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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ethel Morton at Rose House, by Mabell S. C.
+Smith
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Ethel Morton at Rose House
+
+
+Author: Mabell S. C. Smith
+
+Release Date: April 5, 2005  [eBook #15550]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 15550-h.htm or 15550-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/5/5/15550/15550-h/15550-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/5/5/15550/15550-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+Juvenile Library Girls Series
+
+ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE
+
+by
+
+MABELL S. C. SMITH
+
+The World Syndicate Publishing Co.
+Cleveland                     New York
+Press of the Commercial Bookbinding Co., Cleveland
+
+1915
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Here's where we should land"]
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ROGER'S IDEA
+
+For the fortieth time that afternoon, it seemed to Ethel Brown Morton
+and her cousin, Ethel Blue, they untangled the hopelessly mixed
+garlands of the maypole and started the weavers once more to lacing and
+interlacing them properly.
+
+"Under, over; under, over," they directed, each girl escorting a small
+child in and out among the gay bands of pink and white which streamed
+from the top of the pole.
+
+May Day in New Jersey is never a certain quality; it may be reminiscent
+of the North Pole or the Equator.  This happened to be the hottest day
+of the year so far, and both Ethels had wiped their foreheads until
+their handkerchiefs were small balls too soaked to be of any further
+use.  But they kept on, for this was the first Community Maypole that
+Rosemont ever had had, and the United Service Club, to which the girls
+belonged, was doing its part to make the afternoon successful.  Helen,
+Ethel Brown's sister, and Margaret Hancock, another member of the Club,
+were teaching the younger children a folk dance on the side of the
+lawn; Roger Morton, James Hancock and Tom Watkins were marshalling a
+group of boys and marching them back and forth across the end of the
+grass plot nearest the schoolhouse.  Delia Watkins, Tom's sister, and
+Dorothy Smith, a cousin of the Mortons, were going about among the
+mothers and urging them to let the little ones take part in the games.
+Everybody was busy until dusk sent the small children home and the
+caretaker came to uproot the pole and to shake his head ruefully over
+the condition of the lawn whose smoothness had been roughened by the
+tread of scores of dancing feet.
+
+It was while the Club members were sitting on the Mortons' veranda,
+resting, that Helen, who was president of the Club, called them to
+order.
+
+"Saturday afternoon is our usual time of meeting," she began, "and no
+one can say that we haven't put in a solid afternoon of service."
+
+Groans as one and another shifted a cramped position to another more
+restful for weary feet confirmed her statement.
+
+"What I want to say now is that it's time for us to be thinking up some
+more service work.  We are all studying pretty hard so we don't want to
+undertake anything that will use up our out-of-door time too much, but
+we haven't anything in prospect except helping with the town Fourth of
+July celebration, over two months away, so we might as well be planning
+something else."
+
+"Do I understand, Madam President," asked Roger, "that the chief
+officer of this distinguished Club hasn't any ideas to suggest?"
+
+"The chief officer is so tired that not even another glass of
+lemonade--thank you, Tom--can stir her gray matter."
+
+"Hasn't anybody else any ideas?"
+
+Silence greeted the question.
+
+"I seem to remember boasts that ideas never would fail this brilliant
+group," jeered Roger.
+
+"There were some such remarks," James recalled meditatively; "and I
+remember that you prophesied that the day would come when we'd call on
+you for information about some stupendous scheme of yours that was
+literally as big as a house.  Let's have it now."
+
+"Do I understand that you're really appealing to me to learn my
+scheme?" inquired Roger, swelling with amusement.
+
+"If it's any satisfaction to you--yes," replied his sister.
+
+Roger burst into a peal of laughter.
+
+"Shoot off the answers, old man," urged James.  "We're waiting."
+
+"Breathlessly," added Margaret.
+
+Roger settled himself comfortably on the top step of the piazza and
+leaned his head against the post.
+
+"It certainly does me good to see you all at my feet begging like
+this," he declared.
+
+"Bosh!  You're at ours and I can prove it," asserted Tom, stretching
+out a foot of goodly size.
+
+"Peace!  Withdraw that battering ram!" pleaded Roger.  "I'll tell you
+all about it.  Tom's really responsible for this idea, anyway."
+
+"Ideas, real fresh ones, aren't much in my line," admitted practical
+Tom, "but I'm glad to have helped for once."
+
+"I don't suppose you remember that time last autumn when I went in to
+New York to see you and you took me down to the chapel where your
+father preaches on Sunday afternoons?"
+
+"I remember it; we found Father there talking with a lot of mothers and
+children."
+
+"That's the time.  Well, those women and children got on my nerves like
+anything.  You see, out here in Rosemont we haven't any real suffering
+like that.  There are poor people, and Mother always does what she can
+for them, and there's a Charitable Society, as you know, because you
+all helped with the Donnybrook Fair they had on St. Patrick's Day.  But
+the people they help out here are regular Rockefellers compared with
+those poor creatures that your father had in his office that day."
+
+"Father says he could spend a million dollars a year on those people,
+and not have a misspent cent," said Delia.
+
+"What hit me hardest was the thin little children.  Elisabeth hadn't
+come to us yet," Roger went on, referring to a Belgian baby that had
+been sent to the Club to take care of, "and I wasn't so accustomed to
+thinness as I've grown to be since, and it made me--well, it just made
+me sick."
+
+"I don't wonder," agreed Delia seriously.  "That's the way they make me
+feel."
+
+"I know what you thought of," exclaimed Ethel Blue, who was so
+imaginative and sympathetic that she sometimes had an almost uncanny
+way of reading peoples' thoughts.  "You wanted to bring some of those
+poor women out into the country so that the children could get well,
+and you told your grandfather about it and he offered you a house
+somewhere."
+
+"That's about it, kidlet.  I heard one of the women say that she'd had
+a week in the country--some sort of Fresh Air business--and that the
+baby got a lot better, and then she had to go back to the city and the
+little creature was literally dying on her hands."
+
+"You want to give them a whole summer," guessed Ethel Brown.
+
+"That's the idea.  Since I've seen what proper care and good food and
+fresh air have done for that wretched little skeleton, Elisabeth, I'm
+more than ever convinced that if we can give some of those mothers and
+babies a whole month or perhaps two months of Rosemont air we'll be
+saving lives, actually saving lives."
+
+Roger looked about earnestly from one grave face to another.  All were
+in sympathy with him and all waited for the development of his plan,
+for they knew he would not have laid so much stress upon it if he had
+not thought out the details.
+
+"I've talked it over with Grandfather and he rose to it right off.
+Here's where the house comes in.  He said he was going to build a new
+cottage for his farm superintendent this spring--you know it's almost
+done now--and that we could have the old farm house if we wanted to fix
+it up for a Fresh Air scheme."
+
+"Mr. Emerson is a brick.  I pull my forelock to him," and Tom
+illustrated his remark.
+
+"Where's the money to come from?" asked James, who was both of Scottish
+descent and the Club treasurer, and so was not only shrewd but
+accustomed to look after details.
+
+"Grandfather said he'd help in this way; if the Club would study the
+old house and decide on the best way to make it answer the purpose he
+would provide two carpenters for a fortnight to help us.  That will
+mean that if we want to do any whitewashing or papering or matters of
+that kind we'll have to do it ourselves, but the carpenters will put
+the house in repair and put up any partitions that we want and so on."
+
+"Is it furnished?"
+
+"There's another problem.  The superintendent has had his own furniture
+there and what will be left when he goes is almost nothing.  There are
+some old things in the garret, but we'll have to use our ingenuity and
+invent furniture."
+
+"The way I did for our attic."  Dorothy reminded them of the room where
+the Club had been meeting ever since its members returned from
+Chautauqua where it had been formed the summer before.
+
+"Just so.  We'll have to make a raid on our mothers' attics and also on
+the stores in town that have their goods come in big boxes, and I
+imagine we shall be able to concoct things that will 'do,' though they
+may be remarkable to look upon."
+
+"The mothers and children will be out of doors all the time, so they
+won't sit around and examine the furniture," laughed Delia.
+
+"It will be scanty, probably, but if we can get beds enough and a chair
+apiece, or a substitute for a chair, and a few tables, we can get
+along."
+
+"There's your house provided and furnished after a fashion--how are you
+going to run it?" inquired Helen.  "It takes shekels to buy even very
+plain food in these days of the 'high cost of living," and we've got to
+give these women and children nourishing food; they can't live on fresh
+air alone."
+
+"Praise be, fresh air costs nothing!"
+
+"That's one thing we'll get free," laughed Roger.  "Grandfather told me
+to investigate and see what I could find out about finances and then
+let him know.  So I went in to see Mr. Watkins."
+
+"And never told me," said Tom reproachfully.
+
+"Of course not.  All of you people were too sniffy.  I told your father
+what the plan was and what Grandfather had said.  He thought it was
+great.  He's a corker, your father is."
+
+Delia and Tom looked somewhat startled at this epithet describing their
+parent, but Roger meant it to be complimentary, so they made no
+remonstrance.
+
+"He said right off that he could provide the women and children in any
+numbers and that he'd select the ones that needed the change most and
+would be most benefited by it."
+
+"It's not hard to find those," murmured Delia.
+
+"Then he said that he had certain funds that he could draw on for such
+cases and that he'd be just as willing to pay the board for these women
+and children at Rosemont as anywhere else, so that we could depend on a
+small sum for each one of them from the treasurer of the chapel."
+
+"That ought to cover the expense of their food," said Helen, "but we'll
+have to have a housekeeper and a cook."
+
+"That's what Aunt Louise said."
+
+"Oho, you've been talking with Mother about it!" exclaimed Dorothy.
+
+"I knew the Club would come to me sooner or later, it was only a matter
+of time, so I made ready to answer some of the questions you'd be
+asking me."
+
+They laughed at Roger's preparedness, but nodded approvingly.
+
+"Aunt Louise said she'd pay the wages of the cook, and then I toddled
+off to Grandmother Emerson and told her I was planning to raid her
+attic for old furniture, and asked her incidentally if she thought we
+could run the thing without a housekeeper."
+
+"I hope she said 'yes'," exclaimed Margaret, who liked to administer a
+household.
+
+"Grandmother was very polite; she said she thought the U. S. C. could
+do anything it set out to do, but that there would be countless odds
+and ends that would occupy us all summer long--"
+
+"Like making a continuous stream of furniture!"
+
+"And going marketing and doing errands."
+
+"And mowing the grass."
+
+"And playing games with the kids."
+
+"O, a thousand things would crop up; we never could be idle; and so she
+thought we'd better have a responsible woman as housekeeper.  What's
+more she said she'd pay her."
+
+"It wouldn't be polite for me to say about a lady what you said about
+Mr. Watkins," said James--
+
+"For which I apologize," declared Roger parenthetically.
+
+"--but I'd like to remark that she's one of the most reliable
+grandmothers I ever had anything to do with!"
+
+They all laughed again.
+
+"Where we'll get these two women I don't know," said Roger.  "My
+researches stopped there.  But I suppose it wouldn't be difficult."
+
+"I've heard Mother say that the 'responsible woman' was the hardest
+person on earth to find," said Helen, thoughtfully.  "But we can all
+hunt."
+
+"I know some one who might do if she'd be willing--and I don't know why
+she wouldn't," said Ethel Brown.
+
+"Who?  Who?  Some one in Rosemont?"
+
+"Right here in Rosemont.  Mrs. Schuler."
+
+"Mrs. Schuler?"
+
+There was a cry of wonder, for Mrs. Schuler was the teacher of German
+in the high school.  She had been engaged to Mr. Schuler, who taught
+singing in the Rosemont schools, before the war broke out.  Mr. Schuler
+was called to the colors and lost a leg in the early part of the war.
+Since he could no longer be useful as a fighter he had been allowed to
+return to America, and his betrothed had married him at once so that
+she and her mother, Mrs. Hindenburg, might nurse him back to health.
+He had been slowly regaining his strength through the winter, and was
+now fairly well and as cheerful as his crippled state would permit.
+
+"You know I've been to see Mrs. Hindenburg a good deal ever since we
+got her to go to the Home to teach the old ladies how to knit," said
+Ethel Brown.  "I know her pretty well now.  The other day she told me
+she had had an application from a family who wanted to board with her
+this summer, and she was so sorry to have to turn them away because she
+didn't have enough rooms for them."
+
+"I don't see how that helps us any."
+
+"You know Mr. Schuler hasn't been able to take many pupils this winter
+and I shouldn't wonder if Mrs. Schuler would be glad to have something
+to do this summer when school is closed.  Now if they would go to our
+Fresh Air house and take charge there for the summer it would leave
+Mrs. Hindenburg with enough space to take in her boarders.  She'd be
+glad, and I should think the Schulers would be glad."
+
+"And we'd be glad!  Why, Fraulein is the grandest housekeeper," cried
+Helen, using the name that Mrs. Schuler's old pupils never remembered
+to change to "Frau."  "German housekeepers are thrifty and neat and
+careful--why, she's exactly the person we want.  How _great_ of you to
+think of her, Ethel Brown!"
+
+"You know she wanted to adopt our Belgian baby, so I guess she's
+interested in poor children," volunteered Ethel Blue.
+
+"Are our plans far enough along for us to ask her?" inquired Margaret.
+
+"We ought to ask her as soon as we can, because Mrs. Hindenburg's plans
+will be affected by the Schulers' decision," Helen reminded them.
+
+"I think we are far enough along," decided Roger.  "You see, the idea
+is new to you, but I've been working at it for a good many months now,
+and if we all pull together to do our share I know we can depend on the
+grown-ups to do theirs."
+
+"Shall we appoint Ethel Brown to call on Mrs. Schuler and talk it over
+with her?  She knows her better than the rest of us because she's seen
+her at home oftener."
+
+"Madam President, I move that Ethel Brown be appointed a committee of
+one to see our Teutonic friends and work up their sympathies over the
+women and children we want to help so that they just can't resist
+helping too.  Is your eloquence equal to that strain, Ethel?"
+
+Ethel thought it was, and promised to go the very next afternoon.  The
+discussion turned to the next step to take.
+
+"Grandfather's superintendent is going to move into the new cottage
+next week," was Roger's news, "so then we can go over the old house and
+see how it is arranged and decide how we'd like to change it."
+
+"And also find out just what furniture is left and draw up a list of
+what furniture we shall need."
+
+"Had we better appoint committees for making the different
+investigations?" inquired Tom, who was accustomed to the methods of a
+city church.
+
+"Later, perhaps," decided Helen.  "At first I think we all want to know
+the whole situation and then we can make our plans to fit, and special
+people can volunteer for special work if we think it can be done best
+that way."
+
+"It's a great old plan you have there, Roger," cried Tom, thumping his
+friend affectionately on the shoulder.  "I bow to your giant intellect.
+We'll do our best to make it a success."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MOYA AND SHEILA
+
+Elisabeth of Belgium was walking sturdily now on the legs that had been
+too weak to uphold her when she first came to Rosemont in November.
+Her increasing strength was an increasing delight to all the people who
+loved her--and there was no one who knew her who did not love her--but
+her activity obliged her caretakers to be incessantly on the alert.
+Miss Merriam, the skilled young woman from the School of Mothercraft,
+who had pulled her through her period of greatest feebleness, now found
+herself sometimes quite outdone by the energy of her little charge.
+
+The Ethels were always glad to relieve her of her responsibilities for
+an hour or two, and it was the afternoon of the day after Roger had
+reported his plan to the Club that found the cousins strolling down
+Church Street, "Ayleesabet" between them, clinging to a finger of each,
+not to help her stand upright but to serve as a pair of supports from
+which she might swing herself off the ground.
+
+"See!  She lifted her whole weight then!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.  "We
+shall have to give up calling her 'baby' soon.  She's becoming an
+acrobat!"
+
+"It's all due to Miss Merriam.  I wish she didn't look so tired the
+last few days."
+
+Ethel Blue made no reply.  She guessed something of the reason that had
+made Miss Gertrude appear distressed and silent.  A certain note that
+she herself had placed in a May basket and hung on Miss Merriam's door
+might have something to do with her appearance of anxiety.  She changed
+the subject as a measure of precaution, for she had been in the
+confidence of Dr. Watkins, the elder brother of Tom and Delia and a
+warm admirer of Miss Merriam's, and she did not want the conversation
+to run into channels where she might have to answer inconvenient
+questions.
+
+"This scheme of Roger's is pretty tremendous," she began by way of
+introducing a theme in which Ethel Brown would be sure to be interested.
+
+"We--the Club, I mean--never has 'fallen down' yet on anything, even
+some of our 'shows' that we didn't have much time to get up, so we
+ought to have confidence in ourselves as a Club."
+
+"With this next undertaking, though, we don't really know how the thing
+is done."
+
+"How to make over the house, you mean?"
+
+"How to make over the house and how to run the Fresh Air settlement
+when the house is made over."
+
+"There's no doubt we'll know more at the end of the summer than we know
+now!  We've got to get information from every source we can."
+
+"The way Roger has up to now."
+
+"We must think of every one we know who has made over a house, and Dr.
+Watkins ought to be able to tell us of some people who have had Fresh
+Air children staying with them, so we can get some idea about what they
+need and how a house is managed."
+
+"Come, come."  A chirp rose from near the ground.  Ayleesabet was tired
+of being disregarded for so long.
+
+"You blessed Lamb!" cried Ethel Blue.  "Did you say, 'Come, come,' just
+because you heard it?  Did you think we were talking very learnedly
+about things we didn't know much about!  Never mind, ducky daddles,
+we'll know a lot about them six months from now!"
+
+"Just the way we've learned a lot about babies in the last six months
+from this little teacher!" added Ethel Brown.
+
+"Come, come.  Home, home," remarked Elisabeth insistently.
+
+"What's the matter?  Are your leggies tired?  Want the Ethels to carry
+you?"
+
+Elisabeth made it known that she would like some such method of
+transportation, and sat joyfully on a "chair" which the two girls made
+by interclasping their wrists.
+
+Not for long did this please her ladyship.
+
+"Down, down," she demanded in a few minutes.
+
+"We might as well go home if she's too tired to walk and too restless
+to ride," decided Ethel Brown, and they turned about, to the evident
+pleasure of the baby.
+
+As they were returning along Church Street but were still at a distance
+from Dorothy's house Elisabeth suddenly gave a chirrup of delight.  The
+Ethels looked about to see the cause of this unexpected expression of
+joy.  Crawling out through a hedge on to the sidewalk was a child of
+about Elizabeth's age, but a thin and dirty little mite, with a face
+that betrayed her race as Irish.
+
+"What's this morsel doing here all by herself!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+
+"She must have run away; or perhaps she isn't alone.  Let's look about
+for her mother."
+
+Up and down the street they looked while Elisabeth scraped acquaintance
+with the sudden arrival upon her path.
+
+"It doesn't seem as if she could be far off."
+
+In truth she was not far off, for as the girls wondered and exclaimed a
+weak voice made itself heard from the other side of the hedge.
+
+"Don't take her away," it said.
+
+Leaving the children to entertain each other on the sidewalk they
+enlarged the hole from which the new baby had crawled, and pushed their
+way through it.  On the ground behind the hedge, and hidden from the
+sidewalk by its thick twigs lay a young woman, so pale that she
+frightened the girls.
+
+"Don't take the baby away.  I'll feel better in a little while.  She
+crept off from me."
+
+"How did you get here?" asked Ethel Brown.
+
+"I came out from New York to look for work in the country.  I felt so
+sick I lay down here."
+
+"Did you get any work?"
+
+A slight movement of the head indicated that she had not.  The Ethels
+consulted each other by disturbed glances.  There was no hospital
+nearer than Glen Point, and indeed, the woman seemed so ill that they
+did not see how she could reach the hospital even in the trolley.
+
+As they stood silent and perplexed the honk of a motor roused the
+almost unconscious woman.
+
+"Is the baby in the street?" she inquired frantically.
+
+Ethel Brown crushed her way through the hedge, and found that the
+children were still on the sidewalk, but were so near its edge that the
+driver of the car had tooted to warn them back.  To her delight she saw
+that the driver was Grandfather Emerson.  She waved her hand to stop
+him.
+
+"You're a great caretaker!" he cried.  "Why do you leave Elisabeth to
+look after herself in this fashion?  And who's her friend?"
+
+Ethel climbed into the machine beside him and told of the discovery
+that the girls had just made.  Mr. Emerson drew the car alongside the
+curb and jumped out with anxiety written on his face.  The hole in the
+hedge was too small for him to push through so he ran around the end,
+and approached the prostrate form of the woman.
+
+Her eyes were closed and she lay so still that Ethel Blue, who was
+rubbing her hands, shook her head as she glanced up gratefully at the
+new arrival.
+
+"What's this, what's this?" asked Mr. Emerson in his full, rich voice.
+Its mere sound seemed to carry comfort to the poor creature lying at
+his feet.  He knelt beside her.  "Hungry, eh?" he asked.  "We'll see
+about that right off.  Can you eat these cookies?"  He took a thin tin
+box out of his pocket and opened it.  "I have a little granddaughter
+named Ethel Brown who insists on my keeping cookies in my pocket all
+the time so that I can eat them when I'm driving.  See if you can take
+a bite of this."
+
+A fluttering hand took the cooky and put it between the pale lips.
+
+Helped by the girls the woman struggled to her feet and stood wavering
+before she tried to take a step.  She was a young woman with very black
+hair and gray-blue eyes and a face that was meant to be unlined and
+pretty and not gaunt with hunger and furrowed by anxiety.
+
+"You're very good," she whispered feebly.
+
+Supported on each side she managed to reach the sidewalk, where she
+looked about wildly for her baby.  An expression that was sad but
+infinitely relieved came over her features when she saw the two
+children sitting in the gravel of the walk filling their tiny hands
+with pebbles.
+
+"A cooky won't hurt the baby either," decided Mr. Emerson, and he gave
+one to each of the children.
+
+
+The Ethels had no chance to ask him what he meant to do without their
+discovery hearing them, so they helped the woman into the machine, put
+in the two children and climbed in themselves.  To their great interest
+Mr. Emerson turned the car about and headed it for his own home.
+
+"I wonder what Grandmother will say," murmured Ethel Brown to Ethel
+Blue, who was steadying the ill woman's head as it lay against the back
+of the seat.
+
+Ethel Blue lifted her eyebrows to indicate that she could not guess;
+but both girls knew in their hearts that Mrs. Emerson would do what was
+wisest and for the best good of the strays.  She came to the door in
+answer to the sound of the horn.
+
+"How did you get back so soon?" she began to inquire of her husband
+when her eyes fell on the passengers in the car.
+
+"An accident?" she asked anxiously as she ran down the steps.
+
+"The girls found this woman and her child part way over here and I
+thought I'd better bring her on and get your opinion about her.  I
+think she'd like something to eat," and the kind old gentleman smiled
+in friendly fashion as the woman opened frightened eyes at the sound of
+a new voice.
+
+Among them they succeeded in getting her into the house and into a cool
+room, where she lay exhausted on the bed, her hand holding tight to the
+little hand of her baby, lying wearily beside her.
+
+"Sunstroke?" asked Grandmother.
+
+"Hunger," replied Mr. Emerson, and he and Ethel Brown went down stairs
+at once in search of food, while Mrs. Emerson and Ethel Blue managed to
+undress their patient and put her into a fresh nightdress and bathe her
+face and hands.  By the time they had done this and were undressing the
+baby, Ethel Brown and Mrs. Emerson's cook were at the door with jellied
+broth, milk, gruel and a cooling drink.
+
+Ethel Blue fed the woman, spoonful by spoonful, and Ethel Brown gave
+the baby alternate spoonfuls of gruel and milk.
+
+"Sleepy now?" asked Mrs. Emerson when the dark head sank back on the
+pillow.  "Take a nap, then.  See, the baby is right here where you can
+lay your hand on her.  We'll look in now and then and just as soon as
+you wake up you must take some more food."
+
+"Must!" repeated the girl, for she was hardly older than Miss Merriam
+they saw when her hair was pushed back from her face.  "Must!  'Tis
+_glad_ I'll be to be doing it!" and a ghost of a smile fluttered her
+lips.
+
+Outside of the bedroom door Mrs. Emerson asked for an explanation and
+the others for her advice.
+
+"I don't see how we can tell what we can do until we pull her through
+this trouble and find out what the poor soul wants to do herself."
+
+"She said she came out from New York to look for work in the country."
+
+"Then we must find her work in the country.  But the first thing for us
+to attend to is to get her poor body into such a condition that she can
+work.  She's a sweet looking young woman.  I'm glad you brought her
+home, Father," and between Mr. and Mrs. Emerson there passed a smile of
+such understanding as makes beautiful the lives of people long and
+happily married.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE FARMHOUSE
+
+It took a long time to bring Moya Murphy and little Sheila back to
+health and strength, but it was only a day or two before Moya was able
+to tell her story to Mrs. Emerson.
+
+She was twenty-five, she said, and she had come to America with her
+father and mother five years before.  The New World had not given a
+warm welcome to the new arrivals, for both of the parents had fallen
+ill with pneumonia only a few weeks after they landed, and both died
+within a few days of each other.
+
+Moya, left alone and grieving, had soon after married Patrick Murphy, a
+lad she had known in the old country.  A happy life they led,
+especially after little Sheila came to bless them.
+
+When the declaration of war in Europe upset business conditions in
+America, Patrick lost his "job" and all summer long he walked the
+streets, working for a day now and then, but never securing a permanent
+position, and always growing weaker and less able to work because he
+was underfed.  The little three-room flat that had been such a joy to
+them, had long been given up and they lived and ate and slept in one
+room, and thanked their stars that they had a landlord who did not
+insist on being paid regularly, as did some they knew about who put
+their tenants out on the street if the rent was not forthcoming
+promptly.
+
+"Somehow it's the sudden things that happens to me," said Moya to Mrs.
+Emerson.  She was sitting on the latticed back porch of the Emersons'
+house, her fingers busy shelling peas for Kate, the old cook who had
+lived with Mrs. Emerson ever since she was married.  "Patrick was
+crossing the street--'tis only six weeks ago, but it seems years!  An
+automobile with one of the shrieking horns screamed at him.  'Twas the
+policeman on the crossing told me.  Patrick was light on his feet
+always, but that was when he had enough to eat ivery day.  He thried to
+jump back and his foot slipped and he fell under the car and it killed
+him."
+
+She sobbed and Mrs. Emerson and Kate wiped their eyes.
+
+"Two days it was before I knew it; there was nothing on his clothes to
+tell who he was, and I only found out when he didn't come home and I
+went to the police and they took me to the Morgue and there he lay.
+They gave me twenty dollars--the policemen did.  They collected it
+among themselves."
+
+"Didn't they arrest the driver of the car?"
+
+"'Twas a light car and it sped away before any one saw the number."
+
+Kate Flanigan gave a grunt of disgust at the brutality of the driver.
+
+"I gave the landlord half the money the policemen gave me.  I owed it
+for the rint.  Then I set out to hunt work.  Ivery day I walked and
+walked and ivery day I carried the baby, for where could I leave her?
+Nobody wanted a girl who wasn't trained to do anything, and even if I
+had been able to do something well they wanted no baby.  There's no
+room for babies when you have to work," she said bitterly.
+
+"I want you to feel that you are safe here, you and Sheila," said Mrs.
+Emerson gently.  "Mrs. Morton and Mrs. Smith and I have been talking it
+over with Kate, and this is what we've planned, provided you agree."
+
+Moya gathered up her baby jealously in her lap.
+
+"It will keep you and Sheila together," said Mrs. Emerson quickly,
+noticing her gesture, and smiling approvingly as Moya at once let the
+child slide off her lap on to the floor where she sat contentedly
+playing with some of the pods of the peas that had fallen from the pan.
+
+"Perhaps Kate has told you that we are planning to have some women and
+children who need country air come out from New York this summer and
+live in a farmhouse that we have on the place here."
+
+Moya nodded.  "She did."
+
+"We need a cook.  We are going to give them simple food, but nourishing
+and well cooked."
+
+"If it's me you're thinking of for the cooking, ma'am, I'm a poor cook
+beyond potaties and stew."
+
+"You never were taught to cook?"
+
+"Taught?  No, ma'am.  I picked up what little I know from me mother.
+'Tis simple enough, but too simple for what you need."
+
+"If you'll try to learn, here's what we've planned.  Kate needs a
+helper.  Not because she isn't strong and hearty, but because Mr.
+Emerson and I want her to have a little more time for pleasure than she
+has had for a good many years.  She won't take a real vacation, so we
+are going to give her a partial vacation."
+
+"Me being the helper?" inquired Moya, her thin face lighting.
+
+"More than the helper.  Kate has agreed to teach you how to cook all
+the dishes that it will be necessary to cook for the women and children
+this summer.  You couldn't have a better teacher."
+
+"I'm sure of it," answered the young woman, turning gratefully to Kate.
+"I'll do my very best."
+
+"You shall have a room for yourself and the baby, and wages," and she
+named a sum that made Moya's eyes burn.
+
+"I'm not worth that yet," she cried, "but I know you'll need me to
+dress respectable, so I'll not refuse it and I'll get some decent
+things for the baby and mesilf!"
+
+"If Kate finds that you take hold well she'll teach you more elaborate
+cooking.  There's always a place waiting somewhere for a good cook, and
+here's your chance to learn to be a really excellent cook."
+
+So the problem of obtaining a cook was settled without trouble, and as
+Ethel Brown found Mrs. Schuler not only ready but eager to act as
+Matron, two of the possible difficulties seemed to have proved
+themselves no difficulties at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PLANS
+
+The work of the carpenters filled in very acceptably the time when the
+members of the Club were toiling at school.
+
+A visit of inspection toward the end of June gave the onlookers the
+greatest satisfaction.
+
+"Everything is as fine as a fiddle!" exclaimed Roger as they all
+stopped in one of the upstairs rooms.  "Now it's up to us to do the
+papering and painting and to concoct some furniture."
+
+So it was decided that all the bedrooms should have white paint and
+walls of delicate hues and that Mrs. Schuler's office should be pink
+with white paint and white curtains at the windows.
+
+"We can get very pretty papers for ten cents a roll," said Margaret.
+"I saw some beauties when I went to the paperers to get some flowery
+papers for James to cut out when he was pasting decorations on to our
+Christmas Ship boxes."
+
+"Are you going to use wall paper?" asked Miss Merriam quickly.
+
+"Aren't we?" inquired Margaret.  "It didn't occur to me that there was
+anything else.  There is paper on the walls now."
+
+"It's a lot more sanitary to have the walls kalsomined, I know that,"
+said James in a superior tone.  "Haven't you heard Father say so a
+dozen times?"
+
+"I suppose I have, now I think about it," replied Margaret.  "It stands
+to reason that there would be less chance for germs to hide."
+
+"Do you suppose these old walls are in good enough condition to go
+uncovered?" asked Roger, passing his hand over a suspicious bulge that
+forced the paper out, and casting his eye at the ceiling which was
+veined with hair cracks.
+
+"Probably the walls will not be in the pink Of condition," returned
+Mrs. Morton; "but, even so, color-washing will be better than papering."
+
+"We can go over them and fill up the cracks," suggested Tom, "and we
+can whitewash the ceilings."
+
+"That's what I should advise," said Miss Merriam.  "Put the walls and
+ceilings in as good condition as you can, and then put on your wash.
+Kalsomining is rather expensive, but there are plenty of color washes
+now that any one can put on who can wield a whitewash brush."
+
+"Me for the whitewash brush at an early date," Roger sang gayly.  "What
+do you suggest for these upstairs floors, Miss Merriam?  Grandfather
+thought they weren't bad enough to have new ones laid, but they do look
+rather rocky, don't they?"
+
+He cast a disparaging glance at the boards under his feet, and waited
+for help.
+
+"Were you planning to paint them?"
+
+"Yes," Roger nodded.
+
+"Then you ought to putty up the cracks first.  That will make them
+smooth enough.  They're not really rough, you see.  It's the spaces
+between the planks that make them seem so."
+
+"That's easily done.  We thought we'd paint these old floors and stain
+the new ones down stairs."
+
+"I'd do that.  Paint these floors tan or gray, if you want them to
+confess frankly that they're painted floors, or the shade of some wood
+if you want to pretend that they're hard wood floors."
+
+James moved uneasily.  Roger guessed the reason.
+
+"What's the matter, old man?  Treasury low?"
+
+"It always is," answered James uncomfortably.  "How are we going to
+fill it?"
+
+"That's what I've been thinking," Ethel Brown said meditatively.  "It's
+time we did something to earn something."
+
+"Everybody I've sold cookies to all winter seems to have stopped eating
+them," complained Ethel Brown.  "I'm thinking of getting up a cooky
+sale to relieve my financial distress."
+
+"There's an idea," cried Tom.  "Why can't we have a cooky sale--with a
+few other things thrown in--and use the proceeds for the decoration and
+furnishing of Rose House?"
+
+"We've had so many entertainments; can we do anything different enough
+for the Rosemonters to be willing to come?"
+
+"And spend?"
+
+"I think the Rosemonters have great confidence in our getting up
+something new and interesting; ditto the Glen Pointers," insisted
+Margaret who lived at Glen Point and knew the opinions of her neighbors.
+
+"Where could we have it--_it_ meaning our sale or whatever we decide to
+have?"
+
+"Why not have it here?  Let's wait until the boys have the house all
+painted and whitewashed and colorwashed so it looks as fresh as
+possible, and then tell the town what it is we are trying to do this
+summer, and ask them over here to see what it looks like."
+
+"Good enough.  When they see that it's good as far as it goes, but that
+our Fresh Air people will be mighty uncomfortable if they don't have
+some beds to sleep in and a few other trifles of every day use, they'll
+buy whatever we have to sell.  That's the way it seems to me," and
+Roger threw himself down on the grass before the front door with an air
+of having said the final word.
+
+"Let's ask the people of _Rose_mont to come to _Rose_ House to a _Rose_
+Fête," cried Ethel Blue, while every one of her hearers waved his
+handkerchief at the suggestion.
+
+"I'll draw a poster with the announcement on it," she went on, "and we
+can have it printed on pink paper and the boys can go round on their
+bicycles and distribute them at every house."
+
+"We must have everything pink, of course.  Pink ice cream and cakes
+with pink icing--"
+
+"And pink strawberries--"
+
+"Not green ones!  No, sir!"
+
+"And watermelons if we can get some that won't make too much trouble
+for Dr. Hancock."
+
+"How are we going to serve them?  We can't bring china way out
+here--and we won't have any for Rose House until after we give this
+party to earn it!"
+
+"They have paper plates with pretty patterns on them now.  And if they
+cost too much we might get the plain ones and lay a d'oyley of pink
+paper on each one," suggested Margaret.
+
+"Probably that will be the cheapest and the effect will be just as
+good, but I'll find out the prices in town," promised Delia.
+
+"I have a scheme for a table of fancy things," offered Dorothy.  "Let's
+have it under that tree over there and over it let's hang a huge rose.
+I think I know how to make it--two hoops, the kind Dicky rolls, one
+above the other, the smaller one on top, and both suspended from the
+tree.  Cover them inside and out with big pink paper petals."
+
+"How are you going to make it look like a rose and not a pink bell?"
+inquired Delia.
+
+"Put a green calyx on the top and some yellow stamens inside and then
+make a stem that will look like the real thing, only gigantic."
+
+"How will you manage that?"
+
+"Do you remember those wild grape vines that Helen and Ethel Brown
+found in the West Woods and used for Hallowe'en decorations?  If we
+could get a thick one and wind it with green paper and let it curve
+from the rose toward the ground it ought to look like a real stem."
+
+"We could hang the rose with dark string that wouldn't show, and fasten
+the stem to the branch of the tree with a pink bow.  It would look as
+if some giant had tied it there for his ladylove."
+
+"I have an old pink sash I'll contribute to the good cause," laughed
+Helen.  "I've been wondering what to do with it for some time."
+
+"Everything on the table must be pink and shaped like a rose or
+decorated with roses--cushions, pen-wipers, baskets, stencilled bureau
+sets--there are a thousand things to be made."
+
+"Boxes covered with rose paper," suggested James solemnly.
+
+Everybody shouted, for James's imagination always seemed to be
+stimulated whenever he saw a chance to make something with paste-pot
+and brush.
+
+"How about music?"
+
+This question brought silence, for it was not easy to arrange for music
+in the open.
+
+"I wish Edward and his violin were here," said Delia, referring to her
+brother, Dr. Watkins, who had recently gone to Oklahoma to assist an
+older physician in a flourishing town there.  He had been very
+attentive to Miss Merriam and she was annoyed to find herself blushing
+at the mention of his name.  Ethel Blue, who had been in his
+confidence, was the only one of the young people who glanced at her,
+however, so her annoyance passed unnoticed.
+
+"He isn't, and a piano is out of the question.  I wonder, if Greg
+Patton would bring his fiddle?"
+
+"Why didn't we think of him before!  He and some of the other high
+school boys have been getting up a little orchestra; I shouldn't wonder
+a bit if they'd be glad to help--glad of the experience of playing in
+public."
+
+"We haven't got to make oceans of paper roses, this time," remarked
+Ethel Brown gratefully.  "Nature is doing the work for us."
+
+She waved her hand at the clump of bushes which was to conceal
+Dorothy's fortune telling operations, and which was pink with blossoms.
+
+"Our bushes at home are loaded down with them, too," said Margaret.
+"Everybody's are, so I don't suppose it would be worth while to have a
+flower table."
+
+"There's no harm in trying.  We could say on the poster that
+exceptionally choice roses will be on exhibition and sale and--and why
+couldn't we take orders for the bushes?  Use the beauties for samples
+and if people like them, get roots from the bushes they came from and
+supply them the next day!"
+
+Ethel Blue was quite breathless with the force of this suggestion and
+the others applauded it.
+
+"Just as I think of Ethel Blue as all imagination and dreams she comes
+out with something practical like that and I have to study her all over
+again," said Roger, observing his cousin with his head on one side.
+Ethel Blue threw a leaf at him which he dodged with exaggerated fear.
+
+They decided to have the Rose Fête just as soon as the boys put the
+house into presentable condition, and then the girls separated, Ethel
+Brown and Dorothy to see Mr. Emerson about securing the boxes, Helen
+and Margaret to measure the windows for curtains, Delia and Ethel Blue
+to work out the design for converting ordinary Chinese lanterns into
+roses which they had thought of as lending a charm to the veranda and
+the lawn after the sun went down, and the boys to calculate the
+quantities of putty and paint and color-wash, based on information
+given Roger by the local painter and decorator, who was quite willing
+to help with advice when he found that there was no chance of his own
+services being called into play.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE ROSE FÊTE
+
+The United Service Club had made so good a name for itself in Rosemont
+during the few months of its existence that when Ethel Blue's posters
+brought to their doors the news that the U. S. C.  was to give a Rose
+Fête at Rose House the townspeople were eager to know what attraction
+the members had devised.  The schools were still in session so the
+Ethels and Dorothy at the graded school and Helen and Roger and the
+orchestra boys at the high school made themselves into an advertising
+band and told everybody all about the purpose of the festival.  The
+scholars carried the information home, and there were few houses in
+Rosemont where it was not known that Mr. Emerson's old farmhouse was to
+be turned into a summer home for weary mothers and ailing babies.
+
+Helen and Margaret, after consulting with their mothers and Mrs. Smith
+and Mrs. Emerson, had decided that a cot or single bed and two cribs
+ought to go in each bedroom except Moya's, where one crib would be
+enough.  This meant that five beds and nine cribs must be provided, and
+the number made the girls look serious as they calculated the probable
+proceeds of the Rose Fête and subtracted from them the amount that they
+would have to pay the local furniture dealer, even though he, being a
+public spirited and charitable man, offered them a discount.  For a day
+or two they went about in a state of depression, for they had hoped to
+be able to supply the furnishings without making any appeal to the
+grownups.  Thanks to Dorothy they could discount any expense for
+bureaus and desks and tables, but their ambition did not soar to
+constructing bedsteads; these had to be bought or given.
+
+It became evident after a number of householders had inquired how they
+could help, that there was a chance that the U. S. C. treasury might
+not be reduced after all by the purchase of beds.  When one lady was
+informed by Helen of their schemes for filling the rooms--how the
+carpenters had provided them with a table that would do for the
+dining-room and how shelves innumerable were to do duty for innumerable
+purposes,--and she had added ruefully, "But we can't make very good
+beds, and we do want the women to sleep well, poor things.  We've got
+to buy those--" she had cried, "Why, I have a cot in my attic that I
+should be _delighted_ to let you have, and my daughter's little boy has
+outgrown his crib and I'm sure she'll contribute that."
+
+A week before the Fête, however, they had been promised all the
+bedsteads they needed--though some lacked springs, some mattresses, and
+almost all were without pillows--four cribs, half a dozen chairs and
+two high chairs, and a collection of odd pieces.  Helen refused nothing
+but double beds; there was not space enough for those in a bedroom with
+three people in it; it would seem to the women too much like the
+crowded tenements they came from, she thought.  Miss Merriam objected
+also, on the ground that it was not well for babies to sleep with grown
+people.
+
+"What do you think of this plan?" Ethel Brown asked her mother after
+the girls had made a careful list of their gifts.  "We did think that
+if we didn't have a stick in the house the people would be interested
+in helping us because of our poverty.  We've found out that they are
+awfully interested even without seeing the house.  Do you think it
+would be a good scheme to put into the rooms the things we have ready
+and to fasten on the door a notice saying
+    'THIS ROOM NEEDS'
+and under that a list of what is lacking?  Don't you think some of them
+would say, 'I've got an extra cushion at home that would do for a
+pillow here; I'll send it over'; or 'Don't you remember that three
+legged chair that used to be in Joe's room?  I believe these children
+can mend it and paint it to look well enough for this room'?"
+
+"Ethel Brown, you're running Ethel Blue hard in the line of ideas!"
+cried Roger admiringly from a position at the door which he had taken
+as he passed through the hall and heard discussion going on.
+
+"It's a capital idea," agreed Mrs. Morton.  "You'd better ask
+Grandfather again for a wagon and go around and collect the things that
+have been promised.  You don't want to bother people to send them over
+themselves."
+
+Every one worked with vigor during the last few days before the
+festival, for the renovating of old furniture takes more time than any
+one ever expects it to.  The results were so satisfactory, however,
+that neither the boys nor the girls gave a thought to their tired hands
+and backs when evening brought them release from their labors.
+
+The great day was clear, and, for the last of June, cool.  Every plan
+worked out well and every helper appeared at the moment he was wanted.
+The box seats and tables, superintended by Ethel Brown and served by
+half a dozen friends all wearing white dresses and pink aprons, bloomed
+rosily on the veranda.  Under the large rose Delia and Ethel Blue,
+dressed in pink, sold fancy articles.  Dorothy, sitting "under the
+rose" in the rose jungle, and dressed like a moss rose, with a filmy
+green tunic draping her pink frock, described brilliant futures to
+laughing inquirers.  Margaret, dressed to represent the yellow Scottish
+roses, sold flowers from the Ethels' garden and took orders for rose
+bushes.
+
+The boys were everywhere, opening ice cream tubs for Moya in the
+background, guiding would-be players to the tennis court and the
+croquet ground, and directing new arrivals where to tie their horses
+and park their motors.  Every member of the club was provided with a
+small notebook wherein to jot down any bit of advice that was offered
+and seemed profitable or to record any offer of fittings that might be
+made.
+
+Helen took no regular duty, leaving herself free to go over the house
+with any one who wanted to know the Club's plans, and she had more
+frequent need than any of the others to use her book.  Ethel Brown's
+scheme had been followed.  On the door of each room was posted a list
+of articles needed to complete the furnishing of that room.
+
+"They certainly aren't greedy!" exclaimed one matron after reading the
+notice.  "This says that this room is complete except for bed clothing."
+
+She waved her hand around with some scorn.  Helen dimpled with
+amusement.
+
+"We thought we'd make one room as nearly complete as we could," she
+explained.  "You see this has a bed, two cribs, a looking-glass, and
+shelves as substitutes for a washstand and a closet and a table and a
+bureau.
+
+"There are no chairs, child!"
+
+"These two boxes are the chairs.  We had a few chairs given us but
+they'll be needed down stairs.  We think they'll have more exercise
+than any chairs ever had before.  They'll be used in the dining-room
+for breakfast, and then they'll be moved to the veranda to spend the
+morning, and in they'll come again for dinner and out they'll go for
+the afternoon, and in for supper, and after supper they'll be moved
+into the hall which is to serve as the sitting room!"
+
+Helen's hearer pressed her hand to her head.
+
+"You make me positively dizzy!" she exclaimed.  "At any rate I'd like
+to make this room complete according to your notions, so I'll send you
+some sheets and pillow cases and blankets and a spread if you'll allow
+me."
+
+"We'll be glad to have them," accepted Helen, beaming.  "Roger will
+call for them if that will be more convenient for you," and she made a
+note of the gift and the time when it should be sent after.
+
+Other women remembered as they examined the door lists that they had a
+mattress that could be spared, or a pillow or two or a pair of summer
+blankets.
+
+"What are you going to do for ornaments," asked another.
+
+Helen laughed.
+
+"James Hancock has an idea for decorating the walls so that they'll
+interest the babies, and we're going to have fresh cheese-cloth
+curtains at all the windows, but that's the end of our possibilities."
+
+"I have several bureau scarves that are in good condition but they have
+been washed so many times that they're a little faded.  If you'd like
+those--?" she ended with an upward inflection.
+
+"We would," replied Helen promptly.
+
+"Could you use some prints of pictures--good paintings?" inquired yet
+another, a person whose taste Helen knew could be trusted.
+
+"We'd be glad of them.  We can frame them in passepartout.  We'd be
+especially glad of madonnas."
+
+"That's just what I was going to offer you.  A club I once belonged to
+studied celebrated paintings of madonnas one winter and I made this
+collection.  Many of them are only penny prints and some are cut from
+magazines--".
+
+"They're perfectly good for us," Helen reassured her, and made another
+note in her book.
+
+Most of the visitors went home with the falling dark, but some stayed
+to see the rose lanterns lighted, and others, who had not been able to
+come in the afternoon, drove or walked out from town in the evening and
+were served with ice cream and strawberries from a supply that had been
+wonderfully well calculated.
+
+"Let us have just a week to spend this money and to make up the sheets
+and pillow cases and curtains and you can tell Mr. Watkins to send out
+the women," Helen announced triumphantly to Delia.
+
+"I'm going to spend the week with Margaret so I can come over with her
+every day and help," returned smiling Delia.
+
+"Then we shan't need a whole week.  When you go home to-night please
+ask your father to be making his selection--four mothers with two
+children apiece.  You and Tom can escort them out on the Tuesday after
+Fourth of July."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FURNITURE MAKING
+
+It did not take the women long to adjust themselves to life at Rose
+House, and as for the children, they loved it from the first.  It was a
+great international gathering that was sheltered on the old farm.  Mrs.
+Schuler was German; Moya, Irish.  Mrs. Peterson, a Swede, occupied the
+rooster room with her baby and her flaxen-haired daughter of three;
+Mrs. Paterno, an Italian, found good pasturage among the cows of the
+violet room for her black-eyed boys of two and four; Mrs. Tsanoff, a
+Bulgarian, told the Matron that her twin girl babies were too young to
+pay attention to the kittens on the curtains of the yellow room; while
+Mrs. Vereshchagin, a Russian, discovered that the puppies of the blue
+room were a great help to her in holding the attention of her boys of
+three and five when she was putting them to bed.
+
+Mrs. Schuler shook her head doubtfully when she took down their names
+and nationalities in her notebook on the day of their arrival.
+
+"If we get through the summer without quarrels over the war it will be
+a miracle!" she exclaimed to her husband.
+
+But she found that the poor creatures were too weary, too sad, too
+physically crushed to have spirit enough left to fight any battles,
+even those of words.  With almost every one of them there had been a
+tragedy such as often comes to the immigrants who reach the United
+States equipped for success only with strong muscles--a tragedy of
+wasted hope and broken courage and failing vigor if not of death.  Mrs.
+Paterno was the only one of them who could sympathize with Moya's
+widowhood; her husband had seen the Black Hand death sign a few months
+before, had disregarded it and had been stabbed in the back one night
+as he came home from his work.
+
+Conversation was not carried on fluently among them.  They met on the
+common ground of English, but not one of them could speak it well, each
+one translated phrases of her own tongue quite literally, and the
+meaning of the whole talk was largely a matter of guesswork.  What they
+did understand was nature's language of motherhood.  They were content
+to sit for hours on the veranda or in the grove or behind the house,
+preparing vegetables for Moya, chattering about their babies and
+explaining their meaning by gestures that seemed to be perfectly
+understood.
+
+The women had daily duties to perform according to a schedule worked
+out by Mrs. Schuler, who apportioned to each a share of the general
+work of the house in addition to the care of her own room and the
+washing for herself and her children.  With so many fingers flying the
+tasks were soon done, and then they sat on the porch or in the grove
+among the sweet-smelling pines, or walked in the pasture or up and down
+the lane leading to the main road.  Once in a while they went to
+Rosemont, but for the most part they were too languid to care to walk
+far and too glad of the change and the rest and quiet to want to weary
+themselves unnecessarily.
+
+The boys had built a platform across the back of the house, and it was
+here that they did their carpentry, an awning sheltering them from the
+sun or rain.  A cupboard at one end held their tools, and their partly
+finished articles were neatly stacked in a corner.  As they got out
+their tools now James made a confession.
+
+"To tell you the honest, unvarnished truth, I'm tired of making chairs.
+It seems as if we'd never have enough."
+
+"It takes an awful lot to furnish a house," commented Roger wisely,
+"and you know we had very few given us so if we want enough we have to
+make them."
+
+"We've got all the chairs you've done upholstered all they're going to
+be," said Ethel Brown.  "Why can't Ethel Blue and I each make a high
+chair?"
+
+"No reason at all," agreed Roger quickly.  "You've watched James and me
+and seen our really superior workmanship; imitate it, my child!"
+
+The girls were already turning over the boys' supply of boxes to select
+those suitable for the chairs for the children.  They took four that
+had held lemons or other fruit and were tall and narrow when stood on
+end.  The boards they were made of were very light but quite solid
+enough to hold the weight of a small child.  To make it firm upon the
+ground, however, they sawed a piece of heavy plank a little larger than
+the end upon which the box was to stand and nailed it on from the
+inside.
+
+When the high chair was done the boys complimented their co-workers on
+the success of their first experiment.
+
+"I hardly could have done it better myself," said Roger grandly.
+
+All the high chairs were covered with blue and white cretonne to match
+the blue and white of the dining room and the girls set to work to tack
+on the outside covering and to cut out the covers of the small cushions
+that were to make the seat and back comfortable.  The cushions
+themselves they had made from ticking filled with excelsior when they
+had calculated the number of high chairs they must have.
+
+The boys, meanwhile were constructing two chairs of quite different
+build.  One was a heavy chair for the hall or the veranda, its original
+condition being a packing box a foot and a half deep, about twenty
+inches wide and three or four feet long.  This also was set on end, and
+the other end and the cover were laid aside to be used in making the
+seat and in shutting in the openings below the seat.
+
+"How are you going to fasten that seat so it won't let the sitter down
+on the floor?" inquired Ethel Blue, as James explained what he was
+going to do.
+
+"Do you see these cleats, ma'am?  These are each a foot long.  I nail
+one of these standing up straight at each edge of the sides and the
+back--six of them altogether.  Then I lay three other cleats across
+their tops--thusly."
+
+"O, you've made a sort of framework that will support the seat!  I get
+that!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+
+"All you have to do now is to nail your seat boards on to those
+horizontal cleats and it's as firm as firm can be."
+
+"Aren't you going to do something with those sides--those arms, or
+whatever you call them?" inquired Ethel Brown.  "They seem sharp and
+uncomfortable and in the way to me."
+
+Both boys studied the chair seriously before answering.  Then they took
+a pencil and paper and consulted.
+
+"I should think it would look pretty well to cut out a right angle on
+each aide," suggested James.  "That would leave a sort of wing effect
+like a hall porter's chair, only not so high, and at the same time it
+would make an arm to rest your elbow on.  How does that strike you ?"
+
+Roger nodded.  "It hits me all right.  I was thinking of a curve
+instead of a right angle, but the right angle will be easier to make.
+Go ahead."
+
+So the right angle was decided on and James proceeded to cut it.
+
+Roger, meanwhile, had been sorting out the wood he needed for a chair
+of another pattern.
+
+"I wish Dorothy would heave in sight," he growled as he piled some half
+inch thick strips in one heap.  "She told me she'd tell me all she knew
+about chair legs when I reached this stage of proceedings."
+
+"She will," answered a cheerful voice, and gray-eyed Dorothy appeared
+from the house.  "I felt in my bones that you'd be beginning this lot
+this afternoon, so I ambled over to see if I could help in any way."
+
+"Keep right on ambling till you reach this end of the platform and tell
+me whether you said that chair legs could be made of this stripping or
+whether I'll have to get solid pieces, square-ended, you know, joist or
+scantling or whatever it's called."
+
+"Strips will do, only you'll have to use two for each leg.  Nail them
+together at right angles.  It will make a two-sided leg, but it will be
+plenty strong enough, though perhaps not truly handsome."
+
+"If handsomeness means solidity--no.  Still, they'll do.  Can you give
+me the lengths for these strips?" and Roger waved his saw at his cousin
+as if he were so impatient to begin that he could not wait to study out
+the lengths for himself.
