Mr. and Mrs. Chapman 
 arranged seats for all and in every way proved 
 themselves as graceful entertainers as even the 
 Fiskes had been. 
 
 The roll was called and every member re 
 sponded. The topics were then called for in 
 regular order, and although the sound of her 
 own voice was something very frightful to Mrs. 
 Brooks, who held topic No. 1, yet she managed 
 to go safely through a little statement in regard 
 to the geography of Greece. Mr. Fowler did up 
 his subject in fine style. Mrs. Fiske had the 
 early inhabitants of Greece for her subject, and 
 told the story of the old Aryan emigrations, and 
 of the way in which the record of their slow 
 journeyings and colonizings had been trans 
 mitted by root words destined to be picked out 
 and deciphered ages afterward. 
 
 Christian Leib was just a little hampered by 
 a lack of English words with which to tell 
 what he knew about the Spartans, but was duly 
 prompted by his alert wife, who showed very
 
 42 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 plainly that she had indeed been a helpmate 
 to him in his resolute struggle with an English 
 text-book. 
 
 After the topics were disposed of Miss Thurs- 
 ton called Mr. Leib out again upon the subject 
 of the Greek capability for self-government, and 
 the Circle was greatly pleased with his sturdy 
 ideas of the rights of men and the educating 
 power of freedom. 
 
 Then our friend John read his essay upon 
 Solon with considerable embarrassment and a 
 few blunders, but on the whole extremely well. 
 Mr. Chapman moved a vote of thanks to the 
 essayist which was cordially passed, and John 
 felt amply rewarded for his toil, which he 
 frankly confessed, in an aside to Mr. Chapman, 
 had been greater for him than shoeing all the 
 horses in San Benito. 
 
 Miss Thurston now produced The Chautauquan 
 for October and asked how many had found 
 tune for the required reading in the magazine, 
 to which she received rather wavering replies. 
 
 "Ah, we must not neglect our magazine," 
 she said briskly.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 43 
 
 "We must meet oftener, I think," said 
 Jennie Brooks, and to this there was a universal 
 assent. It was voted to meet every Friday 
 evening ; also, at Miss Thurston's suggestion, to 
 devote the last Friday of each month to a re 
 view of the readings in The Chautauquan. An 
 extra meeting was also planned for the purpose 
 of getting fully caught up with the regular 
 reading, and all promised double work for the 
 next fortnight. The Primer of American Lit 
 erature was sent for by all present, even the 
 irregular members and onlookers venturing so 
 small an investment as that, and the second 
 Friday evening in November was assigned to 
 this brief outlook over the field of American 
 literature. Biographical sketches of various 
 American authors were given out as themes, 
 each member taking one, and then with music 
 and a little social talk, during which Mrs. Leib 
 and the three new young men joined what the 
 latter persisted in calling privately " the pretty 
 little schoolma'am's club," the circle closed its 
 second meeting. 
 
 Everybody present felt stimulated and
 
 44 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 uplifted, except possibly the Chapman baby, who 
 at an early stage of the proceedings had 
 dropped off into profound sleep.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A SHUT-IN CIRCLE. 
 
 As Miss Thurston hurried schoolward on a 
 morning soon after this, one of her little pupils 
 slipped her hand into that of the teacher and 
 tripped gaily along beside her. The little tongue 
 was very voluble and soon began to tell its 
 story : 
 
 " Oh, Miss Thurston, Willie says he wishes 
 he could be a-a-a-what do you call it ? " 
 
 " I don't think I can guess, Susie, unless you 
 tell me some more," answered the gentle voice ; 
 "who is Willie?" 
 
 "Why don't you know our Willie? Our 
 Willie goes on crutches you know Willie. " 
 
 "Ah, yes, I only didn't know his name," and 
 the gentle voice grew more sympathetic. " Does 
 Willie want to be a scholar? " 
 
 "No," answered little Susie soberly. "Poor
 
 46 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Willie never could sit still in school. His back 
 won't let him, you know, and he can't walk 
 very far. Willie wishes he said so last night 
 when he saw you go by he wishes he could 
 be a" 
 
 "Chautauquan, is it, Susie?" asked the 
 teacher. 
 
 " Yes, ma'am, that's it sort of a school at 
 home, ain't it, Miss Thurston ?" 
 
 "Yes, dearie, that is just it. Does Willie love 
 to read?" 
 
 " Indeed he does, Miss Thurston. He reads 
 and reads, lying down in his hammock chair 
 that papa made for him, and he knows lots 
 more than other folks, but then you know 
 Willie is older than he is big." 
 
 " Yes, Susie, I know ; I've seen Willie at the 
 windows. You tell him I'll come to see him 
 this very next Saturday. How glad we ought 
 to be we can walk and run, Susie ! I guess 
 you're a good little sister to Willie. You look 
 to me as if you were. Do you run and wait on 
 poor brother Willie ? " 
 
 "When he's nice and good I do," said
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 47 
 
 Susie honestly. " Sometimes he's awful cross." 
 
 "Who wouldn't be, dearie, if there was so 
 much to be tired about? How pleasant you 
 and I ought to be ! " And Miss Thurston and 
 Susie ran up the schoolhouse steps as if on a 
 wager. 
 
 Before Saturday she received an application 
 blank which a lady at the last meeting had 
 taken home for an invalid sister, about whom 
 she merely said that "like other sick folks she 
 got dreadfully tired of doing nothing." This 
 blank was filled out with a quaint originality : 
 
 What is your full address ? 
 
 " Miss Sarah Olmstead, San Benito. " 
 
 Are you married or single? 
 
 11 Single and satisfied." 
 
 What is your age ? 
 
 " Uncertain. It depends on how I feel." 
 
 What is your occupation ? 
 
 " Trying to find a soft spot in my bed where I 
 have lain for twenty years, and a bright side to 
 my life, which is more difficult." 
 
 With what religious denomination are you 
 connected ?
 
 48 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 " The Church of the Good Endeavor." 
 
 Kate Thurston read this little document with 
 care on Saturday morning as she made the 
 package of similar applications ready to send to 
 the State Secretary. Then she went down 
 stairs and asked Mrs. Brooks where Miss Olm- 
 stead lived. That good lady was deep in her 
 Saturday's baking, but she paused cheerfully to 
 give explicit directions, with a brief biograph 
 ical sketch of the poor invalid and also of Willie 
 Kellet, the lame boy : 
 
 " Miss Olmstead is kind o' paralyzed ; had a 
 dreadful sickness in the States and took too 
 much doctors' stuff. It kind o' settled in her 
 arms and legs. She lives with her sister and 
 they 're good to her, as far as I know, but sick 
 ness is dreadful wearin' to everybody. Miss 
 Olmstead is pretty cherk generally speakin', 
 though she has her down spells. Yes, do go 
 and see her. I wish I wasn't so busy and I'd 
 go along. 
 
 "Willie Kellett, 'lame Willie' we all call 
 him, he lives a little this side of the Chapmans', 
 and he's another unfortunate. He's real smart
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 49 
 
 though, and ingenious, and I know they'll be 
 glad to see you. Folks are so busy in San Benito 
 we don't get around to see our sick neighbors 
 half enough. That's one good thing about 
 Chautauqua ; we kind of go when the tune comes 
 instead of putting it off and so we get acquainted 
 with each other." 
 
 As Miss Thurston walked briskly along the 
 street, which was more like a country road, she 
 overtook one of her pupils, a bright little boy of 
 ten, who was walking by the side of a slender 
 and somewhat bowed over woman. A second 
 glance showed that the little fellow was acting 
 as guide to his companion who was nearly or 
 quite blind. 
 
 "Hello, Miss Thurston," he sang out cheerily, 
 "I'm taking grandma over to Aunt Mary's and 
 then I'm going to see the fellows play base 
 ball." 
 
 " Good morning, Jimmy," said the teacher, 
 hi just as cheerful a tone, "and now tell me 
 your grandmother's name please." 
 
 " Grandma," said Jimmy. 
 
 " Beckwith," added grandma pleasantly, "and
 
 50 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 you are Jimmy's new teacher, I reckon. I'm 
 sure Jimmy has told us enough about you to 
 have me feel acquainted." 
 
 And so they fell into easy conversation. Kate 
 found a new friend in this chance acquaintance ; 
 a wise, patient, thoughtful woman, whose early 
 lack of education had been so supplemented by 
 the experience and discipline of long life and 
 many sorrows that every line of her face told of 
 refinement and spiritual culture. Kate walked 
 slowly beside her, revealing in every tone and 
 guiding movement her quick warm sympathy, . 
 yet without question or word as to her blind 
 ness, and the elder woman thanked God for this 
 new sweet voice which had come into her 
 darkened life. When they paused at "Aunt 
 Mary's" gate it was with promises of future 
 walks and talks together. 
 
 " Do you love to listen to reading ? Of course 
 you do," said Kate, not waiting for an answer. 
 
 " Yes, honey," she answered in a soft Southern 
 voice, -"yes, better than anything.in the world, 
 and I have a great blessing in my son, Jimmy's 
 father, who is most always in the house
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 51 
 
 and a great reader, especially of the Scriptures." 
 " I shall love to come to see you if you will 
 let me," said Kate most sincerely as they 
 parted. 
 
 The home of the Kelletts was near by and 
 here, as Kate reached the gate, out flew Susie 
 with: "Oh, Miss Thurston, we were watching 
 for you and here you are ! " Then, drawing her 
 eagerly in, "Ma, here's Miss Thurston ! Willie, 
 here she is !" 
 
 Kate went forward with smiling cordiality, and 
 the poor pale boy, whose face she had often seen 
 looking out wistfully, put> his thin hand into 
 hers with unwonted freedom, while the plain, 
 care-worn mother came forward as if she also 
 felt the charm of Kate's simple friendliness and 
 reciprocated it as best she could. The room, 
 which was both kitchen and living-room, was 
 scrupulously clean and orderly, and the lame 
 boy was neat and attractive, with his light 
 brown hair carefully brushed away from a broad 
 white forehead. He had prominent bright blue 
 eyes, and although his features were sharp and 
 thin they were by no means unpleasant. His
 
 52 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 smile was really beautiful, Kate thought, as she 
 led him on in a natural way to speak of the 
 morning sunshine which fell over him as he lay 
 near the window in his home-made reclining 
 chair ; how white his teeth were she noted, 
 and how delicate and aristocratic he looked 
 among his brown and sturdy younger brothers, 
 who came in from their play to enjoy this morn 
 ing call from their teacher. She saluted each 
 one by name and had a pleasant word for each, 
 but gave most of her thoughts and conversation 
 to Willie. He was about eighteen, she judged, 
 but his curved spine made him a good deal 
 shorter than his twelve-year-old brother, so it 
 seemed very natural that Kate should call him 
 " Willie," as they all did. 
 
 He had laid down a book as she came in, and 
 she glanced at it. 
 
 "Ah, ( Plutarch's Lives !'" she exclaimed 
 with genuine pleasure ; " now that's what I call 
 good reading." 
 
 "So do I," answered Willie, -smiling his 
 Tare smile; "I like great men to read 
 about them, I mean. Of course I'd like
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 63 
 
 better to know them, if they weren't all dead." 
 
 " Are they ? " asked Miss Thurston doubtfully. 
 " I don't know about that. Whoever is doing 
 his best is a hero, I think. There's a chance for 
 us all, you see." But Willie looked incredulous. 
 
 "What a convenient book-rest you have!" 
 said Kate, changing the subject adroitly. 
 
 "It's Willie's own make," said Mrs. Kellett. 
 " He can do anything with his knife and a piece 
 of soft wood. He made these swinging shelves 
 for his books." 
 
 " And this box forme," chimed in Susie, run 
 ning and bringing out her treasure. 
 
 Miss Thurston examined all with genuine ad 
 miration. The work was symmetrical and 
 perfect, with a carefulness of finish which 
 showed the true artist. 
 
 "Why, we shall have a famous wood carver 
 here in San Benito the first thing we know a 
 sculptor maybe ! " she exclaimed with real en 
 thusiasm, as the smallest boy brought out a 
 little wooden horse, with spirit and grace in 
 every line, from the dilated nostrils to the 
 slender fetlock. "We're not going to let any
 
 54 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 genius run to waste here ! You must have the 
 right help. I'm going to appoint a committee 
 to attend to this business ! And did a little bird 
 tell me you would like to be a Chautauquan ? " 
 she added. 
 
 "I don't know about the bird," said Willie, 
 the color flushing his white forehead, "but I 
 should." 
 
 " Can't you have a sort of family Circle," sug 
 gested Elate, "father and mother and you?" 
 And then she remembered that the whole 
 scheme was new to her audience and proceeded 
 to explain it fully. 
 
 "We can hardly afford the books," said Mrs. 
 Kellett timidly, " and Mr. Kellett comes home 
 clean tired out every night." 
 
 " I'm through with my Greek history and 
 should love to lend it to you , " said Kate earnestly, 
 and although the blood ran up over Willie's fore 
 head again, he felt the household poverty too 
 keenly to refuse ; besides Kate gave him no 
 chance. "Susie shall go home with me and 
 bring it right down and also The Chautauquan 
 for October," she went on.
 
 GHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 55 
 
 So it was settled, and with kind hand shakings 
 Kate took her leave. Willie rose from his chair 
 and came to the door to look after her. 
 
 " She's just as near an angel as they make 
 'em," he said, with strong emphasis. 
 
 Kate and Susie sped along to Miss Olmstead's 
 abiding place with her sister, Mrs. Sterling. It 
 was a pretty, rose embowered cottage with 
 geraniums and chrysanthemums brightening 
 the borders and almost concealing the inclosing 
 fences. Not a touch of frost had hindered their 
 riotous growth, and the brilliant blossoms 
 brought both Kate and Susie to a delighted 
 standstill, when the door quickly opened and 
 Mrs. Sterling came out to greet them, attired in 
 a sweeping cap and the biggest of gingham 
 aprons. She was the most vigorous of house 
 wives and, after the salutations, opened her 
 mouth to pour forth apologies and explanations, 
 which unhappy tide Kate stemmed with as 
 earnest an overflow of admiration for the flowers. 
 When they went indoors they were ushered at 
 first into the stiflest of cold dark parlors, but 
 afterward when Kate asked for Miss Olmstead,
 
 66 KATE THURSTON>8 
 
 into an inhabited and more cheerful dining 
 room out of which opened a pleasant bed room, 
 the home of the invalid, Miss Olmstead. As 
 soon as Mrs. Sterling would let them they went 
 on into this bed room and were introduced to 
 the odd looking lady who was imprisoned there. 
 She was fair and rather fleshy, with short curl 
 ing hair which gave her a youthful look, but 
 her hands which lay almost useless on the 
 snowy bed covering looked shrunken and old. 
 She greeted them with quite a little animation 
 and said, "This is very good of you, Miss 
 Thurston. I expect you'll think I'm a queer 
 subject for your new institution, but I shan't 
 hinder anybody if I can't help. I never broke 
 up a meeting yet ! " Her voice was singularly 
 sweet, quite in contrast with the rasping shrill 
 ness which characterized Mrs. Sterling's, but 
 Elate instantly discovered under its light tone a 
 ring of pathetic bravery. Here was some one 
 who was wise enough to see that complaining 
 didn't help suffering. So Kate answered in the 
 same strain : " You certainly look very peace 
 able, Miss Olmstead, but we are so glad to have
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 57 
 
 people become Chautauquans that we don't ask 
 for any guarantees of good nature." Then, Mrs. 
 Sterling having asked to be excused, Kate drew 
 a chair near the bedside where she could be 
 seen easily as well as heard, which she intui 
 tively knew was the pleasant thing to do, and 
 they fell into brisk conversation. 
 
 The room was in perfect order but the flaring 
 paper on the wall, the great set figures on the 
 carpet, the bareness and dreariness everywhere, 
 were enough to oppress a well person, and Kate 
 thought with a shudder, "What if I were lying 
 here, with these surroundings !" 
 
 Miss Olmstead meanwhile was watching Miss 
 Thurston's glowing face and thinking : " How 
 little you can know of my weariness ! " 
 
 "Do you sit up at all?" asked Kate, when 
 Miss Olmstead alluded again to her non- 
 combative principles. 
 
 " Oh, I used to be hoisted out into a rocking 
 chair once in a while years ago, but it's such a 
 fuss and for so little while, and I've taken to 
 growing fat and heavy perfectly ridiculous for 
 an invalid, you know and I'm such a lift, and
 
 68 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 John Mr. Sterling is away from home all day, 
 on the railroad, not even at home Sundays, and 
 so I've got into the way of lying curled up here 
 like a caterpillar Ugh, how I hate the things ! 
 One has made itself into a roll outside the 
 window there on the sash." 
 
 " It will be a butterfly before long," said Kate 
 slowly, laying her warm hand on the wasted 
 one near her, as she asked : 
 
 "Can you manage a book with any sort of 
 comfort?" 
 
 " Well, I'm not much of a bookworm if I am 
 a caterpillar," confessed the invalid. " A news 
 paper or a magazine sister Ellen sometimes 
 fixes up against a pillow and I manage to get 
 the leaves turned if Ellen is within call, but 
 she's such a worker, and she does hate California 
 dust so. I declare I think she puts out enough 
 from this house every year to make a state like 
 Ehode Island!" 
 
 They both laughed merrily, but little Susie 
 suddenly found her tongue. 
 
 " She'd ought to have a book-rest, like Willie's, 
 oughtn't she, Miss Thurston?"
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 59 
 
 "Indeed she ought, and a little sister like 
 Susie to turn the leaves," said Miss Thurston. 
 
 "I've never seen such a thing," said Miss 
 Olmstead, " tell me how it works, please." 
 
 So Kate explained. " If you had one," she 
 went on, " you could read aloud while Mrs. 
 Sterling sews, and she could sit near enough to 
 turn leaves." 
 
 "Sol could," said Miss Olmstead, brighten 
 ing. " I'd he glad to pay for one. That's 
 something I have to be thankful for I have a 
 little income. My father left me a farm in Iowa, 
 so I shouldn't be entirely dependent, and it's a 
 comfort to pay my way always. Then I have a 
 little left over, and as I'm not very extravagant 
 about dress don't even take a fashion book or 
 care anything about being stylish I can treat 
 myself to making a present once in a while. 
 I'll make myself a present this time, and not 
 wait for Christmas either." 
 
 " The very thing," cried Kate joyfully. "And 
 did you never hear about a machine for lifting 
 sick people, a couple of rings firmly fastened 
 in the ceiling and then a system of pulleys and
 
 60 KATE THURSTON' 8 
 
 ropes so that one could be swung in a stout 
 sheet or blanket into an upright position and 
 out of bed to an easy chair ? There is such an 
 arrangement, Miss Olmstead, and you must 
 surely have it. I'll find out all about it and re 
 port in a fortnight." 
 
 And now the whistles began to blow for noon 
 and Mrs. Sterling came in to urge the visitors to 
 stay to lunch, but Miss Thurston felt she must 
 not disappoint Mrs. Brooks, who always made 
 an extra effort on Saturday noon in her favorite 
 boarder's behalf, so with cordial leave-takings 
 she and Susie departed. As they hurried home 
 ward Miss Thurston said, "Now, Susie tell 
 Willie to make the very nicest book-rest he can. 
 Make it of red wood and polish it just like his 
 own, and he can pay for his Chautauqua books, 
 don't you see?" 
 
 Susie chattered and chattered till they reached 
 Mrs. Brooks' house, without winning quite as 
 many replies as usual from her teacher, who 
 seemed unusually busy with her own thoughts. 
 She was saying to herself: "How wonder 
 fully things seem to match in this world!
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 61 
 
 Who can believe there is any hap-hazard?" 
 
 She ran up to her room for the history and 
 The Chautauquan and gave them into Susie's 
 hands. " Now open your mouth and shut your 
 eyes," she said, dropping a chocolate cream into 
 Susie's clean little red lips, "and don't forget 
 about the book-rest." 
 
 " No indeed," said Susie, and she didn't. 
 
 A week later the young President of the 
 Chautauquans kept her promise to blind Mrs. 
 Beckwith. She set out early in the short 
 November afternoon and dropped in a moment 
 to see Willie Kellett whom she found alone and 
 whittling the beautiful book-rest with a zeal that 
 made bright red spots in his pale cheeks. 
 
 " Ah, Willie," she said, " don't make that too 
 fine or it will be worth more than the Chautau- 
 qua books. And how goes on the Kellett 
 Chautauqua Circle with the Greek history?" 
 
 "Splendid," answered Willie; "I've read it 
 all through, and father and mother are pretty 
 well along. Father reads it aloud and mother 
 and the boys listen. Tom and Henry like it 
 too ; and the magazine is fine."
 
 62 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 " Bravo ! " cried Kate. " I'll be in again in a 
 day or two. Good-by." 
 
 At the Beckwith's Miss Thurston found a 
 cordial greeting. The family consisted of father 
 and mother, two daughters who were at the 
 State Normal School in San Jos, a boy of four 
 teen who was one of Kate's pupils, " Jimmy," 
 the youngest of the household, and "Grandma 
 Beck with," as she was universally known. The 
 boys, as grandma said on her first introduction, 
 had not failed to sound the praises of the new 
 teacher and grandma, too, had told of her 
 morning acquaintance. 
 
 Mr. Beckwith was a mild-mannered man of 
 slow speech and Southern accent, a Tennesseean 
 it proved, as the conversation went on, while 
 Mrs. Beckwith was a Missourian of large figure 
 and forcible style. The family living room was 
 large and pleasant with an open fire burning in 
 a big old-fashioned fire-place, though the after 
 noon was warm. Then Kate noticed that the 
 father was rheumatic and . could hardly rise 
 from his chair, so that he seemed almost as old 
 and infirm as his blind mother. Between the
 
 OHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 63 
 
 two there seemed an unusual bond of sympathy 
 which showed in a thousand small ways that 
 the quick eye of the visitor discerned. It was 
 also just as evident that Mrs. Beckwith's care of 
 the two was more vigorous than tender. She 
 spoke of them as " maw " and " paw," explained 
 their ailments with painful minuteness, and 
 administered medicine to " paw " with slightly 
 ostentatious manner and much shaking of the 
 bottle. Finally she apologized for the rather 
 careless look of the room by saying that she 
 could hardly ever get a chance to " red up " the 
 house with two folks set tin' 'round in the way 
 all the time. 
 
 Kate came to the rescue with quick^kindliness : 
 "You remind me of my own dear father, Mr. 
 Beckwith," she said; " he too was a good deal of 
 an in-door man for a long time from an accident ; 
 we thought we could not keep house without 
 his big easy-chair. We wheeled it where ever 
 we were at work. I hope you are not always a 
 prisoner." 
 
 "No," said Mr. Beckwith, "I have a pretty 
 bad spell every fall and sometimes again in the
 
 64 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 spring, but often I git around quite spry." 
 "There's one good thing that comes with my 
 son's sick spells," said grandma, "he reads 
 aloud ever so much to me and it helps him to 
 forget his pains, and me to forget " she hesi 
 tated " how long the days are." 
 
 Kate had noted when she first came in an 
 open Bible on a stand near Mr. Beckwith, and 
 had thought, "Here is the secret of the 
 refinement and gentle speech of mother and 
 son," and now she said warmly, " I see Mr. 
 Beckwith knows where to find the best of 
 reading." 
 
