Sister Susie collected lots of money for the soldiers. When she cooed, that day at the meeting, Mrs. Martin lifted her out and put her beside the money box. She bowed and murmured so gently and coaxingly beside it that she charmed the money right out of the ladies’ pockets. That gave Missie the idea of taking her to the meetings, and finally she had a little box made in the shape of a dove, and Susie would stand beside it, and peck it, and coo, and ladies would fill it with money.
“Does Susie think it is a dove?” Billie asked me one day.
“Oh, no, she knows what it is; but doves like fun, as well as other birds, and it amuses her to beat it. One day she played a fine trick on Missie. She stepped in a knitting bag and went to sleep and Missie put it on her arm and went downtown. She noticed that the girl in a department store, who waited on her, looked queerly at her bag, and bye and bye she asked Missie if she was not afraid her pet would fly away.
“Mrs. Martin looked round, and there was Sister Susie with her head sticking out of the hole in her Red Cross bag.
“She took her out and set her on the palm of her hand. ‘You won’t leave me, will you, Susie?’ she said. ‘You want to stay with me, don’t you?’
“You see, she always had to ask questions that Susie could say ‘Yes’ to, for the bird did not know how to say ‘No.’
“‘Coo-ooo, oo,’ said Susie, a great many times and bowing very low and very politely.
“The girl was so delighted that she squealed with laughter, and other girls came to see what was amusing her. Mrs. Martin went on talking and Susie cooed so sweetly that there was soon a crowd round them.
“Missie asked her if she liked the store, and if she thought the people who came shopping could not afford to do a little more for Red Cross work.
“Susie was charmed to receive so much attention and the enthusiasm of the shoppers was so great that a manager came out of an office to see what the excitement was about. He asked if Missie would sell her bird for him to put in a cage to please the shoppers.