"Roger cut a slip ten inches long and four inches wide""Roger cut a slip ten inches long and four inches wide"
Corner for Blotter PadCorner for Blotter Pad
"Where's this professor of leather?" called Tom as he heard Roger's steps on the attic stairs.
"Andbrass," added Roger grandly as he appeared in the doorway.
"No one disputes the brass," returned Tom, and Roger roared cheerfully and called out "Bull's-eye!"
"Now, then," began Roger seating himself at the head of the table, "with apologies to the president I'll call this solemn meeting to order—that is, as much order as there can be with Dicky around."
Dicky was even then engaged in trying to make a hole in Ethel Blue's shoe with a leather punch, but he was promptly suppressed and placed between the Ethels before his purpose was accomplished.
"You've got him interned there," remarked James, using a phrase that was becoming customary in the newspaper accounts of the care of prisoners.
"I'm going to start you people making corners for a big blotting pad," said Roger, "not because the orphans will want a blotting pad, but because they are easy to make and you can adapt the idea to lots of other articles."
"Fire ahead," commanded James.
"You make a paper pattern to fit your corner—so fashion," and Roger tore a sheet of paper off a pad and cut a slip ten inches long and four inches wide. A point in the middle of the long side he placed on the corner of the big blotter that lay before him and then he folded the rest of the paper around the corner. The result was a smooth triangle on the face of the blotter and a triangle at the back just like it except that it was split up the middle.
"Here's your pattern," said Roger slipping it off. "When you make this of brass or copper it's a good plan to round these back corners so there won't be any sharp points to stick into you or to scratch the desk."
"The orphans' mahogany."
"Or Grandfather Emerson's. I'm going to inflict a set on him at Christmas."
"I should think it would be hard to work on such dinky little things," remarked James who had large hands.
"You don't cut them out of your big sheet of copper or your big piece of leather yet. You draw the size of this small pattern on to a larger piece of paper and you draw your ornamental design right where you want it on the face of the triangle—so."
"More work for Ethel Blue, making original designs."
"She might get up some U. S. C. designs and have them copyrighted," suggested Helen.
"Until she does we'll have to use these simple figures that I traced out of a book the other day."
"Why couldn't we use our stenciling designs?"
"You could, if they are the right size. That star pattern you put oh a doll's skirt would be just the ticket—just one star for each corner."
"We might put U. S. C. in each corner."
"Or U. in one corner and S. in another, and C. in a third and a star or something in the fourth."
"Or the initials of the person you give it to."
"We've got the size of the corner piece as it is when it's unfolded and with its design on it, all drawn on this piece of paper. Now you tack your sheet of brass on to a block of wood and lay a sheet of carbon paper over it and your design on that and trace ahead."
"I see, I see," commented Margaret. "When you take it off, there you have the size of your corner indicated and the star or whatever you're going to ornament it with, all drawn in the right place."
"Exactly. Now we tackle the brass itself."
"It seems to me we ought to have some tools for that."
"A light hammer and a wire nail—that's all. See the point of this nail? It has been filed flat and rather dull. I made enough for everybody to have one—not you, sir," and he snatched away one of them from Dicky just as that young man was about to nail Ethel Brown's dress on to the edge of her chair.
"Dicky will have to be interned at home if he isn't quiet." The president shook her head at the honorary member.
"First you go around the whole outline, tapping the nail gently, stroke by stroke, until the line of the design is completely hammered in."
"That isn't hard," said Tom. "Watch me."
"When the outline is made you take another wire nail that has been filed perfectly flat on the bottom and go over the whole background with it."
"I see, I see," cried Ethel Blue. "That makes the design stand out puffily and smooth against a sort of motheaten background."
"For eloquent description commend me to Ethel Blue," declared Margaret.
"She's right, though. You can make the moth holes of different size by using nails of different sizes. There are regular tools that come, too, with different pounding surfaces so it's possible to make quite a variety of backgrounds."
"This mothy one is pretty enough for me," declared Margaret.
"I don't much like that name for it, but it is pretty, just the same," insisted Roger. "When you've hammereddown the background you take out the tacks and cut out your whole corner with this pair of shears that is made to cut metal. Then you fold over the backs just the way you folded over the paper to find the shape originally."
"It's not so terribly easy to bend," commented Ethel Blue.
"Shape them along the edge of your block of wood. Persuade them down—so, and fold them back—so. Tap them into place with your wooden mallet. There you are."
