Rosemary Part 36

"I got promoted, too," cried Shirley proudly. "I got a silver star on my card. And now I'm in the second grade."

Jack looked at Rosemary. She nodded happily.

"Pa.s.sed in everything," she said. "Even history. Won't it be fun to be in the grammar graduating cla.s.s next term!"

"Well I pa.s.sed, myself," announced Jack. "Watch me pick out that fishing rod. And the garden won't see much of me this summer, I can tell you that."

"Mother will be so pleased," said Rosemary, as Jack went on to his house, and the three girls mounted the steps of the Willis home.

"She likes us to do well in school, and Hugh was never kept back a single year. She would like us to follow his record, I know."

"The house looks kind of nice, doesn't it?" said Sarah unexpectedly.

Comment of that kind was unusual with her.

The house did look "nice," its rich cream color showing up the vivid green of the shrubbery and the velvety surface of the well-kept lawn. The new rose bushes were bearing well and Doctor Hugh had managed new green and white striped awnings for the porch.

"I wish Mother could see the roses," said Rosemary as they went in.

The late afternoon June sunshine streamed in through the hall window and made a broad band to the stairway which was in shadow. Voices sounded in the living room.

"Hugh's home!" cried Sarah, her quick eyes darting to the hall table where a man's hat and a light leather bag lay together with a woman's hat and veil.

Rosemary saw the hat and veil. They were not Aunt Trudy's. Her heart gave a sudden leap.

They went forward across the hall to the doorway of the living-room.

There, in the large arm-chair, facing the door, sat a little woman with eyes like Rosemary's and dark hair like Sarah, but faintly streaked with gray across its ripples. She was thin, as though from a recent illness, but a clear pink glowed in her cheeks and her soft voice was firm and strong. Her lovely mouth smiled at the girls and she held out her arms. Doctor Hugh, standing behind her chair, laughed a little, to keep from crying he afterward said, as Sarah and Shirley hurled themselves upon their mother, both shrieking, while they waved their report cards, "We're promoted! We're promoted! We pa.s.sed in every single thing!"

She took them both in her lap at once and their arms were about her neck. Across the yellow and dark head, her eyes met those of her oldest daughter. Doctor Hugh, too, looked at Rosemary.

She had not moved from the doorway since Sarah and Shirley had brushed past her in their mad rush. Standing motionless and speechless, a slender hand on either side of the doorframe, she watched her sisters claim the mother's first kiss. Then, as the beautiful eyes were raised to hers, she made an effort to speak. All the love and longing and loneliness of the past year, not fully felt till now, rushed to her voice. She took a step forward.

"_Mother!_" said Rosemary.

THE END