THE CONCERT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 224, 20 September 1924, Page 17

THE CONCERT.

A STUDY IN CHARITY. % (By CYKANO.) Mrs. Brown told him after tsa, when, he was settling down to a quiet hour, with a book. There wa£ going to be a concert and bazaar in aid of the school funds, and she had promised to help. "Where do I come in?" he asked, without enthusiasm. He disliked school concerts, as welf as most amateur concerts—and many professional ones. Indeed, it took a good deal to move him out in the evening. Almost his favourite passage in his set of Jano Austen was Mr. John Knightlcy's opinion of evening visits. "A man,' , said Mr. Knightley, "must have a very good opinion of himself when he asks people to leave their own fireside and encounter such a day as this, for the sakex of coming to see him. He must think himself a most agreeable fellow. I could do no such thing. . . . The. folly of not allowing people to be comfortable at home, and the *olly ofi people not staying comfortably at home when they can!" He used to add that whereas Mr. Knightley had a carriage, he (Brown) hadn't a car. Though—or rather because —he was fond of music, concerts in general annoyed him. You had, so lie complained, no say in the choice of the programme, and you were liable to suffer such tortures as "Ten Little Tootsies," or a child reciter. Mrs.. Brown told him that all tha€ was required of him was that he should go to the concert. It was soon borne in on Brown, however, that there was more in it than that. Within a week the coming event began to cast an inexorable shadow. Talk of the concert flavoured every, meal. More and more time came to be taken up with preparations. Dorothy, the second girl, was to play a duet with. a school friend, and evening after evening a somewhat stolid interpretation of ■•Home to Our Mountains" went in procession through the house. Margaret, the third girl, was to be a fairy in a. tableau, and the rehearsing of the tableau, which mostly took place at the Brown's, was the least encroachment on her time 'and energies, for she was so excited that she ate half-meals, forgot to do her hair, and let her lessons go, ,Eldred* the eldest girl, was the ingenue ■•in a farce, the cast of which seemed to include quite a remarkable number of young men. Rehearsals of that, too, were generally held at the Brown's. The titular head of the home would retire to his study, to encounter, whenever he emerged, a houseful of more or less stran»e ' and sometimes indifferent °ueets, who stayed late after a substantial supper, and took liberties with his furniturf and effects. At length even Ms study was commandeered. You won't mind, dear, just for to-night, and of course he said he didn't mind; but the "to-night" .became several nights. Then there was the dressmaking. Eldred had to have a dress made for her part, and there was the fairy _ costume for Margaret, and a new frock for Dorothy. Mrs. Brown said she wouldn't have the face to ask the promoters of the concert for the cost of these things, but comforted Brown t>y, saying that the cMldren needed new clothes, anyway. During the last week. Brown saw hia family as in a mist, through which they seemed to move in a series of hectic rushes. Meals were a scramble? dinner consisted sometimes of a cold and rather scraggy joint and potatoes, with tea Vnd bread and butter to follow "So sorry, dear, but there was no time to make a pudding." It was impossible for him to ask anyone to sew a button on, so he used a safety-pin, and was thankful to have found one. On the last two days there was A burst of 6ooking. Cakes and confectionery had to be made for the stalls. Brown was advised bluntly to have dinner in town, which he did, and got the best meal he had had for some time. The concert was neither better nor i worse than many other concerts. Therei was a great deal of zeal, and everybody was prepared to make the best o£ things. Every item that could be was encored, and Brown, though he groaned inwardly, applauded with the rest. Two things interested Mm more than others. One was a conversation that he overheard outside the hall' as he left. d "Well, how did you enjoy it?" "Oil, so-so. One never enjoys these things much. They are a duty. Wβ have to raise the money somehow." '•That's so, and they only come occa.-. sionallv." The other thing was the discovery; that Mrs. Brown was taking home two larjiß eakea which she had bought. "But I thought you made cakes yourself to sellf j "Of course, but I thought I ought toj ', buy some there." "Who made these cakes?" \ ' "Mr?. Robinson. I think." "Then perhaps Mrs. Robinson bougWj ▼our cakes'/" '"She might have. Why?" "Well, it seems to mc a curiously in-* volved method of getting money for the school." Xext clay Brown met the secretary of the concert at lunc-li. The profit of the concert, thought the secretary, would be about twenty pounds. He also had a wife and family who had helped, and ,he calculated he was about five pounde out of pocket. That night Brown had something to say to Mrs. Brown. Ho said it with even more than usual gentleness, for sl?e was seriously knocked out, and talked of having to go away for a holiday. (Both Margaret and Dorothy had been too tired to go to school that day). "Look." he said, '-do you think it's all worth while? We have madn. £20 by the concert. Our uv.n out ot' pocket expenditure has been at least £10, thoupli since some of the si nil' we have bought will be useful for other things, we cannot say uxaetly. Jones tells mc he ha 3 spent £5. We are only two of all the people concerned. Halt' a dozen households have been disorganised for weeks, and men and women have etrained their i nerves and bodies and lived m increasing discomfort. Even then I doubt whether half those for whom ail this entertainment was provided really enjoyed it. Xow don't you think that next time it would be much more sensible just to pass the hat round and save all this bother? Even if the jrencral public wouldn't subscribe freely, we who got up this concert could lind the money by putting in about half of what this has'cost us, and we would be spared all this worry and work. I would willingly give a fiver to avoid it. Of course you would miss the pleasure of buying and eating Mrs. Kobinson's cakee and she ! the pleasure of buying and eating Tours, but—' , "Don't be sil'y," said Mrs. Brown.