All this the Thanatopsis Club was to accomplish with
no difficulty whatever, since its several husbands
were the controllers of business and politics.
She was proud of herself for this practical view.
She had taken only half an hour to change a wire-fenced
potato-plot into a walled rose-garden. She hurried
out to apprize Mrs. Leonard Warren, as president of
the Thanatopsis, of the miracle which had been worked.
At a quarter to three Carol had left home; at half-past
four she had created the Georgian town; at a quarter
to five she was in the dignified poverty of the Congregational
parsonage, her enthusiasm pattering upon Mrs. Leonard
Warren like summer rain upon an old gray roof; at two
minutes to five a town of demure courtyards and welcoming
dormer windows had been erected, and at two minutes
past five the entire town was as flat as Babylon.
Erect in a black William and Mary chair against gray
and speckly-brown volumes of sermons and Biblical
commentaries and Palestine geographies upon long pine
shelves, her neat black shoes firm on a rag-rug, herself
as correct and low-toned as her background, Mrs. Warren
listened without comment till Carol was quite through,
then answered delicately:
“Yes, I think you draw a very nice picture of
what might easily come to pass—some day.
I have no doubt that such villages will be found on
the prairie—some day. But if I might
make just the least little criticism: it seems
to me that you are wrong in supposing either that the
city hall would be the proper start, or that the Thanatopsis
would be the right instrument. After all, it’s
the churches, isn’t it, that are the real heart
of the community. As you may possibly know, my
husband is prominent in Congregational circles all
through the state for his advocacy of church-union.
He hopes to see all the evangelical denominations
joined in one strong body, opposing Catholicism and
Christian Science, and properly guiding all movements
that make for morality and prohibition. Here,
the combined churches could afford a splendid club-house,
maybe a stucco and half-timber building with gargoyles
and all sorts of pleasing decorations on it, which,
it seems to me, would be lots better to impress the
ordinary class of people than just a plain old-fashioned
colonial house, such as you describe. And that
would be the proper center for all educational and
pleasurable activities, instead of letting them fall
into the hands of the politicians.”
“I don’t suppose it will take more than
thirty or forty years for the churches to get together?”
Carol said innocently.
“Hardly that long even; things are moving so
rapidly. So it would be a mistake to make any
other plans.”
Carol did not recover her zeal till two days after,
when she tried Mrs. George Edwin Mott, wife of the
superintendent of schools.
Mrs. Mott commented, “Personally, I am terribly
busy with dressmaking and having the seamstress in
the house and all, but it would be splendid to have
the other members of the Thanatopsis take up the question.
Except for one thing: First and foremost, we must
have a new schoolbuilding. Mr. Mott says they
are terribly cramped.”
