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diff --git a/35364-h/35364-h.htm b/35364-h/35364-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9a5950 --- /dev/null +++ b/35364-h/35364-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7794 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ethel Morton at Sweetbrier Lodge, by Mabell S. C. Smith</title> +<style type="text/css"> +body { margin-left:1.5em; margin-right:1.5em; } +h1, h2, h3, h4, .center { text-align:center; clear:right; } +h2 { margin-top:4em; margin-bottom:2.5em; line-height:1.7em; } +table { clear:right; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; } +p, blockquote, li { text-align:justify; max-width:30em; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; } +div.verse { max-width:30em; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; } +div.bq { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; max-width:28em; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em; } +.bq p { margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em; } +p.bq, .verse p { font-size:90%; } +div.box { border-style:double; margin-bottom:2em; max-width:25em; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-top:2em; } +div.subbox { border-style:double; margin:.2em; } +div.img { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:center; margin-top:1em; } +div.img p { text-align:center; font-size:90%; } +.large { font-size:120%; } +.small { font-size:90%; } +.smaller { font-size:80%; } +.sc { font-variant:small-caps; } +.gsw { margin-left:3em; } +.ws2 { margin-left:1em; } +.ws3 { margin-left:1.5em; } +.tb { margin-top:2em; } +.fndef p { font-size:100%; margin-left:0em; text-indent:0em; } +div.fndef { margin-left:1em; text-indent:-1em; text-align:justify; font-size:80%; margin-top:1em; } +a sup { font-size:60%; } +span.pb, div.pb, dt.pb, p.pb /* PAGE BREAKS */ +{ text-align: right; float:right; margin-right:-1em; } +div.pb { display:inline; } +.pb { text-align:right; float:right; margin-left: 1.5em; +margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em; display:inline; +font-size:80%; font-style:normal; font-weight:bold; } +div.index .pb { display:block; } +dt.xx { text-align:justify; margin-left:2em; text-indent: -2em; } +dd { text-align:justify; margin-left:3em; text-indent: -2em; } +dl.toc { clear:both; } +/* CONTENTS (.TOC) */ +.toc dt.center { text-align:center; clear:both; margin-top:3em; margin-bottom:1em; } +.toc dt { text-align:right; clear:left; +margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; max-width:25em; } +.toc dt.smaller { max-width:31.25em; } +.toc dd { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:2em; } +.toc dd.t { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:4em; text-indent:0em; } +.toc dt a, .toc dd a { text-align:left; clear:right; float:left; } +.toc dt.sc { text-align:right; clear:both; } +.toc dt.scl { text-align:left; clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; } +.toc dt.sct { text-align:right; clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; margin-left:1em; } +.toc dt.jl { text-align:left; clear:both; font-variant:normal; } +.toc dt.scc { text-align:center; clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; } +.toc dt span.lj { text-align:left; display:block; float:left; } +.toc dt a { font-variant:small-caps; } +.poem { margin-bottom:1em; margin-top:1em; max-width:30em; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; } +p.t0 { margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; margin-left:1em; } +p.t, span.t { margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; margin-left:2em; } +p.t2, span.t2 { margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; margin-left:3em; } +p.t3, span.t3 { margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; margin-left:4em; } +p.t4, span.t4 { margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; margin-left:5em; } +p.t5, span.t5 { margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; margin-left:6em; } +p.t6, span.t6 { margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; margin-left:7em; } +p.t7, span.t7 { margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; margin-left:8em; } + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ethel Morton at Sweetbrier Lodge, 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 = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Ethel Morton at Sweetbrier Lodge</p> +<p>Author: Mabell S. C. Smith</p> +<p>Release Date: February 23, 2011 [eBook #35364]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHEL MORTON AT SWEETBRIER LODGE***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Stephen Hutcheson, Roger Frank,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div id="cover" class="img"> +<img src="images/cover.png" alt="Ethel Morton at Sweetbrier Lodge" width="400" height="746" /> +</div> +<div class="box"> +<h1>ETHEL MORTON +<br />AT SWEETBRIER +<br />LODGE</h1> +<p class="center">By +<br />MABELL S. C. SMITH</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smaller">THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING COMPANY +<br />Cleveland, Ohio <span class="gsw">New York, N. Y.</span></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smaller"><i>Printed in the United States of America</i></span></p> +</div> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<dl class="toc"> +<dt class="smaller"><span class="lj">CHAPTER</span> PAGE</dt> +<dt><a href="#c1"><span class="sc">I A New Craft</span></a> 9</dt> +<dt><a href="#c2"><span class="sc">II Playing with Concrete</span></a> 25</dt> +<dt><a href="#c3"><span class="sc">III The Club Selects the Benches</span></a> 37</dt> +<dt><a href="#c4"><span class="sc">IV Christopher Finds a New Lodging</span></a> 52</dt> +<dt><a href="#c5"><span class="sc">V The Law of Laughter</span></a> 67</dt> +<dt><a href="#c6"><span class="sc">VI Spring All the Year Round</span></a> 80</dt> +<dt><a href="#c7"><span class="sc">VII Closets and Stepmothers</span></a> 94</dt> +<dt><a href="#c8"><span class="sc">VIII “Off to Philadelphia in the Morning”</span></a> 104</dt> +<dt><a href="#c9"><span class="sc">IX Helen Distinguishes Herself</span></a> 122</dt> +<dt><a href="#c10"><span class="sc">X The Land of “Cat-fish and Waffles”</span></a> 136</dt> +<dt><a href="#c11"><span class="sc">XI Lights and a Fall</span></a> 150</dt> +<dt><a href="#c12"><span class="sc">XII In the Family Hospital</span></a> 162</dt> +<dt><a href="#c13"><span class="sc">XIII A Golden Color Scheme</span></a> 173</dt> +<dt><a href="#c14"><span class="sc">XIV At the Metropolitan</span></a> 184</dt> +<dt><a href="#c15"><span class="sc">XV Preparations for the Housewarming</span></a> 203</dt> +<dt><a href="#c16"><span class="sc">XVI Columbus Day</span></a> 219</dt> +<dt><a href="#c17"><span class="sc">XVII The Parting Breakfast</span></a> 234</dt> +</dl> +<div class="pb" id="Page_9">[9]</div> +<h2 id="c1">CHAPTER I +<br />A NEW CRAFT</h2> +<p>“Carefully! O, do be careful, Ethel +Brown! I’m so afraid I’ll drop one of +them!”</p> +<p>It was Ethel Blue Morton speaking to her cousin, +who was helping her and their other cousin, Dorothy +Smith, take Dicky Morton’s newly hatched chickens +out of the incubator and put them into the brooder.</p> +<p>“I <i>have</i> dropped one,” exclaimed Dorothy. +“Poor little dinky thing! It didn’t hurt it a bit, +though. See, it’s running about as chipper as ever.”</p> +<p>“Are you counting ’em?” demanded Dicky, +whose small hands were better suited than those of +the girls for making the transfer that was to establish +the chicks in their new habitation.</p> +<p>“Yes,” answered all three in chorus.</p> +<p>“Here’s one with a twisted leg. He must have +fallen off the tray when he was first hatched.” cried +Ethel Brown.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_10">[10]</div> +<p>“He lookth pretty well. I gueth he’ll live if I +feed him by himthelf tho the throng ones won’t +crowd him away from the feed panth,” said Dicky, +examining the cripple, for in spite of his small supply +of seven years he had learned from his big +brother Roger and from his grandfather Emerson +a great deal about the use of an incubator and the +care of young chickens.</p> +<p>“That’s a good hatch for this time of year,” +Ethel Brown announced when she added together +the numbers which each handler reported to her. +“A hundred and thirty-seven.”</p> +<p>“Hear their little beaks tapping the wooden +floor,” Ethel Blue said, calling their attention to +the behavior of the just-installed little fowls who +were making themselves entirely at home with extraordinary +promptness.</p> +<p>“They take naturally to oatmeal flakes, don’t +they?” commented Dorothy. “I always thought +the old hen taught the chicks to scratch, and there’s +a little chap scratching as vigorously as if he had +been taking lessons ever since he was born.”</p> +<p>“They don’t need lessons. Scratching is as natural +as eating to them. Hear them hum?”</p> +<p>They all listened, smiling at the note of contentment +that buzzed gently from the greedy groups of +crowding chicks. As the oatmeal disappeared the +chickens looked about them for shelter and discovered +the strips of cloth that did duty for the maternal +wings. Rushing beneath them they cuddled +side by side in the covered part of the brooder.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_11">[11]</div> +<p>“Look at that one tucking his head under his +wing like a grown-up hen!” exclaimed Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“I’ll have to turn the lamp up a little higher tho +they won’t crowd and hurt each other,” Dicky decided.</p> +<p>“I’d wait a minute until they begin to warm the +whole of their house by the warmth from their bodies,” +urged Ethel Brown, and her brother agreed +that there was no need of haste, but he watched +them closely until he saw that they were not trampling +on each other’s backs or sitting down hard on +each other’s heads.</p> +<p>“When will they come out again?” asked Dorothy, +who had never seen an incubator and brooder +in operation before and who was immensely interested.</p> +<p>“When they are hungry.”</p> +<p>“How soon will that be?”</p> +<p>“In about two hours. They’re a good deal like +babies.”</p> +<p>“And is this brooder a really good step-mother?”</p> +<p>“It’s a foster-mother,” corrected Ethel Blue. +“It isn’t anything so horrid as a step-mother.”</p> +<p>“O, I don’t think step-mothers are horrid,” objected +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Yeth, they are,” insisted Dicky. “All the fairy +stories say they’re cruel.”</p> +<p>“O, fairy stories,” sniffed Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I imagine fairy stories are right about step-mothers,” +insisted Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Did you ever know one?” asked Dorothy.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_12">[12]</div> +<p>“No, I never did; but I have a feeling that +they couldn’t love a child that wasn’t their own.”</p> +<p>“Why not?” demanded Ethel Brown. “Mother +loves you just as well as she does her own children +and you’re only her niece.”</p> +<p>“Not her own niece, either—Uncle Roger’s +niece,” corrected Ethel Blue; “but then, Aunt +Marion is a darling.”</p> +<p>“I don’t see why a step-mother shouldn’t be a +darling.”</p> +<p>“I don’t see why she shouldn’t be but I don’t believe +she ever is,” and Ethel Blue stuck to her opinion.</p> +<p>“Well, there aren’t any ‘steps’ around this family, +so we can’t tell by our own experience,” cried +Dorothy, “and we’ve got this chicken family moved +into its new house, so let’s go and see what the +workmen are doing at our new house.”</p> +<p>Dorothy’s mother had been planning for several +months to build a house on a lot of land on the same +street that they were living on now, but farther +away from the Mortons’ and nearer the farm where +lived the Mortons’ grandfather and grandmother, +Mr. and Mrs. Emerson. The contractor had been +at work only a few days.</p> +<p>“He had just finished staking off the ground when +I was there the other afternoon,” said Ethel Brown.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_13">[13]</div> +<p>“He’s way ahead of that now,” Dorothy reported +as they walked on, three abreast across the sidewalk, +their blue serge suits all alike, their Tipperary hats +set at the same angle on their heads, and only the +different colors of their eyes and hair distinguishing +them to a careless observer. “He told me yesterday +that the whole cellar would be dug by this afternoon +and they would be beginning to put in the concrete +wall.”</p> +<p>“Where?”</p> +<p>“The cellar wall.”</p> +<p>“I thought cellar walls were made of stone.”</p> +<p>“Sometimes they are, but when there isn’t stone +all cut, concrete is more convenient and cheaper, +too.”</p> +<p>“And it lasts forever, I was reading the other +day.”</p> +<p>“I should say it did. Those old Pyramids in +Egypt are partly made of concrete, they think, and +they are three or four thousand years old.”</p> +<p>“Does Aunt Louise expect her house to last three +or four thousand years?”</p> +<p>“She wants it durable; and fireproof, any way, +because we’re some distance from the engine house.”</p> +<p>“If we watch this house grow it will be almost +like building it with our own hands, won’t it?” exclaimed +Ethel Brown, for, although the house was +her aunt’s, Mrs. Smith had made all the cousins +feel that she wanted them to have a share in the +pleasure that she and Dorothy were having in making +a shelter for themselves after their many years +of wandering. She and her daughter consulted over +every part of the plans and they had often asked the +opinion of the Mortons, so that they all had come +to say “our house” quite as if it were to belong to +them.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_14">[14]</div> +<p>As they approached the knoll which they had been +calling “our house lot” for several months, they +saw that the gravel for the concrete was being hauled +to the top of the hill where the bags of sand and +cement had already been unloaded and a small concrete +mixer set up.</p> +<p>“They do things fast, don’t they!” exclaimed +Dorothy. “There’s Mr. Anderson, the contractor.”</p> +<p>A tall, substantial Scotsman bowed to them as +they reached the top of the hill.</p> +<p>“Have you come to superintend us, Miss Dorothy?” +he asked pleasantly. “We’re going to +make all our preparations for mixing the concrete +to-day, and then we’ll start up the machine to-morrow.”</p> +<p>“You won’t have the cellar wall all built by to-morrow +after school, will you?” asked Dorothy +anxiously. “We want to see how you do it.”</p> +<p>“It won’t take long to do this small cellar so +you’d better hurry right here from your luncheon,” +Mr. Anderson returned as he walked away to attend +to the placing of the pile of gravel, and to lay a +friendly hand on the sides of the panting horses.</p> +<p>“If your driveway doesn’t wind around more +than this road that the hauling men have made all +your friends’ horses will be puffing like mills when +they reach the top,” Ethel Blue warned her cousin.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_15">[15]</div> +<p>“Mother and the architect and a landscape gardener +have it all drawn on paper,” Dorothy responded. +“It’s going to sweep around the foot of +the knoll and come gently up the side and lie quite flat +on top of the ridge for a little way before it reaches +the front door.”</p> +<p>“That will be a long walk for people on foot.”</p> +<p>“Ethel Blue is speaking for herself,” laughed +Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“And for Dorothy, too. She’ll walk most of the +time even if Aunt Louise is going to set up a car.”</p> +<p>“There’s to be a footpath over there,” Dorothy +indicated a side of the hill away from the proposed +driveway. “It will be a short cut and it’s +going to be walled in with shrubs so it won’t be seen +from the driveway.”</p> +<p>“What would be the harm if you could see it +from the driveway?”</p> +<p>“O, the lines would interfere, the landscape artist +said. You mustn’t have things confused, you +know,” and she shook her head as if she knew a +great deal about the subject.</p> +<p>“I suppose it would look all mixy and queer if +you should see the grounds from an airship,” guessed +Ethel Brown, “but I don’t see what difference it +would make from the ground.”</p> +<p>“I guess it would be ugly or he wouldn’t be so +particular about it,” insisted Dorothy. “That’s his +business—to make grounds look lovely.”</p> +<p>“I think I can see what he means,” ventured +Ethel Blue, who knew something about drawing and +design. “I watched Aunt Marion’s dressmaker +draping an evening gown for her one day. She +made certain lines straight and other lines curved, +but the two kinds of lines didn’t cross each other +any old way; she put them in certain places so that +they would each make the other kind of line look +better and not make the general effect confusing.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_16">[16]</div> +<p>“Don’t you remember how it was when we were +planning Dorothy’s garden on top of this ridge, back +of the house and the garage?” Ethel Brown reminded +them. “We had to draw several positions +for the different beds because some of our plans +looked perfectly crazy—just a mess of square beds +and oblong beds and round beds.”</p> +<p>“They made you dizzy—I remember. We +found we had to follow Roger’s advice and make +them balance.”</p> +<p>“Helen says there’s a lot of geometry in laying +out a garden. I guess she’s right.”</p> +<p>Helen and Roger were Ethel Brown’s older sister +and brother. They were in the high school.</p> +<p>They had come now to the excavation for the +cellar and watched the Italian laborers throwing out +the last shovelfuls of earth.</p> +<p>“They’re very particular about making the earth +wall smooth,” commented Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“I imagine they have to if the wall is to be concrete,” +returned Dorothy.</p> +<p>“They’ve cut it under queerly at the foot on both +sides; what’s that for?”</p> +<p>“I haven’t the dimmest,” answered Dorothy +briefly. “Let’s ask Mr. Anderson.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_17">[17]</div> +<p>“You’d find it hard to stand up straight if you +had only a leg to stand on and not a foot,” that gentleman +answered to the question. “That concrete +foot gives a good solid foundation, and it helps to +repel the frost if that should get into the ground so +deep. Do you see the planks the men are setting up +twelve inches in from the bank?”</p> +<p>The girls nodded.</p> +<p>“They are making a fence all around the cellar +you see; that is to keep the concrete in place when +it is poured in, and to give it shape.”</p> +<p>“Is it soft like mud?”</p> +<p>“It is made of one part of cement and two and +one-half parts of sand and five parts of gravel. Do +you cook?”</p> +<p>They all nodded again.</p> +<p>“When you come to-morrow you’ll see the mixing +machine making a stiff batter of those three +things—cement and sand and gravel.”</p> +<p>“It must be like putting raisins in a plum pudding,” +suggested Ethel Brown. “You have to be +careful the stones—the raisins—don’t all sink +to the bottom or get bunched together in one place.”</p> +<p>“That’s the idea,” smiled Mr. Anderson. “All +those things and water go into one end of the mixer +and they come out at the other end concrete in a soft +state. Then the men shovel the stuff into the space +between the fence and the earth bank, making sure +that that widening trench at the foot is chock full and +they thump it down and let it ‘set.’”</p> +<p>“I think the cellar will look very ugly with that +old plank wall,” decided Dorothy seriously.</p> +<p>“The planks will be taken away.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_18">[18]</div> +<p>“Won’t the concrete show lines where the cracks +between the boards were?”</p> +<p>“Do you see those rolls of heavy paper over +there? The planks +will be lined with that +so that the concrete +will come against a +perfectly smooth surface. +When the +wood is taken away +the men will go over +it with a smoothing +tool and when they +have finished even +your particular eye +will see nothing to +take exception to.”</p> +<p>“O, I knew it +would be right somehow,” +murmured +Dorothy, who was +afraid she had hurt +Mr. Anderson’s feelings. +“I just didn’t +know how you managed +it.”</p> +<p>“Here’s the way the end of the wall would look +if you could slice down right through it,” and the +contractor took out his notebook and drew a cross +section of the concrete wall showing its widened +foot.</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p1.png" alt="The Foundation Wall of Sweetbrier Lodge as Mr. Anderson Drew It" width="393" height="711" /> +<p>The Foundation Wall of Sweetbrier Lodge as Mr. Anderson Drew It</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_19">[19]</div> +<p>“What’s the floor to be made of?” asked Ethel +Blue.</p> +<p>“Concrete—four inches of it,” answered Mr. +Anderson promptly. “It will slope a trifle toward +this end, and there a drainage pipe will be laid to +carry off any water used in washing the floor. Then +a layer of cement will go on top of the concrete.”</p> +<p>“What’s that for?”</p> +<p>“To make it all smooth. It will be rounded up +at the corners and sides where it joins the walls, so +there won’t be any chance for the dust to collect.”</p> +<p>“The cellar in our house is awfully damp,” remarked +Ethel Brown. “Sometimes you can see the +water dripping down the stones.”</p> +<p>“The walls and the floor of this cellar will be +waterproofed with a mixture of rich cement and sand +mortar, and I think you’ll find, young ladies, that +you’ll have a cellar that’ll be hard to beat.”</p> +<p>The contractor slapped his notebook emphatically +and beamed at them so amiably that they felt the +greatest confidence in what he proposed.</p> +<p>“Any way, I haven’t anything better to suggest,” +said Dorothy dryly.</p> +<p>Mr. Anderson walked off, giving a roar of amusement +as he left them.</p> +<p>“Where does the sun rise from here?” asked +Ethel Blue as she stood at the spot where was to be +the front of the house, and gazed about her. +“Does the house face directly south?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_20">[20]</div> +<p>“No, it faces just half way between south and +west. The corners of the house point to north, +south, east and west. Mother said that if the front +was due south the back would be due north and +she didn’t want a whole side of her house facing +north.”</p> +<p>“It does have a chilly sound,” shivered Ethel +Brown.</p> +<p>“With a point stretching toward the north the +rooms that have a northern exposure will also have +the morning sun and the afternoon sun.”</p> +<p>“I know Aunt Louise will have her dining room +where the morning sun will shine in.”</p> +<p>“Yes, <i>ma’am</i>,” returned Dorothy emphatically. +“It makes you feel better all day if you eat your +breakfast in the sunshine. By this plan of Mother’s +every room in the house will have direct sunshine at +some part of the day.”</p> +<p>“It’s great,” approved Ethel Blue. “Can’t we +ask Mr. Anderson about making a bird’s bath out of +cement?” she inquired. “Ethel Brown and I saw +a beauty at Mrs. Schermerhorn’s and perhaps he’d +let us have some of the concrete to-morrow when the +men are mixing it, and we can try to make one.”</p> +<p>The girls raced over to the spot where the contractor +was just about to get into his Ford, and +stopped him.</p> +<p>“Would you mind letting us have a little concrete +to-morrow to make a bird’s bath with?” +begged Dorothy breathlessly.</p> +<p>“A bird’s bath?” repeated Mr. Anderson. +“How are you going to make it?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_21">[21]</div> +<p>“Couldn’t we put some concrete in a pan and +squeeze another pan down on to it and let it +harden?”</p> +<p>“Why, yes, something like that,” returned Mr. +Anderson slowly.</p> +<p>“Do you want to make it yourselves?”</p> +<p>“Yes, indeed,” all three girls cried in chorus.</p> +<p>He smiled at their enthusiasm and offered a suggestion.</p> +<p>“I suppose you want the bird’s bath for your garden, +Miss Dorothy;—why don’t you make a little +pool for the garden?”</p> +<p>“Oh, could we?”</p> +<p>“If you could get a tub and lay down a flooring of +concrete and then put in another tub enough smaller +so that there would be a space between the walls, +then you could fill the space with concrete. When +it set, you could take out the inner tub after two or +three days and turn the concrete out of the outer tub +and there you’d have a concrete tub that you could +move about.”</p> +<p>“That sounds great,” beamed Dorothy, “but +wouldn’t it be awfully heavy?”</p> +<p>“Here’s a better way, then. If you can make up +your mind exactly where you want to have it in your +garden you can have a hole dug, lay down your floor +of concrete and put your small tub on it.”</p> +<p>“I see—then you fill the space between the tub +and the earth with concrete.”</p> +<p>“Precisely; thump it down hard and let it stand +untouched for a while. Then take away your tub, +and there you are again.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_22">[22]</div> +<p>“You can’t make the concrete floor and leave it, +can you?”</p> +<p>“No, indeed. You must have everything ready +to do the whole thing at once. Put in your tub +which is to be your mold, while the floor is still +plastic—”</p> +<p>“Eh?” inquired Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Soft enough to mold; and then pour in the walls +right off quick. You can’t fool round when you’re +working with concrete.”</p> +<p>“How can we keep the water fresh in the tub?” +asked Ethel Blue of Dorothy.</p> +<p>Dorothy paused, not knowing what to say.</p> +<p>“It would be fun to keep gold fish in it,” she said, +“but they would have to have fresh water, wouldn’t +they?” She turned appealingly to Mr. Anderson.</p> +<p>“That’s not hard to manage,” he said. “You +can put a bit of broomstick between the earth wall +and the outer wall of your tub-mold and pour the +concrete around it. When the concrete has hardened +you pull out the stick and there is a hole. Then +you can have a drain dug that will tap that hole on +the outside and carry off the water through a few +lengths of drain pipe.”</p> +<p>“What’s to prevent the water running off all the +time?” Ethel Blue wanted to know.</p> +<p>“Keep a plug in it,” answered the contractor +briefly. “And there should be waterproofing stuff +mixed with the materials. You have your gardener +dig a hole in the garden,” he said, adding, “don’t +forget to have plenty of grease.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_23">[23]</div> +<p>“What’s that for?”</p> +<p>“Why do you grease your cake pans?”</p> +<p>“So the cake won’t stick.”</p> +<p>“Same here. On the cellar wall we lined the inside +of the wooden forms with paper. That isn’t so +easy with round forms, so you grease them.”</p> +<p>“I never thought there was any likeness between +concrete and cooking,” laughed Ethel Brown as the +girls watched Mr. Anderson’s skill in taking his little +car over the rough ground around the cellar excavation, +“but there seems to be plenty.”</p> +<p>“Let’s chase off and see if we can collect the +things we shall need to-morrow,” urged Dorothy. +“I’ll have to find Patrick and bring him here and +show him just where to dig the hole.”</p> +<p>“Where are you going to dig the hole?”</p> +<p>“I think just in the open place on top of the +ridge.”</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t,” objected Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Why not?”</p> +<p>“Won’t it be too warm in summer? If you’re +going to have gold fish you don’t want to boil them.”</p> +<p>“The water would get pretty hot in the sun, +wouldn’t it?” considered her cousin. “What do +you think of a place under that tree?”</p> +<p>“It ought not to be too near the tree because the +roots will grow out a long way from the trunk of the +tree and they might get under the pool and break up +the concrete.”</p> +<p>“Oh, could a tender little thing like a root break +concrete that’s as hard as stone?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_24">[24]</div> +<p>“It certainly can. Grandfather showed me a +crack in a concrete wall of his on the farm that was +made by the root of a big tree not far off.”</p> +<p>“Well, then we can’t have our pool anywhere near +a tree. A shrub wouldn’t hurt it, though; why can’t +it go near those shrubs that are going to separate the +flower garden from the vegetable garden?”</p> +<p>“That place would be all right because there’s a +tall spruce there that throws a shadow over the +shrubs for a part of the day. That’s all you need; +you don’t want to take away all the sunshine from the +pool.”</p> +<p>So the exact spot was decided on and marked so +that Patrick should make no mistake, and then the +girls rushed off on a search for shallow basins and +a tub.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_25">[25]</div> +<h2 id="c2">CHAPTER II +<br />PLAYING WITH CONCRETE</h2> +<p>It was not the Ethels and Dorothy alone who appeared +at the “new place” the next afternoon to +make the experiments with concrete. Helen, Ethel +Brown’s elder sister, and her friend, Margaret Hancock, +of Glen Point, were so interested in the younger +girls’ account of what they were going to do with +Mr. Anderson’s help that they came too.</p> +<p>As they puffed up the steep knoll on which the new +house was to stand they stopped beside the cellar +hole to see what progress had been made since the +day before.</p> +<p>“They have just frisked along!” Dorothy exclaimed +when she saw that not only was the inside +fence-mold all built but that the concrete floor was +laid and that the men were pouring the mixture in +between the planks and the earth wall and pounding +it down as they poured.</p> +<p>“Mr. Anderson said ‘you can’t fool round when +you’re working with concrete,’” Ethel Brown repeated. +“They aren’t, are they?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_26">[26]</div> +<p>The men were all working as fast as they could +move, some of them shovelling the materials into +the mixer, others running the machine, others wheeling +the wet concrete in iron barrows to the men at +the edge of the cellar who tamped it down as fast +as it was poured into the narrow space that defined +the growing wall.</p> +<p>“When it is full, way up to the top, what happens +next?” Dorothy inquired of Mr. Anderson +who came over to where they were standing.</p> +<p>“Then we’re going to build on it a three foot wall +of concrete blocks to support the upper part of the +house.”</p> +<p>“That’s the wall that has the cellar windows in +it?”</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“Then do make good big ones; Mother likes a +bright cellar,” urged Dorothy.</p> +<p>“We’re going to make her a beauty,” promised +the contractor. “Come up into your garden now +and let’s get this concrete work up there done. +Here, Luigi,” he called to an Italian, “bring us a +load of concrete over there,” and he waved his hand +in the direction of the spot where Patrick had dug the +hole for the tub.</p> +<p>They all examined the hole with care and the +Ethels fitted in the tub and found that their digger +had done his work skilfully, since there were just +about three inches between the earth and the tub all +around. They pulled the tub out again and under +Mr. Anderson’s direction they greased it thoroughly.</p> +<p>“We want to do every bit we can ourselves,” they +insisted when he suggested that Luigi might do that +part for them.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_27">[27]</div> +<p>“Don’t forget the hole for the drainage,” he reminded +them. “Have you got your stick? And on +which side are you going to have that?”</p> +<p>They surveyed the ground about the hole and decided +that a drainage pipe might run a few inches +underground for a short distance and discharge itself +at the edge of a bank below which a vegetable +garden was to lie.</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p2.png" alt="The Way the Pool Looked When It Was Done" width="598" height="331" /> +<p>The Way the Pool Looked When It Was Done</p> +</div> +<p>“If you’re careful what you plant there it will be +an advantage to the ground to have this dampening +once in a while,” said Mr. Anderson, who was something +of a gardener. “There won’t be enough water +to drown out any of your plants.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_28">[28]</div> +<p>Luigi emptied a load of concrete into the hole and +while he was gone to get a new supply the girls +thumped it down hard, fitted in the greased tub and +wedged a bit of broomstick which Roger, Ethel +Brown’s brother, had cut for Dorothy into the space +between the tub and the earth just at the top of the +concrete flooring. When Luigi came back they were +ready to thump as he poured and three loads filled up +the space entirely.</p> +<p>“Now, then, Luigi will bring you one of the +smoothing tools that the men over there are using +and you can make the top look even,” and Mr. Anderson +gave more instructions to the Italian.</p> +<p>“It will be pretty to have some plants at the edge +so they’ll bend over and see themselves in the water,” +suggested Margaret.</p> +<p>“I should think there must be some water plants +that would grow inside without much trouble,” Ethel +Blue said.</p> +<p>“We must look that up; they’d probably need a +little soil of some sort,” Helen reminded them.</p> +<p>“They’d be awfully pretty,” said Dorothy complacently. +“Don’t you seem to see it—with gold +fish swimming around among the stems?”</p> +<p>“Dicky might lend us his old turtle,” laughed +Ethel Brown. “He’s tired of taking care of it. +You could put a stick in here partly above the water, +for him to sun himself on. I don’t see why he +wouldn’t be quite happy here.”</p> +<p>Dicky’s turtle was a family joke. Dicky had +found him two years before and had taken him home +thinking he was a piece of stone. His excitement +and terror when the stone lying on the library table +stuck out first a head and then one leg after another +to the number of four, had never been forgotten by +the people who saw him at this thrilling moment.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_29">[29]</div> +<p>“Now for your bird’s bath,” Mr. Anderson reminded +his pupils. “You have to work fast, you +know.”</p> +<p>Dorothy brought out her two shallow basins, one +smaller than the other. The larger had its inside +well greased and the smaller was thoroughly rubbed +over on its under side. Into the larger they poured +about an inch of concrete and then squeezed the +smaller dish into it, but not so sharply that it cut +through. They filled in the crack between the two, +pushing and patting the mixture into place, and they +smoothed the edge so that it turned over the rim of +the larger bowl before they cut it off evenly all around +with a wire.</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p3.png" alt="The Bird’s Bath" width="554" height="173" /> +<p>The Bird’s Bath</p> +</div> +<p>“There,” said Mr. Anderson as he watched them. +“We’ll see what will come from that. It might be +better done—” at which the girls all pulled long +faces—“but also, it might be worse, or I’m very +much mistaken.”</p> +<p>“I wish we could make some garden furniture,” +sighed Dorothy, holding up her dripping hands helplessly, +but at the same time gazing with joy at their +new manufacture.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_30">[30]</div> +<p>“You could if you would make the forms,” said +Mr. Anderson. “All you need to do is to make a +bench inside of another bench and fill the space between +with concrete.”</p> +<p>“That sounds easy, but if you were a girl, Mr. +Anderson, you might find it a little hard to make the +forms.”</p> +<p>“We can all drive nails,” insisted Ethel Brown +stoutly. “I believe I’ll try.”</p> +<p>But the others laughed at her and reminded her +that she would have to drive the nails through rather +heavy planking, so she gave up the notion.</p> +<p>“What are the walls going to be made of?” Margaret +asked Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Something fireproof, Mother said, but I don’t +know what she finally decided on. I’ll ask Mr. Anderson.”</p> +<p>“Plaster on hollow tile,” the contractor answered +absent-mindedly over his shoulder, as he walked +briskly before them back to the cellar.</p> +<p>The girls saw that he was too full of business now +to pay any more attention to them, so they thanked +him for giving them so much time and made some investigations +on their own account among the piles of +material lying about on the grounds.</p> +<p>“I wonder if this could be ‘hollow-tile,’” Ethel +Blue said to the rest as she came across a stack of +strange-looking pieces of brown earthenware.</p> +<p>“It’s certainly hollow,” returned Ethel Brown, +“but I always supposed tiles were flat things. +That’s a tile Mother sets the teapot on to keep the +heat from harming the polish of the table.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_31">[31]</div> +<p>They stood about the pile of brown, square-edged +pipes, roughly glazed inside and out, through whose +length ran three square holes. They asked two +workmen as they passed what they were. One said +“Hollow tile,” and the other, “Terra-cotta.”</p> +<p>“I suspect they’re both right,” Helen decided. +“Probably they’re hollow tile made of terra-cotta.”</p> +<p>“But I thought terra-cotta was lighter brown +and smooth. They make little images out of terra-cotta,” +insisted Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I’ve seen those,” agreed Margaret, “but I suppose +there can be different qualities of terra-cotta just +as there are different qualities of china.”</p> +<p>“This stuff is fireproof, any way,” explained Dorothy. +“I remember now hearing Mother and the +architect talking about it. And they said something +about a ‘dead air space.’ That must mean the +holes.”</p> +<p>“What’s dead air space for?” inquired Ethel +Blue.</p> +<p>“I think it dries up the dampness, or keeps it out +so that it doesn’t get into the house.”</p> +<p>“These are useful old blocks, then, even if they +aren’t pretty,” decided Helen, patting the ugly pile.</p> +<p>Mr. Anderson strolled toward them again after +giving various directions to his men.</p> +<p>“Just how is this tile used?” inquired Dorothy, +as he seemed to be more at leisure now.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_32">[32]</div> +<p>“We build a wall of this hollow tile,” he answered; +“then we put the plaster right on to it. Do +you see that the outside is rather rough? That is +so the plaster will have something to take hold of. +We mix it up of cement and lime and sand and put +on three coats. The first one is mixed with hair, +and mashed on hard so that it will stick and it is +roughened so that the next coat will stick to it.”</p> +<p>“Is the next coat made of the same stuff?”</p> +<p>“Without the hair; and the third coat is as thin +as cream and is flowed on to make a smooth-looking +outside finish.”</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p4.png" alt="The Walls of Sweetbrier Lodge—Plaster on Hollow Tile" width="644" height="439" /> +<p>The Walls of Sweetbrier Lodge—Plaster on Hollow Tile</p> +</div> +<p>“That’s a lot of work,” commented Dorothy.</p> +<p>“That’s not all we’re going to do to your walls; +Mrs. Smith wants them to be a trifle yellowish in tone—a +little warmer than the natural color of the +plaster—so we’re going to wash on some mineral +matter that will give them color and waterproof +them at the same time.”</p> +<p>“Killing two birds,” murmured Helen.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_33">[33]</div> +<p>“Then the whole house will look plastery except +the roof and chimneys,” said Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Including the roof and chimneys,” returned +Mr. Anderson. “We’re going to use concrete +shingles—”</p> +<p>“Concrete shingles! Doesn’t that sound funny!”</p> +<p>“They are colored, so they look like green or red +shingles.”</p> +<p>“What color is Mother going to have?”</p> +<p>“Dark green. The chimney is to be made of reinforced +concrete.”</p> +<p>“‘Reinforced’ must mean ‘strengthened,’ but +how do you strengthen it?” inquired Margaret.</p> +<p>“You’ve seen how we build a mold to pour the +concrete in; inside of the mold we build a sort of cage +of steel rods. Don’t you see that when the concrete +hardens it would be almost impossible for such a reinforced +piece of work to break through?”</p> +<p>“Couldn’t an earthquake break it?”</p> +<p>“An earthquake might give a piece of solid concrete +such a twist that it would crack through, but +suppose the crack found itself up against a steel +rod? Don’t you think it would complicate matters?”</p> +<p>The girls thought it would.</p> +<p>“I’m awfully glad our chimney is going to be reinforced,” +Dorothy exclaimed, “because up on this +knoll we’re going to feel the wind a lot and it would +be horrid if the chimney should fall down!”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_34">[34]</div> +<p>“It certainly would,” agreed the Ethels, but Mr. +Anderson assured them that they need not be afraid +of any accident of the sort with a reinforced concrete +chimney.</p> +<p>“I’ve seen skyscrapers going up in New York,” +said Margaret “and all the beams were of steel. +Are you going to use steel beams here?”</p> +<p>“No, we don’t often use steel construction for +small houses, but this house is going to be more fireproof +than most small houses even if it does have +wooden beams. You watch it as it goes on and notice +all the points that make for fireproofness. It +will interest you,” Mr. Anderson promised as he +walked away.</p> +<p>The girls all washed their hands as well as they +could with the hose with which the workmen watered +the concrete mixture, but they had nothing to dry +them on and they walked down the road holding them +before them and waving them in the breeze.</p> +<p>“Mother will think we are crazy if she happens +to be looking out of the window,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“My aunt sent you a message, Dorothy,” said +Margaret.</p> +<p>“What aunt? I didn’t know you had an aunt,” +replied Dorothy.</p> +<p>“She seems like a new aunt to us; James and I +haven’t seen her since we were little bits of things.”</p> +<p>“Where does she live?” asked Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“In Washington. She’s an interior decorator and +she’s awfully busy, so when she has had to come on +to New York to buy materials or to see people she +has never had a chance to stay with us.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_35">[35]</div> +<p>“Is she going to make a visit this time?” inquired +Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“She has come for a long visit now. She has a +commission to decorate a house in Englewood. It’s +going to take her several weeks, and then she wants +to rest and do some studying and to make the rounds +of the decorators in the city, so it will be several +months before she goes back again.”</p> +<p>“That’s nice,” said Ethel Blue politely, and she +was glad she had thought so because Margaret said +at once, “We think it’s splendid. She’s a young +aunt, lots and lots younger than Mother, and James +and I think she’s loads of fun.”</p> +<p>“What was her message to me?” asked Dorothy.</p> +<p>“O, we were telling her about the United Service +Club and the things we did—sending gifts to the +war orphans and celebrating holidays and our plans +for helping some poor women and children in the +summer and for taking care of the Belgian baby. +She was awfully interested and said she felt as if she +knew all of you people and the Watkinses quite well, +we talked about you so much. Then we told her +about Dorothy’s house, and how Mrs. Smith had +said we might all give our opinions about the decorating, +and she asked us to tell you that she’d be very +glad indeed to act as consulting decorator when you +come to the inside work.”