Rosemary

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[Illustration: SARAH PULLED OUT A LITTLE DANGLING DARK OBJECT.
"Rosemary" Page 157]

ROSEMARY

_By_
_Josephine Lawrence_

_Illustrated by_
_Thelma Gooch_

NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

_Rosemary_

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I GOOD NEWS 1

II THE WILLIS WILL 12

III AUNT TRUDY COMES 23

IV DOCTOR HUGH TAKES COMMAND 34

V WINNIE'S VOLUNTEERS 45

VI ROSEMARY HAS HER WAY 54

VII THE RUNAWAY 65

VIII SARAH IN DISGRACE 76

IX WHEN PATIENCE SLIPS 87

X THE LAST STRAW 98

XI A CHAIN OF PROMISES 109

XII ONE DISASTROUS AFTERNOON 121

XIII JACK STRAIGHTENS THINGS OUT 132

XIV A NEW SCHOOL TERM 144

XV TOO MUCH NATURAL HISTORY 156

XVI MR. OLIVER AND SARAH 168

XVII THE INSTITUTE DINNER 180

XVIII SHIRLEY IN MISCHIEF 192

XIX BUCKING THE STUDENT COUNCIL 204

XX DRESSMAKER ROSEMARY 216

XXI MR. JORDAN LEARNS SOMETHING 228

XXII SHOPPING WITH NINA 240

XXIII SARAH LOSES A MENAGERIE 252

XXIV A MYSTERY SOLVED 264

XXV GARDEN DAYS 276

XXVI THE SCHOOL PICNIC 288

XXVII A LONG YEAR'S END 300

ROSEMARY

CHAPTER I

GOOD NEWS

The Willis house was very quiet. The comfortable screened porch was
deserted, though a sweater in the hammock and a box of gay paper
dolls on the floor showed that it had served as a play-space
recently. Inside, not a door banged, not a footfall sounded.

The late afternoon June sunshine streamed in through the hall window
and made a broad band to the stairway which was in the shadow. The
light touched the heads of three girls huddled closely together in
the cushioned window-seat and turned the hair of one to gleaming,
burnished golden red, another to a fairy web of spun yellow silk and
searched out the faint copper tint in the dark locks of the third.
The girls sat motionless, their faces turned toward the stairs, as
silent as everything else in that silent house.

"Rosemary!" whispered the dark-haired one suddenly, "Rosemary, you
don't think--"

The girl with the gold-red hair, who sat between the other two,
started nervously. Her violet blue eyes transferred their anxious
gaze from the shadowy staircase to her sister's face.

"Oh, no!" she said passionately. "No! Do you hear me, Sarah? That
couldn't happen to us. Why do you say such things?"

"I didn't say anything," protested Sarah sullenly. "Did I, Shirley?"

The little girl with the fairy-web of yellow hair did not answer.
She started from her seat and ran toward the stairs.

"Hugh's coming!" she cried.

Quick, even steps sounded on the hardwood treads and a young man
with dark hair, darker eyes behind eye-glasses and a keen,
intelligent face, descended rapidly. He picked up the child and
strode across the hall to the window-seat.

"Poor children!" he said compassionately, sitting down beside
Rosemary and holding the younger girl in his lap. "Has the time
seemed long? I came as quickly as I could."

Rosemary looked at him piteously.

"All right, dear," he said instantly. "Mother is going to get well.
Dr. Hurlbut and I have decided that all she needs is a long rest. I
am going to take her to a quiet place in the country day after
to-morrow and she is to stay until she is entirely recovered. Why
Rosemary!"

The gold-red head was on his shoulder and Rosemary was crying as
though her heart would break.

"That's the way she is," said the dark and placid Sarah. "She jumps
on me if I say anything and then she cries herself sick thinking
things. I would rather," she declared with peculiar distinctness,
"have folks talk than think, wouldn't you, Hugh?"

"I'm sorry to say I can't agree with you," replied the young
man briefly. "Here, Shirley, I didn't know you were such a
heavy-weight--you run off with Sarah and tell Winnie what I have
told you about Mother. Quietly now, and no shouting. Rosemary,
dear," he put a protecting arm around the weeping girl, "you will
feel better now--we have all been under a strain and the worst is
over. Here comes Miss Graham with Dr. Hurlbut and I must see him
off. Don't run--he'll probably go right out without seeing you."

But the famous specialist stopped squarely in the hall and the
pleasant-faced middle-aged nurse, standing respectfully on the
lower step, nodded reassuringly to Rosemary who was frantically
mopping her eyes.

