Rosemary

J >> Josephine Lawrence >> Rosemary

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"Is that why you're named Rosemary?" asked Jack curiously, thinking
it strange that he had never noticed before how pretty freckles
were.

Rosemary's expressive face sobered.

"Partly," she answered, "but I had a sister, you know, whom I never
saw. She was named Mary, for Mother. And she died when she was three
years old. So when I was born, a year later, Mother named me
'Rosemary,' which means remembrance. Mother told me once that I was
named in memory of the little dead sister, and for the flowers she
loved and to please my father who thought 'Mary' the most beautiful
name in the world. So I've always liked my name."

"It suits you, somehow," said Jack. "Want to hold this bush steady
while I fill in round the roots?"

Whenever Jack was touched, he sought employment for his hands, for
fear he might say something to show his feeling. He had all the
boy's horror of "making a fool" of himself.

April, with its soft, sudden showers and its exquisite velvety
greens ran into May with its first hot days and the sound of Peter
Cooper's hammer loud in the land as he diligently worked putting up
screens and awnings. Aunt Trudy began to "feel the heat" and Winnie
and Sarah battled again over the ethics of killing defenseless
flies.

Toward the end of the month, the Student's Council, conceived the
plan of holding a picnic for the three schools, an all-day picnic
some Saturday. The plan was proposed at a morning assembly and met
with such vigorous and hearty response that the date was settled
upon then and there. Winnie was besieged that night by three excited
girls who asked her advice on what "would do" to take to the picnic.

"We want to take enough, because some of them will bring only a
little," said Rosemary. "The boys always stuff an apple in their
pockets and then wonder why they are hungry when noon comes."

"I'll pack you three lunches that will be lunches," promised Winnie,
"and there'll be enough to give away, too."

"We're going in motor trucks," bubbled Shirley, "I want to ride up
front."

"I want to ride on back," proclaimed Sarah who never, by any chance,
seemed to agree with anyone else. "I want to ride with my feet
hanging over. And I'm going to tie a string to Shirley's rag doll
and drag it in the dust--like the pictures in the Early Martyrs
book, you know."

Shirley began to hop up and down with anger and began to cry.

"I won't have my dolly dragged in the dust," she shrieked.

"Martyrs have to be dragged in the dust," the perverse Sarah
insisted. "I want to see her bounce when she hits the stones."

"Oh, Sarah, do be still," begged Rosemary. Then, to the weeping
Shirley, "Sarah is only teasing you, darling. She wouldn't hurt your
dolly."

"Are the teachers going?" asked Aunt Trudy anxiously. "I hope some
older people will be on hand to look after you."

"Oh, the teachers are going--worse luck!" Sarah assured her. "I'll
bet they shriek every time I find a water snake."

CHAPTER XXVI

THE SCHOOL PICNIC

The Saturday chosen for the picnic dawned clear and warm and there
was no sleep for anyone in the Willis family after six o'clock.
Shirley and Sarah had to be forcibly restrained from investigating
the boxes on the kitchen table and Winnie finally decided to finish
packing them before breakfast, in order to "get a moment's peace" as
she said.

Sarah flatly refused to go to the picnic unless her red tie could be
found, not that she wanted to wear it for decorative purposes, she
carefully explained, but because she thought she could catch minnows
in it. There was a brook running through the picnic field and Sarah
meant to explore it thoroughly.

By the time Rosemary had found the tie, Shirley had managed to upset
the shoe blacking on her white shoes and had to be hastily refitted
with tan socks and oxfords. Rosemary, flying down the hall with a
new pair of shoelaces for her sister, brushed past Doctor Hugh on
his way to the breakfast table.

"Is there a fire, or is it only the picnic?" he asked humorously,
and she assured him that it was "always like this" on picnic
mornings.

"Well I don't envy the job of the chaperones," said the doctor
feelingly, when they were at last seated and Aunt Trudy was pouring
his coffee. "You and Shirley," he said to Sarah, "want to do as
Rosemary says to-day."

"Then I hope she doesn't say much," retorted Sarah ungraciously.

"If I thought you meant to be as rude as you sometimes sound, Sarah,
I'd read you a lecture on politeness," said her brother, rather
sternly. "But we won't spoil a holiday by bickering. Can you all go
together in the same motor truck?"

"Mr. Oliver said we could do as we pleased, as long as none of the
trucks were overcrowded," explained Rosemary. "I'm going to try and
have Sarah and Shirley in the same car with me; you see if three
other girls want to go together, that will just even it up."

