Lesson Seven-Original Story for Picture

Lesson Seven-Fitness training for Verbs



         Althea and Mamie stepped off of the streetcar, in silence and looked around.  New Orleans was a big change from Madisonville.  And an even bigger change from the convent school they’d attended for the last four years. 

         The Great War was still raging when they’d met minutes after entering Sacred Heart Ladies Preparatory School.  It took only days for them to realize they had found a kindred spirit in each other.  And only another few days to begin making the Sisters lives miserable. 

         Both pranksters at heart, they had the uncanny ability to see an opportunity and communicate the idea to the other with just a look and a smile.  After a while the good Dominican sisters had learned to live with the girls.  A few had even learned to appreciate their unique brand of humor. 

         Things would have been different if they had been poor students.  But the trouble was they were both good students, who excelled in everything—well, nearly everything—for neither one of them could manage to thread a needle.  Embroidery was a disaster.  Even simple seams proved beyond them.

         Eventually the good sisters steered them in a more modern direction—secretarial classes.  And so the girls learned to type and take shorthand, and made plans to move to the city across Lake Ponchatrain.  But they were stymied about how they could ever manage to obtain permission—let alone the financial wherewithal to facilitate their plan.

         After nearly two years of haranguing, Althea’s mother and father agreed to allow Mamie to come and stay with them after they finished school.  They would chaperone the girls and make sure that there was nothing for anyone to gossip about. 

         Captain Cardone had showed up at the gates in a hired rig, and with the help of the handyman, struggled to get their trunks and valises secured and still leave room for the three of them.  While they had bid a teary eyed good-bye to the nuns and remaining students that lined up at the gates to see them off.

         It was a short ride to the pier and their things were soon loaded up on his little riverboat.  Usually he just took groups of pleasure-seekers on day trips to scenic spots on the shores of Lake Ponchatrain.  But today he had crossed the enormous lake to retrieve the giggling girls and their belongings.  The pair had spent the boat ride back, standing at the rail, staring at the every enlarging city and dreaming of things to come.

         The very first morning, the Captain himself had taken the downtown, to a reputable employment agency and sat in the reception area in patient silence while the matron who ran the enterprise interviewed the girls each.  She had followed Allie out and announced that she had the perfect positions for both of them—typists in the outer office of the president Maison Blanche Department Store.

         And here they were, standing on the sidewalk, outside the employees’ entrance to the famous store.  What adventures lay before them!