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The Bluebird Books
MARY LOUISE AND JOSIE O'GORMAN
[Frontispiece]
Josie gets a job as a maid.--Chapter XII
MARY LOUISE AND JOSIE O'GORMAN
by
EDITH VAN DYNE
Author of
"Mary Louise", "Mary Louise in the Country",
"Mary Louise Solves a Mystery", "Mary Louise
and the Liberty Girls", "Mary Louise Adopts
a Soldier", "Mary Louise at Dorfield",
"Mary Louise Stands the Test"
Frontispiece by Harry W. Armstrong
The Reilly & Lee Co.
Chicago
Printed in the United States of America
Copyright, 1922
by
The Reilly & Britton Co.
All Rights Reserved
_Mary Louise and Josie O'Gorman_
CONTENTS
I MARY LOUISE MAKES AN INVESTMENT
II THE BOARD ELECTS NEW MEMBERS
III MARY LOUISE TELLS A STORY
IV JOSIE DONS A HENNA WIG
V BREAKFAST FOR TWO
VI A SUCCESSFUL DISGUISE
VII JOSIE GETS A JOB
VIII PETER REFUSES NEW PARENTS
IX JOSIE GETS HER BEARINGS
X AT MISS DENTON'S DINNER TABLE
XI JOSIE ENGAGES AN ASSISTANT
XII CHESTER HUNT'S NEW MAID
XIII A NEW BROOM SWEEPS CLEAN
XIV JOSIE JUMPS HER JOB
XV JOSIE VISITS INDIANA
XVI JOSIE GETS A RIDE
XVII HUSBAND AND WIFE
XVIII CHESTER HUNT CONFESSES
XIX A HAPPY REUNION
Mary Louise and Josie O'Gorman
CHAPTER I
MARY LOUISE MAKES AN INVESTMENT
Mary Louise had stood the test of being rich and beloved, and envied by
all the daughters of Dorfield; and then of being poor and bereft,
pitied by all who had formerly envied her. Soon after the death of her
grandfather, Colonel Hathaway, had come the news of her husband's
shipwreck. Hope of Danny Dexter's survival was finally abandoned by his
sorrowing little wife and his many friends. Colonel Hathaway's
comfortable fortune had mysteriously disappeared and Mary Louise faced
a future of poverty. With native pluck she arose to the occasion.
In spite of her sad heart she showed a cheerful spirit. Joining
forces with Josie O'Gorman and Elizabeth Wright in the quaint
Higgledy-Piggledy Shop, she opened a millinery department and was soon
swamped with orders for smart hats by the elite of Dorfield and
old-fashioned bonnets for the ancient ladies who refused to wear hats.
When Danny came back, not having gone to a watery grave after all, and
the lost fortune was found, Mary Louise again stood the test of being
rich and beloved.
"Nothing can spoil our Mary Louise," Josie O'Gorman declared, and Irene
Macfarlane smiled from her wheel chair.
"That is because she is pure gold, through and through," said the lame
girl as she deftly plied her needle in the cobwebby lace collar she was
mending.
"We certainly shall miss her here at the Higgledy-Piggledy," put in
Elizabeth Wright. "It doesn't seem like the same place with Mary Louise
gone. I wonder what the old ladies who still wear bonnets will do now.
There is no other milliner in Dorfield who can fashion an old-time
bonnet like our Mary Louise. She did them as though she loved them and
the old ladies for whom they were intended."
"Well, every old woman in town has had Mary Louise make her a bonnet
'exactly like Jane's and Susan's and Martha's and Matilda's'," laughed
Josie, "and they don't change their bonnets oftener than every seven
years, so we needn't worry about them just yet. Speaking of angels!
Here she is!"
Mary Louise literally danced into the shop. Ever since Danny returned
her feet seemed to have wings.
"I didn't know how miserable I had been until I had my present
happiness with which to compare my former sorrow," she had told Josie
O'Gorman shortly after Danny got back.
"You were too busy to be altogether unhappy," spake the wise Josie.
"Being poor enough to have to make one's living is not so bad as it is
cracked up to be. It was certainly a blessing in your case."
