THE LAST STRAW
Jack Welles' cheerful whistle sounded outside.
"Coming!" answered Rosemary.
She flung her arms about Aunt Trudy and gave her a penitent hug.
"I'm sorry I was cross, Auntie," she whispered. "You know I didn't
mean it."
Then she sped out the front door and joined Jack who was waiting on
the walk outside the hedge.
"Come on uptown and have a soda," he suggested. "Perhaps it will
cool you off--you look slightly wild."
"I feel wild," admitted Rosemary, falling into step beside him.
"This has been the most dreadful day!"
"Weather's enough to make anyone cross," said the boy quickly. "I'll
bet the trouble is you're doing everyone's work. Hugh ought to make
Sarah stir around. She's lazy."
"No, I don't think she is lazy," protested Rosemary, "Only, well you
know Jack, it was more fun doing the things you have to do when
Mother was home. I can't explain it very well, but I remember last
summer Sarah thought she'd wash the upstairs windows to surprise
Mother--Winnie was sick and Mother happened to say she didn't know
when in the world the windows would get cleaned. Sarah heard her and
the next day she lugged up a pail of water and a cloth and tried to
wash them. She splashed water all over the wall paper and made an
awful mess of it, but Mother kissed her and praised her and said she
was glad she had such a helpful little daughter. Aunt Trudy isn't
like that and Sarah likes to be praised for what she does. Aunt
Trudy never tells her she makes a bed well, but if there is a
wrinkle in the spread she shows her that. Sarah made the beds all
right for a long time, but now she goes off mornings and plays."
"I knew it," nodded Jack, "and Winnie has a list of troubles a mile
long waiting for you every night."
"Morning," corrected Rosemary, laughing. "Oh, Jack how do you know
so much? I don't see how I could get along without you, because
you're the only one who listens to my troubles. Hugh is a dear, but
he is so busy, and we're forbidden to write anything that will
bother Mother."
"Fire into me any time you feel like it," invited Jack, steering her
toward the drug-store steps and the soda fountain therein. "I'm
always ready to listen and if you want any punching done, just let
me know."
But the next hard day, when everything seemed to go wrong from
breakfast time to the dinner hour, no Jack was at hand to listen to
Rosemary's recital. He had gone away for a week's fishing trip with
his father.
The day started with a pitched battle between Winnie and Sarah after
breakfast, over the question of feeding the cat the top of the milk.
Sarah declared passionately that she would starve herself before she
would feed a defenseless cat skimmed milk and Winnie, with equal
fervor, had announced that when she saw herself handing over the top
milk to a cat they might send her to the insane asylum without
delay.
"You're a mean, hateful woman!" shouted Sarah, rushing out of the
kitchen and shutting the door on Shirley's finger which was too near
the crack.
Shirley screamed with pain and after Rosemary had bathed the poor
bruised finger and Winnie had comforted the child with a cookie,
Aunt Trudy declared that her nerves were too unstrung to spend the
day in such a house and that she would go to town and shop.
"That means I'll have to answer the telephone while I'm practising,"
grumbled Rosemary. "Oh, dear, how selfish everyone is! I've a good
mind to sit down and read on the porch while it is shady. All the
others do as they please and I will, too."
Her book was interesting, and there was a blessed freedom from
interruptions. Rosemary was amazed when Sarah, warm and dirty from
grubbing in the rabbit house appeared at the foot of the steps and
demanded to know if lunch was ready.
"Oh well, I'll make the beds and pick up after lunch," said Rosemary
to herself.
Shirley assumed the airs of an invalid at the lunch table and
secured large portions of meat and dessert as a concession to her
hurt finger. She ignored the vegetables entirely though the meal was
supposed to be her dinner and Doctor Hugh had given orders that she
was to be fed after certain rules.
Winnie was put out because the iceman was late and her dinner
supplies threatened to spoil and Sarah insisted on the hot-water
heater being lit so that she might have hot water in which to wash
her cat. The wrangle with Winnie over this continued throughout the
meal.
"I don't care whether you wash the cat or not," said Rosemary, when
Sarah followed her to the corner of the living-room where the piano
stood. "I'm going to practise, and don't bother me."
"Silly old music," grumbled Sarah, "come on, Shirley, let's go sail
boats in the bath-tub."
Rosemary spent the afternoon at the piano, having promised herself
that she would put in a full two hours over her music. The numerous
interruptions spun out the time so that when she finally closed the
lid the little clock on the mantelpiece chimed five.
"Good gracious, the beds aren't made!" thought Rosemary and flew up
the stairs.
One glance into the bathroom halted her and cooled her energy.
Shirley and Sarah had spent a busy afternoon, sailing boats in the
tub. They had used every clean towel in sight to mop up the puddles
on the floor and they were wet to their chins. Rosemary hustled them
off to get into clean dry clothes and then worked feverishly to
restore the room to a semblance of order. Aunt Trudy came home
before she had finished and when she saw the unmade beds and the
morning's disorder still untouched, she spoke her mind in no
uncertain terms.
