Rosemary Part 23

Back in the office, s.h.i.+rley wasted no time in planning what to do.

She knew exactly how to proceed. Jennie was placed on the desk and s.h.i.+rley climbed into the swivel chair and grasped the scalpel. The "operation" was to be performed on Jennie's arm, she, as a celluloid doll, possessing an odd ridge in her anatomy that had always puzzled s.h.i.+rley. What made the ridge and what the inside of Jennie looked like, were two questions that young doctor was determined to have settled.

Jennie proved unexpectedly difficult to cut. s.h.i.+rley stuck out her tongue in her anxiety and breathed hard as she tried to drive the scalpel in. It slipped suddenly, the chair tilted and the curved s.h.i.+ning blade cut a cruel gash in the little hand holding it so tightly.

Pain, fright and a guilty conscience were blended in s.h.i.+rley's scream. Rosemary came rus.h.i.+ng down, followed by Aunt Trudy who added her cries to the child's when she saw her doubled up on the floor, rocking back and forth and calling for Rosemary.

"Are you hurt, darling? What's the matter? Tell Auntie," begged Aunt Trudy bending over the little girl.

"I cut my hand!" s.h.i.+rley straightened up and Aunt Trudy caught a glimpse of the bleeding hand and the front of the child's blouse all stained where she had held it.

The sight of blood always unnerved Aunt Trudy. She shrieked now and covered her eyes with her hands.

"I can't look at it--I'll faint, I know I shall!" she cried.

"s.h.i.+rley will bleed to death, Rosemary. She has an awful cut. What shall we do! What shall we do!"

The terrified s.h.i.+rley began to scream more loudly and Aunt Trudy walked up and down the floor moaning that it was awful!

"I'll get Hugh!" Rosemary flew to the desk 'phone.

She had heard him say where he meant to make a call and she hoped desperately that he might be at that house or that she might be able to leave a message for him if he had not yet arrived. But the doctor had "come and gone" Mrs. Jackson said. He was going to stop at the Winters, he said. Yes, they had a telephone.

Three more numbers Rosemary called, before she gained a ray of comfort. At the fourth farmhouse the farmer's wife said that the doctor was expected back in twenty minutes with a new brace he had wanted them to try for their son's foot. He had offered to bring it to them from the post-office because her husband was sick himself with a cold--

Rosemary managed to check the good woman's flow of conversation and to ask her to tell Doctor Hugh that he was wanted at home, when he came. s.h.i.+rley, tell him, had cut her hand.

s.h.i.+rley's cries, subdued while Rosemary talked over the 'phone, burst out again as the receiver clicked in place.

"Oh, dearest, hus.h.!.+" implored Rosemary. "It doesn't hurt you so very much, does it? Can't you be quiet till Hugh comes and makes you all well?"

"It bleeds and bleeds," screamed s.h.i.+rley, and Aunt Trudy groaned that the child would bleed to death before their eyes.

"I'll wash it and bind it up myself," declared Rosemary, distracted by the noise and confusion. "I don't know anything about such things, but I think I can make it stop bleeding."

"I can't help you," said Aunt Trudy hastily. "I faint the minute I see blood. My knees are weak now. Don't ask me to hold her, will you, Rosemary?"

"I won't," promised Rosemary, biting her lower lip to keep it from trembling. "I can take care of her, I know I can. Hugh keeps bandages in this lower drawer and Winnie always has hot water in the tea-kettle."

Aunt Trudy frankly ran from the room when Rosemary returned from the kitchen with a basin of warm water and arranged a package of gauze and the scissors on the gla.s.s topped table between the windows.

"I can't stay--I simply can not stay," she stammered and ran upstairs to lie on her bed with her fingers in her ears.

Her going was rather a relief to Rosemary who was sure she would be less nervous and shaky herself with her aunt out of the room. But before she had finished with s.h.i.+rley she was ready to admit that the mere presence of a third person would have been some comfort, however cold.

For s.h.i.+rley shrieked protestingly when Rosemary approached her to carry her over to the table. She fought off all attempts to look at her hand. And when Rosemary forced her to yield and gently plunged the poor little hand into the basin of water which was promptly stained deep scarlet, s.h.i.+rley, sure she was bleeding to death, pulled away and ran for the door.