The finished corner was passed from hand to hand and duly admired.
"Rub it shiny with any brass polish, if you like it bright," directed Roger.
"It's fashionable for coppers to be dull now," said Helen.
"You ladies know more about fashions of all sorts than I should ever pretend to," said her brother meekly. "I like metals to shine, myself."
"What are some of the articles we can start in to make now that we know how?" questioned Margaret.
"All sorts of things for the desk—a paper knife and a roller blotter and a case to hold the inkwell and a clip to keep papers from blowing away. The work is just the same, no matter what you're making. It's all a matter of getting the outlines of different objects and then bending them up carefully after you've hammered the design and got them cut out well."
"Why can't you make all sorts of boxes?" asked James whose mind had run to boxes ever since his week of work upon them.
"You can. All sorts and sizes. Line them with silk or leather. Leather wears best."
"How far is the leather work like the metal work?" asked Ethel Brown. "It seemed to be the same as far as the point where you tacked them on to the wooden block."
"A beauty leather mat""A beauty leather mat"
"It is the same except that you wet the leather before you tack it on to the block. When you put your design on to the leather you don't need to use carbon paper. Borrow one of Ethel Brown's knitting needles and run it over the design that you have drawn on the paper placed over the leather, and it will leave a tiny groove on the damp leather."
"That's a simple instrument."
"A three cornered purse that doesn't need any sewing""A three cornered purse that doesn't need any sewing"
"The steel tooler you take next is simple, too. You deepen the groove with its edge and then take the flat part of the tooler and go over every bit ofthe leather outside of the design, pressing it and polishing it with great care."
"I suppose that gives the leather a different texture."
The three cornered purse completedThe three cornered purse completed
"It seems to. It makes the design show more, anyway."
"I saw a beauty leather mat the other day with a cotton boll design that puffed right up from the background.
"The cotton boll caught our little Dorothy's eye,of course! You make your design puff out by rubbing it on the back with a round headed tool. Your mat probably had the puffed up part filled with wax so it wouldn't smash down again when something heavy was placed on it."
"I think it did; it felt hard."
"If you do puff out any part of your pattern you have to tool over the design again, because the outline will have lost its sharpness."
"The mat I saw was colored."
"That's easy. There are colors that come especially for using on leather. You float them on when the leather is wet and you can get beautiful effects."
"You ought not to cut out your leather corners until they are dry, I suppose?"
"They ought to be thoroughly dry. If you want a lining for a purse or a cardcase you can paste in either silk or a thin leather. It's pretty to make an openwork design and let the lining show through."
"How about sewing purses? It must be hard work."
"Helen does mine on the machine. She says it isn't much trouble if she goes slowly and takes a few stitches back at the ends so they won't come apart. But I'm going to show you how to make a little three cornered purse that doesn't need any sewing—only two glove snappers."
So simple was this pattern that each of them had finished one by the time that Grandmother Emerson's car came to take them all over to luncheon at her house.
THE ETHELS COOK TO KEEP
ANOTHER week rolled on and still no reply came to the cable that the Club had sent to Mademoiselle Millerand.
"Either she hasn't received it," said Ethel Blue, who felt a personal interest because it had been signed by her as Secretary of the club, "or Mr. Schuler is dead and she doesn't want to tell us."
"It's pretty sure to be one or the other," said Ethel Brown. "I suppose we might as well forget that we tried to do anything about it."
"Have you heard Roger or Helen say anything about Fräulein lately?"
"Helen said she looked awfully sad and that she was wearing black. Evidently she has no hope."
"Poor Fräulein!"
Bag for a doll, a child or a grown-upBag for a doll, a child or a grown-up
"What are we going to do this week?"
"I've planned the cunningest little travelling bag for a doll. It's a straight strip of leather, tooled in a pretty pattern. It's doubled in halves and there is a three-cornered piece let in at the ends to give a bit more room."
"How do you fasten it?"
"Like a Boston bag, with a strap that goes over the top."
"You could run a cord in and out parallel with the top and pull it up."
"I believe I'll make two and try both ways."
"You could make the same pattern only a little larger for a wrist bag for an older child."
"And larger still for a shopping bag for a grown person."
"That's as useful a pattern as Helen's and Margaret's wrapper pattern! Do you realize that this is the week that we ought to cook?"
"Is it? We'll have to hurry fearfully! Are you perfectly sure the things will keep?"
