Chapter XXX: Vocational

“My dear child! How well you are looking!” drawled Mrs. Severn, just as though she had seen Beth only the week before and that their intercourse had been quite calm and placid.

Beth did not know just what to say; so, as Ella would have remarked, “she said it with a vengeance!” She stood perfectly still.

“My nephew, Roland, keeps me posted regarding you, my dear,” continued the lady.

“Ah--indeed? I have not seen Mr. Severn for a fortnight, I believe,” said Beth, feeling vastly uncomfortable.

“Oh, my dear! Then you haven’t heard the news,” cried Mrs. Severn.

“What news?” asked Beth.

“About poor Mr. Montague. About my poor parrot,” said the lady.

“I have heard nothing about the parrot--no,” admitted Beth.

“Why, we took up that heavy carpet in my room ten days ago and what do you think?”

“Oh, Mrs. Severn!” exclaimed Beth, suddenly interested and excited. “Did you find----?”

“Ever so many things I had missed--yes,” said the lady, complacently. “The poor dear had been taking and hiding things under the edge of the carpet, along the mopboard under the windows. That sunburst of mine was found right under the bay window. Wasn’t that funny?”

Beth thought of the grief and shame the loss of the sunburst had caused her, and she could not, for the life of her, extract an iota of humor from the fact.

“But that was just like the wretched creature,” went on Mrs. Severn. “Will you believe it? That parrot had deceived me for years and years. Quite twenty years I have owned him. But now I have sent him away for good.”

And the selfish old woman drove away, leaving Beth something to be thankful for, but feeling that Mrs. Ricardo Severn was a very unfeeling person.

The graduation of Beth and her classmates was really a very pretty occasion; Miss Hammersly declared (as usual) that no finer class of girls had ever left her rooftree.

Rivercliff was crowded on that day, and the great central room of the gymnasium was used for the dance and reception at night. Of course, everybody was present--including the perfect number in aunts. Likewise, Mrs. Baldwin came as the guest of Mrs. Haven.

Really, to see and hear Mrs. Haven one might have thought that “our Beth” was her daughter instead of Priscilla Baldwin’s oldest child.

“And do you remember, Priscilla,” said Larry’s mother, wiping her eyes when the blue-ribboned diplomas were given out, “how we planned, years and years ago, that my Larry and your eldest girl should marry?”

“That was a long time ago,” said Mrs. Baldwin, rather primly.

“But they do make a wonderfully good looking couple together,” whispered Mrs. Haven a little later, when Larry stood with a group of the girls, which included another of the graduation day guests--Miss Freylinghausen. Cynthia had one arm around Beth and another around Molly, and looked to be enjoying herself.

Before the dancing began that evening, Larry sent up word to Number Eighty where Beth had served tea, to ask that the occupant of that room would give him a few moments of her time. And Beth tripped down in her new evening frock in answer to the summons. Evidently, Larry had laid his plans with wit and judgment. He led her into the madam’s room--and it was empty.

“See what I have for you to-night, Beth,” he said, eyeing her laughingly, yet admiringly. He opened the box he carried and displayed its contents.

“With the compliments and love,” he said, his voice shaking a little, “of Mrs. Euphemia Haven--God bless her! Your Great-grandmother’s corals, Beth. They are to be yours again. She never intended to keep them for herself, but wants you to have them back now to wear--and for your very own.”

Beth looked at him--looked away--tried to say something, and Larry added, softly:

“You can’t refuse them, Beth--you can’t. You would quite break the Mater’s heart, dear--and mine!”

* * * * *

“How long are you really going to teach school, Beth?” demanded Ella some weeks later, after Beth had been to the State capital and passed her examination before the school board.

“Two years at least, my dear.”

“My goodness! do you suppose Larry will ever wait that long?”

“Larry will have to wait, my dear,” said the elder sister, firmly. Then her eyes suddenly sparkled. “He must wait, at least, until he can accomplish one particular thing.”

“What is that?” the flyaway sister demanded.

“Until he can afford to pay the cook’s wages out of his earnings as a ‘limb o’ the law.’”

It was about this time, too, in the lazy summer following Beth’s graduation that she received a letter from Molly Granger, in which was the following:

“So he agrees we are to wait till Captain John comes home to marry
Aunt Carrie, and then we shall have a double wedding. At least two of
‘the Granger girls’ will not die old maids.

“I am awfully glad, Beth Baldwin, that you went to work for Mrs.
Ricardo Severn. Otherwise, I am quite sure that I would never expect
soon to sign myself, ‘Mrs. Roland Severn, née J. Molly Granger, no
longer F. W.’”

