CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
As the play progressed Rosanna commenced to doubt her own senses. It did not seem possible that she could have written anything so good and so interesting.
When the act ended, there was a louder burst of applause than at any other time, and to Rosanna’s horror some one in the back of the room commenced to cry, “Author, author!” Rosanna did not realize at first that they meant her and was looking around the room with a great deal of interest when she felt both Mr. Harriman and Mr. Cosgrove pushing her to her feet. She stood up because they shoved her up, and she did not know what to do next.
Then the most amazing thing of all happened.
Mr. Harriman rose to his feet and taking Rosanna firmly by the arm as though she might dash off any instant, he started toward the three little steps at one side of the stage. Up these steps he sternly piloted Rosanna, while everyone in the room clapped and clapped again. All of Louisville knew Mr. Harriman, and when everybody saw thathewas escorting the little girl who had written the play, they sat quite still to see what would happennext. When they reached the stage and stood facing the audience, someone called, “Speech, speech!” but that was ’way, ’way beyond Rosanna, who was perfectly overcome anyway. She looked pleadingly at Mr. Harriman, who knew what she meant, and took pity on her.
“Hum, grrrrrr,” he commenced. “Ladies and gentlemen, this little lady, who is the author and producer of the play you have just seen, asks me to speak for her. She thanks you for your appreciation, and for the help you are giving to herself and these other generous Girl Scouts in their efforts to assist a girl less fortunate than themselves. You have heard about the little cripple who is to be benefited by the work of these girls, and I think we, the audience fortunate enough to be present at this memorable occasion, will esteem it a pleasure to do what we can toward making it possible for this little sufferer to obtain a possible cure through a very serious and expensive operation. We thank you. Grrrrrr!” Heglaredat Mr. Cosgrove and Mr. Bristol, and bowed. Rosanna dipped a hasty curtsey, and they went off the stage again as everybody clapped and the music struck up the jolliest piece they knew. The entertainment was over!
Back with Mr. Cosgrove and Mr. Bristol, each old gentleman shook hands with Rosanna and started for the door, where Uncle Robert, intent on the most important part of all, sat at the table on which was a shoe box with a slot cut in thecover. He was smiling and beaming and saying, “Thank you!” over and over as people congratulated him on Rosanna’s play. Miss Hooker stood beside him looking so sweet and true and pretty that when Mr. Harriman came up and looked at her, and started to say “Grrrrrr,” it actually sounded like a purr! He hastily shoved something white through the slot, and Mr. Cosgrove and Mr. Bristol followed him, looking very guilty.
Then Mr. Harriman turned back.
“Absolutely confidential, Horton! No newspapers!” he said.
“Absolutely, sir, and thank you,” said Uncle Robert, bowing to the three. He commenced to suspect something!
Miss Hooker stooped to whisper something to Robert. As soon as the last person had left the hall, he obeyed the whisper, and taking the precious box, which was sealed with red sealing wax where the cover went on, he went behind the scenes. All the girls were there, as well as the sign painter and the two brothers. These three looked immensely relieved when a fourth member of their sex appeared. Mrs. Hargrave was there too, and she was inviting everyone to walk over to her house and have something to eat. She said she believed it was customary after the first presentation of a play.
When some of the girls said they would have to go home with their folks on account of getting homewith escort, Mrs. Hargrave at once added that she had arranged with Mrs. Horton to send the girls home in their automobiles.
So very soon they were all in Mrs. Hargrave’s immense dining-room, sitting in chairs ranged round the room and being served chicken bouillon and sandwiches, and fruit salad, and olives, and cocoa, and ice-cream with whipped cream on top. All they could eat of each thing too!
“I can’t wait to see the inside of that box,” said Mrs. Hargrave after all the Girl Scouts and the sign painter and the two brothers had said good night and thank you, and had gone. “What if these children of oursdohave to sleep half the day tomorrow? Telephone your mother, Miss Hooker, that you are here with me, and that you will be home presently, and we will go into the library and watch Robert count the money. And whatever is lacking, when it comes to settling for that operation, Mrs. Horton and I intend to make up.”
Robert Horton laughed.