 "Paw was a preacher back in the States, in 
 Tennessee," explained Mrs. Beckwith, "a 
 Baptist preacher ; not reg'lar, but kind of 
 occasional ; he held meetin's in schoolhouses 
 and 'tended funerals. He's done a powerful 
 sight of good," and she looked quite wifely in 
 her pride and appreciation. Kate felt drawn 
 toward her for the first time, and responded 
 quickly with: "I can well believe it, Mrs. 
 Beckwith, and I think he isn't through with 
 doing good by any means. I think there are a
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 65 
 
 good many families who would be thankful for 
 somebody to read aloud to them." 
 
 " It's the blessing of my life," said grandma 
 fervently. 
 
 "Paw's a lee tie too much interested in the 
 prophecies to suit me," said Mrs. Beckwith with 
 honest frankness. " If we could kind o' have a 
 change from Job and Dan'l and Ezek'l I'd 
 think more of the readin' and expoundin'. I 
 git all beat out, as it is." 
 
 Before Kate had time to recover from this Mr. 
 Beckwith turned toward her, his face quite 
 aglow with animation and entirely unmindful 
 of his wife's criticisms : 
 
 " Did you ever read the prophecies of Job in 
 the light of science and discovery, Miss Thurs- 
 ton ? " he asked. 
 
 " No, I don't know that I have," sheanswered. 
 
 "Well, I'd like to show you how he prophe 
 sied about the steam engine," he said excitedly, 
 as he turned the leaves of the Bible till he came 
 to the mystical description. 
 
 Poor Kate was doomed. The enthusiast was 
 fairly started and on he went. Fortunately he
 
 66 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 did not demand much assent, and Kate's " ahs " 
 and " indeeds " and " do you think so's " seemed 
 entirely satisfactory. The argument with much 
 digressive illustration proceeded. It took half 
 an hour to reach the stackpipe, another before 
 the prophetic engine was, so to speak, ready to 
 have the fire started. Kate's one thought most 
 of the time had been how to switch this engine 
 off the track. She had taken pleasure solely in 
 one thing, the absorbed attention of the blind 
 mother who kept her face turned toward her 
 son with affection and devoted faith in every 
 feature. Kate knew that nothing is more cor 
 rective to hobby riding than the introduction of 
 a new steed, and she made haste to trot out her 
 beloved Chautauqua. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Beckwith," she said, "you are so 
 interested in history and science, have you 
 heard about our new society for studying these 
 things? No? Do let me tell you about it." 
 And now it was her turn to be eloquent ; so 
 much so that all three of her auditors were con 
 verted. All were more than pleased, Mr. Beck 
 with and his mother with real intellectual
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 67 
 
 anticipation, and the wife hopeful of a re 
 prieve from the excess of prophetic explanation. 
 They were people of comfortable means, 
 owing to a fortunate investment in real estate, 
 and Kate felt sure they would have the 
 leisure and the interest to make good Chautau- 
 quans. 
 
 "Of course we can't get out to attend any 
 meetings," said Mrs. Beckwith, "we're such a 
 poor helpless lot." 
 
 "Nevermind that," said Kate cheerily, "be 
 a ' Home Circle ' ; that's one of the very best 
 kind. I'll send you applications by Jimmy on 
 Monday." And she hurried away just to look 
 in one minute at Miss Olmstead before going 
 home. She found her in rather a forlorn mood, 
 but Kate cheered her with talk of the book-rest 
 which would be done in a day or two and which 
 could stand by the bed and be lowered or raised 
 at pleasure, or it could be unscrewed and only 
 the top part used, placing it in any position on 
 the bed. " You can hold a long paper knife in 
 your right hand and manage to turn the leaves 
 without raising your arm," said Kate suddenly,
 
 68 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 " I do believe you can. I notice you can hold 
 a fan." 
 
 Tears sprang up in the poor woman's eyes. 
 "How you do think of things ! " she exclaimed. 
 " Now, Ellen and I haven't any ' gumption,' and 
 we had kind of given up. 11 
 
 " Never do that, whatever happens," said 
 Kate, with warning, uplifted finger, "but we're 
 going to have you up, and in a wheeled chair, 
 and out of this room ! " 
 
 " My occupation will be gone then," said Miss 
 Olmstead with mock solemnity. "For years 
 and years I've counted the bouquets on this wall 
 just nine hundred and seventy-two there are 
 and then the buds, and then the leaves, Oh 
 my ! Oh my ! What do you suppose I'd do in 
 another room? " 
 
 " Well, you'll feel like a butterfly instead of a 
 caterpillar," said Kate, " and you're going to be 
 the very life and soul and center of the ' Shut- 
 in Chautauqua Circle ! ' It has all come to me 
 in a minute. Every month at least, Willie 
 Kellett and his mother shall be brought down 
 here, and Mr. Beckwith and grandma shall
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 69 
 
 come too whenever his rheumatism will let him, 
 and Mrs. Beckwith will come and take care of 
 you all and prescribe for you, and I'll look in 
 (it shall be on Saturday afternoons from two to 
 four) so, as I said, I'll look in and help keep the 
 ball rolling, and report the big Circle and its 
 doings, for your criticism. I foresee this is going 
 to be a very select, recherche affair and we shall 
 stand in terrible awe of you ! I can think of 
 ever so many things more but I'll stop because 
 I'm out of breath and it's growing dark. Now 
 good-by, and see if all this doesn't come true." 
 
 " Heaven bless you for a bird of good omen ! " 
 said Miss Olmstead. 
 
 As Kate wended home, her busy heart, always 
 "at leisure from itself," built innumerable airy 
 castles to house her new ideas, and, as time 
 proved, far more of these ephemeral structures 
 stood the test of wind and weather than is 
 generally the case. 
 
 The book-rest was a great success, and the 
 long delicate leaf-turner which accompanied it 
 worked admirably. The "Elevator," as Miss 
 Ohnstead named her friend of the ropes and
 
 70 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 pulleys, did all that Miss Thurston had 
 promised, and enabled the poor lady to desert 
 the ranks of the wholly bedridden. By hus 
 banding her strength she found that she could 
 hold the monthly reception which Miss Thurs 
 ton had predicted. The Beckwiths got out their 
 comfortable low phaeton and drove to this after 
 noon meeting, picking up Willie on the way. 
 Two or three more "shut-in" people heard of 
 this novel Circle and on application were made 
 very welcome. One of these was a maiden lady 
 who had greatly " enjoyed poor health," and to 
 whom it proved a real benefit to have a new 
 subject of thought. Before the first of January 
 Mrs. Beckwith drew Miss Thurston aside and 
 told her that she'd had a blessed rest from them 
 Hebrew prophets for three whole weeks ! 
 
 Kate wrote a long letter to her father at 
 Christmas telling him all about it : "I believe 
 it is the best thing I ever did, papa dear," she 
 wrote at the close, "and I never should have 
 done it in the world if I had not loved you so, 
 and learned so many lessons of sympathy be 
 side your dear wheeled chair. You are the real
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 71 
 
 inspirer of my lovely 'Shut-in Chautauqua 
 Circle,' and often, papa, it seems to me it 
 almost pays to be a ' Shut-in 'it lifts one so 
 above one's environment."
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 A CHAUTAUQTTA "BOOM " ANI> A SET-BACK. 
 
 BY the last of November the San Benito Circle 
 had caught up with the rest of the Chautauqua 
 world, and had that brisk and confident air 
 which people always have who are abreast of 
 the times. The meeting devoted to American 
 literature had been by far the most brilliant and 
 successful of all the meetings yet held. It was 
 a subject about which everybody had a little 
 knowledge and a great deal of interest. The 
 sketches of Longfellow, Holmes, Whittier, and 
 Lowell were so good, Miss Thurston's essay 
 upon early American literature was so graphic 
 and well illustrated, and Mrs. Fiske's paper 
 upon Emerson so fine, that the critical Mr. 
 Fiske got upon his feet and congratulated the 
 Circle upon its literary ability, and Mrs. Chap 
 man moved that the Circle keep the Chautauqua
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 73 
 
 " Memorial Days " by giving public entertain 
 ments when these articles could be amplified 
 and reproduced. This was unanimously carried, 
 and a "Bryant Day" was arranged for the 
 early part of December, since the regular day 
 had already passed. The evening program 
 was admirably arranged with essays and recita 
 tions brightened by some charming music, and 
 San Benito gave the Circle an excellent 
 audience and much appreciation. 
 
 Now set in a real Chautauqua "boom." 
 Everybody in San Benito had heard of the 
 Circle and its wonderful doings. The weekly 
 San Benito Star had a column on its local page 
 with display headings and lavish rhetoric about 
 "Our Chautauqua Circle," which it averred was 
 patronized by all the literati in town. The 
 editor and the compositor both joined the Circle 
 and proved valuable additions. It resulted in 
 much free advertising of the proceedings. 
 
 No parlor but Mrs. Fiske's would hold the 
 ever-growing Circle, so it was decided to meet 
 in the schoolhouse. Old people and young 
 people nocked to the meetings and Mrs. Fiske
 
 74 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 was kept busy sending off applications. Some 
 of these new members joined from genuine de 
 sire to " improve their minds," as the good old 
 phrase expresses it. Others thought it was a 
 new-fangled mode of becoming learned without 
 much effort, and this met a long felt want. 
 Others still joined because it was the fashion. 
 There were a few young gentlemen who affirmed 
 boldly that they joined because there were so 
 many " nice" girls in it, and it really looked as 
 if several young women joined in order to meet 
 these same young men. The President would 
 have been quite overwhelmed by her responsi 
 bilities if she had not had such excellent helpers. 
 Mrs. Fiske was like a sister to her and between 
 them they devised the scheme of having a new 
 teacher for each new book. They also branched 
 off a little from the prescribed course and took 
 the "Preparatory Greek Course in English" 
 of the preceding year, feeling that it fitted 
 in with the history too well to be omitted. 
 Miss Thurston having been over the book 
 a year previous was able to lead them 
 through it with great ease, and Homer and
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 75 
 
 Xenophon became household words in San 
 Benito. 
 
 But when Dr. Hall consented to be Superin 
 tendent during the reading of Dr. Wythe's 
 "Vegetable Biology" it was directly seen that 
 there would be no falling off in the method of 
 teaching. The study was right in his favorite 
 line of work. He had a microscope of rare ex 
 cellence and was an enthusiastic microscopist. 
 He could also use the blackboard well, and as 
 the class watched his quick crayon work or 
 looked through his microscope at his carefully 
 prepared specimens illustrative of their subject 
 of study, there was if anything an increase of 
 interest and appreciation. Miss Thurston had 
 secretly dreaded this book more than any other 
 in the course, knowing very little of the subject 
 herself, and fearing that others would find it 
 hopelessly dull and difficult, but all her fears 
 vanished before Dr. Hall's first clear, scholarly 
 presentation of the subject. The young women 
 of the Circle became especially devoted to 
 amoeba, and more than one was seen during 
 the very wet month of January peering and
 
 76 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 poking into wayside pools in search of infusoria 
 and other objects which would surely have been 
 quite disgusting to her save for the new interest 
 in biology developed by the attractive young 
 professor. It was truly wonderful how well 
 those lessons were learned and how the scien 
 tific mania spread among the fair daughters of 
 San Benito. 
 
 If Dr. Hall was an inspiration to the Circle in 
 January, Mr. Chapman was ready to be no leas 
 helpful and capable in February when they 
 took hold of that unrivaled book, " The Philoso 
 phy of the Plan of Salvation." It was the first 
 religious book which they had studied together 
 and many looked at it with dread if not aversion, 
 for strange as it may seem, the subject which 
 should be of supreme importance was the one in 
 San Benito least thought of, least understood, 
 and least appreciated. 
 
 It followed that there was a perceptible falling 
 off in the attendance of the Circle. The irregular 
 members disappeared en masse and of the 
 regular members there was a conspicuous failure 
 to appear. The young men especially, stayed
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 77 
 
 away except two or three. Yet Mr. Chapman 
 had planned the work with great care. Topics 
 had been carefully distributed to call out indi 
 vidual thought, and not only early Hebrew but 
 Egyptian and Assyrian history had been con 
 sidered as throwing light on the subject in hand. 
 Mr. Chapman's own preparation had been 
 thorough and he was a bright and thoughtful 
 man, yet it was painfully evident that only a 
 few intended to put themselves in the way of 
 grasping the fine, strong, logical reasoning of the 
 book, embodied in language always worthy of 
 the theme, the most scholarly religious argu 
 ment since the days of Bishop Butler and his 
 immortal "Analogy." 
 
 Everything had hitherto gone prosperously 
 with the Circle. The timid members had grown 
 quite courageous and several of them had sur 
 prised both their neighbors and themselves with 
 then* capabilities. The musical talent of the 
 Circle had multiplied with its growth, and not 
 only the Chautauqua songs were rendered with 
 spirit and enthusiasm, but every meeting was 
 enlivened by some pleasant solo or duet, for
 
 78 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 which the little school organ furnished a pass 
 able accompaniment. There were several who 
 read and recited well, and Miss Thurston had 
 also brought in some of her older pupils for 
 special recitations. She had herself taken 
 charge of the evenings devoted to The Chautau- 
 quan and had succeeded in making them equal 
 to any in interest. The holiday season had 
 come and gone and occasioned only a brief inter- 
 (nission in the meetings, and January with its 
 rains had been bravely met and conquered by 
 Dr. Hall and his disciples. Lone women had 
 lighted their lanterns and trudged along the 
 black country roads on the darkest nights to 
 attend their beloved "Chautauqua," until the 
 dauntlessness of "Chautauqua women" had 
 become proverbial. Traveling shows and peri 
 patetic lecturers and musicians had learned not 
 to come to San Benito hoping to get an audience 
 from the "upper circles" on Friday nights. 
 Even the irrepressible young folks had their 
 parties and candy pulls on some other evening. 
 Nothing had really gone counter to the triumph 
 ant progress of the movement until now there
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 79 
 
 was this ominous decline. Poor Kate carried 
 rather a sad and heavy heart up into her little 
 room after the first meeting in February. Her 
 school work had been hard all the winter on 
 account of the large number and great variety 
 in ages of her pupils, but the Chautauqua Circle 
 had been a delightful change and rest. Now if 
 this was going to drag ! She sat down and 
 thought it over in her usual way. It must not 
 be so, she decided, if for no other reason than to 
 save the good minister's feelings ; but, chiefest 
 of all, because the very members of the Circle 
 who needed to know more of the Bible and its 
 claims were those who were now absenting 
 themselves from the meetings. A plan seemed 
 to suggest itself to her for she soon laid her 
 tired head upon her pillow and went peacefully 
 to sleep. 
 
 The next day was Saturday and the gentle 
 California rain was descending with a quiet 
 persistence highly pleasing to agriculturists, but 
 Kate Thurston never let a California rain inter 
 fere with her plans. She was born in Maine f 
 
 Equipped with gossamer waterproof, rubbers
 
 80 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 and umbrella, she sallied forth directly after 
 breakfast and went to her friend Mrs. Fiske. 
 
 "Why, Katie, what in the world brings you 
 out this morning?" exclaimed Mrs. Fiske as 
 she greeted her at the door, having caught sight 
 of her through the windows and rushed to wel 
 come her. 
 
 "Oh, just 'she talks away,' as little Tom 
 Towner calls it," answered Kate, as she shed 
 her dripping wraps in the porch. 
 
 "Well, come in thou stormy petrel and visit 
 this croaking raven," said Mrs. Fiske hoarsely 
 hut gaily, 'and she made haste to explain how 
 she had not been out herself on the previous 
 evening because she was fighting with aconite 
 and belladonna the prevailing influenza. 
 
 Kate sat down in a luxuriant sleepy hollow 
 chair by the cozy fireside and told her troubles 
 first and then her conclusion. 
 
 " We women must ' make an effort,' like the 
 renowned Mrs. Chick. We can persuade these 
 young men to come back if we go to them per 
 sonally. I'll take care of certain ones, and I 
 have in my mind the right girls to look after
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 81 
 
 certain others, but, dear Mrs. Fiske, you must 
 see Dr. Hall," and the bright color ran up over 
 her face as she went earnestly on : "I have 
 been so sorry in the last month to find that 
 while he studies nature with such infinite 
 pleasure he does not seem to go higher than 
 nature." 
 
 "I'm not so sure that I am the right one," 
 said Mrs. Fiske, " and you see I'm a prisoner, 
 but I'll promise to do the best I can. You are 
 an irresistible girl," she added, as Kate rose to 
 go, "but don't stay out in the rain any longer 
 to-day. Go home and let Providence take care 
 of things." 
 
 But Kate had a way of helping Providence. 
 Her next stopping place was at Colonel Dobson's, 
 whom she found at home and in his most 
 amiable mood. He had fallen out of the Circle, 
 much as he liked to lead a popular movement, 
 because some of the young men who joined the 
 class in November had an unpleasant way of 
 calling him out on points of which he was pro 
 foundly ignorant, just to hear him stammer and 
 see him grow red in the face. But now he felt
 
 82 KATE THURSTON' S 
 
 immensely flattered to have Miss Thurston 
 coming after him as if he were such a conse 
 quential person that he couldn't be spared, and 
 he promised her that he would be on hand after 
 this and he would also look up certain others 
 and bring them to the next meeting. 
 
 The Colonel had ushered Miss Thurston into 
 
 i 
 the family room where for the first time she 
 
 met Mrs. Dobson, who was quite an invalid and 
 a much overshadowed individual. Kate had 
 such ready sympathy that the call was prolonged 
 into a friendly visit and Mrs. Dobson's name 
 was added before Kate left, to the growing list 
 of the " Bhut-in Circle." 
 
 The zealous little President next pursued her 
 way to Mrs. Chapman's where she brightened 
 the somewhat discouraged minister and his wife 
 with her honest praise of their helpfulness to 
 the Circle. 
 
 "Do not think of this little declension," she 
 urged ; " it is nothing but the seriousness of the 
 subject which has driven away some of our 
 friends. I am sure we can win them back." 
 
 "You know Dr. Hall has no settled religious
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 83 
 
 belief," Mr. Chapman said, " and his influence 
 is great. We can hardly expect him to come 
 and that will deter others," 
 
 "It is a great pity," said Kate regretfully, 
 " but of course I cannot speak to him, probably 
 no one here could have much influence with 
 him." 
 
 She did not see the glance exchanged between 
 the minister and his wife, so her blushes were 
 spared. 
 
 Her next calling place was the Towners' pretty 
 home, and here she found cordial allies. Flora 
 and Lizzie were good girls, not overstocked with 
 talent or learning, but pretty enough to be 
 charming, and with right ideas in all essential 
 things. They were general favorites in San 
 Benito, so when they promised Miss Kate that 
 they would see their cousin who was one of the 
 delinquents, and a certain other young man 
 who was well known to be Miss Flora's humble 
 servant, it was morally certain that these youths 
 would appear at the next meeting. 
 
 It was nearly noon when Kate turned her 
 steps homeward. She had not gone far when a
 
 84 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 quick step came up behind her and a pleasant 
 manly voice bade her good morning in a way 
 that sounded very cheery, adding : " Can't we 
 make one umbrella do for two? I'm going on 
 beyond Mrs. Brooks' a little way." 
 
 So almost before Kate knew it she was walk 
 ing beside Dr. Hall, relieved of her umbrella, and 
 with nothing to do but to pick her way along 
 the sloppy sidewalk and think how she could say 
 to him what was uppermost in her heart. She 
 had been helping Providence this morning, 
 now Providence was evidently helping her ! 
 
 She listened for a few moments to his merry 
 comments on California weather and San Ben- 
 ito sidewalks, and joined in laughter over their 
 unavailing efforts to keep side by side. Then 
 she made a brave venture : 
 
 " You were not at our Circle last night." 
 
 " No, I'm full of other work just now," he 
 replied. 
 
 "Ah, that was the reason, was it?" she 
 asked with genuine relief. "I feared you did 
 not feel so much interest in the subject of our 
 study."
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 85 
 
 "Well, I don't," he answered frankly. "I 
 like to study things I can see and understand. 
 About these religious matters I confess I'm an 
 agnostic." 
 
 " You have of course given them a great deal 
 of thought before abandoning them," she said 
 quietly, as if this were a foregone conclusion. 
 
 " No, I can hardly say that," he confessed. 
 
 She let him make his own inference, and after 
 a little silence talked of other things, but as they 
 parted at Mrs. Brooks' door she said very 
 earnestly: "I hope you will read this little 
 
 * 
 
 book which the Circle is taking up. It is no 
 common book, I assure you." 
 
 " I will surely read whatever you recommend, ' ' 
 he answered gallantly, standing on the lower 
 steps of the little porch and looking up at her 
 with evident admiration. The rain curled her 
 hair in soft, moist rings about her forehead. 
 Her eyes were clear and honest. All the lines 
 of her face told of refined thought and womanly 
 sweetness. Her cheeks flushed with her walk 
 and with the excitement of this little encounter, 
 were just the color of the Hermosa roses which
 
 86 KATE THURSTON'/S 
 
 hung in heavy clusters above her head, and Dr. 
 Hall's words were no empty compliment. In 
 the depth of his heart he thought, "Here is a 
 woman worth pleasing," and he went that very 
 afternoon into San Benito's one little book store 
 and bought "The Philosophy of the Plan of 
 Salvation." 
 
 When the clock in his office struck twelve 
 that night he was still diligently reading it.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WOMANLY WISDOM. 
 
 THE indefatigable young teacher made her 
 Saturday afternoon's work as effectual as her 
 morning's had been, and before the next meet 
 ing of the Circle had seen each lady member 
 and pressed her into the service. The conse 
 quence was that all the powers of feminine 
 persuasiveness were brought to bear upon the 
 young men of San Benito, and when Mr. Chap 
 man took his place at the teacher's desk on the 
 second Friday evening of February he was 
 greeted by a full house. It had been made one 
 of the standing rules of the society to respond to 
 the roll call with a brief quotation upon the 
 subject in hand, and texts of Scripture 
 illustrating the Moral Law were selected as the 
 proper quotations for this week. It is safe to 
 say a good many people in San Benito
 
 88 KATE THURtSTON'S 
 
 committed to memory a Bible text that week 
 who had not done such a thing for years. 
 
 The irresistible logic of the little book they 
 were studying had its legitimate effect. It 
 arrested attention, stimulated thought, con 
 firmed faith, answered doubts, cleared up 
 mysteries, and gave to every candid mind en 
 lightenment. It resulted in the formation of a 
 large Bible class which met every Sunday after 
 noon and was attended by many who had never 
 before given these great themes any thoughtful 
 study. Young men, like Dr. Hall, for the first 
 time took up the Bible as they would any other 
 book, with a spirit of honest inquiry, and the 
 result was a deep and wide-spread religious in 
 terest. 
 
 One of the new young men members proved 
 to be quite an athlete and very bashfully and 
 reluctantly led the Circle the week in which 
 was read " How to Get Strong." It was a for 
 tunate thing for him too, as he was out of 
 employment aad now was induced to form a 
 gymnastic class, which paid his way till he 
 found other occupation.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 89 
 
 The Circle had no more serious backslidings 
 that winter. It held a membership of nearly 
 forty throughout the Chautauqua year. 
 
 Last of the books came the " Stories from 
 English History." It was voted by all not so 
 much a study as an entertainment. Mrs. Chap 
 man sat in the teacher's chair in May and June 
 and her duties were made delightful. The Circle 
 ran with wonderful smoothness. The shyest 
 members had learned to answer questions in 
 audible voices, and many had even grown bold 
 enough to ask them. Miss Thurston had the 
 rare gift of educating drawing out people. It 
 was most encouraging to timid souls to have 
 their half-fledged ideas met promptly by her 
 cheerful and warm, "that is true," or "that is 
 suggestive," or "let us all remember that 
 thought;" and often she caught quickly a 
 blundering statement or answer, and clothing 
 it in her own clear words she would repeat it 
 soon after with the graceful reference, "as Mr. 
 Thompson says," or "as Mr. Leib suggests." 
 