"I've talked it over several times with Miss Dawson, the domestic science teacher. She has given me some splendid receipts and some information about packing. She says there won't be any doubt of their travelling all right."
"We'll have to cook every afternoon, then. We'd better go over the receipts and see if we have all the materials we need."
"We know about the cookies and the fruit cake and the fudge. We've made all those such a short time ago that we know we have those materials. Here are ginger snaps," she went on, examining her cook book. "We haven't enough molasses I'm sure, and I'm doubtful about the ginger."
"Let me see."
Ethel Blue read over the receipt.
"1 pt. molasses—dark1 cup butter1 tablespoon ginger1 teaspoon soda1 teaspoon cinnamon"About 2 quarts flour, or enough more to make a thick dough.
"About 2 quarts flour, or enough more to make a thick dough.
"Sift flour, soda, and spices together. Melt the butter, put the molasses in a big bowl, add the butter, then the flour gradually, using a knife to cut it in. When stiff enough to roll, roll out portions quite thin on a floured board, cut out with a cookie cutter or with the cover of a baking powder can. Place them on greased tins, leaving a little space between each cookie. Bake in a hot oven about five minutes."
"Miss Dawson says we must let the cookies get perfectly cold before we pack them. Then we must wrap them in paraffin paper and pack them tightly into a box."
"They ought to be so tight that they won't rattle round and break."
"If we could get enough tin boxes it would be great."
"Let's ask Grandmother Emerson and Aunt Louise and all Mother's friends to save their biscuit boxes for us."
"We ought to have thought of asking them before. And we must go out foraging for baking powder tins to steam the little fruit puddings and the small loaves of Boston brown bread in."
"What a jolly idea!"
"Miss Dawson says that when they are cold we can slip them out of their tins and brush the bread and pudding and cake over with pure alcohol. That will kill the mould germs and it will all be evaporated by the time they are opened."
"If there is paraffin paper around them, too, and they are slipped back into their little round tins it seems to me they ought to be as cosy and good as possible."
"I'm awfully taken with the individual puddings. We can make them all different sizes according to the size of the tins we get hold of. Doesn't this sound good?"
Ethel read aloud the pudding receipt with an appreciative smile.
"Steamed Fruit Pudding
"2½ cups flour3 teaspoons baking powder½ teaspoon salt¼ teaspoon cinnamon½ teaspoon nutmeg or ginger1 cup chopped suet1 cup chopped raisins½ cup cleaned currants1 cup water or milk1 cup molasses (dark)
"Sift soda, salt, baking powder, and spice with the flour, add the suet and fruit, then the molasses and milk. Mix well. Fill moulds two-thirds full. Steam three hours."
"When we do them up we can arrange them so that no bundle will contain both a fruit cake and a fruit pudding. We must have variety."
"I asked particularly about wheat bread. The papers say that that is scarce, you know."
"Did Miss Dawson say it would travel?"
"No, she thought it would be as hard as shoe leather. But she says the Boston brown bread ought to be soft enough even after six weeks. If we can make enough small loaves—"
"Baking powder tin loaves—"
"Yes—to have a loaf of bread and a fruit cake or a fruit pudding or a box of cookies—"
"That is, one cake—"
"—and some candy in each package that we do up it will give variety."
"It sounds good to me. We'll have to hide all our things away from Roger."
"Listen to this receipt:
"Boston Brown Bread
"1 cup rye meal (or flour)1 cup granulated corn-meal1 cup Graham flour2 cups sour milk or 1¾ cups sweet milk or water1 teaspoon salt¾ teaspoon soda¾ cup molasses (dark)
"Mix and sift the dry ingredients, add molasses and milk, stir until well mixed, turn into a well greased mould, steam 3½ hours. The cover should be greased before being placed on the mould, then tied down with a string, otherwise the bread might force off the cover. The mould should never be filled more than two-thirds full. For steaming, place the mould on a stand (or on nails laid flat) in a kettle of boiling water, allowing water to come half way up around mould, cover closely, and steam, add, as needed, more boiling water."
"'Mould' is polite for baking powder tin."
"I wish our family was small enough for us to have them. They're just too dear!"
"Some time after the Christmas Ship sails let's make some for the family—one for each person."
"That's a glorious idea. I never do have enough on Sunday morning and you know how Roger teases every one of us to give him part of ours."
"All these 'eats' that travel so well will be splendid to send for Christmas gifts to people at a distance, won't they? People like Katharine Jackson in Buffalo."
