Why Elizabeth Was Chosen

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Title:     Why Elizabeth Was Chosen
Author: Margaret White Eggleston [More Titles by Eggleston]

The Triangle Club of Center High School were all busily engaged in choosing the girls whom they should invite to go to the house party which Mrs. Warren was giving them. Mrs. Warren had a cottage on a lake, fifteen miles from the city, and she had written to the club saying that she wanted them all to spend a week with George, her son, there in the camp. And better still, she was ready to invite any ten girls whom they might choose. Mrs. Warren was the wife of the minister, so all the boys knew that the mothers of the girls would be glad to have them spend a week with her at the dear little camp in the pines, about which they had heard so much.

One by one they had chosen the girls, each boy having a choice, and now all that was left to be done was for Carl Green, their president, to choose. But Carl was in an examination, so they must wait for him.

"I think he will choose Charlotte Morey," said one. "She is so pretty and Carl has taken her to several dances this winter."

"Not a bit of it," said another. "He will ask Helen Keats, for she makes such good marks in school that he is glad to be seen out with her. She is fine company and I hope he asks her."

"I think he will ask his sister, Jane. Carl is always thinking of her and if she is at home, he will ask her first, I am sure," said a third.

While they were talking, they saw the boy coming across the lawn in front of the school. Every boy smiled and eagerly leaned forward to greet him, for Carl Green was easily their hero. He could lead in sports of all kinds, he was cheery and patient, he was a good student in school--he was an all-round boy and what he did was right in the eyes of the boys.

"Come on, Carl," they called. "Here is a letter from Mrs. Warren telling us we can invite the girls up for the house party. Isn't she a dear to think of it? We have chosen part of the girls and here is our list, but you still have a choice. Of course we know whom you will choose, but we thought we had better let you write the name. Come on! Hurry up."

Carl took the list and looked carefully through it. Then he said,

"That will be a fine party, fellows. I like that list. Let me see. That is the last week in June, so Jane will be away. I'm sorry, for I should have liked to have given her the fun. Well, as long as she can't go, I should like to ask Elizabeth Wyman to go with us."

A chorus of boys' voices sounded as soon as the name was spoken.

"Elizabeth Wyman! Why do you want her? She doesn't go with our set. She refused to go to the dance at the beach with us, though the whole club was going. Said she didn't like the movie we were going to see. She wouldn't vote for the Sunday picnic that we wanted. Oh, Carl, you don't want her. She would spoil our fun. Choose another."

Carl let the boys talk all they chose and then he said,

"Fellows, if you insist, I will choose another, but I should prefer to take Elizabeth. I'll be frank with you, I'm going to go with her if she will let me and this would be a fine opportunity to get to know her."

"If she will let you--that is a joke. As if any girl would not let you," said John.

"No," said Carl, "I mean what I say. I am going to be her friend if she will let me. And I'll tell you why--though I am not sure that she would want me to do it. Still she told me the story in a very frank way, so I don't think she would mind. At least I hope not. But I want you to know her in the way I do, for if she is my friend you will be often with her. After I tell you, you will understand why I say, 'If she will let me.'"

"It was the night of the snowstorm and I was coming up the street when I caught up with her. It was very cold and she was snuggling into a beautiful little neckpiece of ermine. I am fond of furs and so I said to her,

"'I like the little ermine that you have about your neck. It is so simple, yet so beautiful. It is very different from the large ones that most people wear these days.'

"'Oh,' she said, 'I like it too. Uncle sent it to me this winter and I love it because of the story he told me about the little animal whose fur it is.'

"'Tell me the story,' I said.

"But she smiled and patted the fur as she said, 'I don't think I could, for it is very personal. It was a message from Uncle to me, so it means much to me. To you, it might not mean anything.'

"'But I should like to hear it,' I said. 'Please tell it to me.'

"'Well,' said Elizabeth, 'Uncle seems very queer to mother because he wants a message to go with every gift, but I like it. When this came, his letter said:

"'"Girlie: I wonder if you wouldn't like to wear this bit of ermine. When the ermine is pursued by a larger animal and it comes to a puddle of mud, it will die before it will soil its coat. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you and all the girls who are your friends would be as careful of your characters and never, no never, do that which would soil them?"'

"We walked part of a block before we spoke after she had told me of the gift, and then she said, 'I am sure that the girls at school sometimes think me very particular because I will not do some of the things that they do. Perhaps they are all right for them but I feel that they would soil my coat, so I do not do them. I am trying to keep it white and this little bit of ermine helps a lot. Of course, I like to wear it, but it would be very uncomfortable if I did not try. I hope you don't think me foolish, now that you know the story of the fur.'"

There was silence as Carl finished speaking. Then Carl Green threw back the long locks from his forehead as he said,

"I know a good thing when I see it, fellows, and the girl who would die rather than soil her character is a mighty good friend for a boy to have. She is worth asking to our house party. I'm thinking she is worth winning for a friend. Good-by, I am going to ask her before any of you change the name on your list."

So Elizabeth Wyman went to the house party at Mrs. Warren's, and to this day she wonders why the boys seemed so different from what they had seemed before. But because she knew no difference, she was sure that it must have been because she was invited by Carl Green, the leader of the Triangle Club of Center High School. But you and I know better.

[The end]
Margaret White Eggleston's short story: Why Elizabeth Was Chosen

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