With half a dozen steps, Bob Rose ran up the staircase of his new home in Berwick, to Dotty"s room.
As he had been at school when the family moved he had never seen the house before, and now, the school term over, he had come home for vacation and his first thought was for his broken-armed sister.
It was two weeks since the accident, but Dotty was still in bed. Her arm was doing nicely, but she was such a nervous and excitable child that it was thought best to keep her as quiet as possible. She was sitting up in a nest of pillows and a rose coloured kimono was draped round her bound-up arm. But she waved the other hand gaily as Bob dashed into the room.
"Well, old girl," he cried, "this is the limit! The idea of your smashing yourself like this! Here I"ve played every old kind of ball and everything else and never broke one of my two hundred and eight blessed bones! And you just go out on lady-like roller skates and come a cropper. Fie upon you! does it hurt much?"
"You bet it hurts, Bob! Nothing like it did at first, but it hurts a good deal, and it"s awful uncomfortable. I can"t move it, you know, and I can"t do hardly anything for myself."
"Pooh! pshaw! of course you can do things for yourself. What a chump you are, Dot. Why it"s your left arm, you ought to be able to do everything in creation with your right arm alone, except maybe play the piano or clap your hands. I"ll show you how to do things. Is your right arm all right?"
"Yes, I s"pose so, but I haven"t used it any."
"Jiminy crickets, isn"t that just like a girl! Honest, Dot, I thought you"d have more s.p.u.n.k. But I"ll put you through, with bells on!"
Bob Rose, just turned eighteen, was a boyish duplicate of Dotty. He had the same snapping black eyes and his hair though short had a curly twist to it which, though he hated it himself made a becoming frame for his handsome face. He was overflowing with mischief and life and was devoted to athletic or outdoor sports of all kinds. He was very fond of his sister and the two had always been great chums, though frequently indulging in spirited quarrels.
"What"s this place like, anyway?" he inquired, as he sat on the edge of Dotty"s bed and draped his long arm over the footboard. "You"ve got a jolly room all right," and he looked round admiringly at the pretty rose and grey effects.
"Yes, isn"t it lovely! It was my birthday present,--the furnishings, I mean. I wrote you about it, you know. We were going to fix up a lovely room for you, too, but after I broke my arm, Mother and Aunt Clara didn"t have time to do anything but tend to me."
"Well, they"ll catch time now. I want a room fixed up for me as good as yours,--but not so d.i.n.ky-fussy. I"ll pick out the things myself. You needn"t think you own the whole shooting-match, Miss Dotty-Doodles! I just guess Brother Bob home on his vacation will come in for his share of attention! You won"t be neglected, I"ll look out for that, but just remember that I"m here, too. What"s the town like?"
"I don"t know myself much. You see we had our party and I met a lot of the boys and girls and then the very next day I smashed myself and of course I haven"t seen any of them since."
"But you can pretty soon now. Why, it"s only your arm, your legs are all right, you can walk, can"t you? Why don"t you go downstairs and have people come to see you?"
"I couldn"t see people in a dressing-gown!"
"Well, Mother can rig you up a basque or a polonaise or something. Or put on a raincoat or an Indian blanket,--but for goodness" sake get out and around. I"ll stir you up--"
"Here, here, what"s going on?" and Mrs. Rose came in just in time to hear Bob"s last words. "You"re not to stir Dotty up, Bob, we want to keep her quiet."
"Quiet nothing! She"ll dry up and blow away if she doesn"t get a move on! You"re going to rig her up some sort of civilian dress Mother and get her downstairs this very day. She"s not sick or going into a decline, is she?"
The influence of Bob"s breezy chatter had wrought a change in Dotty.
During the two weeks that had just pa.s.sed she had become peevish and fretful from enforced inactivity and now the thought of getting up and going downstairs had brought the smiles to her face and the light to her eyes.
Moreover, Mrs. Rose was impressed also by the determination of her big young son and began to think that perhaps his way might be right after all.
"Now you"ve got to tend to me, Mumsie," Bob said in his wheedlesome way, as he caressed his mother in a big bearish fashion. "You"ve got to fix up a room for me, all just as I want it, and you"ve got to make me chocolate cakes and all sorts of good things to eat, and you"ve got to do lots of things for your prodigal son. Dotty has had her turn and now it"s mine, but while you"re busy about me, I"ll look after Dot, bless her old heart!" And Bob blew a kiss from his finger tips to his pretty sister who had already begun to take a new interest in life.
