CHAPTER XIIITHE CHRISTMAS PARTYChristmas was drawing near with all its promise of joy. And the world wrapped for so long in the gloom of war, took on a new gladness; weeks before the holiday, doors and windows were hung with holly, stores spread out a fascinating array of giftwares; a new light shone in smiling faces as though "Peace on earth" was ringing through the souls of the people!Pat's head was bursting with plans for the blessed holiday. It must be a different Christmas from any Renée had ever known! For days they had busied themselves preparing the box that had gone to St. Cloud--a dress for Susette and some aprons that Renée herself had made, tobacco for Gabriel and warm slippers and shoes for them both; sugar, coffee, and canned goods and dried fruits until Renée was sure Susette's neat shelves would groan under their weight. And in a heart-shaped silver frame a picture of Renée!Pat declared that they must have a Christmas tree, for Renée had never had one! And even though they were quite grown-up they must also hang up their stockings! Aunt Pen and Daddy promised to hang theirs, too, so that Pat and Renée spent many an afternoon in secret shopping tours, returning with mysterious packages which were carefully hidden away in the Eyrie.Then a letter from the south, whose usual cheery tone was tinged with a little homesickness, made Mr. Everett decide to join his wife for the holiday season. At first Pat rebelled stormily, lamenting that his going would spoil everything; then for days she sulked like a naughty child until Aunt Pen came to the rescue! From spending the afternoon with Peggy Lee's mother, Aunt Pen returned, with a "secret!""What is it, Aunt Pen?Canwe know?" the girls asked eagerly."Yes, you will beinthe "secret!" It's a--realChristmas party! And it will be different from any you've ever heard of before! I'll tell you the plans we discussed and then we'll get your father's permission. I know when you hear all about it you'll smile again, Miss Pat, and declare that thisisgoing to be the best Christmas you've ever had--even with Daddy away!""Will the party be here?" asked Pat, recalling on the instant some very lovely parties given for her sister which she, because she was too little to go downstairs, had had to watch over the stair banister."No, I don't believe the house would be big enough for this one," and Penelope laughed at the mystified expression on Pat's face.Then Aunt Pen unfolded the plans she and Mrs. Lee had made. The girls of the Troop would be the hostesses of this party and the guests would be the men, women and children in the neighborhood of the Works. There must, of course, be a tree, and the girls could arrange tableaux and then everyone could sing and dance! And there would be sandwiches and coffee and ice cream and cake and a gift for each one.Gradually into Pat's face crept a deep interest so that when the last small detail had been explained the smile that Aunt Pen had prophesied came back once more. It would be awonderfulparty, and could they begin planning the tableaux right away and couldn't they run over this very minute and tell Sheila?So that Mr. Everett's going made scarcely a break in the exciting preparations, the rehearsals, the arranging of costumes, the planning of the party "supper" and the gifts for the guests. In desperation Aunt Pen declared that the holidays might as well begin at once as it was impossible to hold Pat down to any lessons! And Renée, too, was working feverishly, completing a rush order for Christmas cards that had come to "LaDue and Everett" from Miss Higgin's tea room!On Christmas Eve the Eyrie was emptied of the treasures it had held, the stockings hanging over the library fireplace were filled and little piles of tissue paper packages of all sizes were made for Jasper, Melodia and Maggie. The rooms were filled with a spicy odor of hemlock; holly hung over window and door."Oh, isn't it fun?" laughed Pat, stepping back to survey the bulging stockings. "Can youguesswhat's in anything, Ren? And don't you wish you were little again and really truly believed in Santa Claus?""Susette used to tell me stories of the real St. Nicholas--she said he was the patron saint of children!""Well,Ilike to think of him as a jolly old fellow driving his reindeers faster'n Watkins can drive the car--and lots of jingling bells! I think about it and then I can most hear them!"Renée had gone to one of the windows at the end of the room to peer out into the darkness. Snow had fallen which dulled the sounds of the city to a musical tone not unlike distant bells of the good Santa. Suddenly she called to Pat:"Come and look--over at Sheila's!"There on the strip of lawn before the old brick house was a Christmas tree, hung with tinsel and twinkling with lighted candles that swayed and blinked in the darkness.That was Mrs. Quinn's merry Christmas! She and the children had hung ropes of tinsel, red and gold balls, sparkling hearts and rings and little candles out on the old spruce that grew in the corner of the yard."To give to any poor body going by that maybe hasn't any Christmas just a bit of the brightness!" she had explained.Renée, watching from between the library curtains, thought it very beautiful! It was like a fairy tree, placed there in the darkness by spirit hands, breathing from its fragrant brightness a joy that all could share! Even at that moment they could see a bent old man, leading a little boy by the hand, lingering to stare at the twinkling lights!Many years before this the Everett Works had been moved from the modest factory not far from the Everett home, where it had had its beginning, to the great pile of steel and concrete buildings distantly removed from the business center of the city. Immediately there sprang up on the stretches of fields intervening between the smoky walls of the new plant and the quiet shaded streets where the Lees and the Everetts and the Randolphs lived, a community of small, shapeless houses, one exactly like the other, divided by half-paved streets with their rows of sickly infant elms and maples; with muddy backyards barricaded by miles and miles of clothes-line, and thousands of window-panes blackened by the incessant rain of soot from the belching chimneys. Though the suburb had the beautiful name of Riverview, suggestive of cool breezes and open spaces, it was always and more fittingly known as "The Neighborhood."To the hundreds of little dingy homes had come men, women and children from every land of the globe--here Liberty offered them asylum and the Everett Works an honest living. In the center of the community the Works had erected a splendid schoolhouse and had presented it to the city. Although its outer walls were soon stained and blackened like the rows of houses, its interior was as fresh and attractive as clean paint, pictures and many growing plants could make it! Here the children of the foreign-speaking parents were taught to be true Americans. And in its big assembly room, whose windows looked out over the rows and rows of railroad tracks with their solid wall of motionless freight cars, to the river and open fields beyond, the girls of Troop Six held their Christmas party.Even before the last holly wreath had been fastened in place the guests began to come--whole families at a time, in holiday attire that to Pat made them look like pictures in some fairy-tales; old men and old women, younger men with hands still grimy from their work, younger women with tired faces and babies in their arms; some eager, some a little shy, all smiling.Pat, peeping out from behind the curtain, declared that there were hundreds there and that they were talking in every language known--except Latin! But when some one at the piano began to play "America," in some way or other the strange words melted into a common tongue--the high treble of the children carrying the song along!A hush fell on the audience when the curtains of the stage slowly parted to show the first of the tableaux. Briefly John Randolph, Keineth's father, told in Polish the story of the landing of the Pilgrims on "the stern and rockbound coast" while on the stage the Pilgrims, with painfully suppressed laughter, struggled to keep theMayflower, made out of old canvas and chairs, from falling to pieces!The next picture showed the early colonists making treaties with the Indians. Sheila, grave and dignified in Puritan collar and hat, was holding out strings of gay beads to an Indian chief, resplendent in paint and feathers, who carried over his arm the hides that the colonists needed. Then in simple words Mr. Randolph explained how the first purchases of land in the United States came about.Peggy made an impressive George Washington at Valley Forge, while Garrett Lee and some of his friends sat about a smouldering camp-fire. Again she appeared with Betsey Ross, who was stitching on the first American flag, which part Keineth played. But Washington's dignified manner was sadly spoiled when his wig suddenly slipped to one side, so that poor Betsey had to bite her lips very hard to keep from giggling at his rakish appearance! Nevertheless the audience--especially the children who recognized in the picture a favorite school story--clapped loudly with genuine enthusiasm.The last tableau, everyone declared, was the best of all! Captain Ricky was America, standing in white robes against a big American flag, her arms outstretched to the eager pilgrims who approached her! And these were dressed in the national costumes of almost every country on the globe; some had approached, apparently, with brave step, heads high and shoulders straight, others had come wearily; some were old and some were young; many had been carrying heavy burdens which they had cast aside. And from the wrists of each hung the broken links of the shackles that had bound them!The tableau told its own story! For a moment there was a hushed silence, then a mighty applause shook the room. And Captain Ricky, as though she indeed embodied the gracious spirit of America, smiled back from the stage at the men and women who, like the pilgrims in the picture, had come to this land of freedom!After this tableau the curtains at the back of the stage were drawn back, displaying a beautiful Christmas tree, trimmed only by the many lights half-concealed in its branches and by a huge, gleaming star at its top. Some of the scouts at one corner of the stage began a simple Christmas carol--the guests took it up, humming where they could not speak the words. A group of young men broke into a Polish song; other songs followed--songs that these people had brought with them across the sea."They are more beautiful than ours!" cried Keineth to her father.Then, under Captain Ricky's direction, the trimming of the tree began. This was a surprise even to the girls of the Troop, who sat with bright eyes watching. For each one in the room who had had a son, a brother, a husband or a father in the service of the country, was given a silver star to hang upon the branches of the tree. One by one they went up--at first shyly, then proudly; bent old men with uncertain step, young wives, blushing, with children tugging at their skirts; old women, scarcely understanding it all but eager to hang their symbol, until the tree was a-twinkle with the gleaming stars!From long tables in one of the classrooms adjoining steaming, fragrant coffee in big cups and turkey and chicken sandwiches were served, then ice cream and cake. Everyone talked at once--the children ran round in complete abandonment to the joy of the moment; some of the guests, too excited to eat, had already begun the dancing!And Mrs. Lee and Aunt Pen were busy distributing among them all the small silk American flags which were the gifts of the evening!"It's thebestpartyever," Pat stopped long enough in a whirling dance to whisper to Aunt Pen."Where's Renée?" Aunt Pen answered.After a moment's search she found her alone behind the big tree. She was fastening upon one of the branches her silver star! Tears dampened her cheeks."Oh--my dear!" cried Aunt Pen. Over her swept the realization of what Renée had given that "peace might come upon this world!" She caught the small hand and held it."Notthere," she whispered, "buthere!" and taking the star she hung it close to the big Star at the top."He gave his Son for us, too," she added softly.CHAPTER XIVHILL-TOP"Picnics," explained Peggy, with a conviction born of experience, "are just as much fun in the winter as they are in the summer, 'specially when they are at Hill-top!"For the four days following Christmas snow had fallen steadily. Each moment of the holiday time had been filled with out-of-door fun: now Mrs. Lee had suggested that--as a sort of climax--the Eagle Patrol have a picnic at Hill-top!Pat had never heard of a picnic in the middle of the winter!But Peggy's enthusiasm was contagious! Hilltop--Pat had never been there--was a very old farmhouse ten miles from the city, back in the hills near Camp Wichita, where Captain Ricky took her girls in the summer-time. It belonged to an old man and his wife who had been friends of Mrs. Lee's father. During the winter months they preferred to move into a more sheltered cottage nearer the barns. The house--a short walk from the lake on which the young people skated in the winter and canoed in the summer--had great square rooms and many of them, warmed by fire-places like caverns that consumed whole logs at a time. Often Mrs. Lee, who found real recreation in such little excursions with her young people--had taken the girls and boys there for week-end picnics!"Mother says we may stay