+
+"For the one I made for the attic," replied his cousin, "I cut four
+strips each two inches wide and twenty-one inches long for the front
+legs and four strips each two inches wide and twenty-five inches long
+for the back legs.  Then there were two two-inch strips seventeen
+inches long to go under the seat to strengthen it front and back, and
+two two-inch strips each thirteen inches long to go under the seat and
+strengthen it on the sides.  That's all the stock you need except the
+box."
+
+"I suppose you've got a particular box in mind to fit those sizes."
+
+"Those sizes fit the box, rather.  Yes, I got a grocery box that was
+about eighteen inches long and thirteen wide and eleven deep.  I saw
+one here just like it before I gave you those measurements, so you can
+go ahead sawing while I pull off one side of the box--the cover has
+gone already but we don't need it."
+
+Quiet reigned for a few minutes while they all worked briskly.
+
+"Now I'm ready to put this superb article together," announced Roger.
+"How high from the ground does the seat go?"
+
+"Nail your cleats across with their top edges fifteen inches from the
+ground and nail the bottom of the box on to the cleats.  See how these
+two-sided legs protect the edges of the box as well as make it decent
+looking?"
+
+"So they do," admitted Roger.  "They aren't so bad after all."
+
+"I think those sides are going to be too high," decided Dorothy after
+examining the chair carefully and sitting down in it.  "Don't you think
+it pushes your elbows up too high?"
+
+Roger tried it and thought it did.
+
+"Suppose you saw those sides down about five inches."
+
+Roger obeyed and Dorothy tried the chair again and pronounced it much
+improved.
+
+"It's comfy enough now, but these arms don't look very well, and they'd
+be liable to tear your sleeves," she said.  "Let's put on some strip
+covers.  They'll give a finish to the whole thing, and hide the end of
+the two-sided legs and be smooth."
+
+"Plenty of reason for having them.  How many inches?"
+
+"Twelve," answered Dorothy after measuring.  "The top of the back needs
+a strip cover, too.  Cut another nineteen inches long.  There, _I_
+think that's not such a bad looking chair!'"
+
+"Do you want cushions for those chairs?" inquired Ethel Brown,
+appearing at the door with a piece of cretonne in her hand.  "We've got
+material enough for at least seat cushions for both of them."
+
+"They'll be lots more comfy," admitted James, "if the excelsior crop is
+still holding out."
+
+"It is.  I'll make them right off, and Ethel Blue can help you out
+there."
+
+She retired from view and sent out her cousin, and until the sun set
+the two boys and Dorothy and Ethel measured and sawed and nailed, with
+results that satisfied them so well that they did not mind being tired.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TROUBLE AT ROSE HOUSE
+
+"If it weren't that I could come out here and see you every day or so I
+should be wild to get back to work in Oklahoma."
+
+Edward Watkins was the speaker.  He and Miss Merriam were walking
+through a wooded path that ran from Rosemont to Rose House.  The day
+was warm and the shade of the trees was grateful.
+
+"How is your patient?" asked Gertrude.
+
+"Getting on very well, but the doctors won't let him travel yet."
+
+"Have you heard lately from your doctor in Oklahoma?"
+
+"I hear about every day!  I was with him just long enough for him to
+find that I was useful and he's wild to have me there again.  I wired
+him that I'm ready to go, but that the sick man is nervous about making
+the return trip alone.  Of course he wants to keep on the good side of
+a good patient, so he answered, 'Stay on'."
+
+"Are you able to do anything for your patient?  He's still in the
+hospital, isn't he?"
+
+"I go there every day and he sends me on errands all over town.  I'm
+getting to know almost as much about oil as I do about medicine!  But
+I'm rather tired of playing errand boy."
+
+"You have a chance to see your family."
+
+"And you.  But I'm supposed to stay at the hotel, much to Mother's
+disgust.  I'm doing a little medical inspection among Father's poor
+people, though.  That whiles away a few hours every day, and of course,
+every time I go to the hospital the doctors there tell me about any
+interesting new cases, so I'm not 'going stale' entirely."
+
+"As if you could!" exclaimed Gertrude admiringly.  "You're just storing
+up ideas and information to startle the Oklahoman natives with."
+
+"The 'natives' in Oklahoma are all too young to be startled," laughed
+Edward, "but of course I'm stowing away everything new I hear about
+methods of treatment and operations and so on to tell Dr. Billings when
+I get back.  Now let me hear what you've been doing.  How are these
+kiddies at Rose House?"
+
+"I want you to look them over and talk with the mothers.  Dr. Hancock
+comes over when we send for him, but all these people are so delicate
+that I feel that they ought to have a physician's eye on them all the
+time."
+
+"They have you pretty often, don't they?"
+
+"I go over every day either in the morning or the afternoon, and I give
+them advice about the babies, and teach them and Moya how to prepare
+their food, but they do such strange things that you can't forestall
+because you never had the wildest idea that any woman in her senses
+would treat a baby so."
+
+Edward laughed.
+
+"Russian and Bulgarian peasant customs, I suppose.  I never shall
+forget the first time I saw a two-day old negro baby sucking a bit of
+fat bacon.  I nearly had a chill."
+
+"Didn't the child have a chill?"
+
+"Not the slightest!  If they get ahead of you with some pleasing little
+trick like that you can console yourself with the thought that
+generally there is some basis of old-time experience that has shown it
+to be not so harmful as we are apt to think."
+
+"I've done enough tenement house work to know that the babies certainly
+survive extraordinary treatment, but these babies here are so delicate
+that they ought to have the most careful diet.  Most of them need real
+nursing."
+
+"Do you think your talks are making any impressions on the mothers?"
+
+"Sometimes Mrs. Schuler and I think so, and just then it almost always
+happens that one of them does something totally unexpected that gives
+our hopes a terrible blow."
+
+"Let's trust that this is a good day; I'd rather talk to you than work
+over a case this fine afternoon."
+
+Gertrude smiled at his tone and they walked on in silence out of the
+wood and across the brook and down the lane that brought them to the
+back of Rose House where the Club boys and girls were busy making a
+piece of furniture of some sort.  Mrs. Schuler was talking to Moya in
+the kitchen.
+
+"I've brought Dr. Watkins to see everybody," announced Miss Merriam
+gayly.  "Where are they all?"
+
+"The ones who are at home are up in the pine grove, but Moya has just
+told me that Mrs. Paterno and her older boy and Mrs. Tsanoff and one of
+the twins have gone to town."
+
+"Walked?"
+
+"Walked by the road on this scorching day!"
+
+Miss Merriam turned to the doctor.
+
+"This is one of the unexpected events we were just talking about.
+Little Paterno is four and too large for that little woman to carry,
+and far too small and weak to take that long walk on his own legs even
+on a more suitable day than this, and the Tsanoff twins are just
+holding on to life by the tips of their fingers!"
+
+She sat down in despair.  Dr.  Watkins looked serious.
+
+"Is there any way of heading them off or bringing them back.  Can we
+reach them anywhere by telephone?"
+
+"No one knows where they can have gone.  It seems it must have been
+about an hour and a half ago that they started and I should think
+they'd be back before long if they're able to come back--"
+
+"--under their own steam!" finished the doctor with a doubtful smile.
+
+"Let's go to the grove and see the women and children there and perhaps
+the others will be in sight by the time you've finished your
+examination."
+
+They turned toward the pines whose thick needles cast a heavy shade
+upon the ground and gave forth a delicious fragrance under the rays of
+the sun.  As they disappeared Mrs. Schuler went out on the platform
+where the carpentering operations were going on.
+
+"I'm so disturbed about those women," she said, "I've come to see what
+you're doing to divert my mind from them."
+
+"We're going to make two of these seats, one for your office and the
+other for the veranda," said Ethel Brown, standing erect and putting a
+hand upon her weary back.  The rest of the young carpenters stopped
+their work and wiped their perspiring foreheads while they explained
+the construction of the piece of furniture to their friend.
+
+"This long narrow box is the seat, you see.  It's a shoe case, and it's
+just the right height for comfort.  Roger has put hinges on the cover,
+so you can use it for a chest and keep rugs and cushions inside."
+
+"That's about as simple as it could be.  Does it take all of you to
+help Roger do that?"
+
+"O, that's only a part of the entire affair.  We're making these two
+sets of shelves to go at the ends of the seat."
+
+"I see.  A great light breaks on me!"
+
+"They're to be fastened to the ends of the seat."
+
+"Not for keeps.  That's Ethel Blue's patent.  She said it would be
+awkward to move about if it were all built together, so we're making it
+in three parts, and we're going to lock them together with hooks and
+screw eyes."
+
+"That is clever!  Then if you want to you can use these sets of shelves
+for little bookcases in another room or you can fasten on one of them
+and not the other."
+
+"Ethel Blue and I thought we'd make pink cushions for your office if
+you'd like them."
+
+"I think they'd be charming.  That pink room raises my spirits when--"
+
+"--when you get _blue_?" suggested Roger.
+
+"I'll have to go there now to get revived if those women who walked to
+town don't turn up soon," and the Matron went to the corner of the
+house whence she could see the lane that led from the road.  "If they
+come home ill I'll have to ask you to make two bed trays," she
+suggested as she peered across the grass.
+
+"How do you make them?"
+
+"Ask Ethel Blue."
+
+"Merely put legs on a light board so that the weight of the plates will
+be lifted from the sick person's legs as he sits up in bed."
+
+"What's to prevent the plates sliding off?"
+
+"Nothing if he's much of a kicker, I should say," laughed Roger; "but
+you could put a little fence an inch or two high at the back and sides
+and keep them on board."
+
+"You'd better begin them right off," said Mrs. Schuler dryly, "for here
+they come."
+
+She disappeared around the corner and the young people followed to see
+what was the matter.
+
+Trouble there was in very truth.  Mrs. Paterno led the way stumbling
+and running.  Her face was flushed a deep, threatening crimson and her
+breath came fast.  By the arm she held little Pietro, who from
+exhaustion had ceased to scream and merely gave a gulping moan when the
+gravel scraped his bare knees as his mother jerked him along regardless
+of whether he was on his feet or whether she dragged him.  Behind them
+at some distance came Mrs. Tsanoff carrying her baby in her arms--one
+of the twins that always seemed to be merely "holding on to life by the
+tips of its fingers," to use Gertrude's expression, and now seemed to
+have lost even that frail hold.  It lay in its mother's arms white and
+with its eyes closed.
+
+Mrs. Schuler ran to meet the Italian woman and lifted the worn child
+into her arms where he sank against her shoulder as if in a faint.
+
+"Run up in the grove and get Dr. Watkins and Miss Gertrude," Helen said
+to Roger.  "Ask them quietly to come here.  Don't frighten the women."
+
+Roger dashed away, his swift feet slowing to a walk as he neared the
+bit of woods where he delivered his message in an undertone.  Ethel
+Blue meanwhile, had rushed into the house to tell Moya to heat plenty
+of water and to crack some ice, and Margaret had opened Mrs. Schuler's
+closet of simple remedies and found the bottle of aromatic spirits of
+ammonia.  Ethel Brown and James ran to meet Mrs. Tsanoff, Ethel taking
+the baby from her and James steadying her shaking steps by a stout arm
+under her elbow.
+
+As Dr. Watkins ran around the corner of the house he came upon Helen
+trying to help Mrs. Paterno, who was pushing her away with both hands,
+while she kept looking over her shoulder and screaming hysterically.
+Edward seized her hands and commanded her attention at once by speaking
+to her in Italian.  Although she did not know him she responded to his
+command to tell him of what she was afraid, and poured out a story of
+terror.  "_Mano, nera, mano nera_--the Black Hand," she repeated over
+and over again, and Edward, who had heard her history, realized that
+something she had seen had set her mind in the old train of thought.
+While Miss Merriam attended to the children he calmed the woman and
+then turned her over to Mrs. Schuler with instructions to put her to
+bed in a darkened room and to see that some one stayed with her or just
+outside her door.
+
+Fortunately for the doctor his experience with the people among whom
+his father worked in his East Side chapel had given him a smattering of
+many languages and he was able to make out from Mrs. Tsanoff, although
+her fright and fatigue had made her forget almost all the English she
+knew, what had terrified her companion.  They had gone to the
+stationery shop of the Englishman who also sold ice cream and soda, she
+said, and they had had each a glass of soda and the children had each
+had an ice cream cone.
+
+Edward groaned and over his shoulder directed Delia to run and tell
+Miss Merriam that both babies had had ice cream cones.  "It will help
+her to know what to do until I come," he explained.
+
+Just as they were coming out of the store a dark man who looked like an
+Italian had passed them.
+
+So far as she noticed he had paid no attention to them, but Mrs.
+Paterno had seized her arm, pointing after him, and then had picked up
+Pietro and started to run toward home.  Neither far nor fast could she
+go in such heat with such a burden and the poor little chap was soon
+tossed down and forced to run with giant strides all the rest of the
+eternal mile that stretched between Rosemont and Rose House.  Mrs.
+Tsanoff herself had followed as fast as she could because she was
+afraid that something, she knew not what, would happen to her friend.
+
+She, too, was sent to bed, with Moya standing over her to lay cool
+compresses on her eyes, to sponge her wrists and ankles with cool water
+and to lay an occasional bit of cracked ice on her parched lips.
+
+The condition of the two children was pitiable.  The heat, the sudden
+chill from the ice cream and the terrible homeward rush sent them both
+so nearly into a collapse that the doctor, Mrs. Schuler and Miss
+Merriam worked over them all night, resting only when Dr. Hancock, who
+had heard the story from James and Margaret and came up to see the
+state of affairs, relieved them for an hour.
+
+"How are we ever going to teach them the madness of such behavior?"
+Gertrude asked wearily as Dr. Watkins insisted that she and Mrs.
+Schuler should go to bed as the dawn broke.
+
+"The poor little Italian woman is almost mad already, thanks to this
+Black Hand business.  It will take her a long time to recover her
+balance, but I think I can teach the others a lesson from this
+experience of their friends.  Wait till to-morrow comes and hear me
+talk five languages at once," he promised cheerfully as he turned her
+over to Mrs. Schuler.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SOME ENTERTAINMENT
+
+The escapade of the Italian and Bulgarian women played havoc with the
+calm of Rose House for several days.  The women themselves had narrow
+escapes from illness and the children were so seriously ill that a
+trained nurse had to be sent up from the Glen Point Hospital, as
+neither Miss Merriam nor Mrs. Schuler could undertake nursing in
+addition to their other work.
+
+When all was well again Miss Merriam redoubled her efforts to teach the
+women something of proper care of their children and themselves, and,
+with the help of Dr. Watkins's knowledge of languages, she began to
+hope that she was making some progress.  Mrs. Tsanoff and Mrs.
+Peterson, who had little babies, were taught to modify milk for them,
+the dangers of giving small children foods unsuited to their age was
+talked about now with the recent experience to point the moral; and
+ways of keeping well in hot weather were explained and listened to with
+interest.
+
+Substitutes for meat were discussed earnestly, chiefly on account of
+the high cost of living but also because meat was declared to be far
+too heating for warm weather use.  Each of the women knew of some dish
+which took the place of meat and she was glad to tell the others about
+it.  Mrs. Paterno knew very well that cheese is one of the best
+substitutes for meat that there is.
+
+"Americans eat cheesa after meata; then sick," she declared with truth.
+Her receipt for a risotto Moya wrote down in the blank book in which
+she was collecting recipes and Mrs. Paterno beamed when it came onto
+the table.
+
+Chiefly for the purpose of giving the little Italian woman a change of
+thought, the U. S. C. made a point of providing Rose House with some
+sort of entertainment every few days.  Once they introduced the inmates
+to an American hayride, and the four women, with Moya and the older
+children, screamed with delight as they found themselves moving slowly
+along on a real load of hay--for Grandfather Emerson declared that that
+was the only kind of hayride worth having.
+
+Again they all stowed themselves away in the automobile and went to a
+pond ten miles away for a day's picnic.  That proved not to be a
+success, for everybody was so tired all the next day that there was a
+nearer approach to disagreement among them than ever happened before.
+Mrs. Schuler made up her mind that home--meaning Rose House--was the
+best place for them and that amusements must be found at home and not
+afield.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A NEW KIND OF GRASS SEED
+
+"Your grand-father told me once about a field he had that was filled
+with daisies," said Ethel Blue.  "It looked awfully pretty, but it
+spoiled the field for a pasture; the cows wouldn't touch them."
+
+"I remember that field.  We used to make daisy chains and trim Mother's
+room with them," said Ethel Brown.
+
+"Mr. Emerson tried ploughing up the field and he had men working over
+it for two seasons, but on the third, up they grew again as gay as you
+please.  They acted as if he had just been stirring up the soil so they
+would grow better than ever."
+
+"Poor Grandfather; he had a hard time with that field."
+
+"He said he really needed it for a pasture, so he made up his mind that
+if he couldn't root out the bad plants, he'd crowd them out.  So he
+bought some seed of a kind of grass that has large, strong roots, and
+he sowed it in the field.  As soon as it began to grow he could see
+that there certainly were not so many daisies there.  He kept on
+another year and the cows began to look over the fence as if they'd
+like to get in.  The third year there were so few daisies that they
+didn't count."
+
+"I remember all that," said Ethel Brown, "but what does it have to do
+with Mrs. Paterno?"
+
+"Why, if we--or Edward--could make her get a grip on herself and
+control herself that would be like Mr. Emerson's digging up the
+daisies.  It would be hard work and an awfully slow process.  But if we
+also could fill her mind with thoughts about working for her children
+and trying to make other people happy and with making embroidery which
+she loves to do, why wouldn't it help?  These new things she's thinking
+about would be like the strong, new grass seed that didn't give the
+weeds a chance to grow."
+
+Dorothy stared seriously at Ethel Blue.
+
+"She does perfectly beautiful embroidery," she said slowly, as she
+tried to think out a way to put Ethel Blue's suggestion into effect.
+"Do you suppose she'd be willing to teach us how to do it?  That
+beautiful Italian cut work, you know.  If we should call ourselves a
+class and ask her to teach us it might give her something quite new to
+think about."
+
+"I'd like to learn, too," agreed Ethel Blue.  "I heard Mother say once
+that there was a school in New York for Italian lace work.  Let's get
+Delia to find out about it, and when Mrs. Paterno grows stronger and
+goes back to the city she might go there.  They have a shop uptown
+where they sell the pupils' work.  The class here and the prospect of
+having regular employment when she went back--"
+
+"Work she likes."
+
+"What are you youngsters plotting?" asked the cheerful voice of
+Grandfather Emerson, who came around the big oak from the grass grown
+lane so quietly that they did not hear him coming.
+
+They told him their plan, and he listened intently.
+
+"The poor little woman has had such a shock that it will be a long time
+before she can control herself, I'm afraid," he responded
+sympathetically, "but I believe you've hit on the right way."
+
+"Then we'll get Edward Watkins to ask her whether she'll be willing to
+teach a class, and we'll all join it."
+
+"The other women might like to learn, too."
+
+"Perhaps they could teach.  Bulgarian embroidery has been fashionable
+lately, you know, and the peasant women do it."
+
+"Your grandmother and I went through a Peasant's Bazar when we were in
+Petrograd and there were mounds of embroidery there that the peasant
+women had made."
+
+"The Swedes do beautiful work.  Why don't we have a class for
+international embroidery?" laughed Dorothy.  "I think Mother would like
+to learn the Russian; she's crazy about Russian music and everything
+Russian."
+
+"We'll ask Mother and Grandmother, too, and perhaps the Miss Clarks
+would come and the women could charge a fee and make a little money
+teaching us and be amused themselves."
+
+"I dare say it will do the others good as well as the little Italian.
+You've hit on something that will benefit all of them while you were
+trying to help Mrs. Paterno," surmised Mr. Emerson.  "What I came over
+here this morning to see you about was this," he went on in a
+business-like tone that made them look at him attentively.
+"Grandmother and I think that Mrs. Paterno has been a trifle too
+exciting for you young people the last few days.  We think you need a
+change of thought as well as that young woman herself."
+
+They all sat and waited for what was coming, quite unable to guess what
+proposition he was going to make.
+
+"Helen and Roger are somewhat older and stand such upheavals a little
+better than you girls, so my plan doesn't include them."
+
+"Just us three?" asked Ethel Brown.
+
+"Just you three.  Here's my scheme; see if you like it.  I have to go
+over to Boston to-morrow on a matter of business and it occurred to me
+that it would be a pleasant sail on the Sound and that you'd be
+interested in seeing the city--"
+
+"O--o!" gasped Dorothy; "Cambridge and Longfellow's house."
+
+"Concord and Lexington!" cried Ethel Brown.
+
+"The Art Museum!" murmured Ethel Blue.
+
+"And Bunker Hill Monument, and, of course, the Navy Yard especially for
+this daughter of a sailor," and he nodded gayly at his granddaughter.
+
+"Grandmother will go, to take you around when I have to attend to my
+business, and we can stay a day or two and come back fresh to attend to
+Mrs. Paterno's affairs.  How does it strike you?"
+
+Without any preliminary conference, the three girls flung their arms
+around his neck and hugged him heartily.
+
+"Have you talked about it with Mother and Aunt Louise?" asked Ethel
+Brown.
+
+"I'm armed with their permission."
+
+"I guess we were all worrying about Mrs. Paterno," admitted Ethel Blue.
+"This will be the strong grass seed that will clear up our minds so
+that we can help her better after we come back."
+
+"I think you're the most magnificent Grandfather that ever was born!"
+exclaimed Ethel Brown, standing back and gazing admiringly at her
+ancestor.
+
+"Thank you," returned Mr. Emerson, bowing low, his hand on his heart,
+"I am quite overcome by such a wholesale tribute!"
+
+"Had we better tell Mrs. Schuler about the embroidery class plan?"
+asked Dorothy.
+
+"Run up to Rose House now and explain it to her and ask her to talk to
+the women about it while you are gone, and then when you get back
+she'll have it all ready to start," Mr. Emerson suggested.
+
+The next twenty-four hours were full of excitement.  Each of the girls
+had only a small handbag to pack, but the selection of what should go
+into each bag seemed a matter of infinite importance.  The Ethels
+filled their bags twice before they were satisfied that they had not
+left out anything that would be wanted, and Dorothy confessed that she
+had first put in too much and then had gone to the other extreme, and
+that it had not been until after she had had a consultation with her
+mother that she had decided on just the number and kind of garments
+that she would need for a two-day trip to the Hub of the Universe.
+
+"Why is it called that?" she asked of Ethel Brown.
+
+"I asked Mother and she said that people from New York and other cities
+used to say that Bostonians thought that their town was the centre of
+civilization.  So they guyed it by calling it the 'Hub'."
+
+Roger and Helen went into New York with the travellers and Delia and
+Margaret were on the pier to see the steamer leave.
+
+It was a glorious afternoon and the boat slipped around the end of the
+Battery while the westering sun was still shining brilliantly on the
+water, touching it with sparkles on the tip of each tiny wave.  The
+Statue of Liberty, with the sun behind it, towered darkly against the
+gold.  The huge buildings of the lower city stretched skywards, the new
+Equitable, the latest addition to the mammoth group, shutting off
+almost entirely the view of the Singer Tower from the harbor, just as
+the Woolworth Tower hides it from observers on the north.
+
+Between them Grandfather and Grandmother Emerson were able to point out
+nearly all of the sights of the East River--several parks and
+playgrounds, Bellevue Hospital, the Vanderbilt model tenements for
+people threatened with tuberculosis, the Junior League Hotel for
+self-supporting women, the old dwelling where Dorothy's friend, the
+"box furniture lady," had established a school to teach the folk of the
+neighborhood how to use tools for the advantage of their
+house-furnishings.
+
+The boat was one of those which steams around Cape Cod instead of
+stopping at Fall River, Rhode Island, and sending its passengers to
+Boston by train.  Early morning found them all on deck watching the
+waters of Massachusetts Bay and trying to place on a map that Mr.
+Emerson produced from his pocket the towns whose church spires they
+could see pointing skyward far off on their left.  Twin lighthouses
+they decided, marked Gurnet Point, the entrance to Plymouth Bay, and
+they strained their eyes to see the town that was the oldest settlement
+in Massachusetts, and imagined they were watching the bulky little
+Mayflower making her way landward between the headlands.
+
+Mr. Emerson convoyed his party to a hotel on Copley Square and left
+them there while he went out at once to meet his business friends.
+
+"How far away Rosemont seems, and poor Mrs. Paterno with her troubles,"
+she said an hour later as they stood before Sargent's panel of the
+Prophets in the Public Library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+TROLLEYING
+
+As for the Art Museum, they wandered delightedly from one room to
+another, but went away with a sensation of having seen too much that
+was almost as uncomfortable as that of having eaten too much.
+
+"I should like to come here or to go to the Metropolitan in New York
+with some one who could tell me about every picture or every object in
+just one room and stay there for an hour and then go away and think
+about it," said Ethel Blue.
+
+"We will do that some day at the Metropolitan," said Mrs. Emerson.  "If
+the Club would like to go in a body some day we can get one of the
+guides who do just what you describe.  We can tell her the sort of
+thing we want to see--classical statuary or English artists or the
+Morgan collection--and have it all shown to us from the standpoint of
+the expert critic.  Or we can put ourselves in the hands of the guide
+and say that we'd like to see the ten exhibits that the Museum looks
+upon as the choicest."
+
+"Either way would be wonderful!" beamed Ethel Blue, and the three girls
+promised themselves the delight of reporting Mrs. Emerson's offer to
+the Club at its next meeting.
+
+The homeward trip was made by a route quite different from the one by
+which the party reached Boston.  Grandfather proposed it at breakfast
+on the morning of the day on which they had intended to leave in the
+afternoon.
+
+"Are you people very keen on this drive through the Park System
+to-day?" he asked.
+
+The girls did not know what to say, but Mrs. Emerson scented a new idea
+and replied "not if you have something to suggest that we'd like
+better."
+
+"How would you like to trolley back to New York?"
+
+"Trolley back to New York!" repeated the girls with little screeches of
+joy.  "All the way by trolley?  How long will it take?  I never heard
+of anything so delightful in all my life!"
+
+After such a quick and satisfactory response Mr. Emerson did not need
+to lay his plan before them in any further detail.
+
+"I see you're 'game,' as Roger would say, for anything, so we'll go
+that way if Mother agrees."
+
+Mrs. Emerson did agree and even went so far as to say that she had
+wanted to do that very thing for a long time.
+
+"It's lucky Grandfather insisted that we shouldn't bring anything but
+small handbags," said Ethel Brown.  "These little things we have won't
+be any trouble at all, no matter how many times we have to change."
+
+They started in heavy inter-urban cars which rode as solidly as
+railroad cars and enabled them to be but very little tired at the end
+of the first "leg" of the journey.  The wide windows permitted views of
+the country and the girls ran from one side to the other of the closed
+cars, so that they should not miss anything of interest, and sat on the
+front seat of the open cars into which they changed later, so that they
+might have no one in front of them to obstruct their view.
+
+They went out of the city straight westward through Brookline, through
+Chestnut Hill, where is one of the reservoirs from which the city is
+supplied; past Wellesley, where they saw the college buildings rising
+among the trees on the left.
+
+The party reached Springfield at dusk and had time to take a walk after
+dinner.  They admired the elm-bordered streets and the comfortable
+houses, and they thought the Arsenal looked extremely peaceful outside
+in spite of its murderous activities within.
+
+It was a deep sleep that visited them all that night.  A whole day in
+the open air with the gentle but continuous exercise provided by the
+car made them unconscious of their surroundings almost as soon as they
+touched their pillows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY
+
+With a long and varied day ahead of them they were delighted to find
+the morning clear when they awoke.
+
+"There are almost as many points of interest in the Connecticut River
+Valley as there are on the Concord and Lexington road," Mr. Emerson
+told the girls.  "We're going first to Holyoke, which is one of the
+largest paper manufacturing towns in the world.  I have a little
+business to do there and while I am seeing my man you people can take a
+little walk.  Be sure you notice the big dam.  It's a thousand feet
+long.  The Holyoke water power is very unusual."
+
+Perhaps because they were not experts on water power they were not
+greatly impressed by the floods of the Connecticut River diverted into
+deep canals and swimming along so smoothly as to impart but little idea
+of their strength.  Only the whir of the great mills gave evidence that
+iron and steel were being moved by it.
+
+"How Roger would enjoy this!" cried Ethel Brown, and "Wouldn't Helen be
+just crazy over all the history of this region?" added Ethel Blue,
+while Dorothy, who had travelled much but never without her mother,
+silently wished that she were there to enjoy it all.
+
+"There's another girl's college of note," and Mrs. Emerson pointed out
+Mt. Holyoke at South Hadley, northeast of Mt Tom.
+
+"And we're going to see Smith College to-day!  I feel as if I wanted to
+go to all of them!" cried Ethel Blue.
+
+"You might take a year at each and find out which was best suited to
+your temperament," laughed Mrs. Emerson.
+
+From the foot of the mountain they went northward again to Northampton.
+
+"Here's where I ought to go if names count for anything," decided
+Dorothy.
+
+"If all the girls named Smith who go to college anywhere should go here
+because of the name there wouldn't be room for any other students,"
+said Mr. Emerson jokingly.
+
+"They say," returned Dorothy on the defensive, "that in the beginning
+all the people in the world were named Smith and it was only those who
+misbehaved who had their names changed."
+
+"You can at least pride yourself on their being an industrious lot.
+Think of all their crafts--they were armorers and goldsmiths, and
+silversmiths and blacksmiths."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE BERKSHIRES AND BENNINGTON
+
+Greenfield, where the party spent the night, they found to be a
+pleasant old town with the wide, tree-bordered streets to which they
+were growing accustomed in this trolleying pilgrimage.  A quiet hotel
+sheltered them and they slept soundly, their dreams filled with
+memories of colleges and rose gardens and Indians in romantic
+confusion.  The next day they started westward.
+
+Pittsfield they found to be a large town whose old houses surrounded by
+ancient trees gave a feeling of solidity and comfort.
+
+"Longfellow wrote 'The Old Clock on the Stairs' here," said Mr. Emerson
+pointing out the Appleton house.  "The first stanza describes more than
+one of the old mansions," and he recited:--
+
+  "Somewhat back from the village street
+  Stands the old-fashioned country seat.
+  Across its antique portico
+  Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw,
+  And from its station in the hall
+  An ancient timepiece says to all,--
+      'Forever--never!
+      Never--forever!'"
+
+"I remember that poem, but I never liked it much;" acknowledged
+Dorothy; "it's too gloomy."
+
+"It is rather solemn," admitted Mr. Emerson.  "You'll be interested to
+know that merry Dr. Holmes used to come to Pittsfield in the summer.
+There are many associations with him in the town."
+
+"I'm sure he wrote gayer poems than 'The Old Clock on the Stairs' when
+he was here."
+
+"Is this a very old town?" Ethel Blue asked.
+
+"It was settled in 1743.  Does that seem old to you?"
+
+[Illustration: "It was settled in 1743"]
+
+"1743," Ethel repeated, doing some subtraction by the aid of her
+fingers, for arithmetic was not her strong point.  "A hundred and
+eighty-seven years," she decided after reflection.  "Yes, that seems
+pretty old to me.  It's a lot older than Rosemont but over a hundred
+years younger than Plymouth or Boston."
+
+"A sort of middle age," Mr. Emerson summed up her decision with a smile.
+
+After luncheon at the hotel an early afternoon car sped on with them to
+a station whence they took an automobile for a drive through
+Stockbridge and Lenox with their handsome estates and lovely views.
+
+The trolley whizzed them back over the same route to North Adams and
+westward to Williamstown.
+
+"One of my brothers--your great-uncle James, Ethel Brown--went to
+Williams College," said Mr. Emerson, "and I shall be glad to spend the
+night here and see the town and the buildings I heard him talk so much
+about."
+
+"Why don't we get out, then?"
+
+"We're going now to Bennington, Vermont."
+
+"Vermont!  Into another state!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+
+"When we come back we'll leave the car here."
+
+"Are those the Green Mountains?" asked Dorothy as the trolley ran into
+a smoother country than they had been in while traveling in the
+Berkshires, but one which showed a background of long wooded ranges
+rising length after length against the sky.
+
+"Those are the Green Mountains; and this is the 'Green Mountain State,'
+and the men who fought in the Revolution under Ethan Allen were the
+'Green Mountain Boys'."
+
+  "But, ranged in serried order, attent on sterner noise,
+  Stood stalwart Ethan Allen and his 'Green Mountain Boys'
+  Two hundred patriots listening as with the ears of one,
+  To the echo of the muskets that blazed at Lexington!"
+
+quoted Mrs. Emerson.  "They were bound northward to the British fort at
+Ticonderoga."
+
+"Did they get there?"
+
+"They took the British completely by surprise.  That was in May, 1775.
+It was in August, two years later that the battle of Bennington took
+place."
+
+"We'd better agree to have dinner or supper here if we don't want to
+get back to Williamstown after all the food in the place has been eaten
+by those hungry college boys," suggested Mrs. Emerson.
+
+Mr. Emerson took a hasty glance at the setting sun.
+
+"You never spoke a truer word, my dear," applauded her husband, "though
+this is vacation and the boys won't be there!  Still, I'm as hungry as
+a bear.  Let's have our evening meal, whatever it proves to be, in
+Bennington."
+
+They were all hungry enough to think the plan one of the best that
+their leader had offered for some time, so it was only after what
+turned out to be supper that they went back to Williamstown.
+
+In the moonlight the towers of the college buildings glimmered
+mysteriously through the trees, and the girls went to bed happy in the
+promise of what the morning was going to bring them.
+
+Ethel Brown was sorry that there were no students to be seen on the
+grounds when they wandered about the next morning, for she would have
+liked to see what sort of boys they were, and, if she liked their
+looks, have suggested to Tom or James that they come here to college
+amid such lovely surroundings.  She liked it better than Amherst but
+Ethel Blue preferred that compact little village, and Dorothy clung to
+her deep-seated affection for Cambridge.
+
+"After all, our Club boys have their plans all made so we don't need to
+get excited over these colleges," decided Ethel Brown; "and I'm glad
+they're all going to different ones because when they graduate we'll
+have invitations to three separate class-days and other festivities."
+
+"What a perfectly beautiful tower," exclaimed Dorothy.
+
+"It's the chapel.  That light-colored stone is superb, isn't it!"
+
+"Some of these other buildings look as old as some of the oldy-old
+Harvard ones."
+
+"They can't be anywhere near as old.  This college wasn't founded until
+1793."
+
+"That's old enough to give it a settled-down air in spite of these
+handsome new affairs.  There must be lovely walks about here."
+
+"Hills almost as big as mountains to climb.  But the boys don't have
+any girls to call on the way the Amherst boys do, with the Smith girls
+and the Mt. Holyoke girls just a little ride away."
+
+"Perhaps they'd rather have mountains," remarked Ethel Brown wisely.
+
+As the college was not in session Mr. Emerson was not able to see any
+of the records that he had hoped to look over to search for his
+brother's name, and as almost all of the professors were out of town,
+he could not question any of the older men of the place as to their
+recollection of him.  He was quite willing, therefore, to take a
+comparatively early train for Albany.
+
+They arrived early enough to go over the Capitol, seated at the head of
+a broad but precipitous street.  It was very unlike the stern
+simplicity of the Massachusetts State House, but they amused themselves
+by saying that at least the two buildings had one part of their
+decoration in common.  In Albany the tops of the columns were carved
+with fruits and flowers, all to be found in the United States.  In
+Boston a local product, the codfish, held a position of honor over the
+desk of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
+
+"All made in the U. S. A.," laughed Dorothy, quoting a slogan of the
+wartime, intended to help home industries.
+
+They wanted to see the Cathedral and St. Agnes' School as well as the
+State Board of Education Building, and after they had hunted them out
+with the help of a map of the city, and had taken a trolley ride into
+the suburbs, and had eaten a hearty dinner they were glad to go to bed
+early so as to be up in time to catch the Day Boat for New York.
+
+"What splendid weather we've had," exclaimed Mrs. Emerson as they took
+their places on the broad deck of the handsome craft.  It was not the
+same one that had taken them to West Point at the end of May.  This one
+was named after Hendrik Hudson, the explorer of the river.  They found
+it to be quite as comfortable as the other, and the day went fast as
+they swept down the stream with the current to aid them.
+
+Occasionally broad reaches of the river grew narrower and wider again
+as the soil had proven soft or more resistant and the water had spread
+or had cut out a deep channel.  Off to the west the Catskills loomed
+against the sky, more varied than the Green Mountains and more rugged.
+
+"More beautiful, too, I think," decided Ethel Blue.  "I like their
+roughness."
+
+A storm came up as they passed the mountains and the thunder rumbled
+unendingly among the hills.
+
+"Listen to the Dutchmen that Rip Van Winkle saw playing bowls when he
+visited them during his twenty years' nap," laughed Ethel Brown who was
+a reader of Washington Irving's "Sketch Book."
+
+"I don't wonder he felt dozy in summer with such a lovely scene to
+quiet him," Mrs. Emerson said in his defence.  "I feel a trifle sleepy
+myself," and she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes with an
+appearance of extreme comfort.
+
+They passed Kingston which was burned by the British just two months
+after the battle of Bennington; and by a large town which proved to be
+Poughkeepsie.
+
+"Here's where we should land if we were going to finish our
+investigation of colleges by seeing Vassar," said Mr. Emerson.
+
+"I'm glad we aren't going to get off!" exclaimed Ethel Brown.  "I'm so
+undecided now I don't see how I'll ever make up my mind where to go!"
+
+"Something will happen to help you decide," consoled Dorothy.  "Isn't
+this where the big college boat races are rowed?" she asked Mr. Emerson.
+
+"Right here on this broad stretch of water.  A train of observation
+cars--flat cars--follows the boats along the bank.  I must bring the
+Club up here to some of them some time."
+
+"O-oh!" all the girls cried with one voice, and they stared at the
+river and the shore as if they might even then see the shells dashing
+down the stream and the shouting crowds in the steamers and on the
+banks.
+
+Below Newburgh the river narrowed beneath upstanding cliffs and a point
+jutted out into the water.
+
+"Do you recognize that piece of land?" Mr. Emerson asked.
+
+No one did.
+
+"You don't recall West Point?"
+
+"We're in the position now of the steamers and tugs we watched while we
+were having our dinner at the hotel.  Do you see the veranda of the
+hotel?  Up on the headland?"
+
+They did, and they felt that they were in truth nearing home.  The
+remainder of the way was over familiar waters, and they called to mind
+the historic tales that Roger and Mr. Emerson had told them on the
+Memorial Day trip.
+
+"We've seen so much history in the last week, though," declared Ethel
+Blue, "that I don't believe I can ever realize that I'm living in the
+twentieth century!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HUNTING ARROW HEADS
+
+The week after the home-coming from the Massachusetts trolley trip was
+a time of busyness for the Ethels and Dorothy.  Helen and Roger and the
+grown-ups who had stayed at home had to be made familiar with every
+step of the way, and the whole long history lesson that they had had
+was reviewed especially for Helen's benefit.  She looked up battle
+after battle in large histories in the library and was so full of
+questions as to how this place and that looked that the girls regretted
+that they had not taken a kodak so that they might have gratified her
+curiosity by showing her pictures of all the historical spots in their
+modern garb.
+
+Affairs at Rose House had to be brought up to date.  Mr. Emerson
+undertook the management of Mrs. Tsanoff's affairs and went into town
+the very day after his return to call on Mr. Watkins and find out where
+Tsanoff was working.  He found that he had been discharged from his
+position but a few days before.  He had become so downcast as a
+consequence that he had not sent word to his wife of this fresh
+disappointment, and he was unspeakably grateful to Mr. Emerson for the
+chance that he opened to him.  A kodak of his dark, sensible face was
+easily obtained to send to Massachusetts and Mr. Emerson went home
+feeling that the first step had been well taken.
+
+Making Mrs. Tsanoff understand the new proposition was not easy, but
+Mrs. Schuler and Moya had learned something of her language as she had
+learned more English during the summer and, when Mr. Emerson showed her
+a photograph of the Deerfield farm and told her of its advantages for
+her husband and the children she was eager to go to it at once.
+
+"The fields, the cows," she kept saying over and over again, and the
+girls realized how strong within her was her love for the country for
+which she had made the poor exchange of the city, and they sympathized
+keenly.
+
+The result of the correspondence between Mr. Emerson and the Deerfield
+people was that the Bulgarians were put on the train for Springfield
+within ten days, each one of them, even the twin babies, wearing a
+small American flag so that they might be recognized by their new
+employer who was to meet them at Springfield and convoy them home.
+Mrs. Tsanoff left Rose House in tears, kissing the hands of all the
+girls and murmuring her gratitude to all of them over and over again as
+she wept and smiled by turns.
+
+The other women had started the embroidery class, teaching each other
+and Mrs. Morton, Mrs. Smith and the Miss Clarks.  The plan was working
+out very well, Mrs. Schuler thought, especially with Mrs. Paterno, who
+evidently loved the work and in it was already losing something of her
+fear and anxiety.
+
+Roger had made a sideboard for the Rose House dining room assisted by
+the members of the Club who were "not off gallivanting," as he
+expressed it.
+
+"It's mighty good looking," commented Dorothy as she examined it.  "Was
+it hard to make?  It looks so."
+
+"No worse than that seat we made for Mrs. Schuler's room.  We made two
+cupboard arrangements for the ends just like those, only we put a door
+over each one of them.  Instead of a big box between them to be used as
+a seat we put a shelf resting on the cleats that went across the backs
+of the bookshelves.  Then we connected the two cupboards with a long
+plank."
+
+"You put a back behind the shelf."
+
+"We put on thin boards for a back, but we haven't decided yet whether
+we made a mistake in putting doors in front or not.  I like them with
+doors the way we have it, but Margaret thinks it would have been rather
+good without any doors.  What do you think?"
+
+"I think Mrs. Schuler will like it better with doors.  The linen or
+whatever she keeps in there will be cleaner if it isn't exposed to the
+air on open shelves and the doors will serve as a protection against
+dust."
+
+They all agreed that it was one of the best pieces of furniture that
+they had yet made for the house, and the travellers were sorry that
+they had not had a hand in its construction on account of the
+experience the progress of the work would have afforded them.
+
+A few days later the Ethels planned an excursion for the benefit of the
+younger children which was to be somewhat in the nature of a picnic,
+but it was arranged to have everyone attend who could do so.
+
+There was intense excitement among the smaller children when the
+announcement was made that the picnic would be held early the following
+week, providing the weather proved clear enough not to interfere with
+their plans.
+
+Dicky's share in the excitement of the journey was the stirring up of a
+deep interest in Indians.  When the Ethels told him that they were
+going over to the field that Grandfather Emerson was having cleared he
+insisted on going with them to hunt for arrow heads.  They waited until
+a day after a rain had left the small stones washed free of earth, and
+they made an afternoon of it, all the Club and all the Rose House women
+and children going too.  The boys carried hampers with the wherewithal
+for afternoon tea, and the expedition assumed serious proportions in
+the minds of those arranging it when Dicky asked if they would need one
+of Grandfather's wagons to bring home the arrow heads in.
+
+As a matter of fact they did not find many arrow heads.  Whether the
+earth had not yet been turned over to a sufficient depth or whether the
+Indians who had lived about Rosemont had been of a peaceful temper or
+whether the field happened not to be near any of their villages, no one
+knew, though every one made one guess or another.
+
+They planned the search methodically.
+
+"I saw a lot of Boy Scouts one day clear up the field in Central Park
+in which they had been drilling," said Tom Watkins.  "They stretched in
+a long line across the whole field and then they walked slowly along
+looking for anything that might have been dropped in the course of
+their evolutions."
+
+"Did they find much?"
+
+"You'd be surprised to know how much!"
+
+"Let's do the same thing here.  If we stretch across the field then
+every one is responsible for just a small section under his eyes--"
+
+"--and feet."
+
+"--and feet.  I wish we had an arrow head to show the women so they'd
+know exactly what to look for."
+
+"Father had one in the cabinet," said Roger, "and I put it in my pocket
+for just this purpose.  I don't know where he got it, and it may not be
+of exactly the kind of stone these New Jersey Indians used, but it will
+show the shape all right."
+
+"They always used flint, didn't they?" asked Margaret.
+
+"Flint or obsidian or the hardest stone they could find, whatever it
+was."
+
+"Bone?"
+
+"Sometimes.  I saw quite large bone heads at the Natural History
+Museum."
+
+"I've seen life-size boneheads frequently," announced James solemnly,
+not smiling until Roger and Tom pelted him with bits of sod.
+
+The arrow head was passed from hand to hand and every one studied it
+carefully.  Then they stretched across the field and began their
+search.  The result was not very satisfactory from Dicky's point of
+view, for he concluded that he need not have worried as to how the load
+was to be carried home.  There were only seven found.  Of these,
+however, Dicky found two, one by his unaided efforts and the other
+through Ethel Blue's taking pains not to see one that lay between him
+and her.  Nobody else found more than one and several of them found
+none at all, so Dicky, after all, was hilarious.
+
+In a corner of the field they built a fire and heated water for the tea
+in a kettle thrust among the coals.  Ears of corn still in the husk
+were roasted between heated stones, bits of bacon sizzled appetizingly
+from forked sticks and dripped on to the flames with a hissing sound,
+and biscuits, fresh from Moya's oven, were reheated near the blaze.
+
+It was while they were sitting around the fire that Dicky's mind turned
+to the remainder of the Indian's equipment.
+
+"What did he do with thith arrowhead?" he inquired.
+
+"He tied it on to the end of an arrow, and shot bears with it."
+
+"What'th an arrow?"
+
+"A long, slender stick."
+
+"Do you throw it?"
+
+"You shoot it from a bow."
+
+"What'th a bow?"
+
+"A curved piece of wood with a string connecting the ends."
+
+"How doeth it work?"
+
+Roger heaved a sigh and then gave it up..
+
+"Me for the bushes," he cried.  "Language fails me; I'll have to make a
+bow and arrow."
+
+"It's the easiest way," nodded Tom.  "Bring me a switch and I'll make
+the arrow while you make the bow."
+
+"Who's got a piece of string?" inquired Roger a few minutes later as he
+held up his handiwork for the admiration of his friends,
+
+James produced the necessary string and Roger strung the bow.
+
+"Now, then, let's see what it will do," he said.
+
+Adjusting the arrow he drew the cord and sent the simple shaft whizzing
+through the air against a tree where it stuck in the bark for an
+instant before it fell to the ground.
+
+"Do you think it's safe for Dicky to have an arrow as sharp as that?"
+inquired Helen.
+
+"That's not sharp enough to do any damage.  It didn't hold in the tree."
+
+Dicky was delighted with his new toy and went off to test its power,
+followed by Elisabeth of Belgium, Sheila, Luigi and Pietro Paterno,
+Olga Peterson and Vasili and Vladimir Vereshchagin.  The romper-clad
+band stirred the amused smiles of the elders watching them.
+
+"They certainly are the cunningest little dinks that ever happened!"
+cried Ethel Brown, establishing herself comfortably to help make small
+bows and arrows for the rest of the flock.
+
+The girls as well as the boys of the United Service Club knew how to
+use a jacknife and the diminutive weapons of the chase were soon ready.
+
+The Ethels were hunting through the luncheon basket for string when a
+howl from the other side of the field made them drop what was in their
+hands and rush toward the trees where the children were playing.  The
+mothers followed them, Mrs. Paterno and Mrs. Vereshchagin in the lead.
+
+"I certainly hope it's not the little Paterno," said Ethel Blue
+breathlessly to Ethel Brown as they ran.  "Mrs. Paterno never will
+forgive Dicky if he's got him into trouble again."
+
+They concluded when they came in sight of the group of children that
+the Italian woman had run from nervousness and the Russian because she
+recognized the voice of her offspring, for it was Vladimir whose yells
+were resounding through the air.  Dicky was bending over him and the
+other children were standing around so that the runners as they
+approached could not see what was the matter.
+
+Mrs. Vereshchagin increased her speed, uttering sounds that fell
+strangely on her listeners' ears.  The group of children fell away as
+their elders came near, and the Ethels, who were in front, saw that
+Vladimir was pinned to a tree by Dicky's arrow which had pierced the
+fullness of his rompers.  He could not be hurt in the least, but the
+strangeness of his position had startled and angered him and was
+causing the shrieks that had frightened them all.
+
+Fortunately for Dicky, Mrs. Vereshchagin, unlike Mrs. Paterno, had a
+sense of humor, and as soon as she saw that her child was neither
+injured nor in danger she burst into laughter as loud as his cries of
+rage and terror.  Roger quickly unfastened him from the tree to which
+he was bound and handed him over to his mother, none the worse for his
+experience except that his rompers were torn.  Turning to Dicky, Roger
+decreed that the head must be taken from his arrow.
+
+"It's not your fault, old man," he said; "but Helen was right--this
+thing is too sharp."
+
+"I'll tell you what to do, Roger, get some of those rubber tips that
+slip on the ends of lead pencils.  The English stationer must have
+some.  If you put them on all these arrows they can't do any harm."
+
+"Meanwhile the kiddies had better not have them," Mrs. Schuler decided,
+so they were put aside with the basket, to be finished later when the
+needed tips should be procured in Rosemont.
+
+"You got off pretty well, that time, sir," laughed Roger.  "What were
+you trying to do?"
+
+"I wath an Indian thooting bearth.  Vladimir wath a bear."
+
+"A Russian bear.  You got him all right; but let me tell you, young
+man; you must be mighty careful what you aim at, for international
+complications may follow."
+
+"What'th that?"
+
+"That means it's dangerous to aim at _anybody_.  I'll make you a target
+and when you get so you can hit the bull's eye three times out of five
+at a distance of fifteen feet I'll give you a better bow.  Is it a
+bargain?"
+
+Dicky shook hands on it solemnly.
+
+"Remember now, no shooting at any living thing."
+
+"Not a cat?"
+
+"Not a cat or a bird, a dog or any other animal on two legs or four."
+
+"All right," nodded Dicky, and Roger knew that he would keep his word,
+for that is a part of the training of a soldier's son.
+
+The experiences of the afternoon were not yet ended.  The arrow episode
+over the children looked about for other amusement.  They drifted away
+from the group still gathered about the embers of the dying fire and
+made their way among the bushes standing uncut on the edge of the new
+clearing.  Once in a while their laughter was borne on the breeze.  It
+was a long time before any one thought of seeing what they were doing.
+Then Ethel Brown rose and sauntered in the direction whence the sounds
+came.
+
+"With Dicky in the lead," she thought, "it's just as well to keep an
+eye on them."
+
+As she approached the woods she saw the little army of rompered
+youngsters, each armed with a switch, and each doing his best to strike
+something high over his head.  They all stood with their eager faces
+looking upward and their arms working busily with what muscle the
+summer had given them.  Leaves were falling from the bushes and the
+lower branches of the saplings that were struck by their rods, and it
+was evident that they were causing great destruction to the foliage,
+whatever the real object of their attack.
+
+Ethel's wonderment increased.
+
+"Children do get the greatest amount of fun out of the smallest
+things," she thought.  "What can they be doing?"
+
+When quite near the thicket, however, her slow steps quickened into a
+run.  Her sharp eyes discovered hanging from one of the trees over the
+heads of the children one of the large wasps' nests which seem to be
+made of gray paper.  It had caught Dicky's attention and he had coveted
+it for purpose of investigation.  Summoning his cohorts he had pointed
+it out to them and had urged them to bring it down.  Each one had
+broken a stick; some had stripped off the leaves entirely; others had
+left a tuft at the end.  In both cases the weapons looked dangerously
+destructive to Ethel, as she ran toward them and saw one pole after
+another swish past the home of the paper wasps and expected the colony
+to rush forth to defend their abode.  With a cry of warning she bore
+down on them and with a sweep of her arms turned them all back into the
+open field.  Dicky was indignant.
+
+"What you doing that for?" he demanded angrily.  "One more thwat and
+I'd a had it."
+
+"You don't know what it is," cried Ethel breathlessly.  "You'd all be
+stung if there were any wasps at home.  That's their house and they get
+awfully mad."
+
+The children looked back fearfully at the object of their attack.
+
+"You've had a narrow escape," insisted Ethel, and then to divert their
+minds from what had happened she made them stretch themselves in a line
+and hunt for arrow heads all the way back to their mothers.
+
+"Thith ith a funny thtone," exclaimed Dicky, picking up a rather large
+oblong stone that had a groove all around its middle.
+
+"It looks like Lake Chautauqua.  doesn't it?  You know they say that
+'Chautauqua' means 'the bag tied in the middle'."
+
+"Did the Indianth uthe it?" Dicky asked as he laid his trophy in
+Roger's hand.
+
+"I rather think they did," returned Roger excitedly.  "It looks to me
+as if this was a hammer or a hatchet.  See--" and he held it out for
+the girls and James and Tom to see, "they must have lashed this head on
+to a stout stick by a cord tied where this crease is."
+
+"It would make a first-rate hammer," commended James.
+
+"The Indians didn't manufacture as many of these as they did arrow
+heads, because, of course, they didn't need as many.  I rather guess
+you've made the big find of the afternoon," and Dicky swelled with
+pride as his brother patted him on the shoulder.
+
+When it became time to go home the Ethels offered to take the short cut
+to Rosemont and get the rubber tips for the children's arrows.
+
+"If we go across the field and the West Woods we come out not far from
+the stationer's, and we can leave the tips up at Rose House on the way
+back so they'll be ready for you to put on to-morrow and the youngsters
+can have the bows and arrows to play with right off."
