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+Project Gutenberg's What Two Children Did, by Charlotte E. Chittenden
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: What Two Children Did
+
+Author: Charlotte E. Chittenden
+
+Release Date: April 4, 2005 [EBook #15541]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT TWO CHILDREN DID ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+WHAT TWO
+CHILDREN DID
+
+BY
+CHARLOTTE E. CHITTENDEN
+
+NEW YORK
+HURST & COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1903,
+BY GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO.
+_Published, September, 1903_
+
+
+
+[E-book Transcriber's Note: Obvious typos have been corrected and
+missing punctuation provided.]
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+    I.  ON THE WAY
+   II.  AT THE SHORE
+  III.  BETH AND HER DOLLS
+   IV.  THE WEDDING
+    V.  THE NEW WAY
+   VI.  A PLAN
+  VII.  THE SECRET
+ VIII.  THE REWARD
+   IX.  ONCE A YEAR
+    X.  BETH'S BIRTHDAY
+   XI.  THE DAY AFTER
+  XII.  SUNDAY
+ XIII.  THE FOUR TOGETHER
+  XIV.  THE WEDDING AND THE VISIT
+   XV.  THE LOST INVITATION
+  XVI.  THE MAIL AND ETHELWYN'S VISIT
+ XVII.  OUT AT GRANDMOTHER'S
+XVIII.  HOW THEY BOUGHT A BABY
+  XIX.  BOBBY'S GRANDFATHER
+   XX.  THE VISIT TO THE HOME
+
+
+
+
+
+
+What Two Children Did
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER I_
+_On the Way_
+
+    In the train we're watching
+      Outdoors speeding by:
+    Endless moving pictures,
+      Framed by earth and sky.
+
+
+"Mistakes are very easy to make, I think," said Ethelwyn, with an uneasy
+look at her mother who sat opposite, thinking hard about something. The
+reason Ethelwyn knew her mother was thinking, was because at such times
+two little lines came and stood between her eyes, like sentinels.
+
+"Do you think God made a mistake when He sent us here?" asked Beth.
+
+They were in a Pullman car which was moving rapidly along in the
+darkness. Inside it was very bright and beautiful, and would have been
+most interesting to the children, had it not been for those two lines in
+their dear mother's face.
+
+"She is thinking about the naughty things we have done," said Ethelwyn
+to Beth in a tragic tone, at the same time taking a mournful bite out of
+a large, sugary cooky. They had eaten steadily since starting, and any
+one who did not understand children, would have been alarmed at possible
+consequences.
+
+On the seat between them there was a hospitable-looking basket with a
+handle over the middle and two covers that opened on either side of the
+handle. Underneath the covers and the napkins the children, entirely to
+their joy, had found sandwiches without limit. Some were cut round,
+others square, and all were without crust; inside they found minced
+chicken, creamy and delicious, also ham and a little mustard, and best
+of all were the small, brown squares with peanut butter between.
+
+"It's like Christmas or a birthday, having these sandwiches," said
+Ethelwyn. "They're all different and all good, and each one seems better
+than the others."
+
+Then they began on the cookies, and bit scallops out of the edges, while
+between times they thought about their last mistake and their mother's
+forehead lines.
+
+Sitting up straight against the velvet cushioned seat, the two children
+looked about the same age; the two heads were nearly on a level, as were
+both pairs of feet stuck out straight in front of them; but Ethelwyn's
+came a little farther out than Beth's, and her golden head came a little
+farther up on the seat than Beth's dark one.
+
+Just now there was a small cloud on their horizon. Although they found
+the interior of their palace car, the porter, and the passengers,
+fascinating, and the luncheon an endless feast, they both felt that
+before they slept they must straighten things out; hence their first
+question.
+
+Mrs. Rayburn came back presently to a realizing consciousness of the two
+anxious faces opposite hers, and with a smile dismissed the sentinel
+lines.
+
+"God never makes mistakes," said she, with refreshing faith and
+emphasis. "It is we who do that."
+
+"I think," said Beth, slowly pondering on this, "that the old surplus in
+the garden of Eden who bothered Adam and Eve has something to do with
+it."
+
+"Serpent, child," said Ethelwyn crushingly, beginning on cake.
+
+"Surplus, I mean," said Beth, getting out a piece of cake for herself.
+"I'd give a good deal, sister, if you wouldn't always count your
+chickens before they're hatched!" Whereupon she climbed down and went
+over to sit by her mother, where she glared indignantly at her sister.
+Her dear "bawheady" doll was in her arms.
+
+This doll was so called because early in life he had lost his wig, and
+thereby developed a capability for being a baby, a bishop, or a boy.
+There was a fascinating hole on top of his head, thus making it possible
+to secrete things like medicine or food until they were fished out with
+a buttonhook or darning needle. He was fed on cake now, but was
+generally given crusts, when there were any, because Beth did not like
+them.
+
+"Why did you ask that question?" asked their mother.
+
+"We thought you looked as though we'd made you an awful lot of trouble,"
+said Ethelwyn, regarding the gorgeous ceiling of the car.
+
+"Yes, you did, although I was not thinking of it just then; you ran
+away--"
+
+"Walked, mother," corrected Beth, "to the 'lectric car, with
+grandmother's gold dollar, to go down to buy a trunk specially for our
+dolls--"
+
+"It was fun, mother," put in Ethelwyn, "only when we stood up and fussed
+to see who'd push the button to get off, the man slowed up so fast we
+both fell through a fat man's newspaper into his lap and upon his toes.
+He was angry too, for he just said 'ugh,' when we asked him to excuse
+us, please. The trunk man gave us back four big silver nickels with the
+trunk; we put them inside, and you can have them, mother, to help heal
+your feelings."
+
+"Your mistake was in not asking--"
+
+"We thought you'd better not be 'sturbed, 'cause ever since grandpa and
+brother died, you've thought such a lot, and looked so worried--"
+
+"But I was more worried about you when I found you weren't in the house
+or grounds; I thought you might be lost, and I was about telephoning to
+the police station about it, when you came, and there was just time to
+catch the train."
+
+Then Ethelwyn got down, and went over to squeeze in on the other side of
+her mother. She knelt on the cushions and patted the dear face until the
+little smile they loved, came out again, and drove the care lines away.
+
+"Children are such a worry, mother," she said in a funny, prim fashion,
+"that I should think you'd be sorry you ever bought us."
+
+"But we are going to be good from now on, so good you'll nearly die
+laughing," said Beth, getting up to pat her side of the face.
+
+Their mother laughed now in a bright fashion they loved, and squeezed
+them up tightly.
+
+"No, no, chickens," she said, "I'm never sorry I bought you; you were
+bargains, both of you, but I've had much to think of, and plan for, in
+the last few months, and perhaps I've neglected you somewhat."
+
+"Can you tell us 'bout things, mother?" asked Ethelwyn. "P'raps we could
+help some."
+
+"Yes, I am going to, but not now, for the porter wishes to make up our
+beds."
+
+"There are stickers in my eyes," said Beth, yawning. "There's one more
+question I'd like to know about though," she said as they moved across
+the aisle. "If God can't make mistakes, why does He let it be so easy
+for folks to?"
