CHAPTER IV
When Rosanna finished, Helen gave a sigh of delight.
"Rosanna," she said, "it is perfectly beautiful; perfectly _beautiful_!Shall you have the Webster girls sing that?"
"I had not thought of them," confessed Rosanna. "I thought it would benice for Elise and you, Helen. You both sing so sweetly and you can bothdance too."
"I shall be frightened to death," said Helen, trying to imagine herselfon a real little stage; at least on a make-believe stage with a curtainstretched across Mrs. Horton's or Mrs. Hargrave's parlor. But frightenedor not, she was more than pleased that Rosanna had thought of her, andshe had no intention of giving up the part.
She and Elise commenced to practice on the song, and between them madeup the prettiest little dance. Mrs. Culver and Mrs. Hargrave weredelighted to play their accompaniments and suggest steps. Of course theyhad to be told something of what was going on, but they were very niceand asked no questions.
A week later Rosanna's little play was finished and ready to show UncleRobert. Rosanna was as nervous as a real playwright when he has to readhis lines to a scowly, faultfinding manager. She invited Helen over tospend the night with her so she could attend the meeting.
Her grandmother was out to a dinner-bridge party, so Rosanna and Helenand Uncle Robert went up to Rosanna's sitting-room and prepared to readher play. And if the truth must be told, Uncle Robert prepared to be alittle bored. But as Rosanna read on and on in her pleasant voice,stopping once in awhile to explain things, Uncle Robert's expressionchanged from a look of patient listening to one of amusement and then toadmiration. By the time Rosanna had finished he was sitting leaningforward in his chair and listening with all his might. He clapped hishands.
"Well done, Rosanna!" he said heartily. "I am certainly proud of you!Why, if you can do things of this sort at your age, Rosanna, we willhave to give you a little help and instruction once in awhile. Well,well, that _is_ a play as _is_ a play! Don't you think so, Helen?"
"It's just too beautiful!" said Helen with a sigh of rapture. "Just toobeautiful! Which is my part, Rosanna?"
"I thought you could be the little girl who discovers the lost paper sothe other little Girl Scout's brother will not have to go to prison.That is, if you like that part."
"It is the nicest part of all," sighed Helen. "What part are you goingto take?"
"I didn't think I would take any," said Rosanna.
"Oh, you must be in it!" cried Helen.
"No, Rosanna is right," declared Uncle Robert. "It is her play, you see,and she will have to be sitting out front at all the rehearsals to seethat it is being done as she wants it."
"That is what I thought," said Rosanna. "But you are going to help witheverything, are you not, Uncle Robert?"
"Surest thing in the world!" declared Uncle Robert heartily. "But aslong as this is all about the Girl Scouts, won't you have to show it toyour Girl Scout Captain, or leader, before you go on with it?"
"Of course," said Rosanna.
"Who is she?" asked Uncle Robert carelessly.
"Why, you saw her, Uncle Robert," replied Rosanna. "Have you forgottenthe dear sweet little lady who called when I was sick when we werelooking for someone very fierce and large?"
"Sure enough!" said Uncle Robert after some thought. If Rosanna hadnoticed she would have seen a very queer look in his eyes. He had likedthe looks of that young lady himself. "Well, what are you going to doabout it?"
"I suppose I will have to go around to her house, and tell her all aboutit and read it to her."
"Is it written so I can read it?" said Uncle Robert, glancing over thepages. "Very neat indeed. Now I will do something for you, if you wantme to save you the bother. Just to be obliging, I will take your playand will go around and tell Miss Hooker that I am Rosanna's uncle, andread it to her myself."
"Why, you know her name!" said Rosanna.
"Um--yes," said Uncle Robert. "I must have heard it somewhere. Forgoodness' sake, Rosanna, this place is like an oven!"
"You _are_ red," admitted Rosanna. "Well, I wish you would do that,please, because it makes me feel so queer to read it myself. It won'ttake you long so we will wait up for you to tell us what she thinks."
"I wouldn't wait up," advised Uncle Robert, getting up. "If she likesme, it may take some time."
"Likes _you_?" said Rosanna.
