VENTURE TROOP
The girls of Franklin Mills were finally organized and began work just
as Molly Cosgrove had planned. Venture Troop immediately became a band
of active, enthusiastic and withal capable girls, bringing to the scout
movement a new vigor and promise, the result of individual
self-discipline and the indispensible power of personal responsibility.
It must be understood here that girls employed in factories may lack
social education, but they are always more self-reliant, more capable
of handling emergencies and difficulties, and more surely skilled in
precision and mechanical accuracy than are the girls of same age
situated in the more fortunate walks of life, the difference in
comparison being always in favor of normal conditions, and general
education, because of the balance and mental ability acquired through
our modern schools and progressive methods.
But the mill girl is never an inferior, and in the exact science of
skill, she can easily and at any time outdistance the most brilliant
high-school graduate, for skill is her education, and she handles, and
fingers, and computes sometimes many thousands of delicate threads, or
intricate bits of metal, the slightest fumble of which might throw out
of gear a powerful machine. This is applied mathematics, is it not? She
uses no pencil nor paper, but counts by allowing one line to overlap
another at every five hundred cards, done in some fine print work, and
when ten five hundred cards show that almost invisible margin, she
knows she has pasted five thousand!
Thus we may realize at the outset that the Venture Troop of Franklin
Scouts comprises a formidable array of certain talent, and this must be
respected, while education in broader lines is recorded through our
little story.
Rose now felt her responsibility with a thrill of delight. Even her
anxiety concerning Tessie was allayed in this newly found service. It
was no longer a question of one girl, but the matter of many; nor would
Rose attempt to desert her post as patrol leader, when the young,
eager, enthusiastic members of that troop looked to her for a
leadership expected from one who so thoroughly understood their
characters.
Lieutenant Cosgrove, now Captain of the Venture Troop, had impressed
upon the girl her duties in leading, gently but firmly, along the scout
lines, which had been modified to fit in reasonably with the scheme of
Americanization.
While it was perfectly true that the parents of Rose would welcome her
in the Connecticut town, they had not urged her to leave Franklin, in
fact a late letter hinted labor conditions around the Brodix family
were not as yet all satisfactorily adjusted, but Dagmar (Rose) "could
come if she wanted to," her brother had written. This meant it would be
wise for her not to go just yet.
Leaving the meeting room that evening after the organization, and in
company with a number of her patrol, Rose quite forgot Tessie, and the
stigma of publicity concerning that ticket money, and the possible
unlawful use of the lost merit badge.
Buzzing like bees, asking volumes of questions, and pouring out enough
suggestions to furnish programmes for troops rather than planning for a
single patrol, the girls surrounded Rose with such confidence as to
almost sweep the little blonde off her feet. Perhaps her intimacy with
Captain Cosgrove placed her in this preferred class, at any rate as a
patrol leader Rose found herself both popular and influential.
Mary Furniss insisted on planning a hike for the following Saturday
afternoon. Dora Silber believed a long trolley ride would be more
enjoyable, while Mona Markovitz urged the formation of a girls' ball
team to rival the players of Branchville.
"It's just like having our own union," remarked Jennie Dupre, a pretty
little Canadian, "only we are sure to be safe from picket duty in the
scouts."
"We're not either," corrected Marie Engelka. "We may have to patrol in
case of any local trouble. Wouldn't we look swell in our uniforms?" and
she marched on ahead with arm thrust bolt upright in lieu of a gun,
while Dora Silber sounded the tattoo of a drum on Mona Markowitz's new
straw sailor hat. Mona was short and had to stand the consequences.
"And all the brave things we have to do! Say, Rose, what did you do to
get by all those tests?" demanded Erica Jentz.
"Oh, I just studied," faltered Rose, "and then I did without things to
send money to the folks. I don't like to talk about sacrifices, but I
am only trying to show you what you can do to make good," she finished
rather lamely. There was one brave act Rose longed to accomplish, but
just then the chances for its undertaking seemed remote.
"Our folks better watch out," cautioned Mary Furniss, "I'm to learn
bed-making, and I have to leave home at six-thirty. That means an early
dumping for sister Jane, who goes to English School. We always used to
call her Jennie, but now she's Jane," and Mary mocked the plain
American title with a shrill rising inflection.
"Wasn't it funny how we all laughed on the question of earning fifty
cents," remarked Jeanette. "Looked as if we thought earning money was a
big joke."