+
+"Let me go," begged Dicky.
+
+"All right," agreed Roger.  "Be careful when you go over the railroad
+track, girls.  Mother isn't very keen on having Dicky learn that road,
+you know."
+
+They promised to be careful and set forth in the opposite direction
+from the rest of the party whom they left putting together the remnants
+of the feast and packing away the plates.
+
+It was an interesting walk.  They played Indian all the way.  Ethel
+Blue's imagination had been greatly stimulated by the tale of the
+attack on Deerfield and she pretended to see an Indian behind every
+tree.  Ethel Brown pretended to shoot them all with unerring arrow, and
+Dicky charged the bushes in handsome style and routed the enemy with
+awful slaughter.
+
+"This is just the kind of game we ought not to play if we want to make
+Dicky think of peace and not of war," declared Ethel Blue at last when
+she had become breathless from the excitement of their countless
+adventures.
+
+"That's so.  It's funny how you forget.  It's just as Delia says--we
+don't realize how fighting and soldiers and thinking about military
+things is put into our minds even in games when we're little."
+
+"I'm really sorry we've done this," confessed.  Ethel Brown as they
+fell behind their charge.  "Dicky's 'pretending' works over time
+anyway, and he may dream about Indians, or get scared to go to bed, and
+it will be our fault."
+
+"It's rather late to think about it--but let's try not to do it again.
+Isn't there something we can call his attention to now to take his mind
+off Indians?"
+
+Dicky was marching ahead of them drawing an imaginary bow and bringing
+down a large bag of imaginary birds, while from the difficulty with
+which he occasionally dragged an imaginary something behind him it
+seemed that he had at least slain an imaginary deer.
+
+Naturally, with his hunting blood up, the Ethels found him not
+responsive to appeals to "see what a pretty flower this is" or to
+examine the hole of a chipmunk.  He was after more thrilling
+adventures.  Still, by the time they reached the railroad track,
+everyday matters were beginning to command his attention.  This short
+cut across the track was one that he had seldom been allowed to take,
+and the mere fact of doing it was exciting.  He stopped in the middle
+and looked up and down the line while the girls tugged at him.  It was
+only when he saw a bit or two of shining metal which, according to his
+arrow head game of the afternoon, he picked up and tucked away in the
+pocket of his rompers, that his attention was once more turned to the
+gathering of the wonders that seemed to be under his feet all the time
+if only he looked for them hard enough.
+
+The errand to the stationery shop was successful.  The stationer said
+that most pencils now were made with erasers built into them, but that
+he thought he had a box of old tips left over.  He hunted for them very
+obligingly, and set so small a price on them that the Ethels took the
+whole box so that they might have a liberal supply in case any were
+lost off the arrow heads.  Dicky put one in his pocket so that he could
+place it on his arrow as soon as he got it into his hands once more,
+and he begged the Ethels to go home by way of Rose House so that he
+could fix it up that very night.
+
+"Is it early enough?" asked Ethel Blue.
+
+Ethel Brown thought it was.
+
+"But we'll have to hurry," she warned; "there's an awfully black cloud
+over there.  It looks like a thunder storm."
+
+They scampered as fast as their legs would carry them and reached the
+farm in the increasing darkness, but before any rain had fallen.  They
+found all the bows and arrows standing in a trash basket which Roger
+had made for the dining room.
+
+"Mr. Roger stood them up in that so the children wouldn't be apt to
+touch 'em," explained Moya.
+
+Dicky sat down on the hearth and set to work on the arrow which he
+recognized as his because of its greater length.
+
+"You'll have to hurry or we'll get caught," warned his sister.
+
+"We ought to start right off," urged Ethel Blue.  "We'll have to run
+for it even if we go now."
+
+Mrs. Schuler brought in the cape of her storm coat.
+
+"Take this for Dicky," she said.  "If it does break before you get home
+it will rain hard and his rompers won't be any protection at all."
+
+"Put it on now, Dicky," commanded Ethel Brown.  "Stand up."
+
+Dicky rose reluctantly.
+
+"Why do you fill up your pocket with such stuff," inquired Ethel
+impatiently.  "There, throw it into the fireplace--gravel, toadstools,
+old brass," she catalogued contemptuously, and Dicky, swept on by her
+eagerness, obediently cast his treasures among the soft pine boughs
+that filled the wide, old fireplace.
+
+"I'll clear them away," promised Mrs. Schuler.  "Hurry," and she fairly
+turned them out of the house.
+
+"You made me throw away my shiny things," complained Dicky as they ran
+down the lane as fast as they could go.
+
+"Never mind; you'd have jounced them out of your pocket anyway, running
+like this," and Dicky, taking giant strides as his sister and his
+cousin held a hand on each side, was inclined to think that he would be
+lucky if he were not jounced put of his clothes before he got home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE STORM
+
+After all, they need not have jerked poor Dicky over the ground at such
+a rapid pace for the storm, though it grumbled and roared at a
+distance, did not break until a late hour in the night.  Then it came
+with a vengeance and made up for its indecision by behaving with real
+ferocity.
+
+To the women at Rose House, accustomed to the city, where Nature's
+sights and sounds are deadened by the number of the buildings and the
+narrowness of the streets, the uproar was terrifying.  Flash after
+flash lit up their rooms so that the roosters and puppies and pigs and
+cows on the curtains stood out clearly in the white light.  Crash after
+crash sent them cowering under the covers of their beds.  The children
+woke and added their cries to the tumult.
+
+As the electric storm swept away into the distance the wind rose and
+howled about the house.  Shutters slammed; chairs were over-turned on
+the porch; a brick fell with a thud from the top of the chimney to the
+roof; another fell down the chimney into the fireplace where its
+arrival was followed by a roar that seemed to shake the old building on
+its foundation.
+
+"Grrreat Scott!" ejaculated Mr. Schuler, who had learned some English
+expressions from his pupils.  He was returning through the hall from a
+hobbling excursion to make sure that all the windows down stairs were
+closed.  The candle dropped from his hand and he was left in the dark.
+His crutch slid from under his arm, and he was forced to cling to a
+table for support and call for his wife to come and find it for him.
+
+Mrs. Schuler reached him from the kitchen where she had been attending
+to the fastenings of the back door.  Fortunately her light had survived
+the gusty attack and she was able to help her husband to his prop.
+
+"What is it?" she cried breathlessly, "Is the house falling?  Did you
+ever hear such a noise!"
+
+Mr. Schuler never had.  The outcry upstairs was increased by the
+shrieks of Sheila who had slept until the last shock and who woke at
+last to add her penetrating voice to the pandemonium.
+
+"Do you smell something queer?" asked Mrs. Schuler.  "Do you think that
+was a lightning-bolt and it set the house on fire?"
+
+Her husband shook his head doubtfully.  "The lightning has gone by," he
+said, but they went together on a tour of investigation.
+
+Nothing was burning in the kitchen, but the rays of the uplifted candle
+showed a zigzag crack on the wall behind the stove.
+
+"That wall is the chimney," said Mrs. Schuler.  "Something has happened
+to the chimney."
+
+"Let's go into the dining-room and see if anything shows there."
+
+Into the dining-room they went.  An acrid smell filled the room, and as
+they entered a smouldering flame in the fireplace burst into a blaze,
+from the draught of the door.  Its fuel consisted only of some trash
+that had been tossed into the fireplace and hidden behind the fresh
+pine boughs that filled the opening through the summer.  The drinking
+water in the pitcher on the table was enough to put an end to it.
+
+"It's hardly large enough to bother to put out," exclaimed Mr. Schuler,
+"if it weren't that the chimney seems to be so shaken that the flames
+might work through somewhere and set fire to the woodwork."
+
+"There's no doubt about something serious having happened to the
+chimney," and Mrs. Schuler stooped and pushed back three or four bricks
+that had tumbled forward on to the hearth.
+
+"The back is cracked," she announced from her knees.  "With that big
+crack on the kitchen side I rather think Moya had better use the oil
+stove until Mr. Emerson can send a bricklayer to examine the chimney."
+
+"Everything but this seems all right here; you'd better go up and try
+to calm the women," advised Mr. Schuler.
+
+The wind storm was dying down and the inmates of Rose House were
+becoming quieter as the din outside moderated.  The Matron went from
+room to room bringing comfort and courage as her candle shone upon one
+frightened face after another.
+
+"It's all over; there's nothing to be afraid of," she said over and
+over again.  Only to Moya did she tell what had happened to the
+chimney, so that she might prepare breakfast on the oil stove.
+
+"It almost seems I heard a giant fall down the chimney," the Irish girl
+whispered hoarsely.
+
+"I dare say you did hear the bricks falling.  There's a gallon or two
+of soot in the dining-room fireplace for you to clean up in the
+morning."
+
+"'Tis easy, that, compared wid cleaning up the whole house that seemed
+like to tumble!" said Moya with a sigh of relief.
+
+The children were already asleep and the remainder of the night was
+unbroken by any sound save the dripping of the raindrops from the
+branches and the swish of wet leaves against each other when a light
+breeze revived their former activities.
+
+Little Vladimir was up early with a memory of something queer having
+happened in the night.  He was eager to go downstairs and find out what
+it was all about and his mother dressed him and let him out of her room
+and then turned over to take another nap.  When Moya went down to set
+the oil stove in position for use he was amusing himself contentedly
+with the rubbish in the fireplace, his face and hands already in need
+of renewed attention from his mother.
+
+"'Tis the sooty-faced young one ye are," she called to him
+good-naturedly.  "Run up to the brook and wash yerself an' save yer
+mother the throuble."
+
+She opened the back door and he ran out into the yard, but instead of
+going up the lane to the brook he scampered round the house and down
+the lane.  Moya called after him but he paid no attention.  "Sure, I've
+too much to do to be day-nursing that young Russian," she murmured.
+
+There were wonderings and ejaculations in many tongues when all the
+women and children came down and examined the cracks in the kitchen
+side of the chimney and in the back of the dining-room fireplace and
+saw the heap of rubbish and bricks piled up in the fireplace.  It gave
+them something to talk about all the morning.  This was lucky, for the
+grass was too wet for the children to play on it, and when mothers and
+children were crowded on the veranda idle words sometimes changed to
+cross ones.
+
+"Tis strange; they's good women, iv'ry wan, take 'em alone," Moya had
+said one day to Mrs. Schuler and Ethel Blue when they heard from the
+kitchen the sounds of dispute upon the porch; "yit listen to 'em whin
+they gits together."
+
+"That's because each one of them gets out of the talk just what she
+puts into it," explained the Matron.
+
+"Manin' that if she comes to it cross it's cross answers she gits.
+It's right ye are, ma'am.  'Tis so about likin' or hatin' yer work.
+Days when yer bring happiness to yer work it goes like a bird, an' days
+when ye have the black dog on yer back the work turns round an' fights
+wid yer."
+
+Ethel Blue listened intently.  Things like that had happened to her but
+she had not supposed that grown people had such experiences.  She
+remembered a day during the previous week when she had waked up cross.
+A dozen matters went wrong before she left the house to go to school.
+On the way the mud pulled off one of her overshoes, and her boot was
+soiled before she was shod again.  The delay made her five minutes late
+and caused a black mark to deface her perfect attendance record.  Every
+recitation went wrong in one way or another, and every one she spoke to
+was as cross as two sticks.  As she thought it over she realized that
+if what Mrs. Schuler and Moya said was true the whole trouble came from
+herself.  When she woke up not in the best of humor she ought to have
+smoothed herself out before she went down to breakfast, and then she
+would have picked her way calmly over the crossing and not tried to
+take a short cut through the mud; she would not have been delayed and
+earned a tardy mark; she would have had an unclouded mind that could
+give its best attention to the recitations so that she would have done
+herself justice; people would have been glad to talk to her because she
+looked cheerful and was in a sunny mood and no one would have been
+cross.
+
+"I guess it was all my fault," she thought.  "I guess it will pay to
+straighten myself out before I get out of bed every morning."
+
+All was well in and out of Rose House on the morning after the storm.
+Every one told her experiences as if she were the only person affected
+and they all talked at once and enjoyed themselves immensely.  Vladimir
+came running up on to the porch in the middle of the morning and threw
+himself across his mother's lap.
+
+"Where have you been now?" she asked him.  He had come to breakfast
+only after being called a dozen times and he had disappeared
+immediately after breakfast.  "What have you been doing?"
+
+The little fellow laughed and poured into her lap a handful of nickels
+and ten-cent pieces.
+
+"Where in the world did you get those?" demanded Mrs. Vereshchagin.
+"Who gave them to you?"
+
+"A man in the road."
+
+"A man in the road?  All that money?  What for?"
+
+"I gave him the shiny thing and he gave me those moneys."
+
+"What shiny thing?"
+
+"The shiny thing I found on the floor."
+
+"Where on the floor?"
+
+"In the dining-room, and the youngster ran into the house to point out
+exactly the place where he had found the 'shiny thing.'"
+
+"A 'shiny thing'," repeated Moya, who was putting the room in order and
+heard the Russian woman's inquiries.  "'Tis two of 'em I found mesilf
+on the floor when I cleared up the mess from the fireplace this
+morning.  'Twas two bits of brass.  See, I saved 'em," and she shook
+from a scooped-out gourd which served as an ornament on the mantel two
+bits of metal.
+
+"Was it like these, Vladdy?" she asked, but Vladimir was too tired of
+being questioned and ran away without answering.
+
+His mother shook her head as she gazed at the bits lying on her palm.
+
+"Not worth all these moneys," she murmured as she counted forty cents
+in the small coins in her other hand.  It was a mystery.
+
+Moya put the bits of brass back into the gourd and went on with her
+dusting.
+
+Mrs. Schuler telephoned to Mr. Emerson early in the morning, telling
+him of the damage to the house and asking him to come and see what had
+happened go that the bricklayers might be set to work as soon as
+possible.
+
+"I'm afraid to let Moya light the kitchen stove until I'm sure the
+chimney is sound," she explained.
+
+Mr. Emerson telephoned the news to his grandchildren and he and all the
+Mortons with Dorothy and her mother and Miss Merriam and Elisabeth
+arrived at the farm at almost the same time.
+
+"I'm glad the house is in as good condition as it seems to be,"
+exclaimed Mrs. Morton.  "I couldn't bear to have the old homestead fall
+to ruin.  I was startled at Father's message."
+
+"Not so startled as all the people here were in the night," laughed her
+father who had been talking with Mrs. Schuler.  "It seems that the
+worst noise came after the electric storm was over, but while the wind
+was at its highest."
+
+"The chimney wasn't struck by lightning, then."
+
+"It was not lightning," asserted Mr. Schuler.  "The wind knocked bricks
+from the top of the chimney.  I saw one or two on the roof this
+morning.  As you see, several fell down the chimney into the fireplace."
+
+"I can't see how bricks from the top of the chimney could have made the
+crack in the kitchen side of the chimney and this crack in the back of
+the fireplace."
+
+"Nor I," agreed Mr. Schuler.  "The roar was tremendous.  I could not
+believe that I was seeing rightly when I beheld only these few fallen
+bricks."
+
+"It sounded as if the whole chimney had fallen," Mrs. Schuler confirmed
+her husband's assertion.
+
+"Mrs. Peterson says it sounded to her like an explosion, sir," said
+Moya, who had been talking with the women on the porch.  "Her room is
+right over this.  The bricks fell through the chimney, banging it all
+the way, says she, and thin there was a roar like powder had gone off,
+as far as I can understand what she says."
+
+"If Mrs. Paterno heard that she must have thought the Black Hand was
+getting in its fine work, sure enough," smiled Mr. Emerson.
+
+"Praise be, her room is on the other side of the house.  We were all
+wailing like banshees up there, but she no more than the rest.  'Tis
+better she is," and Moya nodded reassuringly to the grown-ups, who
+were, she knew, deeply interested in the Italian woman's recovery of
+her nervous strength.
+
+"This explosion business I don't understand," Mr. Emerson said slowly
+to himself.  "What did you find in the fireplace this morning, Moya?  I
+wish you had left all the stuff here for me to see."
+
+"I'm sorry, sir.  I was only thinkin' about havin' it clean before
+breakfast.  There was the bricks, sir, two of 'em; and a pile of soot
+and some bits of trash wid no meanin'--"
+
+"Did you find my two thinieth I picked up on the track yesterday?"
+asked Dicky.  "Ethels made me throw away all the thingth in my pocket
+and my thinieth went too."
+
+"What does he mean by his 'shinies'?" asked Mr. Emerson.
+
+"He picked up a lot of stuff yesterday when we were hunting arrow heads
+and walking to Rosemont by the short cut over the track.  When I was
+putting Mrs. Schuler's storm cape on him I emptied out his pocketful of
+trash into the fireplace."
+
+"What did the shinies look like, son?" inquired Dicky's grandfather.
+
+Dicky was entering into an elaborate and unintelligible explanation
+when Moya took the bits of brass from the gourd.
+
+"Would these be the shinies?" she asked.
+
+Mr. Emerson took them from her and examined them carefully.
+
+"I rather think the explanation of the explosion is here," he decided.
+"You say you picked these up on the track, Dicky?"
+
+"Yeth, I did, and Ethel threw them away," repeated the youngster who
+was beginning to think that he had a real grievance, since his
+"shinies" seemed to have some importance.
+
+"These are two of the small dynamite cartridges that brakemen lay on
+the track to notify the engineer of a following train to stop for some
+reason.  They use them in stormy weather or when there is reason to
+think that the usual flag or red light between the rails won't be seen."
+
+"Dynamite!" exclaimed Ethel Brown, looking at her hand as she
+remembered that she had not been especially gentle when she tossed the
+contents of her brother's pocket into the fireplace.
+
+"There is enough dynamite in a cartridge to make a sharp detonation but
+not enough to do any damage, unless, as happened here, there were two
+of them in a small space that was enclosed on three sides--"
+
+"The trash was blown out on the floor of the room," interrupted Mr.
+Schuler.
+
+"--by walls that were none too strong.  With a wind such as last
+night's knocking down the chimney at the top and bricks setting
+dynamite cartridges into action below I only wonder that the old thing
+is standing at all this morning."
+
+They gazed at it as if they expected the whole affair to fall before
+their eyes.
+
+"I'll call up the brickmason and find out when he can come to examine
+it; he may have to rebuild the entire chimney."
+
+Mr. Emerson was moving toward the hall where the telephone was when his
+eye fell on Elisabeth sitting contentedly on the floor close to the
+wall turning over and over something that gleamed.
+
+"What have you got there, small blessing?" he asked, stooping to make
+sure that she was not intending to try the taste of whatever it might
+be.
+
+"Hullo!"  he  cried,  straightening  himself.  "Hullo!" and he held up
+his discovery before the astonished eyes of the group.
+
+"It looks like a gold coin, Grandfather!" exclaimed Ethel Brown.
+
+"That's just what it is.  A guinea.  Its date is 1762.  Where did you
+find it, Ayleesabet?" he asked the child, who was reaching up her tiny
+hands for the return of her new plaything.
+
+"Here, here," she answered, pointing to the floor where the casing of
+the chimney yawned from the planks for half an inch.  "Here," and she
+pushed her fingers into the crack.
+
+"I saw her pull something that was sticking out of there a little bit,"
+said Dorothy, "but I was interested in what Mr. Emerson was saying and
+I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing."
+
+Miss Merriam took Elisabeth on her lap and peered between her lips to
+make sure that no dirt from the floor was visible.  Then she took a
+small emergency kit from her pocket, extracted a bit of sterile gauze
+and wiped out the little pink mouth.
+
+"I live in hopes that the day will come when she'll outgrow her desire
+to test everything with her mouth," she remarked amusedly.
+
+"Is it guineas ye're speaking about?" asked Moya.  "Perhaps 'twas a
+guinea young Vladdy the Russian found this morning.  He said he found a
+'shiny thing.'  I thought 'twas one of thim cartridges, like I found
+myself."
+
+"Another shiny thing?  What did he do with it?  Let's see it?" demanded
+Mr. Emerson.
+
+"He said he gave it to a man in the road and the man gave him a handful
+of ten-cent pieces and nickels.  There was forty cents of it.  I heard
+Mrs. Vereshchagin counting 'em."
+
+"Forty cents!  It must have been a valuable shiny thing that a man in
+the road would give a child forty cents for.  He knew its value.  I
+should say Vladimir and Elisabeth had tapped the same till.  Helen, go
+and see if you can find out anything more from the child or his mother.
+And Roger, get a chisel and hammer and hatchet and perhaps you and Mr.
+Schuler and I can take down these boards and see what there is to see
+behind them."
+
+"Wouldn't it be thrilling if there should be a hidden treasure!"
+exclaimed Ethel Blue.  "Aren't you shivering all over with excitement,
+Miss Gertrude?"
+
+Meanwhile Roger and his grandfather were prying off the boards that
+covered in the chimney on the right side and supported the
+mantel-shelf.  As it fell back into their hands two more gold coins
+tumbled to the floor.
+
+"Just take off this narrow plank, Roger and let me squint in there.
+Stand back, please, all of you, and let us have as much light as we
+can."
+
+"I have a flashlight," said Mr. Schuler.
+
+"Just the ticket.  Now, then--," and Mr. Emerson kneeled down, peering
+into the space that was disclosed when the boards fell away.  "I see
+something; I certainly see something," he cried as the electricity
+searched into the darkness.  He thrust in his arm but the something was
+too far off.
+
+"Take my crutch," suggested Mr. Schuler.
+
+Mr. Emerson took it and tugged away with the top.
+
+"It's coming, it's coming," his muffled cry rose from the depths.
+
+Another tug and a blackened leather pouch, slashed with a jagged tear
+from which gold pieces were pouring, tumbled into the room.
+
+"Pick it all up and put it on the table, Roger, while Mr. Schuler and I
+decide how it happened," ordered Mr. Emerson.
+
+The investigation seemed to prove that there probably had been a crack
+in the bricks at the back of the mantel at the time when Algernon
+Merriam, Miss Gertrude's ancestor, had thrust the bag into the mantel
+cupboard.  It had fallen off the back of the shelf and into the little
+crevasse where it lay beyond the reach of arm or bent wire or candle
+light for over a hundred and thirty years.
+
+"Evidently last night's big shaking widened the crack and let the bag
+fall down.  The ragged edge of a broken brick tore the leather and the
+two coins that Vladimir and Elisabeth found slipped out and fell just
+inside the plank covering of the chimney and below it out on to the
+floor."
+
+"So did the two that fell out when we were working," added Roger.
+
+"Let's open it and count the money.  This may be some other bag,"
+suggested Helen, who had brought back no farther information from the
+Russian.  "If it's Algernon's it ought to have--how many guineas was
+it?"
+
+"Five hundred and seventy-three, and a ring and a miniature," continued
+Ethel Brown who had heard his story.
+
+"In a box," concluded Ethel Blue.  "I can't wait for Roger to undo it!"
+
+They gathered around the table on which Roger had placed the stained
+bag, the gold coins gleaming through a gash in its side.  Moya cleaned
+the outside as well as she could with a damp cloth.
+
+"See, here are some crumbs of sealing-wax still clinging to the cord,"
+and Grandfather Emerson cut the string that still tied the mouth.
+Before their amazed eyes there rolled first a small box and then
+guineas as bright as when they were tied up in their prison.
+
+"We shan't have to count the guineas; if the ring and the miniature are
+in the box that will prove that it's Algernon's bag," said Helen.
+
+"Here, young woman; hands off," cried her grandfather as Helen was
+preparing to open the box.  "Algernon and Patience were no direct
+ancestors of yours.  Miss Merriam is the suitable person to perform
+this ceremony."
+
+Helen, smiling, pushed the basket toward Miss Gertrude who slipped off
+the string with trembling fingers.
+
+"I'm almost afraid to take off the cover," she whispered.
+
+"O, do hurry up, Miss Gertrude," implored Ethel Brown.  "I think I
+shall burst if I don't know all about it soon!"
+
+With misty eyes Gertrude slowly lifted the cover from the box.  Wrapped
+in a twist of cotton was a ring set with several large diamonds.
+
+"Is it marked 'Gertrude'?" asked Dorothy breathlessly.
+
+Miss Merriam nodded.
+
+Below the ring lay a miniature, the portrait of a fair woman with deep
+blue eyes.  It was set round with brilliants and on the gold back was
+engraved, "Gertrude Merriam."
+
+Miss Merriam stared at it and then handed it to Mr. Emerson.
+
+"What a marvellous likeness!" he exclaimed.  "You must be able to see
+it yourself."
+
+Gertrude nodded again, not trusting herself to speak.
+
+"There's no question that she's your ancestor.  Now, I'd like to see if
+the correct number of coins is here if you'll let Roger and me count
+your guineas for you."
+
+"Count my guineas?" cried Miss Merriam.
+
+"Certainly they're your guineas.  You're a direct descendant of
+Algernon and Patience.  The bag and its contents belong to you."
+
+Gertrude stared at Mr. Emerson as if she could not understand him.
+
+"Mine?" she repeated, "mine?" but when Mr. Emerson insisted and the
+other elders congratulated her and the girls kissed her and Roger shook
+hands formally, she began, to realize that this little fortune really
+was hers by right and not through the kindness of her friends.
+
+The count of the coins proved exact.  There were 569 of them.
+
+"Here are the two that fell on the floor when we were hammering," said
+Roger, laying them on the table.  "They make 571."
+
+"And here is the one that Ayleesabet found," added Mr. Emerson, drawing
+it from his pocket.  "That is the five hundred and seventy-second.
+Young Vladimir's trophy has gone for good, I'm afraid.  He must have
+sold it to some passer-by who knew enough to realize that it was a
+valuable coin and wasn't honest enough to hunt for the owner or to pay
+the child its full value."
+
+"Every one of the 573 is accounted for, anyway," declared Roger.  "You
+won't think it impertinent if I figure out how much you're worth, will
+you Miss Gertrude?"
+
+"I shall be glad if you will," she answered.
+
+"A guinea is 21 shillings and a shilling is about 24 cents in
+American money.  That makes a guinea worth about $5.04.  Five
+hundred-and-seventy-two times that makes $2882.88."
+
+"Almost three thousand dollars!" exclaimed Gertrude, her face radiant;
+"why--why now--" she broke off suddenly and hid her face on Mrs.
+Smith's shoulder, sobbing.
+
+"Now I can pay all my indebtedness and be free to do what I please,"
+she said to her friend in an undertone.
+
+Mrs. Smith patted her gently, for she knew what it was she wanted to be
+free to do.
+
+"This fortune is going to mount up to more than three thousand
+dollars," declared Mr. Emerson.  "There isn't a coin here that was
+minted later than 1774.  There can't be, because Algernon came to this
+country in the early part of 1775.  Pile them up according to the dates
+on them, children, and let's see what there is that will appeal to the
+dealer in antiquities."
+
+"At that rate every coin here, even the youngest, is worth more than
+$5.04," exclaimed Roger.
+
+"You get the idea, my son," smiled his grandfather.  "We'll sell these
+coins separately for Miss Gertrude and get a special price on each one.
+Here's one, for instance, that ought to be worth a good bonus; it is
+dated 1663.  It was over a hundred years old when your respected
+great-great-grandfather brought it over here, and if I remember my
+English history correctly it was in 1663 that guineas were first
+minted.  This is a 'first edition,' so to speak."
+
+Gertrude leaned back in her chair, smiling happily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+GERTRUDE CHANGES HER NAME
+
+The Club had been prominent figures at Mrs. Schuler's wedding, but that
+was a very small affair at home, and Miss Gertrude's was to be in the
+church with a reception afterwards at Dorothy's house.  The Club felt
+that they wanted to do every bit of the work that they could, not only
+because they loved Miss Gertrude but because she was going to marry the
+brother of two of the Club members.  She had said that she would like
+to have the church decorated with wild flowers so that she might take
+away with her the remembrance of the blossoms that she had seen and
+loved in the Rosemont fields.
+
+The Club held a special meeting to talk over their plans for the
+wedding.  It was at Rose House, for they had become accustomed to
+meeting there during the summer, when every moment could be utilized
+for work on something connected with the furnishing of the house while
+at the same time they could talk as they hammered and measured and
+screwed and sewed.  They were gathered under the tree where the
+squirrel lived.  As they established themselves, he was sitting on a
+branch above them, twitching his tail and making ready for a descent to
+search for cookies in their pockets.
+
+Helen called the meeting to order and told them what Miss Gertrude had
+said about the decorations.
+
+"Has any one any suggestions?" she asked.
+
+"Shall we have all the different kinds of flowers we can find or select
+one kind?" asked Ethel Brown.
+
+"We can get goldenrod and asters now."
+
+"And cardinals and cat-tails."
+
+"And 'old-maids'."
+
+"And hollyhocks."
+
+"Nobody has said 'Queen Anne's Lace.'  I think that's the prettiest of
+all," urged Ethel Blue.  "Wouldn't it be delicate and fairy-like if we
+trimmed the whole church with it!"
+
+"O, Ethel, I see it in a flash!" cried Delia.  "Not banked heavily
+anywhere, but always in feathery masses."
+
+"On the altar and winding the chancel rail."
+
+"A cluster on the end of each pew."
+
+"Long garlands instead of ribbons to close the ends of the pews."
+
+"An arch about half way up the aisle."
+
+The whole scene grew on them as they talked and they waxed enthusiastic
+over the details.  They had learned that flowers to be used for
+decoration should be picked the day beforehand and placed in water over
+night so that the moisture should have time to force itself into the
+stalks and to drive away the first wilting.  They decided to gather all
+the Queen Anne's Lace that they could find in all Rosemont, accepting
+the help of all the children who had asked if they might help.
+
+Mrs. Smith was building a new house, and Dorothy and the Ethels had
+planted a flower garden on the new lot although the house was not yet
+done.  They had arranged to have a succession of pink blossoms.  For
+fear it would not turn out well because they had not been able to have
+the soil put in as good condition as they wanted on account of the
+disturbed state of the place with workmen constantly crossing, they had
+tried another pink garden at Rose House, and the Ethels had planted
+still another bed in their own yard.
+
+"Among them all I should think we ought to find enough, if all the
+blossoms don't take it into their heads to fall off the very day
+before," said Ethel Brown gloomily.
+
+"Don't talk that way!" insisted Ethel Blue.  "We'll find lots of pink
+flowers and Aunt Louise's drawing-room will look lovely."
+
+"We can put some of the feathery white with it."
+
+"And we must find some soft green somewhere.  The coloring of the room
+is so delicate that the pink and white effect will be charming," and
+Helen leaned back against the tree trunk with a satisfied smile.
+
+"The next point is that Aunt Louise says she'd be very glad if we'd all
+assist at the reception just as we do at Mother's teas--handing things
+to eat and being nice to people."
+
+They all nodded their understanding of their duties.
+
+"Are all of you girls going to be dressed alike?" asked Tom.
+
+"No, sir.  Delia is to be maid of honor.  She's to wear the most
+delicate shade of pink you can imagine.  The Ethels are to have a shade
+that is just a wee bit darker, and Margaret and I are to come last--"
+
+"Being the tallest."
+
+"--wearing real rose-colored frocks.  It's going to be beautiful."
+
+"I can easily believe it," declared James, making an attempt at a bow
+that was defeated by the fact that he was lying on his back and found
+the exploit too difficult to achieve.  "I also seem to see you flitting
+around the house under those pink decorations.  You'll run the bride
+hard."
+
+"Edward won't think so," laughed Tom.  "Now what are we going to give
+to Gertrude--"
+
+"Hear him say 'Gertrude'," said Ethel Blue under her breath.
+
+"She asked us to.  Of course we call her by her name.  She's going to
+be our sister."
+
+The Ethels looked quite depressed, for calling Miss Gertrude by her
+first name was a privilege they knew they never should have.
+
+"I was inquiring what we're going to give Gertrude as a Club.  We
+Watkinses are going to give her something as a family, and Delia and I
+have each picked out a special present from us ourselves--"
+
+"That's the way we're doing," came from the Mortons.
+
+"--but I think it would be nice to give her something from the whole of
+us, because if it hadn't been for the Club and the Club baby she
+wouldn't have come here at all."
+
+"Let's put our colossal intellects on it," urged Roger.
+
+"If we could think of something that no one else would give her--"
+
+"And that would remind her of us and the things the Club does."
+
+"The Club makes furniture," laughed Roger, "but I shouldn't suggest
+that we repeat our latest triumph and give her a sideboard made of old
+boxes."
+
+They all roared, but James came up with a serious expression after a
+roll that took him some distance away from his friends.
+
+"Boxes am ree-diculous," he remarked, "but furniture isn't.  Isn't
+there some piece of furniture that they'd like better than anything
+else we could give them?"
+
+"I've got an idea," announced Roger.
+
+"Quick, quick; catch it!" and Tom tossed over his cap to hold any
+notions that might trickle away from the main mass.
+
+"Since we've been doing this furniture making for Rose House I've spent
+a good deal of time in the carpenter shop on Main Street.  You know it
+belongs to the son of those old people down by the bridge, Mr. and Mrs.
+Atwood."
+
+"The ones we gave a 'show' for?" asked Delia.
+
+"The same people.  The son was pleased at our going there and he hasn't
+minded my fooling round his place and he's given me a lot of points.
+He makes good furniture himself."
+
+"As good as yours?" asked James dryly.
+
+"Go on!" retorted Roger.  "He's a real joiner rather than a carpenter,
+but there isn't any chance for a joiner in a town like Rosemont, so he
+does any kind of carpentering."
+
+"Go ahead, Roger.  We don't care for the gentleman's biography."
+
+"Yes, you do; it has some bearing on what I'm going to propose."
+
+"Let her shoot, then."
+
+"Mr. Atwood has a whole heap of splendid mahogany planks in his shop.
+I came across them one day and asked him about them.  He's been
+collecting them a long time and they're splendidly seasoned and he's
+just waiting for a chance to make them into something."
+
+"A light begins to break.  We'll have him make our present.  Are you
+sure he'll make it well enough?  It's got to be a crackerjack to be
+suitable for Miss Gertrude."
+
+"This is what I thought.  The doctor and Miss Gertrude both like open
+bookcases.  I heard them say once they liked to be able to take out a
+book without having to bother with a door."
+
+"Me, too," agreed Margaret.  "And I never could see the use of a back."
+
+"That's what I say," said Helen.  "I'd rather dust the books more
+carefully and not have the extra weight added to the bookcase."
+
+"You know the furniture they call 'knockdown'?"
+
+Everybody nodded.  They had all become familiar with various makes of
+furniture since their attention had been called to the subject by their
+summer's interests.
+
+"I think Mr. Atwood can make us a bookcase that will consist of two
+upright end pieces with holes through them where each shelf is to go.
+The shelves will have two extensions on each end that will go through
+these square holes and they will be held in place by wedges driven
+through these extensions on the outside of the uprights.  Get me?"
+
+They all said they did.
+
+"That's all there is to the bookcase.  It can be taken to pieces in ten
+minutes and packed flat and shipped from Rosemont to Oklahoma with some
+chance of its reaching there unbroken; and it can be set up in another
+ten minutes.  What do you say?"
+
+There wasn't a dissenting voice, and they were so pleased with the
+scheme that they went to Mr. Atwood's that very afternoon, looked at
+the wood, talked over the finish, and left the order.  It was so simple
+that the maker thought that he could have it done before the wedding
+and he agreed to take it apart and pack it for shipment so that there
+would be no danger of its not making its journey safely.
+
+The wedding day was a trifle too warm, Dorothy thought as she gazed out
+early in the morning and considered the flowers that must be set in
+place several hours before the time when they were to be seen.
+
+"We must take care not to have them look like those dandelions in the
+book wedding that began so joyously and ended all in a wizzle," she
+murmured, and she was more than ever glad that they had taken the
+precaution to pick them the day before and have them in water.
+
+By early afternoon all was in readiness and the girls were resting.
+Miss Gertrude had not been allowed to help but had stayed quietly in
+her room.
+
+The wedding was at half past four, and at that hour the little church,
+which looked perfectly lovely in the opinion of the decorators, was
+pleasantly filled with murmuring groups of Rosemont people, who agreed
+that the feathery decorations proved yet another plume in the caps of
+the Club members, and of New York people who gazed at the modest
+country chapel and found it charming.
+
+There was a happy _brrrr_ of pleasant comment while the organ played
+softly.  Roger and James were two of the ushers.  Friends of Edward's,
+young doctors, were the other two.
+
+As the organ broke into the Lohengrin march and Edward, with Tom for
+his best man, appeared at the chancel, Gertrude came down the aisle
+from the other end of the church.  She wore a simple white trailing
+dress of soft silk, clasped at the breast with the ancient
+brilliant-framed miniature of another Gertrude Merriam.  A pearl
+pendant, a gift from Ayleesabet, hung from her neck.  On her ungloved
+right hand the older Gertrude Merriam's ring blazed beside Edward's
+more modest offering.
+
+The Ethels held each others' hands as they stood behind the bride,
+wreaths of Queen Anne's Lace over their arms, and a delicate blossom or
+two tucked under a pale blue ribbon in each filmy white hat.  It seemed
+but a moment to them and it was all over and Miss Gertrude was no
+longer "Miss Gertrude" but "Mrs. Edward."  The doctor seemed to have
+put on new dignity and the girls found themselves wondering if they
+should ever call him "Edward" again.
+
+Gertrude swept by them with her eyes full of happiness, but when she
+reached the back of the church she gave a lovely smile to the women and
+children of Rose House seated in the last pews.
+
+"I want every one to see my lovely presents," Miss Gertrude had said,
+so the guests exclaimed over the pretty things grouped in the library.
+
+It was all simple and happy, and a bit of pathos at the end of the
+afternoon brought no depression.  Gertrude was just about to go
+upstairs to change her dress and she stood with her maids and ushers,
+around her, exchanging a laughing word or two with them, when a little
+procession made its way toward her from the dining-room.  It consisted
+of all the women and children from Rose House, dressed in the fresh
+clothes which the women had made for themselves and the children during
+the summer.  They were all so smiling that they could hardly have been
+recognized as the forlorn creatures who had come to Rosemont early in
+July.  Each woman held in her hand a centrepiece, embroidered in the
+characteristic work of her country.
+
+Mrs. Vereshchagin led the way, because she could speak English a little
+better than the others, but her English failed her when she came face
+to face with the bride.
+
+"We love you," she said simply, making a sweeping gesture that included
+the bridegroom and all the U. S. C. members who were standing about.
+"We give you these embroideries of our lands.  We love all of you."
+
+And all the women and children cried in chorus, "We love all of you."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 15550-8.txt or 15550-8.zip *******
+
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ethel Morton at Rose House, by Mabell S. C. Smith</title>
+<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
+BODY { color: Black;
+       background: White;
+       margin-right: 10%;
+       margin-left: 10%;
+       font-size: medium;
+       font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;
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+
+TD { color: Black;
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+
+P {text-indent: 4% }
+
+P.noindent {text-indent: 0% }
+    hr       { width: 100%;
+               height: 5px; }
+    pre      {font-size: 8pt;}
+
+
+</STYLE>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ethel Morton at Rose House, by Mabell S. C.
+Smith</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Ethel Morton at Rose House</p>
+<p>Author: Mabell S. C. Smith</p>
+<p>Release Date: April 5, 2005  [eBook #15550]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE***</p>
+<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br>
+<hr noshade>
+<br>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<A NAME="img-front"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="Frontispiece" BORDER="2" WIDTH="357" HEIGHT="595">
+<H5>
+[Frontispiece: "Here's where we should land"]
+</H5>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+Juvenile Library Girls Series
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE
+</H1>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+BY
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+MABELL S. C. SMITH
+</H2>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING CO.
+<BR>
+CLEVELAND &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;NEW YORK
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+1915
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+PRESS OF
+<BR><BR>
+THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO.
+<BR><BR>
+CLEVELAND
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+</H2>
+
+<center>
+<TABLE>
+<tr>
+<TD align="right" VALIGN="top">I</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap01">Roger's Idea</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap02">Moya and Sheila</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap03">The Farmhouse </A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap04">Plans</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap05">The Rose F&ecirc;ete</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap06">Furniture Making</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap07">Trouble at Rose House</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap08">Some Entertainment</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap09">A New Kind of Grass Seed</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap10">Trolleying</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap11">The Connecticut Valley</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap12">The Berkshires and Bennington</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap13">Hunting Arrow Heads</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap14">The Storm</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<tr>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#chap15">Gertrude Changes Her Name</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+</center>
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+</H2>
+
+<center><table>
+<tr><td>
+<a href="#img-front">
+Frontispiece: "Here's where we should land"
+</A>
+</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>
+<a href="#img-070">
+"It was settled in 1743."
+</A>
+</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>
+<a href="#img-072">
+Some of the building looked very old.
+</A>
+</td></tr>
+</table></center>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER I
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+ROGER'S IDEA
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+For the fortieth time that afternoon, it seemed to Ethel Brown Morton
+and her cousin, Ethel Blue, they untangled the hopelessly mixed
+garlands of the maypole and started the weavers once more to lacing and
+interlacing them properly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Under, over; under, over," they directed, each girl escorting a small
+child in and out among the gay bands of pink and white which streamed
+from the top of the pole.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+May Day in New Jersey is never a certain quality; it may be reminiscent
+of the North Pole or the Equator.  This happened to be the hottest day
+of the year so far, and both Ethels had wiped their foreheads until
+their handkerchiefs were small balls too soaked to be of any further
+use.  But they kept on, for this was the first Community Maypole that
+Rosemont ever had had, and the United Service Club, to which the girls
+belonged, was doing its part to make the afternoon successful.  Helen,
+Ethel Brown's sister, and Margaret Hancock, another member of the Club,
+were teaching the younger children a folk dance on the side of the
+lawn; Roger Morton, James Hancock and Tom Watkins were marshalling a
+group of boys and marching them back and forth across the end of the
+grass plot nearest the schoolhouse.  Delia Watkins, Tom's sister, and
+Dorothy Smith, a cousin of the Mortons, were going about among the
+mothers and urging them to let the little ones take part in the games.
+Everybody was busy until dusk sent the small children home and the
+caretaker came to uproot the pole and to shake his head ruefully over
+the condition of the lawn whose smoothness had been roughened by the
+tread of scores of dancing feet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was while the Club members were sitting on the Mortons' veranda,
+resting, that Helen, who was president of the Club, called them to
+order.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Saturday afternoon is our usual time of meeting," she began, "and no
+one can say that we haven't put in a solid afternoon of service."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Groans as one and another shifted a cramped position to another more
+restful for weary feet confirmed her statement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What I want to say now is that it's time for us to be thinking up some
+more service work.  We are all studying pretty hard so we don't want to
+undertake anything that will use up our out-of-door time too much, but
+we haven't anything in prospect except helping with the town Fourth of
+July celebration, over two months away, so we might as well be planning
+something else."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do I understand, Madam President," asked Roger, "that the chief
+officer of this distinguished Club hasn't any ideas to suggest?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The chief officer is so tired that not even another glass of
+lemonade--thank you, Tom--can stir her gray matter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hasn't anybody else any ideas?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Silence greeted the question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I seem to remember boasts that ideas never would fail this brilliant
+group," jeered Roger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There were some such remarks," James recalled meditatively; "and I
+remember that you prophesied that the day would come when we'd call on
+you for information about some stupendous scheme of yours that was
+literally as big as a house.  Let's have it now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do I understand that you're really appealing to me to learn my
+scheme?" inquired Roger, swelling with amusement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it's any satisfaction to you--yes," replied his sister.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger burst into a peal of laughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shoot off the answers, old man," urged James.  "We're waiting."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Breathlessly," added Margaret.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger settled himself comfortably on the top step of the piazza and
+leaned his head against the post.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It certainly does me good to see you all at my feet begging like
+this," he declared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bosh!  You're at ours and I can prove it," asserted Tom, stretching
+out a foot of goodly size.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Peace!  Withdraw that battering ram!" pleaded Roger.  "I'll tell you
+all about it.  Tom's really responsible for this idea, anyway."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ideas, real fresh ones, aren't much in my line," admitted practical
+Tom, "but I'm glad to have helped for once."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't suppose you remember that time last autumn when I went in to
+New York to see you and you took me down to the chapel where your
+father preaches on Sunday afternoons?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I remember it; we found Father there talking with a lot of mothers and
+children."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's the time.  Well, those women and children got on my nerves like
+anything.  You see, out here in Rosemont we haven't any real suffering
+like that.  There are poor people, and Mother always does what she can
+for them, and there's a Charitable Society, as you know, because you
+all helped with the Donnybrook Fair they had on St. Patrick's Day.  But
+the people they help out here are regular Rockefellers compared with
+those poor creatures that your father had in his office that day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Father says he could spend a million dollars a year on those people,
+and not have a misspent cent," said Delia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What hit me hardest was the thin little children.  Elisabeth hadn't
+come to us yet," Roger went on, referring to a Belgian baby that had
+been sent to the Club to take care of, "and I wasn't so accustomed to
+thinness as I've grown to be since, and it made me--well, it just made
+me sick."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't wonder," agreed Delia seriously.  "That's the way they make me
+feel."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know what you thought of," exclaimed Ethel Blue, who was so
+imaginative and sympathetic that she sometimes had an almost uncanny
+way of reading peoples' thoughts.  "You wanted to bring some of those
+poor women out into the country so that the children could get well,
+and you told your grandfather about it and he offered you a house
+somewhere."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's about it, kidlet.  I heard one of the women say that she'd had
+a week in the country--some sort of Fresh Air business--and that the
+baby got a lot better, and then she had to go back to the city and the
+little creature was literally dying on her hands."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You want to give them a whole summer," guessed Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's the idea.  Since I've seen what proper care and good food and
+fresh air have done for that wretched little skeleton, Elisabeth, I'm
+more than ever convinced that if we can give some of those mothers and
+babies a whole month or perhaps two months of Rosemont air we'll be
+saving lives, actually saving lives."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger looked about earnestly from one grave face to another.  All were
+in sympathy with him and all waited for the development of his plan,
+for they knew he would not have laid so much stress upon it if he had
+not thought out the details.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've talked it over with Grandfather and he rose to it right off.
+Here's where the house comes in.  He said he was going to build a new
+cottage for his farm superintendent this spring--you know it's almost
+done now--and that we could have the old farm house if we wanted to fix
+it up for a Fresh Air scheme."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Emerson is a brick.  I pull my forelock to him," and Tom
+illustrated his remark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where's the money to come from?" asked James, who was both of Scottish
+descent and the Club treasurer, and so was not only shrewd but
+accustomed to look after details.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Grandfather said he'd help in this way; if the Club would study the
+old house and decide on the best way to make it answer the purpose he
+would provide two carpenters for a fortnight to help us.  That will
+mean that if we want to do any whitewashing or papering or matters of
+that kind we'll have to do it ourselves, but the carpenters will put
+the house in repair and put up any partitions that we want and so on."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it furnished?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's another problem.  The superintendent has had his own furniture
+there and what will be left when he goes is almost nothing.  There are
+some old things in the garret, but we'll have to use our ingenuity and
+invent furniture."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The way I did for our attic."  Dorothy reminded them of the room where
+the Club had been meeting ever since its members returned from
+Chautauqua where it had been formed the summer before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just so.  We'll have to make a raid on our mothers' attics and also on
+the stores in town that have their goods come in big boxes, and I
+imagine we shall be able to concoct things that will 'do,' though they
+may be remarkable to look upon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The mothers and children will be out of doors all the time, so they
+won't sit around and examine the furniture," laughed Delia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will be scanty, probably, but if we can get beds enough and a chair
+apiece, or a substitute for a chair, and a few tables, we can get
+along."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's your house provided and furnished after a fashion--how are you
+going to run it?" inquired Helen.  "It takes shekels to buy even very
+plain food in these days of the 'high cost of living," and we've got to
+give these women and children nourishing food; they can't live on fresh
+air alone."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Praise be, fresh air costs nothing!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's one thing we'll get free," laughed Roger.  "Grandfather told me
+to investigate and see what I could find out about finances and then
+let him know.  So I went in to see Mr. Watkins."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And never told me," said Tom reproachfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course not.  All of you people were too sniffy.  I told your father
+what the plan was and what Grandfather had said.  He thought it was
+great.  He's a corker, your father is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Delia and Tom looked somewhat startled at this epithet describing their
+parent, but Roger meant it to be complimentary, so they made no
+remonstrance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He said right off that he could provide the women and children in any
+numbers and that he'd select the ones that needed the change most and
+would be most benefited by it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's not hard to find those," murmured Delia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then he said that he had certain funds that he could draw on for such
+cases and that he'd be just as willing to pay the board for these women
+and children at Rosemont as anywhere else, so that we could depend on a
+small sum for each one of them from the treasurer of the chapel."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That ought to cover the expense of their food," said Helen, "but we'll
+have to have a housekeeper and a cook."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's what Aunt Louise said."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oho, you've been talking with Mother about it!" exclaimed Dorothy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I knew the Club would come to me sooner or later, it was only a matter
+of time, so I made ready to answer some of the questions you'd be
+asking me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They laughed at Roger's preparedness, but nodded approvingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aunt Louise said she'd pay the wages of the cook, and then I toddled
+off to Grandmother Emerson and told her I was planning to raid her
+attic for old furniture, and asked her incidentally if she thought we
+could run the thing without a housekeeper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hope she said 'yes'," exclaimed Margaret, who liked to administer a
+household.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Grandmother was very polite; she said she thought the U. S. C. could
+do anything it set out to do, but that there would be countless odds
+and ends that would occupy us all summer long--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Like making a continuous stream of furniture!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And going marketing and doing errands."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And mowing the grass."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And playing games with the kids."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O, a thousand things would crop up; we never could be idle; and so she
+thought we'd better have a responsible woman as housekeeper.  What's
+more she said she'd pay her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It wouldn't be polite for me to say about a lady what you said about
+Mr. Watkins," said James--
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For which I apologize," declared Roger parenthetically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"--but I'd like to remark that she's one of the most reliable
+grandmothers I ever had anything to do with!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all laughed again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where we'll get these two women I don't know," said Roger.  "My
+researches stopped there.  But I suppose it wouldn't be difficult."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've heard Mother say that the 'responsible woman' was the hardest
+person on earth to find," said Helen, thoughtfully.  "But we can all
+hunt."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know some one who might do if she'd be willing--and I don't know why
+she wouldn't," said Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who?  Who?  Some one in Rosemont?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Right here in Rosemont.  Mrs. Schuler."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mrs. Schuler?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a cry of wonder, for Mrs. Schuler was the teacher of German
+in the high school.  She had been engaged to Mr. Schuler, who taught
+singing in the Rosemont schools, before the war broke out.  Mr. Schuler
+was called to the colors and lost a leg in the early part of the war.
+Since he could no longer be useful as a fighter he had been allowed to
+return to America, and his betrothed had married him at once so that
+she and her mother, Mrs. Hindenburg, might nurse him back to health.
+He had been slowly regaining his strength through the winter, and was
+now fairly well and as cheerful as his crippled state would permit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You know I've been to see Mrs. Hindenburg a good deal ever since we
+got her to go to the Home to teach the old ladies how to knit," said
+Ethel Brown.  "I know her pretty well now.  The other day she told me
+she had had an application from a family who wanted to board with her
+this summer, and she was so sorry to have to turn them away because she
+didn't have enough rooms for them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't see how that helps us any."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You know Mr. Schuler hasn't been able to take many pupils this winter
+and I shouldn't wonder if Mrs. Schuler would be glad to have something
+to do this summer when school is closed.  Now if they would go to our
+Fresh Air house and take charge there for the summer it would leave
+Mrs. Hindenburg with enough space to take in her boarders.  She'd be
+glad, and I should think the Schulers would be glad."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And we'd be glad!  Why, Fraulein is the grandest housekeeper," cried
+Helen, using the name that Mrs. Schuler's old pupils never remembered
+to change to "Frau."  "German housekeepers are thrifty and neat and
+careful--why, she's exactly the person we want.  How <I>great</I> of you to
+think of her, Ethel Brown!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You know she wanted to adopt our Belgian baby, so I guess she's
+interested in poor children," volunteered Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are our plans far enough along for us to ask her?" inquired Margaret.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We ought to ask her as soon as we can, because Mrs. Hindenburg's plans
+will be affected by the Schulers' decision," Helen reminded them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think we are far enough along," decided Roger.  "You see, the idea
+is new to you, but I've been working at it for a good many months now,
+and if we all pull together to do our share I know we can depend on the
+grown-ups to do theirs."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shall we appoint Ethel Brown to call on Mrs. Schuler and talk it over
+with her?  She knows her better than the rest of us because she's seen
+her at home oftener."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Madam President, I move that Ethel Brown be appointed a committee of
+one to see our Teutonic friends and work up their sympathies over the
+women and children we want to help so that they just can't resist
+helping too.  Is your eloquence equal to that strain, Ethel?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel thought it was, and promised to go the very next afternoon.  The
+discussion turned to the next step to take.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Grandfather's superintendent is going to move into the new cottage
+next week," was Roger's news, "so then we can go over the old house and
+see how it is arranged and decide how we'd like to change it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And also find out just what furniture is left and draw up a list of
+what furniture we shall need."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Had we better appoint committees for making the different
+investigations?" inquired Tom, who was accustomed to the methods of a
+city church.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Later, perhaps," decided Helen.  "At first I think we all want to know
+the whole situation and then we can make our plans to fit, and special
+people can volunteer for special work if we think it can be done best
+that way."
+
+"It's a great old plan you have there, Roger," cried Tom, thumping his
+friend affectionately on the shoulder.  "I bow to your giant intellect.