three whole days this time! We can skate and coast and have all kinds of fun! Garrett has a new bob that he made and he says he'll bet anything it can beat all the others.""Do the boys go, too?" broke in Pat."Oh, yes, mother likes to have them go! They help a lot, you see, and she says it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if they weren't along. Jim Archer and Bob Slocum and Ted Scott and maybe Wynne Meade will go--and Garrett! They'resortof fun!" for Peggy read disappointment in Pat's face."Ithink boys are a nuisance!"Sheila came promptly to the defense. "Perhaps--sometimes! But brothers are nice!"Pat's experience had been limited to the bashful young brothers, miserable with too much scrubbing and stiff collars, who had occasionally visited the other girls at school.Peggy thought it a decided waste of time to be bothering over such a point when there was so much to plan and do! So, with a conviction intended to end the discussion, she said: "Well, they carry the logs and the water and go out and open the house and I guess we'll find them mighty useful!"And, indeed, Patwasto find one of the boys more than useful before the picnic was over!A few hours' well-organized activity put everything in readiness for the house-party. Garrett Lee appointed himself chief of the commissary and flew tirelessly between his home and the grocery store until he had assembled enough cans of soup, bacon, weiners and other eatables peculiar to scouts' appetites to feed a regiment! Sheila and Mrs. Lee, after a brief consultation, added to the equipment many little necessities that Garrett in his masculine ignorance had overlooked. Two of the other girls collected the necessary kitchen utensils and a simple first-aid kit. Loaded down with all these and with extra blankets and the bobs, the boys and Mrs. Lee went on out to Hill-top a day in advance to open the house and prepare it for the others.Pat, inspired by the activities of the others and not having been pressed into troop service, busied herself by packing and repacking almost every garment that she and Renée possessed!"Patsy, dear, youwon'tneed all those things," Aunt Pen had laughed, pointing to the bulging suitcase.Pat admitted this. "Well, it's fun packing 'em and I just had to do something," she confessed.The next day eight merry girls boarded the funny little train that puffed off slowly toward the hills. To Renée the picnic was the most exciting of adventures! She had seen little snow--never in her life anything like the great piles, snowy white, through which the train was snorting its way! She had never had on a pair of skates in her life, nor had she ever coasted down a hill! And as Peggy told of Garrett's new bob, "Madcap," and its lightning speed, she shivered with an ecstasy of fear and wondered--if they made her ride on it--what it would feel like to fly over the snow and whether she might not just die outright of terror!The boys, in rollicking spirits and muffled to the tips of their noses, met them at the station; together they trudged back through the snow to the farmhouse. Logs were crackling merrily in the big fireplaces and a table had been spread ready for an early supper. The girls fell to unpacking the equipment and spreading their blankets over the funny old beds and the cots which had been brought up from the nearby camp. Sheila, who had been appointed officer-in-charge, promptly, in accordance with the custom of scout outings, posted in a conspicuous place, the "standing rules.""Oh, they're the kind of rules any good scout'll keep," Peggy exclaimed to Pat, who was regarding the slip of paper in amazement with a look on her face that said plainly "this is the funniest picnic I ever knew!" "Come on and find the others!"For supper they ate many baked potatoes and weiners and hot biscuits, which Mrs. Lee had mixed and baked by magic--"just to have a nice beginning!" At the table the boys announced the schedule for the skating and coasting races which they had planned for the next day and fell to arguing with friendly violence over the speed of their different bobs! Garrett then insisted that the four who had grabbed the last of the biscuits should make up the Kitchen Police, whose duty it would be to clear away the supper dishes! And to the accompaniment of a mighty rattle of china plates and cups the others gathered around the blazing fire and sang.Pat and Renée slept together in a huge four-posted bed. Gradually the big house had grown very quiet. "Isn't it fun?" Pat giggled into Renée's ear. "I've never been in the country in the winter-time before! And doesn't it feelqueersleeping without sheets?" Then she sighed. "I wish I could skate well!" She was thinking of the races planned for the morrow. Renée was apprehensive, too. "Do you suppose they'll make me go down on one of those dreadful bobs?" and she shuddered at the very thought!Poor Pat, her pride--cropping up now and then--was her besetting sin! And the next morning, when she should have been gloriously happy, it mastered her! Shehatedthe races, because she was always lagging along in the rear! She declared to herself that the boys were silly, tiresome stupids, because they madesucha fuss when Peggy beat them all in a race down the lake and back! Finally, disgusted, she took off the hateful skates and joined Renée near the bank."I think they'restupid," she grumbled, digging her heel into the ice and not explaining whether she meant the boys, or the skates or the races!The coasting in the afternoon comforted her a little! Jim Archer let her steer his "Gypsy!" They beat Garrett's "Madcap" and Pat secretly rejoiced at Garrett's chagrin!Renée, from the top of the long hill, had watched the flight of the bobs with trembling fascination."Come along on Madcap," Garrett had called out. The three girls on it waved entreatingly to her. She had not the courage to refuse! White with terror she slipped in between Garrett and Peggy. The others shouted wildly as the bob began to move slowly down the hill but poor Renée's breath caught in her throat. As it went faster and faster she hid her face against Garrett's wooly back."Hang on!" cried Peggy behind her. Renée was certain they were flying! But just as she felt shemustdie with terror a wild "hurrah" went up, she opened her eyes--they were sliding over the ice at the bottom of the hill and the Madcap had won!And to Renée's utter amazement she wanted to go down again--right away!Afterwards Garrett let her steer the bob, and although they ended in a snowdrift and were almost buried in the soft snow, it did not in any way dampen her enthusiasm over the new sport she had learned!"Oh, it waswonderful!" she exclaimed to Pat as they walked with the others toward Hill-top. "I thought I'd be so frightened and I wasn't!""Jim Archer's bob is much the best," Pat answered in such a disagreeable voice that Renée looked at her in hurt astonishment! Howcouldthere be enough difference in two bobs to make Pat speak to her in that tone!However, hot oyster soup and pancakes scattered for a time the little cloud that threatened and through the meal Pat's voice was as merry as the merriest. After supper, leaving the Kitchen Police to their sad lot, the others again donned caps, sweaters and mittens and fell to building in front of the old farmhouse door two great snow forts, between which, in the morning, a mighty battle would be waged!And Jim Archer, one of the self-appointed generals, asked Pat--before he asked any of the others--to be on his side!This was balm to Pat's hurt vanity. Perhaps she couldn't skate as well as the others, but she guessed Jim Archer knew she could throw a snowball as straight and as hard as any boy! Anyway, Garrett Lee was too conceited! So that night, as she slept cuddled down in the big four-posted bed, she dreamed that she stood alone on the frosty breastwork of the fort she had helped build and by an onslaught of snowballs, thrown with unerring aim, drove Garrett Lee and his army to complete and ignominious surrender!Poor Pat--the next day was to bring to her pride a sad fall!CHAPTER XVPAT'S PRIDE AND ITS FALLThe next morning a bright sun peeped up over the hills touching field and lake, trees and house-tops with a frost of diamonds. At an early hour hungry boys and girls were demanding their breakfast "quick" and were hurling orders over the banister at the sleepy Kitchen Police, toiling below.The snow-ball fight ended in a complete rout of Garrett's army, which put Pat in high spirits, and, although it had not been quite like her dream of the night before, Jim Archerhadsaid to her, to her secret joy:"Say, you throw as good as a boy!"The remainder of the morning was spent playing hockey and coasting; the boys allowing the girls to race the bobs down the hill. Renée, quite by herself, steered the beautiful Madcap twice to victory! Perhaps never in her life had she felt so keenly alive or so happy! She stood looking over the little lake and the surrounding hills and drawing in long breaths of the frosty air. Its keenness made her cheeks and fingertips tingle, put a ringing note in the youthful voices around her and an added brightness into happy eyes!"Let's all just skate this afternoon--no races or anything like that!" declared Peggy at luncheon and the suggestion met with instant approval."Oh,don'tyou wish we were just coming? Did you ever know days to go by so fast?" lamented one of the others."This hasn't gone by yet! To-night we're going to toast marshmallows!" put in Bob Slocum."And have a good sing! We always end a picnic that way!" explained Peggy to Pat."And breakfast bright and early to-morrow, so that we will be all packed in time for the----""Lightning mail train!" Garrett added to his mother's injunction.Mrs. Lee was never happier than when she was with her "boys and girls!" She loved each and every one of them as though they had all been hers from babyhood. She watched them now as they trooped away toward the lake, skates jingling over their arms. Something within her quivered with pardonable pride as her eyes rested for a moment on Garrett's manly young figure striding on ahead of the others. And when Peggy's voice, always boyishly loud, reached her ears as she shouted back to one of the other girls, her mother shook her head and laughed: "Oh, Peggy child, what a tomboy!"For Pat the skating was much more fun, now, when there were no races! More accustomed to her skates she managed to get over the ice in better and easier fashion than she had on the day before. She was pleasantly conscious, too, that she made a rather pretty picture in her scarlet sweater and tam-o'-shanter--several of the girls had declared that they were going to immediately make red tams."Let's have a turn, Pat!" and Garrett Lee extended two warmly mittened hands in genial invitation. So Pat linked her arms with his and together they flew over the glittering stretch. With her balance supported by Garrett's strong grasp she skated easily; as they sped along down the length of the lake the wind whipped her breath and sent the blood bounding through her veins!At the end of the lake they stopped "to take in air," as Garrett put it."Let's skate down there," cried Pat, pointing to the Inlet just beyond. There a narrow gorge, cutting deeply through the hillsides, let into the lake. Garrett knew that, because of its steep banks, its changing depths of water and strong eddies, the ice there was very unsafe."Oh, no, it's dangerous there! We never go into the Inlet, even in the summer! That's a rule!"Poor Pat--she fancied Garrett was treating her like a little child! So she answered with a toss of her head:"I haven't bothered to read the rules! I'm not afraid--if you are!" and she turned toward the Inlet."Pat--don't! Itisn'tsafe--honest!"The more earnest and concerned Garrett grew the more headstrong Pat! She started toward the Inlet, calling over her shoulder: "Oh, you're just a 'fraidy-cat'!"Garrett watched her for a moment. There was no doubting her intention! He started after her and at the mouth of the Inlet overtook her."Pat," he begged, "mother'll be angry! I tell you it's one of the rules!"But Pat simply shrugged her shoulders."Dareyou to come with me, little boy!" she laughed teasingly. The Inlet, its banks rising steeply on each side, filled with dancing shadows made by the sun through the bare branches meeting overhead, looked very inviting! Thrilled with a sense of adventure, Pat skated with short strokes into the narrow opening.Garrett had no choice but to follow her! Deeply alarmed, he again begged her to turn back! Now she pretended not to hear him!But in a few moments she suddenly screamed and wildly waved her arms! At a bend in the narrow gorge the ice had cracked under her weight!"Garrett!" she cried, turning."Go on! Keep moving!" he shouted. But Pat, terror-stricken, stood still, stretching out her arms imploringly. Garrett reached her just as the ice with a sharp crackle broke into pieces, dropping them both into the water.Its iciness for a moment stunned Pat. Then she slowly realized that Garrett was supporting her with one arm and begging her to cling to the thin edge of the ice, to which he was holding with his other hand. His steady voice gave her courage! She tried to say something but her teeth only chattered together."We'll get out all right!" Garrett said, hopefully. "Hold on as lightly as you can!""Oh, don't let go of me--don't let go of me!" implored Pat, wanting to cry."I won't! Keep up your nerve!" And Garrett strengthened his hold under Pat's arm. He looked about him. From a tree growing out of the bank stretched a bare limb just a little