"Well, Dr. Willis," said the great man heartily, "I am mighty glad
to have been of some little service. I'm sure you will find Pine
Crest sanatorium all that it is said to be and the right place for
your mother. She mustn't be allowed, of course, to worry about home
affairs. There are younger children, I believe?"

"Three girls," said Hugh Willis. "Rosemary--" he summoned her with a
glance,--"my sister, Dr. Hurlbut."

Dr. Hurlbut shook hands kindly letting his quizzical gray eyes rest
a moment longer on the tear-stained face.

"Ah, we cry because of past sorrow," he said quietly, "and, a
little, because of present joy; is it not so?"

Rosemary lifted her head in quick understanding, tossing back her
magnificent mane and showing her violet blue eyes still wet with
tears. She smiled radiantly and her face was vivid, glowing, almost
startling in its beauty.

"I am so happy!" she said clearly, and her girl-voice held a note of
pure joyousness. "So happy that I do not think I can ever be
unhappy again!"

The two doctors smiled a little in sympathy.

"Ah, well," said the famous specialist, after a moment's silence,
gently, "let us hope so."

He turned toward the door and the younger man went with him to the
handsome car drawn up at the curb. Rosemary, with a swift hug for
Miss Graham, dashed past her upstairs to her own room, always a
haven in time of happiness or stress.

"Mother is going to get well!" whispered the girl, starry-eyed. "All
she needs is rest, and then she will be quite well again. Cora
Mason's mother died--" the expressive face sobered and, sitting on
the edge of her pretty white bed, Rosemary's twelve-year old mind
filled with somber thoughts. Presently she slipped noiselessly to
her knees and buried her curly head in the comforting cool white
pillow.

"Dear God--" she began, but the tide of joy and relief began to beat
loudly again in her heart, sending rich waves of color into her
hidden face.

"I am so happy," prayed Rosemary tumultuously. "I am so happy! I am
so happy!"

Presently she rose and dragged her white shoes from the closet.
Sitting in the middle of the floor, she started contentedly cleaning
them.

"Rosemary?" sounded a little voice. "Rosemary, you in here?"

Rosemary straightened up so that she could see across the bed which
stood between her and the doorway.

"Yes, Shirley darling," she answered. "Did you tell Winnie about
mother?"

"Yes," said Shirley scrambling upon the bed. "We told her. What you
doing, Sister?"

"Cleaning my white shoes," replied Rosemary, applying whitener
vigorously. "I'm going to put them on and wear my white linen dress.
Don't you want to dress up to-night, Shirley? Bring me your shoes,
if they are dirty, and I'll do them for you."

"All right, I'll get them," decided Shirley, sliding off the bed
backward. "Could I put on my blue sash, Rosemary?"

"Not with that dress," said Rosemary firmly. "I'll have to wash your
face and hands and neck and then you can wear the cross-bar muslin
with the lace yoke."

"Are you up here, Rosemary?" demanded another voice. "What are you
doing?"

"Cleaning my shoes," said Rosemary patiently. "Say, Sarah, don't
you think it would be nice if we dressed up a little for dinner
to-night?"

"Why?" asked Sarah bluntly.

"Oh, because--because, well, we know Mother is going to get well,"
explained Rosemary. "And everything has been in such a mess this
week, the table half set and nobody caring whether they ate or not.
I'd like to show Hugh that we can have things done properly."

"What difference does it make?" drawled Sarah lazily. "I hate a lot
of fuss, you know I do. Rosemary, do you suppose it hurts worms to
use them for fishing bait? Will you ask Jack Welles?"

"I'll ask him the next time I see him, if you will put on your tan
linen with the red tie," promised Rosemary. "And do brush your hair
back the way Mother likes it, Sarah. She can't bear to see it
stringing into your eyes."

"Oh--all right," agreed Sarah. "Don't forget to ask about the
worms."

She departed and in her place came Shirley, carrying a pair of
diminutive and soiled white shoes.

"I wish," she announced pleasantly, sitting down on the floor
beside Rosemary to watch the cleaning process, "I wish we could have
ice-cream."

"Well I'll ask Winnie," said Rosemary promptly. "What dessert do you
suppose we are going to have to-night?"

"Berries," Shirley answered wisely. "I saw 'em. Couldn't Winnie make
us chocolate ice-cream?"

"Oh, she wouldn't have time to make it," said Rosemary, "but I'll
ask her if I can't telephone the drug-store and have them send us
some. There your shoes are, honey. Now hurry and get dressed."

