When Rosanna went to bed that night she commenced by sitting down on the
floor and taking off her own socks and slippers. Then while Minnie stood
looking at her in pleased surprise, she carefully took off her hair
ribbon and folded it up!
"Minnie," she said, "have you any little girls in your family?"
"Yes, Miss Rosanna, ever so many."
"As little as me?" pursued Rosanna.
"Some littler, and some just about like you, and some larger."
"Well," said Rosanna, "do they most of them dress and undress
themselves?"
"Indeed yes!" said Minnie. "They would get good and spanked if they
tried any funny work with their mothers. Not that it's not all right,
Miss Rosanna, for you to be cared for, but land, my sisters are all too
busy to bother! And besides, those children have got to learn to do for
themselves sooner or later, and the sooner the better. And I will say,
Miss Rosanna, good wages nor anything will _ever_ make me think it is a
good thing to have my babying you along as big as you are. I don't see
why I can't earn my money just as honest and give just as much work for
it by learnin' you to stand on your own feet, as you might say."
"Well," said Rosanna wisely, "let's make a game of it, Minnie. While
grandmother is away, play you are working for _me_ and teach me to be
like your little girls."
"Bless your heart!" said Minnie tenderly. "I have feelings, you will
find, Miss Rosanna, if I _am_ only a maid, and I certainly do think you
are a dear child. Whatever gets some of the queer ideas in your head I
don't know!"
"Why, my little new friend Helen Culver dresses herself and combs her
own hair and everything. And all your little girls in your family fix
themselves, and when I told Helen that you dress me she looked sort of
funny. Then suppose you had to go away for awhile, what would I do? None
of the other maids know where my things are and, besides, I don't like
to have anyone but you fix me and button me up. You are real kind and
soft when you touch me, Minnie. I think you try to be a mother to me."
To Rosanna's horror, Minnie burst into tears.
"Oh, the saints forgive me!" she sobbed. "To think you have thought of
that and me dressin' you half the time that rough and sudden! Oh, Miss
Rosanna dear, just you take notice of me after this!"
"Why, I don't need to," said Rosanna. "You _are_ good to me, and if you
will, just play you work for me and show me where my things are and how
to do things. Helen is going to teach me to cook if you will come sit in
the kitchen and I am going to see if Mrs. Culver will show me how to
sew."
Minnie sniffed. "If she can beat me sewin'," she said scornfully, "she's
beatin' me at my own game. I learned of the nuns in the convent school
where your stitches has to be that small you can't find 'em. You just
let me help with your sewin', dearie."
"That will be fine," said Rosanna, dancing up and down. "Oh, I do wish
grandmother was going to stay away longer than a week! That's such a
short time to learn everything in, I don't see how I can do it all."
"Nor I," said Minnie. "And I sure do wish the same for your grandmother,
that she will treat herself and Mr. Robert to a good long trip. She
don't stay away enough for her own good, I say. Well, wishing never does
much good. All we can do is just put in all the time we can, Miss
Rosanna, and we will do exactly what you say. We will make a play of it
and I will start this very minute. You will find your clean night dress
in the left hand end of the second drawer of your dresser."
"Here it is," said Rosanna a moment later. "What a lot of them I have!
Do I need such a big pile, Minnie?"
"Well, not really, Miss Rosanna. You outgrow them mostly."
"Then we won't get any more for a long, long time," said Rosanna.
"Minnie, what do you think about my hair?"
"I will have to comb that for you, dearie; it is so very long and
thick."
"I was thinking," said Rosanna slowly, "about docking it. It is a great
bother."
"Oh, my sufferin' soul!" cried Minnie, with a face of horror. "Oh me, oh
my! Don't you think of that ever again, Miss Rosanna! If anything in the
_world_ happened to your hair, well, I don't want to think what your
grandmother would do to me. Your hair is her pride and glory. It is the
only thing I ever heard her brag about. 'You can tell Rosanna in a crowd
as far as you can see her,' says she, 'by her hair; just that dark color
full of streaks of gold like, and curls at that.' No, Miss Rosanna, you
can learn to sew and cook and take care of yourself, and not much harm
done for her to fret about, but for _mercy's_ sake don't you go touching
your hair."
"Well, it _is_ a bother," said Rosanna, "but we will let it alone for
awhile. Now you must come and wake me early, Minnie, and bring your
sewing so you can sit here and tell me when I don't do the right thing.
After breakfast, if cook will give us some things, I will get Helen and
we will do some baking. Won't that be fun? And in the afternoon I am
going to give Helen and you a surprise."
"Me too? Do you mind if Minnie kisses you good-night, dearie?" she asked
softly.
Rosanna sleepily held up her arms. "Oh, I wish you would, Minnie! It is
so nice to have somebody want to kiss me without my asking them to do
it."
Minnie kissed her tenderly. "Bless you, dearie, old Minnie will kiss you
good-night every night!"
She turned out the light and snapped on the electric fan.