+
+"That I don't just know," said her mother, "but it's a good sign when we
+know they are mistakes."
+
+It was only a short time after this that they were all asleep in their
+curtained beds, and while it was still dark, and the children were too
+sleepy to realize much about it, they reached their destination and were
+driven to the seashore, cottage where they were to spend the summer.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER II_
+_At the Shore_
+
+    Underneath the washing waves
+      The requiem of the sea,
+    For those whose hopes are buried there,
+      Is tolling ceaselessly.
+
+
+It was interesting to go to sleep in a Pullman car, and to wake up in a
+dainty room hung with rosebud chintz draperies, and with an altogether
+delightful air of coziness about it.
+
+But there was something outside their room that, like a magnet, drew
+them out of bed. They climbed on chairs, and gazed eagerly out of the
+windows.
+
+The house they were in, was on a hill. Pine trees grew near, and there
+below them and very near, was the great silvery blue sea, with the
+sunshine flashing on its tossing waves? The children gasped with
+delight.
+
+"It's another door to Paradise," said Ethelwyn.
+
+"The gold place that shows where the sun sets is another one," said
+Elizabeth. Then they heard their mother, who had come in quietly, and in
+a moment was cuddling them up in her arms.
+
+"We've lost a lot of time, I'm afraid," said Ethelwyn after they had
+given her a bear hug and a kiss.
+
+"That ocean is the prettiest thing, mother. P'raps that's the way to
+Paradise where father and grandfather and brother have gone."
+
+"Yes," said their mother, helping them into their clothes. "It is one of
+the ways."
+
+"Tell us about this place, please," begged Ethelwyn, "and how we
+happened to come to such a de-lic-ious place. Will you have to work so
+hard, motherdy, here? And will the little lines come between your eyes?"
+Whereupon Elizabeth at once abandoned to their fate, her harness garters
+with their many buckles, and climbed up to see. Yes, the lines had gone,
+and she kissed the place to make sure before she climbed down again.
+
+"Hoty potys is the twissedest things," she remarked, worse tangled than
+ever.
+
+"Hose supporters, dear child," corrected Ethelwyn with the exasperating
+air that always roused Beth's wrath.
+
+"This cottage," mother hastened to say, while she untangled the buckles
+with one hand and buttoned Ethelwyn's waist with the other, "belongs to
+Mrs. Stevens and her daughter, Dorothy. I have known them for years.
+Recently they wrote asking me to bring you children and come to them for
+the summer; they, too, were lonely, and they knew that I needed rest,
+quiet, and time to plan for the future. There are few people living
+here but fisher folk--"
+
+"Christ's people?"
+
+"Yes, like them in trade, at least. They are poor and need help--"
+
+"Are we rich people now, and can we buy things for them?"
+
+"Your grandfather left you a great deal of money, children, and you must
+learn to use it generously. It was his wish, and mine, that you should
+begin at once to think about such things before you learn to love money
+for its own sake, and what it will buy."
+
+"O, we don't care at all, do we, sister?" said Beth, stretching up on
+tiptoe to get her "bawheady" from the bureau. "We'd just as lief give it
+away as not, 'cause we've always you, mother dear."
+
+"Is the money more than grandmother's gold dollar?" asked Ethelwyn.
+
+"Much more."
+
+"O, then we'll have fun spending it for folks; I'd like to. But, oh,
+I'm hungrier than I ever was before."
+
+"Me, too," said Beth. "I feel a great big appeltite inside me."
+
+They decided at once that the dining-room also was charming, with its
+cheery open fire of snapping pine knots, for the air outside was chilly.
+Then, too, there was a parrot on a pole, who greeted them with, "Well,
+well, well, what's all this? Did you ever?"
+
+Miss Dorothy Stevens had the kind of face that children take to at once.
+There never could be any question about Aunty Stevens, who laughed every
+time they said anything, and who on top of their excellent breakfast,
+brought them in some most delicious cookies--just the kind you would
+know she could make, sugary and melty, entirely perfect, in fact,--to
+take down on the beach for luncheon.
+
+After breakfast was over they at once started for the beach. Sierra
+Nevada, their colored nurse, following them with small buckets, shovels,
+wraps, and cushions.
+
+"Mother, this is the nicest place, and I love the Stevenses; but why are
+they sad around the eyes, and dressed in black, like you? Has their
+father gone to Paradise too?" asked Ethelwyn, as they walked along.
+
+"Yes, dear. Besides, the young captain whom Dorothy was going to marry
+went away last year and, his ship was wrecked and he has never been
+heard from. So they fear he was drowned."
+
+"O, mother, can this pretty sea do that? What was it they were saying
+about a tide?"
+
+Their mother tried to explain all she knew about the tides, and when she
+had finished, Ethelwyn said:
+
+"I think it would be easier to remember to call it tied, and then
+untied."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER III_
+_Beth and Her Dolls_
+
+    Dollie's poor mother is quite full of care,
+      As she who lived in a shoe,
+    For this child is tousled, this one undressed--
+      Mother has all she can do.
+    More dollies there are, than possible clothes,
+      Some of them must go to bed.
+    And some to be healed by mother with glue,
+      Lacking an arm or a head.
+    Then others, wearing the invalid's clothes,
+      Care not a fling or a jot
+    Nor know that to-morrow their own fate may be
+      The bed, or the mucilage pot.
+
+
+The first Sunday that the children were at the seashore was warm and
+beautiful.
+
+Mrs. Rayburn and Mrs. Stevens went to church in the picturesque stone
+chapel built by a sea captain, as a memorial to his daughter who was
+drowned on the coast some years before this.
+
+"We'll be really better girls to stay at home some of the church time,"
+said Ethelwyn at breakfast, "we'll go this evening with Miss Dorothy."
+
+"My dolls are needing a bath and their best clothes for Sunday-school,"
+said Beth to Ethelwyn, who had decided to go down on the beach; "and I
+can do it all comfy and nice while you are gone."
+
+So Ethelwyn and 'Vada went for a run on the beach, and mother Elizabeth,
+with a look of happy care on her face, and her beloved six dolls in her
+arms, came out on the porch, where she had already taken a basin of
+water, soap, a tiny sponge, and towels.
+
+Directly she became aware of some one near her, and looking up saw a
+girl with dark eyes and short, straight hair watching the proceedings
+with much interest, her hands clasped behind her back.
+
+"My name is Nan," said the visitor as soon as she caught Elizabeth's
+eye, "Who are you? Is this your house? We've just come, and mother is in
+bed with a headache, and father's gone to church, so I'm roaming around
+seeking something to devour--"
+
+"Does that mean eat?" said Elizabeth, a scene in one of her picture
+books of lions devouring their prey coming into her mind.
+
+"I think it's what my father calls a figure of speech. He's a
+minister--a clergyman, you know. We've come down here to board, and he's
+going to have the services in the Chapel of the Heavenly Rest. Mother's
+sick about always, so I have to roam around--Say, I know a game; let's
+baptize your children."
+
+"They don't need it; they're not born in sin--"
+
+"Everything is," emphatically. "Don't try to teach a minister's child
+things, for pity's sake. I'll do the baptizing. Come along."
+
+The rainwater barrel, half sunken in the ground, was at one of the rear
+corners of the house.
