A rose of Holly Court

Contents

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I The Invitation 5

II A Red Brown Dog 19

Chapter I The Invitation

Tiie day was so hot that the door of the Settlement stood wide open. The voices of the children floated out from the play-room into the street and mingled with the sounds of clanging motor-gongs, rattling wheels, fruit venders and a wheezy handorgan. It was just five o’clock ; in half an hour one of the best hurdy-gurdies in the city would draw up before the door and play until six o’clock, one gay, rollicking tune after another.

This half-hour of music was the gift of Miss Dorothy Rowe, the youngest member of the college club which had started the Settlement a month before.

“ J ust let me do it till we can afford to get a piano,” she had besought the other members. “ It will draw the children to the steps, and then we can draw them into the house, gradually — you’ll see.”

Her plan had worked like a charm, Some days the 5 hurdy-gurdy came at four o’clock; the man who played it was in league with Miss Howe; he would never tell the children at what hour to expect him. There were pleasant things to be seen through the screen door, and in less than ten days after the Settlement was opened thirty children spent part of the afternoon in the play-room with Miss Howe.

The mothers of the boys and girls boasted of their Settlement to friends in other parts of the city. Mrs. Cassidy and Mrs. Dolan agreed with Mrs. Goldstein that Miss Dorothy Kowe was the “ prettiest young lady and had the sweetest ways” that had ever been seen in the neighborhood.

On this hot June day there were twenty children in the play-room, and as many more in the quiet readingroom up-stairs, when a quaint little figure in a clean gingham, and a green and blue plaid shawl turned the corner of Holly Court and walked sedately along Main Street, casting an occasional glance at two smaller figures toddling unsteadily along behind her hand in hand. Just before she reached the Settlement the little girl stepped back and gently separating the clasped hands, took one in each of her own.

“ You’ve been smart boys, and sister is proud of you,” she said, nodding approval to the baby faces upturned to tiers. “ I couldn't have left you alone if there’d been a street to cross, but you went up and down the curbstone at the alleys just as well as I could do it myself. Now when I squeeze your hands, remember you’re to bow the very best bows that ever you made.”

A wide smile broadened the two fat faces, and then the trio moved on to the Settlement and up the eight steps to the door with scarcely a halt.

“ Now mind you stand still while I ring the bell,” said the little girl ; and after a sharp pull which drew forth a shrill tinkle that echoed through the house, she folded her arms under the plaid shawl and waited.

“ No, no, keep on with the game while I go to the door,” she heard a clear voice say, and in another moment Miss Dorothy Rowe appeared in the hall.

“What is it, you dear little girl?” asked Miss Dorothy. “ Aren’t you coming in to see us ? The door is not fastened, see ? it shuts tight with a spring. Are those cunning babies your brothers? Do come in.”

The little girl’s face was overspread with a smile, but she had an errand to do before she dared speak of anything else.

“If you please,” she said demurely, “I am Rosie

Dolan, sister to Maggie that’s been here three or four times, and Mrs. Dolan (that’s my mother) would like the pleasure of your company to come to the party that we are going to have Friday night. My sister, Norah Dolan, is to marry Mr. Patrick Knowles in the morning and go to live in Wu-wu-wucester, if you please. And there’s a few others invited.”

As she finished her long speech, Kosie seized a hand of each baby brother, and all three children bowed so low that it was a wonder they did not lose their balance.

“And these are the twins, Patrick and Terence,” said the little girl, as they came up from their bow with flushed and merry faces, “and they are good boys — mostly. Mother says they’d be spoiled if we praised them all they deserve,” she whispered with her mouth close to Miss Dorothy’s ear.

“Your mother is very kind to invite me,” said the young lady, smiling her answer to Rosie’s secret, “ and I should be delighted to go to the party ; and might I be allowed to take a rose to the bride ? ”

It seemed as if the plaid shawl were too closely pinned to permit such pride as swelled the little figure inside it.