+We'll do our best to make it a success."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+MOYA AND SHEILA
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Elisabeth of Belgium was walking sturdily now on the legs that had been
+too weak to uphold her when she first came to Rosemont in November.
+Her increasing strength was an increasing delight to all the people who
+loved her--and there was no one who knew her who did not love her--but
+her activity obliged her caretakers to be incessantly on the alert.
+Miss Merriam, the skilled young woman from the School of Mothercraft,
+who had pulled her through her period of greatest feebleness, now found
+herself sometimes quite outdone by the energy of her little charge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Ethels were always glad to relieve her of her responsibilities for
+an hour or two, and it was the afternoon of the day after Roger had
+reported his plan to the Club that found the cousins strolling down
+Church Street, "Ayleesabet" between them, clinging to a finger of each,
+not to help her stand upright but to serve as a pair of supports from
+which she might swing herself off the ground.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"See!  She lifted her whole weight then!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.  "We
+shall have to give up calling her 'baby' soon.  She's becoming an
+acrobat!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's all due to Miss Merriam.  I wish she didn't look so tired the
+last few days."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel Blue made no reply.  She guessed something of the reason that had
+made Miss Gertrude appear distressed and silent.  A certain note that
+she herself had placed in a May basket and hung on Miss Merriam's door
+might have something to do with her appearance of anxiety.  She changed
+the subject as a measure of precaution, for she had been in the
+confidence of Dr. Watkins, the elder brother of Tom and Delia and a
+warm admirer of Miss Merriam's, and she did not want the conversation
+to run into channels where she might have to answer inconvenient
+questions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This scheme of Roger's is pretty tremendous," she began by way of
+introducing a theme in which Ethel Brown would be sure to be interested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We--the Club, I mean--never has 'fallen down' yet on anything, even
+some of our 'shows' that we didn't have much time to get up, so we
+ought to have confidence in ourselves as a Club."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"With this next undertaking, though, we don't really know how the thing
+is done."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How to make over the house, you mean?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How to make over the house and how to run the Fresh Air settlement
+when the house is made over."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's no doubt we'll know more at the end of the summer than we know
+now!  We've got to get information from every source we can."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The way Roger has up to now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We must think of every one we know who has made over a house, and Dr.
+Watkins ought to be able to tell us of some people who have had Fresh
+Air children staying with them, so we can get some idea about what they
+need and how a house is managed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come, come."  A chirp rose from near the ground.  Ayleesabet was tired
+of being disregarded for so long.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You blessed Lamb!" cried Ethel Blue.  "Did you say, 'Come, come,' just
+because you heard it?  Did you think we were talking very learnedly
+about things we didn't know much about!  Never mind, ducky daddles,
+we'll know a lot about them six months from now!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just the way we've learned a lot about babies in the last six months
+from this little teacher!" added Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come, come.  Home, home," remarked Elisabeth insistently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's the matter?  Are your leggies tired?  Want the Ethels to carry
+you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elisabeth made it known that she would like some such method of
+transportation, and sat joyfully on a "chair" which the two girls made
+by interclasping their wrists.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Not for long did this please her ladyship.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Down, down," she demanded in a few minutes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We might as well go home if she's too tired to walk and too restless
+to ride," decided Ethel Brown, and they turned about, to the evident
+pleasure of the baby.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they were returning along Church Street but were still at a distance
+from Dorothy's house Elisabeth suddenly gave a chirrup of delight.  The
+Ethels looked about to see the cause of this unexpected expression of
+joy.  Crawling out through a hedge on to the sidewalk was a child of
+about Elizabeth's age, but a thin and dirty little mite, with a face
+that betrayed her race as Irish.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's this morsel doing here all by herself!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She must have run away; or perhaps she isn't alone.  Let's look about
+for her mother."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Up and down the street they looked while Elisabeth scraped acquaintance
+with the sudden arrival upon her path.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It doesn't seem as if she could be far off."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In truth she was not far off, for as the girls wondered and exclaimed a
+weak voice made itself heard from the other side of the hedge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't take her away," it said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Leaving the children to entertain each other on the sidewalk they
+enlarged the hole from which the new baby had crawled, and pushed their
+way through it.  On the ground behind the hedge, and hidden from the
+sidewalk by its thick twigs lay a young woman, so pale that she
+frightened the girls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't take the baby away.  I'll feel better in a little while.  She
+crept off from me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did you get here?" asked Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I came out from New York to look for work in the country.  I felt so
+sick I lay down here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did you get any work?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A slight movement of the head indicated that she had not.  The Ethels
+consulted each other by disturbed glances.  There was no hospital
+nearer than Glen Point, and indeed, the woman seemed so ill that they
+did not see how she could reach the hospital even in the trolley.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they stood silent and perplexed the honk of a motor roused the
+almost unconscious woman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is the baby in the street?" she inquired frantically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel Brown crushed her way through the hedge, and found that the
+children were still on the sidewalk, but were so near its edge that the
+driver of the car had tooted to warn them back.  To her delight she saw
+that the driver was Grandfather Emerson.  She waved her hand to stop
+him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're a great caretaker!" he cried.  "Why do you leave Elisabeth to
+look after herself in this fashion?  And who's her friend?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel climbed into the machine beside him and told of the discovery
+that the girls had just made.  Mr. Emerson drew the car alongside the
+curb and jumped out with anxiety written on his face.  The hole in the
+hedge was too small for him to push through so he ran around the end,
+and approached the prostrate form of the woman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her eyes were closed and she lay so still that Ethel Blue, who was
+rubbing her hands, shook her head as she glanced up gratefully at the
+new arrival.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's this, what's this?" asked Mr. Emerson in his full, rich voice.
+Its mere sound seemed to carry comfort to the poor creature lying at
+his feet.  He knelt beside her.  "Hungry, eh?" he asked.  "We'll see
+about that right off.  Can you eat these cookies?"  He took a thin tin
+box out of his pocket and opened it.  "I have a little granddaughter
+named Ethel Brown who insists on my keeping cookies in my pocket all
+the time so that I can eat them when I'm driving.  See if you can take
+a bite of this."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A fluttering hand took the cooky and put it between the pale lips.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Helped by the girls the woman struggled to her feet and stood wavering
+before she tried to take a step.  She was a young woman with very black
+hair and gray-blue eyes and a face that was meant to be unlined and
+pretty and not gaunt with hunger and furrowed by anxiety.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're very good," she whispered feebly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Supported on each side she managed to reach the sidewalk, where she
+looked about wildly for her baby.  An expression that was sad but
+infinitely relieved came over her features when she saw the two
+children sitting in the gravel of the walk filling their tiny hands
+with pebbles.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A cooky won't hurt the baby either," decided Mr. Emerson, and he gave
+one to each of the children.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+
+The Ethels had no chance to ask him what he meant to do without their
+discovery hearing them, so they helped the woman into the machine, put
+in the two children and climbed in themselves.  To their great interest
+Mr. Emerson turned the car about and headed it for his own home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder what Grandmother will say," murmured Ethel Brown to Ethel
+Blue, who was steadying the ill woman's head as it lay against the back
+of the seat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel Blue lifted her eyebrows to indicate that she could not guess;
+but both girls knew in their hearts that Mrs. Emerson would do what was
+wisest and for the best good of the strays.  She came to the door in
+answer to the sound of the horn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did you get back so soon?" she began to inquire of her husband
+when her eyes fell on the passengers in the car.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"An accident?" she asked anxiously as she ran down the steps.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The girls found this woman and her child part way over here and I
+thought I'd better bring her on and get your opinion about her.  I
+think she'd like something to eat," and the kind old gentleman smiled
+in friendly fashion as the woman opened frightened eyes at the sound of
+a new voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among them they succeeded in getting her into the house and into a cool
+room, where she lay exhausted on the bed, her hand holding tight to the
+little hand of her baby, lying wearily beside her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sunstroke?" asked Grandmother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hunger," replied Mr. Emerson, and he and Ethel Brown went down stairs
+at once in search of food, while Mrs. Emerson and Ethel Blue managed to
+undress their patient and put her into a fresh nightdress and bathe her
+face and hands.  By the time they had done this and were undressing the
+baby, Ethel Brown and Mrs. Emerson's cook were at the door with jellied
+broth, milk, gruel and a cooling drink.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel Blue fed the woman, spoonful by spoonful, and Ethel Brown gave
+the baby alternate spoonfuls of gruel and milk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sleepy now?" asked Mrs. Emerson when the dark head sank back on the
+pillow.  "Take a nap, then.  See, the baby is right here where you can
+lay your hand on her.  We'll look in now and then and just as soon as
+you wake up you must take some more food."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Must!" repeated the girl, for she was hardly older than Miss Merriam
+they saw when her hair was pushed back from her face.  "Must!  'Tis
+<I>glad</I> I'll be to be doing it!" and a ghost of a smile fluttered her
+lips.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Outside of the bedroom door Mrs. Emerson asked for an explanation and
+the others for her advice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't see how we can tell what we can do until we pull her through
+this trouble and find out what the poor soul wants to do herself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She said she came out from New York to look for work in the country."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then we must find her work in the country.  But the first thing for us
+to attend to is to get her poor body into such a condition that she can
+work.  She's a sweet looking young woman.  I'm glad you brought her
+home, Father," and between Mr. and Mrs. Emerson there passed a smile of
+such understanding as makes beautiful the lives of people long and
+happily married.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER III
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE FARMHOUSE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It took a long time to bring Moya Murphy and little Sheila back to
+health and strength, but it was only a day or two before Moya was able
+to tell her story to Mrs. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was twenty-five, she said, and she had come to America with her
+father and mother five years before.  The New World had not given a
+warm welcome to the new arrivals, for both of the parents had fallen
+ill with pneumonia only a few weeks after they landed, and both died
+within a few days of each other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Moya, left alone and grieving, had soon after married Patrick Murphy, a
+lad she had known in the old country.  A happy life they led,
+especially after little Sheila came to bless them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the declaration of war in Europe upset business conditions in
+America, Patrick lost his "job" and all summer long he walked the
+streets, working for a day now and then, but never securing a permanent
+position, and always growing weaker and less able to work because he
+was underfed.  The little three-room flat that had been such a joy to
+them, had long been given up and they lived and ate and slept in one
+room, and thanked their stars that they had a landlord who did not
+insist on being paid regularly, as did some they knew about who put
+their tenants out on the street if the rent was not forthcoming
+promptly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Somehow it's the sudden things that happens to me," said Moya to Mrs.
+Emerson.  She was sitting on the latticed back porch of the Emersons'
+house, her fingers busy shelling peas for Kate, the old cook who had
+lived with Mrs. Emerson ever since she was married.  "Patrick was
+crossing the street--'tis only six weeks ago, but it seems years!  An
+automobile with one of the shrieking horns screamed at him.  'Twas the
+policeman on the crossing told me.  Patrick was light on his feet
+always, but that was when he had enough to eat ivery day.  He thried to
+jump back and his foot slipped and he fell under the car and it killed
+him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sobbed and Mrs. Emerson and Kate wiped their eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Two days it was before I knew it; there was nothing on his clothes to
+tell who he was, and I only found out when he didn't come home and I
+went to the police and they took me to the Morgue and there he lay.
+They gave me twenty dollars--the policemen did.  They collected it
+among themselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Didn't they arrest the driver of the car?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Twas a light car and it sped away before any one saw the number."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kate Flanigan gave a grunt of disgust at the brutality of the driver.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I gave the landlord half the money the policemen gave me.  I owed it
+for the rint.  Then I set out to hunt work.  Ivery day I walked and
+walked and ivery day I carried the baby, for where could I leave her?
+Nobody wanted a girl who wasn't trained to do anything, and even if I
+had been able to do something well they wanted no baby.  There's no
+room for babies when you have to work," she said bitterly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I want you to feel that you are safe here, you and Sheila," said Mrs.
+Emerson gently.  "Mrs. Morton and Mrs. Smith and I have been talking it
+over with Kate, and this is what we've planned, provided you agree."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Moya gathered up her baby jealously in her lap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will keep you and Sheila together," said Mrs. Emerson quickly,
+noticing her gesture, and smiling approvingly as Moya at once let the
+child slide off her lap on to the floor where she sat contentedly
+playing with some of the pods of the peas that had fallen from the pan.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps Kate has told you that we are planning to have some women and
+children who need country air come out from New York this summer and
+live in a farmhouse that we have on the place here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Moya nodded.  "She did."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We need a cook.  We are going to give them simple food, but nourishing
+and well cooked."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it's me you're thinking of for the cooking, ma'am, I'm a poor cook
+beyond potaties and stew."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You never were taught to cook?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Taught?  No, ma'am.  I picked up what little I know from me mother.
+'Tis simple enough, but too simple for what you need."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you'll try to learn, here's what we've planned.  Kate needs a
+helper.  Not because she isn't strong and hearty, but because Mr.
+Emerson and I want her to have a little more time for pleasure than she
+has had for a good many years.  She won't take a real vacation, so we
+are going to give her a partial vacation."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Me being the helper?" inquired Moya, her thin face lighting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"More than the helper.  Kate has agreed to teach you how to cook all
+the dishes that it will be necessary to cook for the women and children
+this summer.  You couldn't have a better teacher."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm sure of it," answered the young woman, turning gratefully to Kate.
+"I'll do my very best."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You shall have a room for yourself and the baby, and wages," and she
+named a sum that made Moya's eyes burn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm not worth that yet," she cried, "but I know you'll need me to
+dress respectable, so I'll not refuse it and I'll get some decent
+things for the baby and mesilf!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If Kate finds that you take hold well she'll teach you more elaborate
+cooking.  There's always a place waiting somewhere for a good cook, and
+here's your chance to learn to be a really excellent cook."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So the problem of obtaining a cook was settled without trouble, and as
+Ethel Brown found Mrs. Schuler not only ready but eager to act as
+Matron, two of the possible difficulties seemed to have proved
+themselves no difficulties at all.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IV
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+PLANS
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The work of the carpenters filled in very acceptably the time when the
+members of the Club were toiling at school.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A visit of inspection toward the end of June gave the onlookers the
+greatest satisfaction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Everything is as fine as a fiddle!" exclaimed Roger as they all
+stopped in one of the upstairs rooms.  "Now it's up to us to do the
+papering and painting and to concoct some furniture."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So it was decided that all the bedrooms should have white paint and
+walls of delicate hues and that Mrs. Schuler's office should be pink
+with white paint and white curtains at the windows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We can get very pretty papers for ten cents a roll," said Margaret.
+"I saw some beauties when I went to the paperers to get some flowery
+papers for James to cut out when he was pasting decorations on to our
+Christmas Ship boxes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you going to use wall paper?" asked Miss Merriam quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aren't we?" inquired Margaret.  "It didn't occur to me that there was
+anything else.  There is paper on the walls now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a lot more sanitary to have the walls kalsomined, I know that,"
+said James in a superior tone.  "Haven't you heard Father say so a
+dozen times?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose I have, now I think about it," replied Margaret.  "It stands
+to reason that there would be less chance for germs to hide."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you suppose these old walls are in good enough condition to go
+uncovered?" asked Roger, passing his hand over a suspicious bulge that
+forced the paper out, and casting his eye at the ceiling which was
+veined with hair cracks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Probably the walls will not be in the pink Of condition," returned
+Mrs. Morton; "but, even so, color-washing will be better than papering."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We can go over them and fill up the cracks," suggested Tom, "and we
+can whitewash the ceilings."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's what I should advise," said Miss Merriam.  "Put the walls and
+ceilings in as good condition as you can, and then put on your wash.
+Kalsomining is rather expensive, but there are plenty of color washes
+now that any one can put on who can wield a whitewash brush."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Me for the whitewash brush at an early date," Roger sang gayly.  "What
+do you suggest for these upstairs floors, Miss Merriam?  Grandfather
+thought they weren't bad enough to have new ones laid, but they do look
+rather rocky, don't they?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He cast a disparaging glance at the boards under his feet, and waited
+for help.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Were you planning to paint them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," Roger nodded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you ought to putty up the cracks first.  That will make them
+smooth enough.  They're not really rough, you see.  It's the spaces
+between the planks that make them seem so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's easily done.  We thought we'd paint these old floors and stain
+the new ones down stairs."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'd do that.  Paint these floors tan or gray, if you want them to
+confess frankly that they're painted floors, or the shade of some wood
+if you want to pretend that they're hard wood floors."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+James moved uneasily.  Roger guessed the reason.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's the matter, old man?  Treasury low?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It always is," answered James uncomfortably.  "How are we going to
+fill it?"
+
+"That's what I've been thinking," Ethel Brown said meditatively.  "It's
+time we did something to earn something."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Everybody I've sold cookies to all winter seems to have stopped eating
+them," complained Ethel Brown.  "I'm thinking of getting up a cooky
+sale to relieve my financial distress."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's an idea," cried Tom.  "Why can't we have a cooky sale--with a
+few other things thrown in--and use the proceeds for the decoration and
+furnishing of Rose House?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We've had so many entertainments; can we do anything different enough
+for the Rosemonters to be willing to come?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And spend?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think the Rosemonters have great confidence in our getting up
+something new and interesting; ditto the Glen Pointers," insisted
+Margaret who lived at Glen Point and knew the opinions of her neighbors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where could we have it--<I>it</I> meaning our sale or whatever we decide to
+have?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why not have it here?  Let's wait until the boys have the house all
+painted and whitewashed and colorwashed so it looks as fresh as
+possible, and then tell the town what it is we are trying to do this
+summer, and ask them over here to see what it looks like."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good enough.  When they see that it's good as far as it goes, but that
+our Fresh Air people will be mighty uncomfortable if they don't have
+some beds to sleep in and a few other trifles of every day use, they'll
+buy whatever we have to sell.  That's the way it seems to me," and
+Roger threw himself down on the grass before the front door with an air
+of having said the final word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's ask the people of <I>Rose</I>mont to come to <I>Rose</I> House to a <I>Rose</I>
+Fête," cried Ethel Blue, while every one of her hearers waved his
+handkerchief at the suggestion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll draw a poster with the announcement on it," she went on, "and we
+can have it printed on pink paper and the boys can go round on their
+bicycles and distribute them at every house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We must have everything pink, of course.  Pink ice cream and cakes
+with pink icing--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And pink strawberries--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not green ones!  No, sir!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And watermelons if we can get some that won't make too much trouble
+for Dr. Hancock."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How are we going to serve them?  We can't bring china way out
+here--and we won't have any for Rose House until after we give this
+party to earn it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They have paper plates with pretty patterns on them now.  And if they
+cost too much we might get the plain ones and lay a d'oyley of pink
+paper on each one," suggested Margaret.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Probably that will be the cheapest and the effect will be just as
+good, but I'll find out the prices in town," promised Delia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have a scheme for a table of fancy things," offered Dorothy.  "Let's
+have it under that tree over there and over it let's hang a huge rose.
+I think I know how to make it--two hoops, the kind Dicky rolls, one
+above the other, the smaller one on top, and both suspended from the
+tree.  Cover them inside and out with big pink paper petals."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How are you going to make it look like a rose and not a pink bell?"
+inquired Delia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Put a green calyx on the top and some yellow stamens inside and then
+make a stem that will look like the real thing, only gigantic."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How will you manage that?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you remember those wild grape vines that Helen and Ethel Brown
+found in the West Woods and used for Hallowe'en decorations?  If we
+could get a thick one and wind it with green paper and let it curve
+from the rose toward the ground it ought to look like a real stem."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We could hang the rose with dark string that wouldn't show, and fasten
+the stem to the branch of the tree with a pink bow.  It would look as
+if some giant had tied it there for his ladylove."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have an old pink sash I'll contribute to the good cause," laughed
+Helen.  "I've been wondering what to do with it for some time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Everything on the table must be pink and shaped like a rose or
+decorated with roses--cushions, pen-wipers, baskets, stencilled bureau
+sets--there are a thousand things to be made."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Boxes covered with rose paper," suggested James solemnly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody shouted, for James's imagination always seemed to be
+stimulated whenever he saw a chance to make something with paste-pot
+and brush.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How about music?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This question brought silence, for it was not easy to arrange for music
+in the open.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish Edward and his violin were here," said Delia, referring to her
+brother, Dr. Watkins, who had recently gone to Oklahoma to assist an
+older physician in a flourishing town there.  He had been very
+attentive to Miss Merriam and she was annoyed to find herself blushing
+at the mention of his name.  Ethel Blue, who had been in his
+confidence, was the only one of the young people who glanced at her,
+however, so her annoyance passed unnoticed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He isn't, and a piano is out of the question.  I wonder, if Greg
+Patton would bring his fiddle?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why didn't we think of him before!  He and some of the other high
+school boys have been getting up a little orchestra; I shouldn't wonder
+a bit if they'd be glad to help--glad of the experience of playing in
+public."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We haven't got to make oceans of paper roses, this time," remarked
+Ethel Brown gratefully.  "Nature is doing the work for us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She waved her hand at the clump of bushes which was to conceal
+Dorothy's fortune telling operations, and which was pink with blossoms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Our bushes at home are loaded down with them, too," said Margaret.
+"Everybody's are, so I don't suppose it would be worth while to have a
+flower table."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's no harm in trying.  We could say on the poster that
+exceptionally choice roses will be on exhibition and sale and--and why
+couldn't we take orders for the bushes?  Use the beauties for samples
+and if people like them, get roots from the bushes they came from and
+supply them the next day!"
+
+Ethel Blue was quite breathless with the force of this suggestion and
+the others applauded it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just as I think of Ethel Blue as all imagination and dreams she comes
+out with something practical like that and I have to study her all over
+again," said Roger, observing his cousin with his head on one side.
+Ethel Blue threw a leaf at him which he dodged with exaggerated fear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They decided to have the Rose Fête just as soon as the boys put the
+house into presentable condition, and then the girls separated, Ethel
+Brown and Dorothy to see Mr. Emerson about securing the boxes, Helen
+and Margaret to measure the windows for curtains, Delia and Ethel Blue
+to work out the design for converting ordinary Chinese lanterns into
+roses which they had thought of as lending a charm to the veranda and
+the lawn after the sun went down, and the boys to calculate the
+quantities of putty and paint and color-wash, based on information
+given Roger by the local painter and decorator, who was quite willing
+to help with advice when he found that there was no chance of his own
+services being called into play.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER V
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE ROSE FÊTE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The United Service Club had made so good a name for itself in Rosemont
+during the few months of its existence that when Ethel Blue's posters
+brought to their doors the news that the U. S. C.  was to give a Rose
+Fête at Rose House the townspeople were eager to know what attraction
+the members had devised.  The schools were still in session so the
+Ethels and Dorothy at the graded school and Helen and Roger and the
+orchestra boys at the high school made themselves into an advertising
+band and told everybody all about the purpose of the festival.  The
+scholars carried the information home, and there were few houses in
+Rosemont where it was not known that Mr. Emerson's old farmhouse was to
+be turned into a summer home for weary mothers and ailing babies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Helen and Margaret, after consulting with their mothers and Mrs. Smith
+and Mrs. Emerson, had decided that a cot or single bed and two cribs
+ought to go in each bedroom except Moya's, where one crib would be
+enough.  This meant that five beds and nine cribs must be provided, and
+the number made the girls look serious as they calculated the probable
+proceeds of the Rose Fête and subtracted from them the amount that they
+would have to pay the local furniture dealer, even though he, being a
+public spirited and charitable man, offered them a discount.  For a day
+or two they went about in a state of depression, for they had hoped to
+be able to supply the furnishings without making any appeal to the
+grownups.  Thanks to Dorothy they could discount any expense for
+bureaus and desks and tables, but their ambition did not soar to
+constructing bedsteads; these had to be bought or given.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It became evident after a number of householders had inquired how they
+could help, that there was a chance that the U. S. C. treasury might
+not be reduced after all by the purchase of beds.  When one lady was
+informed by Helen of their schemes for filling the rooms--how the
+carpenters had provided them with a table that would do for the
+dining-room and how shelves innumerable were to do duty for innumerable
+purposes,--and she had added ruefully, "But we can't make very good
+beds, and we do want the women to sleep well, poor things.  We've got
+to buy those--" she had cried, "Why, I have a cot in my attic that I
+should be <I>delighted</I> to let you have, and my daughter's little boy has
+outgrown his crib and I'm sure she'll contribute that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A week before the Fête, however, they had been promised all the
+bedsteads they needed--though some lacked springs, some mattresses, and
+almost all were without pillows--four cribs, half a dozen chairs and
+two high chairs, and a collection of odd pieces.  Helen refused nothing
+but double beds; there was not space enough for those in a bedroom with
+three people in it; it would seem to the women too much like the
+crowded tenements they came from, she thought.  Miss Merriam objected
+also, on the ground that it was not well for babies to sleep with grown
+people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you think of this plan?" Ethel Brown asked her mother after
+the girls had made a careful list of their gifts.  "We did think that
+if we didn't have a stick in the house the people would be interested
+in helping us because of our poverty.  We've found out that they are
+awfully interested even without seeing the house.  Do you think it
+would be a good scheme to put into the rooms the things we have ready
+and to fasten on the door a notice saying
+    'THIS ROOM NEEDS'
+and under that a list of what is lacking?  Don't you think some of them
+would say, 'I've got an extra cushion at home that would do for a
+pillow here; I'll send it over'; or 'Don't you remember that three
+legged chair that used to be in Joe's room?  I believe these children
+can mend it and paint it to look well enough for this room'?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ethel Brown, you're running Ethel Blue hard in the line of ideas!"
+cried Roger admiringly from a position at the door which he had taken
+as he passed through the hall and heard discussion going on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a capital idea," agreed Mrs. Morton.  "You'd better ask
+Grandfather again for a wagon and go around and collect the things that
+have been promised.  You don't want to bother people to send them over
+themselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Every one worked with vigor during the last few days before the
+festival, for the renovating of old furniture takes more time than any
+one ever expects it to.  The results were so satisfactory, however,
+that neither the boys nor the girls gave a thought to their tired hands
+and backs when evening brought them release from their labors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The great day was clear, and, for the last of June, cool.  Every plan
+worked out well and every helper appeared at the moment he was wanted.
+The box seats and tables, superintended by Ethel Brown and served by
+half a dozen friends all wearing white dresses and pink aprons, bloomed
+rosily on the veranda.  Under the large rose Delia and Ethel Blue,
+dressed in pink, sold fancy articles.  Dorothy, sitting "under the
+rose" in the rose jungle, and dressed like a moss rose, with a filmy
+green tunic draping her pink frock, described brilliant futures to
+laughing inquirers.  Margaret, dressed to represent the yellow Scottish
+roses, sold flowers from the Ethels' garden and took orders for rose
+bushes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The boys were everywhere, opening ice cream tubs for Moya in the
+background, guiding would-be players to the tennis court and the
+croquet ground, and directing new arrivals where to tie their horses
+and park their motors.  Every member of the club was provided with a
+small notebook wherein to jot down any bit of advice that was offered
+and seemed profitable or to record any offer of fittings that might be
+made.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Helen took no regular duty, leaving herself free to go over the house
+with any one who wanted to know the Club's plans, and she had more
+frequent need than any of the others to use her book.  Ethel Brown's
+scheme had been followed.  On the door of each room was posted a list
+of articles needed to complete the furnishing of that room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They certainly aren't greedy!" exclaimed one matron after reading the
+notice.  "This says that this room is complete except for bed clothing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She waved her hand around with some scorn.  Helen dimpled with
+amusement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We thought we'd make one room as nearly complete as we could," she
+explained.  "You see this has a bed, two cribs, a looking-glass, and
+shelves as substitutes for a washstand and a closet and a table and a
+bureau.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There are no chairs, child!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"These two boxes are the chairs.  We had a few chairs given us but
+they'll be needed down stairs.  We think they'll have more exercise
+than any chairs ever had before.  They'll be used in the dining-room
+for breakfast, and then they'll be moved to the veranda to spend the
+morning, and in they'll come again for dinner and out they'll go for
+the afternoon, and in for supper, and after supper they'll be moved
+into the hall which is to serve as the sitting room!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Helen's hearer pressed her hand to her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You make me positively dizzy!" she exclaimed.  "At any rate I'd like
+to make this room complete according to your notions, so I'll send you
+some sheets and pillow cases and blankets and a spread if you'll allow
+me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll be glad to have them," accepted Helen, beaming.  "Roger will
+call for them if that will be more convenient for you," and she made a
+note of the gift and the time when it should be sent after.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Other women remembered as they examined the door lists that they had a
+mattress that could be spared, or a pillow or two or a pair of summer
+blankets.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What are you going to do for ornaments," asked another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Helen laughed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"James Hancock has an idea for decorating the walls so that they'll
+interest the babies, and we're going to have fresh cheese-cloth
+curtains at all the windows, but that's the end of our possibilities."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have several bureau scarves that are in good condition but they have
+been washed so many times that they're a little faded.  If you'd like
+those--?" she ended with an upward inflection.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We would," replied Helen promptly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Could you use some prints of pictures--good paintings?" inquired yet
+another, a person whose taste Helen knew could be trusted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'd be glad of them.  We can frame them in passepartout.  We'd be
+especially glad of madonnas."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's just what I was going to offer you.  A club I once belonged to
+studied celebrated paintings of madonnas one winter and I made this
+collection.  Many of them are only penny prints and some are cut from
+magazines--".
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They're perfectly good for us," Helen reassured her, and made another
+note in her book.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Most of the visitors went home with the falling dark, but some stayed
+to see the rose lanterns lighted, and others, who had not been able to
+come in the afternoon, drove or walked out from town in the evening and
+were served with ice cream and strawberries from a supply that had been
+wonderfully well calculated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us have just a week to spend this money and to make up the sheets
+and pillow cases and curtains and you can tell Mr. Watkins to send out
+the women," Helen announced triumphantly to Delia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm going to spend the week with Margaret so I can come over with her
+every day and help," returned smiling Delia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then we shan't need a whole week.  When you go home to-night please
+ask your father to be making his selection--four mothers with two
+children apiece.  You and Tom can escort them out on the Tuesday after
+Fourth of July."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VI
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+FURNITURE MAKING
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It did not take the women long to adjust themselves to life at Rose
+House, and as for the children, they loved it from the first.  It was a
+great international gathering that was sheltered on the old farm.  Mrs.
+Schuler was German; Moya, Irish.  Mrs. Peterson, a Swede, occupied the
+rooster room with her baby and her flaxen-haired daughter of three;
+Mrs. Paterno, an Italian, found good pasturage among the cows of the
+violet room for her black-eyed boys of two and four; Mrs. Tsanoff, a
+Bulgarian, told the Matron that her twin girl babies were too young to
+pay attention to the kittens on the curtains of the yellow room; while
+Mrs. Vereshchagin, a Russian, discovered that the puppies of the blue
+room were a great help to her in holding the attention of her boys of
+three and five when she was putting them to bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Schuler shook her head doubtfully when she took down their names
+and nationalities in her notebook on the day of their arrival.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If we get through the summer without quarrels over the war it will be
+a miracle!" she exclaimed to her husband.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But she found that the poor creatures were too weary, too sad, too
+physically crushed to have spirit enough left to fight any battles,
+even those of words.  With almost every one of them there had been a
+tragedy such as often comes to the immigrants who reach the United
+States equipped for success only with strong muscles--a tragedy of
+wasted hope and broken courage and failing vigor if not of death.  Mrs.
+Paterno was the only one of them who could sympathize with Moya's
+widowhood; her husband had seen the Black Hand death sign a few months
+before, had disregarded it and had been stabbed in the back one night
+as he came home from his work.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Conversation was not carried on fluently among them.  They met on the
+common ground of English, but not one of them could speak it well, each
+one translated phrases of her own tongue quite literally, and the
+meaning of the whole talk was largely a matter of guesswork.  What they
+did understand was nature's language of motherhood.  They were content
+to sit for hours on the veranda or in the grove or behind the house,
+preparing vegetables for Moya, chattering about their babies and
+explaining their meaning by gestures that seemed to be perfectly
+understood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The women had daily duties to perform according to a schedule worked
+out by Mrs. Schuler, who apportioned to each a share of the general
+work of the house in addition to the care of her own room and the
+washing for herself and her children.  With so many fingers flying the
+tasks were soon done, and then they sat on the porch or in the grove
+among the sweet-smelling pines, or walked in the pasture or up and down
+the lane leading to the main road.  Once in a while they went to
+Rosemont, but for the most part they were too languid to care to walk
+far and too glad of the change and the rest and quiet to want to weary
+themselves unnecessarily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The boys had built a platform across the back of the house, and it was
+here that they did their carpentry, an awning sheltering them from the
+sun or rain.  A cupboard at one end held their tools, and their partly
+finished articles were neatly stacked in a corner.  As they got out
+their tools now James made a confession.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To tell you the honest, unvarnished truth, I'm tired of making chairs.
+It seems as if we'd never have enough."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It takes an awful lot to furnish a house," commented Roger wisely,
+"and you know we had very few given us so if we want enough we have to
+make them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We've got all the chairs you've done upholstered all they're going to
+be," said Ethel Brown.  "Why can't Ethel Blue and I each make a high
+chair?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No reason at all," agreed Roger quickly.  "You've watched James and me
+and seen our really superior workmanship; imitate it, my child!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girls were already turning over the boys' supply of boxes to select
+those suitable for the chairs for the children.  They took four that
+had held lemons or other fruit and were tall and narrow when stood on
+end.  The boards they were made of were very light but quite solid
+enough to hold the weight of a small child.  To make it firm upon the
+ground, however, they sawed a piece of heavy plank a little larger than
+the end upon which the box was to stand and nailed it on from the
+inside.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the high chair was done the boys complimented their co-workers on
+the success of their first experiment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hardly could have done it better myself," said Roger grandly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the high chairs were covered with blue and white cretonne to match
+the blue and white of the dining room and the girls set to work to tack
+on the outside covering and to cut out the covers of the small cushions
+that were to make the seat and back comfortable.  The cushions
+themselves they had made from ticking filled with excelsior when they
+had calculated the number of high chairs they must have.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The boys, meanwhile were constructing two chairs of quite different
+build.  One was a heavy chair for the hall or the veranda, its original
+condition being a packing box a foot and a half deep, about twenty
+inches wide and three or four feet long.  This also was set on end, and
+the other end and the cover were laid aside to be used in making the
+seat and in shutting in the openings below the seat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How are you going to fasten that seat so it won't let the sitter down
+on the floor?" inquired Ethel Blue, as James explained what he was
+going to do.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you see these cleats, ma'am?  These are each a foot long.  I nail
+one of these standing up straight at each edge of the sides and the
+back--six of them altogether.  Then I lay three other cleats across
+their tops--thusly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O, you've made a sort of framework that will support the seat!  I get
+that!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All you have to do now is to nail your seat boards on to those
+horizontal cleats and it's as firm as firm can be."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aren't you going to do something with those sides--those arms, or
+whatever you call them?" inquired Ethel Brown.  "They seem sharp and
+uncomfortable and in the way to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Both boys studied the chair seriously before answering.  Then they took
+a pencil and paper and consulted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should think it would look pretty well to cut out a right angle on
+each aide," suggested James.  "That would leave a sort of wing effect
+like a hall porter's chair, only not so high, and at the same time it
+would make an arm to rest your elbow on.  How does that strike you ?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger nodded.  "It hits me all right.  I was thinking of a curve
+instead of a right angle, but the right angle will be easier to make.
+Go ahead."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So the right angle was decided on and James proceeded to cut it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger, meanwhile, had been sorting out the wood he needed for a chair
+of another pattern.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish Dorothy would heave in sight," he growled as he piled some half
+inch thick strips in one heap.  "She told me she'd tell me all she knew
+about chair legs when I reached this stage of proceedings."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She will," answered a cheerful voice, and gray-eyed Dorothy appeared
+from the house.  "I felt in my bones that you'd be beginning this lot
+this afternoon, so I ambled over to see if I could help in any way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Keep right on ambling till you reach this end of the platform and tell
+me whether you said that chair legs could be made of this stripping or
+whether I'll have to get solid pieces, square-ended, you know, joist or
+scantling or whatever it's called."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Strips will do, only you'll have to use two for each leg.  Nail them
+together at right angles.  It will make a two-sided leg, but it will be
+plenty strong enough, though perhaps not truly handsome."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If handsomeness means solidity--no.  Still, they'll do.  Can you give
+me the lengths for these strips?" and Roger waved his saw at his cousin
+as if he were so impatient to begin that he could not wait to study out
+the lengths for himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For the one I made for the attic," replied his cousin, "I cut four
+strips each two inches wide and twenty-one inches long for the front
+legs and four strips each two inches wide and twenty-five inches long
+for the back legs.  Then there were two two-inch strips seventeen
+inches long to go under the seat to strengthen it front and back, and
+two two-inch strips each thirteen inches long to go under the seat and
+strengthen it on the sides.  That's all the stock you need except the
+box."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose you've got a particular box in mind to fit those sizes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those sizes fit the box, rather.  Yes, I got a grocery box that was
+about eighteen inches long and thirteen wide and eleven deep.  I saw
+one here just like it before I gave you those measurements, so you can
+go ahead sawing while I pull off one side of the box--the cover has
+gone already but we don't need it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Quiet reigned for a few minutes while they all worked briskly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now I'm ready to put this superb article together," announced Roger.
+"How high from the ground does the seat go?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nail your cleats across with their top edges fifteen inches from the
+ground and nail the bottom of the box on to the cleats.  See how these
+two-sided legs protect the edges of the box as well as make it decent
+looking?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So they do," admitted Roger.  "They aren't so bad after all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think those sides are going to be too high," decided Dorothy after
+examining the chair carefully and sitting down in it.  "Don't you think
+it pushes your elbows up too high?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger tried it and thought it did.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Suppose you saw those sides down about five inches."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger obeyed and Dorothy tried the chair again and pronounced it much
+improved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's comfy enough now, but these arms don't look very well, and they'd
+be liable to tear your sleeves," she said.  "Let's put on some strip
+covers.  They'll give a finish to the whole thing, and hide the end of
+the two-sided legs and be smooth."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Plenty of reason for having them.  How many inches?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Twelve," answered Dorothy after measuring.  "The top of the back needs
+a strip cover, too.  Cut another nineteen inches long.  There, <I>I</I>
+think that's not such a bad looking chair!'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you want cushions for those chairs?" inquired Ethel Brown,
+appearing at the door with a piece of cretonne in her hand.  "We've got
+material enough for at least seat cushions for both of them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They'll be lots more comfy," admitted James, "if the excelsior crop is
+still holding out."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is.  I'll make them right off, and Ethel Blue can help you out
+there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She retired from view and sent out her cousin, and until the sun set
+the two boys and Dorothy and Ethel measured and sawed and nailed, with
+results that satisfied them so well that they did not mind being tired.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VII
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+TROUBLE AT ROSE HOUSE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"If it weren't that I could come out here and see you every day or so I
+should be wild to get back to work in Oklahoma."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Edward Watkins was the speaker.  He and Miss Merriam were walking
+through a wooded path that ran from Rosemont to Rose House.  The day
+was warm and the shade of the trees was grateful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How is your patient?" asked Gertrude.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Getting on very well, but the doctors won't let him travel yet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Have you heard lately from your doctor in Oklahoma?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hear about every day!  I was with him just long enough for him to
+find that I was useful and he's wild to have me there again.  I wired
+him that I'm ready to go, but that the sick man is nervous about making
+the return trip alone.  Of course he wants to keep on the good side of
+a good patient, so he answered, 'Stay on'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you able to do anything for your patient?  He's still in the
+hospital, isn't he?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I go there every day and he sends me on errands all over town.  I'm
+getting to know almost as much about oil as I do about medicine!  But
+I'm rather tired of playing errand boy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have a chance to see your family."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you.  But I'm supposed to stay at the hotel, much to Mother's
+disgust.  I'm doing a little medical inspection among Father's poor
+people, though.  That whiles away a few hours every day, and of course,
+every time I go to the hospital the doctors there tell me about any
+interesting new cases, so I'm not 'going stale' entirely."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As if you could!" exclaimed Gertrude admiringly.  "You're just storing
+up ideas and information to startle the Oklahoman natives with."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The 'natives' in Oklahoma are all too young to be startled," laughed
+Edward, "but of course I'm stowing away everything new I hear about
+methods of treatment and operations and so on to tell Dr. Billings when
+I get back.  Now let me hear what you've been doing.  How are these
+kiddies at Rose House?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I want you to look them over and talk with the mothers.  Dr. Hancock
+comes over when we send for him, but all these people are so delicate
+that I feel that they ought to have a physician's eye on them all the
+time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They have you pretty often, don't they?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I go over every day either in the morning or the afternoon, and I give
+them advice about the babies, and teach them and Moya how to prepare
+their food, but they do such strange things that you can't forestall
+because you never had the wildest idea that any woman in her senses
+would treat a baby so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Edward laughed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Russian and Bulgarian peasant customs, I suppose.  I never shall
+forget the first time I saw a two-day old negro baby sucking a bit of
+fat bacon.  I nearly had a chill."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Didn't the child have a chill?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not the slightest!  If they get ahead of you with some pleasing little
+trick like that you can console yourself with the thought that
+generally there is some basis of old-time experience that has shown it
+to be not so harmful as we are apt to think."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've done enough tenement house work to know that the babies certainly
+survive extraordinary treatment, but these babies here are so delicate
+that they ought to have the most careful diet.  Most of them need real
+nursing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you think your talks are making any impressions on the mothers?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sometimes Mrs. Schuler and I think so, and just then it almost always
+happens that one of them does something totally unexpected that gives
+our hopes a terrible blow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's trust that this is a good day; I'd rather talk to you than work
+over a case this fine afternoon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gertrude smiled at his tone and they walked on in silence out of the
+wood and across the brook and down the lane that brought them to the
+back of Rose House where the Club boys and girls were busy making a
+piece of furniture of some sort.  Mrs. Schuler was talking to Moya in
+the kitchen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've brought Dr. Watkins to see everybody," announced Miss Merriam
+gayly.  "Where are they all?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The ones who are at home are up in the pine grove, but Moya has just
+told me that Mrs. Paterno and her older boy and Mrs. Tsanoff and one of
+the twins have gone to town."
+
+"Walked?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Walked by the road on this scorching day!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Merriam turned to the doctor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is one of the unexpected events we were just talking about.
+Little Paterno is four and too large for that little woman to carry,
+and far too small and weak to take that long walk on his own legs even
+on a more suitable day than this, and the Tsanoff twins are just
+holding on to life by the tips of their fingers!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sat down in despair.  Dr.  Watkins looked serious.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is there any way of heading them off or bringing them back.  Can we
+reach them anywhere by telephone?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No one knows where they can have gone.  It seems it must have been
+about an hour and a half ago that they started and I should think
+they'd be back before long if they're able to come back--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"--under their own steam!" finished the doctor with a doubtful smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's go to the grove and see the women and children there and perhaps
+the others will be in sight by the time you've finished your
+examination."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They turned toward the pines whose thick needles cast a heavy shade
+upon the ground and gave forth a delicious fragrance under the rays of
+the sun.  As they disappeared Mrs. Schuler went out on the platform
+where the carpentering operations were going on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm so disturbed about those women," she said, "I've come to see what
+you're doing to divert my mind from them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're going to make two of these seats, one for your office and the
+other for the veranda," said Ethel Brown, standing erect and putting a
+hand upon her weary back.  The rest of the young carpenters stopped
+their work and wiped their perspiring foreheads while they explained
+the construction of the piece of furniture to their friend.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This long narrow box is the seat, you see.  It's a shoe case, and it's
+just the right height for comfort.  Roger has put hinges on the cover,
+so you can use it for a chest and keep rugs and cushions inside."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's about as simple as it could be.  Does it take all of you to
+help Roger do that?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O, that's only a part of the entire affair.  We're making these two
+sets of shelves to go at the ends of the seat."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I see.  A great light breaks on me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They're to be fastened to the ends of the seat."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not for keeps.  That's Ethel Blue's patent.  She said it would be
+awkward to move about if it were all built together, so we're making it
+in three parts, and we're going to lock them together with hooks and
+screw eyes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is clever!  Then if you want to you can use these sets of shelves
+for little bookcases in another room or you can fasten on one of them
+and not the other."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ethel Blue and I thought we'd make pink cushions for your office if
+you'd like them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think they'd be charming.  That pink room raises my spirits when--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"--when you get <I>blue</I>?" suggested Roger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll have to go there now to get revived if those women who walked to
+town don't turn up soon," and the Matron went to the corner of the
+house whence she could see the lane that led from the road.  "If they
+come home ill I'll have to ask you to make two bed trays," she
+suggested as she peered across the grass.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How do you make them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ask Ethel Blue."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Merely put legs on a light board so that the weight of the plates will
+be lifted from the sick person's legs as he sits up in bed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's to prevent the plates sliding off?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing if he's much of a kicker, I should say," laughed Roger; "but
+you could put a little fence an inch or two high at the back and sides
+and keep them on board."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You'd better begin them right off," said Mrs. Schuler dryly, "for here
+they come."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She disappeared around the corner and the young people followed to see
+what was the matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Trouble there was in very truth.  Mrs. Paterno led the way stumbling
+and running.  Her face was flushed a deep, threatening crimson and her
+breath came fast.  By the arm she held little Pietro, who from
+exhaustion had ceased to scream and merely gave a gulping moan when the
+gravel scraped his bare knees as his mother jerked him along regardless
+of whether he was on his feet or whether she dragged him.  Behind them
+at some distance came Mrs. Tsanoff carrying her baby in her arms--one
+of the twins that always seemed to be merely "holding on to life by the
+tips of its fingers," to use Gertrude's expression, and now seemed to
+have lost even that frail hold.  It lay in its mother's arms white and
+with its eyes closed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Schuler ran to meet the Italian woman and lifted the worn child
+into her arms where he sank against her shoulder as if in a faint.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Run up in the grove and get Dr. Watkins and Miss Gertrude," Helen said
+to Roger.  "Ask them quietly to come here.  Don't frighten the women."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger dashed away, his swift feet slowing to a walk as he neared the
+bit of woods where he delivered his message in an undertone.  Ethel
+Blue meanwhile, had rushed into the house to tell Moya to heat plenty
+of water and to crack some ice, and Margaret had opened Mrs. Schuler's
+closet of simple remedies and found the bottle of aromatic spirits of
+ammonia.  Ethel Brown and James ran to meet Mrs. Tsanoff, Ethel taking
+the baby from her and James steadying her shaking steps by a stout arm
+under her elbow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As Dr. Watkins ran around the corner of the house he came upon Helen
+trying to help Mrs. Paterno, who was pushing her away with both hands,
+while she kept looking over her shoulder and screaming hysterically.
+Edward seized her hands and commanded her attention at once by speaking
+to her in Italian.  Although she did not know him she responded to his
+command to tell him of what she was afraid, and poured out a story of
+terror.  "<I>Mano, nera, mano nera</I>--the Black Hand," she repeated over
+and over again, and Edward, who had heard her history, realized that
+something she had seen had set her mind in the old train of thought.
+While Miss Merriam attended to the children he calmed the woman and
+then turned her over to Mrs. Schuler with instructions to put her to
+bed in a darkened room and to see that some one stayed with her or just
+outside her door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fortunately for the doctor his experience with the people among whom
+his father worked in his East Side chapel had given him a smattering of
+many languages and he was able to make out from Mrs. Tsanoff, although
+her fright and fatigue had made her forget almost all the English she
+knew, what had terrified her companion.  They had gone to the
+stationery shop of the Englishman who also sold ice cream and soda, she
+said, and they had had each a glass of soda and the children had each
+had an ice cream cone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Edward groaned and over his shoulder directed Delia to run and tell
+Miss Merriam that both babies had had ice cream cones.  "It will help
+her to know what to do until I come," he explained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just as they were coming out of the store a dark man who looked like an
+Italian had passed them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So far as she noticed he had paid no attention to them, but Mrs.
+Paterno had seized her arm, pointing after him, and then had picked up
+Pietro and started to run toward home.  Neither far nor fast could she
+go in such heat with such a burden and the poor little chap was soon
+tossed down and forced to run with giant strides all the rest of the
+eternal mile that stretched between Rosemont and Rose House.  Mrs.
+Tsanoff herself had followed as fast as she could because she was
+afraid that something, she knew not what, would happen to her friend.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She, too, was sent to bed, with Moya standing over her to lay cool
+compresses on her eyes, to sponge her wrists and ankles with cool water
+and to lay an occasional bit of cracked ice on her parched lips.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The condition of the two children was pitiable.  The heat, the sudden
+chill from the ice cream and the terrible homeward rush sent them both
+so nearly into a collapse that the doctor, Mrs. Schuler and Miss
+Merriam worked over them all night, resting only when Dr. Hancock, who
+had heard the story from James and Margaret and came up to see the
+state of affairs, relieved them for an hour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How are we ever going to teach them the madness of such behavior?"
+Gertrude asked wearily as Dr. Watkins insisted that she and Mrs.
+Schuler should go to bed as the dawn broke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The poor little Italian woman is almost mad already, thanks to this
+Black Hand business.  It will take her a long time to recover her
+balance, but I think I can teach the others a lesson from this
+experience of their friends.  Wait till to-morrow comes and hear me
+talk five languages at once," he promised cheerfully as he turned her
+over to Mrs. Schuler.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VIII
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+SOME ENTERTAINMENT
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The escapade of the Italian and Bulgarian women played havoc with the
+calm of Rose House for several days.  The women themselves had narrow
+escapes from illness and the children were so seriously ill that a
+trained nurse had to be sent up from the Glen Point Hospital, as
+neither Miss Merriam nor Mrs. Schuler could undertake nursing in
+addition to their other work.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When all was well again Miss Merriam redoubled her efforts to teach the
+women something of proper care of their children and themselves, and,
+with the help of Dr. Watkins's knowledge of languages, she began to
+hope that she was making some progress.  Mrs. Tsanoff and Mrs.
+Peterson, who had little babies, were taught to modify milk for them,
+the dangers of giving small children foods unsuited to their age was
+talked about now with the recent experience to point the moral; and
+ways of keeping well in hot weather were explained and listened to with
+interest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Substitutes for meat were discussed earnestly, chiefly on account of
+the high cost of living but also because meat was declared to be far
+too heating for warm weather use.  Each of the women knew of some dish
+which took the place of meat and she was glad to tell the others about
+it.  Mrs. Paterno knew very well that cheese is one of the best
+substitutes for meat that there is.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Americans eat cheesa after meata; then sick," she declared with truth.
+Her receipt for a risotto Moya wrote down in the blank book in which
+she was collecting recipes and Mrs. Paterno beamed when it came onto
+the table.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Chiefly for the purpose of giving the little Italian woman a change of
+thought, the U. S. C. made a point of providing Rose House with some
+sort of entertainment every few days.  Once they introduced the inmates
+to an American hayride, and the four women, with Moya and the older
+children, screamed with delight as they found themselves moving slowly
+along on a real load of hay--for Grandfather Emerson declared that that
+was the only kind of hayride worth having.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again they all stowed themselves away in the automobile and went to a
+pond ten miles away for a day's picnic.  That proved not to be a
+success, for everybody was so tired all the next day that there was a
+nearer approach to disagreement among them than ever happened before.
+Mrs. Schuler made up her mind that home--meaning Rose House--was the
+best place for them and that amusements must be found at home and not
+afield.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IX
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A NEW KIND OF GRASS SEED
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Your grand-father told me once about a field he had that was filled
+with daisies," said Ethel Blue.  "It looked awfully pretty, but it
+spoiled the field for a pasture; the cows wouldn't touch them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I remember that field.  We used to make daisy chains and trim Mother's
+room with them," said Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Emerson tried ploughing up the field and he had men working over
+it for two seasons, but on the third, up they grew again as gay as you
+please.  They acted as if he had just been stirring up the soil so they
+would grow better than ever."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poor Grandfather; he had a hard time with that field."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He said he really needed it for a pasture, so he made up his mind that
+if he couldn't root out the bad plants, he'd crowd them out.  So he
+bought some seed of a kind of grass that has large, strong roots, and
+he sowed it in the field.  As soon as it began to grow he could see
+that there certainly were not so many daisies there.  He kept on
+another year and the cows began to look over the fence as if they'd
+like to get in.  The third year there were so few daisies that they
+didn't count."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I remember all that," said Ethel Brown, "but what does it have to do
+with Mrs. Paterno?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, if we--or Edward--could make her get a grip on herself and
+control herself that would be like Mr. Emerson's digging up the
+daisies.  It would be hard work and an awfully slow process.  But if we
+also could fill her mind with thoughts about working for her children
+and trying to make other people happy and with making embroidery which
+she loves to do, why wouldn't it help?  These new things she's thinking
+about would be like the strong, new grass seed that didn't give the
+weeds a chance to grow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dorothy stared seriously at Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She does perfectly beautiful embroidery," she said slowly, as she
+tried to think out a way to put Ethel Blue's suggestion into effect.
+"Do you suppose she'd be willing to teach us how to do it?  That
+beautiful Italian cut work, you know.  If we should call ourselves a
+class and ask her to teach us it might give her something quite new to
+think about."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'd like to learn, too," agreed Ethel Blue.  "I heard Mother say once
+that there was a school in New York for Italian lace work.  Let's get
+Delia to find out about it, and when Mrs. Paterno grows stronger and
+goes back to the city she might go there.  They have a shop uptown
+where they sell the pupils' work.  The class here and the prospect of
+having regular employment when she went back--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Work she likes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What are you youngsters plotting?" asked the cheerful voice of
+Grandfather Emerson, who came around the big oak from the grass grown
+lane so quietly that they did not hear him coming.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They told him their plan, and he listened intently.