+
+"We are not allowed to play in that, I think," said Elizabeth uneasily.
+
+"That doesn't mean me, I'm older'n you. Here, give me the doll without a
+wig."
+
+Down went the beloved "bawheady" with a thud that carried desolation to
+Beth's tender heart. Four others followed in quick succession before
+Beth could protest. Then clinging to Arabella, she started to run. Nan
+tried to run after her, but caught her foot on the barrel's brim and
+straightway joined the five dolls. Elizabeth opened her mouth to shriek,
+when in an opportune moment, a young man appeared on the scene, and
+speedily fished out Miss Nan, who dripped and coughed and choked;
+inarticulate, but evidently wrathy sounds wrestled for utterance in her
+throat. At last she shook herself free.
+
+"I'm perfectly degusted with this whole preformance," she said as she
+went stalking off, dripping as she went.
+
+Then the young man laughed and laughed, until he became aware of
+Elizabeth wistfully staring at him.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"My dolls. They're baptized clear to the bottom; please get 'em out."
+
+"I'll do it, if you will take this note to Miss Dorothy Stevens," said
+the young man, at once throwing off his coat and pushing up his shirt
+sleeve. Beth, before she trotted off, saw that he had a blue anchor on
+his arm. When she came back, the rescued five lay stretched on the grass
+in a pathetic row, and she at once ran to her prostrate children.
+
+"You are to go to the parlor and tell Miss Dorothy all about it," she
+said, in passing, to their rescuer. "Your note made Miss Dorothy cry;
+and she was all white 'round her mouth. Thank you for the dolls," she
+called as an afterthought.
+
+So busy was she drying her afflicted family that it was some time after
+the others had reached home that 'Vada, wildly excited, came to find
+Elizabeth and to tell her that Miss Dorothy's sweetheart had come back.
+
+"From Paradise?" queried Beth, getting up at once and bristling all over
+with questions she wanted to ask him about that interesting place.
+
+"Mighty nigh," said 'Vada, rolling her eyes. "He was shipwrecked on the
+raging main, and hit on de head wid somefin that done knock all de sense
+out of him, so he's pick up by some folks dat didn't know 'im, an' he
+went cruisin' aroun', till he come to, and, by 'me by, back to see his
+sweetheart."
+
+Elizabeth went into the parlor later on, and stared so insistently at
+the young captain that her mother drew her gently to one side and
+whispered to her.
+
+"But I'm anxious to see a sweetheart that has been in Paradise, mother,"
+she explained.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER IV_
+_The Wedding_
+
+      Bells ring,
+      Birds sing,
+    Every one is gay;
+      Hearts beat,
+      Chimes sweet,
+    On a bridal day.
+
+
+It was one of the things for the children to remember always, that Miss
+Dorothy was married while they were there to help.
+
+They helped so much in the matter of scraping all the cake and icing
+pans, stoning, and especially eating, raisins, that it was a wonder they
+were not ill.
+
+The morning on which the wedding was to take place dawned as bright and
+golden as could be desired.
+
+It was a very simple, pretty wedding in the stone chapel, towards which,
+in the early morning, the bridal party walked. Nan, Ethelwyn, and
+Elizabeth went ahead, bearing flowers, and after them came Miss Dorothy
+in her white gown, clinging to the arm of her sailor lover.
+
+Mrs. Stevens and the children's mother, together with a few friends,
+awaited them in the pretty church, and Nan's father married them. They
+then all went to the bride's home for breakfast, immediately after
+which, the young couple were going away for a year. This fact, and the
+mother's sad face impaired the appetites of the guests, with three noble
+exceptions. The trio at the end of the table ate with zest and
+unimpaired enthusiasm, of the good things that they fondly believed
+might never have reached their present point of perfection had it not
+been for their skill.
+
+"Should you think," Elizabeth paused to say, in a somewhat muffled
+voice, entirely owing to plum cake and not grief, "that one of us is
+married too?"
+
+"My father," returned Nan loftily, "is not given to making mistakes of
+that kind. There weren't husbands enough to go 'round anyway."
+
+"What is a husband?"
+
+"You've been helping make one, child, and you ask that!"
+
+So Elizabeth concluded it was a small portion of the refreshments that
+had escaped her notice.
+
+Afterwards they went down to the harbor from which the bride and groom
+were to sail.
+
+"Like the owl and the pussy cat," said Ethelwyn, cheerfully.
+
+As they kissed their friend good-bye, they placed around her neck a
+pretty chain, hanging from which was a medallion with their pictures
+painted on it.
+
+"You can look at us when you get lonesome," suggested Beth.
+
+The last good-bye was said, and they drove sadly home in a fine,
+drenching rain that had suddenly fallen like a vail over their golden
+day.
+
+'Vada had started the open fires and they were cheerfully cracking,
+while Polly from her pole croaked crossly, "Shut up, do! Quit making all
+that fuss!"
+
+Mrs. Rayburn took Aunty Stevens away with her, and by and by in the
+afternoon, they found her tucked up on the couch in their sitting-room
+looking somewhat happier.
+
+"Aren't you glad you have us, and specially mother?" asked Beth, kissing
+her.
+
+There was only one answer possible to this, and it was given with such
+emphasis that Ethelwyn nodded and said, "That's the way we feel. Mother
+knows how to fix things right better'n anybody, unless it should be
+God."
+
+"Let's sing awhile, sister, while mother thinks of a story or two,"
+suggested Beth.
+
+So they squatted in front of the grate and sang,
+
+    "Chick-a-dee-dee, chick-a-dee-dee,
+    I am so glad that Jesus loves me."
+
+Then they sang what they called "Precious Julias,"
+
+    "Little children who love Mary Deemer."
+
+"Why," Beth stopped to ask, "does it say Precious Julias when it's 'bout
+Mary Deemer, sister?"
+
+"Middle name, prob'ly," answered Ethelwyn; "anyway that's Mary Deemer,"
+pointing to a picture of Murillo's "Magdalene," "and the reason that
+she's loved by children, is because she is pretty and good. If you are
+good, Elizabeth, people will love you."
+
+"I'm as good as you are, anyway," began Beth wrathfully, when she saw
+Nan in the doorway.
+
+"May I come in?" she asked, wistfully. "Mother has a headache, father's
+gone fishing in a boat, and I've a toothpick in my side."
+
+"Come in, deary," said Mrs. Rayburn, who felt an infinite pity for
+sturdy little Nan, with her invalid mother. "Bless me, what cold hands!
+What's this thing you have in your side?" she continued, cuddling Nan up
+in her lap.
+
+Nan breathed a contented breath. "O, it's gone now. It's a sharp,
+pointed thing that sticks me when I'm lonesome."
+
+"We're having Sunday-school, the singing part, and you may come if
+you're good, and know a verse, and won't baptize the Sunday-school,"
+said Beth, multiplying conditions rapidly.
+
+"I know a verse that father says he thinks ought to be in the Bible,"
+said Nan.
+
+"Let's not have Sunday-school," she continued, snuggling down on Mrs.
+Rayburn's shoulder. "It's so nice here, and I want to tell you 'bout my
+dream I had the other night. Dreamed I went to heaven awhile, and when I
+came home I slid down fifty miles of live wire and sissed all the way
+down like a hot flatiron."