"I mean likes the way I read it, and likes the play, and likes the idea,and likes everything about it," said Uncle Robert. He said good-bye andhurried off, bearing the precious paper.
The girls sat and planned for awhile, when the doorbell rang. Rosannacould hear the distant tinkle, and saying "Perhaps he is back," ran intothe hall to look over the banisters.
She returned with a surprised look on her face.
"What do you suppose?" she demanded of Helen who sat drawing a plan of astage. "It is Uncle Robert, and Miss Hooker is with him. Oh, dear me, Ifeel so fussed!"
"Come down!" called Uncle Robert, dashing in the door. "I have asurprise for you both."
"No, you haven't! I looked over the banisters," said Rosanna, as thethree went down the broad stairs.
Miss Hooker thought the play was so good and she was so proud to thinkthat one of her girls had written it that she was anxious to talk itover at once, and had asked Uncle Robert to bring her right around tosee Rosanna and Helen.
They all drew up around the big library table, and Uncle Robert sat nextMiss Hooker where he could make suggestions. And Miss Hooker and thegirls made a list of characters, and fitted them to different girls intheir group. Finally Miss Hooker said there were several places thatneeded a little changing and would Rosanna trust her to do it with Mr.Horton's help? At this Uncle Robert looked most beseechingly at Rosanna,who, of course, said yes.
"Where will we give it?" asked Helen. "As long as it is a benefit wewant a place large enough for lots of people to come. All our familieswill want to come, and all the Girl Scouts' families, and perhaps someother people besides."
"We will give it here, won't we, Uncle Robert? Grandmother will let us,I'm sure. In the big drawing-room, you know."
"Not big enough," declared Uncle Robert, while both girls exclaimed."Now this is the part I can help about and I have just had a great idea.You all know that big barn of Mrs. Hargrave's? We boys used to playthere on rainy days when we were little. The whole top floor is oneimmense room. We can give our entertainment there. Mrs. Hargrave willgive the barn, I know. And for my contribution or part of it, I will seethat you have a stage and a curtain and all that."
"How dear of you, Mr. Horton!" said Miss Hooker.
"Oh, Uncle Robert, a curtain that goes up and down?"
"Of course," said Uncle Robert, "and footlights and everything."
"O-o-o-o-h!" sighed both girls, and Miss Hooker looked at Uncle Robertand smiled and he seemed real pleased.
"I think I must go if you will be kind enough to take me home," saidMiss Hooker. "Rosanna, you must tell the Girl Scouts about Gwenny at thenext meeting, and read your play. Then we will get right to work, forthe sooner this is staged, the better. We don't want to interfere withthe Christmas work."
After Mr. Horton had taken the tiny little lady home, the girls racedupstairs and went to bed, but it was a long, long time before they couldget to sleep. They finally went off, however, and did not hear UncleRobert when he came home whistling gaily. They dreamed, however, both ofthem, of acting before vast audiences that applauded all their speeches.And at last Rosanna woke up with a start to find that Helen was clappingher hands furiously and stamping her feet against the footboard. AfterRosanna succeeded in awakening her, they had a good laugh before theywent to sleep again.
At breakfast Uncle Robert was full of plans for the Benefit. "MissHooker and I went all over your play last night, Rosanna," he said, "andsmoothed out the rough places. You know every manuscript has to becorrected. It is on the table in my room. You had better read it overafter school, and if it suits your highness I will have it typewrittenf
or you, and you can go ahead. I am going to see about the barn now, onmy way down town, and if Mrs. Hargrave is willing--and I am sure shewill be--I will get a carpenter to measure for the staging. I suppose,"he added, "I ought to ask Miss Hooker to look at the place and get somesuggestions from her?"
"Oh, I wouldn't bother to wait for her," said Rosanna, who was wild tosee the stage built. "She won't care what you do. If you like, I willtell her how busy you are and that you won't bother to come around toher house any more because you can attend to things just as wellyourself."