“What’s the good, I want to know,” said Marcus Baldwin, one night, evidently having thought hard and long upon the problem, “for you girls to go in for the highbrow ed. and then get married right smack off?”

“Not marrying ‘right smack off!’” denied Ella, vigorously. “Our Beth is going to teach at least two years.”

“Well, that jolly girl isn’t.”

“She’s going to teach after she is married, and so is Mr. Severn,” laughed Beth, “unless Mrs. Ricardo Severn remembers him very liberally indeed.”

“Well, a whole lot of you higher-ed. girls do marry right off,” repeated Marcus.

“And why not? We’re better fitted for life, no matter what it brings to us, if we have had a good education. Oh,” declared Beth, now quite grown up, “I am not sorry that I fulfilled my resolve.”

THE END

SOMETHING ABOUT
AMY BELL MARLOWE
AND HER BOOKS FOR GIRLS

In these days, when the printing presses are turning out so many books for girls that are good, bad and indifferent, it is refreshing to come upon the works of such a gifted authoress as Miss Amy Bell Marlowe, who is now under contract to write exclusively for Messrs. Grosset & Dunlap.

In many ways Miss Marlowe’s books may be compared with those of Miss Alcott and Mrs. Meade, but all are thoroughly modern and wholly American in scene and action. Her plots, while never improbable, are exceedingly clever, and her girlish characters are as natural as they are interesting.

On the following pages will be found a list of Miss Marlowe’s books. Every girl in our land ought to read these fresh and wholesome tales. They are to be found at all booksellers. Each volume is handsomely illustrated and bound in cloth, stamped in colors. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York. A free catalogue of Miss Marlowe’s books may be had for the asking.

THE OLDEST OF FOUR

“I don’t see any way out!”

It was Natalie’s mother who said that, after the awful news had been received that Mr. Raymond had been lost in a shipwreck on the Atlantic. Natalie was the oldest of four children, and the family was left with but scant means for support.

“I’ve got to do something--yes, I’ve just got to!” Natalie said to herself, and what the brave girl did is well related in “The Oldest of Four; Or, Natalie’s Way Out.” In this volume we find Natalie with a strong desire to become a writer. At first she contributes to a local paper, but soon she aspires to larger things, and comes in contact with the editor of a popular magazine. This man becomes her warm friend, and not only aids her in a literary way but also helps in a hunt for the missing Mr. Raymond.

Natalie has many ups and downs, and has to face more than one bitter disappointment. But she is a plucky girl through and through.

“One of the brightest girls’ stories ever penned,” one well-known author has said of this book, and we agree with him. Natalie is a thoroughly lovable character, and one long to be remembered. Published as are all the Amy Bell Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by all booksellers. Ask your dealer to let you look the volume over.

THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM

“We’ll go to the old farm, and we’ll take boarders! We can fix the old place up, and, maybe, make money!”

The father of the two girls was broken down in health and a physician had recommended that he go to the country, where he could get plenty of fresh air and sunshine. An aunt owned an abandoned farm and she said the family could live on this and use the place as they pleased. It was great sport moving and getting settled, and the boarders offered one surprise after another. There was a mystery about the old farm, and a mystery concerning one of the boarders, and how the girls got to the bottom of affairs is told in detail in the story, which is called, “The Girls of Hillcrest Farm; Or, The Secret of the Rocks.”

It was great fun to move to the farm, and once the girls had the scare of their lives. And they attended a great “vendue” too.

“I just had to write that story--I couldn’t help it,” said Miss Marlowe, when she handed in the manuscript. “I knew just such a farm when I was a little girl, and oh! what fun I had there! And there was a mystery about that place, too!”

Published, like all the Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale wherever good books are sold.

A LITTLE MISS NOBODY

“Oh, she’s only a little nobody! Don’t have anything to do with her!”

How often poor Nancy Nelson heard those words, and how they cut her to the heart. And the saying was true, she _was_ a nobody. She had no folks, and she did not know where she had come from. All she did know was that she was at a boarding school and that a lawyer paid her tuition bills and gave her a mite of spending money.

“I am going to find out who I am, and where I came from,” said Nancy to herself, one day, and what she did, and how it all ended, is absorbingly related in “A Little Miss Nobody; Or, With the Girls of Pinewood Hall.” Nancy made a warm friend of a poor office boy who worked for that lawyer, and this boy kept his eyes and ears open and learned many things.

The book tells much about boarding school life, of study and fun mixed, and of a great race on skates. Nancy made some friends as well as enemies, and on more than one occasion proved that she was “true blue” in the best meaning of that term.

Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers everywhere. If you desire a catalogue of Amy Bell Marlowe books send to the publishers for it and it will come free.

THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH

Helen was very thoughtful as she rode along the trail from Sunset Ranch to the View. She had lost her father but a month before, and he had passed away with a stain on his name--a stain of many years’ standing, as the girl had just found out.

“I am going to New York and I am going to clear his name!” she resolved, and just then she saw a young man dashing along, close to the edge of a cliff. Over he went, and Helen, with no thought of the danger to herself, went to the rescue.

Then the brave Western girl found herself set down at the Grand Central Terminal in New York City. She knew not which way to go or what to do. Her relatives, who thought she was poor and ignorant, had refused to even meet her. She had to fight her way along from the start, and how she did this, and won out, is well related in “The Girl from Sunset Ranch; Or, Alone in a Great City.”

This is one of the finest of Amy Bell Marlowe’s books, with its true-to-life scenes of the plains and mountains, and of the great metropolis. Helen is a girl all readers will love from the start.

Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers everywhere.

WYN’S CAMPING DAYS

“Oh, girls, such news!” cried Wynifred Mallory to her chums, one day. “We can go camping on Lake Honotonka! Isn’t it grand!”

It certainly was, and the members of the Go-Ahead Club were delighted. Soon they set off, with their boy friends to keep them company in another camp not far away. Those boys played numerous tricks on the girls, and the girls retaliated, you may be sure. And then Wyn did a strange girl a favor, and learned how some ancient statues of rare value had been lost in the lake, and how the girl’s father was accused of stealing them.

“We must do all we can for that girl,” said Wyn. But this was not so easy, for the girl campers had many troubles of their own. They had canoe races, and one of them fell overboard and came close to drowning, and then came a big storm, and a nearby tree was struck by lightning.

“I used to love to go camping when a girl, and I love to go yet,” said Miss Marlowe, in speaking of this tale, which is called, “Wyn’s Camping Days; Or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club.” “I think all girls ought to know the pleasures of summer life under canvas.”

A book that ought to be in the hands of all girls. Issued by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers everywhere.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH SERIES

By GERTRUDE W. MORRISON

12mo. CLOTH, ILLUSTRATED. PRICE PER VOLUME 40 CENTS, POSTPAID

Here is a series full of the spirit of high school life of to-day. The girls are real flesh-and-blood characters, and we follow them with interest in school and out. There are many contested matches on track and field, and on the water, as well as doings in the classroom and on the school stage. There is plenty of fun and excitement, all clean, pure and wholesome.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH

Or Rivals for all Honors.

A stirring tale of high school life, full of fun, with a touch of mystery and a strange initiation.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA

Or The Crew That Won.

Telling of water sports and fun galore, and of fine times in camp.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL

Or The Great Gymnasium Mystery.

Here we have a number of thrilling contests at basket-ball and in addition, the solving of a mystery which had bothered the high school authorities for a long while.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE

Or The Play That Took the Prize.

How the girls went in for theatricals and how one of them wrote a play which afterward was made over for the professional stage and brought in some much-needed money.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND FIELD

Or The Girl Champions of the School League

This story takes in high school athletics in their most approved and up-to-date fashion. Full of fun and excitement.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH IN CAMP

Or The Old Professor’s Secret.

The girls went camping on Acorn Island and had a delightful time at boating, swimming and picnic parties.

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES

By LAURA LEE HOPE

AUTHOR OF THE EVER POPULAR “BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS”

12mo. CLOTH ILLUSTRATED PRICE PER VOLUME 40 CENTS, POSTPAID

These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. They are clean and wholesome, free from sensationalism, absorbing from the first chapter to the last.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE

Or Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health.

Telling how the girls organized their Camping and Tramping Club, how they went on a tour, and of various adventures which befell them.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE

Or Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem.

One of the girls becomes the proud possessor of a motor boat and at once invites her club members to take a trip with her down the river to Rainbow Lake, a beautiful sheet of water lying between the mountains.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR

Or The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley.

One of the girls has learned to run a big motor-car, and she invites the club to go on a tour with her, to visit some distant relatives. On the way they stop at a deserted mansion, said to be haunted and make a most surprising discovery.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP

Or Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats.

In this story, the scene is shifted to a winter season. The girls have some jolly times skating and ice boating, and visit a hunters’ camp in the big woods.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA

Or Wintering in the Sunny South.

The parents of one of the girls have bought an orange grove in Florida, and her companions are invited to visit the place. They do so, and take a trip into the wilds of the interior, where several unusual things happen.

GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST. NEW YORK

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.

The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber and is
entered into the public domain.