J

ACK Welles' cheerful whistle sounded outside.

"Coming!" answered Rosemary.

She flung her arms about Aunt Trudy and gave her a penitent hug.

"I'm sorry I was cross, Auntie," she whispered. "You know I didn't mean it."

Then she sped out the front door and joined Jack who was waiting on the walk outside the hedge.

"Come on uptown and have a soda," he suggested. "Perhaps it will cool you off—you look slightly wild."

"I feel wild," admitted Rosemary, falling into step beside him. "This has been the most dreadful day!"

"Weather's enough to make anyone cross," said the boy quickly. "I'll bet the trouble is you're doing everyone's work. Hugh ought to make Sarah stir around. She's lazy.""No, I don't think she is lazy," protested Rosemary, "Only, well you know Jack, it was more fun doing the things you have to do when Mother was home. I can't explain it very well, but I remember last summer Sarah thought she'd wash the upstairs windows to surprise Mother—Winnie was sick and Mother happened to say she didn't know when in the world the windows would get cleaned. Sarah heard her and the next day she lugged up a pail of water and a cloth and tried to wash them. She splashed water all over the wall paper and made an awful mess of it, but Mother kissed her and praised her and said she was glad she had such a helpful little daughter. Aunt Trudy isn't like that and Sarah likes to be praised for what she does. Aunt Trudy never tells her she makes a bed well, but if there is a wrinkle in the spread she shows her that. Sarah made the beds all right for a long time, but now she goes off mornings and plays."

"I knew it," nodded Jack, "and Winnie has a list of troubles a mile long waiting for you every night."

"Morning," corrected Rosemary, laughing. "Oh, Jack how do you know so much? I don't see how I could get along without you, because you're the only one who listens to my troubles. Hugh is a dear, but he is so busy, and we're forbidden to write anything that will bother Mother."

"Fire into me any time you feel like it," invited Jack, steering her toward the drug-store steps and the soda fountain therein. "I'm always ready to listen and if you want any punching done, just let me know."

But the next hard day, when everything seemed to go wrong from breakfast time to the dinner hour, no Jack was at hand to listen to Rosemary's recital. He had gone away for a week's fishing trip with his father.

The day started with a pitched battle between Winnie and Sarah after breakfast, over the question of feeding the cat the top of the milk. Sarah declared passionately that she would starve herself before she would feed a defenseless cat skimmed milk and Winnie, with equal fervor, had announced that when she saw herself handing over the top milk to a cat they might send her to the insane asylum without delay.

"You're a mean, hateful woman!" shouted Sarah, rushing out of the kitchen and shutting the door on Shirley's finger which was too near the crack.

Shirley screamed with pain and after Rosemary had bathed the poor bruised finger and Winnie had comforted the child with a cookie, Aunt Trudy declared that her nerves were too unstrung to spend the day in such a house and that she would go to town and shop.

"That means I'll have to answer the telephone while I'm practising," grumbled Rosemary. "Oh, dear, how selfish everyone is! I've a good mind to sit down and read on the porch while it is shady. All the others do as they please and I will, too."

Her book was interesting, and there was a blessed freedom from interruptions. Rosemary was amazed when Sarah, warm and dirty from grubbing in the rabbit house appeared at the foot of the steps and demanded to know if lunch was ready.

"Oh well, I'll make the beds and pick up after lunch," said Rosemary to herself.

Shirley assumed the airs of an invalid at the lunch table and secured large portions of meat and dessert as a concession to her hurt finger. She ignored the vegetables entirely though the meal was supposed to be her dinner and Doctor Hugh had given orders that she was to be fed after certain rules.

Winnie was put out because the iceman was late and her dinner supplies threatened to spoil and Sarah insisted on the hot-water heater being lit so that she might have hot water in which to wash her cat. The wrangle with Winnie over this continued throughout the meal.

"I don't care whether you wash the cat or not," said Rosemary, when Sarah followed her to the corner of the living-room where the piano stood. "I'm going to practise, and don't bother me."

"Silly old music," grumbled Sarah, "come on, Shirley, let's go sail boats in the bath-tub."

Rosemary spent the afternoon at the piano, having promised herself that she would put in a full two hours over her music. The numerous interruptions spun out the time so that when she finally closed the lid the little clock on the mantelpiece chimed five.

"Good gracious, the beds aren't made!" thought Rosemary and flew up the stairs.

One glance into the bathroom halted her and cooled her energy. Shirley and Sarah had spent a busy afternoon, sailing boats in the tub. They had used every clean towel in sight to mop up the puddles on the floor and they were wet to their chins. Rosemary hustled them off to get into clean dry clothes and then worked feverishly to restore the room to a semblance of order. Aunt Trudy came home before she had finished and when she saw the unmade beds and the morning's disorder still untouched, she spoke her mind in no uncertain terms.

"Everybody has a grouch," observed Sarah cheerfully when they sat down to dinner. Doctor Hugh had not come in.

