Cicely and Other Stories | Page 9

for you. Take those
definitions faithfully to heart for a year, and you will become so
homely, in the good old sense of the word, that by another St.
Valentine's day you will find yourself admired by everybody."
Alida shrugged her shoulders so incredulously that the doctor took out
her watch and showed her a picture inside the case. "There is my
proof," she said. It was the picture of a sweet, kindly old face, plain in
features, but with a beauty of expression that made Alida's eyes soften
as she looked at it.
"My mother," said Doctor Agnes, gently. "She might be called a
homely woman in both senses of the word. Every one feels the cheer of
her presence as of a warm, comfortable fire-side. Nobody can come
into contact with her without being helped by her sunny, friendly
interest. People feel at home--at their easiest and best--with her, and she
is the 'cozy corner' they naturally turn to, old and young alike."
"Then she must have been born with such a nature," interrupted Alida.
"No, she was as reserved and timid as you are--always worrying about
her appearance and thinking that people were criticising her, until she
went to visit an eccentric old aunt, who spent her time in finding
employment for friendless young girls.
"Aunt Winifred soon found that mother was in as great need of
employment as the poorest little seamstress on her list. So she
interested her in her charities, drawing her by degrees into the active
work of them until her unhappy little niece had learned the beautiful

gospel of self-forgetfulness. Afterward, when mother was married and
had the happiness of her five daughters at heart, she induced each one
of us to take up something of absorbing interest, in order that there
might be no empty, idle days when discontent could creep in. That is
how I came to study medicine, and that is how I learned to love the
word 'homely' in its first and best sense. She taught me the definitions
which I have just given you."
Half an hour later Judge Gooding was surprised to see Alida and Agnes
Mayne coming gaily into the room with their arms around each other.
There was more animation in Alida's face than it had shown for days.
"Papa, I am going to study medicine," she announced. "Doctor Agnes
has told me so many interesting things about her profession, and the
cases she has in the children's hospital, that I can hardly wait to begin.
She has promised to take me round with her and lend me all her books.
I think I shall begin to-morrow morning."
The judge smiled indulgently. "I have no fears of your going into the
practice of medicine seriously," he said. "I should not like a daughter of
mine to do that; but if you think you would enjoy the study as a pastime
and Doctor Mayne recommends it, I shall not object if your mother is
willing."
The family thought that "Alida's fad," as they called it, would not last
long; but under Agnes Mayne's wise supervision it became an unfailing
source of pleasure to the girl. Winter slipped into spring, and the
crocuses gave way to the summer roses, and still her interest grew daily.
She even begged not to be taken to the seashore, where the family
always spent their summers.
"Mrs. Mayne has asked me to stay with her," she said, "and she has
such a dear little house, and I am sure that the children at the hospital
would miss me now if I were to go away. There is so much that I can
do to make the poor little things happier."
Alida had her own way finally. She studied on through the summer,
learning much about anatomy and physiology from the doctor's big

books in the office, but unconsciously learning the higher wisdom of a
spiritual hygiene from her sweet-souled old hostess, the doctor's mother.
It cleared her mental vision. It made her quick to understand other
people, warm in her sympathies, and forgetful of self in her intercourse
with them.
"She do be such a comfortable sort of body, that young doctor," said a
poor washerwoman, suffering from a scalded arm, as Doctor Mayne
made her rounds alone one morning. "She is that chatty and sociable
that I forget the pain while she is about, and it would do your heart
good to see how she do cozy up the place before she leaves it."
Doctor Mayne repeated this to Alida. "You are getting on bravely with
your definitions," she said, with an approving pat on her shoulder.
"What do you think of 'Alida's fad' now?" she asked Mrs. Gooding,
several months later. It was a dull December day, and she had