Wil UCOUTTGNATONSUACAUANANOAUAAUEQUEAOOATAAMCUUEAEEEEECOEEREUGROQEOG QOQOOHUOMUOOOE QUO HUSHUTELE UEC ERSHULAO CHT THHHAUHTHAC age The Discomfort Box By KATHERINE JHAXTER THE WoOMAN’S BoarD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. S. A. 156 Fifth Avenue, New York US IUUUMSLMUUMU SMU SSH eM SIMU MM SM eM MT eT eT NTT Ue eT TTT eT STM MMS SU SH es sm SMT y %S Od STITT SMM OMS PML STS MIM SMES erie TDL Po ? ere Ra ioe ft ee The rs Discomfort Box Bye KATHERINE THAXTER _ DELAIDE laid a curiously carved, brown wooden . box on the table. The group of girls in her room gazed at it. | «What. ispat 22 they cried. ‘‘Where did you get it? How odd!” ; Doris Keene took it up in her hands and sniffed— ‘*Q-o-oh, it has a funny smell.”’ “Tell us about it, Adelaide,’’ cried Janet. ‘Yes, do,’’ said the others in unison. Pauline, Barbara and Louise were curled up in the sunny window-seat, arms entwined. Doris and Janet hung over the table exam- ining the carving of the box. — “What i is see echoed Adelaide. ‘‘Why, it’s ae: dis?* comfort box.’ The group on the candies seat giggled. They always did, at everything. “Well, ’? said Adelaide. ‘‘ You know I had a birthday — when ie was at Aunt Marie’s—you all remembered it and sent me such dueky things. Aunt Marie gave me a party and I had a beautiful time. Just next door to . 3 auntie’s house there was a lady missionary staying. She had been a doctor over in a hospital in India for years and years, her name was Dr. Drew. She was home on a holiday visiting Mrs. Arms who had been a school friends of hers long ago, just like all of us. ‘“‘Oh, she was the best fun. I just loved to hear her tell stories about India and the strange things the people there did and about the patients that. came to the hospital. I don’t know how many little orphan girls she had taken in—little girls that came to her starved, and beaten, and terribly sick sometimes. ‘“She had pictures of some of them and they were real ~ eute looking, with dark faces, and wearing funny little drapes for dresses. I just wished sometimes that I could really see them when she told me some of the things that happened to them. ‘‘Girls, I tell you, you wouldn’t want to be a little — girl in India,’”’ she said impressively. The girls were | gazing wide-eyed at her—‘‘and have to be married before you got a chance to go to school, and have ~ ‘to go to live with your husband’s family and have — to do a lot of hard work and be shut up and never get — out to play and have your mother-in-law mean to you, er she paused for breath. ‘‘And Dr. Drew said that if _ your husband should die they would blame it on you or and you would be starved and beaten and have no pretty — clothes to wear and perhaps have to sleep in an outside : shed, while everybody thought they had a right to abuse a ; ea “s a : | praise Oh, she told me about some of those girls, just no older than we are, and they. had never had a bit of fun 2 eineall their lives. ~ “Sometimes she would tell us about funny aes that happened there, too, and she would sit cross-legged on _ the porch and play the queerest tunes on an old tin can and sing some of their songs. Oh, girls, I was thrilled and I got to know a lot about what missionaries do for the neulk of those lands and I’m interested in them IL OA ae lees . “But the box, Adelaide, did Dr. Drew give it to you?”’ aes impatient Janet. ° a “Yes, on my birthday she came over and saw Pal my presents and was at my party. She brought me this box and said I could keep the pretty handkerchiefs you - girls sent me in it, and then,’’ Adelaide’s voice dropped. Vot know, girls, she made me cry. She pee her hands on my shoulder and said: 2 ‘““T want you to have this box, Adelaide, so that in your happy life here, you may often think of the poor, sad little girls in India, many of whom never know what it is to be happy and gay and beloved as you are.’’”’ It was very still in the room, even the group on the window- seat had grave faces. “This box was given to the doctor by a poor little mother who brought a very sick baby to Dr. Drew and 5S. she made him well. The mother came back all smiles some time after with this box. The doctor says they like ~ re) to give presents and this mother was so grateful to the missionary doctor. So Dr. Drew said she had the box ~~ in her room and she got into the habit of putting things . in it that specially pleased her. Perhaps a nice letter from a friend at home, and sometimes she put money — in it that had been sent her for presents and she would use it for her patients. So she called it her comfort box. I thought it was dear of her to give it to me and © I loved her so, I just hugged her and said: ‘Tear Dr. Drew, I’m so glad you gave me this box — | so that I’ll never forget you and your little girl friends | in India whom you love and I’m going to try to get all the girls I know fo love those people, too.’ And she laughed and hugged me and said, ‘Dear old comfort » box, you’re at your old tricks. I’ve opened you again and put another comfort in,’ and she meant me, girls.’’ Adelaide finished solemnly, looking round at her friends. ‘‘But Dr. Drew has gone back to India and here is the box. It’s a terrible responsibility and I call it now my discomfort box. It worries me so. I think it ought — to have things put in it to help those little girls in India. | I just thought I’d put it up to you girls to see a we can help Dr. Drew and her little girls in India.’ ‘“‘But that is what the missionary society neo said. Doris, who was the minister’s daughter. “They hold meetings and pray and give money for the people in China and Africa and all those places. You don’t mean aes that, do you?”’ “Do you mean us to fill the box with money to send — = to India?’’ asked practical Janet. The three in the win- dow-seat sigeled as usual. Then Doris shook the box. “Why, there’s something in it, oi) she said, in surprise. She tried to open it. . “‘Tt’s loecked,’’ said Adelaide, and dangled a bit of blue ribbon with the key at the end of it. ‘‘No wait,’ as Janet reached for it. ‘‘I told you I called it my dis- comfort box. Well, I lived with it till it made me give up something I wanted very much.’’ She unlocked the box solemnly and all the girls ‘erowded round to see as shes drew out a small envelope and unwrapped a five- dollar Dill. She held it up dramatically. | “My new tennis racquet, oirls ; it’ S going to send some | comfort to India.’ eel, Adelaide, ”” eried Teac ‘*You’ve been NS - for it such a long time and your old one is broken.’ 3 “‘Father mended it and I can use it, um was Adelaide’s brisk reply. ““Now, AEE won’t one of you take the box for awhile ?’’ _ Nobody spoke but the sroup on the ie seat for- a got to giggle. They looked scared. “T have it, girls,’’ Janet cried. ‘‘Leét’s form a club— the Box -Club—and have meetings at each other’s homes and a ceremony over the opening of the box. To be a member you have to. pledge yourself to be guardian of the box for a month or until you’ve really suffered in order to put something in it. fi ‘“Adelaide’s president, because she owns the box, and Doris can be treasurer ’cause she’s the only one who - can keep accounts straight.’’ Janet’s enthusiasm was catching and even quiet Barbara found herself a mem- ber of the newly made club, largely because she didn’t want to be left out of anything the girls were ‘‘in.’’ Janet became the proud possessor of the key on the blue ribbon and tucked the brown box lovingly under her arm. : ~ “Come home with Janet, little box from india. If Adelaide, who loves to play tennis better than anything else in the world and who just hates to play with her old mended raequet can do that for you surely Janet can stop being a greedy pig long enough to put somevane in your little insides.’ Janet was not one who let erass STOW under He feet, ; so the members of the newly organized Box Club were ~ not surprised to be summoned to her home before a week | had passed. The box occupied a prominent position in the middle of the library table and Janet, whose red cheeks showed her excitement, unlocked it with a flourish, = ‘‘It just happened yesterday and I know if I kept ‘ the box a year I’d never have to give up anything that would hurt me more. Uncle J ack has to make a business - | trip to the city this week-end and he offered to take Celia and me along. He said he would take us to the Sym- phony Concert in the Auditorium because you know, — Celia is crazy for music. I didn’t care so much for the © 8 me a + concert but I was wild to go because Uncle Jack is such good fun and we were going to a hotel and all that. “T asked mother how much money Uncle would be likely to spend on me and she said several dollars, she SS So I just asked Uncle Jack quick for fear I’d enever- have the courage if I stopped to think, if he’d just as soon give me the money and let me stay at home. ‘Mother was shocked, she thought I was so rude and so I had to tell Uncle Jack all about the discomfort box. Of course he offered to give me some money for the - box and take me on the trip too, but I explained to him that that wouldn’t be playing the game for the box was really and truly a ‘discomfort’ box. He laughed his Die laugh and called me a queer kid—and - gave me this.’? She drew out a crisp ten-dollar Dill. “He said he expected to buy me lots of sundaes and take -me riding in a taxicab as well as to the concert and besides he’d like to putin a dollar or two for the little oirls in India, himself—and so somebody take the pes quick because I’ve given up all I can stand just now.’ “We'll have to ‘eenie-meenie’ for it,’’ declared : Adelaide and the lot fell to Barbara. She really looked anything but thrilled when Janet tossed the blue ribbon round her neck and said to her: sees shelvear up, Babs, it Al op easy for you. So many nice es come your way.’ But the girls didn’t. really know, thouslit Barbara as sg she went home with the box. They thought that because 9 she lived in this big house out on the avenue with her erandmother and three aunts that she had a lovely time. True, the grandmother and the aunts were lovely to her but they were so occupied all the time that the Te timid girl was often very lonely. Her mother had died when she was born but for a> long time she had lived alone with her father. Then | - his business took him away so much that he had brought — her home to his mother and sisters. But only Barbara knew how passionately she longed to be one of a big family of girls and boys. She pushed the box back in a drawer and tried to forget it but every time she saw one of the girls she thought of it with a guilty feeling. Once she thought of asking her grandmother for some money, which she would be sure to get, for grand- mother denied her nothing but then she knew she would have to forfeit her membership in the Box Club and she just couldn’t give up her ees with the girls. She worried and worried over it and sometimes she would take out the box and gaze mournfully at it. It- seemed to her at these times that the carving on the box made itself into strange faces of sad little girls from India that she was unable to help. How long would she have to keep this dreadful boxe l¢ certainly merited its name of ‘‘discomfort.’’ “The child looks pale,’’? Aunt Charlotte said one ey | “And she doesn’t eat anything.’’ | 10 ? “She neds a tonic,’ ’ said Aunt Julia. ‘‘She’s grow- ing too fast.’” . “TT think she tie some fore said Aunt Minnie. ‘“Suppose we let her have a party for her little friends. She has a birthday next week.’’ a? Now Barbara had never had a party in her life. ~She _ had often wished to have the girls at her house but had been too shy to ask the busy aunts. When they spoke to her about the party her heart gave a great leap. To write invitations to all the girls : on her pretty pink paper, to have the lovely cakes and ice-cream and flowers that the aunts always considered necessary for a party. To play the games Aunt Minnie was planning. Her face beamed. Then she suddenly thought of the box. Parties cost money and if she gave up this dearest wish of her heart, the first and only party she had ever in her life, then she would have - gomething for the box. It was hard, oh, so hard, to explain to the aunts that please could she have the ~ re ; money the party would cost. ve a The very idea!’’ they said, all of em quite annoyed. But Barbara was brave as a lion, now, she just must be able to put something in the box. Aunt Charlotte counted up for her—the little cakes and the ice-cream in the shapes of roses and water-lilies. How the girls would have enjoyed it, Barbara thought with a pang. But the money went in the box and when she told Aunt Minnie the whole story she understand- i ay ingly helped her to arrange for all the cid to come up — the next afternoon to open the box. Barbara didn’t ery that night and she was just the happiest girl in the world when the girls came laughing into the room. eet Aunt Minnie had sent John down with the big « ear to bring them up. Barbara told her story and unlocked the. box. And then just when the girls might have felt that they had been cheated out of something very nice because Barbara had given up the party Aunt Minnie threw open the door and invited them all into the dining- _ room. And there was a big frosted birthday cake with twelve candles and there were the little boxes of candy for each girl and there was the ice-cream in the shapes of roses and water-lilies. , : “This is my party,’’ said jolly Aunt Minnie; 5 lena not giving all my money to little girls in India if Barbara is. I wouldn’t give that box house-room.’’ But she — smiled very lovingly on all the girls and they knew that in her heart she approved what Barbara had done. And the box passed this time to Pauline. Pauline was gloomy as she talked to Louise about it. They were boon companions. soli cae ‘“They’ve all given such a lot of money,’’ she sighed. ‘Why I’ve no idea where I could raise even fifty cents at the present moment. Our family don’t buy tennis © racquets, or give parties, or go on week-end trips with rich uncles.’’ Indeed the eight rollicking boys « and girls of which Pauline was the middle one in a = 1283 Oy “en aa ae lel se ae a ws 5 > Ge “<< _ Fits? = — e ‘ : with her. Be AN Wom. C 4 hard-working carpenter ’s family had little extra money if they did have a jolly time among themselves. “T’ve been thinking,’’ said Louise whose mother was a widow and clerk in a book-store, ‘‘that if you and I, Polly, are to put any money in that box we’ll have to earn it by the sweat of our brow. Let’s be partners in the box and I’ll talk to mother to-night. She generally has a suggestion ready.’’ Louise’s mother lived up to her reputation this time. Bright and early the next day Louise sought Pauline and told of a plan to fill the box. - “But mother says we’ll have to promise to work hard and make good or she won’t recommend us.. She says business people always have to do that.”’ = Evidently the working hard part of the proposition was rigidly lived up to. Neither of the girls seemed to have any time for play and Janet and Adelaide demanded an explanation several times of what they were doing with themselves. Only Barbara who was always on their side and whom they sometimes ad- mitted to their close comradeship sighed wistfully as they hurried away from school one night. >? _ “T know,’’ she whispered to Louise. ‘‘You’re doing something for the box.’’ Louise laid her finger on her lips. “It’s a big surprise Babs, but you’ll know soon now. Will you ask your Aunt Minnie to be sure to drop” in at Miller’ 's store on papand ays And you come 13 A number of other people received a pressing invita- tion to Miller’s store, indeed Mr. Miller invited the pub- he through the newspaper, to come and see a unique exhibit. And everybody came, among them Adelaide — and Janet and Doris and Aunt Minnie and Barbara. And there in a beautiful booth wonderfully trimmed with ecrépe paper were Pauline and Louise. They | worse dresses made of crépe paper and dainty butterfly caps and they were selling beads made out of sealing © wax. Collar and cuff sets made out of paper. Boxes, baskets, flowers, and numerous cunning little favors. 3 Everybody was buying from them and Mr. Miller was rubbing his hands in satisfaction at the crowds. He marched his friends up to the booth and explained how ~ the young ladies had made everything themselves after — they had been given instruction by a representative of the firm that made the paper. The booth was photo- " eraphed to be used in a display competition. ; ‘‘And I haven’t a doubt but that it’ll win a prize,’ said the optimistic Mr. Miller. : ‘My, but we worked hard,’’ groaned Pauline Gs the girls assembled at Louise’s home to once more unlock ~ the box. ‘‘If Louise hadn’t kept me at it I never could have stuck out the month.’? “Nonsense, Polly, you know you liked it and. Via if Merchant, the lady who taught us, said that you had — real knack. Why those fingers of HUES could makes ~ that paper do anything.’’ 14 ‘However did you think of it?’’ asket Janet. ‘‘Well, Polly and I knew that no money would fall into our laps. And it happened when I asked mother if there was not something we could do, that she had just been wondering if she would have the time to get some instruction and feature the paper for the store. So she passed it over to us and it was a great responsibility because if we didn’t make good mother would be blamed and Mr. Miller would lose money. So we just had to give up everything but our school work and make paper things. But there's our contribution to the box,’’ pointing to the heap of nickels and dimes on the table. Mr. Miller gave us all we took in. We sold everything and could have sold more.’’ And so the box passed to Doris as the last member of the group. ‘““You know I’m getting to lke that box pretty ‘well,’’ said Janet as Doris carried it off. ‘‘What will you do with it Adelaide, send it on its rounds again ?”’ Adelaide shook her head. ‘‘T don’t know,’’ she said thoughtfully. ‘‘It just isn’t an ordinary box, it seems to make people do the most wonderful things. I think Louise and Polly were just bricks to carry out their scheme. Won’t Dr. Drew enjoy hearing about it?’’ But the question of what to do with the box was settled for the Club in quite an unexpected manner. When Doris invited them to her house to be present at the lad 15 opening of the box for the last time they were rather surprised to find not only Doris but her father and _ mother and another lady in the living room and the box as usual in the middle of the table. — ‘‘We’ve invited ourselves,’’ said Mr. Keene smiling at _ the abashed girls, ‘‘much to the distress of Doris, who thinks you won’t like it. But we are all so interested and Mrs. Moreland, here, is interested in the box because you know she is the president of our missionary society and up to this time she thought only her society was — interested in the people of India. She covets the power of that box, I think.”’ - Doris unlocked it and held up her contribution. ‘* Just as soon as that box set out on its rounds I knew what I would have to put into it and that was the price | of a term at an art class that father said he could con- trive for me to have this year. You girls all know how I can’t keep my hands off a 2 pencil and I was just wild to go where I could be draw- : ing all the time and know that I was learning to do — things the right way. Well, I brought the box home | and while I knew I would give up the elass for it I sat round and hated it for quite a while. And I was look- ing at it one day I thought of the doctor Adelaide told us about. Of how she was spending her whole life for — those little girls and as I looked at it I remembered _ Babs saying that the carving had looked to her like little girls’ faces. Then I went and hunted up some _ iG ie) ve eh | See me thie 5 in India and I eee this poster. ad sedeinidest he That? s eee the way 0 me when Dr. Drew gate me about nae oe sone a apaue auen eae the . es around her were little ue with y suit me on a Ae ie ie didn t fete fhe aS cat T went, to Be and oe him the piliole Sunieets s eh was so a pleased and house at the $0 that’ offers: may fall ‘under its to ) ask you to let me take it to the next meeting of the missionary society and tell its history and what you blessed girls have done with it. Will you?”’ Of course the girls were glad to let Mrs. Moreland have — the box though Janet said in her usual impulsive man- ner that it must just be Manele The Box Club just couldn’t give it up. | So the box and the poster went to the meeting and Mrs. Moreland told the story of its ‘‘discomfort’’ history so successfully that she won it a permanent place on the mantle-piece of the room where the missionary meet- ings are held. It is opened once a month and has never yet been found empty. The girls would see to that anyway, for they have never forgotten that it is their ‘“discomfort’’ box and that it first taught them the joy of giving to missions. December 1921 as