 Through all her teaching and guiding ran her 
 charming way of saying "we," which John
 
 90 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Thompson had characterized so long before as 
 " nice." It was not art but genuine sympathy. 
 She had been a student at the State Normal 
 School and had known and revered Professor 
 Henry B. Norton. Upon her as upon hundreds 
 of other young students he had made a li fe-long 
 impression. No one who appreciated him or 
 his teaching could ever smile superciliously at 
 ignorance or stupidity. A heavenly pity, a 
 sweet faith in the possibilities of the least gifted, 
 and a Christ-like brotherliness toward the low 
 liest human being, were the chief characteristics 
 of this great and good teacher. Kate Thurston 
 had caught the inspiration of his life. Her 
 quick tears had flowed not once or twice only 
 as she heard him greet the crude and perhaps 
 even irrelevant answer of a dull pupil with : 
 " Yes, there is something in that idea." It was 
 her one great desire now to exemplify this same 
 helpful spirit. 
 
 These San Benito Chautauquans, however, 
 surprised themselves and their neighbors with 
 their ability. John Thompson affirmed that 
 there were more "talents" lying around San
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 91 
 
 Benito " hid in napkins " before Miss Thurston 
 came than there ever were in "old Judee," and 
 there were many who agreed with him. 
 
 It certainly required an immense amount of 
 tact and energy to coax the maiden essay or 
 speech out of the average member, but the 
 effort brought courage, and courage soon grew 
 into self-possession and fearlessness. 
 
 One of the incidental advantages of the Circle 
 was the practical grammatical knowledge which 
 its members gained. A critic, generally Mr. 
 Fiske, took impartial note of all failures, either 
 in pronunciation or syntax, and faithfully re 
 ported them at the close of the evening. As a 
 result everybody's speech was improved. Mrs. 
 Brooks by heroic efforts learned to put a final 
 g on most of her imperfect participles, and 
 Christian Leib nearly paralyzed his tongue with 
 his determined work over our w's and th's. 
 
 The " Shut-in Circle " moved forward with no 
 jarring. Its members were not nearly so de 
 pendent on each other as in the other Circle. If 
 a down pour from the sky or a "down spell" 
 from within hindered one of Miss Olmstead's
 
 92 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 "receptions" no one was at all discouraged. 
 They were all of them used to failure and dis 
 appointment where the outer world was con 
 cerned, and the various little family circles, 
 which were the " wheels within the wheel," 
 kept on their steadfast way. When they did 
 have a meeting it was sure to be bright with 
 Miss Olmstead's originality, quaint with Willie 
 Kellett's fancies, imaginative with Mr. Beck- 
 with's philosophy, and heavenly with his 
 mother's "sweetness and light." When Miss 
 Thurston met with them, as she often did, they 
 always felt as if a breeze, pure, reviving, and 
 odorous as a breath from a garden, had swept 
 through their somewhat nerveless, valetudi 
 narian air. 
 
 In a hundred ways the young teacher found 
 her Chautauqua Circles self-rewardful. The 
 schoolroom showed the growing intelligence of 
 the pupils' homes. A perceptible brightening 
 of young wits grew out of the new atmosphere, 
 for parents who were Chautauquans took far 
 greater interest in their children's education 
 and so encouraged both them and their teacher.
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 93 
 
 There was but one opinion in San Benitoas 
 to Miss Thurston and her work. There had 
 never been such a teacher among them, and 
 they were not slow in perceiving and acknowl 
 edging it. From all quarters there came to the 
 teacher earnest words of praise and urgent in 
 vitations to continue her work among them 
 another year, all of which filled her heart with 
 thankfulness. 
 
 The school closed the last of May with an 
 evening entertainment in which all the students 
 great and small acquitted themselves most credit 
 ably. Little black Pete covered himself with 
 glory by his capital recitation of " How Persim 
 mons Saved the Baby," and one of the young 
 Spanish girls under the teacher's supervision 
 gave an excellent description of " Life in 
 Pueblo in the Good Old Times." Everywhere 
 could be seen the guiding hand of the true 
 educator bringing out the individuality of each 
 pupil. 
 
 The evening exercises were over ; the last pair 
 of small arms had given Miss Thurston a fervent 
 embrace ; the last sweet young pleader had
 
 94 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 charged her to be sure and come back next 
 fall, and Kate, with shadow and sunshine in 
 her heart and face, gathered up her few remain 
 ing personal effects and stood ready to lock the 
 door as soon as her faithful friend John Thomp 
 son had put out the lights. Martha and Jennie 
 Brooks were waiting for her, but some one else 
 was waiting, too, and the girls very considerately 
 took young Thompson's proffered escort and 
 moved on. 
 
 " Let me take your books and parcels, Miss 
 Thurston," said Dr. Hall, and so they too 
 walked homeward. 
 
 The young trustee spoke some warm words of 
 commendation in regard to the year's work in 
 the school and then added : "I am commis 
 sioned by the Chautauquans to tell you that you 
 will please make no plans for going away till 
 we've had our last Round Table, and that will 
 be held to-morrow." 
 
 " To-morrow ? " echoed Kate in surprise. 
 
 " Yes ; we're growing very independent of our 
 President, and, without her knowledge or con 
 sent, have planned a picnic out in Madrone
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 95 
 
 Canon, where we're to have our final Bound 
 Table, gypsy fashion, with sundry unusual 
 accompaniments, such as refreshments followed 
 by toasts, and nobody knows what other festiv 
 ity. And I'm also to tell you," he went on 
 gaily, "that you are strictly forbidden to feel 
 any care or responsibility in the affair." 
 
 " Did they tell you to ask for my resignation? " 
 she inquired demurely. 
 
 "No," he laughed, "that really wasn't men 
 tioned. It's to be a very temporary abdication 
 of your prerogatives. ' ' 
 
 " Well," said Kate, " I think I'll have to stay, 
 and I'll try to be humble and unobtrusive, yet 
 without any airs of being discrowned ; but I'm 
 glad it will make only one day's delay with me, 
 for like the soldier in the poet's story 
 
 Great is the longing that I have 
 To see my mother." 
 
 "I have still another commission," said the 
 Doctor. " Indeed I feel quite like a Minister 
 Plenipotentiary or an Ambassador Extraor 
 dinary or some other high envoy." 
 
 "I wish I could step up on a stump or
 
 96 KATE THURSTON' S 
 
 something to make the scene more effective," 
 said Kate. 
 
 " Oh, don't disconcert me," begged her friend, 
 " or I may forget something of great importance. 
 The Board of School Trustees request me form 
 ally to invite you to return in September, and, 
 with an increased salary and an assistant if you 
 desire one, again to take charge of our public 
 school." 
 
 Miss Thurston paused in the starlight and 
 with much show of dignity made a low bow : 
 "I will take the offer under consideration," 
 she said, " and you will be kind enough to con 
 vey that answer with my profound thanks to 
 the honorable body which you represent." 
 
 And then after a little, Dr. Hall spoke with 
 entire seriousness : "I am not going to let you 
 slip away, Miss Thurston, without saying just a 
 word to you of my personal indebtedness." 
 
 " Don't, I beg of you," she pleaded ; " I have 
 done nothing." 
 
 " Yes, you have, more than you know," he 
 went on. "You have taught me that life is 
 worth living ; yes, and more than this, you have
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 97 
 
 taught me how to live. I am no longer walk 
 ing in darkness but in a growing light, and I 
 must speak to you of this for I think," he 
 almost faltered, " that you will care." 
 
 They were at the gate and she gave him her 
 hand with frank cordiality. " I am more than 
 glad, Dr. Hall," she said, and although he 
 could but dimly see her face he felt the sweet 
 earnestness of her words ; and then they said 
 good night.
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE BOUND TABLE IN THE CANON. 
 
 "WHAT is so rare as a day in June?" asks 
 the poet. That depends upon where it is. If it 
 is in California there is no uncertainty about it. 
 The sun rises in unclouded splendor. No 
 thunderstorm, lurks just beyond the western 
 horizon ; no ominous sultriness is in the air. 
 The care free picnicker puts no provisos in his 
 invitations and no umbrellas are included in his 
 preparations. Our Chautauquans packed their 
 lunch baskets and engaged their omnibuses 
 without once looking at the sky or consult 
 ing the almanac, and the morning of the 
 eventful day greeted them with its usual calm 
 beauty. 
 
 It was a busy morning at the parsonage, for 
 the three little Chapmans were all going with 
 papa and mamma in the good phaeton, which of
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 99 
 
 late years had apparently evolved a sort of rudi 
 mentary front seat to accommodate little Robin 
 and Annie, who gaily occupied it on all the 
 family excursions, sitting with their happy faces 
 toward their parents, while baby Ned rode 
 alternately on everybody's lap, or stood between 
 papa's knees and drove with tremendous energy 
 and ostentation the steady old horse. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Chapman were up with the sun, 
 and though every possible arrangement had 
 been made over night, yet it was nine o'clock 
 before the house was in fair leaving order, the 
 last shade down, the last crazy little foot made 
 to hold still long enough for the shoe-buttoning 
 process, and the last cooky tucked under the 
 lunch basket cover where it could easily be ab 
 stracted for little Ned's undeferable appetite. 
 The tired young mother at last tied her own 
 pretty white mull-trimmed hat beneath a 
 flushed face and with warm and trembling 
 hands. She was tired to the very verge of ex 
 asperation, when a bearded face suddenly 
 dropped down between her and the glass, hin 
 dering the tying process by so much as a whole
 
 100 KATE THUBSTON'8 
 
 minute, while the voice she loved best told her 
 that she didn't look a day older than on her 
 wedding day and was a thousand times dearer. 
 It was a wonderful tonic ! 
 
 Only a block away the Fiskes were taking 
 their usual leisurely breakfast, discussing the 
 morning paper between bits of muffin and sips 
 of coffee. Then Mrs. Fiske attired herself in 
 the daintiest of picnic costumes, remembering 
 to the minutest particular not only all the 
 charming accessories to her toilet but a dozen 
 little devices of various kinds for the comfort 
 and entertainment of her friends, not omitting 
 a book or two with marked selections for read 
 ing. The man brought the well-groomed horse 
 and shining carriage to the door and then 
 helped the maid bring out the generous hamper 
 of provisions which he packed with sundry 
 smaller bundles in the box of the buggy. Then 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fiske stepped in and tucked the 
 linen duster carefully around them, every 
 arrangement complete, from the perfectly 
 gloved hands which held the reins to the soft 
 cru parasol of the fair lady. One would say
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 101 
 
 here was bliss unalloyed, but just as they were 
 starting, the minister's plain vehicle went by 
 with its overflowing load. There was a cordial 
 exchange of salutations, and Mrs. Fiske, whom, 
 even little Ned recognized as a special friend, 
 leaned forward to toss oranges and blow kisses 
 to the little Chapmans. Then she gave a long 
 sigh as she settled herself again in the carriage. 
 "Oh, Charlie," she said, and her soft blue eyes 
 were full of tears, "there go the very happiest 
 people in San Benito." 
 
 The Brooks household was also astir betimes, 
 and Miss Thurston, notwithstanding the inter 
 dict which had been laid upon her, managed to 
 make several small plans for the benefit of her 
 Chautauquans. Mrs. Brooks' chief anxiety 
 centered in the ample lunch basket. Chickens 
 and tongue, pickles and sandwiches, cake and 
 pie, butter and sugar, and coffee and tea must 
 all go in. 
 
 "Dear Mrs. Brooks," expostulated Elate, "we 
 never can eat such a load of provisions," but 
 Mrs. Brooks was hospitably resolute. 
 
 "Think of the children there'll be along, and
 
 102 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 the drivers, and such men as Mr. Leib and our 
 John who' re used to having their heartiest meal 
 at noon," she replied, as she packed and re 
 packed the varied contents of her pails and 
 baskets. 
 
 Martha and Jennie Brooks were in a condition 
 of subdued excitement very pleasant to look 
 upon. A holiday of such pleasuring as this was 
 a rare treat to the pale young dressmakers. As 
 to John Thompson he was as irrepressible as a 
 schoolboy on the Fourth of July. He appeared 
 at breakfast in his very new Sunday suit, fairly 
 shining from the thoroughness of his ablutions, 
 and devoted himself from that time on to 
 ostensible helpfulness, but so frequently did it 
 result in hindrance that he received more scold 
 ing than gratitude. He was finally started out 
 by Miss Thurston to see if the list of Chautau- 
 quans given to the omnibus men was complete, 
 and in this way his superfluous energy was 
 turned into a new channel. 
 
 Young Fowler was too dignified for such an-' 
 tics as Thompson was guilty of, but he too 
 evidently felt the pervading exhilaration ;
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 103 
 
 indeed the whole atmosphere of San Benito 
 tingled with it, and three fuller omnibuses of 
 people upon pleasure bent never rolled towards 
 Madrone Canon. Miss Thurston rode with her 
 friends of the Brooks household in one of the 
 omnibuses. She had received a very polite in 
 vitation early in the morning to accept another 
 mode of conveyance, but the small boy who 
 brought the note carried back to its somewhat 
 chagrined and disappointed writer as kind a 
 reply saying that she felt she really belonged for 
 the day to this small public and could not dis 
 tribute herself satisfactorily, except by going to 
 the Canon with one omnibus and returning 
 with another. 
 
 So Dr. Hall brought out Willie KeUett com 
 fortably ensconced in cushions, and with the 
 red spots in his cheeks larger and his eyes 
 brighter than Kate had ever seen them. She 
 could hardly keep her tears back as she sat be 
 side him on the improvised couch of boughs and 
 cushions which eager hands spread for him and 
 from which he looked up with deep quiet 
 happiness at the lovely forest scenery. 
 
 o? THS""" 
 
 :
 
 104 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 All the Beckwiths came in their own con 
 veyance, with Mr. Beckwith driving and feel 
 ing quite " spry " in the warm June sunshine. 
 "Grandma," who was always timid about 
 riding, yielded to the temptation of the day and 
 as she gently said, decided to ride by "faith and 
 not by sight " just that one day at any rate. 
 
 The Canon was a beautiful mountain range 
 some six or eight miles eastward of the town 
 and a favorite resort of picnickers. The road 
 leading to it was finely graded and the horses 
 trotted briskly along in apparently as good 
 spirits as the Chautauquans. In the omnibuses 
 there was the usual telling of stories and merry 
 overflow of small talk, with that easily pro 
 voked and contagious laughter which betokens 
 good fellowship. 
 
 " We are acting like big school children out 
 for a holiday," said Mrs. Brooks half depreca- 
 tingly. 
 
 " So we do," said Christian Leib, "and so we 
 do well ; we are not half children enough here 
 in America, I think." He had brought his two 
 sturdy little sons along, in spite of Mrs. Leib's
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 105 
 
 fears that they wouldn't " behave themselves," 
 and it was pleasant indeed to see what genial 
 comradery there was between the father and the 
 boys. . 
 
 The young Chautauquans had very naturally 
 gravitated towards one omnibus and the family 
 people to the others. Kate was with the latter 
 and felt far more at home there with the fathers 
 and mothers, and with the children who had 
 been her pupils now mildly quarrelling for the 
 privilege of sitting next to their dear teacher. 
 She abandoned herself without reserve to the 
 spirit of the day, looked wherever little fingers 
 pointed at squirrels or butterflies or meadow- 
 larks, often twisting her neck nearly off to 
 catch vanishing glimpses of what some pair of 
 bright young eyes had discovered. 
 
 For some distance the road led through a 
 level country with pleasant rural homes scat 
 tered along on either side ; then the soft undula 
 tions of the foothills were reached and the road 
 ascended with long curves and ever widening 
 outlooks. The broad valley with its wheat 
 fields, orchards, and vineyards lay shimmering
 
 106 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 in the bright June sunshine, as beautiful as 
 Arcadia, while the range of distant hills on the 
 far horizon had the soft smoke-like blue color 
 which rims almost every California landscape. 
 A hush of delight settled over the merry party, 
 broken only by exclamations from the irre 
 pressible, or by petitions to the driver at each 
 new point of observation to stop for a fresh feast 
 to the eyes of his passengers. But at last the 
 road entered the canon and the great cliffs shut 
 out the rest of the world. The air grew cooler. 
 A greener hue came over the wayside grass and 
 shrubs, and the rippling and gurgling of a little 
 brook began to be heard, a sound most musical 
 to the dwellers in the streamless California 
 valleys. Beautiful wild flowers fringed the 
 brookside or hung pendulous from the cliffs. 
 The little wild linnets and canaries hospitably 
 greeted the picnickers and every green leaf on 
 the trees seemed to welcome them and to whis 
 per, as they did to the dear poet Longfellow, 
 
 Come, be a child once more. 
 
 Our friends could bardly wait to reach the 
 selected spot where a widening of the gorge
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 107 
 
 made room for a grove of oaks and madrones, 
 and the moment the horses stopped, old and 
 young made haste to alight. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Fiske had arrived quite a little in advance of 
 the others and very naturally took the role of 
 host and hostess. Mrs. Fiske came forward 
 with her hands too full of bluebells to allow of 
 the usual hand-shaking, but she never seemed 
 more cordial or at home than when she bade the 
 ladies come right into her boudoir where every 
 one could have an opportunity to at least lave 
 her hands in the fountain of youth which she 
 had just discovered. 
 
 "And every boy present may take off his 
 shoes and stockings and have a good wade," 
 cried Mr. Leib, but every youngster had already 
 rushed for the water with as unerring an instinct 
 as if he were a turtle. 
 
 When Mr. Chapman arrived with his pair of 
 boys it really seemed for a while, as there was 
 no corral on the grounds, that he would have to 
 tether them to prevent their amphibian tenden 
 cies. One of the young men had brought a long 
 rope for a swing, and offered it to the anxious
 
 108 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 father, but the little fellows soon learned that 
 there were metes and bounds for boys as well as 
 brooks, and the swing went up to the great 
 satisfaction of the girls, who were soon emula 
 ting the birds in their breezy flight. Two or 
 three family carry-alls, each with a fresh install 
 ment of Chautauquans, arrived in the course of 
 an hour and completed the party. Horses were 
 taken off and tied where they could browse 
 about in deep content. Robes and cushions 
 were spread on the grass and pleasant groups 
 sat down on them in picturesque neighborliness. 
 Grandma Beckwith was led near Willie Kel- 
 lett's couch and seated on a camp chair which 
 had been brought for her, and there she sat 
 taking in all the sweet woodland odors and 
 sounds, and enjoying to the full all the pleasant 
 greetings and conversation which came to her, 
 especially the long chat with Willie for whom 
 she had a tender and growing affection. They 
 both regretted that it was impossible for Miss 
 Olmstead to be one of the party and planned to 
 take her such a great basket of wild flowers and 
 ferns as should make her prison walls a bower
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 109 
 
 of beauty, a plan they found easy to carry out 
 as their friends were constantly bringing to 
 them the choicest of their cullings. 
 
 Everywhere Miss Thurston was in great 
 demand. The boys wanted her to come to the 
 launching of a mimic fleet ; the girls insisted 
 she should try the swing, and each group that 
 she approached made place for her with eager 
 friendliness. She was about as happy as it is 
 often given to mortals to be, what with her 
 year's work satisfactorily done, and her well- 
 earned vacation beginning in this charming 
 way. She appreciated it all with fresh young 
 enthusiasm and as she took long deep inspira 
 tions of the pure exhilarating odorous air she 
 thanked God for the delight of being. She was 
 an ardent tree lover and had not seen a great 
 gnarled nature-planted tree in a whole year. 
 How her eyes feasted now upon these forest 
 monarchs ! From her childhood she had been 
 enraptured with running water, yet for years 
 had not heard the music of a waterfall. How 
 she drank in this liquid melody ! 
 
 Of the same kind, if not degree, was Mrs.
 
 110 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Brooks' enjoyment of the scene. She sat down 
 under a beautiful madrone tree, folded her 
 hands in an idleness so unwonted that she 
 could scarcely pacify her conscience, and lost 
 herself in a reverie which brought back the far- 
 off days of her childhood. The old Vermont 
 home rose before her and she heard the tinkle of 
 the little brook that ran by the old doorstone. 
 Christian Leib became the centre of an inter 
 ested group to whom he described with great 
 vividness and in very good English how the 
 German peasant keeps his holidays. Mrs. Fiske 
 drew him out with her bright questions and all 
 were entertained with his account of the simple 
 rural games, the athletic sports, and the good 
 homely fare of "Vaterland." He spoke 
 guardedly of the drinking customs, looking 
 kindly at the listening boys: "Our brown 
 bread is good ; our cheese is good ; bologna sau 
 sage is good better, I think, than cake and pie, 
 but the beer and wine is bad all bad. It makes 
 the men to act not like Chautauquans," he 
 added, after casting about for a noble representa 
 tive class.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. Ill 
 
 John Thompson swung the young ladies with 
 such vigor and persistence that his collar be 
 came noticeably limp, but his zeal and his 
 muscle never seemed to flag. He was very 
 kind and attentive in other directions also, and, 
 forgetting himself, really seemed intelligent and 
 well bred. John was evidently growing toward 
 his ideal. 
 
 Various parties wandered off down inviting 
 little by-ways and came back with long stream 
 ers of fragrant yerba buena wound about their 
 hats, and their hands overflowing with wild 
 flowers lupines, painted cups, airy little " lan 
 terns of the fairies," roses and the gorgeous 
 eschscholtzias which flame on every California 
 hillside in the spring and linger in moist places 
 even till autumn. 
 
 Every one took his or her pleasure according 
 to the desire of their hearts. But something 
 seemed to call them all in about half past eleven. 
 There was a prevailing impression that it was 
 fully noon, which found voice through sundry 
 small boys who boldly asserted that it was 
 dinner time. A vote was taken which resulted
 
 112 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 in the triumph of appetites over watches. One 
 of the party who was an old miner, had already 
 made an excellent fire and set a huge tea kettle 
 over the glowing coals and now the housewives 
 had only to bring their coffee and teapots to 
 this improvised range for the final prepara 
 tion. 
 
 Red table cloths were spread on the grass and 
 heaped with tempting viands, while the children 
 looked on with undisguised interest. Every 
 body contributed to the feast. Mr. Fowler did 
 valiant service with a lemon squeezer, and under 
 one of the young ladies' direction produced a 
 pailful of delicious lemonade. One would have 
 said as old Chaucer did of his Franklein ? s 
 larder, that 
 
 It snowed there of mete and drinke. 
 At last everything was ready. Mrs. Fiske 
 had even set her glasses of amber and ruby- 
 hued ielly where the sun brought out their con 
 trasted beauty; had put the bottle of olives 
 near the seat she had planned for Dr. Hall who 
 liked them as if he were a Greek ; had arranged 
 an ingenious system of flower tokens by which
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 113 
 
 each person's place was designated, and aston 
 ished them all with her pretty devices. Then 
 Mr. Chapman thanked the Heavenly Father 
 for all His good gifts and asked in true Chautau- 
 qua phrase that they might ever "keep Him in 
 the midst." And the gay little feast began in 
 that great dining hall whose walls were older 
 than history and whose ceiling was the infinite 
 dome of the sky. 
 
 In process of time it came to an end, and Kate 
 had to acknowledge that Mrs. Brooks' judgment 
 in regard to provisions had been better than her 
 own. It was quite an easy matter to gather up 
 the fragments. 
 
 Then the Circle widened out a little, though 
 all kept their relative places, and the Secretary 
 whisked out her little record book and proceeded 
 to call the roll. No less than thirty of the forty 
 members were present and responded with a 
 quotation fitted to the occasion. 
 
