"MABEL, FIRST CIRCULATING BABY IN WORLD, IS ONLY THREE, BUT SHE'S SOME GIRL."
"This little story will introduce Miss Mabel Pain, three years old, the youngest and tiniest Girl Scout in the world. Mabel lives right here in Washington, at the Graystone Apartments, and she is the mascot of Girl Scout Troop No. 3, composed of Graystone girls.
"Although only three years of age, Mabel has had a varied and romantic career, and if the remainder of her life holds for her as much excitement as she has experienced during her baby years, she will be quite a wonder long before she grows gray-headed. Indeed, Mabel already is a little wonder, for she can swim, hike three miles without getting tired, say grace as solemnly as a bishop, recite her A B C's backward, repeat the Girl Scout oath of allegiance to the flag, say all of the ten Girl Scout laws, salute with the snap of a West Point cadet, and do many other things the average child of six or seven would have great difficulty in doing.
"And all this is the more interesting because Mabel was once a little waif, without parents and without a home. Her origin remains a mystery, and little Mabel herself has no recollection of her mamma and papa. Mabel was discovered when the girls of Troop 3 decided that they wanted to adopt a baby, a real _live_ baby that would coo and cry and kick and laugh, and all that. It was a big job for a group of girls to adopt a baby as a substitute for their dollies--and their troop leader probably would have vetoed the whole fine plan had the little girls not pleaded with their mothers and fathers and persuaded them to approve the project.
"So a search was made for a baby to adopt, and little Mabel eventually was found. All the little girls clapped their hands, and danced in glee. They had a baby, and they were so pleased. But the question arose: Now that the girls had the baby, what in the world were they going to do with it? And thus it was that Mabel became the world's first 'circulating baby,' for the girls decided that they would keep the baby successively for a couple of weeks at a time at their various homes, the mothers first giving their approval, of course.
"So Mabel lived one week with Harriet's parents, another week at Pauline's home, and still another week at Mary's residence. She shifted from home to home just like a book in a circulating library.
"Everywhere she went she was looked upon as a sort of toy or pet, to be played with and humored, and then passed on to someone else.
"So it went until Mabel landed at the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. B.
Pain of the Graystone Apartments. Mrs. Pain is Captain of Troop 3 and from the start she had taken a keen interest in the baby. Mr.
Pain also fell in love with Mabel, and thus it came about that Mabel ceased to be a 'circulating baby,' for the Pains decided that they would like to keep her for good and all, and little Mabel was formally adopted.
"The Pains are English people of culture and refinement, and as a result the little waif now has a wonderful home. Mr. Pain is an artist, and Mrs. Pain is a trained instructor of children and between the two, fate has made it possible for Mabel to develop into a very fine girl.
"A girl cannot become a full-fledged member of the Scouts until she is ten years old and the girls under ten are formed into an organization known as the Brownies. But it wouldn't be safe for anyone to accuse Mabel of being a Brownie, for in her grown-up way she would immediately announce: 'I am not a Brownie at _all_! I am a regular Girl Scout!'
"Mabel would be quite right in saying so. For although technically she is not a Scout, she attends all of the Scout meetings, goes on all the Scout hikes and does _whatever_ the rest of the Scouts do.
She gets around the ten year age limit because of the fact that she is the mascot of the Troop. Mascots, you know, are always admitted, for most of them are cats and dogs and rabbits and birds--and they aren't supposed to know what's going on. But Mabel, you may be sure, knows everything that is taking place."
As Captain Horton finished, the girls all laughed and clapped their hands.
"Is it really true?" "Did you see her?" "Was she cunning?" "Tell us more about it!" were some of the clamored questions.
"Yes, it is quite true, although it does sound like a fairy story. And I not only saw but heard her. Girls, I wish you could have heard that darling baby voice reciting our promise! She was so sweetly solemn about it. 'On my honor I will _twy_,' she said, and all the rest of it. Mrs.
Pain says she does everything as nearly right as she can, because she is so proud of being a Girl Scout. And cunning? Indeed she was! Just imagine a funny, dimply, blonde Kewpie dressed in Scout uniform, and there you will have little Mabel Pain. I wish some of you could have seen her salute; it would have been a lesson to you.
"I can't help thinking, girls, that the case of little Mabel is just an instance of the far-reaching effects of a kindly act. I don't know which girl first thought of that circulating baby, but that doesn't matter.