+
+"There's a gold crack in the sky now that shows a little weenty bit of
+Heaven's floor, I think, right now," said Ethelwyn, going to the west
+window.
+
+They all followed her, and sure enough there was the gold of the sky
+shining through the misty rain clouds.
+
+"Now, if God and the angels would just peek out a minute, I'd be
+thankful," said Elizabeth.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER V_
+_The New Way_
+
+      It's--hard--to--work--
+      And easy to play;
+    I'll tell you what we've done,
+      We play our work
+      And work our play,
+    And all the hard is gone.
+
+
+The children were always glad when Mrs. Flaharty came to wash, for she
+was never too busy to talk to them, nor to let them wash dolls' clothes
+in some of her suds, nor, in her own way, to converse, and to explain
+things to them.
+
+One Monday morning the two were in the back yard with gingham aprons
+tied around their waists for trails, and with one of Aunty Stevens'
+bright saucepans which they put on their heads in turn. In this rig,
+they felt that their appearance left little to be desired.
+
+They were having literary exercises while Mrs. Flaharty was hanging the
+white clothes on the line, and, by reason of her exceeding interest in
+the proceedings, she took her time about it too.
+
+In the midst of Ethelwyn's recitation of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," she
+paused to say, after, "The eager children cry,"
+
+"What do you s'pose the silly things cried for?"
+
+"'Cause they didn't have any lamb, prob'ly," promptly replied Elizabeth
+from the audience, where she sat surrounded by her dolls. "Hurry up,
+sister, it's my turn."
+
+"Is it ager, children, you're askin' about?" asked Mrs. Flaharty,
+flopping out a sheet. "If you'd ever had the ager, what wid the pain in
+your bones an' the faver in your blood, you'd be likely to cry--whin you
+had the stren'th."
+
+"Is it shaking ager?" asked Elizabeth doubtfully. "Oh, I didn't know
+that. Come and sit down on the steps, Mrs. Flaharty, and I'll tell a
+story I made up for this special 'casion."
+
+"It's troo wid the white does I am, an' I reckin I can sit and take me
+breath before I begin on the colored; besides, I'd have to be takin'
+away the foine costumes ye has roun' your waists, if I wint now." So
+Mrs. Flaharty sat down ponderously.
+
+"I've a poem, too," said Ethelwyn, taking her place in the audience, and
+Elizabeth began:
+
+"Once there was a little boy whose father was cross to him, and kept him
+home all the while, and when he let him go anywhere, he said he
+'mustn't' and 'don't' so much, it spoiled all his fun. Once the boy went
+in the woods where lived a fairy prince. 'Go not near the fairy prince,'
+had said the boy's father so much that the boy thought he'd die if he
+did. So the fairy prince looked over the back fence and said, 'Avast
+there,' so the boy avasted as fast as he could. 'I'm in trouble,' said
+the fairy prince. 'What about?' said the boy. 'I can walk only on one
+foot till somebody cuts off my little toe,' said the prince.
+
+"So the boy did it with his father's razor, and it thundered and
+lightened, and his father came and scolded over the back fence, but the
+prince waved his magic cut toe; then they all banged and went up on a
+Fourth of July sky rocket, till the father fell off and bumped all his
+crossness out of him, and like birds of a fevver, they all lived
+togevver afterwards."
+
+"The saints be praised," said Mrs. Flaharty, fanning herself with her
+apron.
+
+Then Ethelwyn came forward. "This is my poem," she said, bowing to the
+audience.
+
+    "A little girl lived way down East,
+    She rose and rose, like bread with yeast,
+    She rose above the tallest people,
+    And far above the highest steeple.
+    She kept right on till by and by
+    She took a peek into the sky--"
+
+"Oh, what did she see?" asked Elizabeth, interested at once.
+
+"That you can guess," replied the poet with dignity. "Mother says she
+likes poems and pictures that you can put something into from your own
+something or other, I forget what--you let folks guess about it."
+
+"My sister is smart," complacently remarked Elizabeth to Nan, who had
+just come over.
+
+"So am I, then," said Nan, not to be outdone. "I can make up beautiful
+poems."
+
+"Let's hear one."
+
+So Nan came forward, bowed profoundly and began:
+
+    "I have a little kitty,
+    Who is so very pretty,
+    Tho' growing large and fat,
+    I fear she'll be a cat.
+    One day, my sakes, she saw a dog,
+    Her tail swelled up just like a log;
+    He barked, she spit,
+    She does not love dogs, not a bit."
+
+"What color is she?" asked Ethelwyn.
+
+"That is left for your guessing part," said Nan promptly.
+
+Mrs. Flaharty now reluctantly arose.
+
+"It's a trate to hear ye," she said, "but I mus' git troo, and go home.
+There's a spindlin' lad named Dick nex' door but wan to where I live,
+that can walk only wid a crutch an' not able to do that lately. He'd be
+cheered entoirely wid your rhymes an' tales."
+
+"O, maybe mother'll take us to see him this afternoon. We'll ask her.
+She's intending to go down that way herself, I know, and she'll be so
+good to Dick; she just can't help it," said Ethelwyn, and at once they
+dashed off to see, leaving the saucepan crown rolling down the yard, and
+their gingham aprons lying on the steps.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VI_
+_A Plan_
+
+      It's nice to get gifts,
+      But better to give:
+    For giving leaves always a glow
+      That warms up a part
+      In every heart;
+    The joy of it never can go.
+
+
+There was woe in Ethelwyn's heart and pain in her throat, and the woe
+was on account of the pain; for Elizabeth and her mother had gone to
+town to arrange things for Dick, who was to be taken to the hospital,
+where he was to undergo an operation that would, in all probability cure
+him. And now Ethelwyn, ever desirous of being at the head and front of
+things, had taken this wretched cold and could not go.
+
+Very shortly after Mrs. Flaharty had told them about Dick, their mother
+had taken them to see him. His home was a long way from their cottage,
+where the fisher people lived, and the sights and smells in the hot
+summer air were hard to bear even for those who were well. Poor little
+Dick, lying day after day on his hard bed, with no care except what the
+kind-hearted washerwoman could give him, felt that life was an ill thing
+at best, and he was fast hastening out of it, with the assistance of ill
+nutrition and bad ventilation. Dick's own mother and father were dead,
+and his stepmother, a rough-looking creature, when she remembered him at
+all, looked upon him as a useless encumbrance, and by her neglect was
+making him very unhappy.
+
+Ethelwyn and Elizabeth, quite unused to suffering of this sort, sat
+soberly by, during their first visit, and watched their mother bending
+tenderly over the feeble little invalid, and ministering to his needs.
+
+In a week's time they had changed things marvelously. The stepmother
+had, for a sum that meant a great deal to her, relinquished all claim
+upon Dick, so he was placed in the care of a sewing woman, who, by
+reason of rheumatism in her fingers, could not sew any more; and she
+filled the starving sore spot in her childless heart with a loving
+devotion to Dick. The sum paid her for this care kept them both in
+comfort, and Dick, with flowers and birds about him, and with wholesome,
+dainty food, gradually lost his gaunt, hunted look and began to take a
+fresh hold of life.
