Dorothea Puts the Room in Order.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 152, 24 December 1903, Page 12

Dorothea Puts the Room in Order.

"Why, why I" exclaimed Mrs. St&nton, as she stopped at the hall door and looked beyond her in dismay. "Dorothea, look at this room." "Yes, *em," Dorothea answered, looking in very much against her will. "What have you been doing to make such a confusion as this?" Dorothea did not answer. Sho was just beginning to realise how dreadful tho room did look. "You may put it in order, Dorothea." her mother said, and went on upstairs to her room.

Dorothea, sat down in despair. No wonder mamma hud asked what she had been doing ! The chairs were turned over to make houses for her dolls; papa's big w<iste-basket btood in the middle of the floor, whew> «he hod been witting while &he tore the papers into bits and threw them iv handfuls on the carpet, because ie was playing it was Christmas, and a Christmas was not half bo nice without snow on the. ground. Then, her doll's trunk bad tipped over when she jumped to save Mirabel's beautiful flaxen hair from pussy's mischievous claws, and she had forgotten to replace the hats, shoes, and clothing which had gone in a dozen directions. • No wonder Dorothea was in despair when she was left all alone to pub the room in order. As she sat looking about her a funny expression crept into her eyes, and the corners of her mouth began to curve upward. Then she went quietly to the front door and opened it. Benny, her younger brother, and little Evelyn Robs were playing on the doorstep with a train of cms and some pebbles. * "Children," exclaimed Dorothea, in a most enticing tone, "I've been having the nices* time! Don't you want to com© and play with me?" The invitation sounded attractive, and they decided to accent it. "Now," said Dorothea, when they were in the room, which she had been left to put in order, "we will play that summer is coming, and we are going off on a trip to the sea-shore. Winter Imsn't quite gone ; there is .some enow on the ground yet, and we can't etart till it ia all gone." Benny and Evelyn stood with expectant, faces, waiting to hear what they were to "do. "Now, Benny," Jorothea continued, "you may be the south wind, and Evelyn, you may be a sunbeam, and together you must make the snow all disappear as quickly as yovi can." Benny and Evelyn went >to work at once, and the tiny pieces of paper were soon falling in fluttering' showers into the big basket, which must have represented the ocean. Dorothea sat contentedly watching the work and occasionally encouraging th© South Wind and th« .Sunbeam by chanting: "Th© snow is melting, molting," to a soft little refrain. You wouldn't have dreamed, to ccc her* that she waa deliberately imposing upon th© two smaller children hopping about before her. Presently th© last snowflake disappeared from sight, and Dorothea at once clapped her hands, and, jumping to her feet, exclaimed : "Now we can get ready for our journey. Tho first thing will bo to pack our trunk. Remember that it must be carefully done," she added, as hato, shoes, and dresses began flying at th© open trunk, "or tho clothes will not be fit to wear when we get there." There was a little more of an attempt at order after that, but when the lid of the trunk was strapped in place, Dorothea still felt some misgivings as to tho condition in which sho would find Mirabel's wardrobe when the' trunk was opened again. "Now we will go to th© cars," sho said, tipping, up a chair, which she thought wouid prove too heavy for ny or Evelyn, and sitting down in it. The children each placed a chair in a row behind hers, and sat down, too. "Wo must have a long train," Dorothea said energetically, Svaving h»r hand toward the remaining chairs ; and again the two small people went to work righting the other chairs and placing them in lino. Then Dorothea allowed Benny to be engineer and Evelyn conductor for two or threo minutes, daring- which the children imitated tho sounds of an engine, after which sho announced that they had readied tho sea-shore. They all jumped down from the train then, and Benny started. to run outdoors to sco th© ocean; but Dorothea called him back. "We must go to tho hotel first, and «co to our baggage." she ordered. "Oh, yes," tho children answered. So they carried the trunk to the hatl, and then, by moving the chairs back into their places, transformed th© railroaii into the hotel parlour. "Now we are ready for the sea-shore !" Dorothea exclaimed gaily, looking about the neatly-arranged room M'ith a triumphant glance. She felt that she had managed the affair cleverly, and was in a mood to be very gracious to the children. "I think Cook intended making- some jolly-boys this morning, and I -will see if I can get some for a picnic lunch upon th© beach," she said. "You wait till I como back." Then sh© departed in tho direction of tho kitchen. Sho had to wait a few minutes for Cook, but then she returned, carrying her plate carefully} and looking fairly radiant. She stepped to the dor and began to say : "Now, children," — and then she cot the jolly-boys down very hard indeed, "Why, chil-dren !" ehe began again, and that was all that she could «iy ; for the room before her was as disorderly as it had been when mamma looked into it nearly on hour ago. . Benny and Evelyn saw her look of dismay, and Benny explained: "Why, Dorothea, when you were gone, the moist dreadful thing happened; there was a real tornado, and it blew the hotel down, and scattered all th© trunks and furniture —and we are the only survivors!" and Benny finished with a struggle over the long word, but with a proud sens© of being able to make up almost as good plays as Dorothea herself. But Dorothea was not proud of her brother at just that moment ; she was co dreadfully disappointed that, in spite of the presence of the younger children, she nid her eyes and cried. Benny and Evelyn watched her for a few moments; then Evelyn's lip began to quiver, and Benny saw it, ( and then they both began to cry, too. I don't know why they cried : perhaps it was because their play had not proved such a success as they had expected ; perhaps it was because the jolly-boys were out in tho hall all alone. At any rate, mamma heard the noise, and came downstairs to, ccc what it was all about. "Why, why— what is th© matter hero!" she said ; and then, as she noticed the condition of the room, she gave Dorothea a reproachful look, and waited for an explanation. "I had it all picked up once," Dorothea began, between her sods— -"that is, the children did," she added, feeling an uncomfortable" prick of conscience over her first statement, "and then they tumbled it all up again." Mamma still continued to look reproachful, and somehow that look in mamma's eyes made tho whole- affair eeem different to Dorothea. "I guess," she continued, stopping her sobs and beginning to dry her tears, "that I- wasn't doing tho Golden Rule very hard ; but I'll put it all in order now, mamma ; truly I will." "Oh, we'd just as lief help as not," announced Benny and Evelyn, following Dorothea's example and 'drying their tears; and in a very few niomonts tho room was put in order once more. "There," said Dorothea, as sh© righted th© last chair i, "now we'll go out on the beach and have our picnic lunch." And when mamma looked out th© window, the three children, with red eyes but smiling faces, sat in a circle .around tho empty plate which had held the jollyboys. —Julia Darrow Cowlee, in St. Nicholas.