"All right, children, have a good time and don't eat too many
sandwiches," said the doctor cheerfully. "I'm sorry I can't stay to
see you off, but I'll hear all about the fun to-night. Try not to
go crazy, Auntie, before these Indians are safely out of the house."

As soon as he had gone, the girls began to "pack up" though the
motor trucks were not to leave the school grounds till half-past
nine. They were all dressed in white and each carried a sweater,
Sarah's red, Rosemary's blue and Shirley's apple green. Winnie had
made up a generous box of lunch for each, and three vacuum bottles,
a surprise from Doctor Hugh, were waiting them, filled with
lemonade.

"I think we'd better go early, Winnie," said Rosemary, "on account
of getting in the same truck. The earlier we are, the better chance
we have of getting seats together."

"Yes, it's always well to go early to any picnic," replied Winnie
wisely. "The fun can't begin till you start, so why delay?"

The motor trucks were drawn up before the school when the girls
reached the grounds and a group of boys and girls were standing
about them. They made a parade showing, being six in number and
gaily decorated with flags and bunting. There were two teachers
assigned to each truck and Rosemary was delighted to find that Miss
Parsons and her class teacher, Miss Penfield, were to be in charge
of one of the grammar school trucks.

"Why I don't see any reason why you and your sisters shouldn't be
together," Miss Penfield answered when Rosemary asked her about
Sarah and Shirley. "Hop in here, and you'll be placed and may not
have to move."

But just before the trucks were ready to start, Nina Edmonds and
Fannie Mears hurried up. They tried to climb into the truck where
Rosemary sat.

"Got my load now," said the driver promptly, but pleasantly. "You'll
have to go in the next car."

"That's full of primary kids--we don't belong in there with them,"
protested Fannie. "Oh, look, there are Sarah and Shirley
Willis--they can't go in this car, they belong in the primary
grades."

"Now Fannie, don't be disagreeable," begged Miss Penfield. "Rosemary
wants her younger sisters with her which is perfectly natural. It
won't hurt you to ride in one of the other trucks. Do it to be
obliging, if for no other reason."

"I'm sure Fannie doesn't want to be disobliging, Miss Penfield,"
said Nina smoothly, "but Mr. Oliver distinctly said there were two
trucks for the grammar grades and that we should not go out of our
assigned cars. Besides, Fannie and I want to sit with our friends
and they're all in this car. Rosemary needn't move, but I think
Sarah and Shirley should go where they belong."

Miss Penfield flushed with vexation and annoyance. Mr. Oliver had
made just that ruling and she knew that Nina was quoting the letter
of his order, while ignoring the spirit. If she chose to make a
scene she could probably send the two girls to the other car, but it
was a question whether in attempting to enforce her commands she
might not at the same time spoil the day for Rosemary.

"Are you crowded, Miss Penfield?" called Jack Welles, standing up in
the first truck and looking back. "We have room for three up here;
send them along, if you need space."

"You go, Rosemary, and take Sarah and Shirley," said Miss Penfield
quickly. "Now come in here, Nina and Fannie, and for pity's sake let
us have no more of this jangling."

The high school cars held the coveted lead in the line and Jack
happened to be in the first one. Rosemary and Sarah and Shirley were
welcomed joyously by the older boys and girls and Nina and Fannie
furiously regretted their insistence. They would have liked to go in
the high school truck and if they had only waited, or had been less
determined in their demands, they might have found places there.

When the large field, where the Eastshore picnics were always held,
was reached, the trucks were parked in a circle and the pupils
scattered to amuse themselves according to their varying ages and
ideas. Shirley joined the little girls and shrieking games of "Tag"
were immediately under way. Sarah, ignoring the suggestions of her
classmates that they hunt for wildflowers, dropped flat on her
stomach and began a search for bugs. Rosemary left the lunch boxes
under the eyes of the teachers who gathered in a ring and took out
knitting and fancy work, and went off with half a dozen girls her
age to gather and wash wild-grape vine leaves to serve as plates at
the luncheon.

As it is at all picnics, no one could really think of anything long,
till the boxes were unpacked and the good things set out. The boys
helped by getting in everyone's way, by tipping over the bottles of
milk and dropping ants and spiders on the tablecloths to frighten
the girls. There were great slabs of moss-covered rock all about
the field and these, when covered with cloths, made the nicest kind
of tables. The groups gathered to suit themselves and when Rosemary
found that Jack Welles, Jerry and Fred Gordon, Ben Kelsey, Norman
Cox and Eustice Gray were gravitating toward the rock she had
selected and that Shirley and Sarah were each bringing a playmate to
eat with them, she was thankful that Winnie had had the packing of
the boxes.