Dr. Hugh Willis, coming down from his mother's sick-room at the
summons of the musical chime which announced the dinner hour,
thought he had never seen a pleasanter sight than greeted his eyes
in the dining-room. The room itself was pleasant and airy and the
last rays of the sun struck the table set with fresh linen and a
simple and orderly array of silver. But it was the three joyous
faces turned expectantly toward him that caught and held his
attention. Rosemary, in white from head to foot, stood behind her
mother's chair and all the light in the room seemed to center in her
eyes and hair. Shirley, looking like a particularly wholesome and
adorable cherub from her sunny curls and wide, gray eyes to her fat
and dimpled knees scuffled in an impatient circle around her own
special seat and Sarah, a stout and stolid little Indian in tan
linen and scarlet tie, showed her one beauty--a set of strong, even
white teeth--in an engaging smile.

"Well how smart we are," smiled the doctor, surveying them
appreciatively. "Seems to me everyone is dressed up to-night."

"We wanted to have things nice--because Mother is going to get
well," said Rosemary with simple directness.

For answer Dr. Hugh came forward and pulled out her chair for her,
"just as if I were a grown-up woman," she recounted with pride to
her mother later, and then lifted Shirley to her seat and tied on
her bib dexterously.

"We're going to have ice-cream," Sarah informed him.

"That's fine," he commented a trifle absently, beginning to carve.
When he had served them all, he spoke seriously.

"Girls," he said, "I'm going to send a telegram after dinner
to-night to Aunt Trudy Wright. Mother wants her to come and stay
with you while she is away; I don't think she can begin to mend
until she knows that she has provided for you."

"Oh, Hugh!" Rosemary mashing potato for Shirley's hungry
consumption, looked distressed. "I can keep house, I know I can. We
don't need Aunt Trudy."

"She won't let me keep any mice in my room," wailed Sarah. "I don't
like her, either."

"Let me eat it now," said Shirley, referring to her potato. "Let's
tell Aunt Trudy not to come. She says oatmeal is good for me and I
don't like oatmeal."

"Have you all finished?" asked the doctor calmly. "Well then, I have
something to say: Aunt Trudy is coming, just as soon as I can get
her here; if for no other reason than Mother wants her and will go
away happy in the belief that you will be well taken care of. There
is to be no argument and I absolutely forbid you to mention the
subject to Mother; if she says anything to you, try to act as though
you were pleased at the prospect. For my part, I should think you
would be glad she could come. An aunt is pretty nice to have when
you are in trouble."

"You don't know Aunt Trudy," said Sarah pertly.

"Rosemary, will you go up and sit with Mother while Miss Graham has
her dinner, when we are through?" asked Dr. Hugh, ignoring Sarah's
remark. "I am going down to the drug-store for a few things and I'll
be back within half an hour."

The dessert of berries and ice-cream were eaten almost in silence.
Three of the people at the table were busy with conflicting
thoughts. Shirley alone was concentrating her attention on the
delight of a larger slice of cake than usual.

CHAPTER II

THE WILLIS WILL

"It's the first real warm night we've had isn't it?" said Mrs.
Hollister conversationally. "I got to thinking about you to-night,
Winnie, and I said to Mamie that I believed I'd come up and see you
for a minute or two; I thought you might be glad to have a little
help with the dishes or something."

Winnie, a tall gaunt woman, the gray hair on her temples hardly
perceptible because of the ash-blondness of her tightly pulled hair,
stood beside the kitchen table apparently figuring some problem on a
slip of paper.

"My dishes are done," she said capably, "but sit down, do Mrs.
Hollister; I'm not denying that I'm glad to see a friend after the
day I've had."

Mrs. Hollister sank heavily into the cushioned rocker drawn up near
the table and removed her cotton gloves.

"I said to Mamie I knew you'd be tuckered out," she observed. "Am I
keeping you, Winnie--is that important?" she indicated the slip of
paper in the other's hand.

"I can do it any time before to-morrow morning," Winnie explained.
"It's the laundry list and I have about everything counted up. The
man comes Wednesdays."

"Where are the girls?" asked the visitor, her quick eyes roving
approvingly around the immaculate kitchen. "Did the poor lady get
off safely?"

"The girls are in bed," said Winnie, taking the questions in order.
"They were worn out and I told 'em bed was the best place for them
to be. They've lost all their good sensible habits these last two
weeks and it's glad I am the young doctor is going to be here to
look after 'em. They need to be settled down if ever anybody did."

"And Mrs. Willis? She will really get well?" urged Mrs. Hollister.

Winnie's face changed. Her eyes softened.

