Part 13 (1/2)

”Ha, ha! Not a bad idea--perhaps it does have something to do with it.

No, this is where the store keeps its furs during the summer months.

Moths can't stand the cold, you know. Come on, we'll go on down now.”

The elevator car was nearly full of people from the roof garden. Betty started to step in, hesitated, then turned back. Uncle Jack motioned her and Bob in, stepped in after them, and carefully turned so that he faced the elevator door.

”That was a risky thing you did just then,” he whispered to Betty.

”Three quarters of all the elevator accidents are due to stepping in or out in the wrong way. Never do the thing halfway, you know. Always wait till the elevator man stops the car at the floor level and throws the door wide open.”

Next to them in the elevator stood two boys--cash boys in the store--who were fooling and scuffling so close to the door that the elevator man cautioned them twice as the car dropped swiftly downward. Finally one of them brought his heel down on the other's foot so hard that the other jumped backward, forgetting everything else for the pain. Forward went his head--bang went his face against the iron grating of the door they were just pa.s.sing.

The elevator stopped with a jerk. They carried the boy out and sent for the store doctor. Bob and Betty never had to be reminded, in all the years to come, to look sharp when riding in elevators. The memory of that bruised and battered face was warning enough.

”It's a dangerous machine,” said Uncle Jack as they left the store. ”A fellow who will scuffle in an elevator is foolish enough for almost anything. Here's our next stop,” and he showed them into a shop with a big sign over the double door:

UNIFORMS--READY MADE OR TO ORDER

”Uncle Jack must be going to have a new uniform,” whispered Betty to her twin as the tailor came up with his tape over his shoulders. But it was not around their uncle that the tape measure went, it was around Bob!

”Yes, the regulation khaki,” Uncle Jack was saying. ”Cut and finish it just like this one,” and he handed the tailor a photograph of Sure Pop.

”Your turn next, Betty,” said Uncle Jack, and to Betty's great delight and the tailor's surprise, _she_ was measured for a special Safety Scout uniform too!

Uncle Jack did not stop there. He bought the twins Safety Scout hats of fine, light felt, made for hard service, and he was on the point of buying them leather puttees or leggings, but Bob stopped him.

”Canvas leggings are plenty good enough,” he said. ”The fellows couldn't afford leather, most of them, and we want them all to match.”

”Canvas it is, then,” nodded his uncle, and went on making up the outfits. Betty sighed happily as they followed him into another store.

It all seemed too good to be true! The first thing she knew, they were sitting at a gla.s.s-topped table.

Uncle Jack mopped his steaming forehead again. ”That tailor shop beats the jungle all hollow for heat!” he exclaimed. ”What kind of ice cream do you want, Scouts?”

Betty thought it was time to object. ”Oh, Uncle Jack, we've had enough!

You've done too much for us already!” All the same, she enjoyed the ice cream just as much as the others did, and when Uncle Jack tucked a box of chocolates under her arm, her cup of joy was full.

”What are you thinking about, Betty?” asked Uncle Jack as the big red automobile bore them merrily homeward; for Betty had not said a word for blocks and blocks.

She patted Uncle Jack's arm--the well one--with a grateful smile. ”I was thinking what a perfectly, perfectly _lovely_ day we've had! And wis.h.i.+ng,” she murmured, wistfully, ”that Mother had been along too.”

”Now that part's all taken care of,” said Uncle Jack. ”Your mother's going out for a spin with me tonight after Baby's asleep; she couldn't leave today, she said. She and I will have a good long ride down the river front in the moonlight. Be sure you get a good sleep tonight, now, you two; I want you to be in good trim for a little exploring party I'm planning for tomorrow.”

”We'll be up bright and early, ready for anything,” Bob told him. ”Whew!

but this has been a whirlwind of a day! Glad you're going to take Mother out--that's the only way she'd get a cool breeze tonight, all right!”

”But it can't be as nice as the roof garden, even then!” cried his happy twin, as she lifted out her big box of candy and skipped up the front steps two at a time.