A WEDDING AND A SURPRISE
IT was a simple wedding that the U. S. C. went to in a body a few days
after the arrival of the convalescent German soldier. Mr. Wheeler, the
principal of the high school, acted as best man, and Miss Dawson, the
domestic science teacher, was maid of honor, but Fraulein also gathered
about her in the cottage sitting-room where the ceremony took place a
group of the young girls who had been kindest to her when she was in
trouble.
"I want you and the Ethels and Dorothy," she said to Helen; "and if your
friends, Della and Margaret, would come with you it would give me
greatest pleasure."
So the girls, all dressed in white, and wearing the forget-me-not pins
that Grandfather Emerson insisted on giving them for the occasion,
clustered around the young teacher, and the three boys, a forget-me-not
in each scarfpin, held the ribbons that pressed gently back the cordial
friends who were happy in Fraulein's happiness.
It was the Club that decorated the house with brown sedges and stalks of
upstanding tawny corn and vines of bittersweet. And it was the Club that
sang a soft German marriage song as the bride and groom drove off toward
the setting sun in Grandmother Emerson's car.
Life seemed rather flat to the members of the U. S. C. after the
wedding. For the last two months they had been so busy that every hour
had been filled with work and play-work, and now that there was nothing
especial scheduled for every waking moment it seemed as if they had
nothing at all to do.
"We'll have to ask Roger about his house," laughed James who came over
with Margaret one afternoon and confessed to the same feeling.
"Not yet," answered Helen.
"Helen is full of ideas up to her very eyebrows, I believe," said Ethel
Blue. "She's just giving us a holiday."
"Mother said we needed one," assented Helen. "After we've had a few
days' rest we can start on something else. There's no need to call on
Roger yet awhile."
"Why not? My idea is a perfectly good one," insisted Roger, strolling
in.
Just at this minute Mary entered with a note for "The Secretary of the
United Service Club."
"For you, Ethel Blue," said Roger, handing it to his cousin.
Ethel Blue slipped a cutter under the edge while the others waited
expectantly, for the address indicated that the contents was of interest
to all of them.
"What does this mean?" she cried as she read. "What is it? Is it true?"
She was so excited that they all crowded around her to see what had
taken away her power of explanation.
The letter was signed "Justine Millerand."
"Mademoiselle," cried all who could see the signature.
"She says," read Ethel Blue, finding her strength again, "'Here is the
Belgian baby you asked for. She is two years old and her name is
"Elisabeth," after the Queen of Belgium!'"
"Is that all?"
"That's all."
"But she says, '_Here_ is the Belgian baby.' _Where_ is the Belgian
baby?"
They turned toward Mary who had remained in the room.
"There's a Red Cross nurse in the reception room," she explained. "She
said she'd rather you read the letter first."
They made a rush for the door. Roger reached it first and ushered the
nurse into the living room. She was dressed in her grey uniform and
sheltered under her cape the thinnest, wannest mite of humanity that
ever the Club had seen outside of the streets of a city slum.
"Mademoiselle Millerand said you had asked for a Belgian baby," she
began, but she was interrupted by a cry from the entire throng.
"We did; we did," they exclaimed so earnestly that any doubts she may
have felt about the cordiality of their reception of her nursling were
banished at once.
"Your mother?" she asked.
"I don't believe Mother really expected it to come, any more than we
did," replied Helen frankly, "but she will love it just as we will, and
we'll take the very best of care of her."
She offered her finger to Elisabeth, who clutched it and gazed solemnly
at her out of her sunken blue eyes.
Ethel Blue in the back of the group gave a sob.
"She'll pick up soon when she has good food every day," the nurse
reassured them, and then she told them of her own experiences.
She had been, it seemed, in the same hospital with Mademoiselle in
Belgium. Out on the field one day a bit of shrapnel had wounded her foot
so that she was forced to come home. Mademoiselle had asked her to bring
over this mite "to the kindest young people in the world," and here she
was.
The baby's father and mother were both dead, she went on. That she knew.
"Are you sure her name is Elisabeth?" asked Dorothy.
"That's what she calls herself."
By this time Elisabeth had made friends with every one of them and was
sitting comfortably on one of Roger's knees while Dicky occupied the
other and made acceptable gestures toward her.
