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"So you want me to come to your show, do you?" said Mr.Harriman.]
_Girl Scouts Series, Volume 2_
THE GIRL SCOUTS RALLY
or
ROSANNA WINS
BY
Katherine Keene Galt
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO--AKRON, OHIO--NEW YORK
MADE IN U. S. A.
Copyright, 1921, by
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
THE GIRL SCOUTS SERIES 1 THE GIRL SCOUTS AT HOME 2 THE GIRL SCOUTS RALLY 3 THE GIRL SCOUT'S TRIUMPH
THE GIRL SCOUTS RALLY
CHAPTER I
Three little girls sat in a row on the top step of a beautiful home inLouisville. At the right was a dark-haired, fairylike child on whosedocked hair a velvet beret, or French officer's cap, sat jauntily. Herdark eyes were round and thoughtful as she gazed into space. There was alittle wrinkle between her curved black brows.
Beside her, busily knitting on a long red scarf, sat a sparkling littlegirl whose hazel eyes danced under a fringe of blond curls. Her daintymotions and her pretty way of tossing back her beautiful hair causedpeople to stop and look at her as they passed, but Elise was allunconscious of their admiration. Indeed, she was almost too shy, and fewknew how full of fun and laughter she could be.
The third girl wore a businesslike beaver hat over her blond dockedhair, and her great eyes, blue and steady, were levelled across Elise,who knitted on in silence, to the dark girl in the velvet cap.
Helen Culver spoke at last. "Well, Rosanna, what are you thinking? Haveyou any plan at all?"
The dark child spoke. "No, Helen, I can't think of a thing. It makes me_so_ provoked!"
"Tell me, will you not?" asked Elise in her pretty broken English. Shewas trying so hard to speak like Rosanna and Helen that she couldscarcely be prevailed upon to say anything in French.
Many months had passed since Elise, in the care of the kind ladies ofthe American Red Cross, had come over from France to her adoptedguardian, young Mr. Horton. She had grown to be quite American duringthat time, and was very proud of her attainments. The dark and dreadfulpast was indeed far behind, and while she sometimes wept for her deargrandmother, who had died in Mr. Horton's tender arms in the old chateauat home, she loved her foster mother, Mrs. Hargrave, with all her heart.And with Elise laughing and dancing through it, the great old Hargravehouse was changed indeed. While Elise was crossing the ocean, Mrs.Hargrave had fitted up three rooms for her. There was a sitting-room,that was like the sunny outdoors, with its dainty flowered chintzes, itsivory wicker furniture, its plants and canaries singing in wicker cages.Then there was a bedroom that simply put you to sleep just to look atit: all blue and silver, like a summer evening. Nothing sang here, butthere was a big music box, old as Mrs. Hargrave herself, that tinkledElise to sleep if she so wished. And the bathroom was papered so thatyou didn't look at uninteresting tiles set like blocks when you splashedaround in the tub. No; there seemed to be miles and miles of sunnysea-beach with little shells lying on the wet sand and sea gullsswinging overhead.
Mrs. Hargrave was so delighted with all this when it was finished thatit made her discontented with her own sitting-room with its dim oldhangings and walnut furniture.
"No wonder I was beginning to grow old," she said to her life-longfriend, Mrs. Horton. "No wonder at all! All this dismal old stuff isgoing up in the attic. I shall bring down my great great-grandmother'smahogany and have all my wicker furniture cushioned with parrots androses."
"It sounds dreadful," said Mrs. Horton.
"It won't be," retorted her friend. "It will be perfectly lovely. Didyou know that I can play the piano? I can, and well. I had forgotten it.I am going to have birds too--not canaries, but four cunning littlegreen love-birds. They are going to have all that bay window forthemselves. And I shall have a quarter grand piano put right there."
"I do think you are foolish," said Mrs. Horton, who was a cautiousperson. "What if this child turns out to be a failure? All you have ismy son's word for it, and what does a boy twenty-four years old knowabout little girls? You ought to wait and see what sort of a child sheis."
