"We really ought to do it before we set the Club to work packing all these goodies, but I don"t see how we can with those three boys. We never could fill them up so they"d stop eating."
"Nev-_er_!"
"Not Roger!"
"We"ll just have to give them a lecture on self-control and set them to work."
"It"s a glorious lot we"ve got. Where"s Mother? We must show them to her and Grandmother and Aunt Louise."
So there was an exhibit of "food products" that brought the Ethels many compliments. Shelf upon shelf of their private kitchen was filled with boxes and tins, and every day added to the quant.i.ty, for Mary came in occasionally to bring a wee fruit cake, Aunt Louise sent over cookies, and Mrs. Emerson added a box of professional candy to the pile.
"They tell me at the candy store that very hard candy doesn"t last well," she said. "It grows moist."
"That"s why Miss Dawson gave me these receipts for softish candies like fudge. It"s well to remember that at Christmas time when you"re selecting candies for presents."
"I don"t believe the Ethels ever will buy any candies again," said Mrs.
Morton. "They"ve become so expert in making them that they quite look down on the professionals."
"Did you see the paper this morning?" asked Mrs. Emerson.
When the girls said that they had not, she produced a clipping.
"Grandfather thought that perhaps this might have escaped your notice, so he sent it over."
Ethel Brown took it and Ethel Blue read it over her shoulder.
CARGO FOR CHRISTMAS SHIP GATHERING HERE FROM EVERY STATE
Hundreds of cases containing every conceivable kind of gift for a child have been received at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, where the Christmas Ship _Jason_, which will carry the gifts of American children to the orphans of the European War is being loaded.
It became apparent that if the _Jason_ were to get off within reasonable time, a tremendous force of sorters and packers would have to be employed.
When the situation was presented over the telephone to Secretary of the Navy Daniels he secured authorization for Gen. Wood to a.s.sign sixty soldiers to help to get the cargo ready.
These men appeared for duty yesterday afternoon.
Secretary Daniels has a.s.signed Lieut.-Commander Courtney to command the Christmas Ship.
"What a fine Santa Claus-y feeling Commander Courtney must have," said Mrs. Morton. "He"s a friend of your father"s, Ethel Brown."
"Think of being Santa Claus to all Europe!"
"Our parcels won"t be very visible among several millions, will they?"
"You have a wonderfully creditable collection for ten youngsters working so short a time."
"Mr. Watkins is keeping in touch with the ship so that we can make use of every day that she"s delayed. Tom telephoned to Roger this afternoon that he had been over to the Bush Terminal and they were sure they wouldn"t start before the 10th of November.
"That gives us almost a week more, you see."
"Do you think we could go to New York to see the _Jason_ sail?" asked Ethel Blue and both girls waited eagerly for the reply.
"Aunt Louise and I were saying that the Club ought to go in a body."
"If only she doesn"t sail during school hours."
"Even then I think we might manage it for once," smiled Mrs. Morton, and the Ethels rushed off to tell Roger and Helen the plan and to telephone it to Margaret and James.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CHRISTMAS SHIP SAILS
THE Rosemont and Glen Point members of the U. S. C. did not wait for the Watkinses to join them on Sat.u.r.day before beginning to do up the parcels for the Santa Claus Ship. All the small bundles were wrapped and tied in Dorothy"s attic, but after Mrs. Smith had made a careful examination of the attic stairs she came to the conclusion that the large packing cases into which they must be put for transportation to the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn could not be taken down without damage to the walls. It was therefore decided that when the bundles were ready they were to be brought downstairs and there packed into several large cases which had been donated for the purpose by the local dry goods dealer and the shoe store man.
Each of these huge boxes James declared to be probably as large as the mysterious house which Roger was going to propose for some sort of club work in the spring. They had been delivered early in the week and were established on the porch at the back of the Smith cottage awaiting the contents that were to bring pleasure to hundreds of expectant children.
Doctor Hanc.o.c.k was so busy that he could not bring Margaret"s and James"s collection to Rosemont when it was wanted there, so Mrs. Emerson went to Glen Point in her car and brought it back filled high with the result of James"s pasting. It was necessary to have all his boxes to pack the candies and cookies and small gifts in.
Every afternoon a busy throng gathered in the attic, wrapping and tying and labelling the work that kept them all so busy for the previous two months.
"We must do up every package just as carefully as if we were going to put it on our own Christmas tree," Helen decided. "I think half the fun of Christmas is untying the bundles and having the room all heaped up with tissue paper and bright ribbons."
The Club had laid in a goodly store of tissue paper of a great variety of colors, buying it at wholesale and thus obtaining a discount over the retail price. The question of what to tie with was a subject of discussion.
"We certainly can"t afford ribbon," Ethel Brown declared. "Even the narrowest kind is too expensive when we have to have hundreds of yards of it."
"We ought to have thought about it before," said Helen looking rather worried, as this necessity should have been foreseen by the president.
"I"ll go right over to town and get something now," she added, putting on her hat. "Have any of you girls any ideas on the subject?"
"I have," replied Dorothy. "You know that bright colored binding that dressmakers use on seams? It"s sometimes silk and sometimes silk and--"
"Cotton? Ha!"
"Silk and cotton; yes, ma"am. It comes in all colors and it"s just the right width and it costs a good deal less than real ribbon."
"I suppose we can get the rolls by wholesale in a.s.sorted colors, can"t we?"
"I should suppose so."
"I have an idea, too," offered Margaret who had come over on the trolley after school was over. "There"s a tinsel cord, silver and gilt, that doesn"t cost much and it looks bright and pretty. It would be just the thing."
"I"ve seen that. It does look pretty. For home packages you can stick a sprig of holly or a poinsettia in the knot and it makes it C-H-A-R-M-I-N-G," spelled Ethel Blue, giving herself a whirl in her excitement.
"But we can"t use stick-ups on our Christmas Ship parcels, you know."
"That"s so, but the tinsel string just by itself is quite pretty enough."