CHAPTER FOUR
EMERGENCY FEEDING
Kitty was glad the sun was shining brightly Monday morning when she ranto the window to look out. She felt eager and ready to tackle thetoughest sort of job. She could face her friends with new assurancenow, for she was soon to be a part of the great army of workersdedicated to restoring peace to a troubled world.
For a while at least, while their gasoline allowance lasted, she wasgoing back and forth in the launch, as that would save at least an houreach day in transportation time. Two other girls from the island weregoing to take the course with her and share those rides, so she feltjustified in the use of gasoline. She had spent the early years of herlife on the Gulf coast and was perfectly at home on the water. And howshe loved it!
Vera Parsons had decided to add the Canteen course to her other linesof service, and Sally Bright’s sister, Lana, was joining also.
“I hope the course won’t be too dry,” mused Lana, when they werecrossing the bay that first morning.
“It won’t be if Miss Pearson’s in charge,” Vera assured her. “She couldput pep into a snail.”
“I wish I could begin work right now,” said Kitty. “I don’t see howI’ll have patience to wait to finish the courses.”
“There’s nothing to keep you from helping right now,” Vera told her.“There’re lots of Canteen Aides.”
“Canteen Aides?”
“Girls who haven’t taken the courses but do volunteer work inemergencies.”
“Oh, that’s great! I want to get into it as soon as possible. I’ve feltlike a shirker these last weeks.”
“I don’t see why you call yourself a shirker,” consoled Lana. “With akid brother, a dad and a cottage to look after, I should think you’dhave your hands full.”
The nutrition classes were being held in the Power Company’sdemonstration kitchen. The trio from Palmetto Island found about thirtywomen and girls gathered when they arrived. Miss Pearson, spotless inher attractive uniform, was already giving out mimeographed sheets forstudy. All the seats toward the back were taken, but Kitty and herfriends found folding chairs near the demonstration table, where MissPearson had her materials spread out.
Kitty thought how easy it was to slip into the old habit of makingnotes at lectures when she took a notebook and fountain pen from herpurse. Miss Pearson had not been lecturing half an hour when Kittyrealized how valuable the classes were going to be. She could use theinformation now and long after the war.
“I want to sketch briefly what we must cover in this course,” MissPearson began. “As a foundation every one must know the requirements ofgood nutrition, and the value of different kinds of food.”
Kitty thought how little attention she had paid to such matters in theyears she had been concentrating on her music. She had eaten what wasput before her at school, and had given no heed to it unless she becameill and the doctor restricted her diet.
When Miss Pearson mentioned that she would give assistance in planningmenus to fit food rationing situations Kitty was really delighted. Thatplanning had been a mathematical problem to her ever since she hadstarted housekeeping.
Field trips to large kitchens of the community, and to food preservingplants promised interesting diversions to classroom activities.
“Tomorrow morning I’ve arranged for us to visit the Bayshore Bakeryafter class,” Miss Pearson told them. “There you’ll learn a littleabout mass production. You see we have to be prepared to cook largequantities of food in times of emergency.”
Kitty saw that there was going to be real work, also, in the course. Atthe bottom of their instruction sheets were some questions that must beanswered next day in class.
“We can discuss these going and coming in the boat,” Kitty suggested toher friends as they were going out.
“I really think it’s going to be fun,” Lana said.
“And very valuable, too,” said Kitty.
“I noticed a couple of women from over at the oyster cannerysettlement,” said Vera. “Every woman over there ought to be taking thiscourse for the good of her family. Miss Pearson is going to show us howto make a little bit go a long way.”
“That’s surely something we can all use,” said Kitty.
Their excursion to the bakery was followed by a visit to the oystercannery, the community cannery, a near-by cafeteria kitchen, and to aschool lunchroom, which was most efficiently organized.
“Every person in that lunchroom took our nutrition course when I firstgave it,” explained Miss Pearson.
Kitty found it hard to believe at the end of the first week that halfher nutrition course was already complete. She had enjoyed every minuteof it. To be a part of a great scheme like this, in which everyone wascooperating for the general welfare gave her a glow of satisfaction.She didn’t mind at all that she had to work till bedtime to finish herhome duties, to see about Billy’s clothes, and plan her own foodprogram for the next day. In her carefree days at college she had notdreamed there was so much to be done in the world.
