Ethel Morton at Rose House | Page 3

look upon."
"The mothers and children will be out of doors all the time, so they
won't sit around and examine the furniture," laughed Delia.
"It will be scanty, probably, but if we can get beds enough and a chair
apiece, or a substitute for a chair, and a few tables, we can get along."
"There's your house provided and furnished after a fashion--how are
you going to run it?" inquired Helen. "It takes shekels to buy even very
plain food in these days of the 'high cost of living," and we've got to

give these women and children nourishing food; they can't live on fresh
air alone."
"Praise be, fresh air costs nothing!"
"That's one thing we'll get free," laughed Roger. "Grandfather told me
to investigate and see what I could find out about finances and then let
him know. So I went in to see Mr. Watkins."
"And never told me," said Tom reproachfully.
"Of course not. All of you people were too sniffy. I told your father
what the plan was and what Grandfather had said. He thought it was
great. He's a corker, your father is."
Delia and Tom looked somewhat startled at this epithet describing their
parent, but Roger meant it to be complimentary, so they made no
remonstrance.
"He said right off that he could provide the women and children in any
numbers and that he'd select the ones that needed the change most and
would be most benefited by it."
"It's not hard to find those," murmured Delia.
"Then he said that he had certain funds that he could draw on for such
cases and that he'd be just as willing to pay the board for these women
and children at Rosemont as anywhere else, so that we could depend on
a small sum for each one of them from the treasurer of the chapel."
"That ought to cover the expense of their food," said Helen, "but we'll
have to have a housekeeper and a cook."
"That's what Aunt Louise said."
"Oho, you've been talking with Mother about it!" exclaimed Dorothy.
"I knew the Club would come to me sooner or later, it was only a
matter of time, so I made ready to answer some of the questions you'd

be asking me."
They laughed at Roger's preparedness, but nodded approvingly.
"Aunt Louise said she'd pay the wages of the cook, and then I toddled
off to Grandmother Emerson and told her I was planning to raid her
attic for old furniture, and asked her incidentally if she thought we
could run the thing without a housekeeper."
"I hope she said 'yes'," exclaimed Margaret, who liked to administer a
household.
"Grandmother was very polite; she said she thought the U. S. C. could
do anything it set out to do, but that there would be countless odds and
ends that would occupy us all summer long--"
"Like making a continuous stream of furniture!"
"And going marketing and doing errands."
"And mowing the grass."
"And playing games with the kids."
"O, a thousand things would crop up; we never could be idle; and so
she thought we'd better have a responsible woman as housekeeper.
What's more she said she'd pay her."
"It wouldn't be polite for me to say about a lady what you said about
Mr. Watkins," said James--
"For which I apologize," declared Roger parenthetically.
"--but I'd like to remark that she's one of the most reliable
grandmothers I ever had anything to do with!"
They all laughed again.
"Where we'll get these two women I don't know," said Roger. "My

researches stopped there. But I suppose it wouldn't be difficult."
"I've heard Mother say that the 'responsible woman' was the hardest
person on earth to find," said Helen, thoughtfully. "But we can all
hunt."
"I know some one who might do if she'd be willing--and I don't know
why she wouldn't," said Ethel Brown.
"Who? Who? Some one in Rosemont?"
"Right here in Rosemont. Mrs. Schuler."
"Mrs. Schuler?"
There was a cry of wonder, for Mrs. Schuler was the teacher of German
in the high school. She had been engaged to Mr. Schuler, who taught
singing in the Rosemont schools, before the war broke out. Mr. Schuler
was called to the colors and lost a leg in the early part of the war. Since
he could no longer be useful as a fighter he had been allowed to return
to America, and his betrothed had married him at once so that she and
her mother, Mrs. Hindenburg, might nurse him back to health. He had
been slowly regaining his strength through the winter, and was now
fairly well and as cheerful as his crippled state would permit.
"You know I've been to see Mrs. Hindenburg a good deal ever since we
got her to