"But he may be on shore leave," added Julia, "then he wouldn't be any more attractive than our 'you-bet-chu' chap," she said, indicating the young man who inserted that boyish expression so often in his conversation.
The children were leaving the ballroom when the scouts took their final drink of pink lemonade, as Grace insisted on calling the fruit punch, and as they came out to the porch for their "good-nights," mothers and nurses were gathering the fluttering little ones to their arms.
They were about to leave when a shrill voice from the hall startled every one, "Oh, come quick, a doctor! My baby is choking!"
A mother uttered the cry. In an instant every one was in confusion looking for a doctor, but it so happened in all that big hotel at the moment no physician could be found.
"What shall I do!" wailed the mother, now wringing her hands and begging for help. "I don't know how—to save—my darling!"
Quick as a flash Julia broke away through the crowd and, followed by Louise and Helen, she made her way to the room of the distracted parent and the suffering child.
On the bed lay the little child, gasping, choking, his face almost purple. No one had attempted to do anything but look on in horror, as people usually do under such exciting conditions.
Julia, however, summoned all her courage and her scout training, and grabbing the little one before she had a chance to suffer from hesitation, she held his little heels high as she could stretch them, and shook him vigorously, while the distracted mother looked on in consternation. When the Girl Scout's strength failed, and she allowed the child to sink down on the bed again, the safety pin, he had almost swallowed, lay beside him on the coverlet.
It was all over in so few minutes that Louise and Helen merely looked on to encourage Julia.
"Oh, my darling, my darling!" wailed the excited mother. "Are you alive? Does he breathe?"