+
+"The poor little woman has had such a shock that it will be a long time
+before she can control herself, I'm afraid," he responded
+sympathetically, "but I believe you've hit on the right way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then we'll get Edward Watkins to ask her whether she'll be willing to
+teach a class, and we'll all join it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The other women might like to learn, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps they could teach.  Bulgarian embroidery has been fashionable
+lately, you know, and the peasant women do it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your grandmother and I went through a Peasant's Bazar when we were in
+Petrograd and there were mounds of embroidery there that the peasant
+women had made."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Swedes do beautiful work.  Why don't we have a class for
+international embroidery?" laughed Dorothy.  "I think Mother would like
+to learn the Russian; she's crazy about Russian music and everything
+Russian."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll ask Mother and Grandmother, too, and perhaps the Miss Clarks
+would come and the women could charge a fee and make a little money
+teaching us and be amused themselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I dare say it will do the others good as well as the little Italian.
+You've hit on something that will benefit all of them while you were
+trying to help Mrs. Paterno," surmised Mr. Emerson.  "What I came over
+here this morning to see you about was this," he went on in a
+business-like tone that made them look at him attentively.
+"Grandmother and I think that Mrs. Paterno has been a trifle too
+exciting for you young people the last few days.  We think you need a
+change of thought as well as that young woman herself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all sat and waited for what was coming, quite unable to guess what
+proposition he was going to make.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Helen and Roger are somewhat older and stand such upheavals a little
+better than you girls, so my plan doesn't include them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just us three?" asked Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just you three.  Here's my scheme; see if you like it.  I have to go
+over to Boston to-morrow on a matter of business and it occurred to me
+that it would be a pleasant sail on the Sound and that you'd be
+interested in seeing the city--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O--o!" gasped Dorothy; "Cambridge and Longfellow's house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Concord and Lexington!" cried Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Art Museum!" murmured Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Bunker Hill Monument, and, of course, the Navy Yard especially for
+this daughter of a sailor," and he nodded gayly at his granddaughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Grandmother will go, to take you around when I have to attend to my
+business, and we can stay a day or two and come back fresh to attend to
+Mrs. Paterno's affairs.  How does it strike you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Without any preliminary conference, the three girls flung their arms
+around his neck and hugged him heartily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Have you talked about it with Mother and Aunt Louise?" asked Ethel
+Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm armed with their permission."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I guess we were all worrying about Mrs. Paterno," admitted Ethel Blue.
+"This will be the strong grass seed that will clear up our minds so
+that we can help her better after we come back."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think you're the most magnificent Grandfather that ever was born!"
+exclaimed Ethel Brown, standing back and gazing admiringly at her
+ancestor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you," returned Mr. Emerson, bowing low, his hand on his heart,
+"I am quite overcome by such a wholesale tribute!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Had we better tell Mrs. Schuler about the embroidery class plan?"
+asked Dorothy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Run up to Rose House now and explain it to her and ask her to talk to
+the women about it while you are gone, and then when you get back
+she'll have it all ready to start," Mr. Emerson suggested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next twenty-four hours were full of excitement.  Each of the girls
+had only a small handbag to pack, but the selection of what should go
+into each bag seemed a matter of infinite importance.  The Ethels
+filled their bags twice before they were satisfied that they had not
+left out anything that would be wanted, and Dorothy confessed that she
+had first put in too much and then had gone to the other extreme, and
+that it had not been until after she had had a consultation with her
+mother that she had decided on just the number and kind of garments
+that she would need for a two-day trip to the Hub of the Universe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why is it called that?" she asked of Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I asked Mother and she said that people from New York and other cities
+used to say that Bostonians thought that their town was the centre of
+civilization.  So they guyed it by calling it the 'Hub'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger and Helen went into New York with the travellers and Delia and
+Margaret were on the pier to see the steamer leave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a glorious afternoon and the boat slipped around the end of the
+Battery while the westering sun was still shining brilliantly on the
+water, touching it with sparkles on the tip of each tiny wave.  The
+Statue of Liberty, with the sun behind it, towered darkly against the
+gold.  The huge buildings of the lower city stretched skywards, the new
+Equitable, the latest addition to the mammoth group, shutting off
+almost entirely the view of the Singer Tower from the harbor, just as
+the Woolworth Tower hides it from observers on the north.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Between them Grandfather and Grandmother Emerson were able to point out
+nearly all of the sights of the East River--several parks and
+playgrounds, Bellevue Hospital, the Vanderbilt model tenements for
+people threatened with tuberculosis, the Junior League Hotel for
+self-supporting women, the old dwelling where Dorothy's friend, the
+"box furniture lady," had established a school to teach the folk of the
+neighborhood how to use tools for the advantage of their
+house-furnishings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The boat was one of those which steams around Cape Cod instead of
+stopping at Fall River, Rhode Island, and sending its passengers to
+Boston by train.  Early morning found them all on deck watching the
+waters of Massachusetts Bay and trying to place on a map that Mr.
+Emerson produced from his pocket the towns whose church spires they
+could see pointing skyward far off on their left.  Twin lighthouses
+they decided, marked Gurnet Point, the entrance to Plymouth Bay, and
+they strained their eyes to see the town that was the oldest settlement
+in Massachusetts, and imagined they were watching the bulky little
+Mayflower making her way landward between the headlands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Emerson convoyed his party to a hotel on Copley Square and left
+them there while he went out at once to meet his business friends.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How far away Rosemont seems, and poor Mrs. Paterno with her troubles,"
+she said an hour later as they stood before Sargent's panel of the
+Prophets in the Public Library.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER X
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+TROLLEYING
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+As for the Art Museum, they wandered delightedly from one room to
+another, but went away with a sensation of having seen too much that
+was almost as uncomfortable as that of having eaten too much.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should like to come here or to go to the Metropolitan in New York
+with some one who could tell me about every picture or every object in
+just one room and stay there for an hour and then go away and think
+about it," said Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We will do that some day at the Metropolitan," said Mrs. Emerson.  "If
+the Club would like to go in a body some day we can get one of the
+guides who do just what you describe.  We can tell her the sort of
+thing we want to see--classical statuary or English artists or the
+Morgan collection--and have it all shown to us from the standpoint of
+the expert critic.  Or we can put ourselves in the hands of the guide
+and say that we'd like to see the ten exhibits that the Museum looks
+upon as the choicest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Either way would be wonderful!" beamed Ethel Blue, and the three girls
+promised themselves the delight of reporting Mrs. Emerson's offer to
+the Club at its next meeting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The homeward trip was made by a route quite different from the one by
+which the party reached Boston.  Grandfather proposed it at breakfast
+on the morning of the day on which they had intended to leave in the
+afternoon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you people very keen on this drive through the Park System
+to-day?" he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girls did not know what to say, but Mrs. Emerson scented a new idea
+and replied "not if you have something to suggest that we'd like
+better."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How would you like to trolley back to New York?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Trolley back to New York!" repeated the girls with little screeches of
+joy.  "All the way by trolley?  How long will it take?  I never heard
+of anything so delightful in all my life!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After such a quick and satisfactory response Mr. Emerson did not need
+to lay his plan before them in any further detail.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I see you're 'game,' as Roger would say, for anything, so we'll go
+that way if Mother agrees."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Emerson did agree and even went so far as to say that she had
+wanted to do that very thing for a long time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's lucky Grandfather insisted that we shouldn't bring anything but
+small handbags," said Ethel Brown.  "These little things we have won't
+be any trouble at all, no matter how many times we have to change."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They started in heavy inter-urban cars which rode as solidly as
+railroad cars and enabled them to be but very little tired at the end
+of the first "leg" of the journey.  The wide windows permitted views of
+the country and the girls ran from one side to the other of the closed
+cars, so that they should not miss anything of interest, and sat on the
+front seat of the open cars into which they changed later, so that they
+might have no one in front of them to obstruct their view.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They went out of the city straight westward through Brookline, through
+Chestnut Hill, where is one of the reservoirs from which the city is
+supplied; past Wellesley, where they saw the college buildings rising
+among the trees on the left.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The party reached Springfield at dusk and had time to take a walk after
+dinner.  They admired the elm-bordered streets and the comfortable
+houses, and they thought the Arsenal looked extremely peaceful outside
+in spite of its murderous activities within.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a deep sleep that visited them all that night.  A whole day in
+the open air with the gentle but continuous exercise provided by the
+car made them unconscious of their surroundings almost as soon as they
+touched their pillows.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XI
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+With a long and varied day ahead of them they were delighted to find
+the morning clear when they awoke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There are almost as many points of interest in the Connecticut River
+Valley as there are on the Concord and Lexington road," Mr. Emerson
+told the girls.  "We're going first to Holyoke, which is one of the
+largest paper manufacturing towns in the world.  I have a little
+business to do there and while I am seeing my man you people can take a
+little walk.  Be sure you notice the big dam.  It's a thousand feet
+long.  The Holyoke water power is very unusual."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps because they were not experts on water power they were not
+greatly impressed by the floods of the Connecticut River diverted into
+deep canals and swimming along so smoothly as to impart but little idea
+of their strength.  Only the whir of the great mills gave evidence that
+iron and steel were being moved by it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How Roger would enjoy this!" cried Ethel Brown, and "Wouldn't Helen be
+just crazy over all the history of this region?" added Ethel Blue,
+while Dorothy, who had travelled much but never without her mother,
+silently wished that she were there to enjoy it all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's another girl's college of note," and Mrs. Emerson pointed out
+Mt. Holyoke at South Hadley, northeast of Mt Tom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And we're going to see Smith College to-day!  I feel as if I wanted to
+go to all of them!" cried Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You might take a year at each and find out which was best suited to
+your temperament," laughed Mrs. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From the foot of the mountain they went northward again to Northampton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here's where I ought to go if names count for anything," decided
+Dorothy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If all the girls named Smith who go to college anywhere should go here
+because of the name there wouldn't be room for any other students,"
+said Mr. Emerson jokingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They say," returned Dorothy on the defensive, "that in the beginning
+all the people in the world were named Smith and it was only those who
+misbehaved who had their names changed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You can at least pride yourself on their being an industrious lot.
+Think of all their crafts--they were armorers and goldsmiths, and
+silversmiths and blacksmiths."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XII
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE BERKSHIRES AND BENNINGTON
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Greenfield, where the party spent the night, they found to be a
+pleasant old town with the wide, tree-bordered streets to which they
+were growing accustomed in this trolleying pilgrimage.  A quiet hotel
+sheltered them and they slept soundly, their dreams filled with
+memories of colleges and rose gardens and Indians in romantic
+confusion.  The next day they started westward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pittsfield they found to be a large town whose old houses surrounded by
+ancient trees gave a feeling of solidity and comfort.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Longfellow wrote 'The Old Clock on the Stairs' here," said Mr. Emerson
+pointing out the Appleton house.  "The first stanza describes more than
+one of the old mansions," and he recited:--
+</P>
+
+<P>
+  "Somewhat back from the village street
+  Stands the old-fashioned country seat.
+  Across its antique portico
+  Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw,
+  And from its station in the hall
+  An ancient timepiece says to all,--
+      'Forever--never!
+      Never--forever!'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I remember that poem, but I never liked it much;" acknowledged
+Dorothy; "it's too gloomy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is rather solemn," admitted Mr. Emerson.  "You'll be interested to
+know that merry Dr. Holmes used to come to Pittsfield in the summer.
+There are many associations with him in the town."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm sure he wrote gayer poems than 'The Old Clock on the Stairs' when
+he was here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is this a very old town?" Ethel Blue asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was settled in 1743.  Does that seem old to you?"
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-070"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-070.jpg" ALT="It was settled in 1743" BORDER="2" WIDTH="409" HEIGHT="615">
+<H5>
+[Illustration: "It was settled in 1743"]
+</H5>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"1743," Ethel repeated, doing some subtraction by the aid of her
+fingers, for arithmetic was not her strong point.  "A hundred and
+eighty-seven years," she decided after reflection.  "Yes, that seems
+pretty old to me.  It's a lot older than Rosemont but over a hundred
+years younger than Plymouth or Boston."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A sort of middle age," Mr. Emerson summed up her decision with a smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After luncheon at the hotel an early afternoon car sped on with them to
+a station whence they took an automobile for a drive through
+Stockbridge and Lenox with their handsome estates and lovely views.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The trolley whizzed them back over the same route to North Adams and
+westward to Williamstown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One of my brothers--your great-uncle James, Ethel Brown--went to
+Williams College," said Mr. Emerson, "and I shall be glad to spend the
+night here and see the town and the buildings I heard him talk so much
+about."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why don't we get out, then?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're going now to Bennington, Vermont."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Vermont!  Into another state!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When we come back we'll leave the car here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are those the Green Mountains?" asked Dorothy as the trolley ran into
+a smoother country than they had been in while traveling in the
+Berkshires, but one which showed a background of long wooded ranges
+rising length after length against the sky.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those are the Green Mountains; and this is the 'Green Mountain State,'
+and the men who fought in the Revolution under Ethan Allen were the
+'Green Mountain Boys'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+  "But, ranged in serried order, attent on sterner noise,<BR>
+  Stood stalwart Ethan Allen and his 'Green Mountain Boys'<BR>
+  Two hundred patriots listening as with the ears of one,<BR>
+  To the echo of the muskets that blazed at Lexington!"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+quoted Mrs. Emerson.  "They were bound northward to the British fort at
+Ticonderoga."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did they get there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They took the British completely by surprise.  That was in May, 1775.
+It was in August, two years later that the battle of Bennington took
+place."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'd better agree to have dinner or supper here if we don't want to
+get back to Williamstown after all the food in the place has been eaten
+by those hungry college boys," suggested Mrs. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Emerson took a hasty glance at the setting sun.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You never spoke a truer word, my dear," applauded her husband, "though
+this is vacation and the boys won't be there!  Still, I'm as hungry as
+a bear.  Let's have our evening meal, whatever it proves to be, in
+Bennington."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were all hungry enough to think the plan one of the best that
+their leader had offered for some time, so it was only after what
+turned out to be supper that they went back to Williamstown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the moonlight the towers of the college buildings glimmered
+mysteriously through the trees, and the girls went to bed happy in the
+promise of what the morning was going to bring them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel Brown was sorry that there were no students to be seen on the
+grounds when they wandered about the next morning, for she would have
+liked to see what sort of boys they were, and, if she liked their
+looks, have suggested to Tom or James that they come here to college
+amid such lovely surroundings.  She liked it better than Amherst but
+Ethel Blue preferred that compact little village, and Dorothy clung to
+her deep-seated affection for Cambridge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"After all, our Club boys have their plans all made so we don't need to
+get excited over these colleges," decided Ethel Brown; "and I'm glad
+they're all going to different ones because when they graduate we'll
+have invitations to three separate class-days and other festivities."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What a perfectly beautiful tower," exclaimed Dorothy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's the chapel.  That light-colored stone is superb, isn't it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Some of these other buildings look as old as some of the oldy-old
+Harvard ones."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They can't be anywhere near as old.  This college wasn't founded until
+1793."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's old enough to give it a settled-down air in spite of these
+handsome new affairs.  There must be lovely walks about here."
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-072"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-072.jpg" ALT="Some of the building looked very old" BORDER="2" WIDTH="402" HEIGHT="629">
+<H5>
+[Illustration: Some of the building looked very old.]
+</H5>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Hills almost as big as mountains to climb.  But the boys don't have
+any girls to call on the way the Amherst boys do, with the Smith girls
+and the Mt. Holyoke girls just a little ride away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps they'd rather have mountains," remarked Ethel Brown wisely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the college was not in session Mr. Emerson was not able to see any
+of the records that he had hoped to look over to search for his
+brother's name, and as almost all of the professors were out of town,
+he could not question any of the older men of the place as to their
+recollection of him.  He was quite willing, therefore, to take a
+comparatively early train for Albany.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They arrived early enough to go over the Capitol, seated at the head of
+a broad but precipitous street.  It was very unlike the stern
+simplicity of the Massachusetts State House, but they amused themselves
+by saying that at least the two buildings had one part of their
+decoration in common.  In Albany the tops of the columns were carved
+with fruits and flowers, all to be found in the United States.  In
+Boston a local product, the codfish, held a position of honor over the
+desk of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All made in the U. S. A.," laughed Dorothy, quoting a slogan of the
+wartime, intended to help home industries.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They wanted to see the Cathedral and St. Agnes' School as well as the
+State Board of Education Building, and after they had hunted them out
+with the help of a map of the city, and had taken a trolley ride into
+the suburbs, and had eaten a hearty dinner they were glad to go to bed
+early so as to be up in time to catch the Day Boat for New York.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What splendid weather we've had," exclaimed Mrs. Emerson as they took
+their places on the broad deck of the handsome craft.  It was not the
+same one that had taken them to West Point at the end of May.  This one
+was named after Hendrik Hudson, the explorer of the river.  They found
+it to be quite as comfortable as the other, and the day went fast as
+they swept down the stream with the current to aid them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Occasionally broad reaches of the river grew narrower and wider again
+as the soil had proven soft or more resistant and the water had spread
+or had cut out a deep channel.  Off to the west the Catskills loomed
+against the sky, more varied than the Green Mountains and more rugged.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"More beautiful, too, I think," decided Ethel Blue.  "I like their
+roughness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A storm came up as they passed the mountains and the thunder rumbled
+unendingly among the hills.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Listen to the Dutchmen that Rip Van Winkle saw playing bowls when he
+visited them during his twenty years' nap," laughed Ethel Brown who was
+a reader of Washington Irving's "Sketch Book."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't wonder he felt dozy in summer with such a lovely scene to
+quiet him," Mrs. Emerson said in his defence.  "I feel a trifle sleepy
+myself," and she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes with an
+appearance of extreme comfort.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They passed Kingston which was burned by the British just two months
+after the battle of Bennington; and by a large town which proved to be
+Poughkeepsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here's where we should land if we were going to finish our
+investigation of colleges by seeing Vassar," said Mr. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm glad we aren't going to get off!" exclaimed Ethel Brown.  "I'm so
+undecided now I don't see how I'll ever make up my mind where to go!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Something will happen to help you decide," consoled Dorothy.  "Isn't
+this where the big college boat races are rowed?" she asked Mr. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Right here on this broad stretch of water.  A train of observation
+cars--flat cars--follows the boats along the bank.  I must bring the
+Club up here to some of them some time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O-oh!" all the girls cried with one voice, and they stared at the
+river and the shore as if they might even then see the shells dashing
+down the stream and the shouting crowds in the steamers and on the
+banks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Below Newburgh the river narrowed beneath upstanding cliffs and a point
+jutted out into the water.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you recognize that piece of land?" Mr. Emerson asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No one did.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't recall West Point?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're in the position now of the steamers and tugs we watched while we
+were having our dinner at the hotel.  Do you see the veranda of the
+hotel?  Up on the headland?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They did, and they felt that they were in truth nearing home.  The
+remainder of the way was over familiar waters, and they called to mind
+the historic tales that Roger and Mr. Emerson had told them on the
+Memorial Day trip.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We've seen so much history in the last week, though," declared Ethel
+Blue, "that I don't believe I can ever realize that I'm living in the
+twentieth century!"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIII
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+HUNTING ARROW HEADS
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The week after the home-coming from the Massachusetts trolley trip was
+a time of busyness for the Ethels and Dorothy.  Helen and Roger and the
+grown-ups who had stayed at home had to be made familiar with every
+step of the way, and the whole long history lesson that they had had
+was reviewed especially for Helen's benefit.  She looked up battle
+after battle in large histories in the library and was so full of
+questions as to how this place and that looked that the girls regretted
+that they had not taken a kodak so that they might have gratified her
+curiosity by showing her pictures of all the historical spots in their
+modern garb.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Affairs at Rose House had to be brought up to date.  Mr. Emerson
+undertook the management of Mrs. Tsanoff's affairs and went into town
+the very day after his return to call on Mr. Watkins and find out where
+Tsanoff was working.  He found that he had been discharged from his
+position but a few days before.  He had become so downcast as a
+consequence that he had not sent word to his wife of this fresh
+disappointment, and he was unspeakably grateful to Mr. Emerson for the
+chance that he opened to him.  A kodak of his dark, sensible face was
+easily obtained to send to Massachusetts and Mr. Emerson went home
+feeling that the first step had been well taken.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Making Mrs. Tsanoff understand the new proposition was not easy, but
+Mrs. Schuler and Moya had learned something of her language as she had
+learned more English during the summer and, when Mr. Emerson showed her
+a photograph of the Deerfield farm and told her of its advantages for
+her husband and the children she was eager to go to it at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The fields, the cows," she kept saying over and over again, and the
+girls realized how strong within her was her love for the country for
+which she had made the poor exchange of the city, and they sympathized
+keenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The result of the correspondence between Mr. Emerson and the Deerfield
+people was that the Bulgarians were put on the train for Springfield
+within ten days, each one of them, even the twin babies, wearing a
+small American flag so that they might be recognized by their new
+employer who was to meet them at Springfield and convoy them home.
+Mrs. Tsanoff left Rose House in tears, kissing the hands of all the
+girls and murmuring her gratitude to all of them over and over again as
+she wept and smiled by turns.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other women had started the embroidery class, teaching each other
+and Mrs. Morton, Mrs. Smith and the Miss Clarks.  The plan was working
+out very well, Mrs. Schuler thought, especially with Mrs. Paterno, who
+evidently loved the work and in it was already losing something of her
+fear and anxiety.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger had made a sideboard for the Rose House dining room assisted by
+the members of the Club who were "not off gallivanting," as he
+expressed it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's mighty good looking," commented Dorothy as she examined it.  "Was
+it hard to make?  It looks so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No worse than that seat we made for Mrs. Schuler's room.  We made two
+cupboard arrangements for the ends just like those, only we put a door
+over each one of them.  Instead of a big box between them to be used as
+a seat we put a shelf resting on the cleats that went across the backs
+of the bookshelves.  Then we connected the two cupboards with a long
+plank."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You put a back behind the shelf."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We put on thin boards for a back, but we haven't decided yet whether
+we made a mistake in putting doors in front or not.  I like them with
+doors the way we have it, but Margaret thinks it would have been rather
+good without any doors.  What do you think?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think Mrs. Schuler will like it better with doors.  The linen or
+whatever she keeps in there will be cleaner if it isn't exposed to the
+air on open shelves and the doors will serve as a protection against
+dust."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all agreed that it was one of the best pieces of furniture that
+they had yet made for the house, and the travellers were sorry that
+they had not had a hand in its construction on account of the
+experience the progress of the work would have afforded them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few days later the Ethels planned an excursion for the benefit of the
+younger children which was to be somewhat in the nature of a picnic,
+but it was arranged to have everyone attend who could do so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was intense excitement among the smaller children when the
+announcement was made that the picnic would be held early the following
+week, providing the weather proved clear enough not to interfere with
+their plans.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dicky's share in the excitement of the journey was the stirring up of a
+deep interest in Indians.  When the Ethels told him that they were
+going over to the field that Grandfather Emerson was having cleared he
+insisted on going with them to hunt for arrow heads.  They waited until
+a day after a rain had left the small stones washed free of earth, and
+they made an afternoon of it, all the Club and all the Rose House women
+and children going too.  The boys carried hampers with the wherewithal
+for afternoon tea, and the expedition assumed serious proportions in
+the minds of those arranging it when Dicky asked if they would need one
+of Grandfather's wagons to bring home the arrow heads in.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As a matter of fact they did not find many arrow heads.  Whether the
+earth had not yet been turned over to a sufficient depth or whether the
+Indians who had lived about Rosemont had been of a peaceful temper or
+whether the field happened not to be near any of their villages, no one
+knew, though every one made one guess or another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They planned the search methodically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I saw a lot of Boy Scouts one day clear up the field in Central Park
+in which they had been drilling," said Tom Watkins.  "They stretched in
+a long line across the whole field and then they walked slowly along
+looking for anything that might have been dropped in the course of
+their evolutions."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did they find much?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You'd be surprised to know how much!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's do the same thing here.  If we stretch across the field then
+every one is responsible for just a small section under his eyes--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"--and feet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"--and feet.  I wish we had an arrow head to show the women so they'd
+know exactly what to look for."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Father had one in the cabinet," said Roger, "and I put it in my pocket
+for just this purpose.  I don't know where he got it, and it may not be
+of exactly the kind of stone these New Jersey Indians used, but it will
+show the shape all right."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They always used flint, didn't they?" asked Margaret.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Flint or obsidian or the hardest stone they could find, whatever it
+was."
+
+"Bone?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sometimes.  I saw quite large bone heads at the Natural History
+Museum."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've seen life-size boneheads frequently," announced James solemnly,
+not smiling until Roger and Tom pelted him with bits of sod.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The arrow head was passed from hand to hand and every one studied it
+carefully.  Then they stretched across the field and began their
+search.  The result was not very satisfactory from Dicky's point of
+view, for he concluded that he need not have worried as to how the load
+was to be carried home.  There were only seven found.  Of these,
+however, Dicky found two, one by his unaided efforts and the other
+through Ethel Blue's taking pains not to see one that lay between him
+and her.  Nobody else found more than one and several of them found
+none at all, so Dicky, after all, was hilarious.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a corner of the field they built a fire and heated water for the tea
+in a kettle thrust among the coals.  Ears of corn still in the husk
+were roasted between heated stones, bits of bacon sizzled appetizingly
+from forked sticks and dripped on to the flames with a hissing sound,
+and biscuits, fresh from Moya's oven, were reheated near the blaze.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was while they were sitting around the fire that Dicky's mind turned
+to the remainder of the Indian's equipment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What did he do with thith arrowhead?" he inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He tied it on to the end of an arrow, and shot bears with it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What'th an arrow?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A long, slender stick."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you throw it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You shoot it from a bow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What'th a bow?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A curved piece of wood with a string connecting the ends."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How doeth it work?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Roger heaved a sigh and then gave it up..
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Me for the bushes," he cried.  "Language fails me; I'll have to make a
+bow and arrow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's the easiest way," nodded Tom.  "Bring me a switch and I'll make
+the arrow while you make the bow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who's got a piece of string?" inquired Roger a few minutes later as he
+held up his handiwork for the admiration of his friends,
+</P>
+
+<P>
+James produced the necessary string and Roger strung the bow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, then, let's see what it will do," he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Adjusting the arrow he drew the cord and sent the simple shaft whizzing
+through the air against a tree where it stuck in the bark for an
+instant before it fell to the ground.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you think it's safe for Dicky to have an arrow as sharp as that?"
+inquired Helen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's not sharp enough to do any damage.  It didn't hold in the tree."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dicky was delighted with his new toy and went off to test its power,
+followed by Elisabeth of Belgium, Sheila, Luigi and Pietro Paterno,
+Olga Peterson and Vasili and Vladimir Vereshchagin.  The romper-clad
+band stirred the amused smiles of the elders watching them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They certainly are the cunningest little dinks that ever happened!"
+cried Ethel Brown, establishing herself comfortably to help make small
+bows and arrows for the rest of the flock.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girls as well as the boys of the United Service Club knew how to
+use a jacknife and the diminutive weapons of the chase were soon ready.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Ethels were hunting through the luncheon basket for string when a
+howl from the other side of the field made them drop what was in their
+hands and rush toward the trees where the children were playing.  The
+mothers followed them, Mrs. Paterno and Mrs. Vereshchagin in the lead.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I certainly hope it's not the little Paterno," said Ethel Blue
+breathlessly to Ethel Brown as they ran.  "Mrs. Paterno never will
+forgive Dicky if he's got him into trouble again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They concluded when they came in sight of the group of children that
+the Italian woman had run from nervousness and the Russian because she
+recognized the voice of her offspring, for it was Vladimir whose yells
+were resounding through the air.  Dicky was bending over him and the
+other children were standing around so that the runners as they
+approached could not see what was the matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Vereshchagin increased her speed, uttering sounds that fell
+strangely on her listeners' ears.  The group of children fell away as
+their elders came near, and the Ethels, who were in front, saw that
+Vladimir was pinned to a tree by Dicky's arrow which had pierced the
+fullness of his rompers.  He could not be hurt in the least, but the
+strangeness of his position had startled and angered him and was
+causing the shrieks that had frightened them all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fortunately for Dicky, Mrs. Vereshchagin, unlike Mrs. Paterno, had a
+sense of humor, and as soon as she saw that her child was neither
+injured nor in danger she burst into laughter as loud as his cries of
+rage and terror.  Roger quickly unfastened him from the tree to which
+he was bound and handed him over to his mother, none the worse for his
+experience except that his rompers were torn.  Turning to Dicky, Roger
+decreed that the head must be taken from his arrow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's not your fault, old man," he said; "but Helen was right--this
+thing is too sharp."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll tell you what to do, Roger, get some of those rubber tips that
+slip on the ends of lead pencils.  The English stationer must have
+some.  If you put them on all these arrows they can't do any harm."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Meanwhile the kiddies had better not have them," Mrs. Schuler decided,
+so they were put aside with the basket, to be finished later when the
+needed tips should be procured in Rosemont.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You got off pretty well, that time, sir," laughed Roger.  "What were
+you trying to do?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wath an Indian thooting bearth.  Vladimir wath a bear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A Russian bear.  You got him all right; but let me tell you, young
+man; you must be mighty careful what you aim at, for international
+complications may follow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What'th that?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That means it's dangerous to aim at <I>anybody</I>.  I'll make you a target
+and when you get so you can hit the bull's eye three times out of five
+at a distance of fifteen feet I'll give you a better bow.  Is it a
+bargain?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dicky shook hands on it solemnly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Remember now, no shooting at any living thing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not a cat?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not a cat or a bird, a dog or any other animal on two legs or four."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right," nodded Dicky, and Roger knew that he would keep his word,
+for that is a part of the training of a soldier's son.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The experiences of the afternoon were not yet ended.  The arrow episode
+over the children looked about for other amusement.  They drifted away
+from the group still gathered about the embers of the dying fire and
+made their way among the bushes standing uncut on the edge of the new
+clearing.  Once in a while their laughter was borne on the breeze.  It
+was a long time before any one thought of seeing what they were doing.
+Then Ethel Brown rose and sauntered in the direction whence the sounds
+came.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"With Dicky in the lead," she thought, "it's just as well to keep an
+eye on them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she approached the woods she saw the little army of rompered
+youngsters, each armed with a switch, and each doing his best to strike
+something high over his head.  They all stood with their eager faces
+looking upward and their arms working busily with what muscle the
+summer had given them.  Leaves were falling from the bushes and the
+lower branches of the saplings that were struck by their rods, and it
+was evident that they were causing great destruction to the foliage,
+whatever the real object of their attack.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel's wonderment increased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Children do get the greatest amount of fun out of the smallest
+things," she thought.  "What can they be doing?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When quite near the thicket, however, her slow steps quickened into a
+run.  Her sharp eyes discovered hanging from one of the trees over the
+heads of the children one of the large wasps' nests which seem to be
+made of gray paper.  It had caught Dicky's attention and he had coveted
+it for purpose of investigation.  Summoning his cohorts he had pointed
+it out to them and had urged them to bring it down.  Each one had
+broken a stick; some had stripped off the leaves entirely; others had
+left a tuft at the end.  In both cases the weapons looked dangerously
+destructive to Ethel, as she ran toward them and saw one pole after
+another swish past the home of the paper wasps and expected the colony
+to rush forth to defend their abode.  With a cry of warning she bore
+down on them and with a sweep of her arms turned them all back into the
+open field.  Dicky was indignant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What you doing that for?" he demanded angrily.  "One more thwat and
+I'd a had it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't know what it is," cried Ethel breathlessly.  "You'd all be
+stung if there were any wasps at home.  That's their house and they get
+awfully mad."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The children looked back fearfully at the object of their attack.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You've had a narrow escape," insisted Ethel, and then to divert their
+minds from what had happened she made them stretch themselves in a line
+and hunt for arrow heads all the way back to their mothers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thith ith a funny thtone," exclaimed Dicky, picking up a rather large
+oblong stone that had a groove all around its middle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It looks like Lake Chautauqua.  doesn't it?  You know they say that
+'Chautauqua' means 'the bag tied in the middle'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did the Indianth uthe it?" Dicky asked as he laid his trophy in
+Roger's hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I rather think they did," returned Roger excitedly.  "It looks to me
+as if this was a hammer or a hatchet.  See--" and he held it out for
+the girls and James and Tom to see, "they must have lashed this head on
+to a stout stick by a cord tied where this crease is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It would make a first-rate hammer," commended James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Indians didn't manufacture as many of these as they did arrow
+heads, because, of course, they didn't need as many.  I rather guess
+you've made the big find of the afternoon," and Dicky swelled with
+pride as his brother patted him on the shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When it became time to go home the Ethels offered to take the short cut
+to Rosemont and get the rubber tips for the children's arrows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If we go across the field and the West Woods we come out not far from
+the stationer's, and we can leave the tips up at Rose House on the way
+back so they'll be ready for you to put on to-morrow and the youngsters
+can have the bows and arrows to play with right off."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let me go," begged Dicky.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right," agreed Roger.  "Be careful when you go over the railroad
+track, girls.  Mother isn't very keen on having Dicky learn that road,
+you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They promised to be careful and set forth in the opposite direction
+from the rest of the party whom they left putting together the remnants
+of the feast and packing away the plates.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was an interesting walk.  They played Indian all the way.  Ethel
+Blue's imagination had been greatly stimulated by the tale of the
+attack on Deerfield and she pretended to see an Indian behind every
+tree.  Ethel Brown pretended to shoot them all with unerring arrow, and
+Dicky charged the bushes in handsome style and routed the enemy with
+awful slaughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is just the kind of game we ought not to play if we want to make
+Dicky think of peace and not of war," declared Ethel Blue at last when
+she had become breathless from the excitement of their countless
+adventures.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's so.  It's funny how you forget.  It's just as Delia says--we
+don't realize how fighting and soldiers and thinking about military
+things is put into our minds even in games when we're little."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm really sorry we've done this," confessed.  Ethel Brown as they
+fell behind their charge.  "Dicky's 'pretending' works over time
+anyway, and he may dream about Indians, or get scared to go to bed, and
+it will be our fault."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's rather late to think about it--but let's try not to do it again.
+Isn't there something we can call his attention to now to take his mind
+off Indians?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dicky was marching ahead of them drawing an imaginary bow and bringing
+down a large bag of imaginary birds, while from the difficulty with
+which he occasionally dragged an imaginary something behind him it
+seemed that he had at least slain an imaginary deer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Naturally, with his hunting blood up, the Ethels found him not
+responsive to appeals to "see what a pretty flower this is" or to
+examine the hole of a chipmunk.  He was after more thrilling
+adventures.  Still, by the time they reached the railroad track,
+everyday matters were beginning to command his attention.  This short
+cut across the track was one that he had seldom been allowed to take,
+and the mere fact of doing it was exciting.  He stopped in the middle
+and looked up and down the line while the girls tugged at him.  It was
+only when he saw a bit or two of shining metal which, according to his
+arrow head game of the afternoon, he picked up and tucked away in the
+pocket of his rompers, that his attention was once more turned to the
+gathering of the wonders that seemed to be under his feet all the time
+if only he looked for them hard enough.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The errand to the stationery shop was successful.  The stationer said
+that most pencils now were made with erasers built into them, but that
+he thought he had a box of old tips left over.  He hunted for them very
+obligingly, and set so small a price on them that the Ethels took the
+whole box so that they might have a liberal supply in case any were
+lost off the arrow heads.  Dicky put one in his pocket so that he could
+place it on his arrow as soon as he got it into his hands once more,
+and he begged the Ethels to go home by way of Rose House so that he
+could fix it up that very night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it early enough?" asked Ethel Blue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel Brown thought it was.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we'll have to hurry," she warned; "there's an awfully black cloud
+over there.  It looks like a thunder storm."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They scampered as fast as their legs would carry them and reached the
+farm in the increasing darkness, but before any rain had fallen.  They
+found all the bows and arrows standing in a trash basket which Roger
+had made for the dining room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Roger stood them up in that so the children wouldn't be apt to
+touch 'em," explained Moya.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dicky sat down on the hearth and set to work on the arrow which he
+recognized as his because of its greater length.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You'll have to hurry or we'll get caught," warned his sister.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We ought to start right off," urged Ethel Blue.  "We'll have to run
+for it even if we go now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Schuler brought in the cape of her storm coat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Take this for Dicky," she said.  "If it does break before you get home
+it will rain hard and his rompers won't be any protection at all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Put it on now, Dicky," commanded Ethel Brown.  "Stand up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dicky rose reluctantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why do you fill up your pocket with such stuff," inquired Ethel
+impatiently.  "There, throw it into the fireplace--gravel, toadstools,
+old brass," she catalogued contemptuously, and Dicky, swept on by her
+eagerness, obediently cast his treasures among the soft pine boughs
+that filled the wide, old fireplace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll clear them away," promised Mrs. Schuler.  "Hurry," and she fairly
+turned them out of the house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You made me throw away my shiny things," complained Dicky as they ran
+down the lane as fast as they could go.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind; you'd have jounced them out of your pocket anyway, running
+like this," and Dicky, taking giant strides as his sister and his
+cousin held a hand on each side, was inclined to think that he would be
+lucky if he were not jounced put of his clothes before he got home.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIV
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE STORM
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+After all, they need not have jerked poor Dicky over the ground at such
+a rapid pace for the storm, though it grumbled and roared at a
+distance, did not break until a late hour in the night.  Then it came
+with a vengeance and made up for its indecision by behaving with real
+ferocity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To the women at Rose House, accustomed to the city, where Nature's
+sights and sounds are deadened by the number of the buildings and the
+narrowness of the streets, the uproar was terrifying.  Flash after
+flash lit up their rooms so that the roosters and puppies and pigs and
+cows on the curtains stood out clearly in the white light.  Crash after
+crash sent them cowering under the covers of their beds.  The children
+woke and added their cries to the tumult.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the electric storm swept away into the distance the wind rose and
+howled about the house.  Shutters slammed; chairs were over-turned on
+the porch; a brick fell with a thud from the top of the chimney to the
+roof; another fell down the chimney into the fireplace where its
+arrival was followed by a roar that seemed to shake the old building on
+its foundation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Grrreat Scott!" ejaculated Mr. Schuler, who had learned some English
+expressions from his pupils.  He was returning through the hall from a
+hobbling excursion to make sure that all the windows down stairs were
+closed.  The candle dropped from his hand and he was left in the dark.
+His crutch slid from under his arm, and he was forced to cling to a
+table for support and call for his wife to come and find it for him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Schuler reached him from the kitchen where she had been attending
+to the fastenings of the back door.  Fortunately her light had survived
+the gusty attack and she was able to help her husband to his prop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is it?" she cried breathlessly, "Is the house falling?  Did you
+ever hear such a noise!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Schuler never had.  The outcry upstairs was increased by the
+shrieks of Sheila who had slept until the last shock and who woke at
+last to add her penetrating voice to the pandemonium.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you smell something queer?" asked Mrs. Schuler.  "Do you think that
+was a lightning-bolt and it set the house on fire?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her husband shook his head doubtfully.  "The lightning has gone by," he
+said, but they went together on a tour of investigation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nothing was burning in the kitchen, but the rays of the uplifted candle
+showed a zigzag crack on the wall behind the stove.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That wall is the chimney," said Mrs. Schuler.  "Something has happened
+to the chimney."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's go into the dining-room and see if anything shows there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Into the dining-room they went.  An acrid smell filled the room, and as
+they entered a smouldering flame in the fireplace burst into a blaze,
+from the draught of the door.  Its fuel consisted only of some trash
+that had been tossed into the fireplace and hidden behind the fresh
+pine boughs that filled the opening through the summer.  The drinking
+water in the pitcher on the table was enough to put an end to it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's hardly large enough to bother to put out," exclaimed Mr. Schuler,
+"if it weren't that the chimney seems to be so shaken that the flames
+might work through somewhere and set fire to the woodwork."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's no doubt about something serious having happened to the
+chimney," and Mrs. Schuler stooped and pushed back three or four bricks
+that had tumbled forward on to the hearth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The back is cracked," she announced from her knees.  "With that big
+crack on the kitchen side I rather think Moya had better use the oil
+stove until Mr. Emerson can send a bricklayer to examine the chimney."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Everything but this seems all right here; you'd better go up and try
+to calm the women," advised Mr. Schuler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wind storm was dying down and the inmates of Rose House were
+becoming quieter as the din outside moderated.  The Matron went from
+room to room bringing comfort and courage as her candle shone upon one
+frightened face after another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's all over; there's nothing to be afraid of," she said over and
+over again.  Only to Moya did she tell what had happened to the
+chimney, so that she might prepare breakfast on the oil stove.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It almost seems I heard a giant fall down the chimney," the Irish girl
+whispered hoarsely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I dare say you did hear the bricks falling.  There's a gallon or two
+of soot in the dining-room fireplace for you to clean up in the
+morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Tis easy, that, compared wid cleaning up the whole house that seemed
+like to tumble!" said Moya with a sigh of relief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The children were already asleep and the remainder of the night was
+unbroken by any sound save the dripping of the raindrops from the
+branches and the swish of wet leaves against each other when a light
+breeze revived their former activities.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Little Vladimir was up early with a memory of something queer having
+happened in the night.  He was eager to go downstairs and find out what
+it was all about and his mother dressed him and let him out of her room
+and then turned over to take another nap.  When Moya went down to set
+the oil stove in position for use he was amusing himself contentedly
+with the rubbish in the fireplace, his face and hands already in need
+of renewed attention from his mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Tis the sooty-faced young one ye are," she called to him
+good-naturedly.  "Run up to the brook and wash yerself an' save yer
+mother the throuble."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She opened the back door and he ran out into the yard, but instead of
+going up the lane to the brook he scampered round the house and down
+the lane.  Moya called after him but he paid no attention.  "Sure, I've
+too much to do to be day-nursing that young Russian," she murmured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were wonderings and ejaculations in many tongues when all the
+women and children came down and examined the cracks in the kitchen
+side of the chimney and in the back of the dining-room fireplace and
+saw the heap of rubbish and bricks piled up in the fireplace.  It gave
+them something to talk about all the morning.  This was lucky, for the
+grass was too wet for the children to play on it, and when mothers and
+children were crowded on the veranda idle words sometimes changed to
+cross ones.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Tis strange; they's good women, iv'ry wan, take 'em alone," Moya had
+said one day to Mrs. Schuler and Ethel Blue when they heard from the
+kitchen the sounds of dispute upon the porch; "yit listen to 'em whin
+they gits together."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's because each one of them gets out of the talk just what she
+puts into it," explained the Matron.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Manin' that if she comes to it cross it's cross answers she gits.
+It's right ye are, ma'am.  'Tis so about likin' or hatin' yer work.
+Days when yer bring happiness to yer work it goes like a bird, an' days
+when ye have the black dog on yer back the work turns round an' fights
+wid yer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ethel Blue listened intently.  Things like that had happened to her but
+she had not supposed that grown people had such experiences.  She
+remembered a day during the previous week when she had waked up cross.
+A dozen matters went wrong before she left the house to go to school.
+On the way the mud pulled off one of her overshoes, and her boot was
+soiled before she was shod again.  The delay made her five minutes late
+and caused a black mark to deface her perfect attendance record.  Every
+recitation went wrong in one way or another, and every one she spoke to
+was as cross as two sticks.  As she thought it over she realized that
+if what Mrs. Schuler and Moya said was true the whole trouble came from
+herself.  When she woke up not in the best of humor she ought to have
+smoothed herself out before she went down to breakfast, and then she
+would have picked her way calmly over the crossing and not tried to
+take a short cut through the mud; she would not have been delayed and
+earned a tardy mark; she would have had an unclouded mind that could
+give its best attention to the recitations so that she would have done
+herself justice; people would have been glad to talk to her because she
+looked cheerful and was in a sunny mood and no one would have been
+cross.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I guess it was all my fault," she thought.  "I guess it will pay to
+straighten myself out before I get out of bed every morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All was well in and out of Rose House on the morning after the storm.
+Every one told her experiences as if she were the only person affected
+and they all talked at once and enjoyed themselves immensely.  Vladimir
+came running up on to the porch in the middle of the morning and threw
+himself across his mother's lap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where have you been now?" she asked him.  He had come to breakfast
+only after being called a dozen times and he had disappeared
+immediately after breakfast.  "What have you been doing?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little fellow laughed and poured into her lap a handful of nickels
+and ten-cent pieces.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where in the world did you get those?" demanded Mrs. Vereshchagin.
+"Who gave them to you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A man in the road."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A man in the road?  All that money?  What for?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I gave him the shiny thing and he gave me those moneys."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What shiny thing?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The shiny thing I found on the floor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where on the floor?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In the dining-room, and the youngster ran into the house to point out
+exactly the place where he had found the 'shiny thing.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A 'shiny thing'," repeated Moya, who was putting the room in order and
+heard the Russian woman's inquiries.  "'Tis two of 'em I found mesilf
+on the floor when I cleared up the mess from the fireplace this
+morning.  'Twas two bits of brass.  See, I saved 'em," and she shook
+from a scooped-out gourd which served as an ornament on the mantel two
+bits of metal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Was it like these, Vladdy?" she asked, but Vladimir was too tired of
+being questioned and ran away without answering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His mother shook her head as she gazed at the bits lying on her palm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not worth all these moneys," she murmured as she counted forty cents
+in the small coins in her other hand.  It was a mystery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Moya put the bits of brass back into the gourd and went on with her
+dusting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Schuler telephoned to Mr. Emerson early in the morning, telling
+him of the damage to the house and asking him to come and see what had
+happened go that the bricklayers might be set to work as soon as
+possible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm afraid to let Moya light the kitchen stove until I'm sure the
+chimney is sound," she explained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Emerson telephoned the news to his grandchildren and he and all the
+Mortons with Dorothy and her mother and Miss Merriam and Elisabeth
+arrived at the farm at almost the same time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm glad the house is in as good condition as it seems to be,"
+exclaimed Mrs. Morton.  "I couldn't bear to have the old homestead fall
+to ruin.  I was startled at Father's message."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not so startled as all the people here were in the night," laughed her
+father who had been talking with Mrs. Schuler.  "It seems that the
+worst noise came after the electric storm was over, but while the wind
+was at its highest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The chimney wasn't struck by lightning, then."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was not lightning," asserted Mr. Schuler.  "The wind knocked bricks
+from the top of the chimney.  I saw one or two on the roof this
+morning.  As you see, several fell down the chimney into the fireplace."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can't see how bricks from the top of the chimney could have made the
+crack in the kitchen side of the chimney and this crack in the back of
+the fireplace."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nor I," agreed Mr. Schuler.  "The roar was tremendous.  I could not
+believe that I was seeing rightly when I beheld only these few fallen
+bricks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It sounded as if the whole chimney had fallen," Mrs. Schuler confirmed
+her husband's assertion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mrs. Peterson says it sounded to her like an explosion, sir," said
+Moya, who had been talking with the women on the porch.  "Her room is
+right over this.  The bricks fell through the chimney, banging it all
+the way, says she, and thin there was a roar like powder had gone off,
+as far as I can understand what she says."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If Mrs. Paterno heard that she must have thought the Black Hand was
+getting in its fine work, sure enough," smiled Mr. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Praise be, her room is on the other side of the house.  We were all
+wailing like banshees up there, but she no more than the rest.  'Tis
+better she is," and Moya nodded reassuringly to the grown-ups, who
+were, she knew, deeply interested in the Italian woman's recovery of
+her nervous strength.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This explosion business I don't understand," Mr. Emerson said slowly
+to himself.  "What did you find in the fireplace this morning, Moya?  I
+wish you had left all the stuff here for me to see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm sorry, sir.  I was only thinkin' about havin' it clean before
+breakfast.  There was the bricks, sir, two of 'em; and a pile of soot
+and some bits of trash wid no meanin'--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did you find my two thinieth I picked up on the track yesterday?"
+asked Dicky.  "Ethels made me throw away all the thingth in my pocket
+and my thinieth went too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What does he mean by his 'shinies'?" asked Mr. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He picked up a lot of stuff yesterday when we were hunting arrow heads
+and walking to Rosemont by the short cut over the track.  When I was
+putting Mrs. Schuler's storm cape on him I emptied out his pocketful of
+trash into the fireplace."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What did the shinies look like, son?" inquired Dicky's grandfather.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dicky was entering into an elaborate and unintelligible explanation
+when Moya took the bits of brass from the gourd.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Would these be the shinies?" she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Emerson took them from her and examined them carefully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I rather think the explanation of the explosion is here," he decided.
+"You say you picked these up on the track, Dicky?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yeth, I did, and Ethel threw them away," repeated the youngster who
+was beginning to think that he had a real grievance, since his
+"shinies" seemed to have some importance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"These are two of the small dynamite cartridges that brakemen lay on
+the track to notify the engineer of a following train to stop for some
+reason.  They use them in stormy weather or when there is reason to
+think that the usual flag or red light between the rails won't be seen."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dynamite!" exclaimed Ethel Brown, looking at her hand as she
+remembered that she had not been especially gentle when she tossed the
+contents of her brother's pocket into the fireplace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is enough dynamite in a cartridge to make a sharp detonation but
+not enough to do any damage, unless, as happened here, there were two
+of them in a small space that was enclosed on three sides--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The trash was blown out on the floor of the room," interrupted Mr.
+Schuler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"--by walls that were none too strong.  With a wind such as last
+night's knocking down the chimney at the top and bricks setting
+dynamite cartridges into action below I only wonder that the old thing
+is standing at all this morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They gazed at it as if they expected the whole affair to fall before
+their eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll call up the brickmason and find out when he can come to examine
+it; he may have to rebuild the entire chimney."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Emerson was moving toward the hall where the telephone was when his
+eye fell on Elisabeth sitting contentedly on the floor close to the
+wall turning over and over something that gleamed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What have you got there, small blessing?" he asked, stooping to make
+sure that she was not intending to try the taste of whatever it might
+be.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hullo!"  he  cried,  straightening  himself.  "Hullo!" and he held up
+his discovery before the astonished eyes of the group.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It looks like a gold coin, Grandfather!" exclaimed Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's just what it is.  A guinea.  Its date is 1762.  Where did you
+find it, Ayleesabet?" he asked the child, who was reaching up her tiny
+hands for the return of her new plaything.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here, here," she answered, pointing to the floor where the casing of
+the chimney yawned from the planks for half an inch.  "Here," and she
+pushed her fingers into the crack.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I saw her pull something that was sticking out of there a little bit,"
+said Dorothy, "but I was interested in what Mr. Emerson was saying and
+I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Merriam took Elisabeth on her lap and peered between her lips to
+make sure that no dirt from the floor was visible.  Then she took a
+small emergency kit from her pocket, extracted a bit of sterile gauze
+and wiped out the little pink mouth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I live in hopes that the day will come when she'll outgrow her desire
+to test everything with her mouth," she remarked amusedly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it guineas ye're speaking about?" asked Moya.  "Perhaps 'twas a
+guinea young Vladdy the Russian found this morning.  He said he found a
+'shiny thing.'  I thought 'twas one of thim cartridges, like I found
+myself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Another shiny thing?  What did he do with it?  Let's see it?" demanded
+Mr. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He said he gave it to a man in the road and the man gave him a handful
+of ten-cent pieces and nickels.  There was forty cents of it.  I heard
+Mrs. Vereshchagin counting 'em."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Forty cents!  It must have been a valuable shiny thing that a man in
+the road would give a child forty cents for.  He knew its value.  I
+should say Vladimir and Elisabeth had tapped the same till.  Helen, go
+and see if you can find out anything more from the child or his mother.
+And Roger, get a chisel and hammer and hatchet and perhaps you and Mr.
+Schuler and I can take down these boards and see what there is to see
+behind them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wouldn't it be thrilling if there should be a hidden treasure!"
+exclaimed Ethel Blue.  "Aren't you shivering all over with excitement,
+Miss Gertrude?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meanwhile Roger and his grandfather were prying off the boards that
+covered in the chimney on the right side and supported the
+mantel-shelf.  As it fell back into their hands two more gold coins
+tumbled to the floor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just take off this narrow plank, Roger and let me squint in there.
+Stand back, please, all of you, and let us have as much light as we
+can."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have a flashlight," said Mr. Schuler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just the ticket.  Now, then--," and Mr. Emerson kneeled down, peering
+into the space that was disclosed when the boards fell away.  "I see
+something; I certainly see something," he cried as the electricity
+searched into the darkness.  He thrust in his arm but the something was
+too far off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Take my crutch," suggested Mr. Schuler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Emerson took it and tugged away with the top.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's coming, it's coming," his muffled cry rose from the depths.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Another tug and a blackened leather pouch, slashed with a jagged tear
+from which gold pieces were pouring, tumbled into the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pick it all up and put it on the table, Roger, while Mr. Schuler and I
+decide how it happened," ordered Mr. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The investigation seemed to prove that there probably had been a crack
+in the bricks at the back of the mantel at the time when Algernon
+Merriam, Miss Gertrude's ancestor, had thrust the bag into the mantel
+cupboard.  It had fallen off the back of the shelf and into the little
+crevasse where it lay beyond the reach of arm or bent wire or candle
+light for over a hundred and thirty years.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Evidently last night's big shaking widened the crack and let the bag
+fall down.  The ragged edge of a broken brick tore the leather and the
+two coins that Vladimir and Elisabeth found slipped out and fell just
+inside the plank covering of the chimney and below it out on to the
+floor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So did the two that fell out when we were working," added Roger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's open it and count the money.  This may be some other bag,"
+suggested Helen, who had brought back no farther information from the
+Russian.  "If it's Algernon's it ought to have--how many guineas was
+it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Five hundred and seventy-three, and a ring and a miniature," continued
+Ethel Brown who had heard his story.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In a box," concluded Ethel Blue.  "I can't wait for Roger to undo it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They gathered around the table on which Roger had placed the stained
+bag, the gold coins gleaming through a gash in its side.  Moya cleaned
+the outside as well as she could with a damp cloth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"See, here are some crumbs of sealing-wax still clinging to the cord,"
+and Grandfather Emerson cut the string that still tied the mouth.
