The Brownie Scouts at Windmill Farm

Five pair of eyes focused with rapt attention upon Miss Paula Mohr, the librarian.

Five little girls in pin-checked Brownie Scout uniforms had been listening attentively to a tale about the children of Holland.

Now, in the story room of the Rosedale Public Library, they awaited an important announcement.

“Girls,” began Miss Mohr. She was young and pretty, and her voice had soft edges. “How would the Brownies like to help this spring with Rosedale’s annual tulip show?”

“Oh, fine and dandy!” cried Vevi McGuire.

The dark-eyed little girl shouted approval, even without asking what the Brownies would be expected to do. But then, she knew anything planned by Miss Mohr or Miss Jean Gordon, the Brownie troop leader, would be fun.

“Will we sell things?” inquired Connie Williams.

Connie was the quiet, thoughtful member of the group. Sometimes the other Brownies, Rosemary Fritche, Sunny Davidson and Jane Tuttle, teased her by calling her “the thinker.”

“Oh, no,” replied Miss Mohr. “I am not sure of the plans, but we would assist Mrs. Langley.”

The Brownie Scouts all knew that Mrs. Langley was president of the Rosedale Garden Club. She lived with her servants on a large estate of many acres at the edge of town.

Each spring when bulbs bloomed, her gardens were the most beautiful in Rosedale.

“May we help Mrs. Langley?” asked Jane Tuttle, with a toss of her long pigtails. She directed the question at Miss Gordon.

“Why, yes,” the troop leader promptly agreed. “I think the project would be a most worthwhile one.”

“When will Rosedale have its flower show?” inquired Sunny Davidson.

Miss Mohr explained that the exact date had not yet been set. It would depend, she said, upon the weather, and when the tulips reached the climax of bloom.

“This year Mrs. Langley hopes to interest all garden growers and possibly the commercial raisers,” she added. “We want our show to be the best ever!”

“Speaking of commercial growers, reminds me of something!” spoke up Miss Gordon. “Do you girls know Peter Van Der Lann?”

The Brownies had never heard the name. Miss Mohr however, knew it well.

“Peter Van Der Lann is the young Dutchman who started a tulip nursery here last fall,” she declared. “His little niece, Hanny, often comes to the library to read.”

“A charming little girl,” added Miss Gordon warmly. “Just the right age to be a Brownie too--eight, I believe.”

The Brownies now were very quiet, thinking about Hanny. Then Connie spoke.

“I saw her once, I think. She was buying a lolly-pop at the drugstore. She had long shining yellow braids and very blue eyes. But she wore big wooden shoes!”

“_Klompen_,” supplied Miss Mohr, using the Dutch name. “Hanny only wore them when she first came to Rosedale months ago. She wears regular American shoes now. She has improved her English a great deal too.”

“Would she want to be a Brownie Scout?” Jane Tuttle asked, doubt in her voice.

“I’m certain she would,” replied Miss Gordon. “Holland has a Brownie organization too, you know. There, Brownies are called Kabouters which means Little Elves.”

The girls plied Miss Gordon with eager questions about Hanny and the country from which she had come.

In the midst of the conversation, someone tapped lightly on the door of the story room. Another librarian entered to speak to Miss Mohr.

“I am so sorry to interrupt,” she apologized. “A caller is here by the name of Ashley Piff. He insists upon seeing both Miss Mohr and Miss Gordon. He says it is about the garden show.”

Neither Miss Gordon nor the librarian ever had heard of anyone named Mr. Piff.

“I’ll see him,” Miss Mohr decided. “The Brownie meeting was just ending anyway.”

She reminded the girls not to forget the regular story hour the following week. Then with Miss Gordon she went out into the main reading room to talk to the stranger.

The Brownies donned their beanies and jackets. Gathering up their school books, they too sauntered outside.

Mr. Piff was a short, stubby man with a black derby hat. He spoke too loudly for the library. His words carried clearly to every part of the quiet room.

“Now this is my proposition,” the Brownies heard him say. “I am a professional promoter of flower shows. If you ring me in on the deal, I’ll put on a celebration that will be the talk of the town for years! We’ll lift your little show out of the amateur class, and make it a hum-dinger. What d’you say?”

“You really must see Mrs. Langley,” replied Miss Mohr. “She is in charge. Personally though, I’m not in favor of turning our lovely garden show into a cheap commercial festival.”

“Nor am I,” added Miss Gordon firmly.

“You don’t get the idea,” protested Mr. Piff. “It would be a commercial project--true. There would be money in it for everyone. Rosedale and all the merchants would profit. The Brownies--”

“Our organization cannot take part in such an enterprise,” Miss Gordon said emphatically. “We have promised to help Mrs. Langley with the annual garden show. That however, is an entirely different matter.”

Mr. Piff realized that he could not change the teacher’s mind.

“Okay, if that’s your decision,” he said. “You’ll regret it though. Now can you direct me to the nursery of Peter Van Der Lann?”