CORRECTING MRS, SIMS

New Zealand Tablet, 17 June 1915, Page 7

CORRECTING MRS, SIMS

From the day that the Sinuses moved into the corner house on Stuyvesant place, Mrs. Sims was the subject of lively speculation in the little 'street. Later, when the street found out how the corner house was run, she became the object of indignant wonder. "But when Mrs. Billy Keen an, out of the overflowing goodness of her heart, decided that it was the duty of the street to correct .her ways, Mrs. Sims absorbed all their attention. . " % ;>> Her ways surely needed correcting, for Mrs. Sims, leaving"; her youthful daughters to run the house, gadded.' Morning, noon, or afternoon, various residents of the neighborhood were continually meeting her

in different parts of the city or its surroundings/ I She gadded in a modest street dress; her manner was always engaging. She was medium in size, and except for -her. smile, which was extremely winning; and for her eyes, which were .noticeably penetrating, she was medium in appearance. -The street exasperated itself by liking her in spite, of her supreme failing. - ‘We can make room for one more in the club,’ argued Mrs. Billy enthusiastically, ‘ and that will give us a chance at her !’

' The club had no name except ‘ the club,’ and only one qualification for membership—residence on the street.

‘ But we have never taken in the corner houses,’ objected Mrs. Kay. I We have always considered that they belonged to the other streets.’ ‘ For the sake of arousing Mrs. Sims and getting her to do things, let’s invite her,’ urged Mrs. Billy. As usual, Mrs. Billy prevailed. It was hard for any one,- even Mr. William Keenan himself, to resist her. -

‘You see, Billy,’ she explained to him, ‘it’s this way. One of the laws of the club is that every member shall teach something that she knows to every other member. Now in this way we hope to get Mrs. Sims so interested in housework, and sewing, and hat making, and basket, manufacture, and cooking that she’ll stay at home, at least two or three hours a day, and give those overworked daughters of hers a chance to get. out more and do the things that other girls do.’

‘Perhaps,’ suggested Billy, ‘she is out doing the marketing.’

‘Marketing!’ exclaimed Mrs. Billy, scornfully ‘ Belle Sims docs that. She told me so herself.’

Billy offered no more explanations, but began to whistle, while Mrs. Billy and Mrs Kay prepared to call at the corner house for the purpose of inviting its mistress to ioin the club.

‘lt’s not likely we’ll find her in,’ remarked Mrs. Kay, on the doorsteps of the Sims house. ‘ Mrs. Dayton met her over in Alexandria this morning.’

‘ Alexandria ! How does poor Mr. Sims manage to pay her car fare, besides buying food and things for that family !’

Mr. Sims, to whose name the street had prefixed the pitying adjective on account of Mrs. Sims, was employed in the Patent Office. He received the smallest salary on the street and had the largest family: hence came the prevailing idea that his wife’s place was in the house, making both ends meet by careful management and arduous labor.

At present, however, Mrs. Sims was at home. So were all other Simses. Mr. Sims sat with his feet on the corner couch, reading the newspaper. The couch looked as if it had been used as a foot-rest before.

‘Poor man!’ thought Mrs Billy. I He probably gets so discouraged he doesn’t care.’

Behind him his seven-year-old son trod vigorously on the pedals of a ‘ player piano.’ in the kitchen a medley of voices rose amid the banging of dishes. From the basement came the sounds of a joyful boyish riot. In the midst of the confusion Mrs. Sims sat in the bay window, rocking placidly with her hands folded in her lap. As soon as Mrs. Billy could be heard, she explained about the club. ‘We meet at each other’s homes,’ she said, ‘ at one o’clock on Tuesdays, and we each take in a covered dish some article of food that she has made herself.’ Here she paused significantly. ‘Then after luncheon, we sit round and talk and work, and teach each other ways to do things.’ Mrs. Sims listened interestedly, and said she should be very glad to join the club.

‘ Billy, I believe "we can get at her if we arc patient!’ Mrs.- Billy cried joyfully, as she burst into her own house. ‘ But poor Mr. Sims’ — She paused abruptly. Billy was brushing off the couch in much haste it bore two dusty shoe prints Mrs. Billy did not finish her comments on poor Mr. Sims.’ The following Tuesday the club met at the home of Mrs Hone. Promptly at 1 o’clock the new member appeared, bearing a covered dish that contained a salad

made by' her eldest daughter, but she brought 'with: her" neither needle nor crochet hook. The club were that v week engaged in collar making. Linen thread and narrow lace, Battenberg and* ribbons, beads and edgings were all pressed into service to fashion attractive neckwear. ; .

Mrs. Billy sat down beside .the new member, prepared to use tact, diplomacy, - and persuasion. /‘.I learned to make the loveliest collar for a coat the other day,’ she began, as her nimble fingers drove a crochet hook in and out of a delicate.web. ‘lt would add such an air of distinction to that blue suit of yours. The. shape just fits the collar of that coat. Don’t you want to learn how to make one?’