 "The groves were God's first temples," said 
 Mr. Chapman. 
 
 " Oh gift of God, Oh perfect day!" said Mrs. 
 Chapman.
 
 114 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 " The smell of the flowering grasses is sweeter 
 than any rose," said Jennie Brooks. 
 
 " He maketh me to lie down in green pas 
 tures," said her mother. 
 
 " He leadeth me beside the still waters," said 
 Mrs. Beckwith. 
 
 " A noise like that of a hidden brook 
 
 In the leafy month of June, 
 That to the sleeping woods all night 
 Slngeth a quiet tune," 
 
 was Mr. Fiske's quotation. 
 
 " The infinite bliss of nature 
 
 I feel in every vein, 
 The light and the life of summer 
 Blossom in heart and brain," 
 
 said Mrs. Fiske when her turn came. 
 
 ' Spake full well in language quaint and olden, 
 
 One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine, 
 When he called the flowers so blue and golden, 
 Stars, that in earth's flrmanent do shine," 
 
 answered Christian Leib. 
 Willie Kellett's response was from Chaucer : 
 
 " The birdes song was more pleasant to me 
 Than mete or drinke or any other thynge." 
 
 It was reserved for the gentle schoolmistress 
 herself to recite Lowell's "June Day," which 
 she did with a simplicity and naturalness
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 115 
 
 quite different from the ordinary elocutionist. 
 
 " To me the smallest flower that blows can bring 
 Thoughts which do often lie too deep for tears," 
 
 quoted one. 
 
 Another had a verse from Shelley's " Sky 
 lark." Another a verse from Tennyson's 
 " Talking Oak." Another, Browning's " Oh to 
 be in England " ; while lines from Byron and 
 Burns and our own nature-loving poets, fol 
 lowed in rapid succession, a rosary of thought- 
 pearls whose careful choosing and assigning be 
 trayed the same deft hand that had made even 
 the details of the lunch table graceful and har 
 monious. 
 
 When Dr. Hall's turn came he said : 
 
 " None looked upon her but he straightway thought 
 
 Of all the greenest depths of country cheer, 
 And into each one's mind was freely brought 
 What was to him the sweetest time of year." 
 
 But he looked steadfastly into a tree-top as he 
 repeated it as if there were no allusions to any 
 lower object. 
 
 When the roll call came to an end Mr. Chap 
 man was suddenly discovered to have a pro 
 gram, on which next in order came "Toasts." 
 These were in Mr. Fiske's hands and were
 
 116 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 formally announced and drank in Mr. Fowler's 
 
 excellent lemonade. 
 
 First: "The C. L. S. C. f " responded to by 
 Mr. Chapman in terms of glowing appreciation. 
 
 Second : " The San Benito Circle," responded 
 to by John Thompson, who said that there 
 might perhaps be smarter Circles in the United 
 States, but they were yet to be heard from. 
 (Laughter and prolonged applause.) John took 
 courage and went on to modify his remark : 
 "There may be just as smart people in some 
 other town but the great thing is to get them 
 together and start them. There's lots of gold in 
 these California hills, but the smart thing is to 
 find it; we all know," he concluded, "who 
 struck this lead," and he s?,t down in a perfect 
 salvo of applause. 
 
 Third: "Our President," read Mr. Fiske. 
 Poor Kate threw up her hands in supplication, 
 but Mrs. Chapman was on her feet and not to be 
 stopped : " We will be sparing of our praises 
 however richly deserved," she said, "but if he 
 is held in honor who makes two blades of grass 
 grow where one grew before, what shall be said
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 117 
 
 of her who has sown the seed for such a golden 
 harvest as this? Let us give her our fervent 
 benediction ! (A tremendous flutter of hand 
 kerchiefs arose here, as if a flock of white doves 
 had swept down upon the scene.) If we lay an 
 other little tribute at her feet it is only a token 
 of our love and gratitude." And here Mr. Leib 
 produced from its hiding place a box containing 
 a complete set of Scott's novels in a choice 
 edition, and set them down before the young 
 President, whose words failed her but whose 
 looks were eloquent with surprise and pleasure. 
 
 There might have been an embarrassing pause 
 here but for another Chautauqua salute, and 
 then Mr. Fiske hurried on to the last toast : 
 
 "The No table Housewives who have Spread 
 our Feast," which called out Dr. Hall in a com 
 plimentary speech about Chautauqua women as 
 mistresses of more arts than are mentioned on 
 diplomas. He said some excellent things about 
 culture of the intellect giving added power in 
 every direction, and made a pleasant ripple of 
 laughter at the close of his remarks by saying 
 that " it was a little trying to him to be called
 
 118 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 upon to speak in favor of good cookery when it 
 was a well known fact that his profession was 
 deeply indebted to the other kind." 
 
 " Riddles and conundrums, strictly original," 
 read Mr. Chapman from his program. 
 
 "I am the most famous of Chautauquans," 
 said Mrs. Fiske, " and am composed of two 
 syllables. My first is the French name for 
 wine ; my second is a coin ignored in California ; 
 my whole we delight to honor." 
 
 "Vincent ! " cried half a dozen voices. 
 
 " I also am composed of two syllables," said 
 Mr. Chapman. "My first is frequently found 
 beside rivers ; my second is said by a famous 
 poet to be human ; my whole is another famous 
 Chautauquan as well as a proverbially dusty 
 individual." 
 
 ' ' As dusty as a Miller, ' ' suggested Kate, who 
 had recovered her voice. 
 
 "I'm another famous Chautauqua counselor," 
 said Lizzie Towner, " and my name once meant 
 a priest at the head of a monastery." 
 
 "Abbott," guessed somebody. 
 
 " I belong to the same ' goodlie companie,' ' ;
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 119 
 
 said Kate, c< and am as vigorous and wholesome 
 as my name." 
 
 " Hale ! " went up from ever so many voices. 
 
 " This is severe on the magi," said Dr. Hall, 
 " but I can't help giving one more. My first is 
 only right as a last resort; my second is a familiar 
 bird ; my whole is an abode for a domesticated 
 animal, and also the name of a counselor, whose 
 pardon I ask." 
 
 " Warren ! " cried at least a dozen. 
 
 "Let the counselors have a rest now," said 
 Mrs. Fiske, laughing, "but who of our number 
 is very suitably domiciled if her name indicates 
 her destiny?" 
 
 There was silence for moment and then a 
 gleam came into Dr. Hall's eyes : 
 
 " If Miss Kate is doomed to thirst on, where 
 should she live but with the Brooks f " he in 
 quired. 
 
 "This is getting dangerously personal," said 
 Mr. Chapman. " I feel sure I shall be the next 
 victim, so I'll hurry on with my program." 
 
 " A Sermon from a Stone," by Robert Dean. 
 
 Then up rose the young suburban school-
 
 120 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 teacher and picking up a pebble from the 
 brook, he told in a clear interesting way the 
 geologic story of the stone. It occupied less 
 than ten minutes but it was a capital object 
 lesson and set the boys thinking. 
 
 "Becitation by Flora Towner," and that 
 charming young lady recited with wonderful 
 effect, partly no doubt due to the environment, 
 Lowell's " A Beggar Through the Wood am I." 
 At the appeal to the oak she had but to stretch 
 out her hands to the great tree which sheltered 
 
 her: 
 
 " A little of thy steadfastness 
 Bounded with leafy gracefulness, 
 
 Old oak give me, 
 
 That the world's blasts may round me blow 
 And I yield gently to and fro, 
 "While my stout hearted trunk below, 
 And firm set roots, unshaken be." 
 
 Then too, right across the brook was the rock 
 for her to appeal to when she begged for some 
 " stern, unyielding might " of the " old granite 
 gray." 
 
 There was the "cheerful brook" with its 
 "sparkling light content " ; there was the pine 
 with its " never dying green," and lastly the 
 "sweet violet" right at her feet, and as she
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 121 
 
 begged for their lovely gifts she seemed the 
 prettiest and most winsome beggar that ever 
 went through the wood. 
 
 "Tongues in Trees," called up a young lady 
 very much interested in botany, who read a five- 
 minute essay naming all the trees in the Canon 
 and giving a few of their characteristics. 
 
 "Recitation" again, and this time Christian 
 Leib read capitally this translation from his own 
 Ditmarsh poet, Klaus Groth : 
 
 " There dwelt a man in meadows green 
 "Who hadn't a cup or platter e'en ; 
 To passing brook for drink he stooped, 
 And cherries plucked that o'er him drooped. 
 
 " A jolly man ! A jolly man ! 
 He'd never a pot ; he'd never a pan ; 
 He ate the apples off the tree, 
 And slept in clover cosily. 
 
 " The sun for him was timepiece good : 
 His bird-cage was the shady wood, 
 They sang to him nights above his head 
 And waked him with the dawning red. 
 
 " This man (Oh, what a silly man I) 
 To be o'er nice at last began, 
 To be o'er fussy he began, 
 We've lived in houses e'er since then. 
 Come ! Let's off to the woods again ! " 
 
 " Music, by the Chautauqua Quartet," read 
 the minister, and four harmonious voices sang, 
 " We gather the fragments, Lord."
 
 122 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 The end of the program was reached. A 
 whole hour had slipped away delightfully. 
 Only the children had strayed away what 
 "program" could ever hold a child of thoroughly 
 natural tastes ? 
 
 The mothers were growing a little anxious 
 minded, but Miss Thurston detained them a 
 moment. "Dear friends," she said, "this 
 Chautauqua Circle has been far more to me 
 than I have to the Circle, and I want to thank 
 you over and over for all your kindness. I can 
 never forget any of you nor this perfect day. I 
 wish it were possible that we all might meet at 
 Monterey. Do try to plan for it. Monterey is 
 so near I am sure you can many of you go even 
 if your stay has to be short at the Assembly. 
 This is my graduating year. How I would love 
 to have my Chautauquans around me! You 
 all have the Assembly circulars and know how 
 much has been planned for us. I do not mean 
 to say good-by to you, but just au revoir, or, as 
 Mr. Leib would say, auf wiedersehen." 
 
 And so the Round Table adjourned not ex 
 actly sine die.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 123 
 
 An hour or so more of strolling and chatting 
 on the part of the older people, of cliff-climbing 
 by the adventurous boys, of fern-hunting by 
 the girls, of little romantic saunterings off down 
 sylvan paths by young people to whom a third 
 party was one too many, and it was discovered 
 that the sun was dropping down the west with 
 that fatal celerity which is especially noticeable 
 on red-letter days. The young people came back 
 from their walks, gentlemen began to look at 
 their watches, and the boys were poking into 
 their mothers' lunch baskets to see what was 
 left. It was time to go home. 
 
 " Let us have one more song from our quar 
 tet," pleaded Mrs. Fiske, and so the young 
 singers stood up in the flickering shade and 
 sang the grandest of Chautauqua songs : 
 
 " Sing pseans over the past, 
 
 We bury the dead years tenderly 
 To find them again in eternity, 
 Slug paeans over the past. 
 
 " But hail all hail to the new ! 
 
 The future lies like a world new-born 
 All steeped in sunshine and mists of morn, 
 And arched with a cloudless blue. 
 All hail ! All hail to the new ! " 
 
 As the sweet voices rose and fell in the
 
 124 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 cadences of the first verse an irresistible " teari- 
 ness" fell upon the gentler sex, but most of 
 them brightened up over the joyous final out 
 burst. 
 
 The next morning Kate ran over to Mrs. 
 Fiske for a parting word, and as she held her 
 friend's hand long and closely, she said : " How 
 much I owe you, and what an enchantress' 
 wand you held yesterday ! " 
 
 "Oh, no ! no ! " protested Mrs. Fiske. " It is 
 I who am your hopeless debtor. It is you who 
 always have a heart at leisure from itself. But 
 as to our pleasant yesterday, of course I did put 
 some thought into it. Why shouldn't I when I 
 love you so, Katie? "
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 BY MONTEREY BAY. 
 
 CHAUTAUQUA LAKE with its Parthenon-like 
 Hall in the Grove, its Colosseum-like Amphi 
 theater, and its cultured associations, can well 
 begin to wear classic airs. But the Occidental 
 Chautauquans have no less beautiful a home for 
 their Assembly. Man has done less ; but the 
 matchless bay, the limitless forest, the majestic 
 mountains, make up an environment before 
 which all human architecture must fade away. 
 All these combine to make Monterey incompara 
 bly charming. It is rich also in historical 
 associations. Here a hundred years ago the 
 Franciscan friars came with as lofty a courage 
 and as sublime a devotion as brought the Pil 
 grims to the New England coast. It was even 
 a more purely Christian enterprise than that of 
 the Mayflower; and the cross these black-robed
 
 126 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 men planted as soon as they set foot upon the 
 wave-washed beach was the symbol of a faith 
 unwavering as the rock beneath it, and the 
 pledge of a devotion which might easily end in 
 martyrdom. 
 
 To Kate Thurston this favorite camp ground 
 was a familiar spot. For two years she had 
 spent a fortnight of her vacation here and her 
 love for the place was constantly deepening. 
 She had seen the beautiful cottages spring up 
 like enchantment on every hand, and realized 
 that a little city of summer homes would soon 
 take the place of the old clusters of tents ; she 
 welcomed, with a shade of reservation, all the 
 improvements in the line of artistic adornment 
 and modern convenience. Her only fear was that 
 that wonderful pine forest would too soon lose 
 its flavor of the wilderness, and that its sylvan 
 paths, which the shy woodland creatures now 
 haunted with such freedom, might have to give 
 way to carefully graded streets and broad 
 avenues. But the Chautauqua Assembly was a 
 modern improvement which Kate welcomed 
 without reserve. Indeed it was that which first
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 127 
 
 drew her to Monterey. For two summers she 
 had studied the flora of the sea with that en 
 cyclopedia of marine lore, Dr. C. L. Anderson, 
 to whom the sea is what the forest was to his 
 friend, Henry D. Thoreau. 
 
 She had gathered shells with that other in 
 defatigable genius of the Monterey Assembly, 
 Professor Josiah Keep, and had peered with him 
 into the beauty and the mystery of these lowly 
 forms of animal life. 
 
 She had looked with reverent awe through 
 Dr. Wythe's great microscope, had listened to 
 his eloquent and learned talks upon the science 
 of life, and had thrilled responsive to his clear 
 demonstration that SOUL still eludes the finest 
 analysis of the biologist. 
 
 She had listened to and enjoyed all the 
 brilliant lecturers and essayists of the Assem 
 blies of '82 and '83, and greatly prized the little 
 acquaintance she had with all the officers and 
 teachers of the Pacific Coast Branch of the 
 C. L. 8. C. But to her the attractions of the 
 Assembly centered in her beloved teacher-friend, 
 Prof. Norton. It was his tall peculiar figure
 
 128 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 which her eye singled out in any crowd. It was 
 his kind, fatherly : " Why, how do you do, my 
 child? " with the brightening of the fine dark 
 eyes, the softening of the lines in the serious, 
 thoughtful face, and the cordial grasp of the 
 strong but gentle hand, that made the one wel 
 come which to her was worth coming two 
 hundred miles to receive. 
 
 The summer Assembly of 1884 was not to be 
 illuminated by Prof. Norton's presence ; Kate 
 knew that he had gone East, but it was her 
 graduating time and she felt a great desire to 
 celebrate the occasion. Her diploma would have 
 greatly added value if it came from Dr. Strat- 
 ton's hand, and her loyal heart answered to all 
 the social elements in the Chautauqua plan. 
 Her young spirit was easily stirred by ceremo 
 nial and she often declared that she was a 
 regular Fourth of July girl as her birthday 
 chanced to dictate. She frankly owned that she 
 doted on music and banners. 
 
 So when she reached her home in Sacramento, 
 and had settled down to practical life after the 
 first day or two of joyous overflow, she began to
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 129 
 
 unfold a scheme which was to include the whole 
 household and make a grand holiday. 
 
 The family was made up of a father who had 
 been a Congregational minister of not a little 
 local fame in far-off New England, but whom an 
 accident, followed by a long semi-invalidism, 
 had left poor in purse yet rich in the graces 
 which suffering brings and in the loving devo 
 tion of his wife and children ; a mother whose 
 natural gentleness and unselfishness had been 
 deepened by care and sorrow ; an older sister 
 who was a popular teacher in one of the Sacra 
 mento schools ; and a young brother who was 
 hilarious to the full extent of his boy allow 
 ance. 
 
 It was from her father largely that Kate in 
 herited her fine brave spirited nature, and they 
 were friends and allies to a delightful degree. 
 So she took her low ottoman beside her father's 
 chair in the twilight of a sultry June day, and 
 thus as it were intrenched in her fortifications, 
 boldly challenged the rest of the family with : 
 " Papa and I think we can all go to Monterey 
 for the month of July !".
 
 130 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 11 Dear me, what a project I" said the mother 
 almost with a gasp. 
 
 "That sounds like Katie," said Mary, which 
 meant that it might possibly be a little vision 
 ary. 
 
 " Hooray ! " cried Fred. 
 
 "Yes," went on Kate, quite regardless of in 
 terruptions, "it is like this. There are the 
 Nelsons over at the hotel who'll just like to come 
 into our shady little house and take care of 
 things. They'll pay something for rent, too; 
 and here are Mary and I getting positively 
 affluent, and though Mary can't go with us she 
 can come the very day her school closes, while 
 Fred can lose a few days of school without harm. 
 Of course he'll be heartbroken about it (here 
 Fred whipped out a handkerchief and fell to 
 Bopping up imaginary tears), yet I can teach 
 him several things at Monterey (at this he 
 brightened up a little) and we can take a tent 
 and live ever so cheaply, and I'll pay the bills 
 and be only too happy ! Now somebody else 
 may speak briefly and to the point, provided 
 they don't go to objecting."
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 131 
 
 " I may as well confess," said her father, 
 " that I've a big retaining fee and can only in 
 honor speak on the affirmative side. The ocean 
 does look very tempting to a man who grew up 
 beside it and now has not seen it for fifteen 
 years. The type-writer which my good girls 
 gave me last Christmas has made my work 
 doubry profitable this year, so I feel quite in 
 dependent and rich as well as these purse-proud 
 young women," and he looked fondly at his 
 daughters. 
 
 "It really does seem providential that our 
 boarders have gone East this summer," said the 
 mother, as if thinking aloud. Then she added 
 apologetically : " It seems a shame to speak of 
 them as boarders, our dear old friends who 
 have made their home with us so long. Nobody 
 will be gladder to see them safely back than I. 
 What a blessing the good old pair have been to 
 us all these years ! " 
 
 "Well, it's settled, isn't it?" cried Fred, 
 hardly waiting for his mother to finish her re 
 flections. 
 
 Kate nodded, and Fred's hat went up in the
 
 132 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 air while he made a lunge at his pet sister, 
 whom he always regarded as the lawful object 
 for his somewhat violent caresses. 
 
 " Yes, it is settled," said Mary, always practi 
 cal and serious; "now, who has to have any 
 thing new ? " 
 
 "New!" cried Kate; "now that shows how 
 little you know about Pacific Grove and Monte 
 rey ! Why it's the place of all the world to wear 
 out your old clothes. It's simply idyllic. We 
 all get to looking like Quakers, so calm and 
 peaceful, free from the racking care of finery. 
 Mother's immortal gray camel's hair is just the 
 thing, and my brown serge that I've worn all 
 winter in school is almost too good ! Positively ; 
 Mary, I'm afraid you haven't anything quite old 
 enough to be up to the grove standards, and 
 you're too tall for my ancient garments. Per 
 haps, though, one well-dressed individual may 
 give the family a certain tone. Yes, Mary, on 
 the whole you needn't stay at home on this 
 account." 
 
 She stood up and ran her fingers through her 
 father's gray hair with: "We've gained our
 
 CHAUTAUQ.UA CIRCLES. 133 
 
 point, haven't we, papa? And two weeks from 
 to-day, dear papa, we'll be in Pacific Grove 
 watching old ocean." 
 
 " You mean you've gained your point, Katie," 
 answered her father, drawing her face down for 
 half a dozen kisses. 
 
 Two weeks of busy preparation followed, and 
 then it came to pass that on the evening of 
 June 25th the Thurstons were all deposited be 
 fore one of the little tent cottages of Pacific 
 Grove. Kate, who had naturally taken the 
 helm in the planning and management of the 
 enterprise, and whose familiarity with the 
 Grove gave her still greater prerogatives, un 
 locked the tent door and ushered in the family 
 with great airs of proprietorship. The room was 
 about fourteen by sixteen feet and contained 
 two double beds and a cot, a little stove, a stand, 
 and three chairs. At the rear was a canvas- 
 covered kitchen with cooking stove, pine table, 
 and a cupboard scantily supplied with dishes 
 and cooking utensils. The beds looked neat and 
 proved most comfortable, while bright colored 
 chintz curtains surrounding each gave them, as
 
 134 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Kate said, " a certain degree of seclusion." The 
 whole arrangement would have been poverty- 
 stricken enough anywhere else, but here it was 
 ample for their needs, and the dusty travelers 
 proceeded to unpack and arrange their limited 
 personal effects, while Kate, capturing Fred for 
 an escort, ran out, as she said, "to set the tide 
 towards them " the tide of needful supplies 
 milkman, baker, butcher, fish vender, and last 
 but not least, the delicious cool soft water from 
 Carmel River had to be turned on so as to reach 
 their special pipe and faucet. 
 
 "We are just to sleep and eat here," ordained 
 Mistress Kate, after they had enjoyed a refresh 
 ing cup of tea, with bread and butter fit for a 
 king, and raspberries better than most kings 
 can have for love or money. " The order is im 
 perative that every possible moment is to be 
 spent out of doors." 
 
 The voice of the sea was calling them even 
 now, but Fred alone was fresh enough for a run 
 along the shore that evening. Every one of 
 them, however, felt the delightful invigorating 
 influence of the air, and could hardly settle
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 135 
 
 down to eat or sleep. Indeed the roar of 
 many waters kept them all awake except Fred. 
 It was really pathetic to Kate to see how her 
 father's blood was stirred. He had leaned from 
 the car window as they approached Monterey 
 to catch the first glimpse of the water, and with 
 as keen delight as the old Greeks felt on their 
 return from their long inland march, he kept 
 exclaiming, "The sea! the sea!" as they 
 drove over from Monterey Station to the Grove 
 around the beautiful curve of Monterey Bay. 
 Nor could he help listening all night long to the 
 clamorous waves. He could scarcely wait for 
 daylight before answering their call. Toward 
 morning he half slept and dreamed he was a 
 boy again by old Penobscot Bay. He heard the 
 long ago voices of father and mother, brothers 
 and sisters. Then he was out on the water and 
 could feel the billows rocking under his little 
 boat. He woke thinking he was running up 
 the hill after his fishing-tackle while his 
 brothers were baling the water out of the some 
 what leaky little craft. 
 Mrs. Thurston also lay awake and could
 
 136 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 scarcely divest herself of the thought that she 
 too was in the home of her youth and that a 
 wild Maine northeaster was blowing in great 
 wintry gusts against the house. 
 
 Early in the morning Mr. Thurston set forth 
 before any one else was stirring, and when he 
 came back at breakfast with a bright color in 
 his face and his hands full of shells, he was met 
 with a chorus of accusation : " You forgot your 
 cane ! You forgot your cane ! " And sure enough 
 there stood his "main-stay and dependence " in 
 its place behind the door, and he had never 
 missed it I 
 
 " Mind-cure ! " shouted Fred. 
 