"And the Wilson children at Fort Myer," and the Ethels named other young people whom they had met at different garrisons and Navy Yards.
"Here are three kinds of candies that Miss Dawson says ought to travel perfectly if they're packed so they won't shake about Here's 'Roly Poly' tostart with. I can see Katharine's eyes shining over that."
"And the orphans', too."
Ethel read the receipt.
"Roly Poly
"2 lbs. brown sugar1 cup cream2 tablespoons butter½ pint (1 cup) chopped figs1 cup chopped almonds2 cups chopped dates1 cup citron, cut in pieces½ cup chopped pecans½ cup chopped cherries½ cup chopped raisins
"Cook sugar, cream and butter together until a little forms a soft ball when dropped in a cup of cold water. Then add the nuts and fruit. Put it all in a wet cotton bag, mould into a roll on a smooth surface. Remove from the bag and cut as desired."
"I like the sound of 'Sea Foam.' Della tried that, and said it was delicious.
"Sea Foam
"2 cups brown sugar½ cup water1 teaspoon vanilla1 cup chopped nuts1 white of egg
"Beat the white of egg until stiff. Boil the sugar and water together until a little forms a soft ballwhen dropped in a cup of cold water. Add the vanilla and nuts, beat this into the white of egg. When it stiffens pour it into a greased pan, or drop it by spoonsful on the pan."
"It sounds delicious. When we fill James's pretty boxes with these goodies and tie them with attractive paper and cord they are going to look like 'some' Christmas to these poor little kiddies."
"Don't you wish we could see them open them?"
"If Mademoiselle would only send that Belgian baby we really could."
"I'm afraid Mademoiselle has forgotten us utterly."
"It isn't surprising. But I wish she hadn't."
"We must get plenty of brown sugar. This 'Panocha' calls for it, as well as the 'Sea Foam' and the 'Roly Poly.'"
"We'll have to borrow a corner of Mary's storeroom for once."
"She won't mind. She's as interested as we are in the orphans. Let me see how the 'Panocha' goes.
"Panocha
"2 cups brown sugar2 tablespoons butter½ cup milk½ cup chopped nuts of any kind.
"Boil sugar, butter, and milk together until a little forms a soft ball when dropped in a cup of cold water. Add the nuts, stir a few moments till slightly thick, drop by spoonsful on greased tins, or pour it into a greased tin. When cool cut in blocks."
The time given by the Ethels to preparing fortheir cooking operations was well spent. Never once did they have to call on Mary for something they had forgotten to order, and each afternoon was pronounced a success when it was over and its results lay before them.
"If we just had energy enough we might follow the plan that the candy store people do when they have a new clerk. They say that they let her eat all she wants to for the first few days and then she doesn't want any more. It would be fun to give the family all they wanted."
"We really ought to do it before we set the Club to work packing all these goodies, but I don't see how we can with those three boys. We never could fill them up so they'd stop eating."
"Nev-er!"
"Not Roger!"
"We'll just have to give them a lecture on self-control and set them to work."
"It's a glorious lot we've got. Where's Mother? We must show them to her and Grandmother and Aunt Louise."
So there was an exhibit of "food products" that brought the Ethels many compliments. Shelf upon shelf of their private kitchen was filled with boxes and tins, and every day added to the quantity, for Mary came in occasionally to bring a wee fruit cake, Aunt Louise sent over cookies, and Mrs. Emerson added a box of professional candy to the pile.
"They tell me at the candy store that very hard candy doesn't last well," she said. "It grows moist."
"That's why Miss Dawson gave me these receipts for softish candies like fudge. It's well to rememberthat at Christmas time when you're selecting candies for presents."
"I don't believe the Ethels ever will buy any candies again," said Mrs. Morton. "They've become so expert in making them that they quite look down on the professionals."
"Did you see the paper this morning?" asked Mrs. Emerson.
When the girls said that they had not, she produced a clipping.
"Grandfather thought that perhaps this might have escaped your notice, so he sent it over."
Ethel Brown took it and Ethel Blue read it over her shoulder.
CARGO FOR CHRISTMAS SHIP GATHERING HERE FROM EVERY STATE
Hundreds of cases containing every conceivable kind of gift for a child have been received at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, where the Christmas ShipJason, which will carry the gifts of American children to the orphans of the European War is being loaded.It became apparent that if theJasonwere to get off within reasonable time, a tremendous force of sorters and packers would have to be employed. When the situation was presented over the telephone to Secretary of the Navy Daniels he secured authorization for Gen. Wood to assign sixty soldiers to help to get the cargo ready. These men appeared for duty yesterday afternoon.Secretary Daniels has assigned Lieut.-Commander Courtney to command the Christmas Ship.
