ROGER GOES FORAGING
ALTHOUGH Helen never had been president of any club before, yet she had
seen enough of a number of associations in the high school and the
church to understand the advantage of striking while the iron of
enthusiasm was hot. For that reason she and Roger worked out the
districting of Rosemont before they went to bed that night, and the next
afternoon Roger went over to Glen Point on his bicycle, and, with
James's help, did the same for that town. It was understood that Tom
would not be able to come out again until Saturday, but he had agreed to
be on hand early in the morning to do a good half day of canvassing. The
girls were to speak to every one to whom they could bring up the subject
conveniently, wherever they met them.
Roger began his work on Monday afternoon after school. He wheeled over
to a part of the town where he did not know many people, his idea being
that since that would be the most disagreeable place to tackle he would
do it first and get it over with. He was a merry boy, with a pleasant
way of speaking that won him friends at once, and he was not bothered
with shyness, but he did hesitate for an instant at his first house. It
was large and he thought that the owner ought to be prosperous enough to
have plenty of old clothes lying about crying to be sent to the war
orphans.
It was a maid whose grasp on the English language was a trifle
uncertain who opened the door. Roger stated his desire.
"Old clothes?" she repeated after him. "I've no old clothes to give
you," and she shut the door hastily.
Roger stood still with astonishment as if he were fastened to the upper
step. Then his feelings stirred.
"The idiot!" he gasped. "She thought I wanted them for myself," and he
looked down at his suit with a sudden realization that his long ride
over one dusty road and a spill on another that had recently been oiled
had not improved the appearance of his attire. However, he rang the bell
again vigorously. The woman seemed somewhat disconcerted when she saw
him still before her.
"I don't want the clothes--" began Roger.
"What did you say you did for?" inquired the maid sharply, and again she
slammed the door.
By this time Roger's persistency was roused. He made up his mind that he
was going to make himself understood even if he did not secure a
contribution. Once more he rang the bell.
"You here!" almost screamed the girl as she saw once more his familiar
face. "Why don't you go? I've nothing to give you."
"Look here," insisted Roger, his toe in the way of the door's shutting
completely when she should try to slam it again; "look here, you don't
understand what I want. Is your mistress at home?"
The girl was afraid to say that she was not, so she nodded.
"Tell her I want to see her."
"What's your name?"
"I'm Roger Morton, son of Lieutenant Morton. I live on Cedar Street. Can
you remember that?"
She could not, but her ear had caught the military title and upstairs
she conveyed the impression that at least a general was waiting at the
door. When the mistress of the house appeared Roger pulled off his cap
politely, and he was such a frank-faced boy that she knew at once that
her maid's fears had been unnecessary, though she did not see where the
military title came in. Roger explained who he was and what he wanted at
sufficient length, and he was rewarded for his persistency by the
promise of a bundle.
"I know your grandmother, Mrs. Emerson," said the lady, who had
mentioned that she was Mrs. Warburton, "and your aunt, Mrs. Smith, has
hired one of my houses, so I am glad on their account to help your
enterprise, though of course its own appeal is enough."
Roger thanked her and took the precaution to inquire the names of her
neighbors, before he presented himself at another door. He also reached
such a pitch of friendliness that he borrowed a whisk broom from Mrs.
Warburton and redeemed his clothes from the condition which had brought
him into such disfavor with the maid-servant.
There was no one at home in the next house, but the next after that
yielded a parcel which the old lady whom he interviewed said that he
might have if he would take it away immediately.
"I might change my mind if you don't," she said. "I've been studying for
ten days whether to make over that dress with black silk or dark blue
velvet. If I give the dress away I shan't be worried about it any
longer."
"Very well," cried Roger, and he rolled the frock up as small as he
could and fastened it to his handle bars.
There was no one at home at the next house, but the woman who came to
the door at the next after that listened to his story with moist eyes.
"Come in," she said. "I can give you a great many garments. In fact
there are so many that perhaps I'd better send them."
"Very well," returned Roger. "Please send them to my aunt's," and he
gave the address.
