The Hope Chest by Karen Schwabach

Author:Karen Schwabach [Schwabach, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-49594-5
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2008-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Violet Spies

VIOLET SPENT A HOT, MISERABLE NIGHT sharing a bed with Chloe and thinking that it would have been cooler in the Hermitage, where you didn't have to pay for the fan. But in the morning Violet had an idea.

She woke up stiffly next to Chloe, who was still asleep. A young woman was walking around the room, eating a bowl of Grape-Nuts. Violet figured this woman must be Miss Lewis, who Chloe had told her was the lady who had the other bed.

Violet dressed hurriedly and wanted to run out to the train station to start looking for Myrtle, but Miss Lewis insisted she should eat some Grape-Nuts first. They were supposed to be very good for you. There wasn't a spoon or any milk, so Violet scooped them up from the bowl with her fingers and chewed while Miss Lewis talked.

“Today's the fourth day the legislature has met,” Miss Lewis said. “We were hoping it would all be over by now. The first day they tried to pass a joint resolution in the Tennessee House and Senate, and we thought we had enough votes, but the Antis had bribed a lot of the men we were counting on.” She wiped a hand over her forehead, which was already sweating.

“How long will they meet for?” Violet asked.

“We don't know,” said Miss Lewis. “The Senate and House have to vote separately now, and they each have to pass the amendment. And we don't know when they will. The Antis are trying to bribe as many legislators as they can, and they won't let the vote happen now until they're sure they can win.”

“Aren't the Suffs bribing legislators?” said Violet. She was too tired to think straight, or she would have realized how rude this sounded.

“Certainly not!” said Miss Lewis. “Women are entering politics to clean it up, not to add to the filth!

“When women vote, there will be no more bribery or corruption. There will be no more war. The concerns of mothers will become the concerns of the government— good schools, safe food, and temperance. Just think, the United States has banned alcohol completely, and soon temperance will spread to other nations, so that nowhere on earth will mankind ever be a slave to alcohol again!”

Violet had finished her Grape-Nuts. “Excuse me, Miss Lewis,” she said. “I need to go to the train station.”

“I'm sure those Antis are going to use every dirty trick they can think of to block the legislature,” said Miss Lewis, seeming not to hear her. “If only there was some way we could know what they're planning!”

As she walked along, Violet reflected that she had sat in an Anti meeting last night, eating sandwiches, and that nobody had even noticed she was there.

She was perfectly set up, Violet thought, to be a spy. She could go back to the Hermitage, pretend to be an Anti, and tell the Suffs what the Antis were planning. She wanted to do something to help—since meeting that hatchet-faced woman in Chattanooga yesterday, she found she cared about woman suffrage very much.

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