Hundreds of cases containing every conceivable kind of gift for a child have been received at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, where the Christmas ShipJason, which will carry the gifts of American children to the orphans of the European War is being loaded.
It became apparent that if theJasonwere to get off within reasonable time, a tremendous force of sorters and packers would have to be employed. When the situation was presented over the telephone to Secretary of the Navy Daniels he secured authorization for Gen. Wood to assign sixty soldiers to help to get the cargo ready. These men appeared for duty yesterday afternoon.
Secretary Daniels has assigned Lieut.-Commander Courtney to command the Christmas Ship.
"What a fine Santa Claus-y feeling Commander Courtney must have," said Mrs. Morton. "He's a friend of your father's, Ethel Brown."
"Think of being Santa Claus to all Europe!"
"Our parcels won't be very visible among several millions, will they?"
"You have a wonderfully creditable collection for ten youngsters working so short a time."
"Mr. Watkins is keeping in touch with the ship so that we can make use of every day that she's delayed. Tom telephoned to Roger this afternoon that he had been over to the Bush Terminal and they were sure they wouldn't start before the 10th of November.
"That gives us almost a week more, you see."
"Do you think we could go to New York to see theJasonsail?" asked Ethel Blue and both girls waited eagerly for the reply.
"Aunt Louise and I were saying that the Club ought to go in a body."
"If only she doesn't sail during school hours."
"Even then I think we might manage it for once," smiled Mrs. Morton, and the Ethels rushed off to tell Roger and Helen the plan and to telephone it to Margaret and James.
THE CHRISTMAS SHIP SAILS
THE Rosemont and Glen Point members of the U. S. C. did not wait for the Watkinses to join them on Saturday before beginning to do up the parcels for the Santa Claus Ship. All the small bundles were wrapped and tied in Dorothy's attic, but after Mrs. Smith had made a careful examination of the attic stairs she came to the conclusion that the large packing cases into which they must be put for transportation to the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn could not be taken down without damage to the walls. It was therefore decided that when the bundles were ready they were to be brought downstairs and there packed into several large cases which had been donated for the purpose by the local dry goods dealer and the shoe store man.
Each of these huge boxes James declared to be probably as large as the mysterious house which Roger was going to propose for some sort of club work in the spring. They had been delivered early in the week and were established on the porch at the back of the Smith cottage awaiting the contents that were to bring pleasure to hundreds of expectant children.
Doctor Hancock was so busy that he could not bring Margaret's and James's collection to Rosemont when it was wanted there, so Mrs. Emerson went to Glen Point in her car and brought it backfilled high with the result of James's pasting. It was necessary to have all his boxes to pack the candies and cookies and small gifts in.
Every afternoon a busy throng gathered in the attic, wrapping and tying and labelling the work that kept them all so busy for the previous two months.
"We must do up every package just as carefully as if we were going to put it on our own Christmas tree," Helen decided. "I think half the fun of Christmas is untying the bundles and having the room all heaped up with tissue paper and bright ribbons."
The Club had laid in a goodly store of tissue paper of a great variety of colors, buying it at wholesale and thus obtaining a discount over the retail price. The question of what to tie with was a subject of discussion.
"We certainly can't afford ribbon," Ethel Brown declared. "Even the narrowest kind is too expensive when we have to have hundreds of yards of it."
"We ought to have thought about it before," said Helen looking rather worried, as this necessity should have been foreseen by the president. "I'll go right over to town and get something now," she added, putting on her hat. "Have any of you girls any ideas on the subject?"
"I have," replied Dorothy. "You know that bright colored binding that dressmakers use on seams? It's sometimes silk and sometimes silk and—"
"Cotton? Ha!"
"Silk and cotton; yes, ma'am. It comes in all colors and it's just the right width and it costs a good deal less than real ribbon."
"I suppose we can get the rolls by wholesale in assorted colors, can't we?"
"I should suppose so."
"I have an idea, too," offered Margaret who had come over on the trolley after school was over. "There's a tinsel cord, silver and gilt, that doesn't cost much and it looks bright and pretty. It would be just the thing."