</p> +<p>“Why, that’s awfully sweet of her!” exclaimed +Dorothy. “Mother isn’t going to have a regular +decorator, and I know she’ll be immensely pleased to +have Miss—what is your aunt’s name?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_36">[36]</div> +<p>“Graham; she’s our Aunt Daisy!”</p> +<p>“—to have Miss Graham give us advice and +‘check up’ on our suggestions.”</p> +<p>“By the time your house is ready for that part she +will have finished her Englewood house; but she said +she’d be glad to come over and see the house and the +plans any time when she was free for the afternoon, +and she hoped you’d consult her about everything you +wanted to.”</p> +<p>“Daisy is a pretty name, isn’t it?” Ethel Blue +murmured to herself. “I wish one of us was named +Daisy.”</p> +<p>“Her name is really Margaret; I’m named after +her. Daisy is the nickname for Margaret, you +know.”</p> +<p>“It’s a lovely name,” said Ethel Blue again.</p> +<p>“And please tell Miss Daisy that I think she’s the +finest ever, and Mother will think so, too, when I +tell her about this,” added Dorothy.</p> +<p>“And do ask her to come over to one of the U. S. C. +meetings when we happen to be doing something +that will interest her,” concluded Helen, who was the +president of the club.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_37">[37]</div> +<h2 id="c3">CHAPTER III +<br />THE CLUB SELECTS THE BENCHES</h2> +<p>It seemed to Dorothy and the Ethels that the outside +of Sweetbrier Lodge, as Mrs. Smith had determined +to call her house, went up with remarkable +speed, but that the inside would never be done—never! +Every day the girls walked down the road +after school, and stood and surveyed the general appearance +from the sidewalk and from across the +street and sometimes they went on to Mrs. Emerson’s +and discussed vigorously as to whether the view +of the corner of the house that was to be seen now +would still be seen after the leaves came out or +whether the house would be entirely concealed by +the foliage.</p> +<p>“That’s ‘one of the things no feller knows,’” +Mr. Emerson quoted. “We shall have to wait and +see.”</p> +<p>“We can get an idea how it is to look from the +road,” said Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Only there’ll be a lot of planting,” Dorothy explained. +“There’ll be a hedge along the street and +a lot of shrubs on the knoll and the house will be covered +with vines in the course of time.”</p> +<p>“That’s another good point about concrete,” declared +Mr. Emerson; “vines don’t injure it as they +do brick.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_38">[38]</div> +<p>“We’ll have it entirely covered, then,” laughed +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I thought it was to be a bungalow,” said Mrs. +Emerson. “Your mother has always spoken of it +as a bungalow, but the plans I saw the men following +the other day when I went up the hill to take a +look at things, seemed to me like a two story house.”</p> +<p>“Mother changed her mind,” said Dorothy. +“She thought a bungalow would be too crowded now +that we have little Belgian Elisabeth with us, so the +house is going to have two stories and an attic.”</p> +<p>“The U. S. C. couldn’t get on without Dorothy’s +attic,” smiled Ethel Brown, for almost all of the +presents for the Christmas Ship had been made in +the attic of Dorothy’s present abiding place, and the +Club had had many meetings there.</p> +<p>“There’s nothing like having a well-thought-out +plan before you attempt building,” said Mr. Emerson, +“and that your mother had.”</p> +<p>“She tried to think of every possible need, Ayleesabet’s +as well as our own,” continued Dorothy, using +the pronunciation that the Belgian baby had given +her own name.</p> +<p>“She has a good contractor in Anderson.”</p> +<p>“He didn’t make the very lowest bid,” said Dorothy. +“There was one man who was lower, but he +was such a lot lower that Mother thought there must +be something the matter with the quality of the material +he used, or that he employed workmen so poor +that they might not do their work well, so she didn’t +consider that offer at all.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_39">[39]</div> +<p>“She was very wise,” commended Mr. Emerson. +“He might have spoiled the whole thing and have +cost her more money in the end by turning out a poor +job.”</p> +<p>While the building was going on and before the inside +work was done the girls spent a good deal of +time in planning for the furnishing of the garden. +The flower and vegetable beds had all been arranged +some weeks before and many of them had been +planted, but the artistic part of the garden had been +left until there should be time to devote to it. Mrs. +Smith had promised Dorothy that she should have +the choice of the garden furniture, reserving for herself +a veto power if her daughter chose anything +that seemed to her entirely unsuitable.</p> +<p>“Not that I expect to use it,” she said, smiling at +the girls who were listening to her.</p> +<p>The selection of the benches and tables and trellises +was made a subject of attention by the whole +United Service Club. A meeting was called in the +partly begun garden so that they might have the “lie +of the land” before them as they talked. Dorothy +took with her a number of catalogues from which to +select or to gather ideas.</p> +<p>“We’ve got a good shelter of large trees already +provided for us,” she said as they all seated themselves +in such shade as the young leaves made.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_40">[40]</div> +<p>“There ought to be a fine large settee under it +where we can have Club meetings all summer, no +matter how warm it is,” urged Tom Watkins with +wise foresight. Tom and his sister, Della, came out +from New York for the club gatherings, and the +prospect of meeting out of doors instead of in the +attic, which was delightful in winter but not so attractive +in warm weather, made him offer this shrewd +suggestion.</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p5.png" alt="“A fine large settee”" width="615" height="266" /> +<p>“A fine large settee”</p> +</div> +<p>“In the first place,” said Dorothy again, opening +the various catalogues and spreading them on the +grass where they could all see them, “don’t you +think it would be pretty to have all the chairs and +benches of one pattern? Or don’t you?”</p> +<p>“I think it would,” answered Ethel Brown, examining +the pages carefully before she made her decision.</p> +<p>“Would what?”</p> +<p>“I should like them all alike. It would be messy +to have a lot of different patterns.”</p> +<p>Ethel Blue, who had a good deal of artistic sense +and ability, nodded her agreement with this belief. +They all came to the same conclusion.</p> +<p>“Then, let’s pick out the pattern,” said Dorothy, +who had an orderly mind.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_41">[41]</div> +<p>“Something plain, so the visitor’s eye won’t be +drawn to the benches instead of the flowers,” recommended +Helen. “Suppose we were sitting here, for +instance, and looking toward the flower beds—there +will be some tables and chairs between us and the +flowers, probably—”</p> +<p>“If the seeds will only grow,” Dorothy sighed +comically.</p> +<p>“—and we want to forget them and not have +them intrude on our attention.”</p> +<p>“Correct!” James Hancock thumped the +ground by way of applause.</p> +<p>“What’s the plainest pattern there is?” asked +Della, extending her hand for a book.</p> +<p>“That one—but that’s too plain,” remonstrated +Ethel Blue. “That’s so plain that it draws your attention +as much as if it were all fussed up.”</p> +<p>They laughed at her disgust and urged her to +choose the next plainest.</p> +<p>“I rather think this one with cross bars is pretty,” +she decided seriously. “You wouldn’t get tired of +that—especially if they’re all painted dark green +so you won’t see them much.”</p> +<p>“You girls seem to want to have invisible furniture,” +grinned Roger. “Me for something more +substantial.”</p> +<p>“These will be substantial enough—they’re +made of cypress,” retorted Helen, “but you don’t +want to see a lot of chairs and benches when you +come out to observe the beauties of nature, my +child.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_42">[42]</div> +<p>“I can bay the moon on a white bench with an +elaborate pattern just as musically as on a plain, dark +green one,” insisted Roger.</p> +<p>“Don’t pay any attention to him,” urged Ethel +Brown, which crushing remark from a younger sister +was rewarded by a hair-pull effectively delivered by +Roger.</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p6.png" alt="“Benches and chairs and small tables for lemonade and cocoa”" width="677" height="495" /> +<p>“Benches and chairs and small tables for lemonade and cocoa”</p> +</div> +<p>“Yow!” squealed Ethel.</p> +<p>“Now who’s baying the moon?” inquired her +brother.</p> +<p>“Let’s decide on the cross-barred kind,” decreed +Dorothy.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_43">[43]</div> +<p>“The Lady of the Garden has made her decision,” +announced James, tooting through his hands as if he +were a herald making an announcement. “Now +for the shapes. How many are you going to have, +Lady?”</p> +<p>“I think there ought to be a very large bench that +would hold almost all the Club, and then one or two +smaller benches and two or three chairs and two +small tables for lemonade and cocoa.”</p> +<p>“And to hold the Secretary’s book when she’s +writing,” urged Ethel Blue who held the office of +scribe and had not always found herself conveniently +situated to do her work.</p> +<p>“Here’s a bully bench for the whole U. S. C.,” +cried Tom. “It’s curved so it will fit right under +this semi-circle of trees as if it were made for this +very spot.”</p> +<p>He held up the picture of a wide bench with two +wings. It was greeted with applause.</p> +<p>“When that is made in the pattern we chose it +will be as pretty as any one could ask for,” Dorothy +decided.</p> +<p>“And painted green,” added Ethel Blue, at +which they all laughed. “I’m serious about the +green,” she insisted. “Don’t you see what I mean, +Dorothy?” she continued, appealing to the person +who was to have the final decision on the question.</p> +<p>“I think you’re right,” replied Dorothy. “Don’t +mind what they say. Write down one of those, +Miss Secretary, and one of these right-angled ones—don’t +you all of you think that’s a comfy one?”</p> +<p>They did, and they also approved of the single +bench and the chairs and the small tables.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_44">[44]</div> +<p>“They won’t be all jammed up in this corner, of +course,” Dorothy explained gravely, “but when we +have a Club meeting we can bring them together if +we want to and room enough for everybody.”</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p7.png" alt="“Here’s an arbor that you can walk through”" width="682" height="651" /> +<p>“Here’s an arbor that you can walk through”</p> +</div> +<p>“I thought we were all to sit on the big bench,” +objected Tom with an air of deep disappointment.</p> +<p>“So we shall if you boys are too lazy to pull the +other benches and chairs over here,” answered Dorothy. +“If we have plenty we can arrange them any +way we want to.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_45">[45]</div> +<p>“What about +trellises?” inquired +Ethel Blue +who had been continuing +her researches +in the catalogues. +“Here +are some beauties. +Don’t you think +you’ll need some?”</p> +<p>“She certainly +will if that Dorothy +Perkins rambler +rose gets busy +as it ought to,” decided +Roger.</p> +<p>“There’ll be a +lot of vines and +tall things if they’ll +only grow,” said +Dorothy hopefully. +“I think there +ought to be one or +two flat ones and +an arbor that will +be a trellis.”</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p8.png" alt="A Trellis for the Rambler Rose" width="447" height="1024" /> +<p>A Trellis for the Rambler Rose</p> +</div> +<p>“Here’s an arbor +that you can +walk through or +sit down in while +you admire your +plants, and you will be protected from the sun,” Tom +pointed out.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_46">[46]</div> +<p>“And that same one with a lattice back and a +bench inside makes a pretty good imitation of a summer +house,” suggested Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“We’ll have one apiece of those, then.”</p> +<p>“Count up and see how much stuff you’re planning +to order,” Roger suggested. “You’ve got a huge +big place to set them in here but you don’t want too +much wood work, nevertheless.”</p> +<p>They came to the conclusion that there were not +too many for the size of the grounds and were well +satisfied with their choice.</p> +<p>“Do you see how well we’re going to see the +house from here?” Dorothy asked.</p> +<p>They all agreed that it would be very pretty from +that point.</p> +<p>“My idea is that the garden must look well from +the house,” said Dorothy. “Mother wants a pergola +somewhere. Don’t you think the right place +for it would be covering a walk leading from the +house to here?”</p> +<p>“That’s a great notion,” approved Tom. “As +you came toward the garden you’d have a—what do +you call the effect—where you see a view framed +in somehow?”</p> +<p>“Do you mean a vista?” asked Margaret.</p> +<p>“That’s it. There would be a vista of the garden.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_47">[47]</div> +<p>“It will be lovely!” Helen said decisively. +“And I don’t see why there shouldn’t be a trellis +framing a view of the woods toward Grandfather +Emerson’s; that would be pretty, too.”</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p9.png" alt="A Trellis Framing a View of the Woods" width="556" height="701" /> +<p>A Trellis Framing a View of the Woods</p> +</div> +<p>Dorothy went over to look at the drawing that +Helen held up to her and decided straightway that +it was worth trying. They all went toward the upper +side of the garden where young peach trees were +planted on the northern slope of the ridge and chose +a spot which gave a charming picture of the adjoining +field with its brook and the woods beyond.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_48">[48]</div> +<p>“The birds are coming along pretty well now,” +announced James who had been lying on his back +gazing up into the branches swaying in the upper +breeze.</p> +<p>“Are you going to build any bird houses, Dorothy?” +asked Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“I suppose we’ll have to if we want them to stay +late in the season or all winter,” replied her cousin. +“But bird houses are so ugly.”</p> +<p>“Not the modern ones,” interposed James eagerly. +“You make them out of pieces of the +trunks of trees with the bark on, and you fix up +a platform with a stick on it that has spikes to +hang suet on and they aren’t a bit conspicuous and +lots of birds will stay all winter that otherwise would +go south before the regular Palm Beach rush.”</p> +<p>“We must have some then,” Dorothy made up +her mind. “Say ‘Robert of Lincoln’?” she begged +Ethel Brown, who was the Club’s reciter, “and then +we’ll go home and have some cocoa and cookies.”</p> +<p>“Do, Ethel Brown;” “Come on,” were the cries +from all the U. S. C. members as they settled themselves +to listen to Bryant’s charming verses.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Merrily swinging on brier and weed,</p> +<p class="t2">Near to the nest of his little dame,</p> +<p class="t0">Over the mountain side and mead,</p> +<p class="t2">Robert of Lincoln is telling his name,</p> +<p class="t4">Bob-o’link, bob-o’-link,</p> +<p class="t4">Spink, spank, spink;</p> +<p class="t0">Snug and safe is that nest of ours,</p> +<p class="t0">Hidden among the summer flowers,</p> +<p class="t6">Chee, chee, chee.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_49">[49]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Robert of Lincoln is gaily dressed,</p> +<p class="t2">Wearing a bright black wedding coat;</p> +<p class="t0">White are his shoulders and white his crest,</p> +<p class="t2">Hear him call in his cheery note:</p> +<p class="t4">Bob-o’link, bob-o’-link,</p> +<p class="t4">Spink, spank, spink;</p> +<p class="t0">Look, what a nice new coat is mine,</p> +<p class="t0">Sure there was never a bird so fine.</p> +<p class="t6">Chee, chee, chee.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Robert of Lincoln’s Quaker wife,</p> +<p class="t2">Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings,</p> +<p class="t0">Passing at home a patient life,</p> +<p class="t2">Broods in the grass while her husband sings:</p> +<p class="t4">Bob-o’link, bob-o’-link,</p> +<p class="t4">Spink, spank, spink;</p> +<p class="t0">Brood, kind creature; you need not fear</p> +<p class="t0">Thieves and robbers while I am here.</p> +<p class="t6">Chee, chee, chee.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Modest and shy as a nun is she,</p> +<p class="t2">One weak chirp is her only note,</p> +<p class="t0">Braggart and prince of braggarts is he,</p> +<p class="t2">Pouring boasts from his little throat:</p> +<p class="t4">Bob-o’link, bob-o’-link,</p> +<p class="t4">Spink, spank, spink;</p> +<p class="t0">Never was I afraid of man;</p> +<p class="t0">Catch me, cowardly knaves, if you can.</p> +<p class="t6">Chee, chee, chee.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_50">[50]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Six white eggs on a bed of hay,</p> +<p class="t2">Flecked with purple, a pretty sight!</p> +<p class="t0">There as the mother sits all day,</p> +<p class="t2">Robert is singing with all his might:</p> +<p class="t3">Bob-o’link, bob-o’-link,</p> +<p class="t3">Spink, spank, spink;</p> +<p class="t0">Nice good wife that never goes out,</p> +<p class="t0">Keeping house while I frolic about.</p> +<p class="t5">Chee, chee, chee.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Soon as the little ones chip the shell</p> +<p class="t2">Six wide mouths are open for food;</p> +<p class="t0">Robert of Lincoln bestirs him well,</p> +<p class="t2">Gathering seed for the hungry brood.</p> +<p class="t4">Bob-o’link, bob-o’-link,</p> +<p class="t4">Spink, spank, spink;</p> +<p class="t0">This new life is likely to be</p> +<p class="t0">Hard for a gay young fellow like me.</p> +<p class="t6">Chee, chee, chee.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Robert of Lincoln at length is made</p> +<p class="t2">Sober with work and silent with care;</p> +<p class="t0">Off is his holiday garment laid,</p> +<p class="t2">Half forgotten that merry air,</p> +<p class="t4">Bob-o’link, bob-o’-link,</p> +<p class="t4">Spink, spank, spink;</p> +<p class="t0">Nobody knows but my mate and I</p> +<p class="t0">Where our nest and our nestlings lie.</p> +<p class="t6">Chee, chee, chee.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_51">[51]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Summer wanes, the children are grown;</p> +<p class="t2">Fun and frolic no more he knows;</p> +<p class="t0">Robert of Lincoln’s a humdrum crone;</p> +<p class="t2">Off he flies and we sing as he goes:</p> +<p class="t4">Bob-o’link, bob-o’-link,</p> +<p class="t4">Spink, spank, spink;</p> +<p class="t0">When you can pipe that merry old strain,</p> +<p class="t0">Robert of Lincoln, come back again.</p> +<p class="t6">Chee, chee, chee.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_52">[52]</div> +<h2 id="c4">CHAPTER IV +<br />CHRISTOPHER FINDS A NEW LODGING</h2> +<p>There was trouble in chicken circles. The +young chicks that the Ethels and Dorothy had +helped Dicky move from the incubator to the brooder +were making rapid progress toward broiler size, and +had been transferred to a run of their own where +they scratched and dozed happily through the long +spring days. Dicky and Ayleesabet, the Belgian +baby, were examining them on a late June afternoon. +Dicky had brought with him his old friend, the +turtle, which had not yet been moved to Dorothy’s +pool, since his present owner wanted to wait until +his aunt’s house was occupied before he let so cherished +a possession go where he might slip away and +his loss, perhaps, be unnoticed.</p> +<p>“When you’re living right there tho you can watch +Chrithtopher Columbuth all the time I’ll let you have +him,” Dicky had promised Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I see myself in my mind’s eye sitting side of the +tank all day and night holding the turtle’s paw!” +Dorothy exclaimed when she told the Ethels of +Dicky’s decision.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_53">[53]</div> +<p>Perhaps because he felt that he was soon to be +parted from his old comrade Dicky’s affection for +Christopher seemed to increase and he developed a +habit of carrying him about, sometimes in his hand +and sometimes in a little basket which Dorothy had +made for Christopher’s Christmas gift. To-day he +had brought him to the chicken yard in his hand and +had laid him down on the ground while he examined +his flock and called Ayleesabet’s attention to the beauties +of this or the other miniature hen.</p> +<p>Elisabeth’s words were few, but she managed to +make her wants and opinions known with surprising +ease, and she never had the least trouble about +expressing her emotions. Her little playmate had +learned this and therefore when he heard loud howls +behind his back he knew that it was not anger that +was disturbing the usually placid baby, but terror. +Shriek after shriek arose although it seemed to him +that he turned about almost instantly.</p> +<p>He was not in time, however, to prevent her from +being thrown down in some mysterious way, or to +see the cause of the commotion among the chickens. +They fluttered and squawked and ran to and fro, +tumbling over each other and running with perfect +indifference over the baby as she lay yelling on the +ground. Her blue romper legs came up every now +and then out of the mass of chicken feathers, and +their kicking only added to the disturbance and confusion +of the chicks.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_54">[54]</div> +<p>The hubbub did not go unnoticed. Roger ran +from his vegetable garden to see what was the matter; +Helen appeared from her garden of wild +flowers; Miss Merriam, the baby’s caretaker, ran +from the porch where she was talking with the Ethels +who were waiting for the out-of-town members of +the U. S. C. to arrive. At the moment when all +these people were rushing to the rescue, Margaret +and James Hancock, just off the Glen Point street +car, hurried from the corner, and Della and Tom +Watkins, arrived by the latest train from New York, +burst open the gate in their excitement.</p> +<p>To meet all these inquiries came Dicky, tugging +after him by the leg, the baby, howling pitifully by +this time as she was dragged over the grass. Miss +Merriam seized her and hugged her tight.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter with the little darling precious?” +she crooned.</p> +<p>Ayleesabet gathered herself together courageously +and her sobbing died away.</p> +<p>“What was it all about?” Miss Merriam inquired +of Dicky.</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” replied Dicky, his own lip trembling +as he tried to understand the rapid, thrilling experience.</p> +<p>“Tell Gertrude what happened,” Miss Merriam +urged the baby, wiping away her tears and setting +her down on her feet on the grass just as Christopher +Columbus bumped his way over the sod to join them.</p> +<p>Ayleesabet’s conversational powers were not equal +to the explanation, but her little hands could tell a +great deal, and her caretaker was skilled in interpreting +them. She pointed to the turtle and called him by +the nickname that Dicky had given him, “Chriththy”; +then she spread out her fat little fingers and +waved a forward motion with her hand.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_55">[55]</div> +<p>“Chrissy stuck out his head and legs and walked +ahead,” interpreted Miss Merriam. “Where was +he, Dicky?”</p> +<p>“In the chicken yard.”</p> +<p>Elisabeth was kneeling beside the turtle now, tapping +his shell with a chubby forefinger; after which +she rolled over on her back and screamed.</p> +<p>Miss Merriam shook her head at this demonstration, +but Dicky translated it out of his previous experience.</p> +<p>“The chickenth hit hith thhell with their beakth, +and, when he moved they were frightened and +knocked her over,” he guessed.</p> +<p>“That’s just what happened, I believe,” said +Roger, setting Elisabeth on her feet once more. +“I’ve seen the chickens run like anything from Christopher, +and probably they ran between the baby’s +legs and upset her and then scampered all over her. +I don’t wonder she was scared.”</p> +<p>Christopher gave no testimony in the case. He +may have been overcome by the confusion; at any +rate he withdrew into his shell and preserved a +studied calm from which he could not be roused.</p> +<p>“I think you can have him,” said Dicky suddenly +to Dorothy, who had come through the fence at the +corner where her yard joined her cousins’. “He +botherth me.”</p> +<p>“Very well,” said Dorothy. “Let’s take him +over to Sweetbrier Lodge this afternoon. We’re all +going over there anyway—bring him along, Dicky.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_56">[56]</div> +<p>So the procession set forth, Dicky and his shell-covered +friend at the fore, escorted by all the rest +of the United Service Club, while Miss Merriam and +her charge, whose walking ability had not yet developed +much speed, brought up the rear.</p> +<p>As they all toiled up the hill to Sweetbrier Lodge +Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Morton came out on the veranda +of the new house to watch them.</p> +<p>“Has anything happened?” called Mrs. Smith +as soon as they were within earshot.</p> +<p>“We’re just bringing Christopher over to his +new home,” Dorothy explained to her mother.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t">“‘The time of the singing of birds is come,</p> +<p class="t">And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land,’”</p> +</div> +<p>quoted Mrs. Morton. “I used to think that that +meant a turtle like Dicky’s and not a turtle-dove,” +and the two mothers laughed and disappeared within +the house while the younger people kept on to the +garden and the concrete pool.</p> +<p>When they reached there Dicky gazed at the pool +in dismay.</p> +<p>“There ithn’t any water in it,” he objected, shaking +his head doubtfully.</p> +<p>“We can reach it with the hose and fill it up in no +time,” his cousin explained.</p> +<p>“It’ll run out of the hole,” pointing to the hole +made by the broomstick when the concrete was soft.</p> +<p>“We’ll put a plug in the hole.”</p> +<p>“He hasn’t any log to sit on.”</p> +<p>“Roger will find him a stick.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_57">[57]</div> +<p>“I don’t want to leave him here all alone,” +screamed Dicky, overcome by a renewal of his former +misgivings. Casting himself on the ground he +hugged his treasure to his breast and waved his legs +in the air.</p> +<p>“You can take him back again if you want to,” +Ethel Brown reminded him, “but you know he’s always +getting into trouble with the chickens now. +He seems to run away every day.”</p> +<p>As the memory of the latest encounter between +Christopher and the chicks with Elisabeth’s overthrow, +flashed before him, Dicky howled again. +There seemed to be no haven on earth for his favorite.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” suggested Dorothy +soothingly. “Let’s go down to the house. The +laundry is finished, and we can put him in one of the +tubs there until this pool is fixed to suit you.”</p> +<p>“It’th dark in the laundry,” objected Dicky +again.</p> +<p>“Not in this laundry. You see,” explained Dorothy, +sitting down beside the sufferer and patting him +gently, “the house is built on the side of a hill, so +the laundry has full sized windows and is bright +and cheerful though it’s on a level with the cellar. +I think Christopher will like it.”</p> +<p>Dicky stood up, his face smeared with tears, but +a new interest gleaming in his reddened eyes.</p> +<p>“Come on,” urged Ethel Blue, tactfully; “let’s +all go and see if we can’t make him comfortable.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_58">[58]</div> +<p>“I’ll pick up a piece of log for him as we go +along,” promised Roger, and he and Tom and James +went off towards the woods to look for just the right +thing.</p> +<p>“What a perfectly dandy cellar. Why, it’s as +bright as the upper part of the house!” exclaimed +Margaret as the procession invaded the lower regions +of the Lodge.</p> +<p>“Isn’t it fine!” agreed Dorothy. “The workmen +have cleared it all up, and, if this part were all, +it might be lived in right off.”</p> +<p>“The whitewashed walls make it look bright.”</p> +<p>“And the large windows! I never saw such windows +in a cellar.”</p> +<p>“Mother says I may put little cheesecloth curtains +in them.”</p> +<p>“Curtains will look sweet the day after you take +in the winter supply of coal,” grinned Roger, who +appeared with the other boys, carrying Christopher’s +bit of log.</p> +<p>“They won’t look dirty, if that’s what you mean +by ‘sweet,’” Dorothy retorted. “Look—” and +she opened the door of a coal bin—“the coal is put +in through a concrete chute that leads directly into +the bin and the bin is entirely shut off from the cellar. +No dust floats out of that, young man.”</p> +<p>“How do you get the coal out?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_59">[59]</div> +<p>“Here’s a little door that slides up and catches. +You notice that the floor of the bin isn’t level with +the cellar floor; it’s raised to make it a comfortable +height for shoveling. Under it is the place for the +logs for the open fires. There are two bins, one for +furnace coal and the other for the coal for the +stoves, and the kindling wood goes in this third +one. They are all together and large enough but +not too large, and the furnace coal is near the boiler +and the small coal is near the laundry and the wood +is close to the dumb waiter that will take that and the +clean clothes upstairs.”</p> +<p>“All as compact as a cut-out puzzle,” approved +Roger. “I take off my hat to this arrangement.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” courtesied Dorothy. “Mother +and I worked that out together, and we’re rather +pleased with it ourselves.”</p> +<p>“What do you do with the ashes?” asked Roger, +who took care of several furnaces in the winter time, +and therefore made his examination as a specialist.</p> +<p>“Put them down that chute with a swinging door +and into a covered can. It will be hard for the +ashes to fly there.”</p> +<p>“This is the concrete floor we superintended,” +said Helen, looking at it closely.</p> +<p>“All smooth and well drained with rounded edges. +It’s going to be as clean as a whistle down here. See +the metal ceiling? That’s for fire prevention, and +so is the sprinkler system and there’s a metal covered +door at the head of the cellar stairs.”</p> +<p>“There seems to be a lot of machinery for a small +house,” observed James as he carried his examination +around the space.</p> +<p>“Mother said she couldn’t afford luxuries but she +could afford comforts and these are some of the comforts,” +smiled Dorothy.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_60">[60]</div> +<p>“Not very pretty comforts,” remarked Ethel +Blue dryly.</p> +<p>“‘Handsome is as handsome does,’” quoted her +cousin. “When these things get to working you +won’t care whether they’re beautiful to look at or +not.”</p> +<p>“What’s the heating system—steam or hot +water?” asked Tom, standing before the boiler.</p> +<p>“Hot water. They say it’s more convenient for +a small house because you don’t have to keep up such +a big fire all the time.”</p> +<p>“That’s so; in steam heating there has to be +fire enough to make steam, anyway, doesn’t +there?”</p> +<p>“And when the steam in the pipes cools it turns to +water and dribbles away, but in the hot water system +there will be some heat in the outside of your radiator +as long as the water inside has any warmth at +all.”</p> +<p>“How does the expense compare?” inquired +James who was always interested in the financial side +of all questions.</p> +<p>“The hot water system is said to be cheaper,” replied +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Why are there so many pipes?” asked Ethel +Brown, looking with a puzzled air at the collection +before her.</p> +<p>“Hear me lecture on heating!” laughed Dorothy; +“but I did study it all out with Mother, so I think I’m +telling you the truth about it. There have to be two +sets of pipes, one to take the hot water to the radiators +and the other to bring it back after it has +cooled.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_61">[61]</div> +<p>“There seem to be big pipes and small ones.”</p> +<p>“Mains and branch pipes they call them. The +man who put these in said this house was especially +well arranged for piping because it wouldn’t take any +more pressure to force the water into one radiator +than another. He says there’s going to be a good +even heat all over everywhere.”</p> +<p>“There isn’t a lot of difference between radiators +for steam and those for hot water, is there?” asked +Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“No, you have to put something with water in it +on top of both kinds to make the air of the room +moist. Here you have to open the air valve yourself +and let out the air that accumulates in the radiator. +In the steam ones they are automatically +worked by steam.”</p> +<p>“There can’t be much air in the hot water radiator, +I should think,” said Margaret thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“There isn’t. You only have to open the valve +two or three times in the course of the winter. The +biggest difference is that the hot water system has to +have an expansion tank.”</p> +<p>“What’s that?”</p> +<p>“Why, when steam is shut up it just presses +harder than ever, but when water is heated it swells +and it’s likely to burst open whatever it’s in, so there +has to be an open tank up at the top of the house +where it can go and swell around all it wants to,” +laughed Dorothy.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_62">[62]</div> +<p>“What are these affairs?” inquired Margaret +who had been looking at two other arrangements +near by.</p> +<p>“That one is a gas thing for heating water in +summer when there isn’t any other fire. There’s a +tiny flame burning all the time, and when the water is +drawn out of the tank the flame becomes larger automatically +and heats up a new supply.”</p> +<p>“That’s a fine scheme; you don’t have to heat the +house up and yet the water is always ready. What’s +the other?”</p> +<p>“That’s to burn up the garbage. In the kitchen +there’s a tiny closet for the garbage pail. It’s ventilated +from the outside. There is a thing that burns +the garbage and makes it heat the water, but Mother +decided that we had so small a family that there +might be days when there wouldn’t be fuel enough +to make a decent fire, so we’d better have the gas +heater.”</p> +<p>“The other would be economical for a hotel,” observed +prudent James.</p> +<p>“Here’s the refrigerating plant,” Dorothy said, +motioning toward a tank and a set of pipes and a +small motor.</p> +<p>“Going to cut out the iceman?” grinned Tom.</p> +<p>“We’re going to be independent of him. Mother +doesn’t like natural ice, any way; she went over to +the Rosemont pond last winter when the men were +cutting and the ice was so dirty she made up her mind +right off that she didn’t want any more of it. This +thing will chill the refrigerator up in the kitchen and +pipes from it are going under the flooring of the +drawing room and the dining room so they can be +made comfy in summer.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_63">[63]</div> +<p>“Hope you can cut them off in winter!” and +Roger gave a tremendous shiver.</p> +<p>“We can,” Dorothy reassured him.</p> +<p>“Good work!”</p> +<p>“It makes small cakes of ice too, so we can always +have plenty for the Club lemonades.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know but I think that’s more useful than +the heating arrangements,” approved plump little +Della.</p> +<p>“That’s because you’re fat,” responded Tom with +brotherly frankness. “You think you suffer most +in summer, but if you didn’t have any heat in winter +you’d change your cry.”</p> +<p>“I suppose I should, but I do nearly <i>melt</i> in warm +weather,” sighed Della.</p> +<p>“We don’t mean to if we can help it,” laughed +Dorothy. “This is the air-washing arrangement +over here,” went on Dorothy, as she continued her +round of the cellar.</p> +<p>“Air-washing!” was the general chorus.</p> +<p>“As long as we have a little motor we’re going to +make it useful. There’s a small fan here that brings +in the fresh air. It goes into a ‘spray chamber’ +and is washed free of dust with water that is cold in +summer and warm in winter.”</p> +<p>“I see clearly that the temperature of this castle +is going to be just right,” exclaimed Roger.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_64">[64]</div> +<p>“After the air leaves the spray chamber it goes +over some plates that take all the moisture out of it, +and then the fan forces it through the pipes that go +into every room.”</p> +<p>“Are those the little gratings I noticed in all the +rooms the other day?” asked Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Those are the ventilators. Don’t you think +we’ve made everything very compact here? All +these pipes take up very little room.”</p> +<p>“Mighty little!” commended Roger. “And +they’re all open so you can get at them without any +trouble.”</p> +<p>“Here’s a scheme Patrick suggested,” laughed +Dorothy, pointing upward to what looked like a concrete +shelf with an upturned border almost at the top +of the cellar wall.</p> +<p>“What’s it for?” asked Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“That shelf is directly underneath the seat beside +the fireplace in the drawing room. Patrick +plans to save himself the trouble of carrying up the +logs by piling them on this shelf down here. Then +he lifts the cover of the seat upstairs and all he has +to do is to take out his wood and make his fire!”</p> +<p>“That certainly is a cracker-jack labor saving device! +Good for Patrick!”</p> +<p>“He’s especially tickled with the vacuum cleaner +run by this same little motor. You ought to hear +him talk about it.”</p> +<p>“What are these cupboards for?” asked Helen +who had been exploring.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_65">[65]</div> +<p>“That one with the glass doors is for preserves, +and the place in the other corner that has a fence for +its two inside walls is a place for cleaning silver and +shoes and lamps and brasses. See—there are cupboards +along the inside of the fence. They hold all +the cleaning materials, and the cleaner can sit in a +swing chair in the middle and use a different part of +the concrete shelf against the two cellar walls for +boots or fire-irons or knives and forks or lamps. At +one end is a sink so he can have what water he needs +for his work and he can wash his hands when he turns +from one kind of cleaning to another.”</p> +<p>“And he isn’t all smothered up in a small room. +Who thought of that?”</p> +<p>“Patrick and I worked that out together. Patrick +has lots of ingenuity.”</p> +<p>“I should say you had, too!” exclaimed Della, +admiringly.</p> +<p>“Here’s where Dorothy does her carpentering,” +cried James.</p> +<p>“I may move that bench up in the attic later,” explained +Dorothy, “but I thought I’d leave it here +until the house was done, because there are apt to be +little things to be hammered and nailed for some +time, I suppose.”</p> +<p>“How long are you going to be before you fikth +a plathe for Chrithopher Columbuth?” demanded +Dicky, whose patience was entirely exhausted.</p> +<p>“We’ll make him happy right here and now,” answered +Dorothy briskly, throwing open the door of +the laundry.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_66">[66]</div> +<p>The sun shone gayly on the concrete floor and the +room was a cheerful spot. An electric washing machine +stood ready although covered tubs were built +against the wall for use in emergencies, and at one +side was a drying closet. There were numerous plugs +against the wall for the attachment of pressing irons.</p> +<p>“What’s this?” asked Ethel Brown, lifting a +cover of a hopper at the base of a chute.</p> +<p>“That’s the chute for soiled clothes. The other +end is on the bedroom floor, and it saves carrying.”</p> +<p>“That’s as good as Patrick’s log device!” smiled +Helen.</p> +<p>“Shall I put Christopher’s log in here?” asked +Roger, lifting the top of one of the stationary tubs.</p> +<p>“Yes, fix it so he can crawl up and sit in the sunshine +where it strikes the tub. We’ll have to draw +some water from the hydrant outside; the water isn’t +turned on in the house yet.”</p> +<p>Roger picked up a pail that was standing near by +and went up the cellar stairs two at a time.</p> +<p>“Now, sir,” he said to Dicky when he came back, +“I’ll lift you up and you can put Christopher into +his new abode.”</p> +<p>Dicky deposited his charge gently on the log and +he lay there poking out his head to enjoy the sunshine.</p> +<p>“Did you bring some bits of meat for him?” +Roger asked.</p> +<p>For answer Dicky turned out of the pocket of his +rompers a handful of chopped beef.</p> +<p>“Certainly unappetizing in appearance,” said +Tom, wrinkling his nose, “but I dare say Christopher +is not particular.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_67">[67]</div> +<h2 id="c5">CHAPTER V +<br />THE LAW OF LAUGHTER</h2> +<p>The Mortons were sitting on their porch on a +warm evening waving fans and trying to think +that the coming night promised comfortable sleep. +The Ethels sat on the upper step, Roger was +stretched on the floor at one side, Helen sat beside +her mother’s hammock which she kept in gentle motion +by an occasional movement of her hand, and +Dicky was dozing in a large chair. In a near-by +tree an insect insisted that “Katy did,” and in the +grass a cricket chirruped its shrill call.</p> +<p>“I do feel that Aunt Louise’s being able to build +this pretty house after all her years of wandering is +about the nicest thing that ever happened out of a +fairy story,” murmured Helen softly to her mother, +but loudly enough for the others to hear.</p> +<p>“There are people who talk about the law of +compensation,” smiled Mrs. Morton in the darkness. +“They think that if one good is lacking in our lives +other goods take its place.”</p> +<p>“Do you believe that?”</p> +<p>“I believe that everything that happens to us +comes because we have obeyed or disobeyed God’s +laws. Sometimes we are quite unconscious of disobeying +them, but the law has to work out just as if +we knew all about it.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_68">[68]</div> +<p>“For instance?” came a deep voice from the +floor, indicating that Roger had awakened.</p> +<p>“Do you remember the time you walked off the +end of the porch one day?”</p> +<p>“I should say I did! My nose aches at the mere +thought of it.”</p> +<p>“You didn’t know anything about the law of gravitation, +but the law worked in your case just as if you +had known all about it.”</p> +<p>“I’m bound to state that it did,” confirmed +Roger, still gently rubbing his nose as he lay in the +shadow.