"They all say she will be better than she's been for years, bless
her! All of 'em, Dr. Hurlbut, that big specialist that came from
New York, and Dr. Jordan and Doctor Hugh, who's as good as any of
them if he is young, all of 'em say if she only rests a year in
this sanatorium and doesn't have to worry we'll never know she
was sick."

"She was taken sudden, wasn't she?" asked the visitor. "Mamie said
you found her, Winnie."

Winnie snapped on the light for the summer dusk was deepening
into dark.

"That I did," she answered. "I'll never forget it, never. I was
going up to her room to ask her whether I should wait for the butter
and egg woman or send down to the store and in the upstairs hall I
walked right into her, lying so still and white on the floor. I got
her on the bed myself and sent Rosemary flying down to Dr. Jordan's
office for Dr. Hugh. Dr. Jordan came up with the young doctor and
they got the trained nurse and for over a week we didn't know
whether the dear lady would stay with us or not. Then she got a
little better and Dr. Hugh wanted her to go off to this sanatorium
place, but she wouldn't hear of it till the specialist put in his
word and all three doctors promised her she'd be cured."

"They say Dr. Hugh is going to take Dr. Jordan's practice," said
Mrs. Hollister irrelevantly.

"I don't know who 'they' are, but for once they've told the truth,"
said Winnie a bit tartly. "Dr. Jordan is going away for two months,
or three, and Dr. Hugh is to look after his office and patients. He
may settle down in Eastshore, if he likes it well enough."

Winnie did not add what she, as a confidante of the family, had
heard discussed, namely that Dr. Hugh would likely buy the practice
of Dr. Jordan who was an old man and anxious to retire from active
service.

"Dr. Hurlbut came down in a great big car this afternoon and took
Mrs. Willis," Winnie went on, "Dr. Hugh went with her and he's
coming back in the morning. The girls behaved beautifully and not
one of 'em cried till their mother was well out of sight."

"Well I should say you'll have your hands full with the
housekeeping," was Mrs. Hollister's next comment. "I don't
suppose you can depend on much help from the girls, though
Rosemary is old enough to do considerable if she's a mind
to. How old is she now?"

"Twelve," replied Winnie. "But you musn't think I'm to do
everything, Mrs. Hollister. Miss Trudy Wright is coming
to-morrow, to stay till Mrs. Willis gets home."

"Who's she?" asked Mrs. Hollister bluntly. "Anybody you
can rely on?"

"I'm not saying I don't like her, for I do," said Winnie with
admirable conservatism, "Miss Wright means well, if ever a woman
did. She's the half sister of Mrs. Willis's husband and she sets
great store, she's always saying, by her dead brother's family."

"You don't sound as if you were so terribly pleased," said Mrs.
Hollister shrewdly. "Does she put her nose into things that are no
concern of hers?"

"No, I wouldn't say that for her," answered Winnie. "I don't know as
there is any one thing I can put my finger on. Of course she has
never been in charge of the house before--it will be queer to be
taking orders from her. She's been here off and on, making visits
and she never bothered me. Mrs. Willis, poor dear, went away feeling
sure that the girls would be well looked after and I'd be the last
one to think of disturbing her thoughts. But, between you and me,
Mrs. Hollister, Miss Wright can't manage a family like this. She
just hasn't got it in her."

"You mean the girls are a handful?" suggested Mrs. Hollister. "I
thought as soon as you said she was coming, that a woman without any
children of her own would find it hard trying to look after three
lively girls."

"Children of your own has got nothing to do with it," asserted
Winnie, tossing her head. "I can make any one of the children stand
round, if I give my mind to it, and they're as fond of me as can be.
But remember I say if I give my mind to it--Miss Wright hasn't got
the patience to keep repeating the same thing fifty times and if she
gives an order and they don't pay attention she drops it right
there. I'm not blaming her--she's fat and has plenty of money and
likes to be comfortable; she must be fifty years old, too, and at
her time of life it's only fair to expect to have a little peace.
But I know the Willis family, and giving in to the girls is the
worst thing you can do. I get wore out lots of times and knuckle
down, but Dr. Hugh won't. I've been watching him, the little time
he's been here, and I'll bet he can hold out against even Rosemary."

"I suppose it's her red hair," said Mrs. Hollister vaguely.

"Rosemary is an angel from heaven," declared Winnie, loyally rising
to the defense of the absent. "She's always been the sweetest child
the Lord ever made and when she was a baby I could never bear to
scold her because she'd look at me so sad-like from those big blue
eyes of hers. But Rosemary has the Willis will and the Willis
temper and when she is on her high horse the house won't hold her.
Sooner or later she's going to try to have her way against the young
doctor's orders and then there will be war. All the girls are
getting out of hand now, anyway, what with their mother sick and the
house upset and no regular plan to follow. I caught Sarah yesterday
making her breakfast off of lemonade, raisin pie and fancy cakes."