way out of reach."We'll work along slowly until you can reach that branch! Take it easy, Pat!"He began moving his grasp on the edge of the ice, slowly, cautiously, for sometimes it cracked, sending terror to Pat's soul! She recalled hearing someone tell how very deep the water was in the Inlet! And it wassoblack and cold!"Come on! We'll make it!" he called out cheerily. They drew nearer and nearer the branch; soon Pat could reach it."Now let go of the ice and grab it! I'll hold you!""Oh no, no!" implored Pat, clinging tighter."You'vegotto, Pat! It's our only chance!" Summoning all the strength he had in his fine young body he lifted her as he spoke! The effort made great veins swell on his forehead. With a gasp of terror she caught and clung with both arms to the branch."Get your legs around it, too," directed Garrett. "Now work yourself along!Hurry, Pat!"Stung into effort Pat with feverish haste did as he told her. Securing her hold on the branch by locking her strong legs about it she gradually swung around until she was astride it. Then it was but a moment's work to edge along to the bank. Grasping the strong roots of the undergrowth she pulled herself to the top. She wanted dreadfully then to throw herself down upon the ground and cry, but a sharp noise below made her turn suddenly.Garrett had attempted to lift himself upon the branch. Strained by Pat's weight, under his it snapped off, dropping him back into the water."Garrett!" screamed Pat. In agony she watched for his head to reappear at the surface of the water. As he came up he again caught the edge of the ice, but his face was gray and drawn as though by sharp pain and his breath came and went in short gasps. She called him vainly over and over but he could not seem to muster enough strength to answer! She fancied, in her terror, that his fingers were slipping in their hold of the ice.It washerturn to direct!"Garrett, move down! See, the tree's across the ice! Maybe it'll hold! Oh, Garrett,try!"With a slow, cramped movement he worked along the edge of the rapidly enlarging hole until he could grasp the broken branch which stretched now across the dark water, one end firmly held in a crack of the ice where it had buckled near the bank. Strengthened by desperation, Garrett managed to crawl along it until he reached the bank. As, numbed by exposure, he struggled to lift himself up the steep side of the gorge, clinging for support, as Pat had done, to roots and branches, repeatedly slipping back, it seemed to Pat as though he could not make it! At last her own frantic hands dragged him over the top to safety, only to have him drop in an unconscious heap at her feet!All Pat knew was that whatever she had to do she must do quickly! Loosening the straps of her skates she threw them from her! Then she attempted to lift him. He was too heavy--she could not stagger a step with his weight in her arms. So as gently as she could she dragged him over the soft snow to a higher point of open ground from which she could see the lake and the skaters and the farmhouse!"Girls! Girls! Jim!" she called frantically. They could not hear--only the echo of her own voice answered."WhatwillI do?" she cried. She tore off her bright tam-o'-shanter and waved it high in the air! Suddenly she saw one of the girls detach herself! from a group of skaters and wave back!An inspiration seized Pat! The semaphore code she had learned! Oh, could she remember it quickly enough? And poor Garrett himself had taught her! Snatching off her sweater she waved that in one hand and her tam in the other and slowly signaled:"Accident--bring bobs--blankets--quick!"It seemed to Pat as though they wouldneveranswer! She waved her message again--more slowly! Then one of the boys waved back: "Coming."NowPat began to cry--tears that left cold streaks on her own cheeks and splashed in a warm shower on Garrett's face as she knelt over him. He slowly opened his eyes and whispered, "All right, Pat?" Then, as though very tired, he closed them again and lapsed back into unconsciousness.There was no more merriment at Hill-top! The boys brought Garrett, wrapped in blankets, on one of the bobs to the door of the farmhouse where his mother, warned of the accident, awaited him. No one would let poor Pat tell her story--there was too much to be done! While Mrs. Lee and Sheila cared for Garrett, the girls gave Pat a hot bath and a vigorous rub and put her to bed. And Jim Archer flew to the nearest telephone to summon a doctor and nurse from the city.Garrett was very, very ill! Weakened by the exposure and strain he quickly developed pneumonia. The doctor would not let him be moved, he must remain at Hill-top! Mrs. Lee, brave with all her anxiety, begged the boys and girls to go back to the city quietly, not to worry, but to hope for Garrett's quick recovery! Sheila and Jim Archer she kept with her to help her. At the earliest possible moment came Mr. Lee with a trained nurse.Pat, none the worse for her icy bath of the day before, lingered behind the others and miserably begged for a parting word with Mrs. Lee."It wasallmy fault," she whispered, bursting into tears. "I called him a fraidy-cat and went on, just so's he'd follow----"Though Mrs. Lee took the girl in her arms, her face was very grave. But she guessed the suffering in Pat's heart, so she spoke kindly."Child, I am glad hedidn'tleave you! You must help us fight for him now and--well, he justmustget well!" For a moment she could not keep her own tears back; then she resolutely wiped them away as much as to say, "thisisn't fighting!"Anxious days followed. Every morning and every evening Jim Archer telephoned to the Everett home from Hill-top a report of Garrett's condition. Sometimes there would be a word of encouragement--then he would be a degree worse! Pat, pale as a ghost, scarcely speaking to anyone, trembling at every sound, in spite of all Aunt Pen's and Renée's efforts, refused to be cheered or comforted! She spent almost all her time in the Eyrie with the door locked."I'm downright worried!" Aunt Pen said to Pat's father, who fortunately had returned in the midst of the trouble and anxiety. "Whateverdoes the child do in that room all by herself?"No one would ever know! In the most shadowy corner of the Eyrie Pat had crept and there she had found strength to bear the suspense! Kneeling before one of the old broken chairs, she repeated over and over a little prayer she had made:"Please God, make Garrett well! He was so brave and I was so wicked! I'm the one you ought to punish! Please make him well and I'll never, never be wicked again!"Sometimes she would vary the wording of her little prayer and once, thinking that perhaps her clumsy sentences might not reach the Father's ear, she carried a prayer-book to the Eyrie and slowly, with great emphasis, repeated the prayer for the sick that she had often heard in church.Going downstairs from one of these vigils in the Eyrie she heard Sheila's voice. Her heart stopped beating with an instant's fear! She rushed into the room where Sheila was talking to Aunt Pen and her Daddy."He is----" She could not make herself ask the question.Sheila turned. Her tired face was bright with joy. "Garrett's better! He will get well! We didn't telephone because I wanted to tell you! I had to come home, for mother needed me.""Really, truly?" Pat could scarcely believe that the black shadow was lifted from her. Sheila nodded laughingly."Really, truly! The doctor says he has a wonderful constitution! And we're all so glad, because we love Mrs. Lee so much!"With quivering lips Pat turned and threw herself into her father's arms. There was so much she wanted to tell--of her silly vanity, her wicked recklessness, her leading another into danger, but the words would not come!"I'll always remember--how he looked--up on the bank!" she shuddered, her face hidden against her father's coat. "I asked God to make him well and He did, and I guess I'll remember never--to be--wicked again!" And as though he understood how truly repentant poor Pat was, her dear Daddy patted her shoulder and held her very close.CHAPTER XVIGOOD TURNSThe winter days passed quickly in the Everett household. Each moment was filled with work or play. And so delightfully intermingled was the play with the work that the girls found themselves tackling their Latin verbs with the same zest they threw into their outdoor recreation.In spite of the holidays and the suspense of Garrett Lee's illness the routine of Aunt Pen's "school" had been renewed with little difficulty. Pat, who always before had been very indifferent to the report system followed at Miss Prindle's, suddenly developed deep concern and pride in the reports that Aunt Pen carefully prepared at the end of each week to show Daddy and then tucked away in the spinnet desk to wait mother's return. She was improving in her Latin and her French; she could write a letter now with only one or two misspelled words; she tackled the difficult problems in Algebra in a fine fighting spirit, and with great pride--after many mortifying failures--was able to set before her father three beautifully browned loaves of bread!Daddy had declared that such triumph must have its reward and had carried them all--pupils and teacher--off to the theatre to see "Penrod."The Eaglets still gathered in the Eyrie. How much nearer each was coming to her ambitions no one of them could tell--that they were still steadfastly true to their pledge to help one another was certain; unconsciously perhaps, they did it by the strength of their friendship."LaDue and Everett" had developed a thriving business. Pat, quite all by herself, had gone to Brown Brothers, the leading bookstore in the city, and had sought and obtained an order for hand-painted valentines. This had given her courage to approach Miss Higgins and a nearby Gift-shop. Very proudly she presented the three orders to the senior member of the firm."There, I guessthat'llmake us work!"At first Renée was aghast at the amount of work, but with Pat to help her and by steady application--although Aunt Pen was firm in her command that the work must not interfere with the outdoor play--she was able to complete the orders by the first of February. And so beautifully had the little valentines been made that Brown Brothers immediately ordered ten dozen dinner cards!The rush of business set Pat at the company's books which had gotten into such a muddle that they had to be taken to Daddy to be straightened out. Pat's figures were like a Chinese puzzle running up and down the pages of her imposing ledger. Poor Mr. Everett had a knotty problem putting them into proper shape and Pat had a lesson in accounting!Altogether, after all expenses had been paid, there was left to the account of the youthful firm a sum of eighteen dollars and fifty cents. Two-thirds of this, Pat declared, must be Renée's, because the responsibility of the work fell upon her--"though I'll just say it isn't any fun getting up your nerve to go in and ask for an order! They always treat you like a kid!" she explained, indignantly.There were many demands upon their earnings. The scout uniforms had been bought; the girls each pledged six dollars to the Victory Army; there was the Red Cross, too, and the French Babies and the Vacation Fund for the tots at home--innumerable other good causes, worthy of their help."It makes me feel so grown-up to sign my name to all these pledges and things and pay for it out of myveryown money!" And Pat assumed a comically mature air.Pat was a real "Yellowbird" now and Renée was a "scrub." The girls had joined a swimming class, too; Pat, having spent many summers at the seashore was like a fish in the water, and helped Renée, who had to overcome a physical terror at the very thought of slipping over into the tank!Early in February Garrett Lee was brought back to the city from Hill-top. Pat, with Aunt Pen, had immediately gone to see him and his mother. Mrs. Lee's kind welcome drove away the fear that had teen in Pat's heart; impulsively she threw her arms about Mrs. Lee's neck and, because Mrs. Lee could always see straight into the hearts of her boys and girls, she knew what prompted the caress and gave an affectionate hug in return."Garrett doesn't want one single word ever said about it all," she whispered in Pat's ear.After that Pat went almost daily to the Lee house--sometimes with a book, or a basket of fruit or some home-made candy. At first she was a little shy in her friendly devotion, but after a while, so truly grateful did Garrett seem for her company and the things she brought to relieve the monotony of his convalescence, she simply rang the bell and ran straight up to his room. When these frequent visits interfered with lessons Aunt Pen said not a word, for she knew Pat was trying to make up in some small way for the harm she had wrought!As Garrett grew stronger the young people deserted the Eyrie for the pleasant Lee living-room. "It does him more good than a trip to Florida!" his mother declared, looking with satisfaction at her patient. And the boys and girls were learning thoughtfulness and considerateness. When Peggy, of her own will, suddenly lowered her voice, and Jim Archer, without a word, shoved a pillow back of Garrett's head as he sat on the old divan, Mrs. Lee had thought--hard as it had been--Garrett's illness had brought some good.Pat had never known before the wholesomeness of jolly comradeship with a large circle of boys and girls; she found it now in these pleasant gatherings at the Lees. Bob Slocum and Peggy could think of so many games; Jim Archer--all in one afternoon--had