 "Sea-cure!" said Kate, drawing her father 
 into the kitchen and seating him at the table 
 while she proceeded to sit on an inverted box 
 beside him and help him to mush in a cracked 
 saucer, and to coffee in a cup minus the usual 
 foundation of a saucer. 
 
 "Nobody can have two saucers at once," she 
 said; "we'll soon find out in what prodigal 
 luxury we live at home." Then, as Mr. Thurs 
 ton produced from his pockets a dozen beautiful
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 137 
 
 limpet shells clean and shining : " Butter 
 dishes. Individual butter dishes ! " she ex 
 claimed, running to give them a final rinse. 
 " ' Sweet are the uses of adversity ' ; we shall all 
 become inventive geniuses. Look at the sumptu 
 ous divan your old trunk makes ! Behold that 
 old barrel which some past tenant left after 
 breakfast I shall wave my wand over it and it 
 will become an elegant toilet table ! When the 
 genius of the place seizes you, papa, we shall 
 fairly bristle with inventions, and mamma will 
 wonder why you have never been heard of in 
 the patent office at Washington." 
 
 As soon as the breakfast was over, Fred took 
 hold of the dish-washing with unwonted alacrity 
 while his sister hurried around to help their 
 mother with regulating the tent, and then, 
 having succeeded in tying a shade hat on the head 
 of that somewhat reluctant woman, and hang 
 ing a blanket shawl over her arm in case the 
 breeze should prove too cool, Kate fairly drove 
 her mother off for a stroll on the beach with her 
 father. Fred followed in exuberant happi 
 ness, while Kate put on her hat and went up to
 
 138 KATE THUJRSTON'S 
 
 the office to register the Thurston family and to 
 look for familiar names. At almost every turn 
 she met some one whom she had known more 
 or less in the summers gone by, and stopped for 
 pleasant words of greeting. At the office she 
 ran down the pages of arrivals and found not a 
 single San Benito name. It was hardly time 
 for them yet, she thought, yet she hoped to find 
 one or two. She wrote her own list of names 
 with their tent number, and then strolled 
 toward the beach. The day was clear and 
 warm. The pines cast cool, deep shadows 
 across her path and ever before her shone the 
 blue waters of the bay. It seemed to her nothing 
 in the world could be more beautiful than these 
 tree-crowned cliffs, this lovely expanse of softly 
 heaving water, with little sail boats dotting it 
 here and there, and far off the misty blue ranges 
 of the Coast Mountains. She thought of the de 
 light and refreshment these scenes were giving 
 her father and mother and young brother, and 
 how, when her dear Mary came there would be 
 nothing more to desire her happiness would be 
 complete. Then a quick little blush ran over
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 139 
 
 her face as if she were conscious of another wish 
 which as yet she had scarcely breathed to herself. 
 Suddenly a joyous cry of " Miss Kate ! Miss 
 Kate!" startled her, and she saw the sturdy 
 figure of little John Leib on a side street, but 
 instead of running toward her he wheeled and 
 ran the other way, evidently scampering off to 
 convey the glad news of her discovery. He ran 
 toward a cluster of tents on that part of the 
 grounds set aside for campers, and " Miss Kate " 
 followed him with all haste. In a moment 
 more she was surrounded by a bevy of her 
 Chautauquans who fairly overwhelmed her 
 with their welcomings. She was plied with 
 questions and drawn hither and thither to look 
 at the new edition of San Benito. It seemed 
 they had all come over two days before, some by 
 the train and others with their own convey 
 ances, but in the hurry of putting up tents and 
 getting settled had neglected to register. " Be 
 sides," said John Thompson, "we're going to 
 proclaim to the world that we're the San Benito 
 C. L. S. C., and we want our President to head 
 the list."
 
 140 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 " Indeed, I'll be only too proud to write my 
 name there. I'll get them to let me cross it out 
 from its present humble place as a member of a 
 private family," laughed Kate, " and I'll come 
 out at the top of your names with all my titles 
 in big letters.'' 
 
 It was a gay little encampment into which 
 she was now ushered. In one tent the Leib 
 family was nicely domiciled with matting on 
 the ground, straw beds neatly made up on the 
 matting, and a little room left to circulate 
 around in. The Brooks family had a similar 
 arrangement ; another family had a finer outfit 
 in the way of canvas floor, camp beds, chairs 
 and tables, with quite an array of curtains and 
 home-like conveniences. Two large tents com 
 pleted the settlement ; in one of which half a 
 dozen young ladies made a merry community, 
 the other contained a long table and was the 
 common dining-hall of the encampment. A 
 little distance off was a small inclosure with 
 canvas sides but open to the sky overhead, and 
 here was a large cooking stove presided over by 
 a white aproned Chinaman, who cooked for the
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 141 
 
 whole community, and who seemed as much in 
 his element as any of the party. Bread, pies, 
 and cakes were bought at the restaurant or of 
 venders, but all else was concocted by " John " 
 and served up in fine style and large quantities 
 three times a day. When John rang his bell 
 every body took his or her camp stool or box 
 and proceeded to be seated in orderly fashion 
 in the dining tent. 
 
 Several young men had come with the party 
 and had found furnished rooms near by. 
 
 " Altogether we count up twenty-five, and we 
 are very fine feeling peoples whether we are fine 
 looking or not," said Mr. Leib. 
 
 " Ah, you are fishing for a compliment about 
 your good looks," said Kate. " I shall not tell 
 you all I think about that, but I shall be proud 
 to head the procession up to the office." 
 
 And so they set forth, Kate walking ahead 
 with Mrs. Brooks, and all the rest following in 
 long array, the young men and maidens bring 
 ing up the rear. Amid much pleasant jesting 
 and laughter they registered first at the general 
 office and then at the Chautauqua headquarters,
 
 142 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 where they were duly introduced to the Secre 
 tary and Treasurer and made cordially welcome 
 to all Chautauqua honors and privileges. They 
 were instructed to wear a live-oak spray as a 
 badge of their C. L. 8. C. membership, and to 
 be sociable with all Chautauquans, which they 
 fully resolved to do. 
 
 On their way to the office Mrs. Brooks had 
 given her escort several pieces of information in 
 regard to her San Benito friends about whom 
 she had made eager inquiries. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Chapman were not coming as their little people 
 were not quite old enough to be taken care of 
 comfortably away from home. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Fiske might possibly appear for the last day or 
 two, but were going with San Francisco friends 
 to Lake Tahoe about this time. 
 
 1 'And Dr. Hall you haven't asked about him, ' ' 
 said Mrs. Brooks, "and maybe you know that his 
 mother is coming from Boston to see him, and 
 last week he went up to San Francisco to meet 
 her. I met him on the street the day before he 
 went, and asked him if he was coming to Mon 
 terey, and he said everything depended on his
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 143 
 
 mother ; maybe she'd like to stay a few days at 
 Del Monte. There was going to be quite a party 
 of tourists and of course they would go to Del 
 Monte. He would be with his mother as much 
 as possible, and if they were at Del Monte at the 
 right time he would come over to the Assembly 
 as much as he could." 
 
 " How are the Kellets ? " asked Kate. 
 
 "All the same as usual," answered Mrs. 
 Brooks, " except Willie ; he's sort of white and 
 drooping this warm weather." 
 
 " I wish he could be set down here by the 
 sea," said Kate fervently, and the first little 
 shadow fell across her morning sunshine. 
 
 A young live-oak tree was making a struggle for 
 existence between two of the cottages near the 
 large entrance gate, and hither Miss Thurston led 
 her friends to obtain the required badges. A gen 
 eral search for pins ensued, followed by a leafing 
 out of the whole party. There were the usual 
 remarks about the verdant badge being appropri 
 ate and becoming, and as they were generally in 
 a hilarious mood everybody laughed at these 
 original witticisms longer and louder than usual.
 
 144 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 The group were at their noisiest, John Thomp 
 son having suggested that he should have a 
 dozen leaves put on just between his shoulders 
 in the form of a horseshoe to advertise his pro 
 fession as well as his Chautauqua membership, 
 to say nothing of the aesthetic character of the 
 ornamentation ; when suddenly there rolled in 
 at the gate an elegant Del Monte carriage full of 
 ladies and gentlemen who were evidently going 
 to "do" the Grove. The Chautauquans were 
 too conspicuous to escape attention and upon 
 them was turned what John afterward des 
 cribed as " the Del Monte glare." 
 
 On the back seat of the barouche was a fine 
 looking elderly lady in widow's dress, and be 
 side her sat a slender aristocratic young lady 
 who put up an eye-glass with a beautifully 
 gloved hand. One of the gentlemen sitting 
 opposite with his back to the San Benito group 
 turned to look when he saw that eye-glass going 
 into place, and gave a little start, colored per 
 ceptibly, and then raised his hat with a quick 
 acknowledgment of acquaintance, while just 
 the faintest tinge of surprise or embarrassment
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 145 
 
 held in check any overflow of cordial greeting. 
 
 Meanwhile Kate, who was pinning on Mrs. 
 Brooks' badge, and who had taken off her 
 gloves and was looking very rustic in her morn 
 ing attire, glanced up to see what spell had 
 fallen upon her friends, and flushed crimson. 
 She did not even return the gentleman's bow, as 
 nearly as she could afterward remember, but 
 dropped her eyes before that critical Boston eye 
 glass and jabbed the pin into Mrs. Brooks with 
 such energy as to wring from even that patient 
 soul a cry of distress. 
 
 "Oh, I beg a thousand pardons, dear Mrs. 
 Brooks!" she cried penitently, while she was 
 inwardly feeling she could cheerfully stick a 
 thousand pins into herself as a punishment for 
 that ridiculous blush. 
 
 She walked along with her friends as they 
 turned back homeward, and made a desperate 
 effort not to show a ruffled spirit as they dis 
 cussed Dr. Hall and Del Monte people gener 
 ally. 
 
 "I 'spose that's the style of people he's been 
 used to," said Martha Brooks.
 
 146 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 "Too high-toned for Chautauquans," said 
 John Thompson. 
 
 "I'm sure he bowed to us friendly enough," 
 said Christian Leib. "What would you haf, 
 John ? A man can ride in a fine carriage with 
 fine peoples and not be foolish-proud, either. I 
 do not like dis way of speaking," his tongue 
 slipping into its old ways as it was inclined to 
 do when he was excited. 
 
 Kate thanked him in her heart, but what 
 she said was : " Now is the time to see the 
 bathers. You must all go right down to the 
 bathing beach, but I must hurry home to set 
 our dinner going. I'll see you all again by and 
 hy." 
 
 She turned quickly off from the main street 
 and almost ran toward her little tent home, in 
 momentary fear lest she should again encounter 
 that Del Monte carriage. Once safely within 
 the door she sat down and scolded herself with 
 an energy and fervor such as she had never be 
 stowed upon her most refractory pupil. She 
 did not hesitate to call herself a goose and an 
 idiot ! She accused herself of nonsensical ideas
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 147 
 
 of half a dozen different sorts and finally of 
 base disloyalty to her own standards. 
 
 " I'd like to see you behave in that way again, 
 Kate Thurston," -she remarked, as she stood 
 herself oft like the culprit she was "flaming up 
 like a red hollyhock just because a gentleman 
 bows to you, and hating yourself, and your old 
 shabby clothes, and even your honest friends 
 just because somebody else is is different ! " 
 
 She seemed to think after a little that she had 
 thoroughly disciplined and subdued this offend 
 ing young woman, and fell to preparing dinner 
 with a zest which was most commendable, both 
 as a quietus to her own disturbed spirit and as a 
 source of gratification to a hungry family who 
 appeared upon the scene promptly at twelve 
 o'clock. 
 
 Yet the whole afternoon, and even far into the 
 night, Kate's soul was disquieted within her, 
 and she kept seeing a delicate fair young lady 
 in a soft gray travelling dress, with hat and 
 gloves exactly to match, and with a filmy blue 
 veil holding down her blonde frizzes, gazing 
 fixedly at her through a pair of gold-rimmed
 
 148 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 eye-glasses. Sometimes, too, the vision had a 
 tendency to grow double, and a young man with 
 a grave and slightly perplexed face lifted his 
 hat to her in polite recognition. 
 
 It was in vain that she took her father and 
 mother to call on her Chautauquans, and en 
 joyed their evident mutual appreciation. 
 
 It was equally unavailing that she took several 
 of her friends on a walk to the lighthouse and 
 shared as far as possible their delight in the 
 wild and rugged scenery of Point Pinos and the 
 great billows of the ocean which break cease 
 lessly over that rocky promontory. 
 
 She was secretly haunted, and the spirits 
 would not down at her bidding. 
 
 In the Del Monte carriage as it whirled along 
 there was also some comment and subsequent 
 disturbance. 
 
 "What extraordinary looking people!" said 
 the young lady, dropping her eye-glasses with 
 slow grace, and elevating her eyebrows. 
 
 "Why, my dear, Philip bowed to them," said 
 the elder lady reprovingly yet mildly. 
 
 " They are acquaintances of mine from San
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 149 
 
 Benito," said Dr. Hall in explanation, giving 
 his moustache a fierce pull afterward to punish 
 himself for saying acquaintances instead of 
 friends. 
 
 "Yes? " inquired the young lady. " A phy 
 sician has to have patients from every class, I 
 suppose, but it must be very tiresome" ; and 
 she let her languid eyes rest sympathizingly 
 upon her cousin's face. 
 
 He made no reply, but the shade of annoy 
 ance deepened rather than disappeared, as the 
 gentleman who shared the seat with him, re 
 marked, " That was rather a nice looking girl in 
 the brown dress the one with the fine color, 
 you know. I say, Hall, she wouldn't be a bad 
 patient." 
 
 " They are my friends," said Dr. Hall, with 
 almost savage emphasis. 
 
 The young lady's eyebrows went up again, 
 while the discomfited young man gazed at the 
 revolving wheels with an interest which 
 amounted to a scientific investigation. The 
 elder lady made a prompt diversion by asking 
 her son the meaning of the arches under which
 
 150 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 they drove, and he explained briefly the Chan- 
 tauqua Society and its annual Assemblies. 
 
 "Ah, yes," she said, " I understand. Gene- 
 vieve, it is like our Boston Society for the Pro 
 motion of Home Study." 
 
 But Genevieve was still musing upon her 
 cousin's emphatic statement, and fell back upon 
 her standing reply to all sorts of information, 
 especially if she questioned the " good form " of 
 the matter involved. ' ' Yes ? ' ' 
 
 "I am a member of the Society and have found 
 it pleasant and useful," said Dr. Hall, still ad 
 dressing his mother. "I hope to come over 
 here again while you are at Del Monte and shall 
 be glad to have you attend some of the lectures 
 with me. They will be well worth hearing if 
 they're not in Tremont Temple. But I fear my 
 little typhoid patient will keep me closely in 
 San Benito next week. I must not even spend 
 Sunday with you as I hoped to do. My letter 
 to-day makes me feel that I must go back on the 
 first train. We shall barely have time for a 
 lunch before I must go." 
 
 Mrs. Hall looked at him with fond maternal
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 161 
 
 eyes : "I can hardly realize that my boy has 
 grown into a man full of cares and responsibil 
 ities," she said, " but I suppose I ought to be 
 very thankful for the days you have given me 
 already. I cannot bear to lose sight of you so 
 soon again. I would go back with you if I did 
 not have to chaperone my young ladies. Pardon 
 me, Genevieve, I did not mean to speak of you 
 and your friends as burdensome," and she laid 
 her hand gently on her niece's with a fine 
 courtesy of look and tone which seemed to 
 characterize all her words and movements, and 
 which gave an added charm to her beautiful 
 age. 
 
 They drove rapidly toward Del Monte, after a 
 half hour in the pleasant avenues of the Grove, 
 and an hour later Dr. Hall was on the railway 
 train. He had a book which he tried to read. 
 ItwasEbers' "Homo Sum," and he had been 
 greatly interested, but he found it impossible 
 now to keep his place. He, too, was haunted by 
 a vision, but his was a bright girlish face under 
 a broad shade hat. Something suddenly deepens 
 its tints to carmine and robs its owner of her
 
 152 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 usual self-possession, but the face never looked 
 lovelier to him. Then the kind, honest, friendly 
 faces which were grouped around this central 
 figure, floated before him. They had all grown 
 familiar and pleasant to this fastidious young 
 man, whom contact with the world had taught 
 to estimate people far more justly than by his 
 old standards. He felt warm and angry still 
 with his classmate who had sat beside him on 
 the morning drive and whom his cousin Gene- 
 vieve considered a perfect gentleman: "The 
 impertinent puppy," he thought. "Christian 
 lieib would be too delicate and chivalrous to 
 make such a remark about a young lady so 
 would John Thompson even. What did this 
 caste business amount to anyway? "And yet 
 and yet he was not insensible to the charm of 
 fine raiment, of slow, leisureful movements, 
 
 The air of high repose, 
 
 Which marks the caste of Vere de Vere." 
 
 He reached the San Benito Station early in 
 the afternoon and hurried to the bedside of the 
 sick child whom he had left a few days before 
 out of danger as he then hoped, but whom a
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 163 
 
 slight cold had sent back into fever and delirium. 
 Until late in the night he forgot everything but 
 the little sufferer, and devoted himself unre 
 mittingly to his relief. Then he threw himself 
 on his bed exhausted in body and mind and 
 tried to sleep. Lo, there was the girlish face 
 again, startled, conscious, blushing, " growing 
 and fading and growing." The morning was 
 red in the East before he forgot himself and all 
 the world. 
 
 Ten days elapsed before his patient was suffi 
 ciently convalescent for Dr. Hall to visit his 
 mother. Meanwhile he had won for himself 
 the boundless gratitude of one household and a 
 reputation for fidelity and skill which spread 
 far and wide through the whole community. 
 
 Another patient that same week had claimed 
 a large place in the young physician's time and 
 sympathy. Willie Kellett had a serious hemor 
 rhage from the lungs, and lay weak and pallid 
 on his narrow bed. His eyes looked larger and 
 brighter than ever and he was very patient 
 even cheerful. The Doctor came every day 
 once and sometimes twice, always bringing
 
 154 KATE THURSTON>8 
 
 some delicate fruit or beautiful flower, and in 
 every way showing that he came as a friend as 
 well as a physician. The boy had been interest 
 ing to him always, now he took hold of his 
 heart ; but he could not hide from himself that 
 the little taper of Willie's life was flickering 
 ominously and that some day ere long a breath 
 might end it. The boy's keen eyes read it all in 
 his friend's face and yet he smiled up at him 
 with his old-tune confidence. 
 
 When the Doctor oame to say good-by to 
 Willie for a few days, as he was going to Monte 
 rey, they had quite a little talk in the twilight 
 all by themselves. The Doctor spoke in his 
 usual cheerful way: "Now, Willie, keep up 
 your courage though you're such a plucky fel 
 low I hardly need to say that. Take your tonic 
 regularly and we'll have you up in your chair 
 again pretty soon, I hope." 
 
 But Willie laid his thin hand in the Doctor's 
 and said, " You believe in God and in Heaven, 
 don't you, Doctor? " 
 
 "Yes, Willie, I do; thank God, I do," he 
 said fervently.
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 155 
 
 Then Willie was still for a little while. " Will 
 you see Miss Elate down at Monterey?" he 
 asked at length. 
 
 "Yes, my boy, I hope so." 
 
 " Will you tell her," he said slowly, " that 
 nobody has ever helped me as she has, but I 
 would rather go to heaven than to graduate in 
 Chautauqua or to be a famous wood-carver, and 
 give her my dear love." 
 
 Another pause and then, "I used to be very 
 im patient and sometimes very wretched, Doctor, 
 before I knew Miss Kate, but somehow every 
 thing has seemed different to me since, especially 
 God, and our lives here, and Heaven." 
 
 " It is just the same with me," said Dr. Hall, 
 and his voice had a wonderful earnestness, 
 " God bless her." 
 
 "Yes," responded Willie, "God bless her!"
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE FRIENDS' MEETING. 
 
 SUNDAY is a most restful day at Pacific Grove 
 and the Thurstons, after all the fatigue of Satur 
 day's excitements and excursions, literally 
 bathed in its loveliness. Not a sound broke the 
 stillness of early morning save the voices of 
 nature. Linnets and canaries sang in the pine 
 boughs over the tent, now and then changing 
 their perch for the tent itself where their pretty 
 shadows flickered to and fro and their little feet 
 pattered about keeping time to their music. 
 The morning breeze went whispering through 
 the pines, and the ocean kept up its majestic 
 bass solo. It seemed a typical Sabbath day. 
 
 The Thurstons ate their breakfast with doors 
 and windows open. There was not a passer-by 
 to glance in, and, as the nearest tent was ten or 
 fifteen rods away, they were spared the annoy-
 
 CHAUTAVQUA CIRCLES. 157 
 
 ance of hearing their neighbors' domestic con 
 sultations, and also the restriction which would 
 follow to themselves from knowing that what 
 they whispered in the ear would be proclaimed 
 through their own thin walls. 
 
 After breakfast at prayers Mr. Thurston read 
 that grand sea poem, the 104th Psalm, and all 
 saw and felt the "glory of the Lord," like an 
 almost visible Shekinah, resting upon "the 
 great and wide sea." 
 
 At Monterey the year before Kate had met 
 some delightful people who were members of 
 the Society of Friends, and had learned that 
 they were in the habit, when in the Grove, of 
 holding a Friends' meeting every " First Day," 
 in a quiet little cove at the east end of the 
 grounds. Knowing that the spirit of this simple 
 service would harmonize with her fathei 's habits 
 of thought, she suggested that this morning 
 they should worship with these dear Friends, of 
 whom she had caught a passing glimpse the 
 day before. Mr. Thurston cheerfully acceded 
 to the plan, and Mrs. Thurston never needed 
 any urging to go where her good husband
 
 158 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 and daughter led the way, while Fred's vote 
 was always in favor of a novelty. 
 
 In good season they all went. They found 
 already a few of the gentle followers of George 
 Fox sitting on the clear white sand with faces 
 expressive of meditative calm, but these proved 
 only the nucleus of the meeting, for, dropping 
 down the steep rocky pathways, came singly or 
 hi little parties fresh accessions to the gathering 
 until perhaps fifty people men and women 
 and little children were grouped about the 
 Friends. Many sects were represented there 
 and widely varying conditions of life. The 
 Episcopalian sat beside the Methodist ; the wife 
 of the millionaire shared her rug with the sew 
 ing girl, and all looked alike serious and rever 
 ent. The little children caught the spirit and 
 sat with clasped hands looking down at the 
 sparkling sand or off at the softly heaving sea. 
 The silence was more impressive than any 
 opening anthem. For ten minutes there was no 
 spoken word. Each heart communed with 
 itself and was still. Then the low voice of a 
 woman broke the silence with earnest words of
 
 GHAUTAUQ,UA CIRCLES. 159 
 
 prayer, a prayer which even the youngest 
 present could follow in its devout expressions of 
 gratitude, its glad tribute of praise and adoration, 
 its earnest plea for forgiveness, and its entreaty 
 for spiritual blessing on the little company 
 gathered there, and on the whole world. The 
 Kingdom of Heaven seemed very near, and the 
 Unseen and Eternal as real as the morning sun 
 shine. After a little silence the same voice went 
 on speaking of thoughts which had been sug 
 gested by the reading of the Word in a still 
 hour of the early morning. The Scripture re 
 ferred to was : 
 
 " If any man hear my voice and open the door 
 I will come in to him and will sup with him 
 and he with me." 
 
