After the usual formalities of a meeting, Captain Hooker desired the
girls' full attention. She held a formidable sheaf of notes in her hand,
and it looked to the Scouts as though there was going to be a good deal
of work parcelled out to them.
"In the first place," said their Captain, "I have asked the approval of
the National Headquarters, and you are at liberty to send a Thanks badge
to Doctor Branshaw. Now you have not yet sent him any formal thanks for
what he did for Gwenny and I wonder if any of you have an idea of some
attractive way of expressing your gratitude."
"I thought of something, Captain," said Lucy Breen, "but perhaps it
wouldn't do."
"Let us hear it," said the Captain.
"How would it be to write him, each of us, a short letter of thanks,
just a few words, and at the top of each letter paste a snapshot of the
girl who has written it? Then bind them all in a sort of cover or folder
with our motto and a print of our flower on the outside."
"I think that is simply a splendid idea," cried the Captain. "Don't you
think so, girls?"
Of course everyone did, and it was settled that Rosanna should go and
buy the paper for the letters so they should all be alike. As for the
cover, Miss Hooker, who was an artist of more than ordinary talent and
skill, offered to illuminate the cover with the cornflower as the motif;
and she decided to illuminate it on parchment, with the deep blue of the
flowers and dull gold lettering. The girls who had no snapshot of
themselves promised to have one taken at once. Before they finished, the
"Thanks Book" as they called it, promised to become a beautiful and very
attractive affair. Miss Hooker warned them all to write natural and
simple letters.
"How many of you have been over to see Gwenny in her new home?" asked
the Captain. "After the holidays, I think it would be a very kind thing
for you to each give up an afternoon once in so often (you can decide
how often you can spare the time), and go spend the afternoon with
Gwenny. Her mother feels that she should do a little work now and that
faithful little Mary is taking care of a couple of children over here on
Third Street every afternoon, to earn her share of the household
expenses. So Gwenny is left very much alone."
"My mother has been in the Norton Infirmary for a month," said one of
the girls, "and she said the nurse told her that it would mean a great
deal to some of these patients if we girls would only come in once in
awhile, and talk to some of the patients who get so lonely. Mother said
there was a boy there with a broken hip, and he was always going to be
lame, and he grieved so about it all the time that it kept him from
getting well. And there was another patient, a girl about my age, with
something wrong with her back. She is in a plaster cast, and her only
relative is a father who travels, and he is in California."
"Now there is an idea for you all," said Miss Hooker. "I want to talk
all these things over today, because if I am away at any time I want to
feel that I know just about what you are doing. I should think that it
would do a lot of good to visit those poor young people. There is just
one thing to remember if you want to be popular with the nurses and
helpful to the patients: always stay just a little _shorter_ time than
you are expected to. Then the nurses feel that you are wise enough to be
trusted without tiring the patients, and the patients are left with the
desire to see you soon again."
"That is just what my mother said," said the girl who had spoken. "She
says so many people come who just stay and stay and if the nurse does
not get around in time to send them home, why, they have the patient in
a fever."
"Perfectly true," said Miss Hooker. "Make your visits short--and often.
Next," said the Captain, "I want to tell you that Lucy Breen has passed
the examinations successfully in two subjects. She is now entitled to
wear the Merit badge for Horsemanship and Clerk."
All the girls clapped.
"_Bon bon_, dear Lucee!" whispered Elise.
Lucy smiled back at the dear girl who had befriended her at a moment
when she needed a friend so badly.
"I want to ask how many of you girls are taking regular exercises every
morning?" asked Captain Hooker. "It does not seem as though you had as
good color as you should have. I want my girls to be the finest looking
troop at the great meeting in the spring. It is to be in Washington; did
I tell you? And I want every one of you to go. Now, there is an
incentive to work. The rally is in June just after school is over, and I
want you to earn the money for your railroad tickets. Of course we will
all get special rates, and it will not cost us anything after we arrive
there, as we will be the guests of the Washington Scouts, or some of the
women's organizations. But you should all of you be able to earn ten
dollars before that time. It will take that much, but no more. If any of
you girls belong to families who could send you, you are at liberty to
help some other girl who is less fortunate, but you must each one of you
earn the sum I have mentioned."
"What if we earn more?" asked Lucy Breen.
"I am sure you will be glad to have a little spending money when you get
to Washington," said Miss Hooker.
"Some of us will earn more and some less," said Helen. "After we earn
the ten dollars, why couldn't we put everything else we earn in your
hands, and then it could be evenly divided at the end, and we would each
have the same amount to spend, and when we come home we can each tell
what we spent it for."
"Splendid!" exclaimed Miss Hooker. "What do you girls think of that? I
think it would be quite a test of your ability to get a good deal of
pleasure or profit out of a stated amount."
Again everybody clapped, and with a little more discussion the subject
was left settled.
One of the Webster girls raised a hand.
"What would you suggest that we could do to earn money?" she said. "All
we can do is dance, and mamma won't let us dance in public until we are
grown up. We don't know how to do anything else."
