THE ADOPTING OF ROSA MARIE
_by_
CARROLL WATSON RANKIN
_Illustrated by_
FLORENCE SCOVEL SHINN
_Frontispiece and jacket in full
color by_ MIRIAM SELSS
In this charming girl's book we meet again the four chums of _Dandelion
Cottage_. Their friendship knit closer than ever by their summer at
playing house, the girls enlarge their activity by mothering a pretty
little Indian baby.
"Those who have read _Dandelion Cottage_ will need no urge to follow
further.... A lovable group of four children, happily not perfect, but
full of girlish plans and pranks and a delightful sense of humor."
--_Boston Transcript._
Just the type of book that every girl _from eight to fifteen_ enjoys.
[Illustration: "MY SOUL, WHAT ARE YOU, ANYWAY?"]
Dandelion Series
THE ADOPTING OF ROSA MARIE
(_A Sequel to Dandelion Cottage_)
BY
CARROLL WATSON RANKIN
Author of "Dandelion Cottage," "The Girls of
Gardenville," etc.
_With Illustrations by_
FLORENCE SCOVEL SHINN
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1908,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1936,
BY
CARROLL WATSON RANKIN
PRINTED IN THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
EMILY, PHYLLIS, POLLY
AND SUZANNE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. BORROWED BABIES 1
II. ROSA MARIE 9
III. MABEL'S DAY 18
IV. AN UNUSUAL EVENING 27
V. RETURNING ROSA MARIE 34
VI. THE DARK SECRET 43
VII. DISCOVERY 52
VIII. THE FUGITIVE SOLDIER 64
IX. A SURPRISE 73
X. BREAKING THE NEWS 83
XI. THE ALARM 91
XII. THE FIRE 101
XIII. A HEROINE'S COME-DOWN 111
XIV. A BIRTHDAY PARTY 119
XV. AN UNEXPECTED TREAT 130
XVI. A SCATTERED SCHOOL 140
XVII. AN INVITATION 151
XVIII. OBEYING INSTRUCTIONS 161
XIX. WITH HENRIETTA 173
XX. THE CALL RETURNED 183
XXI. GETTING EVEN 195
XXII. A FULL AFTERNOON 204
XXIII. TAKING A WALK 215
XXIV. THE STATUE FROM INDIA 226
XXV. COMPARING NOTES 237
XXVI. CHRISTMAS EVE 248
XXVII. A CROWDED DAY 256
XXVIII. A BETTIE-LESS PLAN 265
XXIX. ANXIOUS DAYS 275
XXX. AN APRIL HARVEST 286
THE PERSONS OF THE STORY
BETTIE TUCKER, aged 12: }
JEANIE MAPES, aged 14: } The Cottagers
MARJORY VALE, aged 12: }
MABEL BENNETT, aged 11: }
ROSA MARIE: The Unreturnable Baby.
THE MOTHER OF ROSA MARIE.
ANNE HALLIDAY: }
THE MARCOTTE TWINS: } Borrowed Babies.
THE LITTLE TUCKERS: }
HENRIETTA BEDFORD: The New Girl.
MRS. HOWARD SLATER: } Of Henrietta's Household.
SIMMONS: }
THE JANITOR: An Unappreciated Hero.
DR. TUCKER: A Clergyman with More Children than Money.
DR. BENNETT: A Physician.
MR. BLACK: A Friend to Children.
MRS. CRANE: His Sister.
AUNTY JANE: Marjory's Sole Visible Relative.
SOME MOTHERS AND BROTHERS.
MRS. MALONY: The Light-hearted Egg-woman.
ILLUSTRATIONS
MY SOUL, WHAT ARE YOU, ANYWAY _Frontispiece_
PAGE
ROSA MARIE AND THE SIDEWALK WERE ONE 16
THE STURDY FELLOW CARRIED HER OUT OF THE ROOM 112
THE DECIDEDLY DEPRESSED FOUR STARTED DOWN THE STREET 164
"ANOTHER 'EATHEN GOD FROM HINDIA" 234
THE ADOPTING OF ROSA MARIE
CHAPTER I
Borrowed Babies
THE oldest inhabitant said that Lakeville was experiencing an unusual
fall. He would probably have said the same thing if the high-perched
town had accidentally tumbled off the bluff into the blue lake; but in
this instance, he referred merely to the weather, which was certainly
unusually mild for autumn.
It was not, however, the oldest, but four of the youngest citizens that
rejoiced most in this unusual prolonging of summer; for the continued
warm weather made it possible for those devoted friends, Jean Mapes,
Marjory Vale, Mabel Bennett and little Bettie Tucker, to spend many
a delightful hour in their precious Dandelion Cottage, the real,
tumble-down house that was now, after so many narrow escapes, safely
their very own. Some day, to be sure, it would be torn down to make
room for a habitable dwelling, but that unhappy day was still too
remote to cause any uneasiness.