"You see," hesitated Roger's hostess, now frankly wiping her eyes, "I
had a little daughter about ten years old, and--and I never have been
willing to part with her little dresses and coats, but how could I place
them better than now?"
Roger swallowed hard.
"I guess she'd like to have 'em go over there," he stammered, and he was
very glad when he escaped from the house, though he told his mother,
"she seemed kind of glad to talk about the kid, so I didn't mind much."
"Count listening as one of the Club services," replied Mrs. Morton.
Back in his own part of town Roger felt that his trip had been
profitable. A very fair number of garments and bundles had been
promised, and he had told everybody he could to watch the local paper
for the announcement of the entertainment to be given by the U. S. C.
"Everybody seemed interested," he reported at home. "I don't believe
we'll have a mite of trouble in getting an audience."
It was at a cottage not far from the high school that Roger came upon
his nearest approach to an adventure. When he touched the buzzer the
door was opened by an elderly woman who spoke with a marked German
accent. Roger explained his errand. To his horror the woman burst into
tears. When he made a gesture of withdrawal she stopped him.
"My son--my son is mit de army," she exclaimed brokenly. "My son und de
betrothed of my daughter. We cannot go to the Fatherland. The German
ships go no more. If we go on an English or French ship we are kept in
England. Here must we stay--here."
"You're safe here, at any rate," responded Roger, at a loss what reply
to make that would be soothing in the face of such depressing facts.
"Safe!" retorted the woman scornfully. "Who cares to be safe? A woman's
place is mit her men when they are in danger. My daughter and I--we
should be in Germany and we cannot get there!"
"It's surely a shame if you want to go as much as that," returned Roger
gently, and just then to his surprise there came through an inner door a
young woman whom he recognized as his German teacher in the high school,
Fraulein Hindenburg. Her face was disfigured with weeping and he knew
now why she had seemed so ill and listless in her classes.
"You must not mind Mother," she said, looking surprised as she saw one
of her pupils before her. "It is true that we would go if we could but
we cannot, so we must stay here and wait."
Roger explained his errand.
"To work for the war orphans of all countries?" cried both women
excitedly. "Gladly! Gladly!"
"We are knitting every day--scarfs, socks, wristlets," said the older
woman. "Also will we so gladly make clothing for the children and toys
and playthings--what we can."
Fraulein smiled a sad assent and Roger wheeled off, realizing that the
pain caused by the war no longer existed for him only in his
imagination; he had seen its tears.
So freely had people responded to Roger's appeal that he began to wonder
how the Club was going to take care of all the garments that would soon
be coming in. After that thought came into his mind he made a point of
asking the givers if they would send their offerings as far as possible
in condition to be shipped.
"Margaret and Helen can make over some of the clothes and the Ethels and
Dorothy can help with the simple things, I suppose, but if there are
many grown-up dresses like this one on my handle bar they won't have
time to do anything else but dressmake," meditated Roger as he pedalled
along.
Nowhere did he meet with a rebuff. Every one was pleased to be asked.
Many offered to make new garments. One old woman who lived in a
wheel-chair but who could use her hands, agreed to sew if the material
should be sent her. Many mothers seemed to consider it a Heaven-sent
opportunity to make a clearance of the nursery toys though Roger stoutly
insisted that they must all be in working order before they were turned
in.
"It's been perfectly splendid," breathed Roger joyfully as he finished
his third afternoon and came into the house to report to his mother and
Helen. "It's a delight to ask when you feel sure that you won't have to
coax as you usually do when you're getting up anything. Everybody seems
to jump at the chance."
Toward the end of the week Ethel Blue came in beaming.
"I've got some entirely new people interested," she cried.
"Who? Who?"
"The last people you'd ever think of--the women in the Old Ladies'
Home."
"Why should you think them the very last to be interested?" asked Mrs.
Emerson who happened to be at the Mortons' and whose fingers were
carrying the flying yarn that her needles were manufacturing into a
sock. "Most of them are mothers and it doesn't take a mother to be
interested in such a cause as this. Every human being who has any
imagination must feel for the sufferings of the poor children."
