Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer Part 2

She screamed, but when her voice rang out with reverberating shrillness she clapped her hands to her ears. She would sing; and her fresh young voice broke forth into ragtime song.

But the ragtime quivered pathetically into a half-wail. What should she do? At last in sheer desperation she began to sing hymns; but they sounded so doleful in her nervous state that she desisted with a sound that was half a sob and half a laugh. She was about to embrace resignation to fate when she caught the glimmer of a brown skirt between the low-hung branches of the trees near by. In a moment there was a sharp crack of a twig, and Nathalie with a sudden exclamation of joy saw a young girl coming quickly toward her, wearing the same kind of a brown uniform she had perceived on her neighbor a few days ago.

"Oh, are you hurt?" asked the girl quickly, as she saw Nathalie's white face resting against the tree.

Nathalie, attempting to smile, told of her mishap, and then with widening eyes saw the girl run a few steps into the open. Then the short, staccato whistle of Bob White struck the air.

It was hardly a moment when, in response to this bird-call, several girls appeared in the opening beyond. A few hurried words with the girl who had signaled them, and they were around Nathalie, listening to the story of her accident.

After expressing their sympathy, two of the taller girls quickly slipped off their khaki skirts, unb.u.t.toned them, and then, to the injured one's amazement, one of the girls pushed her staff through the belt of one skirt and hem of the other, while her companion did the same with her staff. They were improvising a stretcher, as neat and comfortable-looking as if it had just been removed from an ambulance.

While the stretcher was being made, one of the girls had taken from her knapsack a small black case from which she extracted a bottle. Hastily kneeling on the ground, after Nathalie's boot had been removed by her a.s.sistant, she bathed the injured foot, then, as her companion handed her a roll of white lint she bound it with a cotton compress, while Nathalie, with much curiosity, watched her as she quickly and skillfully performed the work of First Aid to the Injured. As she rose to her feet and turned to direct her companions in the lifting of her patient on the stretcher, Nathalie recognized her next-door neighbor, Helen Dame, the Girl Pioneer!

CHAPTER II-HER NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR

If Nathalie was surprised at the deftness and resourcefulness of these Girl Pioneers, she was amazed at the ease and comfort she experienced as the four girls strode forward, two at the head and two at the foot of the improvised stretcher.

Notwithstanding the sharp twinges in her foot, she felt as if she could have dropped into a doze if a sudden, jarring thought had not caused her to raise her head in search of her next-door neighbor. By the decision of her voice and her methodical manner of directing her companions as they prepared the "bed of ease," Nathalie had recognized this girl as the leader.

But Helen Dame was not to be seen. One of the girls, however, on seeing Nathalie's movement, commanded a halt and hastened to her side. "What can I do for you?" she inquired in an anxious tone. "Are you in pain?"

Her ready sympathy brought the tears to Nathalie's eyes, for her nerves were somewhat under a strain, but she fought them bravely back, and looking up with a rea.s.suring smile replied, "Oh no, I am all right, but I was looking for Miss Dame. I am afraid if Mother sees me on a stretcher, she will think something very dreadful has happened."

"Ah, Helen thought of that," was the quick reply, "and she has gone ahead to tell your mother that you have only hurt your foot, and to see if she can get Dr. Morrow to come over and look at it."

"Oh, how kind of her-and of you all-" there was a slight tremor in Nathalie's voice. "I am sure I do not know what would have become of me, alone there in the woods, if you girls had not come to my rescue."

As the girls walked slowly on with their burden, the one walking by the side of the stretcher told Nathalie that they were a group of Girl Pioneers, that they had been on a hike, and that her name was Grace Tyson. As they chatted pleasantly, Nathalie told of her recent removal from the city to Westport. With wise forethought she suppressed all mention of her former wealth and the many luxuries she had been used to, for fear that these suburban girls, not comprehending, might misjudge her and think that she considered herself above them. She had learned from the girls of her own set in school that when a newcomer took particular care to advise them how rich she was, her mates usually dubbed her a sn.o.b. So she only told of her great loss in the death of her father, how d.i.c.k, her older brother, had injured his knee in an accident and was an invalid, and how she liked her new home.

In the companionship of this new girl she scarcely realized how quickly the time had pa.s.sed until she saw her mother's anxious face bending over her, and heard a masculine voice say, "Well, is this the young lady who reached too high?"

Nathalie looked quickly up and immediately her heart went out to this big, bluff man with iron-gray hair and kindly blue eyes who picked her up as if she had been a manikin, carried her into the hall, and laid her on the couch. She recognized the face of the doctor who lived on the opposite corner whom she had often envied as he went chugging down the street in his automobile.

After the doctor had pressed her foot here and there with a touch as soft as silk from the gentleness of trained fingers, he brought forth some surgical plaster from a black case, and strapped the injured member, remarking as he did so on the surgeon-like way in which Miss Dame had bandaged it.

After the "exam," as d.i.c.k called it, was over, the doctor explained the case as a few strained ligaments, and said that with care his patient would be able to walk in about a week.

"A week?" sprang from the young girl involuntarily. Dismay shone in her eyes, but the doctor, with a fatherly pat, a.s.sured her that she had great cause for grat.i.tude, as it might have been much worse.

"The next time you go to gather dogwood blossoms, young lady," he advised jovially, "wear rubber heels, and then you won't slip on stones."

As the doctor bade her good afternoon, promising to come again in a few days to see how the foot was progressing, Nathalie thought of her rescuers, and raising her head peered anxiously around.

"The girls have gone, but they left a good-by for you," her mother answered to her look of inquiry, "and Miss Dame says she will be in to-morrow to see how you are."