composed, staged, and produced a melodrama, "Heinie the Hun," although, because Pat could not control her giggling, the irate author-manager had made her play the drum to mark the dramatic climaxes. There were endless and lively discussions over everything under sun and earth; jolly songs with Mrs. Lee at the piano, and always some careful eye to notice when Garrett showed signs of fatigue.And to Pat the best of all was when Garrett, one afternoon, had confided to her that he was planning an airship with a new kind of stabilizer; showed her his drawings and explained how, for days since his illness, he had been studying a housefly which he had caught and imprisoned in the old fish bowl. Pat wanted very much to tell the others what great things Garrett was going to do but he had made her promise on her scout's honor to keep his secret, so she carried it faithfully locked away in her heart, proud that Garrett should have honored her with his confidence after the unhappy accident at Hill-top!"We'repals--just's if I was a boy," she said to herself.As the weeks slipped by Renée, to Aunt Pen's delight, was rapidly developing a fascinating and forceful personality. With so many true friends and playmates the shyness had gradually disappeared from her manner; contrasted with Pat's dynamic spirits Renée would always seem quiet, but her will was strong and often, in her gentle way, she was a leader among the young people. With a character that had been moulded and guarded by a simple life, she had in her a rare beauty and purity of thought that seemed to shine in her pretty face and clear eyes. Happiness and healthy living were dispelling the shadows from her young life; she could talk of Susette and the old cottage without a quivering of the lips; she often drew for Pat, as though she enjoyed it, a vivid description of how splendid Emile had looked in his uniform as he had marched away with the others--a rose she had given him stuck jauntily in his belt!The cessation of the fighting and the approaching peace had brought many problems. Wounded men were coming home, employment was uncertain, living expenses soaring higher and higher; actual want stalked in many homes. And to add to it all a terrible epidemic had raged through the city, leaving in its wake untold misery and suffering.There was serious work for everyone to do. There were countless ways in which the Girl Scouts helped. "Good turns," they called it and they held themselves always ready for the command of any organization, never counting one moment of sacrifice, tireless and faithful."What do you think now?" Pat burst in upon her family from a special meeting of the troop. "The Scouts are going to adopt families!"This astonishing announcement caused Mr. Everett to throw up his hands in mock dismay."Good gracious, Pat, black or white?""I'm really very serious, Daddy, and Mrs. Townsend from the Red Cross says we can make it a beautiful work! One family is assigned to each of us. We give as much time as we can spare and do everything we can--amuse the children, take 'em out, make things easier for the mothers so's they can rest and get strong again! You see these are families that have been sick. Mine is Mrs. K-a-s-u-b-o-w-s-k-i," she read from a card.Pat had, in her way, expressed the scout orders. To each of the older scouts had been assigned a family that had suffered from the epidemic. Each girl was to work under the direction of the District Nurse and in coöperation with the Red Cross. She was to give brief reports of each visit. And knowing that these girls could, in the homes to which they were sent, win trust where older women often met suspicion and unfriendliness, the Red Cross hoped to build up through their services, a sympathy and understanding that would benefit everyone and draw more closely the bonds of common interest.In her youthful mind Pat did not sense any such vision; she only knew that her scout orders directed her to go and do all she could for a family whose name she simply could not pronounce; that her card stated that there was a Rosa, aged seven, a Josef, age six, a Stephanie, aged three and a baby Peter; that everyone of them had been desperately ill, including the father and mother; that only within the last two or three weeks had the father been able to go back to work and that upon the poor mother, still weak from the ravages of fever, had fallen the burden of making the meagre savings tide them over.Pat called them all her "Kewpies." Her first two visits left her discouraged, the children were dirty and quarrelsome, the mother unfriendly. But, gradually, armed with picture books and toys, Pat won the liking of the little ones; at the next visit she gave them cakes of soap which Renée had carved to resemble dogs and pigs and promised them more if they would use these "all up"; warm sunshine permitted a long walk and outdoor play and Mrs. Kewpie, gratefully realizing that for an hour she was absolutely without chick or child, caught a much-needed moment of rest!Renée had not been given a family by the Red Cross. At first she was disappointed, then, wholeheartedly, she fell to helping Pat. Aunt Pen and Daddy, too, were deeply interested. Almost every evening the "Kewpies" were discussed at the "pow-wow." Aunt Pen was aghast that Mrs. Kewpie could speak only a word or two of English!"How can she be expected to bring up good American citizens--let alone be one herself?" she asked heatedly.Through Rosa Pat learned that poor Mrs. Kewpie would really like to talk and read English. Her husband had learned it at his shop, the older children were learning it at school; less and less they were talking the only language she had ever known! She felt, with the quick instinct of her mother's heart, that they were growing away from her into a world of interests where she could not follow. No one had ever offered to teach her this new, strange tongue! She was afraid of the teachers in Rosa's school! She misunderstood and resented the approaches of the few English-speaking women she had met; proud herself, she had thought them patronizing and officious! But Pat was just a girl!So Pat, quite unconsciously, began making a good American citizen out of Mrs. Kewpie. She found that the picture books she brought the children interested the mother, too--not because of the pictures alone but because the mother could make out, through them, the meaning of the words beneath them. When Pat told of this at home Aunt Pen thought of the beautiful plan of making for Mrs. Kewpie a primer out of pictures. Every evening, for a week, the entire Everett family worked industriously with scissors and paste, compiling what Aunt Pen laughingly called: "Everett's First Lessons in the American Language.""She'll know all about this country of ours when she's graduated fromthisbook," declared Mr. Everett, proudly smoothing down a colored picture of the Capitol at Washington."And for everything I teach her in English I'm going to ask her to teach me a word in Polish! It's such a funny looking language and then itsoundslike music! They have lots of awfully exciting stories in their history--Keineth Randolph told us some that her father had told her! And in the next book, let's have pictures of flowers and mountains and water and things like the country, 'cause I guess poor Mrs. Kewpie thinks therearen'tsuch things!"Prompted by this thought on her next visit Pat carried to the Kewpie kitchen a pink geranium plant. Then she conceived the idea of making the untidy kitchen look as much like Mrs. Quinn's as possible! So interested did she grow in her work that for two afternoons she completely forgot basketball practice, thereby bringing down upon her head the fury of the Captain of the Yellowbirds!And when Baby Peter fell sick with some digestive disorder, Pat, with the help of the District Nurse, was able to persuade Mrs. Kewpie that a daily bath would reduce the slight fever and to substitute the sweet, fresh milk that the nurse had brought in the place of the coffee she was accustomed to feed the baby.Now Renée, to her delight, was given an opportunity to share the "good turns."One afternoon Mrs. Lee, always an angel of kindness and of wide charity, had sought Renée's help. She explained to Renée, as they walked along together, that this was a "case" of her own, and that she was taking her to this house because she thought she might bring a little sunshine into a very lonely life there."Poor Mrs. Forrester is very cross and very queer, my dear! No one ever goes to see her now and she lives all alone with a servant almost as old as she is! I thought that if you would go there once in awhile and read to her you might help her pass the long hours."Mrs. Lee did not add that she hoped the child's quiet, sympathetic manner might waken some tenderness in a heart as cold and dead as stone.Mrs. Forrester lived in a very old house in an out-of-the-way street. Standing almost concealed by trees and overgrown shrubbery, it looked like some forgotten corner of the big, growing city. The door creaked on its hinges as the untidy old servant grudgingly opened it just far enough to permit them to enter. The rooms were dark, dusty and absolutely bare of any furnishings except a few worn chairs. Not a picture, not a book, not one spot of color was to be seen! There were no curtains at the windows and the cracked dingy-brown shades had been pulled close to the sill as though to forbid one tiny gleam of sunlight filtering through.Renée thought it the most horrid house she had ever seen and wondered how Mrs. Lee could step into it so cheerfully!But always tender with old people, she immediately felt sorry for the queer old woman propped up against a pile of pillows in a great, ugly bed."It isn't that she's so very old--or sick! I believe she justwon'tstir! Mrs. Lee says she has had a very unhappy life," Renée explained at home. Now Mrs. Forrester and the ugly old stone house shared the interest of the pow-wow.Another time Renée told, with much amusement, how she had insisted upon raising the shade at the bedroom window so that Mrs. Forrester might see how spring-like the sun made everything look and how the old lady had promptly hopped out of bed and had pulled it down with such a snap that it fell to the floor!"But she justhadto go back to bed and leave it there and I went on reading's though nothing had happened and I know she really loved the sunshine because she lay there as quiet as could be, staring at the window!"But one afternoon Renée returned, deeply excited, with a secret that she kept for Pat's ears and the seclusion of the Eyrie."I was reading something awfully stupid for I thought she might go to sleep and I know she wasn't listening at all, and finally I heard her say, "If I could find my baby--I'd be ready to die!" Now I wasn't reading athingabout dying or a baby and she frightened me dreadfully! I suppose she had forgotten I was there. Then when I went on reading she said it again--real plain! Now, Pat, isn't that exciting? Wheredoyou suppose her baby is andhow'dshe ever lose it?"None of Pat's experiences could equal this for mystery! Pat stared at Renée and Renée stared back; in the quiet of the Eyrie they thought up all sorts of explanations and stories--tragic, all of them! Pat fairly shivered with delight."Aren't youlucky, Renée--to have such a spliffy mystery! It's justspooky! I'm going to write a story about that! You get her to talk more--read a lot about babies and listen hard! And talk to that old Crosspatch, maybe she'll tell you something. That's the way they always do in detective stories. Something dreadfulmusthave happened to make her live like that, in that ugly old house! Oh, rapture, IknowI'm going to be famous! This goes way ahead of Aunt Pen's story! Of course," she added, hastily, "I don't knowallAunt Pen's secret sorrow yet and she doesn't stay in bed and act queer! I think I'll call this "The Lost Baby!"So that evening, armed with several newly-sharpened pencils and much of Daddy's writing paper, Pat began her first chapter. However, its progress met with a serious setback when Aunt Pen laid in her hands a letter from Angeline Snow. Pat opened it eagerly; she had not heard from any of her old schoolmates at Miss Prindle's for a long time.She read it quickly. Miss Angeline, in a few breezy sentences, informed Pat that she would come immediately to make her a visit!"... You weresucha dear to ask me (Pat read that twice, thoughtfully)--and the doctor says I need a teeny rest. Mama is in California and of course I cannot go to her! But we'll have a perfectly sweet time together and I'm just dying to see you again. We've missed you dreadfully here! I havebushelsto tell you--just you. (About the girls and things--you'lldiewhen you hear it all!) I'll come on the Empire on Thursday, so please meet me. I have a stunning new hat, henna and turquoise blue and a feather you'll want toeat. Bye-bye, your Angeline."So intent was Pat upon examining the gold crest on the paper that she did not see the curious look that flashed over Aunt Pen's face."Good gracious," she exclaimed, suddenly, "that's to-morrow!""Yes," Aunt Pen answered quietly, "and we must do everything we can to make her visit pleasant!"
CHAPTER XIII
THE CHRISTMAS PARTY
Christmas was drawing near with all its promise of joy. And the world wrapped for so long in the gloom of war, took on a new gladness; weeks before the holiday, doors and windows were hung with holly, stores spread out a fascinating array of giftwares; a new light shone in smiling faces as though "Peace on earth" was ringing through the souls of the people!