+
+The doctor attending him gave it as his opinion that in one of the city
+hospitals the little fellow might be cured, and it was to see about this
+that Elizabeth and her mother had gone to town.
+
+The night before they were all in their sitting-room, talking it over.
+Aunty Stevens, who was greatly interested, had brought her knitting and
+joined them.
+
+"It would be a lovely work," said Mrs. Rayburn, thoughtfully looking at
+the fire, "to make a home for Dick and many such poor little weaklings,
+somewhere up on these heights where, with fresh air and good,
+well-cooked food, they could have a fighting chance for life."
+
+"There's our money," said Ethelwyn, cuddling her hand in her mother's.
+"Let's make one with it."
+
+"Would you like that?"
+
+"Yes, indeed we should," they answered in a breath.
+
+"But it would take a great deal of money, and instead of being very rich
+when you grow up, and being able to travel everywhere and have beautiful
+clothing and jewels, you might have to give up many things of that
+sort."
+
+"But," said Elizabeth, climbing up into her mother's lap, "isn't doing
+things for poor children like Dick, better than that?"
+
+"There's no doubt about it," said their mother, her eyes shining as she
+kissed the tops of the two round heads now cuddled on her shoulders, in
+what Beth called her "arm cuddles."
+
+"Well, we don't mind then, do we, sister?"
+
+"No indeed," said sister promptly, kicking her foot out towards the
+fire. "Dresses are a bother, and always getting torn, and traveling
+makes you very tired, only the luncheon's nice. But I'd lots rather
+build a home."
+
+"Let's see," said mother, "if you are as ready to give up something now.
+Elizabeth's birthday is next week and Ethelwyn's next month. I had
+thought we might take a short yachting trip,--all of us, Nan, Aunty
+Stevens--"
+
+"O, mother," they cried, turning around to hug her.
+
+"Then there is a doll in town that can walk and talk. Beth, deary, you
+choke me so I can't talk;--and a camera for sister. Would you mind
+giving up these things to help pay the hospital expenses, or to buy a
+wheel chair or some comfort for Dick?"
+
+Down went the heads again, and dead silence reigned except for the
+crackling of the fire and the clicking of Aunty Stevens' needles.
+
+"May we go away and think it over?" said Ethelwyn soberly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+So they slid down and disappeared to think it out alone, as they always
+did when obliged to settle questions for themselves. Ethelwyn went
+outdoors, and crawled into the hammock on the porch. The wind blew
+mistily from the sea and was heavy with dampness and cold, but the child
+paid no attention to that; she was so busy thinking. Surely, she
+thought, there was money enough for Dick and the others without giving
+up her camera and the sea trip. She had longed for a camera all summer.
+Nan had the use of her mother's and had taken their pictures in all
+places and positions, and she did so wish for one. But then, there was
+poor Dick, how uncomfortable he had looked.
+
+Elizabeth, meantime, went to the bedside of her beloved doll family.
+They were lying serene and placid, exactly as she had placed and tucked
+them in at bedtime, with her own motherly hand, and the memory of Dick
+lying racked with pain on the comfortless bed where she had first seen
+him, almost decided her at once. But a doll that could walk and talk,
+though, would be lovely.
+
+"But then, darlings," she said, after a little, "you might think I would
+love her better than you, and you are such dears, you don't deserve
+that."
+
+So Beth kissed them all with fervor, her mind quite made up.
+
+While they were away, Aunty Stevens said, "Isn't that a pretty hard
+test?"
+
+The children's mother shook her head thoughtfully at the dancing fire.
+
+"I hope not," she said. "I don't wish them to do things now that they
+will repent of afterwards. But it seems to me that if they are trained
+now to be unselfish, they will always be so. Don't you think, dear Mrs.
+Stevens, that the whole trouble with the world is its selfishness?"
+
+"No doubt at all about it," said the older woman, nodding emphatically
+over her flying needles.
+
+"Then if the world is to be made better, and rid of this, which lies at
+the bottom of all the crime, sin and unhappiness, the younger ones of us
+will have to be taught to sacrifice, at least some luxuries, to help
+give less fortunate ones the necessities of life," said Mrs. Rayburn,
+getting interested, and talking fast and earnestly.
+
+"How I hate the expression 'Look out for number one,' It's such teaching
+as this, that makes human beings so forgetful of others," she went on
+after a little pause, "and the modern socialist only seems to be trying
+to exchange one set of selfish, grasping rules for another of the same
+sort. So the world will go on, until the laws are again based on the
+teaching of our Lord, and Christian socialism will prevail."
+
+"Yes, you are quite right, but what are you among so many?" asked Aunty
+Stevens, smiling across at her friend.
+
+Mrs. Rayburn's cheeks flushed. "Yes, I know," she said. "I suppose it
+looks as though I alone were trying to reform the world; but I am not. I
+am only one little atom trying to teach still smaller atoms that they
+must do their share."
+
+"Was it not in 'Bleak House' that that exceedingly unpleasant personage
+used to give away her children's pocket money? And the black looks she
+received from them when she was not looking, were something dreadful."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Rayburn, laughing, "I hope you don't think the cases
+are parallel."
+
+"No indeed, I don't. I was trying to say, I think you are right because
+you go at it in the right way, and let them choose. Then, because they
+love and have perfect confidence in you, they will be pretty likely to
+choose the right way."
+
+"People so often say, 'Let children have a good time,' but interpreted,
+from their point of view, a good time, means a selfish time. That is
+selfish enjoyment, but it might be good occasionally to put to the test
+the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive."
+
+Elizabeth now came in with her baby doll in her arms. She soberly
+climbed up again into the blessed fold of her mother's arms.
+
+"I'd just as lief Dick would have it as not, momsey, for I've my heart
+chock full of dolls now, and it will be so good to have Dick and others
+well and comfyble."
+
+Ethelwyn came a moment later.
+
+"It's all right, mother," she said, also climbing up to her place. "I
+can make pictures with a pencil more easily than I can bear to think
+that Dick needs my camera money, I'll be glad to do it, mother."
+
+But Ethelwyn's voice was hoarse, and the next morning she was not well
+enough to go to town.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VII_
+_The Secret_
+
+    Such fun to have a secret!
+      To tell one too is fun.
+    But then there is no secret
+      That's known to more than one.
+
+
+Ethelwyn had intended to have a most unhappy day, so after her mother
+and Beth went, she lay face down in the hammock with a very damp ball of
+a handkerchief squeezed up tightly against her eyes. But by and by she
+heard Aunty Stevens calling her. "Here I am," she answered, at once
+sitting up.
+
+"Do you feel well enough to help me make some apple pies?" Ethelwyn
+rolled out of the hammock, and ran into the kitchen in a trice.
+
+"O if you only knew how I love to cook, Aunty Stevens," she cried. "And
+nobody will hardly ever let me. I can make the bestest cookies if any
+one else just makes the dough. So if you don't feel just prezactly well,
+you can sit in the rocking-chair, and I will do it all."
+
+"Thank you, deary, but I'm feeling pretty well to-day, so we will work
+together. Let me tie this apron around you."