+Before their amazed eyes there rolled first a small box and then
+guineas as bright as when they were tied up in their prison.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We shan't have to count the guineas; if the ring and the miniature are
+in the box that will prove that it's Algernon's bag," said Helen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here, young woman; hands off," cried her grandfather as Helen was
+preparing to open the box.  "Algernon and Patience were no direct
+ancestors of yours.  Miss Merriam is the suitable person to perform
+this ceremony."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Helen, smiling, pushed the basket toward Miss Gertrude who slipped off
+the string with trembling fingers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm almost afraid to take off the cover," she whispered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O, do hurry up, Miss Gertrude," implored Ethel Brown.  "I think I
+shall burst if I don't know all about it soon!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With misty eyes Gertrude slowly lifted the cover from the box.  Wrapped
+in a twist of cotton was a ring set with several large diamonds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it marked 'Gertrude'?" asked Dorothy breathlessly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Merriam nodded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Below the ring lay a miniature, the portrait of a fair woman with deep
+blue eyes.  It was set round with brilliants and on the gold back was
+engraved, "Gertrude Merriam."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Merriam stared at it and then handed it to Mr. Emerson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What a marvellous likeness!" he exclaimed.  "You must be able to see
+it yourself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gertrude nodded again, not trusting herself to speak.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's no question that she's your ancestor.  Now, I'd like to see if
+the correct number of coins is here if you'll let Roger and me count
+your guineas for you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Count my guineas?" cried Miss Merriam.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly they're your guineas.  You're a direct descendant of
+Algernon and Patience.  The bag and its contents belong to you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gertrude stared at Mr. Emerson as if she could not understand him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mine?" she repeated, "mine?" but when Mr. Emerson insisted and the
+other elders congratulated her and the girls kissed her and Roger shook
+hands formally, she began, to realize that this little fortune really
+was hers by right and not through the kindness of her friends.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The count of the coins proved exact.  There were 569 of them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here are the two that fell on the floor when we were hammering," said
+Roger, laying them on the table.  "They make 571."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And here is the one that Ayleesabet found," added Mr. Emerson, drawing
+it from his pocket.  "That is the five hundred and seventy-second.
+Young Vladimir's trophy has gone for good, I'm afraid.  He must have
+sold it to some passer-by who knew enough to realize that it was a
+valuable coin and wasn't honest enough to hunt for the owner or to pay
+the child its full value."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Every one of the 573 is accounted for, anyway," declared Roger.  "You
+won't think it impertinent if I figure out how much you're worth, will
+you Miss Gertrude?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall be glad if you will," she answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A guinea is 21 shillings and a shilling is about 24 cents in American
+money.  That makes a guinea worth about $5.04.  Five
+hundred-and-seventy-two times that makes $2882.88."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Almost three thousand dollars!" exclaimed Gertrude, her face radiant;
+"why--why now--" she broke off suddenly and hid her face on Mrs.
+Smith's shoulder, sobbing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now I can pay all my indebtedness and be free to do what I please,"
+she said to her friend in an undertone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Smith patted her gently, for she knew what it was she wanted to be
+free to do.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This fortune is going to mount up to more than three thousand
+dollars," declared Mr. Emerson.  "There isn't a coin here that was
+minted later than 1774.  There can't be, because Algernon came to this
+country in the early part of 1775.  Pile them up according to the dates
+on them, children, and let's see what there is that will appeal to the
+dealer in antiquities."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"At that rate every coin here, even the youngest, is worth more than
+$5.04," exclaimed Roger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You get the idea, my son," smiled his grandfather.  "We'll sell these
+coins separately for Miss Gertrude and get a special price on each one.
+Here's one, for instance, that ought to be worth a good bonus; it is
+dated 1663.  It was over a hundred years old when your respected
+great-great-grandfather brought it over here, and if I remember my
+English history correctly it was in 1663 that guineas were first
+minted.  This is a 'first edition,' so to speak."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gertrude leaned back in her chair, smiling happily.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap15"></A>
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XV
+</H2>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+GERTRUDE CHANGES HER NAME
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The Club had been prominent figures at Mrs. Schuler's wedding, but that
+was a very small affair at home, and Miss Gertrude's was to be in the
+church with a reception afterwards at Dorothy's house.  The Club felt
+that they wanted to do every bit of the work that they could, not only
+because they loved Miss Gertrude but because she was going to marry the
+brother of two of the Club members.  She had said that she would like
+to have the church decorated with wild flowers so that she might take
+away with her the remembrance of the blossoms that she had seen and
+loved in the Rosemont fields.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Club held a special meeting to talk over their plans for the
+wedding.  It was at Rose House, for they had become accustomed to
+meeting there during the summer, when every moment could be utilized
+for work on something connected with the furnishing of the house while
+at the same time they could talk as they hammered and measured and
+screwed and sewed.  They were gathered under the tree where the
+squirrel lived.  As they established themselves, he was sitting on a
+branch above them, twitching his tail and making ready for a descent to
+search for cookies in their pockets.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Helen called the meeting to order and told them what Miss Gertrude had
+said about the decorations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Has any one any suggestions?" she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shall we have all the different kinds of flowers we can find or select
+one kind?" asked Ethel Brown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We can get goldenrod and asters now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And cardinals and cat-tails."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And 'old-maids'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And hollyhocks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nobody has said 'Queen Anne's Lace.'  I think that's the prettiest of
+all," urged Ethel Blue.  "Wouldn't it be delicate and fairy-like if we
+trimmed the whole church with it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O, Ethel, I see it in a flash!" cried Delia.  "Not banked heavily
+anywhere, but always in feathery masses."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On the altar and winding the chancel rail."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A cluster on the end of each pew."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Long garlands instead of ribbons to close the ends of the pews."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"An arch about half way up the aisle."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The whole scene grew on them as they talked and they waxed enthusiastic
+over the details.  They had learned that flowers to be used for
+decoration should be picked the day beforehand and placed in water over
+night so that the moisture should have time to force itself into the
+stalks and to drive away the first wilting.  They decided to gather all
+the Queen Anne's Lace that they could find in all Rosemont, accepting
+the help of all the children who had asked if they might help.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Smith was building a new house, and Dorothy and the Ethels had
+planted a flower garden on the new lot although the house was not yet
+done.  They had arranged to have a succession of pink blossoms.  For
+fear it would not turn out well because they had not been able to have
+the soil put in as good condition as they wanted on account of the
+disturbed state of the place with workmen constantly crossing, they had
+tried another pink garden at Rose House, and the Ethels had planted
+still another bed in their own yard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Among them all I should think we ought to find enough, if all the
+blossoms don't take it into their heads to fall off the very day
+before," said Ethel Brown gloomily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't talk that way!" insisted Ethel Blue.  "We'll find lots of pink
+flowers and Aunt Louise's drawing-room will look lovely."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We can put some of the feathery white with it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And we must find some soft green somewhere.  The coloring of the room
+is so delicate that the pink and white effect will be charming," and
+Helen leaned back against the tree trunk with a satisfied smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The next point is that Aunt Louise says she'd be very glad if we'd all
+assist at the reception just as we do at Mother's teas--handing things
+to eat and being nice to people."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all nodded their understanding of their duties.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are all of you girls going to be dressed alike?" asked Tom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, sir.  Delia is to be maid of honor.  She's to wear the most
+delicate shade of pink you can imagine.  The Ethels are to have a shade
+that is just a wee bit darker, and Margaret and I are to come last--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Being the tallest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"--wearing real rose-colored frocks.  It's going to be beautiful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can easily believe it," declared James, making an attempt at a bow
+that was defeated by the fact that he was lying on his back and found
+the exploit too difficult to achieve.  "I also seem to see you flitting
+around the house under those pink decorations.  You'll run the bride
+hard."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Edward won't think so," laughed Tom.  "Now what are we going to give
+to Gertrude--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hear him say 'Gertrude'," said Ethel Blue under her breath.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She asked us to.  Of course we call her by her name.  She's going to
+be our sister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Ethels looked quite depressed, for calling Miss Gertrude by her
+first name was a privilege they knew they never should have.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was inquiring what we're going to give Gertrude as a Club.  We
+Watkinses are going to give her something as a family, and Delia and I
+have each picked out a special present from us ourselves--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's the way we're doing," came from the Mortons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"--but I think it would be nice to give her something from the whole of
+us, because if it hadn't been for the Club and the Club baby she
+wouldn't have come here at all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's put our colossal intellects on it," urged Roger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If we could think of something that no one else would give her--"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And that would remind her of us and the things the Club does."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Club makes furniture," laughed Roger, "but I shouldn't suggest
+that we repeat our latest triumph and give her a sideboard made of old
+boxes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all roared, but James came up with a serious expression after a
+roll that took him some distance away from his friends.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Boxes am ree-diculous," he remarked, "but furniture isn't.  Isn't
+there some piece of furniture that they'd like better than anything
+else we could give them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've got an idea," announced Roger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quick, quick; catch it!" and Tom tossed over his cap to hold any
+notions that might trickle away from the main mass.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Since we've been doing this furniture making for Rose House I've spent
+a good deal of time in the carpenter shop on Main Street.  You know it
+belongs to the son of those old people down by the bridge, Mr. and Mrs.
+Atwood."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The ones we gave a 'show' for?" asked Delia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The same people.  The son was pleased at our going there and he hasn't
+minded my fooling round his place and he's given me a lot of points.
+He makes good furniture himself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As good as yours?" asked James dryly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go on!" retorted Roger.  "He's a real joiner rather than a carpenter,
+but there isn't any chance for a joiner in a town like Rosemont, so he
+does any kind of carpentering."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go ahead, Roger.  We don't care for the gentleman's biography."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, you do; it has some bearing on what I'm going to propose."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let her shoot, then."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Atwood has a whole heap of splendid mahogany planks in his shop.
+I came across them one day and asked him about them.  He's been
+collecting them a long time and they're splendidly seasoned and he's
+just waiting for a chance to make them into something."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A light begins to break.  We'll have him make our present.  Are you
+sure he'll make it well enough?  It's got to be a crackerjack to be
+suitable for Miss Gertrude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is what I thought.  The doctor and Miss Gertrude both like open
+bookcases.  I heard them say once they liked to be able to take out a
+book without having to bother with a door."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Me, too," agreed Margaret.  "And I never could see the use of a back."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's what I say," said Helen.  "I'd rather dust the books more
+carefully and not have the extra weight added to the bookcase."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You know the furniture they call 'knockdown'?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody nodded.  They had all become familiar with various makes of
+furniture since their attention had been called to the subject by their
+summer's interests.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think Mr. Atwood can make us a bookcase that will consist of two
+upright end pieces with holes through them where each shelf is to go.
+The shelves will have two extensions on each end that will go through
+these square holes and they will be held in place by wedges driven
+through these extensions on the outside of the uprights.  Get me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all said they did.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's all there is to the bookcase.  It can be taken to pieces in ten
+minutes and packed flat and shipped from Rosemont to Oklahoma with some
+chance of its reaching there unbroken; and it can be set up in another
+ten minutes.  What do you say?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There wasn't a dissenting voice, and they were so pleased with the
+scheme that they went to Mr. Atwood's that very afternoon, looked at
+the wood, talked over the finish, and left the order.  It was so simple
+that the maker thought that he could have it done before the wedding
+and he agreed to take it apart and pack it for shipment so that there
+would be no danger of its not making its journey safely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wedding day was a trifle too warm, Dorothy thought as she gazed out
+early in the morning and considered the flowers that must be set in
+place several hours before the time when they were to be seen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We must take care not to have them look like those dandelions in the
+book wedding that began so joyously and ended all in a wizzle," she
+murmured, and she was more than ever glad that they had taken the
+precaution to pick them the day before and have them in water.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By early afternoon all was in readiness and the girls were resting.
+Miss Gertrude had not been allowed to help but had stayed quietly in
+her room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wedding was at half past four, and at that hour the little church,
+which looked perfectly lovely in the opinion of the decorators, was
+pleasantly filled with murmuring groups of Rosemont people, who agreed
+that the feathery decorations proved yet another plume in the caps of
+the Club members, and of New York people who gazed at the modest
+country chapel and found it charming.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a happy <I>brrrr</I> of pleasant comment while the organ played
+softly.  Roger and James were two of the ushers.  Friends of Edward's,
+young doctors, were the other two.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the organ broke into the Lohengrin march and Edward, with Tom for
+his best man, appeared at the chancel, Gertrude came down the aisle
+from the other end of the church.  She wore a simple white trailing
+dress of soft silk, clasped at the breast with the ancient
+brilliant-framed miniature of another Gertrude Merriam.  A pearl
+pendant, a gift from Ayleesabet, hung from her neck.  On her ungloved
+right hand the older Gertrude Merriam's ring blazed beside Edward's
+more modest offering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Ethels held each others' hands as they stood behind the bride,
+wreaths of Queen Anne's Lace over their arms, and a delicate blossom or
+two tucked under a pale blue ribbon in each filmy white hat.  It seemed
+but a moment to them and it was all over and Miss Gertrude was no
+longer "Miss Gertrude" but "Mrs. Edward."  The doctor seemed to have
+put on new dignity and the girls found themselves wondering if they
+should ever call him "Edward" again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gertrude swept by them with her eyes full of happiness, but when she
+reached the back of the church she gave a lovely smile to the women and
+children of Rose House seated in the last pews.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I want every one to see my lovely presents," Miss Gertrude had said,
+so the guests exclaimed over the pretty things grouped in the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was all simple and happy, and a bit of pathos at the end of the
+afternoon brought no depression.  Gertrude was just about to go
+upstairs to change her dress and she stood with her maids and ushers,
+around her, exchanging a laughing word or two with them, when a little
+procession made its way toward her from the dining-room.  It consisted
+of all the women and children from Rose House, dressed in the fresh
+clothes which the women had made for themselves and the children during
+the summer.  They were all so smiling that they could hardly have been
+recognized as the forlorn creatures who had come to Rosemont early in
+July.  Each woman held in her hand a centrepiece, embroidered in the
+characteristic work of her country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Vereshchagin led the way, because she could speak English a little
+better than the others, but her English failed her when she came face
+to face with the bride.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We love you," she said simply, making a sweeping gesture that included
+the bridegroom and all the U. S. C. members who were standing about.
+"We give you these embroideries of our lands.  We love all of you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And all the women and children cried in chorus, "We love all of you."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+<hr noshade>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 15550-h.txt or 15550-h.zip *******</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ethel Morton at Rose House, by Mabell S. C.
+Smith
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Ethel Morton at Rose House
+
+
+Author: Mabell S. C. Smith
+
+Release Date: April 5, 2005  [eBook #15550]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 15550-h.htm or 15550-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/5/5/15550/15550-h/15550-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/5/5/15550/15550-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+Juvenile Library Girls Series
+
+ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE
+
+by
+
+MABELL S. C. SMITH
+
+The World Syndicate Publishing Co.
+Cleveland                     New York
+Press of the Commercial Bookbinding Co., Cleveland
+
+1915
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Here's where we should land"]
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ROGER'S IDEA
+
+For the fortieth time that afternoon, it seemed to Ethel Brown Morton
+and her cousin, Ethel Blue, they untangled the hopelessly mixed
+garlands of the maypole and started the weavers once more to lacing and
+interlacing them properly.
+
+"Under, over; under, over," they directed, each girl escorting a small
+child in and out among the gay bands of pink and white which streamed
+from the top of the pole.
+
+May Day in New Jersey is never a certain quality; it may be reminiscent
+of the North Pole or the Equator.  This happened to be the hottest day
+of the year so far, and both Ethels had wiped their foreheads until
+their handkerchiefs were small balls too soaked to be of any further
+use.  But they kept on, for this was the first Community Maypole that
+Rosemont ever had had, and the United Service Club, to which the girls
+belonged, was doing its part to make the afternoon successful.  Helen,
+Ethel Brown's sister, and Margaret Hancock, another member of the Club,
+were teaching the younger children a folk dance on the side of the
+lawn; Roger Morton, James Hancock and Tom Watkins were marshalling a
+group of boys and marching them back and forth across the end of the
+grass plot nearest the schoolhouse.  Delia Watkins, Tom's sister, and
+Dorothy Smith, a cousin of the Mortons, were going about among the
+mothers and urging them to let the little ones take part in the games.
+Everybody was busy until dusk sent the small children home and the
+caretaker came to uproot the pole and to shake his head ruefully over
+the condition of the lawn whose smoothness had been roughened by the
+tread of scores of dancing feet.
+
+It was while the Club members were sitting on the Mortons' veranda,
+resting, that Helen, who was president of the Club, called them to
+order.
+
+"Saturday afternoon is our usual time of meeting," she began, "and no
+one can say that we haven't put in a solid afternoon of service."
+
+Groans as one and another shifted a cramped position to another more
+restful for weary feet confirmed her statement.
+
+"What I want to say now is that it's time for us to be thinking up some
+more service work.  We are all studying pretty hard so we don't want to
+undertake anything that will use up our out-of-door time too much, but
+we haven't anything in prospect except helping with the town Fourth of
+July celebration, over two months away, so we might as well be planning
+something else."
+
+"Do I understand, Madam President," asked Roger, "that the chief
+officer of this distinguished Club hasn't any ideas to suggest?"
+
+"The chief officer is so tired that not even another glass of
+lemonade--thank you, Tom--can stir her gray matter."
+
+"Hasn't anybody else any ideas?"
+
+Silence greeted the question.
+
+"I seem to remember boasts that ideas never would fail this brilliant
+group," jeered Roger.
+
+"There were some such remarks," James recalled meditatively; "and I
+remember that you prophesied that the day would come when we'd call on
+you for information about some stupendous scheme of yours that was
+literally as big as a house.  Let's have it now."
+
+"Do I understand that you're really appealing to me to learn my
+scheme?" inquired Roger, swelling with amusement.
+
+"If it's any satisfaction to you--yes," replied his sister.
+
+Roger burst into a peal of laughter.
+
+"Shoot off the answers, old man," urged James.  "We're waiting."
+
+"Breathlessly," added Margaret.
+
+Roger settled himself comfortably on the top step of the piazza and
+leaned his head against the post.
+
+"It certainly does me good to see you all at my feet begging like
+this," he declared.
+
+"Bosh!  You're at ours and I can prove it," asserted Tom, stretching
+out a foot of goodly size.
+
+"Peace!  Withdraw that battering ram!" pleaded Roger.  "I'll tell you
+all about it.  Tom's really responsible for this idea, anyway."
+
+"Ideas, real fresh ones, aren't much in my line," admitted practical
+Tom, "but I'm glad to have helped for once."
+
+"I don't suppose you remember that time last autumn when I went in to
+New York to see you and you took me down to the chapel where your
+father preaches on Sunday afternoons?"
+
+"I remember it; we found Father there talking with a lot of mothers and
+children."
+
+"That's the time.  Well, those women and children got on my nerves like
+anything.  You see, out here in Rosemont we haven't any real suffering
+like that.  There are poor people, and Mother always does what she can
+for them, and there's a Charitable Society, as you know, because you
+all helped with the Donnybrook Fair they had on St. Patrick's Day.  But
+the people they help out here are regular Rockefellers compared with
+those poor creatures that your father had in his office that day."
+
+"Father says he could spend a million dollars a year on those people,
+and not have a misspent cent," said Delia.
+
+"What hit me hardest was the thin little children.  Elisabeth hadn't
+come to us yet," Roger went on, referring to a Belgian baby that had
+been sent to the Club to take care of, "and I wasn't so accustomed to
+thinness as I've grown to be since, and it made me--well, it just made
+me sick."
+
+"I don't wonder," agreed Delia seriously.  "That's the way they make me
+feel."
+
+"I know what you thought of," exclaimed Ethel Blue, who was so
+imaginative and sympathetic that she sometimes had an almost uncanny
+way of reading peoples' thoughts.  "You wanted to bring some of those
+poor women out into the country so that the children could get well,
+and you told your grandfather about it and he offered you a house
+somewhere."
+
+"That's about it, kidlet.  I heard one of the women say that she'd had
+a week in the country--some sort of Fresh Air business--and that the
+baby got a lot better, and then she had to go back to the city and the
+little creature was literally dying on her hands."
+
+"You want to give them a whole summer," guessed Ethel Brown.
+
+"That's the idea.  Since I've seen what proper care and good food and
+fresh air have done for that wretched little skeleton, Elisabeth, I'm
+more than ever convinced that if we can give some of those mothers and
+babies a whole month or perhaps two months of Rosemont air we'll be
+saving lives, actually saving lives."
+
+Roger looked about earnestly from one grave face to another.  All were
+in sympathy with him and all waited for the development of his plan,
+for they knew he would not have laid so much stress upon it if he had
+not thought out the details.
+
+"I've talked it over with Grandfather and he rose to it right off.
+Here's where the house comes in.  He said he was going to build a new
+cottage for his farm superintendent this spring--you know it's almost
+done now--and that we could have the old farm house if we wanted to fix
+it up for a Fresh Air scheme."
+
+"Mr. Emerson is a brick.  I pull my forelock to him," and Tom
+illustrated his remark.
+
+"Where's the money to come from?" asked James, who was both of Scottish
+descent and the Club treasurer, and so was not only shrewd but
+accustomed to look after details.
+
+"Grandfather said he'd help in this way; if the Club would study the
+old house and decide on the best way to make it answer the purpose he
+would provide two carpenters for a fortnight to help us.  That will
+mean that if we want to do any whitewashing or papering or matters of
+that kind we'll have to do it ourselves, but the carpenters will put
+the house in repair and put up any partitions that we want and so on."
+
+"Is it furnished?"
+
+"There's another problem.  The superintendent has had his own furniture
+there and what will be left when he goes is almost nothing.  There are
+some old things in the garret, but we'll have to use our ingenuity and
+invent furniture."
+
+"The way I did for our attic."  Dorothy reminded them of the room where
+the Club had been meeting ever since its members returned from
+Chautauqua where it had been formed the summer before.
+
+"Just so.  We'll have to make a raid on our mothers' attics and also on
+the stores in town that have their goods come in big boxes, and I
+imagine we shall be able to concoct things that will 'do,' though they
+may be remarkable to look upon."
+
+"The mothers and children will be out of doors all the time, so they
+won't sit around and examine the furniture," laughed Delia.
+
+"It will be scanty, probably, but if we can get beds enough and a chair
+apiece, or a substitute for a chair, and a few tables, we can get
+along."
+
+"There's your house provided and furnished after a fashion--how are you
+going to run it?" inquired Helen.  "It takes shekels to buy even very
+plain food in these days of the 'high cost of living," and we've got to
+give these women and children nourishing food; they can't live on fresh
+air alone."
+
+"Praise be, fresh air costs nothing!"
+
+"That's one thing we'll get free," laughed Roger.  "Grandfather told me
+to investigate and see what I could find out about finances and then
+let him know.  So I went in to see Mr. Watkins."
+
+"And never told me," said Tom reproachfully.
+
+"Of course not.  All of you people were too sniffy.  I told your father
+what the plan was and what Grandfather had said.  He thought it was
+great.  He's a corker, your father is."
+
+Delia and Tom looked somewhat startled at this epithet describing their
+parent, but Roger meant it to be complimentary, so they made no
+remonstrance.
+
+"He said right off that he could provide the women and children in any
+numbers and that he'd select the ones that needed the change most and
+would be most benefited by it."
+
+"It's not hard to find those," murmured Delia.
+
+"Then he said that he had certain funds that he could draw on for such
+cases and that he'd be just as willing to pay the board for these women
+and children at Rosemont as anywhere else, so that we could depend on a
+small sum for each one of them from the treasurer of the chapel."
+
+"That ought to cover the expense of their food," said Helen, "but we'll
+have to have a housekeeper and a cook."
+
+"That's what Aunt Louise said."
+
+"Oho, you've been talking with Mother about it!" exclaimed Dorothy.
+
+"I knew the Club would come to me sooner or later, it was only a matter
+of time, so I made ready to answer some of the questions you'd be
+asking me."
+
+They laughed at Roger's preparedness, but nodded approvingly.
+
+"Aunt Louise said she'd pay the wages of the cook, and then I toddled
+off to Grandmother Emerson and told her I was planning to raid her
+attic for old furniture, and asked her incidentally if she thought we
+could run the thing without a housekeeper."
+
+"I hope she said 'yes'," exclaimed Margaret, who liked to administer a
+household.
+
+"Grandmother was very polite; she said she thought the U. S. C. could
+do anything it set out to do, but that there would be countless odds
+and ends that would occupy us all summer long--"
+
+"Like making a continuous stream of furniture!"
+
+"And going marketing and doing errands."
+
+"And mowing the grass."
+
+"And playing games with the kids."
+
+"O, a thousand things would crop up; we never could be idle; and so she
+thought we'd better have a responsible woman as housekeeper.  What's
+more she said she'd pay her."
+
+"It wouldn't be polite for me to say about a lady what you said about
+Mr. Watkins," said James--
+
+"For which I apologize," declared Roger parenthetically.
+
+"--but I'd like to remark that she's one of the most reliable
+grandmothers I ever had anything to do with!"
+
+They all laughed again.
+
+"Where we'll get these two women I don't know," said Roger.  "My
+researches stopped there.  But I suppose it wouldn't be difficult."
+
+"I've heard Mother say that the 'responsible woman' was the hardest
+person on earth to find," said Helen, thoughtfully.  "But we can all
+hunt."
+
+"I know some one who might do if she'd be willing--and I don't know why
+she wouldn't," said Ethel Brown.
+
+"Who?  Who?  Some one in Rosemont?"
+
+"Right here in Rosemont.  Mrs. Schuler."
+
+"Mrs. Schuler?"
+
+There was a cry of wonder, for Mrs. Schuler was the teacher of German
+in the high school.  She had been engaged to Mr. Schuler, who taught
+singing in the Rosemont schools, before the war broke out.  Mr. Schuler
+was called to the colors and lost a leg in the early part of the war.
+Since he could no longer be useful as a fighter he had been allowed to
+return to America, and his betrothed had married him at once so that
+she and her mother, Mrs. Hindenburg, might nurse him back to health.
+He had been slowly regaining his strength through the winter, and was
+now fairly well and as cheerful as his crippled state would permit.
+
+"You know I've been to see Mrs. Hindenburg a good deal ever since we
+got her to go to the Home to teach the old ladies how to knit," said
+Ethel Brown.  "I know her pretty well now.  The other day she told me
+she had had an application from a family who wanted to board with her
+this summer, and she was so sorry to have to turn them away because she
+didn't have enough rooms for them."
+
+"I don't see how that helps us any."
+
+"You know Mr. Schuler hasn't been able to take many pupils this winter
+and I shouldn't wonder if Mrs. Schuler would be glad to have something
+to do this summer when school is closed.  Now if they would go to our
+Fresh Air house and take charge there for the summer it would leave
+Mrs. Hindenburg with enough space to take in her boarders.  She'd be
+glad, and I should think the Schulers would be glad."
+
+"And we'd be glad!  Why, Fraulein is the grandest housekeeper," cried
+Helen, using the name that Mrs. Schuler's old pupils never remembered
+to change to "Frau."  "German housekeepers are thrifty and neat and
+careful--why, she's exactly the person we want.  How _great_ of you to
+think of her, Ethel Brown!"
+
+"You know she wanted to adopt our Belgian baby, so I guess she's
+interested in poor children," volunteered Ethel Blue.
+
+"Are our plans far enough along for us to ask her?" inquired Margaret.
+
+"We ought to ask her as soon as we can, because Mrs. Hindenburg's plans
+will be affected by the Schulers' decision," Helen reminded them.
+
+"I think we are far enough along," decided Roger.  "You see, the idea
+is new to you, but I've been working at it for a good many months now,
+and if we all pull together to do our share I know we can depend on the
+grown-ups to do theirs."
+
+"Shall we appoint Ethel Brown to call on Mrs. Schuler and talk it over
+with her?  She knows her better than the rest of us because she's seen
+her at home oftener."
+
+"Madam President, I move that Ethel Brown be appointed a committee of
+one to see our Teutonic friends and work up their sympathies over the
+women and children we want to help so that they just can't resist
+helping too.  Is your eloquence equal to that strain, Ethel?"
+
+Ethel thought it was, and promised to go the very next afternoon.  The
+discussion turned to the next step to take.
+
+"Grandfather's superintendent is going to move into the new cottage
+next week," was Roger's news, "so then we can go over the old house and
+see how it is arranged and decide how we'd like to change it."
+
+"And also find out just what furniture is left and draw up a list of
+what furniture we shall need."
+
+"Had we better appoint committees for making the different
+investigations?" inquired Tom, who was accustomed to the methods of a
+city church.
+
+"Later, perhaps," decided Helen.  "At first I think we all want to know
+the whole situation and then we can make our plans to fit, and special
+people can volunteer for special work if we think it can be done best
+that way."
+
+"It's a great old plan you have there, Roger," cried Tom, thumping his
+friend affectionately on the shoulder.  "I bow to your giant intellect.
+We'll do our best to make it a success."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MOYA AND SHEILA
+
+Elisabeth of Belgium was walking sturdily now on the legs that had been
+too weak to uphold her when she first came to Rosemont in November.
+Her increasing strength was an increasing delight to all the people who
+loved her--and there was no one who knew her who did not love her--but
+her activity obliged her caretakers to be incessantly on the alert.
+Miss Merriam, the skilled young woman from the School of Mothercraft,
+who had pulled her through her period of greatest feebleness, now found
+herself sometimes quite outdone by the energy of her little charge.
+
+The Ethels were always glad to relieve her of her responsibilities for
+an hour or two, and it was the afternoon of the day after Roger had
+reported his plan to the Club that found the cousins strolling down
+Church Street, "Ayleesabet" between them, clinging to a finger of each,
+not to help her stand upright but to serve as a pair of supports from
+which she might swing herself off the ground.
+
+"See!  She lifted her whole weight then!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.  "We
+shall have to give up calling her 'baby' soon.  She's becoming an
+acrobat!"
+
+"It's all due to Miss Merriam.  I wish she didn't look so tired the
+last few days."
+
+Ethel Blue made no reply.  She guessed something of the reason that had
+made Miss Gertrude appear distressed and silent.  A certain note that
+she herself had placed in a May basket and hung on Miss Merriam's door
+might have something to do with her appearance of anxiety.  She changed
+the subject as a measure of precaution, for she had been in the
+confidence of Dr. Watkins, the elder brother of Tom and Delia and a
+warm admirer of Miss Merriam's, and she did not want the conversation
+to run into channels where she might have to answer inconvenient
+questions.
+
+"This scheme of Roger's is pretty tremendous," she began by way of
+introducing a theme in which Ethel Brown would be sure to be interested.
+
+"We--the Club, I mean--never has 'fallen down' yet on anything, even
+some of our 'shows' that we didn't have much time to get up, so we
+ought to have confidence in ourselves as a Club."
+
+"With this next undertaking, though, we don't really know how the thing
+is done."
+
+"How to make over the house, you mean?"
+
+"How to make over the house and how to run the Fresh Air settlement
+when the house is made over."
+
+"There's no doubt we'll know more at the end of the summer than we know
+now!  We've got to get information from every source we can."
+
+"The way Roger has up to now."
+
+"We must think of every one we know who has made over a house, and Dr.
+Watkins ought to be able to tell us of some people who have had Fresh
+Air children staying with them, so we can get some idea about what they
+need and how a house is managed."
+
+"Come, come."  A chirp rose from near the ground.  Ayleesabet was tired
+of being disregarded for so long.
+
+"You blessed Lamb!" cried Ethel Blue.  "Did you say, 'Come, come,' just
+because you heard it?  Did you think we were talking very learnedly
+about things we didn't know much about!  Never mind, ducky daddles,
+we'll know a lot about them six months from now!"
+
+"Just the way we've learned a lot about babies in the last six months
+from this little teacher!" added Ethel Brown.
+
+"Come, come.  Home, home," remarked Elisabeth insistently.
+
+"What's the matter?  Are your leggies tired?  Want the Ethels to carry
+you?"
+
+Elisabeth made it known that she would like some such method of
+transportation, and sat joyfully on a "chair" which the two girls made
+by interclasping their wrists.
+
+Not for long did this please her ladyship.
+
+"Down, down," she demanded in a few minutes.
+
+"We might as well go home if she's too tired to walk and too restless
+to ride," decided Ethel Brown, and they turned about, to the evident
+pleasure of the baby.
+
+As they were returning along Church Street but were still at a distance
+from Dorothy's house Elisabeth suddenly gave a chirrup of delight.  The
+Ethels looked about to see the cause of this unexpected expression of
+joy.  Crawling out through a hedge on to the sidewalk was a child of
+about Elizabeth's age, but a thin and dirty little mite, with a face
+that betrayed her race as Irish.
+
+"What's this morsel doing here all by herself!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+
+"She must have run away; or perhaps she isn't alone.  Let's look about
+for her mother."
+
+Up and down the street they looked while Elisabeth scraped acquaintance
+with the sudden arrival upon her path.
+
+"It doesn't seem as if she could be far off."
+
+In truth she was not far off, for as the girls wondered and exclaimed a
+weak voice made itself heard from the other side of the hedge.
+
+"Don't take her away," it said.
+
+Leaving the children to entertain each other on the sidewalk they
+enlarged the hole from which the new baby had crawled, and pushed their
+way through it.  On the ground behind the hedge, and hidden from the
+sidewalk by its thick twigs lay a young woman, so pale that she
+frightened the girls.
+
+"Don't take the baby away.  I'll feel better in a little while.  She
+crept off from me."
+
+"How did you get here?" asked Ethel Brown.
+
+"I came out from New York to look for work in the country.  I felt so
+sick I lay down here."
+
+"Did you get any work?"
+
+A slight movement of the head indicated that she had not.  The Ethels
+consulted each other by disturbed glances.  There was no hospital
+nearer than Glen Point, and indeed, the woman seemed so ill that they
+did not see how she could reach the hospital even in the trolley.
+
+As they stood silent and perplexed the honk of a motor roused the
+almost unconscious woman.
+
+"Is the baby in the street?" she inquired frantically.
+
+Ethel Brown crushed her way through the hedge, and found that the
+children were still on the sidewalk, but were so near its edge that the
+driver of the car had tooted to warn them back.  To her delight she saw
+that the driver was Grandfather Emerson.  She waved her hand to stop
+him.
+
+"You're a great caretaker!" he cried.  "Why do you leave Elisabeth to
+look after herself in this fashion?  And who's her friend?"
+
+Ethel climbed into the machine beside him and told of the discovery
+that the girls had just made.  Mr. Emerson drew the car alongside the
+curb and jumped out with anxiety written on his face.  The hole in the
+hedge was too small for him to push through so he ran around the end,
+and approached the prostrate form of the woman.
+
+Her eyes were closed and she lay so still that Ethel Blue, who was
+rubbing her hands, shook her head as she glanced up gratefully at the
+new arrival.
+
+"What's this, what's this?" asked Mr. Emerson in his full, rich voice.
+Its mere sound seemed to carry comfort to the poor creature lying at
+his feet.  He knelt beside her.  "Hungry, eh?" he asked.  "We'll see
+about that right off.  Can you eat these cookies?"  He took a thin tin
+box out of his pocket and opened it.  "I have a little granddaughter
+named Ethel Brown who insists on my keeping cookies in my pocket all
+the time so that I can eat them when I'm driving.  See if you can take
+a bite of this."
+
+A fluttering hand took the cooky and put it between the pale lips.
+
+Helped by the girls the woman struggled to her feet and stood wavering
+before she tried to take a step.  She was a young woman with very black
+hair and gray-blue eyes and a face that was meant to be unlined and
+pretty and not gaunt with hunger and furrowed by anxiety.
+
+"You're very good," she whispered feebly.
+
+Supported on each side she managed to reach the sidewalk, where she
+looked about wildly for her baby.  An expression that was sad but
+infinitely relieved came over her features when she saw the two
+children sitting in the gravel of the walk filling their tiny hands
+with pebbles.
+
+"A cooky won't hurt the baby either," decided Mr. Emerson, and he gave
+one to each of the children.
+
+
+The Ethels had no chance to ask him what he meant to do without their
+discovery hearing them, so they helped the woman into the machine, put
+in the two children and climbed in themselves.  To their great interest
+Mr. Emerson turned the car about and headed it for his own home.
+
+"I wonder what Grandmother will say," murmured Ethel Brown to Ethel
+Blue, who was steadying the ill woman's head as it lay against the back
+of the seat.
+
+Ethel Blue lifted her eyebrows to indicate that she could not guess;
+but both girls knew in their hearts that Mrs. Emerson would do what was
+wisest and for the best good of the strays.  She came to the door in
+answer to the sound of the horn.
+
+"How did you get back so soon?" she began to inquire of her husband
+when her eyes fell on the passengers in the car.
+
+"An accident?" she asked anxiously as she ran down the steps.
+
+"The girls found this woman and her child part way over here and I
+thought I'd better bring her on and get your opinion about her.  I
+think she'd like something to eat," and the kind old gentleman smiled
+in friendly fashion as the woman opened frightened eyes at the sound of
+a new voice.
+
+Among them they succeeded in getting her into the house and into a cool
+room, where she lay exhausted on the bed, her hand holding tight to the
+little hand of her baby, lying wearily beside her.
+
+"Sunstroke?" asked Grandmother.
+
+"Hunger," replied Mr. Emerson, and he and Ethel Brown went down stairs
+at once in search of food, while Mrs. Emerson and Ethel Blue managed to
+undress their patient and put her into a fresh nightdress and bathe her
+face and hands.  By the time they had done this and were undressing the
+baby, Ethel Brown and Mrs. Emerson's cook were at the door with jellied
+broth, milk, gruel and a cooling drink.
+
+Ethel Blue fed the woman, spoonful by spoonful, and Ethel Brown gave
+the baby alternate spoonfuls of gruel and milk.
+
+"Sleepy now?" asked Mrs. Emerson when the dark head sank back on the
+pillow.  "Take a nap, then.  See, the baby is right here where you can
+lay your hand on her.  We'll look in now and then and just as soon as
+you wake up you must take some more food."
+
+"Must!" repeated the girl, for she was hardly older than Miss Merriam
+they saw when her hair was pushed back from her face.  "Must!  'Tis
+_glad_ I'll be to be doing it!" and a ghost of a smile fluttered her
+lips.
+
+Outside of the bedroom door Mrs. Emerson asked for an explanation and
+the others for her advice.
+
+"I don't see how we can tell what we can do until we pull her through
+this trouble and find out what the poor soul wants to do herself."
+
+"She said she came out from New York to look for work in the country."
+
+"Then we must find her work in the country.  But the first thing for us
+to attend to is to get her poor body into such a condition that she can
+work.  She's a sweet looking young woman.  I'm glad you brought her
+home, Father," and between Mr. and Mrs. Emerson there passed a smile of
+such understanding as makes beautiful the lives of people long and
+happily married.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE FARMHOUSE
+
+It took a long time to bring Moya Murphy and little Sheila back to
+health and strength, but it was only a day or two before Moya was able
+to tell her story to Mrs. Emerson.
+
+She was twenty-five, she said, and she had come to America with her
+father and mother five years before.  The New World had not given a
+warm welcome to the new arrivals, for both of the parents had fallen
+ill with pneumonia only a few weeks after they landed, and both died
+within a few days of each other.
+
+Moya, left alone and grieving, had soon after married Patrick Murphy, a
+lad she had known in the old country.  A happy life they led,
+especially after little Sheila came to bless them.
+
+When the declaration of war in Europe upset business conditions in
+America, Patrick lost his "job" and all summer long he walked the
+streets, working for a day now and then, but never securing a permanent
+position, and always growing weaker and less able to work because he
+was underfed.  The little three-room flat that had been such a joy to
+them, had long been given up and they lived and ate and slept in one
+room, and thanked their stars that they had a landlord who did not
+insist on being paid regularly, as did some they knew about who put
+their tenants out on the street if the rent was not forthcoming
+promptly.
+
+"Somehow it's the sudden things that happens to me," said Moya to Mrs.
+Emerson.  She was sitting on the latticed back porch of the Emersons'
+house, her fingers busy shelling peas for Kate, the old cook who had
+lived with Mrs. Emerson ever since she was married.  "Patrick was
+crossing the street--'tis only six weeks ago, but it seems years!  An
+automobile with one of the shrieking horns screamed at him.  'Twas the
+policeman on the crossing told me.  Patrick was light on his feet
+always, but that was when he had enough to eat ivery day.  He thried to
+jump back and his foot slipped and he fell under the car and it killed
+him."
+
+She sobbed and Mrs. Emerson and Kate wiped their eyes.
+
+"Two days it was before I knew it; there was nothing on his clothes to
+tell who he was, and I only found out when he didn't come home and I
+went to the police and they took me to the Morgue and there he lay.
+They gave me twenty dollars--the policemen did.  They collected it
+among themselves."
+
+"Didn't they arrest the driver of the car?"
+
+"'Twas a light car and it sped away before any one saw the number."
+
+Kate Flanigan gave a grunt of disgust at the brutality of the driver.
+
+"I gave the landlord half the money the policemen gave me.  I owed it
+for the rint.  Then I set out to hunt work.  Ivery day I walked and
+walked and ivery day I carried the baby, for where could I leave her?
+Nobody wanted a girl who wasn't trained to do anything, and even if I
+had been able to do something well they wanted no baby.  There's no
+room for babies when you have to work," she said bitterly.
+
+"I want you to feel that you are safe here, you and Sheila," said Mrs.
+Emerson gently.  "Mrs. Morton and Mrs. Smith and I have been talking it
+over with Kate, and this is what we've planned, provided you agree."
+
+Moya gathered up her baby jealously in her lap.
+
+"It will keep you and Sheila together," said Mrs. Emerson quickly,
+noticing her gesture, and smiling approvingly as Moya at once let the
+child slide off her lap on to the floor where she sat contentedly
+playing with some of the pods of the peas that had fallen from the pan.
+
+"Perhaps Kate has told you that we are planning to have some women and
+children who need country air come out from New York this summer and
+live in a farmhouse that we have on the place here."
+
+Moya nodded.  "She did."
+
+"We need a cook.  We are going to give them simple food, but nourishing
+and well cooked."
+
+"If it's me you're thinking of for the cooking, ma'am, I'm a poor cook
+beyond potaties and stew."
+
+"You never were taught to cook?"
+
+"Taught?  No, ma'am.  I picked up what little I know from me mother.
+'Tis simple enough, but too simple for what you need."
+
+"If you'll try to learn, here's what we've planned.  Kate needs a
+helper.  Not because she isn't strong and hearty, but because Mr.
+Emerson and I want her to have a little more time for pleasure than she
+has had for a good many years.  She won't take a real vacation, so we
+are going to give her a partial vacation."
+
+"Me being the helper?" inquired Moya, her thin face lighting.
+
+"More than the helper.  Kate has agreed to teach you how to cook all
+the dishes that it will be necessary to cook for the women and children
+this summer.  You couldn't have a better teacher."
+
+"I'm sure of it," answered the young woman, turning gratefully to Kate.
+"I'll do my very best."
+
+"You shall have a room for yourself and the baby, and wages," and she
+named a sum that made Moya's eyes burn.
+
+"I'm not worth that yet," she cried, "but I know you'll need me to
+dress respectable, so I'll not refuse it and I'll get some decent
+things for the baby and mesilf!"
+
+"If Kate finds that you take hold well she'll teach you more elaborate
+cooking.  There's always a place waiting somewhere for a good cook, and
+here's your chance to learn to be a really excellent cook."
+
+So the problem of obtaining a cook was settled without trouble, and as
+Ethel Brown found Mrs. Schuler not only ready but eager to act as
+Matron, two of the possible difficulties seemed to have proved
+themselves no difficulties at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PLANS
+
+The work of the carpenters filled in very acceptably the time when the
+members of the Club were toiling at school.
+
+A visit of inspection toward the end of June gave the onlookers the
+greatest satisfaction.
+
+"Everything is as fine as a fiddle!" exclaimed Roger as they all
+stopped in one of the upstairs rooms.  "Now it's up to us to do the
+papering and painting and to concoct some furniture."
+
+So it was decided that all the bedrooms should have white paint and
+walls of delicate hues and that Mrs. Schuler's office should be pink
+with white paint and white curtains at the windows.
+
+"We can get very pretty papers for ten cents a roll," said Margaret.
+"I saw some beauties when I went to the paperers to get some flowery
+papers for James to cut out when he was pasting decorations on to our
+Christmas Ship boxes."
+
+"Are you going to use wall paper?" asked Miss Merriam quickly.
+
+"Aren't we?" inquired Margaret.  "It didn't occur to me that there was
+anything else.  There is paper on the walls now."
+
+"It's a lot more sanitary to have the walls kalsomined, I know that,"
+said James in a superior tone.  "Haven't you heard Father say so a
+dozen times?"
+
+"I suppose I have, now I think about it," replied Margaret.  "It stands
+to reason that there would be less chance for germs to hide."
+
+"Do you suppose these old walls are in good enough condition to go
+uncovered?" asked Roger, passing his hand over a suspicious bulge that
+forced the paper out, and casting his eye at the ceiling which was
+veined with hair cracks.
+
+"Probably the walls will not be in the pink Of condition," returned
+Mrs. Morton; "but, even so, color-washing will be better than papering."
+
+"We can go over them and fill up the cracks," suggested Tom, "and we
+can whitewash the ceilings."
+
+"That's what I should advise," said Miss Merriam.  "Put the walls and
+ceilings in as good condition as you can, and then put on your wash.
+Kalsomining is rather expensive, but there are plenty of color washes
+now that any one can put on who can wield a whitewash brush."
+
+"Me for the whitewash brush at an early date," Roger sang gayly.  "What
+do you suggest for these upstairs floors, Miss Merriam?  Grandfather
+thought they weren't bad enough to have new ones laid, but they do look
+rather rocky, don't they?"
+
+He cast a disparaging glance at the boards under his feet, and waited
+for help.
+
+"Were you planning to paint them?"
+
+"Yes," Roger nodded.
+
+"Then you ought to putty up the cracks first.  That will make them
+smooth enough.  They're not really rough, you see.  It's the spaces
+between the planks that make them seem so."
+
+"That's easily done.  We thought we'd paint these old floors and stain
+the new ones down stairs."
+
+"I'd do that.  Paint these floors tan or gray, if you want them to
+confess frankly that they're painted floors, or the shade of some wood
+if you want to pretend that they're hard wood floors."
+
+James moved uneasily.  Roger guessed the reason.
+
+"What's the matter, old man?  Treasury low?"
+
+"It always is," answered James uncomfortably.  "How are we going to
+fill it?"
+
+"That's what I've been thinking," Ethel Brown said meditatively.  "It's
+time we did something to earn something."
+
+"Everybody I've sold cookies to all winter seems to have stopped eating
+them," complained Ethel Brown.  "I'm thinking of getting up a cooky
+sale to relieve my financial distress."
+
+"There's an idea," cried Tom.  "Why can't we have a cooky sale--with a
+few other things thrown in--and use the proceeds for the decoration and
+furnishing of Rose House?"
+
+"We've had so many entertainments; can we do anything different enough
+for the Rosemonters to be willing to come?"
+
+"And spend?"
+
+"I think the Rosemonters have great confidence in our getting up
+something new and interesting; ditto the Glen Pointers," insisted
+Margaret who lived at Glen Point and knew the opinions of her neighbors.
+
+"Where could we have it--_it_ meaning our sale or whatever we decide to
+have?"
+
+"Why not have it here?  Let's wait until the boys have the house all
+painted and whitewashed and colorwashed so it looks as fresh as
+possible, and then tell the town what it is we are trying to do this
+summer, and ask them over here to see what it looks like."
+
+"Good enough.  When they see that it's good as far as it goes, but that
+our Fresh Air people will be mighty uncomfortable if they don't have
+some beds to sleep in and a few other trifles of every day use, they'll
+buy whatever we have to sell.  That's the way it seems to me," and
+Roger threw himself down on the grass before the front door with an air
+of having said the final word.
+
+"Let's ask the people of _Rose_mont to come to _Rose_ House to a _Rose_
+Fete," cried Ethel Blue, while every one of her hearers waved his
+handkerchief at the suggestion.
+
+"I'll draw a poster with the announcement on it," she went on, "and we
+can have it printed on pink paper and the boys can go round on their
+bicycles and distribute them at every house."
+
+"We must have everything pink, of course.  Pink ice cream and cakes
+with pink icing--"
+
+"And pink strawberries--"
+
+"Not green ones!  No, sir!"
+
+"And watermelons if we can get some that won't make too much trouble
+for Dr. Hancock."
+
+"How are we going to serve them?  We can't bring china way out
+here--and we won't have any for Rose House until after we give this
+party to earn it!"
+
+"They have paper plates with pretty patterns on them now.  And if they
+cost too much we might get the plain ones and lay a d'oyley of pink
+paper on each one," suggested Margaret.
+
+"Probably that will be the cheapest and the effect will be just as
+good, but I'll find out the prices in town," promised Delia.
+
+"I have a scheme for a table of fancy things," offered Dorothy.  "Let's
+have it under that tree over there and over it let's hang a huge rose.
+I think I know how to make it--two hoops, the kind Dicky rolls, one
+above the other, the smaller one on top, and both suspended from the
+tree.  Cover them inside and out with big pink paper petals."
+
+"How are you going to make it look like a rose and not a pink bell?"
+inquired Delia.
+
+"Put a green calyx on the top and some yellow stamens inside and then
+make a stem that will look like the real thing, only gigantic."
+
+"How will you manage that?"
+
+"Do you remember those wild grape vines that Helen and Ethel Brown
+found in the West Woods and used for Hallowe'en decorations?  If we
+could get a thick one and wind it with green paper and let it curve
+from the rose toward the ground it ought to look like a real stem."
+
+"We could hang the rose with dark string that wouldn't show, and fasten
+the stem to the branch of the tree with a pink bow.  It would look as
+if some giant had tied it there for his ladylove."
+
+"I have an old pink sash I'll contribute to the good cause," laughed
+Helen.  "I've been wondering what to do with it for some time."
+
+"Everything on the table must be pink and shaped like a rose or
+decorated with roses--cushions, pen-wipers, baskets, stencilled bureau
+sets--there are a thousand things to be made."
+
+"Boxes covered with rose paper," suggested James solemnly.
+
+Everybody shouted, for James's imagination always seemed to be
+stimulated whenever he saw a chance to make something with paste-pot
+and brush.
+
+"How about music?"
+
+This question brought silence, for it was not easy to arrange for music
+in the open.
+
+"I wish Edward and his violin were here," said Delia, referring to her
+brother, Dr. Watkins, who had recently gone to Oklahoma to assist an
+older physician in a flourishing town there.  He had been very
+attentive to Miss Merriam and she was annoyed to find herself blushing
+at the mention of his name.  Ethel Blue, who had been in his
+confidence, was the only one of the young people who glanced at her,
+however, so her annoyance passed unnoticed.
+
+"He isn't, and a piano is out of the question.  I wonder, if Greg
+Patton would bring his fiddle?"
+
+"Why didn't we think of him before!  He and some of the other high
+school boys have been getting up a little orchestra; I shouldn't wonder
+a bit if they'd be glad to help--glad of the experience of playing in
+public."
+
+"We haven't got to make oceans of paper roses, this time," remarked
+Ethel Brown gratefully.  "Nature is doing the work for us."
+
+She waved her hand at the clump of bushes which was to conceal
+Dorothy's fortune telling operations, and which was pink with blossoms.
+
+"Our bushes at home are loaded down with them, too," said Margaret.
+"Everybody's are, so I don't suppose it would be worth while to have a
+flower table."
+
+"There's no harm in trying.  We could say on the poster that
+exceptionally choice roses will be on exhibition and sale and--and why
+couldn't we take orders for the bushes?  Use the beauties for samples
+and if people like them, get roots from the bushes they came from and
+supply them the next day!"
+
+Ethel Blue was quite breathless with the force of this suggestion and
+the others applauded it.
+
+"Just as I think of Ethel Blue as all imagination and dreams she comes
+out with something practical like that and I have to study her all over
+again," said Roger, observing his cousin with his head on one side.
+Ethel Blue threw a leaf at him which he dodged with exaggerated fear.
