How Ethel Hollister Became a Campfire Girl | Page 8

woman for fifteen dollars a month to take care of the babies, and the
mothers can pay four cents a day for each child."
"Why, Dorothy Kip," exclaimed the girls. "You couldn't get any
servant for fifteen dollars a month."
"I can, and don't you forget it. Old Susan Conner, who used to be my
brother Tom's nurse, has offered to come for fifteen dollars. She likes
me and she's willing to help me in this charity. We've talked it all over.
Susan is some class now and has her two-room-and-bath apartment.
She's old and hasn't much to do and she has enough to live on, so she's
offered to come; and I'm going to spend just ten dollars on myself each
month in 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