Of course, when very cold weather should come, it would be necessary
to close the beloved Cottage, for there was no heating plant, there
were many large cracks over and under the doors and around the windows;
and by lying very flat on the dining-room floor and peering under
the baseboards, one could easily see what was happening in the next
yard. These, and other defects, would surely make the little house
uninhabitable in winter; but while the unexpectedly extended summer
lasted, the Cottagers were rejoicing over every pleasant moment of
weather and praying hard for other pleasant moments.
Of all the games played in Dandelion Cottage, the one called "Mother"
was the most popular. To play it, it was necessary, first of all, to
divide the house into four equal parts. As there were five rooms, this
division might seem to offer no light task; but, by first subtracting
the kitchen, it was possible to solve this difficult mathematical
problem to the Cottagers' entire satisfaction.
But of course one can't play "Mother" without possessing a family.
The Cottagers solved this problem also. Bettie's home could always be
counted on to furnish at least two decidedly genuine babies and Jean
could always borrow a perfectly delightful little cousin named Anne
Halliday; but Marjory and Mabel, to their sorrow, were absolutely
destitute of infantile relatives. Mabel was the chief sufferer. Sedate
Marjory, plausible of tongue, convincing in manner, could easily
accumulate a most attractive family at very short notice by the simple
expedient of borrowing babies from the next block; but nowhere within
reasonable reach was there a mother willing to intrust her precious
offspring a second time to heedless Mabel.
"Now, Mabel," Mrs. Mercer would say, when Mabel pleaded to have young
Percival for her very own for just one brief hour, "I'd really like to
oblige you, but it's getting late in the season, you are not careful
enough about doors and windows and the last time you borrowed Percival
you brought him home with a stiff neck that lasted three days."
"But I did remember to return him," pleaded Mabel.
"Do you sometimes forget?" queried Mrs. Mercer, with interest.
"I did twice," confessed always honest Mabel; "but truly I don't see
how _I_ can help it when babies sleep and sleep and sleep the way those
two did. You see, I made a bed for Gerald Price on the lowest-down
closet shelf, and he was so perfectly comfortable that he thought he
was asleep for all night."
"What about the other time?"
"That was Mollie Dixon. But then, I had five children that day and only
one bed. Mollie slipped down in the crack at the back--she's awfully
thin--and I never missed her until her mother came after her. That was
rather a bad time [Mabel sighed at the recollection] for Mrs. Dixon
found the Cottage locked up for the night and poor little Mollie crying
under the bed."
"Mabel! And you want to borrow my precious Percival!"
"But it couldn't happen _again_," protested Mabel, earnestly. "Bettie
says that I'm just like lightning; I never strike twice in the same
place. That's the reason I get into so many different kinds of scrapes.
I'll be ever so careful, though, if you'll let me borrow Percival just
this one time."
Mrs. Mercer, however, refused to part with Percival. Other mothers,
approached by pleading Mabel, refused likewise to intrust their babies
to her enthusiastic but heedless keeping. They knew her too well.
"The thing for you to do," suggested Marjory, ostentatiously washing
the perfectly clean faces of the four delightful small persons that she
had been able, without any trouble at all, to borrow in Blaker Street,
"is to find a mother that really _wants_ to get rid of her children."
"Yes," said Bob Tucker, who had dropped in to deliver the basket of
apples that Mrs. Crane had sent to her former neighbors, "you ought to
advertise for the kind of mother that feeds her babies to crocodiles.
Perhaps some of them have emigrated to this country and sort of miss
the Ganges River."
"You might try the orphan asylum," offered Jean, as balm for this
wound. "It's only four blocks from here."
"I have," returned Mabel, dejectedly. "I went there early this morning."
"What happened?" demanded Bettie, who had just arrived with a little
Tucker under each arm.
"They said they'd let them go 'permanently to responsible parties.' I
didn't know just exactly what that meant, so I said: 'Does that mean
that you'll lend me a few for two hours?'"
"And would they?"
"Well, they didn't. They said I'd better borrow a Teddy bear."
"How mean," said sympathetic Bettie. "Nevermind, I'll lend you Peter,
this time."
"Say," queried Mabel, after she had accepted Bettie's proffered
brother, "what does 'permanently' mean?"
"For keeps," explained Jean.
"What are 'responsible parties'?"
"Jean and Bettie and I," twinkled Marjory, "but not you."
"That's good," laughed Bob, who, like Marjory, loved to tease. "But
never mind, Mabel. After you've practised a year or two on Peter,
who's a nuisance if there ever was one, you'll find yourself growing
respons---- Whoop! What was that?"
"That" was a sudden crash that resounded through the house. Everybody
rushed to the kitchen. The big dish-pan that Mabel had left on the
edge of the kitchen table was upside down on the floor. At least
half of little Peter Tucker was under it. But the half that remained
outside was so unmistakably alive that nobody felt very seriously
alarmed--except Peter.
"Thank goodness!" said Mabel, removing the pan, "this is just a little
Tucker and not any Percival Mercer! Cheer up, Peter. You're not as wet
as you think you are. There wasn't more than a quart of water in that
pan and it was almost perfectly clean."
And Peter, soothed by Mabel's reassuring tone, immediately cheered up.