Pat's head was bursting with plans for the blessed holiday. It must be a different Christmas from any Renée had ever known! For days they had busied themselves preparing the box that had gone to St. Cloud--a dress for Susette and some aprons that Renée herself had made, tobacco for Gabriel and warm slippers and shoes for them both; sugar, coffee, and canned goods and dried fruits until Renée was sure Susette's neat shelves would groan under their weight. And in a heart-shaped silver frame a picture of Renée!
Pat declared that they must have a Christmas tree, for Renée had never had one! And even though they were quite grown-up they must also hang up their stockings! Aunt Pen and Daddy promised to hang theirs, too, so that Pat and Renée spent many an afternoon in secret shopping tours, returning with mysterious packages which were carefully hidden away in the Eyrie.
Then a letter from the south, whose usual cheery tone was tinged with a little homesickness, made Mr. Everett decide to join his wife for the holiday season. At first Pat rebelled stormily, lamenting that his going would spoil everything; then for days she sulked like a naughty child until Aunt Pen came to the rescue! From spending the afternoon with Peggy Lee's mother, Aunt Pen returned, with a "secret!"
"What is it, Aunt Pen?Canwe know?" the girls asked eagerly.
"Yes, you will beinthe "secret!" It's a--realChristmas party! And it will be different from any you've ever heard of before! I'll tell you the plans we discussed and then we'll get your father's permission. I know when you hear all about it you'll smile again, Miss Pat, and declare that thisisgoing to be the best Christmas you've ever had--even with Daddy away!"
"Will the party be here?" asked Pat, recalling on the instant some very lovely parties given for her sister which she, because she was too little to go downstairs, had had to watch over the stair banister.
"No, I don't believe the house would be big enough for this one," and Penelope laughed at the mystified expression on Pat's face.
Then Aunt Pen unfolded the plans she and Mrs. Lee had made. The girls of the Troop would be the hostesses of this party and the guests would be the men, women and children in the neighborhood of the Works. There must, of course, be a tree, and the girls could arrange tableaux and then everyone could sing and dance! And there would be sandwiches and coffee and ice cream and cake and a gift for each one.
Gradually into Pat's face crept a deep interest so that when the last small detail had been explained the smile that Aunt Pen had prophesied came back once more. It would be awonderfulparty, and could they begin planning the tableaux right away and couldn't they run over this very minute and tell Sheila?
So that Mr. Everett's going made scarcely a break in the exciting preparations, the rehearsals, the arranging of costumes, the planning of the party "supper" and the gifts for the guests. In desperation Aunt Pen declared that the holidays might as well begin at once as it was impossible to hold Pat down to any lessons! And Renée, too, was working feverishly, completing a rush order for Christmas cards that had come to "LaDue and Everett" from Miss Higgin's tea room!
On Christmas Eve the Eyrie was emptied of the treasures it had held, the stockings hanging over the library fireplace were filled and little piles of tissue paper packages of all sizes were made for Jasper, Melodia and Maggie. The rooms were filled with a spicy odor of hemlock; holly hung over window and door.
"Oh, isn't it fun?" laughed Pat, stepping back to survey the bulging stockings. "Can youguesswhat's in anything, Ren? And don't you wish you were little again and really truly believed in Santa Claus?"
"Susette used to tell me stories of the real St. Nicholas--she said he was the patron saint of children!"
"Well,Ilike to think of him as a jolly old fellow driving his reindeers faster'n Watkins can drive the car--and lots of jingling bells! I think about it and then I can most hear them!"
Renée had gone to one of the windows at the end of the room to peer out into the darkness. Snow had fallen which dulled the sounds of the city to a musical tone not unlike distant bells of the good Santa. Suddenly she called to Pat:
"Come and look--over at Sheila's!"
There on the strip of lawn before the old brick house was a Christmas tree, hung with tinsel and twinkling with lighted candles that swayed and blinked in the darkness.
That was Mrs. Quinn's merry Christmas! She and the children had hung ropes of tinsel, red and gold balls, sparkling hearts and rings and little candles out on the old spruce that grew in the corner of the yard.
"To give to any poor body going by that maybe hasn't any Christmas just a bit of the brightness!" she had explained.
Renée, watching from between the library curtains, thought it very beautiful! It was like a fairy tree, placed there in the darkness by spirit hands, breathing from its fragrant brightness a joy that all could share! Even at that moment they could see a bent old man, leading a little boy by the hand, lingering to stare at the twinkling lights!
Many years before this the Everett Works had been moved from the modest factory not far from the Everett home, where it had had its beginning, to the great pile of steel and concrete buildings distantly removed from the business center of the city. Immediately there sprang up on the stretches of fields intervening between the smoky walls of the new plant and the quiet shaded streets where the Lees and the Everetts and the Randolphs lived, a community of small, shapeless houses, one exactly like the other, divided by half-paved streets with their rows of sickly infant elms and maples; with muddy backyards barricaded by miles and miles of clothes-line, and thousands of window-panes blackened by the incessant rain of soot from the belching chimneys. Though the suburb had the beautiful name of Riverview, suggestive of cool breezes and open spaces, it was always and more fittingly known as "The Neighborhood."
To the hundreds of little dingy homes had come men, women and children from every land of the globe--here Liberty offered them asylum and the Everett Works an honest living. In the center of the community the Works had erected a splendid schoolhouse and had presented it to the city. Although its outer walls were soon stained and blackened like the rows of houses, its interior was as fresh and attractive as clean paint, pictures and many growing plants could make it! Here the children of the foreign-speaking parents were taught to be true Americans. And in its big assembly room, whose windows looked out over the rows and rows of railroad tracks with their solid wall of motionless freight cars, to the river and open fields beyond, the girls of Troop Six held their Christmas party.
Even before the last holly wreath had been fastened in place the guests began to come--whole families at a time, in holiday attire that to Pat made them look like pictures in some fairy-tales; old men and old women, younger men with hands still grimy from their work, younger women with tired faces and babies in their arms; some eager, some a little shy, all smiling.
Pat, peeping out from behind the curtain, declared that there were hundreds there and that they were talking in every language known--except Latin! But when some one at the piano began to play "America," in some way or other the strange words melted into a common tongue--the high treble of the children carrying the song along!
A hush fell on the audience when the curtains of the stage slowly parted to show the first of the tableaux. Briefly John Randolph, Keineth's father, told in Polish the story of the landing of the Pilgrims on "the stern and rockbound coast" while on the stage the Pilgrims, with painfully suppressed laughter, struggled to keep theMayflower, made out of old canvas and chairs, from falling to pieces!
The next picture showed the early colonists making treaties with the Indians. Sheila, grave and dignified in Puritan collar and hat, was holding out strings of gay beads to an Indian chief, resplendent in paint and feathers, who carried over his arm the hides that the colonists needed. Then in simple words Mr. Randolph explained how the first purchases of land in the United States came about.
Peggy made an impressive George Washington at Valley Forge, while Garrett Lee and some of his friends sat about a smouldering camp-fire. Again she appeared with Betsey Ross, who was stitching on the first American flag, which part Keineth played. But Washington's dignified manner was sadly spoiled when his wig suddenly slipped to one side, so that poor Betsey had to bite her lips very hard to keep from giggling at his rakish appearance! Nevertheless the audience--especially the children who recognized in the picture a favorite school story--clapped loudly with genuine enthusiasm.
The last tableau, everyone declared, was the best of all! Captain Ricky was America, standing in white robes against a big American flag, her arms outstretched to the eager pilgrims who approached her! And these were dressed in the national costumes of almost every country on the globe; some had approached, apparently, with brave step, heads high and shoulders straight, others had come wearily; some were old and some were young; many had been carrying heavy burdens which they had cast aside. And from the wrists of each hung the broken links of the shackles that had bound them!
The tableau told its own story! For a moment there was a hushed silence, then a mighty applause shook the room. And Captain Ricky, as though she indeed embodied the gracious spirit of America, smiled back from the stage at the men and women who, like the pilgrims in the picture, had come to this land of freedom!
After this tableau the curtains at the back of the stage were drawn back, displaying a beautiful Christmas tree, trimmed only by the many lights half-concealed in its branches and by a huge, gleaming star at its top. Some of the scouts at one corner of the stage began a simple Christmas carol--the guests took it up, humming where they could not speak the words. A group of young men broke into a Polish song; other songs followed--songs that these people had brought with them across the sea.
"They are more beautiful than ours!" cried Keineth to her father.
Then, under Captain Ricky's direction, the trimming of the tree began. This was a surprise even to the girls of the Troop, who sat with bright eyes watching. For each one in the room who had had a son, a brother, a husband or a father in the service of the country, was given a silver star to hang upon the branches of the tree. One by one they went up--at first shyly, then proudly; bent old men with uncertain step, young wives, blushing, with children tugging at their skirts; old women, scarcely understanding it all but eager to hang their symbol, until the tree was a-twinkle with the gleaming stars!
From long tables in one of the classrooms adjoining steaming, fragrant coffee in big cups and turkey and chicken sandwiches were served, then ice cream and cake. Everyone talked at once--the children ran round in complete abandonment to the joy of the moment; some of the guests, too excited to eat, had already begun the dancing!
And Mrs. Lee and Aunt Pen were busy distributing among them all the small silk American flags which were the gifts of the evening!
"It's thebestpartyever," Pat stopped long enough in a whirling dance to whisper to Aunt Pen.
"Where's Renée?" Aunt Pen answered.
After a moment's search she found her alone behind the big tree. She was fastening upon one of the branches her silver star! Tears dampened her cheeks.
"Oh--my dear!" cried Aunt Pen. Over her swept the realization of what Renée had given that "peace might come upon this world!" She caught the small hand and held it.
"Notthere," she whispered, "buthere!" and taking the star she hung it close to the big Star at the top.
"He gave his Son for us, too," she added softly.
CHAPTER XIV
HILL-TOP
"Picnics," explained Peggy, with a conviction born of experience, "are just as much fun in the winter as they are in the summer, 'specially when they are at Hill-top!"
For the four days following Christmas snow had fallen steadily. Each moment of the holiday time had been filled with out-of-door fun: now Mrs. Lee had suggested that--as a sort of climax--the Eagle Patrol have a picnic at Hill-top!
Pat had never heard of a picnic in the middle of the winter!
But Peggy's enthusiasm was contagious! Hilltop--Pat had never been there--was a very old farmhouse ten miles from the city, back in the hills near Camp Wichita, where Captain Ricky took her girls in the summer-time. It belonged to an old man and his wife who had been friends of Mrs. Lee's father. During the winter months they preferred to move into a more sheltered cottage nearer the barns. The house--a short walk from the lake on which the young people skated in the winter and canoed in the summer--had great square rooms and many of them, warmed by fire-places like caverns that consumed whole logs at a time. Often Mrs. Lee, who found real recreation in such little excursions with her young people--had taken the girls and boys there for week-end picnics!
"Mother says we may stay three whole days this time! We can skate and coast and have all kinds of fun! Garrett has a new bob that he made and he says he'll bet anything it can beat all the others."
"Do the boys go, too?" broke in Pat.
"Oh, yes, mother likes to have them go! They help a lot, you see, and she says it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if they weren't along. Jim Archer and Bob Slocum and Ted Scott and maybe Wynne Meade will go--and Garrett! They'resortof fun!" for Peggy read disappointment in Pat's face.