+
+Then Aunty Stevens brought out the dearest little moulding-board and
+rolling-pin, and drew out of a corner a small table.
+
+"O isn't everything about this just too cunning? Did these used to be
+Miss Dorothy's?" said Ethelwyn in a rapture, Mrs. Stevens nodded.
+
+"Here's your dough, dear. Now roll it out to fit this little plate."
+
+This took time, for it persisted in rolling out long and slim, and not
+at all the shape of the plate, but at last it was fitted in.
+
+"Now what comes?" said the little cook, lifting a red and floury face.
+
+"A thick layer of these apples--no, just a layer of sugar and
+flour--then the crust won't soak. Now the apples. Sugar them well. Put
+any of these spices on that you wish."
+
+"I like the taste of cinnamon, and spice-oil, but nutmegs are so cunning
+to grate. I b'lieve I'll put 'em all in," said Ethelwyn, critically
+studying the spice shakers.
+
+"Now dot the apples over with butter, a dash of cold water, and a
+sprinkle of flour. Now roll out your top crust. Cut little slits for it
+to breathe through; pinch the two crusts together, after you have wet
+your finger and thumb in cold water. There! now it is ready to go in the
+oven."
+
+"O isn't it sweet?" said Ethelwyn. "Nobody can cook like you, Aunty
+Stevens. Nobody. I think it's a great--great appomplishment."
+
+"Thank you, dear. Now sit down, and when I have cleaned up things a
+little, we'll go out on the west porch, and I am going to tell you
+something. I have saved it for a secret for the little girl who couldn't
+go to town to-day, but who gave up her birthday presents for the sake of
+others."
+
+"O goody," said Ethelwyn, beaming with joy. "Next to cooking, I love to
+hear secrets. And would you mind telling me a thing or two, I have been
+thinking about lately? I have been meaning to ask mother about it. You
+know in church we say we believe in the resurrection of the body. Well,
+what do you s'pose," leaning forward impressively--"becomes of the
+bodies the cannibals eat?"
+
+"Well, Ethelwyn," said Mrs. Stevens with a gasp. "I suppose it's no
+harder than to resurrect them from anywhere else."
+
+"O yes, I should think so," said Ethelwyn earnestly, "because they'd get
+dreadfully mixed up in themselves. But never mind. I suppose the Lord
+can manage it."
+
+Aunty Stevens and she then went out on the porch that faced the sea.
+
+"O now I'm going to hear the secret," said Ethelwyn, sitting down on the
+arm of the chair. "And my own pie is in the oven baking. Aren't we
+having a good time, Aunty Stevens?"
+
+"Yes, we are," said Aunty Stevens, hugging her. "And now I am going to
+tell you. I'm afraid, deary, that I have been a very selfish woman. When
+my husband died, I felt as though I had nothing to live for but Dorothy,
+and when she too went away, I felt that there was no use in living. The
+other evening when I heard you all planning for others, it occurred to
+me to be ashamed, for here is this house, and I am all alone in it. Why
+it's the very thing for a children's rest and training school."
+
+"O Aunty Stevens," said Ethelwyn, getting up close to hug and kiss her.
+
+"I can give the cottage, and I can manage it, and your money can fit it
+up, and hire teachers."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Ethelwyn, wildly excited. "You can teach them to make
+pies like mine--"
+
+"Yes, they can be taught to do all sorts of things about a house--"
+
+"And Dick?"
+
+"He shall be the first one."
+
+"And his 'dopted aunt?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. She can help in many ways."
+
+"O this is lots better than going to town. I just wish I could tell
+mother and Beth. Seems to me I can't possibly wait."
+
+"I see Nan coming. Suppose 'Vada should take you two down to have your
+luncheon on the beach."
+
+"The pie, too?"
+
+"Yes, and other things, if your throat is better, so you can go."
+
+"O it's all well, cured with joy, I guess. Anyway mother said I might go
+outdoors, you know. It was the noise and smoke in town she thought would
+hurt me."
+
+So they went off on their picnic, and did not come home until time to
+dress for the train that was to bring back Mrs. Rayburn and Beth.
+
+"Well Ethelwyn," said Aunty Stevens, meeting her, "how was the picnic?"
+
+"The picnic as far as the pie, and other eating were concerned, was
+perfect, but Nan was a trial sometimes," said Ethelwyn, sighing deeply;
+"she said she couldn't possibly go home, 'count of her mother having a
+headache as usual, and she was as cross as a bear. I had my hands pretty
+full with that child. She does not give in to me like my sister--I will
+say that." And Ethelwyn again sighed deeply, as she walked into the
+house for her bath and toilet.
+
+When the train stopped, and Elizabeth appeared, Ethelwyn and she rushed
+at each other, and both began to talk at once.
+
+"I've a secret that will make your eyes stick out--then I made a pie--"
+
+"I saw the doctor that makes bone people. There was one for a sign at
+the pittalhos where we were--"
+
+"Hospital, child."
+
+"And he was undressed, even from out of his skin; you could, see clear
+through him. I was scared, because I thought that the doctor would make
+mother and me into one, but he was nice and said he'd cure Dick. We saw
+his bed all white--"
+
+"Wait till you know the secret. I saved you a piece of pie--Nan wanted
+it--"
+
+"I rode up in an alligator--"
+
+"Elevator."
+
+"And a man at the pittalhos said, 'where did I get those dimple holes,'
+and I said prob'ly they wasn't fat enough to stuff it all--he laughed
+though at that."
+
+And so they chattered on until they reached home.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VIII_
+_The Reward_
+
+    To help the sorry, hungry poor,
+      Or ease a burdened one,
+    Begins to bring the answer, when
+      We pray "Thy Kingdom come."
+
+
+It all unfolded like a beautiful flower, and every one was interested in
+getting ready the Children's Rest and Summer Training School, which was
+to be the name of the cottage. In the midst of it all, Mrs. Stevens one
+day received from Japan a long and happy letter from Dorothy and her
+husband; and a mysterious box, which was smuggled away for the birthday,
+came for the children.
+
+Dick was getting better every minute, and was looking forward with eager
+delight to the time when he should go to the Rest, well and strong.
+
+In the Rayburn sitting-room one evening, the children were looking over
+a portfolio of photographs.
+
+Aunty Stevens as usual was knitting, and laughing with them over the
+pictures.
+
+Ethelwyn was showing them, for she had seen them before.
+
+"This is Beethoven," she announced, holding up one of the great masters.
+"He isn't very pretty, but I s'pose he made up in being clever."
+
+"He is sort of kind-looking," said Beth, who always liked to say
+something nice about every one.
+
+"He is better than pretty," said Ethelwyn. "He's a very good musician.
+He can play the piano."
+
+"Where does he live?"
+
+"Paradise, I think. Mebbe not, though."
+
+"I'm sorry for his folks."
+
+"This is Handel."
+
+"What of?" and Nan got up to look.
+
+"Not a dipper-handle, but a man of that name. He could play too."
+
+"He looks kind of like a woman--look at his hair."
+
+"That is his wig."
+
+"Was he a bawheady?" and Beth got up to look more closely at the man who
+was afflicted like her beloved doll.
+
+"I s'pose he must have been. But it doesn't show like your doll's," said
+Nan.