 With the same simplicity and beauty of dic 
 tion which marked the prayer, and with a 
 scarcely perceptible chanting tone, the Friend 
 spoke of the blessings which come to the re 
 ceptive heart. She described in winning terms 
 the lowly attitude of the Heavenly Visitor and 
 how the spirit may know its Divine Guest. 
 "Just as the listening ear hears the sweet
 
 160 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 sounds of this June morning," she said, "while 
 to the dull or inattentive ear all this delight is 
 lost, so to the quiet, thoughtful, listening soul 
 comes the voice of the Spirit. A gracious hospi 
 tality flings wide the door and all Heaven enters 
 in." 
 
 The little sermon with its familiar illustra 
 tions sank deeply into every heart. Another 
 brief silence followed in which it seemed as if at 
 many a hidden door that quiet petition for ad 
 mittance must have been heard and answered. 
 Then a gray-haired man spoke of the good 
 providence of God to which every one present 
 could bear witness. He reminded all of the 
 widely separated homes wherein they had be 
 gun the journey of life. Thousands of miles 
 and even the broad ocean, had divided these 
 starting places. Perils by land and by sea had 
 beset their pathways. Temporal and spiritual 
 dangers had encompassed each, yet here were 
 all the paths converged. Here in peace and 
 safety were all the pilgrims gathered. His 
 voice hesitated, a little flush ran over his fine 
 delicate face, and then he recited some verses,
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 161 
 
 which, when Mr. Thurston at the close of the 
 meeting inquired about, he found were original 
 with this Friend. The poem was: 
 
 A PRAYBR. 
 
 God of our lives, past and to be, 
 God of the earth, the land, the sea, 
 With all Thy works we worship Thee. 
 
 In humble faith our souls would bear, 
 To Thee our every weight of care, 
 And all the burden of our prayer. 
 
 But with what language can we raise 
 A fitting tribute to Thy praise. 
 And celebrate Thy works and ways ? 
 
 Fresh blessings, countless as the sand, 
 Flow as perpetual from Thy hand 
 As do the waves upon the strand. 
 
 More deep and boundless than the sea, 
 Thy love from all eternity 
 Tides every inlet full and free. 
 
 On this Pacific shore we meet, 
 This temple-grove our pilgrim feet 
 Draws to its sacred calm retreat. 
 
 Make us to feel Thy presence near, 
 And with Thy goodness crown Thy year 
 Whose harvest fruits are offered here. 
 
 Our Feast of Tabernacles bless ; 
 Hallow these tents and cottages 
 With Peace, and Joy, and Righteousness. 
 
 A host from many a church and land, 
 We would with loyal heart and hand 
 For Christ our King united stand. 
 
 Thou who hast led us all our days 
 O'er fertile plains and desert ways, 
 Be here an altar to Thy praise !
 
 162 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 " Has no one else a message or word of testi 
 mony? " asked the leader of the meeting. 
 
 In response one after another recited a hymn 
 or a text of Scripture or bit of religious verse, 
 even the children sharing in this part of the 
 service. Mr. Thurston recited the beautiful 
 description of a storm at sea, of its control by 
 the Lord of the tempest, and the bringing of the 
 sailor "to the desired haven," from the 107th 
 Psalm. His daughter repeated Miss Warner's 
 hymn: 
 
 " Father I know that all my life 
 
 Is portioned out for me, 
 And the changes that must surely come 
 
 I do not fear to see, 
 But I ask Thee for a present mind 
 
 Intent on pleasing Thee." 
 
 Every heart present followed her as if in 
 prayer, and when the sweet voice reached the 
 closing stanza : 
 
 " In the service which Thy love appoints 
 
 There are no bounds for me, 
 For my secret soul is taught the truth 
 
 Which makes Thy children free, 
 And a life of self-renouncing love 
 
 Is a life of liberty," 
 
 there were tears in more eyes than Miss Thurs- 
 ton's.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 163 
 
 A mother leaned over and whispered to a 
 dear little girl who put her hand into the ma 
 ternal keeping to gain confidence, and then 
 recited in clear child-like accents : 
 
 " Oh what can little hands do 
 To serve the King of Heaven ? " 
 
 As she finished the exquisite verses the leader 
 of the meeting said earnestly : 
 
 " And Jesus called a little child unto Him and 
 when He had placed him in their midst He said, 
 except ye become as little children ye shall in 
 no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 The silence fell again. Through it there came 
 the soft tones of the chapel bell ringing for the 
 Sunday-school, and after a moment the leader 
 shook hands with a Friend seated near her and 
 the familiar greeting was passed on and around 
 in quiet cordiality. 
 
 The First Day meeting was ended. There 
 was a general rising and dispersion soon after, 
 but not until Kate had introduced her father 
 and mother to these Friends with whom a new 
 but most hearty and appreciative friendship 
 was then and there inaugurated.
 
 164 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 The Sunday-school filled another hour pleas 
 antly, a few hours of restful home life followed, 
 and then an evening service in the chapel with 
 admirable preaching closed the Sabbath Day 
 journey toward the Heavenly Country. 
 
 "Thank God for this Feast of Tabernacles," 
 said Mr. Thurston fervently, as he laid his head 
 on his pillow. 
 
 " It helps one to understand the old Hebrew 
 feasts," said his wife. 
 
 "Ye shall dwell in booths seven days," 
 quoted Kate from behind her curtain. 
 
 "I like that kind of religion," asserted Fred 
 drowsily.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY. 
 
 EARLY Monday morning Kate and her brother 
 went up to the Chapel, which was "The Hall in 
 the Grove " to the Monterey Bay Chautauquans, 
 to lend a hand in the decorations. They found 
 the energetic lady who had it in charge already 
 on the spot, and soon by ones and twos the 
 Chautauquans began to appear. Under their 
 skillful hands, and with the help of a limitless 
 supply of young pines and cypress boughs, the 
 bare interior became a fragrant bower. The 
 pines stood in the corners and by the upright 
 beams like straight young grenadiers, while the 
 cypress ran in long festoons around the walls, 
 hung in wreaths about the lamp brackets, or 
 twined around the slender supporting columns. 
 The hall was really like a great barn with bare 
 rafters and beams, but with the help of the
 
 166 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 adornment it all seemed beautiful and suitable 
 for the purpose of this midsummer encamp 
 ment. Ferns and the delicate odorous vine 
 known as "yerba buena," trimmed platform 
 and desk, and exquisite bouquets of callas, 
 fuchsias, marguerites, and pelargoniums, such 
 as no other Assembly Hall in the world could 
 possibly show, gave the crowning touch to the 
 decorations. 
 
 Elate worked with diligence all day and ran 
 home warm and weary at evening, but when 
 she came back to the opening exercises of the 
 evening and saw the whole effect when it 
 was lighted by lamps whose brilliancy was 
 softened by shades of tissue paper, green, yellow, 
 and red, crimped and fringed by deft Chautau- 
 qua fingers, it seemed to her like fairyland. No 
 Gothic cathedral or stately Grecian temple 
 could have seemed to Kate Thurston so appro 
 priate and charming as this rustic and unpre 
 tending place. And here day after day she 
 came, morning, afternoon, and evening, always 
 with fresh pleasure and satisfaction. There 
 were plenty of people who surveyed the whole
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 167 
 
 thing with a sort of half- veiled contempt, and 
 there were plenty of Chautauquans even who 
 groaned over the uncushioned benches, with 
 slatted backs which never seemed to hit the 
 right point in the backs which leaned against 
 them, but our heroine was not of these. 
 
 And the lectures and classes were to her eager 
 young intellect, which had given and given 
 from its stores all the year long with so little 
 leisure or opportunity for receiving, like manna 
 from heaven. From the opening lecture by Dr. 
 Anderson, so beautiful and true in thought and 
 feeling, to the last word said at the "mussel- 
 bake " on the beach the last day of the Assem 
 bly, to Kate it was all good. Her note-book grew 
 full of food for future thought and reference as 
 she listened to Prof. Bernard Moses' fine 
 scholarly lectures upon the Christian Reforma 
 tion ; while even her rapid pencil gave up in 
 despair over Frederick Beecher Perkins' unfold- 
 ings of his favorite science of archaeology. She 
 leaned forward in rapt delight over Jessica 
 Thompson's bright Shakesperian papers, and 
 followed with keen pleasure Dr. J. K. McLean
 
 168 KATE THURSTON' S 
 
 in the story of his perilous descent into the 
 great crater of Mauna Loa. Mr. Adley Cum 
 mins' thoughtful picture of what the Orient has 
 done for us, delighted her history-loving taste ; 
 and Mrs. Field's " Holy George Herbert" made 
 her more than ever in love with that most 
 devout soul. 
 
 The Thurston household did not quite as com 
 pletely surrender themselves to Chautauqua 
 sway. Mrs. Thurston declared one good lecture 
 a day satisfied her appetite in that line, and Mr. 
 Thurston, though keenly enjoying the intellec 
 tual feast, had to set some metes and bounds to 
 his journeyings, while Fred confined his patron 
 age largely to Dr. Wythe's microscopic talks 
 and Prof. Keep's seaside lessons in conchology. 
 Where eye and hand could be active as well as 
 brain, and especially where the "sun and the 
 sand and the wild uproar " could be included in 
 the schoolroom, there the boy's faculties were 
 joyously alive. 
 
 And so the Assembly ran on almost to the 
 end. The San Benito Chautauquans had an 
 unlimited good tune. The simple outdoor life
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 169 
 
 brought with it a return to unconventional and 
 wholesome customs. They forgot to be afraid 
 of each other's criticisms, and a spirit of freedom 
 and good comradery reigned supreme. How 
 restful it was to tired housewives like Mrs. 
 Brooks and Mrs. Leib ! What a lesson it was to 
 them all in the possibility of " plain living and 
 high thinking" ! 
 
 One afternoon they had a Round Table all by 
 themselves, and their young President brought 
 her note-book and told them of a wonderful 
 lecture she heard at the Assembly the year be 
 fore, upon " Work and Play," by the Rev. Dr. 
 Fiske, then of San Francisco. It had made such 
 an impression upon her that she could repeat 
 almost verbatim the glowing sentences describ 
 ing man's complex nature, his splendid equip 
 ment, his imperial powers of body and soul, 
 and then the speaker's beautiful portrayal of the 
 joy man should take both in work and play ; 
 how each is complementary to the other, how 
 impossible for either to be well done without 
 the other. She held up Dr. Fiske' s picture of 
 lifeinacamp among the redwoods; of its hunting,
 
 170 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 fishing and tramping; of the relish for food 
 and the delicious sleep on the bed of ferns and 
 pine needles which he had painted so vividly 
 all so intensely enjoyed because it came in vaca 
 tion tune after a year of hard work. 
 
 They gave her a Chautauqua salute when she 
 had finished, because, as they said, no doubt the 
 lecture was better than at first hand. 
 
 " I like such a lecture out under the sky," 
 said Mr. Leib. " I like this idea of 'work and 
 play.' Just now I do very much like the play. 
 I think I never did have such year of work, all- 
 round work, and now I know I never did have 
 such tune of play." 
 
 On Saturday our Chautauquans made up two 
 overflowing omnibus loads and took "the long 
 drive," as it is always called in Monterey. 
 Eighteen miles of perfect road winding by the 
 coast, sometimes with the great pines almost 
 meeting overhead, and sometimes on the open 
 beach among the sand dunes. It is always 
 within hearing of the mighty voice of old ocean, 
 and most of the way one looks out over the wild 
 waste of waters conscious that here is no pent-up
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 171 
 
 bay, but the wide, illimitable sea. White- 
 breasted gulls flew airily back and forth over 
 the heads of the party, and great seals swam in 
 the boiling surf around rocky islands, filling the 
 air with their hoarse clamor. At famous Cypress 
 Point they took their noonday lunch under 
 those stately trees whose antiquity no man can 
 measure, and whose gnarled trunk and strange 
 dark foliage seem like a survival from some 
 prehistoric world. They noted the ashen gray 
 hue of their boles and the dull red color which 
 lighted the under side of the limbs. 
 
 "Embers in ashes," one said, a most fitting 
 comparison. 
 
 Leaving the weird and gloomy cypress they 
 turned eastward toward sunny and beautiful 
 Carmel Bay, where the softest and warmest sun 
 shine lay on the pebbly beach, and the ripples 
 crept back and forth with sweet whisperings, a 
 wonderful contrast to Cypress Point with its 
 thunderous waves, like a hidden, peaceful life 
 in a stormy world. 
 
 And at last, as the sun dropped down towards 
 the shining sea, they turned homeward through
 
 172 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 the forest again. It had been a day of deep and 
 satisfying pleasure to them all a flawless picture 
 to hang in memory's long gallery. 
 
 Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Thurston had felt quite 
 equal to the long ride and so had enjoyed, as 
 they reported to Kate and Fred, the most 
 charming of picnics in their own little favorite 
 cove near Lovers' Point. 
 
 " I'm afraid you kept some young folks out in 
 the cold," remarked Fred, with a boy's jocose- 
 ness over such matters. 
 
 "I'd have you to know, sir," retorted the 
 father, "that young folks haven't any monopoly 
 on the Point or the Cove, or the article from 
 which they took their name ! Besides if mother 
 and I aren't young folks now-a-days, where will 
 you find specimens of youth ? " and he tweaked 
 Fred's ear till that young man, whose mouth 
 chanced to be too full for utterance, was fain to 
 nod a vigorous assent. 
 
 The second week of the Assembly was past 
 meridian. Friday was to be Recognition Day 
 and the end of the session. The graduates were 
 to give the Chapel some extra decorations on
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES, 173 
 
 the eventful morning, and on Thursday evening 
 after tea Elate took her needle and thread and a 
 basket of scarlet geraniums out on the front 
 steps of their cottage and began to sew the 
 blossoms on some large pasteboard figure eights, 
 which she had taken as her part in the date line 
 to be placed under their class name in the floral 
 decorations. The tent-door stood open and her 
 father and mother sat just within, enjoying, like 
 Abram of old, the fading day and the quiet 
 hour. A carriage stopped at the gate and a 
 gentleman whom Elate knew instantly, sprang 
 out and, leaving the lines in the hands of a lady 
 who was with him, came directly in. Kate's 
 apron was full of geraniums and her cheeks 
 seemed to reflect their color in a way not wholly 
 explainable on any scientific theory, but she 
 put out her hand in real pleasure, for how often, 
 oh, how often ! she had wondered during these 
 two weeks what could have become of him. 
 
 " Good evening, Dr. Hall," she said cordially. 
 " If I were not so flower-fettered, I would rise." 
 
 " Becoming fetters !" he said, looking in her 
 bright face with just his old friendliness.
 
 174 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Then he was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Thurston, and in a moment more he was saying : 
 
 " My mother is in the carriage ; we have just 
 driven over from Del Monte, and if you will 
 allow me I will bring her in. Miss Thurston 
 and I have been such friends and allies during 
 the past year our mothers should surely be 
 acquainted." 
 
 And so, just as gracefully, and with as much 
 apparent ease as if they were in a beautiful 
 parlor, these gentlefolk were soon all chatting 
 together. The young people sat on the steps 
 while the elder ones were a little farther back. 
 Dr. Hall gave Kate a rapid sketch of his en 
 grossing cares of the preceding fortnight and 
 thus cleared up the mystery of his disappear 
 ance, and she gave him a merry account of the 
 cramming process to which she had been sub 
 jecting herself. 
 
 "Don't you notice it?" she laughed. "The 
 air is just foggy with information over here. 
 We're, as one might say, briny with Attic salt. 
 But I must keep right on with my work or they 
 won't let me graduate to-morrow. These eights
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 175 
 
 must all be there to testify to our four years 
 of work," and she fell to pulling off the 
 great double flowers and fastening them in 
 place. 
 
 "Why I can do that," said Dr. Hall, "at least 
 I can pick off the flowers," and he drew nearer 
 and began to render what Kate called "valuable 
 professional service." 
 
 Suddenly they were aware that the conversa 
 tion behind them was growing very animated : 
 
 " And so you were the Will Thurston I knew 
 so well ! " said Mrs. Hall eagerly. 
 
 " And you were the little Mary Belford ! Let 
 us shake hands over again!" exclaimed Mr. 
 Thurston. "Katie dear, come right here and 
 see somebody I knew when I was a boy ! " 
 
 At almost the same tune Mrs. Hall was say 
 ing: 
 
 "Philip, come and shake hands again with 
 Mr. Thurston ; he was a schoolmate of mine ; 
 his mother and mine were dear friends, and his 
 sister Kate and I were quite inseparable. Ah, 
 the dear old days ! " 
 
 So Philip and Kate came dutifully forward
 
 176 KATE THURSTON' S 
 
 and a general re-handshaking was indulged in 
 with a great access of cordiality. 
 
 " I felt sure our friendship was inherited or 
 something," said Dr. Hall, looking at Kate with 
 an expression half droll, half serious, to which 
 she smiled a sort of limited response and then 
 drew a camp chair close to her father and 
 listened with deepest interest to the rapid inter 
 change of question and answer as he and Mrs. 
 Hall talked of the days of their youth. Mrs. 
 Thurston listened as sympathetically. 
 
 There was nothing left for Dr. Hall but to 
 watch the beaming, responsive face which had 
 grown to be the one face in the world for him. 
 
 Pretty soon the bell began to ring for the 
 evening lecture and Dr. Hall rose : 
 
 "Well, mother," he said, "I shall have to 
 carry you away from this delightful re-union or 
 Miss Thurston will lose another golden oppor 
 tunity for mental advancement." 
 
 " How absurd !" said Kate. "Do stay, Mrs. 
 Hall ; the lecture will really go on without me." 
 
 "Doubtless," said Dr. Hall gravely. "The 
 question is, can you go on without the lecture?"
 
 GHAUTAUqUA CIRGLE8. 177 
 
 Mrs. Hall rose. " Yes, we must go," she said, 
 "we have quite overstayed our time. When 
 we came we were not at all sure we could even 
 find your daughter, but we have been fortunate 
 indeed ! Now, when shall we meet again ? We 
 must make the most of this wayside encounter." 
 
 ' 'To-morrow, ' ' said Dr. Hall, promptly. "Miss 
 Thurston is to graduate to-morrow, and we 
 must all be ready with our congratulations." 
 
 Mrs. Hall looked puzzled and poor Kate dis 
 tressed. 
 
 "Oh, this is too bad," she cried. "Please do 
 not come ! Why, I really have something to do. 
 I shall be greatly embarrassed," and the usually 
 brave girl felt her eyes filling. 
 
 The lovely elder woman put her arm around 
 the younger one and kissed the flushed and 
 troubled face : " My dear child," she said, "you 
 must never be afraid of me again, not the least 
 bit ; I am your true warm friend forever and 
 ever." 
 
 What more could be said or done? Kate 
 stayed at home from the lecture that night and 
 finished her "eights," and conned her little
 
 178 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 "piece" over and over by the flaring candle 
 which was their only means of lighting. 
 
 The depth of the good breeding in the little 
 tent was shown by the fact that not one of them 
 spoke of the shabbiness of their little dwelling 
 place and the elegance of the dress and manner 
 of their guest. They simply talked on until 
 late at night of the happy old times, the loveli 
 ness of Mary Belford, and the fortunate dis 
 covery of the old acquaintance. 
 
 "The good hand of our God is over us all," 
 said Mr. Thurston with fervent gratitude. 
 
 And the good breeding in the carriage was 
 shown by its inmates never once alluding to 
 the plainness of the little tent they had visited, 
 with its bare floor and primitive furnishings. 
 They, too, talked of dear young friendships 
 which after forty years needed but a breath to 
 renew their glowing warmth, and of the beauti 
 ful refinement and culture of these old new 
 friends. 
 
 "That is indeed a charming girl, Philip. I 
 don't wonder you have written of her loveliness. 
 If something more than friendship should come
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 179 
 
 to you two, your mother will be more than 
 pleased," said the soft voice of her who had 
 been to Philip Hall from his babyhood his best 
 and most trusted adviser. 
 
 " You have guessed my secret, mother dear," 
 he said. 
 
 Poor Kate's night was abbreviated at both 
 ends for she had to be up early in the morning 
 to help set the little room in faultless order be 
 fore going up to put the finishing touch to the 
 flowers in the Chapel. It was with nervous 
 hands she put on her simple best dress of dark 
 blue cashmere. Her figure was straight and 
 slender and the gown had as few "catch-ups" 
 as the style would possibly permit. She had no 
 frills or furbelows of any sort, just an edge of 
 white linen at throat and wrists and a bunch of 
 scarlet geraniums in her belt. Her lovely brown 
 hair was brushed smoothly back and piled in a 
 lustrous coil on the top of her shapely head, and 
 her only "frizzes" were the airy little rings 
 with which nature had insisted on framing her 
 broad full forehead. As she stood before the 
 tiny looking-glass settling her pretty little black
 
 180 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 straw turban, with its becoming dark blue vel 
 vet trimming just matching her gown, and its 
 one bright bit of color, a scarlet wing, just 
 matching her flowers, she was indeed a pleasant 
 sight to parental eyes, and even the most criti 
 cal on-looker would have had to search for fault 
 or flaw. But she had rather a perturbed spirit. 
 How could she ever face that great audience 
 which she knew the commencement exercises 
 would be sure to call out ? And oh, if certain 
 other faces should be there, how could she ever 
 endure their intent gaze as she struggled through 
 her poor dear little poem ? Yes, it must be 
 confessed, " it " was a poem. Her heart throbbed 
 wildly at the thought, and she really feared 
 that with a frantic clutch and gasp she might, 
 at the critical moment, sink down upon the 
 platform, a poor crumpled heap of failure and 
 dismay ! 
 
 Her mother and father were coming an hour 
 later, at just the time to secure good seats, and 
 now they were quietly and calmly brushing off 
 Monterey sand and picking off Monterey burrs 
 from their Sunday garments, without a thought
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 181 
 
 of poor Kate's misery. She hardly dared to speak 
 to them lest she should break down in a most 
 girlish fashion, and there was a pathetic tremble 
 in voice and lip as at last she said simply : 
 
 " Oh dear, I am so frightened ! " 
 
 "Why, my precious Katie !" said her mother, 
 coming forward sympathetically to kiss her, 
 but her father who knew her mood perfectly 
 and remembered well his own early "stage- 
 frights," had some good advice : 
 
 " See here, Katie," he said cheerily, " try not 
 to think about yourself at all till you are called 
 for, and then whenever you raise your eyes 
 from your paper you look straight at me, and 
 just think of me; you know what your old father 
 young father, I mean thinks about both you 
 and your poem. You just read it to me. Mother 
 and I will be in our usual places, third seat back 
 in the middle row." 
 
 Just then Fred burst in and it seemed after 
 all that he knew best of any of them what to 
 say, for he threw his hat into the air and seizing 
 Kate by the arms swung her round into full 
 view.
 
 182 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 "My, but isn't she pretty?" he cried with 
 genuine enthusiasm, "and isn't she nice? and 
 isn't she smart? and isn't she sweet? and when 
 she ' speaks her piece ' to-day, won't we be 
 proud of her though ? You bet!" 
 
 " Fred ! Fred ! " cried his father in attempted 
 disapprobation, but the whole room seemed 
 freshened with his young life and fun, and Kate 
 herself broke out in silvery laughter which was 
 vastly better than the tears which had been im 
 pending. 
 
 She drew on her gloves and giving the family 
 a parting kiss all around she hurried up to the 
 Chapel with her basket of figures and flowers. 
 She took her favorite path along the beach and 
 drew in long deep breaths of the pure briny air. 
 She even took time to step out on a jutting point 
 and let her thoughts follow a gull on its ocean- 
 ward flight. "Ah, my heart," she thought, 
 " how like the troubled sea thou art ! " 
 
 One of her favorite hymns flitted through her 
 mind like a message from heaven : 
 
 " Calm me, my God, and keep me calm." 
 
