The B. D. S.

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Title:     The B. D. S.
Author: H. Mary Wilson [More Titles by Wilson]

The Bill had passed the House of Commons [I mean, you know, that nurse had approved of it], and much anxiety was felt among the little pleaders as to its first reading in the Upper House--i. e. would mother say "Yes!"

They all knew that mother had a clear judgment; but it was just her far-seeing power that made them tremble. She might see breakers ahead which they knew nothing about.

And perhaps mother did see a few objections to this new plan. However that may be, as the little ones presented their petition, she smiled.

This was, indeed, a good sign, and more than that, the smile was followed by a ready consent as the plan was unfolded.

The Bill was passed. Hurrah!

The B. D. Society was allowed; and mother had actually agreed to be patroness and prize-giver.

"What a dear, jolly mother she is!"

"She's a duck, and no mistake!"

Rather unbusinesslike language, but very expressive!

Well, but what did it mean, this B. D. S.?

It was only a Bedroom Decorating Society. But it seemed a very beautiful idea to the four curly headed little girls who sat squeezed up together in the large nursery armchair.

Pattie, Mollie, Kitty, and Norah. Four little Irish maidens, with this lovely plan to talk over and make perfect, while a snowstorm kept them indoors to-day.

Pattie. "Don't let's tell each other how we'll do our rooms until afterwards."

Norah. "You'll never keep your plans to yourself. You never could keep anything in."

Mollie (up in arms for her sister). "Don't be nasty, Norah, or something bad will happen to you!"

Norah (looking a little ashamed of herself and wisely changing the subject). "Let's begin now. We'll take all the things out of our rooms first, and then put them back in new places--shall us?"

As you may guess, the B. D. S. was intended to promote a general taste for artistic style in the children's bedrooms, or as Kitty expressed it, simply and to the point, "It is to make us put our things illigantly."

Mother determined to let this new idea have a fair trial; though she could not help feeling a little nervous as she heard the scrimmaging of the furniture, and thought of possible breakages.

She sat at her needlework, and listened to the distant sounds which reached her faintly from the rooms above. Then she began to wonder whether the excitement and interest would last out the fortnight, at the end of which she had been asked to present a prize.

Suddenly her motherly heart gave a terrible throb.

There was a thud--thud--thud, and that horrid bumping sound, as something soft tumbled over and over down the stairs.

With a white face she rushed out of the dining-room, to see little Norah and a large bolster roll on to the floor at her feet!

A breathless scream escaped from the terrified child.

The three other curly heads were peeping through the banisters, and three pairs of Irish blue eyes were looking horribly scared and unhappy.

But mother did not see them.

She picked up the screaming Norah, and carried her into the dining-room, while nurse came running from the kitchen and her ironing.

All the time that the sobbing little victim of the B. D. S. was being soothed into calmness, and the big swelling wheal on her forehead bathed and tended, Pattie, Mollie, and Kitty--upstairs--looked at one another in frightened silence. Then Mollie said sadly--

"I knew something would happen to Norah. It always does if she says nasty things."

"Rubbish, Mollie! That's nonsense! She fell down because her bolster was so big, and she couldn't see where the stairs came!" cried Pattie.

"I'm going to see where she's hurted herself," announced little Kitty; and she trudged off, leaving Pattie and Mollie to sort the heap of odds and ends that lay on the landing.

They went about it in doleful silence at first.

Then Mollie said, "This is my counterpane--isn't it, Pattie?"

"No; that's Norah's. Don't you see the corner all crumpled up which she holds in her hand when she goes to sleep?"

"Oh dear! oh dear! I don't think, after all, that it's easy having a B. D. S. It seemed just to spoil it all when Norah went thumping down--down, like a big ball."

Pattie gave a little sigh, too, and was putting down the chair she was carrying that she might rest her arms and have room for another deeper sigh, when mother's voice was heard calling--

"Mollie! Pattie! I want you down here!"

Off they ran, feeling down in their little hearts that mother must know how to put things happy again.

First of all they looked with interested and pitying eyes at Norah, whose head had become an odd shape, and whose face was white and patchy. Then they stood side by side with Kitty, watching mother's face, and waiting.

"The B. D. S. has had a bad beginning, dears," she said. "I don't think it was a good plan to pull everything out of your rooms to start with. But never mind that now."

As mother spoke she kept one hand behind her chair, and she smiled.

She was sorry for her little girls.

"I am going to propose," she went on, "that you should alter your society a little bit. The letters will be the same. It will still be the B. D. S.; but the work will be different and easier."

The little faces all brightened as she continued--

"I like my little girls to be tidy and neat in their rooms; but I think mother knows best how the furniture should stand, and where the things look nicest. So I suggest that we call our society the Bedroom Dusting Society. I will give you each a little cloth, and you shall dust your rooms every morning after nurse has made the beds. And once a week I will award a prize."

Then mother drew her hand forward and held before their eyes a Japanese fan, with a long handle, to which was tied a dainty bow of blue ribbon.

"This," she said, "shall be given next Saturday to the tidiest of the four members of your society. Now, what do you think of my plan?"

"It's just splendid, mother darling!" was the unanimous cry of the listeners; and a tangle of soft loving arms nearly throttled her in a sudden embrace.

"And you know," came in a plaintive voice from Norah, "if you always give us a pretty thing like that for a prize, it will be the Bedroom Decorating Society, too!"

[The end]
H. Mary Wilson's short story: B. D. S

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