+
+They decided to have the Rose Fete just as soon as the boys put the
+house into presentable condition, and then the girls separated, Ethel
+Brown and Dorothy to see Mr. Emerson about securing the boxes, Helen
+and Margaret to measure the windows for curtains, Delia and Ethel Blue
+to work out the design for converting ordinary Chinese lanterns into
+roses which they had thought of as lending a charm to the veranda and
+the lawn after the sun went down, and the boys to calculate the
+quantities of putty and paint and color-wash, based on information
+given Roger by the local painter and decorator, who was quite willing
+to help with advice when he found that there was no chance of his own
+services being called into play.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE ROSE FETE
+
+The United Service Club had made so good a name for itself in Rosemont
+during the few months of its existence that when Ethel Blue's posters
+brought to their doors the news that the U. S. C.  was to give a Rose
+Fete at Rose House the townspeople were eager to know what attraction
+the members had devised.  The schools were still in session so the
+Ethels and Dorothy at the graded school and Helen and Roger and the
+orchestra boys at the high school made themselves into an advertising
+band and told everybody all about the purpose of the festival.  The
+scholars carried the information home, and there were few houses in
+Rosemont where it was not known that Mr. Emerson's old farmhouse was to
+be turned into a summer home for weary mothers and ailing babies.
+
+Helen and Margaret, after consulting with their mothers and Mrs. Smith
+and Mrs. Emerson, had decided that a cot or single bed and two cribs
+ought to go in each bedroom except Moya's, where one crib would be
+enough.  This meant that five beds and nine cribs must be provided, and
+the number made the girls look serious as they calculated the probable
+proceeds of the Rose Fete and subtracted from them the amount that they
+would have to pay the local furniture dealer, even though he, being a
+public spirited and charitable man, offered them a discount.  For a day
+or two they went about in a state of depression, for they had hoped to
+be able to supply the furnishings without making any appeal to the
+grownups.  Thanks to Dorothy they could discount any expense for
+bureaus and desks and tables, but their ambition did not soar to
+constructing bedsteads; these had to be bought or given.
+
+It became evident after a number of householders had inquired how they
+could help, that there was a chance that the U. S. C. treasury might
+not be reduced after all by the purchase of beds.  When one lady was
+informed by Helen of their schemes for filling the rooms--how the
+carpenters had provided them with a table that would do for the
+dining-room and how shelves innumerable were to do duty for innumerable
+purposes,--and she had added ruefully, "But we can't make very good
+beds, and we do want the women to sleep well, poor things.  We've got
+to buy those--" she had cried, "Why, I have a cot in my attic that I
+should be _delighted_ to let you have, and my daughter's little boy has
+outgrown his crib and I'm sure she'll contribute that."
+
+A week before the Fete, however, they had been promised all the
+bedsteads they needed--though some lacked springs, some mattresses, and
+almost all were without pillows--four cribs, half a dozen chairs and
+two high chairs, and a collection of odd pieces.  Helen refused nothing
+but double beds; there was not space enough for those in a bedroom with
+three people in it; it would seem to the women too much like the
+crowded tenements they came from, she thought.  Miss Merriam objected
+also, on the ground that it was not well for babies to sleep with grown
+people.
+
+"What do you think of this plan?" Ethel Brown asked her mother after
+the girls had made a careful list of their gifts.  "We did think that
+if we didn't have a stick in the house the people would be interested
+in helping us because of our poverty.  We've found out that they are
+awfully interested even without seeing the house.  Do you think it
+would be a good scheme to put into the rooms the things we have ready
+and to fasten on the door a notice saying
+    'THIS ROOM NEEDS'
+and under that a list of what is lacking?  Don't you think some of them
+would say, 'I've got an extra cushion at home that would do for a
+pillow here; I'll send it over'; or 'Don't you remember that three
+legged chair that used to be in Joe's room?  I believe these children
+can mend it and paint it to look well enough for this room'?"
+
+"Ethel Brown, you're running Ethel Blue hard in the line of ideas!"
+cried Roger admiringly from a position at the door which he had taken
+as he passed through the hall and heard discussion going on.
+
+"It's a capital idea," agreed Mrs. Morton.  "You'd better ask
+Grandfather again for a wagon and go around and collect the things that
+have been promised.  You don't want to bother people to send them over
+themselves."
+
+Every one worked with vigor during the last few days before the
+festival, for the renovating of old furniture takes more time than any
+one ever expects it to.  The results were so satisfactory, however,
+that neither the boys nor the girls gave a thought to their tired hands
+and backs when evening brought them release from their labors.
+
+The great day was clear, and, for the last of June, cool.  Every plan
+worked out well and every helper appeared at the moment he was wanted.
+The box seats and tables, superintended by Ethel Brown and served by
+half a dozen friends all wearing white dresses and pink aprons, bloomed
+rosily on the veranda.  Under the large rose Delia and Ethel Blue,
+dressed in pink, sold fancy articles.  Dorothy, sitting "under the
+rose" in the rose jungle, and dressed like a moss rose, with a filmy
+green tunic draping her pink frock, described brilliant futures to
+laughing inquirers.  Margaret, dressed to represent the yellow Scottish
+roses, sold flowers from the Ethels' garden and took orders for rose
+bushes.
+
+The boys were everywhere, opening ice cream tubs for Moya in the
+background, guiding would-be players to the tennis court and the
+croquet ground, and directing new arrivals where to tie their horses
+and park their motors.  Every member of the club was provided with a
+small notebook wherein to jot down any bit of advice that was offered
+and seemed profitable or to record any offer of fittings that might be
+made.
+
+Helen took no regular duty, leaving herself free to go over the house
+with any one who wanted to know the Club's plans, and she had more
+frequent need than any of the others to use her book.  Ethel Brown's
+scheme had been followed.  On the door of each room was posted a list
+of articles needed to complete the furnishing of that room.
+
+"They certainly aren't greedy!" exclaimed one matron after reading the
+notice.  "This says that this room is complete except for bed clothing."
+
+She waved her hand around with some scorn.  Helen dimpled with
+amusement.
+
+"We thought we'd make one room as nearly complete as we could," she
+explained.  "You see this has a bed, two cribs, a looking-glass, and
+shelves as substitutes for a washstand and a closet and a table and a
+bureau.
+
+"There are no chairs, child!"
+
+"These two boxes are the chairs.  We had a few chairs given us but
+they'll be needed down stairs.  We think they'll have more exercise
+than any chairs ever had before.  They'll be used in the dining-room
+for breakfast, and then they'll be moved to the veranda to spend the
+morning, and in they'll come again for dinner and out they'll go for
+the afternoon, and in for supper, and after supper they'll be moved
+into the hall which is to serve as the sitting room!"
+
+Helen's hearer pressed her hand to her head.
+
+"You make me positively dizzy!" she exclaimed.  "At any rate I'd like
+to make this room complete according to your notions, so I'll send you
+some sheets and pillow cases and blankets and a spread if you'll allow
+me."
+
+"We'll be glad to have them," accepted Helen, beaming.  "Roger will
+call for them if that will be more convenient for you," and she made a
+note of the gift and the time when it should be sent after.
+
+Other women remembered as they examined the door lists that they had a
+mattress that could be spared, or a pillow or two or a pair of summer
+blankets.
+
+"What are you going to do for ornaments," asked another.
+
+Helen laughed.
+
+"James Hancock has an idea for decorating the walls so that they'll
+interest the babies, and we're going to have fresh cheese-cloth
+curtains at all the windows, but that's the end of our possibilities."
+
+"I have several bureau scarves that are in good condition but they have
+been washed so many times that they're a little faded.  If you'd like
+those--?" she ended with an upward inflection.
+
+"We would," replied Helen promptly.
+
+"Could you use some prints of pictures--good paintings?" inquired yet
+another, a person whose taste Helen knew could be trusted.
+
+"We'd be glad of them.  We can frame them in passepartout.  We'd be
+especially glad of madonnas."
+
+"That's just what I was going to offer you.  A club I once belonged to
+studied celebrated paintings of madonnas one winter and I made this
+collection.  Many of them are only penny prints and some are cut from
+magazines--".
+
+"They're perfectly good for us," Helen reassured her, and made another
+note in her book.
+
+Most of the visitors went home with the falling dark, but some stayed
+to see the rose lanterns lighted, and others, who had not been able to
+come in the afternoon, drove or walked out from town in the evening and
+were served with ice cream and strawberries from a supply that had been
+wonderfully well calculated.
+
+"Let us have just a week to spend this money and to make up the sheets
+and pillow cases and curtains and you can tell Mr. Watkins to send out
+the women," Helen announced triumphantly to Delia.
+
+"I'm going to spend the week with Margaret so I can come over with her
+every day and help," returned smiling Delia.
+
+"Then we shan't need a whole week.  When you go home to-night please
+ask your father to be making his selection--four mothers with two
+children apiece.  You and Tom can escort them out on the Tuesday after
+Fourth of July."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FURNITURE MAKING
+
+It did not take the women long to adjust themselves to life at Rose
+House, and as for the children, they loved it from the first.  It was a
+great international gathering that was sheltered on the old farm.  Mrs.
+Schuler was German; Moya, Irish.  Mrs. Peterson, a Swede, occupied the
+rooster room with her baby and her flaxen-haired daughter of three;
+Mrs. Paterno, an Italian, found good pasturage among the cows of the
+violet room for her black-eyed boys of two and four; Mrs. Tsanoff, a
+Bulgarian, told the Matron that her twin girl babies were too young to
+pay attention to the kittens on the curtains of the yellow room; while
+Mrs. Vereshchagin, a Russian, discovered that the puppies of the blue
+room were a great help to her in holding the attention of her boys of
+three and five when she was putting them to bed.
+
+Mrs. Schuler shook her head doubtfully when she took down their names
+and nationalities in her notebook on the day of their arrival.
+
+"If we get through the summer without quarrels over the war it will be
+a miracle!" she exclaimed to her husband.
+
+But she found that the poor creatures were too weary, too sad, too
+physically crushed to have spirit enough left to fight any battles,
+even those of words.  With almost every one of them there had been a
+tragedy such as often comes to the immigrants who reach the United
+States equipped for success only with strong muscles--a tragedy of
+wasted hope and broken courage and failing vigor if not of death.  Mrs.
+Paterno was the only one of them who could sympathize with Moya's
+widowhood; her husband had seen the Black Hand death sign a few months
+before, had disregarded it and had been stabbed in the back one night
+as he came home from his work.
+
+Conversation was not carried on fluently among them.  They met on the
+common ground of English, but not one of them could speak it well, each
+one translated phrases of her own tongue quite literally, and the
+meaning of the whole talk was largely a matter of guesswork.  What they
+did understand was nature's language of motherhood.  They were content
+to sit for hours on the veranda or in the grove or behind the house,
+preparing vegetables for Moya, chattering about their babies and
+explaining their meaning by gestures that seemed to be perfectly
+understood.
+
+The women had daily duties to perform according to a schedule worked
+out by Mrs. Schuler, who apportioned to each a share of the general
+work of the house in addition to the care of her own room and the
+washing for herself and her children.  With so many fingers flying the
+tasks were soon done, and then they sat on the porch or in the grove
+among the sweet-smelling pines, or walked in the pasture or up and down
+the lane leading to the main road.  Once in a while they went to
+Rosemont, but for the most part they were too languid to care to walk
+far and too glad of the change and the rest and quiet to want to weary
+themselves unnecessarily.
+
+The boys had built a platform across the back of the house, and it was
+here that they did their carpentry, an awning sheltering them from the
+sun or rain.  A cupboard at one end held their tools, and their partly
+finished articles were neatly stacked in a corner.  As they got out
+their tools now James made a confession.
+
+"To tell you the honest, unvarnished truth, I'm tired of making chairs.
+It seems as if we'd never have enough."
+
+"It takes an awful lot to furnish a house," commented Roger wisely,
+"and you know we had very few given us so if we want enough we have to
+make them."
+
+"We've got all the chairs you've done upholstered all they're going to
+be," said Ethel Brown.  "Why can't Ethel Blue and I each make a high
+chair?"
+
+"No reason at all," agreed Roger quickly.  "You've watched James and me
+and seen our really superior workmanship; imitate it, my child!"
+
+The girls were already turning over the boys' supply of boxes to select
+those suitable for the chairs for the children.  They took four that
+had held lemons or other fruit and were tall and narrow when stood on
+end.  The boards they were made of were very light but quite solid
+enough to hold the weight of a small child.  To make it firm upon the
+ground, however, they sawed a piece of heavy plank a little larger than
+the end upon which the box was to stand and nailed it on from the
+inside.
+
+When the high chair was done the boys complimented their co-workers on
+the success of their first experiment.
+
+"I hardly could have done it better myself," said Roger grandly.
+
+All the high chairs were covered with blue and white cretonne to match
+the blue and white of the dining room and the girls set to work to tack
+on the outside covering and to cut out the covers of the small cushions
+that were to make the seat and back comfortable.  The cushions
+themselves they had made from ticking filled with excelsior when they
+had calculated the number of high chairs they must have.
+
+The boys, meanwhile were constructing two chairs of quite different
+build.  One was a heavy chair for the hall or the veranda, its original
+condition being a packing box a foot and a half deep, about twenty
+inches wide and three or four feet long.  This also was set on end, and
+the other end and the cover were laid aside to be used in making the
+seat and in shutting in the openings below the seat.
+
+"How are you going to fasten that seat so it won't let the sitter down
+on the floor?" inquired Ethel Blue, as James explained what he was
+going to do.
+
+"Do you see these cleats, ma'am?  These are each a foot long.  I nail
+one of these standing up straight at each edge of the sides and the
+back--six of them altogether.  Then I lay three other cleats across
+their tops--thusly."
+
+"O, you've made a sort of framework that will support the seat!  I get
+that!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+
+"All you have to do now is to nail your seat boards on to those
+horizontal cleats and it's as firm as firm can be."
+
+"Aren't you going to do something with those sides--those arms, or
+whatever you call them?" inquired Ethel Brown.  "They seem sharp and
+uncomfortable and in the way to me."
+
+Both boys studied the chair seriously before answering.  Then they took
+a pencil and paper and consulted.
+
+"I should think it would look pretty well to cut out a right angle on
+each aide," suggested James.  "That would leave a sort of wing effect
+like a hall porter's chair, only not so high, and at the same time it
+would make an arm to rest your elbow on.  How does that strike you ?"
+
+Roger nodded.  "It hits me all right.  I was thinking of a curve
+instead of a right angle, but the right angle will be easier to make.
+Go ahead."
+
+So the right angle was decided on and James proceeded to cut it.
+
+Roger, meanwhile, had been sorting out the wood he needed for a chair
+of another pattern.
+
+"I wish Dorothy would heave in sight," he growled as he piled some half
+inch thick strips in one heap.  "She told me she'd tell me all she knew
+about chair legs when I reached this stage of proceedings."
+
+"She will," answered a cheerful voice, and gray-eyed Dorothy appeared
+from the house.  "I felt in my bones that you'd be beginning this lot
+this afternoon, so I ambled over to see if I could help in any way."
+
+"Keep right on ambling till you reach this end of the platform and tell
+me whether you said that chair legs could be made of this stripping or
+whether I'll have to get solid pieces, square-ended, you know, joist or
+scantling or whatever it's called."
+
+"Strips will do, only you'll have to use two for each leg.  Nail them
+together at right angles.  It will make a two-sided leg, but it will be
+plenty strong enough, though perhaps not truly handsome."
+
+"If handsomeness means solidity--no.  Still, they'll do.  Can you give
+me the lengths for these strips?" and Roger waved his saw at his cousin
+as if he were so impatient to begin that he could not wait to study out
+the lengths for himself.
+
+"For the one I made for the attic," replied his cousin, "I cut four
+strips each two inches wide and twenty-one inches long for the front
+legs and four strips each two inches wide and twenty-five inches long
+for the back legs.  Then there were two two-inch strips seventeen
+inches long to go under the seat to strengthen it front and back, and
+two two-inch strips each thirteen inches long to go under the seat and
+strengthen it on the sides.  That's all the stock you need except the
+box."
+
+"I suppose you've got a particular box in mind to fit those sizes."
+
+"Those sizes fit the box, rather.  Yes, I got a grocery box that was
+about eighteen inches long and thirteen wide and eleven deep.  I saw
+one here just like it before I gave you those measurements, so you can
+go ahead sawing while I pull off one side of the box--the cover has
+gone already but we don't need it."
+
+Quiet reigned for a few minutes while they all worked briskly.
+
+"Now I'm ready to put this superb article together," announced Roger.
+"How high from the ground does the seat go?"
+
+"Nail your cleats across with their top edges fifteen inches from the
+ground and nail the bottom of the box on to the cleats.  See how these
+two-sided legs protect the edges of the box as well as make it decent
+looking?"
+
+"So they do," admitted Roger.  "They aren't so bad after all."
+
+"I think those sides are going to be too high," decided Dorothy after
+examining the chair carefully and sitting down in it.  "Don't you think
+it pushes your elbows up too high?"
+
+Roger tried it and thought it did.
+
+"Suppose you saw those sides down about five inches."
+
+Roger obeyed and Dorothy tried the chair again and pronounced it much
+improved.
+
+"It's comfy enough now, but these arms don't look very well, and they'd
+be liable to tear your sleeves," she said.  "Let's put on some strip
+covers.  They'll give a finish to the whole thing, and hide the end of
+the two-sided legs and be smooth."
+
+"Plenty of reason for having them.  How many inches?"
+
+"Twelve," answered Dorothy after measuring.  "The top of the back needs
+a strip cover, too.  Cut another nineteen inches long.  There, _I_
+think that's not such a bad looking chair!'"
+
+"Do you want cushions for those chairs?" inquired Ethel Brown,
+appearing at the door with a piece of cretonne in her hand.  "We've got
+material enough for at least seat cushions for both of them."
+
+"They'll be lots more comfy," admitted James, "if the excelsior crop is
+still holding out."
+
+"It is.  I'll make them right off, and Ethel Blue can help you out
+there."
+
+She retired from view and sent out her cousin, and until the sun set
+the two boys and Dorothy and Ethel measured and sawed and nailed, with
+results that satisfied them so well that they did not mind being tired.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TROUBLE AT ROSE HOUSE
+
+"If it weren't that I could come out here and see you every day or so I
+should be wild to get back to work in Oklahoma."
+
+Edward Watkins was the speaker.  He and Miss Merriam were walking
+through a wooded path that ran from Rosemont to Rose House.  The day
+was warm and the shade of the trees was grateful.
+
+"How is your patient?" asked Gertrude.
+
+"Getting on very well, but the doctors won't let him travel yet."
+
+"Have you heard lately from your doctor in Oklahoma?"
+
+"I hear about every day!  I was with him just long enough for him to
+find that I was useful and he's wild to have me there again.  I wired
+him that I'm ready to go, but that the sick man is nervous about making
+the return trip alone.  Of course he wants to keep on the good side of
+a good patient, so he answered, 'Stay on'."
+
+"Are you able to do anything for your patient?  He's still in the
+hospital, isn't he?"
+
+"I go there every day and he sends me on errands all over town.  I'm
+getting to know almost as much about oil as I do about medicine!  But
+I'm rather tired of playing errand boy."
+
+"You have a chance to see your family."
+
+"And you.  But I'm supposed to stay at the hotel, much to Mother's
+disgust.  I'm doing a little medical inspection among Father's poor
+people, though.  That whiles away a few hours every day, and of course,
+every time I go to the hospital the doctors there tell me about any
+interesting new cases, so I'm not 'going stale' entirely."
+
+"As if you could!" exclaimed Gertrude admiringly.  "You're just storing
+up ideas and information to startle the Oklahoman natives with."
+
+"The 'natives' in Oklahoma are all too young to be startled," laughed
+Edward, "but of course I'm stowing away everything new I hear about
+methods of treatment and operations and so on to tell Dr. Billings when
+I get back.  Now let me hear what you've been doing.  How are these
+kiddies at Rose House?"
+
+"I want you to look them over and talk with the mothers.  Dr. Hancock
+comes over when we send for him, but all these people are so delicate
+that I feel that they ought to have a physician's eye on them all the
+time."
+
+"They have you pretty often, don't they?"
+
+"I go over every day either in the morning or the afternoon, and I give
+them advice about the babies, and teach them and Moya how to prepare
+their food, but they do such strange things that you can't forestall
+because you never had the wildest idea that any woman in her senses
+would treat a baby so."
+
+Edward laughed.
+
+"Russian and Bulgarian peasant customs, I suppose.  I never shall
+forget the first time I saw a two-day old negro baby sucking a bit of
+fat bacon.  I nearly had a chill."
+
+"Didn't the child have a chill?"
+
+"Not the slightest!  If they get ahead of you with some pleasing little
+trick like that you can console yourself with the thought that
+generally there is some basis of old-time experience that has shown it
+to be not so harmful as we are apt to think."
+
+"I've done enough tenement house work to know that the babies certainly
+survive extraordinary treatment, but these babies here are so delicate
+that they ought to have the most careful diet.  Most of them need real
+nursing."
+
+"Do you think your talks are making any impressions on the mothers?"
+
+"Sometimes Mrs. Schuler and I think so, and just then it almost always
+happens that one of them does something totally unexpected that gives
+our hopes a terrible blow."
+
+"Let's trust that this is a good day; I'd rather talk to you than work
+over a case this fine afternoon."
+
+Gertrude smiled at his tone and they walked on in silence out of the
+wood and across the brook and down the lane that brought them to the
+back of Rose House where the Club boys and girls were busy making a
+piece of furniture of some sort.  Mrs. Schuler was talking to Moya in
+the kitchen.
+
+"I've brought Dr. Watkins to see everybody," announced Miss Merriam
+gayly.  "Where are they all?"
+
+"The ones who are at home are up in the pine grove, but Moya has just
+told me that Mrs. Paterno and her older boy and Mrs. Tsanoff and one of
+the twins have gone to town."
+
+"Walked?"
+
+"Walked by the road on this scorching day!"
+
+Miss Merriam turned to the doctor.
+
+"This is one of the unexpected events we were just talking about.
+Little Paterno is four and too large for that little woman to carry,
+and far too small and weak to take that long walk on his own legs even
+on a more suitable day than this, and the Tsanoff twins are just
+holding on to life by the tips of their fingers!"
+
+She sat down in despair.  Dr.  Watkins looked serious.
+
+"Is there any way of heading them off or bringing them back.  Can we
+reach them anywhere by telephone?"
+
+"No one knows where they can have gone.  It seems it must have been
+about an hour and a half ago that they started and I should think
+they'd be back before long if they're able to come back--"
+
+"--under their own steam!" finished the doctor with a doubtful smile.
+
+"Let's go to the grove and see the women and children there and perhaps
+the others will be in sight by the time you've finished your
+examination."
+
+They turned toward the pines whose thick needles cast a heavy shade
+upon the ground and gave forth a delicious fragrance under the rays of
+the sun.  As they disappeared Mrs. Schuler went out on the platform
+where the carpentering operations were going on.
+
+"I'm so disturbed about those women," she said, "I've come to see what
+you're doing to divert my mind from them."
+
+"We're going to make two of these seats, one for your office and the
+other for the veranda," said Ethel Brown, standing erect and putting a
+hand upon her weary back.  The rest of the young carpenters stopped
+their work and wiped their perspiring foreheads while they explained
+the construction of the piece of furniture to their friend.
+
+"This long narrow box is the seat, you see.  It's a shoe case, and it's
+just the right height for comfort.  Roger has put hinges on the cover,
+so you can use it for a chest and keep rugs and cushions inside."
+
+"That's about as simple as it could be.  Does it take all of you to
+help Roger do that?"
+
+"O, that's only a part of the entire affair.  We're making these two
+sets of shelves to go at the ends of the seat."
+
+"I see.  A great light breaks on me!"
+
+"They're to be fastened to the ends of the seat."
+
+"Not for keeps.  That's Ethel Blue's patent.  She said it would be
+awkward to move about if it were all built together, so we're making it
+in three parts, and we're going to lock them together with hooks and
+screw eyes."
+
+"That is clever!  Then if you want to you can use these sets of shelves
+for little bookcases in another room or you can fasten on one of them
+and not the other."
+
+"Ethel Blue and I thought we'd make pink cushions for your office if
+you'd like them."
+
+"I think they'd be charming.  That pink room raises my spirits when--"
+
+"--when you get _blue_?" suggested Roger.
+
+"I'll have to go there now to get revived if those women who walked to
+town don't turn up soon," and the Matron went to the corner of the
+house whence she could see the lane that led from the road.  "If they
+come home ill I'll have to ask you to make two bed trays," she
+suggested as she peered across the grass.
+
+"How do you make them?"
+
+"Ask Ethel Blue."
+
+"Merely put legs on a light board so that the weight of the plates will
+be lifted from the sick person's legs as he sits up in bed."
+
+"What's to prevent the plates sliding off?"
+
+"Nothing if he's much of a kicker, I should say," laughed Roger; "but
+you could put a little fence an inch or two high at the back and sides
+and keep them on board."
+
+"You'd better begin them right off," said Mrs. Schuler dryly, "for here
+they come."
+
+She disappeared around the corner and the young people followed to see
+what was the matter.
+
+Trouble there was in very truth.  Mrs. Paterno led the way stumbling
+and running.  Her face was flushed a deep, threatening crimson and her
+breath came fast.  By the arm she held little Pietro, who from
+exhaustion had ceased to scream and merely gave a gulping moan when the
+gravel scraped his bare knees as his mother jerked him along regardless
+of whether he was on his feet or whether she dragged him.  Behind them
+at some distance came Mrs. Tsanoff carrying her baby in her arms--one
+of the twins that always seemed to be merely "holding on to life by the
+tips of its fingers," to use Gertrude's expression, and now seemed to
+have lost even that frail hold.  It lay in its mother's arms white and
+with its eyes closed.
+
+Mrs. Schuler ran to meet the Italian woman and lifted the worn child
+into her arms where he sank against her shoulder as if in a faint.
+
+"Run up in the grove and get Dr. Watkins and Miss Gertrude," Helen said
+to Roger.  "Ask them quietly to come here.  Don't frighten the women."
+
+Roger dashed away, his swift feet slowing to a walk as he neared the
+bit of woods where he delivered his message in an undertone.  Ethel
+Blue meanwhile, had rushed into the house to tell Moya to heat plenty
+of water and to crack some ice, and Margaret had opened Mrs. Schuler's
+closet of simple remedies and found the bottle of aromatic spirits of
+ammonia.  Ethel Brown and James ran to meet Mrs. Tsanoff, Ethel taking
+the baby from her and James steadying her shaking steps by a stout arm
+under her elbow.
+
+As Dr. Watkins ran around the corner of the house he came upon Helen
+trying to help Mrs. Paterno, who was pushing her away with both hands,
+while she kept looking over her shoulder and screaming hysterically.
+Edward seized her hands and commanded her attention at once by speaking
+to her in Italian.  Although she did not know him she responded to his
+command to tell him of what she was afraid, and poured out a story of
+terror.  "_Mano, nera, mano nera_--the Black Hand," she repeated over
+and over again, and Edward, who had heard her history, realized that
+something she had seen had set her mind in the old train of thought.
+While Miss Merriam attended to the children he calmed the woman and
+then turned her over to Mrs. Schuler with instructions to put her to
+bed in a darkened room and to see that some one stayed with her or just
+outside her door.
+
+Fortunately for the doctor his experience with the people among whom
+his father worked in his East Side chapel had given him a smattering of
+many languages and he was able to make out from Mrs. Tsanoff, although
+her fright and fatigue had made her forget almost all the English she
+knew, what had terrified her companion.  They had gone to the
+stationery shop of the Englishman who also sold ice cream and soda, she
+said, and they had had each a glass of soda and the children had each
+had an ice cream cone.
+
+Edward groaned and over his shoulder directed Delia to run and tell
+Miss Merriam that both babies had had ice cream cones.  "It will help
+her to know what to do until I come," he explained.
+
+Just as they were coming out of the store a dark man who looked like an
+Italian had passed them.
+
+So far as she noticed he had paid no attention to them, but Mrs.
+Paterno had seized her arm, pointing after him, and then had picked up
+Pietro and started to run toward home.  Neither far nor fast could she
+go in such heat with such a burden and the poor little chap was soon
+tossed down and forced to run with giant strides all the rest of the
+eternal mile that stretched between Rosemont and Rose House.  Mrs.
+Tsanoff herself had followed as fast as she could because she was
+afraid that something, she knew not what, would happen to her friend.
+
+She, too, was sent to bed, with Moya standing over her to lay cool
+compresses on her eyes, to sponge her wrists and ankles with cool water
+and to lay an occasional bit of cracked ice on her parched lips.
+
+The condition of the two children was pitiable.  The heat, the sudden
+chill from the ice cream and the terrible homeward rush sent them both
+so nearly into a collapse that the doctor, Mrs. Schuler and Miss
+Merriam worked over them all night, resting only when Dr. Hancock, who
+had heard the story from James and Margaret and came up to see the
+state of affairs, relieved them for an hour.
+
+"How are we ever going to teach them the madness of such behavior?"
+Gertrude asked wearily as Dr. Watkins insisted that she and Mrs.
+Schuler should go to bed as the dawn broke.
+
+"The poor little Italian woman is almost mad already, thanks to this
+Black Hand business.  It will take her a long time to recover her
+balance, but I think I can teach the others a lesson from this
+experience of their friends.  Wait till to-morrow comes and hear me
+talk five languages at once," he promised cheerfully as he turned her
+over to Mrs. Schuler.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SOME ENTERTAINMENT
+
+The escapade of the Italian and Bulgarian women played havoc with the
+calm of Rose House for several days.  The women themselves had narrow
+escapes from illness and the children were so seriously ill that a
+trained nurse had to be sent up from the Glen Point Hospital, as
+neither Miss Merriam nor Mrs. Schuler could undertake nursing in
+addition to their other work.
+
+When all was well again Miss Merriam redoubled her efforts to teach the
+women something of proper care of their children and themselves, and,
+with the help of Dr. Watkins's knowledge of languages, she began to
+hope that she was making some progress.  Mrs. Tsanoff and Mrs.
+Peterson, who had little babies, were taught to modify milk for them,
+the dangers of giving small children foods unsuited to their age was
+talked about now with the recent experience to point the moral; and
+ways of keeping well in hot weather were explained and listened to with
+interest.
+
+Substitutes for meat were discussed earnestly, chiefly on account of
+the high cost of living but also because meat was declared to be far
+too heating for warm weather use.  Each of the women knew of some dish
+which took the place of meat and she was glad to tell the others about
+it.  Mrs. Paterno knew very well that cheese is one of the best
+substitutes for meat that there is.
+
+"Americans eat cheesa after meata; then sick," she declared with truth.
+Her receipt for a risotto Moya wrote down in the blank book in which
+she was collecting recipes and Mrs. Paterno beamed when it came onto
+the table.
+
+Chiefly for the purpose of giving the little Italian woman a change of
+thought, the U. S. C. made a point of providing Rose House with some
+sort of entertainment every few days.  Once they introduced the inmates
+to an American hayride, and the four women, with Moya and the older
+children, screamed with delight as they found themselves moving slowly
+along on a real load of hay--for Grandfather Emerson declared that that
+was the only kind of hayride worth having.
+
+Again they all stowed themselves away in the automobile and went to a
+pond ten miles away for a day's picnic.  That proved not to be a
+success, for everybody was so tired all the next day that there was a
+nearer approach to disagreement among them than ever happened before.
+Mrs. Schuler made up her mind that home--meaning Rose House--was the
+best place for them and that amusements must be found at home and not
+afield.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A NEW KIND OF GRASS SEED
+
+"Your grand-father told me once about a field he had that was filled
+with daisies," said Ethel Blue.  "It looked awfully pretty, but it
+spoiled the field for a pasture; the cows wouldn't touch them."
+
+"I remember that field.  We used to make daisy chains and trim Mother's
+room with them," said Ethel Brown.
+
+"Mr. Emerson tried ploughing up the field and he had men working over
+it for two seasons, but on the third, up they grew again as gay as you
+please.  They acted as if he had just been stirring up the soil so they
+would grow better than ever."
+
+"Poor Grandfather; he had a hard time with that field."
+
+"He said he really needed it for a pasture, so he made up his mind that
+if he couldn't root out the bad plants, he'd crowd them out.  So he
+bought some seed of a kind of grass that has large, strong roots, and
+he sowed it in the field.  As soon as it began to grow he could see
+that there certainly were not so many daisies there.  He kept on
+another year and the cows began to look over the fence as if they'd
+like to get in.  The third year there were so few daisies that they
+didn't count."
+
+"I remember all that," said Ethel Brown, "but what does it have to do
+with Mrs. Paterno?"
+
+"Why, if we--or Edward--could make her get a grip on herself and
+control herself that would be like Mr. Emerson's digging up the
+daisies.  It would be hard work and an awfully slow process.  But if we
+also could fill her mind with thoughts about working for her children
+and trying to make other people happy and with making embroidery which
+she loves to do, why wouldn't it help?  These new things she's thinking
+about would be like the strong, new grass seed that didn't give the
+weeds a chance to grow."
+
+Dorothy stared seriously at Ethel Blue.
+
+"She does perfectly beautiful embroidery," she said slowly, as she
+tried to think out a way to put Ethel Blue's suggestion into effect.
+"Do you suppose she'd be willing to teach us how to do it?  That
+beautiful Italian cut work, you know.  If we should call ourselves a
+class and ask her to teach us it might give her something quite new to
+think about."
+
+"I'd like to learn, too," agreed Ethel Blue.  "I heard Mother say once
+that there was a school in New York for Italian lace work.  Let's get
+Delia to find out about it, and when Mrs. Paterno grows stronger and
+goes back to the city she might go there.  They have a shop uptown
+where they sell the pupils' work.  The class here and the prospect of
+having regular employment when she went back--"
+
+"Work she likes."
+
+"What are you youngsters plotting?" asked the cheerful voice of
+Grandfather Emerson, who came around the big oak from the grass grown
+lane so quietly that they did not hear him coming.
+
+They told him their plan, and he listened intently.
+
+"The poor little woman has had such a shock that it will be a long time
+before she can control herself, I'm afraid," he responded
+sympathetically, "but I believe you've hit on the right way."
+
+"Then we'll get Edward Watkins to ask her whether she'll be willing to
+teach a class, and we'll all join it."
+
+"The other women might like to learn, too."
+
+"Perhaps they could teach.  Bulgarian embroidery has been fashionable
+lately, you know, and the peasant women do it."
+
+"Your grandmother and I went through a Peasant's Bazar when we were in
+Petrograd and there were mounds of embroidery there that the peasant
+women had made."
+
+"The Swedes do beautiful work.  Why don't we have a class for
+international embroidery?" laughed Dorothy.  "I think Mother would like
+to learn the Russian; she's crazy about Russian music and everything
+Russian."
+
+"We'll ask Mother and Grandmother, too, and perhaps the Miss Clarks
+would come and the women could charge a fee and make a little money
+teaching us and be amused themselves."
+
+"I dare say it will do the others good as well as the little Italian.
+You've hit on something that will benefit all of them while you were
+trying to help Mrs. Paterno," surmised Mr. Emerson.  "What I came over
+here this morning to see you about was this," he went on in a
+business-like tone that made them look at him attentively.
+"Grandmother and I think that Mrs. Paterno has been a trifle too
+exciting for you young people the last few days.  We think you need a
+change of thought as well as that young woman herself."
+
+They all sat and waited for what was coming, quite unable to guess what
+proposition he was going to make.
+
+"Helen and Roger are somewhat older and stand such upheavals a little
+better than you girls, so my plan doesn't include them."
+
+"Just us three?" asked Ethel Brown.
+
+"Just you three.  Here's my scheme; see if you like it.  I have to go
+over to Boston to-morrow on a matter of business and it occurred to me
+that it would be a pleasant sail on the Sound and that you'd be
+interested in seeing the city--"
+
+"O--o!" gasped Dorothy; "Cambridge and Longfellow's house."
+
+"Concord and Lexington!" cried Ethel Brown.
+
+"The Art Museum!" murmured Ethel Blue.
+
+"And Bunker Hill Monument, and, of course, the Navy Yard especially for
+this daughter of a sailor," and he nodded gayly at his granddaughter.
+
+"Grandmother will go, to take you around when I have to attend to my
+business, and we can stay a day or two and come back fresh to attend to
+Mrs. Paterno's affairs.  How does it strike you?"
+
+Without any preliminary conference, the three girls flung their arms
+around his neck and hugged him heartily.
+
+"Have you talked about it with Mother and Aunt Louise?" asked Ethel
+Brown.
+
+"I'm armed with their permission."
+
+"I guess we were all worrying about Mrs. Paterno," admitted Ethel Blue.
+"This will be the strong grass seed that will clear up our minds so
+that we can help her better after we come back."
+
+"I think you're the most magnificent Grandfather that ever was born!"
+exclaimed Ethel Brown, standing back and gazing admiringly at her
+ancestor.
+
+"Thank you," returned Mr. Emerson, bowing low, his hand on his heart,
+"I am quite overcome by such a wholesale tribute!"
+
+"Had we better tell Mrs. Schuler about the embroidery class plan?"
+asked Dorothy.
+
+"Run up to Rose House now and explain it to her and ask her to talk to
+the women about it while you are gone, and then when you get back
+she'll have it all ready to start," Mr. Emerson suggested.
+
+The next twenty-four hours were full of excitement.  Each of the girls
+had only a small handbag to pack, but the selection of what should go
+into each bag seemed a matter of infinite importance.  The Ethels
+filled their bags twice before they were satisfied that they had not
+left out anything that would be wanted, and Dorothy confessed that she
+had first put in too much and then had gone to the other extreme, and
+that it had not been until after she had had a consultation with her
+mother that she had decided on just the number and kind of garments
+that she would need for a two-day trip to the Hub of the Universe.
+
+"Why is it called that?" she asked of Ethel Brown.
+
+"I asked Mother and she said that people from New York and other cities
+used to say that Bostonians thought that their town was the centre of
+civilization.  So they guyed it by calling it the 'Hub'."
+
+Roger and Helen went into New York with the travellers and Delia and
+Margaret were on the pier to see the steamer leave.
+
+It was a glorious afternoon and the boat slipped around the end of the
+Battery while the westering sun was still shining brilliantly on the
+water, touching it with sparkles on the tip of each tiny wave.  The
+Statue of Liberty, with the sun behind it, towered darkly against the
+gold.  The huge buildings of the lower city stretched skywards, the new
+Equitable, the latest addition to the mammoth group, shutting off
+almost entirely the view of the Singer Tower from the harbor, just as
+the Woolworth Tower hides it from observers on the north.
+
+Between them Grandfather and Grandmother Emerson were able to point out
+nearly all of the sights of the East River--several parks and
+playgrounds, Bellevue Hospital, the Vanderbilt model tenements for
+people threatened with tuberculosis, the Junior League Hotel for
+self-supporting women, the old dwelling where Dorothy's friend, the
+"box furniture lady," had established a school to teach the folk of the
+neighborhood how to use tools for the advantage of their
+house-furnishings.
+
+The boat was one of those which steams around Cape Cod instead of
+stopping at Fall River, Rhode Island, and sending its passengers to
+Boston by train.  Early morning found them all on deck watching the
+waters of Massachusetts Bay and trying to place on a map that Mr.
+Emerson produced from his pocket the towns whose church spires they
+could see pointing skyward far off on their left.  Twin lighthouses
+they decided, marked Gurnet Point, the entrance to Plymouth Bay, and
+they strained their eyes to see the town that was the oldest settlement
+in Massachusetts, and imagined they were watching the bulky little
+Mayflower making her way landward between the headlands.
+
+Mr. Emerson convoyed his party to a hotel on Copley Square and left
+them there while he went out at once to meet his business friends.
+
+"How far away Rosemont seems, and poor Mrs. Paterno with her troubles,"
+she said an hour later as they stood before Sargent's panel of the
+Prophets in the Public Library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+TROLLEYING
+
+As for the Art Museum, they wandered delightedly from one room to
+another, but went away with a sensation of having seen too much that
+was almost as uncomfortable as that of having eaten too much.
+
+"I should like to come here or to go to the Metropolitan in New York
+with some one who could tell me about every picture or every object in
+just one room and stay there for an hour and then go away and think
+about it," said Ethel Blue.
+
+"We will do that some day at the Metropolitan," said Mrs. Emerson.  "If
+the Club would like to go in a body some day we can get one of the
+guides who do just what you describe.  We can tell her the sort of
+thing we want to see--classical statuary or English artists or the
+Morgan collection--and have it all shown to us from the standpoint of
+the expert critic.  Or we can put ourselves in the hands of the guide
+and say that we'd like to see the ten exhibits that the Museum looks
+upon as the choicest."
+
+"Either way would be wonderful!" beamed Ethel Blue, and the three girls
+promised themselves the delight of reporting Mrs. Emerson's offer to
+the Club at its next meeting.
+
+The homeward trip was made by a route quite different from the one by
+which the party reached Boston.  Grandfather proposed it at breakfast
+on the morning of the day on which they had intended to leave in the
+afternoon.
+
+"Are you people very keen on this drive through the Park System
+to-day?" he asked.
+
+The girls did not know what to say, but Mrs. Emerson scented a new idea
+and replied "not if you have something to suggest that we'd like
+better."
+
+"How would you like to trolley back to New York?"
+
+"Trolley back to New York!" repeated the girls with little screeches of
+joy.  "All the way by trolley?  How long will it take?  I never heard
+of anything so delightful in all my life!"
+
+After such a quick and satisfactory response Mr. Emerson did not need
+to lay his plan before them in any further detail.
+
+"I see you're 'game,' as Roger would say, for anything, so we'll go
+that way if Mother agrees."
+
+Mrs. Emerson did agree and even went so far as to say that she had
+wanted to do that very thing for a long time.
+
+"It's lucky Grandfather insisted that we shouldn't bring anything but
+small handbags," said Ethel Brown.  "These little things we have won't
+be any trouble at all, no matter how many times we have to change."
+
+They started in heavy inter-urban cars which rode as solidly as
+railroad cars and enabled them to be but very little tired at the end
+of the first "leg" of the journey.  The wide windows permitted views of
+the country and the girls ran from one side to the other of the closed
+cars, so that they should not miss anything of interest, and sat on the
+front seat of the open cars into which they changed later, so that they
+might have no one in front of them to obstruct their view.
+
+They went out of the city straight westward through Brookline, through
+Chestnut Hill, where is one of the reservoirs from which the city is
+supplied; past Wellesley, where they saw the college buildings rising
+among the trees on the left.
+
+The party reached Springfield at dusk and had time to take a walk after
+dinner.  They admired the elm-bordered streets and the comfortable
+houses, and they thought the Arsenal looked extremely peaceful outside
+in spite of its murderous activities within.
+
+It was a deep sleep that visited them all that night.  A whole day in
+the open air with the gentle but continuous exercise provided by the
+car made them unconscious of their surroundings almost as soon as they
+touched their pillows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY
+
+With a long and varied day ahead of them they were delighted to find
+the morning clear when they awoke.
+
+"There are almost as many points of interest in the Connecticut River
+Valley as there are on the Concord and Lexington road," Mr. Emerson
+told the girls.  "We're going first to Holyoke, which is one of the
+largest paper manufacturing towns in the world.  I have a little
+business to do there and while I am seeing my man you people can take a
+little walk.  Be sure you notice the big dam.  It's a thousand feet
+long.  The Holyoke water power is very unusual."
+
+Perhaps because they were not experts on water power they were not
+greatly impressed by the floods of the Connecticut River diverted into
+deep canals and swimming along so smoothly as to impart but little idea
+of their strength.  Only the whir of the great mills gave evidence that
+iron and steel were being moved by it.
+
+"How Roger would enjoy this!" cried Ethel Brown, and "Wouldn't Helen be
+just crazy over all the history of this region?" added Ethel Blue,
+while Dorothy, who had travelled much but never without her mother,
+silently wished that she were there to enjoy it all.
+
+"There's another girl's college of note," and Mrs. Emerson pointed out
+Mt. Holyoke at South Hadley, northeast of Mt Tom.
+
+"And we're going to see Smith College to-day!  I feel as if I wanted to
+go to all of them!" cried Ethel Blue.
+
+"You might take a year at each and find out which was best suited to
+your temperament," laughed Mrs. Emerson.
+
+From the foot of the mountain they went northward again to Northampton.
+
+"Here's where I ought to go if names count for anything," decided
+Dorothy.
+
+"If all the girls named Smith who go to college anywhere should go here
+because of the name there wouldn't be room for any other students,"
+said Mr. Emerson jokingly.
+
+"They say," returned Dorothy on the defensive, "that in the beginning
+all the people in the world were named Smith and it was only those who
+misbehaved who had their names changed."
+
+"You can at least pride yourself on their being an industrious lot.
+Think of all their crafts--they were armorers and goldsmiths, and
+silversmiths and blacksmiths."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE BERKSHIRES AND BENNINGTON
+
+Greenfield, where the party spent the night, they found to be a
+pleasant old town with the wide, tree-bordered streets to which they
+were growing accustomed in this trolleying pilgrimage.  A quiet hotel
+sheltered them and they slept soundly, their dreams filled with
+memories of colleges and rose gardens and Indians in romantic
+confusion.  The next day they started westward.
+
+Pittsfield they found to be a large town whose old houses surrounded by
+ancient trees gave a feeling of solidity and comfort.
+
+"Longfellow wrote 'The Old Clock on the Stairs' here," said Mr. Emerson
+pointing out the Appleton house.  "The first stanza describes more than
+one of the old mansions," and he recited:--
+
+  "Somewhat back from the village street
+  Stands the old-fashioned country seat.
+  Across its antique portico
+  Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw,
+  And from its station in the hall
+  An ancient timepiece says to all,--
+      'Forever--never!
+      Never--forever!'"
+
+"I remember that poem, but I never liked it much;" acknowledged
+Dorothy; "it's too gloomy."
+
+"It is rather solemn," admitted Mr. Emerson.  "You'll be interested to
+know that merry Dr. Holmes used to come to Pittsfield in the summer.
+There are many associations with him in the town."
+
+"I'm sure he wrote gayer poems than 'The Old Clock on the Stairs' when
+he was here."
+
+"Is this a very old town?" Ethel Blue asked.
+
+"It was settled in 1743.  Does that seem old to you?"
+
+[Illustration: "It was settled in 1743"]
+
+"1743," Ethel repeated, doing some subtraction by the aid of her
+fingers, for arithmetic was not her strong point.  "A hundred and
+eighty-seven years," she decided after reflection.  "Yes, that seems
+pretty old to me.  It's a lot older than Rosemont but over a hundred
+years younger than Plymouth or Boston."
+
+"A sort of middle age," Mr. Emerson summed up her decision with a smile.
+
+After luncheon at the hotel an early afternoon car sped on with them to
+a station whence they took an automobile for a drive through
+Stockbridge and Lenox with their handsome estates and lovely views.
+
+The trolley whizzed them back over the same route to North Adams and
+westward to Williamstown.
+
+"One of my brothers--your great-uncle James, Ethel Brown--went to
+Williams College," said Mr. Emerson, "and I shall be glad to spend the
+night here and see the town and the buildings I heard him talk so much
+about."
+
+"Why don't we get out, then?"
+
+"We're going now to Bennington, Vermont."
+
+"Vermont!  Into another state!" exclaimed Ethel Blue.
+
+"When we come back we'll leave the car here."
+
+"Are those the Green Mountains?" asked Dorothy as the trolley ran into
+a smoother country than they had been in while traveling in the
+Berkshires, but one which showed a background of long wooded ranges
+rising length after length against the sky.
+
+"Those are the Green Mountains; and this is the 'Green Mountain State,'
+and the men who fought in the Revolution under Ethan Allen were the
+'Green Mountain Boys'."
+
+  "But, ranged in serried order, attent on sterner noise,
+  Stood stalwart Ethan Allen and his 'Green Mountain Boys'
+  Two hundred patriots listening as with the ears of one,
+  To the echo of the muskets that blazed at Lexington!"
+
+quoted Mrs. Emerson.  "They were bound northward to the British fort at
+Ticonderoga."
+
+"Did they get there?"
+
+"They took the British completely by surprise.  That was in May, 1775.
+It was in August, two years later that the battle of Bennington took
+place."
+
+"We'd better agree to have dinner or supper here if we don't want to
+get back to Williamstown after all the food in the place has been eaten
+by those hungry college boys," suggested Mrs. Emerson.
+
+Mr. Emerson took a hasty glance at the setting sun.
+
+"You never spoke a truer word, my dear," applauded her husband, "though
+this is vacation and the boys won't be there!  Still, I'm as hungry as
+a bear.  Let's have our evening meal, whatever it proves to be, in
+Bennington."
+
+They were all hungry enough to think the plan one of the best that
+their leader had offered for some time, so it was only after what
+turned out to be supper that they went back to Williamstown.
+
+In the moonlight the towers of the college buildings glimmered
+mysteriously through the trees, and the girls went to bed happy in the
+promise of what the morning was going to bring them.
+
+Ethel Brown was sorry that there were no students to be seen on the
+grounds when they wandered about the next morning, for she would have
+liked to see what sort of boys they were, and, if she liked their
+looks, have suggested to Tom or James that they come here to college
+amid such lovely surroundings.  She liked it better than Amherst but
+Ethel Blue preferred that compact little village, and Dorothy clung to
+her deep-seated affection for Cambridge.
+
+"After all, our Club boys have their plans all made so we don't need to
+get excited over these colleges," decided Ethel Brown; "and I'm glad
+they're all going to different ones because when they graduate we'll
+have invitations to three separate class-days and other festivities."
+
+"What a perfectly beautiful tower," exclaimed Dorothy.
+
+"It's the chapel.  That light-colored stone is superb, isn't it!"
+
+"Some of these other buildings look as old as some of the oldy-old
+Harvard ones."
+
+"They can't be anywhere near as old.  This college wasn't founded until
+1793."
+
+"That's old enough to give it a settled-down air in spite of these
+handsome new affairs.  There must be lovely walks about here."
+
+"Hills almost as big as mountains to climb.  But the boys don't have
+any girls to call on the way the Amherst boys do, with the Smith girls
+and the Mt. Holyoke girls just a little ride away."
+
+"Perhaps they'd rather have mountains," remarked Ethel Brown wisely.
+
+As the college was not in session Mr. Emerson was not able to see any
+of the records that he had hoped to look over to search for his
+brother's name, and as almost all of the professors were out of town,
+he could not question any of the older men of the place as to their
+recollection of him.  He was quite willing, therefore, to take a
+comparatively early train for Albany.
+
+They arrived early enough to go over the Capitol, seated at the head of
+a broad but precipitous street.  It was very unlike the stern
+simplicity of the Massachusetts State House, but they amused themselves
+by saying that at least the two buildings had one part of their
+decoration in common.  In Albany the tops of the columns were carved
+with fruits and flowers, all to be found in the United States.  In
+Boston a local product, the codfish, held a position of honor over the
+desk of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
+
+"All made in the U. S. A.," laughed Dorothy, quoting a slogan of the
+wartime, intended to help home industries.
+
+They wanted to see the Cathedral and St. Agnes' School as well as the
+State Board of Education Building, and after they had hunted them out
+with the help of a map of the city, and had taken a trolley ride into
+the suburbs, and had eaten a hearty dinner they were glad to go to bed
+early so as to be up in time to catch the Day Boat for New York.
+
+"What splendid weather we've had," exclaimed Mrs. Emerson as they took
+their places on the broad deck of the handsome craft.  It was not the
+same one that had taken them to West Point at the end of May.  This one
+was named after Hendrik Hudson, the explorer of the river.  They found
+it to be quite as comfortable as the other, and the day went fast as
+they swept down the stream with the current to aid them.
+
+Occasionally broad reaches of the river grew narrower and wider again
+as the soil had proven soft or more resistant and the water had spread
+or had cut out a deep channel.  Off to the west the Catskills loomed
+against the sky, more varied than the Green Mountains and more rugged.
+
+"More beautiful, too, I think," decided Ethel Blue.  "I like their
+roughness."
+
+A storm came up as they passed the mountains and the thunder rumbled
+unendingly among the hills.
+
+"Listen to the Dutchmen that Rip Van Winkle saw playing bowls when he
+visited them during his twenty years' nap," laughed Ethel Brown who was
+a reader of Washington Irving's "Sketch Book."
+
+"I don't wonder he felt dozy in summer with such a lovely scene to
+quiet him," Mrs. Emerson said in his defence.  "I feel a trifle sleepy
+myself," and she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes with an
+appearance of extreme comfort.
+
+They passed Kingston which was burned by the British just two months
+after the battle of Bennington; and by a large town which proved to be
+Poughkeepsie.
+
+"Here's where we should land if we were going to finish our
+investigation of colleges by seeing Vassar," said Mr. Emerson.
+
+"I'm glad we aren't going to get off!" exclaimed Ethel Brown.  "I'm so
+undecided now I don't see how I'll ever make up my mind where to go!"
+
+"Something will happen to help you decide," consoled Dorothy.  "Isn't
+this where the big college boat races are rowed?" she asked Mr. Emerson.
+
+"Right here on this broad stretch of water.  A train of observation
+cars--flat cars--follows the boats along the bank.  I must bring the
+Club up here to some of them some time."
+
+"O-oh!" all the girls cried with one voice, and they stared at the
+river and the shore as if they might even then see the shells dashing
+down the stream and the shouting crowds in the steamers and on the
+banks.
+
+Below Newburgh the river narrowed beneath upstanding cliffs and a point
+jutted out into the water.
+
+"Do you recognize that piece of land?" Mr. Emerson asked.
+
+No one did.
+
+"You don't recall West Point?"
+
+"We're in the position now of the steamers and tugs we watched while we
+were having our dinner at the hotel.  Do you see the veranda of the
+hotel?  Up on the headland?"
+
+They did, and they felt that they were in truth nearing home.  The
+remainder of the way was over familiar waters, and they called to mind
+the historic tales that Roger and Mr. Emerson had told them on the
+Memorial Day trip.