Little Mabel, just one of dozens of tiny tots in the asylum, was destined to grow up merely one of many in the cold white dormitories, tended by faithful attendants and nurses too busy and full of care to love or mother their charges. Now, through the action of the Scouts, she has a tender mother and a proud and loving father, and will no doubt grow up to be a fine woman.
"I wish we could all do something as fine to help carry on. I want you to be on the look-out every day of your lives for a chance. And when an opportunity presents itself to you, seize it as a positive gift from heaven. A gift not to the person whom you are about to benefit, but a gift to _you_."
"Well, shall we have a circulating baby?" asked Jane.
"Not necessarily," laughed the Captain. "There are countless ways in which you can help the old world on."
"But a baby must be such fun!"
There was a groan from two or three girls as they heard Jane speak, and one black-eyed gypsy remarked bitterly that _she_ had a baby sister that they could circulate at any time, as far as she cared. Jane laughed.
"That is the way she talks, Captain," she said, "but when that baby was sick last winter Letty nearly went crazy."
Letty blushed. "_That_ is different!" she said.
"Of course!" answered the Captain. "Well, it is time for each of you to think up some plan of kindness for vacation time."
"What would you advise?" asked Estella, wriggling.
"I do not advise at all," said the Captain. "I want you to do your own planning because I want the credit to be all yours. I am sure everyone of you knows some invalid, some poor child, some old person, or some very poor sad or troubled neighbor who needs you. Keep your eyes open, my dears, and listen carefully. There will be a hand beckoning or a voice calling sooner or later. And if you should miss the summons, you would always be sorry."
"When is Mabel Brewster going to bring you her report?" asked Jane.
"She is simply seeing how selfish she can be, isn't she, Captain?" asked Estella.
"Not quite that," said the Captain, a sober look stealing over her pretty face. "Mabel was dissatisfied with her life and had ambitions that did not seem to be just what a girl should strive for, so her mother and I thought it would be a good thing for Mabel, as well as for all of us, to allow her to try her theories out and tell us the result."
"Well, _I_ think she is _perfectly miserable_," announced Jane bluntly.
"I don't think she likes it a _bit_! How she stands it at all I don't see. And do you know, Captain, my brother says Frank sleeps every night on that little hard settee outside her door because he is afraid someone might try to get in; and as soon as school is out, he hangs around the _Times-Leader_ office to walk home with her. She doesn't know it, of course, and I suppose if she did she would be mad, but if I thought _my_ brother was a perfect angel like that I would feel so proud!"
"Why, what a dear he is!" said the Captain, the tears starting to her eyes.
"_She_ doesn't deserve him!" said Jane.
CHAPTER X
Claire and Rosanna lingered after the meeting, talking with the Captain and Mrs. Horton, but presently Colonel Maslin came for them, and they said good-night and went away, Rosanna feeling as though she was doing something quite out of the way and rather dreadful in going off with another girl at that time of night. It must have been at least nine!
The two girls sat with the Colonel while he ate the lunch set before him by the Chinaman--a cracker and a glass of buttermilk it was--and then they said good-night and went laughing upstairs to Claire's sitting-room. In the pretty bed-room Rosanna found her clothes laid out neatly and the two took off their trim Scout uniforms and slipped into comfy kimonos.
Rosanna found that when Claire was not brooding, she was as gay and bright as any girl, and happiness transformed her face into a beautiful, glowing countenance that made Rosanna happy just to look at it.
"I wish you always felt like this," she said after a funny story of Claire's had sent her into gales of laughter.
"Like what?" demanded Claire quickly.
Rosanna was sorry that she had spoken. "Why, so jolly and merry," she said.
The cloud settled over Claire's face again.
"Perhaps I should not have said that, dear Claire," continued Rosanna gently, "but you don't know just how you _do_ look a good deal of the time."
Claire shot a quick glance at her, and then looked away. "How do I look?" she asked abruptly. "I thought I looked like most every girl."
"Well, you don't," said Rosanna. She studied the beautiful, unhappy face of her friend, finding trouble in choosing her words. "It is hard for me to tell you just how you look, only it hurts me when I see it."
"Try to tell me," urged Claire as though the subject interested her deeply.
Rosanna floundered on.
"I don't know just how to explain to you, but you seem to be listening to something that I cannot hear, and way down deep in the bottom of your eyes there is a horror."