Classes were held in the evening during the second week of the course.This was a compromise to fit the needs of several housewives, who foundit difficult to leave home in the morning. This arrangement made itnecessary for Kitty, Vera and Lana to ride the island busses, as thegirls could not go alone in the launch at night.
Palmetto Island was connected with the mainland by a long causewayacross the marshes. This made the bus trip about three times the lengthof the boat ride.
The second evening, as the girls were returning home about ten-thirtythe bus stopped near the oyster cannery to pick up some passengers. Oneof them was a sailor, wearing the crescent of the galley service. Heimpressed Kitty as being a raw recruit. Though Kitty was preoccupiedwith her own thoughts about the Canteen work, she had the fleeting ideathat the boy must be on his way back to Bernard Hospital. She probablywould never have thought of him again had not something rather peculiarhappened.
The sailor stood just in line of her vision on the crowded bus. The mannext to him had been smoking a cigar when he came aboard, and now heldit in his hand. Suddenly as the bus lurched around a corner red-hotashes from the end of the cigar fell on the sailor’s shoe. Instantly aspurt of flame ran diagonally across the boy’s shoe, as if someinflammable liquid had been spilled on it. Hastily the sailor stampedout the flame with his other foot. It all happened and was over in aflash. Kitty was impressed enough by the incident, however, to noticethat the young man got off the bus at the hospital station.
Even then she would probably have forgotten the incident but for thestrange events of the following day. She was roused at dawn by thetelephone. It was Mrs. Evans, Chairman of the island Canteen unit.
“There was a big fire over at the oyster cannery last night,” she toldKitty. “Practically every shack on the point was burned down.”
“Oh, how terrible! Can I do anything?”
Kitty knew that the oyster cannery district was the poorest housedsection of town.
“Indeed there is! We need every Canteen worker we can get to helpprepare for these homeless people.”
“I’ll be right down,” said Kitty promptly.
“Could we use your launch?”
“Oh yes. I’m sure Dad won’t object.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_A Spurt of Flame Ran Across the Boy’s Shoe_]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“We are already loading the station wagon, but that won’t hold all weneed. Miss Pearson phoned from Bayport for us to bring dishes,equipment and all the help we can get.”
“I’ll be down as soon as I can put on my clothes,” Kitty promised.
How thankful she was that they had arranged for Jane to have the smallroom behind the kitchen. Kitty roused her and gave careful instructionsabout the house and Billy, in case she would have to be gone all day.The
n she told her father about the call, and in ten minutes was on herway down to the Canteen.
She helped Vera finish loading the station wagon and they drove over tothe dock where her boat was housed. With the aid of Sally and Lana theyfilled the boat with pots, pans, all sorts of utensils and dishes, andwhat canned goods they had in stock. So many willing hands made quickwork of the packing. They left only room enough for Mrs. Evans, the twoBright girls and Kitty. Judy Conner was going to help Vera pack therest of their things in the station wagon and drive around over thecauseway.
Not until they were seated in the boat and on their way to Bayport didKitty find time to ask about the fire.
“The old cannery was a regular firetrap anyhow,” said Sally.
“It’s a miracle the fire didn’t sweep on to the shipyards,” Mrs. Evansremarked. “There was a strong northeast wind blowing that carriedburning brands right in that direction.”
“Sounds like sabotage,” put in Lana.
“I doubt it,” said Mrs. Evans, who had a way of thinking the best ofeverything and everybody. “A careless match or hot cigarette ashescould have started the fire in any of those dumps.”
The mention of cigarette ashes made Kitty think of the cigar ashfalling on the sailor’s shoe in the bus. Then with a feeling of shockshe recalled that the sailor had come aboard the bus in the oystercannery district. Could there possibly be any connection between thetwo fires? She knew that gasoline or kerosene was often used bysaboteurs in setting fires. Perhaps the main motive had not been thedestruction of the cannery and shacks, but the shipyards and governmentdocks beyond.
Resolutely she tried to dismiss the entire affair, thinking how unjustit was to be suspicious of people she didn’t know. At least she wouldsay nothing about it to anyone else, but she decided to do someinvestigating on her own if opportunity came.