 She clasped her hands over her basket of
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 183 
 
 flowers, and made the hymn a prayer indeed, 
 while the Peace of God stole over spirit and face. 
 Her path to the Chapel led her through the San 
 Benito settlement, and here she was captured 
 instantly by a bevy of admirers. The elder 
 ones smiled their approbation while the younger 
 people complimented her more openly. 
 
 " She's a blue-bird ! cried little John Leib, 
 with a child's quick perception of color. 
 
 " She surely doesn't look like a blue-stocking," 
 said a young lady. 
 
 Kate held up a warning finger : " Now please 
 don't say another word about your school- 
 ma'am," she said, "but come up and join the 
 procession at ten o'clock, and be sure to sit 
 where you generally do so that I may know 
 where to look if my courage fails," and she 
 hastened on her way to the Chapel, where she 
 found the decorators already at work, and 
 flowers, flowers everywhere ! They banked the 
 platform with lavish hands, they filled vases 
 and bowls, they heaped them in gorgeous beauty 
 around the little reading desk, and then laid 
 them along the beams with a profusion which
 
 184 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 at any point east of the Eocky Mountains would 
 have looked like reckless extravagance. A 
 member of the class from Oregon who could not 
 be present sent the name of the '84's, "The 
 Irrepressibles," made in large letters of brilliant 
 autumn leaves, and this was put up against a 
 white background at the rear of the platform. 
 The class dates in scarlet geraniums, 1880-1884, 
 completed the whole. 
 
 Kate forgot everything but the beauty as she 
 ran here and there, now steadying a rickety 
 step-ladder or passing up tacks to some one 
 perched aloft, and now deftly putting bouquets 
 in effective places. At last it was all done and 
 every trace of the doing process removed. 
 
 ' 'Eden's bower !" cried Kate in happy satis 
 faction over the result; " Eden's bower, enriched 
 by the modern Chautauqua idea ! " 
 
 Then they all hurried over to join the Chau 
 tauqua procession which was forming at the 
 C. L. S. C. office. They were delighted to find 
 that their President, the Rev. Dr. Stratton, had at 
 last arrived on the grounds to take charge of his 
 flock, and soon he was among them greeting
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 185 
 
 old friends and making new ones in his own 
 happy way. Kate had marshaled her Chau- 
 tauquans in the Class of '87 and then took her 
 own modest place among the '84's. How proud 
 she felt of them all ! There was Dr. Anderson's 
 good gray head leading the Class, arm in arm 
 with the President, who himself was an '84. 
 They were honored indeed. And there in the 
 class, too, was Dr. Wythe, the great scientist ; 
 and the Pacific Coast Treasurer, with her fair, 
 intellectual face aglow with pleasure; there 
 were only a dozen of them, this Class of '84, who 
 could be present, and most of them were a great 
 deal older than our heroine, but her heart gave 
 them a big tribute of love and admiration. She 
 walked beside one who was silver haired but 
 blest with immortal youth, and as they talked 
 together they decided that Chautauqua was like 
 the Kingdom of Heaven in its ignoring of ordi 
 nary distinctions. 
 
 The program at the Hall moved on without a 
 flaw. Kate was so glad that the Secretary's 
 usual contribution from her note-book made 
 them all laugh rather than cry ; she felt so much
 
 186 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 more like the latter most unsuitable and un 
 becoming performance. 
 
 Then the graduates' essays followed, and poor 
 Kate's hands began to grow cold, but she reso 
 lutely gave her attention to the readers and was 
 pleased indeed with all, but specially with Mrs. 
 Duyden's beautiful sketch of the Gary sisters, 
 who were her old friends and neighbors in their 
 youth. 
 
 Miss Thurston's name was called and that 
 unmanageable heart of hers gave a wild throb, 
 but she went bravely forward and upon the 
 platform ; then true to her resolution made her 
 graceful bow to her father. But how could she 
 help seeing the lovely placid face of Mrs. Hall 
 close beside him, and the unmistakable fine 
 manly presence beside her, and next to him a 
 beautiful young woman wearing eye-glasses ! 
 
 Then a miracle happened not a very uncom 
 mon miracle, either. Kate's tense nerves be 
 came suddenly firm ; her heart kept its place 
 and grew quiet in its movements, and when she 
 opened her lips her voice was just as smooth and 
 sweet as if she had been in her schoolroom.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 187 
 
 Somehow her self vanished and only her theme 
 stood before her. It was so with her hearers 
 too. They forgot the lovely young maiden 
 standing there among the flowers and heard the 
 dash of northern seas and the chime of monas 
 tery bells as she read her poem of 
 
 CJEDMON. 
 
 Sweet is the story of Csedmon and full of the deepest sug 
 gestion, 
 
 Csedmon, the Saxon herdman, first of our English 
 singers. 
 
 Old are the annals which tell it, and rescued from many a 
 peril, 
 
 Chronicles faithful and beautiful, kept by Beda the aged. 
 
 Dust for a thousand years has been the good hand which 
 wrote them, 
 
 Still will they live and be cherished when a thousand more 
 have been numbered. 
 
 Dimly we see him afar leading his flocks like young 
 
 David, 
 Like him, too, ruddy and fair, with the yellow hair of the 
 
 Saxon 
 Circling his bright young head with his saint-like and 
 
 beautiful aureole. 
 
 Only a peasant lad, herding the kine of the convent, 
 Where on its cliff by the sea nestled the cloister of Whitby, 
 Or dwelling with them on the heights of the barren hills 
 
 of Northumbria. 
 
 Homeless and nameless he comes into the pages of history, 
 Poor and untaught and alone but brave and fearless and 
 
 hardy, 
 Child of the mighty mother who fairly deals with her 
 
 children, 
 
 Giving the poor and the friendless ever her rich compen 
 sations.
 
 188 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Daily he read from a book better than that of the school 
 men, 
 
 For ever around him unfolded the pages which no man 
 can number, 
 
 Pages of mountain and meadow, glebe-land and forest 
 unbroken ; 
 
 Ever before him stretched also the infinite reaches of 
 ocean; 
 
 Ever its voice called aloud and the heart of the youth 
 throbbed responsive. 
 
 Sunshine and storm alike welcome were good to the 
 young heart that loved them, 
 
 Snow and frost-flowers of winter, rain and blossoms of 
 summer. 
 
 Close to the heart-beats of nature dwelt he all unaffrighted, 
 
 Warm and bright was his life with youth and with inno 
 cent pleasure, 
 
 Clear and alert was his brain, untangled with logical sub 
 tleties, 
 
 Sweet was his voice and untrained like the notes of the 
 merle and the mavis, 
 
 Friendly and kind was his heart, yearning for love and 
 for sympathy. 
 
 But when on the winter hearth the mighty yule log 
 burned cheerily, 
 
 Or on the midsummer night fires gleamed on the moor 
 and the mountain, 
 
 Or young men and maidens on May-day danced round 
 the gaily wreathed May-pole, 
 
 Ever among his companions wandered he lonely and 
 separate, 
 
 Ever for off looked his eyes, and his voice had a tone of 
 appealing. 
 
 And when in the banqueting hall men crowded for bois 
 terous wassail, 
 
 Quaffing the high-foaming ale-cup with clamorous jesting 
 and laughter, 
 
 And loud sang the bards and the gleemen wild ballads of 
 war and of rapine, 
 
 Vainly they urged him to join them, his heart was un 
 stirred by their madness.
 
 CHAUTAUQ.UA CIRCLES. 189 
 
 Filled Instead was his soul with bitterest shame and con 
 fusion, 
 And often he silently rose and stole away from their 
 
 tumult. 
 Better, far better he loved the chanting he heard in the 
 
 convent, 
 Where mid the monks and the nuns ruled the wise abbess 
 
 St. Hilda. 
 Dear to the heart of the youth were the wonderful words of 
 
 the Gospel, 
 As he oft heard them unfolded by Cuthbert the holy 
 
 apostle, 
 Reading the heavenly words from the precious book of 
 
 the Abbey, 
 Bound in the purest of gold and jeweled with marvelous 
 
 sapphires ; 
 The tale of the mystical life which made all life worthy of 
 
 living; 
 How poor and friendless and homeless lived the divine 
 
 Man of sorrows, 
 And listening the youth was aware how toil and want are 
 
 made sacred. 
 Dear beyond words to his heart were the hymns of the 
 
 matins and vespers. 
 Rapt and exultant he joined in the heavenly song of the 
 
 shepherds : 
 "Peace to men of good-will, and glory to God in the 
 
 highest!" 
 Hasted he ever at dawn to kneel in the aisle of the 
 
 minster 
 While clear and high rose the anthem, Eterne rerum 
 
 conditur ; 
 
 And when the day's toil was ended bo wed in deep adoration 
 Thrilled with the cadences soft of the old even song Nunc 
 
 dimittis; 
 Then when the last tender echo died away through the 
 
 cloisters 
 Silently turned his steps homeward with thoughts which 
 
 vaguely oppressed him, 
 Conscious of power all unused and full of an infinite 
 
 longing.
 
 190 KA TE THURSTON'S 
 
 Thus went the months and the years in lowliest, faith- 
 
 fulest service 
 
 Till the fair hair of the youth faded from gold Into silver, 
 And the young heart had grown old, still with its burden 
 
 unspoken. 
 
 At length It befell on a day when far and near gathered 
 
 for feasting, 
 All day there was riot and revel and deeper it grew with 
 
 the nightfall ; 
 Louder and fiercer and madder rang the wild din of the 
 
 ale-poets, 
 Sadder and fuller of loathing grew the pure heart of the 
 
 herdman. 
 Then one thrust the harp toward him and passed him the 
 
 o'erflowing beaker : 
 " Sing to us, sing now, thou churlish one!" shouted the 
 
 drunken carousers. 
 Then he arose pale and trembling with passion of shame 
 
 and of sorrow, 
 Threw down the harp and the ale-horn and fled out afar 
 
 in the darkness, 
 
 Stole away to the fold where the quiet cattle lay sleeping, 
 Made his rude bed in their midst and sought to grow 
 
 calm in the stillness. 
 
 Over his head moved the stars drifting in solemn pro 
 cession, 
 And thoughts of the great Over-Father drifted across his 
 
 soul's heaven 
 While gently the soft dews of sleep distilled with the 
 
 dews of the even. 
 
 Suddenly down from the sky there floated a heavenly 
 vision, 
 
 Stood by his side there a being radiant with glory in 
 effable, 
 
 And, speaking with gracious entreaty, "Sing to me," 
 pleaded the angel. 
 
 "Nay, but I cannot sing," murmured the sleeper most 
 sadly, 
 
 '' Fled I not hither but now to 'scape from the plea of my 
 brothers ? "
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 191 
 
 Still urged the sweet voice Its message, " Canst thou not 
 
 sing at MY bidding? " 
 Then helpless and humble and fearing, low prostrate In 
 
 full self-surrender, 
 He fell at the feet of the Presence, crying, " "What shall I 
 
 sing, Oh my Master? " 
 "Sing me Creation!" He whispered, then vanished in 
 
 slow-rising brightness. 
 
 Then out of the heart of the dreamer the swift words 
 o'erflowed, like the waters 
 
 Which thunder and beat on the cliffs when the north 
 wind drives them before it, 
 
 And the soul of the poet new-born broke forth into jubi 
 lant singing. 
 
 Waking at dawning the herdman still throbbed with the 
 
 wonderful music 
 And fled with tumultuous Joy to Hilda the faithful and 
 
 reverent. 
 " Haste to the Chapel ! " she cried ; then summoned her 
 
 counselors thither. 
 Long they listened enraptured, wondering, questioning, 
 
 believing, 
 Praising God for His grace, as hymn followed hymn from 
 
 the singer. 
 Then with joyful acclaiming they gave a new name to 
 
 the herdman, 
 
 Christened him Csedmon, Csedmon, the newly created, 
 Chosen by Heaven to sing them the glorious song of 
 
 Creation. 
 
 Slowly arose the dear Abbess, the noble, the beautiful 
 
 Hilda, 
 Pale and awe-struck and trembling, her heart and her 
 
 eyes overflowing, 
 Laid her white hand like a snowflake on the dark palm 
 
 of the herdman, 
 Led him abashed and reluctant up to her velvetrdraped 
 
 dais, 
 There in tones laden with prophecy crowned him her 
 
 poet forever.
 
 192 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 long lived the heaven-taught Csedmon, ever the joy of 
 the convent ; 
 
 Comfort and teaching and blessing brought he to cloister 
 and hamlet. 
 
 Never in aught did he fell from the height of his first in 
 spiration ; 
 
 Ever he honored the gift but ever remembered the Giver ; 
 
 Ever was lowly in spirit and consecrated to heaven ; 
 
 Till white haired and burdened with years. Then again 
 came the Shining One to him, 
 
 Whispering one even at vespers, " Sing me thy matins in 
 
 heaven ! " 
 
 . And they who sought him at morning found that else 
 where was his waking. 
 
 Sweet is thy story, O Csedmon, and full of the deepest 
 
 suggestion. 
 Vain to the heart of the poet is all his wild stress and en. 
 
 deavor, 
 Vain the fine frenzy of passion, the infinite dreaming and 
 
 longing, 
 Till on his soul prone and helpless descendeth the Soul of 
 
 the universe 
 With the mandate divine and resistless which fell on the 
 
 singer of Whitby. 
 
 Beautiful music followed, and then Dr. Strat- 
 ton talked in his fine comprehensive way of 
 what a Chautauqua diploma means not a 
 college degree, but something better : a resolute 
 effort for self-culture; a steadfast purpose to 
 gain a higher intellectual standpoint and a 
 broader outlook, and the achievement of this end. 
 
 The precious diplomas were then given to the 
 class, and it was all over.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 193 
 
 Friends hastened forward with congratula 
 tions, and Kate found herself surrounded. She 
 gave her two hands first to her father and 
 mother, and then before her friends from Del 
 Monte could reach her, she shook hands right 
 and left with her Chautauquans, who showered 
 their loving commendation upon her ; one half- 
 reproachful word of Mr. Leib's being the only 
 unfavorable criticism : 
 
 "Ah, Miss Kate ! You should not haf made 
 me cry right here before efery body telling about 
 that poor poet-boy ! " Kate never forgot that 
 simple honest tribute. 
 
 Dr. Hall had brought his mother forward and 
 Kate turned to them with heightened color but 
 with all her natural modest grace, to be almost 
 taken in Mrs. Hall's arms, while her son put 
 out his hand with pleasant conventional words, 
 and then made himself unaffectedly cordial 
 with the San Benito people. 
 
 Mrs. Hall drew Kate toward the young lady 
 whose eye-glasses had once proved so disconcert 
 ing, and whom Kate's fancy had unhesitatingly 
 placed as Dr.
 
 194 KATE THTJRSTON'S 
 
 "Miss Thurston," she said, "my niece, Miss 
 Grant. Genevieve, this is the young lady who 
 has given us so much pleasure, and the daughter 
 of my dear old friend." 
 
 Miss Grant smiled and bowed graciously, even 
 put out her little hand and murmured a soft 
 word or two of appreciation, but she could not 
 quite forget that here was a product of the wild 
 West, and therefore to be looked upon with 
 slight suspicion till further developments should 
 follow. 
 
 Mrs. Hall said more kind things of Kate's 
 poem, and then as they hastened to their wait 
 ing carriage she spoke urgently : 
 
 "My dear, I hope you and your father and 
 mother can join us in an excursion to Carmel 
 Mission to-morrow. You must be very tired, 
 but we have to leave Monterey on Monday, and 
 I must have a day with you all. I have been 
 talking with your mother about it. Your 
 brother must go too ; I claim you all as my 
 guests." 
 
 Kate cheerfully promised to aid the project, 
 although she still felt the chill of her encounter
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 195 
 
 with Miss Grant. She was warmly thanking 
 Mrs. Hall for the invitation, when another voice 
 beside her said : " If I come over this evening, 
 can you give me the pleasure of a little walk by 
 the sea?" 
 
 "Why, yes, I think so," said Kate, with an 
 other of those mantling blushes which other 
 people thought vastly pretty but which to her 
 were a source of great distress. 
 
 The carriage whirled away and Kate at last 
 was seized by Fred : " Let's hurry home ahead 
 of father and mother," he said; "I'm just too 
 awfully hungry to wait another minute. What 
 are we going to have for lunch, anyway? Is 
 there any of the boiled ham left ? " 
 
 And so Kate descended to earth. 
 
 There was a charming Bound Table on the 
 beach that afternoon where Chautauqua ex 
 periences were interchanged, and stories told, 
 and toasts responded to , and where the utmost 
 good fellowship reigned. A huge fire of drift 
 wood was built and Monterey mussels in un 
 limited number met with the sad fate of their 
 cousins on the Atlantic coast at a clam-bake. It
 
 196 KATE THURSTON'iS 
 
 was all very pleasant and no end of good things 
 were said and done, but Kate was just a trifle 
 distrait and not quite so full of bright thought 
 and suggestion as was her wont. They all ex 
 cused her on the ground of over-fatigue, and no 
 one guessed what made her knit her brows a 
 little and look far out to sea. 
 
 They sat on the shining sand and chatted 
 socially between the varied exercises in the 
 most informal way, but as the sun dropped 
 downward they were called to order and stood 
 with bowed heads while Dr. Stratton's beautiful 
 voice rose above the breaking of the waves in an 
 earnest closing prayer. 
 
 The summer Assembly was over.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON COVERS' POINT. 
 
 OUR heroine as usual hurried home. Her 
 brother Fred had been a lively helper at the 
 mussel-roast, not only in the way of securing 
 the delicious bivalves, but in consuming them, 
 and yet Kate knew that he would be entirely 
 ready for an early tea. It was made ready and 
 disposed of and Elate had hardly taken off her 
 apron when the tap at the door came for which 
 she had been listening. 
 
 Mr. Thurston opened the door and, seeing who 
 was standing there, held the door wide open 
 and cordially begged Dr. Hall to come in, but 
 the young man stood hat in hand, evidently 
 with something else on his mind beside the in 
 terchange of salutations or a general sociabil- 
 ity: 
 
 " Pardon me," he said, " but if you will give
 
 198 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 me the privilege, I have come to carry off Miss 
 Kate for a little stroll on the beach." 
 
 Kate had already come forward and with a 
 " Yes, papa, Dr. Hall spoke to me of this at noon, 
 and I will put on my hat directly. I am tired 
 of course, but the sea always rests me." 
 
 "To be sure, to be sure," said Mr. Thurston. 
 " She's my own girl. The sea was my first love, 
 Dr. Hall. I grew up with your mother, you 
 know, on old Penobscot Bay." 
 
 Kate's hat was adjusted by this time, but her 
 mother drew her aside: " Take this extra shawl," 
 she said, " you know how chilly it grows." The 
 chintz curtain was between them and the door, 
 and she suddenly put both arms around her 
 daughter and pressed her faded cheek against 
 the bright young face : " My darling ! my dar 
 ling!" she said. It was a great deal for her to 
 say. 
 
 The young people went slowly toward the 
 beach and stood for a few moments on a rude 
 little foot bridge that spanned a ravine just as it 
 reached the shore. To the eastward the moon 
 was just rising, making a silver pathway across
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 199 
 
 the bay, which lay rocking in great soft billows 
 scarcely perceptible save when they broke over 
 some rocky point. 
 
 " Over there is organ rock," said Kate, " shall 
 we go and listen to the music ? It is almost like 
 going to church." 
 
 They followed the path along the cliffs, stop 
 ping now for a flower or bit of curious lichen, 
 and then to watch the gulls and the beautiful 
 wild ducks that rode the waves in such happy 
 fearlessness. All the time their pleasant talk 
 ran on, of botany and the flora of California, of 
 the rocks and the geology of the coast, 
 of the shells and Prof. Keep's delightful 
 lessons. Kate especially appeared bent on 
 securing more information from her scientific 
 companion, who was to her an embodiment of 
 wisdom, and who indeed was well versed in the 
 best lore of the universities, supplemented by 
 the knowledge gained through keen powers of 
 observation. He made a few weak attempts to 
 stem the tide of scientific talk and to give it a 
 personal turn, but the young woman beside him 
 was strangely coy.
 
 200 KATE THURSTOXT'S 
 
 " How happy I am," he said, " over the auld 
 acquaintance of my mother and your father ! 
 Indeed I have seldom seen my mother so moved. 
 She can hardly talk of anything else ! " 
 
 "Yes, indeed," warmly assented Kate. "My 
 father, too, is quite rejuvenated by it. They 
 will greatly enjoy their day together to-morrow. 
 We must plan to have them sit together in 
 riding and have an uninterrupted good 
 time." 
 
 " I want to have a good time, too," said the 
 Doctor, with a little air of having been left out 
 in the plan. 
 
 "Oh, of course," laughed Kate. "Be good 
 and you will be happy!" Then with rapid 
 transition: "Does your mother enjoy our 
 flowers?" 
 
 "Yes," said the Doctor, rather slowly; "Oh, 
 yes, come to think of it ; she was saying to-day 
 that the flowers at Del Monte fairly bewildered 
 her with their variety and magnificence." 
 
 "And our wild flowers. I hope she has 
 noticed them," said Kate. " They are so differ 
 ent from the Eastern ones, I am told ; even
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 201 
 
 where they are the same species they will be a 
 law unto themselves, like our people. Now 
 look at this lupine ; how it has changed from 
 the lupine of New England ! " 
 
 This was a pet subject with the doctor the 
 morphology of plants and he was beguiled into 
 quite a discussion of the wonderful way in 
 which plants traveled into new zones, throwing 
 out a woolen coat here, a coat of varnish there, 
 and stiffening into woody shrubs where strong 
 winds were to be buffeted. Kate's fancy seized 
 the idea joyfully and she drew a charming 
 picture of little Lady Lupine on her Western 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 "Now I call that a prose-poem," said her 
 companion. "How capable it would be of 
 artistic illustration ! Ah, you have only to look 
 at the things about your feet to find themes for 
 poems or for pictures ! 
 
 " You do not know how I liked your 'Csed- 
 mon.' I could not say anything before all those 
 people, but it moved me very much. I did not 
 know you wrote poetry, though I might have 
 known that one whose life was so like 'the
 
 202 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 measure of a blessed hymn ' ought to think in 
 poetry." 
 
 " Oh, thank you, thank you ! " she said, " but 
 I cannot let you so over-estimate me. I am 
 more prosaic than you fancy. Most of my 
 thoughts are too practical for belief. 
 
 " See, here we are at our ultima thule ! " 
 
 So Organ Rock was reached and our friends 
 climbed up on the great pile of rocks which over 
 looks the whole of Monterey Bay. The tide 
 was coming in and each succeeding wave seemed 
 higher than its predecessor. Far out in the bay 
 they could see a wave marshaling its forces like 
 a long line of battle; slowly it moved forward, all 
 the little billows giving way before it ; near and 
 nearer, high and higher, till with thunderous 
 crash it broke against the mighty buttresses of 
 the shore. 
 
 " Let us go far out on the cliffs into the very 
 heart of the wild uproar," said the young man, 
 his pulses thrilling with the great spectacle ; 
 and Kate very willingly suffered herself to be 
 led out to the promontory's verge. 
 
 With each shock of the waves the cliffs
 
 CHAUTAUQ.UA CIRCLES. 203 
 
 trembled, and somewhere beneath them there 
 was a long reverberating roar like the bass notes 
 of a great organ. Far to the westward the 
 ocean stretched away till it met the line of the 
 sky which still glowed with the opaline hues of 
 sunset. They seemed surrounded with the In 
 finite and to be a part of it. 
 