“ She’d be the grandest girl in this city if she had a rose to wear that you gave her,” said Rosie excitedly. “She’s seen you and she thinks there’s nobody like you ; she thinks you’re fine ; she told me so ! We live in Holly Court, Miss Dorothy — that’s the street with the park, past the two alleys as you go along Main Street to the left from this house. Ours is the little house close up to the park, opposite the biggest tenement. We’ve the whole house to ourselves, for the family’s moved out from the top floor.”

“That must be pleasant,” said Miss Dorothy as Rosie paused for breath.

“ It is,” said the little girl, “ but now when Norah’s gone ’twill be awful still in the house excepting when Tim’s baby cries. He’s a widower ; I’m the oldest, all but Norah and Tim and Bob ; and there’s Maggie and Celia — she’s had the jaunders or she’d have been here— and the twins, they’re all younger.”

Miss Dorothy stooped to pinch the fat, inviting cheeks of Patrick and Terence who gurgled with delight.

“You’ve got the friendly way with you,” said Rosie, admiringly. “ Hullo, Gussie,” she added as she caught sight of a sharp little face peering around the edge of Miss Dorothy’s gown.

“ Hullo, Kosie,” said the child, “ I wanted to see who it was. Aren’t you coming in ? ”

“ Not to-day,” said Kosie, with an air of great dignity, taking Patrick and Terence by their fat elbows and facing them about toward the street. “ Good-bye, Miss Dorothy.”

“ Good-bye until I see you again,” said Miss Dorothy, and she stood at the door with little sharp faced Gussie until the three Dolans had passed the first alley. As she turned to go back to the play-room the hurdy-gurdy creaked up to the curb, and out streamed the children, calling shrill welcomes to the Italian.

The first notes, with their enticing tinkle, tankle, brought Patrick and Terence to a standstill. They gave two little hops on the sidewalk, and tugged fiercely at Kosie’s shawl to turn her around ; but Kosie was firm.

“ You’d never expect more treat after all you’ve had, going with me to carry the invitation,” she said reproachfully. “You know I promised my mother I’d bring you right home again. Come now, be good boys and don’t bother sister.”

For some minutes neither coaxing nor commands could quiet the roars of the Dolan twins, but Kosie bore them swiftly along in spite of all they could do, and by the time they turned into Holly Court they had decided to make the best of a bad matter, and only a subdued whimpering was left to show how they felt.

“ Now I’m proud of you again,” said Eosie. “ Take hands and walk ahead of me, and show the neighbors how fast you can go to your own door.”

Holly Court took its name from an old man who had owned most of the houses in the short street twenty years before the Dolans moved into the little brown house. The park had been three times its present size before the car-barns which closed the end of Holly Court were built. There was a legend in the Court that years ago there had been an iron fence around the park with a gate which locked and that every resident had a private key. That was in the days when Holly Court was known as Castle Street.

“ They say the time was when no dog could put foot in that park,” said Mrs. Dolan from the doorway of the little brown house as Patrick and Terence toddled up the steps with Eosie close behind them. “ Look at the dogs that are making it their home, now ! ”

“ There’s nine of them,” laughed Eosie. “ I wouldn’t deny them their fun in the grass, but sometimes when I’m out in the park with Tim’s baby I can’t get him to sleep, they bark and race around so lively.”

The nine dogs were not at all disturbed by Mrs. Dolan’s notice of them, and having no real homes of their own they were all in the park on the morning of Norah Dolan’s wedding. When the hack that had been hired by Mr. Patrick Knowles to take his bride to the minister’s house arrived with a great clatter, the nine dogs scampered out into the street ready to act as escort.

Bob and Tim were to represent the family at Norah’s wedding, for Mrs. Dolan had suddenly “ lost her stren’th,” and Rosie must stay at home with her ; the other children were not old enough for a wedding, “ even if they had the clothes,” the mother had decided. Rosie arranged Norah’s skirt on the seat of the hack, spreading it out so that Mr. Knowles with a wide smile, suggested he might better mount to the driver’s box, but Rosie was too excited for jokes; she gave him a gentle push and he subsided on the narrow seat facing his bride.

