Rosanna had just finished her luncheon that very same day, when she
heard Minnie talking to someone over the telephone. Minnie, seeing
Rosanna behind her, merely said yes and no and hung up as soon as she
could.
"What are you planning to do, Miss Rosanna?" she asked.
"This afternoon?" said Rosanna. "Well, Helen is coming over with her
mother and we are going to sit on the porch of the playhouse and sew.
Helen and I are going to make a couple of rompers for Baby Christopher.
Helen and her mother went over to see Gwenny the other day, and Mrs.
Culver says that baby actually has nothing to put on. And there is no
money to buy anything with because Gwenny has had to have a new brace
that cost thirty dollars. Oh, Minnie, will I be rich when I grow up?"
"Yes, you will," said Minnie.
"How much; millions?" wistfully.
"A good lot anyhow," said Minnie.
"Oh, I am so glad!" said Rosanna. "I am going to make so many people
happy with it. There is such a lot of things you can do with money,
Minnie, to help people. I was so sorry when I heard about that brace. I
am going to save more of my allowance after this and keep listening so I
will hear when somebody wants something like that. Only there are some
things that you can't buy with money. I couldn't buy Helen, could I? And
I couldn't buy Mrs. Hargrave."
Minnie started.
"No, dearie, you couldn't," she said. "And I have got to trot along now
because I have to go out this afternoon, and if Mrs. Culver and Helen
are coming over, I know you will be all right."
Rosanna found her little workbasket and, taking a book to read until her
guests came, went over to the playhouse and commenced rocking in one of
the little wicker chairs.
Minnie dressed carefully but plainly and went out. Rosanna would have
been much surprised if she had seen her hurry down the street and turn
into Mrs. Hargrave's big house.
Mrs. Hargrave was waiting for her and after a kindly greeting she said:
"Minnie, I want you to tell me all about this Culver family, and how
Rosanna found Helen, and how they happen to be such good friends, and
how it is that you allowed it when you know just how Mrs. Horton feels
about family and all that."
Minnie did not flinch.
"I have been wanting to come and tell you all about it," she said, "but
I thought that you would find out things from the children. Mrs. Horton
just won't let Rosanna know _any_ children at all. But I don't feel like
saying all I would like to say, seeing how I work for Mrs. Horton."
"You would free your mind, I reckon, if you were at your own home,
wouldn't you?"
"Yes, ma'am, I would!" said Minnie.
"Well, then," said Mrs. Hargrave, "suppose you and I talk as though we
were just a couple of human beings who want to do a kind turn for two
little girls. That Helen child was over here this morning, to tell me
that she was afraid I thought she belonged to some fine family like the
Culvers of Lee County. Lee County indeed! Those Culvers are scalawags,
every man of them! She is lucky she doesn't own one of them for a
father.
"And the honest little angel was afraid I would be disappointed when I
found out who she really is. Well, Minnie, I was never so pleased with a
child in my life! I am going to do something for her some day.
"Now I want to hear from you just how this friendship started. It seems
a letter that I wrote to Mrs. Horton put the seal on it and I want to
know where we all stand."
"Whatever we do there is going to be an awful fuss," said Minnie,
sighing. She sat on the edge of the chair facing Mrs. Hargrave and told
that lady more of Rosanna's lonely, friendless little life than Mrs.
Hargrave had ever guessed. She told her of the difference in Rosanna
since Helen had come, and her fears for the child if Mrs. Horton should
come back and forbid their friendship.
"I shall just leave!" concluded Minnie.
"Don't be an idiot!" said Mrs. Hargrave, frowning. "That would be a nice
thing to do with Rosanna heartbroken. Now, Minnie, all there is to this
is that Mrs. Horton years and years ago had a younger sister who eloped
with a no-account man whom she met when she visited his sister. They
were really very common people, and Mrs. Horton's little sister died of
a broken heart.
"When Mrs. Horton married, her children were boys, as you know, and she
carried her bitterness in her heart until her son's little orphan girl
came to live with her. She is making a great mistake with Rosanna and
she must somehow be made to see it before it is too late. But that is
the reason for her foolishness.
"She adored her little sister, and she adores Rosanna. I am sorry the
affair is so mixed up, but you just leave it to me. In the meantime do
just as you are doing and give the girls all the chance you can to have
a good time. I will stand back of little Helen if I have to adopt her. I
suppose her parents are healthy?"
Minnie giggled. "Yes, ma'am; healthy and real young."
"Well, well, there must be some other way then," said Mrs. Hargrave,
smiling. "To start, I will write Mrs. Horton a letter just before she
returns, and I think a heart-to-heart talk will arrange things nicely."
In the meantime, Mrs. Culver had helped the girls cut out two sets of
dark, comfortable rompers, and Rosanna had sewed them up on her little
machine.
Mrs. Culver was also making a romper for Baby Christopher. Hers was a
cunning one for Sunday, a little pink check with bands of plain pink,
and buttons nearly as big as tea saucers sewed on wherever a button
would go.
Mrs. Culver was a wise woman, and she knew that Baby Christopher, small
as he was, would have a good effect on his many brothers and sisters if
he could be made beautiful and dressy on the one day in the week when
the busy family had time to enjoy his cunning ways. So Christopher was
to have three rompers--good, new, beautiful rompers of his own.
While Mrs. Culver sat thinking the two girls talked about the opening
of the Girl Scout troop in the school Helen was to enter in the fall.