The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air | Page 2

by a dazzle of well-set teeth; her complexion fresh and pure, and the whole aspect of her face kind, courageous, and inspiring, as well as thoughtful and impressive. The poise of her head and rather strongly built figure is unusually good, and suggestive of health, dignity, and leadership; yet her manners and voice are so gentle, and her whole demeanor so benevolent, that no one could be offended at her taking naturally the direction of any work, or the planning of any scheme, which she would also be foremost in executing.
But there she sits looking up at her friends, with her papers in hand, and the pretty businesslike air that so well became her, and bespeaks the extreme criticism of her hearers upon what she shall read, because she really wants to know how it affects them, and what mistakes or faults can be detected; for she must do her work as well as possible, and is sure they are willing to help. "You see," says Jane, "I have dedicated the book to the children I told the stories to first, when the plan was only partly in my mind, and they seemed to grow by telling, till at last they finished themselves; and the children seemed to care so much for them, that I thought if they were put into a book other children might care for them too, and they might possibly do some good in the world."
Yes, those were the points that always indicated the essential aim and method of Jane's writing and teaching, the elements out of which sprang all her work; viz., the relation of her mind to the actual individual children she knew and loved, and the natural growth of her thought through their sympathy, and the accretion of all she read and discovered while the subject lay within her brooding brain, as well as the single dominant purpose to do some good in the world. There was definiteness as well as breadth in her way of working all through her life.
I wish I could remember exactly what was said by that critical circle; for there were some quick and brilliant minds, and some pungent powers of appreciation, and some keen-witted young women in that group. Perhaps I might say they had all felt the moulding force of some very original and potential educators as they had been growing up into their young womanhood. Some of these were professional educators of lasting pre-eminence; others were not professed teachers, yet in the truest and broadest sense teachers of very wide and wise and inspiring influence; and of these Thomas Wentworth Higginson had come more intimately and effectually into formative relations with the minds and characters of those gathered in that sunny room than any other person. They certainly owed much of the loftiness and breadth of their aim in life, and their comprehension of the growth and work to be accomplished in the world, to his kind and steady instigation. I wish I could remember what they said, and what Jane said; but all that has passed away. I think somebody objected to the length of the title, which Jane admitted to be a fault, but said something of wishing to get the idea of the unity of the world into it as the main idea of the book. I only recall the enthusiastic delight with which chapter after chapter was greeted; we declared that it was a fairy tale of geography, and a work of genius in its whole conception, and in its absorbing interest of detail and individuality; and that any publisher would demonstrate himself an idiot who did not want to publish it. I remember Jane's quick tossing back of the head, and puzzled brow which broke into a laugh, as she said: "Well, girls, it can't be as good as you say; there must be some faults in it." But we all exclaimed that we had done our prettiest at finding fault,--that there wasn't a ghost of a fault in it. For the incarnate beauty and ideality and truthfulness of her little stories had melted into our being, and left us spellbound, till we were one with each other and her; one with the Seven Little Sisters, too, and they seemed like our very own little sisters. So they have rested in our imagination and affection as we have seen them grow into the imagination and affection of generations of children since, and as they will continue to grow until the old limitations and barrenness of the study of geography shall be transfigured, and the earth seem to the children an Eden which love has girdled, when Gemila, Agoonack, and the others shall have won them to a knowledge of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.
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