+
+"This is a bust of Diana."
+
+"Where is she busted?"
+
+"All but her head and shoulders."
+
+"Who did it?"
+
+"A man I guess. This is the 'Kiss of Judas.'"
+
+"Oh, isn't Judas mean-looking?"
+
+"Looks like a bug thief." This from Beth.
+
+"Burglar, child," said Nan.
+
+"Bug thief is what I meant," said Beth with dignity, for she didn't
+propose to be corrected by Nan or sister. Then she walked over to her
+mother. "Are you very old, mother?" she asked. "I've been meaning to
+ask. Are you a hundred, or eleven, or is that your size shoe?"
+
+"Elizabeth Rayburn!" said Ethelwyn, dropping the photographs and coming
+over to her mother, followed by Nan. "Our mother isn't old at all!"
+
+"No I know she isn't, only she must be toler'bly old, to know so much
+goodness."
+
+"I'm just old enough to love you," said their mother, laughing and
+hugging them all three at once in a way she had.
+
+"I've some money in the bank," said Nan presently. "I've been thinking
+what I'd buy for the Rest, and I've 'bout decided on a feeble chair."
+
+"Goodness me! I shall never sit in it, if it's feeble, Nan," said Aunty
+Stevens, laughing.
+
+"No, _for_ the feeble," corrected Nan. "I want my mother to give
+something too; she has some money, and I believe if she would give it
+for my brother's sake, she would feel better and wouldn't cry so much.
+Perhaps she will."
+
+"We are all going to church to-morrow, 'cause your father is going to
+preach about the Rest,--pray over it too, and mother's going to sing the
+offertory, two verses, if the sermon's too long, and three if it isn't.
+You tell your father that, for singing is much more interesting than
+preaching any day."
+
+"Ethelwyn!"
+
+"Why it is, mother."
+
+"I'll tell father, but he is likely to go on a long time when he is once
+started," said Nan.
+
+"If I don't go to sleep, I'll be sure to wiggle," said Beth.
+
+But they all went to sleep.
+
+Ethelwyn sat in the choir seats close to her mother; while Elizabeth
+sat below with Aunty Stevens. Nan sat quite near them and sweetly smiled
+at Elizabeth.
+
+"How do you feel?" she asked in a shrill whisper. "Wiggly? I told father
+not to preach very long, but there is no telling. Mother has some gum
+drops for me if I wiggle."
+
+"Don't you think you will then?" asked Beth.
+
+But Nan's mother stopped further disclosures by turning her daughter
+around, and setting her down with emphasis on the other side of her.
+
+Fortunately they all three fell asleep in the early part of the sermon
+and did not wake up until Mrs. Rayburn began to sing. At the first note
+Ethelwyn slipped down, and stood with her hand in her mother's. Then
+Elizabeth eluded Aunty Stevens's vigilant eye, slipped out of the seat
+and walked up and stood on the other side, her head raised looking into
+her mother's face, and to their great delight the three verses were
+sung.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER IX_
+_Once a Year_
+
+      Birth days,
+      Earth days,
+    Seem very few;
+      Year days,
+      Dear days,
+    When life is new.
+
+
+By constant and hard work, the house was ready for occupancy on
+Ethelwyn's birthday.
+
+Two or three days before it was finished, Nan's mother came over, the
+melancholy look on her face somewhat lifted. She brought with her the
+deed of the land adjoining the cottage and sloping down to the sea. This
+land she at once undertook to have equipped for a playground with
+swings, tennis courts, a ball ground and all the things that delight
+young hearts.
+
+"It is for Philip," she said simply. "I have put his money into it, and
+perhaps, by looking a little after homeless, suffering children, I can
+forget my own heartache."
+
+"You have chosen the very best way to do so," said Mrs. Rayburn.
+
+Nan's "feeble" chair came the night before the opening, and all three of
+the children christened it, by getting in, and wheeling it over the
+shining floors at a high rate of speed, thereby proving it to be
+anything but feeble.
+
+The morning train brought a bevy of pale-faced, joyless-looking waifs.
+
+At first they were stiff and shy, but under the vigorous leadership of
+Nan, Ethelwyn, and Beth, they were soon organized into a Rough Riders
+Company, and slid down the banisters, and shot out into the playground
+with shrill yells of delight.
+
+Dick was general, for he was not yet strong enough to run, so he sat in
+his wheel-chair, and directed the others.
+
+"We made him general, for generals never have anything to do but boss
+others; they are never killed or anything," explained Nan.
+
+A doctor from the hospital had sent down a wagon and goat team. There
+were bicycles and a hobby-horse, and boats safely fastened; so they
+rode, ran, trotted, or sat in the boats, all the happy day.
+
+Two things were almost forgotten in all the excitement. One was, that
+this was Ethelwyn's birthday, and the other, that they had to go away
+the next day.
+
+In the evening, however, there was a birthday cake, with eight candles
+on it. Then they had the fun of opening the box from Japan.
+
+There was a whole family of quaint dolls for Elizabeth, labeled by
+Dorothy's husband, "Heathen dolls: never baptized."
+
+"Nor never will be, by Nan," said Elizabeth, fondly hugging them to her,
+and fixing guilty Nan with a steadfast glance.
+
+There was the cunningest watch for Ethelwyn about the size of a quarter
+of a dollar.
+
+"It's a live one, though," said its owner proudly, shaking it and
+holding it up to her ear.
+
+There was a parasol and a sash for Nan, and three Japanese costumes
+complete for the "three little maids from school." These, they at once
+put on. Then they all went out on the lawn, and hung Japanese lanterns
+in the trees, and Nan's father set off the fireworks, which were also in
+the box; so the day closed in a blaze of glory.
+
+At last they were in the sitting-room again.
+
+The adopted children clean and dressed in white gowns were asleep in
+their dainty iron beds, and dreaming of happiness past, and to come.
+
+Nan, her father, and mother, and Mrs. Stevens came in for a last word.
+
+"I shall put on mourning to-morrow," announced Nan in a melancholy
+voice, "for I shall be a widow. What makes you go away, Mrs. Rayburn?"
+
+"School and business call us to town, Nan, but we shall come every
+summer, and spend Christmas here, too, I hope."
+
+"This has been the best birthday I ever spent or ever expect to," said
+Ethelwyn with the air of having spent at least fifty. "It is such a good
+idea to give things away instead of always getting them, but if you can
+do both, as happened this time, it covers everything."
+
+Then they were all quiet for a little while, until Mrs. Rayburn went to
+the piano, and touching the keys, sang softly:
+
+    "And does thy day seem dark,
+      All turned to rain?
+    Seek thou one out whose life
+      Is filled with pain.
+    Put out a hand to help
+      This greater need,
+    And lo! within thy life
+      The sun will shine indeed."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER X_
+_Beth's Birthday_
+
+    The space between our birthdays seems to grow apace,
+    When we're young they loiter; when we're old they race.
+
+
+It began with a bad time; and so did the next day, as things sometimes
+do, even though they turn out all right at the end, like a rainy morning
+that clears off into a blue and gold afternoon. Ethelwyn and Beth did
+not fall out very often, but then they didn't have a birthday very
+often, nor Christmas, nor any other of the days when the land flows with
+ice cream and candy, and is bounded on the next day by crossness and
+pitfalls.