As we have said, Mary Louise danced into the shop. Then she breezed
over and kissed the three friends in turn.
"It's sad no longer to be a partner here," she said, "but it is nice to
be able to kiss all of you dear old girls. A business footing does not
permit of the familiarity of embraces between partners. I've just got
lots to tell all of you!"
"Fire away," commanded Josie, "but you must excuse me if I go on
ironing the fine linen of the wealthy."
Among the many industries the Higgledy-Piggledy Shop boasted was that
of laundering fine linen and laces. It was not known in Dorfield except
by a select few that Josie O'Gorman was a detective in high standing
with the chief, but everybody who had laces or linen too fine to trust
to the doubtful ministrations of an ordinary laundress knew that the
girl was a magician with suds and a flatiron. Josie declared washing
and ironing helped her to work out knotty problems and there was
nothing like having your arms in suds up to the elbows to give you an
insight into who did what and why.
The girls settled themselves to listen to Mary Louise's news, whatever
it was. Elizabeth Wright closed her typewriter on which she had been
copying some manuscript for a budding author; Irene Macfarlane stuck
her needle in the pin-cushion hanging from her tidy work-basket and
folded the lace collar. Only Josie went on with her work, testing her
electric iron with a professional sizzle.
"Well, you see it's this way," continued Mary Louise, settling herself
on an antique Windsor chair that the Higgledy-Piggledies were trying to
sell on commission. "Danny and I are going to have plenty of money to
live on, with what he earns. I know how Danny feels about my being an
heiress; not that he ever says a word about it, but he has a good job
and there is a chance of steady advancement and I have decided to do
something for somebody who needs it more than I do with all that gold
Grandpa Jim left me and the old house which is too huge for Danny and
me to live in, and too sad somehow for me just yet."
"I'm glad you feel that way about the house," put in Josie, shaking out
another damask napkin. "It's a bully old house but too big for a young
couple who don't need much room to be happy in."
"What is your plan, dear?" asked Irene, her sweet eyes misting a
little. The thought of Mary Louise quitting the old house which was
next to Uncle Peter Conant's, where Irene made her home, caused her to
be sad.
"Danny and I are going into an apartment for the time being and later
on will build a house more suitable to our needs. I am going to give
the old home to the Children's Home Society and make an endowment with
a part of my gold, so the society can begin operations at once in their
new quarters. They have a miserable place now, with not near enough
room."
"What a corking plan!" cried Josie. "I know of no charity that appeals
to one as this business of getting homes for poor little waifs. It
helps the poor little kiddies and it helps the childless persons who
want to adopt them. I'm with you, Mrs. Danny Dexter!"
"And I! And I!" came in a chorus from Elizabeth and Irene.
"The old house is more fitted for an institution than a private home.
The rooms are so huge, at least most of them are, and still it is
homelike. Only think how lovely it will be for the children to have the
pretty yard and old garden to play in. Dr. Weston, the dear old
gentleman who is in charge of the home now, says there is so little
room and so little money that they can't care for the children properly
and the people who come to see about adopting them are afraid to take
them sometimes because they don't look healthy enough."
"Poor little things!" murmured Irene.
"I'm wondering if your Uncle Peter and Aunt Hannah would mind having a
children's home next door to them," Mary Louise asked.
"I'm sure they wouldn't," said Irene. "I heard Uncle Peter say only
last night that he'd like to see the old place occupied again even if
it were by noisy boarders, and you know Aunt Hannah loves company and
she's so deaf that the noise the children make won't affect her in the
least."
"And you?" asked Mary Louise. "How will you like it?"
"I want what you want, dear. You must call on me to help in any way I
can."
"Indeed I will! We hope to make a very active society of this
Children's Home. I have talked to Dr. Weston, but have not told him
about making the endowment or giving the old house yet. I wanted to be
sure it would not be a nuisance to Uncle Peter Conant. He and Aunt
Hannah have been too good to me for me to go against their wishes."
"Set your mind at rest on that score," said Irene. "I can answer for
them."
