Josephine Lawrence

“ Doctor Hugh took her in his arms and the stolid Sarah clung to him crying as though her heart would break. "My dear, dear little sister, it is because I want you to always think first, before you do something wrong, that I am talking to you like this. Shirley admires you—when you do the right thing, she will try to imitate you even more readily than when you do wrong. You are constantly setting her an example." ”

“ There is nothing worse, to my mind, than to be deprived of your independence and ability to work."
"How do you come to live in the poor house?" inquired Rosemary. "Sit still, Sarah; no, it isn't your turn to drive yet."
"Oh, sometimes you're old and haven't saved any money," said Richard absently. "Sometimes you're old and sick and have to stop earning. Lots of people lose those who would have supported them—say their children. And now and then parents die and leave a family of kids who must be brought up as wards of charity." ”

“ Sarah put her head out of the barn door and eyed the pail thirstily.
"Let me have some?" she begged.
"If you'll help me carry these things," said Rosemary. "I brought three cups and there's enough lemonade for everyone."
"Well—all right, I'll help you," decided Sarah, "but I'm thirsty now."
"The ice will melt if you're going to talk all day," said Rosemary, the blazing sun making her more impatient than usual. "Come help me first and drink your lemonade after we get down to the tomato field." ”

“ Winnie had gone over to the bungalow with Mrs. Hildreth, who was delighted to have someone with whom to exchange household lore, and Warren and Richard had tactfully betaken themselves to Bennington, knowing instinctively that Doctor Hugh would like to have his family to himself for one brief evening, after a week's separation.
"Too dark to knit, Rosemary," he said at last. "And don't turn on the light, dear; can't you be content to do nothing for a little while?"
"Time for bed, Shirley," announced Mrs. Willis. "Run along and see how nearly undressed you can be before Mother comes up." ”

“ It seemed to Rosemary that Sarah and Shirley must have turned back the hands of the clock to delay their bed hour. They monopolized their brother, seated on either side of him in the porch swing while the summer dusk slowly deepened and Mrs. Willis rested in the big chair which had an arm strong and broad enough to hold Rosemary who knitted with outward calm and inward fever. Were those children never going to bed? ”

“ You are too lovely, Rosemary, to think of something I can do!"
"I wish I could earn some money for the Gays," sighed Shirley, trotting home beside Rosemary when they had left the cheerful Louisa.
"Well, you're a pretty little girl to earn money, darling," Rosemary told her, "but I'll try to think of something you can do. We'll ask the boys; they know more about money than we do, Warren and Rich especially."
Her intuition proved to be right, for Warren, consulted, suggested that Shirley might pick herbs, wild ones, and get the Gay children to help her. ”

“ Don't you ever get tired, Sarah?"
"When I go to bed," responded that active person. "But I'm not tired when I first go," she added hastily. "Mother or Hugh or Winnie are always making me go to bed before I'm sleepy. I want to study the insects on the lawn, but how can I when I have to go to bed?"
"You're not the first person who has wanted to turn night into day," said Mr. Hildreth calmly. "It's lucky for some of us that you're not successful. If we had to keep an eye on you all night, Sarah, as well as during the waking hours, think how little else we'd get done." ”

“ The flock of sheep were up at the other end of the field and the ram stood alone. Perhaps he had glimpsed the flashing of Sarah's frock through the trees as she swung and had come down to see what made the fluttering. Sarah was quite enchanted with him and thought he looked lonely.
She dropped to her knees and crawled through the fence, holding back the heavy wire strands with difficulty, and sat down on the grass to pull up her socks, brush her hair out of her eyes and tuck in a handful of gathers at her waistline where her skirt had torn loose from the band. ”

“ You can't carry that filthy pig and help me lug this pail, too—put him down," scolded Rosemary.
"Bony isn't filthy—he's had a bath this morning!" flared Sarah. "He's just as clean as any person, so there. And I want to show Richard and Warren what he can do."
"You know what Hugh would say if he saw you fussing with a pig and then coming around food without washing your hands," Rosemary reminded her. "If there is one thing Hugh won't stand, it's to have you handle pets and then come to the table without scrubbing your hands. You know that, Sarah." ”

“ With her flushed face pressed against his coat, Sarah listened while he explained gently the old, old lessons and laws that govern us all.
"Remember this, Sarah," he concluded earnestly, "you may think, when you do wrong, that you will take all the punishment yourself, but you can not; no one can bear the consequences of a misdeed wholly alone. Every time you do wrong you hurt someone else, two or three others, perhaps, and usually those who love you most."
Sarah was only nine years old, but she understood. Doctor Hugh had a faculty for making people understand him. ”

