They rapped the table and shouted Ethel Blue"s name joyously. She sat with her head bowed, smiling.
"Speech, speech," cried Mr. Emerson.
"Thank you, thank you," replied Ethel Blue breathlessly. "I"m glad we"ve had the Club. It has been fun, although we"ve had to work pretty hard at it."
"You"ve made fun for others," said Mrs. Emerson. "You"ve lived up to your name:--the United Service."
"I"d like to propose the health of the Club as a whole," said Mrs.
Morton. "As a citizen of Rosemont I can repeat what has been said to me by other citizens, even if, as the mother of some of the members, I might be somewhat embarra.s.sed to utter such praise. Rosemont thinks that the United Service Club has done more to stir up the town than any other organization it has ever had."
There was general applause from the grown-ups.
"I"d like to hear some of these undertakings," said Captain Morton.
"Won"t some one recite them?"
"O, Father, I wrote you all about them when each one came off," objected Ethel Blue.
"Uncle Richard will hear what some of them are when we give out our prizes," said Helen. "We"ve decided to give prizes for certain especial successes. Ethel Brown, for instance, will be so good as to rise and receive a reward for reciting more poems than we ever knew could be learned by one small brain."
Ethel Brown rose and received, while the rest applauded, a small sieve.
"Why a sieve?" inquired Margaret.
"The sieve is symbolic. Ethel takes in verse through her eyes and lets it out through her lips just like a sieve."
After the laughter subsided, Helen continued:
"Our next prize is for Grandfather Emerson, who supplied Ethel Brown with much of the material with which she has favored us."
Mr. Emerson was decorated with a miniature well and pump.
"I suppose this is the fount of English undefiled on which I drew," he commented.
The president went on with her distribution. The jokes were all mild but for the Club members each had its meaning. James received a small pair of crutches, because he was the only one who had broken a leg.
"I"m glad it wasn"t scissors," said his father. "He might be led into cutting corners again."
Dorothy received a pink tin containing a cake with pink icing--all by way of recognition of her love of cooking and of pink. Roger"s gift was a set of collar and cuffs made from paper "dirt bands" and adorned with cuff b.u.t.tons and a cravat of dazzling beauty.
"A man of fashion and a farmer combined," Helen announced.
d.i.c.ky received a watering can, by way of indicating his fondness for getting into trouble with water. A fan went to Della "for next summer"s use." Tom had a little Roman soldier as a reminder of his representation of one of the Great Twin Brethren. Margaret"s offering was a tiny Christmas Ship containing needles and a spool of thread. Helen gave herself a doll"s coat like the one which she and Margaret had copied in great numbers for the war orphans. Ethel Blue"s gift was a real present--a travelling case fitted with the necessaries of a journey. This came from all the members of the Club.
"You"re just too dear," whispered Ethel Blue, too overcome to speak.
They drowned her voice in a burst of chatter, so that she might not burst into tears.
"I have a few gifts left," said Helen, "and I"d like to give them out by acclamation. Whose tires have we worn until they were almost worn out and yet _she_ has never tired?"
"Grandmother Emerson," came the ringing answer, and Helen ran around to her grandmother"s chair and gave her a toy automobile.
"Who made the most box furniture for Rose House?"
"Roger," shouted James at the top of his lungs, while at the same moment Roger cried "James." The others, having been instructed to keep silent, concluded that the question was settled for them.
"Roger _and_ James," decreed Helen, presenting each of them with a knife.
"Who are our high-flyers?"
"The Ethels," every one said promptly, for the Ethels were the only ones present who had been up in an aeroplane.
A tiny flyer was given to each of them.
So it went on until the supply of parcels in Helen"s basket was exhausted.
"Now, to wind up with," Helen said, "I want to thank Uncle Richard for giving us the very finest kind of present," and she waved her hand across the table to Miss Daisy, whose shining eyes and glowing cheeks told of her delight in all she had seen. "Uncle Richard is taking away Ethel Blue, but he"s giving us an aunt. We love her already and we think we"ve all won a prize in her."
"Ah, no," exclaimed Miss Daisy, slipping one hand into Ethel Blue"s and laying the other on Captain Morton"s shoulder. "It is I who have won a prize--a double prize!"