“ Good wishes and love go with you,” said Rosie with a final kiss to her sister ; then she shut the door of the hack and waved her little hand for the driver to proceed.

“ Now I must run in and make the party cake,” she said to Mrs. Cassidy, who was sweeping off her door-steps at the next house but one. “ My mother’s on her back with all the goings on, but she’ll be up again this evening. It’s her head that pains her. They’re going to take dinner with Mr. Patrick Knowles’s aunt.”

“ It’s a grand day they have for it,” said Mrs. Cassidy who was glad to know these items. “ Make her a good strong bowl o’ tea, Rosie. It’s what she needs for her head.”

“ So I will,” said the little girl, running up the steps, “ and thank you, Mrs. Cassidy.”

Some people might have thought that Norah’s marriage would be a happy turn of events for the Dolan family. Chance visitors were apt to consider their quarters small, but no Dolan ever entertained such an idea, unless it might have been Maggie when the weather was very hot. There were five rooms — a parlor with a bed-lounge, two tiny bedrooms, a kitchen, and a little outer room in which was an iron sink.

In the kitchen was an old cooking-stove, six wooden chairs and a battered table. There was also a shallow closet with shelves which held so many things that

H whoever opened the door of it stood aside until such articles as were nearest the edge had fallen out on the kitchen floor.

Rosie hurried to this closet as soon as she heard from her mother that the bowl of tea had “ loosened the pain in her head.” A quick shower of forks and spoons rattled down as the little girl pulled the closet door open after a struggle caused by. its sticking.

“ Row I’ll be as hasty as ever I can,” said Rosie, selecting a tin spoon from the assortment on the floor and putting all the other things back on the edge of the narrow shelf, already more than crowded. She held them in place with one hand until the door was almost closed and then by a quick push managed to shut the door tight before anything slipped. A brown bowl, much cracked and mended, was waiting on the table, with a small flour bucket and a little tin of precious baking-powder beside it.

After a glance at these things, to make sure they were all there and ready for use, Rosie opened the outer door of the kitchen and stepped into the fifth room, the pride and delight of every Dolan — a little box of a place in which there was the iron sink with two faucets. So complete were the arrangements that when the cooking-stove was doing its best, one of the faucets trickled a thin stream of warmish water. But there was seldom fire enough to make this possible except in the coldest days of winter. The other faucet gave a rush of cold water to whomsoever turned it ; in fact as it was frequently used and always spattered, the floor of the sink-room was generally damp and cool, and a tin box placed against the outer wall close to the stairway that led to the back yard, made as fine a refrigerator as was to be found in the length and breadth of Holly Court. Also, as the tin box had a stout hasp its contents were safe from mice, and that was a great advantage.

From this refrigerator Rosie drew with care an egg, a little paper bundle of sugar, a tiny box of spice and a cup of milk, and last but not least a good-sized piece of butter. It must have been three inches square and Rosie bore it to the kitchen table with the air of one who carries a priceless treasure. For these things — all of them — had been saved for the making of the bride’s cake. A large loaf of brownish color with white frosting had been provided for the company as well, but as Rosie scornfully remarked, “it was just baker’s cake, with not a speck of the home taste to it.”

Hers was to be a home cake, and her cheeks grew scarlet as it progressed. The fire must be hot enough to bake it, but not too quick, and no coal could bo wasted, so the cake must be ready to go into the oven the minute the proper degree of heat was reached. Never was a single egg so beaten before, and never was a cake stirred with greater energy. Rosie held her breath as she poured the batter at last into the buttered pan. She set it in the oven, closed the door and ran in to the parlor.

Mrs. Dolan was lying on the bed-lounge with a wet handkerchief over her face and Tim’s baby asleep on her shoulder.