“ Hildreth, you wouldn't ask a question like that; he does two men's work every day of his life and encourages everyone else to follow his example. But you see, I can talk and work, too; it's all right to talk, if you don't stop work to do it."
"Is it?" queried Sarah doubtfully.
"Not a question about it," declared Warren, taking down two bars for the girls to go through into a green lane fenced in on either side with a heavy wire fence. "Talk and work, mixed, are all right, but all talk and no work makes Jack a poor hired man—haven't you ever heard that proverb?" ”

“ I don't suppose I can wash Bony in the bathtub?"
"Now Sarah, if I didn't love you, you would have driven me crazy years ago," said Winnie, who was a famous general when she minded to be. "You know washing a pig in the bathtub is out of the question. I wouldn't wash him in the laundry tubs, either; we have to be nice to Mrs. Pritchard for if she deserts us like as not there'll be no more clean clothes this summer; you can't pick and choose your washwoman in the country." ”

“ The shrill, insistent chorus of insects was music, and when the mournful cry of a distant hoot owl came out of the woods that rose shadowy and dark across the white ribbon of road, why that was music, too. Country nights are no more absolutely silent than nights in the town or city, but some enchantment weaves the noises of the countryside into graceful harmony. The cry of a bird, the soft stirring of the animals in the barns, the far barking of a watchful dog—all these Rosemary heard ”

“ All the girls had been trained from babyhood to regard the dark as "kind to tired people" and each had been taught to go to bed alone as a matter of course. They had never been terrified by foolish stories and silly myths and so were not afraid. Rosemary could lock up a house as competently as the doctor and thought nothing of going downstairs after the lights were out for the night to see if a window catch had been fastened.
When bed-time came the night following the morning of Mrs. Willis' departure, Winnie was too proud to ask Warren or Richard to spend the night in the house. ”

“ There was a large and airy bedroom for the mother, a connecting room which was allotted to Rosemary and across the hall a smaller room with twin beds which would, it was instantly decided, "fit" Sarah and Shirley. Next to this was the guest room which Doctor Hugh would occupy during his visits, and at the other end of the hall, next to the shining blue and white tiled bathroom, a square room with two windows and a narrow balcony that delighted Winnie.
"There's no nicer place to dry your hair," she explained seriously to Mrs. Willis. ”

“ Warren laughed and held out his cup as Rosemary lifted the dipper invitingly.
"In other words, Sarah," he counseled, "don't be so valiant a reformer."
"What's a reformer?" demanded Sarah, eyeing the pail anxiously.
"You're one when you try to stop your friends from going fishing," Warren informed her. "That's the whole trouble with reform—no one is willing to improve himself and let his neighbor alone; for all you know, Sarah, you drive Jack Welles fishing in self-defense. ”

“ Like all managers of celebrities she had begun to experience the tyranny of the "props."
"Well, you must have had a heap of patience," commented Warren admiringly. "Can he do anything else, Sarah?"
"Jump through a hoop," enumerated Sarah, "push a doll carriage and walk around carrying a doll like a baby—I broke two of Shirley's china dolls, teaching him that trick, but she doesn't know it yet. And, oh, yes, he can sweep—with a toy broom—and play a toy piano."
"So that's where all Shirley's toys have gone to!" Rosemary tried to speak severely, but she ended by laughing. ”

“ Winnie insisted on helping with the darning—she would have felt hurt had she been denied the task of mating and sorting and mending the stockings and socks for the family each week—and she took pride in assisting Mrs. Willis to keep Doctor Hugh's belongings in perfect order.
"Mother!" Rosemary hurried in, her hair a tangle of waves and ringlets dampened from heat and perspiration, her cheeks like scarlet poppies and her eyes glowing with enthusiasm. "Mother, I've thought of something!"
"Rosemary leads an exciting life," Jack Welles had once declared in Mrs. Willis' hearing. ”

“ I'm going to have a farm, like yours, Mr. Hildreth, and I'm going to have seven automobiles with men to drive 'em. They'll go through all the cities and take the poor sick horses and dogs and cats and—and birds and things and bring 'em back to my farm. Then I'll doctor them up and cure them."
"So you think you'll be a doctor, hey?" said the farmer lazily.
"An animal doctor," Sarah affirmed. "I won't take care of sick folks, 'cause they're cross; Shirley is going to be that kind of a doctor maybe. Animals are never cross, no matter how sick they are. ”

“ Dizzy and shaken—for she had fallen heavily—she scrambled to her feet and began to run, the ram coming after her valiantly.
"Rosemary! Mother! Rich—Rich! Warren!" screamed poor Sarah, running as she had never run before, "Rich! Rich!"
It was Warren who heard her and reached her first. He had been working in the tomato field which was near the orchard and he had no horse to consider—Richard could not abandon Solomon in the middle of the cornfield. Warren ran in the direction of the cries and, leaping the dividing fence, came to the rescue. ”