"She'll be happy here," said the nurse, and rose to explain her visit to
Mrs. Morton.
Like the girls, Mrs. Morton had not expected that Mademoiselle would
respond to their request for a Belgian baby and she was somewhat taken
back by its appearance.
"I can see that you did not look for her," the nurse suggested, "but
when you are on the spot and are seeing such hideous distress every day
and a chance opens to relieve just one little child, it is more than you
can resist. I know that is why Mademoiselle Millerand sent her."
"I quite understand," responded Mrs. Morton cordially. "Elisabeth shall
have a happy home in Rosemont."
"And a baker's dozen of fathers and mothers to make up for her own,"
said James.
"And we're grateful to you for bringing her," said Ethel Blue, offering
her hand.
It was after the nurse had had a cup of tea and had returned to New York
that Helen called the Club to order formally.
"The Club has got its work cut out for it for a long time to come," she
said. "I don't think we have any right to bring this baby over to
America and then send it to an orphanage, though that would be the
easiest way to do."
"We'll never do that," said Margaret firmly.
"If we are going to take care of it it means that we'll have to earn
money for it and give it our personal care. Now, all in favor of
accepting Elisabeth as our Club baby, say 'Aye.'"
There was a hearty assent.
"There are no contrary-minded," declared the president. "From now on she
belongs to us."
"And here's my forget-me-not pin to prove it," said Ethel Blue,
fastening it on the baby's dress.
"Just what we'll have to do about her we must think out carefully and
talk over with our mothers," went on Helen. "But this minute we can
accept our new club member and cry all together, 'Three cheers for
Elisabeth of Belgium.'"
And at the shout that followed, Elisabeth of Belgium gave her first
faint smile.
THE END
Girl Aviators Adventures
By MARGARET BURNHAM
Contact! Gas! Ignition! with a roar of motors and whirling propellers
the Aviator Girls glide down the runway. Gracefully the big ship takes
the air, circles the airport and they are off on their glorious
adventures among the clouds. These books are printed from an easily
readable type, bound in cloth, and jacketed in an illustrative wrapper
printed in full colors and varnished.
1. GIRL AVIATORS AND THE PHANTOM AIRSHIP
2. GIRL AVIATORS ON GOLDEN WINGS
3. GIRL AVIATORS SKY CRUISE
4. GIRL AVIATORS MOTOR BUTTERFLY
Motor Maids Travels
By KATHERINE STOKES
A fast motor and the thrill of the open road, with the whole world for a
playground. Come with the adventurous Motor Maids as they surmount every
obstacle and unravel every mystery they encounter in all parts of the
world. The easily readable type and cloth binding jacketed in an
attractive illustrative wrapper that is varnished makes the books a
welcome addition to any library.
1. MOTOR MAIDS' SCHOOL DAYS
2. MOTOR MAIDS ACROSS THE CONTINENT
3. MOTOR MAIDS AT SUNRISE CAMP
4. MOTOR MAIDS IN FAIR JAPAN
_For sale at all Booksellers or sent
Postpaid on receipt of 40 cents_
M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
711 SOUTH DEARBORN STREET, CHICAGO
VICTORY BOY SCOUTS
Come with the Boy Scouts on their hikes, learn with them secrets of
woods and waters, join them at their council fires, overcome with them
the many problems and trials that make the Boy Scouts the outstanding
young men in their community.
1. Afloat; or, Adventures on Watery Trails
2. Boy Scouts in an Airship
3. Boy Scout Electricians
4. Boy Scouts on Open Plains
5. The Campfires of the Wolf Patrol
6. Endurance Test; or, How Clear Grit Won the Day
7. Great Hike; or, the Pride of Khaki Troop
8. Pathfinder; or, the Missing Tenderfoot
9. Storm-bound; or, a Vacation Among the Snow Drifts
10. Tenderfoot Squad; or, Camping at Raccoon Bluff
11. Under Canvas; or, The Search for the Carteret Ghost
12. Woodcraft; or, How a Patrol Leader Made Good
_For sale at all Booksellers or sent
Postpaid on receipt of 40 cents_
M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
711 SOUTH DEARBORN STREET, CHICAGO
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.