</p> +<p>“It seems as if it might have held up for a little +boy who didn’t know what he was going to get by +disobeying it,” said Ethel Blue sympathetically.</p> +<p>“But it didn’t and it never does,” returned Mrs. +Morton. “That’s one reason why we ought to try +to learn what God’s laws are just as fast and as +thoroughly as we can; not only the laws of nature +like the law of gravitation, but laws of morality and +justice and right thinking and unselfishness and kindness +toward others.”</p> +<p>“Sometimes mighty mean people seem to prosper,” +said Ethel Brown, with a hint of rebellion in +her voice.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_69">[69]</div> +<p>“That’s because those people obey to the letter +the law that controls prosperity of a material kind. +A man may be cruel to his wife and unkind to his +children, but he may have a genius for making +money. Some people call it the law of compensation. +I call it merely an understanding of the financial +law and a lack of understanding of the law of +kindness.”</p> +<p>“I don’t see what law dear Aunt Louise could +have broken to have made her have such a hard +time,” wondered Ethel Blue. “Her husband being +killed and her having to wander about without a +home for so many years—that seems like a hard +punishment.”</p> +<p>“Men have decided that ‘ignorance of the law is +no excuse’!” said her aunt, “and the same thing +is true of laws that are not man-made.”</p> +<p>“That seems awfully hard,” objected Helen; “it +doesn’t seem fair to punish a person for what he +doesn’t know.”</p> +<p>“If a cannibal should come to Rosemont and +should kill some one and have a barbecue, we should +think that he ought to be deprived of his liberty +because he was a dangerous person to have about, +even if we felt sure that he did not know that he +was doing an act forbidden by New Jersey law. +The position is that although a person may be +ignorant of the law it is his business to know it. +That seems to be the way with the higher laws; we +may break them in our ignorance—but we ought +not to be ignorant. We ought to try just as hard +as we know how all the time to do everything as +well as we can and to be as good as we can. If +we never let ourselves do a mean act or think a +mean thought we’re bound to come to an understanding +of the great laws sooner than if we just jog along +not thinking anything about them. I believe one +reason why your Aunt Louise was so slow in reaching +the end of her troubles after Uncle Leonard died +was because she was unable to control her sorrow. +She has told me that she was completely crushed by +his death and the condition of poverty in which she +found herself with a little child—Dorothy—to +take care of.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_70">[70]</div> +<p>“I don’t blame her,” murmured Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“She blames herself, because she has learned +that giving way to grief paralyzes all the powers that +God has given us to carry on the work of life with. +If our minds are filled with gloom our bodies don’t +behave as they ought to—I dare say even you children +know that.”</p> +<p>“I know,” agreed Ethel Blue, who was sensitive +and imaginative and suffered unnecessarily over +many things.</p> +<p>“Your mind doesn’t go, either,” Roger added. +“I know when I got in the dumps last spring about +graduating I couldn’t do a thing. My work went +worse than ever. It was only when Mr. Wheeler”—referring +to the principal of the high school—“jollied +me up and told me I was getting on as well +as the rest of the fellows that I took a brace; and +you know I did come out all right.”</p> +<p>“I should say you did, dear,” acknowledged his +mother proudly. “Instances like that make you +understand how necessary it is to be brave and to +be filled with joy because life is going on as well +as it is. It is our duty to make the most of everything +that is given us—our bodies, our minds, our +spirits—and if courage will help or joy will help +then we must cultivate courage and joy.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_71">[71]</div> +<p>“Did Aunt Louise see that after a while?”</p> +<p>“Not for a long time, she says. After the shock +of Uncle Leonard’s sudden death had worn away +somewhat she began naturally to have a little more +courage—not to be so completely crushed as she +was at first. Then she saw that when she was feeling +brave she could accomplish more, and succeed +better in new undertakings. If she went to ask for +work somewhere and had no hope that she would +receive it she usually did not receive it; but if she +went feeling that this day was to be one of success +for her it usually was.”</p> +<p>“I suppose she went in with a sort ‘Of course +you’ll give it to me’ air that made the men she was +asking think of ‘of course’ they would,” smiled +Roger.</p> +<p>“I don’t doubt it. Then she says that she found +out that there was real value in laughter.”</p> +<p>“In laughter!” repeated Ethel Brown. “Why +laughter is just foolishness.”</p> +<p>“No, indeed; laughter is the outward expression +of delight.”</p> +<p>“Lord Chesterfield told his son he hoped he’d +never hear him laugh in all his life,” offered Roger.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_72">[72]</div> +<p>“Lord Chesterfield hated noisy laughter as much +as I do. There’s nothing more annoying than +empty, silly giggling and laughter; but the laughter +that means real delight over something worth being +delighted at—that’s quite another matter. Lord +Chesterfield and I are agreed in being opposed to +a vulgar <i>manner</i> of laughing, but we are also agreed +in believing that delight needs expression. Isn’t it +in that same letter that he says he hopes he will often +see his son smile?”</p> +<p>“Same place,” responded Roger briefly.</p> +<p>“Aunt Louise says she found that even if she +wasn’t feeling really gay she could raise her spirits +by doing her best to laugh at something. If you +hunt hard enough there is almost always something +funny enough to laugh at within reach of you.”</p> +<p>“Like Dicky here snoozing away as soundly as +if he were in bed.”</p> +<p>“Poor little man. You needn’t carry him up yet, +though. He’s not uncomfortable there.”</p> +<p>“There’s one thing I think is perfectly wonderful +about Aunt Louise,” said Ethel Blue; “she takes +so much pleasure out of little things. She’s interested +in everything the U. S. C. does, and she wants +to help on anything the town undertakes—you know +how nice she was about the school gardens—and +sometimes when a day comes that seems just stupid +with nothing to do at all, if you go over to Aunt +Louise’s she’ll tell you something she’s seen or heard +that day that you never would have noticed for yourself +and that really is interesting.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_73">[73]</div> +<p>“She gets their full value out of everything that +passes before her eyes. It’s the wisest thing to do. +The big things of life are more absorbing but very +few of us encounter the big things of life. Most of +us meet the small matters, the everyday happenings, +and nothing else.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t life full of a mess of ’em!” ejaculated +Roger. “Getting up and dressing and brushing +your hair and eating three meals a day have to be +done three hundred sixty-five times a year; whereas +you hear some splendid music or come across a fine +new poem or find yourself in a position where you +can do a real kindness about once in a cat’s age. +Queer, isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“That’s just why it’s a good plan to see the opportunities +in the little things. If we see with clear +eyes we may be able to do some small kindnesses +oftener than ‘once in a cat’s age.’ It’s certainly +true that the everyday troubles, the trifling annoyances, +are really harder to bear than the big troubles.”</p> +<p>“O-o-o!” disclaimed Helen.</p> +<p>“The big troubles give you a bigger shock, but +then you pull yourself together and summon your +strength, and strength to endure them comes. But +the small matters—they come so often and they +seem such pin pricks that it seems not worth while to +call upon your powers of endurance.”</p> +<p>“Yet if you don’t you’re as cross as two sticks all +the time,” finished Helen. “I know how it is. It’s +like having a serious wound or a mosquito bite.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_74">[74]</div> +<p>They all laughed, for Roger, as if to illustrate her +remarks, gave a slap at a buzzing enemy at just the +appropriate moment.</p> +<p>“Another thing that helps to make Aunt Louise +a happy woman now is that she is at peace not only +with everybody on earth but also with herself. If +she makes a mistake she doesn’t fret about it; she +does her best to remedy it, and she does her best not +to repeat it. ‘Once may be excusable ignorance,’ +she says, ‘but twice is stupidity,’ and then she tells +the tale of the boy who was walking across a field +and fell into a dry well which he knew nothing +about. He roared loudly and after a time a farmer +heard him and pulled him out. The next day he +was walking across the same field and he fell again +into the same well.”</p> +<p>“He set up the same roar, I suppose.”</p> +<p>“A perfect imitation of the previous one. The +same farmer came. When he looked down the well +and saw the same boy he said disgustedly, ‘Yesterday +I thought ye were a poor, unknowin’ lad; to-day +I know ye’re a sad fool.’”</p> +<p>Again they all laughed.</p> +<p>“She’s always cheerful and always affectionate +and she’s as dear as she can be and I’m glad she’s +going to have this lovely house and I wish we had +one just like it,” cried Helen in a burst.</p> +<p>“We have a good house.”</p> +<p>“But it doesn’t belong to us.”</p> +<p>“We Army and Navy people can’t expect to own +houses, my child. You don’t need to have that told +you at this late day.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_75">[75]</div> +<p>“I know that. If Father weren’t so keen on +having us all together while we’re being educated we +wouldn’t have been in Rosemont as long as we have; +but I sometimes envy the people who have a home +of their own that they are sure to stay in for ever +so many years.”</p> +<p>“When you feel that way you must think of the +many advantages of the Army and Navy children. +If your father had not been on the Pacific station +when you were the Ethels’ age you wouldn’t have +had a chance to see California when you were old +enough to enjoy it and remember it.”</p> +<p>“I know, Mother. I didn’t mean to growl. I +just thought that Father had as much money as Aunt +Louise from his father, and he had his salary besides, +and yet we haven’t a house of our own.”</p> +<p>“We’ve had a good many of Uncle Sam’s houses, +which is more than your Aunt Louise has had. But +you must remember that her inheritance from your +Grandfather Morton was accumulating for many +years while her family didn’t know where she was, +while your father and Ethel Blue’s father have been +spending the income of theirs all along.”</p> +<p>“Uncle Roger has had a lot of children to spend +his on, but Father hasn’t had any one but me,” said +Ethel Blue, whose life had been entirely spent with +her cousins because her mother had died when she +was a tiny baby. Never before had she thought +whether her father, who was a captain in the Army, +had any money or not. Now she saw that he must +be better provided with it than his brother, her Uncle +Roger, the father of Ethel Brown and Helen and +Roger and Dicky, who was a Lieutenant in the +Navy.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_76">[76]</div> +<p>“Your father is always generous with his money, +but I dare say he is saving it for some time when +he will want it,” suggested Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“I don’t know when he’ll want it any more than +he does now,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Perhaps he’ll want to have a house of his own +at whatever post he is when he has a grown-up +daughter,” smiled Helen. “You’d better learn to +keep house right off.”</p> +<p>The idea thrilled Ethel. Never before had she +happened to think of the possibility of joining her +father after her school days were over. Never having +known any home except with Ethel Brown and +her other cousins she had always seen the future as +shared with them. The notion of leaving them was +painful, but the chance of being always with her father, +of being his housekeeper, of seeing him every +day, of making him comfortable, was one that filled +her with delight. Her blue eyes filled with tenderness +as she dreamed over the possibility.</p> +<p>“I have lots to learn yet before I should know +enough,” she murmured, staring almost unseeingly +at her cousin, “but it’s wonderful to think I could +do it.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_77">[77]</div> +<p>The new idea would not leave her mind, though, +indeed, she made no effort to drive it out. That +the future might hold for her a change so complete +was something she wanted to let her thoughts linger +on. She hardly noticed that Roger was gathering +Dicky up into his arms to carry him upstairs to +bed, or that there was a general stir on the veranda, +betokening a move indoors.</p> +<p>“Miss Graham was at Dorothy’s this afternoon,” +Ethel Brown said as she rose and picked up the +straw cushion on which she had been sitting.</p> +<p>“Was she?” inquired Helen interestedly. “I +wish I had seen her. I never have yet, you know.”</p> +<p>“Neither has Ethel Blue. She and Aunt Louise +and Dorothy and I went over to the new house and +looked at the attic. She says she’ll come over next +week and help us about the bedroom floor. That +will be ready then for us to talk about the decorating.”</p> +<p>“Be sure and let me know when she is coming. +What did she say about the attic?”</p> +<p>“She liked it especially because it had been +sheathed, following all the ins and outs. She +thought the irregularity was pretty. She suggested +a closet for furs over the kitchen. It won’t cost +much to bring the refrigerating pipes up there, she +says.”</p> +<p>“That’s bully. Aunt Louise may take care of +my fur gloves for me next summer if the moths +don’t eat them up this year,” promised Roger who +had stopped in the doorway to hear Ethel Brown’s +report, and stood with the still sleeping Dicky over +his shoulder.</p> +<p>“She suggested a raised ledge about fourteen +inches high to stand trunks on.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_78">[78]</div> +<p>“Then you don’t break your back bending over +them when you’re hunting for something,” exclaimed +Helen. “That’s splendid. She seems to have +practical ideas as well as ornamental ones.”</p> +<p>“She thought there ought to be a fire bucket closet +up there, too. You know Aunt Louise has had them +put in on all the other floors, but she didn’t think +of it there.”</p> +<p>“What is it?” asked Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“Just a narrow closet with four shelves. On +each of the lower three are fire buckets to be kept +full of water all the time and on the top shelf are +some of those hand grenade things and chemical +squirt guns. They don’t look very well when +they’re right out in sight. This way covers them +up but makes them just as convenient. There is to +be no lock on the door of the closet and FIRE is to +be painted outside so every one will know where +it is even if he gets rattled when the fire really happens.”</p> +<p>“Are the maids’ rooms to be on the attic floor?” +asked Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“Two little beauties, and a bath-room between +them. One room is to be pink and the other blue +and they’re going to have ivory paint and fluffy curtains +just like Dorothy’s.”</p> +<p>“Did you think to say anything to Miss Graham +about the Club’s using the attic in winter for weekly +meetings?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_79">[79]</div> +<p>“Dorothy did. She thought a movable platform +would be a great scheme; one wide enough for us +to use for a little stage when we wanted to have +singing or recitations up there. She picked out a +good place for the phonograph, where the shape of +the ceiling wouldn’t make the sound queer, and +she thought rattan furniture stained brown would be +pretty, and scrim curtains—not dead white ones, +but a sort of goldeny cream that would harmonize +with the wood. There are lovely big cotton rugs in +dull blues, that aren’t expensive, she says; and if +we don’t want to see the row of trunks and chests +against the wall we can arrange screens that will +shut them out of sight and will also take the place +of the pictures that you can’t hang on a wall that +slopes the wrong way.”</p> +<p>“I don’t see, then, but Aunt Louise will have an +attic and we’ll have a club room and both parties +to the transaction will be pleased,” beamed Helen, +who, as president of the Club was always careful +that the members should be comfortable when they +gathered for their weekly talking and planning and +working.</p> +<p>“Doesn’t Miss Graham come from Washington?” +asked Ethel Blue dreamily, half awakening to +the conversation.</p> +<p>“Yes, you know she does.”</p> +<p>“Fort Myer is just across the river; I wonder if +she knows Father.”</p> +<p>“Ask her when you see her,” recommended Ethel +Brown, and they all went in to bed as a clap of thunder +gave promise of a cooling shower.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_80">[80]</div> +<h2 id="c6">CHAPTER VI +<br />SPRING ALL THE YEAR ROUND</h2> +<p>It proved to be quite a week later before the +workmen were far enough along to make it +worth while for Miss Graham to be summoned to +a conference on the decoration of the bedroom floor, +and when Ethel Blue met her at last she forgot altogether +to ask if she knew her dearly beloved father.</p> +<p>There were several reasons why she did not ask. +In the first place she had forgotten that she meant +to; in the next, Miss Daisy was so absorbed in +what she was hearing from all the Club members +about their ideas for the bed-rooms, and so interested +in comparing them with her own practical knowledge +of how they could be carried out, that no one +who listened to her or saw her at work wanted to interrupt +her with any questions that had no bearing +on the matter in hand.</p> +<p>Not that she was not interested in the young people. +She was thoroughly interested in them. She +knew all of their names and sorted out one from +the other immediately just from Margaret’s and +James’s descriptions of them. She listened attentively +to their suggestions and they all felt that she +was treating their ideas with respect and that if she +did not always agree with them she had a good reason +for it.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_81">[81]</div> +<p>“I think she’s the most competent woman almost +that I ever saw,” said Helen admiringly to +Margaret as they stood at one side of the upper hall +and watched her as she rapidly sketched for Mrs. +Smith what she meant by a certain plan of window +hanging.</p> +<p>Helen was greatly interested in new occupations +for women and the fact that this woman had studied +to be an interior decorator and had succeeded so +well that she had orders from the suburbs of New +York itself had impressed the young girl as making +her well worth trying to know well. Helen was +not drawn toward interior decorating—she had already +made up her mind, that she was to be one of +the scientific home-makers educated at the School +of Mothercraft—but she admired women with the +courage to start new things, and this work seemed +to her to be perfectly suited to a woman and at +the same time of enough importance to be really +worth while putting a lot of preparation into it. +The dressing of shop windows seemed to her another +peculiarly feminine occupation, hardly entered +at all, as yet, by women, and capable of being developed +into an art.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_82">[82]</div> +<p>“The decoration of a room or a building ought +to seem a sort of growth from the room or the +building,” Miss Graham was explaining to the +Ethels. “It ought to seem perfectly natural that +it should be there, just as a blossom seems perfectly +natural to find on a plant. I never like the phrase +‘applied design,’” she continued, smiling as she +turned to Mrs. Smith. “It sounds as if you made +a design and then clapped it on to the afflicted spot +as if it were a plaster of some kind.”</p> +<p>“Too often it looks that way,” Mrs. Smith smiled +in return. “Come and see how we’ve arranged our +sleeping porches.”</p> +<p>As Miss Graham stood in the doorway that +opened on to the porch of Dorothy’s room, one hand +resting on Ethel Brown’s shoulder, Helen felt more +than ever the power—for friendliness and good +will as well as for the execution of her art—that +this dark-eyed, dark-haired, ruddy-cheeked young +woman possessed. Her nose was a trifle too short +for beauty and her mouth a bit too wide, but her +coloring denoted health, her hair curled crisply over +a broad forehead, her teeth were brilliantly white, +and the straight folds of her gown showed the lines +of her strong figure as the strange dull blue-green +of her linen frock, dashed with a bit of orange, +brought into relief all the good points of her tinting.</p> +<p>“She makes you want to stop and look at her,” +Helen decided, “and you want to know her, too.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Smith had arranged for three sleeping +porches, one for her own room, one for Dorothy’s, +and a larger one outside of the nursery where the +Belgian baby enjoyed herself in the daytime. This +porch was also shared by Elisabeth’s care-taker. +Each porch was on a different side of the house, so +that they did not encroach upon each other, and +each was somewhat different in arrangement.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_83">[83]</div> +<p>“Did you originate this idea?” asked Miss Graham, +as she examined the sliding windows by which +the bed was to be shut off from the room at night +and enclosed in the room in the morning. “You +never need step out of bed on to the cold floor of +the porch,” she commented approvingly.</p> +<p>“I saw that in a sanitarium,” returned Mrs. +Smith. “It was desirable that the patients should +never be chilled and the doctor and architect invented +this way of preventing it.”</p> +<p>“It’s capital,” smiled Miss Graham, “and so +simple. When the inside sash is closed, the outside +is up, and vice versa. Are they all like this?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” answered her hostess. “Dorothy is to +have a couch in that corner, and a table and chairs. +There is to be a screw eye attached to the foot of +the couch. A weight on the end of a cord will go +through a pulley fastened to the wall, high up over +the head of the couch. There will be a hook at the +other end of the cord. When this hook goes into +the screw eye and the weight is pulled, the couch will +stand on its head and will be out of the way at any +time when floor space is more to be desired than +lying down comfort.”</p> +<p>“Of course there will be some sort of drapery +to cover the under side when it is hauled up against +the wall,” said Miss Graham with a question in her +voice.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_84">[84]</div> +<p>“Dorothy has something in mind that is going +to meet that difficulty, she thinks,” answered Mrs. +Smith.</p> +<p>“Are you going to have your room of any decided +color,” asked Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“I’ve been perfectly crazy for a rose-colored +room, ever since I was a tiny child,” answered +Dorothy. “I’ve set my heart on this room’s looking +like a pink rose—”</p> +<p>“Or a bunch of apple blossoms?” asked Miss +Graham.</p> +<p>Ethel Blue looked quickly at the decorator when +she made this suggestion which at once stirred the +young girl’s imagination to a mental sight of a +springtime tree laden with clusters of blossoms, +whose delicate white was flushed with the delicate +pink of the dawn. The suggestion appealed to her +immediately as possible of a development far more +exquisite than that which Dorothy had planned. +Both would be pink, yet the fineness of the new color +scheme seemed to her suited to Dorothy’s slender +grace. She could not have put it into words but +she felt that Miss Graham had a feeling for color +that enabled her to adapt the room in which the +color was to be used to the personality of the young +girl who was chiefly to use it. Instinctively she +moved closer to Miss Graham and met her smiling +glance with a nod and smile of understanding.</p> +<p>Dorothy liked the new idea.</p> +<p>“I think an apple-blossom room would be perfectly +lovely,” she exclaimed. “If Mother would +only let me use wall-paper—I saw such a beauty +pattern the other day. There were clusters of apple-blossoms +all over it.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_85">[85]</div> +<p>“Are you going to use wall-paper,” Miss Graham +asked Mrs. Smith.</p> +<p>“Dorothy and I decided that we would not use +wall-paper in the bed-rooms at any rate,” answered +Dorothy’s mother.</p> +<p>“I wish we hadn’t,” pouted Dorothy, but she was +cheered when Miss Graham nodded her approval of +their decision.</p> +<p>“You’re quite right,” she said. “Apart from +the sanitary side it isn’t a good plan to paper walls +until the plaster is thoroughly dry. This is especially +true of a house built on the side of a hill.”</p> +<p>“This house has such a wonderful concrete foundation,” +said Margaret, “that I should think it +would be always perfectly solid.”</p> +<p>“So should I,” answered Miss Graham, “but +there’s always a chance that some part of the soil +beneath may give a little when the full weight of a +house rests upon it. The settling of a house for +only a half inch or an inch would play havoc with the +plaster on these walls.”</p> +<p>“You think we’d better hold back the paper for +a final resort?” asked Mrs. Smith.</p> +<p>“I never advise paper in bed-rooms unless +there’s good reason to do so,” answered the decorator. +“Here is what I should suggest for an apple-blossom +room—though perhaps you have some +ideas that you would like to have carried out?” she +interrupted herself to ask Dorothy.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_86">[86]</div> +<p>“No,” said Dorothy, “as long as it’s pink and +pretty I don’t care how it is decorated.”</p> +<p>Miss Graham stood in the centre of the room +now, noticing how the sunshine fell on the floor, the +shadow at the end where the sleeping porch was, and +the possible positions for the various articles of +furniture.</p> +<p>“I seem to see these walls washed with a white +which is tinted with a faint flush of pink,” said Miss +Graham slowly, as she thought it out. “That +means a pink so delicate that it will not irritate the +weariest nerves and will soothe to sleep by its +beauty. The wood-work should be similar in tone +but a trifle more like ivory. Do you know that +chintz that has blurry, indefinite flowers on it?”</p> +<p>Dorothy said that she did.</p> +<p>“I saw a lovely piece of it the other day with +a design of apple-blossoms. I should use that as +a covering for your bed, your couch, your chairs, +and for hangings for the windows. Then across +one end of the wall—on that shadiest side,—I +should throw a branch of apple-blossoms, painted in +the same blurry, indefinite way in which the flowers +appear on the chintz. I knew a man who was +enough of the artist in his soul to do the thing as +if the wall had suddenly grown thin and through it +you could see an apple tree in blossom out in the +orchard.”</p> +<p>“I think that would be perfectly lovely,” said +Dorothy, and all the others expressed the greatest +pleasure at the proposed scheme of decoration.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_87">[87]</div> +<p>“Here is what I would suggest for the windows,” +said Miss Daisy, taking out her note book, +and sketching with a few rapid lines the folds of +apple-blossom chintz, falling straight at the sides, +with a valance at the top showing a very slight fullness.</p> +<p>“Between these and the windows,” said Miss +Graham, “I should put Swiss muslin, either perfectly +plain or dotted or with a fine cross-bar, whichever +you like best. I should have those muslin curtains +next to the glass all alike all over the house and +the shades, too, so that the effect from the outside +will be uniform and not messy.”</p> +<p>“That neatness will suit Ethel Brown’s ideas of +what is harmonious,” laughed Helen, and Miss Graham +flashed her brilliant smile on Ethel Brown, +who was nodding her approval of the idea as she +listened.</p> +<p>“Now, how had you planned to finish the other +sleeping porches?” inquired Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“We thought we’d better have a radiator on the +one leading off the nursery,” said Mrs. Smith.</p> +<p>“You’ll have to be awfully careful about its freezing,” +warned Miss Graham.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_88">[88]</div> +<p>“I suppose we shall, but it seemed as if it might +be advisable with a child who has been so delicate +as Elisabeth. You will see that the outer ledge of +her porch is somewhat higher than either Dorothy’s +or mine and there are pieces of lattice work to fill +in the openings on very cold nights. We thought +we’d have out there a low play-table for the baby, +and one or two little chairs and a work-table and +easy-chair for Miss Merriam.”</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p10.png" alt="A Play-table for the Baby" width="463" height="174" /> +<p>A Play-table for the Baby</p> +</div> +<p>“There are cotton Chinese rugs that are extremely +pretty for upstairs porches,” said Miss Graham. +“One that is largely white but has a dash +of green and pink, would be charming for Dorothy’s +porch. What color is the baby’s room to be?”</p> +<p>“Ethel Blue wants us to have it pale blue.”</p> +<p>Again a vivid look of appreciation came into +Miss Graham’s eyes as she turned them on Ethel +Blue, but she merely said, “There are charming +Chinese rugs in white with dull blue designs like old +Chinese pottery. Tell me what you had planned in +your mind for Elisabeth,” she continued, turning toward +the young girl and extending her hand so winningly +that Ethel found herself not only standing beside +her with a feeling that she had been her friend +for a long time, but filled with confidence that her +suggestions would not be laughed at, and might indeed +be really good.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_89">[89]</div> +<p>“I thought of walls and paint of white faintly +colored with blue. It was just about what you suggested +for Dorothy’s room, only blue instead of +pink; and it seemed to me that there might be blue +birds—for happiness, you know—skimming along +the walls, up near the top.”</p> +<p>“One of those big Chinese rugs that is almost +all white, but has a little blue, would be lovely, +wouldn’t it?” cried Helen, seizing the idea.</p> +<p>“Several small ones would be better,” returned +Miss Graham, “because a baby’s room has to be +kept so spick and span that you want to have light +rugs that are easy to take up and clean.”</p> +<p>“You know those little round seats that you +sometimes see in railway waiting rooms?” asked +Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>Miss Graham said she had noticed them.</p> +<p>“Don’t you think one would be cunning for Elisabeth? +The seat part ought to be awfully low and +there could be light blue cushions on it. And then +I think it would be fun if there was a low bench +running around two sides of the room, with cushions +of the same color on it. It would do for a table +and a seat both.”</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p11.png" alt="“There could be light blue cushions on the seat”" width="476" height="258" /> +<p>“There could be light blue cushions on the seat”</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_90">[90]</div> +<p>Miss Graham thought the idea was capital.</p> +<p>“How would you paint them?” she asked.</p> +<p>“Wouldn’t a sort of bluish-white like the wood-work +be pretty,” asked Ethel Blue. “You know +that shiny paint that is so highly polished that the +baby’s finger marks won’t show on it.”</p> +<div class="img"> +<img src="images/p12.png" alt="Ayleesabet’s Goldfish" width="631" height="353" /> +<p>Ayleesabet’s Goldfish</p> +</div> +<p>“Enamel paint,” translated Miss Graham. “I +think it would be very pretty, and I should have all +the little chairs and tables painted the same way. +There are a lot of little things that would be charming +in the nursery,” she continued. “You can have +a solid table, whose top lifts off, disclosing a sand-pile +inside. And some parts of that seat around +the room ought to lift up so that the baby can put +away her own toys in the box underneath the cushions.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_91">[91]</div> +<p>“I thought a great big doll’s house might fit into +one corner so that it would be two-sided,” said Ethel +Blue. “If the lower floor was all one room the +baby could walk right in and sit down with the +dolls.”</p> +<p>“Do you think she could keep still long enough to +make a real visit?” laughed Helen.</p> +<p>“You’ll want to interest her in plants and animals +as she grows up,” suggested Miss Graham. +“You might begin even now by having an aquarium +with a few water plants and some gold fish and you +must arrange to have it on a good solid stand so +that it won’t tip over if Elisabeth should happen to +throw her fat little self against it. I suppose she’s +too small to have had any regular training as yet?” +she continued, turning to Mrs. Smith.</p> +<p>“Miss Merriam, who is taking care of her, is +trying some of the Montessori ideas.”</p> +<p>“I thought perhaps she was. Madame Montessori +tries to make all her training a natural outcome +of the children’s lives and to develop them to use +what they know in their daily occupations. If +Elisabeth had a clothes-closet small enough for her +to hang up and take down her own dresses and +coats and rompers, I think Miss Merriam would +find that she would be trying to put them on and +fasten them herself very soon.”</p> +<p>“Wouldn’t a clothes pole about three feet high +be too cunning for words,” exclaimed Ethel Blue, +and Dorothy cried, “Do let us have all these things, +Mother. Elisabeth will look like a little white +Persian kitten, trotting around in this blue and white +room!”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_92">[92]</div> +<p>“Had you made any plans for your own room, +Mrs. Smith?” asked Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“Oh, Aunt Louise, I do wish you’d have one of +those gray rooms, with scarlet lacquer furniture,” +cried Helen eagerly.</p> +<p>Before Mrs. Smith could answer, Miss Graham +had interposed a soft objection.</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t,” she said. “A room like that has +several reasons for non-existence. They are very +handsome because the real scarlet lacquer is beautiful +in itself, and it’s valuable too, but a room whose +chief appeal to the eye is scarlet is not restful.”</p> +<p>“You think scarlet is not a proper color for a +bed-room,” responded Helen.</p> +<p>“Not at all suitable to my way of thinking. It’s +exciting, rather than soothing. Another objection +to it here is that a room containing such a vivid +color should be a dark room, and all of your bed-rooms +are splendidly light. But the most serious +objection to my mind, is this. Just step out here in +the entry with me for a minute.”</p> +<p>They all followed Miss Graham on to the landing +at the head of the stairs.</p> +<p>“In a house as small as this,” she said, “you +can see from the hall into all the bed-rooms. That +means that from the decorator’s point of view, the +entire floor ought to be harmonious. Behind us, +for instance, is the baby’s delicate blue nursery. +Just ahead is Dorothy’s apple-blossom room. Do +you think that a room of gray and scarlet and black +is going to be harmonious with those delicate tints?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_93">[93]</div> +<p>They saw her meaning at once and agreed with +her that it would not be suitable.</p> +<p>“I decorated a small apartment last winter,” she +said, “that turned out very happily. The sitting +room was one of these scarlet lacquer rooms and +the bed-room was done in tones of pale green and +dull orange. You felt as if you were sitting in an +orange grove in Florida on an evening when a frost +was expected and they were burning smudges to +warm the trees.”</p> +<p>“I know,” cried Dorothy, “I’ve seen them do +that. You see the oranges gleaming through the +misty smoke, and it’s all hazy and beautiful.”</p> +<p>“It turned out well in this room that I did,” said +Miss Graham, modestly, “but if you accept the +blue and pink colorings for the other rooms here,” +she said, turning to Mrs. Smith with a smile, “I’m +afraid your own room will have to be of some delicate +tone to harmonize with them.”</p> +<p>“There are certain shades of yellow, that would +be suitable,” returned Mrs. Smith.</p> +<p>“A primrose yellow,” answered Miss Graham, +“would be charming, and it would not be hard to +find a lovely chintz, that would give you just the +spring-like atmosphere that you’d enjoy having about +you all the time.”</p> +<p>“I think we’re going to have this floor a little +piece of spring all the year around,” said Ethel +Blue; and again Miss Graham flashed at her a look +of understanding.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_94">[94]</div> +<h2 id="c7">CHAPTER VII +<br />CLOSETS AND STEPMOTHERS</h2> +<p>After they had shown all the rest of the house +to Miss Daisy the family party gathered on +the brick terrace outside of the drawing room to investigate +lemonade and little cakes. The Ethels +had brought the lemonade from home in a thermos +bottle which kept it cool and refreshing, and that +morning Dorothy had made some “hearts and +rounds” which proved most appetizing with the cool +drink.</p> +<p>A few canvas chairs which Mrs. Smith had sent +over from home, so that she might have something +to sit down on when she visited the new house, were +all the furniture of the veranda, but the girls found +several boxes which the workmen had left, and they +laid planks on them and made benches that were entirely +comfortable. A similar arrangement with +the boxes turned on their ends provided a little table +on which they placed the refreshments. Paper cups +answered every necessary purpose, although they +were not beautiful, and paper plates held the hearts +and rounds just as well as if they had been china.</p> +<p>They were all a little tired after walking about +the house for so long a time, and those of them +who had chairs leaned back with satisfaction and +looked over the low parapet to the adjoining +meadow with its brook and its cluster of woods at +the upper end. Beyond the fields the Emersons’ +house could be seen dimly through the trees.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_95">[95]</div> +<p>“We wondered in the springtime whether we +should be able to see this house from Grandfather’s +house,” said Ethel Brown. “I haven’t looked +lately, but I guess we can, or else we shouldn’t be +able to see Grandfather’s house from here.”</p> +<p>“The line of those far-away mountains is very +beautiful against the sky,” Miss Graham noticed, +with her keen observation of everything that added +to the loveliness of the landscape.</p> +<p>“They are far enough away to have a blue haze +hanging over them,” said Mrs. Smith, “and they +give you a feeling that our quiet country scene here +has a great deal of variety after all.”</p> +<p>“Your house is admirably placed to make the +most of every beauty around you,” said Miss Daisy, +“and I hope you’ll allow me to compliment you on +the way it is turning out. You know they say that +you have to build two or three houses in order to +build one exactly to your satisfaction, but I should +think that you were almost accomplishing that with +your first attempt.”</p> +<p>“I am glad you like so many things about it,” said +Mrs. Smith. “Dorothy and I would be pleased +with almost any house that really belonged to us, for +we’ve had nothing of our own for many years, but +of course it is a tremendous satisfaction to have this +develop into something that is beautiful and livable +too.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_96">[96]</div> +<p>“You’ve added so many happy touches,” said +Miss Graham. “Take for instance this terrace. A +brick terrace always makes me think of some old +country house in England, with its dark red walls +buried among the brilliant green foliage. So many +of those houses have terraces like this, partly roofed +like yours, and wide enough to be really an extra +room.”</p> +<p>“Aunt Louise’s terrace is really two extra rooms,” +said Ethel Blue, “because it opens from the drawing +room and also from the dining room.”</p> +<p>“We’re going to have all our meals out here in +pleasant weather, whenever it’s warm enough,” said +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I can see you’re sufficiently afraid of New Jersey +mosquitoes to have a part screened.”</p> +<p>“It’s the only prudent thing to do,” returned Mrs. +Smith. “Jersey mosquitoes are really more than a +joke, but if you have this wire cage to get into you +can defy them. You can see that at the end of the +terrace opposite the dining room our cage covers the +whole of the floor, while up at this end only a part is +wired in. In the evening when the buzzers are buzzing +we can take shelter behind the screen, but in the +daytime we can sit outside as we’re doing now.”</p> +<p>“Are you going to glass it in winter? I see you +have a radiator.”</p> +<p>“There are to be long glass sashes that fit into +the same grooves that hold the screens now. The +open fire will take off the chill on autumn mornings +and the radiator ought to keep us warm even when +the snow is banked against the glass.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_97">[97]</div> +<p>“With palms and rubber plants and rugs and +wicker chairs and tables—I suppose you’ll have +wicker?” Mrs. Morton interrupted herself to inquire +of her sister-in-law.</p> +<p>“Yes, wicker, but we haven’t decided between +brown or green,” and Mrs. Smith turned appealingly +to Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“Neither, I should say. Don’t you think a dull +dark red, a mahogany red—would be pretty with +this brick floor?”</p> +<p>“And against the concrete wall. I do; and it +ought not to be hard to find rugs with dull reds and +greens that will draw all those earthy, autumnal +shades together.”</p> +<p>“You might have one of those swinging settees +hanging by chains from the ceiling.”</p> +<p>“Dorothy would enjoy that.”</p> +<p>“So would we,” interposed Ethel Brown. “I +seem to see myself perching on it, waving my lemonade +cup.”</p> +<p>“Don’t illustrate all over me,” remonstrated +Ethel Blue, dodging the flowing bowl.</p> +<p>“I like very much the seclusion you’ve gained by +building up the wall at the end of the terrace on the +side toward the road,” said Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“We found that people could see from the road +any one sitting on the terrace, although we’re so +high here,” said Mrs. Smith, “but with the parapet +built up at that end, they can’t see anything, even +though there is an opening in the wall.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_98">[98]</div> +<p>“And the window frames a lovely picture of the +meadows across the road from you.”</p> +<p>“I don’t see,” said Ethel Brown, “why you always +call your living room a drawing room, Aunt +Louise.”