Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jacqueline Jeremy and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: SARAH PULLED OUT A LITTLE DANGLING DARK OBJECT.
"Rosemary" Page 157]
ROSEMARY
_By_
_Josephine Lawrence_
_Illustrated by_
_Thelma Gooch_
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
_Rosemary_
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I GOOD NEWS 1
II THE WILLIS WILL 12
III AUNT TRUDY COMES 23
IV DOCTOR HUGH TAKES COMMAND 34
V WINNIE'S VOLUNTEERS 45
VI ROSEMARY HAS HER WAY 54
VII THE RUNAWAY 65
VIII SARAH IN DISGRACE 76
IX WHEN PATIENCE SLIPS 87
X THE LAST STRAW 98
XI A CHAIN OF PROMISES 109
XII ONE DISASTROUS AFTERNOON 121
XIII JACK STRAIGHTENS THINGS OUT 132
XIV A NEW SCHOOL TERM 144
XV TOO MUCH NATURAL HISTORY 156
XVI MR. OLIVER AND SARAH 168
XVII THE INSTITUTE DINNER 180
XVIII SHIRLEY IN MISCHIEF 192
XIX BUCKING THE STUDENT COUNCIL 204
XX DRESSMAKER ROSEMARY 216
XXI MR. JORDAN LEARNS SOMETHING 228
XXII SHOPPING WITH NINA 240
XXIII SARAH LOSES A MENAGERIE 252
XXIV A MYSTERY SOLVED 264
XXV GARDEN DAYS 276
XXVI THE SCHOOL PICNIC 288
XXVII A LONG YEAR'S END 300
ROSEMARY
CHAPTER I
GOOD NEWS
The Willis house was very quiet. The comfortable screened porch was
deserted, though a sweater in the hammock and a box of gay paper
dolls on the floor showed that it had served as a play-space
recently. Inside, not a door banged, not a footfall sounded.
The late afternoon June sunshine streamed in through the hall window
and made a broad band to the stairway which was in the shadow. The
light touched the heads of three girls huddled closely together in
the cushioned window-seat and turned the hair of one to gleaming,
burnished golden red, another to a fairy web of spun yellow silk and
searched out the faint copper tint in the dark locks of the third.
The girls sat motionless, their faces turned toward the stairs, as
silent as everything else in that silent house.
"Rosemary!" whispered the dark-haired one suddenly, "Rosemary, you
don't think--"
The girl with the gold-red hair, who sat between the other two,
started nervously. Her violet blue eyes transferred their anxious
gaze from the shadowy staircase to her sister's face.
"Oh, no!" she said passionately. "No! Do you hear me, Sarah? That
couldn't happen to us. Why do you say such things?"
"I didn't say anything," protested Sarah sullenly. "Did I, Shirley?"
The little girl with the fairy-web of yellow hair did not answer.
She started from her seat and ran toward the stairs.
"Hugh's coming!" she cried.
Quick, even steps sounded on the hardwood treads and a young man
with dark hair, darker eyes behind eye-glasses and a keen,
intelligent face, descended rapidly. He picked up the child and
strode across the hall to the window-seat.
"Poor children!" he said compassionately, sitting down beside
Rosemary and holding the younger girl in his lap. "Has the time
seemed long? I came as quickly as I could."
Rosemary looked at him piteously.
"All right, dear," he said instantly. "Mother is going to get well.
Dr. Hurlbut and I have decided that all she needs is a long rest. I
am going to take her to a quiet place in the country day after
to-morrow and she is to stay until she is entirely recovered. Why
Rosemary!"
The gold-red head was on his shoulder and Rosemary was crying as
though her heart would break.
"That's the way she is," said the dark and placid Sarah. "She jumps
on me if I say anything and then she cries herself sick thinking
things. I would rather," she declared with peculiar distinctness,
"have folks talk than think, wouldn't you, Hugh?"