"Marian, I get awfully cross with you sometimes," laughed Miss Hooker.
"What are those two merit badges on your sleeve?"
"Oh, _those_!" said Marian in a helpless voice. "The gridiron for
Cooking and the palm leaf for Invalid Cooking. But I can't go out and
cook."
"What can you make best?" asked Miss Hooker.
Another girl spoke up. "She makes the loveliest jellies you ever tasted
and they always stand right up, never slump over at all."
"And you, Evelyn Webster, what is that on your sleeve?"
"The palette," said Evelyn.
"There you are!" said Miss Hooker. "What is the good of earning these
badges if you are never going to make use of the things they stand for?"
She picked up the Girl Scouts Hand Book that was lying on her lap, and
turning over the pages said, "Listen to this:
"Employment.
"'Stick to it,' the thrush sings. One of the worst weaknesses of many
people is that they do not have the perseverance to stick to what they
have to do. They are always wanting to change. Whatever you do, take up
with all your might and stick to it. Besides the professions of nursing,
teaching, stenography and typewriting and clerking, there are many less
crowded employments, such as hairdressing, making flowers, coloring
photographs, and assisting dentists, and gardening. There are many
occupations for women, but before any new employment can be taken up,
one must begin while young to make plans and begin collecting
information. 'Luck is like a street car, the only way to get it, is to
look out for every chance and seize it--run at it, and jump on; don't
sit down and wait for it to pass. Opportunity is a street car which has
few stopping places.'
"Now there you are, Marian and Evelyn, with your jelly and your
beautiful lettering. Make some of that jelly, and put it in the
prettiest glasses you can find, and tie the tops on with a little ribbon
from the five-and-ten-cent store, and illuminate some sample cards for
window displays, and take them down to the Women's Exchange. You,
Evelyn, take your cards to the manager of one of the big stores, and ask
him if he could use such work. He will probably want a thousand of them.
I am glad this came up. If you are all as helpless as Evelyn and Marian
when it comes to using your knowledge, why, there is really not much use
in earning merit badges.
"I think we will talk this over for ten minutes informally, and then we
will call the roll, and see what each one thinks she can do."
The Captain turned to the Lieutenant and commenced to talk to her in a
low tone, and for ten minutes the room buzzed. Then at the sharp command
of the Lieutenant's whistle silence fell, and the roll was called, and
each girl's chosen task was jotted down beside her name. The outlook was
rather black for some of the girls who had chosen to try for merits in
unusual rather than in available subjects. For instance, one girl wore
badges for proficiency in Swimming, Signaling, Pioneer, Pathfinder, and
Marksmanship.
None of these seemed to offer an opening for moneymaking, especially
during the winter months. But she was plucky, and merely said that she
would find a way to earn the money. And she did it by going to the Y. W.
C. A. and assisting the swimming mistress for a couple of hours every
afternoon. So well did she do that when the money was turned in, she had
twenty-five dollars to put in the general fund for spending money.
Another girl had a merit badge for Aviation, but she went to work in her
workshop and built box kites that no boy could resist, and sold them by
the dozen.
As Miss Hooker told them, the trick was to make use of what they had
learned. Of course a good deal of this worked itself out later, but when
they had finished their discussion, and Miss Hooker had urged them to
get to work as soon as they possibly could, she changed the subject by
saying, with just a little hesitation:
"I wonder how many of you know that I am to be married?"
Every hand rose and a voice said, "But we don't know when."
"That is what I want to talk to you about," smiled Miss Hooker. "We are
going to be married on the fifteenth of February, and I shall not have
bridesmaids and all that girls usually have; I want my own Scout girls
as attendants--all of you. Will you all come?"
There was a series of exclamations of "Oh, Miss Hooker!" and "Indeed we
will!"
"Thank you!" said Miss Hooker, quite as though she was asking a favor
instead of conferring one. "Then I will depend on all of you, and a
little later I will tell you the plan I have for the wedding. Of course
you are to arrange to attend the reception afterwards, and we will have
automobiles to take you all home."
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" chorused the girls.
Miss Hooker found that after her invitation it was impossible to
interest the girls in anything in the nature of routine work, so she
soon dismissed the meeting, and the girls as usual piling into the
automobiles belonging to Rosanna and Elise and Lucy and one or two
others, were driven home in a great state of excitement.
A Girl Scout wedding! That was what it amounted to. Miss Hooker,--their
dear Captain, thought so much of them that she had chosen them to attend
her rather than her own friends. It was thrilling in the extreme.
It struck about twenty of them about the same time later, that there had
been nothing said about clothes. This was an awful thought. Rosanna
seemed likely to know more than any of the others, on account of the
distinction of having Miss Hooker marry her uncle, so the twenty anxious
maidens rushed to as many telephones and gave central a very bad time
for about an hour, saying "Line's busy," while Rosanna talked to each
one as she secured a clear line, and assured her that she knew nothing
at all about it.