Fannie could not twist and squirm in his strong arms, and Rosemary deftly washed out the great jagged cut that had slashed across the slim instep, and then, further scandalizing Nina, tore a wide bandage from the bottom of her petticoat, brought the edges of the cut closely together and bound it tightly.
"I think you ought to carry her to the truck," she said, when she had finished. "Look out, Will, she's fainted. Lay her on the grass."
The sight of Fannie, white and motionless, frightened the girls, and it must be confessed the boys, too, far more than her steady screaming. Rosemary did not appear to be alarmed, but borrowing Jack's handkerchief, dipped it in the water and gently bathed Fannie's forehead. Then she took her head in her lap and waited a few minutes. Presently Fannie opened her eyes.
"She's better now," said Rosemary.
"I'll carry her to the truck," declared Will Mears, looking with respect on the young nurse. "As you say, I think we'd better get her to a doctor. Some of you run on ahead and explain what has happened and tell them we want to start back right away."
The girls sped on ahead and in a few minutes the picnic had broken up hastily. A sort of bed was made in one of the trucks, using the sweaters and wraps of the other girls, and Fannie was laid on this, with her head in Rosemary's lap. Will Mears had no confidence in any one else's ability to take care of his sister.
"She would have bled to death, if it hadn't been for Rosemary," he said to Jack, as the truck started, the driver carefully avoiding the bad places in the road in order to spare the patient any unnecessary jar. "I never saw a girl before who could do up cuts and not scream at the sight of blood. I suppose it's because her brother is a doctor."
"Not altogether," replied Jack curtly. "Rosemary doesn't happen to be the screaming kind of girl."
Will Mears directed that the truck be driven to Doctor Hugh's office where, by good fortune, they found him just in from a call, and Fannie, quiet and spent now, with no breath left for screaming, had her wound washed with an antiseptic and dressed. Then she was taken home and put to bed. She was weak from the loss of blood and the consequences might have been serious, the doctor admitted, if the cut had not been tied in time. But to Will Mears' glowing praise of Rosemary, he replied that she had only used her knowledge of first-aid treatment.
"Then all girls ought to learn it," burst out the high school junior. "Those other girls stood around like perfect dubs. Fannie could have bled to death, for all they did."