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Samantha and Nellie were spending an utterly enchanting Saturday morning trying to prepare for a parade.
“I’ve never gone marching before,” Samantha said. Cornelia had, of course, years of experience protesting, but this was the first time she had decided to bring Nellie, her sisters, and Samantha along for the walk.
“I went to one,” Nellie said. She was adjusting her sash in Samantha’s bedroom mirror and trying to look stiff-spined and dignified. “When we were working at the hotel. Me and my friends protested when they didn’t give us our fair share in wages when the circus came through. There were all sorts of fights.”
Samantha grinned. “Well, I’m glad you can go to school with me instead of worrying about whether or not you and your sisters will eat for the day.”
“My friends are still worried about it, though,” she said. “I know there’s not much I can do to help them – but I still want to help them,” she said.
Samantha considered Nellie’s words. She thought about the suffragette picket they were about to attend. Then she gave a brilliant smile. “I think I know what I can do,” Samantha said. And then the two girls put their heads together.
***
Samantha waited until Cornelia spoke before the gathered throng of suffragettes. She waited until they had marched down Broadway, waving their signs and shouting for attention, demanding the vote, demanding their fare representation in the system. Then, when they paused in Central Park, gathering near a speaking platform, she nodded toward Nellie – and the two girls ran toward the platform.
“If you believe that every woman deserves to have her fair share,” Samantha shouted, wishing she had a megaphone or a booming alderman’s voice so that they could hear her straight down at the senate building, “then support the rights of the maids and cooks at the New Continental Hotel!”
“They’ve been underpaying those ladies for years!” Nellie shouted. “I was one of them, until the Edwards adopted me!”
The women in the crowd made quite the stir as Samantha and Nellie held out one of Gard’s bowler hats. “Pass the hat and contribute! Every cent puts a shoe on a child’s foot and a meal in a baby’s belly.”
The stir that went up brought Cornelia to the podium again, but by then it was too late. A flock of policemen descended upon the girls and scooped them up, carrying them off to the paddywagon.
“Illegal panhandling, ma’am,” one said to Cornelia.
“This is outrageous! My girls weren’t panhandling!” She caught Nellie’s eyes. “Just stay safe, I’ll be right there with Gard!”
Samantha felt fierce pride as she held on to Nellie’s hand – and as the paddywagon’s door slammed shut, she knew she had done both Nellie and Cornelia proud.
***
Nellie and Samantha were – in spite of themselves – a bit excited to be in jail for a good cause. “I can’t say I want to live here,” Nellie said. “But I’m proud of making a stand.”
Only an hour or so passed before Uncle Gard and Cornelia arrived. He gave a fond, bemused sigh as he came to their cramped jail cell and the officer unlocked the door. “Well, I’ve bailed everyone out,” he said. “I’m proud of all of you – and I think that your heroism has earned you a bowl of ice cream.”
“To the New Continental Hotel!” he said merrily, kissing Cornelia’s cheek and ruffling the hair of Nellie and Samantha in turn. “After all, we have some pockets to fatten in the kitchen and the maid and butler’s quarters. I’ve doubled the pot you got and I’m going to have a stern talk with the manage until he makes sure everyone’s paid fairly.”
Samantha and Nellie shared a grin and held hands as they followed in Cornelia and Gard’s wake. Their scrape may have been a rash one, but in the end they’d done the right thing – and a lot of people would be safer and warmer because of them.