CHAPTER V
Returning Rosa Marie
EARLY the next morning, Jean, needing her thimble to sew on a vitally necessary button, ran to the supposedly empty cottage to get it. Taking the short cut through the Tuckers' back yard she found Bettie feeding Billy, the seagull, one of Bob's numerous pets.
"Billy always wakes everybody up crying for his breakfast," explained thoughtful little Bettie. "Bob's spending a week at the Ormsbees' camp, so I have to get up to feed Billy so father can sleep."
"Why don't the other boys do it?"
"Mercy! They'd sleep through anything. Going to the Cottage?"
"Yes, come with me," returned Jean, "while I get my thimble. It's so big that it almost takes two to carry it."
"All right," laughed Bettie, crawling through the hole in the fence.
Jean's thimble was a standing joke. A stout and prudent godmother had bestowed a very large one on the little girl so that Jean would be in no danger of outgrowing the gift. Jean was now living in hopes of sometime growing big enough to fit the thimble.