The Girl Scouts at Rocky Ledge.

by Lilian Garis.

CHAPTER I

JIM OR JERRY: TED OR ELIZABETH

"Do you mind if I call you Jim?"

"Why no--that is----"

"And may I call the lady Aunt Elizabeth?"

"Elizabeth?"

"If you don't mind; I'd love to."

"But the fact is----"

"You see, I have always wanted a man named Jim to protect me, and now that I've got you I'd love to have you as Jim. Then, I have perfectly loved the Aunt Elizabeths. They're always so lacy and cameo like." She stood off and critically inspected the smiling woman in the most modern of costumes.

"You're really too young," continued the girl, "but you'll grow old soon I hope, don't you think so?"

"I'm afraid I shall----"

"Then that's that. And I'm glad we are settling things so quickly. Could I see my attic room now, Aunt Elizabeth?"

"Attic room?"

"Isn't it?"

"Not exactly. We were giving you the yellow room; it's so cheerful and pretty."

"Well, of course, I don't want to be too particular, and it's lovely of you, dear Aunt Elizabeth, but all girls taken in are put in attic rooms, aren't they?"

"Taken in?"

"Yes, sort of adopted you know. The attic always gives the shadowy ghost business." There was just a hint of disappointment in the child's manner now.

"We've got a first rate attic room," suggested the man who was tilting up and down in a heel and toe exercise. "And what do you say, Ted, I mean Elizabeth," he chuckled, "if we give----"

"Jerry, don't talk nonsense," interrupted the young woman not unkindly but with some decision. "I am sure she would rather have the pretty----"

"But, please, could I see the attic room?" came rather timidly the very thread of a voice from the little girl.

"It's ghostly." This from Jerry.

"That would be just perfect. Does the roof slant so it gives you the nightmare on your chest, you know? And does the moon sort of make faces in the windows?" Interest was overcoming timidity.

"That may be the trouble," replied the man, with a chuckle. "But I'll tell you, little girl. Suppose we take the yellow room until you have a chance to inspect thoroughly. You see your--er--Aunt Elizabeth has had it all planned and fixed up----"

"Oh yes. Do excuse me for being impolite. You see, I've been thinking about it so long. The school was lovely, and the teachers all very kind, but it was sort of a regular kindness, you know, and did not have any of my dreams coming true in it. Do you dream an awful lot here?"

"Day dreams or night dreams?" asked the man.

"Oh, wake-dreams, of course. The other kind don't mean anything. Just stickers in your brain sort of p.r.i.c.king, you know. But the wake-dreams can come true, if you plague them long enough. I guess they get tired fighting you off and they have to give in and happen. What do you want to call me?" This was a sudden digression and marked with a complete flopping down of the talkative child.

"Your name is Nora, isn't it?" replied the young woman who seemed rather glad to sit down herself. They were on the big square porch and rockers were plentiful.

"Yes, my name is Nora, and it's pretty good, but hard to rhyme easily.

Then I would rather have you call me the name you have always called your dream child."

"Mine was Bob," blurted the man, "but Bob wouldn't exactly suit you."

"Oh, yes it would," she jumped up again and left the rocker swaying wildly. "Bob would be splendid for me. Would it suit you, Aunt Elizabeth? What was your pet name?"

"I think Nora too pretty to drop. Besides, don't you really think a name is a part of one's self and ought to be loved and respected?"

"That's just it. I want to--that is, if you don't mind, I want to be the self I planned, not this one I didn't have anything to say about. It's just like religion. When we grow up big as I am, we ought to be allowed to choose." Her manner was even more babyish than her appearance.

"Big as I am!" Jerry repeated this to a rosebush.

As a matter of fact she was not much bigger than a child of eight years might be, but she claimed a few more birthdays and she looked about as substantial as a wind flower. Her eyes were blue, her hair light and fluffy, and she wore such a tiny white slip of a dress, socks and sandals and a white lace hat! Grown up? She looked just like an old-fashioned baby.

"Then, shall I be Bobbs?" asked Nora a moment later, with hope in her voice.

"Ye-e-s, and if--the auntie wants to soften it she can call you Babette," ventured Jerry. "And now, if the christenings are over, suppose we go inside and freshen up. Come along Bob, you are going to be my helper now, aren't you?" Jerry's eyes twinkled with his voice. He was, plainly, enjoying himself.

"I'd love to help--especially with outdoor work," replied the girl. "And you measure land, don't you?" she asked.

"Yes, that's about it. In other words I'm a surveyor," explained Jerry.

"And Aunt Elizabeth helps. Isn't that lovely? We won't, any of us, have old pesky house work to think about. I haven't ever dreamed a dream, not a single one, about housekeeping. Some one always does that for me, or I just don't think about it at all and it's all done beautifully," boasted Nora. "I love your place. It's so romantic," she expanded her arms and fluffy little skirt to fill the big chair. "I feel, somehow, everything is going to come true now." Relief toned this statement while she looked wistfully out of blue eyes, and any one might have easily guessed that something very dear was included in that word "everything."

The young woman, who was threatened with being made over into an old Aunt Elizabeth with laces and cameos to boot, gazed intently at the small personality. She realized it was a personality, a little dreamer, a big romancer, and a very weird sample of the modern girl, self-trained.

He who was to become "Jim" on the spot, seemed tickled to death over it all, and kept snapping his brown eyes, first at the newly named Bobbs and then his life's partner, until glints of fun-sparks charged the very air.

"It might be a good idea to put on tags for a day or two," he suggested playfully. "I would hate to spoil the program by calling Elizabeth here just Ted."

"Oh, do you think it will be hard? I didn't mean to make trouble, and, if you say so, I'll just put the dream back again on its peg and let it stay there. It really doesn't have to come true right now. There are so many new things to talk about," temporized Nora, considerately.

"I think it would be lots better to try things out for a little while under our own names," suggested the young woman, eagerly. "And I have always loved the name Nora, so you see, _my_ dream will be coming true, at any rate," she smiled.

"Goody--goody! It's all right, then. I'll be Nora, and you'll be Ted, that's pretty: what does it mean?"