“For the present, yes,” replied Miss Dodge.
The woman turned. “I reckon we’d better go back,” she said to her companions. “She’s the nurse, and she ain’t goin’ to leave us in. I know what these nurses are.”
So down-stairs they trooped and Miss Dodge returned to her post, a little smile upon her face. “Girls,” she said in a low voice, “it seems that I am to act the part of buffer. Suppose one of you sits outside to keep watch for intruders and the other goes down to see what she can do for Mrs. Scraggs. The poor woman hasn’t a minute for anything with such shoals of curious people flocking here.”
“Oh, but I think she rather enjoys it,” said Winnie.
“I don’t doubt that, but it doesn’t give a minute for her regular work. You take a chair and sit outside, Winnie, and let Joanne go down. You can let me know if any one starts to come up and I will shoo them down again.”
Winnie took up her station by a window in the little entry while Joanne went down-stairs to investigate. The front room was occupied by people still gloating over the details of Mrs. Scraggs’s tale which lost nothing by frequent repetition. Out in the yard the five older Scraggs children were gathered, likewise holding forth upon the subject of the baby’s accident.
Joanne went into the kitchen which was in a sorry mess. She stood and looked around with a sigh. There sat the tubs still filled with water. The fire was out. A pile of soiled dishes stood in the sink. “The first thing to do is to build the fire and heat some water,” Joanne decided. “While the water is heating I will empty those tubs and get them out of the way.” This she did, ladling the water from the tubs into a bucket and emptying it outside. Then she washed up the dishes, brushed up the kitchen, and finding the clothes on the line had thoroughly dried, she brought them in.
She was just piling them up on a table when Mrs. Scraggs came in. “Lawsy! Lawsy!” she exclaimed, “just look what you done. I been so pestered with company I ain’t been sure whether I stood on my head or my heels. Folks has got so much curiosity there ain’t doin’ nothin’ with ’em. I don’t know what I’d done if it hadn’t been for you alls. You ain’t been an’ washed up them dishes? I don’t know what to say about that, an’ look how nice you’ve redded up. Well, as I said before, I don’t know what I’d ’a’ done but for you. I wouldn’t have had no baby; that’s one thing sure. You reckon Miss Dodge’ll let me see him now? She as much as said I’d better keep out and I done it.” Mrs. Scraggs was so excited that she rattled on indefinitely, and kept up running remarks all the way up-stairs.
Claude Lafayette, having had a good nap, was fast recovering, so Miss Dodge and the two girls decided that they might take their leave, especially as Mr. Scraggs had just come in from work and could share responsibilities. So off the three went, followed by oft repeated blessings and thanks.
At the lodge Winnie was made the heroine of the hour, causing Joanne to be rather envious, not that she would have robbed Winnie of her honors, but because she, herself, was used to being first. This may have been one reason why she determined to study First Aid more carefully, although the chief factor in her resolution was her memory of the little limp form of the baby they had all learned to love, and who now was restored to them through Winnie’s efforts. Joanne, however, came in for some of the glory, for had she not been chief assistant?