Every one took a peek into the upper rooms as they passed upstairs to the attic. Ayleesabet's nursery received much praise, and the delicate tones of the bed-rooms won immediate approval. In the attic they found comfortable wicker chairs arranged about the room facing a small stage before which hung a tan linen curtain.
"What are the children going to do?" asked Mr. Emerson of his hostess.
"I really don't know," returned Mrs. Smith. "Dorothy said it would be appropriate for Columbus Day, so I entrusted it all to the young people."
When the curtain was drawn the Club was disclosed grouped on the stage. They sang Miss Bates's "America the Beautiful," Mrs. Smith accompanying them on the piano.
"That's all I have to do with the program," she said to Mr. Emerson when it was over and she had again taken her seat beside him.
Then Tom told the story of Columbus--how he was born at Genoa and became a sailor and when he was about thirty-four years old went with a brother to live in Lisbon. Tom was seated on the stage at a table and two or three of the others sat about as if they were in a library listening to the talk. They entered quite naturally into the conversation.
"Four years later," continued Tom, "somebody gave Columbus a map that put the Orient directly west of Spain, and Columbus became filled with a desire to search out the East by sailing west."
"I've read that he died thinking he had discovered the East," responded Helen.
"He laid his plans before the Portuguese king, but he found he couldn't trust him, so he went to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in Spain. They summoned their wisest men to pass on the subject at a council held at Salamanca. For three years they kept him waiting about in uncertainty before they reported to the king that his idea was absurd. Columbus was furious--"
"--and he started at once for Paris to try to get the king of France, Charles VIII, to help him. He took his little son with him and one night they slept at a monastery. The prior became interested in Columbus's story and believed in him and didn't want the glory of his achievement to go to another country. So he managed to secure for him another interview with Ferdinand and Isabella, and we're going to see now," said Tom, turning to the audience, "what happened at the convent."