"How nice and cool it is up here!"
Betty, looking very grown-up and quite as if she were used to taking
luncheon in a roof garden every day, smiled contentedly at Uncle Jack
over her glass of lemonade.
"Cool as a cucumber," said her uncle. "Hard to realize how sweltering
hot it is down there in the street, isn't it? Betty, what's _your_
Safety work going to be when school begins?"
Betty glanced at Bob; she had not yet told even him about her plan.
"First, I suppose, I'll serve my month on the School Safety Patrol; and
then--then, I'm going to talk to my teacher about starting Safety Games
in the lower grades."
"Safety Games!" Bob's tone showed his surprise.
"Yes, Bob. Funny sounding idea, isn't it? But I've thought out a lot of
games that the kindergarten children can play, games that will be brand
new to them, and lots of fun, and at the same time will get them into
the habit of thinking Safety and looking out for themselves on the
street."
"Tell us one," demanded Bob.
"Well," said Betty, "one of them I call 'Little Safety Scout.' We can
begin by asking the little folks in one grade what things they ought to
keep in mind when crossing a busy street. The one that gives the best
answer is made 'Little Safety Scout.' One of the biggest boys plays he's
the crossing policeman, other children play street cars, others make
believe they're automobiles, and so on. The rest are just people trying
to get across the street, and they have trouble trying to understand
what the policeman's whistle signals mean, and some get run over, and
some are saved by the 'Little Safety Scout,' and others show the right
way to get on and off a car, and all that."
"Well, Betty Dalton," cried Uncle Jack, "you're a regular little witch!
Why, that's a dandy plan. The first thing you know, you'll have the
little folks able to take care of themselves on the streets better than
the grown-ups do!"
"Fine!" chimed in Bob. "And we can give them Sure Pop buttons, too!"
"That's right, we can," said Betty. "We can give buttons to the children
who pass an easy little Safety First examination after we've played the
Safety Games a few weeks. And perhaps we might make some Safety posters
to hang on the schoolroom walls; just big posters in colored crayons,
with a picture of Sure Pop and one of his Safety mottoes below it in big
letters,--like, 'Folks that have no wings must use their
wits,'--something that would make the children remember the point of the
story longer. Don't you think that would help along?"
Thus the three friends went on planning, till the jolly head waiter
asked them for the ninth time if they wouldn't have something more, and
Uncle Jack looked at his watch with a start of surprise.
"Four o'clock! Whew! We must get out of this. We have lots to do yet
before we go home, and I told the chauffeur to be back here at five.
Let's stop in the cold-storage room below."
"Is that what makes the roof so cool?" asked Betty, as they looked
around on the floor below.
"Ha, ha! Not a bad idea--perhaps it does have something to do with it.
No, this is where the store keeps its furs during the summer months.
Moths can't stand the cold, you know. Come on, we'll go on down now."
The elevator car was nearly full of people from the roof garden. Betty
started to step in, hesitated, then turned back. Uncle Jack motioned her
and Bob in, stepped in after them, and carefully turned so that he faced
the elevator door.
"That was a risky thing you did just then," he whispered to Betty.
"Three quarters of all the elevator accidents are due to stepping in or
out in the wrong way. Never do the thing halfway, you know. Always wait
till the elevator man stops the car at the floor level and throws the
door wide open."
Next to them in the elevator stood two boys--cash boys in the store--who
were fooling and scuffling so close to the door that the elevator man
cautioned them twice as the car dropped swiftly downward. Finally one of
them brought his heel down on the other's foot so hard that the other
jumped backward, forgetting everything else for the pain. Forward went
his head--bang went his face against the iron grating of the door they
were just passing.
The elevator stopped with a jerk. They carried the boy out and sent for
the store doctor. Bob and Betty never had to be reminded, in all the
years to come, to look sharp when riding in elevators. The memory of
that bruised and battered face was warning enough.
"It's a dangerous machine," said Uncle Jack as they left the store. "A
fellow who will scuffle in an elevator is foolish enough for almost
anything. Here's our next stop," and he showed them into a shop with a
big sign over the double door: