Rosemary Part 15

ONE DISASTROUS AFTERNOON

"I do practise," said Rosemary desperately.

"Well not enough, or Miss Mason wouldn't say your work was falling below your usual standard," Aunt Trudy insisted. "She was here this afternoon, Hugh, and she asked me whether Rosemary was giving as much time as usual to the piano."

"Oh, let her slow up this kind of weather, if she wants to,"

responded the doctor lazily. "I think she's stuck pretty faithfully to the scales and finger exercises myself."

Rosemary flashed him a grateful look.

"Of course I don't want to find fault," said Aunt Trudy to this, "but you know I feel responsible. And Winnie was saying this morning that Sarah and Shirley are left too much to themselves."

"Oh, that's all right," declared Sarah hastily and Shirley echoed, "Yes, that's all right."

Doctor Hugh laughed and even Rosemary smiled faintly. How could she explain that she had no time left from the babies in the afternoon to spend with the little sisters, or that the reason her music was showing neglect was because her morning practise hours were given over to the odds and ends of duties she dared not leave undone for fear of comment and question and now had no other time to do?

"I imagine Sarah and Shirley amuse themselves," said the doctor, smiling, "but Rosemary dear, I don't want you to get in the habit of being out of the house too much. Three afternoons I've called you up and you weren't home."

Doctor Hugh wondered if Nina Edmonds was absorbing Rosemary's attention again, but he thought it wiser not to ask. As a matter of fact, had he but known it, the voluble Nina had been away at the seash.o.r.e for several weeks.

"Well, all I can say," remarked Aunt Trudy after a pause, "is that I hope, Rosemary, your sense of duty will be strong enough to cause you to pay a little attention to the children while I am away. I am going to-morrow morning to spend two days with my cousin, you know, Hugh. She is sailing for London, Wednesday."

"Yes, you told me," acknowledged the doctor. "We'll manage all right, Aunt Trudy. Rosemary will keep us all in order."

But in spite of his cheerful faith, Aunt Trudy departed the next morning "worried to death" as she confided to Winnie.

"I have a feeling that Sarah and Shirley will get into some mischief, the minute my back is turned," declared the good lady.

"And Rosemary will be mooning around and not catch them until it is too late."

Aunt Trudy's doleful prediction proved only too true. That very afternoon, when Rosemary left to take care of the Simmons baby while his proud mother attended the fortnightly meeting of her card club, Sarah and Shirley decided to sail boats in the bath-tub.

Unfortunately, when the tub was half filled, Ray Anderson called them to come and see his new kiddie car and when that was duly inspected, Sarah pressed Shirley into service to help her feed the rabbits.

"Let's go up to the store and buy 'em some fresh carrots," Sarah suggested. "I'll get the money out of the tin bank--Rosemary won't mind, 'cause I'll pay her back soon as I can."

Rosemary was putting the money she earned into the little tin chimney bank which stood on the mantel shelf in her room. She called it the "ring fund" and to Sarah it seemed that there must be money enough already in it to buy several rings. But Rosemary was positive she still needed a great deal more.

Sarah and Shirley, by dint of much shaking and banging the bank against the shelf edge, succeeded in extracting ten cents and with this they purchased fresh young carrots, a delicacy much beloved by the pampered rabbits. They had fed the rabbits and were swinging in the porch swing, when they heard a cry from Winnie.

"For mercy's sake, where is the water coming from!" she shrieked.

"Look at it, leaking down through the ceiling and dripping on my clean tablecloth--have the pipes sprung a leak?"

She dashed madly upstairs, Sarah and Shirley at her heels. The bath-tub was overflowing and the floor was a lake.

"Don't ever let me hear of you sailing boats again, as long as I live in this house!" Winnie scolded, as she rolled up her sleeves and pulled out the plug. "Sarah, go down and get me the mop--quick!

It'll be a wonder if the plaster doesn't fall in the dining-room, it's that soaked!"

Dinner was delayed because of the catastrophe and when Doctor Hugh came in, hungry and tired, it was to find Winnie spreading a fresh cloth on the table and scolding Rosemary vigorously.

"The time to be helping me is before such a thing happens,"

announced Winnie, twitching the linen angrily. "Is that you, Hughie?

Heaven alone knows when dinner will be ready to-night--I've been made to set the table twice over and the potatoes boiled dry while I was mopping up the bathroom."

In a few words she sketched the incident.

"Rosemary, can't you look after the children a little better, just till your aunt gets back?" asked the doctor wearily. "Where were you when they were letting the water run?"

"I was--out," said Rosemary lamely. "Just around," she added hastily, seeing a question forming on his lips.

"Well you'll have to stay in to-morrow," he said decisively. "Aunt Trudy will be home to-morrow night, and I want you to be with Sarah and Shirley till then. That isn't asking too much--one day. And we'll see if we can get along without any more accidents. No eclairs to-night, Winnie, for Shirley and Sarah."

The two culprits, deprived of dessert, were excused early, but Rosemary left alone with Hugh was too busy with her own thoughts to talk much though ordinarily she loved an opportunity for a chat with him.

"I simply have to go to Mrs. Hepburn's to-morrow," she thought panic-stricken. "I promised faithfully to come, rain or shine. She is going somewhere with her husband and that's the only day he has off. I'll have to go--that is all there is about it. If Hugh finds it out, he will be furious, but perhaps he won't know. Anyway, I'm going! I promised."

Sarah and Shirley playing their favorite game of dominoes on the porch after dinner, were startled by a sudden rush from Rosemary.

She whirled through the doorway and demanded of her sister, "Sarah, have you been meddling with my tin bank?"

Sarah got up from the floor slowly.

"I borrowed ten cents," she admitted, trying to back away and backing into a rocking chair.

"You 'borrowed' ten cents!" cried Rosemary, advancing upon her. "And you know I want to save every cent! Of all the selfish, mean girls I ever knew, you're the worst!"

She clutched the unhappy Sarah by her broad sailor collar and proceeded to shake her fiercely. Sarah retaliated by kicking viciously and they were in eminent danger of upsetting the wicker table and porch lamp when Doctor Hugh strode out and separated them.

"Rosemary!" he said in surprise. "What do you call it you are doing?

And Sarah, too--kicking and fighting like two small boys! What ails you, anyway?"

"She took ten cents out of my bank--it's just the same as stealing, because she never pays back anything she borrows," panted Rosemary, almost crying. "I found a penny on the floor where she dropped it.

And she knows how hard I'm trying to save every cent, too."

"Well, Sarah, I think robbing a bank is a pretty mean trick,"

p.r.o.nounced Doctor Hugh judiciously. "Where is this bank, Rosemary?

I've never seen it. Seems to me you're beginning to get ready for Christmas rather far in advance."

Rosemary looked at Sarah who gazed at her imploringly. Both girls had forgotten for the moment the ring fund and its object.

"I'll pay you back to-morrow Rosemary, honestly I will," said Sarah hurriedly. "Aunt Trudy owes me ten cents for not melting her letter sealing wax. She will pay me to-morrow night and I'll give it to you."

"Sarah, Sarah," groaned her brother, half in amus.e.m.e.nt, half in despair, "I'm afraid your ethics are pretty wobbly. So Aunt Trudy has to bribe you, does she, to let her desk alone? Well, see that you turn the bribe over to Rosemary, though I should call it robbing Peter to pay Paul, with a vengeance."

"Goodness, suppose he had made you tell why you were saving the money!" whispered Sarah, when the doctor had gone back to his office. "I was just shaking in my shoes."

"Sarah, wouldn't you rather tell, anyway?" said Rosemary suddenly.

"I don't believe Hugh would be so very cross, because you didn't mean to lose the ring. And I am afraid it will take me a perfect age to earn enough money to buy another."

"I won't tell, ever!" declared Sarah, shaking her dark head obstinately. "And if you tell, Rosemary Willis, I'll never speak to you as long as I live! You don't have to buy another ring--that's silly. Aunt Trudy doesn't even know this one is lost."