Ethel Morton at Sweetbriar Lodge Part 5

"And please tell Miss Daisy that I think she's the finest ever, and Mother will think so, too, when I tell her about this," added Dorothy.

"And do ask her to come over to one of the U. S. C. meetings when we happen to be doing something that will interest her," concluded Helen, who was the president of the club.

CHAPTER III THE CLUB SELECTS THE BENCHES

It seemed to Dorothy and the Ethels that the outside of Sweetbrier Lodge, as Mrs. Smith had determined to call her house, went up with remarkable speed, but that the inside would never be done--never! Every day the girls walked down the road after school, and stood and surveyed the general appearance from the sidewalk and from across the street and sometimes they went on to Mrs. Emerson's and discussed vigorously as to whether the view of the corner of the house that was to be seen now would still be seen after the leaves came out or whether the house would be entirely concealed by the foliage.

"That's 'one of the things no feller knows,'" Mr. Emerson quoted. "We shall have to wait and see."

"We can get an idea how it is to look from the road," said Ethel Brown.

"Only there'll be a lot of planting," Dorothy explained. "There'll be a hedge along the street and a lot of shrubs on the knoll and the house will be covered with vines in the course of time."

"That's another good point about concrete," declared Mr. Emerson; "vines don't injure it as they do brick."

"We'll have it entirely covered, then," laughed Dorothy.

"I thought it was to be a bungalow," said Mrs. Emerson. "Your mother has always spoken of it as a bungalow, but the plans I saw the men following the other day when I went up the hill to take a look at things, seemed to me like a two story house."

"Mother changed her mind," said Dorothy. "She thought a bungalow would be too crowded now that we have little Belgian Elisabeth with us, so the house is going to have two stories and an attic."

"The U. S. C. couldn't get on without Dorothy's attic," smiled Ethel Brown, for almost all of the presents for the Christmas s.h.i.+p had been made in the attic of Dorothy's present abiding place, and the Club had had many meetings there.

"There's nothing like having a well-thought-out plan before you attempt building," said Mr. Emerson, "and that your mother had."

"She tried to think of every possible need, Ayleesabet's as well as our own," continued Dorothy, using the p.r.o.nunciation that the Belgian baby had given her own name.

"She has a good contractor in Anderson."

"He didn't make the very lowest bid," said Dorothy. "There was one man who was lower, but he was such a lot lower that Mother thought there must be something the matter with the quality of the material he used, or that he employed workmen so poor that they might not do their work well, so she didn't consider that offer at all."

"She was very wise," commended Mr. Emerson. "He might have spoiled the whole thing and have cost her more money in the end by turning out a poor job."

While the building was going on and before the inside work was done the girls spent a good deal of time in planning for the furnis.h.i.+ng of the garden. The flower and vegetable beds had all been arranged some weeks before and many of them had been planted, but the artistic part of the garden had been left until there should be time to devote to it. Mrs.

Smith had promised Dorothy that she should have the choice of the garden furniture, reserving for herself a veto power if her daughter chose anything that seemed to her entirely unsuitable.

"Not that I expect to use it," she said, smiling at the girls who were listening to her.

The selection of the benches and tables and trellises was made a subject of attention by the whole United Service Club. A meeting was called in the partly begun garden so that they might have the "lie of the land"

before them as they talked. Dorothy took with her a number of catalogues from which to select or to gather ideas.

"We've got a good shelter of large trees already provided for us," she said as they all seated themselves in such shade as the young leaves made.

"There ought to be a fine large settee under it where we can have Club meetings all summer, no matter how warm it is," urged Tom Watkins with wise foresight. Tom and his sister, Della, came out from New York for the club gatherings, and the prospect of meeting out of doors instead of in the attic, which was delightful in winter but not so attractive in warm weather, made him offer this shrewd suggestion.

"In the first place," said Dorothy again, opening the various catalogues and spreading them on the gra.s.s where they could all see them, "don't you think it would be pretty to have all the chairs and benches of one pattern? Or don't you?"

"I think it would," answered Ethel Brown, examining the pages carefully before she made her decision.

"Would what?"

"I should like them all alike. It would be messy to have a lot of different patterns."

Ethel Blue, who had a good deal of artistic sense and ability, nodded her agreement with this belief. They all came to the same conclusion.

"Then, let's pick out the pattern," said Dorothy, who had an orderly mind.

"Something plain, so the visitor's eye won't be drawn to the benches instead of the flowers," recommended Helen. "Suppose we were sitting here, for instance, and looking toward the flower beds--there will be some tables and chairs between us and the flowers, probably--"

"If the seeds will only grow," Dorothy sighed comically.

"--and we want to forget them and not have them intrude on our attention."

"Correct!" James Hanc.o.c.k thumped the ground by way of applause.

"What's the plainest pattern there is?" asked Della, extending her hand for a book.

"That one--but that's too plain," remonstrated Ethel Blue. "That's so plain that it draws your attention as much as if it were all fussed up."

They laughed at her disgust and urged her to choose the next plainest.

"I rather think this one with cross bars is pretty," she decided seriously. "You wouldn't get tired of that--especially if they're all painted dark green so you won't see them much."

"You girls seem to want to have invisible furniture," grinned Roger. "Me for something more substantial."

"These will be substantial enough--they're made of cypress," retorted Helen, "but you don't want to see a lot of chairs and benches when you come out to observe the beauties of nature, my child."

"I can bay the moon on a white bench with an elaborate pattern just as musically as on a plain, dark green one," insisted Roger.

"Don't pay any attention to him," urged Ethel Brown, which crus.h.i.+ng remark from a younger sister was rewarded by a hair-pull effectively delivered by Roger.

"Yow!" squealed Ethel.

"Now who's baying the moon?" inquired her brother.

"Let's decide on the cross-barred kind," decreed Dorothy.

"The Lady of the Garden has made her decision," announced James, tooting through his hands as if he were a herald making an announcement. "Now for the shapes. How many are you going to have, Lady?"

"I think there ought to be a very large bench that would hold almost all the Club, and then one or two smaller benches and two or three chairs and two small tables for lemonade and cocoa."

"And to hold the Secretary's book when she's writing," urged Ethel Blue who held the office of scribe and had not always found herself conveniently situated to do her work.

"Here's a bully bench for the whole U. S. C.," cried Tom. "It's curved so it will fit right under this semi-circle of trees as if it were made for this very spot."