"She's a queer one, that Sarah," said Mrs. Hollister, chuckling.
"She nearly frightened the little Percey girl into fits showing her
a live snake one afternoon."

"Sarah's got a good heart, if you can find it," declared Winnie,
"but unless you handle her just right, you're in for a peck of
trouble. Rosemary's temper blazes up and burns fierce enough dear
knows, but it burns itself out good and clean and leaves a good
clean ash. Now you take Sarah--she goes into a fit of the sulks and
likely as not she won't speak to anyone in the house for a week."

"She would if she was my child," announced Mrs. Hollister grimly.
"I'd soon shake that out of her."

"It's my private belief that you can't shake anything out of Sarah,
once she makes up her mind to it," said Winnie solemnly. "She's got
the Willis will and that is a caution. Even Shirley, six years old
and looking like a cherub straight from above, even Shirley has got
a temper of her own and as for will--well you try to make that baby
do a thing she says she won't do. The Willis will is something to
reckon with, Mrs. Hollister."

"Why do you keep talking about the Willis will?" asked Mrs.
Hollister with curiosity.

"Because I've lived with it for twenty-eight years and I know all
about it," said Winnie. "Twenty-eight years ago, this spring, have I
lived with this family and in that time I've seen Doctor Hugh grow
from the baby that was laid in my arms into a fine young man with
the Willis will made a help to him instead of a hindrance. Mr.
Willis--you never knew him, he died six months after Shirley was
born and Mrs. Willis has never been the same woman since--had it,
too, and the temper along with it, but he made them both his
servants and himself the master, as the Bible says. Many's the time
I've heard the story of Governor Willis, (his picture hangs in the
hall) and of how he held out against the whole legislature and the
public and proved himself right in the end. Old Judge Willis, the
father of Doctor Hugh's father, once came near being lynched for a
decision he made, but no howling mob could make him retract. As I
tell Mrs. Willis, when she gets to worrying about the strong wills
the girls have, it's worse not to have a mind of your own than to
have too much; I'm not one to preach breaking anyone's will--bend it
the right way, I always say."

"Yes, that sounds all right," admitted Mrs. Hollister who had
listened eagerly, "but I don't know as I'd want to have the bending
of three wills all at once. It strikes me that the young doctor is
going to be pretty busy if he tries to 'tend to 'em all at the same
time. And you say he's going to take Dr. Jordan's practice, too."

"He'll be busy, but he can handle anything," declared Winnie
confidently. "Dr. Hugh was my baby--I took care of him till he was
five years old--and I know he'll manage all right. The girls are
delighted to have a big brother, and they'll try to please him, I
know they will."

"It's funny to say, but he's almost a stranger to them, isn't he?"
said Mrs. Hollister reflectively. "How many years has he been away
from Eastshore?"

"Counting from the time he went away to school, about twelve years,"
answered Winnie. "He came home vacations, of course, but the last
two years he wasn't home at all. He's been studying abroad and Mrs.
Willis was so happy to think he'd be home with her this summer. She
was pleased as could be that he wanted to settle in Eastshore. She's
talked a lot to me, since Mr. Willis died, about what she hoped the
children would do and when Dr. Hugh wrote her that he didn't want to
be a fashionable city doctor and hoped he could do as much good in a
quiet, industrious, uncomplaining way as Doctor Jordan had done
during the forty-five years he's lived in Eastshore, why Mrs. Willis
just about cried she was so happy."

"Well, we never know what's going to happen, do we?" sighed Mrs.
Hollister, beginning to pull on her gloves as she noted that the
plain-faced kitchen clock said quarter of nine. "I'm sure I hope
she'll get the rest she deserves and come home to find nothing bad
has happened."

"Of course she will," Winnie's voice held a faint trace of
indignation. "What do you think is going to happen while she is
gone? With Doctor Hugh and Miss Trudy Wright, to say nothing of me,
around to see to everything, what else do you expect but smooth
sailing?"

"Winnie!"

The kitchen door opened a crack and a dark head poked itself in.

"Winnie, do you care if I take a piece of the chocolate cake from
the buffet closet?" asked Sarah politely. "I'm hungry."

"Your brother says you eat too much cake--go to bed and you'll fall
asleep again and forget that you're hungry," commanded Winnie.

"Can't I have just one piece?" insisted Sarah.

"You can not," said Winnie firmly.

"Well, I thought you'd say that," announced Sarah calmly, "so I
took it first, before I asked you."

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