e wall so blindly--you'll be
careful and patient, won't you, Hughie? For she has the Willis will,
has Rosemary and times there is no holding her."

Doctor Hugh smiled into the anxious eyes, dim with the loving
anxiety of many years.

"I'll be careful, Winnie," he promised. "And you'll help me. Thank
you for telling me--what you have."

CHAPTER V

WINNIE'S VOLUNTEERS

For the first few days after Miss Wright's arrival it seemed that
the proverb, "Many hands make light work" was to be the household
motto. Winnie was fairly swamped with offers of help and "Miss
Trudy" as she had asked Winnie to call her, and the three girls vied
with each other as to which should be the most industrious.

"For I want to be useful, Winnie," said Aunt Trudy, a winning
sincerity in her kind voice. "Only tell me what to do, because I
don't want to interfere with your daily schedule."

"And Sarah and I will make the beds and dust," promised Rosemary,
looking up from copying music.

"I'll run all your errands," chirped Shirley and was promptly
rewarded with a hug.

Winnie was a shrewd and practical general, as her answers proved. A
less experienced person would have made a vague reply, put off the
offers with a promise to "let you know when I need you" or politely
told them "not to bother." Not so Winnie.

"Well, I'll tell you, Miss Trudy," she said capably, "I don't mind
saying if you'll plan the meals, you'll be taking a load off my
shoulders. I can cook and I can serve and I can keep things hot when
the doctor is late as he'll be many a time; but unless I can have
the three meals a day printed right out and hung on my kitchen door,
I'm lost-like. It drives me wild to have to figure out what we
should eat, when it's nothing at all, to my way of thinking, to
cook it."

"I'll be glad to plan the menus," Aunt Trudy assured her. "Home I
write out the meals for the whole week every Saturday morning; I'll
do that for you without fail, Winnie."

"Thank you ma'am," Winnie replied. "Now Rosemary, if you want to
help, you answer the telephone. I can't abide to be called away from
my baking and sweeping to tell folks where the doctor is, or why he
isn't here. I don't always get messages straight, so you take 'em
and when you're not home, let Sarah do it."

"I like to answer the telephone," beamed Rosemary.

Winnie, orderly soul, proceeded to clinch the remaining two offers
of assistance.

"Sarah, there's no one can beat you