By to-morrow Nathalie had begun to think it was not at all unpleasant to be a short-time invalid, and she jokingly requested her mother to see that her head was not screwed around from sheer conceit at being the recipient of so much attention.

Mrs. Morrow, the doctor's young wife, had sent her a beautiful bunch of yellow daffodils from the very garden that Nathalie had been admiring all the week, while the little, silver-haired old lady next door-Nathalie could have hugged her, she looked so grand-motherly-had sent her a snow-frosted nut-cake. Lucille-an unheard-of thing-had condescended to alight from her pedestal of self and had played and sung Nathalie's favorite selections all the morning. Even Dorothy, whose engagement book was always br.i.m.m.i.n.g over, had darned stockings for her.

Of course, Nathalie knew that she would have to rip out every st.i.tch, but that was the child's way of showing that she, too, wanted to be sympathetic and kind.

The success of the day, however, was when Helen Dame's dark eyes smiled at her from the adjoining porch, and she asked if Nathalie felt like chatting for a while.

"Indeed I do," answered Nathalie animatedly, "I have been just dying to talk with you ever since you were so kind."

"Oh, how sweet you look!" exclaimed Helen a few moments later as she shook hands with the patient, "with your pink ribbons-just the color of your cheeks." For the girl's color had deepened as her visitor laid a bunch of violets on her lap. "These are from the girls, the Girl Pioneers-that is our Pioneer song," she added laughingly.

"I just love violets!" Nathalie sniffed at the purple petals. "And the girls, do you mean the ones who so kindly came to my aid the other day?

Oh, Miss Dame, I hardly know how to express my appreciation of your kindness," her voice trembled slightly, "in hurrying home to tell Mother."

"Oh, that was nothing," replied Helen with a.s.sumed indifference, although her eyes darkened in appreciation of Nathalie's gratefulness, "that was only courtesy; you know we are Girl Pioneers, and kindness is one of the laws of the organization."

"Do you know," Nathalie broke in impulsively, "Mother thinks the girls very clever in making that stretcher; do tell me about the Girl Pioneers!" She hesitated for a moment. "Perhaps I am very ignorant, but I never heard of them until your mother told mine that you were a Girl Pioneer."

Helen laughed with a gratified gleam in her eyes. "Oh, Mother!-she thinks it just the dandiest thing going. Mrs. Morrow, our Director, introduced the movement here. The founder is a friend of hers, so she is steeped to her finger-tips with it.

"She started me going-enthusiasm is contagious, you know-and I organized the first group. A group means six or eight girls; several groups form what is called a band."

"Do you mean Mrs. Morrow, the doctor's wife?" inquired her companion.

"She must be lovely, for she looks so pretty flitting about the garden,"

turning wistful eyes toward the corner house with its flower beds and green lawn. "I often watch her from my window."

"Yes, she is a dear," a.s.sented Helen, "and we girls adore her. Have you seen the twins?"

"The kiddies who go about in khaki uniforms and carry little poles."

"Yes, baby Boy Scouts. You should hear them call themselves 'the twims'; they both lisp. But there, I must tell you about the Pioneers-but I don't want to tire you," she paused abruptly, "for Mother says there is no end to me when I get talking on that subject."

"But I want to hear about them!" pleaded Nathalie.

"Well, after I organized the group, the girls elected me leader, and Grace Tyson-that's the girl who walked beside you coming home-my a.s.sistant. You see every group has to have a leader and an a.s.sistant from the group, and then when a band is formed there is a Director. Any one over twenty-one years of age can be a Director. After we formed our group, we had to get busy and qualify."

"Qualify?" repeated her hostess, "that sounds big."

"Yes, every Girl Pioneer has to qualify, that is to pa.s.s several tests to prove that she is competent to do the work. It is no end of fun training a girl to qualify, for you know she has to recite the Girl Pioneer pledge, and the Pioneer laws; she must give the names of the President and Vice-President of the United States, the name of the Governor of the State in which she lives, and then tell all about our country's flag. She must know how to sew a b.u.t.ton on properly," Helen made a grimace, "to tie a square knot and to do several other things.

After a girl has pa.s.sed these tests, she becomes a third-cla.s.s Pioneer; then after a month she can qualify for a second-cla.s.s Pioneer, and finally for a first-cla.s.s Pioneer. We can win merit badges, too, for proficiency in certain lines. Yes, you are right, it is a big thing to be a Girl Pioneer, for every true Pioneer's aim is to be courageous, resourceful, and upright, under all circ.u.mstances and in all emergencies.

"You know, we have to pledge ourselves to speak the truth at all times, to be honest in all things, and to obey the Pioneer law." Helen's face grew serious. "Yes, and our laws mean something, too, for they stand for the doing of things that are worth while, the things that develop n.o.bility of character, for, as Mrs. Morrow tells us, it is character that makes the great men and women of the world.

"But don't think we are serious all the time," she continued, her eyes brightening, "for we have heaps of fun. We take hikes; sometimes just a group go with their leader, but generally our Director takes the band.

On these hikes we study woodcraft; that means we study the birds, their habits, and learn to know their songs and call-notes. We gather wild flowers, ferns, and gra.s.ses, and each girl reads up about the particular thing she finds and pa.s.ses the information along. We study the trees, and the animals also by tracking their footmarks-well, to sum it all up, we study nature from growing things and living creatures.

"To read about things in a book is all right, Mrs. Morrow says, as it is helpful in identification and suggestion, but we strive to know things through personal experience. We are taught to find nature, too, in the crowded cities. That's big, isn't it?"

"Big!" echoed Nathalie, "the word _big_ isn't big enough to express it.

I should say it meant-well"-she held out her arms, "the universe."