</p> +<p>“It isn’t a living room,” returned Mrs. Smith. +“A living room is really a room which is used both +as a sitting room and a dining room. No room +which is used for only one of those purposes should +be called a living room.”</p> +<p>“Lots of people do,” insisted Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“But they are not right,” returned her aunt.</p> +<p>“Drawing room seems a very formal name for +it,” Helen said. “Of course we’re used to it, because +Grandmother Emerson always calls her parlor +a drawing room, but she has a huge, big room, so +my idea of a drawing room is always something immense.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps it is rather old-fashioned and stately,” +admitted Mrs. Smith; “but the drawing room is +simply a place where the family <i>withdraws</i> to sit together +and talk together, and it need not be any more +formal than the people who use it. But I protest +that my drawing room or sitting room, or whatever +it may be, shall not be called a living room, because +it is not devoted to eating as well as sitting.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_99">[99]</div> +<p>“I am glad you make that distinction,” said Miss +Graham. “So many people are careless about using +the word and nowadays you seldom find a real living +room except in a bungalow in the country where people +are living very informally during the summer, and +where space is limited. There’s another thing about +your house that I like exceedingly,” she continued, +“and that is your closets.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Morton, who had joined the party on the +terrace, laughed heartily at this praise.</p> +<p>“That ought to please you, Louise,” she said, +and added, turning to Miss Graham, “Louise has +spent more time inventing all sorts of cupboards and +closets than in drawing the original plan of the +house, I really believe.”</p> +<p>“I know it wasn’t wasted time,” returned Miss +Graham. “I have every sympathy with a craze for +closets. You can’t have too many to suit me. Do +you remember that room at Mt. Vernon entirely surrounded +by cupboards and closets? I always thought +Washington must have had an extraordinarily orderly +mind to want to have all his dining room belongings +carefully placed on shelves behind closed +doors!”</p> +<p>“I wonder how many different kinds of closets we +have,” murmured Dorothy, beginning to count them +up on her fingers. Everybody tossed in a contribution, +naming the closet which she happened to remember.</p> +<p>“A coat closet near the front door,” said Ethel +Brown.</p> +<p>“Clothes closets in every bed-room and two extra +ones in the attic,” added Mrs. Smith.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_100">[100]</div> +<p>“A dress closet with mirrors on the doors, that +turn back to make a three-fold dressing glass. I +envy you that comfort, Louise,” said Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“You’ll notice that the coat closets and the clothes +closets all have long poles with countless hangers on +them,” said Mrs. Smith. “They’ll hold a tremendous +number of garments; many more than Dorothy +and I have.”</p> +<p>“The closet I’m craziest about is the one that is +filled with glass cubes to put hats in,” said Helen. +“You open the door and there are half a dozen, and +you can see the hats right through, so you don’t have +to keep pulling out one box after another, always getting +the wrong one first.”</p> +<p>“That’s a perfectly splendid idea,” approved Miss +Graham. “I suppose along the lower part of the +closet side of your room, you have small closets and +cupboards for shoes and for blouses.”</p> +<p>“I have my blouse closet above my shoe closet,” +returned Mrs. Smith.</p> +<p>“Did you notice the tall, thin closet for one-piece +dresses?” asked Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“I should think that would be splendid because it +doesn’t jam up your evening dresses,” said Helen, +who was beginning to think longingly of real, +grown-up evening dresses.</p> +<p>“That’s the closet Ethel Blue always calls the +‘stepmother closet,’” laughed Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Why ‘stepmother closet’?” inquired Miss Graham +quickly.</p> +<p>“Because it would pinch a stepmother so hard if +she got into it,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_101">[101]</div> +<p>Miss Graham looked puzzled and Dorothy explained.</p> +<p>“Ethel Blue hates stepmothers. She doesn’t +know why, except that they are always horrid in fairy +stories, but she thinks this long narrow closet would +be just the place to put a horrid one into to punish +her.”</p> +<p>“Stepmothers are often very nice,” said Mrs. +Morton.</p> +<p>“I had a stepmother,” said Miss Graham, “and +I couldn’t have loved my own mother more tenderly, +and I’m sure she loved Margaret’s mother and me +quite as well as if we had been her own children. In +fact, I think she was more careful of us than she was +of her own children. She used to say we were a +legacy to her and that she felt it her duty as well as +her delight to be extra good to us, for our mother’s +sake.”</p> +<p>Ethel Blue listened and smiled at the kind brown +eyes that were smiling at her, but she shook her head +as if she were unconvinced.</p> +<p>“At any rate you might select your closet to fit +your stepmother,” Miss Daisy laughed, “and if you +wanted to be very bad to a thin one, you could make +her squeeze up small in one of the glass hat boxes, +and a fat one would suffer most in this narrow closet +of yours.”</p> +<p>They all laughed again and went on with the list +of closets in the house.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_102">[102]</div> +<p>“You noticed, I hope,” said Mrs. Smith, “that almost +every closet in the house has an electric bulb inside +that lights when you open the door and goes out +again when the door is closed.”</p> +<p>“Splendid,” approved Miss Graham. “Is there +one in your linen closet?”</p> +<p>“Yes, indeed. Did you notice that the linen +closet is on the bedroom floor? There need be no +carrying up and down stairs of heavy bed linen. +The linen for the maid’s room, in the attic, is kept in +a small linen closet up there, and the table linen belongs +in a closet made especially for it in the dining +room. It has many glass shelves quite close together, +so that each table cloth may have a spot to itself +and the centrepieces and doilies may be kept flat +with nothing to rumple them.”</p> +<p>“I suppose the medicine closets will go into the +bath-rooms when the other fittings are installed,” +said Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“Yes,” returned her sister-in-law.</p> +<p>“Did you notice the pretty cedar shavings that the +carpenters left on the floor of the cedar closet?” +asked Dorothy. “They say they always leave the +cedar shavings they made, because people like to +put them among their clothes to make them fragrant.”</p> +<p>“I’m glad you are having a cedar closet,” said +Margaret. “Mother got along with a cedar chest +for a great many years, but she has always longed +for a cedar closet. She had one built this summer.”</p> +<p>“We have both,” said Dorothy. “The chest is +going up in the attic and the closet is on the bedroom +floor.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_103">[103]</div> +<p>“The thing that pleases me most in the closet +line,” said Ethel Brown, who is a good cook, +“is the pastry closet just off the kitchen. The +carpenter told me there was a refrigerating pipe running +around it so that it would always be cool, and +there was to be a plate glass shelf on which the +pastry could be rolled out.”</p> +<p>“You certainly have the latest wrinkles,” exclaimed +Mrs. Morton admiringly. “I have never +seen that arrangement in real life. I thought it only +existed in large hotels or the women’s magazines!”</p> +<p>“There are lots of other little comforts in our +house,” laughed Dorothy, “and there are two or +three more kinds of closets if we count bookcases +that have doors and cupboards to keep games in.”</p> +<p>“They’re every one modern and useful except that +stepmother squeezer,” said Miss Graham, rising to +take leave. “That sounds like some invention of +the Middle Ages when people used to torture each +other to death so cheerfully.”</p> +<p>“O, I wouldn’t <i>torture</i> her,” protested Ethel +Blue.</p> +<p>“Unless she were a really truly fairy story bad +one,” Miss Daisy insisted. “Could you resist +that?”</p> +<p>She held Ethel Blue’s eyes for just a second with +her smiling gaze that was graven down in the depths +of her warm brown ones.</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t <i>really</i> hurt her,” Ethel Blue repeated, +and wondered why she felt as if she had been taken +seriously.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_104">[104]</div> +<h2 id="c8">CHAPTER VIII +<br />“OFF TO PHILADELPHIA IN THE MORNING”</h2> +<p>“Helen,” called Mrs. Morton a few days +later just after the morning visit of the letter +carrier, “I have a note here from Uncle Richard +asking me if I can run over to Philadelphia and attend +to a little matter of business for him. He is so +tied up at Fort Myer that he can’t possibly get away. +Do you think it would be pleasant if you and I went +over for a few days and took Roger and the children +with us?”</p> +<p>The “children” of the Morton family meant +those younger than Roger and Helen. Helen received +the suggestion with a cry of delight.</p> +<p>“It would be just too lovely for anything,” she +said, waving in the air the little linen dress she was +making for Elisabeth.</p> +<p>“The younger girls had the Massachusetts trip +this summer that you and Roger didn’t share,” her +mother said. “I think this time we might all of +us go, and I’m not sure that it would not be pleasant +to ask the Watkinses and the Hancocks.”</p> +<p>“The whole U. S. C.!” cried Helen. “Mother, +you certainly were born a darling. How did you +ever think of anything so perfectly galoptious?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_105">[105]</div> +<p>“It’s natural for me to be ‘galoptious,’” her +mother returned, laughing. “Now, we shall have +to work fast, if we are going to accomplish Uncle +Richard’s errand, because the people whom he wants +me to see will be in Philadelphia only to-morrow. +He has telegraphed them, asking them to keep an +hour for me, so I must go over to-day or very early +to-morrow morning.”</p> +<p>“Would you like to have me call up Margaret and +Della on the telephone and see if they can go to-day? +If they can, I don’t see why we can’t fly around +tremendously and get our bags packed this morning +and take an afternoon train,” said Helen, who was +beginning to grow energetic as the full prospect of +the pleasure before her appeared before the eyes of +her mind.</p> +<p>Mrs. Morton agreeing, Helen flew to the telephone, +and was lucky enough to catch Margaret at +Glen Point and Della in New York without any difficulty. +They both said that they would consult their +mothers and would call Helen again within an +hour. She then telephoned to Dorothy, but found +that she was at Sweetbrier Lodge and as the telephone +had not been put in yet, she was, for a moment, +at a loss what to do. She remembered, however, +that Ethel Brown and Ethel Blue had spoken of +spending the morning at Grandmother Emerson’s, +and she therefore called up her house in the hope that +they might be there.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_106">[106]</div> +<p>They had just left there to go and do a little house-cleaning +in the cave in Fitzjames’ woods, where they +frequently enjoyed an afternoon lemonade. Mrs. +Emerson said, however, that she could easily send a +messenger after them, and that it would not be many +minutes before she would ring Helen in her turn.</p> +<p>“I haven’t anything to report,” Helen said to her +mother after she had made these various calls, “but +I had better be getting out our handbags and trying +to find Roger, I suppose.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Morton was already packing her valise with +her own and Dicky’s requirements and she nodded an +assent to Helen’s suggestion.</p> +<p>It was not many minutes before the telephone bell +began ringing. The first summons was from Margaret +Hancock who said that her mother and father +were delighted with the opportunity to have her and +James go to Philadelphia in Mrs. Morton’s care.</p> +<p>“It will be a real Club expedition,” she said gleefully, +“and I’m just as sure as if I saw it with my own +eyes, that you’re packing a ‘History of Philadelphia’ +in your hand-bag.”</p> +<p>Helen laughed because she was well accustomed to +being joked about her love of history.</p> +<p>“I notice all of you are willing enough to listen +when I tell about places,” she said, “and this time +you’ll have to take it from me because Grandfather +won’t be there to tell you.”</p> +<p>The next ring meant that the Ethels had returned +to Mrs. Emerson’s.</p> +<p>“What do you want of us?” Ethel Blue asked in +a tone that sounded as if she were not particularly +pleased at being called back.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_107">[107]</div> +<p>“How would you like to go to Philadelphia?” +Helen answered triumphantly.</p> +<p>“Do you really mean it?” asked Ethel, who was +not quite sure that her ears were hearing correctly.</p> +<p>“I do mean it, and if you and Ethel Blue want to +go with Mother and me this afternoon, you must +rush home just as fast as you can and get your bags +packed. Aunt Louise says Dorothy may go, but I +can’t find her, so please stop at the new house and see +if she’s there and tell her about it.”</p> +<p>“Well I should say we would,” returned a voice +that was now filled with delight. “Ethel Blue +wants to know why Mother is going?” she asked.</p> +<p>“On some business for her father—for Uncle +Richard. But do stop chattering and come home as +fast as you can rush. If we don’t get off this afternoon, +we can’t go until to-morrow morning and we +shan’t be able to stay so long in Philadelphia.”</p> +<p>It was not until they reached home that the Ethels +learned that the Watkinses and the Hancocks were to +join the party, and they were so excited over the prospect +of this Club pilgrimage, that they were hardly +able to get together their belongings.</p> +<p>The most difficult person to find was Roger who +did not seem to be within reach of the telephone anywhere. +They called up all the places where they +thought it possible that he might be, but he could not +be found, and he walked in just before luncheon quite +unprepared for the surprise that awaited him.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_108">[108]</div> +<p>“Helen has packed your bag for you,” his mother +told him, “so rush and change your clothes and go to +the train to meet Della and Tom.”</p> +<p>Rosemont being already part way on the road +from New York and Philadelphia, it was necessary +for the party to take a local train to the nearest stopping +place of the Express. The Watkinses came +out from New York on a local and the Hancocks arrived +on the trolley, so that the entire group met at +the Mortons’ about half an hour before the time to +start. They were all chattering briskly, all filled +with enthusiasm for this new adventure.</p> +<p>“Don’t you think I’d better go too?” Mr. Emerson +asked his daughter, as he counted up the throng +and noticed their eagerness.</p> +<p>“I don’t think it’s necessary, Father,” Mrs. Morton +replied. “Roger and Tom and James are surely +big enough to escort us, and I know Philadelphia so +well that I have no fear of our being lost in the city +with three such competent young men to take care of +us.”</p> +<p>Mr. Emerson smiled somewhat doubtfully and +murmured something about his daughter’s having a +hopeful disposition.</p> +<p>“You don’t realize how serious Roger can be +when he feels that he has actual responsibility,” said +Mrs. Morton, “and as for James Hancock, he is +sometimes so grave that he almost alarms me.”</p> +<p>“He may be grave, but has he any sense?” asked +Mr. Emerson tartly.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_109">[109]</div> +<p>“The children seem to think he has a great deal. +At any rate I feel sure that no difficulty is going to +come to us with these three big boys on hand and I +wouldn’t think of taking you on this fatiguing trip, +on such a hot day,” insisted his daughter.</p> +<p>Mr. Emerson looked somewhat relieved although +he again assured Mrs. Morton that he would be entirely +willing to escort her and her flock.</p> +<p>“No farther than the Rosemont station, thank +you,” she said, smiling.</p> +<p>It was at the station and just as the train was drawing +in that Mr. Emerson handed Helen a notebook.</p> +<p>“You’ve taken me by surprise this morning,” he +said, “and I haven’t had much time to get up my +usual collection of historical poetry, but I couldn’t +let you go off without having something of the kind +to remember me by.”</p> +<p>Helen and the Ethels laughed at this confession, +for Mr. Emerson was so fond of American history +that he was in the habit, whenever they all went on +trips together, of supplying himself with ballads concerning +any historical happenings in the district +through which they were to travel.</p> +<p>“Philadelphia ought to be a fertile field for you, +sir,” said James Hancock.</p> +<p>“It is,” returned the old gentleman, “but you’ll +escape the full force of my efforts this time, thanks +to your quick start.”</p> +<p>The run to the junction and then to Philadelphia +was made in a short time. It was fairly familiar to +all of them and the country presented no beauties to +make it remarkable, although Roger pretended to be +a guide showing wonderful sights to the New +Yorkers, Della and Tom.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_110">[110]</div> +<p>“Do you think, Mother, we shall have time to +look up some of the historical places in the city?” +asked Helen.</p> +<p>“I thought that would be the most interesting +thing to do,” Mrs. Morton replied. “I shan’t have +to meet my business people until midday to-morrow, +so this afternoon and to-morrow morning we can see +many points of interest if we don’t delay too long at +each one.”</p> +<p>“Being related to the Navy through my paternal +ancestor,” said Roger in large language, “Philadelphia +has always interested me because the father +of old William Penn, its founder, was an Admiral in +the English Navy.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t know that,” said Helen.</p> +<p>“Watch me run for base!” exclaimed Roger. +“I got one off of Helen on the first ball. It isn’t +often that Helen admits there’s something she +doesn’t know about American history.”</p> +<p>“You miserable boy! You sound as if I were +pretending to be a ‘know-it-all’! There are plenty +of things I don’t know about American history. For +instance I know very little about William Penn, except +that he was a Quaker.”</p> +<p>“Well then,” said Roger, “allow me to inform +you, beloved sister, that William Penn was an Oxford +man and a preacher in the Society of Friends. He +seems to have had some pull because the powers gave +him a grant of Pennsylvania (that means Penn’s +Woods), in 1680. He went to America two years +later and founded this minute little town which we +are approaching.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_111">[111]</div> +<p>“Those old Englishmen on the other side certainly +had a calm way of giving out grants of land +without saying anything about it to the Indians, +didn’t they?” said Margaret.</p> +<p>“Penn got along much better with the Indians +than many of the heads of the colonies. He made +a treaty with them, which is said to have been very +remarkable in two ways; in the first place he wouldn’t +swear to keep it because he was a Quaker, and +Quakers won’t take an oath; and in the next place, he +<i>did</i> keep it, which was quite an event in colonial +circles!”</p> +<p>“He must have been a good chap,” commented +Tom.</p> +<p>“You’re going to see a statue of him as soon as +you get off the train,” interposed Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“Where is it?” asked Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“On top of the City Hall. It’s the first thing you +see when you come out of the railroad station. In +fact you’re so close to the Public Buildings, as they’re +called, that I doubt if you can see the top at all until +you get farther away from them.”</p> +<p>“The statue must be enormous if it’s up so high,” +said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“I’ve been told it was thirty-seven feet high,” returned +Mrs. Morton, “and that the rim of the old +gentleman’s hat was so wide that a person could walk +on it comfortably.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_112">[112]</div> +<p>“Wouldn’t it be fun to do our back step on the +edge of his hat!” exclaimed Ethel Blue to Ethel +Brown, as they looked out the cab which was taking +them to the hotel, and saw the figure of the benevolent +Quaker black against the sky some five hundred +feet above the ground.</p> +<p>The hotel wherein Mrs. Morton established her +flock was “in the heart of conservative Philadelphia.” +Immediately after luncheon they packed +themselves into a large touring car and began their +historical explorations.</p> +<p>“If we do things according to time, we ought to +go first to all of the places that have to do with William +Penn,” said Helen.</p> +<p>“I’m afraid that might make us jump around the +city a little,” said Mrs. Morton, “because if I am not +mistaken, the house that William Penn gave to his +daughter Letitia, is out in Fairmount Park, and the +one belonging to his grandson is in the Zoo. We’ll +see them before we go home, but now we had better +give our attention to the things that are here in the +city. To begin with we can go to the little park on +whose site William Penn made his famous treaty +with the Indians. It takes us somewhat out of our +way, but I know Helen’s orderly mind will like to begin +there.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_113">[113]</div> +<p>Helen smiled at her mother’s understanding of +her, and the car sped northwards along the river +front, now given over to business and tenements. +At the Treaty Park they looked about them with their +imaginations rather than with their eyes, for there +was little of interest before them, while the Past held +a vision of the elm tree under which the group of +broad-hatted Friends discussed terms with the copper-colored +natives. Lieutenant Morton’s children +were interested in seeing not far away the ship building +yards where many an American battleship had +slipped from the ways to pursue her peaceful course +upon the ocean.</p> +<p>Returning as they had come, they passed on Second +Street the site of a house in which the Great Settler +had lived, and promised themselves to remember +that in Independence Hall they were to look for +a piece of the Treaty Tree.</p> +<p>“Everything that isn’t called ‘Penn’ in this town +seems to be called ‘Franklin,’” said Ethel Blue, +after reading many of the signs on the buildings.</p> +<p>“That’s because the great Benjamin lived here for +most of his life,” said James, by way of explanation. +“He was born in Boston, but he soon deserted those +cold regions for a warmer clime, and made a name +for himself here.”</p> +<p>“I should say he left it behind him,” commented +Ethel Blue again as she read another sign, this time +of a “Penn Laundry.”</p> +<p>“Penn and Franklin are the two great men of old +Philadelphia, without any doubt,” said Mrs. Morton, +as the machine stopped before Carpenters’ Hall.</p> +<p>“Help! Help!” cried Tom. “I blush to state +that I don’t know Carpenters’ Hall from a ham +sandwich.”</p> +<p>Helen looked at him with horror on her face.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_114">[114]</div> +<p>“Stand right here before we set foot inside and +let me tell you that I am perfectly shocked that any +American boy, old enough to have graduated from +high school and to be going to Yale in a few weeks, +should make such a statement as that!”</p> +<p>She was genuinely troubled about it and Tom +flushed as he saw that she really was scornful of his +ignorance.</p> +<p>“Now, next,” she said, “do you know what the +Boston Tea Party was?”</p> +<p>Tom meekly said that he remembered that in +December, 1773, a number of Boston men disguised +as Indians had thrown overboard from a ship in the +harbor, boxes of tea on which they refused to pay +the British duty.</p> +<p>Helen nodded approvingly.</p> +<p>“I’m glad you remember that much,” she said +tartly. “After that Tea Party there was a continual +and rapid growth of dislike for the Old Country, +which was trying to tax the colonists, without +allowing them any representation in the Parliament +which was governing them. The feeling grew so +strong that a Continental Congress, made up of delegates +from the thirteen original Colonies, was called +to meet here in Philadelphia, in September, 1774. +It met here at Carpenters’ Hall,” she concluded triumphantly.</p> +<p>Tom glanced up at the Hall with an entirely new +interest.</p> +<p>“In this same old building?” he asked.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_115">[115]</div> +<p>“In this very identical place,” said Helen, and +then she allowed the procession to enter the building.</p> +<p>“September 17, 1774,” repeated Ethel Brown +thoughtfully. “Why, that was the autumn before +the battles of Concord and Lexington.”</p> +<p>“Yes, the Revolution had not yet begun. The +Continental Congress met to talk over the situation, +and here are the very chairs the members used.”</p> +<p>Ethel Blue touched one of them with the tips of +her fingers.</p> +<p>“I’m glad I’ve touched anything as interesting as +this,” she said.</p> +<p>“Look at the inscription,” said James, calling their +attention to the lettering. “<span class="small">WITHIN THESE WALLS +HENRY, HANCOCK AND ADAMS INSPIRED THE DELEGATES +OF THE COLONIES WITH NERVE AND SINEW +FOR THE TOILS OF WAR!</span>”</p> +<p>“John Hancock was my great-great-grandfather’s +brother,” said James proudly.</p> +<p>“Good for you, old chap,” exclaimed Roger, +thumping him on the back, while Helen beamed at +Margaret.</p> +<p>“How long did these Congressmen chat here?” +meekly asked Tom of Helen.</p> +<p>“After about a month they agreed on what they +called a Declaration of Rights, and they sent it over +to Franklin, who was in England, and asked him to +present it to the House of Commons.”</p> +<p>“In the light of after events I suppose the House +of Commons didn’t take a look at it,” said Roger.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_116">[116]</div> +<p>“They certainly did not,” replied Helen, “and +the battles of Lexington and Concord were the result. +You remember they were fought in April of 1775. +Ticonderoga was captured in May of the same year +and the battle of Bunker Hill was fought in June.”</p> +<p>“And Congress kept on sitting while all this fighting +was going on?”</p> +<p>“Yes; the men discussed each new move as it was +made. Early in June one of the members made a +motion before the Congress that ‘these Colonies +ought to be Independent.’”</p> +<p>“That idea seems simple enough to us now,” said +Tom, “but I dare say it was startling when a mere +colonist proposed to break off with the mother country.”</p> +<p>“It seems to me it’s about time for Grandfather +Emerson to have some poetry on this period of history,” +said Ethel Brown. “If he were here, I’m +sure he would never have let this Congress sit for +eight or nine months without discovering something +in poetry about it.”</p> +<p>Helen laughed.</p> +<p>“You certainly understand Grandfather,” she +said. “In just about a minute, while we’re going +over to Independence Hall, I’m going to read you +some verses that belong right in here. On the first +of July they began to debate about this proposal that +the colonists should be independent. It was a +mighty important matter, of course, because if they +adopted it, it certainly meant war, and if they did not +beat in the war, it might mean a worse state of affairs +than they were in at the present moment. So +there was much to be said on both sides and it looked +as if the vote was going to be very close. Here’s +where Rodney the delegate did some hard riding,” +and Helen took out one of the type-written sheets, +which her grandfather had given her.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_117">[117]</div> +<p>“What Colony did he represent?” asked Ethel +Blue.</p> +<p>“Rodney was from Delaware,” she returned, +“Now listen, while I read you this poem.”</p> +<h3>“RODNEY’S RIDE</h3> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“In that soft mid-land where the breezes bear</p> +<p class="t0">The North and South on the genial air,</p> +<p class="t0">Through the county of Kent, on affairs of state,</p> +<p class="t0">Rode Cæsar Rodney, the delegate.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Burly and big and bold and bluff,</p> +<p class="t0">In his three-cornered hat and coat of snuff,</p> +<p class="t0">A foe to King George and the English State,</p> +<p class="t0">Was Cæsar Rodney, the delegate.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Into Dover village he rode apace,</p> +<p class="t0">And his kinsfolk knew, from his anxious face,</p> +<p class="t0">It was matter grave that brought him there,</p> +<p class="t0">To the counties three on the Delaware.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“‘Money and men we must have’m,’ he said,</p> +<p class="t0">‘Or the Congress fails and the cause is dead:</p> +<p class="t0">Give us both and the King shall not work his will.</p> +<p class="t0">We are men, since the blood of Bunker Hill!’</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Comes a rider swift on a panting bay:</p> +<p class="t0">‘Ho, Rodney, ho, you must save the day,</p> +<p class="t0">For the Congress halts at a deed so great,</p> +<p class="t0">And your vote alone may decide its fate.’</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_118">[118]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Answered Rodney then: ‘I will ride with speed;</p> +<p class="t0">It is Liberty’s stress; it is Freedom’s need.</p> +<p class="t0">When stands it?’ ‘To-night. Not a moment to spare,</p> +<p class="t0">But ride like the wind from the Delaware.’</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“‘Ho, saddle the black! I’ve but half a day,</p> +<p class="t0">And the Congress sits eighty miles away—</p> +<p class="t0">But I’ll be in time, if God grants me grace,</p> +<p class="t0">To shake my fist in King George’s face.’</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“He is up: he is off! and the black horse flies</p> +<p class="t0">On the northward road ere the ‘God-speed’ dies;</p> +<p class="t0">It is a gallop and spur as the leagues they clear,</p> +<p class="t0">And the clustering mile-stones move a-rear.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“It is two of the clock! and the fleet hoofs fling</p> +<p class="t0">The Fieldboro’s dust with a clang and a cling;</p> +<p class="t0">It is three; and he gallops with slack rein where</p> +<p class="t0">The road winds down to the Delaware.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Four; and he spurs into New Castle town,</p> +<p class="t0">From his panting steed he gets trim down—</p> +<p class="t0">‘A fresh one, quick! not a moment’s wait!’</p> +<p class="t0">And off speeds Rodney the delegate.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“It is five; and the beams of the western sun</p> +<p class="t0">Tinge the spires of Wilmington gold and dun;</p> +<p class="t0">Six; and the dust of Chester Street</p> +<p class="t0">Flies back in a cloud from the courser’s feet.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“It is seven; the horse-boat, broad of beam,</p> +<p class="t0">At the Schuylkill ferry crawls over the stream—</p> +<p class="t0">And at seven-fifteen by the Rittenhouse clock,</p> +<p class="t0">He flings his reins to the tavern jock.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_119">[119]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“The Congress is met; the debate’s begun,</p> +<p class="t0">And Liberty lags for the vote of one—</p> +<p class="t0">When into the hall, not a moment late,</p> +<p class="t0">Walks Cæsar Rodney, the delegate.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Not a moment late! and that half day’s ride</p> +<p class="t0">Forwards the world with a mighty stride;</p> +<p class="t0">For the act was passed ere the midnight stroke</p> +<p class="t0">O’er the Quaker City its echoes woke.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“At Tyranny’s feet was the gauntlet flung;</p> +<p class="t0">‘We are free!’ all the bells through the colonies rung,</p> +<p class="t0">And the sons of the free may recall with pride</p> +<p class="t0">The day of Delegate Rodney’s ride.”</p> +</div> +<p>“Pretty stirring, isn’t it! I take it that the Continental +Congress had moved over to Independence +Hall by this time,” said Tom, when the reading was +done.</p> +<p>“Yes, they were over here, sitting in the East +Room, when they passed the Declaration of Independence.”</p> +<p>An attendant seeing the interested faces of the +young people, took them about the room and explained +the relics to them.</p> +<p>“This,” he said, “is the very furniture that was in +the room at the time of the signing of the Declaration. +Right on this very table the Document received +the signature of the President of the Congress—”</p> +<p>“John Hancock,” murmured Helen to James in +an undertone.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_120">[120]</div> +<p>“—and the rest of them,” continued the guide.</p> +<p>“Is the original document here?” asked James, +who was thrilling with interest, but who preserved +the calmness which he inherited from his Scottish +ancestors.</p> +<p>“No,” answered the caretaker. “That is kept +at Washington in the Library of the State Department, +but there is an exact copy of it over there on +the wall.”</p> +<p>Going upstairs, the party remembered to look up +the piece of the elm tree, under which Penn had +signed his Treaty with the Indians, and they saw in +addition the original Charter of Philadelphia, bearing +the date 1701.</p> +<p>In another room they found some furniture belonging +to Washington and Penn and various portraits +of more historic than artistic interest. They +enjoyed more seeing some of the boards of the original +floor. These were carefully kept under glass, +as if they were great treasures.</p> +<p>“Now we’re going to see the most sacred relic in +America, next to the Declaration itself,” said Helen, +leading the way down the staircase at whose foot +was the famous Liberty Bell, which had rung out its +message of joy on July 4, 1775, when the delegates +passed the Declaration and the people of Philadelphia +knew that war was before them, and yet were +glad to meet whatever might be the outcome of the +defiance.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_121">[121]</div> +<p>They gathered in silence around the bell and read +its description:—“<span class="small">PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO ALL THE +LAND AND TO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF.</span>” +They noticed the crack which ran through it, and felt +that they were looking upon a real veteran of that +far-away time.</p> +<p>“Grandfather told me not to forget to tell you +about the little boy who gave the signal to the bell-ringer,” +Helen said. “He was stationed where he +could see the door-keeper of the room in which the +delegates were sitting. When the final vote was +taken, the door-keeper gave the signal to the boy and +he ran out, shouting the cry that resounded through +the colonies, ‘Ring! Ring! Ring!’”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_122">[122]</div> +<h2 id="c9">CHAPTER IX +<br />HELEN DISTINGUISHES HERSELF</h2> +<p>“Come out into the Park for a few minutes,” +said Mrs. Morton. “I’m perfectly +sure Helen has some poetry to read to us before very +long, and if we can sit down for a minute or two on +the benches, we can hear it at our convenience.”</p> +<p>“The fire of discontent had been smouldering for +a long time,” said Helen, beginning her lecture +promptly when they were seated, “and just as soon +as the Declaration was passed the flames burst +out. There was fighting all over the colonies +from South Carolina to New York City. Washington +was made Commander-in-Chief of the little +Army there, but he was quite unable to defeat the +large force which the British sent. He retreated +across New Jersey, and in December of 1776—”</p> +<p>“About a year and a half later,” interposed Ethel +Brown.</p> +<p>Helen nodded and continued: “he reached the +Delaware River. The British followed him on the +other bank of the river, with the centre of the army +at Trenton, New Jersey. On Christmas Night of +1776, the future of the Colonies looked about as +dark as the night itself, but here is what happened, +told in some of the rhymes that Grandfather found +for us.” And Helen read Virginia Woodward +Cloud’s poem, called the “Ballad of Sweet P.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_123">[123]</div> +<p>“She was a spirited girl,” said James gravely.</p> +<p>“She was too nice a girl to be a deceiving girl,” +said Ethel Blue, and a vigorous discussion as to how +much deception was fair in war time would have +broken out if Helen had not continued her account of +the Revolution around Philadelphia.</p> +<p>“At day-break on the 26th of December, Washington +entered Trenton and surprised the enemy,” +Helen ended.</p> +<p>“It was in the battle of Trenton and in the battle +of Princeton about a week later, that our Emerson +great-great-great-grandfather fought, wasn’t it?” +said Roger, recalling the account which his grandfather +had read to the Mortons several times from +the old family Bible.</p> +<p>“Yes, don’t you remember how he fought against +his daughter’s English lover?”</p> +<p>“We must ask the chauffeur where the Betsy +Ross house is,” said Mrs. Morton, rising and leading +the way to the car.</p> +<p>The man knew and set off at once through the few +narrow streets, and before long they were standing +in front of the old-fashioned dwelling.</p> +<p>“Who is the lady?” murmured Tom in an undertone +to Ethel Brown, pretending to be afraid that +Helen would hear him but really speaking loudly +enough to draw her attention.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_124">[124]</div> +<p>“Tom Watkins, you’re perfectly dreadful,” Helen +exclaimed promptly. “Do you really mean that you +don’t know who Betsy Ross was?”</p> +<p>This direct question was too much for Tom’s +truthfulness and he broke into a laugh.</p> +<p>“I don’t know that I should have known if I +hadn’t read the other day a tale about a play that +some urchins wrote for the stage at Hull House in +Chicago.”</p> +<p>“Did Jane Addams tell the story?”</p> +<p>“She did, so it must be true. It was entirely original +with some immigrant boys who had been studying +American history. It went something like this:—in +the first act some American Revolutionary soldiers +are talking together and one of them says, +‘Gee, ain’t it fierce! We ain’t got no flag.’ The +others agreed that it was fierce. In the next act a +delegation of soldiers approached General Washington. +They saluted, and then said to him, +‘General, we ain’t got no flag. Gee, ain’t it +fierce?’”</p> +<p>Tom’s story was received with many giggles.</p> +<p>“What did Washington say?” asked Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Washington agreed that it was fierce, and said +that he’d do something about it, so the next act shows +him at the house of Betsy Ross. He said to her, +‘Mrs. Ross, we ain’t got no flag. Ain’t it fierce? +What shall we do about it?’”</p> +<p>“They didn’t have a very large vocabulary,” +laughed Margaret.</p> +<p>“But the American spirit was there,” insisted +Mrs. Morton.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_125">[125]</div> +<p>“What did Betsy say,” inquired Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Mrs. Ross said, ‘It <i>is</i> fierce. You hold the +baby, George, and I’ll make you something right +off.’”</p> +<p>“Isn’t that perfectly delicious!” gurgled Dorothy.</p> +<p>“And that last realistic scene took place in this little +house!” said Mrs. Morton, shaking with mirth. +“It belongs to the city now, so Betsy’s patriotism +and industry are remembered by many visitors.”</p> +<p>“Here’s Grandfather’s contribution to this moment,” +smiled Helen as she brought out still another +of her type-written sheets, and read some lines by +Minna Irving.</p> +<h3>“BETSY’S BATTLE FLAG</h3> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“From dusk till dawn the livelong night</p> +<p class="t0">She kept the tallow dips alight,</p> +<p class="t0">And fast her nimble fingers flew</p> +<p class="t0">To sew the stars upon the blue.</p> +<p class="t0">With weary eyes and aching head</p> +<p class="t0">She stitched the stripes of white and red,</p> +<p class="t0">And when the day came up the stair</p> +<p class="t0">Complete across a carven chair</p> +<p class="t">Hung Betsy’s battle flag.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Like the shadows in the evening gray</p> +<p class="t0">The Continentals filed away,</p> +<p class="t0">With broken boots and ragged coats,</p> +<p class="t0">But hoarse defiance in their throats;</p> +<p class="t0">They bore the marks of want and cold,</p> +<p class="t0">And some were lame and some were old,</p> +<p class="t0">And some with wounds untended bled,</p> +<p class="t0">But floating bravely overhead</p> +<p class="t">Was Betsy’s battle flag.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_126">[126]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“When fell the battle’s leaden rain,</p> +<p class="t0">The soldier hushed his moan of pain</p> +<p class="t0">And raised his dying head to see</p> +<p class="t0">King George’s troopers turn and flee.</p> +<p class="t0">Their charging column reeled and broke,</p> +<p class="t0">And vanished in the rolling smoke,</p> +<p class="t0">Before the glory of the stars,</p> +<p class="t0">The snowy stripes, and scarlet bars</p> +<p class="t">Of Betsy’s battle flag.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“The simple stone of Betsy Ross</p> +<p class="t0">Is covered now with mold and moss,</p> +<p class="t0">But still her deathless banner flies,</p> +<p class="t0">And keeps the color of the skies,</p> +<p class="t0">A nation thrills, a nation bleeds,</p> +<p class="t0">A nation follows where it leads,</p> +<p class="t0">And every man is proud to yield</p> +<p class="t0">His life upon a crimson field</p> +<p class="t">For Betsy’s battle flag.”</p> +</div> +<p>“When was it that Washington made his historic +visit to Betsy?” asked Roger of Helen.</p> +<p>“That was in June of 1776. A year later, on +the fourteenth of June, 1777, Congress adopted the +Stars and Stripes as our flag.”</p> +<p>“That’s why June 14th is celebrated as Flag Day, +I suppose,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_127">[127]</div> +<p>“I think our flag has more meaning to it than any +other flag in the world,” declared Roger. “The +thirteen stripes mean the thirteen original colonies, +don’t they?”</p> +<p>“There were thirteen stars at the beginning. +They’ve added a star for every new state that has +joined the Union.”</p> +<p>“It certainly does make your heart beat to look +at it, especially when you happen to come on it suddenly +as Miss Bates said in those verses of hers that +we had in our Peace Day Program on Lincoln’s +Birthday.”</p> +<p>“A Russian sea-captain once told me it looked to +him like a mosaic,” Mrs. Morton said.