 With that majestic music thundering in their 
 ears, and with the very rock beneath them 
 trembling with the fierce onset of the waves, 
 how could the young man speak of what was in 
 his heart ? He spread his overcoat on the rocks, 
 wrapped Kate's shawl about her, and they sat 
 in reverent silence for quite a while. 
 
 The spray fell about them in a fine mist at 
 first, but they disregarded it in the delight of 
 watching the wild shock of battle, but soon a 
 briny down-pour of a far damper sort drove 
 them back laughing. 
 
 " Ah ! " cried Kate, " we are cowards : 
 ' Some of thy firm unyielding might, 
 Enduring still through day and night 
 Rude tempest shock and withering blight, 
 
 That 1 may keep at bay 
 The changeful April sky of chance 
 And the strong tide of circumstance, 
 
 Give me, old granite gray ! ' "
 
 204 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 And so they turned backward, retracing their 
 steps along the beach. The excitement of the 
 day was still in Kate's blood and the stimulus 
 of the encounter with the waves was thrilling 
 her nerves. Her companion thought she never 
 was more brilliant and versatile, and almost 
 before they knew it they were at the little cove 
 known as " Chautauqua Beach," where the 
 festivities of the afternoon had gone on. Here 
 Kate paused and described the mussel-roast, re 
 peating the bright speeches, and making the 
 little cove alive again in her usual vivid style. 
 
 The Doctor listened with polite external in 
 terest but with a disturbed spirit. Did she 
 purposely divert him in this way ? She could 
 not but know what he was longing to say. It 
 must be that he was not necessary to her as she 
 to him. He was on the verge of despair. She 
 had never seemed so remote and elusive. 
 
 "What do you call that pretty point out 
 there? " he asked half listlessly, at a little pause 
 in Kate's gay description. 
 
 "That?" she asked following the westward 
 pointing of his hand. "Oh, that," and the
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 205 
 
 warm blood mounted to her white temples 
 "that is Lovers' Point." 
 
 He suddenly drew near her. " Oh Kate ! " he 
 said, " I cannot endure another hour of suspense. 
 I must know my fate. Can you truly? Will 
 you really go out with me on Lovers' Point ?" 
 
 She bent a moment like a wind-swept flower 
 and then she put out both her hands : 
 
 "Yes, I will go with you," she said, simply 
 and finally. 
 
 The evening star came out and looked at them 
 approvingly as arm in arm they sauntered on 
 past the rustic outlook building with its tempt 
 ing seats, on to the familiar Point, and then out 
 on its well worn path. Here they encountered 
 Kate's brother Fred whom they greeted cor 
 dially and sent on homeward with the message 
 that they were coming presently. But Dr. 
 Hall was blissfully intent upon going to the 
 utmost verge of Lovers' Point, and Kate could 
 not say him nay. Indeed she had grown very 
 silent and it was her lover's turn to talk in low 
 and earnest tones upon that subject of which 
 the shyest maiden never tires.
 
 206 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 And so their young lives entered that "new 
 world which is the old." 
 
 Meanwhile Fred went home rather solemnly 
 for him, and when he had reached that little 
 habitation he went in and then actually hung 
 up his hat. Then he sat down and carefully 
 delivered his message, but he added, "I met 
 them away out on Lovers' Point, and truly they 
 looked for all the world like a lover and 
 loveress ! "
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 AT CARMEL MISSION. 
 
 WHATEVER embarrassment Kate might nat 
 urally have felt in laying before her family 
 the experiences and results of that memorable 
 walk was greatly relieved by the frank and 
 triumphant boldness of the conquering hero. 
 He brought the dear girl home in due season, 
 
 " All kind of smiley round the lips 
 And teary round the lashes," 
 
 and found Mr. and Mrs. Thurston sitting to 
 gether by the cheerful blaze of pine cones in the 
 little Franklin stove. Dr. Hall put his arm 
 around Kate and came forward hat in hand ; 
 then, without any preliminaries, half begged, 
 half claimed the parental approbation and 
 blessing. 
 
 There could be but one answer to such a 
 petition.
 
 208 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Of course there had to be a little subsequent 
 visiting, but very soon Dr. Hall rose to leave : 
 
 "Ah, well," he said, " I must not forget how 
 long and full this day has been to you all and 
 that, as our Spanish friends say, 'to-morrow 
 brings another day.' I hope I am not so com 
 pletely intoxicated with my happiness that I 
 shall walk into the bay on my way to Del 
 Monte ! My mother's appointment with you is 
 for ten o'clock, I think? We shall be here 
 promptly. I feel impatient already." 
 
 Kate went with him to the door yes, out to 
 the gate, of course and as he kissed her good 
 night he said, " I may tell my mother this very 
 night, may I not?" and she whispered, "Yes, 
 yes, I seem unable to say anything but ' yes ' to 
 you to-night." 
 
 "I will test you," he said, with gay daring. 
 " Let us be married to-morrow over at the Old 
 Mission by your father ! " 
 
 "No, no, no !" cried Kate, quite in her usual 
 fashion, "and now go directly away, you pre 
 sumptuous youth, or I shall revoke all my 
 yeses."
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 209 
 
 Then he really did go, and Kate went back to 
 kiss her father and mother and cry a little more. 
 
 Saturday was a true Monterey day with a 
 high fog obscuring the sun and giving the sea 
 and the landscape that soft gray setting which 
 one soon learns to appreciate as a restful and 
 beautiful change. 
 
 In the little tent everybody was trying to be 
 sweet and reasonable except Fred. He had 
 been wrapped in oblivion the evening before 
 during Dr. Hall's call, and this morning was 
 taken into the family confidence by his mother. 
 He now stoutly maintained that the whole pro 
 ceeding was uncalled for and undesirable from 
 every point of view. Kate had to take him in 
 hand herself and assert that no coercion what 
 ever had been used with her, and that, on the 
 contrary, she had acted according to the dictates 
 of her heart and judgment, and moreover 
 that the state of affairs was by no means unpre 
 cedented. She succeeded so well that he 
 presented his usual cheerful front, enhanced by 
 a most painstaking toilet, when the carriage 
 arrived at ten o'clock.
 
 210 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Dr. Hall ran in with a freedom which was as 
 delightful as it was new. 
 
 "Good morning," he said, with the brightest 
 effaces ; "may I bring my mother and cousin 
 in for a moment, Mrs. Thurston? " Then sotto 
 voce to Kate, "Say yes, do, please, Kate, and 
 break the dreadful spell of fear under which I 
 am laboring ! " 
 
 " Yes, indeed," they both replied, and in a 
 moment Mrs. Hall had Kate in her arms : 
 
 " My daughter ! " she said, kissing her warmly ; 
 "My daughter! I never had the privilege of 
 saying that sweet phrase before. I am afraid I 
 shall want to keep saying it all the time to-day." 
 
 And then Genevieve came forward with 
 genuine effort to be informal and cordial. It 
 was remarkably becoming to her, and Kate saw 
 for the first time how pleasing, when the occa 
 sion justified it, a young lady of that aristocratic 
 type could be. 
 
 For herself she could respond to all this only 
 with blushes and smiles, which, after all, were 
 quite sufficient. 
 
 The seats of the comfortable open wagonette
 
 CHAUTAUqUA CIRCLES. 211 
 
 were amply wide for three persons. The elder 
 people had the rear seat, the younger people the 
 middle one, while Fred was delighted to be put 
 with the driver. 
 
 Their road took them back to Monterey where 
 they stopped to look at the quaint old adobe 
 houses and especially at the historic places, 
 which the driver pointed out. At the cross 
 which marks the point where the old friars 
 landed in 1770 they paused and gazed with 
 genuine reverence, while Mr. Thurston, who 
 had been making a careful study of early Cali 
 fornia history, talked with deep appreciation of 
 the holy and self-renouncing zeal which led 
 these devoted missionaries to the new world. 
 They were all familiar with Francis Parkman's 
 noble historical work, "The Jesuits in North 
 America," and recalled its imperishable pictures 
 of Pere Marquette aud his confreres, who did a 
 similar work in Canada and among the savage 
 Indian tribes of New York and the Upper 
 Mississippi. 
 
 " Our missionary pioneer," said Mr. Thurs 
 ton, " found here a gentler race of savages and
 
 212 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 a far milder climate, but their consecration was 
 as sincere and their labors as untiring." 
 
 The driver pointed out the ruins of the old 
 presidio and fort farther up the hill, showing 
 how the friars were prepared to defend them 
 selves from foes who might come by sea and 
 from Christian nations as well as from their in 
 land savage neighbors. 
 
 In the town of Monterey they looked with in 
 terest at the old adobe barracks where later 
 Spanish or Mexican soldiers had been quartered, 
 and where General Fremont was glad to house 
 his men during his memorable campaign. 
 
 They went on and looked at the more modern 
 Roman Catholic church only the foundations of 
 which date back to mission days, but which 
 even this touch of the last century makes vener 
 able. Then they turned and drove southeast 
 ward toward Carmel, stopping only for a mo 
 ment to look at Colton Hall, the famous stone 
 building which Alcalde Colton contrived to get 
 built by the labor of criminals of various degrees, 
 from horse thieves and gamblers down to robbers 
 of hen-roosts, in the days of '46. Mr. Thurston
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 213 
 
 had just been reading Colton's book, "Three 
 years in California, '46-' 49," and for miles on 
 their pleasant drive round the spurs of Carmel 
 Mountain, he entertained his friends, old and 
 young, with the stories of the jovial sailor-parson 
 who came to California as chaplain in the 
 United States frigate Savannah in 1846, and so 
 was present at the bloodless taking of Monterey 
 by the conquering Yankee, and was subse 
 quently elected the first Yankee Alcalde of 
 Monterey. This office was a droll combination 
 of Oriental patriarch, Indian chief, and modern 
 mayor, and the Alcalde Colton magnified his 
 office. His pictures of Mexican customs as they 
 prevailed in Monterey, of the primitive life, the 
 friendly, hospitable people, the scenes in his 
 justice's court, and his amusing but excellent 
 decisions, were immensely enjoyed by the pic 
 nickers. 
 
 About noon they reached the old Mission. 
 The sun was still hiding behind the ocean fog, 
 and so the venerable ruin, environed by the 
 green hills, seemed curtained from the "garish 
 day " by the tender mist.
 
 214 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 It was a beautiful and rare picture for America 
 a veritable ruin. The sun-dried bricks of 
 which the building was built were originally a 
 creamy yellow, while the tile of the roof had 
 been a deep terra cotta, but the sun and the 
 gentle touches of the rain and fog had given the 
 whole a tender olive gray hue. Deserted as it 
 was in the early part of the century, time had 
 crumbled mortar and loosened wooden supports ; 
 wind and weather and soft earthquake trem 
 blings had shaken down roof and wall till little 
 was left intact save the old bell-tower, which 
 had stoutly resisted decay. 
 
 They all alighted and went around the grass 
 pile, looked in at the deep windows, and with 
 reverent steps entered the door and walked 
 about on the uneven and dust-heaped pavement. 
 They felt they indeed were on holy ground. 
 Here good Padre Juanipero Serra had walked 
 and knelt. Here from this little mound which 
 was once the altar he had ministered to the 
 simple children of the forest whom he loved 
 most earnestly. Here somewhere he died and 
 was buried amid great and heart-felt lamenta-
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 215 
 
 tion and his dust was lying here beneath 
 his beloved church, waiting for the resurrec 
 tion. 
 
 They looked up in the old bell-tower, now a 
 home for gentle wild doves, and thought how 
 often it had echoed to the soft clangor of the 
 bell calling the adeste fideles, and how strange 
 was the throng of worshipers it had summoned, 
 a poor race of gentle heathen whose civilization 
 never reached a point where they did not easily 
 slip back into savagery and whose theology, 
 spite of all the good friar's efforts, never was far 
 removed from paganism. 
 
 Our friends sat down on the dry yellow grass 
 outside the ruin and talked of the pathos which 
 clings to the whole subject of those early 
 missions. 
 
 "Was any real good accomplished, do you 
 think, by all the toil and sacrifice? " asked Dr. 
 Hall. 
 
 " Doubtless some poor souls were lifted to 
 higher levels," said Mr. Thurston ; " and surely 
 God never suffers any great earnest effort to go 
 unrewarded. No pure, holy, unselfish life is
 
 216 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 lived in vain. It is a benediction to itself and 
 to mankind. I hope I shall be a better Christian 
 always for reading the life of Father Serra, with 
 its picture of complete self-renunciation, of 
 heroic endurance, of high faith and courage 
 which conquered pain and sickness, and counted 
 all suffering joy if by any means a soul might 
 be saved. I was continually reminded in 
 reading it of St. Paul : ' In journeyings 
 often, in perils of waters, in perils of 
 robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, 
 in perils by the heathen, in perils in the 
 wilderness. In weariness and painfulness, 
 in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
 fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides 
 those things that are without, that which 
 cometh upon me daily, the care of all the 
 churches.' 
 
 "All these things literally made up Father 
 Serra' s life as he journeyed from one Mission 
 Station to. another, from San Francisco Bay to 
 San Diego." 
 
 Kate picked a little blossom that grew at her 
 feet :
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 217 
 
 " And still the wilding flowers will bloom, 
 
 The golden leaves will fall, 
 The seasons come, the seasons go, 
 
 And God be good to all," 
 
 she softly recited. 
 
 "Ah, true, true, my dear," Mrs. Hall said. 
 " We have only to trust. Both nature and the 
 written Word teach us the same lesson of the 
 Eternal Goodness." 
 
 " I was thinking just now of Longfellow's 
 poem, 'The Bells of San Bias,' " said Dr. Hall. 
 " I think it is the message which haunts all these 
 old Mission Campaniles," and he quoted with 
 fine feeling and effect : 
 
 What say the bells of San Bias 
 To the ships that southward pass ? 
 
 For bells are the voice of the church 
 They have tones that touch and search 
 
 The hearts of young and old. 
 One sound to all, yet each 
 Lends a meaning to their speech, 
 
 And the meaning is manifold. 
 
 They are the voice of the past, 
 Of an age that is fading fast. 
 
 Of a power austere and grand ; 
 When the flag of Spain unfurled 
 Its folds o'er the western world 
 
 And the Priest was lord of the land.
 
 218 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Is then the old faith dead ? 
 They say, and in its stead 
 
 Is some new faith proclaimed, 
 That we are left to remain 
 Naked to sun and rain, 
 
 Unsheltered and ashamed ? 
 
 The saints, ah, have they grown 
 Forgetful of their own? 
 
 Are they asleep or dead, 
 That open to the sky 
 Their ruined Missions lie 
 
 No longer tenanted ? 
 
 Oh bring us back once more 
 The vanished days of yore, 
 
 When the world with faith was filled. 
 Bring back the fervid zeal, 
 The hearts of fire and steel, 
 
 The hands that believe and build ! 
 
 Then from our towers again 
 
 We will send over land and main 
 
 Our voices of command, 
 Like exiled kings who return 
 To their thrones, and the people learn 
 
 That the Priest is lord of the land. 
 
 Oh bells of San Bias, in vain 
 Ye call back the past again, 
 
 The past is deaf to your prayer. 
 Out of the shadows of night 
 The world rolls into the light, 
 
 It is daybreak everywhere ! 
 
 No one seemed ready to go but Fred who had 
 been obscurely signaling his sister for some 
 minutes ere the driver respectfully called to 
 them that Cannel Bay was still some distance 
 beyond. So they rose and moved slowly away
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 219 
 
 with many a thoughtful backward glance. 
 There was a majesty about the crumbling ruin 
 lying there in utter loneliness that impressed 
 each heart. They seemed to be going softly out 
 of a room where one lay with folded hands and 
 sealed lips waiting the eternal morning. 
 
 Genevieve Grant had been busying herself 
 with a sketch of the scene which she now 
 showed them. It pleased Kate wonderfully, 
 for it not only showed the trained eye and hand 
 but had caught the spirit of the place, and it 
 brought the two girls nearer to each other. 
 
 They drove on through enchanting scenery 
 and ere long the blue water shone in the dis 
 tance and Carmel Bay was before them. There 
 they made preparations for a longer stay. 
 Cushions and fur robes, of which Mrs. Hall had 
 ordered a double portion, were spread under a 
 great oak, with all the charming landscape and 
 seascape in full view. 
 
 " How sheltered and warm it seems with this 
 sunny southern exposure ! " said Mrs. Thurston, 
 who often found herself shivering at Pacific 
 Grove.
 
 220 KATE THURSTON'8 
 
 "What a pity that Del Monte isn't here!" 
 said Mrs. Hall. " I think that the Mission 
 Fathers were wiser in their generation than 
 even the Southern Pacific Railroad." 
 
 "Well, I'm glad we're here instead of at Del 
 Monte !" said Dr. Hall. 
 
 The luxurious lunch was spread on a large 
 red cloth placed on the grass. With the help of 
 a spirit lamp a delicious pot of tea was brewed, 
 and all enjoyed the feast. 
 
 Mr. Thurston and Mrs. Hall told stories of old- 
 time picnics, and clam-bakes, and fishing parties 
 on the other side of the continent, and if to 
 their own hearts there was a continual under 
 tone of sadness over the memories of change 
 and death, they were too kind and wise to 
 throw any shadows over the young lives which 
 to-day were so happy in hope and love. 
 
 By and by the young people very naturally 
 drifted away from the elder ones. Genevieve 
 and Fred had grown friendly and went together 
 to search among the pebbles of the beach for 
 shining treasures, while Dr. Hall and Kate 
 strolled on down a woodland path to gather
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 221 
 
 mariposa lilies which grew in splendid clusters 
 in the open glades flora, butterflies, their white 
 wings spotted with royal purple, poising on 
 their delicate stems as if for an aerial flight. 
 
 Did they walk beneath the oaks and pines of 
 Carmel Bay and gather mariposa lilies ? Nay, 
 they walked in the old, old garden, and the 
 lilies were those of paradise.
 
 CHAPTEE XHI. 
 
 THE LAST BOUND TABLE. 
 
 THAT evening found our young people again 
 walking by the sea at Pacific Grove. They had 
 begun to plan a little for their future, although 
 this was novel and trying work for Kate who 
 was far more accustomed to plan for others. 
 
 " We will have a year or two of Europe pretty 
 soon, I hope. I must have a winter in Paris for 
 study," said Dr. Hall, and Kate, to whose young 
 imagination the art and architecture of the Old 
 World had always seemed an unattainable 
 dream, thrilled with delight, and then with a 
 rebound thought of the wide separation from 
 home and friends with almost a shudder. 
 
 "'Where thou goest I will go,'" she said 
 gently, but her heart whispered another Scrip 
 ture cry, "alas, my father." 
 
 "You know, dear," the voice of her com-
 
 OHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 223 
 
 panion went on, " I came to California and San 
 Benito only to build up after my long years of 
 study, when I was not wise enough to remem 
 ber that I had a body as well as a brain, and 
 now I feel restless to try a somewhat wider 
 sphere than that little town, upon which, how 
 ever," he added suddenly, "be blessings for- 
 evermore." 
 
 " Oh, I'm very glad you remembered to say 
 that, Philip!" laughed Kate. Then more 
 soberly she said, " My dear Chautauquans ! 
 How I shall miss them, if we go away ! " 
 
 " How they will miss you ! " he rejoined. " I 
 really dread to face them. I fear they will load 
 me with undeserved reproaches. It is so im 
 possible in this world to be unselfish. I plead 
 guilty to the basest selfishness myself," and he 
 pressed her arm closer. " I am so happy over 
 your promise to my mother to have our wed 
 ding day before she goes home in September, 
 that I am willing to confess to any crime the 
 Chautauquans may charge me with in the heat 
 of their first displeasure ! " 
 
 "You absurd boy!" said Kate. "They'll
 
 224 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 not be displeased at all. Are we not to spend 
 this winter in San Benito? We needn't tell 
 them about our castles in Spain." 
 
 "Ah, the subtleties of woman !" exclaimed 
 the young man. " Now I am so transparent I 
 was going to take them all into my confidence. 
 Thanks for your bright suggestion ! I feel so 
 bold now that I would like to face these Chau- 
 tauquans before I lose my ardor," and he drew 
 Kate, a little shy and reluctant, toward the 
 San Benito settlement. 
 
 They found that quite a number of the Chau- 
 tauquans had already gone home, but the 
 Brooks and the Leib families still remained 
 with a few others, and now were gathered in 
 the dining tent reading the San Benito Star. 
 Our young people were greeted with the usual 
 warmth, but although every one tried to look 
 unconscious and unsuspicious, there was just a 
 shade of expectancy in some of the faces, a sort 
 of covert is-it-all-settled ? air, which sent the 
 color signals flying to Kate's cheek. They took 
 the proffered seats which were urged upon them 
 and joined the circle.
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 225 
 
 " I've quite an important communication to 
 make to the Circle," said Dr. Hall with an air of 
 great solemnity. " It is my painful duty to tell 
 you that Miss Thurston will not be able to accept 
 the presidency of our Circle next year. Indeed 
 she doesn't expect to return to San Benito." 
 
 There was a general outburst of lamentation, 
 ejaculation, and finally of expostulation and in 
 dignation. 
 
 " Not teach our school any more? " cried little 
 John Leib with a quivering lip, looking up into 
 his beloved teacher's face. 
 
 "My friends," said Dr. Hall, "you inter 
 rupted me. I merely said Miss Thurston was 
 not coming back. A lady of a different name is 
 going to supply her place except in one regard : 
 she will take but one pupil and give him her un 
 remitting attention." 
 
 " I shall do nothing of the sort," cried Kate, 
 " I'm entirely opposed to monopolies ! " 
 
 They crowded about the young pair with 
 hand-shaking and congratulations, all eager to 
 say that it was just what had been predicted 
 and that it was wholly approved.
 
 226 KATE THURSTON'S 
 
 Then when they settled down again, Mr. Leib 
 said, " Since this is a Chautauqua Circle I think 
 we should come to order and have some speeches. 
 I will call on our friend John Thompson." 
 
 So John got upon his feet and said with vastly 
 more ease than he could have made such a 
 speech a year previous, that if Miss Thurston 
 had anything like the success with one pupil 
 that she had had with the Chautauqua Circle, 
 all the ladies in San Benito would be taking 
 lessons. Finally he said that this sort of pro 
 ceeding in a Chautauqua Circle was a little 
 
 dangerCtfs as jt was.apt^t(g..be catching, and he 
 
 - ' . t 
 
 looked at Jennie Brooks m a way that was sug 
 gestive. *' . " 
 
 " I will call on Mrs. Brooks," said Mr. Leib, 
 
 ,<r' 
 
 keeping up the/sho^ pf formality. 
 
 Dear Mrs. Brooks stood up and said, "God 
 bless them!" and then sat down. No one 
 else seemed moved to speak so Mr. Leib made 
 his little speech : 
 
 " Generally people are not quite pleased with 
 their friends' matches, but here is one we all do 
 like. Chautauqua Circles are good, but happy
 
 CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLES. 227 
 
 homes are better still, and I think from what I 
 see, Chautauqua Circles do make happy homes. 
 I say with Mrs. Brooks to our young friends, 
 God bless you !" 
 
 Kate rose superior to her shyness : " Dear 
 friends," she said, "happiness is very sweet, 
 love is very sweet, and I thank you all for what 
 you have said. I think to try to do a little good 
 in the world is the sweetest and most rewardful 
 thing of all. I say with all my heart, God bless 
 my Chautauquans ! "
 
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 F454k Kate Thurs ton's 
 1891 Chautauqua 
 
 circles 
 
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 1891