Read Ebook: The Radio Girls on the program by Penrose Margaret Gooch Thelma Illustrator

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Ebook has 1181 lines and 39340 words, and 24 pages

"Oh, Momsy!" exclaimed Jessie. "Or it might be buried in the dirt of the rose garden where the plane landed. I'm going to look. Come on, Amy!" and Jessie ran down the veranda steps again.

Amy was right at her shoulder when her friend reached the place between the house and the tower where the aeroplane had fallen. The men had now removed everything but some worthless bits of the machine. The rose bushes were flattened, and the sod was torn up for some yards around. That part of the Norwood place would not look as it had before until the next season.

"Now, let's look carefully, everywhere," Jessie said. "Those workmen, of course, would not find the watch and say nothing about it?"

"They came from Stratfordtown, and I'm sure they are fond of Mark," said Amy reflectively. "They say everybody is fond of Mark over there, and proud of him, too."

"Then the watch must be here," Jessie declared.

"Perhaps," her chum said, with continued gravity. "But what you just told me about little Hen and those Dogtown kids being up here last evening and poking around, gives me a worried thought, honey."

"Oh, Amy! Little Henrietta? Never!"

"Perhaps not," said her friend. "And we haven't begun to look for Mark's watch yet. But just the same, I believe Chapman was quite right in chasing them away from the plane, as you say he did."

"Oh, but I would never believe such a thing of Henrietta," declared Jessie Norwood. "Never in this world."

THE HOSPITAL DRIVE

"Really, girls, unless you were moles, you could scarcely have searched more faithfully for Mark's watch," Mrs. Norwood said, coming out to preside over the activities of Jessie and Amy.

"I've dug my fingernails full of dirt. Manicuring will never repair the ravages of it," Amy said ruefully, looking at her hands.

The rubbish left from the wrecked plane had all been removed. The workmen from Stratfordtown had seen nothing of Mark's lovely watch. Although it was rather an old-fashioned piece of jewelry for a young man to wear, the girls knew that it was very valuable. But it was the associations connected with the gift that made it particularly valuable in the consideration of the senator's injured son.

"It is too bad," sighed Jessie again. "Mark was almost killed by his tumble, and now he must give up his watch."

"Say!" drawled Amy. "Did you ever think that he has lost his nice shiny aeroplane, too? That is scarcely worth carting back to Stratfordtown. I heard one of the men say so."

"Have you looked everywhere for the watch, girls?" Mrs. Norwood asked. "I dread telephoning over to tell him that we cannot find it."

"Maybe we would better look again," Jessie observed doubtfully.

"But you have already dug over the whole garden. My poor Marshal Niels!" murmured her mother.

"It is no use," declared Amy, with briskness. "Somebody came along and picked it up."

"Oh! Don't say that!" cried Jessie.

"It might be so," her mother observed. "There have been people around to view the wreck. Those children, for instance, last evening."

"That's just what I said; but Jess won't hear to it," Amy cried. "We don't know how honest those Dogtown kids are."

"Little Henrietta is no thief," Jessie declared earnestly.

"I don't believe she is, either," her mother said, smiling. "That funny little thing could not possibly be mean, if she is untamed. But those children with her--especially those boys. A watch such as this that has been lost would be a great temptation."

"But, Momsy! They would not even know the value of it."

"Leave it to Henrietta, or to Montmorency Shannon," said Amy quickly. "That Shannon boy doesn't have to be led about by a little dog," and Amy laughed again.

"Of course he is smart enough," agreed Jessie. "But being smart and poor does not prove his dishonesty," she added severely.

"That is true, Jessie," her mother said approvingly. "Poverty does not walk hand-in-hand with dishonesty by any manner of means. And the poor need our help in any event. That is what we are trying to establish the new hospital for. That fund is worrying me," and the good woman sighed.

"It's a far cry from Mark's watch and Montmorency Shannon to the New Melford's Women's and Children's Hospital," laughed Amy, immediately recovering her spirits.

"And a still farther cry to our new aerial," Jessie said. "Come, Amy, there is no use grubbing here any more. We might as well get to work erecting the wires again. I know where there is part of a roll of number fourteen wire in the garage. We'll need some of that."

"Radio?" said Mrs. Norwood, hesitatingly. "I wonder, Jessie, if that isn't the way to help us out?"

"What do you mean, Momsy?" her daughter asked.

"The hospital fund need is on my mind. If we could give some new entertainment by which to raise money--and what is newer than radio?"

"Oh! Oh!" cried Amy Drew suddenly, and she pirouetted about on the torn sward and clapped her hands.

"My dear Amy," laughed Jessie, "has something bitten you?"

"Exactly," agreed the excited Amy. "And it is an awful bite--believe me!"

"That sounds very much like slang to me, Amy," laughed Jessie's mother. "What do you mean? What is it that has bitten you?"

"An idea," replied Amy energetically. "And the finest ever! Listen, folkses!"

"Do tell us, dear," said her chum warmly.

"At the bazaar, you know," Amy said earnestly, "Jess just connected up with whatever chanced to be coming through the ether. It was bits of program from all over. But why not have a regular program--a big one--broadcasted from one station for the special purpose of attracting attention to your drive for the hospital fund, Mrs. Norwood?"

"The Stratford Electric Company," interrupted Amy.

"Good! Fine!" crowed Jessie.

"Can such a thing be done?" asked the wondering Mrs. Norwood, who had a rather confused idea of the uses of radio telephony.

"Of course it can be done, Momsy. It is a wonderful idea. Think! Thousands and thousands of people will be listening in."

"But won't the concert have to be given in a hall--like your entertainment in the tent?"

"Nothing like that, Momsy," declared her energetic daughter. "Understand that if you get your entertainers together at a certain hour at the sending station--say eight o'clock in the evening--and arrange to have them sing and play and recite just as though the audience were before them, you will be able to get many, many people to listen in who understand that, although they are getting a free concert, it is one to advertise the need of the New Melford Women's and Children's Hospital."

"Oh! How ingenious you two girls are," said Mrs. Norwood with more than slight approval. "But do you suppose the people who have radio sets will understand?"

"They will if there is not too much atmospherics," Amy said, grinning.

"Stop joking, Amy. Don't spoil it all," cried Jessie. "You have started a perfectly fine idea. And we must help Momsy carry it out."

"Oh, my dears," Mrs. Norwood hastened to say, "you must understand that I cannot decide this thing myself. I am only one of the committee. But it does seem as though Amy's thought were really inspired."

"That's all the thoughts I have--the inspired kind," declared Amy gravely. "And they are at your service, Mrs. Norwood."

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