Amy Ella Blanchard

“ You girls should know Cousin Sue; she is the dearest thing. I don’t know what I should do without her. We have been such friends ever since that horrid time.”
“If she is anything like Mr. Pattison she must be a peach,” declared Winnie.
“She is just as much of a peach but a different variety,” replied Joanne. “Well, girls, I want to say this, that you are not to consider me at all in the going to the lodge. You are to go and have the very best sort of time. It will make me very unhappy if you back out. I want you to use Chico all that is good for him and I want you to be nice to Pablo. ”

“ Joanne gently lifted one of her friend’s hands and kissed it. “Now I know why Bob is so fine,” she said. “I don’t intend my adopted mother and brother shall be ashamed of me, and I promise faithfully to do my best. I did begin to try, but I got tired and slacked off, but I don’t mean ever to be called a slacker again.”
“Dear little girl,” Mrs. Marriott bent over and kissed her, “I am proud of you.”
“And I love you more than ever. Please tell me what I may call you. Girls don’t call even their adopted mothers Mrs.; and I like to have special names for persons I love.” ”

“ Joanne settled herself upon her grandfather’s knee and began to toy with the locks of hair which touched his forehead. “I want you to say up and down, cross my heart, ‘Yes, Joanne, you may go.’ Then if Gradda objects you must gird on your armor and do battle for me.”
“It strikes me that you are very capable of doing battle for yourself.”
“But what can one poor weak maid do alone? I need your valorous assistance to bring her around to our point of view. Do you promise?” She took her grandfather’s face between her hands. ”

“ CHRISTMAS WREATHS THE autumn days sped quickly by. There was plenty to do both in school and out, so Joanne had no time for moping. She had her ups and downs, of course, and once in a while flew into one of her old rages, but each time she was more ashamed, and was beginning to see that the game was not worth the candle. Her girl friends did much in helping her to see this; Winnie, particularly, gave her no sympathy when she came to her with an imagined grievance. ”

“ NOT a word did Joanne say to her girl friends about her summer plans. Cousin Sue’s advice had not fallen upon stony ground. Why should one dwell upon an unpleasant subject when there was no immediate need to? Why cross a bridge till you came to it? Meantime there were many things to occupy a schoolgirl’s thoughts, with examinations coming on, and quite as many things to interest a Girl Scout outside the matter of winning badges. Sunflower Troop took weekly hikes, sometimes no farther than to Potomac Park to see the Japanese cheery trees in blossom, sometimes as far as Arlington. ”

“ Joanne slid across the floor to her grandfather. “Come, Grad, come,” she cried seizing him by the arm.
“Pshaw! an old fellow like me? Go find some younger partner.”
“No, you, you, I want you. A navy man not dance? It’s absurd. Of course you will; Gradda must, too.”
“Please to count me out,” expostulated Mrs. Selden. But here Mr. Pattison came up to join his entreaties to Joanne’s, so off the four went, Joanne as proud as Lucifer of her grandparents.
This was the last dance. The clock was nearing the hour of midnight. There was a rush for the cloak room. Automobiles honked outside. ”

“ Joanne laughed. “I vas always yust like dot,” she answered. “You don’t set sufficient value upon my imaginative qualities. When I am going to attack a problem I always plan what I would do if my first effort failed. For instance, if I hadn’t sold those tickets right hot off the bat, I knew exactly where I would go next. In my mind’s eye I saw Mrs. Barry turning me down because of some previous engagement or something like that, and I was all ready to fly off to some of Grad’s navy friends who would do anything for him or for me because I am his granddaughter.” ”

“ We girls, Winnie Merryman and Claudia Price and I have decided to study the heavens every Friday that it is clear enough, and I’m going to begin a star map right away. You know how it is done? You take an old umbrella and a lot of little paper stars which you stick on the inside of the umbrella in the forms of the constellations. Then when you have learned the constellations you draw them from memory so that in time you learn them all, and can recognize them when you look up. ”

“ Where’s Miss Dodge?”
Joanne hunted her up and a long conference followed between the captain and Mr. Pattison. The girls, all ready to go, stood around impatiently. “I wonder what they are talking about,” said Joanne.
“Miss Dodge looks mightily pleased,” returned Winnie.
“Probably he is complimenting her upon being at the head of such a fine troop,” remarked Claudia.
“Oh, Claudia, what a conceited remark,” exclaimed Esther.
Claudia laughed. “How literal you always are, Ess,” she said.
“All the same,” remarked Winnie serenely, “we are a fine troop; no one can deny.” ”

“ Her grandmother is a dear, but she is as old-fashioned and conventional as they make ’em, and expects to make Joanne after the pattern of her own youth which isn’t the style nowadays. Jo is as bright as a button and I, for one, am mighty proud that she belongs to our troop and specially to our patrol; so should you be, Miss Jealousy.”
Esther pouted, but, like the rest of the girls, was accustomed to Winnie’s very frank way of dealing with a subject, a way which no one resented for very long, because no one could help loving Winnie, and in the end, thanking her for her wholesome truths. ”

“ Claudia, in pink and white, rushed up to her. “The most awful thing has happened,” she announced, “and poor Miss Dodge is very nearly in tears.”
“What in the world is the matter?” asked Joanne, laying aside her cloak.
“She has had a telegram from the man who was to play the violin. He has been taken ill with grippe and cannot possibly come. Miss Dodge is madly telephoning in every direction to get some one, any one, to take his place. It is tragic. The hall is already filling up and there is no time to spare. It will be a perfect fizzle if something can’t be done.” ”

