Huldah Meserve was next voted upon, and the fact that if she were
not chosen her father might withdraw his subscription to the
brass band fund was a matter for grave consideration.
"I kind of hate to have such a giggler for the State of Maine;
let Huldah be the Goddess of Liberty," proposed Mrs. Burbank,
whose patriotism was more local than national.
"How would Rebecca Randall do for Maine, and let her speak some
of her verses?" suggested the new minister's wife, who, could she
have had her way, would have given all the prominent parts to
Rebecca, from Uncle Sam down.
So, beauty, fashion, and wealth having been tried and found
wanting, the committee discussed the claims of talent, and it
transpired that to the awestricken Rebecca fell the chief plum in
the pudding. It was a tribute to her gifts that there was no
jealousy or envy among the other girls; they readily conceded her
special fitness for the role.
Her life had not been pressed down full to the brim of pleasures,
and she had a sort of distrust of joy in the bud. Not until she
saw it in full radiance of bloom did she dare embrace it. She had
never read any verse but Byron, Felicia Hemans, bits of "Paradise
Lost," and the selections in the school readers, but she would
have agreed heartily with the poet who said:--
"Not by appointment do we meet delight
And joy; they heed not our expectancy;
But round some corner in the streets of life
They on a sudden clasp us with a smile.
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