“ Richard, who evidently felt at home, had gone on into the kitchen with the pail of water and came out in time to hear Alec's remark.
"We're not company," he said quickly. "We're neighbors."
Shirley, after staring a few seconds at Kitty, began to talk to her as though she were an old friend. Sarah went over to look at the cow and Jim and Ken followed her. The baby, June, climbed into Rosemary's lap and sat quietly there.
"She never goes to strangers," marveled Louisa, leaning over to straighten out the crumpled little skirts. "Look Alec, she likes her." ”

“ Warren was watching the fire closely, too.
"I drove past the poor farm the other day," he said slowly, "and the lawns have all been ploughed up and seeded. There's no place now for the folks to sit, except on the back porch. Not till the new grass has a good start."
"I don't see why Sarah is always planning a farm for animals," Rosemary declared a little passionately. "If I ever have a farm it is going to be a home for people who haven't any other home. People like the Gays and old men and women who have no one to take care of them." ”

“ You could reach Sarah—after you had learned the way—and the depths in her were worth reaching. But her one passionate devotion was for animals—she would do anything for her pets, dare anything for them. Sometimes Doctor Hugh wondered if she would not sacrifice anyone to their needs.
If one desired a contrast to Sarah, there was Shirley. Shirley who sat in the wastebasket and beamed upon an approving world. Six year old Shirley was a born sunbeam and her brief fits of temper only seemed to intensify the normal sunshine of her disposition. ”

“ Richard rose to his feet at a significant glance from Warren. It was pleasant to rest a few moments, but the driving force of waiting work had not relaxed, merely slowed down.
"I wish I could help you," said Rosemary, simply and sincerely.
"What do you call it you've just been doing?" answered Warren. "Picking tomatoes isn't so hard, but it is monotonous; giving us a little break in the day is something that counts big, Rosemary."
"Well, anyway, Jack will be here to-morrow to help you," said Rosemary. "Then perhaps you won't have to work so hard—many hands make light work, Winnie says." ”

“ Hildreth thinks someone from town is gigging there nights and they want to keep a watch. I haven't enough ambition to catch a worm, let alone a gigger."
"What's gigging?" cried Sarah, twisting about so that she placed her feet in Rosemary's lap.
"Gigging is fishing at night," said Jack briefly. "I'll show you sometime—when I can bend my knees again."
Doctor Hugh adroitly shifted the wandering feet by turning Sarah back to her original position.
"The first day is always the hardest," he said encouragingly. "You will live through to-morrow, if that's any comfort, Jack." ”

“ Half way up, the inky darkness—for the narrow windows were few and far between, frightened Shirley and she begged to go back. Sarah cajoled and bullied her into continuing and the two children managed to make the steep climb and reach the platform at the top of the mill. As they stepped out on the boards a gust of wind caught the big fan-like sails and the pump began to sound with a loud clanking noise. This and the sensation of being high among the clouds terrified Shirley and she clung to Sarah, screaming. ”

“ Willis.
"Why Mother, I've always wanted to sleep outdoors!" cried Rosemary earnestly. "I'm so tired of ordinary beds and houses—and—and things. It will be perfectly lovely to lie under a tree and see the stars over my head and pretend I am out on the desert. I'd like to sleep outdoors every night."
When Doctor Hugh came down to report that both little girls were asleep, he found his mother and sister knitting under the shaded porch light.
"I don't approve of night work for women," he informed them gravely. "Especially for those who have had as active a day as you have had. ”

“ Gay," said Richard soberly. "They're orphans—all six of 'em. And Warren and I have it figured out that grown people frighten them—Louisa and Alec shut up like clams when they meet anyone in town. They won't think you and Sarah and Shirley mean to boss their affairs. Maybe they'll be friends with you."
The three girls drew closer to Richard as they approached a tumbled-down fence. Six year old Shirley expressed, in a measure, their feelings when she stopped Richard as he attempted to lift her over, with the observation that she had never seen an orphan. ”

“ Sarah was indignant. "He can do anything."
"When the sun dries him on that side, she'll turn him over on the other," whispered Rosemary. "You'll see."
The dam was built, the roll of films used up and Bony dry and immaculate by the time Winnie rang the bell to tell them that lunch was ready.
"We must have a picnic," said Doctor Hugh as they went up to the house, he carrying Shirley, who objected to putting on her socks and sandals, and Sarah carrying the pig with almost as much care. "I haven't been to a picnic in years." ”