Ethel Blue was quite breathless with the force of this suggestion and the others applauded it.

“Just as I think of Ethel Blue as all imagination and dreams she comes out with something practical like that and I have to study her all over again,” said Roger, observing his cousin with his head on one side.  Ethel Blue threw a leaf at him which he dodged with exaggerated fear.

They decided to have the Rose Fete just as soon as the boys put the house into presentable condition, and then the girls separated, Ethel Brown and Dorothy to see Mr. Emerson about securing the boxes, Helen and Margaret to measure the windows for curtains, Delia and Ethel Blue to work out the design for converting ordinary Chinese lanterns into roses which they had thought of as lending a charm to the veranda and the lawn after the sun went down, and the boys to calculate the quantities of putty and paint and color-wash, based on information given Roger by the local painter and decorator, who was quite willing to help with advice when he found that there was no chance of his own services being called into play.

CHAPTER V

THE ROSE FETE

The United Service Club had made so good a name for itself in Rosemont during the few months of its existence that when Ethel Blue’s posters brought to their doors the news that the U. S. C. was to give a Rose Fete at Rose House the townspeople were eager to know what attraction the members had devised.  The schools were still in session so the Ethels and Dorothy at the graded school and Helen and Roger and the orchestra boys at the high school made themselves into an advertising band and told everybody all about the purpose of the festival.  The scholars carried the information home, and there were few houses in Rosemont where it was not known that Mr. Emerson’s old farmhouse was to be turned into a summer home for weary mothers and ailing babies.

Helen and Margaret, after consulting with their mothers and Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Emerson, had decided that a cot or single bed and two cribs ought to go in each bedroom except Moya’s, where one crib would be enough.  This meant that five beds and nine cribs must be provided, and the number made the girls look serious as they calculated the probable proceeds of the Rose Fete and subtracted from them the amount that they would have to pay the local furniture dealer, even though he, being a public spirited and charitable man, offered them a discount.  For a day or two they went about in a state of depression, for they had hoped to be able to supply the furnishings without making any appeal to the grownups.  Thanks to Dorothy they could discount any expense for bureaus and desks and tables, but their ambition did not soar to constructing bedsteads; these had to be bought or given.