The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann | Page 9

find the way yourself."
Elizabeth Ann beamed at this news. She was eager to go to school.
"I can help you after school, Aunt Isabel," she said happily. "Mother
says I'm very useful for my age."
"I'm sure you are," agreed Aunt Isabel quickly, smiling her lovely smile
that made Elizabeth Ann feel pleasant all over. "Why don't you drink
your coffee, dear?"
Elizabeth Ann looked uncomfortable. It was Uncle Ralph who
understood.
"Little girls don't drink coffee, Isabel," he said. "Do they, dear? Milk is

so much better for them."
Aunt Isabel sent Rosa for a glass of milk and Elizabeth Ann was glad
that she had not had to explain that Mother did not allow her to drink
coffee.
Uncle Ralph went away after lunch, and Aunt Isabel, it seemed, was
going out, too. She put on a beautiful hat with purple grapes on it and a
fur scarf that reached almost to the tops of her pretty gray shoes.
"Would you like to go out with Rosa and walk along the Drive?" she
asked Elizabeth Ann kindly.
Elizabeth Ann did not know where the Drive was, but she thought it
would be very nice to go outdoors and play a little while. So she and
Rosa and Aunt Isabel went down together in the elevator, and Aunt
Isabel got into the shiny automobile which was waiting for her and
drove away.
"You'll see plenty of little girls over here," said Rosa, waiting for
several automobiles to pass and then hurrying Elizabeth Ann across the
street.
Sure enough, there were ever so many little girls about her own age
playing on the sidewalk or sitting quietly on the seats. There were
babies, too, fat babies and thin babies, some laughing and a few crying.
Little boys went up and down on kiddie-cars or rode velocipedes on the
cinder path.
"See the boy and girl on horseback?" said Rosa, pointing out two
ponies and their riders who flashed by. "Isn't this a nice place to play?
You can come over here every pleasant afternoon when school is out
and play by yourself; I can see from the window if you are all right."
Elizabeth Ann's fascinated gaze was on the still, gray river.
"What's that?" she asked suddenly.

CHAPTER V
ROSA AND HER FAMILY
Rosa looked in the direction Elizabeth Ann was pointing. Two tall wire
cages stood up against the sky.
"That's a battleship," Rosa explained. "Haven't you ever seen one
before?"
Elizabeth Ann shook her head.
"My goodness," said Rosa. "My little brother can tell you each kind of
boat every time he sees one. He's going to be in the navy when he
grows up."
They had been walking on the cement path and now they came to a
bench where there were two vacant seats. Elizabeth Ann pulled Rosa
toward the bench.
"Let's sit down," she suggested, "and you tell me about your little
brother! I wish I had a little brother, or a sister."
Rosa laughed good-naturedly and sat down on the bench.
"I have three little brothers and four little sisters," she said, much to her
hearer's astonishment. "That's a houseful, isn't it?"
"Oh dear, and I haven't one," sighed Elizabeth Ann.
"But you have your dear mother and father," said Rosa, her smile
sobering. "My sister Katie has to be a mother to the rest, for our mother
died when Mary-that's the baby -was a year old, and my father soon
after. You ought to see Mary; she has such yellow curls and blue eyes
and she is always laughing."
"I wish she was my little sister," said Elizabeth Ann. "Mr. Robert-he
was so good to me on the train, Rosa-told me that the way to make

wishes come true is by doing all we can to help. That doesn't mean I
could help make Mary my little sister, does it?"
"No, not exactly," answered Rosa slowly. "I can't explain it very well,
but I think he meant that just making wishes and not doing anything
will never make the wishes come true; we must be willing to work and
to wait--" Rosa did not finish her sentence, but seemed to be thinking of
something else.
Elizabeth Ann was silent a moment and then she touched Rosa's hand
gently.
"Tell me some more?" she begged.
"More about what?" Rosa asked merrily.
"More about your little brothers and sisters," said Elizabeth Ann.
So Rosa told her about Katie, the little mother to them all, who was
sixteen and who could cook and keep house and sew, and who made
David stand in a corner with his face to the wall when he was naughty.
David was a twin, Rosa said, to Joseph, and they were six years old.
Peter was twelve and he did a great