"Ithink boys are a nuisance!"
Sheila came promptly to the defense. "Perhaps--sometimes! But brothers are nice!"
Pat's experience had been limited to the bashful young brothers, miserable with too much scrubbing and stiff collars, who had occasionally visited the other girls at school.
Peggy thought it a decided waste of time to be bothering over such a point when there was so much to plan and do! So, with a conviction intended to end the discussion, she said: "Well, they carry the logs and the water and go out and open the house and I guess we'll find them mighty useful!"
And, indeed, Patwasto find one of the boys more than useful before the picnic was over!
A few hours' well-organized activity put everything in readiness for the house-party. Garrett Lee appointed himself chief of the commissary and flew tirelessly between his home and the grocery store until he had assembled enough cans of soup, bacon, weiners and other eatables peculiar to scouts' appetites to feed a regiment! Sheila and Mrs. Lee, after a brief consultation, added to the equipment many little necessities that Garrett in his masculine ignorance had overlooked. Two of the other girls collected the necessary kitchen utensils and a simple first-aid kit. Loaded down with all these and with extra blankets and the bobs, the boys and Mrs. Lee went on out to Hill-top a day in advance to open the house and prepare it for the others.
Pat, inspired by the activities of the others and not having been pressed into troop service, busied herself by packing and repacking almost every garment that she and Renée possessed!
"Patsy, dear, youwon'tneed all those things," Aunt Pen had laughed, pointing to the bulging suitcase.
Pat admitted this. "Well, it's fun packing 'em and I just had to do something," she confessed.
The next day eight merry girls boarded the funny little train that puffed off slowly toward the hills. To Renée the picnic was the most exciting of adventures! She had seen little snow--never in her life anything like the great piles, snowy white, through which the train was snorting its way! She had never had on a pair of skates in her life, nor had she ever coasted down a hill! And as Peggy told of Garrett's new bob, "Madcap," and its lightning speed, she shivered with an ecstasy of fear and wondered--if they made her ride on it--what it would feel like to fly over the snow and whether she might not just die outright of terror!
The boys, in rollicking spirits and muffled to the tips of their noses, met them at the station; together they trudged back through the snow to the farmhouse. Logs were crackling merrily in the big fireplaces and a table had been spread ready for an early supper. The girls fell to unpacking the equipment and spreading their blankets over the funny old beds and the cots which had been brought up from the nearby camp. Sheila, who had been appointed officer-in-charge, promptly, in accordance with the custom of scout outings, posted in a conspicuous place, the "standing rules."
"Oh, they're the kind of rules any good scout'll keep," Peggy exclaimed to Pat, who was regarding the slip of paper in amazement with a look on her face that said plainly "this is the funniest picnic I ever knew!" "Come on and find the others!"
For supper they ate many baked potatoes and weiners and hot biscuits, which Mrs. Lee had mixed and baked by magic--"just to have a nice beginning!" At the table the boys announced the schedule for the skating and coasting races which they had planned for the next day and fell to arguing with friendly violence over the speed of their different bobs! Garrett then insisted that the four who had grabbed the last of the biscuits should make up the Kitchen Police, whose duty it would be to clear away the supper dishes! And to the accompaniment of a mighty rattle of china plates and cups the others gathered around the blazing fire and sang.
Pat and Renée slept together in a huge four-posted bed. Gradually the big house had grown very quiet. "Isn't it fun?" Pat giggled into Renée's ear. "I've never been in the country in the winter-time before! And doesn't it feelqueersleeping without sheets?" Then she sighed. "I wish I could skate well!" She was thinking of the races planned for the morrow. Renée was apprehensive, too. "Do you suppose they'll make me go down on one of those dreadful bobs?" and she shuddered at the very thought!
Poor Pat, her pride--cropping up now and then--was her besetting sin! And the next morning, when she should have been gloriously happy, it mastered her! Shehatedthe races, because she was always lagging along in the rear! She declared to herself that the boys were silly, tiresome stupids, because they madesucha fuss when Peggy beat them all in a race down the lake and back! Finally, disgusted, she took off the hateful skates and joined Renée near the bank.
"I think they'restupid," she grumbled, digging her heel into the ice and not explaining whether she meant the boys, or the skates or the races!
The coasting in the afternoon comforted her a little! Jim Archer let her steer his "Gypsy!" They beat Garrett's "Madcap" and Pat secretly rejoiced at Garrett's chagrin!
Renée, from the top of the long hill, had watched the flight of the bobs with trembling fascination.
"Come along on Madcap," Garrett had called out. The three girls on it waved entreatingly to her. She had not the courage to refuse! White with terror she slipped in between Garrett and Peggy. The others shouted wildly as the bob began to move slowly down the hill but poor Renée's breath caught in her throat. As it went faster and faster she hid her face against Garrett's wooly back.
"Hang on!" cried Peggy behind her. Renée was certain they were flying! But just as she felt shemustdie with terror a wild "hurrah" went up, she opened her eyes--they were sliding over the ice at the bottom of the hill and the Madcap had won!
And to Renée's utter amazement she wanted to go down again--right away!
Afterwards Garrett let her steer the bob, and although they ended in a snowdrift and were almost buried in the soft snow, it did not in any way dampen her enthusiasm over the new sport she had learned!
"Oh, it waswonderful!" she exclaimed to Pat as they walked with the others toward Hill-top. "I thought I'd be so frightened and I wasn't!"
"Jim Archer's bob is much the best," Pat answered in such a disagreeable voice that Renée looked at her in hurt astonishment! Howcouldthere be enough difference in two bobs to make Pat speak to her in that tone!
However, hot oyster soup and pancakes scattered for a time the little cloud that threatened and through the meal Pat's voice was as merry as the merriest. After supper, leaving the Kitchen Police to their sad lot, the others again donned caps, sweaters and mittens and fell to building in front of the old farmhouse door two great snow forts, between which, in the morning, a mighty battle would be waged!
And Jim Archer, one of the self-appointed generals, asked Pat--before he asked any of the others--to be on his side!
This was balm to Pat's hurt vanity. Perhaps she couldn't skate as well as the others, but she guessed Jim Archer knew she could throw a snowball as straight and as hard as any boy! Anyway, Garrett Lee was too conceited! So that night, as she slept cuddled down in the big four-posted bed, she dreamed that she stood alone on the frosty breastwork of the fort she had helped build and by an onslaught of snowballs, thrown with unerring aim, drove Garrett Lee and his army to complete and ignominious surrender!
Poor Pat--the next day was to bring to her pride a sad fall!
CHAPTER XV
PAT'S PRIDE AND ITS FALL
The next morning a bright sun peeped up over the hills touching field and lake, trees and house-tops with a frost of diamonds. At an early hour hungry boys and girls were demanding their breakfast "quick" and were hurling orders over the banister at the sleepy Kitchen Police, toiling below.
The snow-ball fight ended in a complete rout of Garrett's army, which put Pat in high spirits, and, although it had not been quite like her dream of the night before, Jim Archerhadsaid to her, to her secret joy:
"Say, you throw as good as a boy!"
The remainder of the morning was spent playing hockey and coasting; the boys allowing the girls to race the bobs down the hill. Renée, quite by herself, steered the beautiful Madcap twice to victory! Perhaps never in her life had she felt so keenly alive or so happy! She stood looking over the little lake and the surrounding hills and drawing in long breaths of the frosty air. Its keenness made her cheeks and fingertips tingle, put a ringing note in the youthful voices around her and an added brightness into happy eyes!
"Let's all just skate this afternoon--no races or anything like that!" declared Peggy at luncheon and the suggestion met with instant approval.
"Oh,don'tyou wish we were just coming? Did you ever know days to go by so fast?" lamented one of the others.
"This hasn't gone by yet! To-night we're going to toast marshmallows!" put in Bob Slocum.
"And have a good sing! We always end a picnic that way!" explained Peggy to Pat.
"And breakfast bright and early to-morrow, so that we will be all packed in time for the----"
"Lightning mail train!" Garrett added to his mother's injunction.
Mrs. Lee was never happier than when she was with her "boys and girls!" She loved each and every one of them as though they had all been hers from babyhood. She watched them now as they trooped away toward the lake, skates jingling over their arms. Something within her quivered with pardonable pride as her eyes rested for a moment on Garrett's manly young figure striding on ahead of the others. And when Peggy's voice, always boyishly loud, reached her ears as she shouted back to one of the other girls, her mother shook her head and laughed: "Oh, Peggy child, what a tomboy!"
For Pat the skating was much more fun, now, when there were no races! More accustomed to her skates she managed to get over the ice in better and easier fashion than she had on the day before. She was pleasantly conscious, too, that she made a rather pretty picture in her scarlet sweater and tam-o'-shanter--several of the girls had declared that they were going to immediately make red tams.
"Let's have a turn, Pat!" and Garrett Lee extended two warmly mittened hands in genial invitation. So Pat linked her arms with his and together they flew over the glittering stretch. With her balance supported by Garrett's strong grasp she skated easily; as they sped along down the length of the lake the wind whipped her breath and sent the blood bounding through her veins!
At the end of the lake they stopped "to take in air," as Garrett put it.
"Let's skate down there," cried Pat, pointing to the Inlet just beyond. There a narrow gorge, cutting deeply through the hillsides, let into the lake. Garrett knew that, because of its steep banks, its changing depths of water and strong eddies, the ice there was very unsafe.
"Oh, no, it's dangerous there! We never go into the Inlet, even in the summer! That's a rule!"
Poor Pat--she fancied Garrett was treating her like a little child! So she answered with a toss of her head:
"I haven't bothered to read the rules! I'm not afraid--if you are!" and she turned toward the Inlet.
"Pat--don't! Itisn'tsafe--honest!"
The more earnest and concerned Garrett grew the more headstrong Pat! She started toward the Inlet, calling over her shoulder: "Oh, you're just a 'fraidy-cat'!"
Garrett watched her for a moment. There was no doubting her intention! He started after her and at the mouth of the Inlet overtook her.
"Pat," he begged, "mother'll be angry! I tell you it's one of the rules!"
But Pat simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Dareyou to come with me, little boy!" she laughed teasingly. The Inlet, its banks rising steeply on each side, filled with dancing shadows made by the sun through the bare branches meeting overhead, looked very inviting! Thrilled with a sense of adventure, Pat skated with short strokes into the narrow opening.
Garrett had no choice but to follow her! Deeply alarmed, he again begged her to turn back! Now she pretended not to hear him!
But in a few moments she suddenly screamed and wildly waved her arms! At a bend in the narrow gorge the ice had cracked under her weight!
"Garrett!" she cried, turning.
"Go on! Keep moving!" he shouted. But Pat, terror-stricken, stood still, stretching out her arms imploringly. Garrett reached her just as the ice with a sharp crackle broke into pieces, dropping them both into the water.
Its iciness for a moment stunned Pat. Then she slowly realized that Garrett was supporting her with one arm and begging her to cling to the thin edge of the ice, to which he was holding with his other hand. His steady voice gave her courage! She tried to say something but her teeth only chattered together.
"We'll get out all right!" Garrett said, hopefully. "Hold on as lightly as you can!"
"Oh, don't let go of me--don't let go of me!" implored Pat, wanting to cry.
"I won't! Keep up your nerve!" And Garrett strengthened his hold under Pat's arm. He looked about him. From a tree growing out of the bank stretched a bare limb just a little way out of reach.