There were more than enough sandwiches and stuffed eggs and cup
cakes and strawberry tarts to satisfy every one and the boys forgot
to be shy and, to Rosemary's delight, helped themselves without
urging, quite as though they knew Winnie had had their pleasure in
mind, as indeed the good soul had.

"We're going to play ball this afternoon," said Jack, when it was a
mortal impossibility for any one to eat more. "Mr. Hamlin gave
orders that we must go far enough away so that there would be no
danger of striking any of the kids with the ball. We're going up the
brook away to an open pasture. Can we help you with the dishes or
anything?" he added thoughtfully.

"There won't be any dishes," smiled Rosemary. "Winnie put in only
paper plates and napkins, and it won't be wasteful to leave the
little that's left for the birds. If you want to bury the boxes,
that will be nice; Hugh always detests any litter left around after
a picnic."

"We'll dig a hole and bury all the trash," said Eustice Gray
instantly. "Come on, fellows, we'll go collect it."

"But you haven't any shovel," said the practical Sarah.

"A-ha, you're a good detective, but you don't know motor trucks,"
replied Eustice, grinning at her, for he had taken a fancy to the
odd child who had screamed to him not to mash the spider he had
fished out of his lemonade cup. "All good motor trucks take a spade
with them, under the seat, to use in case they are stuck on some
muddy road."

"Oh!" said Sarah. "Then I'll come help you."

And she trotted around after the boys till they had collected the
litter and trash left by each group of picnickers and buried it
neatly in a hole they filled in and stamped down firmly. She would
have gone with them to play ball, but Rosemary held her back.

"Well, if I can't play ball, I'll go hunt snakes," decided Sarah
whose frock was torn and dirty already, but whose streaked face
was radiant with the good time she was having.

All the boys, big and little, had disappeared immediately after
luncheon, to play ball in more distant fields. The farmers of the
neighborhood were perfectly willing to lend their pasture land for a
day and there were no crops to be spoiled by tramping feet for
several miles along the brook.

The younger girls gathered around one of the primary teachers who
promised to tell them stories and most of the grammar and high
school girls had brought their crocheting and were ready to sit
quietly a while and exchange patterns. Rosemary, however, did not
feel in what she called a "knitting mood" and when Bessie Kent
suggested that they go wading in the brook, she jumped at the idea.
A dozen girls were found to be aching for a frolic and Miss Penfield
smilingly told them to be young while they could, but not to wade
too far and not to stay too long.

The water was icy cold, and much laughter and shrieking advertised
the first step, but as soon as they were used to the temperature
only the exhilaration remained. Led by Rosemary, they started slowly
up stream.

"Good gracious, if Nina Edmonds and Fannie Mears aren't coming,
too," whispered Bessie, glancing back over her shoulder. "Wonder why
they want to tag along?"

If she had only known it, Nina and Fannie were feeling decidedly
left out of things. They longed to go with the high school girls who
persistently ignored them and they were not at all popular with
their own classmates. When they found that they were to be left on
the edge of the circle of crocheters, they determined to follow the
wading party. Nina privately thought she was far too old to indulge
in such a silly pastime, and Fannie hated walking anyway, but at the
moment wading was better than doing nothing.

"Who's that shouting?" asked Rosemary, as they rounded a bend in the
brook and heard a distant noise.

"Must be the boys," replied Bessie. "Yes, see, there they are--way
over there; they're playing ball on the other side of the brook, a
couple of fields further on."

The girls could see the running figures plainly, and from time to
time a bellow of pure joy and excitement wafted down to them.

"Don't they have fun--" Rosemary was beginning, when a scream
startled them all.

"I've cut my foot!" shrieked Fannie Mears. "Oh, the whole bottom of
the brook must be covered with broken glass. Look how it bleeds!"

She lifted her foot from the water and Nina, who caught a glimpse of
the widening gash, cried out in horror. Fannie let her foot fall and
struck the glass again. She screamed even more loudly and began to
beat the water with her hands.

"Look out, you won't be able to see the glass!" cried Rosemary,
turning and dashing toward her. "Stand still, Fannie, just a
minute."

Rosemary stooped and felt carefully down about Fannie's feet. Her
hands struck a broken bottle and she lifted it out and tossed it on
the bank.

"That's what did it," she said calmly. "Hurry and let me see your
foot--wait I'll pull you up on the bank, Fannie."