“ Oh, mother,” cried Rosie, as she tiptoed over to the lounge, “ it’s in ! it’s in ! But I mistrust there’s something wrong about it; it went off so easy ! ”

“Now don’t be a foolish one,” said Mrs. Dolan from under the wet handkerchief. “ Run right out to the kitchen again and watch the oven, and take Tim’s baby along for luck. He was weighing heavy on my neck,” murmured Mrs. Dolan as the baby, still asleep, was carried off by Rosie.

The little girl sat down on one of the wooden chairs and waited patiently while a round alarm clock on the table ticked, ticked faster and faster, so it seemed to her. Once the baby stirred and Eosie whispered in his ear :

“Don’t cry now, Eosie’s darling boy, and make a draft on the cake! Eosie’ll tell you a pretty secret — there’s a ring in the cake ; a grand shiny ring ! think o’ that now ! ”

Whether the baby thought of it or not nobody could say, but he did not cry or stir again till the forty minutes required for the baking had passed and Eosie having laid him carefully down on the table, opened the oven door and, holding her breath again, took out the cake. It had risen, it had browned; it did not stick to the pan ; it was everything that a bride’s cake should be, and when Mrs. Dolan saw it, the last lingering remnant of her headache vanished and she cast the wet handkerchief aside and sprang to her feet.

“It’s the handsomest loaf that ever I saw,” she said generously. “ I could never make its like — quick,

Eosie, till we hide it in the — in the ” Mrs. Dolan

looked wildly about her, — such necessity had never before arisen, and Patrick and Terence as well as Maggie and Celia who had been spending the morning in the back yard, might discover at any minute that they were locked out. “Where’ll we put it,

Kosie ? Quick ! Is there an empty spot in the bureau ? ”

“ I can make one,” said Kosie eagerly, and they ran to the bedroom where Tim and Bob slept. There was the family bureau and it took only one minute to put Mrs. Dolan’s shawl and the children’s Sunday hats as well as a number of other things into a drawer which was only half-full according to Kosie’s notions ; this made a perfect resting-place for the cake on a layer of stiff brown paper in the top drawer which had a key.

“ Lock it and put the key in your pocket, for I’m weak with the hurry,” said Mrs. Dolan.

“ There’s few houses where they’d have such a grand place to hide a cake away,” said Kosie as she turned the key. “ There, there, Eosie’s coming quick ! ” for Tim’s baby, who had waked to find a hard table under him instead of a comfortable shoulder, began to scream with rage and terror, and the little housekeeper ran to comfort him.

Chapter II A Red Brown Dog

There was but one opinion about the wedding party which Mrs. Dolan gave her daughter Norah — it was the finest party Holly Court had ever seen. Rosie’s cake was warmly praised by all who tasted it, and Rosie in a little white cheese-cloth dress enjoyed every minute of the evening.

She thought it all over as she set the house to rights the next morning. Mrs. Dolan was lying on the bed-lounge to “put the stren’th into her;” the younger children were playing in the yard which opened into the Hallorans’, and so on through the Cassidys’ up to Goldsteins’ at the corner. The children of Holly Court played in the back-yards in the morning, and saved the park for afternoons. It was a rule they had made for themselves, and every new child learned and followed it, nobody knew why.

Maggie had pretended to help with the housework, but she was more of a hindrance, and at last Rosie had urged her to join Celia and the others in the yard.

1 ?

“ It doesn’t seem as if Maggie grows up as fast as I did,” said Rosie to herself as she finished clearing up the kitchen and stepped to the front door for a breath of air. “ She’s only just the two years younger, and when I was nine I could sweep a floor as well as I can now. But she’s a better scholar than ever I’ll be, so I needn’t be priding myself,” she added quickly.

She sniffed the air and looked wistfully up the street as if she hoped to see the hack appear once more.