"I've seen that. It does look pretty. For home packages you can stick a sprig of holly or a poinsettia in the knot and it makes it C-H-A-R-M-I-N-G," spelled Ethel Blue, giving herself a whirl in her excitement.
"But we can't use stick-ups on our Christmas Ship parcels, you know."
"That's so, but the tinsel string just by itself is quite pretty enough."
"I'll bring back bushels," said Helen. "You have enough to go on with for a while."
"One year when Mother and I were caught at the last minute on Christmas Eve without any ribbon," said Dorothy, "—it was after the shops had closed, I remember, we found several bundles that we had overlooked—we tied them with ordinary red and green string twisted together. It looked holly-fied."
"That would be easy to do," said Roger. "See, put two balls of twine, one red and one green in a box and punch a hole in the top and let the two colors come out of the hole. Then use them just as if they were one cord. See?"
"As he talked he manufactured a twine box, popping into it not only the red and green balls about which he had been talking, but, on the other side ofa slip of pasteboard which he put in for a partition, a ball of pink and a ball of blue.
"Watch Roger developing another color scheme," cried Ethel Blue. "I'm going to follow that out," and she proceeded to make up a collection of parcels wrapped in pink tissue paper tied with blue string, in blue paper tied with pink cord and in white tied with Roger's combination.
"There's one family fitted out with a lot of presents all naturally belonging together," she cried.
"I rather like that notion myself," announced James gravely, adjusting his lame leg to a more comfortable position. "Please hand me that brown and yellow tissue, somebody. I'm going to make a lot of bundles along the color lines that my auburn haired sister uses in her dress."
"Observant little Jimmy," commented Margaret.
"Here you perceive, ladies, that I am doing up the bundles with brown and yellow and burnt orange and tango, and lemon color, and I'm tying them with a contrast—brown with orange and buttercup yellow with brown and lemon yellow with white and so on. Good looking, eh?" he finished, pointing with pride to his group of attractive parcels.
"I'm going to do a bunch with a mixture of all sorts," announced Roger. "Here's a green tied with red and a white tied with green and a pink tied with white and a brown tied with tango, and violet tied with blue,und so weiter, as our Fräulein says when she means 'and so forth' and can't remember her English fast enough."
"Poor Fräulein! It will be a hard Christmas for her."
"She brought in the last of her work and Mrs.Hindenburg's yesterday. Such a mound of knitting!"
"Has any one been to the Old Ladies' Home to gather up what they have there?" asked James.
"Roger went early this morning before school. Perhaps those old ladies haven't been busy! See that pile?"
"All theirs? Good work," and James set about tying up the soft and comfortable knitted mufflers and wristlets and socks, first in tissue paper with a ribbon or a bright cord and then with a stouter wrapper of ordinary paper. He marked on each package what was in it.
"If the people who are doing the sorting and repacking at the Bush Terminal can know what is in each bundle it is going to help them a lot," remarked methodical James.
The packing of the candies and cookies took especial care, for they had to be wrapped in paraffin paper and tightly wedged in the fancy boxes awaiting them before they could be wrapped with their gay outside coverings.
"We want them to arrive with some shape still left to them and not merely a boxful of crumbs," said Ethel Brown earnestly.
Except for the collections of varied presents which they had made for the sake of the color schemes of their wrappings—an arrangement with which Helen was much pleased when she came back laden with ribbons and cord—the gifts were packed according to their kind. Every article of clothing was wrapped separately and the bundles were labelled, each with the name of the article within, and then put into one large box. It was only by great squeezingthat the knitted articles were persuaded to go into the same case.
In another box were the candies and cookies and cakes and breads. The grocer from whom they had bought the materials for their cooking had contributed a dozen tins of peaches.
In still another case went the seemingly innumerable small parcels that held toys or little gifts. Here were the metal pieces and the leather coin purses and the stuffed animals and the dolls. Doctor Hancock had sent over a box of raisins and Mrs. Watkins had sent out from town a box of figs and a few of these goodies with two or three pieces of candy, went into every article that could be made to serve as a container. Of this sort were the innumerable fancy bags made of silk bits and of cretonne and of scraps of velvet which the girls had put together when other work flagged. Many of the pretty little baskets held a pleasant amount of sweeties, and the tiny leather travelling bags and the larger wrist bags of tooled leather were lined with a piece of paraffin paper enclosing something for sweet-toothed European children.
James's boxes, with those made by the others, held out wonderfully.