"It seemed queer to me because I've never seen them do anything but just
sit there with their hands in their laps."
"Poor souls, nobody ever provides them with anything to do."
"Now all of them say that they'll be delighted to sew or knit or do
anything they can if the materials are provided for them."
"Here's where we can begin to spend the money Mother has offered to
advance us," cried Ethel Brown. "Can't we go right after school
to-morrow and buy the yarn for them, Mother?"
"Indeed you may. Has Della sent you the knitting rules from the Red
Cross yet?"
"We're expecting them in every mail. If they don't come before we take
the wool to the Home we can start the ladies on scarfs. They're just
straight pieces."
"Mrs. Hindenburg and Fraulein are knitting wristlets for the German
soldiers. They could give the rule for them, I should think," suggested
Roger, "and our old lady friends can just cut it in halves for the
kids."
It was the next day that Helen came in from school all excitement.
"I've made a discovery as thrilling as Roger's about Fraulein!" she
cried.
"What? Who is it about? Tell us."
"It's about Mademoiselle Millerand."
"Your French teacher?" asked Mrs. Emerson.
"She was new at school last year and you've heard us say she's the most
fascinating little black-eyed creature."
"Perhaps she can't talk fast!" added Roger.
"What's the story about her?" demanded Ethel Brown.
"It's not a romantic story like Fraulein's; that is, there's no
betrothed on the other side that she's crazy to get to; but she's going
over to join the French Red Cross."
"That little thing!" cried Roger. "Why she doesn't look as if she had
strength enough to last out a week!"
"She says she's had a year's training in nursing and that a nurse is
taught to conserve her strength. She hopes she'll be sent to the
front."
"The plucky little creature! When is she going?"
"As soon as she can put in a substitute at the school; she doesn't want
to leave us in the lurch after she made a contract for the year."
"It may take some time after that to arrange for a sailing, I suppose."
"Perhaps so. Any way I think it would be nice if we gave her a
send-off--"
"Just as we will Fraulein if her chance comes."
"We can make some travelling comforts."
"She won't be able to carry much," warned Mrs. Morton.
"Everything will have to be as small as possible, but we can hunt up the
smallest size of everything. I think it will be fun!"
"She'll probably be very much pleased."
"I wish there was something rather special we could do for Fraulein too,
so we could be perfectly impartial."
"Watch for the chance to do something extra nice for her. She's having
the harder time of the two; it's always harder to stay and wait than it
is to go into action, even when the action is dangerous."
While the Mortons were canvassing Rosemont, James and Margaret were
doing the same work in Glen Point. Dr. Hancock had accepted his son's
offer and James was now regularly engaged as his father's chauffeur,
working after school hours every school day and on Saturday mornings.
The Doctor insisted that he should have Saturday afternoons free so that
he might go to the Club. He was also quite willing that James should
follow the plan he had sketched at the last Club meeting and visit the
neighbors of his father's patients while Doctor Hancock was making his
professional calls. The plan worked to a charm and James found Glen
Point quite as ready as Rosemont to respond to the "bitter cry of the
children."
"So many people are getting interested I almost feel as if it weren't
our affair any longer," James complained to his father as they were
driving home in the dusk one afternoon.
"Look out for that corner. That's a bad habit you have of shaving the
curbstone. You needn't feel that way as long as your club is doing all
the organizing and administration. That's the part that seems to make
most people hesitate about doing good works. It isn't actual work they
balk at; it's leadership."
"If handling the stuff and disposing of it is leadership then we're a
'going concern' all right," declared James. "Roger telephoned over this
morning that the bundles were coming in to Mrs. Smith's at a great rate,
and that a lot of people were making new garments and things that will
turn up later."
"When is Tom coming out?"
"Saturday morning. I've saved one district for him to do then and that
will finish up Glen Point as Roger and I sketched it out."
"It hasn't been so hard a job as you thought."
"Chasing round in the car has saved time. This is a bully job of yours,
Dad."
"You won't hold it long if you cut corners like that, I warn you again."
"I'll try to cut 'em _out_," laughed James as he carefully turned into
the Hancocks' avenue.