</p> +<p>“But every piece of the mosaic is full of meaning,” +said Ethel Blue, “and mosaics make beautiful +pictures any way.”</p> +<p>“There was a sad time ahead for Philadelphia in +spite of Washington’s successes at Trenton and +Princeton,” said Helen, taking up her story once +more. “The Americans were successful in Vermont +and northern New York, but in September, 1777, +they were defeated at Brandywine Creek, and the +British marched into Philadelphia a fortnight later +and took possession of the town.”</p> +<p>“Wasn’t it about that time that the American +army spent the winter at Valley Forge?” asked Margaret. +“I seem to remember something about their +living in a great deal of distress, such as the soldiers +in Europe are enduring now.”</p> +<p>“This was the time,” confirmed Helen. +“Grandfather has a few lines of Reed’s here telling +about it.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_128">[128]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Such was the winter’s awful sight,</p> +<p class="t0">For many a dreary day and night,</p> +<p class="t0">What time our country’s hope forlorn,</p> +<p class="t0">Of every needed comfort shorn,</p> +<p class="t0">Lay housed within a buried tent,</p> +<p class="t0">Where every keen blast found a rent,</p> +<p class="t0">And oft the snow was seen to sift</p> +<p class="t0">Along the floor its piling drift,</p> +<p class="t0">Or, mocking the scant blanket’s fold,</p> +<p class="t0">Across the night-couch frequent rolled;</p> +<p class="t0">Where every path by a soldier beat,</p> +<p class="t0">Or every track where a sentinel stood,</p> +<p class="t0">Still held the print of naked feet,</p> +<p class="t0">And oft the crimson stains of blood;</p> +<p class="t0">Where Famine held her spectral court,</p> +<p class="t0">And joined by all her fierce allies;</p> +<p class="t0">She ever loved a camp or fort</p> +<p class="t0">Beleaguered by the wintry skies,—</p> +<p class="t0">But chiefly when Disease is by,</p> +<p class="t0">To sink frame and dim the eye,</p> +<p class="t0">Until, with seeking forehead bent,</p> +<p class="t0">In martial garments cold and damp,</p> +<p class="t0">Pale Death patrols from tent to tent,</p> +<p class="t0">To count the charnels of the camp.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Such was the winter that prevailed</p> +<p class="t0">Within the crowded, frozen gorge;</p> +<p class="t0">Such were the horrors that assailed</p> +<p class="t0">The patriot band at Valley Forge.”</p> +</div> +<p>“How long did the British hold the city?” asked +Tom, after he had shaken his head over the Americans’ +troubles.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_129">[129]</div> +<p>“Six or eight months,” said Helen, “and you can +imagine what a thrilling time it was for American +girls like Sweet P. I can fancy them walking +daintily along the street turning their heads aside +when a British officer passed them, as if he were too +far beneath their notice for them even to glance +at.”</p> +<p>They all laughed at the picture that Helen’s words +drew.</p> +<p>“When Sir Henry Clinton evacuated Philadelphia +in the middle of June, he started for New York. +Washington followed him but did not win in the +skirmish which they fought at Monmouth, New Jersey. +The Indians on the western frontier had joined +the British, and there was some terrible fighting +there. Our fleet, as a general thing, was successful +on the ocean. Clinton stayed for more than a year +in New York City. Washington established himself +just above the city where he could keep an eye on +him.”</p> +<p>“Wasn’t that the time when my old friend, Anthony +Wayne, stirred up a little excitement up the +Hudson?” asked Roger.</p> +<p>“Yes, it was then he took Stony Point, which we +saw when we went up the river to West Point. +There was fighting in New Jersey and in the South, +and the British seemed to be getting tired out.”</p> +<p>“It was at the end of several sharply fought fields +that Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in Virginia, +wasn’t it?” inquired Roger.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_130">[130]</div> +<p>Tom looked at him with exaggerated respect.</p> +<p>“It certainly is a great thing to be related to the +Army and Navy. Here’s Helen, a walking ‘History +of the Revolution,’ and old Roger actually remembering +something about Cornwallis’s surrender!”</p> +<p>“Bah!” acknowledged Roger.</p> +<p>“They tell a story about the way that Philadelphia +heard the news of the surrender,” interposed +the caretaker of the Betsy Ross house, who had +been listening to the conversation. “There was an +old German watchman walking the streets, and calling +the hours through the night, as was the custom +then. He cried out; ‘Bast dree o’clock and Cornvallis +ist daken.’ People who had turned over in +bed growling when they had been awakened by him +before, were only too thankful to hear his hoarse +voice croaking out the good news.”</p> +<p>“That was in October, 1781,” went on Helen, +after nodding her thanks to the caretaker for his addition +to the story. “It took a good many months +for the British to leave the country, for transportation +was a difficult matter at that time.”</p> +<p>“I’ll bet you the Americans were thankful to have +peace,” exclaimed James.</p> +<p>“It sounds to me very much as if the British were, +too,” said Roger. “Any country must be grateful +for a rest from such long distress.”</p> +<p>“Grandfather’s poetry is by Freneau this time,” +said Helen. “I’m going to read you only two +stanzas of it.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_131">[131]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“The great unequal conflict past,</p> +<p class="t0">The Britons banished from our shore,</p> +<p class="t0">Peace, heaven-descended, comes at last,</p> +<p class="t0">And hostile nations rage no more;</p> +<p class="t0">From fields of death the weary swain</p> +<p class="t0">Returning, seeks his native plain.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">In every vale she smiles serene,</p> +<p class="t0">Freedom’s bright stars more radiant rise,</p> +<p class="t0">New charms she adds to every scene,</p> +<p class="t0">Her brighter sun illumes our skies.</p> +<p class="t0">Remotest realms admiring stand,</p> +<p class="t0">And hail the HERO of our Land.”</p> +</div> +<p>“Who is the Hero?” inquired Tom. “Washington, +I suppose.”</p> +<p>“Yes, indeed,” said Helen. “These verses were +written when he was traveling through Philadelphia +on his way to Mt. Vernon.”</p> +<p>“I know enough American history to tell you that +he didn’t stay there long,” said Tom, proud of +being able to bring forward one sure piece of information. +“He was made President on his war +record. That I do know.”</p> +<p>They all applauded this contribution. The care-taker +of the house again could not resist joining the +conversation.</p> +<p>“The five years after the signing of the Treaty +of Peace in 1783 were very critical years,” he said. +“The new country had almost no money and no definite +policy, now that they had cut themselves free +from England. Somebody proposed a Federal Convention +and it met here in Philadelphia in 1787.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_132">[132]</div> +<p>“What did they want to do this time?” asked +Margaret.</p> +<p>“Now they had to draw up some sort of Constitution +for the new country. Washington was chosen +President of the Convention and they worked from +May until September in planning the Constitution, +which they nick-named the ‘New Roof.’”</p> +<p>“Yes, I know about that,” cried Helen. +“Grandfather gave me a poem about that. He +thought we’d be especially interested in it on account +of Dorothy knowing so much about the building of a +house,”—and she read them the old poem called +‘The New Roof,’ by Francis Hopkinson, one of the +signers of the Declaration of Independence.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Come muster, my lads, your mechanical tools,</p> +<p class="t0">Your saws and your axes, your hammers and rules;</p> +<p class="t0">Bring your mallets and planes, your level and line,</p> +<p class="t0">And plenty of pins of American pine:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be,</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>Our government firm, and our citizens free.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Come, up with <i>the plates</i>, lay them firm on the wall,</p> +<p class="t0">Like the people at large, they’re the ground-work of all;</p> +<p class="t0">Examine them well, and see that they’re sound,</p> +<p class="t0">Let no rotten part in our building be found:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>A government firm, and our citizens free.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_133">[133]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Now hand up the <i>girders</i>, lay each in its place,</p> +<p class="t0">Between them the <i>joists</i>, must divide all the space;</p> +<p class="t0">Like assemblymen <i>these</i> should lie level along,</p> +<p class="t0">Like <i>girders</i>, our senate prove loyal and strong:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>A government firm over citizens free.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">The rafters now frame; your <i>king-posts</i> and <i>braces</i>,</p> +<p class="t0">And drive your pins home, to keep all in their places;</p> +<p class="t0">Let wisdom and strength in the fabric combine,</p> +<p class="t0">And your pins be all made of American pine:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>A government firm over citizens free.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Our <i>king-posts</i> are <i>judges</i>: how upright they stand,</p> +<p class="t0">Supporting the <i>braces</i>; the laws of the land:</p> +<p class="t0">The laws of the land, which divide right from wrong,</p> +<p class="t0">And strengthen the weak, by weak’ning the strong:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>Laws equal and just, for a people that’s free.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Up! up with the <i>rafters</i>; each frame is a <i>state</i>:</p> +<p class="t0">How nobly they rise! their span, too, how great!</p> +<p class="t0">From the north to the south, o’er the whole they extend,</p> +<p class="t0">And rest on the walls, whilst the walls they defend:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>Combine in strength, yet as citizens free.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Now enter the <i>purlins</i>, and drive your pins through;</p> +<p class="t0">And see that your joints are drawn home and all true.</p> +<p class="t0">The <i>purlins</i> will bind all the rafters together:</p> +<p class="t0">The strength of the whole shall defy wind and weather:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>United as states, but as citizens free.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_134">[134]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Come, raise up the <i>turret</i>; our glory and pride;</p> +<p class="t0">In the center it stands, o’er the whole to <i>preside</i>:</p> +<p class="t0">The sons of Columbia shall view with delight</p> +<p class="t0">Its pillars, and arches, and towering height:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>Our roof is now rais’d, and our song still shall be,</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>A federal head o’er a people that’s free.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Huzza! my brave boys, our work is complete;</p> +<p class="t0">The world shall admire Columbia’s fair seat;</p> +<p class="t0">Its strength against tempest and time shall be proof,</p> +<p class="t0">And thousands shall come to dwell under our roof:</p> +<p class="t0"><i>Whilst we drain the deep bowl, our toast still shall be,</i></p> +<p class="t0"><i>Our government firm, and our citizens free.</i></p> +</div> +<p>“Now that we have put the United States on a +good running foundation, I think we might finish up +our Revolutionary history by whirling out to Valley +Forge,” said Mrs. Morton. “It’s a delightful ride, +and I think we could do it comfortably in what is left +of the afternoon.”</p> +<p>“I shall be glad,” said Helen, pretending extreme +fatigue, “for these ignorant people have made me +work so hard remembering dates and things, that I’m +quite exhausted, and I’d like to sit still and view the +scenery for a while.”</p> +<p>The chauffeur said that he could manage the ride +and even give them time for a walk when they +reached their destination, if they were not in a hurry +to return.</p> +<p>“I think it would be fun to come back in the evening,” +said Margaret, and they started off with great +satisfaction.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_135">[135]</div> +<p>As they passed Fairmount Park they promised +themselves to see it in detail in the morning, but now +there was only time to notice that much of it had +been left in a natural condition, which was far more +beautiful than any results that Art could have +brought about.</p> +<p>The road lay through a rolling country with pleasant +suburban towns and comfortable-looking farm +houses. At Valley Forge they felt like real pilgrims +at a shrine, for they remembered the bitter suffering +of the American soldiers and the even greater mental +anguish of their leader, who sometimes felt that he +had led his brave men into this distress, and might +not be able to lead them to the victory which he must +have, if the colonies were to become independent of +the land they had sprung from.</p> +<p>Across the surrounding hills they walked, reading +with utmost interest the monuments and markers +which commemorate events and places and people +connected with this fateful winter. Below swept +the Schuylkill River, between peaceful banks, far +different from those that hem it in farther down, as +it runs through the great city.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_136">[136]</div> +<h2 id="c10">CHAPTER X +<br />THE LAND OF “CAT-FISH AND WAFFLES”</h2> +<p>It was a tired party that tumbled into bed that +night but the long ride in the fresh air made them +sleep like tops and they awoke the next morning entirely +refreshed, and ready to start out again on their +investigations of the City of Brotherly Love.</p> +<p>“To-day I am not going to open my mouth,” said +Helen. “I talked altogether too much yesterday.”</p> +<p>“You were a wonder,” said Tom, admiringly. +“I wish I could remember dates the way you do.”</p> +<p>“Hush,” said Helen, with a finger on her lip. +“My energetic grandfather blocked out the whole +history of Philadelphia in the revolutionary days for +me, so it was not my unaided memory that reeled off +all that information. Any way, I’m going to sit +back and have the rest of you inform me to-day about +the places we shall see.”</p> +<p>“What are we going to see?” inquired Roger. +“Mother, you know this village; can’t you make out +a list for us?”</p> +<p>Mrs. Morton said that she had some suggestions +to make and Roger jotted them down in a book.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_137">[137]</div> +<p>“There are one or two churches,” she said, +“which have an interest because they are old, or have +connection with some important person or because +there is some strangeness about the way they are +built.”</p> +<p>“I shall like those,” said Ethel Blue. “I’m going +to try to draw some of the doorways for Miss +Graham. She asked me to draw any little thing +about buildings that I thought would interest her.”</p> +<p>“You’ll see some old-timey doorways in Rittenhouse +Square,” said Mrs. Morton. “That is like +Washington Square in New York, only here the +whole square has been preserved in its former +beauty. You’ll find more than one doorway, and +which will be worth putting into your sketch book.”</p> +<p>“Would it take too much time to see the Mint?” +asked James. “I shouldn’t want to suggest it if it +will take too long, but it would be awfully interesting.”</p> +<p>“I had the Mint on my list,” said Mrs. Morton, +tapping her forehead.</p> +<p>“I’ll transfer it from that spot to paper,” laughed +Roger.</p> +<p>“I hope we can get the same chauffeur we had +yesterday,” said Ethel Brown; “he knew a lot about +things.”</p> +<p>“I suppose he’s accustomed to driving tourists,” +replied her mother.</p> +<p>As good fortune would have it they were able to +secure the same car, and the good-natured driver +beamed at them, as they stowed themselves away as +they had the day before. Mrs. Morton told him the +chief “sights” which they wanted to see, and directed +him to point out anything that they passed +which would have some interest for the young people.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_138">[138]</div> +<p>First they went over to the old part of the town +along the Delaware, to find one of the churches of +which Mrs. Morton had spoken. On the way they +stopped at Christ Church. Its high box pews +seemed to them full of dignity, and they imagined +the elaborately arranged head-dresses of the ladies +and powdered wigs of the gentlemen, rising above +the old-fashioned seats. The pulpit was high up on +one side of the chancel.</p> +<p>“This is the church that was presided over by +Bishop White, the first Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania,” +said Mrs. Morton. “He was influential in +organizing the Episcopal Church in this country.”</p> +<p>Out in the graveyard, whose quiet seemed +strangely out of place amid the hurry of the city, +they found many stones bearing well-known names, +among them that of Benjamin Franklin.</p> +<p>“He died in 1790,” read Delia, from the stone. +“Wasn’t that just about the time Washington was +elected President?”</p> +<p>“One year after,” said Helen, who could not resist +giving historical information. “The first real +American Congress after the separation of the country +from England met here in Philadelphia in 1789, +and elected Washington as President.”</p> +<p>“You can’t escape a little history as long as Sister +Helen is around,” murmured Roger.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_139">[139]</div> +<p>“It wasn’t I who started it,” retorted Helen.</p> +<p>“Now, children, be quiet. You may thank your +stars that your sister knows so much about history,” +said Mrs. Morton; “it would be an excellent thing, +Roger, if you stowed away some of it in your brain, +too.”</p> +<p>“Yes’m,” answered Roger meekly.</p> +<p>It was while the car was on its way to the second +old church of their search that the chauffeur asked +James, who was sitting beside him, if he knew that +“Hail Columbia” was written in Philadelphia.</p> +<p>“I certainly didn’t,” said James. “Helen, did +you know that ‘Hail Columbia’ was written in Philadelphia?”</p> +<p>“No, I didn’t know that,” said Helen. “Tell +me about it.”</p> +<p>With his eyes on the road and his hands on the +wheel the chauffeur told James, who repeated the +story over his shoulder to those in the back of the +car, that while John Adams was president, there was +a war scare, because French vessels were supposed to +be off the coast ready to attack American merchant +vessels. A man named John Hopkinson wrote the +poem, which was sung one night at the Chestnut +Street Theatre.</p> +<p>“You mean our ‘Hail Columbia’—the regular +‘Hail Columbia’?” asked Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>The chauffeur nodded at Ethel Brown. Her +memory for verses was always good and she repeated +the first stanza of the stirring song.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_140">[140]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Hail Columbia, happy land!</p> +<p class="t0">Hail! Ye Heroes, heaven-born band,</p> +<p class="t0">Who fought and bled in freedom’s cause,</p> +<p class="t0">Who fought and bled in freedom’s cause,</p> +<p class="t0">And when the storm of war was gone,</p> +<p class="t0">Enjoyed the peace your valor won;</p> +<p class="t0">Let independence be your boast,</p> +<p class="t0">Ever mindful what it cost,</p> +<p class="t0">Ever grateful for the prize,</p> +<p class="t0">Let its altar reach the skies.”</p> +</div> +<p>They all joined in the chorus.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Firm united let us be,</p> +<p class="t0">Rallying round our liberty,</p> +<p class="t0">As a band of brothers joined,</p> +<p class="t0">Peace and safety we shall find.”</p> +</div> +<p>Almost on the river, toward the southern end of +the town, was the church which the chauffeur called +“Old Swedes Church,” and whose correct name, +Mrs. Morton said, was “Gloria Dei.”</p> +<p>“How old is it?” asked Dicky who was beginning +to understand that they were on a historical pilgrimage. +They all laughed at his seriousness, and his +mother answered.</p> +<p>“This building is only a little over two centuries +old—but it’s on the site of an old wooden church +that was built in 1646. It was a Swedish church, +originally, and then the whole congregation turned +Episcopal.”</p> +<p>“It doesn’t look as if they lived around the church +in any great numbers,” said Tom, gazing about him.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_141">[141]</div> +<p>“Most of the parishioners live now a long way +from here,” said the chauffeur, “but they love the +church because they are the descendants of the original +founders, and they come from great distances +to the morning services and stay to Sunday School, +old people and young ones, too, and cook their dinner +in the Parish House.”</p> +<p>“That sounds like a New England village church +to which all the farmers from around about come for +the day,” said Margaret Hancock. “I used to see +them when I was a little girl and we went to New +Hampshire for the summer. They bring their lunch +and eat it under the trees between services.”</p> +<p>“Since we seem to be doing churches, we ought +to go to a Quaker Meeting House,” suggested Mrs. +Morton, turning to the chauffeur for information.</p> +<p>“There is one up on 12th Street, madam,” he responded. +“There’s a boys’ school connected with +it that is very well known—the Penn Charter +School. Lots of the old Quaker families send their +boys there still.”</p> +<p>“I don’t suppose there would be a meeting to-day,” +inquired Helen.</p> +<p>The chauffeur shook his head.</p> +<p>“You wouldn’t like it, any way,” he said. “I’m +a Quaker myself, and I know when I was your age it +was awfully hard work to keep still so long.”</p> +<p>“Is it worse than any other kind of church?” +asked Dicky.</p> +<p>The driver nodded again, dexterously avoiding a +big truck as he answered.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_142">[142]</div> +<p>“The congregation just sits there until the Spirit +moves someone to speak. I’ve been there many a +time when they sat for two hours and nothing happened +at all.”</p> +<p>“Dear me,” exclaimed Ethel Blue, shaking her +head gravely; “I don’t believe I could keep still as +long as that.”</p> +<p>“I dare say it’s just as well that there is no meeting +to-day,” said Mrs. Morton. “Any way, I don’t +know that I should approve of your going to a religious +service out of curiosity.”</p> +<p>Tom nodded in agreement with Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“I’m sure Father wouldn’t like it,” he said.</p> +<p>Tom’s father was a clergyman in New York.</p> +<p>“He doesn’t object to our going to other +churches,” he went on, “but he has seen so much of +tourists who come to New York and go around the +city, taking in three or four churches on Sunday +morning merely to hear the music or some celebrated +speaker, that he has always warned us children +against being ‘religious rubber-necks.’”</p> +<p>They all laughed and contented themselves with +looking at the outside of the severely plain meeting-house.</p> +<p>The tour over the Mint was filled with interest for +all of them.</p> +<p>“This is the oldest Mint in the United States,” +the guide explained to them.</p> +<p>“What’s the date?” Helen could not resist asking, +although Roger shook his head at her and Tom +visibly smothered a smile.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_143">[143]</div> +<p>“1792” the man replied. “We turn out gold +and silver and copper here and we’ve done a great +deal of minting for South America, and, of late +years, for the Philippines.”</p> +<p>The boys were most interested in the processes by +which the discs were cut out of plain sheets of metal +and were then fed into tubes of just the right size to +hold them, until they reached the stamping machine +which gave them the impress they were to wear +through life.</p> +<p>“Those new gold pieces are certainly beauties,” +said Roger, looking at the eagle flying through the +air on one coin and then at the same majestic bird +standing with dignity on another.</p> +<p>“I don’t think this Indian has a very handsome +nose,” said Ethel Blue, critically, as she examined a +five-cent piece.</p> +<p>“But think how appropriate it is,—the noble red-man +on one side of the nickel, and the buffalo of the +plains on the other,” returned James.</p> +<p>The girls were more interested in the coin collection +in the Mint’s museum. Here they saw not only +American coins, from the earliest to the most recent, +but coins of other countries. One of them was the +tiny bit of metal known as the “Widow’s Mite.”</p> +<p>“The Widow didn’t have to be very muscular to +carry that around,” commented Roger.</p> +<p>“But she must have had a separate bag to put it +in or it would have been lost,” returned practical +Ethel Brown.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_144">[144]</div> +<p>“There’s nothing doing in the Academy of Fine +Arts now, ma’am,” the chauffeur told Mrs. Morton, +when she got into the car again. “It has a +grand exhibition every winter but it’s closed for the +summer. Would you like to see the collections?”</p> +<p>The question was put to the party and they agreed +that they would prefer to stay out of doors in this +brilliant summer weather.</p> +<p>“We’ll make an expedition to the Metropolitan +Museum some day before long,” promised Mrs. +Morton.</p> +<p>“I wish we might do it soon,” said Dorothy. +“Miss Graham said she’d go with us, and I think +we should learn a lot from her because she’s half +an artist.”</p> +<p>“Let’s ask her to take us as soon as we get back,” +said Ethel Blue. “I’m crazy about her, and this +would be a good chance for us to be with her for +almost all day.”</p> +<p>“I’ll see that you have your opportunity soon,” +her Aunt Marion promised her.</p> +<p>“We have time to run out to Mt. Airy this morning,” +suggested the chauffeur. “Then after luncheon, +you could go to the Park and the Zoo in the +afternoon.”</p> +<p>“What is Mt. Airy?” asked Della.</p> +<p>“One of the finest deaf and dumb asylums in +America,” replied the young man proudly.</p> +<p>Della shook her head and the rest of them pulled +such long faces Mrs. Morton could not resist smiling.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_145">[145]</div> +<p>“I rather think these young people care more +for human beings who can talk and hear,” she said +to the chauffeur. “At any rate,” she went on, +looking at her watch, “I must meet my business appointment +now, so I suggest, Roger, that you take +our party to Wanamaker’s. You can see a lot of +interesting things there, and can have your luncheon, +and I’ll meet you there when I am through with +my business.”</p> +<p>So it was arranged, and the chauffeur was ordered +for three o’clock to take them to Fairmount Park.</p> +<p>At the appointed hour his cheerful face greeted +them once again. Because of the Mortons’ interest +in the Navy, they first ran south to the League +Island Navy Yard. Even their familiarity with +many Navy Yards did not lessen their interest in +this one, with its rows of officers’ houses and its barracks +and mess-room. Just because they were so +familiar with similar places, however, they did not +stay long, and the car was soon whirling northwards +to the opposite end of the city. They went through +miles and miles of streets lined with small houses.</p> +<p>“These are the houses which have given Philadelphia +the nick-name of the ‘City of Homes,’” exclaimed +Mrs. Morton. “You see, in New York +people are crowded on to a small tongue of land, +between two rivers. Here there are two rivers +also, but the space between them is wider. There’s +nothing to prevent the city’s crossing the Schuylkill +and running westward, as it began to do many long +years ago.”</p> +<p>“These houses aren’t very beautiful,” commented +Ethel Blue.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_146">[146]</div> +<p>“They are very neat,” said Ethel Brown. “But +don’t you get tired of these red bricks and white shutters, +and the little flights of white marble steps, all +alike? I don’t see how anybody knows when he +has come home. I should think people would all +the time be getting into their neighbors’ houses by +mistake.”</p> +<p>“It is much more wholesome for a family to +have a house to itself, than for many families to be +crowded into one building,” said Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“I don’t see why,” objected Tom, who had been +born and reared in New York. “The large buildings +are wonderfully constructed now-a-days for ventilation +and sanitation. They couldn’t be better in +that respect.”</p> +<p>“That’s true,” said Mrs. Morton, “but a family +loses something of its privacy when it lives in +a building with other people. The householder is +responsible for his own heating, his own side-walk, +and so on, for all matters whose good care makes +for the happiness of his family. The apartment +dweller loses that work for the well-being of his +family, when he lets go its responsibility.”</p> +<p>“I dare say you are right, Mrs. Morton,” said +Tom, “but in these days of co-operation, it seems +to me you gain something by uniting, as apartment +house people practically do, to hire some one to take +the responsibility of the heating arrangements, the +side-walks, the ashes, and so on.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_147">[147]</div> +<p>“It all depends on the conditions,” returned Mrs. +Morton. “In New York, especially on Manhattan +Island, where land is so valuable that buildings must +go up in the air, such co-operation has become desirable, +but where there is plenty of space, it seems +better for every household to be separate as far as +possible.”</p> +<p>The chauffeur called their attention, as they +passed through Logan Square, to the fact that this +was the fourth city square they had seen since they +had been in his care.</p> +<p>“On our way south from the Penn Treaty Park, +we went through Franklin Square, and then you saw +Washington Square when you were down by Independence +Hall. This morning you saw Rittenhouse +Square. Logan is the fourth. These four squares +were laid out by William Penn as a part of the original +design of the city.”</p> +<p>Not far from Logan Square they were enabled to +reach the bank of the Schuylkill, and the rest of +the afternoon they spent in the lovely Park through +which flows this river and the picturesque little +Wissahickon.</p> +<p>Their first visit was to the Zoo, which the +chauffeur told them was one of the finest in the +United States. They invested in peanuts and small +cakes and made themselves popular with the animals +whose cages they passed.</p> +<p>Then they drove on, gliding swiftly in and out +among the stately trees which the engineers of the +Park had had the good sense to leave as they found +them. Along the Wissahickon they noticed many +small inns, all of which showed signs, inviting passers-by +to come in and partake of “Cat-fish and +Waffles.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_148">[148]</div> +<p>“I can understand the waffle supply being limited +only by the energy of the cooks,” exclaimed Roger, +as he read one of the numerous summonses, “but if +they catch the cat-fish in the Wissahickon they must +keep an army of fishermen out in the boats all day +long!”</p> +<p>“I wish we could go out on the river,” murmured +Helen, as they whirled along the banks of the +Schuylkill. “It looks so refreshing there.”</p> +<p>“I think we can get a barge at one of these boat +houses and go up the river a little way,” suggested +Mrs. Morton, turning inquiringly to the chauffeur.</p> +<p>“It’s a pretty bit from about here up to a place +called ‘The Lilacs,’” he answered. “It’s a pretty +little club house.”</p> +<p>“Oh, do lets do it,” cried Ethel Blue excitedly. +“It would be lovely.”</p> +<p>So they went to a near-by boat house and made +the arrangements. The boats were large, with seats +for four rowers besides the seats in the stern and +bow.</p> +<p>The Ethels had learned to row at Chautauqua the +summer before, so they occupied one seat.</p> +<p>The three boys each took one of the other seats, +each rowing a single oar. Helen sat on the seat +with Tom, Margaret with Roger, and Dorothy with +James.</p> +<p>Mrs. Morton and Dicky sat in the stern, and Della +played look-out in the bow.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_149">[149]</div> +<p>It was a charming pull between shores beautiful +by nature and gay with boat houses from which +merry parties were establishing themselves in boats +and barges and canoes. The rowers found the trip +not too hard upon the muscles, even the Ethels saying +that they were not at all tired, when The Lilacs +came in sight.</p> +<p>The car met them at the Club House because they +had to go back to the hotel and pack their bags in +order to catch the train for home. The chauffeur +had brought up with him a man from the boat house, +to take the barge back where it belonged.</p> +<p>They returned over different streets to the city +so that they felt that they had a good idea of the +geography of the town.</p> +<p>“I’ve had a perfectly stunning time, Mrs. Morton,” +said Tom, as he bade her “Good-bye” on the +train and thanked her for her care. “It has been +splendid fun, and my only grief is that I am afraid +Helen may have fatigued her brain, remembering all +that history!”</p> +<p>Helen wrinkled her nose at him, but she laughed +good-naturedly and agreed with him that the trip +had been great fun.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_150">[150]</div> +<h2 id="c11">CHAPTER XI +<br />LIGHTS AND A FALL</h2> +<p>It was not often that Ethel Blue took a violent +fancy to any one. Although she had something +of the temperament that artists claim to have, +she also had great reserve, and she found the companionship +of her cousins, Ethel Brown and Dorothy, +quite sufficient for her.</p> +<p>Now, however, she was filled with admiration for +Margaret’s aunt, Miss Graham. Miss Graham +suited her in so many ways. She was good to look +at, and Ethel found herself gazing at her wholesome, +amiable face, filled with life and earnestness +and fun, and enjoyed it quite as much as if she had +great beauty.</p> +<p>Then, Miss Graham, because of her occupation +as an interior decorator, knew something about art, +and Ethel Blue wanted to know how to draw and +paint, and how to appreciate pictures. She found +that she never met Miss Graham without realizing +afterwards that she had learned something from +her. Perhaps it was only the meaning of a new +phrase, or perhaps Miss Daisy called her attention +to the light on the group of figures in some picture, +or to the harmonies of color in the landscape. +Whatever it was, it was not brought out in any +preachy way and yet Ethel Blue found herself with +quite a store of information that had come from her +new friend.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_151">[151]</div> +<p>Miss Graham did not seem to single out Ethel +Blue for particular attention. They naturally +drifted together when there was a large party, because +their tastes were similar.</p> +<p>“I think your aunt Daisy is nicer than any aunt +in the world except my aunt Marion,” Ethel Blue +confided to Margaret one day.</p> +<p>“That’s just about what James and I think,” said +Margaret.</p> +<p>“Has she finished her Englewood house?” inquired +Ethel.</p> +<p>“Yes, that was done some time ago. That’s +why she has been able to go to see Mrs. Smith so +many times recently. She has spent several afternoons +at Sweetbrier Lodge, you know.”</p> +<p>Remembering this, Ethel Blue went to the new +house one afternoon especially to see if Miss Graham +was there. She had no definite reason for doing +so—she merely thought she would like to see +her. By good luck Miss Graham was there, as she +had brought out some samples of hangings to show +to Mrs. Smith, and she was waiting on the terrace +for her to come, and resting as she waited.</p> +<p>“I’m glad to see you, child,” she called to Ethel +Blue, and Ethel did not resent being called a child, +for she realized that it was merely an endearing +word coming from Miss Daisy’s lips.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_152">[152]</div> +<p>“Bring one of those canvas chairs over here beside +me,” she urged, “and we’ll look at the view and +talk a while.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t it going to be lovely when the real furniture +is on the terrace here?” said Ethel Blue +eagerly.</p> +<p>“The view is lovely, no matter what the chairs +are,” returned Miss Graham, smiling at her affectionately. +“When do you think your aunt is coming?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know. Did she expect you? Shall I +run back to the house and tell her you are here?”</p> +<p>“No, probably I’m a little early and I shall enjoy +sitting here and talking with you until she +comes.”</p> +<p>Ethel felt much complimented by this desire on +Miss Graham’s part and placed her chair beside +her.</p> +<p>Their eyes looked out across the field with its +brook and the trees that sheltered Mr. Emerson’s +house. Across the street the meadows, rich with +the field flowers of late summer, stretched away towards +the distant river, and beyond that were more +trees rearing their heights across the sky.</p> +<p>As they looked a shadow fell on the meadow and +moved swiftly across it.</p> +<p>“It looks as if some huge birds were flying between +the earth and the sun,” smiled Miss Daisy.</p> +<p>“Doesn’t it go fast!” returned Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Notice the change in the color of the meadow, +when the sunlight is hidden for a minute and then +falls again on the vegetation.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_153">[153]</div> +<p>Ethel Blue nodded, for she saw that the change +was almost as if a sheet of colored glass had been +held over a strong electric light.</p> +<p>“Sometimes during a thunder shower,” she said, +“I’ve seen awfully queer colors over in that +meadow.”</p> +<p>“The air is charged with electric particles sometimes,” +explained Miss Daisy, “and you are looking +through them. You get different color effects during +an ordinary rain storm, too.”</p> +<p>“I think rain over that meadow is going to be +one of the prettiest things Dorothy will see from this +terrace,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“She will have a long sweep to watch and a +shower moves sometimes fast and sometimes slowly, +so there will be opportunity to notice many changes,” +suggested Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“I wonder if Aunt Louise is going to have electric +lights out here on the porch,” said Ethel Blue. +“They will draw the mosquitoes like everything.”</p> +<p>“But she won’t mind that because she can stay +inside of her wire cage,” answered Miss Daisy. +“Surely she’s going to have electric lights. Don’t +you see the wires already put in?”</p> +<p>“Of course,” answered Ethel Blue. “How +stupid of me! Those black ends are poking out all +over the house and somehow I never thought what +they were for.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_154">[154]</div> +<p>“Then you haven’t noticed the lighting scheme +that your Aunt and Dorothy have worked out. +Let’s walk through the house now, and see just how +she has arranged it.”</p> +<p>They went through the door of the screen into +the enclosed portion and then into the dining room.</p> +<p>“Most people have one of those hang-down +lights over the dining table,” said Ethel Blue. “I +don’t see any wire for one here. I’m glad Aunt +Louise isn’t going to have one. They never are the +right height. You always have to be dodging under +them to see the person across from you and the light +shines on the table so brilliantly that you’re almost +afraid to eat anything it falls on.”</p> +<p>Miss Graham laughed at Ethel’s vigorous protest, +but she said that she, too, did not like a central +light over the dining table.</p> +<p>“There is no need of a very brilliant light in a +dining room,” she said. “You can see the people +about the table without any difficulty in a subdued +light and the general effect is far more beautiful than +when people are sitting in a glare.”</p> +<p>“I think candle light is prettiest for the dining +room,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“It is prettiest for the table,” replied Miss Graham. +“The place where you really want a strong +light is over the serving table behind the screen. +You don’t want the maid to make any mistakes just +because she can’t see clearly the dishes she is handling. +There you need a strong light, but it can be +placed so low that the screen shields it for the room +and it will not interfere with the dimmer light of the +rest of the room.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_155">[155]</div> +<p>“I suppose there ought to be other lights in the +room,” said Ethel Blue. “You might find that +there weren’t any candles in the house some evening +and then it would be awful to have only this light +over the serving table and none of them in other +parts of the room.”</p> +<p>Miss Graham laughed at the possibility of such a +disaster.</p> +<p>“There can be side-lights over the mantel-place,” +she said, “electric lights that look like candles, with +pretty candle shades, and one or two similar arrangements +on the other side of the room.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you ever put a central light in the dining +rooms you decorate?” asked Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Sometimes I let the light flow out from a dull, +golden globe set into the ceiling over the table. The +glass of the bowl is so thick that only a gentle radiance +comes from it and yet it ekes out the light from +the candles.”</p> +<p>“Ethel Brown is particularly pleased with the +switch out in the vestibule,” said Ethel Blue. “You +see you can come home when the house is all dark, +and light the electricity in the hall by turning on the +switch outside of the front door. Wouldn’t it be +a good joke on a burglar, if he did it by accident +some night when he was trying to get in,” laughed +the young girl.</p> +<p>“It’s a capital invention,” said Miss Graham. +“You notice your aunt has side lights here in the +hall. Have you ever happened to be in a house +where they were moving the furniture about and +every piece that passed the hall chandelier gave it +a rap?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_156">[156]</div> +<p>“That’s the way it is in the house we’re in now,” +said Ethel. “Every time any one goes away and +the express man brings down a trunk, he hits the +light in the hall. I don’t know how many globes +Aunt Marion has had broken that way.”</p> +<p>Upstairs they found the same side-lighting in all +the bed rooms.</p> +<p>“The theory of it is,” said Miss Graham, “that +when you want to see anything very clearly, you put +in a light close to the place where you need to work. +If you are going to arrange your hair before your +dressing table, you want a light directly over your +dressing glass. If you are going to read you turn +on a light beside your reading stand. An upper +light is usually for general illumination and a side +light for real service.”