“I have an idea that you are on the safe side of the bargain, dear lady,” he said. “I think this box will surprise us.”
“How much do you suppose is in it?” asked Miss Hooker as she started for the telephone. “A hundred dollars?”
“Five hundred at the least,” answered Uncle Robert.
Everybody started to hurry for the library at that as though the money in the box would have to be counted as rapidly as possible for fear it might fly away.
Uncle Robert happened to sit beside Miss Hooker again, but Rosanna sat on the other side. He cut the sealing wax and opened the box. There was all sorts of silver money thereexcept nickels! There was not one nickel. Dimes, quarters, fifty-cent pieces, and silver dollars, but not a nickel.
Uncle Robert placed the coins in neat piles, then he commenced to stack the paper money. After he had done this, he sorted out five checks, which he laid by themselves quite respectfully, face down.
Then he drew out a pencil and paper and commenced to count. No one spoke. At the last, still keeping the faces of the five checks out of sight, he added them in, covered the paper with his hand, and looked up. He seemed dazed.
“How much do you think?” he demanded.
“Don’t make us guess, Robert,” said his mother.
“Two thousand, two hundred and thirty-four dollars and twenty-five cents,” he said slowly.
“Impossible!” exclaimed Mrs. Hargrave sharply.
Miss Hooker gave a gasp. The girls, perfectly round-eyed, sat silent.
“There it is!” said Mr. Horton. “Mr. Bristol and Mr. Cosgrove each gave a check for five hundred dollars, and Mr. Harriman wrote his for five hundred and fifty.”
Mrs. Horton sniffed.
“Dick Harriman never gave twenty-five dollars to anything like this in his life,” she said.
“Well, here is his check,” declared her son.
“Sothatis where the fifty came in,” said Rosanna, finding her voice. She repeated the conversation she had heard. Everybody laughed.
“Poor Dick!” said Mrs. Hargrave. “He doesn’t feel well, and his bark is so bad that I doubt if anyone ever before stopped to see what his bite was like until Rosanna tried. I reckon he is happier tonight than he has been for a long while. He would think it was a great joke, too, to cajole Henry Bristol and Clinton Cosgrove into giving that money. Well, they can afford it many times over, so it will do them all good.”
“Too bad Rick MacLaren isn’t here,” said Uncle Robert. “He has a sick patient on hand, and couldn’t come. I will tell him the first thing in the morning.”
“And these girlsmustgo to bed,” said Mrs. Horton. “Are you going to stay with Rosanna, Helen?”
“I think I will just have to go home and tell mother and father about it if there is any way for me to get there,” replied Helen.
“If Miss Hooker feels like the extra walk, we will take you on our way to her house,” said Uncle Robert eagerly.
“I would love it,” said Miss Hooker obligingly.
Rosanna marvelled.
Miss Hooker lived blocks away from Helen, in the opposite direction, but as the older people said nothing, Rosanna kept silence. At all events the benefit was over, and her Uncle Robert would no longer feel obliged to spend all his time with a mere girl, because no matter how lovely, Rosanna knew that he didn’t care for girls.
A number of girls ranging in age from twelve to sixteen were busy repeating in a number of homes that night just how they had felt at different times during the evening, and explaining to less fortunate brothers and sisters how good everything had tasted afterwards. And Sunday morning, a great many mothers had a difficult time getting their Girl Scout daughters awake.
Rosanna had a long talk with Uncle Bob. She wanted to know what was going to be done about the money.
“I have been thinking about that,” said Uncle Robert. “I will put it in the bank the first thing tomorrow morning. I shall put it in the office bank for safe keeping until then.”
“Do you suppose it will take all of it for Gwenny’s operation?” asked Rosanna.
“No, I do not,” Robert replied, “but of course Doctor Branshaw is a very high priced specialist, and he sets his own fees.”
“If he knew that Gwenny was a poor little girl and that the Girl Scouts were taking care of her, I wonder if it would make any difference?”
Uncle Robert shook his head. “I don’t believe I would ask a favor of anyone, now that you have earned such a lot of money. Just go ahead and pay her way like good sports. At that, with the hospital charges and nurses paid, I think you may have a little left over. If we have, we will have to find the best way to spend it for Gwenny. I want to consult with Miss Hooker about it later if she is not too tired.”
