ROSEMARY HAS HER WAY
"Sarah, Oh, Sarah! Sally Waters, I'm calling you!"
Sarah glanced up at the merry face regarding her over the fence and
frowned.
"Well, what do you want?" she asked ungraciously. "Don't you dare
call me Sally, Jack Welles!"
"I'll call you Sadie, then," said the boy obligingly. "Where's
Rosemary?"
He was a short, stocky lad, between fifteen and sixteen years old,
with a freckled snub nose, engaging brown eyes and a chin that
promised well for future force of character.
"Where's Rosemary?" he asked again.
"I don't know--I haven't seen her since lunch," answered Sarah.
"Don't you think Elinor looks better to-day, Jack?"
Elinor was the sick rabbit and Sarah waited Jack's decision
anxiously.
"Sure, leave her alone and she'll come out all right," he said
heartlessly. "You're always fussing with animals, aren't you, Sarah?
I believe you like 'em better when they're sick because it gives you
an excuse to pet them more."
Sarah's brown, stolid little face kindled suddenly with passionate
earnestness.
"Nobody cares!" she cried. "Nobody! Winnie wouldn't let me keep the
sick kittens in the kitchen and they died and Elinor would have
died, too, if it hadn't been for me. When I grow up, I'm going to
have a big house and there isn't going to be a single person in it.
Just animals--so there!"
"I suppose you'll have a trained cow to do the cooking, and a dog to
wash dishes," teased Jack. "Never mind, Sarah, there'll always be
plenty of animals needing a friend like you. Maybe Hugh will doctor
them for you, and I'll come take your patients out for airings in my
best and newest airplane!"
"Hello, what's all this confabbing?" called Doctor Hugh, coming
across the grass toward the fence. "Rabbits improving, Sarah?
Where's Rosemary?"
"Hello, Hugh," Jack greeted him with a cheerful grin. "All the
patients cured this early in the day? Sarah is going to follow in
your footsteps, but she won't give her services to people, only to
mistreated animals."
"I've been late for dinner two nights running and I thought I'd
surprise the family by a punctual appearance this time," explained
the doctor. "My chief difficulty now is to find some one to
surprise. Aunt Trudy has gone to the library, Winnie says, Shirley
is playing with some neighbor's child on the porch and no one seems
to know where Rosemary is. I saw you and Sarah from upstairs, or I
should have added her to the list of the missing, too."
"I wanted to show Rosemary my new fishing rod," Jack explained.
"It's a beauty and my uncle sent it to me from Canada."
Sarah stood up and shook a lapful of dirt from her frock.
"I think you are cruel to catch fish," she said indignantly.
"Why you eat fish, don't you?" retorted Jack. "Someone has to catch
them, you know."
Poor Sarah had no answer for this argument and she turned and
retreated to the house without another word.
"Queer little dick, isn't she?" smiled Jack to the doctor. "Crazy
about animals and always fussing over 'em. Well, I have to go dig
worms for bait--great day ahead to-morrow with nothing to do but
fish and try out the new rod."
"Good luck to you," called Doctor Hugh, going back to his office to
indulge in the rare luxury of a half hour's reading.
Vaguely he heard Aunt Trudy come in, speak to the two little girls
on the porch, and go on upstairs. He knew when Sarah came down
because she played "chop sticks" on the piano till Winnie came and
called her to go after a loaf of bread. The doctor wondered lazily
if the bread were a real need or a handy invention of Winnie's to
break up the musical program; she was quite capable of the latter.
After the piano was silenced, he lost himself again in his book to
be recalled by an undecided knock on the door. He waited, not sure
that it _was_ a knock. The timid tap came again and he called, "Come
in." The door opened, closed, and Rosemary stood facing him, her
back against it. In her hands she held a brown paper parcel.
Doctor Hugh stared at her in genuine amazement. She was breathing
quickly, as though she had been running, and the lovely color
flooded her face. Her eyes were almost black with excitement and a
touch of fear. But it was her hair that held her brother's
attention. Gone was the rippling glory, the gold-red mane that had
reached to the girl's waist. In its place was a soft aureole of
hair, standing out fluffily on the small head and curling under at
the ends.
Anger flamed in Doctor Hugh's face, then receded, leaving him white.
Before he could speak Rosemary's eyes filled with tears.
"Oh, Hugh!" she sobbed. "I want my hair! And it's gone!"
For answer her brother opened his arms and she fled into them. She
clung to him frantically while she wept out her remorse and grief.
"I didn't know it was going to be like this," she wailed, sobs
shaking the slender shoulders. "The barber didn't want to cut it,
but I made him. And then, as soon as I saw it on the floor, I began
to cry. Oh, Hugh, I'm so sorry--I don't want short hair at all! And
what can I do?"
The doctor said nothing for a little while, only smoothed the
cropped head with a gentle touch. Presently when Rosemary sat up and
wiped her eyes, he motioned toward the parcel still in her hands.
"It's--it's my hair," stammered Rosemary. "The barber tied it up for
me--he said I might want a switch some time."
"Well you won't!" declared Doctor Hugh with decision. "Leave it here
with me, dear, and I'll see that a lock is saved for Mother. You
mustn't feel so badly, Rosemary. The hair will grow again, you know.
And it is very pretty, still."
"Hugh," said Rosemary solemnly, "why do I have to find things out
for myself? I didn't know that I hated bobbed hair till I had mine
cut--why am I like that?"