"I have faith, my dear," said her friend. "I have been so lonely for somany long years that I feel sure that at last the good Lord is going tosend me a real little daughter."
"Cross-eyed perhaps and with a frightful disposition," said Mrs. Horton."All children look like angels to Robert."
Mrs. Hargrave was plucky. "Very well, then; I can afford to have hereyes straightened, and I will see what I can do about the temper."
"I won't tease you any more," said Mrs. Horton. "Robert says the childis charming and good as gold. I know you will be happy with her, and ifyou find that she is too much of a care for you, you can simply throwher right back on Robert's hands. I don't like to have him feel that hehas no responsibility in the matter."
Elise proved to be all that Mrs. Hargrave had dreamed, and more. Shesang like a bird and Mrs. Hargrave found her old skill returning as sheplayed accompaniments or taught Elise to play on the pretty piano. Andthe little girl, who was perfectly happy, repaid her over and over inlove and a thousand sweet and pretty attentions. Dear Mrs. Hargrave, whohad been so lonely that she had not cared particularly whether she livedor died, found herself wishing for many years of life.
The three little girls, Elise, Rosanna, of whom you have perhaps read,and her friend Helen Culver were great friends.
They went to school and studied and played together, and Rosanna andHelen were both Girl Scouts. Elise was to join too, as soon as she couldqualify. At present, as Uncle Robert said slangily, she was "stuck onpie." She could not make a crust that could be cut or even _sawed_ apartalthough she tried to do so with all the earnestness in the world.
Perhaps you girls who are reading this remember Rosanna. If so, you willbe glad to know that she grew well and strong again after her accidentand continued to be a very happy little girl who was devoted to hergrandmother, who in turn was devoted to Rosanna. The beautiful hair thatRosanna had cut off was allowed to stay docked, and that was a greatrelief to Rosanna, who was always worried by the weight of the longcurls that hung over her shoulders like a dark glistening cape. Itseemed _such_ fun to be able to shake her head like a pony and send theshort, thick mane flying now that it was cut off.
There were three people in Rosanna's home: her stately grandmother Mrs.Horton, Uncle Robert, of whom you have heard, and Rosanna herself.Rosanna had had a maid, of whom she was very fond, but Minnie was athome preparing to marry the young man to whom she had been engaged allthrough the war. He was at home again, and together they were fittingout a cunning little bungalow in the Highlands. As soon as everythingwas arranged quite to their satisfaction, they were going to be married,and Minnie vowed that she could never get married unless she could havea real wedding with bridesmaids and all, and she had a scheme! By theway she rolled her eyes and her young man chuckled, it seemed as thoughit must be a very wonderful scheme indeed, but although all three girlshung around her neck and teased, not another word would she say. Minniehad two little sisters who were about the ages of Rosanna and Elise andHelen, but they did not know what the scheme was either. It was _very_trying.
Helen Culver no longer lived over Mrs. Horton's garage and her father nolonger drove the Horton cars, but her home was very near in a dearlittle apartment as sweet and clean and dainty as it could be. Mr.Culver and Uncle Robert were often together and did a good deal offiguring and drawing but other than gues
sing that it was something to dowith Uncle Robert's business, the children did not trouble their heads.
Helen was ahead of Rosanna in school. She had had a better chance tostart with, as Rosanna had only had private teachers and so had had noreason to strive to forge ahead. There had been no one to get ahead_of_! Now, however, she was studying to such good purpose that she hopedsoon to overtake Helen. But it was a hard task, because Helen was a verybright little girl who could and would and _did_ put her best effort ineverything she did.
These, then, were the three little girls who sat on Rosanna's doorstepand smelled the burning leaves and enjoyed the beautiful fall day.
"Rosanna is so good at making plans," said Helen, smiling over at herfriend.
"What shall your good plan be for?" asked Elise.
"Don't you remember, Elise, our telling you about the picnic we hadonce, and the children who took supper with us?"
"Oh, _oui_--yess, yess!" said Elise, correcting herself hastily.