</p> +<p>“A combination of the two lights makes a room +ready for anything,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“I want you to notice particularly the fixtures that +your Aunt Louise has selected for indirect lighting,” +said Miss Graham. “She has chosen beautiful +bowls that look like alabaster. They turn upwards +and the bulbs are hidden in them. The +strong glare is against the ceiling so that the people +get only the reflected light. There is to be one +of those bowls on a high standard in the front hall, +and one at the turn of the stair-case. They look +like ancient Roman urns, giving forth a marvelous +radiance.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_157">[157]</div> +<p>“I think that will be prettier than some clear, +engraved glass covers, that I saw the other day,” +said Ethel Blue. “They showed the bulbs right +through.”</p> +<p>“Far prettier,” agreed Miss Graham. “The +whole object of this indirect light is to make your +room seem to be lighted by a glow whose real origin +you hardly know. Of course your intelligence tells +you that there are electric bulbs up there, but you +don’t want really to see them.”</p> +<p>“It seems to me that people must be thinking +more about how to make things pretty than they +used to,” said Ethel Blue. “When Ethel Brown’s +grandfather built his house, Aunt Marion says it +was thought very handsome by everybody in Rosemont. +It has lots of convenient things in it, and +plenty of brilliant lights, but the fixtures aren’t +pretty and the idea seems to be to make just as big +a shine as possible.”</p> +<p>“Nowadays,” said Miss Graham, “people try +to make the useful things beautiful also whenever +they can.”</p> +<p>“I’m glad to learn all about a house,” said Ethel +Blue, “because some time I may have to keep house +for my father and I want to know everything there +is to know. Of course army people have to live in +Uncle Sam’s houses, but still there are always different +arrangements you can introduce, even in a +government house.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_158">[158]</div> +<p>“I’m sure you’ll be able to make useful everything +you learn,” said Miss Graham, “and your +father will be pleased with whatever makes the +house lovelier and more comfortable.”</p> +<p>“I’ve always meant to ask whether you didn’t +know my father,” said Ethel Blue. “He is at Fort +Myer, near Washington.”</p> +<p>“Captain Richard Morton,” said Miss Daisy. +“Yes, indeed. I know a great many of the officers +and their families at Fort Myer. I’ve met your father +and I know him well.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t he the dearest old darling that ever +walked?” said Ethel Blue, bouncing with enthusiasm.</p> +<p>“He certainly is a very nice person,” agreed Miss +Graham, smiling, “and he thinks he has one of the +finest daughters who ever walked.”</p> +<p>“Does he really?” cried Ethel Blue. “I’m so +glad he does! You see, I so seldom see him that +sometimes I’m afraid he’ll forget all about me. +Once when he came to Rosemont, I passed him in the +street when he was walking up from the station, and +he didn’t know me and I didn’t know him. Wasn’t +that perfectly frightful?”</p> +<p>“That was too bad,” agreed Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“Somehow I’ve never thought of being able to +live with him,” said Ethel Blue. “You know I’ve +always lived with Aunt Marion, because my mother +died when I was a little bit of a baby, but the other +day somebody said something about my going to +Father later on, and I haven’t been able to think of +anything else since.”</p> +<p>“I know he wants you,” said Miss Graham.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_159">[159]</div> +<p>“Has he spoken to you about it?”</p> +<p>“Yes, often.”</p> +<p>“I suppose I’ll have to be a million times older +than I am now, before he thinks I’m able to take care +of him,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“I don’t believe it will be a whole million years,” +smiled Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“I shall feel dreadfully to leave Aunt Marion +and Ethel Brown. I’ve never been away from +Ethel Brown more than three or four days in my +whole life,” said Ethel Brown’s twin cousin, “but if +my father needs me, why of course, I must go.”</p> +<p>“Indeed you must,” returned Miss Graham, +“and I’m sure he wants you just as soon as he can +send for you.”</p> +<p>Ethel Blue was so overjoyed at this opinion, that +she jumped up on the ledge on the top of the parapet +running around the terrace, and danced with delight +the fancy step—“One, two, three, back; one, +two, three, back”—with which she and Ethel +Brown were accustomed to express great satisfaction +with the way in which life was treating them.</p> +<p>To Miss Graham’s horror, Ethel Blue’s enthusiasm +blinded her eyes and her third back step took +her off the parapet. She fell to the ground and +rolled down the hill, her slender little body bouncing +from rock to rock with cruel force and increasing +speed.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_160">[160]</div> +<p>Miss Graham gave a cry of distress and vaulted +over the parapet with the ease which she had acquired +in the gymnasium in her college days. Running +the risk of rolling down hill herself, she +bounded down the steep slope, and reached the foot +almost as soon as did the body of the young girl, +which lay very still, its head against the stone which +had brought unconsciousness.</p> +<p>Miss Graham turned over the limp little form, +shuddering as she saw the bruise on the forehead. +She tried to lift it but found she could make no +progress up the steep knoll. Again and again she +called to the workmen in the house, and finally two +of them appeared at an upper window and made +gestures of understanding when she beckoned to +them. They leaped down the hill with long strides, +and soon were carrying Ethel Blue up to the terrace.</p> +<p>They laid her gently on the floor and ran to get +water from the hydrant, while Miss Graham slipped +off the young girl’s shoes, raised her feet upon a +block of wood that happened to be near by, so +that the blood might flow towards her heart, and +gently chafed her wrists. When the water came, +she dashed a shower of it from the tips of her fingers +on the pale little face lying so quietly against +the bricks.</p> +<p>“Will I run to de nex’ house an’ telephone for de +doctor?” asked one of the men, and Miss Graham +nodded an assent and added a direction to summon +Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>Before either her aunt or the doctor came, however, +Ethel Blue returned to consciousness. Before +she opened her eyes, she heard a soft, affectionate +voice crooning over her, “My dear little girl, +my poor little girl.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_161">[161]</div> +<p>She kept her eyes closed for a minute or two, so +pleasant was this sound from the lips of Miss Graham +whom she had grown to love so fondly. When +at last she opened her eyes and saw Miss Daisy’s +anxious face change its expression to one of delight, +she almost felt that it was worth while to fall off a +precipice to bring about such a result.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_162">[162]</div> +<h2 id="c12">CHAPTER XII +<br />IN THE FAMILY HOSPITAL</h2> +<p>Mrs. Morton was acting as head nurse in +the home hospital. Ethel Blue’s injuries +from her fall were not serious, but besides the +bruises on her forehead, she had numerous large +black and blue spots all over her body and she had +been so shaken that the doctor thought it was well +for her to stay in bed for a day or two.</p> +<p>In addition to Ethel Blue, Dicky was laid low +for the time being. He had gone over to his grandfather’s +and as he was accustomed to run about +the farm by himself, and as he usually stayed near +some of the workmen, nobody paid any attention to +him. This time, however, he went up into the pasture, +where he found most of the cows lying down +in the shade of the trees and meditatively chewing +their cuds after their morning meal.</p> +<p>Dicky was not in the least afraid of cows, having +been familiar with them from his babyhood. +He therefore walked up to one of the prostrate creatures +and sat down comfortably upon her neck, +steadying himself by her nearest horn.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_163">[163]</div> +<p>Nothing happened for a minute of two, for either +his weight was so slight that the cow hardly noticed +it, or else his position did not interfere with her +comfort. After a time, however, he began to pull +at her horns in time with the motion of her +jaws, and this measured movement seemed to annoy +her. Shaking her head, she rose, first behind, +throwing her rider even farther forward than he +was, and then in front, tossing him off altogether.</p> +<p>The distance to the ground was not great, but it +was far enough for Dicky to be peppered with +bumps and pretty well shaken. The cow paid no +farther attention to him but walked off to a spot +where she might be free from annoyance, and the +little boy lay for some time on the ground before +he could pull himself together and go to his grandfather’s. +By the time he reached there, his bruises +were already turning black and he was interesting +both to himself and to his relatives, although he was +manfully keeping back his tears. The doctor ordered +him to bed for a day or two, and now he lay +on a cot at one side of the large room which served +as the family hospital, and Ethel Blue at the other, +comparing their wounds, and receiving the attention +of Mrs. Morton. She had finished reading one +of the Br’er Rabbit stories to them when Ethel Blue +introduced the subject that was so constantly in her +mind.</p> +<p>“Did I tell you how I happened to fall off the +terrace wall?” she asked her aunt.</p> +<p>“I wondered how you did it; you are usually so +sure-footed.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_164">[164]</div> +<p>“I was talking with Miss Daisy about my going +to live with Father by-and-by. You know I never +thought of it until the other night when we were all +together on the porch and Helen,—wasn’t it?—said +something about it. I wish I didn’t have to +wait to finish school before I can go to him.”</p> +<p>“Are you in such a hurry to leave us?” said Mrs. +Morton, with a little sigh for the many years of loving +care she had spent over this child, who was to +her like one of her own.</p> +<p>Ethel Blue was conscience-stricken.</p> +<p>“You know, Aunt Marion, I love all of you just +like my own people. Only it seems so wonderful +to think about being with Father all the time that +I can’t get it out of my mind—now it’s in my +mind.”</p> +<p>“There are a good many things to be considered,” +answered Mrs. Morton. “You know that +an officer often has to be away from home and your +father wouldn’t like to leave you alone.”</p> +<p>Ethel Blue’s face fell.</p> +<p>“If I only had somebody like Dicky’s Mary to +stay with me,” she said, referring to the nurse who +had always taken care of Dicky, and who had lived +on with the family after he was too old to need a +nurse.</p> +<p>“Perhaps your father might marry again and +then there would be no difficulty about your being +with him all the time.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Morton made the suggestion gently but +Ethel Blue flushed angrily at once.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_165">[165]</div> +<p>“I think that’s a perfectly horrible idea, Aunt +Marion. That means a stepmother for me, and I +think a stepmother is detestable.”</p> +<p>“Have you ever known one,” inquired Mrs. +Morton coolly.</p> +<p>“No, I never have, but I’ve read a great deal +about them and they’re always cross and mean and +their stepchildren hate them.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you suppose that a great many stepchildren +work up a dislike beforehand just because they +read the same kind of stories that you seem to have +been reading?” asked Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>Ethel Blue was a reasonable girl, and she thought +this over before she answered.</p> +<p>“Perhaps they do,” she said, although slowly, as +if she disliked to admit it.</p> +<p>“I have happened to know several stepmothers,” +said Mrs. Morton, “and I never have known one +who was not quite as kind or even kinder to her +stepchildren, than to her own children. A mother +feels that she can do as her judgment dictates with +her own children, but with her stepchildren she +weighs everything with even greater care, because +she feels an added responsibility toward them.”</p> +<p>“But she can’t love them as she does her own +children,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“I think there is very little difference,” said her +Aunt Marion. “I am not your stepmother but at +the same time I am not your own mother, and I am +not conscious of loving you any less than I love +Ethel Brown. You are both my dear girls.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_166">[166]</div> +<p>“I love Father but I do think Father would be +mean if he gave me a stepmother,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“But, wouldn’t <i>you</i> be mean if you objected to +his having the happiness of a household of his own, +after all these years when he has not had one?” +returned Mrs. Morton promptly. “Your father +has lived a lonely life for many years, and if such +a thing should happen as his deciding to marry +again, I can’t think that my little Ethel Blue would +be so selfish as to make him unhappy—or even uncomfortable—about +it.”</p> +<p>This was a new idea for Ethel Blue and she snuggled +down under her covers and turned her head +away to think about it.</p> +<p>Her aunt left her alone and the room was quiet +except for the noise made by Dicky’s little hands, +as he turned the pages of a picture book.</p> +<p>It was almost dark when Mrs. Morton came back +with Mary, each of them bearing a tray with the +supper for one of the invalids.</p> +<p>“I must say,” laughed Mrs. Morton, as she entered +the hospital, “these are pretty hearty meals +for people who call themselves ill.”</p> +<p>“My mind isn’t ill,” said Ethel Blue; “it’s just +these bruises that hurt me,” and Dicky understood +what she meant, for he told Mary, who was arranging +his pillows, that his “black and blue +thspotth were awful thore,” but that he was going +to get up in the morning.</p> +<p>As Mrs. Morton leaned over Ethel Blue’s bed, +the young girl put an arm around her aunt’s neck +and drew her down to her.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_167">[167]</div> +<p>“I’ve made up my mind not to be piggy if anything +like that does happen,” she said, hesitatingly. +“Do you know that it is going to happen?”</p> +<p>“No, I do not,” answered Mrs. Morton, “but I +saw that you were in a frame of mind to make your +father very unhappy if it should come to pass. You +ought not to allow yourself to have such thoughts, +even about an indefinite stepmother. They might +easily turn into thoughts of real hatred for an actual +stepmother.”</p> +<p>“But do you think there <i>might</i> be a stepmother +some time or other?” asked Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Yes, dear, I do. Your father probably seems +old to you, but he really is not very old and, as I +said before, he has lived a lonely life for many +years. You know it was fourteen years ago that +your mother died, and since then he has had no +home of his own and no loving companionship. He +has not even had the delight of helping to bring up +his little daughter. If he can make happiness for +himself now, after all these years, don’t you think +that his little daughter ought to help him?”</p> +<p>Ethel Blue nodded silently and ate her supper +thoughtfully.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_168">[168]</div> +<p>“While you two were taking your nap, I went +to Sweetbrier Lodge,” said Mrs. Morton, by way +of entertaining the invalids. “I am so much interested +in the way that Aunt Louise has arranged for +the maids. You know so many people have only +a servant’s workroom, the kitchen; and the maids +have no room to sit in after their work is done. +Aunt Louise has been very thoughtful in all her +plans. The laundry and the kitchen and the pantry +between the kitchen and the dining room, all have +the most convenient arrangements possible. Every +shelf and cupboard is placed so that the number of +footsteps that the kitchen worker must take will be +reduced as greatly as possible. Then there are all +sorts of labor saving arrangements. You saw those +in the kitchen and the cellar. The electrician has +been there daily fitting up an electric range and dish-washing +machine. The wires in the kitchen are +placed just where they will be most serviceable, and +there are plenty of windows so that the room is +bright in the day-time. Then just off the kitchen, +there is a delightful little sitting room, with a porch +opening from it. It has a view toward the garden +and FitzJames’s woods, and it is to be prettily +furnished.”</p> +<p>“There are two bed-rooms and a bath for the +maids in the attic story,” said Ethel Blue. “They +are going to be prettily furnished too.”</p> +<p>“Will they have a garden?” asked Dicky from +his corner.</p> +<p>“Do you know?” Mrs. Morton turned to +Ethel for an answer.</p> +<p>“I do understand now,” she replied, “why +Dorothy insisted on having the herb garden down +by the house. I thought it was just because it would +be convenient to have the herbs near the kitchen, but +she planted flowers there too, and now I see that it +will be a pretty flower garden for the maids to enjoy +and to cut for their own rooms.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_169">[169]</div> +<p>“There are two things about Aunt Louise that +are interesting,” said Ethel Blue. “One is the way +she always tries to make other people happy and +comfortable.”</p> +<p>“She is naturally thoughtful and considerate,” +said Mrs. Morton, “and she has had much unhappiness +in her life and has happened to meet many +people who are unhappy, so it has taught her to do +all she can to brighten other people’s lives and to +make them easier.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe many people who are building a +house would let a lot of children say what they +thought would be nice about it,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“She wants Dorothy and all of you to learn about +the new ways of building and fitting up a house,” +returned Mrs. Morton, “and she knows how much +fun it is to talk over such matters in a general pow-wow. +Haven’t all of you had a good deal of fun +out of it?”</p> +<p>“We certainly have,” replied Ethel Blue. “I +liked fixing up Ayleesabet’s room particularly, because +I suggested the idea, but we have all made +suggestions for every room in the house. Aunt +Louise has not agreed with all of them, but she always +told us why she didn’t agree or why she didn’t +like our ideas. She never was snippy about it, just +because we were children. The other thing that is +interesting in Aunt Louise, is the way she wants +to have all sorts of new arrangements in a house.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_170">[170]</div> +<p>“Almost everybody does that,” answered Mrs. +Morton.</p> +<p>“I don’t know anybody in Rosemont who has all +the things that Aunt Louise has put in. People +have vacuum cleaners now-a-days, that they move +around from one room to another, but she has hers +built in, so the dirt is drawn right down into the cellar. +She has every kind of electric thing she has +ever heard of, I do believe.”</p> +<p>“The electrician was there to-day as I told you, +arranging wires in the kitchen.”</p> +<p>“I was trying to count up as I was lying here, all +the things in the house that go by electricity. Of +course there’s the door bell to begin with. Then +there are all the lighting switches—the one in the +vestibule and all the regular ones in the halls and +rooms and a lot of them in the different closets, so +that she never will have to struggle around in the +dark for anything she is hunting for.”</p> +<p>“I saw a man putting in a little pilot light for the +oven, to-day,” said Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“What’s that for?”</p> +<p>“So the cook can investigate the state of affairs +in the oven. Sometimes it’s hard to say how far +along a dish at the back of the oven is. This light +enables you to make out whether it is browning properly +or not.”</p> +<p>“The man who put in the summer water-heater +called the little light that burns all the time in that, +a ‘pilot,’” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_171">[171]</div> +<p>“The dumb-waiter that runs from the cellar up +through the house to take up kindling or whatever +needs to be taken up stairs, runs at the touch of an +electric button,” said Mrs. Morton.</p> +<p>“I wish there had been an elevator for people,” +said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“The house isn’t large enough to call for that,” +said her aunt, laughing. “Dorothy and her mother +are able to go up one or two flights of stairs without +much suffering!”</p> +<p>Ethel laughed at the suggestion, and went on with +her enumeration of the uses of electricity.</p> +<p>“The city water runs into the house, but do you +know that Aunt Louise has had an extra pump fitted +into a deep well at the back of the house, and that +is to work by electricity? She was afraid the house +was so high up that the power of the town water +might be weak sometimes.”</p> +<p>“She’s prepared for anything, isn’t she? She’ll +be quite independent if any accident should happen +to the Rosemont reservoir.”</p> +<p>“You know the fittings of the laundry are electric.”</p> +<p>“And the electrician to-day was going to put in +an electric hair dryer in the bath-room, so that a +shampoo will require only a few minutes’ time.”</p> +<p>“I see where all of us girls visit Dorothy on shampoo +day,” giggled Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“She’ll be as popular as I used to be when our +cherries were ripe,” her Aunt Marion smiled in return. +“I never seemed to have so many friends as +during the June days when I always entertained my +guests by inviting them up into the cherry tree.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_172">[172]</div> +<p>“Was that the cherry tree on the right thide of +Chrandfather’th houthe?” asked Dicky suddenly +from the corner where he had been supposed to be +dozing.</p> +<p>“The very same cherry tree, young man. I +dare say you know it.”</p> +<p>“It’th too fat for me to thin up,” he said, “but +nektht year I’m going up on a ladder the minute +I see a robin flying off with the first ripe cherry.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_173">[173]</div> +<h2 id="c13">CHAPTER XIII +<br />A GOLDEN COLOR SCHEME</h2> +<p>When the time came for having the interior +decorating done in Sweetbrier Lodge and +for getting the furniture, the U. S. C. felt that they +were really in the very midst of a delightful experience. +The attic was furnished with brown +wicker, as Miss Graham had suggested. A small +upright piano was brought up through a window, +and this pleasant, quiet room at the top of the house, +served to give Dorothy a spot for practising where +she would disturb no one. Up here, too, she could +keep any work that she was doing and merely put +it into a chest that she had prepared for the purpose, +whenever she wanted to leave it, or, if it was +something that could not easily be moved, it might +even be kept out upon the table and there would be +no one to be annoyed by an appearance of untidiness.</p> +<p>The piano was to be a pleasure at the club meetings, +for all the U. S. C. members liked to sing, and +Helen was planning that they should wind up every +meeting during the coming winter with a good stirring +chorus before they separated for the afternoon.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_174">[174]</div> +<p>On the bedroom floor, the furnishings were carried +out as they had been planned, Elisabeth’s room +in blue, Dorothy’s in pink, and Mrs. Smith’s in +primrose yellow, and the two guest chambers in violet +and a delicate, misty grey. The wood-work was +painted ivory white and the floors were all of hard +wood. Rugs in harmonious tints gave the desirable +depths of tone to the color plan.</p> +<p>On this floor Mrs. Smith had a sewing room and +also a small sitting room, where she could write +business letters and be quite undisturbed. With the +floor below came the really serious work of furnishing, +the girls thought. The drawing room was the +important feature of this floor.</p> +<p>“Here is the family hearth,” said Mrs. Smith to +Dorothy, “and we want to make this room beautiful—one +that people will like to come into and to +stay in.”</p> +<p>“It must not be cold in color, then,” said Dorothy. +“Nobody likes to stay in a chilly looking room.”</p> +<p>“And it ought not to be too warm in color,” said +plump little Della, who suffered terribly from the +heat in summer. “It just makes me perspire to +<i>think</i> of some of the thick, heavy-looking rooms I’ve +been in. They are only suitable for zero weather +and we don’t seem to have any more zero weather +nowadays.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_175">[175]</div> +<p>Mrs. Smith had allowed Dorothy to ask the club +members to have cocoa with her on the afternoon +when the final decisions were to be made. They +had brought down from up-stairs some of the chairs +and a table which had already been put into the bed-rooms. +Dorothy and the Ethels had made cocoa +and had baked some cocoanut cakes on the new electric +oven, and they were all gathered in the drawing +room, sipping their cocoa and looking about them at +the possibilities of the room.</p> +<p>“Before we begin, tell me how you made these +cakes,” said Margaret, who was always adding a +new receipt to her cook book.</p> +<p>“We took half a pound of dried cocoanut and +two ounces of sugar and three ounces of ground +rice, and mixed them all up together. Then we +beat the whites of three eggs perfectly stiff and +stirred the froth thoroughly into the other things,” +said Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Then we dipped out a tablespoonful at a time +and put it on to a buttered baking tin, and baked +it all in a quick oven for five minutes,” said Ethel +Blue, “but we didn’t take the tin out, right off. +We let the oven cool and the little cakes cook slowly +for half an hour longer.”</p> +<p>“They do be marvellous good,” murmured +James, and all the others agreed with him.</p> +<p>Miss Graham had come over with Margaret and +James, but she said that she was not going to give +her professional advice until it was asked for.</p> +<p>“I may as well tell you first of all,” said Mrs. +Smith, “what my color scheme is for this room, +and then you can help me with the details. I want +the whole thing to be in tones of brown, lightened +by yellow, and contrasted with that dull blue you +see in Oriental rugs. Now, keep that scheme +of color in your mind and work it out for me.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_176">[176]</div> +<p>“I think you must have told the painter about it +before he did the wood-work,” guessed Margaret. +“This wood-work is white, but a yellowish white +that will be quite in harmony with your brown and +gold scheme.”</p> +<p>“You’ve caught me,” smiled Mrs. Smith. “It +had to be done, so I told him what I wanted. It’s +successful, don’t you think so?” she asked, looking +toward Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“Entirely,” approved Miss Daisy.</p> +<p>“The floors are hard wood, but I suppose you’re +going to have a big brown and gold and blue rug,” +said Helen.</p> +<p>“Certainly those colors, if I can find just the +right thing,” said her aunt.</p> +<p>“I was with Mother the other day in a rug shop,” +said Della, “and I saw beautiful Chinese rugs, with +dull blue backgrounds and figures of brown and +tan.”</p> +<p>“I’ve noticed,” said Helen, “that Oriental rugs +have a great deal of red and green in them. I +should think it might be hard to find rugs with just +brown and blue.”</p> +<p>“I have discovered that it is,” said Mrs. Smith, +“for I’ve already been on one or two searching +trips. Still, those Chinese rugs that Della mentioned +are always available, and if you hunt far +enough you can get others with the brown note uppermost. +What do you think about size?” she +asked.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_177">[177]</div> +<p>“Oh,” said Helen. “I seem to see in my mind’s +eye a huge, great, splendid one in the middle of the +room.”</p> +<p>“It would be a beautiful rug probably,” said +Ethel Brown, “but I don’t know that I should like +one big fellow as much as two smaller ones.”</p> +<p>“Why not?” asked Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“I don’t know that I can tell you,” answered +Ethel Brown, blushing. “Perhaps it’s because it +makes the room seem too big and grand, and the +arrangement of smaller ones would break it up into +smaller sections, and make it seem more home-like.”</p> +<p>Miss Daisy nodded as if she were satisfied, but +made no comment.</p> +<p>“How do all of you feel about the size of the +rugs?” inquired Mrs. Smith, and Helen put the +question to vote.</p> +<p>They decided that they liked the idea of two or +more rugs of medium size with little ones where +they were needed instead of a very large one in the +centre of the room.</p> +<p>“I think you’re right,” said Mrs. Smith, “and I +think that it will be easier to find the smaller ones +than the very large ones—and less expensive into +the bargain,” she said, laughing.</p> +<p>“What is the furniture to be?” inquired Tom.</p> +<p>“Dorothy and I had a few antiques that have +been kept for us all these years from my father’s +house, and they have given us the note for the rest. +They are mahogany, colonial in style, so we think +that we must make the rest of the furniture harmonize +with them.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_178">[178]</div> +<p>“Aunt Marion told me she saw some lovely reproductions +of truly old chairs and tables and +things,” said Ethel Blue. “I suppose you can make +the room look as if every piece in it was a truly old +one.”</p> +<p>“If I had money enough, I could undoubtedly +find truly old pieces,” said Mrs. Smith, “but I think +I shall content myself with the modern pieces in the +old style.”</p> +<p>“At any rate, they will be stronger,” said +Margaret. “We have some very old furniture, +and since we put steam heat in our house, they’ve +been falling to pieces as fast as they could fall.”</p> +<p>“How are the walls of this room to be treated?” +asked James.</p> +<p>“There I want your help,” said Mrs. Smith.</p> +<p>“I saw a dark brown paper dashed with gold the +other day, on the library wall at Mrs. Schermerhorn’s,” +said Roger.</p> +<p>“Too dark,” cried the Ethels in chorus. “Mrs. +Schermerhorn’s wood-work is dark and Aunt Louise’s +is almost white.”</p> +<p>“There’s a kind of Japanese paper that looks like +metal burlap,” said Margaret. “It has a little glint +of gold in it.”</p> +<p>“That’s too dark, too, I think,” said Dorothy. +“It ought to be something that will connect the yellow-white +of the wood-work with the gold, which is +the lightest tone in Mother’s color scheme.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_179">[179]</div> +<p>Again Miss Graham nodded her approval, although +she said nothing.</p> +<p>“I saw a very wide pongee silk the other day +that would be just about the right shade, if it could +be put on like wall-paper,” said Ethel Blue. “It +would be a little darker than this paint, and it would +tie on to the gold in the rug or in any piece of furniture +covering.”</p> +<p>Again Miss Graham nodded.</p> +<p>“And I don’t see why it couldn’t be stenciled,” +said Ethel Brown. “Something like the walls upstairs +in the apple-blossom room, only of course +something that would be appropriate for this room. +But even if you didn’t like that idea,” she went on, +“I think the pongee silk alone would be beautiful.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Smith liked that idea, too, but she hesitated +to give her final decision until she had examined a +certain homespun linen which she had had recommended +to her as a possible success from the point +of view of color.</p> +<p>“Now that you have finished your cocoa, I want +you to move your chairs over here, where you can +look into the dining room,” she said. “You see, +I’ve had the dining room separated from this room +by folding doors; there will be door curtains also, +but I want to be able to shut off the room entirely +from this room if I choose. Now, while we talk +about the furniture here, look into the dining room +and get the shape of it into your minds, so that you +can regard it as a sort of outgrowth of this room. +Are you comfortable now?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_180">[180]</div> +<p>They said they were and went on to discuss the +furniture.</p> +<p>“Will all of the pieces be upholstered with the +same material?” asked Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Oh, no,” cried Ethel Brown. “Let’s have two +or three different shades of brown, and one in the +right shade of yellow and one or two in the same +dull blue of the rug.”</p> +<p>Again Miss Graham nodded.</p> +<p>“You want to repeat in the furniture the colors +of the rug,” she said. “They give you a wide +range of tones because these Oriental rugs may have +as many as twenty-five shades of blue, so finely +graduated that you can hardly tell them apart, except +with a reading glass. The brown and gold of +the furniture will bring out the brown and gold +of the floor covering and you must be careful that +the yellow of the furniture is not so brilliant as to +overpower the more delicate yellow of your walls. +There should be a sort of scale from the yellowish +white wood-work which is your highest note, down +to the darkest shade of brown.”</p> +<p>“Now, that we’ve decided about the furniture, +tell me what general idea you have for the dining +room,” said Mrs. Smith. “I’m all excitement to +hear what you have to say about the dining room, +because it isn’t quite clear in my own mind, and I +want to work it out with you.”</p> +<p>“You want it to be an outgrowth of this room,” +said Helen, “and you don’t want it treated like an +entirely separate room.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_181">[181]</div> +<p>“Since it is connected with this room by so wide +an opening, when the doors are drawn back,” said +her aunt, “it seems to me as if it ought to be in +harmony with the coloring here.”</p> +<p>They all agreed with this idea.</p> +<p>“I suggest,” said Margaret, “that the whole +room might be a little darker than this room, although +decorated with the same colors.”</p> +<p>Miss Graham again approved this.</p> +<p>“It has the morning sun,” said Dorothy, “and at +night through most of the year the gas is lighted at +dinner time so it isn’t necessary to have it so bright +as the other room.”</p> +<p>“Then why not have everything the same, except +just a little deeper in tone,” said Ethel Blue. +“Have the wood-work a trifle darker and find some +material for the walls or have them color-washed a +few shades darker than the pongee. The floor is +a little darker than this anyway and one of the +darker blue Chinese rugs will be lovely on it.”</p> +<p>“Mother’s china is blue Canton,” said Dorothy. +“That will give blue touch that will harmonize with +the rugs.”</p> +<p>They were all pleased with their decisions and +were greatly pleased when Miss Graham approved +their wisdom.</p> +<p>The electricians had put in the electric fixtures +and they noticed that the dining room side lights +of both the dining room and drawing room looked +like sconces; that there was a glowing bowl of light +in the ceiling above the dinner table; and that the +half concealed lights were to give a pleasant radiance +in the larger room, while plugs around the wall permitted +the use of electric lamps for reading or sewing +at many different points.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_182">[182]</div> +<p>“How is this little reception room to be done, +Mrs. Smith?” asked James as he roamed into a +small room just beside the front door.</p> +<p>“This whole floor, all in all, is to have the same +color scheme,” said Mrs. Smith. “I think this and +the hall will be done like the dining room.”</p> +<p>“Come out now, and see the maid’s sitting +room,” cried Dorothy. “It is the cunningest thing +and so pretty.”</p> +<p>The wicker furniture had already come for this +room and the attic, and they all exclaimed at the +delicate shade of gray rattan which made a charming +back-ground for cushions of flowered chintz.</p> +<p>“I think it’s a dear duck of a room!” said Ethel +Brown.</p> +<p>“And see the roses on the walls!” exclaimed +Dorothy. “And it opens on to a little porch that +is going to be covered with rambler roses all summer, +if I can possibly make them grow and blossom.”</p> +<p>“How many of you people can go to the Metropolitan +Museum with me on Saturday?” asked +Miss Graham. “I know you younger ones are all +busy in school now, and the boys are getting ready +to go to college, so that is your only day, for we +want plenty of time.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_183">[183]</div> +<p>There was not one of them who could not go, so +they arranged about trains and where they should +pick up the Watkinses in New York, and separated +with pleasant expectations of the very good time +ahead of them.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_184">[184]</div> +<h2 id="c14">CHAPTER XIV +<br />AT THE METROPOLITAN</h2> +<p>Dicky, the Honorary Member of the United +Service Club, had been considered too young +to become a member of the party to visit the Metropolitan +Museum. He had, however, begged so +hard not to be left behind, that Helen and Roger +had relented, and had promised to take him if he, +in his turn, would agree not to bother Miss Graham +by asking more than a million questions every +ten minutes. He was also under bond not to stray +away from the party.</p> +<p>As it turned out, however, the Honorary Member +did not go to New York on the appointed day. He +had planned an expedition of his own for purposes +of investigation, and the results were such that he +was not able to meet his other engagement later on.</p> +<p>Underneath his bobbed hair Dicky kept a sharp +pair of ears and there was very little of the talk +about his aunt’s new house that had escaped his attention. +Among other things he had listened while +his sisters and cousins had commented upon the manner +in which the kitchen was equipped. The floor +was concrete, the walls were of white tile, the shelves +were of glass, and the cupboard doors of enameled +metal.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_185">[185]</div> +<p>He had heard his mother say to his Aunt Louise: +“Why, you could turn the hose on it to clean it, +couldn’t you?”</p> +<p>The idea had inflamed his imagination and he determined +to see how it would work. Detaching the +hose and spray from the bath-room he trotted off +immediately after breakfast, intent on putting into +effect his mother’s idea. It seemed to him that it +would be a delight to live in a house where one might +enter into the kitchen at any moment and find the +cook spraying the walls with a hose. If the reality +proved to be as charming as the anticipation, he +was going to beg his mother to have their own +kitchen made over promptly.</p> +<p>The workmen were all upstairs at Sweetbrier +Lodge but the lower doors were open so that there +was no difficulty in achieving an entrance. He +knew how to attach the spray to the faucet and a +twist of the fingers turned on the water.</p> +<p>It seemed to him as the first dash struck him full +in the face, he having been a little careless about +the nozzle, that his Aunt Louise need not have worried +about the pressure of the town water. He +shook his head like a pussy cat in the rain, but manfully +restrained the ejaculation that leaped to his +lips. He was glad that he did, because nobody interrupted +and the succeeding moments were filled +with ecstasy. He sprayed the floor, the electric +range, the shiny white table, the glistening cupboards, +and, best of all, the gleaming tiles of the +walls down which the drops chased each other in a +joyous race for the floor.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_186">[186]</div> +<p>The moments sped in this entrancing pursuit.</p> +<p>At home a cry for Dicky had arisen as the time +came to dress him for his trip to New York. Nobody +knew where he had gone. It was not until +Ethel Brown telephoned to Dorothy that they +learned that he had been seen passing her house.</p> +<p>“He must have gone to Sweetbrier Lodge for +some reason or other,” said Ethel Brown. “What +on earth possessed him on this morning of all mornings!”</p> +<p>She called to Roger, and he dashed off on the run +to see if he could find his wandering brother. None +of the workmen at the new house had any knowledge +of his whereabouts, and it was not until Roger +opened one of the carefully closed doors and was +greeted by a dash of water, straight in his waistcoat, +that he found the wanderer.</p> +<p>Roger was a boy of even temper but he confessed +to his mother afterwards that his fingers ached as +never before to impress on Dicky his disapproval of +his occupation.</p> +<p>“What on earth are you doing here?” he demanded, +snatching the hose from Dicky’s reluctant +fingers, and turning off the water.</p> +<p>“Washing down the walls,” replied Dicky truthfully.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_187">[187]</div> +<p>“Incidentally you’ve given yourself a good soaking,” +said Roger, looking at the thoroughly drenched +little figure before him. “Here, slip into this coat, +and I hope I haven’t got to carry you home the whole +way, you big, heavy creature.”</p> +<p>“I think I’d be warmer if I trotted myself,” suggested +Dicky, a little apprehensive of what might +happen to him in the way of a bear hug, in his brother’s +strong arms.</p> +<p>“I guess you’re right,” said Roger. “We’ll +have to run like deer, for it’s almost time for the car +to come for us. This puts an end to your going +into town, I suppose you understand, young man.”</p> +<p>Dicky had not thought of losing his other joy +while he was realizing his first delight, and he puckered +his face for a howl, but before the sound could +come out, Roger said: “You brought it on to yourself, +so don’t yell. This is the natural result of what +you’ve been doing. You can’t expect ten people to +wait for you to be thoroughly dried and got ready to +go into town, can you?”</p> +<p>Dicky was an uncommonly reasonable child and +he swallowed his sobs as he shook his head. There +was no farther conversation, for both boys were running +as fast as Roger’s legs could set the pace. +Dicky’s strides were assisted by his brother, who +seized his arm and helped him over the ground with +giant steps.</p> +<p>Mrs. Morton’s view of the situation seemed to +be painfully like Roger’s, and Dicky found himself +put into the care of Mary and an unnaturally rough +bath towel, his only part in the expedition that had +promised such happiness to him, being the sight of +his relatives climbing into his grandfather’s automobile +and dashing off toward Glen Point, where they +were to pick up Miss Graham and the Hancocks.