The club held its breath while Mrs. Sims consented. The hostess produced a crochet hook, Mrs. Billy lent the material, and the club breathed its deep gratification. Mrs. Sims’s neglected education had begun at last ‘ And she learns so quickly,’. Mrs. Billy told Billy that night. ‘ None of us ever picked out a stitch as fast as she did. Now if’— Mrs. Billy’s voice, which had died away in the direction of the kitchen, rose again sharply : ' Billy, come here ! That meat man has sent us bone surrounded by a little meat, and charged us for a pound of steak ! Poor Mr. Sims ! Think of paying for bone enough to supply eight people ! But we have hopes of aroysing Mrs. Sims ’ , I In order to freshen those hopes, Mrs. Billy took her crocheting and ran over to the corner house Wednesday afternoon. On the street she met Mrs. Kay. ‘ I haven’t seen her out to-day,’ said Mrs. Billy, ‘and I’m going in to learn how the collar is coming on.’ It was ‘ coming on ~ nicely in the hands of Mrs. Sims’s second daughter. ‘ Mother has been down town all day,’ the daughter informed Mrs. Billy, as she frowned at a knot in her thread. '

1 The poor girl looked actually cross,’ Mrs. Billy said to Billy that night, ‘ and I don’t blame her. She was not only making her mother’s collar, but taking care of the youngest Sims.’ The mother of the big family appeared at the club the following Tuesday with the new collar lending distinction to her blue coat. She bore a triumph in cookery prepared by her third daughter, a mere child. But she came cheerfully unencumbered with any work of any implements or material out of which to manufacture work.

Mrs. Kay, the hostess, took her in hand this time. Mrs. Kay’s forte was basket making. Every article in her home that could be put into a basket was so accommodated, from the bread to the cat. Mrs. Sims learned to make a basket with the same ease and nimbleness that she had shown in collar making, and the next morning was seen as late as ten sitting in the bay window of the corner house.

‘ She was leaking down and making her hands go,’ Mrs. Kay reported eagerly at Mrs. Billy’s back door. ‘I shouldn’t be surprised if, when she realises how we all do things, she’ll stay at home and work also.’

Both young women nodded in conscious pride, and Mrs. Billy went back to her own bav. window, where she was wrestling with the bills sent that morning by the ' butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.' Every bill seemed too large by several items. Tapping her nose with the pencil, she chanced to look up in time to see Mrs. Sims, fresh and placid and unhurried, on Ijer way to the car. O that -woman-!' cried Mrs. Billy. An hour later the second Sims girl was observed in the bay window of the corner house busily shaping a basket! - ' -

‘ I do declare,’ Mrs. Billy told Billy when the club had been' wrestling with Mrs. Sims for several weeks, ‘ we’re at our wit’s ends. Everything we teach her she picks up so quickly and then calmly passes on to the girls, and they have too much to do already. We’re afraid that if 'we keep on teaching her things she may pass some of ’em on to poor Mr. Sims!’ - Billy stopped in the middle of the room and looked at Mrs. Billy thoughtfully. Then he made a surprising suggestion : ‘ Why don’t you ask M[rs. ; Sims to turn

teacher . herself ? . Why don’t - you get her :to tell you. folks how to do something?’ Mrs. Billy sat-up with a - jerk Her eyes widened and her cheeks reddened. . Why, Billy, what a good —and you had it! ’ „ , ‘ Thanks awfully !’ said Billy, with a bow. " -‘ That would put her on -her mettle,’ said Mrs. Billy. She’d have to learn something. Why, Billy, the more I think about it the better I like the* idea ! It has never occurred to any of us that she could teach us anything !’ The club, interviewed individually, hailed the idea*' with some faith but more derision, and Mrs. Billy was deputed to suggest to Mrs. Sims in a delicate way that it was her turn to benefit the other club members.

Tuesday and the time set for the usual covered-dish luncheon rolled round again before Mrs. Billy could find Mrs. Sims at home. The other club members had all assembled at Mrs. Jordan’s, and were watching as their delegate, cool and collected, in her white pique dress, mounted the steps of the corner house. Some moments later she emerged, looking altogether different. He face was warm and her manner curiously agitated. Her hat rode unheeded on the top of one pink ear.

‘Quick!’ she panted as soon as the hall door of the Jordan house closed behind her. ‘ I must tell you before she conies, so you won’t be as dazed as I am. She thinks we have known all along what her business is’—

‘ Business V interrupted a dozen voices. Mrs. Billy fought for breath. ‘Yes, business! She does the marketing for twenty familes in this city, and plans all the meals for some of ’em. Wealthy families, you know, some of the legations, and—and like that s and she’ll teach us—here she comes —we’ll all need notebooks and more brains than we’ve ever used in this club’—

Mrs. Billy’s voice died away as Mrs. Sims entered. She bore a covered dish of muffins made by her oldest daughter, and apologised for being late. ‘ I was bargaining with a poultry raiser from the northern part of the State, and couldn’t get away earlier,’ she explained. A few hours later Mrs. Billy sat limply down on the arm of Billy's chair. Her -appreciation was at low ebb. She held a sheet of paper close to Billy’s eyestoo close for him to see its contents of addresses and figures, while she discoursed on the events of the afternoon.

‘ Think of it, Billy. She says we’ve been so lovely to her that she wants to teach us how to buy, and what to buy, and what not to buy, and all those things that she has made a study of for years. O dear, I never felt so ignorant in my life! I don’t know anything about the very foundations of my business as a housekeeper, the raw material side, and Mrs. Sims will teach me—us, all of us. She says we can come to her at any time, and that we can go with her when she buys —and it all came out in such a lovely way that she looks at us as nice, well-meaning children, and she’s been longing to teach us for some time—O Billy, she pays her daughters a regular salary, and it makes them want to help in the house before they’re really old enough.’

Billy’s twinkling eyes looked over Mrs. Billy’s sunny head and descried a man going down the street. Billy’s voice was mischievous. ‘ There goes p-o-o-r Mr. Sims. By the way, dear, he told me to-day he had bought the corner house because his wife is so, much in love with % this neighborhood says she never lived in a place before where there was so little gossip and so much kindness floating around.’ Tenth's Companion.