+
+"We've seen so much history in the last week, though," declared Ethel
+Blue, "that I don't believe I can ever realize that I'm living in the
+twentieth century!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HUNTING ARROW HEADS
+
+The week after the home-coming from the Massachusetts trolley trip was
+a time of busyness for the Ethels and Dorothy.  Helen and Roger and the
+grown-ups who had stayed at home had to be made familiar with every
+step of the way, and the whole long history lesson that they had had
+was reviewed especially for Helen's benefit.  She looked up battle
+after battle in large histories in the library and was so full of
+questions as to how this place and that looked that the girls regretted
+that they had not taken a kodak so that they might have gratified her
+curiosity by showing her pictures of all the historical spots in their
+modern garb.
+
+Affairs at Rose House had to be brought up to date.  Mr. Emerson
+undertook the management of Mrs. Tsanoff's affairs and went into town
+the very day after his return to call on Mr. Watkins and find out where
+Tsanoff was working.  He found that he had been discharged from his
+position but a few days before.  He had become so downcast as a
+consequence that he had not sent word to his wife of this fresh
+disappointment, and he was unspeakably grateful to Mr. Emerson for the
+chance that he opened to him.  A kodak of his dark, sensible face was
+easily obtained to send to Massachusetts and Mr. Emerson went home
+feeling that the first step had been well taken.
+
+Making Mrs. Tsanoff understand the new proposition was not easy, but
+Mrs. Schuler and Moya had learned something of her language as she had
+learned more English during the summer and, when Mr. Emerson showed her
+a photograph of the Deerfield farm and told her of its advantages for
+her husband and the children she was eager to go to it at once.
+
+"The fields, the cows," she kept saying over and over again, and the
+girls realized how strong within her was her love for the country for
+which she had made the poor exchange of the city, and they sympathized
+keenly.
+
+The result of the correspondence between Mr. Emerson and the Deerfield
+people was that the Bulgarians were put on the train for Springfield
+within ten days, each one of them, even the twin babies, wearing a
+small American flag so that they might be recognized by their new
+employer who was to meet them at Springfield and convoy them home.
+Mrs. Tsanoff left Rose House in tears, kissing the hands of all the
+girls and murmuring her gratitude to all of them over and over again as
+she wept and smiled by turns.
+
+The other women had started the embroidery class, teaching each other
+and Mrs. Morton, Mrs. Smith and the Miss Clarks.  The plan was working
+out very well, Mrs. Schuler thought, especially with Mrs. Paterno, who
+evidently loved the work and in it was already losing something of her
+fear and anxiety.
+
+Roger had made a sideboard for the Rose House dining room assisted by
+the members of the Club who were "not off gallivanting," as he
+expressed it.
+
+"It's mighty good looking," commented Dorothy as she examined it.  "Was
+it hard to make?  It looks so."
+
+"No worse than that seat we made for Mrs. Schuler's room.  We made two
+cupboard arrangements for the ends just like those, only we put a door
+over each one of them.  Instead of a big box between them to be used as
+a seat we put a shelf resting on the cleats that went across the backs
+of the bookshelves.  Then we connected the two cupboards with a long
+plank."
+
+"You put a back behind the shelf."
+
+"We put on thin boards for a back, but we haven't decided yet whether
+we made a mistake in putting doors in front or not.  I like them with
+doors the way we have it, but Margaret thinks it would have been rather
+good without any doors.  What do you think?"
+
+"I think Mrs. Schuler will like it better with doors.  The linen or
+whatever she keeps in there will be cleaner if it isn't exposed to the
+air on open shelves and the doors will serve as a protection against
+dust."
+
+They all agreed that it was one of the best pieces of furniture that
+they had yet made for the house, and the travellers were sorry that
+they had not had a hand in its construction on account of the
+experience the progress of the work would have afforded them.
+
+A few days later the Ethels planned an excursion for the benefit of the
+younger children which was to be somewhat in the nature of a picnic,
+but it was arranged to have everyone attend who could do so.
+
+There was intense excitement among the smaller children when the
+announcement was made that the picnic would be held early the following
+week, providing the weather proved clear enough not to interfere with
+their plans.
+
+Dicky's share in the excitement of the journey was the stirring up of a
+deep interest in Indians.  When the Ethels told him that they were
+going over to the field that Grandfather Emerson was having cleared he
+insisted on going with them to hunt for arrow heads.  They waited until
+a day after a rain had left the small stones washed free of earth, and
+they made an afternoon of it, all the Club and all the Rose House women
+and children going too.  The boys carried hampers with the wherewithal
+for afternoon tea, and the expedition assumed serious proportions in
+the minds of those arranging it when Dicky asked if they would need one
+of Grandfather's wagons to bring home the arrow heads in.
+
+As a matter of fact they did not find many arrow heads.  Whether the
+earth had not yet been turned over to a sufficient depth or whether the
+Indians who had lived about Rosemont had been of a peaceful temper or
+whether the field happened not to be near any of their villages, no one
+knew, though every one made one guess or another.
+
+They planned the search methodically.
+
+"I saw a lot of Boy Scouts one day clear up the field in Central Park
+in which they had been drilling," said Tom Watkins.  "They stretched in
+a long line across the whole field and then they walked slowly along
+looking for anything that might have been dropped in the course of
+their evolutions."
+
+"Did they find much?"
+
+"You'd be surprised to know how much!"
+
+"Let's do the same thing here.  If we stretch across the field then
+every one is responsible for just a small section under his eyes--"
+
+"--and feet."
+
+"--and feet.  I wish we had an arrow head to show the women so they'd
+know exactly what to look for."
+
+"Father had one in the cabinet," said Roger, "and I put it in my pocket
+for just this purpose.  I don't know where he got it, and it may not be
+of exactly the kind of stone these New Jersey Indians used, but it will
+show the shape all right."
+
+"They always used flint, didn't they?" asked Margaret.
+
+"Flint or obsidian or the hardest stone they could find, whatever it
+was."
+
+"Bone?"
+
+"Sometimes.  I saw quite large bone heads at the Natural History
+Museum."
+
+"I've seen life-size boneheads frequently," announced James solemnly,
+not smiling until Roger and Tom pelted him with bits of sod.
+
+The arrow head was passed from hand to hand and every one studied it
+carefully.  Then they stretched across the field and began their
+search.  The result was not very satisfactory from Dicky's point of
+view, for he concluded that he need not have worried as to how the load
+was to be carried home.  There were only seven found.  Of these,
+however, Dicky found two, one by his unaided efforts and the other
+through Ethel Blue's taking pains not to see one that lay between him
+and her.  Nobody else found more than one and several of them found
+none at all, so Dicky, after all, was hilarious.
+
+In a corner of the field they built a fire and heated water for the tea
+in a kettle thrust among the coals.  Ears of corn still in the husk
+were roasted between heated stones, bits of bacon sizzled appetizingly
+from forked sticks and dripped on to the flames with a hissing sound,
+and biscuits, fresh from Moya's oven, were reheated near the blaze.
+
+It was while they were sitting around the fire that Dicky's mind turned
+to the remainder of the Indian's equipment.
+
+"What did he do with thith arrowhead?" he inquired.
+
+"He tied it on to the end of an arrow, and shot bears with it."
+
+"What'th an arrow?"
+
+"A long, slender stick."
+
+"Do you throw it?"
+
+"You shoot it from a bow."
+
+"What'th a bow?"
+
+"A curved piece of wood with a string connecting the ends."
+
+"How doeth it work?"
+
+Roger heaved a sigh and then gave it up..
+
+"Me for the bushes," he cried.  "Language fails me; I'll have to make a
+bow and arrow."
+
+"It's the easiest way," nodded Tom.  "Bring me a switch and I'll make
+the arrow while you make the bow."
+
+"Who's got a piece of string?" inquired Roger a few minutes later as he
+held up his handiwork for the admiration of his friends,
+
+James produced the necessary string and Roger strung the bow.
+
+"Now, then, let's see what it will do," he said.
+
+Adjusting the arrow he drew the cord and sent the simple shaft whizzing
+through the air against a tree where it stuck in the bark for an
+instant before it fell to the ground.
+
+"Do you think it's safe for Dicky to have an arrow as sharp as that?"
+inquired Helen.
+
+"That's not sharp enough to do any damage.  It didn't hold in the tree."
+
+Dicky was delighted with his new toy and went off to test its power,
+followed by Elisabeth of Belgium, Sheila, Luigi and Pietro Paterno,
+Olga Peterson and Vasili and Vladimir Vereshchagin.  The romper-clad
+band stirred the amused smiles of the elders watching them.
+
+"They certainly are the cunningest little dinks that ever happened!"
+cried Ethel Brown, establishing herself comfortably to help make small
+bows and arrows for the rest of the flock.
+
+The girls as well as the boys of the United Service Club knew how to
+use a jacknife and the diminutive weapons of the chase were soon ready.
+
+The Ethels were hunting through the luncheon basket for string when a
+howl from the other side of the field made them drop what was in their
+hands and rush toward the trees where the children were playing.  The
+mothers followed them, Mrs. Paterno and Mrs. Vereshchagin in the lead.
+
+"I certainly hope it's not the little Paterno," said Ethel Blue
+breathlessly to Ethel Brown as they ran.  "Mrs. Paterno never will
+forgive Dicky if he's got him into trouble again."
+
+They concluded when they came in sight of the group of children that
+the Italian woman had run from nervousness and the Russian because she
+recognized the voice of her offspring, for it was Vladimir whose yells
+were resounding through the air.  Dicky was bending over him and the
+other children were standing around so that the runners as they
+approached could not see what was the matter.
+
+Mrs. Vereshchagin increased her speed, uttering sounds that fell
+strangely on her listeners' ears.  The group of children fell away as
+their elders came near, and the Ethels, who were in front, saw that
+Vladimir was pinned to a tree by Dicky's arrow which had pierced the
+fullness of his rompers.  He could not be hurt in the least, but the
+strangeness of his position had startled and angered him and was
+causing the shrieks that had frightened them all.
+
+Fortunately for Dicky, Mrs. Vereshchagin, unlike Mrs. Paterno, had a
+sense of humor, and as soon as she saw that her child was neither
+injured nor in danger she burst into laughter as loud as his cries of
+rage and terror.  Roger quickly unfastened him from the tree to which
+he was bound and handed him over to his mother, none the worse for his
+experience except that his rompers were torn.  Turning to Dicky, Roger
+decreed that the head must be taken from his arrow.
+
+"It's not your fault, old man," he said; "but Helen was right--this
+thing is too sharp."
+
+"I'll tell you what to do, Roger, get some of those rubber tips that
+slip on the ends of lead pencils.  The English stationer must have
+some.  If you put them on all these arrows they can't do any harm."
+
+"Meanwhile the kiddies had better not have them," Mrs. Schuler decided,
+so they were put aside with the basket, to be finished later when the
+needed tips should be procured in Rosemont.
+
+"You got off pretty well, that time, sir," laughed Roger.  "What were
+you trying to do?"
+
+"I wath an Indian thooting bearth.  Vladimir wath a bear."
+
+"A Russian bear.  You got him all right; but let me tell you, young
+man; you must be mighty careful what you aim at, for international
+complications may follow."
+
+"What'th that?"
+
+"That means it's dangerous to aim at _anybody_.  I'll make you a target
+and when you get so you can hit the bull's eye three times out of five
+at a distance of fifteen feet I'll give you a better bow.  Is it a
+bargain?"
+
+Dicky shook hands on it solemnly.
+
+"Remember now, no shooting at any living thing."
+
+"Not a cat?"
+
+"Not a cat or a bird, a dog or any other animal on two legs or four."
+
+"All right," nodded Dicky, and Roger knew that he would keep his word,
+for that is a part of the training of a soldier's son.
+
+The experiences of the afternoon were not yet ended.  The arrow episode
+over the children looked about for other amusement.  They drifted away
+from the group still gathered about the embers of the dying fire and
+made their way among the bushes standing uncut on the edge of the new
+clearing.  Once in a while their laughter was borne on the breeze.  It
+was a long time before any one thought of seeing what they were doing.
+Then Ethel Brown rose and sauntered in the direction whence the sounds
+came.
+
+"With Dicky in the lead," she thought, "it's just as well to keep an
+eye on them."
+
+As she approached the woods she saw the little army of rompered
+youngsters, each armed with a switch, and each doing his best to strike
+something high over his head.  They all stood with their eager faces
+looking upward and their arms working busily with what muscle the
+summer had given them.  Leaves were falling from the bushes and the
+lower branches of the saplings that were struck by their rods, and it
+was evident that they were causing great destruction to the foliage,
+whatever the real object of their attack.
+
+Ethel's wonderment increased.
+
+"Children do get the greatest amount of fun out of the smallest
+things," she thought.  "What can they be doing?"
+
+When quite near the thicket, however, her slow steps quickened into a
+run.  Her sharp eyes discovered hanging from one of the trees over the
+heads of the children one of the large wasps' nests which seem to be
+made of gray paper.  It had caught Dicky's attention and he had coveted
+it for purpose of investigation.  Summoning his cohorts he had pointed
+it out to them and had urged them to bring it down.  Each one had
+broken a stick; some had stripped off the leaves entirely; others had
+left a tuft at the end.  In both cases the weapons looked dangerously
+destructive to Ethel, as she ran toward them and saw one pole after
+another swish past the home of the paper wasps and expected the colony
+to rush forth to defend their abode.  With a cry of warning she bore
+down on them and with a sweep of her arms turned them all back into the
+open field.  Dicky was indignant.
+
+"What you doing that for?" he demanded angrily.  "One more thwat and
+I'd a had it."
+
+"You don't know what it is," cried Ethel breathlessly.  "You'd all be
+stung if there were any wasps at home.  That's their house and they get
+awfully mad."
+
+The children looked back fearfully at the object of their attack.
+
+"You've had a narrow escape," insisted Ethel, and then to divert their
+minds from what had happened she made them stretch themselves in a line
+and hunt for arrow heads all the way back to their mothers.
+
+"Thith ith a funny thtone," exclaimed Dicky, picking up a rather large
+oblong stone that had a groove all around its middle.
+
+"It looks like Lake Chautauqua.  doesn't it?  You know they say that
+'Chautauqua' means 'the bag tied in the middle'."
+
+"Did the Indianth uthe it?" Dicky asked as he laid his trophy in
+Roger's hand.
+
+"I rather think they did," returned Roger excitedly.  "It looks to me
+as if this was a hammer or a hatchet.  See--" and he held it out for
+the girls and James and Tom to see, "they must have lashed this head on
+to a stout stick by a cord tied where this crease is."
+
+"It would make a first-rate hammer," commended James.
+
+"The Indians didn't manufacture as many of these as they did arrow
+heads, because, of course, they didn't need as many.  I rather guess
+you've made the big find of the afternoon," and Dicky swelled with
+pride as his brother patted him on the shoulder.
+
+When it became time to go home the Ethels offered to take the short cut
+to Rosemont and get the rubber tips for the children's arrows.
+
+"If we go across the field and the West Woods we come out not far from
+the stationer's, and we can leave the tips up at Rose House on the way
+back so they'll be ready for you to put on to-morrow and the youngsters
+can have the bows and arrows to play with right off."
+
+"Let me go," begged Dicky.
+
+"All right," agreed Roger.  "Be careful when you go over the railroad
+track, girls.  Mother isn't very keen on having Dicky learn that road,
+you know."
+
+They promised to be careful and set forth in the opposite direction
+from the rest of the party whom they left putting together the remnants
+of the feast and packing away the plates.
+
+It was an interesting walk.  They played Indian all the way.  Ethel
+Blue's imagination had been greatly stimulated by the tale of the
+attack on Deerfield and she pretended to see an Indian behind every
+tree.  Ethel Brown pretended to shoot them all with unerring arrow, and
+Dicky charged the bushes in handsome style and routed the enemy with
+awful slaughter.
+
+"This is just the kind of game we ought not to play if we want to make
+Dicky think of peace and not of war," declared Ethel Blue at last when
+she had become breathless from the excitement of their countless
+adventures.
+
+"That's so.  It's funny how you forget.  It's just as Delia says--we
+don't realize how fighting and soldiers and thinking about military
+things is put into our minds even in games when we're little."
+
+"I'm really sorry we've done this," confessed.  Ethel Brown as they
+fell behind their charge.  "Dicky's 'pretending' works over time
+anyway, and he may dream about Indians, or get scared to go to bed, and
+it will be our fault."
+
+"It's rather late to think about it--but let's try not to do it again.
+Isn't there something we can call his attention to now to take his mind
+off Indians?"
+
+Dicky was marching ahead of them drawing an imaginary bow and bringing
+down a large bag of imaginary birds, while from the difficulty with
+which he occasionally dragged an imaginary something behind him it
+seemed that he had at least slain an imaginary deer.
+
+Naturally, with his hunting blood up, the Ethels found him not
+responsive to appeals to "see what a pretty flower this is" or to
+examine the hole of a chipmunk.  He was after more thrilling
+adventures.  Still, by the time they reached the railroad track,
+everyday matters were beginning to command his attention.  This short
+cut across the track was one that he had seldom been allowed to take,
+and the mere fact of doing it was exciting.  He stopped in the middle
+and looked up and down the line while the girls tugged at him.  It was
+only when he saw a bit or two of shining metal which, according to his
+arrow head game of the afternoon, he picked up and tucked away in the
+pocket of his rompers, that his attention was once more turned to the
+gathering of the wonders that seemed to be under his feet all the time
+if only he looked for them hard enough.
+
+The errand to the stationery shop was successful.  The stationer said
+that most pencils now were made with erasers built into them, but that
+he thought he had a box of old tips left over.  He hunted for them very
+obligingly, and set so small a price on them that the Ethels took the
+whole box so that they might have a liberal supply in case any were
+lost off the arrow heads.  Dicky put one in his pocket so that he could
+place it on his arrow as soon as he got it into his hands once more,
+and he begged the Ethels to go home by way of Rose House so that he
+could fix it up that very night.
+
+"Is it early enough?" asked Ethel Blue.
+
+Ethel Brown thought it was.
+
+"But we'll have to hurry," she warned; "there's an awfully black cloud
+over there.  It looks like a thunder storm."
+
+They scampered as fast as their legs would carry them and reached the
+farm in the increasing darkness, but before any rain had fallen.  They
+found all the bows and arrows standing in a trash basket which Roger
+had made for the dining room.
+
+"Mr. Roger stood them up in that so the children wouldn't be apt to
+touch 'em," explained Moya.
+
+Dicky sat down on the hearth and set to work on the arrow which he
+recognized as his because of its greater length.
+
+"You'll have to hurry or we'll get caught," warned his sister.
+
+"We ought to start right off," urged Ethel Blue.  "We'll have to run
+for it even if we go now."
+
+Mrs. Schuler brought in the cape of her storm coat.
+
+"Take this for Dicky," she said.  "If it does break before you get home
+it will rain hard and his rompers won't be any protection at all."
+
+"Put it on now, Dicky," commanded Ethel Brown.  "Stand up."
+
+Dicky rose reluctantly.
+
+"Why do you fill up your pocket with such stuff," inquired Ethel
+impatiently.  "There, throw it into the fireplace--gravel, toadstools,
+old brass," she catalogued contemptuously, and Dicky, swept on by her
+eagerness, obediently cast his treasures among the soft pine boughs
+that filled the wide, old fireplace.
+
+"I'll clear them away," promised Mrs. Schuler.  "Hurry," and she fairly
+turned them out of the house.
+
+"You made me throw away my shiny things," complained Dicky as they ran
+down the lane as fast as they could go.
+
+"Never mind; you'd have jounced them out of your pocket anyway, running
+like this," and Dicky, taking giant strides as his sister and his
+cousin held a hand on each side, was inclined to think that he would be
+lucky if he were not jounced put of his clothes before he got home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE STORM
+
+After all, they need not have jerked poor Dicky over the ground at such
+a rapid pace for the storm, though it grumbled and roared at a
+distance, did not break until a late hour in the night.  Then it came
+with a vengeance and made up for its indecision by behaving with real
+ferocity.
+
+To the women at Rose House, accustomed to the city, where Nature's
+sights and sounds are deadened by the number of the buildings and the
+narrowness of the streets, the uproar was terrifying.  Flash after
+flash lit up their rooms so that the roosters and puppies and pigs and
+cows on the curtains stood out clearly in the white light.  Crash after
+crash sent them cowering under the covers of their beds.  The children
+woke and added their cries to the tumult.
+
+As the electric storm swept away into the distance the wind rose and
+howled about the house.  Shutters slammed; chairs were over-turned on
+the porch; a brick fell with a thud from the top of the chimney to the
+roof; another fell down the chimney into the fireplace where its
+arrival was followed by a roar that seemed to shake the old building on
+its foundation.
+
+"Grrreat Scott!" ejaculated Mr. Schuler, who had learned some English
+expressions from his pupils.  He was returning through the hall from a
+hobbling excursion to make sure that all the windows down stairs were
+closed.  The candle dropped from his hand and he was left in the dark.
+His crutch slid from under his arm, and he was forced to cling to a
+table for support and call for his wife to come and find it for him.
+
+Mrs. Schuler reached him from the kitchen where she had been attending
+to the fastenings of the back door.  Fortunately her light had survived
+the gusty attack and she was able to help her husband to his prop.
+
+"What is it?" she cried breathlessly, "Is the house falling?  Did you
+ever hear such a noise!"
+
+Mr. Schuler never had.  The outcry upstairs was increased by the
+shrieks of Sheila who had slept until the last shock and who woke at
+last to add her penetrating voice to the pandemonium.
+
+"Do you smell something queer?" asked Mrs. Schuler.  "Do you think that
+was a lightning-bolt and it set the house on fire?"
+
+Her husband shook his head doubtfully.  "The lightning has gone by," he
+said, but they went together on a tour of investigation.
+
+Nothing was burning in the kitchen, but the rays of the uplifted candle
+showed a zigzag crack on the wall behind the stove.
+
+"That wall is the chimney," said Mrs. Schuler.  "Something has happened
+to the chimney."
+
+"Let's go into the dining-room and see if anything shows there."
+
+Into the dining-room they went.  An acrid smell filled the room, and as
+they entered a smouldering flame in the fireplace burst into a blaze,
+from the draught of the door.  Its fuel consisted only of some trash
+that had been tossed into the fireplace and hidden behind the fresh
+pine boughs that filled the opening through the summer.  The drinking
+water in the pitcher on the table was enough to put an end to it.
+
+"It's hardly large enough to bother to put out," exclaimed Mr. Schuler,
+"if it weren't that the chimney seems to be so shaken that the flames
+might work through somewhere and set fire to the woodwork."
+
+"There's no doubt about something serious having happened to the
+chimney," and Mrs. Schuler stooped and pushed back three or four bricks
+that had tumbled forward on to the hearth.
+
+"The back is cracked," she announced from her knees.  "With that big
+crack on the kitchen side I rather think Moya had better use the oil
+stove until Mr. Emerson can send a bricklayer to examine the chimney."
+
+"Everything but this seems all right here; you'd better go up and try
+to calm the women," advised Mr. Schuler.
+
+The wind storm was dying down and the inmates of Rose House were
+becoming quieter as the din outside moderated.  The Matron went from
+room to room bringing comfort and courage as her candle shone upon one
+frightened face after another.
+
+"It's all over; there's nothing to be afraid of," she said over and
+over again.  Only to Moya did she tell what had happened to the
+chimney, so that she might prepare breakfast on the oil stove.
+
+"It almost seems I heard a giant fall down the chimney," the Irish girl
+whispered hoarsely.
+
+"I dare say you did hear the bricks falling.  There's a gallon or two
+of soot in the dining-room fireplace for you to clean up in the
+morning."
+
+"'Tis easy, that, compared wid cleaning up the whole house that seemed
+like to tumble!" said Moya with a sigh of relief.
+
+The children were already asleep and the remainder of the night was
+unbroken by any sound save the dripping of the raindrops from the
+branches and the swish of wet leaves against each other when a light
+breeze revived their former activities.
+
+Little Vladimir was up early with a memory of something queer having
+happened in the night.  He was eager to go downstairs and find out what
+it was all about and his mother dressed him and let him out of her room
+and then turned over to take another nap.  When Moya went down to set
+the oil stove in position for use he was amusing himself contentedly
+with the rubbish in the fireplace, his face and hands already in need
+of renewed attention from his mother.
+
+"'Tis the sooty-faced young one ye are," she called to him
+good-naturedly.  "Run up to the brook and wash yerself an' save yer
+mother the throuble."
+
+She opened the back door and he ran out into the yard, but instead of
+going up the lane to the brook he scampered round the house and down
+the lane.  Moya called after him but he paid no attention.  "Sure, I've
+too much to do to be day-nursing that young Russian," she murmured.
+
+There were wonderings and ejaculations in many tongues when all the
+women and children came down and examined the cracks in the kitchen
+side of the chimney and in the back of the dining-room fireplace and
+saw the heap of rubbish and bricks piled up in the fireplace.  It gave
+them something to talk about all the morning.  This was lucky, for the
+grass was too wet for the children to play on it, and when mothers and
+children were crowded on the veranda idle words sometimes changed to
+cross ones.
+
+"Tis strange; they's good women, iv'ry wan, take 'em alone," Moya had
+said one day to Mrs. Schuler and Ethel Blue when they heard from the
+kitchen the sounds of dispute upon the porch; "yit listen to 'em whin
+they gits together."
+
+"That's because each one of them gets out of the talk just what she
+puts into it," explained the Matron.
+
+"Manin' that if she comes to it cross it's cross answers she gits.
+It's right ye are, ma'am.  'Tis so about likin' or hatin' yer work.
+Days when yer bring happiness to yer work it goes like a bird, an' days
+when ye have the black dog on yer back the work turns round an' fights
+wid yer."
+
+Ethel Blue listened intently.  Things like that had happened to her but
+she had not supposed that grown people had such experiences.  She
+remembered a day during the previous week when she had waked up cross.
+A dozen matters went wrong before she left the house to go to school.
+On the way the mud pulled off one of her overshoes, and her boot was
+soiled before she was shod again.  The delay made her five minutes late
+and caused a black mark to deface her perfect attendance record.  Every
+recitation went wrong in one way or another, and every one she spoke to
+was as cross as two sticks.  As she thought it over she realized that
+if what Mrs. Schuler and Moya said was true the whole trouble came from
+herself.  When she woke up not in the best of humor she ought to have
+smoothed herself out before she went down to breakfast, and then she
+would have picked her way calmly over the crossing and not tried to
+take a short cut through the mud; she would not have been delayed and
+earned a tardy mark; she would have had an unclouded mind that could
+give its best attention to the recitations so that she would have done
+herself justice; people would have been glad to talk to her because she
+looked cheerful and was in a sunny mood and no one would have been
+cross.
+
+"I guess it was all my fault," she thought.  "I guess it will pay to
+straighten myself out before I get out of bed every morning."
+
+All was well in and out of Rose House on the morning after the storm.
+Every one told her experiences as if she were the only person affected
+and they all talked at once and enjoyed themselves immensely.  Vladimir
+came running up on to the porch in the middle of the morning and threw
+himself across his mother's lap.
+
+"Where have you been now?" she asked him.  He had come to breakfast
+only after being called a dozen times and he had disappeared
+immediately after breakfast.  "What have you been doing?"
+
+The little fellow laughed and poured into her lap a handful of nickels
+and ten-cent pieces.
+
+"Where in the world did you get those?" demanded Mrs. Vereshchagin.
+"Who gave them to you?"
+
+"A man in the road."
+
+"A man in the road?  All that money?  What for?"
+
+"I gave him the shiny thing and he gave me those moneys."
+
+"What shiny thing?"
+
+"The shiny thing I found on the floor."
+
+"Where on the floor?"
+
+"In the dining-room, and the youngster ran into the house to point out
+exactly the place where he had found the 'shiny thing.'"
+
+"A 'shiny thing'," repeated Moya, who was putting the room in order and
+heard the Russian woman's inquiries.  "'Tis two of 'em I found mesilf
+on the floor when I cleared up the mess from the fireplace this
+morning.  'Twas two bits of brass.  See, I saved 'em," and she shook
+from a scooped-out gourd which served as an ornament on the mantel two
+bits of metal.
+
+"Was it like these, Vladdy?" she asked, but Vladimir was too tired of
+being questioned and ran away without answering.
+
+His mother shook her head as she gazed at the bits lying on her palm.
+
+"Not worth all these moneys," she murmured as she counted forty cents
+in the small coins in her other hand.  It was a mystery.
+
+Moya put the bits of brass back into the gourd and went on with her
+dusting.
+
+Mrs. Schuler telephoned to Mr. Emerson early in the morning, telling
+him of the damage to the house and asking him to come and see what had
+happened go that the bricklayers might be set to work as soon as
+possible.
+
+"I'm afraid to let Moya light the kitchen stove until I'm sure the
+chimney is sound," she explained.
+
+Mr. Emerson telephoned the news to his grandchildren and he and all the
+Mortons with Dorothy and her mother and Miss Merriam and Elisabeth
+arrived at the farm at almost the same time.
+
+"I'm glad the house is in as good condition as it seems to be,"
+exclaimed Mrs. Morton.  "I couldn't bear to have the old homestead fall
+to ruin.  I was startled at Father's message."
+
+"Not so startled as all the people here were in the night," laughed her
+father who had been talking with Mrs. Schuler.  "It seems that the
+worst noise came after the electric storm was over, but while the wind
+was at its highest."
+
+"The chimney wasn't struck by lightning, then."
+
+"It was not lightning," asserted Mr. Schuler.  "The wind knocked bricks
+from the top of the chimney.  I saw one or two on the roof this
+morning.  As you see, several fell down the chimney into the fireplace."
+
+"I can't see how bricks from the top of the chimney could have made the
+crack in the kitchen side of the chimney and this crack in the back of
+the fireplace."
+
+"Nor I," agreed Mr. Schuler.  "The roar was tremendous.  I could not
+believe that I was seeing rightly when I beheld only these few fallen
+bricks."
+
+"It sounded as if the whole chimney had fallen," Mrs. Schuler confirmed
+her husband's assertion.
+
+"Mrs. Peterson says it sounded to her like an explosion, sir," said
+Moya, who had been talking with the women on the porch.  "Her room is
+right over this.  The bricks fell through the chimney, banging it all
+the way, says she, and thin there was a roar like powder had gone off,
+as far as I can understand what she says."
+
+"If Mrs. Paterno heard that she must have thought the Black Hand was
+getting in its fine work, sure enough," smiled Mr. Emerson.
+
+"Praise be, her room is on the other side of the house.  We were all
+wailing like banshees up there, but she no more than the rest.  'Tis
+better she is," and Moya nodded reassuringly to the grown-ups, who
+were, she knew, deeply interested in the Italian woman's recovery of
+her nervous strength.
+
+"This explosion business I don't understand," Mr. Emerson said slowly
+to himself.  "What did you find in the fireplace this morning, Moya?  I
+wish you had left all the stuff here for me to see."
+
+"I'm sorry, sir.  I was only thinkin' about havin' it clean before
+breakfast.  There was the bricks, sir, two of 'em; and a pile of soot
+and some bits of trash wid no meanin'--"
+
+"Did you find my two thinieth I picked up on the track yesterday?"
+asked Dicky.  "Ethels made me throw away all the thingth in my pocket
+and my thinieth went too."
+
+"What does he mean by his 'shinies'?" asked Mr. Emerson.
+
+"He picked up a lot of stuff yesterday when we were hunting arrow heads
+and walking to Rosemont by the short cut over the track.  When I was
+putting Mrs. Schuler's storm cape on him I emptied out his pocketful of
+trash into the fireplace."
+
+"What did the shinies look like, son?" inquired Dicky's grandfather.
+
+Dicky was entering into an elaborate and unintelligible explanation
+when Moya took the bits of brass from the gourd.
+
+"Would these be the shinies?" she asked.
+
+Mr. Emerson took them from her and examined them carefully.
+
+"I rather think the explanation of the explosion is here," he decided.
+"You say you picked these up on the track, Dicky?"
+
+"Yeth, I did, and Ethel threw them away," repeated the youngster who
+was beginning to think that he had a real grievance, since his
+"shinies" seemed to have some importance.
+
+"These are two of the small dynamite cartridges that brakemen lay on
+the track to notify the engineer of a following train to stop for some
+reason.  They use them in stormy weather or when there is reason to
+think that the usual flag or red light between the rails won't be seen."
+
+"Dynamite!" exclaimed Ethel Brown, looking at her hand as she
+remembered that she had not been especially gentle when she tossed the
+contents of her brother's pocket into the fireplace.
+
+"There is enough dynamite in a cartridge to make a sharp detonation but
+not enough to do any damage, unless, as happened here, there were two
+of them in a small space that was enclosed on three sides--"
+
+"The trash was blown out on the floor of the room," interrupted Mr.
+Schuler.
+
+"--by walls that were none too strong.  With a wind such as last
+night's knocking down the chimney at the top and bricks setting
+dynamite cartridges into action below I only wonder that the old thing
+is standing at all this morning."
+
+They gazed at it as if they expected the whole affair to fall before
+their eyes.
+
+"I'll call up the brickmason and find out when he can come to examine
+it; he may have to rebuild the entire chimney."
+
+Mr. Emerson was moving toward the hall where the telephone was when his
+eye fell on Elisabeth sitting contentedly on the floor close to the
+wall turning over and over something that gleamed.
+
+"What have you got there, small blessing?" he asked, stooping to make
+sure that she was not intending to try the taste of whatever it might
+be.
+
+"Hullo!"  he  cried,  straightening  himself.  "Hullo!" and he held up
+his discovery before the astonished eyes of the group.
+
+"It looks like a gold coin, Grandfather!" exclaimed Ethel Brown.
+
+"That's just what it is.  A guinea.  Its date is 1762.  Where did you
+find it, Ayleesabet?" he asked the child, who was reaching up her tiny
+hands for the return of her new plaything.
+
+"Here, here," she answered, pointing to the floor where the casing of
+the chimney yawned from the planks for half an inch.  "Here," and she
+pushed her fingers into the crack.
+
+"I saw her pull something that was sticking out of there a little bit,"
+said Dorothy, "but I was interested in what Mr. Emerson was saying and
+I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing."
+
+Miss Merriam took Elisabeth on her lap and peered between her lips to
+make sure that no dirt from the floor was visible.  Then she took a
+small emergency kit from her pocket, extracted a bit of sterile gauze
+and wiped out the little pink mouth.
+
+"I live in hopes that the day will come when she'll outgrow her desire
+to test everything with her mouth," she remarked amusedly.
+
+"Is it guineas ye're speaking about?" asked Moya.  "Perhaps 'twas a
+guinea young Vladdy the Russian found this morning.  He said he found a
+'shiny thing.'  I thought 'twas one of thim cartridges, like I found
+myself."
+
+"Another shiny thing?  What did he do with it?  Let's see it?" demanded
+Mr. Emerson.
+
+"He said he gave it to a man in the road and the man gave him a handful
+of ten-cent pieces and nickels.  There was forty cents of it.  I heard
+Mrs. Vereshchagin counting 'em."
+
+"Forty cents!  It must have been a valuable shiny thing that a man in
+the road would give a child forty cents for.  He knew its value.  I
+should say Vladimir and Elisabeth had tapped the same till.  Helen, go
+and see if you can find out anything more from the child or his mother.
+And Roger, get a chisel and hammer and hatchet and perhaps you and Mr.
+Schuler and I can take down these boards and see what there is to see
+behind them."
+
+"Wouldn't it be thrilling if there should be a hidden treasure!"
+exclaimed Ethel Blue.  "Aren't you shivering all over with excitement,
+Miss Gertrude?"
+
+Meanwhile Roger and his grandfather were prying off the boards that
+covered in the chimney on the right side and supported the
+mantel-shelf.  As it fell back into their hands two more gold coins
+tumbled to the floor.
+
+"Just take off this narrow plank, Roger and let me squint in there.
+Stand back, please, all of you, and let us have as much light as we
+can."
+
+"I have a flashlight," said Mr. Schuler.
+
+"Just the ticket.  Now, then--," and Mr. Emerson kneeled down, peering
+into the space that was disclosed when the boards fell away.  "I see
+something; I certainly see something," he cried as the electricity
+searched into the darkness.  He thrust in his arm but the something was
+too far off.
+
+"Take my crutch," suggested Mr. Schuler.
+
+Mr. Emerson took it and tugged away with the top.
+
+"It's coming, it's coming," his muffled cry rose from the depths.
+
+Another tug and a blackened leather pouch, slashed with a jagged tear
+from which gold pieces were pouring, tumbled into the room.
+
+"Pick it all up and put it on the table, Roger, while Mr. Schuler and I
+decide how it happened," ordered Mr. Emerson.
+
+The investigation seemed to prove that there probably had been a crack
+in the bricks at the back of the mantel at the time when Algernon
+Merriam, Miss Gertrude's ancestor, had thrust the bag into the mantel
+cupboard.  It had fallen off the back of the shelf and into the little
+crevasse where it lay beyond the reach of arm or bent wire or candle
+light for over a hundred and thirty years.
+
+"Evidently last night's big shaking widened the crack and let the bag
+fall down.  The ragged edge of a broken brick tore the leather and the
+two coins that Vladimir and Elisabeth found slipped out and fell just
+inside the plank covering of the chimney and below it out on to the
+floor."
+
+"So did the two that fell out when we were working," added Roger.
+
+"Let's open it and count the money.  This may be some other bag,"
+suggested Helen, who had brought back no farther information from the
+Russian.  "If it's Algernon's it ought to have--how many guineas was
+it?"
+
+"Five hundred and seventy-three, and a ring and a miniature," continued
+Ethel Brown who had heard his story.
+
+"In a box," concluded Ethel Blue.  "I can't wait for Roger to undo it!"
+
+They gathered around the table on which Roger had placed the stained
+bag, the gold coins gleaming through a gash in its side.  Moya cleaned
+the outside as well as she could with a damp cloth.
+
+"See, here are some crumbs of sealing-wax still clinging to the cord,"
+and Grandfather Emerson cut the string that still tied the mouth.
+Before their amazed eyes there rolled first a small box and then
+guineas as bright as when they were tied up in their prison.
+
+"We shan't have to count the guineas; if the ring and the miniature are
+in the box that will prove that it's Algernon's bag," said Helen.
+
+"Here, young woman; hands off," cried her grandfather as Helen was
+preparing to open the box.  "Algernon and Patience were no direct
+ancestors of yours.  Miss Merriam is the suitable person to perform
+this ceremony."
+
+Helen, smiling, pushed the basket toward Miss Gertrude who slipped off
+the string with trembling fingers.
+
+"I'm almost afraid to take off the cover," she whispered.
+
+"O, do hurry up, Miss Gertrude," implored Ethel Brown.  "I think I
+shall burst if I don't know all about it soon!"
+
+With misty eyes Gertrude slowly lifted the cover from the box.  Wrapped
+in a twist of cotton was a ring set with several large diamonds.
+
+"Is it marked 'Gertrude'?" asked Dorothy breathlessly.
+
+Miss Merriam nodded.
+
+Below the ring lay a miniature, the portrait of a fair woman with deep
+blue eyes.  It was set round with brilliants and on the gold back was
+engraved, "Gertrude Merriam."
+
+Miss Merriam stared at it and then handed it to Mr. Emerson.
+
+"What a marvellous likeness!" he exclaimed.  "You must be able to see
+it yourself."
+
+Gertrude nodded again, not trusting herself to speak.
+
+"There's no question that she's your ancestor.  Now, I'd like to see if
+the correct number of coins is here if you'll let Roger and me count
+your guineas for you."
+
+"Count my guineas?" cried Miss Merriam.
+
+"Certainly they're your guineas.  You're a direct descendant of
+Algernon and Patience.  The bag and its contents belong to you."
+
+Gertrude stared at Mr. Emerson as if she could not understand him.
+
+"Mine?" she repeated, "mine?" but when Mr. Emerson insisted and the
+other elders congratulated her and the girls kissed her and Roger shook
+hands formally, she began, to realize that this little fortune really
+was hers by right and not through the kindness of her friends.
+
+The count of the coins proved exact.  There were 569 of them.
+
+"Here are the two that fell on the floor when we were hammering," said
+Roger, laying them on the table.  "They make 571."
+
+"And here is the one that Ayleesabet found," added Mr. Emerson, drawing
+it from his pocket.  "That is the five hundred and seventy-second.
+Young Vladimir's trophy has gone for good, I'm afraid.  He must have
+sold it to some passer-by who knew enough to realize that it was a
+valuable coin and wasn't honest enough to hunt for the owner or to pay
+the child its full value."
+
+"Every one of the 573 is accounted for, anyway," declared Roger.  "You
+won't think it impertinent if I figure out how much you're worth, will
+you Miss Gertrude?"
+
+"I shall be glad if you will," she answered.
+
+"A guinea is 21 shillings and a shilling is about 24 cents in
+American money.  That makes a guinea worth about $5.04.  Five
+hundred-and-seventy-two times that makes $2882.88."
+
+"Almost three thousand dollars!" exclaimed Gertrude, her face radiant;
+"why--why now--" she broke off suddenly and hid her face on Mrs.
+Smith's shoulder, sobbing.
+
+"Now I can pay all my indebtedness and be free to do what I please,"
+she said to her friend in an undertone.
+
+Mrs. Smith patted her gently, for she knew what it was she wanted to be
+free to do.
+
+"This fortune is going to mount up to more than three thousand
+dollars," declared Mr. Emerson.  "There isn't a coin here that was
+minted later than 1774.  There can't be, because Algernon came to this
+country in the early part of 1775.  Pile them up according to the dates
+on them, children, and let's see what there is that will appeal to the
+dealer in antiquities."
+
+"At that rate every coin here, even the youngest, is worth more than
+$5.04," exclaimed Roger.
+
+"You get the idea, my son," smiled his grandfather.  "We'll sell these
+coins separately for Miss Gertrude and get a special price on each one.
+Here's one, for instance, that ought to be worth a good bonus; it is
+dated 1663.  It was over a hundred years old when your respected
+great-great-grandfather brought it over here, and if I remember my
+English history correctly it was in 1663 that guineas were first
+minted.  This is a 'first edition,' so to speak."
+
+Gertrude leaned back in her chair, smiling happily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+GERTRUDE CHANGES HER NAME
+
+The Club had been prominent figures at Mrs. Schuler's wedding, but that
+was a very small affair at home, and Miss Gertrude's was to be in the
+church with a reception afterwards at Dorothy's house.  The Club felt
+that they wanted to do every bit of the work that they could, not only
+because they loved Miss Gertrude but because she was going to marry the
+brother of two of the Club members.  She had said that she would like
+to have the church decorated with wild flowers so that she might take
+away with her the remembrance of the blossoms that she had seen and
+loved in the Rosemont fields.
+
+The Club held a special meeting to talk over their plans for the
+wedding.  It was at Rose House, for they had become accustomed to
+meeting there during the summer, when every moment could be utilized
+for work on something connected with the furnishing of the house while
+at the same time they could talk as they hammered and measured and
+screwed and sewed.  They were gathered under the tree where the
+squirrel lived.  As they established themselves, he was sitting on a
+branch above them, twitching his tail and making ready for a descent to
+search for cookies in their pockets.
+
+Helen called the meeting to order and told them what Miss Gertrude had
+said about the decorations.
+
+"Has any one any suggestions?" she asked.
+
+"Shall we have all the different kinds of flowers we can find or select
+one kind?" asked Ethel Brown.
+
+"We can get goldenrod and asters now."
+
+"And cardinals and cat-tails."
+
+"And 'old-maids'."
+
+"And hollyhocks."
+
+"Nobody has said 'Queen Anne's Lace.'  I think that's the prettiest of
+all," urged Ethel Blue.  "Wouldn't it be delicate and fairy-like if we
+trimmed the whole church with it!"
+
+"O, Ethel, I see it in a flash!" cried Delia.  "Not banked heavily
+anywhere, but always in feathery masses."
+
+"On the altar and winding the chancel rail."
+
+"A cluster on the end of each pew."
+
+"Long garlands instead of ribbons to close the ends of the pews."
+
+"An arch about half way up the aisle."
+
+The whole scene grew on them as they talked and they waxed enthusiastic
+over the details.  They had learned that flowers to be used for
+decoration should be picked the day beforehand and placed in water over
+night so that the moisture should have time to force itself into the
+stalks and to drive away the first wilting.  They decided to gather all
+the Queen Anne's Lace that they could find in all Rosemont, accepting
+the help of all the children who had asked if they might help.
+
+Mrs. Smith was building a new house, and Dorothy and the Ethels had
+planted a flower garden on the new lot although the house was not yet
+done.  They had arranged to have a succession of pink blossoms.  For
+fear it would not turn out well because they had not been able to have
+the soil put in as good condition as they wanted on account of the
+disturbed state of the place with workmen constantly crossing, they had
+tried another pink garden at Rose House, and the Ethels had planted
+still another bed in their own yard.
+
+"Among them all I should think we ought to find enough, if all the
+blossoms don't take it into their heads to fall off the very day
+before," said Ethel Brown gloomily.
+
+"Don't talk that way!" insisted Ethel Blue.  "We'll find lots of pink
+flowers and Aunt Louise's drawing-room will look lovely."
+
+"We can put some of the feathery white with it."
+
+"And we must find some soft green somewhere.  The coloring of the room
+is so delicate that the pink and white effect will be charming," and
+Helen leaned back against the tree trunk with a satisfied smile.
+
+"The next point is that Aunt Louise says she'd be very glad if we'd all
+assist at the reception just as we do at Mother's teas--handing things
+to eat and being nice to people."
+
+They all nodded their understanding of their duties.
+
+"Are all of you girls going to be dressed alike?" asked Tom.
+
+"No, sir.  Delia is to be maid of honor.  She's to wear the most
+delicate shade of pink you can imagine.  The Ethels are to have a shade
+that is just a wee bit darker, and Margaret and I are to come last--"
+
+"Being the tallest."
+
+"--wearing real rose-colored frocks.  It's going to be beautiful."
+
+"I can easily believe it," declared James, making an attempt at a bow
+that was defeated by the fact that he was lying on his back and found
+the exploit too difficult to achieve.  "I also seem to see you flitting
+around the house under those pink decorations.  You'll run the bride
+hard."
+
+"Edward won't think so," laughed Tom.  "Now what are we going to give
+to Gertrude--"
+
+"Hear him say 'Gertrude'," said Ethel Blue under her breath.
+
+"She asked us to.  Of course we call her by her name.  She's going to
+be our sister."
+
+The Ethels looked quite depressed, for calling Miss Gertrude by her
+first name was a privilege they knew they never should have.
+
+"I was inquiring what we're going to give Gertrude as a Club.  We
+Watkinses are going to give her something as a family, and Delia and I
+have each picked out a special present from us ourselves--"
+
+"That's the way we're doing," came from the Mortons.
+
+"--but I think it would be nice to give her something from the whole of
+us, because if it hadn't been for the Club and the Club baby she
+wouldn't have come here at all."
+
+"Let's put our colossal intellects on it," urged Roger.
+
+"If we could think of something that no one else would give her--"
+
+"And that would remind her of us and the things the Club does."
+
+"The Club makes furniture," laughed Roger, "but I shouldn't suggest
+that we repeat our latest triumph and give her a sideboard made of old
+boxes."
+
+They all roared, but James came up with a serious expression after a
+roll that took him some distance away from his friends.
+
+"Boxes am ree-diculous," he remarked, "but furniture isn't.  Isn't
+there some piece of furniture that they'd like better than anything
+else we could give them?"
+
+"I've got an idea," announced Roger.
+
+"Quick, quick; catch it!" and Tom tossed over his cap to hold any
+notions that might trickle away from the main mass.
+
+"Since we've been doing this furniture making for Rose House I've spent
+a good deal of time in the carpenter shop on Main Street.  You know it
+belongs to the son of those old people down by the bridge, Mr. and Mrs.
+Atwood."
+
+"The ones we gave a 'show' for?" asked Delia.
+
+"The same people.  The son was pleased at our going there and he hasn't
+minded my fooling round his place and he's given me a lot of points.
+He makes good furniture himself."
+
+"As good as yours?" asked James dryly.
+
+"Go on!" retorted Roger.  "He's a real joiner rather than a carpenter,
+but there isn't any chance for a joiner in a town like Rosemont, so he
+does any kind of carpentering."
+
+"Go ahead, Roger.  We don't care for the gentleman's biography."
+
+"Yes, you do; it has some bearing on what I'm going to propose."
+
+"Let her shoot, then."
+
+"Mr. Atwood has a whole heap of splendid mahogany planks in his shop.
+I came across them one day and asked him about them.  He's been
+collecting them a long time and they're splendidly seasoned and he's
+just waiting for a chance to make them into something."
+
+"A light begins to break.  We'll have him make our present.  Are you
+sure he'll make it well enough?  It's got to be a crackerjack to be
+suitable for Miss Gertrude."
+
+"This is what I thought.  The doctor and Miss Gertrude both like open
+bookcases.  I heard them say once they liked to be able to take out a
+book without having to bother with a door."
+
+"Me, too," agreed Margaret.  "And I never could see the use of a back."
+
+"That's what I say," said Helen.  "I'd rather dust the books more
+carefully and not have the extra weight added to the bookcase."
+
+"You know the furniture they call 'knockdown'?"
+
+Everybody nodded.  They had all become familiar with various makes of
+furniture since their attention had been called to the subject by their
+summer's interests.
+
+"I think Mr. Atwood can make us a bookcase that will consist of two
+upright end pieces with holes through them where each shelf is to go.
+The shelves will have two extensions on each end that will go through
+these square holes and they will be held in place by wedges driven
+through these extensions on the outside of the uprights.  Get me?"
+
+They all said they did.
+
+"That's all there is to the bookcase.  It can be taken to pieces in ten
+minutes and packed flat and shipped from Rosemont to Oklahoma with some
+chance of its reaching there unbroken; and it can be set up in another
+ten minutes.  What do you say?"
+
+There wasn't a dissenting voice, and they were so pleased with the
+scheme that they went to Mr. Atwood's that very afternoon, looked at
+the wood, talked over the finish, and left the order.  It was so simple
+that the maker thought that he could have it done before the wedding
+and he agreed to take it apart and pack it for shipment so that there
+would be no danger of its not making its journey safely.
+
+The wedding day was a trifle too warm, Dorothy thought as she gazed out
+early in the morning and considered the flowers that must be set in
+place several hours before the time when they were to be seen.
+
+"We must take care not to have them look like those dandelions in the
+book wedding that began so joyously and ended all in a wizzle," she
+murmured, and she was more than ever glad that they had taken the
+precaution to pick them the day before and have them in water.
+
+By early afternoon all was in readiness and the girls were resting.
+Miss Gertrude had not been allowed to help but had stayed quietly in
+her room.
+
+The wedding was at half past four, and at that hour the little church,
+which looked perfectly lovely in the opinion of the decorators, was
+pleasantly filled with murmuring groups of Rosemont people, who agreed
+that the feathery decorations proved yet another plume in the caps of
+the Club members, and of New York people who gazed at the modest
+country chapel and found it charming.
+
+There was a happy _brrrr_ of pleasant comment while the organ played
+softly.  Roger and James were two of the ushers.  Friends of Edward's,
+young doctors, were the other two.
+
+As the organ broke into the Lohengrin march and Edward, with Tom for
+his best man, appeared at the chancel, Gertrude came down the aisle
+from the other end of the church.  She wore a simple white trailing
+dress of soft silk, clasped at the breast with the ancient
+brilliant-framed miniature of another Gertrude Merriam.  A pearl
+pendant, a gift from Ayleesabet, hung from her neck.  On her ungloved
+right hand the older Gertrude Merriam's ring blazed beside Edward's
+more modest offering.
+
+The Ethels held each others' hands as they stood behind the bride,
+wreaths of Queen Anne's Lace over their arms, and a delicate blossom or
+two tucked under a pale blue ribbon in each filmy white hat.  It seemed
+but a moment to them and it was all over and Miss Gertrude was no
+longer "Miss Gertrude" but "Mrs. Edward."  The doctor seemed to have
+put on new dignity and the girls found themselves wondering if they
+should ever call him "Edward" again.
+
+Gertrude swept by them with her eyes full of happiness, but when she
+reached the back of the church she gave a lovely smile to the women and
+children of Rose House seated in the last pews.
+
+"I want every one to see my lovely presents," Miss Gertrude had said,
+so the guests exclaimed over the pretty things grouped in the library.
+
+It was all simple and happy, and a bit of pathos at the end of the
+afternoon brought no depression.  Gertrude was just about to go
+upstairs to change her dress and she stood with her maids and ushers,
+around her, exchanging a laughing word or two with them, when a little
+procession made its way toward her from the dining-room.  It consisted
+of all the women and children from Rose House, dressed in the fresh
+clothes which the women had made for themselves and the children during
+the summer.  They were all so smiling that they could hardly have been
+recognized as the forlorn creatures who had come to Rosemont early in
+July.  Each woman held in her hand a centrepiece, embroidered in the
+characteristic work of her country.
+
+Mrs. Vereshchagin led the way, because she could speak English a little
+better than the others, but her English failed her when she came face
+to face with the bride.
+
+"We love you," she said simply, making a sweeping gesture that included
+the bridegroom and all the U. S. C. members who were standing about.
+"We give you these embroideries of our lands.  We love all of you."
+
+And all the women and children cried in chorus, "We love all of you."
+
+
+
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