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_188">[188]</div> +<p>When the party reached New York they made up +their minds that they might as well approach the +Museum containing many beautiful objects by the +prettiest way possible, so at 59th Street the car +swept into Central Park. As they entered, Miss +Graham called their attention to the golden statue +of General Sherman, made by the famous sculptor, +Saint-Gaudens. As they neared the Museum, she +pointed out Cleopatra’s needle, an Egyptian shaft +covered with hieroglyphics.</p> +<p>“The poor old stone has had a hard time in this +climate,” said Roger. “It has scaled off terribly, +hasn’t it?”</p> +<p>“They are trying to preserve it by a preparation +of parafine,” said Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“I should think it would have to be repeated +every winter,” said Helen. “It doesn’t seem as if +parafine was much of a protection against heavy +frost.”</p> +<p>Just inside the entrance of the building they found +Della and Tom awaiting them. Miss Graham +called their attention first to the tapestries hanging +in the entrance hall, and told them something of the +patient work that went into the production of one +of these great sheets of painstaking embroidery.</p> +<p>“Are they making them anywhere, nowadays?” +asked Ethel Blue.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_189">[189]</div> +<p>“When the war is over and you go to Paris, you +can see the tapestry workers in the Gobelins factory,” +said Miss Daisy. “Every machine has hung +upon it the picture which the worker is copying. It +may take a man six or seven years to complete one +piece.”</p> +<p>“Shouldn’t you think he would be sick to death of +it!” exclaimed Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I suppose the first year he tells himself he must +be pleasant, so that he will see the picture get +started. In the second year perhaps he’ll be ready +to put in the feet of his figures. Then all the middle +years must be comparatively exciting because +he’s doing the central part of the picture; and the +last year he has a sort of a thrill because it’s almost +done, even though the work may be all in the +clouds.”</p> +<p>“I judge that they make landscapes with figures, +chiefly,” guessed James.</p> +<p>“Many of them are landscapes with figures,” replied +Miss Daisy. “They have a wide variety of +objects. The factory belongs to the government +and the pieces are used as decorations for government +buildings, and as gifts to people of other countries. +The French Government gave Miss Alice +Roosevelt a piece of Gobelin when she was married. +I’ve seen it on exhibition in the Art Museum at Cincinnati.”</p> +<p>“I suppose all the workmen now have gone to +the war, and the factory is closed,” said Tom.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_190">[190]</div> +<p>“Probably. The men who work there now are +descendants, sometimes in the third or fourth generation, +of the early workers. They hold their positions +for life and although their pay is not large +they also have each a cottage and piece of land on +the grounds of the factory.”</p> +<p>As the U. S. C. ascended the great stair-way they +passed numerous impressive busts and stopped to +look at all of them. Most of the men were famous +Americans, whose names were already familiar to +the young people.</p> +<p>“Now,” said Miss Graham, as they reached the +head of the stairs, “later on we can choose the kind +of thing we would like especially to see, but first I +want to show you two or three pictures and we can +talk a little about them. Then perhaps we will enjoy +better the pictures we see afterwards.”</p> +<p>“I am sure we shall,” answered Roger, politely, +although his heart was yearning for the Riggs collection +of armor.</p> +<p>Miss Daisy read his mind.</p> +<p>“I know you want to see the Riggs armor most +of all,” she said, “and Margaret and James have +been talking a lot about the Morgan collection and +the Ethels told me on the way in that they had seen +in the Sunday papers reproductions of some of the +pictures in the Altman collections and they want to +see the originals. We can see all those later on, +but first we will look for a minute at a very famous +picture by a Frenchwoman, Rosa Bonheur.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I remember about her,” said Helen. “She +used to wear men’s clothes when she was working in +her studio. She said skirts bothered her.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_191">[191]</div> +<p>“I should think they would,” said James. “I remember +about her, too. She made a specialty of +animals and sometimes she had lions and other wild +animals from some Zoo, and let them wander about. +She needed to be dressed so she could skip lively if +they made any demonstration!”</p> +<p>“Those are huge horses, aren’t they,” said Ethel +Blue, as they stood before the “Horse Fair.”</p> +<p>“They look as if they were ‘feeling gayly,’ as the +North Carolina mountaineers say,” quoted Dorothy.</p> +<p>“What is it all about?” asked Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“Why, I don’t know,” answered Ethel Blue +slowly. “Is it about anything in particular? Isn’t +it just a lot of horses being taken to a Horse Fair +for exhibition?”</p> +<p>Miss Graham nodded and said that that was probably +all there was to it. Then she led them to a +picture by a French artist, Meissonier.</p> +<p>“I spot Napoleon,” said Tom promptly, as they +took up their position.</p> +<p>“This is called ‘Friedland, 1807,’” said Miss +Graham.</p> +<p>Before she could ask any question or make any +suggestion about the picture, Helen had explained +“Friedland.”</p> +<p>“That was one of Napoleon’s famous battles. +Here he defeated the Russians and Prussians.”</p> +<p>“Eighteen hundred and seven?” repeated James. +“Why, Napoleon was at the very height of his +power then, wasn’t he?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_192">[192]</div> +<p>“He looks it,” said Margaret. “Doesn’t he +look as if he were the lord of the world? And how +those men around him gaze at him with adoration! +He certainly had a wonderful ability for making himself +beloved by his soldiers!”</p> +<p>Miss Graham had been listening to these comments +with the greatest interest.</p> +<p>“What difference do you see between this picture +and the ‘Horse Fair’?” she asked.</p> +<p>They looked carefully at the picture before them +and Ethel Blue scampered back to refresh her +memory on the “Horse Fair.”</p> +<p>“There isn’t any more action in one than the +other,” said James, “though, of course, it’s different.”</p> +<p>“But this one makes me think a lot about a great +man,” added his sister.</p> +<p>“And you want to know what it’s all about,” exclaimed +Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“You feel as if there must be some story about +this one,” said Ethel Blue, returning from her expedition +to the “Horse Fair.”</p> +<p>“That’s just the point,” said Miss Graham, patting +her shoulder, “There’s no especial appeal to +the imagination in the ‘Horse Fair.’ You just see +horses going to any horse fair in northern France, +and there’s nothing to tell you that one horse has won +a ploughing match and that another is a candidate for +a blue ribbon because of his great weight. But here +you realize at once that Napoleon was a man to command +attention. You want to know what he has +been doing. You feel that there is some good reason +for the evident admiration of his soldiers. +Those two pictures are examples of two different +classes of pictures. The ‘Horse Fair’ you might +call a sketch in a traveller’s note book. The Napoleon +picture is an illustration in a story.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_193">[193]</div> +<p>The young people thought over all this and +nodded their agreement.</p> +<p>“Now come with me and see this picture of a +pretty girl.”</p> +<p>Miss Graham led the way to the Morgan collection +and they looked into the winning face of “Miss +Farren.” She seemed to be moving swiftly across +the canvas, her dress and cloak streaming behind her +from the speed of her motion.</p> +<p>“She’s a pretty girl,” said Roger, with his hand +on his heart. Tom nodded in agreement, but James +shook his head.</p> +<p>“She looks silly,” he said sternly.</p> +<p>“There isn’t any story to her picture, I’m sure,” +said Helen. “That’s just a portrait.”</p> +<p>“But may not a portrait indicate something of the +character of the sitter?” asked Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“It ought to,” returned Margaret, “and I should +think there was something of this girl’s character in +the portrait, but there’s nothing to show that this +might be the illustration of a story.”</p> +<p>“Unless it were the frontispiece, showing the picture +of the heroine,” said Roger.</p> +<p>“But the heroine doing nothing that is told about +in the story,” insisted Helen.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_194">[194]</div> +<p>Miss Graham made no comment on these criticisms +but led the way to another picture, also of a +girl, but this time of a girl in the dress of a peasant +and not handsomely arrayed as was Miss Farren.</p> +<p>“There is a bigger difference than clothes between +these two,” said Della, “but I don’t know just what +it is. This girl isn’t pretty like Miss Farren.”</p> +<p>“Do you know who this is?” asked Miss Daisy.</p> +<p>“Somebody who is thinking a lot,” said Ethel +Brown.</p> +<p>“She is seeing things in her mind,” said Ethel +Blue.</p> +<p>“Who is the most famous girl in history, who did +that?” asked Miss Graham.</p> +<p>“Jeanne d’Arc,” said Helen. “She saw visions +that inspired her to be a leader of men in the army +and she brought about the coronation of her king +when he was kept from his throne by the English +who held Paris and a large part of France.”</p> +<p>“She is seeing visions now,” whispered Ethel +Blue, clinging to Miss Graham’s arm.</p> +<p>Miss Graham gently smoothed the fingers that +were tensely closed over the sleeve of her jacket.</p> +<p>“Why do you suppose Helen told us about Jeanne +d’Arc just now?” she asked.</p> +<p>“Because Helen just naturally knows all the history +there is to be known,” said Roger, joking his +sister in brotherly fashion.</p> +<p>Helen flushed and murmured something that +sounded like, “I thought you’d like to know why +she looked like that.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_195">[195]</div> +<p>“There is something more than just her character +and her disposition in that picture,” said Margaret.</p> +<p>“If a single picture can be a story picture, I +should think this was a story picture as much as the +Napoleon one,” said Tom.</p> +<p>Again Miss Daisy nodded her approval.</p> +<p>“I call it a story picture,” she said. “Helen +felt that it was, immediately, and that is why she +told us something of the story of Jeanne d’Arc.”</p> +<p>“Most landscapes must be just note book pictures, +then,” guessed Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Unless the landscape should be a background +for some story,” said Della. “There might be gypsies +kidnapping a child, for instance.”</p> +<p>“Of course there are other divisions,” said Miss +Graham, “but roughly speaking, almost every picture +is either a record of fact or of imagination, or +else it tells a story.”</p> +<p>“It’s going to be interesting to think about that, +when we look at the other pictures we shall see later +on,” said Tom, and even Roger nodded assent, although +his heart was still set upon the armor.</p> +<p>“Now, let’s go back for a moment to look at the +‘Horse Fair,’” said Miss Graham. “What do +you think a picture ought to have in it to be a real +picture?” she asked as they went along the gallery.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_196">[196]</div> +<p>“It seems to me that a picture that is nothing but +a record, as you said a few minutes ago, can’t be +much of a picture,” said Roger. “I should want +something more in a picture, something that would +stir me up. Why, even Miss Farren’s there isn’t +exactly a record, because you have something more +than just eyes and nose and hair. She looks as +if she would be fun to talk to, and as for the ‘Horse +Fair,’ which was the other picture that we decided +was a record, why that has in it more than just a lot +of horses.”</p> +<p>“If Rosa Bonheur had wanted merely to draw +some horses, she might have strung them along in +a row so that we could get an idea of their size and +color and could make a guess at their weight, but +here we see them in action and we know that they +are in good spirits and we feel some sympathy with +the men who have a hard time to hold them.”</p> +<p>“Yes, that picture stirs me a little, too.”</p> +<p>“That is because both ‘Miss Farren’ and the +‘Horse Fair’ are real pictures. Any picture that +tries to be more than merely a photographic reproduction +must stir your emotions in one way or another,” +said Miss Daisy. “Now as we look at this +picture, do you think the artist put into it everything +that she saw on the road that morning when +she passed this group of men and horses?”</p> +<p>“I dare say not,” said Della, “because there +would be likely to be dogs and boys with the +men, and perhaps some ugly houses in the background.”</p> +<p>“Why do you suppose she didn’t put everything +in?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_197">[197]</div> +<p>“Why, a picture ought to try to be beautiful, +oughtn’t it, and some of those things might be ugly, +or there might be so many of them that it would be +confusing.”</p> +<p>“Those are both good reasons,” said Miss Daisy. +“They both show that the artist has to <i>select</i> the +things that he thinks will be of the greatest interest +to the people who look at his pictures.”</p> +<p>“Now when he has picked them out, what should +you say the next step was?”</p> +<p>They were all rather blank at this question but +after a while Roger said slowly, “Evidently she +picked out just so many as being the best looking +ones to put in the picture; and she didn’t like them +all facing the audience, ready to bob their heads at +you as you look at them; she made them trot along +the road in a natural way.”</p> +<p>“Certainly,” approved Miss Graham. “She <i>arranged</i> +what she had selected so that they would be +natural and—”</p> +<p>“And so that the colors would show well?” asked +Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“Yes, so that there would be contrasts of color +that would be pleasing to the eye. Then there +should be <i>balance</i>. Have you any idea what that +means?”</p> +<p>Nobody had.</p> +<p>“I wonder if you haven’t all noticed a Japanese +print that Margaret has?”</p> +<p>“You mean the one with big green leaves up in +one corner and the grasshopper clinging to a tendril?” +asked Helen.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_198">[198]</div> +<p>“That’s the one,” returned Miss Daisy. “Did +it ever occur to you that those leaves were all +crowded off into one corner of the picture?”</p> +<p>“I never thought of it,” said Margaret, “and I +have looked at it every day for a year. They are, +aren’t they?”</p> +<p>“But it didn’t affect you unpleasantly, did it?”</p> +<p>“Why, no. I think it’s a pretty picture,” said +Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“It is,” agreed Miss Graham; “but what device +did the artist use to make you feel comfortable about +it, and to make you forget that he had put a bunch +of foliage up in one corner and had left more than +one-half of his sheet blank?”</p> +<p>Nobody could answer this question and Miss Graham +had to give the explanation herself.</p> +<p>“It’s all a question of balance,” she said. “The +great mass of white paper in the lower right hand +part of the picture balances the mass of green leaves +in the upper left hand corner. The green is a +heavier looking color than the white, and it therefore +takes a larger amount of white to balance the +green. The Japanese who made this painting understood +that, and he has so arranged his leaves and +his grasshopper, that the eye is entirely pleased by +the balance that results. If Rosa Bonheur has managed +wisely there should be masses of light and dark, +balancing each other, and there should be spaces and +solids, balancing each other.”</p> +<p>“Has she done it? It doesn’t worry me any,” +said Roger. “I think she must have succeeded.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_199">[199]</div> +<p>Keeping Miss Graham’s explanation in mind they +took another look at the Napoleon picture and concluded +that Meissonier also knew what he was +about.</p> +<p>“‘Composition’ means the putting together of +a picture, doesn’t it?” asked Helen. “I should +think that the composition of a picture that has so +many figures, must be extremely difficult.”</p> +<p>“Far more difficult, of course, than one for which +the artist has selected fewer objects.”</p> +<p>“And of two artists producing complicated pictures +like these, he is the better who gives an effect +of simplicity.”</p> +<p>“Suppose that Rosa Bonheur had noticed that +one of the men struggling with the horses had his +face bound up with a cloth; does that have anything +to do with the picture?”</p> +<p>They all agreed that it had not.</p> +<p>“Then she was perfectly right to leave out any +object that would distract the observer’s mind. She +put into this picture of horses going to the horse +fair only such things as would make the onlooker +think of the beauty and spirit of the horses as shown +by their handsome coats and by the difficulty which +the men had in controlling them, and his imagination +would be stirred to wonder as to which of these +fine animals was to win a prize. Everything which +might compete with these simple ideas the artist left +out of the picture.”</p> +<p>“It must have been awfully hard to do such a lot +of legs,” said Ethel Blue, who knew a little about +drawing.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_200">[200]</div> +<p>“An artist has to know a good deal about anatomy,” +returned Miss Graham. “He must know +how the human body is made, and the horse’s body, +too, if he is to do a picture like this, and he even +must know something about the under-structure of +the earth. He must make the lines of those legs +all move harmoniously. Look at this Napoleon picture +once more.”</p> +<p>Once again they stood before “Friedland.”</p> +<p>“If you were to prolong the up-standing lines of +weapons and helmets you would find that they were +parallel or tended toward some point possibly outside +of the picture. Unless an appearance of confusion +is desired it would not do to have lines leading +in every direction.”</p> +<p>“It would make a picture look every which way, +wouldn’t it?” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Attention to such points as this helps to give +expression to the whole picture,” went on Miss +Daisy. “Not only do the figures in the pictures +have their own expression, but the picture as a whole +may wear an expression of peace, like that quiet +landscape over there; or of confusion, like this picture +of the attempted assassination of a pope, or of +orderly excitement, like that cavalry charge yonder.”</p> +<p>As they turned from one canvas to another the +Club realized the truth of what Miss Graham was +saying.</p> +<p>“That is a fact, isn’t it?” agreed Tom. “You +don’t have to see the look on the fellows’ faces to +get the general effect of the picture even from a distance.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_201">[201]</div> +<p>“We’ve been talking so much about color schemes +in connection with Dorothy’s new house, that I am +sure the phrase is familiar to you,” said Miss Graham. +“Look at the color schemes of these pictures +around us. Do you see that there are no discords +because a color note is struck and all of the +other shades and colors harmonize with it? That +battle rush, for instance, is a study in red. Compare +that with the dull misty blues, greens, and greys +in LePage’s ‘Jeanne d’Arc.’”</p> +<p>They went from one picture to another and proved +the truth of this statement to their satisfaction.</p> +<p>“Now we’ll call our lesson done,” said Miss Graham. +“We’ll have some luncheon downstairs and +when we come up we can let Roger have his heart’s +desire, and we’ll give the afternoon to looking at +the Morgan and Altman and Riggs collections of +wonders. I doubt if there was ever gathered together +anywhere three such groups. The Altman +pictures are choice, the Riggs armor is unequalled +anywhere in the world, and the Morgan collection is +the finest general collection ever owned by a private +individual.”</p> +<p>It was a weary but a happy party that returned to +Rosemont in the late afternoon.</p> +<p>“One of these days is awfully hard on your +head,” confessed Roger, as he was talking to his +mother about the Club’s experience, “but it certainly +is good for your gray matter.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_202">[202]</div> +<p>“We’re going to remember whenever we look at +pictures again,” said Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“And there are lots of things in it that we shall +think about when we look over the decorating in our +house,” insisted Dorothy.</p> +<p>“What I thought was the nicest of all was the +way Miss Graham taught us. It was just like talking. +I think she is awfully nice,” was Ethel Blue’s +decision.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_203">[203]</div> +<h2 id="c15">CHAPTER XV +<br />PREPARATIONS FOR THE HOUSEWARMING</h2> +<p>The trip to the Metropolitan Museum gave +every member of the party a new set of words +for her vocabulary. They looked at pictures with +opened eyes and talked of their “composition” and +“balance.” They were all of them more or less +interested in photography and now they tried to take +photographs that would be real pictures.</p> +<p>“It isn’t so easy to make a picture by selecting +what you want to have and leaving out the things +you don’t want,” said Roger to Helen one morning +as they walked toward Sweetbrier Lodge, “when +the things are right there in the landscape and won’t +get out of the camera’s way. A painter would leave +out that stupid old wooden house in the field there, +but he’d leave in the splendid elm bending over it. +Now if I ‘shoot’ the elm I’ve got to ‘shoot’ the +house, too.”</p> +<p>“The only way out is to take the house at some +angle that will show off any good points it may +have,” declared Helen, wrinkling a puzzled brow.</p> +<p>“Then as likely as not you’ll have to take the +tree on the side where the lightning hit it and peeled +off all its bark,” growled her brother gloomily.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_204">[204]</div> +<p>“That just shows that a photographer has to be +more skilful than a painter,” she said. “The +painter can do what he likes, but the photographer +has to get good results out of what is set before +him.”</p> +<p>“And as for balance—if nature happens to have +placed things in balance, well and good; but if she +didn’t what can you do about it?”</p> +<p>“Nothing, my child, unless you introduce some +object that you have some power over. Put in a +girl or a dog or a horse somewhere where their +weight will bring about the result you want.”</p> +<p>“You can’t carry girls and dogs and horses round +with you,” objected Roger, who was in a depressed +mood this morning and found difficulties in every +suggestion.</p> +<p>“You’ve got enough sisters and cousins for the +girls, and you can take Christopher Columbus +around with you in your pocket to play the four-footed +friend,” laughed Helen.</p> +<p>“Speaking of Columbus—are we going to celebrate +Columbus Day this year?” asked Roger, as +he deftly inserted a new spool of film. “It’s just +luck James and I being here at all, you know. +We’d like to do something to celebrate being exposed +to scarlet fever as soon as we got to Boston, +and being sent home for it to incubate, and then +having nothing hatch!”</p> +<p>“Haven’t you heard? Aunt Louise is going to +have her housewarming on October 12, Columbus +Day? She has asked the Club to do something appropriate.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_205">[205]</div> +<p>“I thought the Watkinses had asked us to go into +New York to see the parade.”</p> +<p>“They have. That won’t interfere with us. +They’ll come out here later and then we’ll do something +in the evening in the new attic to amuse Aunt +Louise’s guests.”</p> +<p>“Any idea what?”</p> +<p>“I’ve got an idea in the back of my head. I’ll +have to talk it over first with the girls to see if we +can manage the costumes. If we can I think it will +be mighty pretty.”</p> +<p>Roger nodded absent-mindedly. He had perfect +confidence in his sister’s good judgment and he was +willing to do his part for his aunt’s sake as well as +for the good name of the Club.</p> +<p>“What are you taking?” Helen asked him after +they had roamed about the new place for a time. +“You seem to be using a lot of film.”</p> +<p>“I am. I thought I’d take the new house and +garden from every point of view I could, inside and +out, and make two or three portfolios of them and +send them to Father and Uncle Richard, as they’d +probably like to have them.”</p> +<p>“What a perfectly darling idea! Isn’t Aunt +Louise delighted?”</p> +<p>“She seems to be,” returned Roger.</p> +<p>“You knew she had asked Uncle Richard to come +up for her house-warming?”</p> +<p>“Father, too; but it’s dollars to doughnuts they +won’t be able to come, so I thought I’d do these any +way.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_206">[206]</div> +<p>“Father won’t be able to, but Uncle Richard +may.”</p> +<p>“He’ll be glad to have the prints even if he has +seen the original places.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps he’ll like them better on that account.”</p> +<p>“I think I should. It would be like having your +memory illustrated.”</p> +<p>“Are you going to do the rockery in the garden?”</p> +<p>“If the frost has left anything.”</p> +<p>“It must be placed in just the right spot for +there’s a lot of it left. I passed it early to-day and +it looked almost as pretty as if it were summer.”</p> +<p>“Dorothy certainly made a success of that.”</p> +<p>“It was an afterthought, too.”</p> +<p>“I believe the chief reason it has been so lovely +is that it was placed in a natural position. The +rocks look as if they ought to be just where they +are.”</p> +<p>“Mrs. Schermerhorn’s rockery looks as if she had +said, ‘Lo, I’ll have a rockery,’ and then she stuck it +right in the middle of her lawn where no collection +of rocks has been for twenty years.”</p> +<p>“And she has hot-house ferns in it!”</p> +<p>The brother and sister laughed delightedly at +their neighbor’s ideas of natural beauty.</p> +<p>“Perhaps it was fortunate that Dorothy didn’t +have a hot-house to draw on,” said Roger, moving +from one side to another of his cousin’s rockery in +order to get the best view of its remaining loveliness.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_207">[207]</div> +<p>“Dorothy has too much sense. In the first place +she snuggled hers in here under the trees, just the +way the rocks are naturally over in FitzJames’s +Woods. Then she brought over here exactly the +plants she found there.”</p> +<p>“It had to look as if it were a bit of the woods, +didn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Do you want me to be in this picture?”</p> +<p>“You look too dressed up.”</p> +<p>“Thank you! This is a middy I’ve worn all +summer, and I’m just wearing out the rags of it on +Saturdays.”</p> +<p>“Nevertheless, you dazzle me.”</p> +<p>“That’s a polite way of saying you don’t want me +in the foreground. You’d better put in what Miss +Daisy calls ‘contemporaneous human interest.’ +I’m a great addition to any picture in which I appear.”</p> +<p>“You are, ma’am, of course,” replied Roger with +exaggerated politeness, “but I think I’d like you +under an arbor in a graceful attitude and not hobnobbing +with these wild flowers.”</p> +<p>“You forget that wild flowers have been my special +care this summer,” returned Helen, withdrawing +to a point where she would not interfere with +Roger’s plans. “Dorothy’s wild garden is only a +copy of mine.”</p> +<p>“Not in arrangement. Hers is prettier with +everything piled up on the stones this way—columbines, +ferns, wild ginger, hepaticas.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_208">[208]</div> +<p>“You’re right about that. Mine had to be in a +regular bed. Are you going to take a picture of the +vegetable garden?”</p> +<p>“Certainly I am. And of tomatoes that were +started with and without dirt bands.”</p> +<p>Roger’s chief attention during the summer garden +campaign had been devoted to the raising of vegetables, +while the girls had done wonders with flowers.</p> +<p>“What are dirt bands?” inquired Helen.</p> +<p>“I know,” cried the voice of Ethel Brown who +came in sight through the pergola. “They’re +brown paper cuffs to put around young plants. It +keeps the earth all close and cozy and warm and +they grow faster than the ones that don’t wear such +fine clothes.”</p> +<p>“Listen to that,” Roger said approvingly to +Helen. “Those Ethels haven’t let anything slip +that happened in any of our gardens all summer. +They know all about everything!”</p> +<p>“Roger is in a very complimentary mood this +morning,” laughed Helen. “If I could only think +of something to say I’d be polite in return.”</p> +<p>“I’m sorry it doesn’t come to you spontaneously,” +replied her brother, “but what care I?” and he +broke into song:</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“I’m a careless potato, and care not a pin</p> +<p class="t">How into existence I came;</p> +<p class="t0">If they planted me drill-wise or dibbled me in,</p> +<p class="t">To me ’tis exactly the same.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_209">[209]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">The bean and the pea may more loftily tower,</p> +<p class="t">But I care not a button for them.</p> +<p class="t0">Defiance I nod with my beautiful flower</p> +<p class="t">When the earth is hoed up to my stem.”</p> +</div> +<p>“Oo-hoo!” came a voice from the Lodge. +“Come in and help.”</p> +<p>“There’s Dorothy calling,” cried Ethel Brown, +and they all moved toward the house where they +found their cousin on the back porch with an array of +plates, bowls, stones, small plants, tiny trees and +small china figures before her.</p> +<p>“May I inquire, madam, what on earth—” began +Roger, but Ethel Brown’s exclamation enlightened +him.</p> +<p>“You’re making Japanese gardens!”</p> +<p>“I’m going to try to. I think they’re awfully +pretty and cunning. Let’s each make one.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Smith had bought a professionally made +garden at an Oriental shop in New York, and the +girls were seized with a desire to copy it.</p> +<p>“Here’s the real thing,” and Dorothy indicated +a flat bowl of gray and dull green pottery. In it +were some stones outlining the bed of a stream over +which stretched the span of a tiny porcelain bridge. +A twisted tree that looked aged in spite of its height +of only three inches reared its evergreen head at +one end of the bridge; a patch of grass the size of +three fingers grew greenly at the other end, and a +goldfish swam happily in a pool at the side.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_210">[210]</div> +<p>“Margaret told me that horse-radish would grow +if you kept it damp and let it sprout, so I’ve got several +pieces started for our gardens.”</p> +<p>Sure enough, the horse-radish had sent forth +shoots and a head of small leaves quite tall enough +for the size of the garden, and its body looked +brownish and gnarled like some bit of queer Oriental +wood. Dorothy had taken up little plants of running +growth like partridge berry and she had collected +many wee ferns.</p> +<p>“We can sprinkle a pinch or two of grass seed +and bird seed over them all when they’re done,” +she said. “That ought to bring up something fresh +every little while.”</p> +<p>“These will be all started for your housewarming,” +suggested Helen.</p> +<p>“That’s why I’m doing them. We can leave +them here, and I’ll come over every day so they’ll be +watered. I think they’ll be awfully pretty and +they’ll be different from the usual decorations.”</p> +<p>“I read somewhere the other day that the Japs +arrange their flowers with a meaning.”</p> +<p>“O, they do,” cried Dorothy. “They have very +little in one holder, perhaps only three flowers. +One—the highest one—means Heaven, the next +lower is Man, and the lowest is Earth.”</p> +<p>“I should have to have a diagram with every +vase,” insisted Roger.</p> +<p>“The water in the bowl that holds the flowers +represents the surface of the earth and the edge of +the bowl is the horizon. Then they have ways of +suggesting the different seasons—spring by flowers, +summer by a lot of green leaves, autumn by bright +colored leaves and winter by tall stems without much +on them.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_211">[211]</div> +<p>“We’ve got flowers left in the gardens—lots of +them,” insisted Ethel Brown proudly.</p> +<p>“Plenty,” answered Dorothy; “and by this time +next year I hope we’ll have a little hot-house of our +own so that we can have flowering plants all winter, +but I like other things, too.”</p> +<p>“Miss Daisy was telling me the other day that +we Americans didn’t pay enough attention to using +through the winter branches of trees and seedling +trees from the woods and boughs of pine and fir and +cedar,” said Ethel Blue, who came through the house +and had been listening to the conversation.</p> +<p>“I don’t see why you couldn’t have a small maple-tree +growing all winter in the dining-room if you +put your mind on it,” answered Helen.</p> +<p>“A great jar of Norway spruce with cones hanging +from the fingers would be stunning,” decided +Roger, as he set his horse-radish in place and planted +a tree at one end of it.</p> +<p>“The covers for the radiators are all on now,” +said Dorothy, changing the subject. “Did you notice +them when you came through the house?”</p> +<p>The Ethels had not and Helen and Roger had +gone directly to the garden, so they all went in on a +tour of examination.</p> +<p>“Mother said that there was one thing about +heating that she couldn’t stand, and that was the ugly +radiators; so the heating man has tried to hide them +as much as he could. There isn’t one in the house +that stands out like a monument of pipes,” declared +Dorothy.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_212">[212]</div> +<p>“Even in the attic?”</p> +<p>“Not even in the attic. See, he’s covered most +of them with grilles bronzed or painted like the +wood-work of the room, so they aren’t at all conspicuous.”</p> +<p>“It’s these little points that make this house so +attractive,” declared Helen. “Aunt Louise has +thought of everything.”</p> +<p>“What are you going to wear at the party?” +asked Ethel Blue of Dorothy.</p> +<p>“If we do that Columbus thing—” began Dorothy, +looking at Helen.</p> +<p>“Go on,” the president of the U. S. C. replied +to the inquiring gaze; “we might as well tell Roger +now as later.”</p> +<p>“If we have the tableaux and pantomimes we can +stay in our court dresses.”</p> +<p>“Court dresses?” inquired Roger, sitting up interestedly. +“Why so scrumptious?”</p> +<p>“Columbus at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella,” +answered Helen.</p> +<p>“You as Columbus.”</p> +<p>“Me? Me? Why this honor?” asked Roger +meekly.</p> +<p>“Need you ask?” returned Helen. “That’s in +reply to your remarks about me as an addition to the +foreground of your photographs.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_213">[213]</div> +<p>“Even. I don’t care what I do as long as I have +time to get it up.”</p> +<p>“You shall have plenty of time,” promised Dorothy. +“What I’m more interested in just now is +what we’re to have to eat on the festive night.”</p> +<p>“Is Aunt Louise going to let us decide?”</p> +<p>“Subject to her veto, I suspect,” smiled Helen.</p> +<p>Dorothy nodded.</p> +<p>“She says she wants something different from ice-cream +and cake and chicken salad.”</p> +<p>They all laughed, for Rosemont was noted for invariably +having these three excellent but monotonous +viands at all her teas and receptions and church entertainments.</p> +<p>“I move we have cold turkey,” said Roger.</p> +<p>“It’s rather early for turks, but we can have +capon if we can’t find a good turkey,” replied Ethel +Brown, who kept the run of the Rosemont market.</p> +<p>“Let’s have little birds in aspic jelly,” suggested +Dorothy.</p> +<p>They all gurgled with pleasure at this idea.</p> +<p>“Squabs,” went on Dorothy as her imagination +began to work.</p> +<p>“Um,” commented Roger, his eyes shut.</p> +<p>“Split them down the back, dip them into beaten +egg and melted butter, sprinkle them with the finest +bread crumbs and broil them.”</p> +<p>“O,” came a gentle murmur from Roger, who +was deeply affected by the recital of this appetizing +dish. “Where’s the aspic?”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_214">[214]</div> +<p>“You cut each squab in halves and put one-half in +a mold and then you pour on the aspic.”</p> +<p>“Dorothy, you talk as if you’d been doing birds +in aspic all your life. Did you ever cook them?”</p> +<p>“Once,” dimpled Dorothy. “At cooking +school.”</p> +<p>“I know how to make aspic,” declared Ethel +Brown proudly.</p> +<p>“Let’s have it.”</p> +<p>“Soak a quarter of an ounce of vegetable gelatine +in a pint of water for two hours; then add the +strained juice of a lemon, pepper and salt and +cayenne, two tablespoonfuls of Tarragon vinegar and +another pint of water. Let it cook for a few minutes +over a slow fire and then boil it for two or +three minutes and strain it through a jelly bag over +your birdies.”</p> +<p>“O, you can’t do that that way,” cried Ethel +Blue. “Their elbows will show through when +they’re turned out of their molds. You have to put +in a layer of jelly and when it is stiffened a little +put in your bird, and then pour the rest of the jelly +over it.”</p> +<p>“Correct,” approved Dorothy. “We must be +sure to have enough for each person to have a half +bird in a mold. They are turned out at the last +minute and a sprig of parsley is laid on top of each +one.”</p> +<p>“Help! Help!” came a faint cry from Roger. +“I am swooning with joy at the sound of this delicious +food. I’m so glad Aunt Louise is giving this +party and not one of the chicken salad ladies of +Rosemont.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_215">[215]</div> +<p>“Aspic is good to know about for hot weather +use,” said Ethel Blue. “I’ve been meaning all summer +to tell Della how to make it—she feels the heat +so awfully.”</p> +<p>“You can put all sorts of meats in it, I suppose.”</p> +<p>“And vegetables; peas and beets and carrots +very tender and cut very fine. Tomato jelly makes +a good salad, too.”</p> +<p>“You could make pretty little individual molds +of that.”</p> +<p>“What are we going to have for salad after these +birds?” inquired Roger.</p> +<p>“Let’s have alligator pear salad. It’s as easy as +fiddle. You just have to pare the alligators and +take out their cores—”</p> +<p>“With a butcher’s knife?” inquired Roger.</p> +<p>“—and cut them in halves lengthwise. Then +you put the pieces on a pale yellow-green lettuce +leaf, and pour French dressing over it, and there you +are!”</p> +<p>“I like it all except the name,” objected Roger.</p> +<p>“Christen it something else, and be happy,” +urged Helen.</p> +<p>“What for sweeties?” Roger demanded. “I’m +going through this feast systematically.”</p> +<p>“Don’t go on to the sweeties until we’ve settled +on the bread, then,” insisted Ethel Brown, “I say +Parker House rolls.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_216">[216]</div> +<p>“Or pocket book rolls—the same thing, only +smaller,” said Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“I haven’t made any since we were at Chautauqua; +I shall have to look them up again,” confessed +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I remember,” said Ethel Brown. “You scald +two cups of milk and then put into it three tablespoonfuls +of butter, two teaspoonfuls of sugar and +a teaspoonful and a half of salt. When it has +cooled off a little add a dissolved yeast cake and +three cups of flour and beat it like everything.”</p> +<p>“Command me on the day of the party,” offered +Roger politely.</p> +<p>“We will,” giggled the girls, and they said it so +earnestly that Roger gazed at them suspiciously.</p> +<p>“Cover it up and let it rise; then cut it through +and through and knead in two and a half cups more +flour. Let it rise again. Put it on a floured board, +knead it, and roll it out to half an inch in thickness. +Then cut out the rolls with a floured biscuit cutter. +Brush one-half of each roll with melted butter and +fold the round in halves.”</p> +<p>“Won’t they slide open?”</p> +<p>“Not if you pinch the edges together. Arrange +them in your pan and cover them over so they can +rise in comfort. Then bake them in a hot oven for +from twelve to fifteen minutes,” ended Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“They aren’t as easy as Della’s lightning biscuits, +but they’re so good when they’re done that you don’t +mind having taken the trouble about them.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_217">[217]</div> +<p>“Now for the sweeties,” insisted Roger. “I’m +afraid you’ll forget them and my tooth is as sweet as +ever it was.”</p> +<p>“Are frozen things absolutely forbidden?” inquired +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“O, no, let’s have one frozen thing. We’re going +to have some of the Rosemont people who aren’t +relatives, you know, and I hate to think of what +they’d say about Aunt Louise if she didn’t give them +something frozen!” laughed Helen.</p> +<p>“Let’s have frozen peaches, then. Make them +in the proportion of two quarts of peaches to two +cups of sugar, a quart of water, and the juice of a +lemon and a half. You peel the peaches and take +out the stones and rub the fruit through a colander. +Put the peach pulp and the lemon juice into a syrup +made by boiling the sugar and water together for +five minutes and letting it cool. Pour it all into the +freezer and grind it until it is firm.”</p> +<p>“Command me,” murmured Roger again.</p> +<p>“Poor old Roger! You shan’t be worked to +death! Patrick will do the grinding.”</p> +<p>“For small mercies I’m thankful,” returned +Roger, a beaming smile breaking over his face.</p> +<p>“I speak for chopped preserved ginger with +whipped cream, served in those lovely ramequins of +Aunt Louise’s,” cried Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Why can’t we have maple marguerites to go +with everything?”</p> +<p>“New to me, but let’s have ’em,” urged Roger.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_218">[218]</div> +<p>“Boil together a cup and a half of brown sugar +and a half a cup of water until it makes a soft ball +when it’s dropped into cold water. Let it cool for a +few minutes and then put in half a teaspoonful of +maple flavoring and beat it all together. Have +ready a quarter of a cup of finely chopped nut meats. +Add half of this amount and drop this perfectly <i>dee</i>-licious +stuff on to crackers. While it’s still warm +enough to be sticky sprinkle over the crackers the remainder +of the nut meats.”</p> +<p>“I’ll grind the nut meats,” offered Roger.</p> +<p>“And ask for heavy pay in marguerites!” laughed +Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“I scorn your aspersions of my character,” returned +her brother solemnly. “What are you going +to have to drink?”</p> +<p>“Coffee—grape-juice—lemonade—the usual +things.”</p> +<p>“I think that’s a pretty good list. Write it down +and let’s see what Aunt Louise thinks of it,” recommended +Helen.