And at once, it seemed to Rosanna, it was morning. There must have been
some time between, however, because Minnie went and looked over all her
things, and rejoiced to think what great progress she could make on her
wedding things in a week if she didn't have to wait on Rosanna all the
time, and after she had put everything back in the trunk and locked it
up as though it was the greatest treasure in the world, she went down to
see the cook. She told her all about what Rosanna had planned, and the
cook listened and sniffled and blew her nose hard several times and then
got up and brought out a big basket. This she set on the kitchen table
and commenced to fill with any number of things: salt and pepper and
flour and spices and baking powder and raisins, and all sorts of things.
The next morning when Rosanna went into the playhouse kitchen for a look
on her way to call Helen, there was everything any little girl would
possibly need to cook with, all arranged in rows on the shelves of the
tiny cupboard. And wonder of wonders, just inside the door was a little
ice-chest.
"Oh, oh! Where did that come from?" cried Rosanna, clapping her hands
and running to open it.
"Cook found it in the store room," said Minnie, smiling. "It was the one
they used in your nursery when you were a baby. She cleaned it all out,
and I think you will find something in it besides ice."
Sure enough there _was_ something besides ice, but Rosanna took one
little glance and then ran like the wind for the kitchen, where she
burst upon the astonished cook, and reaching as far around her as her
short arms would go, hugged her hard. Then she ran to the brick wall and
called Helen.
It seemed about a second before the two children were in the playhouse
kitchen, aprons on, and hard at work.
Minnie was made superintendent and sat sewing in a wicker chair beside
the table, where she could give advice. Helen was chief cook and Rosanna
was assistant--the most delighted and thrilled assistant that ever beat
an egg or stirred a batter. By eleven o'clock the cooking was done and
every pot and pan washed and put in its place. Helen said that was the
rule in domestic science school, so although they were both tired with
their labors and Rosanna wished in her heart that she could tell Minnie
to clean up as she usually did whenever a mess was made, they stuck to
their task and it did not take very long to finish the work and make the
kitchen all spick and span.
Rosanna was conscious of a new feeling, a sort of glow, at her heart.
Never before in her life had she spent a really useful morning. She had
learned to cook several things, and had the best time she had ever had
in her life.
"What shall we have? A party?" asked Helen, sinking down in one of the
wicker chairs.
Rosanna laughed. "Now I am going to tell my surprise, Minnie," she said.
"But when I made it up I didn't think we would help with it ourselves.
No, indeed; I thought you and cook would have to do it all, and we would
just sit around." She laughed. "I think it would be loads of fun to take
our cookies and the jello we made, and make some sandwiches of the cold
meat cook put in our ice-box, and pack the lunch hamper just as though
we were grown up, and fill the thermos bottles with milk, and go to
Jacobs Park for supper to-night."
Helen gave a scream of delight. "Oh, splendid!" she cried, "I have not
been out there yet, and dad says it is perfectly beautiful--just like
real country."
"Don't you suppose your mother would like to go, Helen?" asked Rosanna.
"Of course she would!" said Helen promptly, "but she has gone to
Jeffersonville and will not be back until to-morrow morning. It was nice
of you to think of her, Rosanna."
When the hamper was packed to their satisfaction, they called Minnie
back to see if they had forgotten anything.
"Why, who's going, Miss Rosanna?" asked Minnie, looking into the basket
with much surprise.
"You and Mr. Culver and Helen and me," said Rosanna wonderingly.
"Well, dearie, whatever are you going to do with all these things to
eat?" said Minnie. "This basket holds enough for eight grown people, and
you have packed it full."
"I think we can eat it by supper time," said Rosanna. "You have no idea
how good those cookies and things are. Do you think we have forgotten
anything, Minnie?"
"Where is the corkscrew for your olive bottle?" said Minnie. "And what
are all those little bundles?"
"Hard boiled eggs," said Helen.
"Have you put in salt and pepper for 'em?"
"I don't believe we have," said Rosanna. She ran to get some.
"What is in that dish?" Minnie went on relentlessly.
"Salad, and the other one has fruit jello."
"They won't ride very well, I am fraid," said Minnie. Then seeing a look
of disappointment in the children's faces she hastened to add, "Well, I
say that is a grand supper, and cook never did a bit better for Mr.
Robert when he was home and used to give motoring parties. Now I have a
plan myself. Both you children go and take a nap. Please do that for
Minnie, Miss Rosanna."
Rosanna was sure she could not sleep, but about one minute later she was
dreaming of dinner parties and kitchens. When she woke up it was three
o'clock and Minnie was shaking her gently.
Rosanna was off the bed like a shot. She had just reached the porch when
Helen came running up, dressed plainly and sensibly in a plain dark
gingham and sandals.
"The car is all ready," she said, "and daddy is driving it around to the
front door. And oh, he thinks he can't stay with us. He has so much
studying to do he is going to leave us there with you, Minnie, and come
for us whenever you say."
"Well, that's all right," said Minnie. "Only now that makes three to eat
all that supper."
Rosanna picked up her cape and a thermos bottle and skipped down the
broad steps after the house boy, who carried the heavy lunch hamper.
"Never you mind, Minnie," she said. "Wouldn't you be s'prised to see us
eat every bit of it?"
"No, I wouldn't," said Minnie firmly. "I'd be _scared_."