“ I’m missing my sister Norah,” she thought. “That’s my trouble. I’m feeling strange to be the oldest girl at home.”

As she stood there, around the corner came a red-brown dog, trotting briskly as if he had an errand in the Court. He had a silky coat that shone in the June sunshine and beautiful, questioning brown eyes. When he reached the Dolans’ steps he paused, lifted his left fore-paw and stood with it raised for a moment before he turned his face toward Rosie.

The little girl moved down one step and beckoned to this unexpected visitor ; as he hesitated she sat down on the steps and patted a place beside her.

“ Come up here along with me for awhile, and keep me company,” she said coaxingly, and he instantly accepted the invitation, seating himself beside her, letting his tongue hang comfortably out to the breeze while he got his breath.

“ Oh, but you’re the lovely dog ! ” said Rosie as she rubbed her cheek against his* ear. “ I wish you were my dog. There, you’d like it too, wouldn’t you? What else would make you smile at me that way, I’d like to know ? ”

The dog’s half-open mouth did look as if he were greatly pleased at something. He turned and lapped Rosie’s hand and sniffed her calico apron.

“ It’s nothing but soap and water you can smell,” said Rosie firmly, drawing her apron away from the dog’s nose, “ for there’s not a crumb o’ food about me anywhere. If there had been, the twins would ’ve had it from me before ever they went outdoors.”

Her new friend still smiled and Rosie was moved to further confidence.

“ My sister Norali — that’s my oldest sister — was married yesterday, to Mr. Patrick Knowles,” she said softly, “ and we had a grand party in the evening. But after it’s all over you feel yourself dreadful tired,” and she stretched her little arms over her head to show how tired she was.

The red-brown dog closed his mouth and turned his sj^mpathetic eyes toward Rosie. Then he put both fore-paws in her lap and stretched the rest of his length comfortably on the old wooden step. Kosie clasped her arms around his neck and hugged him.

“You look tired,” she said lovingly, “and you haven’t got any collar on. That means you don’t belong to anybody. I like you the best of any dog I’ve ever seen. If you had your way would you stay with me and be my dog, if my mother’d let you ? I’m the oldest girl now, and I’d like to own something, and there’s nothing else would please me as much as you.”

The dog closed his eyes, settled his head on his fore-paws and pretended to sleep.

“ If he stays on this door-step most of to-day and doesn’t fight the other dogs, I’ll call him my very own dog,” said Rosie delightedly. “ Tim and Bob would give me five cents a week for what he’d eat extra, and he’d be a grand one to play with the children, I can see that.”

“ Isn’t that a strange dog you’ve got, Kosie ? ” asked Mrs. Cassidy, who came down the street with a great bundle of soiled clothes in a checked covering in her arms. “ He looks better than the most of the Holly Court dogs.”

2 3

“He’s just come this morning,” said Rosie, “but I think he wants to stay and I’m intending to keep him for myself, if he likes it.”

“ You’ve made a good choice,” said Mrs. Cassidy, resting her bundle on her knees while she stopped at the foot of her steps to look at the dog. “If we didn’t live on the top floor I’d like one myself. How’s your mother feeling after the party ? ”

“ Her back aches,” said Rosie, “ the poor darling ! I never ache except all over; there’s few with my strength, Mrs. Cassidy.”

“ That’s a true word,” said Mrs. Cassidy, as she toiled up to her door and disappeared.

“ How I’ve got to go back to my work,” said Rosie to the dog, “ and you lie here and mind the door till 1 come back again. You’ve no call to say a word to any of the other dogs, or take notice of them at all.”

The dog seemed disappointed when Rosie’s lap was removed from under his paws, but he looked up at her with trust and confidence in his soft brown eyes. At Rathmore Kennels he had eaten a hearty breakfast ; the sun was warm and the breeze was cool that day in Holly Court; so he stretched himself at full length on the step and shut his eyes once more.