"h.e.l.lo, Aunt Clara," Bob called out as Mrs. Bayliss pa.s.sed through the hall, "come in here and help us dressmakers. Can"t you rig up a costume for Dot that will be presentable to wear downstairs?"
"Downstairs!" exclaimed Aunt Clara; "did the doctor say she could go down?"
"Dr. Bob said so!" and the boy laughed. "I know all about broken arms, and there"s no use giving in to them too much. The more you do for them, the more you may. Now Dotty is going to forget hers and have just as good a time as if she never broke it. I say, Dot, how"s that chum of yours, you wrote me about? Is this her picture? Wow! Ain"t she the peach!"
Bob picked up the picture of Dolly from Dotty"s dressing-table and admired it openly. "Does she really look like that?"
"Yes," and Dotty waxed enthusiastic; "she"s beautiful. Just like a pinky rose with blue eyes."
"She broke her leg didn"t she, in your all-comers" sc.r.a.p?"
"Yes; she can"t move for six weeks."
"Well, two weeks are gone now, that"s something. Can"t I see her? I"d like to sympathise."
"Oh, yes, Bob, of course you must see her, but I don"t want you to go over there till I can go with you."
"Oh, I"m not going to wait for that. I must have a peep at this blue-eyed fairy for myself. Any go to her?"
"Not much," and Dotty smiled. "Dolly"s a perfect dear, but she"s slow."
"All right, we"ll have to hurry her along a little. When does her brother come home? Have you ever seen him? What"s he like?"
"He"s coming day after to-morrow. No, I"ve never seen him, but Dolly thinks he just about made the world."
"Well, I"ll reserve my opinion till I see the bunch. Honest, old girl, I"m glad you"re getting along as well as you are, but I"m going to do wonders for you. It"s going to be lucky for you that you"ve got Brother on the job. Why, Dot, we were all going camping this summer, you know, what about that?"
"We haven"t planned for the summer yet, Bobs," said his mother. "Perhaps by August, if Dotty is all right, we can go somewhere for awhile."
"You bet we will!" returned Bob. "Dotty will be all right!"
The next day but one Mrs. Rose took her big boy over to call on Dolly Fayre.
Though unable to leave her bed, Dolly could sit up and was allowed to see a few visitors each day. It was her nature to be quiet, so she was a much more tractable patient than Dotty and her broken bone had already begun to knit and was getting along nicely. It was very monotonous to sit or lie there day after day, but Dolly was patient and always took things placidly. Her parents and Trudy read to her and played games with her and entertained her in various ways and Dolly was as cheerful as any little girl could be in such circ.u.mstances.
It was a bitter disappointment to her that she could not take part in the Closing Exercises of her cla.s.s. But she was reconciled to her fate and made no complaints, though deeply regretting her enforced absence from school. Her cla.s.smates came to see her occasionally, but they were so busy preparing for the celebration that they had little time for social calls.
Dotty looked forward eagerly to the homecoming of her brother Bert and she also awaited with some curiosity the meeting with Bob Rose.
However, she had heard so much about Bob from Dotty, that she was not surprised when the merry-faced boy appeared at her bedside with a gay and cheery greeting.
"I"m Bob," he said, holding out his hand, and not waiting for his mother"s more formal introduction.
"I"m Dolly," and the blue eyes smiled at him as a little white hand clasped his own.
"By Jove, you do look like your picture, only you"re prettier!"
exclaimed Bob as he took the chair Mrs. Fayre offered him.
"It"s my new cap," and Dolly smiled from beneath the lacy frills and rosebud decorations of a dainty new cap that Trudy had just made for her. She wore a j.a.panese kimono of pale green silk embroidered with white cherry blossoms, and as she sat surrounded by embroidered pillows and lace coverlets, Bob thought he had never seen a prettier picture.
"You look like a princess," he said. "Princess Dolly."
"I _am_ a princess," she smiled back; "Mother and Trudy are my ladies in waiting and do just as I bid them. How much you look like Dotty."