"I'll do any typing you need when you begin on the thing," suggested
Elizabeth, "and I can look after the publicity end, too. The more
persons who get interested in an enterprise like this the better for
it."
"Indeed you are right. We will need more money than I can give, too.
Yearly subscriptions will have to be solicited and the more publicity
we get the better."
"I'll be chief detective for the society," laughed Josie, shaking out
another napkin. "You may think that is a joke, but I tell you there are
more shady mix-ups in a concern like that than in courts of law. I'll
bet I'll be called on to trace parentage and establish property rights
and relationships before the year is up."
"Nobody could do it better," smiled Mary Louise. "Now I am going to
stop in and have a little talk with Uncle Peter Conant at his office
and then I'm going around and tell dear old Dr. Weston that as far as I
am concerned he can move his Children's Home to the Hathaway house
tomorrow. That is, if Uncle Peter doesn't object." Josie offered to
meet her at the Children's Home and Mary Louise gladly accepted.
Uncle Peter didn't object. To the contrary he seemed vastly pleased
with the prospect of some young neighbors.
"'Twill do Hannah good and no doubt she will turn our house into a kind
of annex. Go ahead, my dear, and invest your money in something where
moth and rust will not corrupt and where thieves will not break through
and steal."
"Oh, Uncle Peter, I am so glad to hear you say that. I haven't any
blood kin to go to for advice and Danny always says for me to do
exactly what I want to do, which is bad for my character. It might make
me very conceited to have him always insist that I'm right just because
I want to do something."
"Well, well! The young rascal is right," laughed Mr. Conant.
"But do you think Grandpa Jim would approve of what I am doing?"
"Surely he would. I haven't a doubt if you had not been in existence he
would have done much the same sort of thing with his fortune. Jim
Hathaway was a powerful charitable man."
Mary Louise then went to see Dr. Weston at his office in the dingy
little building that housed the Children's Home Society. The old man
slept on a bumpy couch in the corner of his office. He had been
assigned a bedroom in the house, but the association had grown beyond
its quarters and the devoted doctor had long ago given up his room as
an overflow dormitory for the constantly increasing number of little
children who were sent to the home to be kept there until some kind
person saw fit to adopt them.
Dr. Weston's life had been dedicated to social work and now in his old
age the thing which interested him most and to which he gave all his
strength and time was the placing of unfortunate children in good
homes. It was through his labor and influence the Children's Home
Society had been established and struggled for existence. He was
hampered in his work by an unwieldy board of women managers, but he
realized the importance of having a large board, because the more
persons interested the more money it was possible to raise for his pet
charity. At the time of Mary Louise's call funds were very low, so low
that it seemed as though the society might have to close its hospitable
doors to the homeless waifs and the present inmates be parceled out to
the various orphan asylums. The board was to meet that very day. Dr.
Weston always dreaded a board meeting. There were some fine, noble
women on his board, but also some interfering busy-bodies, who were
always starting disagreeable discussions, such as how much sugar a
little child should be allowed and how important it was that vanity
should not be encouraged in the girls.
Business and finance were not Dr. Weston's strong points. His only idea
was to gather in the little children and give them a home in the
society until better homes could be found for them. He wanted to make
the place as little like an institution as possible, but several
members of the board were for unrelenting law and prison order.
The old man sat with his head in his hands worrying over the affairs of
the home. He was aware of the fact that funds were low and needs were
increasing. The home needed another nurse and a higher-priced cook, who
would prepare the food with more care than the present slatternly
incumbent. It needed several hospital wards, where children could be
isolated when attacked by contagious diseases. The doctor had known his
family, varying from thirty to fifty, all down at one time with bad
colds, or coryza, as named by the medical profession, when isolating
the first small cougher and sneezer might have saved all of the others.
"If only that young Mrs. Dexter, Jim Hathaway's granddaughter, would
make us a small donation," he groaned. "No doubt she could well afford
it, but young folks are mighty thoughtless. She seemed interested in
the children but I fancy that will be all--just a sentimental interest
and no more."
A tap on the door and Mary Louise entered as though in answer to his
thoughts.
"I have come to see if I might help, Dr. Weston," she said simply.