"Everybody has a grouch," observed Sarah cheerfully when they sat
down to dinner. Doctor Hugh had not come in.
"Don't use that word, Sarah," reproved her aunt, sugaring a bowl of
boiled rice for Shirley.
"Don't want rice, want cutylet," said Shirley, pointing to the veal
cutlet.
"She's had enough meat to-day," interposed Winnie. "The doctor says
she shouldn't have it at all at night."
Shirley refused to touch the rice and was sitting in stately
aloofness when Doctor Hugh came in looking warm and tired.
"What's the matter?" he asked, dropping into his chair and testing
the soup Winnie instantly placed before him. Hugh was her idol and
she always managed not to keep him waiting. "Heat too much for you?"
he added.
"Grouches is what ails 'em," volunteered Sarah.
"I've asked her not to use that word, but no one pays any attention
to my wishes," sighed Aunt Trudy.
"All right, drop it, Sarah," said Doctor Hugh shortly. "Aren't you
eating to-night, sweetheart?" he asked Shirley.
"I want some cutylet," said Shirley wistfully. "I don't like rice."
"She ate nothing for her dinner but beef loaf and two helps of date
pudding," announced Winnie. "I don't know when she expects to learn
to eat sensible and like a Christian."
"Well, if Rosemary would take a little interest in the child and
coax her, she would soon learn to like vegetables," said Aunt Trudy.
"I think Shirley is left too much to herself."
Rosemary flushed, but her brother spoke before she could reply.
"You eat your rice, Shirley, or not one other thing can you have
to-night," he announced, with unusual severity, for Shirley was his
pet. "No, crying won't do you any good--eat your rice and stop
whining."
"I think you ought to know how things go when I'm not here, Hugh,"
began Aunt Trudy while Shirley ate her rice sulkily. "I was so upset
this morning that I thought I should fly if I stayed in the house,
so I went up to the city and shopped. I came in about half past five
and not one bed was made! The children's clothes lay just where
they had flung them last night. That's a nice way, isn't it?
Apparently I can not leave home for a few hours without finding
everything shirked on my return."
Rosemary's blue eyes blazed with quick anger and an unlovely look
came into her face.
"I don't care if I didn't make the beds!" she cried hotly. "I'm sick
and tired of beds and dusting and answering the telephone. You never
expect anyone in this house to do a single thing, but me!"
"Rosemary!" said Doctor Hugh.
"I don't think you should speak to me like that," asserted Aunt
Trudy on the verge of tears.
"I won't speak to you at all!" jerked Rosemary. "That's the only way
to please you."
Aunt Trudy began to cry and Doctor Hugh pushed back his plate.
"Please leave the table, Rosemary," he said distinctly. "Go into the
office and wait for me."
Rosemary rushed from the table like a whirlwind and the house shook
as she banged the office door.
"I don't care!" she raged, in the depths of the comfortable shabby
arm-chair that had been her father's. "I don't care! Aunt Trudy
always cries and it isn't fair. I suppose Hugh will be furious, but
let him. I'm so tired and so hot and so miserable--" and Rosemary
gave herself up to a passion of angry tears.
She had been crying in the dark and when the door opened and someone
switched on the light she knew it was Doctor Hugh. She slipped down
from the chair and walked around back of the desk. He took the
swivel chair and glanced at her half-averted face gravely.
"Rosemary," he said gently, "how would you like to ride over to
Bennington with me to-morrow? They're opening the new hospital and I
half promised to go. We'll be gone all the morning and it will make
a little change for you."
Bennington was the county seat, twenty miles away. It should be
delightful not to have anything to do the next morning but put on a
clean frock and go with Hugh. He might even let her drive the car a
few minutes at a time on a straight stretch of road--Rosemary found
her tongue.
"Oh, Hugh, I'd love it!" she said enthusiastically.
"All right, so should I," he smiled. "I think you need a bit of
pleasure. Things going rather hard for you, dear?"
Rosemary nodded, a lump in her throat surprising her. She had
expected Hugh to be angry and to scold. Instead he was very gentle.
"I'm sorry," he said, "Very sorry. You miss Mother, I know; we all
do. But I think you are learning a good deal this summer without
her. I've been watching you, and you are more self-reliant and
capable every day. Several people have spoken to me about the way
you answer the 'phone and the intelligent answers you give them. I
don't know what I should do without you."
Rosemary flushed with pleasure. Then, being Rosemary, she flung
herself headlong at her brother, narrowly missing his glasses.
"Oh, Hugh! Hugh dear, I _am_ sorry I acted so to-night!" she wept.
"There, there," he patted her gently. "You didn't mean to be cross,
we all know that. You were tired and so was Aunt Trudy. I guess this
heat has about worn everybody out. I tried to warn you, but the
fireworks had to blaze up. Now kiss me, like my sweet girl, for I'm
going out again, and then make your peace with Aunt Trudy. And
to-morrow morning we'll leave dull care behind us and enjoy
ourselves for a few hours."
"Shirley would love to go," suggested Rosemary.
"All right, I thought you ought to leave the cares behind, but we'll
take Shirley if you say so," was the answer.