"No, that wasn't it, Jean," corrected Dora. "It was making it fifty
cents. Why, that wouldn't tip the 'chink' who irons our shirtwaists,"
and the original laugh was encored.
"Are your folks all gone from Flosston, Rose?" Mary Furniss inquired,
just as the little procession was about to break ranks for respective
individual "barracks."
"Oh, yes. Father got good work in Connecticut, and I may go soon,"
replied Rose frankly.
"You've got a swell boardin' house," commented Nora Noon, the one Irish
girl in the new patrol, "and I heard some one say Mrs. Cosgrove was
going to start a big lunch-counter for us girls. They call it a
cafeteria. Can you picture little Nora sittin' up against anything like
that for her corned beef and cabbage!" and the joke epidemic went the
usual rounds.
"If anyone could make a lunch counter go, it surely ought to be Mrs.
Cosgrove," affirmed Erica Jentz, "for she just keeps her tea-pot going
all the time, and my mother says she never lets her cake run out for
fear some one would come in between meals."
"Well, it's a sure thing if they come in at meals, they need cake, and
if they come in between meals they would be glad to have cake, so it
seems to me on that plan Mrs. Cosgrove must need a home bakery,"
analyzed Dora Silber. "But I'll say, girls, a cafeteria, whatever it
is, would be lots better than a lunch-box, and I hope we get it. So
long, scouts. Here's where I turn in. Rose, I'll be ready for drill any
time you say, if I'm not eatin' or sleepin'. Don't worry about the
other 'dooties' of life. S'long, girls! Olive-oil, Jean! That's French
for good-bye, isn't it?" and while Jean insisted au revoir was no
relation to the term used, the girls paired off, and left Rose with
Nora to finish her two more blocks to the Cosgrove cottage.
"I think it will be great for all of us," Nora conceded. "You know,
Rose, they're all a jolly lot, but they don't have a great deal of fun.
They can laugh at almost anything, but that's because they're so
healthy and good natured. I often lend them books. Father has a lot of
them, and I do believe our club will be just the thing for all of us,"
and the girl called Irish, but who was really a solid little American,
emphasized her statement by kicking over the only loose stone in the
well-tended driveway that bordered the "big house" at Oak Corners.
"Yes, I think it will be fine," agreed Rose. "But I hope I will be able
to--to be a wise leader," she qualified.
"That's why Captain Cosgrove selected you," said Nora. "We are to be
self-governing, and every member must be a business girl. That's better
than being just mill girls," Nora declared. "But it's lots nicer to
have a leader who just knows all about us. It will give the girls more
courage and all that! Don't you worry about being wise enough. If there
is anything to be learned you can count on a double quick education
from us, Rosie. Good-night. Tell Mrs. Cosgrove we can smell the
doughnuts all ready!" and Nora skipped off in the direction of a gentle
light that shone from the reading lamp of Thomas Noon, one time
caretaker of a famous Celtic estate, but now plain worker as gateman in
Franklin Silk Mills.
Alone for the few moments occupied in reaching the Cosgrove's home,
Rose turned the problem of Tessie over and over in her troubled mind.
She felt keenly the need of confidence, but could not bring herself to
tell this story now to Molly Cosgrove.
"How could I make her understand why I delayed all this time?" she
reflected. "No, I must wait for another letter. Perhaps I'll get one
to-morrow. Anyhow our new troop is just fine, and I mean to be a real
patrol leader," decided the girl, imbued with the same enthusiasm that
seemed to permeate the entire girl-scout movement.
Have you ever been called upon to lead others?
Do you know the joy of using your own personal power in a
well-organized and carefully directed plan?
If so, you may share the enthusiasm of Rose Dixon, the young patrol
leader of Venture Troop of Girl Scouts.
Back once more with her own congenial companions, she almost wished she
had not so altered her name. True, Rose Dixon was not far removed from
Dagmar Rosika Brodix. Rose was Rosika, and Dixon from the last syllable
of Brodix with the usual suffix "on" did not really seem so far from
the original, and in the sensational days, when the two towns were
stirred up with the gossip of the runaway girls, the change seemed the
only plan, but now Rose felt a shadow of deceit in the use of the
American name.
"At the same time," she decided finally, "lots of people change to more
simple-sounding names, and it was better to start out without that
mistake following me. I suppose Tessie has changed her name as often as
she does her sleeping places. Poor girl! I do wish she could come back
and get a start such as I have."
And another girl in another town was thinking just that in another way.