"Oh, darling, don't act this way," begged Rosemary, catching her and holding her close. "Be a brave little girl and let sister wrap the hand for you; it isn't such a bad cut, dear, and after we have washed off the blood, there'll be nothing to be afraid of."

But s.h.i.+rley continued to sob and squirm all the while Rosemary cut and wound the gauze about her hand. As nearly as the inexperienced Rosemary could tell, the cut was not serious though it was ugly to see. Just as she fastened the tiny safety pin in place and was ready to p.r.o.nounce her bandaging done, the familiar two honks of the car sounded outside.

"Oh, Hugh, I never was so glad to see you in my life!" exclaimed Rosemary, as the doctor appeared in the doorway. "s.h.i.+rley cut her hand and she screamed and screamed and Aunt Trudy cried and it was awful."

"Must have been," said Doctor Hugh briefly. "Let's see the cut."

s.h.i.+rley, exhausted from crying and struggling, made a feeble attempt to put her hand behind her, but the doctor held her firmly between his knees and inspected the bandage.

"Pretty neat job," he said approvingly.

s.h.i.+rley began to cry again as he unwound the gauze and when he asked Rosemary to hand him a certain bottle and pour some of its contents on the cut, the little girl's shrieks of pain were heart-rending.

Rosemary watched in amazement as her brother calmly dressed the cut with fresh gauze and then, when he had finished, gathered s.h.i.+rley up in his arms to soothe her gently.

"She'll go to sleep in a minute," he said quietly. "She's worn out with crying. How did it happen?"

s.h.i.+rley heard him and half raised herself in his arms.

"I was going to operate on Jennie," she sobbed. "And the nasty knife cut me. But I won't ever touch anything again, Hugh. Honest, I won't."

In a few minutes she was sound asleep, and the doctor placed her on the couch in one corner of the room and covered her with a light blanket.

"Had a tough time, didn't you, Rosemary?" he said understandingly, glancing from the basin on the table to Rosemary's tired face.

"n.o.body home to help you and Aunt Trudy screaming louder than s.h.i.+rley I'll bet. I remember Aunt Trudy in hysterics when I came home from school with a black eye one day."

"Well, I felt like screaming, too," admitted Rosemary, "the blood did make me a little sick. But then there would have been no one to look after s.h.i.+rley. I did the best I could, but I'm a poor nurse, Hugh."

"You never lose your head and that's the first rule for a good nurse," said her brother. "Many a girl would never have thought of trying to follow me up on the 'phone. And that was a mighty neat bandage you did, child. You ought to learn first-aid, Rosemary.

Every girl should know what to do in an emergency or accident. I'll teach you, if you like."

Rosemary was wise enough to accept his offer and her first-aid lessons began that week, for Doctor Hugh did not believe in postponement. He was determined, though he did not say to his sister, to "make hysterics difficult" under any circ.u.mstances and especially in a household emergency.

CHAPTER XIX

BUCKING THE STUDENT COUNCIL

Early December brought cold weather in its train and unusually heavy snows. Householders were kept busy shoveling walks clean and the boys and girls reveled in plenty of coasting. Sarah was invariably late for supper these days and no amount of scolding from Winnie, or pleading from Aunt Trudy, could induce her to desert the hill as long as a single coaster remained to keep her company. Finally Doctor Hugh devised a plan of going around that way before he came home and, if Sarah were there, picking her and the sled up bodily and bestowing them in the car.

"I'll bet I know something you don't," said Fannie Mears one noon, coming over with Nina Edmonds to sit at the corner table with Rosemary in bland indifference to scowls from Sarah and sighs from s.h.i.+rley.

Fannie Mears and Rosemary were not close friends at all, and the latter was surprised at the overture. But she hospitably swept part of the lunch aside to make room for the visitors and offered them a couple of Winnie's delicious egg sandwiches.

"Thanks, we have enough," said Fannie. "Have you heard what the boys are going to do?"

"Boys" with Fannie, meant the high school lads as Rosemary immediately understood. The boys in the seventh grade failed to interest either Fannie or Nina.

"No, what?" answered Sarah bluntly, in blissful ignorance that she was not supposed to be included in the conversation.

"The Common Council has asked 'em to clean off the streets,"