Uncle Robert looked hard at Rosanna. It was a queer look; sort of thelook you would expect from a cannibal uncle who has a little niece thathe wants to eat. Rosanna, catching the look, was surprised and quitedisturbed. But when Uncle Robert spoke, he merely said, "Thank you,Rosanna; but you see I _do_ need Miss Hooker's advice very much indeed.The fact is I will never be able to put this thing through as well as Iwant to put it through unless I can consult with her every day or so. Infact, if I cannot consult as often as I need to, I will certainly haveto give it up. And that would be awful, wouldn't it?"
"Of course it would, Uncle Robert," answered Rosanna. "I just hated tohave you bothered."
"I will stagger along under the burden," said Uncle Robert, trying tolook like a martyr. "The thing for you to do is to forget how hard I amworking and how much help I have to have doing this, and get your girlsto studying on their parts."
"Miss Hooker says I am to read it at the Scout meeting next week andthen we will give out the parts and let them be learning them."
"All right, sweetness; get after them," said Uncle Robert, kissingRosanna, and Helen, too, "for luck" he said, and going off whistling.
"I think the play is making Uncle Robert very happy," said Rosanna asthe front door slammed and she heard a merry whistle outside. "He is achanged person these last few days."
"That is what often happens," said Helen. "Probably he did not haveanything to occupy his mind after business hours, so he was unhappy.Mother says it is a serious condition to allow oneself to be in. Nowthat he has our play to think about, he feels altogether different. I domyself. Do you know it is time to start for school? Let's be off so wewon't have to hurry, and we will have time to stop for Elise."
Elise was ready and the three girls sauntered down the street together.
As they passed a great imposing stone house, Elise said, "It is achateau--what you call castle, isn't it?"
"Yes," said Rosanna, "and a cross old ogre lives in it. He and hissister live there all alone, with lots of maids and men to serve them,and he is so growly-wowly that Minnie says even the grocer boys areafraid of him. That is his car in front of the door. Did you ever seeanything so large?"
"Or so lovely?" added Elise. "If he was not so ze what you just callgrowlee-wowlee, he might carry us to school; not?"
"There he comes," said Rosanna. "Does he look as though he would carryany little girls _any_where unless he carried them off to eat?"
The great carved door opened and an old gentleman came down the steps.He walked with a cane and to the children he seemed very old indeed withhis snow white hair and fierce moustaches. He scowled as he came andstopped to switch with his cane at a vine that had straggled up thestep. He noticed the three girls approaching, and scowled at them sofiercely that they involuntarily stopped to let him pass. But he was inno hurry to do so. When he had looked them over sufficiently, he lookedpast them and snorted loudly at something he saw up the street, but whenthe girls looked around to see what was the matter, there was only alittle baby girl playing with a little woolly dog; so they all lookedback again at the old gentleman. He seemed to fascinate them.
Three pair of round eyes fixed on him caught the old gentleman'sattention.
"Well, well, well!" he said testily. "What do you see? Come, come, speakout!"
Elise drew back but the other two stood their ground, and Rosanna, whohad seen him all her life and was at least accustomed to him, saidgently:
"We see _you_, sir."
"Ha hum!" sputtered the old gentleman, drawing his fierce white eyebrowstogether. "What about me, young woman, what about me to stare at?"
Rosanna was distressed. There seemed nothing to do but tell him thetruth and that was almost too awful. She smoothed it down as well as shecould.
"If you will excuse me for saying so, you looked a little cross," shesaid, "and--and something must be making you very unhappy."
"It is," said the ogre. "It makes me unhappy to see what a sillyno-account world this is; full of small children, and woolly dogs, andthings. Kittens! Babies! Chickens! Bah! All making noises! All gettingup at daybreak to play and meow and crow. Bah! Of course I am unhappy!"
He crossed the walk, waved the footman back with his cane, steppedpainfully into the car, and with his own hand slammed the door shut. Buthis anger blinded him. He did not take his hand away soon enough, andthe heavy door caught it. With a cry of pain, he dropped back on thecushions. The middle finger was crushed and bleeding profusely.
"Heaven protect us!" cried Elise.
The old gentleman was almost fainting. Rosanna did not hesitate. TheGirl Scouts had to understand First Aid. She ran up to the car andentered it, tearing up her handkerchief as she did so. Helen, closebehind her, was doing the same thing with hers.