How Ethel Hollister Became a Campfire Girl | Page 8

place of sixty for candy and soda and such nonsense. No one knows of it but Susan and I. I'm going to beg for oatmeal and rice and bread of the grocers with whom we've traded for years, and if they refuse I'll influence Mother to leave them. Then I think Dad will help me out on milk and anything needed. I'll confide in him."
"That's a fine and magnificent idea, Dorothy," said Mrs. Hollister, "and you'll become a public benefactor."
"Well, you see, Mrs. Hollister, I like the little kids and I've seen such pitiful faces on some where the sisters have had to take care of them while the mothers worked. So I made up my mind I could take ten little ones anyway. Then the mothers' four cents will be forty cents a day. That will pay for some, of the food. Oh! I'm going to become a beggar and ask every friend to help me. Maybe it will fail but I can try. The boys will give, I'm sure."
"Yes, Dorothy, and I bet you'll succeed," said the girls. "We'll help, too."
Then each girl pledged herself for what she could afford to give.
"Well, you're awfully good, I'm sure," said Dorothy. "I never dreamed you'd all come forward. You're certainly sports, every one of you, and I'm obliged more than I can tell you."
"Who knows," said Grandmother Hollister, "but when you're grown up, you'll have a large house, and it may be called 'The Kip Day Nursery' and each of you girls here may be lady managers. They all grow from small beginnings. And, Dorothy, you may put me down for ten dollars," said Mrs. Hollister.
"Oh, say, you're a thoroughbred, you are," and the girl kissed her impulsively several times.
Now Grandmother Hollister had been saving that particular ten for a new lace scarf. It had been sent to her on her birthday by her son John, but she couldn't resist giving it. She could do without the scarf, and ten dollars would buy a couple or more warm rugs for the babies to sit on, for little ones like to sit on the floor.
The girls stayed in her room and chatted until dusk. They talked as freely before the old lady as before one another.
That evening Ethel asked her grandmother if there wasn't some way by which she could get away that summer and go to visit Cousin Kate.
"I'll think it over," replied Grandmother; "you certainly need the country. You look thin and peaked."
"Yes, and Mamma will take me to Newport or Narragansett, and I hate it. Why, it's just like New York. You meet the very same people and I never cared for the water as I care for inland or mountains. Do think out a way, Grandmamma. You always manage to do everything just right."
"I'll try," replied Mrs. Hollister.
CHAPTER VI
AUNT SUSAN ARRIVES
The next morning there came a letter of acceptance from Aunt Susan. She would arrive on Friday. This was Thursday. Grandmother Hollister hummed a little song as she went up stairs.
"It will do Mother lots of good," ejaculated Mr. Hollister. "It was kind of you, Bella, to think of that."
Mrs. Hollister blushed. Ethel watched her as she slowly sipped her coffee. Mrs. Hollister was a peculiar woman. She was truthful and frank when she wished to be. Now she realized that her husband trusted and had faith in her and that Ethel was furtively watching her, so she said: "Well, Archie, perhaps I was a little selfish in asking Aunt Susan. Perhaps I did it to help Ethel a bit as well as to please Mother. Aunt Susan is wealthy. Now why shouldn't Ethel come in for some of her money as well as that adopted boy?"
"Why, Bella," said her husband, "is it possible that you had only that idea in your head when you invited my aunt here?"
"No, not entirely. I knew that it would please your mother, and I could kill two birds with one stone. That's why."
Ethel saw a peculiar look come upon her father's face. She had noticed it when he brought home his disreputable looking friends to dine and when her mother objected. He turned to his daughter.
"Ethel," he said, "I wish you to help and make your Aunt Susan's visit very pleasant. I would like you to take her out and show her everything, and Grandmother must go along also. You will be doing me a great favor if you will."
"Papa, I'll do my best to make it pleasant," replied the girl, kissing him.
Then, without looking at his wife, Mr. Hollister left the room, followed by his daughter.
"So that was her object!" he exclaimed, as Ethel helped him on with his coat. "What would Aunt Susan think were she to know? Your mother wishes you to ingratiate yourself with my aunt