“ Joanne answered. “Cousin Ned often goes there when he is out fishing with his friends. They build a fire and cook the fish over the coals.”
“Dear me,” sighed Winnie, “there are so many lovely things to do one doesn’t know where to begin, and we’ll never get them all done.”
“Of course not,” returned Joanne, “not in one trip, but we mean there shall be more than one.”
“I devoutly hope so. Me, oh me! Joanne, but I am glad you joined our troop.”
Joanne laughed, then came the summons to supper and the girls trooped into the dining-room to be regaled upon the famous griddle cakes and honey. ”

“ Joanne smiled. “He would be an idiot if he did that.”
“Then don’t do that. Go to the fight with a smile and a cheer. Down the enemy but do it like a man. You’ll have battles to the end of your days, but don’t let any one see you go all to pieces when you are entering the fight.” ”

“ The girls were now all excitement which was redoubled when Joanne again cried out: “There’s Unc’ Aaron and Pablo; they have come to meet us.”
Sure enough when the boat stopped there stood the pair with eager hands ready to take the girls’ packs, and in spite of protests, loaded themselves down and went on to the lodge. “We can’t have that, you know,” said Claudia to Winnie. “We’ve got to do things for ourselves, or we shall lose half the joy, besides missing our chances of earning merit badges.” ”

“ There are always two sides to a question, my dear, and I think half the trouble in the world comes from our not putting ourselves in the other fellow’s place.”
“Then please put yourself in my place.”
Mrs. Pattison smiled. “All right. I am Joanne Selden, a fatherless, motherless girl, cared for and watched over by her grandmother ever since she was a baby, who cared for and nursed her delicate young mother, and who is now so fearfully afraid that something [120] will happen to the beloved child of her adored son that she cannot endure the thought of being parted from her.” ”

“ Claudia, equally beloved, was more diplomatic, and presented her truths more palatably; as Winnie said: “Clausie always gives you a pill in jelly,” so at this juncture she remarked: “Ess is too loyal to her troop [182] not to be proud of every one of its members, and she’s too good a Girl Scout not to stand up for any girl that is criticized. I’ll venture to say she would take up the cudgels for Joanne or any one of us if occasion required.” ”

“ Well, Captain, you are to be congratulated. But for the prompt action of one of your girls Mrs. Scraggs would have lost her baby. I think he is all right, but I’ll come in again to-morrow to see how he is getting along.” So saying he drove off, and Claude Lafayette was left to his two nurses.
Miss Dodge laid her two hands on Winnie’s shoulders and looked down into her glowing face. “I am proud of my girls,” she said, “and just now especially so of this one. It is a great privilege to be given the chance to save a life, Winnie, girl.” ”

“ Scouts never grumble at hardships, nor whine at each other, nor frown when put out.” The color rose to Joanne’s cheeks and she turned over the pages rapidly till she came to the one which set forth the qualifications for a Second Class Scout. These she considered carefully, then she threw down the book and went down-stairs humming a little tune and saying to herself: “A Scout goes about with a smile and singing.”
She found her grandmother in the library with her fancy work. “Gradda,” said Joanne, “how do you hem?”
“Why, my child, what do you mean?” returned Mrs. Selden looking up. ”

“ But, Bob, before I go crazy please tell me how your mother—it is your mother, isn’t it? How can she be Madame Risteau as well as Mrs. Marriott?”
Bob laughed. “That’s an easy one. She was Madame Risteau before she married my father, and she went upon the concert stage under that name. She sings in public very seldom now, but when she does, it is under the name she was known by. In private life she prefers to be Mrs. Marriott. She sings in church [300] and for charity, she did often during the war, but not in regular concerts.”
The look of bewilderment gradually left Joanne’s face. ”

“ Pablo stared. “It is mi amigo Roberto,” he exclaimed.
“We are getting surprises all around,” said Bob. “I certainly am glad to see you again. I have often wondered where you were, Pablo. You never told us when you were writing to mother,” he said in an aside to Joanne.
“Oh, dear, no; I always had so much else to tell her, about the Girl Scouts and school and all that.”
“The señorita must return on Chico,” said Pablo. “Unc’ Aaron have a horse to ride the roads, the cousin of you, Mr. Pattison, another. Who is find you make a signal of fire from the hilltop.” ”

“ I must know how to make a buttonhole, or knit or crochet, sew a seam or hem a garment. The hemming sounded sort of easy, and I thought I’d begin on that. Will you show me how?”
“Indeed I will,” replied Mrs. Selden with a gratified air; “sewing is a very ladylike accomplishment and I [69] am delighted that you want to learn. You have always been so opposed to it that I have not insisted, as perhaps I should have done.”
“I suppose it will bore me to extinction,” responded Joanne, “but I mean to do it or die. ”

“ Joanne responded; “it was the canal boatman sounding his horn at night for the lock to be opened, but it was very weird and romantic for all that, and I love to hear it.”
The boat continued on its slow way. At the Great Falls the girls would fain have halted, but Mr. Dawson shook his head. “Ain’t no time to stop if we want to get in before nightfall. Never can tell how many boats there are ahead of us nor how long we may be held up at the locks.”
The girls huddled back to their places. “Oh, dear,” sighed Joanne, “I did want so much to see the Falls.” ”