"Don't use that word, Sarah," reproved her aunt, sugaring a bowl of boiled rice for Shirley.

"Don't want rice, want cutylet," said Shirley, pointing to the veal cutlet.

"She's had enough meat to-day," interposed Winnie. "The doctor says she shouldn't have it at all at night."

Shirley refused to touch the rice and was sitting in stately aloofness when Doctor Hugh came in looking warm and tired.

"What's the matter?" he asked, dropping into his chair and testing the soup Winnie instantly placed before him. Hugh was her idol and she always managed not to keep him waiting. "Heat too much for you?" he added.

"Grouches is what ails 'em," volunteered Sarah.

"I've asked her not to use that word, but no one pays any attention to my wishes," sighed Aunt Trudy."All right, drop it, Sarah," said Doctor Hugh shortly. "Aren't you eating to-night, sweetheart?" he asked Shirley.

"I want some cutylet," said Shirley wistfully. "I don't like rice."

"She ate nothing for her dinner but beef loaf and two helps of date pudding," announced Winnie. "I don't know when she expects to learn to eat sensible and like a Christian."

"Well, if Rosemary would take a little interest in the child and coax her, she would soon learn to like vegetables," said Aunt Trudy. "I think Shirley is left too much to herself."

Rosemary flushed, but her brother spoke before she could reply.

"You eat your rice, Shirley, or not one other thing can you have to-night," he announced, with unusual severity, for Shirley was his pet. "No, crying won't do you any good—eat your rice and stop whining."

"I think you ought to know how things go when I'm not here, Hugh," began Aunt Trudy while Shirley ate her rice sulkily. "I was so upset this morning that I thought I should fly if I stayed in the house, so I went up to the city and shopped. I came in about half past five and not one bed was made! The children's clothes lay just where they had flung them last night. That's a nice way, isn't it? Apparently I can not leave home for a few hours without finding everything shirked on my return."

Rosemary's blue eyes blazed with quick anger and an unlovely look came into her face.

"I don't care if I didn't make the beds!" she cried hotly. "I'm sick and tired of beds and dusting and answering the telephone. You never expect anyone in this house to do a single thing, but me!"

"Rosemary!" said Doctor Hugh.

"I don't think you should speak to me like that," asserted Aunt Trudy on the verge of tears.

"I won't speak to you at all!" jerked Rosemary. "That's the only way to please you."

Aunt Trudy began to cry and Doctor Hugh pushed back his plate.

"Please leave the table, Rosemary," he said distinctly. "Go into the office and wait for me."

Rosemary rushed from the table like a whirlwind and the house shook as she banged the office door.

"I don't care!" she raged, in the depths of the comfortable shabby arm-chair that had been her father's. "I don't care! Aunt Trudy always cries and it isn't fair. I suppose Hugh will be furious, but let him. I'm so tired and so hot and so miserable—" and Rosemary gave herself up to a passion of angry tears.

She had been crying in the dark and when the door opened and someone switched on the light she knew it was Doctor Hugh. She slipped down from the chair and walked around back of the desk. He took the swivel chair and glanced at her half-averted face gravely.

"Rosemary," he said gently, "how would you like to ride over to Bennington with me to-morrow? They're opening the new hospital and I half promised to go. We'll be gone all the morning and it will make a little change for you."

Bennington was the county seat, twenty miles away. It should be delightful not to have anything to do the next morning but put on a clean frock and go with Hugh. He might even let her drive the car a few minutes at a time on a straight stretch of road—Rosemary found her tongue.

"Oh, Hugh, I'd love it!" she said enthusiastically.

"All right, so should I," he smiled. "I think you need a bit of pleasure. Things going rather hard for you, dear?"Rosemary nodded, a lump in her throat surprising her. She had expected Hugh to be angry and to scold. Instead he was very gentle.

"I'm sorry," he said, "Very sorry. You miss Mother, I know; we all do. But I think you are learning a good deal this summer without her. I've been watching you, and you are more self-reliant and capable every day. Several people have spoken to me about the way you answer the 'phone and the intelligent answers you give them. I don't know what I should do without you."

Rosemary flushed with pleasure. Then, being Rosemary, she flung herself headlong at her brother, narrowly missing his glasses.

"Oh, Hugh! Hugh dear, I am sorry I acted so to-night!" she wept.

"There, there," he patted her gently. "You didn't mean to be cross, we all know that. You were tired and so was Aunt Trudy. I guess this heat has about worn everybody out. I tried to warn you, but the fireworks had to blaze up. Now kiss me, like my sweet girl, for I'm going out again, and then make your peace with Aunt Trudy. And to-morrow morning we'll leave dull care behind us and enjoy ourselves for a few hours.""Shirley would love to go," suggested Rosemary.

"All right, I thought you ought to leave the cares behind, but we'll take Shirley if you say so," was the answer.