"We'll work along slowly until you can reach that branch! Take it easy, Pat!"
He began moving his grasp on the edge of the ice, slowly, cautiously, for sometimes it cracked, sending terror to Pat's soul! She recalled hearing someone tell how very deep the water was in the Inlet! And it wassoblack and cold!
"Come on! We'll make it!" he called out cheerily. They drew nearer and nearer the branch; soon Pat could reach it.
"Now let go of the ice and grab it! I'll hold you!"
"Oh no, no!" implored Pat, clinging tighter.
"You'vegotto, Pat! It's our only chance!" Summoning all the strength he had in his fine young body he lifted her as he spoke! The effort made great veins swell on his forehead. With a gasp of terror she caught and clung with both arms to the branch.
"Get your legs around it, too," directed Garrett. "Now work yourself along!Hurry, Pat!"
Stung into effort Pat with feverish haste did as he told her. Securing her hold on the branch by locking her strong legs about it she gradually swung around until she was astride it. Then it was but a moment's work to edge along to the bank. Grasping the strong roots of the undergrowth she pulled herself to the top. She wanted dreadfully then to throw herself down upon the ground and cry, but a sharp noise below made her turn suddenly.
Garrett had attempted to lift himself upon the branch. Strained by Pat's weight, under his it snapped off, dropping him back into the water.
"Garrett!" screamed Pat. In agony she watched for his head to reappear at the surface of the water. As he came up he again caught the edge of the ice, but his face was gray and drawn as though by sharp pain and his breath came and went in short gasps. She called him vainly over and over but he could not seem to muster enough strength to answer! She fancied, in her terror, that his fingers were slipping in their hold of the ice.
It washerturn to direct!
"Garrett, move down! See, the tree's across the ice! Maybe it'll hold! Oh, Garrett,try!"
With a slow, cramped movement he worked along the edge of the rapidly enlarging hole until he could grasp the broken branch which stretched now across the dark water, one end firmly held in a crack of the ice where it had buckled near the bank. Strengthened by desperation, Garrett managed to crawl along it until he reached the bank. As, numbed by exposure, he struggled to lift himself up the steep side of the gorge, clinging for support, as Pat had done, to roots and branches, repeatedly slipping back, it seemed to Pat as though he could not make it! At last her own frantic hands dragged him over the top to safety, only to have him drop in an unconscious heap at her feet!
All Pat knew was that whatever she had to do she must do quickly! Loosening the straps of her skates she threw them from her! Then she attempted to lift him. He was too heavy--she could not stagger a step with his weight in her arms. So as gently as she could she dragged him over the soft snow to a higher point of open ground from which she could see the lake and the skaters and the farmhouse!
"Girls! Girls! Jim!" she called frantically. They could not hear--only the echo of her own voice answered.
"WhatwillI do?" she cried. She tore off her bright tam-o'-shanter and waved it high in the air! Suddenly she saw one of the girls detach herself! from a group of skaters and wave back!
An inspiration seized Pat! The semaphore code she had learned! Oh, could she remember it quickly enough? And poor Garrett himself had taught her! Snatching off her sweater she waved that in one hand and her tam in the other and slowly signaled:
"Accident--bring bobs--blankets--quick!"
It seemed to Pat as though they wouldneveranswer! She waved her message again--more slowly! Then one of the boys waved back: "Coming."
NowPat began to cry--tears that left cold streaks on her own cheeks and splashed in a warm shower on Garrett's face as she knelt over him. He slowly opened his eyes and whispered, "All right, Pat?" Then, as though very tired, he closed them again and lapsed back into unconsciousness.
There was no more merriment at Hill-top! The boys brought Garrett, wrapped in blankets, on one of the bobs to the door of the farmhouse where his mother, warned of the accident, awaited him. No one would let poor Pat tell her story--there was too much to be done! While Mrs. Lee and Sheila cared for Garrett, the girls gave Pat a hot bath and a vigorous rub and put her to bed. And Jim Archer flew to the nearest telephone to summon a doctor and nurse from the city.
Garrett was very, very ill! Weakened by the exposure and strain he quickly developed pneumonia. The doctor would not let him be moved, he must remain at Hill-top! Mrs. Lee, brave with all her anxiety, begged the boys and girls to go back to the city quietly, not to worry, but to hope for Garrett's quick recovery! Sheila and Jim Archer she kept with her to help her. At the earliest possible moment came Mr. Lee with a trained nurse.
Pat, none the worse for her icy bath of the day before, lingered behind the others and miserably begged for a parting word with Mrs. Lee.
"It wasallmy fault," she whispered, bursting into tears. "I called him a fraidy-cat and went on, just so's he'd follow----"
Though Mrs. Lee took the girl in her arms, her face was very grave. But she guessed the suffering in Pat's heart, so she spoke kindly.
"Child, I am glad hedidn'tleave you! You must help us fight for him now and--well, he justmustget well!" For a moment she could not keep her own tears back; then she resolutely wiped them away as much as to say, "thisisn't fighting!"
Anxious days followed. Every morning and every evening Jim Archer telephoned to the Everett home from Hill-top a report of Garrett's condition. Sometimes there would be a word of encouragement--then he would be a degree worse! Pat, pale as a ghost, scarcely speaking to anyone, trembling at every sound, in spite of all Aunt Pen's and Renée's efforts, refused to be cheered or comforted! She spent almost all her time in the Eyrie with the door locked.
"I'm downright worried!" Aunt Pen said to Pat's father, who fortunately had returned in the midst of the trouble and anxiety. "Whateverdoes the child do in that room all by herself?"
No one would ever know! In the most shadowy corner of the Eyrie Pat had crept and there she had found strength to bear the suspense! Kneeling before one of the old broken chairs, she repeated over and over a little prayer she had made:
"Please God, make Garrett well! He was so brave and I was so wicked! I'm the one you ought to punish! Please make him well and I'll never, never be wicked again!"
Sometimes she would vary the wording of her little prayer and once, thinking that perhaps her clumsy sentences might not reach the Father's ear, she carried a prayer-book to the Eyrie and slowly, with great emphasis, repeated the prayer for the sick that she had often heard in church.
Going downstairs from one of these vigils in the Eyrie she heard Sheila's voice. Her heart stopped beating with an instant's fear! She rushed into the room where Sheila was talking to Aunt Pen and her Daddy.
"He is----" She could not make herself ask the question.
Sheila turned. Her tired face was bright with joy. "Garrett's better! He will get well! We didn't telephone because I wanted to tell you! I had to come home, for mother needed me."
"Really, truly?" Pat could scarcely believe that the black shadow was lifted from her. Sheila nodded laughingly.
"Really, truly! The doctor says he has a wonderful constitution! And we're all so glad, because we love Mrs. Lee so much!"
With quivering lips Pat turned and threw herself into her father's arms. There was so much she wanted to tell--of her silly vanity, her wicked recklessness, her leading another into danger, but the words would not come!
"I'll always remember--how he looked--up on the bank!" she shuddered, her face hidden against her father's coat. "I asked God to make him well and He did, and I guess I'll remember never--to be--wicked again!" And as though he understood how truly repentant poor Pat was, her dear Daddy patted her shoulder and held her very close.
CHAPTER XVI
GOOD TURNS
The winter days passed quickly in the Everett household. Each moment was filled with work or play. And so delightfully intermingled was the play with the work that the girls found themselves tackling their Latin verbs with the same zest they threw into their outdoor recreation.
In spite of the holidays and the suspense of Garrett Lee's illness the routine of Aunt Pen's "school" had been renewed with little difficulty. Pat, who always before had been very indifferent to the report system followed at Miss Prindle's, suddenly developed deep concern and pride in the reports that Aunt Pen carefully prepared at the end of each week to show Daddy and then tucked away in the spinnet desk to wait mother's return. She was improving in her Latin and her French; she could write a letter now with only one or two misspelled words; she tackled the difficult problems in Algebra in a fine fighting spirit, and with great pride--after many mortifying failures--was able to set before her father three beautifully browned loaves of bread!
Daddy had declared that such triumph must have its reward and had carried them all--pupils and teacher--off to the theatre to see "Penrod."
The Eaglets still gathered in the Eyrie. How much nearer each was coming to her ambitions no one of them could tell--that they were still steadfastly true to their pledge to help one another was certain; unconsciously perhaps, they did it by the strength of their friendship.
"LaDue and Everett" had developed a thriving business. Pat, quite all by herself, had gone to Brown Brothers, the leading bookstore in the city, and had sought and obtained an order for hand-painted valentines. This had given her courage to approach Miss Higgins and a nearby Gift-shop. Very proudly she presented the three orders to the senior member of the firm.
"There, I guessthat'llmake us work!"
At first Renée was aghast at the amount of work, but with Pat to help her and by steady application--although Aunt Pen was firm in her command that the work must not interfere with the outdoor play--she was able to complete the orders by the first of February. And so beautifully had the little valentines been made that Brown Brothers immediately ordered ten dozen dinner cards!
The rush of business set Pat at the company's books which had gotten into such a muddle that they had to be taken to Daddy to be straightened out. Pat's figures were like a Chinese puzzle running up and down the pages of her imposing ledger. Poor Mr. Everett had a knotty problem putting them into proper shape and Pat had a lesson in accounting!
Altogether, after all expenses had been paid, there was left to the account of the youthful firm a sum of eighteen dollars and fifty cents. Two-thirds of this, Pat declared, must be Renée's, because the responsibility of the work fell upon her--"though I'll just say it isn't any fun getting up your nerve to go in and ask for an order! They always treat you like a kid!" she explained, indignantly.
There were many demands upon their earnings. The scout uniforms had been bought; the girls each pledged six dollars to the Victory Army; there was the Red Cross, too, and the French Babies and the Vacation Fund for the tots at home--innumerable other good causes, worthy of their help.
"It makes me feel so grown-up to sign my name to all these pledges and things and pay for it out of myveryown money!" And Pat assumed a comically mature air.
Pat was a real "Yellowbird" now and Renée was a "scrub." The girls had joined a swimming class, too; Pat, having spent many summers at the seashore was like a fish in the water, and helped Renée, who had to overcome a physical terror at the very thought of slipping over into the tank!
Early in February Garrett Lee was brought back to the city from Hill-top. Pat, with Aunt Pen, had immediately gone to see him and his mother. Mrs. Lee's kind welcome drove away the fear that had teen in Pat's heart; impulsively she threw her arms about Mrs. Lee's neck and, because Mrs. Lee could always see straight into the hearts of her boys and girls, she knew what prompted the caress and gave an affectionate hug in return.
"Garrett doesn't want one single word ever said about it all," she whispered in Pat's ear.
After that Pat went almost daily to the Lee house--sometimes with a book, or a basket of fruit or some home-made candy. At first she was a little shy in her friendly devotion, but after a while, so truly grateful did Garrett seem for her company and the things she brought to relieve the monotony of his convalescence, she simply rang the bell and ran straight up to his room. When these frequent visits interfered with lessons Aunt Pen said not a word, for she knew Pat was trying to make up in some small way for the harm she had wrought!
As Garrett grew stronger the young people deserted the Eyrie for the pleasant Lee living-room. "It does him more good than a trip to Florida!" his mother declared, looking with satisfaction at her patient. And the boys and girls were learning thoughtfulness and considerateness. When Peggy, of her own will, suddenly lowered her voice, and Jim Archer, without a word, shoved a pillow back of Garrett's head as he sat on the old divan, Mrs. Lee had thought--hard as it had been--Garrett's illness had brought some good.
Pat had never known before the wholesomeness of jolly comradeship with a large circle of boys and girls; she found it now in these pleasant gatherings at the Lees. Bob Slocum and Peggy could think of so many games; Jim Archer--all in one afternoon--had composed, staged, and produced a melodrama, "Heinie the Hun," although, because Pat could not control her giggling, the irate author-manager had made her play the drum to mark the dramatic climaxes. There were endless and lively discussions over everything under sun and earth; jolly songs with Mrs. Lee at the piano, and always some careful eye to notice when Garrett showed signs of fatigue.
And to Pat the best of all was when Garrett, one afternoon, had confided to her that he was planning an airship with a new kind of stabilizer; showed her his drawings and explained how, for days since his illness, he had been studying a housefly which he had caught and imprisoned in the old fish bowl. Pat wanted very much to tell the others what great things Garrett was going to do but he had made her promise on her scout's honor to keep his secret, so she carried it faithfully locked away in her heart, proud that Garrett should have honored her with his confidence after the unhappy accident at Hill-top!
"We'repals--just's if I was a boy," she said to herself.
As the weeks slipped by Renée, to Aunt Pen's delight, was rapidly developing a fascinating and forceful personality. With so many true friends and playmates the shyness had gradually disappeared from her manner; contrasted with Pat's dynamic spirits Renée would always seem quiet, but her will was strong and often, in her gentle way, she was a leader among the young people. With a character that had been moulded and guarded by a simple life, she had in her a rare beauty and purity of thought that seemed to shine in her pretty face and clear eyes. Happiness and healthy living were dispelling the shadows from her young life; she could talk of Susette and the old cottage without a quivering of the lips; she often drew for Pat, as though she enjoyed it, a vivid description of how splendid Emile had looked in his uniform as he had marched away with the others--a rose she had given him stuck jauntily in his belt!
The cessation of the fighting and the approaching peace had brought many problems. Wounded men were coming home, employment was uncertain, living expenses soaring higher and higher; actual want stalked in many homes. And to add to it all a terrible epidemic had raged through the city, leaving in its wake untold misery and suffering.
There was serious work for everyone to do. There were countless ways in which the Girl Scouts helped. "Good turns," they called it and they held themselves always ready for the command of any organization, never counting one moment of sacrifice, tireless and faithful.
"What do you think now?" Pat burst in upon her family from a special meeting of the troop. "The Scouts are going to adopt families!"
This astonishing announcement caused Mr. Everett to throw up his hands in mock dismay.
"Good gracious, Pat, black or white?"
"I'm really very serious, Daddy, and Mrs. Townsend from the Red Cross says we can make it a beautiful work! One family is assigned to each of us. We give as much time as we can spare and do everything we can--amuse the children, take 'em out, make things easier for the mothers so's they can rest and get strong again! You see these are families that have been sick. Mine is Mrs. K-a-s-u-b-o-w-s-k-i," she read from a card.
Pat had, in her way, expressed the scout orders. To each of the older scouts had been assigned a family that had suffered from the epidemic. Each girl was to work under the direction of the District Nurse and in coöperation with the Red Cross. She was to give brief reports of each visit. And knowing that these girls could, in the homes to which they were sent, win trust where older women often met suspicion and unfriendliness, the Red Cross hoped to build up through their services, a sympathy and understanding that would benefit everyone and draw more closely the bonds of common interest.
In her youthful mind Pat did not sense any such vision; she only knew that her scout orders directed her to go and do all she could for a family whose name she simply could not pronounce; that her card stated that there was a Rosa, aged seven, a Josef, age six, a Stephanie, aged three and a baby Peter; that everyone of them had been desperately ill, including the father and mother; that only within the last two or three weeks had the father been able to go back to work and that upon the poor mother, still weak from the ravages of fever, had fallen the burden of making the meagre savings tide them over.
Pat called them all her "Kewpies." Her first two visits left her discouraged, the children were dirty and quarrelsome, the mother unfriendly. But, gradually, armed with picture books and toys, Pat won the liking of the little ones; at the next visit she gave them cakes of soap which Renée had carved to resemble dogs and pigs and promised them more if they would use these "all up"; warm sunshine permitted a long walk and outdoor play and Mrs. Kewpie, gratefully realizing that for an hour she was absolutely without chick or child, caught a much-needed moment of rest!
Renée had not been given a family by the Red Cross. At first she was disappointed, then, wholeheartedly, she fell to helping Pat. Aunt Pen and Daddy, too, were deeply interested. Almost every evening the "Kewpies" were discussed at the "pow-wow." Aunt Pen was aghast that Mrs. Kewpie could speak only a word or two of English!
"How can she be expected to bring up good American citizens--let alone be one herself?" she asked heatedly.
Through Rosa Pat learned that poor Mrs. Kewpie would really like to talk and read English. Her husband had learned it at his shop, the older children were learning it at school; less and less they were talking the only language she had ever known! She felt, with the quick instinct of her mother's heart, that they were growing away from her into a world of interests where she could not follow. No one had ever offered to teach her this new, strange tongue! She was afraid of the teachers in Rosa's school! She misunderstood and resented the approaches of the few English-speaking women she had met; proud herself, she had thought them patronizing and officious! But Pat was just a girl!
So Pat, quite unconsciously, began making a good American citizen out of Mrs. Kewpie. She found that the picture books she brought the children interested the mother, too--not because of the pictures alone but because the mother could make out, through them, the meaning of the words beneath them. When Pat told of this at home Aunt Pen thought of the beautiful plan of making for Mrs. Kewpie a primer out of pictures. Every evening, for a week, the entire Everett family worked industriously with scissors and paste, compiling what Aunt Pen laughingly called: "Everett's First Lessons in the American Language."
"She'll know all about this country of ours when she's graduated fromthisbook," declared Mr. Everett, proudly smoothing down a colored picture of the Capitol at Washington.
"And for everything I teach her in English I'm going to ask her to teach me a word in Polish! It's such a funny looking language and then itsoundslike music! They have lots of awfully exciting stories in their history--Keineth Randolph told us some that her father had told her! And in the next book, let's have pictures of flowers and mountains and water and things like the country, 'cause I guess poor Mrs. Kewpie thinks therearen'tsuch things!"
Prompted by this thought on her next visit Pat carried to the Kewpie kitchen a pink geranium plant. Then she conceived the idea of making the untidy kitchen look as much like Mrs. Quinn's as possible! So interested did she grow in her work that for two afternoons she completely forgot basketball practice, thereby bringing down upon her head the fury of the Captain of the Yellowbirds!
And when Baby Peter fell sick with some digestive disorder, Pat, with the help of the District Nurse, was able to persuade Mrs. Kewpie that a daily bath would reduce the slight fever and to substitute the sweet, fresh milk that the nurse had brought in the place of the coffee she was accustomed to feed the baby.
Now Renée, to her delight, was given an opportunity to share the "good turns."
One afternoon Mrs. Lee, always an angel of kindness and of wide charity, had sought Renée's help. She explained to Renée, as they walked along together, that this was a "case" of her own, and that she was taking her to this house because she thought she might bring a little sunshine into a very lonely life there.
"Poor Mrs. Forrester is very cross and very queer, my dear! No one ever goes to see her now and she lives all alone with a servant almost as old as she is! I thought that if you would go there once in awhile and read to her you might help her pass the long hours."
Mrs. Lee did not add that she hoped the child's quiet, sympathetic manner might waken some tenderness in a heart as cold and dead as stone.
Mrs. Forrester lived in a very old house in an out-of-the-way street. Standing almost concealed by trees and overgrown shrubbery, it looked like some forgotten corner of the big, growing city. The door creaked on its hinges as the untidy old servant grudgingly opened it just far enough to permit them to enter. The rooms were dark, dusty and absolutely bare of any furnishings except a few worn chairs. Not a picture, not a book, not one spot of color was to be seen! There were no curtains at the windows and the cracked dingy-brown shades had been pulled close to the sill as though to forbid one tiny gleam of sunlight filtering through.
Renée thought it the most horrid house she had ever seen and wondered how Mrs. Lee could step into it so cheerfully!
But always tender with old people, she immediately felt sorry for the queer old woman propped up against a pile of pillows in a great, ugly bed.
"It isn't that she's so very old--or sick! I believe she justwon'tstir! Mrs. Lee says she has had a very unhappy life," Renée explained at home. Now Mrs. Forrester and the ugly old stone house shared the interest of the pow-wow.
Another time Renée told, with much amusement, how she had insisted upon raising the shade at the bedroom window so that Mrs. Forrester might see how spring-like the sun made everything look and how the old lady had promptly hopped out of bed and had pulled it down with such a snap that it fell to the floor!
"But she justhadto go back to bed and leave it there and I went on reading's though nothing had happened and I know she really loved the sunshine because she lay there as quiet as could be, staring at the window!"
But one afternoon Renée returned, deeply excited, with a secret that she kept for Pat's ears and the seclusion of the Eyrie.
"I was reading something awfully stupid for I thought she might go to sleep and I know she wasn't listening at all, and finally I heard her say, "If I could find my baby--I'd be ready to die!" Now I wasn't reading athingabout dying or a baby and she frightened me dreadfully! I suppose she had forgotten I was there. Then when I went on reading she said it again--real plain! Now, Pat, isn't that exciting? Wheredoyou suppose her baby is andhow'dshe ever lose it?"
None of Pat's experiences could equal this for mystery! Pat stared at Renée and Renée stared back; in the quiet of the Eyrie they thought up all sorts of explanations and stories--tragic, all of them! Pat fairly shivered with delight.
"Aren't youlucky, Renée--to have such a spliffy mystery! It's justspooky! I'm going to write a story about that! You get her to talk more--read a lot about babies and listen hard! And talk to that old Crosspatch, maybe she'll tell you something. That's the way they always do in detective stories. Something dreadfulmusthave happened to make her live like that, in that ugly old house! Oh, rapture, IknowI'm going to be famous! This goes way ahead of Aunt Pen's story! Of course," she added, hastily, "I don't knowallAunt Pen's secret sorrow yet and she doesn't stay in bed and act queer! I think I'll call this "The Lost Baby!"
So that evening, armed with several newly-sharpened pencils and much of Daddy's writing paper, Pat began her first chapter. However, its progress met with a serious setback when Aunt Pen laid in her hands a letter from Angeline Snow. Pat opened it eagerly; she had not heard from any of her old schoolmates at Miss Prindle's for a long time.
She read it quickly. Miss Angeline, in a few breezy sentences, informed Pat that she would come immediately to make her a visit!
"... You weresucha dear to ask me (Pat read that twice, thoughtfully)--and the doctor says I need a teeny rest. Mama is in California and of course I cannot go to her! But we'll have a perfectly sweet time together and I'm just dying to see you again. We've missed you dreadfully here! I havebushelsto tell you--just you. (About the girls and things--you'lldiewhen you hear it all!) I'll come on the Empire on Thursday, so please meet me. I have a stunning new hat, henna and turquoise blue and a feather you'll want toeat. Bye-bye, your Angeline."
So intent was Pat upon examining the gold crest on the paper that she did not see the curious look that flashed over Aunt Pen's face.
"Good gracious," she exclaimed, suddenly, "that's to-morrow!"
"Yes," Aunt Pen answered quietly, "and we must do everything we can to make her visit pleasant!"