diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:47:01 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:47:01 -0700 |
| commit | dc6b3fb95bc28da030091319d5ad5c99f2f96130 (patch) | |
| tree | b22b6c84a206f4960e05995dbc923338daf6fcd8 /15550-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '15550-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 15550-h/15550-h.htm | 6094 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15550-h/images/img-070.jpg | bin | 0 -> 80594 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15550-h/images/img-072.jpg | bin | 0 -> 80887 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15550-h/images/img-front.jpg | bin | 0 -> 79371 bytes |
4 files changed, 6094 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/15550-h/15550-h.htm b/15550-h/15550-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..306fd43 --- /dev/null +++ b/15550-h/15550-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6094 @@ +<!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; + text-align: justify } + +TD { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 0%; + margin-left: 0%; + font-size: medium; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif } + +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 + + 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"> <a href="#chap01">Roger's Idea</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap02">Moya and Sheila</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap03">The Farmhouse </A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap04">Plans</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap05">The Rose Fêete</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap06">Furniture Making</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap07">Trouble at Rose House</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap08">Some Entertainment</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <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"> <a href="#chap10">Trolleying</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap11">The Connecticut Valley</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap12">The Berkshires and Bennington</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap13">Hunting Arrow Heads</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <a href="#chap14">The Storm</A></TD> +</TR> + +<tr> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <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> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/5/5/15550">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/5/15550</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="https://gutenberg.org/license">https://gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">https://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/15550-h/images/img-070.jpg b/15550-h/images/img-070.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8625897 --- /dev/null +++ b/15550-h/images/img-070.jpg diff --git a/15550-h/images/img-072.jpg b/15550-h/images/img-072.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..18371c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/15550-h/images/img-072.jpg diff --git a/15550-h/images/img-front.jpg b/15550-h/images/img-front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..90f5c1f --- /dev/null +++ b/15550-h/images/img-front.jpg |