“Consult again! Oh,poorUncle Robert!” said Rosanna compassionately. “I thought that was all over with.”
“It is not as painful as you seem to think,” said Uncle Robert dryly. “At all events, my health is not breaking under the strain. I never knew you to fuss so, Rosanna. Just what have you up your sleeve anyhow? Don’t you like your Captain after all?”
“Oh, I perfectlyloveher,” cried Rosanna warmly. “You don’t know how sweet she is, Uncle Robert! And she is such a good Captain. Every girl in the patrol loves her and will do anything in the world for her.”
Seeing that Uncle Robert appeared to be listening, Rosanna went on warming to her subject.
“At the Rally, I heard one of the ladies say that our Captain was considered the best one in all thecity. And she looks so young; just like one of the girls when she gets into her Scout uniform. When we are on hikes, she runs around and plays with us and joins all our games. Oh, yes, Uncle Robert, I do love her dearly!”
“I don’t know but what I do myself,” admitted Uncle Robert unexpectedly.
“Why, UncleRobert!” said Rosanna in a shocked tone. “What a thing for you to say!”
Uncle Robert wondered if he had made a mistake. It was not the sort of a remark he would want repeated. So he made another mistake.
“Wasn’t it? A joke, Rosanna; just a merry jest. Thought you would laugh over it. Ha ha! Ha ha!”
“Ha ha!” repeated Rosanna to be agreeable. Sometimes Uncle Robert was rather disappointing. “But she is lovely anyway, and has loads and loads of friends, and, Uncle Robert, I think she has a sweetheart because boxes and boxes of flowers come to her, and she just keeps a little one to wear, and sends all the rest to the hospital. And lovely books come by mail and the fattest letters! One had poetry in it, too. I could tell by the shape of the writing down the page.”
“Don’t snoop, Rosanna,” said Uncle Robert sharply.
“I didn’t, Uncle Robert,” said Rosanna in a hurt tone. “She was sitting close to me on the sofa, and I couldn’t help seeing. She liked it too,because she smiled so sweetly and showed all her dimples, even the one that almostnevercomes out.”
“What a little ray of sunshine you are, Rosanna!” said her uncle strangely.
“Thank you; a Girl Scoutoughtto be,” replied Rosanna.
“Well, you are, all right, sweetness,” said Uncle Robert. He sighed deeply almost as though the ray of sunshine had not come his way at all. He kissed Rosanna and then sat her down rather hard in a deep chair. “I don’t know when I have felt so cheered up. And now, if you would like to call the garage and order the little car for me, I will go around to see Doctor MacLaren and tell him the good news of our fortune. And on second thoughts, I don’t believe I will have to consult with Miss Hooker at all. I think perhaps you are right. I have bothered her enough.”
“She has beenverypolite and kind about it all, hasn’t she?” asked Rosanna.
“Most polite and kind,” Mr. Horton agreed. “But we don’t want to wear her kindness out, do we, Rosanna? I will go see Rick, and in a day or two my part of this affair will be finished. And I won’t have to bother anybody. I am thinking of a little trip out West, Rosanna. I wish you could go with me.”
“I wish I could!” said Rosanna, “but grandmother wouldn’t want me to leave school, andbesides I couldn’t leave the Scouts just now. Where do you think of going, Uncle Robert?”
“Nowhere in particular, unless—” he thought a moment. “It might be fun to look up some place where they had never heard of the Girl Scouts.”
“Perfectly splendid!” said Rosanna. “Thatwould be doing a good deed. You could tell the people about us, and start a patrol. I must tell Miss Hooker about this; she will think it is so nice of you. She appreciates kind acts, even if she doesn’t like men.”
“It is not worth mentioning, Rosanna,” answered Uncle Robert. “Besides, I didn’t have just that in mind. However, I hear the car and will leave you before—before I do anything I regret.”
He went off, and Rosanna watched him through the window as he started his car. He was real jerky with it, and it sputtered and missed, and went off with a leap.
“He is all tired out,” thought Rosanna.