“ The morning slips away while you’re having your gossip,” said Mrs. Dolan from the bed-lounge as Eosie hurried into the house. “ Must I rise up and take the broom into my own hands, I wonder ? ”

“ No, no, keep still ! ” cried Eosie, filled with regret at her mother’s first reproachful word. “ It’s longer than I thought, if the clock is right.”

“ Why wouldn’t it be right ? ” asked Mrs. Dolan who surely ought to have known the answer to her question ; on waking from her nap her first act had been to shake the alarm clock, wind it, and set it ten minutes forward, for no special reason except that she thought it might be lagging a little. “ Oh, children can’t be expected to take care like their mothers. Everything slips off them, and others must take up their burdens. Get to work now and I’ll say no more.”

“ I’ve chosen a new dog that’s come this morning, to keep for my own if you’re willing,” said Eosie, before she turned away. “ He’s a fine one.”

“ Is he now ? ” inquired Mrs. Dolan, sleepily. “Well if he makes no trouble he can sleep by the back door. Is he a rat dog, do you think'? There’s one runs in and out of the entry closet. There must be a great hole somewhere.”

“ He could catch rats if he had the chance,

I know,” said Rosie, overjoyed at her mother’s words.

She waited a moment longer, but there was no need, for not even the adopted dog on the door-step was sounder asleep than Mrs. Dolan by that time. Kosie opened the front door softly and looked out at her new treasure. He did not stir, though his eyes opened and turned to her face.

“ I’m glad my mother’ll let him stay in over night,” she said, as she stepped about the rooms setting things to rights, “ for he might get lonesome and stray away somewhere. And I know what I’ll call him — Dennis — that’s the pretty name for him.”

When the children came tumbling in from the yard at noon, Rosie made an announcement to them. She was cutting a round loaf of baker’s bread into thick slices at the time, and had Tim’s baby, who was restless, on her shoulder, his dress being securely pinned to her apron in two places so that he could not fall, though he might freely squirm.

“When you go out,” said Kosie addressing Maggie, Celia and the twins, “ pass through the yard, and not out o’ the front door. There’s a dog on the steps that’s most prob’ly going to live here and be my own dog. His name will be Dennis, and I don’t want any one playing tricks with him and frightening him away.”

Eosie’s sweet voice had a touch of severity and it seemed as if her glance rested for a moment on Maggie’s saucy little face.

“ What’s his name, now ? ” demanded Maggie, with the air of one taking up a challenge. “ And s’posing there’s somebody belonging to him, Eosie Dolan, and the policeman would come and ask you however you got him ! ”

“ I only invited him to stay if he’d no place else to go,” said Eosie, much hurt at this suggestion, “and well you know I’d never ”

But there was no need for Eosie to say any more. Mrs. Dolan, strengthened by a nap and a bowl of tea, had risen from the bed-lounge and on her way to the kitchen had caught Maggie’s words. She stepped briskly over the threshold and lifting her naughty little daughter from her chair she carried her straight to the back door, opened it and set her outside on the steps.

“What you’re wanting is the air outdoors,” said Mrs. Dolan when this feat was swiftly and silently accomplished. “ And if ever I hear the like of that out o’ your mouth again, you’ll not play in the park

2 7 for a week. I hope you’re hearing me, Maggie Dolan. Rosie, darling, I took a sight at the dog, and I never saw a finer ; the shine on him is something grand ! ”

That afternoon while the owner of Rathmore Kennels was hearing from one of his men the story of the way in which Rob Roy (who was being taken to the Dog Show to be exhibited for sale) had managed to slip his loose collar and run away — at that very time Dennis sat peacefully in the little park of Holly Court with Rosie Dolan, Patrick and Terence the twins, and Tim’s baby, Augustin Charles by name. The hateful Dog Show was fully three miles away at the other end of the city, thought Dennis, comforting himself for trials past. He had sped through alleys, under carts and around corners with his poor frightened heart hurrying him on out of reach of that cry of “ Catch him ! ”