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_219">[219]</div> +<h2 id="c16">CHAPTER XVI +<br />COLUMBUS DAY</h2> +<p>Ethel Blue, as Columbus Day approached, +was filled with many strange feelings, some of +them far from pleasant. When she read a letter +from her father a few days before the twelfth she +felt as if dread had brought upon her exactly what +she had dreaded. The letter was filled with loving +expressions but it told her that her father was to be +married very soon.</p> +<p>“I know that you will love the dear lady who has +honored me by saying that she will relieve my loneliness,” +he wrote.</p> +<p>“<i>I</i> would have relieved his loneliness if he had +given me a chance,” Ethel sobbed to herself as she +lay on her bed and read the tear-blotted lines for the +tenth time.</p> +<p class="bq">“It will be a sorrow to you to leave Aunt Marion and +your cousins, but perhaps the thought that now you will +belong in a home of your own will make up for it, in part, +at any rate. I don’t see how we can all help being happy +together, and we must all try to make each other happy.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_220">[220]</div> +<p>Ethel Blue thought of a great many things to say +in reply to her father. They sounded very smart +and very convincing as she said them over to herself +in a whisper, but just as she was wiping her eyes and +getting up to sit at her desk and put them on paper +her Aunt Marion’s suggestion that she would be +selfish if she did anything that would hurt her father +or prevent him from making a belated happiness for +himself cut her to the heart.</p> +<p>“He doesn’t love me or he wouldn’t do it,” she +repeated, and then she remembered that all her life +she had had a home and a loving family of cousins +who were as good as brothers and sisters, while her +father had spent the same time without the thought, +even, of home-making.</p> +<p>“I suppose it’s some old Fort Myer woman who’s +as cross as two sticks,” she murmured again and +again; and then an inner voice seemed to speak in her +ear and tell her that there was no reason why she +should not imagine that it was some really lovely +person who was as sweet as she was pretty.</p> +<p>“Everybody says my mother was pretty,” thought +poor Ethel Blue, who had been making herself very +miserable by her old habit of “pretending” without +any basis of fact, and who now was trying to get a +scrap of comfort from the thought that her father +had had good taste once and might be trusted to exercise +it again.</p> +<p>Whether or not to show the letter to her Aunt +Marion she did not know. Her father had not said +whether he had informed her or not. Usually Ethel +told her aunt everything promptly, but now she did +not feel as if she could speak of the thing that had +appeared dreadful when it was only a possibility. +The reality was so much worse that it did not seem +as if she could trust herself to mention it.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_221">[221]</div> +<p>“Aunt Louise has asked him to come on to the +housewarming,” she said. “I’ll wait and see if he +comes. Then he can tell her and Aunt Marion himself; +and if he doesn’t come it won’t be any worse for +me to tell them a few days from now than right off +this minute.”</p> +<p>It was so forlorn an Ethel Blue who dragged herself +through the preparations for the Columbus Day +entertainment, that Ethel Brown could not help noticing +the melancholy air that hung over her usually +smiling face. Ethel Blue would make no explanation +to her cousin, nor would she tell her aunt anything +more than the reassuring words that she was +perfectly well. They gave up trying to make her +talk about herself, trusting to time to bring its own +healing.</p> +<p>No letter came from her father announcing his acceptance +of his sister Louise’s invitation, nor did another +letter reach Ethel Blue. She was inclined to +make a grievance of this until it occurred to her that +she was not likely to hear until she replied to her +father’s announcement of his proposed marriage.</p> +<p>“It’s a serious thing and I ought to answer his +letter right off,” her conscience told her, “but I can’t +say I’m glad and I don’t want to say I’m not glad. +I’ll wait until after the twelfth, any way.”</p> +<p>Her feelings of selfishness and uncertainty made +her a miserable girl during the interval.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_222">[222]</div> +<p>On the morning of Columbus Day the Mortons +and Hancocks went into New York to the Watkinses. +Della’s and Tom’s father was a clergyman who +worked among the foreigners of the East Side. +This was an advantage to the Club members when +they watched the procession that wound its way from +the lower part of the city northward to Columbus +Circle at 59th Street.</p> +<p>“These people must come from all over Europe,” +exclaimed Ethel Brown as bits of conversation in languages +that she never had heard drifted to her ears.</p> +<p>“New York is called one of the largest foreign +cities in the world,” laughed Roger, whose spirits +had risen although he was having difficulties again +with his camera and its persistent desire to take +everything that came within its range, “whether the +girls are pretty or not!” he complained.</p> +<p>“They say that New York is the second largest +German city in the world, and that there are more +Hebrews of different nationalities gathered here than +anywhere else,” said Tom.</p> +<p>“Here are a lot of people wearing peasant costumes +that I never saw in any geography,” cried Dorothy.</p> +<p>“When otherwise not accounted for you can generally +put them among the Balkan states,” laughed +Della.</p> +<p>“Look at that girl over there in peasant costume +and right side of her is a girl in the latest New York +style! That’s a tremendous contrast.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_223">[223]</div> +<p>“I suppose the American-dressed girl thinks she +is very fashionable, but the other looks much more +sensibly dressed and more attractive, too,” said +James gravely.</p> +<p>“She’s a great deal prettier girl for one reason,” +smiled his sister. “She would look better whatever +she wore.”</p> +<p>They all laughed at James who insisted that he +preferred peasant dress, but they all exclaimed with +delight at the gorgeous costumes worn by a group of +Hungarian men. Some of them were riding in carriages +and they seemed very self-conscious but greatly +pleased at the attention they attracted.</p> +<p>“This is a great day for the Italians,” said Helen +as band after band, and society after society, bearing +the Italian red, white and green passed them.</p> +<p>“Well, Columbus was an Italian. They ought to +feel comfortable about it. He discovered us.”</p> +<p>They all shouted at James’s way of putting his defense +of Columbus’s countrymen.</p> +<p>“If we’re going to hear any of the speeches at +Columbus Circle we’d better hop into the subway and +speed to 59th Street,” urged Tom.</p> +<p>They were in plenty of time, and watched the +placing around the Columbus monument of numberless +wreaths and emblems which the societies brought +with them, chiefly at the ends of tall poles and deposited +at the feet of the statue of the great explorer.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_224">[224]</div> +<p>As soon as they reached home the Mortons all +went over to Sweetbrier Lodge to help with the final +decorations. The attic they had set in order the day +before. This was necessary for they had to have a +curtain and they wanted to put it through a rehearsal +as well as themselves. Extra chairs had been +brought in for the occasion and they were now unfolded +so that the little audience room was ready for +its opening performance.</p> +<p>Below stairs all was ready in the kitchen department, +the Ethels learned when they offered their services +there. What was not completed was the arrangement +of flowers and branches throughout the +rooms. At the end of an hour during which the +Ethels and Dorothy and Helen arranged and Roger +carried, the house looked really lovely.</p> +<p>The color scheme of the lower floor was so +autumnal that it was not hard to follow it out in +leaves and blossoms. Chrysanthemums were ready +to emphasize the yellow tones, and bronze leaves +from oaks and chestnuts carried on the darker hues. +Here and there one of Dorothy’s Japanese gardens +gave an air of quaintness to a corner, or stood in relief +against a screen.</p> +<p>Upstairs the nursery was a bower of white cosmos; +Dorothy’s room was feathery with pink blossoms of +the same delicate flower; against Mrs. Smith’s primrose +walls trailed the yellow leaves of a grapevine; +purple asters nodded in the violet chamber, and the +gray guest room wore fluffs of clematis.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_225">[225]</div> +<p>It was not a large party that gathered at Mrs. +Smith’s for the housewarming. The family connection +was not small, however, and the newcomers had +made some warm friends during the year that they +had lived in Rosemont. The older Watkinses and +Hancocks had come, and about fifty people filled the +drawing room comfortably, admiring its beauty as +they waited for the signal to go upstairs to the attic +to see one of the entertainments which Rosemonters +had learned to expect from the United Service Club.</p> +<p>“It’s very charming,” murmured Mrs. Hancock +to her sister. “I see your hand here.”</p> +<p>“Not very much,” demurred Miss Graham. “I +merely made an occasional suggestion or told them +how to work out some good idea of their own. The +color scheme is Mrs. Smith’s.”</p> +<p>“It is charming,” repeated Mrs. Hancock, her +eyes moving from the yellow-white wood-work to the +natural pongee walls and then on to the next shade +of yellow, found in the draperies of the windows, +made of a heavy linen dyed to strike the next note in +the color scale. The furniture was upholstered in +three or four shades of brown; a bit of gold flashed +sombrely from the shadows, and an occasional touch +of dull blue brought out the blue tones of the handsome +rugs.</p> +<p>Every one took a peek into the upper rooms as +they passed upstairs to the attic. Ayleesabet’s +nursery received much praise, and the delicate tones +of the bed-rooms won immediate approval. In the +attic they found comfortable wicker chairs arranged +about the room facing a small stage before which +hung a tan linen curtain.</p> +<p>“What are the children going to do?” asked Mr. +Emerson of his hostess.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_226">[226]</div> +<p>“I really don’t know,” returned Mrs. Smith. +“Dorothy said it would be appropriate for Columbus +Day, so I entrusted it all to the young people.”</p> +<p>When the curtain was drawn the Club was disclosed +grouped on the stage. They sang Miss +Bates’s “America the Beautiful,” Mrs. Smith accompanying +them on the piano.</p> +<p>“That’s all I have to do with the program,” she +said to Mr. Emerson when it was over and she had +again taken her seat beside him.</p> +<p>Then Tom told the story of Columbus—how he +was born at Genoa and became a sailor and when he +was about thirty-four years old went with a brother +to live in Lisbon. Tom was seated on the stage at +a table and two or three of the others sat about as if +they were in a library listening to the talk. They +entered quite naturally into the conversation.</p> +<p>“Four years later,” continued Tom, “somebody +gave Columbus a map that put the Orient directly +west of Spain, and Columbus became filled with a +desire to search out the East by sailing west.”</p> +<p>“I’ve read that he died thinking he had discovered +the East,” responded Helen.</p> +<p>“He laid his plans before the Portuguese king, +but he found he couldn’t trust him, so he went to King +Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in Spain. They summoned +their wisest men to pass on the subject at a +council held at Salamanca. For three years they +kept him waiting about in uncertainty before they reported +to the king that his idea was absurd. Columbus +was furious—”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_227">[227]</div> +<p>“I should think he might have been.”</p> +<p>“—and he started at once for Paris to try to get +the king of France, Charles VIII, to help him. He +took his little son with him and one night they slept +at a monastery. The prior became interested in Columbus’s +story and believed in him and didn’t want +the glory of his achievement to go to another country. +So he managed to secure for him another interview +with Ferdinand and Isabella, and we’re going +to see now,” said Tom, turning to the audience, +“what happened at the convent.”</p> +<p>With that the curtain fell. When it parted once +more a dark curtain across the stage represented the +outside of the convent. Ethel Brown recited Trowbridge’s +“Columbus at the Convent,” while James +acted the part of the Prior; Roger, Columbus; and +Dicky, little Diego.</p> +<p>“Those children have a real feeling for costume,” +whispered Miss Graham to her neighbor, and then +started as she found that it was not her brother-in-law, +Dr. Hancock, as she supposed, but Ethel Blue’s +father, Captain Morton, who had come in in the +darkness.</p> +<p>“How do you do?” he said, smiling at her startled +air. “I suppose they made these things themselves.”</p> +<p>“The boys are wearing their sisters’ long stockings +and the girls made the short, puffy trunks and +short, full coats.”</p> +<p>Ethel Brown’s voice sounded clearly through the +darkness though her hearers could not see her.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_228">[228]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Dreary and brown the night comes down,</p> +<p class="t">Gloomy without a star.</p> +<p class="t0">On Palos town the night comes down;</p> +<p class="t0">The day departs with a stormy frown;</p> +<p class="t">The sad sea moans afar.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“A convent-gate is near; ’tis late;</p> +<p class="t">Ting-ling! the bell they ring.</p> +<p class="t0">They ring the bell, they ask for bread—</p> +<p class="t0">‘Just for my child,’ the father said.</p> +<p class="t">Kind hands the bread will bring.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“White was his hair, his mien was fair,</p> +<p class="t">His look was calm and great.</p> +<p class="t0">The porter ran and called a friar;</p> +<p class="t0">The friar made haste and told the prior;</p> +<p class="t">The prior came to the gate.”</p> +</div> +<p>Here the dark curtain was drawn and a room was +disclosed with a table at which the men sat and a +small bed in which Dicky was put to sleep.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“He took them in, he gave them food;</p> +<p class="t">The traveller’s dreams he heard;</p> +<p class="t0">And fast the midnight moments flew,</p> +<p class="t0">And fast the good man’s wonder grew,</p> +<p class="t">And all his heart was stirred.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“The child the while, with soft, sweet smile,</p> +<p class="t">Forgetful of all sorrow,</p> +<p class="t0">Lay soundly sleeping in his bed.</p> +<p class="t0">The good man kissed him then and said:</p> +<p class="t">‘You leave us not to-morrow!’</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_229">[229]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“‘I pray you rest the convent’s guest;</p> +<p class="t">The child shall be our own—</p> +<p class="t0">A precious care, while you prepare</p> +<p class="t0">Your business with the court, and bear</p> +<p class="t">Your message to the throne.’</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“And so his guest he comforted.</p> +<p class="t">O, wise, good prior, to you,</p> +<p class="t0">Who cheered the stranger’s darkest days,</p> +<p class="t0">And helped him on his way, what praise</p> +<p class="t">And gratitude are due!”</p> +</div> +<p>The pantomime followed the lines closely.</p> +<p>“Wasn’t Dicky cunning!” exclaimed Dicky’s +adoring grandmother.</p> +<p>“Dicky was a duck!” exclaimed Helen, who had +slipped out to see the pantomime. “We told him +what he was supposed to be—a little boy travelling +with his father, and that they had to stop and ask for +food and that a kind man took them in and gave him +a comfy bed. He seemed to understand it all, and +he took hold of James’s hand and looked up in his +face as seriously as if he were the real thing. He +was splendid.”</p> +<p>“All the same I’m always relieved when Dicky’s +part is over and he hasn’t done anything awful!” +confessed Dorothy, who had come out also. “It +would be just like him to say to James, ‘You needn’t +give me any bread; I want cookieth!’”</p> +<p>“We tried to impress on him that he wasn’t to say +anything—that nobody but Ethel Brown was to say +anything; that was the game. I dare say if James +had spoken Dicky would have ordered his meal to +suit his fancy.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_230">[230]</div> +<p>Tom went on with Columbus’s story at this point, +but he spoke from the floor because tableaux were being +arranged behind the curtains. He told how the +interview with the king and queen that the prior had +arranged, all went wrong and how Columbus started +again for France but was called back by the queen +whose imagination had been excited by what he told +her, and who promised to pledge her jewels to raise +money for his expedition.</p> +<p>Here the curtains swung open and showed a brilliant +scene, Della representing the queen, James the +king, and all the other Club members, courtiers. +Columbus was arguing his case before the court and +he was shown in the act of knocking off the end of an +egg to convince the men who had said that they would +believe the world was round when they saw the impossible +happen—when an egg should stand upright.</p> +<p>“I hope Roger’s hand won’t slip,” murmured +Roger’s mother; “that’s a real egg!”</p> +<p>It was while she was standing beside the queen as +one of her ladies in waiting that Ethel Blue’s eyes +happened to fall on her father out in the audience. +The light from the stage illuminated his face and she +thought that she never had seen him so happy as he +looked at that moment.</p> +<p>“He’s so dear and he’s going away from me,” she +groaned inwardly. “Now if it were only dear Miss +Daisy he’s going to marry,” she wished with all her +heart as she noticed that Miss Graham sat in the next +chair; “but it isn’t; it’s some old Fort Myer woman.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_231">[231]</div> +<p>The curtain fell on her misery and Tom again took +up his tale. He told about the three tiny ships that +Columbus managed to secure, and their setting sail +and how frightened the sailors became when day +after day passed and they saw no chance of ever +reaching new land or ever returning home, and how +they threatened to mutiny if he did not turn back.</p> +<p>Then came another pantomime with Roger as +Columbus and James as the mate of the <i>Santa +Maria</i>, while Ethel Brown recited Joaquin Miller’s +poem:</p> +<h3>COLUMBUS</h3> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Behind him lay the gray Azores,</p> +<p class="t">Behind the Gates of Hercules;</p> +<p class="t0">Before him not the ghost of shores,</p> +<p class="t">Before him only shoreless seas.</p> +<p class="t0">The good mate said: ‘Now must we pray,</p> +<p class="t">For lo, the very stars are gone.</p> +<p class="t0">Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?’</p> +<p class="t">‘Why, say, “Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”’</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“‘My men grow mutinous day by day;</p> +<p class="t">My men grow ghastly wan and weak.’</p> +<p class="t0">The stout mate thought of home; a spray</p> +<p class="t">Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.</p> +<p class="t0">‘What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,</p> +<p class="t">If we sight naught but seas at dawn?’</p> +<p class="t0">‘Why, you shall say at break of day,</p> +<p class="t">“Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”’</p> +</div> +<div class="pb" id="Page_232">[232]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,</p> +<p class="t">Until at last the blanched mate said:</p> +<p class="t0">‘Why, now not even God would know</p> +<p class="t">Should I and all my men fall dead.</p> +<p class="t0">These very winds forget their way,</p> +<p class="t">For God from these dread seas is gone.</p> +<p class="t0">Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say’—</p> +<p class="t">He said: ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!’</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:</p> +<p class="t">‘This mad sea shows his teeth to-night.</p> +<p class="t0">He lifts his lip, he lies in wait,</p> +<p class="t">With lifted teeth as if to bite;</p> +<p class="t0">Brave Admiral, say but one good word:</p> +<p class="t">What shall we do when hope is gone?’</p> +<p class="t0">The words leapt like a leaping sword:</p> +<p class="t">‘Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">“Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,</p> +<p class="t">And peered through darkness. Ah, that night</p> +<p class="t0">Of all dark nights! And then a speck—</p> +<p class="t">A light! a light! a light! a light!</p> +<p class="t0">It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!</p> +<p class="t">It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn.</p> +<p class="t0">He gained a world; he gave that world</p> +<p class="t">Its grandest lesson: ‘On! sail on!’”</p> +</div> +<p>The last picture was Columbus gazing joyfully at +the land he had discovered through his perseverance. +It was supposed to be the early morning of October +12, 1492, and Roger, surrounded by his sailors, stood +with a foot on the rail of his boat, shielding his eyes +from the rising sun, while the others crowded behind +him, whispering with delight.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_233">[233]</div> +<p>When the curtains fell together for the last time +the lights flashed out upon the audience and disclosed +Captain Morton greeting his sister and sister-in-law +and his nieces and nephews.</p> +<p>“Where’s my girl?” he inquired in his cordial, +hearty voice. “Where’s Ethel Blue?”</p> +<p>Some one gave her a friendly push forward so her +father did not notice the reluctance with which she +had been almost creeping toward him. He threw +his arm around her shoulders regardless of possible +damage to the elegancies of her court costume, and +kissed her heartily. The tears shone in her eyes as +she forced herself to meet his searching gaze.</p> +<p>“Not crying!” he whispered in her ear, and she +felt her heart give a real pang as the happiness left +his face and was replaced by his old look of sorrow +and endurance. “Not crying!” he repeated in her +ear. “Why, I thought you loved her! You’ve +done nothing but write to me about Miss Daisy all +summer!”</p> +<p>“About Miss Daisy? Do you mean—? Is it +Miss Daisy?”</p> +<p>“It certainly is Miss Daisy. Here, come behind +the curtain,” and he swept his daughter and his +<i>fiancée</i> out of sight of the retiring audience. “It is +Daisy Graham who is to be your dear mother, my +little Ethel Blue. Are you satisfied now?”</p> +<p>“O, Father! O, Miss Daisy!” cried Ethel Blue, +sobbing now from relief and joy and clinging to both +of them; “I never guessed it! It’s too wonderful +to be true!”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_234">[234]</div> +<h2 id="c17">CHAPTER XVII +<br />THE PARTING BREAKFAST</h2> +<p>Ethel Blue’s change of mind about stepmothers +was so complete that her cousins would +have joked her about it except that her Aunt Marion +advised them to say nothing to her on a subject that +had once been so sore a theme.</p> +<p>“Don’t recall those painful thoughts,” she advised. +“Ethel Blue will be happier and certainly +Miss Daisy will be if the present mood continues.”</p> +<p>“I thought you couldn’t help loving her when you +knew her,” Captain Morton had said to Ethel Blue. +“That’s why I was willing to postpone the wedding +all summer so that you and she might have a chance +to become really well acquainted.”</p> +<p>“It was a good way,” answered Ethel frankly. +“If I had known about it I should have thought +everything Miss Daisy did was done for its effect on +me. I should have been suspicious of her all the +time.”</p> +<p>“You have come to know a very dear woman in a +natural way and it crowns my happiness that you +should care so much for each other.”</p> +<p>Since he had waited so patiently for so many +months Captain Morton begged that the wedding +should take place at once. Mrs. Hancock urged her +sister to have it in Glen Point.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_235">[235]</div> +<p>“If you go to Washington you’ll have many acquaintances +there but not any more loving friends +than you’ve made here and in Rosemont,” she said +cordially. “It will give the Doctor and me the +greatest happiness to have you married from our +house, and it will be such a delight to all the U. S. C. +if they know that they can all be at the wedding +of their dear ‘Miss Daisy.’”</p> +<p>“It will be easier for all the Rosemont people—and +it would be very sweet to go to Richard from +your house,” murmured Daisy thoughtfully. “I believe +I’ll do it.”</p> +<p>“It will be easier to bring Aunt Mary on here than +for all the New Jersey clans to go to Washington,” +insisted Mrs. Hancock, referring to the aunt with +whom her sister had lived in Washington.</p> +<p>“I’ll do it,” decided Daisy. “Richard’s furlough +is almost over so it will have to be very soon,” she +continued. “I’ll have to begin my preparations at +once.”</p> +<p>So all the plans were made for a quiet wedding for +just the two families and their intimate friends. It +was to be ten days after the housewarming. The +ceremony was to be in the church at Glen Point, with +Ethel Blue as maid of honor, and Margaret and +Helen, Ethel Brown and Della as the bridesmaids.</p> +<p>Even this very first decision gave the Ethels a +twinge of pain, because it prophesied their coming +separation. Never before had they been separated +at any such function, yet now Ethel Blue was to be in +one position and her twin cousin in another. They +both sighed when it was talked over, and they glanced +at each other a trifle sadly. They did not need to +put the meaning of their glances into words.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_236">[236]</div> +<p>Dr. Hancock was to give the bride away. To +everybody’s regret Lieutenant Morton could not be +present to act as his brother’s best man.</p> +<p>“I’m more sorry than I can tell you, old fellow,” +he wrote. “Roger will have to take my place and +give you all my good wishes with his own. You may +congratulate me, too, for I’ve just got word that my +step has come. I can now sign myself, +<br /><span class="t2">“Your affectionate brother,</span> +<br /><span class="t4">“<span class="sc">Roger Morton</span>,</span> +<br /><span class="t6">“Capt. U.S.N.”</span></p> +<p class="tb">There was great rejoicing in the Morton family +when they learned this news, and telegrams poured +in on them all day long after the announcement was +publicly made.</p> +<p>“It gives one more touch of happiness,” smiled +Richard Morton, who went about beaming. He had +to content himself with the companionship of his +daughter, for his betrothed was too busy to give him +much time. Probably this was a good thing, for it +made her father’s visit much as it always had been to +Ethel Blue, and did not impress on her too abruptly +the idea of their new relation.</p> +<p>It was at the meeting of the U. S. C. held very +soon after the housewarming that the members decided +to give a breakfast in celebration of the wedding +and of Ethel Blue’s departure from Rosemont.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_237">[237]</div> +<p>“We’ll call it a breakfast, but we’ll have it rather +late,” said Helen.</p> +<p>“Why?” growled Roger hungrily. “I like my +morning nourishment early.”</p> +<p>“It’s going to be out on our terrace, and it’s getting +to be late in the season and if it’s too cold we +can’t have it there,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Put in your glass windows and have it at a +civilized hour,” implored Roger.</p> +<p>Dorothy looked at Helen.</p> +<p>“I’ll ask Mother if she won’t do that,” she said. +“Then we can have a fire in the open fireplace out +there if it should be really frosty. I forgot we had +all those comforts!”</p> +<p>“We must give the Glen Point people time to get +over, if Roger can restrain his appetite a trifle,” +urged Ethel Brown.</p> +<p>“We’d better have Della and Tom stay all night +so they’ll be here on time,” urged Ethel Blue. “I +can’t get over New Haven being near enough for +Tom to go back and forth so easily. I always +thought it was as far off as Boston.”</p> +<p>“I declare I almost weep every time I think of +Ethel Blue’s leaving the club,” sobbed Tom with loud +groans.</p> +<p>Ethel Blue tossed a pillow at him.</p> +<p>“Stop making fun of me,” she said with her pretended +severity.</p> +<p>“Ethel Blue was the founder of this club. Don’t +forget that,” said James gravely.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_238">[238]</div> +<p>“Don’t be so solemn, people; you’ll make me +bawl,” and Ethel Blue looked around her wildly, as +Ethel Brown made a dive into her pocket for her +handkerchief, and Della sniffed.</p> +<p>“Stop your nonsense, children,” urged Helen. +“Let’s make a list of what we are going to do at our +breakfast. First, what shall we eat?”</p> +<p>The discussion waxed absorbing, but when it came +to the arrangement of a program it was found that +there seemed to be fewer ideas than was customary +among them.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter?” asked Helen. “Usually +we’re tumbling over ourselves suggesting things.”</p> +<p>“I’ve got an idea, but it’s sort of a joke and I +don’t want to take the edge off it by telling it now,” +admitted James.</p> +<p>It proved that all of them were in the same predicament.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell you—let’s have Helen and Roger the +committee to arrange this program,” suggested Tom. +“Then we can each one tell the committee what our +particular idea is, and they’ll be the only ones who +will know all the jokes.”</p> +<p>They decided that this would be the best way, and +the committee withdrew to a corner where it was +visited by one after the other of the rest of the members, +while the unoccupied people drew around the +piano on which Ethel Blue was playing popular +songs.</p> +<p>“When do you go?” Tom asked her as she +stopped for a few minutes to hunt up a new piece of +music.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_239">[239]</div> +<p>“The wedding is the day after our breakfast; then +they go off on a week’s trip and when they come back +they’ll pick me up here and take me on to Fort Myer +with them.”</p> +<p>“That means that you’ll only be here about ten +days longer?”</p> +<p>Ethel Blue nodded, her eyes filling.</p> +<p>“I wish you’d give us your idea now, Tom,” +called Helen, seeing from across the room that her +little cousin was not far from tears, and Tom went +away, leaving her to let her fingers slip softly through +a simple tune that her Aunt Marion had taught her +to play in the dusk without her notes. She wondered +if she would ever do it again; if her new mother and +her father would want her to play it to them; if she +should be happy, the only young person in the household +when she had been accustomed to a large family; +if she could ever get along without Dicky to tease her +and to be teased.</p> +<p>“Aunt Marion says that every change in life has +its good points and its bad ones,” she thought. “I +must make the most out of the good points and try +not to notice the bad ones or to change them into +good ones.”</p> +<p>The tune rang out with a gayer lilt.</p> +<p>“Any way, there are so many good points now +that I ought not to think about the others. I’ve all +my life wanted to live with Father. Here’s my +chance, and I must see only that my wish has come +true.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_240">[240]</div> +<p>“You sound very gay over here by yourself,” said +James’s voice behind her. “You don’t sound as if +you were sorry at all about leaving us.”</p> +<p>“I’m trying to balance things,” Ethel Blue answered. +“I lose Ethel Brown and all of you, but +I gain Father.”</p> +<p>“You’ll be coming north for your holidays next +summer, I suppose. That will be a great old time +for the U. S. C.,” he said hopefully.</p> +<p>“It would be simply too fine for words if the U. S. C. +could go to Washington for Washington’s Birthday +next winter the way it did this winter,” returned +Ethel Blue, beaming at him.</p> +<p>“There certainly is every inducement to get up an +excursion there now,” said James. “You know +we’ve decided on a round robin, don’t you?”</p> +<p>“A round robin? How does it work?”</p> +<p>“Helen and Ethel Brown and the Honorary +Member and Dorothy will be here in Rosemont, +Margaret will be in Glen Point, Della in New York, +you at Fort Myer and we boys at Harvard and Yale +and the Boston Tech. Helen is going to start a letter +on the first day of each month. She’ll tell us +what she’s been doing. Ethel Brown will add on a +bit; so will Dicky and Dorothy. It will go to Margaret. +She’ll put in a big batch of Glen Point news +and send it in town to Della. When she has finished +she’ll send it on to Tom at New Haven, and in course +of time it will reach Roger and me in Boston and +Cambridge and we’ll send it on to you in Washington.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_241">[241]</div> +<p>“That will be perfectly great!” exclaimed Ethel. +“You can illustrate it with kodaks, and we’ll all +know what every one of us is doing all the time.”</p> +<p>“That was Aunt Daisy’s idea. She thought we’d +all like to keep together in some way even if we +couldn’t have our Saturday meetings.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t she splendid!” ejaculated Ethel Blue, and +at that instant she felt that she was far richer than +ever before in her life.</p> +<p>The morning of the breakfast proved to be clear +and not too frost-filled for comfort.</p> +<p>“We really hardly need the glass,” Mrs. Smith +said as she and Dorothy examined the terrace at an +early hour.</p> +<p>“It was safer to have it, though,” answered Dorothy. +“It might have rained and it never would +have done to have the bride take cold. Now we can +have the sashes open and the fire will take off the +chill. It’s a great combination.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Smith agreed that it was, and went on with +her scrutiny of the table.</p> +<p>When the guests arrived at nine o’clock, which was +the very latest moment permitted them by Roger, +they found the sun shining merrily on silver and glass +and china, twinkling as if it were in the secret of the +jokes that Helen and Roger had up their sleeves. +Mr. Emerson had sent over his car for the Hancocks, +for the Doctor’s car was too small to convey +the entire family.</p> +<p>“It does my heart good to see Richard so radiant,” +said Mrs. Morton to her sister-in-law as Captain +Morton ran down the steps to help his <i>fiancée</i>.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_242">[242]</div> +<p>“I believe the best part of his life is before him,” +Mrs. Smith answered softly, a smile on her lips.</p> +<p>The hostess sat at one end of the table and Dorothy +at the other. In the middle of one side was +Helen, the president of the United Service Club, and +in the middle of the other, Ethel Blue, the secretary +and departing member. Mingled with the +other club members were Mr. and Mrs. Emerson, +who had contributed so greatly to the Club’s pleasure +during the preceding year, and Dr. and Mrs. +Hancock, relatives of to-morrow’s bride. The hour +was too early for Mr. and Mrs. Watkins to come out +from New York, but they telephoned their good +wishes and congratulations while the meal was in +progress.</p> +<p>It was a simple breakfast but everything was good +both to eat and to look at. It began with fruit, of +which there were several kinds, and continued with +a well-cooked cereal.</p> +<p>“None of your five minute cereals for me,” smiled +Mrs. Smith. “I always have even the short-time +ones cooked at least twice as long as they are reputed +to need. It brings out their flavor better.”</p> +<p>After the cereal with its rich cream came chops +for the meat eaters and individual <i>omelettes soufflés</i>, +as light as a feather, for the egg eaters. The coffee +was clear and turned to a warm gold when the cream +worked its magic upon it. Broiled fresh mushrooms +with bacon brought it all to an end.</p> +<p>“Just the kind of muffins I like best,” Ethel Brown +said in a undertone to Dorothy.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_243">[243]</div> +<p>“Potatoes from our own farm,” announced the +hostess.</p> +<p>“All praise to Dorothy, the farmer,” hailed Mr. +Emerson.</p> +<p>“Mostly to Roger,” protested Dorothy. “He +managed the vegetable end of our planting.”</p> +<p>Helen tapped on her glass.</p> +<p>“This will be the last meeting of all the members +of the U. S. C.,” she said, “because Ethel Blue and +the boys are going away.”</p> +<p>A shade fell over the faces of all those around the +table.</p> +<p>“We who are left at home here are going to keep +it up, so that there’ll always be a Club for the wanderers +to come back to. And we’re going to have a +round robin fly about every month.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps we’ll all get together next summer in +the holidays,” suggested Tom.</p> +<p>“We’ll try to,” the president continued. “Now I +want to ask you to drink in Aunt Louise’s nice brown +coffee to the health of the founder of the United +Service Club. She is its secretary and to-day she is +distinguished as being about to leave us for good.”</p> +<p>They rapped the table and shouted Ethel Blue’s +name joyously. She sat with her head bowed, smiling.</p> +<p>“Speech, speech,” cried Mr. Emerson.</p> +<p>“Thank you, thank you,” replied Ethel Blue +breathlessly. “I’m glad we’ve had the Club. It +has been fun, although we’ve had to work pretty hard +at it.”</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_244">[244]</div> +<p>“You’ve made fun for others,” said Mrs. Emerson. +“You’ve lived up to your name:—the United +Service.”</p> +<p>“I’d like to propose the health of the Club as a +whole,” said Mrs. Morton. “As a citizen of Rosemont +I can repeat what has been said to me by other +citizens, even if, as the mother of some of the members, +I might be somewhat embarrassed to utter such +praise. Rosemont thinks that the United Service +Club has done more to stir up the town than any other +organization it has ever had.”</p> +<p>There was general applause from the grown-ups.</p> +<p>“I’d like to hear some of these undertakings,” +said Captain Morton. “Won’t some one recite +them?”</p> +<p>“O, Father, I wrote you all about them when each +one came off,” objected Ethel Blue.</p> +<p>“Uncle Richard will hear what some of them are +when we give out our prizes,” said Helen. “We’ve +decided to give prizes for certain especial successes. +Ethel Brown, for instance, will be so good as to rise +and receive a reward for reciting more poems than +we ever knew could be learned by one small brain.”</p> +<p>Ethel Brown rose and received, while the rest applauded, +a small sieve.</p> +<p>“Why a sieve?” inquired Margaret.</p> +<p>“The sieve is symbolic. Ethel takes in verse +through her eyes and lets it out through her lips just +like a sieve.”</p> +<p>After the laughter subsided, Helen continued:</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_245">[245]</div> +<p>“Our next prize is for Grandfather Emerson, who +supplied Ethel Brown with much of the material with +which she has favored us.”</p> +<p>Mr. Emerson was decorated with a miniature well +and pump.</p> +<p>“I suppose this is the fount of English undefiled +on which I drew,” he commented.</p> +<p>The president went on with her distribution. The +jokes were all mild but for the Club members each +had its meaning. James received a small pair of +crutches, because he was the only one who had broken +a leg.</p> +<p>“I’m glad it wasn’t scissors,” said his father. +“He might be led into cutting corners again.”</p> +<p>Dorothy received a pink tin containing a cake with +pink icing—all by way of recognition of her love +of cooking and of pink. Roger’s gift was a set of +collar and cuffs made from paper “dirt bands” and +adorned with cuff buttons and a cravat of dazzling +beauty.</p> +<p>“A man of fashion and a farmer combined,” +Helen announced.</p> +<p>Dicky received a watering can, by way of indicating +his fondness for getting into trouble with water. +A fan went to Della “for next summer’s use.” Tom +had a little Roman soldier as a reminder of his representation +of one of the Great Twin Brethren. Margaret’s +offering was a tiny Christmas Ship containing +needles and a spool of thread. Helen gave herself +a doll’s coat like the one which she and Margaret +had copied in great numbers for the war orphans. +Ethel Blue’s gift was a real present—a travelling +case fitted with the necessaries of a journey. This +came from all the members of the Club.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_246">[246]</div> +<p>“You’re just too dear,” whispered Ethel Blue, +too overcome to speak.</p> +<p>They drowned her voice in a burst of chatter, so +that she might not burst into tears.</p> +<p>“I have a few gifts left,” said Helen, “and I’d +like to give them out by acclamation. Whose tires +have we worn until they were almost worn out and +yet <i>she</i> has never tired?”</p> +<p>“Grandmother Emerson,” came the ringing answer, +and Helen ran around to her grandmother’s +chair and gave her a toy automobile.</p> +<p>“Who made the most box furniture for Rose +House?”</p> +<p>“Roger,” shouted James at the top of his lungs, +while at the same moment Roger cried “James.” +The others, having been instructed to keep silent, +concluded that the question was settled for them.</p> +<p>“Roger <i>and</i> James,” decreed Helen, presenting +each of them with a knife.</p> +<p>“Who are our high-flyers?”</p> +<p>“The Ethels,” every one said promptly, for the +Ethels were the only ones present who had been up +in an aeroplane.</p> +<p>A tiny flyer was given to each of them.</p> +<p>So it went on until the supply of parcels in Helen’s +basket was exhausted.</p> +<div class="pb" id="Page_247">[247]</div> +<p>“Now, to wind up with,” Helen said, “I want to +thank Uncle Richard for giving us the very finest +kind of present,” and she waved her hand across the +table to Miss Daisy, whose shining eyes and glowing +cheeks told of her delight in all she had seen. +“Uncle Richard is taking away Ethel Blue, but he’s +giving us an aunt. We love her already and we think +we’ve all won a prize in her.”</p> +<p>“Ah, no,” exclaimed Miss Daisy, slipping one +hand into Ethel Blue’s and laying the other on Captain +Morton’s shoulder. “It is I who have won a +prize—a double prize!”</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2>Transcriber’s Note</h2> +<ul> +<li>Silently corrected some obvious typographical errors and misspellings.</li> +<li>Used hyphens more consistently, when the original showed a clear preference.</li> +</ul> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHEL MORTON AT SWEETBRIER LODGE***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 35364-h.txt or 35364-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/5/3/6/35364">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/3/6/35364</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. 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