"And we told you how we took them home and saw poor Gwenny, theirsister, who is so lame that she cannot walk at all, and is so good andpatient about it? We mean to take you over to see her, now that you canspeak English so nicely. She wants to see you so much."
"I would be charm to go," declared Elise, nodding her curly head.
"Well," continued Rosanna, "Gwenny's mother says that Gwenny could becured, but that it would cost more than she could ever pay, and it isnothing that she could get done at the free dispensaries. Those areplaces where very, very poor people can go and get good doctors andnurses and advice without paying anything at all, but Gwenny could notgo there.
"She would have to go to a big hospital in Cincinnati and stay for along while. I thought about asking my grandmother if she would like tosend Gwenny there, but just as I was going to speak of it last night,she commenced to talk to Uncle Robert about money, and I heard her tellhim that she was never so hard up in her life, and what with the LibertyLoan drives taking all her surplus out of the banks, and the high rateof taxes, she didn't know what she was going to do. So I couldn't say athing."
"The same with ma maman," said Elise. "She calls those same taxesrobbers. So you make the plan?"
"That's just it: I _don't_," said Rosanna ruefully. "I wish I couldthink up some way to earn money, a lot of it ourselves."
"Let's do it!" said Helen in her brisk, decided way.
"But _how_?" questioned Rosanna. "It will take such a lot of money,Helen. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars, maybe _thousands_."
"I should think the thing to do would be to ask a doctor exactly howmuch it would cost, first of all," said the practical Helen.
"Another thing," said Rosanna, "Gwenny's family is very proud. Theydon't like to feel that people are taking care of them. The AssociatedCharities gave Gwenny a chair once, so she could wheel herself around,but it made them feel badly, although Gwenny's mother said she knew thatit was the right thing to accept it."
"She will feel that it is the thing to do if we can pay to have Gwennycured too," said Helen. "You know how sensible she is, Rosanna. She mustrealize that everybody knows that she does all she can in this world forher family. I heard mother say she never saw any woman work so hard tokeep a home for her children.
"Mother says she never rests. And she is not trained, you know, to dospecial work like typewriting, or anything that is well paid, so she hasto be a practical nurse and things like that."
"Aren't all nurses practical?" asked Rosanna, a frown of perplexity onher brow.
"Trained nurses are not," replied Helen. "Trained nurses get thirty andforty dollars a week and a practical nurse gets seven or eight, andworks harder. But you see she never had a chance to get trained. Ittakes a long time, like going to school and graduating, only you go tothe hospital instead."
"I know," said Rosanna. "There were what they called undergraduatenurses at the Norton Infirmary and they wore a different uniform. Butthey were all pretty, and so good to me."
"Well, you can't do much on what Gwenny's mother makes," said Helen.
Elise sighed. "It is so sad," she declared. "Do the robber Taxes attackher also?"
"No; she has nothing to attack," laughed Helen.
"Is Mees Gwenny a Girl Scout?" asked Elise.
"No, but her sister Mary is. She went in about the time Rosanna joined,but she does not belong to our group. They live in another part of thecity."
"Will my allowance help?" asked Elise. "I will give it so gladly. Mamaman is so good, so generous! I never can spend the half. I save it tohelp a little French child, but surely if Mees Gwenny is your dearfriend and she suffers----"
"She suffers all right," declared Helen. "Oh, Rosanna, we have _got_ tothink up some way to help her! I am going to ask mother."
"Helen, do you remember what our Captain said at the very last meeting?No, you were not there; I remember now. She said that we must learn toact for ourselves and not forever be asking help from our families. Shesaid that we should always consult them before we made any importantmove, but she wanted us to learn to use our own brains. Now it does lookto me as though this was a time to use all the brains we have. Think howwonderful it would be if we could only do this ourselves!"
"What do you mean by _we_? Just us three, or the Girl Scouts in ourgroup?" asked Helen.
"I don't know," said Rosanna dismally. "I really haven't the first idea!Let's all think."