"Here it is," said Rosanna a moment later. "What a lot of them I have!
Do I need such a big pile, Minnie?"
"Well, not really, Miss Rosanna. You outgrow them mostly."
"Then we won"t get any more for a long, long time," said Rosanna.
"Minnie, what do you think about my hair?"
"I will have to comb that for you, dearie; it is so very long and thick."
"I was thinking," said Rosanna slowly, "about docking it. It is a great bother."
"Oh, my sufferin" soul!" cried Minnie, with a face of horror. "Oh me, oh my! Don"t you think of that ever again, Miss Rosanna! If anything in the _world_ happened to your hair, well, I don"t want to think what your grandmother would do to me. Your hair is her pride and glory. It is the only thing I ever heard her brag about. "You can tell Rosanna in a crowd as far as you can see her," says she, "by her hair; just that dark color full of streaks of gold like, and curls at that." No, Miss Rosanna, you can learn to sew and cook and take care of yourself, and not much harm done for her to fret about, but for _mercy"s_ sake don"t you go touching your hair."
"Well, it _is_ a bother," said Rosanna, "but we will let it alone for awhile. Now you must come and wake me early, Minnie, and bring your sewing so you can sit here and tell me when I don"t do the right thing.
After breakfast, if cook will give us some things, I will get Helen and we will do some baking. Won"t that be fun? And in the afternoon I am going to give Helen and you a surprise."
"Me too? Do you mind if Minnie kisses you good-night, dearie?" she asked softly.
Rosanna sleepily held up her arms. "Oh, I wish you would, Minnie! It is so nice to have somebody want to kiss me without my asking them to do it."
Minnie kissed her tenderly. "Bless you, dearie, old Minnie will kiss you good-night every night!"
She turned out the light and snapped on the electric fan.
And at once, it seemed to Rosanna, it was morning. There must have been some time between, however, because Minnie went and looked over all her things, and rejoiced to think what great progress she could make on her wedding things in a week if she didn"t have to wait on Rosanna all the time, and after she had put everything back in the trunk and locked it up as though it was the greatest treasure in the world, she went down to see the cook. She told her all about what Rosanna had planned, and the cook listened and sniffled and blew her nose hard several times and then got up and brought out a big basket. This she set on the kitchen table and commenced to fill with any number of things: salt and pepper and flour and spices and baking powder and raisins, and all sorts of things.
The next morning when Rosanna went into the playhouse kitchen for a look on her way to call Helen, there was everything any little girl would possibly need to cook with, all arranged in rows on the shelves of the tiny cupboard. And wonder of wonders, just inside the door was a little ice-chest.
"Oh, oh! Where did that come from?" cried Rosanna, clapping her hands and running to open it.
"Cook found it in the store room," said Minnie, smiling. "It was the one they used in your nursery when you were a baby. She cleaned it all out, and I think you will find something in it besides ice."
Sure enough there _was_ something besides ice, but Rosanna took one little glance and then ran like the wind for the kitchen, where she burst upon the astonished cook, and reaching as far around her as her short arms would go, hugged her hard. Then she ran to the brick wall and called Helen.
It seemed about a second before the two children were in the playhouse kitchen, ap.r.o.ns on, and hard at work.
Minnie was made superintendent and sat sewing in a wicker chair beside the table, where she could give advice. Helen was chief cook and Rosanna was a.s.sistant--the most delighted and thrilled a.s.sistant that ever beat an egg or stirred a batter. By eleven o"clock the cooking was done and every pot and pan washed and put in its place. Helen said that was the rule in domestic science school, so although they were both tired with their labors and Rosanna wished in her heart that she could tell Minnie to clean up as she usually did whenever a mess was made, they stuck to their task and it did not take very long to finish the work and make the kitchen all spick and span.
Rosanna was conscious of a new feeling, a sort of glow, at her heart.
Never before in her life had she spent a really useful morning. She had learned to cook several things, and had the best time she had ever had in her life.
"What shall we have? A party?" asked Helen, sinking down in one of the wicker chairs.
Rosanna laughed. "Now I am going to tell my surprise, Minnie," she said.
"But when I made it up I didn"t think we would help with it ourselves.
No, indeed; I thought you and cook would have to do it all, and we would just sit around." She laughed. "I think it would be loads of fun to take our cookies and the jello we made, and make some sandwiches of the cold meat cook put in our ice-box, and pack the lunch hamper just as though we were grown up, and fill the thermos bottles with milk, and go to Jacobs Park for supper to-night."
Helen gave a scream of delight. "Oh, splendid!" she cried, "I have not been out there yet, and dad says it is perfectly beautiful--just like real country."
"Don"t you suppose your mother would like to go, Helen?" asked Rosanna.
"Of course she would!" said Helen promptly, "but she has gone to Jeffersonville and will not be back until to-morrow morning. It was nice of you to think of her, Rosanna."
When the hamper was packed to their satisfaction, they called Minnie back to see if they had forgotten anything.
"Why, who"s going, Miss Rosanna?" asked Minnie, looking into the basket with much surprise.
"You and Mr. Culver and Helen and me," said Rosanna wonderingly.
"Well, dearie, whatever are you going to do with all these things to eat?" said Minnie. "This basket holds enough for eight grown people, and you have packed it full."
"I think we can eat it by supper time," said Rosanna. "You have no idea how good those cookies and things are. Do you think we have forgotten anything, Minnie?"
"Where is the corkscrew for your olive bottle?" said Minnie. "And what are all those little bundles?"
"Hard boiled eggs," said Helen.
"Have you put in salt and pepper for "em?"
"I don"t believe we have," said Rosanna. She ran to get some.
"What is in that dish?" Minnie went on relentlessly.
"Salad, and the other one has fruit jello."
"They won"t ride very well, I am fraid," said Minnie. Then seeing a look of disappointment in the children"s faces she hastened to add, "Well, I say that is a grand supper, and cook never did a bit better for Mr.
Robert when he was home and used to give motoring parties. Now I have a plan myself. Both you children go and take a nap. Please do that for Minnie, Miss Rosanna."
Rosanna was sure she could not sleep, but about one minute later she was dreaming of dinner parties and kitchens. When she woke up it was three o"clock and Minnie was shaking her gently.
Rosanna was off the bed like a shot. She had just reached the porch when Helen came running up, dressed plainly and sensibly in a plain dark gingham and sandals.
"The car is all ready," she said, "and daddy is driving it around to the front door. And oh, he thinks he can"t stay with us. He has so much studying to do he is going to leave us there with you, Minnie, and come for us whenever you say."
"Well, that"s all right," said Minnie. "Only now that makes three to eat all that supper."
Rosanna picked up her cape and a thermos bottle and skipped down the broad steps after the house boy, who carried the heavy lunch hamper.
"Never you mind, Minnie," she said. "Wouldn"t you be s"prised to see us eat every bit of it?"
"No, I wouldn"t," said Minnie firmly. "I"d be _scared_."
CHAPTER VI
Driving through the winding roads of beautiful Iroquois Park, or Jacobs Park as it is better known to the people of Louisville, they found a lovely glade where the gra.s.s was smooth and where the trees grew close all about. They were screened from the pa.s.sersby, and it looked as though the little place had just been waiting for a couple of little girls to come there and enjoy a treat.