But when Fannie saw her cut foot, which was bleeding profusely, and
the girls, who had crowded around saw it and her white, frightened
face, a veritable panic started. Fannie slipped into the brook,
crying with pain and fright, apparently believing that if her foot
was under water and out of sight it must stop bleeding, and the
other girls began a chorus of shrill screaming that tried Rosemary
to the point of exasperation.

"How can you be so silly!" she stormed. "Somebody hold Fannie's foot
while I tie it up; I know first-aid. She's losing blood all the
time. Somebody help me--Oh, don't stand there like that! Bessie,
can't you hold her foot just a minute?"

"I couldn't!" Bessie shivered and drew back. "My knees are wabbling
now, Rosemary. Blood always makes me so sick!"

"Then run," said Rosemary desperately, seeing that she could expect
no help from the frightened girls about her. "Run, and tell some of
the boys to come quick!"

CHAPTER XXVII

A LONG YEAR'S END

As Bessie obediently started in the direction of the ball-players,
Nina Edmonds uttered a shocked exclamation.

"Oh, Rosemary, I don't think you should have done that," she said
reprovingly. "We haven't our shoes and stockings on, you know."

"I suppose we should let Fannie bleed to death, then?" suggested
Rosemary, her great eyes snapping fire. "Fannie won't hold still
herself and not one of you has the nerve to hold her steady and yet
you stand there and make a fuss because a boy may see you without
your shoes and stockings on. If you're going to be ashamed of
anything, Nina Edmonds, be ashamed of being a coward!"

Nina flushed angrily, but Rosemary was trying to pull Fannie back on
the bank and paid no further attention to her. Fannie fought off any
attempt to touch her and she cried and groaned without a moment's
pause. Rosemary, straightening up after a hard and ineffectual
tussle, was relieved to see Bessie running toward them, followed by
a string of boys, Jack Welles in advance. Bessie's cries had reached
them long before she came to the field and they had correctly
interpreted her frantic appeals for help.

"Oh, Jack, I'm so glad you've come!" cried Rosemary. "Help me get
Fannie out on the bank. She's cut her foot badly and she won't let
me touch her, to tie it up."

Will Mears, Fannie's brother, panted up and when he saw his sister
and understood that she was hurt, he bent down and lifted her out
with one swift, strong pull.

"Gee, you _have_ cut yourself!" he said in distress as he saw the
injured foot.

"Hush up!" said Jack sternly, as the girls began to shriek again.
"Go away, if you're afraid to look. Rosemary knows what to do, don't
you, Rosemary? Tell us how to help you."

"Hold her still," directed Rosemary, frantically calling on her
memory for Doctor Hugh's first-aid lessons. "I'll have to wash it
out the best way I can, but I think I can stop the bleeding. Then
we'll have to get her to a doctor."

"I'll hold her," said Will Mears grimly. "You go ahead."

Fannie could not twist and squirm in his strong arms, and Rosemary
deftly washed out the great jagged cut that had slashed across the
slim instep, and then, further scandalizing Nina, tore a wide
bandage from the bottom of her petticoat, brought the edges of the
cut closely together and bound it tightly.

"I think you ought to carry her to the truck," she said, when she
had finished. "Look out, Will, she's fainted. Lay her on the grass."

The sight of Fannie, white and motionless, frightened the girls, and
it must be confessed the boys, too, far more than her steady
screaming. Rosemary did not appear to be alarmed, but borrowing
Jack's handkerchief, dipped it in the water and gently bathed
Fannie's forehead. Then she took her head in her lap and waited a
few minutes. Presently Fannie opened her eyes.

"She's better now," said Rosemary.

"I'll carry her to the truck," declared Will Mears, looking with
respect on the young nurse. "As you say, I think we'd better get her
to a doctor. Some of you run on ahead and explain what has happened
and tell them we want to start back right away."

The girls sped on ahead and in a few minutes the picnic had broken
up hastily. A sort of bed was made in one of the trucks, using the
sweaters and wraps of the other girls, and Fannie was laid on this,
with her head in Rosemary's lap. Will Mears had no confidence in any
one else's ability to take care of his sister.

"She would have bled to death, if it hadn't been for Rosemary," he
said to Jack, as the truck started, the driver carefully avoiding
the bad places in the road in order to spare the patient any
unnecessary jar. "I never saw a girl before who could do up cuts and
not scream at the sight of blood. I suppose it's because her brother
is a doctor."

"Not altogether," replied Jack curtly. "Rosemary doesn't happen to
be the screaming kind of girl."

