SHIRLEY IN MISCHIEF
The chicken pie was a wonderful success, so Doctor Hugh and Jack
assured Rosemary at the Sunday dinner, but the mystery of the
over-salted soup seemed destined to remain unsolved. Miss Parsons
never mentioned it again and Rosemary herself might have forgotten
it more readily except for several ill-natured references by Fannie
Mears whenever the Institute dinner was spoken of. Fannie and
Rosemary did not get along very well together and this was, in one
way, odd, because Fannie and Nina Edmonds were apparently most
congenial. They usually ate their lunches together, but Rosemary
chose to be with Sarah and Shirley and their corner table was
usually crowded with younger girls who adored Rosemary openly.
The brief Thanksgiving holidays--with no school from Thursday to
Monday--brought the Willis family a more sincere appreciation of
their blessings than ever before. A short note from the little
mother lay beside each plate on Thanksgiving Day morning, and Winnie
kept one hand on hers tucked in her apron pocket even when she
served the golden brown waffles. When Aunt Trudy asked who would go
to church with her, Doctor Hugh answered for them all.
"We'll please Mother," he said simply, and after the service he
packed the three girls into the little roadster and carried them off
for a long cold ride that gave them famous appetites for Winnie's
dinner.
Doctor Hugh's practice was growing to include a wide radius of
countryside and the "young doctor" was gaining a name as one never
"too busy" to answer a country call. Doctor Jordan had prolonged his
vacation till late in October and then had returned to Eastshore
just long enough to sell his practice, office and instruments to his
young colleague and set off on a leisurely trip to California, a
luxury well earned after years of sacrificing service. Doctor Hugh
still retained the Jordan office, while seeing an increasing number
of patients at his home within fixed hours.
His office had a great attraction for Shirley, and Rosemary had
discovered her one afternoon standing on a chair and calmly smelling
the rows of bottles that stood on the cabinet shelf, one after the
other. The shining instruments, in their glass racks, had a
fascination all their own for the small girl and she declared that
she intended to be a doctor when she grew up.
"All right, and I'll take you into practice with me," Doctor Hugh
promised, having surprised her in a hurried investigation of his
medicine case. "But leave all these things alone, until you are
ready to study medicine. Don't come in the office when I'm not here,
Shirley; you'll hurt yourself some day, if you are not careful."
But Shirley was possessed with the idea that she would like to be a
doctor. She begged and carefully treasured all the empty bottles and
pill boxes she could gather; she demanded a knife for "operations"
and was highly indignant when Winnie gave her a pair of blunt
scissors and told her they would have to do; usually tender-hearted,
she drew the wrath of Sarah by declaring that she would like to cut
off a rabbit's leg, "just like a doctor."
"I think you're a cruel, cold-blooded girl!" stormed Sarah. "Cut off
a rabbit's foot indeed! Why don't you cut off your own foot and see
how it feels?"
"Oh, Shirley just says that," Rosemary tried to soothe her outraged
sister. "She wouldn't hurt a rabbit any more than you would, Sarah.
You know that. But you've gone without dessert twice for meddling
with Hugh's things, Shirley, and you did promise to remember after
the last time, you know."
Shirley, deprived of pudding and charlotte, was grieved and
penitent, but her memory was resilient and the day after
Thanksgiving temptation assailed her again. Winnie had gone to carry
a pie to an old neighbor several blocks away, Sarah was out playing
with a school chum and Rosemary and Aunt Trudy were deep in the
discussion of new curtains for the former's room. Shirley was left
to amuse herself and her small feet carried her to the empty office.
"Jennie needs an operation," whispered Shirley, her dancing eyes
roving toward the desk.
As luck would have it, a curved scalpel lay there in plain view.
Ordinarily it would have been locked up safely, but Doctor Hugh,
hurriedly selecting his choice of instruments that morning, had not
bothered to replace it in the rack. Shirley went over to the desk,
picked up the shining silver thing and carefully put it down.
"I'll go get Jennie," she said to herself. "She's very, very bad
this morning, and I ought to 'tend to her right away."
Upstairs she trotted, past Aunt Trudy's room and on to her room and
Sarah's where she rescued Jennie from under the bed.
"What are you doing, honey?" called Rosemary, as Shirley passed the
door again on her way down stairs.
"Playing with Jennie," was the wholly satisfactory answer.
"I think she plays better by herself than with Sarah," announced
Aunt Trudy. "Sarah is so apt to lead her into mischief. Would you
rather have a hem-stitched hem or ruffles, Rosemary?"
Back in the office, Shirley wasted no time in planning what to do.
She knew exactly how to proceed. Jennie was placed on the desk and
Shirley climbed into the swivel chair and grasped the scalpel. The
"operation" was to be performed on Jennie's arm, she, as a celluloid
doll, possessing an odd ridge in her anatomy that had always puzzled
Shirley. What made the ridge and what the inside of Jennie looked
like, were two questions that young doctor was determined to have
settled.
Jennie proved unexpectedly difficult to cut. Shirley stuck out her
tongue in her anxiety and breathed hard as she tried to drive the
scalpel in. It slipped suddenly, the chair tilted and the curved
shining blade cut a cruel gash in the little hand holding it so
tightly.
Pain, fright and a guilty conscience were blended in Shirley's
scream. Rosemary came rushing down, followed by Aunt Trudy who added
her cries to the child's when she saw her doubled up on the floor,
rocking back and forth and calling for Rosemary.
"Are you hurt, darling? What's the matter? Tell Auntie," begged Aunt
Trudy bending over the little girl.
"I cut my hand!" Shirley straightened up and Aunt Trudy caught a
glimpse of the bleeding hand and the front of the child's blouse all
stained where she had held it.
