“In a measure, yes.”
“I think Bob is the least conceited boy I ever saw. Just see how he played at the concert; not a bit as if he were doing a big thing, but just because it seemed to him a matter of duty, and he meant to do his best. I wish I had a brother like Bob.”
“You’ll have to adopt him as your brother; he has no sister, you see.”
“Then you would be a sort of mother, wouldn’t you? I’d love that. I am an only child, just as Bob is, and I do get lonely sometimes, or rather, I used to more than I do now since I have become a Girl Scout, for you know a Girl Scout is sister to every other Girl Scout. I comfort myself thinking that. That’s another thing to thank you for. If it hadn’t been for you I might have missed my dear Sunflower Troop altogether, and it is such a joy.”
“It is a joy to me to know that it is a joy to you. Miss Dodge tells me you have forged right ahead with your tests and that you are hoping to become a Golden Eaglet. I think that is splendid.”
Joanne looked down and sighed. “I suppose I was insufferably conceited to say that I would win all my tests in a year. I heard of a girl who did, and I was ambitious to do the same, but I haven’t done it. I knew I would fall down on some of the tests, those for the clerk badge for instance. I needn’t tell you that I write an execrable hand and that I can’t spell without a dictionary at my elbow.”
“But you can learn, of course you can.”
“It is the one thing that staggers me. I haven’t a bit of sense about it. I began to work hard at it, but it bored me so I stopped.”
“You may tell yourself that what you need is application and perseverance. Other things are easy to conquer, and you get impatient when you find this isn’t. All the more you must make up your mind that you will succeed. Will you make me a promise?”
“I’ll promise you anything.”