to have a
flower table."

"There's no harm in trying. We could say on the poster that
exceptionally choice roses will be on exhibition and sale and--and why
couldn't we take orders for the bushes? Use the beauties for samples
and if people like them, get roots from the bushes they came from and
supply them the next day!"

Ethel Blue was quite breathless with the force of this suggestion and
the others applauded it.

"Just as I think of Ethel Blue as all imagination and dreams she comes
out with something practical like that and I have to study her all over
again," said Roger, observing his cousin with his head on one side.
Ethel Blue threw a leaf at him which he dodged with exaggerated fear.

They decided to have the Rose Fete just as soon as the boys put the
house into presentable condition, and then the girls separated, Ethel
Brown and Dorothy to see Mr. Emerson about securing the boxes, Helen
and Margaret to measure the windows for curtains, Delia and Ethel Blue
to work out the design for converting ordinary Chinese lanterns into
roses which they had thought of as lending a charm to the veranda and
the lawn after the sun went down, and the boys to calculate the
quantities of putty and paint and color-wash, based on information
given Roger by the local painter and decorator, who was quite willing
to help with advice when he found that there was no chance of his own
services being called into play.

CHAPTER V

THE ROSE FETE

The United Service Club had made so good a name for itself in Rosemont
during the few months of its existence that when Ethel Blue's posters
brought to their doors the news that the U. S. C. was to give a Rose
Fete at Rose House the townspeople were eager to know what attraction
the members had devised. The schools were still in session so the
Ethels and Dorothy at the graded school and Helen and Roger and the
orchestra boys at the high school made themselves into an advertising
band and told everybody all about the purpose of the festival. The
scholars carried the information home, and there were few houses in
Rosemont where it was not known that Mr. Emerson's old farmhouse was to
be turned into a summer home for weary mothers and ailing babies.

Helen and Margaret, after consulting with their mothers and Mrs. Smith
and Mrs. Emerson, had decided that a cot or single bed and two cribs
ought to go in each bedroom except Moya's, where one crib would be
enough. This meant that