Ethel Morton at Rose House

Ethel Morton at Rose House

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S. C. Smith
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Title: Ethel Morton at Rose House
Author: Mabell S. C. Smith
Release Date: April 5, 2005 [eBook #15550]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE***
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Juvenile Library Girls Series
ETHEL MORTON AT ROSE HOUSE
by
MABELL S. C. SMITH
The World Syndicate Publishing Co. Cleveland New York Press of the
Commercial Bookbinding Co., Cleveland
1915

[Frontispiece: "Here's where we should land"]

CHAPTER I
ROGER'S IDEA
For the fortieth time that afternoon, it seemed to Ethel Brown Morton
and her cousin, Ethel Blue, they untangled the hopelessly mixed
garlands of the maypole and started the weavers once more to lacing
and interlacing them properly.
"Under, over; under, over," they directed, each girl escorting a small
child in and out among the gay bands of pink and white which
streamed from the top of the pole.
May Day in New Jersey is never a certain quality; it may be
reminiscent of the North Pole or the Equator. This happened to be the
hottest day of the year so far, and both Ethels had wiped their foreheads
until their handkerchiefs were small balls too soaked to be of any
further use. But they kept on, for this was the first Community Maypole
that Rosemont ever had had, and the United Service Club, to which the
girls belonged, was doing its part to make the afternoon successful.
Helen, Ethel Brown's sister, and Margaret Hancock, another member of
the Club, were teaching the younger children a folk dance on the side
of the lawn; Roger Morton, James Hancock and Tom Watkins were
marshalling a group of boys and marching them back and forth across
the end of the grass plot nearest the schoolhouse. Delia Watkins, Tom's
sister, and Dorothy Smith, a cousin of the Mortons, were going about
among the mothers and urging them to let the little ones take part in the
games. Everybody was busy until dusk sent the small children home
and the caretaker came to uproot the pole and to shake his head ruefully
over the condition of the lawn whose smoothness had been roughened
by the tread of scores of dancing feet.
It was while the Club members were sitting on the Mortons' veranda,
resting, that Helen, who was president of the Club, called them to

order.
"Saturday afternoon is our usual time of meeting," she began, "and no
one can say that we haven't put in a solid afternoon of service."
Groans as one and another shifted a cramped position to another more
restful for weary feet confirmed her statement.
"What I want to say now is that it's time for us to be thinking up some
more service work. We are all studying pretty hard so we don't want to
undertake anything that will use up our out-of-door time too much, but
we haven't anything in prospect except helping with the town Fourth of
July celebration, over two months away, so we might as well be
planning something else."
"Do I understand, Madam President," asked Roger, "that the chief
officer of this distinguished Club hasn't any ideas to suggest?"
"The chief officer is so tired that not even another glass of
lemonade--thank you, Tom--can stir her gray matter."
"Hasn't anybody else any ideas?"
Silence greeted the question.
"I seem to remember boasts that ideas never would fail this brilliant
group," jeered Roger.
"There were some such remarks," James recalled meditatively; "and I
remember that you prophesied that the day would come when we'd call
on you for information about some stupendous scheme of yours that
was literally as big as a house. Let's have it now."
"Do I understand that you're really appealing to me to learn my
scheme?" inquired Roger, swelling with amusement.
"If it's any satisfaction to you--yes," replied his sister.
Roger burst into a peal of laughter.

"Shoot off the answers, old man," urged James. "We're waiting."
"Breathlessly," added Margaret.
Roger settled himself comfortably on the top step of the piazza and
leaned his head against the post.
"It certainly does me good to see you all at my feet begging like this,"
he declared.
"Bosh! You're at ours and I can prove it," asserted Tom, stretching out
a foot of goodly