"Oh, my dear," the doctor smiled a little sadly, "why do we all want
our own way at any cost? You wouldn't believe that I knew better in
this instance, would you?"
Rosemary blushed and looked ashamed.
"I'm glad to have this opportunity to speak to you alone, dear," the
doctor went on. "You've had your hair cut because I forbade it and
now you are sorry, but what about the next time? It's silly to think
you can go through life and always have your own way, child. No one
can. Each one of us must acknowledge some authority. I'm a good many
years older than you girls and I've had more experience and
discipline and at present I am taking Mother's place; you'll have to
accept my decisions for the time being. If I exact obedience,
Rosemary, it isn't because I am a tyrant--I've put in a good many
years obeying orders myself and I know that obedience is a valuable
lesson."
"Have you a temper, Hugh?" asked Rosemary, shyly. "Have you the
Willis will?"
Doctor Hugh's mouth twitched.
"Guilty on both counts," he admitted. "I'm a cross, cranky old
brother with a gun-powder temper that sometimes gets the best of me.
As for the Willis will--what do you think about that, Rosemary?"
"Winnie is always talking about it," said Rosemary. "She says I have
it and so have Sarah and Shirley. I suppose it is very wrong."
"Don't you believe it!" announced the doctor. "Not a bit of it. A
good, strong will is a virtue, child, and please remember that. But,
of course, you want to train it--flying in the face of orders isn't
a proof of will power; more often it is foolish obstinacy. A stiff
will keeps us from being persuaded to do wrong, from tumbling into
pitfalls. It is the weak-willed person who yields to temptation. You
and I, and Shirley and Sarah, have constantly to remember that we
have the Willis will and are proud of it; and then resolve not to
yield easily to the little devils of temper and disobedience and
false pride. Which is the end of my sermon and long enough it's
been!"
The big swivel chair accommodated them comfortably and Rosemary
remained in her brother's lap quietly, her eyes downcast. He watched
her silently. At last she raised her face bravely.
"Are you going to punish me?" she asked clearly.
He shook his head.
"I know you are sorry," he replied. "Punishments are only to help us
remember, and you are not going to forget, are you? But I tell you
what I am going to do--ask you to give up Nina Edmonds as a chum."
Rosemary was silent.
"You do not have to be unkind or discourteous," continued the
doctor's even voice. "Just do not go over to her house so often and
by and by she will not come to see you. Play more with Shirley and
Sarah, dear--they look up to you and love you so."
"Don't you like Nina--but I know you don't," Rosemary answered her
own question.
"Since we are talking confidentially," said Doctor Hugh and Rosemary
felt a thrill of pleasure at his tone, "I'll tell you my real
reasons for objecting to Nina as a friend for you. She is too
old--that's all. What is she--thirteen?--well, she has all the ideas
and manners of a girl of eighteen. And you're still a little girl,
Rosemary, thank fortune. I don't want you to grow up too fast and it
would break Mother's heart to come home and find a grown up daughter
in the place of the little girl she left. Be twelve years old while
you can, honey, for the minute you are thirteen you leave that happy
year forever. I'm a serious old codger this afternoon, am I not? But
we understand each other better, don't we?"
"Oh, yes!" Rosemary threw her arms around his neck. "I love you most
to pieces!" she confided.
From that moment Rosemary began to worship her brother with all the
depth and power of her warm and affectionate nature. She did not
immediately become a model of obedience and she often disputed his
edicts and decisions. There were misunderstandings and tears and
many hard lessons to be learned still ahead. But Hugh would never
again be a stranger with her respect and love yet to be won. She
could admire his strength of will and purpose whole heartedly and as
she contrasted them with Aunt Trudy's characteristics, Rosemary
insensibly found her aunt wanting.
She said something of this to Jack Welles the day after the
memorable hair cutting. Rosemary had endured the comments and
questions of the household at dinner that night with fair composure,
but she had flared up in wrath at Jack's laughter when he first met
her the following afternoon.
"My mother says it is extremely ill-bred to indulge in comments on a
person's personal appearance," declared Rosemary heatedly. "My hair
is a part of my personal appearance."
"What a dub you were to have it cut," said Jack, sobering. "But it
might look worse, Rosemary, honestly it might. I think it is rather
becoming with those ends curling under like that."
Rosemary permitted herself to be calmed.
"It's fun to brush it," she laughed. "And my head feels as light as
a feather."
"What did Hugh say?" asked Jack curiously. "Or didn't you ask him?
And Aunt Trudy makes such a fuss about your hair--wasn't she
horrified?"
Rosemary's expressive face shadowed.
"Hugh was just dear to me!" she said enigmatically, "but Aunt Trudy
was so silly. She cried and cried and said what would my mother say
and wasn't I ever going to have any respect for her wishes--she is
so tiresome, she really is, Jack."
"Then you must have been told not to have it bobbed and went ahead
like your usual perverse small self," declared Jack shrewdly. "I'll
bet Hugh didn't weep though--he looks to me as though he could talk
to you like a Dutch uncle."
"Well I don't care if he did!" said Rosemary. "I'd rather be scolded
or punished than cried over. And Aunt Trudy doesn't cry because she
is sorry--she does it to get her own way. That's the way she makes
us mind--she cries and says we don't love her and that makes us feel
mean.
"But I don't think it is fair one bit and afterward I'm so mad I
could throw a sofa cushion at her. You needn't look at me like that,
Jack Welles! Your aunt doesn't cry over _you_."