Part 4 (2/2)
”You mean the First Aid to the Injured methods,” corrected Helen; ”knowing what to do to revive a person when almost drowned, how to put out a fire-”
”How to bathe and bandage a sprained foot-”
”You needn't tell me you know that,” cried Nathalie with sparkling eyes, ”for I know by experience,” and then she told the girls what the doctor had said about Helen's skillful way of binding her foot-in spite of that young lady's blushes at this open praise-and how clever her mother thought the girls were for the ready way in which they had made the stretcher from their khaki skirts.
”Then we have to know how to restore a person who has fainted,” some one volunteered.
”And learn the Fireman's Lift,” added another girl.
”Oh, let's tell things from the beginning!” interrupted some methodical girl from the farther end of the porch.
”Oh, but I told Miss Page-” Helen stopped, for her hostess was looking at her with beseeching eyes, clearly due to the formal t.i.tle.
”Won't you please call me Nathalie?” the owner of that name ventured with a coaxing little smile.
”If you will say Helen,” replied the girl with evident delight.
The girls both laughed, shook hands on it, and then Helen continued.
”Yes, I told Nathalie all about the tests for the third-cla.s.s Pioneer.
Well, to become a second-cla.s.s Pioneer it is necessary to have been a third-cla.s.s Pioneer for at least a month. Then you have to know how to cook a piece of meat properly-”
”Boil a potato as it should be done!” interrupted Lillie Bell. This was impressively said, and followed by a chime of laughter from the girls.
”And make a coal fire in a cooking-stove-ye stars!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Grace, ”when I made my first, I literally smoked every one in the house to a ham-but when I made my first out-of-door fire-”
”You didn't do any better,” cried Lillie Bell irrelevantly, ”for you sooted the whole bunch of us.”
”Oh, Lillie,” cried Grace in dismayed tone, ”that wasn't from making the fire, for I was the only one who made it with a single match, but it was from putting it out.”
”Now girls, don't tell tales; for, as Mrs. Morrow says, we are all breakable and no one should cast the first stone,” called out their leader.
”Oh, the tests are all easy but the next one,” cried Edith Whiton, ”that is not a cinch by any means: how to remove a cinder from the eye-”
”Or any other foreign substance!”
”We have to know all the primary colors, too,” went on Edith.
”Pshaw, any kindergarten kid knows that,” spoke the Encyclopedia, who up to this moment had taken no part in this flow of information, ”but to tie a bundle properly, that means hard labor.”
”Yes, indeed,” added Jessie Ford quickly, ”one has to have an awful lot of practice to do that. I worked so hard tying up bundles at home for every one in the house that Father suggested I apply for a position as bundle-wrapper at some department store. And I would have, just for a joke, if I hadn't succeeded in making every one for whom I tied a bundle give me five cents-and I made a dollar.” Her eyes gleamed reminiscently.
”You have forgotten about the trees!” called out the Sport.
”Yes, we have to name three kinds of trees, three flowers and three birds.”
”Easy!” chimed the girls in unison.
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