"You certainly put in a good week's work with the paste pot," declared Roger admiringly as he filled the last one with sugar cookies and tied it with green and red twine to harmonize with its covering of holly paper.
The Watkinses had sent out their offerings, for they wanted what they had at home to be packed with the other Club articles, even though they lived nearer than the rest to the place from which the shipwas going to steam. When this additional collection was prepared and packed it was found that there were three big packing cases.
"Good for the U. S. C.!" cried the boys as the last nail went into the last cover.
James, who printed well, painted the address neatly on the tops and sides, and they all watched with vivid interest the drayman who hauled them, away, generously contributing his services to the Christmas cause.
After all their hurry it seemed something of a hardship when they were informed that the sailing of the ship was delayed for several days because the force of packers, large as it was, could not prepare all the parcels in time for the tenth of the month.
"The paper says there are more than sixty car-loads of gifts," read Ethel Blue to her interested family, "and five or six million separate presents."
"No wonder they're delayed!"
Yet after all they were glad of the delay for theJasonfinally sailed at noon of the fourteenth, and that was Saturday. The Hancocks went in to New York and over to Brooklyn in the Doctor's car and Mrs. Emerson's big touring car held all the Mortons and Dorothy and her mother, and Fräulein and her mother, though it was a tight squeeze.
"The old woman who lived in a shoe must have been on her way to a Christmas Ship," cried Grandmother when Roger tossed Dicky in "on top of the heap of Ethels," as he described it and took up his own station on the running board.
The pier at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn was already well crowded with people and motors when the Rosemont party arrived. The Watkinses andthe Hancocks were already there. Freight cars stood at one side, freight cars empty now of their loads of good cheer. Everybody was laughing and happy and in a Christmas mood, and the boy band from St. John's Home in Brooklyn made merry music.
Thanks to Mrs. Morton's acquaintance with Lieutenant-Commander Courtney, who was in command of the ship, she and her flock had been invited to hear the speeches of farewell made in the main saloon by representatives of the city of New York.
Roger led the way to the gang plank which stretched from the pier to the deck of the huge navy collier.
"OldJasonlooks grim enough in his gray war paint," he commented.
"But those great latticed arms of the six cranes look as if he were trying to play Christmas tree," suggested Mrs. Emerson.
The speeches were full of good will and Christmas cheer. Back on to the pier went the listeners and then amid the cheers of the throng on the dock and the whistles of near-by boats and the strains of "The Star Spangled Banner" from the boys' band and the waving of handkerchiefs and hats, the huge gray steamer slipped out into the stream and started on her way across the ocean.
It was when the U. S. C. was making its way back to the automobiles that a piercing scream attracted their attention.
"That sounds like Fräulein's voice," said Helen, looking about for the source of the cry.
"Meine Tochter!" exclaimed Mrs. Hindenburg at the same moment.
And then they came upon Fräulein, her arms about the neck of a bearded man, who stroked her hair and cheek with one hand while with the other he clung to one of the crutches which gave him but an insecure support.
"Lieber Heinrich!" cried Mrs. Hindenburg as she caught sight of the tableau.
"It's—yes, I believe it's Mr. Schuler! Look, Helen, do you think it is?" whispered Roger.
"It must be," returned Helen. "It's hard to tell with that beard, but I'm almost sure it is."
"His leg! Oh, Helen, his leg is gone!" lamented Ethel Blue.
The Rosemont party's certainty was relieved by Mrs. Hindenburg who turned to them, beaming.
"It iss Mr. Schuler; it iss Heinrich," she explained. "Hehas lost his leg. What matter? He is here and theTochteris happy!"
Happy indeed was Fräulein when she turned her tear-stained face toward the others.
"He has come," she said simply, while the rest crowded around and shook hands.
It seemed that he had obtained leave to return to America because he had lost his leg and could fight no more. Yes, he said, Mademoiselle Millerand had nursed him when his leg was taken off.
The spectators of the moving pictures looked at each other and nodded.
Mademoiselle had sent a message to the Secretary of the United Service Club, he went on. It was—he took a slip of paper from his pocket book.
"Message received. Answered in person."
The Club members laughed at this whose wholemeaning it was clear that Mr. Schuler did not appreciate.
He had arrived, it seemed, only two hours before, on an Italian boat, and had heard on the way up from Quarantine of the sailing of the Christmas Ship and so had crossed to wave a farewell before going out to Rosemont.
"And here I have found my best fortune," he said over and over again, his eyes resting fondly on Fräulein's face.