"I'm sorry to say I can't agree with you," replied the young
man briefly. "Here, Shirley, I didn't know you were such a
heavy-weight--you run off with Sarah and tell Winnie what I have
told you about Mother. Quietly now, and no shouting. Rosemary,
dear," he put a protecting arm around the weeping girl, "you will
feel better now--we have all been under a strain and the worst is
over. Here comes Miss Graham with Dr. Hurlbut and I must see him
off. Don't run--he'll probably go right out without seeing you."
But the famous specialist stopped squarely in the hall and the
pleasant-faced middle-aged nurse, standing respectfully on the
lower step, nodded reassuringly to Rosemary who was frantically
mopping her eyes.
"Well, Dr. Willis," said the great man heartily, "I am mighty glad
to have been of some little service. I'm sure you will find Pine
Crest sanatorium all that it is said to be and the right place for
your mother. She mustn't be allowed, of course, to worry about home
affairs. There are younger children, I believe?"
"Three girls," said Hugh Willis. "Rosemary--" he summoned her with a
glance,--"my sister, Dr. Hurlbut."
Dr. Hurlbut shook hands kindly letting his quizzical gray eyes rest
a moment longer on the tear-stained face.
"Ah, we cry because of past sorrow," he said quietly, "and, a
little, because of present joy; is it not so?"
Rosemary lifted her head in quick understanding, tossing back her
magnificent mane and showing her violet blue eyes still wet with
tears. She smiled radiantly and her face was vivid, glowing, almost
startling in its beauty.
"I am so happy!" she said clearly, and her girl-voice held a note of
pure joyousness. "So happy that I do not think I can ever be
unhappy again!"
The two doctors smiled a little in sympathy.
"Ah, well," said the famous specialist, after a moment's silence,
gently, "let us hope so."
He turned toward the door and the younger man went with him to the
handsome car drawn up at the curb. Rosemary, with a swift hug for
Miss Graham, dashed past her upstairs to her own room, always a
haven in time of happiness or stress.
"Mother is going to get well!" whispered the girl, starry-eyed. "All
she needs is rest, and then she will be quite well again. Cora
Mason's mother died--" the expressive face sobered and, sitting on
the edge of her pretty white bed, Rosemary's twelve-year old mind
filled with somber thoughts. Presently she slipped noiselessly to
her knees and buried her curly head in the comforting cool white
pillow.
"Dear God--" she began, but the tide of joy and relief began to beat
loudly again in her heart, sending rich waves of color into her
hidden face.
"I am so happy," prayed Rosemary tumultuously. "I am so happy! I am
so happy!"
Presently she rose and dragged her white shoes from the closet.
Sitting in the middle of the floor, she started contentedly cleaning
them.
"Rosemary?" sounded a little voice. "Rosemary, you in here?"
Rosemary straightened up so that she could see across the bed which
stood between her and the doorway.
"Yes, Shirley darling," she answered. "Did you tell Winnie about
mother?"
"Yes," said Shirley scrambling upon the bed. "We told her. What you
doing, Sister?"
"Cleaning my white shoes," replied Rosemary, applying whitener
vigorously. "I'm going to put them on and wear my white linen dress.
Don't you want to dress up to-night, Shirley? Bring me your shoes,
if they are dirty, and I'll do them for you."
"All right, I'll get them," decided Shirley, sliding off the bed
backward. "Could I put on my blue sash, Rosemary?"
"Not with that dress," said Rosemary firmly. "I'll have to wash your
face and hands and neck and then you can wear the cross-bar muslin
with the lace yoke."
"Are you up here, Rosemary?" demanded another voice. "What are you
doing?"
"Cleaning my shoes," said Rosemary patiently. "Say, Sarah, don't
you think it would be nice if we dressed up a little for dinner
to-night?"
"Why?" asked Sarah bluntly.
"Oh, because--because, well, we know Mother is going to get well,"
explained Rosemary. "And everything has been in such a mess this
week, the table half set and nobody caring whether they ate or not.
I'd like to show Hugh that we can have things done properly."
"What difference does it make?" drawled Sarah lazily. "I hate a lot
of fuss, you know I do. Rosemary, do you suppose it hurts worms to
use them for fishing bait? Will you ask Jack Welles?"
"I'll ask him the next time I see him, if you will put on your tan
linen with the red tie," promised Rosemary. "And do brush your hair
back the way Mother likes it, Sarah. She can't bear to see it
stringing into your eyes."
"Oh--all right," agreed Sarah. "Don't forget to ask about the
worms."
She departed and in her place came Shirley, carrying a pair of
diminutive and soiled white shoes.
"I wish," she announced pleasantly, sitting down on the floor
beside Rosemary to watch the cleaning process, "I wish we could have
ice-cream."
"Well I'll ask Winnie," said Rosemary promptly. "What dessert do you
suppose we are going to have to-night?"
"Berries," Shirley answered wisely. "I saw 'em. Couldn't Winnie make
us chocolate ice-cream?"
"Oh, she wouldn't have time to make it," said Rosemary, "but I'll
ask her if I can't telephone the drug-store and have them send us
some. There your shoes are, honey. Now hurry and get dressed."
Dr. Hugh Willis, coming down from his mother's sick-room at the
summons of the musical chime which announced the dinner hour,
thought he had never seen a pleasanter sight than greeted his eyes
in the dining-room. The room itself was pleasant and airy and the
last rays of the sun struck the table set with fresh linen and a
simple and orderly array of silver. But it was the three joyous
faces turned expectantly toward him that caught and held his
attention. Rosemary, in white from head to foot, stood behind her
mother's chair and all the light in the room seemed to center in her
eyes and hair. Shirley, looking like a particularly wholesome and
adorable cherub from her sunny curls and wide, gray eyes to her fat
and dimpled knees scuffled in an impatient circle around her own
special seat and Sarah, a stout and stolid little Indian in tan
linen and scarlet tie, showed her one beauty--a set of strong, even
white teeth--in an engaging smile.
"Well how smart we are," smiled the doctor, surveying them
appreciatively. "Seems to me everyone is dressed up to-night."
"We wanted to have things nice--because Mother is going to get
well," said Rosemary with simple directness.
For answer Dr. Hugh came forward and pulled out her chair for her,
"just as if I were a grown-up woman," she recounted with pride to
her mother later, and then lifted Shirley to her seat and tied on
her bib dexterously.
"We're going to have ice-cream," Sarah informed him.
"That's fine," he commented a trifle absently, beginning to carve.
When he had served them all, he spoke seriously.
"Girls," he said, "I'm going to send a telegram after dinner
to-night to Aunt Trudy Wright. Mother wants her to come and stay
with you while she is away; I don't think she can begin to mend
until she knows that she has provided for you."
"Oh, Hugh!" Rosemary mashing potato for Shirley's hungry
consumption, looked distressed. "I can keep house, I know I can. We
don't need Aunt Trudy."
"She won't let me keep any mice in my room," wailed Sarah. "I don't
like her, either."
"Let me eat it now," said Shirley, referring to her potato. "Let's
tell Aunt Trudy not to come. She says oatmeal is good for me and I
don't like oatmeal."
"Have you all finished?" asked the doctor calmly. "Well then, I have
something to say: Aunt Trudy is coming, just as soon as I can get
her here; if for no other reason than Mother wants her and will go
away happy in the belief that you will be well taken care of. There
is to be no argument and I absolutely forbid you to mention the
subject to Mother; if she says anything to you, try to act as though
you were pleased at the prospect. For my part, I should think you
would be glad she could come. An aunt is pretty nice to have when
you are in trouble."
"You don't know Aunt Trudy," said Sarah pertly.
"Rosemary, will you go up and sit with Mother while Miss Graham has
her dinner, when we are through?" asked Dr. Hugh, ignoring Sarah's
remark. "I am going down to the drug-store for a few things and I'll
be back within half an hour."
The dessert of berries and ice-cream were eaten almost in silence.
Three of the people at the table were busy with conflicting
thoughts. Shirley alone was concentrating her attention on the
delight of a larger slice of cake than usual.