“All right,” agreed the Captain, “but you all know you have to earn the uniform. You aren’t allowed to write home and ask your parents for the money. And what is more, you are supposed to make it!”
Lily looked disappointed. She was thinking of having her uniform made by a Fifth Avenue tailor. Helen looked proportionately pleased.
“There are lots of things you can do to earn money—typewriting in the office, taking care of babies, running errands for people in the village, taking orders for knitting and sewing——”
“But we’ll be almost like servants!” exclaimed Lily, interrupting her Captain’s speech.
“It won’t hurt you, girls,” Miss Phillips said laughingly. “And to encourage you,” she added, “I’ll earn mine, aside from my salary.”
“And we’ll make it a kind of race to see who can earn theirs first. Let’s have a bank and a banker, and report each week on what we have made.”
The girls approved of the plan, and Ethel Todd, the secretary, was chosen banker.
“Now,” said Miss Phillips, “we will adjourn our business meeting for Scout work. Open your handbooks to page 60; we are going over the Tenderfoot test together.”
The test seemed comparatively easy, and Miss Phillips decided to give it the following week. “You may each bring a quarter,” she said, “and if everybody passes we will fill out our blank and send it to National Headquarters in New York.
“Now,” continued the Captain, “let’s have some games. Next week we’ll have military drill, but we won’t start that to-night. Let’s play ‘Boots without shoes.’ Does anybody know it?”