There was so much to be done on reaching the scene of the disaster,however, that for a time Kitty forgot all about the incident on thebus. The Bayport Canteen workers had already set up a kitchen in asmall playground near the center of the oyster cannery district.
She was amazed at the devastation that had been wrought in a few shorthours. Practically every home that had surrounded the oyster canneryand docks had been burned to charcoal. The firemen, seeing it wasimpossible to save the poorly built shacks in the strong gale, hadconcentrated on preventing the spread of the fire to the essential warindustries near by.
“It may be the best thing that could have happened to these people,”said Miss Pearson, when the island group of workers arrived. “We’ll seethat proper housing units surround the cannery if it is rebuilt.”
Kitty had her initiation that day in the wonderful work which the RedCross does in emergencies. As there was no adequate kitchen within easyreach of the homeless people, cooking racks had been set up in the open.
“If this were night and there was danger of air raids,” Miss Pearsonexplained to a group of Canteen apprentices who stood around the cookfire, “we’d have to cover our cook fire completely to keep it frombeing seen overhead.”
“My brother in the Coast Guard says even a match struck in the marshescan be seen by a passing plane,” Sally told them.
Soon pots were steaming with coffee, while huge saucepans held bubblingcereal. Kitty, with three other girls, improvised a table and bencheswhere the children could sit to eat. In her group was Mrs. Janice, amember of the nutrition class, whom Vera had pointed out as a residentof the cannery district. She was an uneducated woman with an eagerwillingness to do everything in her power to help. Three of her sonswere in the service. Though she and her other two children were nowleft homeless, she was doing her bit to help her fellow sufferers.
“There’s talk that the cannery was set afire,” she told Kitty when theywent off together to tear some loose planks from a small section of thecannery that had not burned.
“Really! What have you heard about it?” Kitty said, encouraging Mrs.Janice to talk.
“The night watchman said he saw a stranger in dark clothes hurryingpast the factory not ten minutes before he discovered the fire.” Thenshe added in a lower tone, “A sailor, too, he claims.”
Could it be possible that the boy she had seen on the bus had done thisawful thing? But Kitty tried not to show her suspicions as she said,“But people must constantly pass by the cannery.”
“That’s so, of course, but you know how it is. You hear all sorts o’talk. People round here were mighty careful ’bout fire, knowing howshoddy our houses were.”
“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. You’ll certainly have better homesto live in after this.”
With the aid of Mrs. Janice’s fourteen-year-old son, Jerry, they founda half dozen boards from which they managed to make a table. TheCanteen workers were soon helping the hungry children to bowls of hotcereal and milk as they lined up at the table. Some of them were upsetat being separated from their parents, but Kitty had a way of stillingtheir fears as she satisfied their hunger.
When their breakfast was over, Kitty gave each of them an apple andherded them over near the swings. She solicited the aid of some olderboys and girls to keep the younger children amused while their parentsate. Then for two hours she helped wash the mountain-like pile ofdishes.
“How long will we have to feed them?” she asked Mrs. Evans, when shewas finally drying her hands.
“Tired already?”
“Oh, no—that is, of course I’m tired, but I didn’t mean it that way. Iwas just wondering what’s to be done about all these people. Where willthey sleep tonight? What will they do till more homes can be built?”
“And well you may, my dear,” said Mrs. Evans kindly. “The town ispacked to capacity with war workers. In spite of that many homes havealready made room for some of these people. The Red Cross will providetents for others until permanent shelter can be found. In the meantimethey are dependent on the Canteen Corps for food.”
Kitty’s eyes were starry as she looked at her leader. “It’s wonderfulwork, isn’t it, Mrs. Evans?”
“Indeed it is!”
“If this fire was the work of saboteurs, it only makes us dedicateourselves all the more devotedly to bringing peace and harmony in theend.”
“Sometimes the most loyal person can let carelessness make him theworst sort of saboteur,” said Mrs. Evans significantly.
Kitty thought she had more reason than anyone else for doubting thatthat fire had been started by a careless patriot. She had thought atfirst that she would keep quiet about the little incident on the buslast night, but now she made up her mind to take Brad Mason into herconfidence. Brad might be in a position to make some investigationsthat she could not about the sailor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------