The sight of blood always unnerved Aunt Trudy. She shrieked now and
covered her eyes with her hands.
"I can't look at it--I'll faint, I know I shall!" she cried.
"Shirley will bleed to death, Rosemary. She has an awful cut. What
shall we do! What shall we do!"
The terrified Shirley began to scream more loudly and Aunt Trudy
walked up and down the floor moaning that it was awful!
"I'll get Hugh!" Rosemary flew to the desk 'phone.
She had heard him say where he meant to make a call and she hoped
desperately that he might be at that house or that she might be able
to leave a message for him if he had not yet arrived. But the doctor
had "come and gone" Mrs. Jackson said. He was going to stop at the
Winters, he said. Yes, they had a telephone.
Three more numbers Rosemary called, before she gained a ray of
comfort. At the fourth farmhouse the farmer's wife said that the
doctor was expected back in twenty minutes with a new brace he had
wanted them to try for their son's foot. He had offered to bring it
to them from the post-office because her husband was sick himself
with a cold--
Rosemary managed to check the good woman's flow of conversation and
to ask her to tell Doctor Hugh that he was wanted at home, when he
came. Shirley, tell him, had cut her hand.
Shirley's cries, subdued while Rosemary talked over the 'phone,
burst out again as the receiver clicked in place.
"Oh, dearest, hush!" implored Rosemary. "It doesn't hurt you so
very much, does it? Can't you be quiet till Hugh comes and makes you
all well?"
"It bleeds and bleeds," screamed Shirley, and Aunt Trudy groaned
that the child would bleed to death before their eyes.
"I'll wash it and bind it up myself," declared Rosemary, distracted
by the noise and confusion. "I don't know anything about such
things, but I think I can make it stop bleeding."
"I can't help you," said Aunt Trudy hastily. "I faint the minute I
see blood. My knees are weak now. Don't ask me to hold her, will
you, Rosemary?"
"I won't," promised Rosemary, biting her lower lip to keep it from
trembling. "I can take care of her, I know I can. Hugh keeps
bandages in this lower drawer and Winnie always has hot water in the
tea-kettle."
Aunt Trudy frankly ran from the room when Rosemary returned from the
kitchen with a basin of warm water and arranged a package of gauze
and the scissors on the glass topped table between the windows.
"I can't stay--I simply can not stay," she stammered and ran
upstairs to lie on her bed with her fingers in her ears.
Her going was rather a relief to Rosemary who was sure she would be
less nervous and shaky herself with her aunt out of the room. But
before she had finished with Shirley she was ready to admit that the
mere presence of a third person would have been some comfort,
however cold.
For Shirley shrieked protestingly when Rosemary approached her to
carry her over to the table. She fought off all attempts to look at
her hand. And when Rosemary forced her to yield and gently plunged
the poor little hand into the basin of water which was promptly
stained deep scarlet, Shirley, sure she was bleeding to death,
pulled away and ran for the door.
"Oh, darling, don't act this way," begged Rosemary, catching her and
holding her close. "Be a brave little girl and let sister wrap the
hand for you; it isn't such a bad cut, dear, and after we have
washed off the blood, there'll be nothing to be afraid of."
But Shirley continued to sob and squirm all the while Rosemary cut
and wound the gauze about her hand. As nearly as the inexperienced
Rosemary could tell, the cut was not serious though it was ugly to
see. Just as she fastened the tiny safety pin in place and was ready
to pronounce her bandaging done, the familiar two honks of the car
sounded outside.
"Oh, Hugh, I never was so glad to see you in my life!" exclaimed
Rosemary, as the doctor appeared in the doorway. "Shirley cut her
hand and she screamed and screamed and Aunt Trudy cried and it was
awful."
"Must have been," said Doctor Hugh briefly. "Let's see the cut."
Shirley, exhausted from crying and struggling, made a feeble attempt
to put her hand behind her, but the doctor held her firmly between
his knees and inspected the bandage.
"Pretty neat job," he said approvingly.
Shirley began to cry again as he unwound the gauze and when he asked
Rosemary to hand him a certain bottle and pour some of its contents
on the cut, the little girl's shrieks of pain were heart-rending.
Rosemary watched in amazement as her brother calmly dressed the cut
with fresh gauze and then, when he had finished, gathered Shirley up
in his arms to soothe her gently.
"She'll go to sleep in a minute," he said quietly. "She's worn out
with crying. How did it happen?"
Shirley heard him and half raised herself in his arms.
"I was going to operate on Jennie," she sobbed. "And the nasty knife
cut me. But I won't ever touch anything again, Hugh. Honest, I
won't."
In a few minutes she was sound asleep, and the doctor placed her on
the couch in one corner of the room and covered her with a light
blanket.
"Had a tough time, didn't you, Rosemary?" he said understandingly,
glancing from the basin on the table to Rosemary's tired face.
"Nobody home to help you and Aunt Trudy screaming louder than
Shirley I'll bet. I remember Aunt Trudy in hysterics when I came
home from school with a black eye one day."
"Well, I felt like screaming, too," admitted Rosemary, "the blood
did make me a little sick. But then there would have been no one to
look after Shirley. I did the best I could, but I'm a poor nurse,
Hugh."
"You never lose your head and that's the first rule for a good
nurse," said her brother. "Many a girl would never have thought of
trying to follow me up on the 'phone. And that was a mighty neat
bandage you did, child. You ought to learn first-aid, Rosemary.
Every girl should know what to do in an emergency or accident. I'll
teach you, if you like."
Rosemary was wise enough to accept his offer and her first-aid
lessons began that week, for Doctor Hugh did not believe in
postponement. He was determined, though he did not say to his
sister, to "make hysterics difficult" under any circumstances and
especially in a household emergency.