Will Mears directed that the truck be driven to Doctor Hugh's office
where, by good fortune, they found him just in from a call, and
Fannie, quiet and spent now, with no breath left for screaming, had
her wound washed with an antiseptic and dressed. Then she was taken
home and put to bed. She was weak from the loss of blood and the
consequences might have been serious, the doctor admitted, if the
cut had not been tied in time. But to Will Mears' glowing praise of
Rosemary, he replied that she had only used her knowledge of
first-aid treatment.

"Then all girls ought to learn it," burst out the high school
junior. "Those other girls stood around like perfect dubs. Fannie
could have bled to death, for all they did."

"All girls ought to know first-aid," affirmed the doctor. "My
sisters are not going to be left helpless when an accident happens."

"But you can't say it's altogether the first aid," persisted Will
Mears. "Look at Nina Edmonds; she might learn the whole programme,
and then, when something did happen, she'd run around like a chicken
with its head off! First-aid doesn't teach you to keep your wits
about you and not to scream and act like a lunatic generally, Doctor
Willis."

"Well, of course, one needs character as well as first-aid
knowledge," admitted Doctor Hugh, smiling a little, "but if one
knows what to do, there's no temptation to wring the hands and
scream, Will. Rosemary knew what to do, therefore she did it."

But Will Mears refused to give all the credit to first-aid and
indeed all the boys and girls who had seen Rosemary care for Fannie,
were loud in their praise of her fearlessness and skill. Mrs. Mears
sent for her to come and see Fannie, as soon as the patient grew
stronger, and though Rosemary rather dreaded the visit, she came
away feeling that next term in school she and Fannie would be, if
not close friends, at least on amiable terms instead of irritatingly
hostile which had been their covert attitude this last year.

For it was time to think of school as "next year," since this term
was so nearly over. The Eastshore schools closed the middle of June
and the week after the picnic the pupils were plunged into the
throes of the final examinations. Even Shirley went about anxiously
wondering if she would "pass" and asking each of her sisters if they
thought she had had good marks during the year.

"I just have to be promoted," she would say over and over. "I just
have to be promoted, 'cause my mother is coming home."

"When's Mother coming home?" was Sarah's cry. "You said in a year,
Hugh, and it's a year this month."

"I think we may look for her home sometime this month," said the
doctor one day when Sarah had asked him for the twentieth time. "You
mustn't expect her to keep a calendar, Sarah and come back on the
exact day she went away. It may be a few days longer, dear."

"She went away a year ago this Wednesday," said Rosemary, half to
herself.

"Has it been a long year, Rosemary?" asked her brother, quickly.

"In spots," answered Rosemary, the tears rushing to her eyes. "It
has been ever so long, sometimes, Hugh."

"Well, let's all get promoted," suggested Shirley, in her little
chirpy voice. "Mother would like us all promoted, wouldn't she,
Hugh?"

"She'll about eat you up, promoted or not," he answered, swinging
Shirley to the top of his desk the better to hug her. "But by all
means be promoted; that will be fine news to tell her."

The dreaded examinations approached relentlessly, engulfed each
fearful class and released them, after a few days, to wait their
fates. Shirley was sure she had "passed in everything," Sarah was
superbly indifferent, and Rosemary had secret qualms about history.
Jack Welles confided that he didn't care so much whether or not he
passed, but the uncertainty was driving him mad.

"If I pass, I get my choice of three dandy fishing rods," he
explained to Rosemary. "And if I flunk, I have to work in the
garden all summer without a single fishing trip."

This state of suspense extended to the last day of the term. The
senior classes, in the high and grammar schools, were given their
ratings earlier, to allow them to prepare for the graduating
exercises. Rosemary, Sarah, Shirley and Aunt Trudy went to the
exercises and all through the hot June night Rosemary sat, wide-eyed
and delighted, wondering if the day would ever come when she could
sit on the platform in a white frock with her arms filled with
roses, and perhaps be called on to read an essay.

The day after the graduation, the cards were handed out among the
other grades. Jack Welles waited to walk home with the Willis girls
and though his patience was sorely tried by the prolonged farewells,
he managed to keep fairly good-humored.

"Why was Bessie Kent kissing you as though she never expected to see
you again?" he asked Rosemary curiously. "Doesn't she live near you
and won't you see her nearly every day this summer?"

"Oh, that's just because it was the last day of school," explained
Rosemary.

"Silly, I call it," declared Sarah, voicing Jack's sentiments. "I
got promoted, Jack. And I'm going to hunt specimens all summer for
the biology teacher. He asked me to."

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