+
+That was one reason.
+
+That day early they had decided never to be bad again, never; "because,"
+said Ethelwyn, "it is very troublesome getting good again, and makes
+mother feel bad."
+
+"Uh huh," said Beth.
+
+They were not up yet, and the door leading into their mother's room was
+open.
+
+This was their "present" birthday, but they had not yet begun on their
+presents. For fear you shouldn't understand this, I will tell you Beth's
+way of explaining it.
+
+"Sister and me is twin children two years all but a month apart, and on
+the first birthday which comes in July, we have presents, and on the
+second, in August, we have a party, or a trip away, or something, and we
+have all the month to choose in."
+
+They generally chose thirty different things. Their mother nearly always
+let them have the last one, but once or twice, as when they wanted to go
+up in an air ship, she compromised on a steam launch on the river, as
+safer, and nearer at hand.
+
+This morning being "present" morning, they were glad to see the
+sunshine darting in at their window, and to hear the birds singing
+outside something like this--
+
+    "Wake up, children: the day is new.
+    It's full of joy for dears like you."
+
+So they woke up laughing, at least Ethelwyn did, and told Beth what the
+birds sang; but Beth was sleepy and uttered her usual "Uh huh."
+
+"You are a very lazy child," said Ethelwyn in a superior tone, "and are
+not thinking about your presents at all, nor the making of good
+revolutions."
+
+"What's them?" asked Beth, still with her eyes shut.
+
+"Something you need to make very much, for you are not too good a child,
+I'm sorry to say. Mother esplained about people making things like that
+at New Year's, and birthdays, and so I've been thinking of some
+specially for you--"
+
+"I can make my own," said Beth, fully awake now, "and I can help make
+yours when it comes to that, I guess."
+
+"Well," said Ethelwyn, "I have been thinking of a few for you to begin
+with. One is, never to be late for breakfast, and not to be selfish
+about getting the bath first, and never wanting to give up when your
+sister wants you to--"
+
+"You can make your own, while I'm getting my bath first now," said Beth,
+sliding out of bed. "I'm anxious to see my presents."
+
+Ethelwyn, speechless with rage, hastened her departure with a push, and
+then fell asleep until the breakfast bell rang. How mortified she felt
+after what she had said to Beth! Sierra Nevada hurried her through her
+bath and toilet as quickly as she could, but she would be late for
+breakfast anyway. When she came into the dining-room, her mother kissed
+her gravely, but she was not allowed to look at her presents until
+after she had eaten. She felt very miserable at the shrieks of delight
+from Beth, who was dancing around her doll house, with its two floors
+beautifully furnished, and dolls of every size, shape, and color living
+in it.
+
+No wonder the oatmeal and the muffins lost their flavor!
+
+But Ethelwyn effervesced quickly, and as quickly subsided. Presently she
+was glad again, for there were books, candy, games, a walking doll from
+Paris that could talk as well, and a camera from Aunty Stevens. The
+camera, she told her mother, she had been longing for for years and
+years.
+
+Uncle Tom sent each of them some candy, and a five dollar gold piece,
+with a note intimating that they were to spend it as they liked. Then
+there were two bicycles from Uncle Bob, some more candy, a pony, and
+some home-made molasses candy from their grandmother. The pony was a
+real live pony, and Joe, a dear friend of theirs, from a near-by livery
+stable was to take care of it.
+
+"I feel thankful that we are a large family of relatives," said Beth,
+after a long and speechless period of rapture.
+
+Their mother, being a wise woman, put away some of the candy, all but
+grandmother's molasses, and a box or two for friends. Then came little
+Nora, the niece of their dressmaker, Mrs. O'Neal, with a quart of
+pecans, for the birthday. She went home with a box of candy, and told
+her little sister Katie about it.
+
+"O I wanted to go too," wailed Katie.
+
+"You were asleep, dear, when I went, but I told them the nuts were from
+you, too."
+
+"But I wanted to hear them say, 'thank you!' Take me now."
+
+"I have to go down town for auntie. But she'll let you go."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said their busy aunt when asked.
+
+So Katie went up-stairs to make herself tidy.
+
+"It's mesilf wants to take a 'silvernear,'" she said as she scrubbed
+herself; and then in an evil moment, she beheld a small plate with a
+bunny on it, which Nora owned and loved.
+
+"It's just the thing," thought Katie, "and kind of partly mine because
+it's in our room."
+
+So she took it with her when she went, and it burned her little hand
+like fire.
+
+Ethelwyn and Beth were preparing a tea party in the doll house.
+
+"O Katie, how nice!" said Ethelwyn. "We'll put it in the tea party. We
+were coming over to get you and Nora to come; there are some beautiful
+iced cakes coming up in a minute."
+
+"I can't stay," said Katie feebly, "I feel kind of sick inside."
+
+So saying she rushed home, but it was no use; poor Katie's conscience
+grew worse all the time, and presently she came back.
+
+"I--I--know you won't like me any more," she said, red and miserable,
+"but it's Nora's plate I gave you, and I'm no better than a thafe."
+
+But Ethelwyn and Beth put their arms around her, and comforted her dear
+little sore heart.
+
+"I know just how you feel," said Ethelwyn. "I took mother's gold dragon
+stick-pin for my dolly's blanket one day, because I was in a hurry, and
+lost it of course, and felt so mizzable, as if nothing could ever be
+nice again. Now take the plate and go and get Nora, dear, and we'll have
+the best tea party."
+
+And they did, and the guests had each another box of candy for their
+"silvernears," besides, but Ethelwyn and Beth ate far too much, and
+that's the reason their next day good time began by being a bad time
+too.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XI_
+_The Day After_
+
+    In the lovely playtime, life seems always gay.
+    In the sober worktime, sometimes it grows gray.
+
+
+Mother was superintending the strawberry jam in the kitchen, giving
+orders to the grocery boy, and paying Mrs. O'Neal for sewing, all at
+once.
+
+You can't do this unless you are a mother, but mothers can do almost
+everything at once.
+
+"It's a fortunate thing that the Bible says everybody mustn't work on
+Sunday. It says man-servant, maid-servant, cattle, stranger within thy
+gates, but nothing at all about mothers, though, because they positively
+have to," said Ethelwyn, after a profound season of thought in the
+hammock.
+
+"When our mother rests, she darns stockings," said Beth, who was
+dressing her doll near by.
+
+"Not on Sunday, child!" said Ethelwyn scandalized.
+
+"Well nobody said she did, I guess. She tells us Bible stories then. I
+always think they sound so pretty, against her Sunday clothes," said
+Beth.
+
+"Pooh!" said Ethelwyn who was cross. She was going down to the grocery
+presently on her wheel to get some eggs, but she was putting it off as
+long as she could.
+
+She started after awhile, and unluckily had the groceryman tie the eggs
+on the wheel. She came along safely, until within view of Beth lying
+comfortably in the hammock; then with a desire to show off, she spurted,
+or tried to, and her wheel ran off the walk, and tipped her off upon the
+grass on top of two dozen eggs!
+
+Her mother picked her up, and after stilling Beth's laughter, and her
+crying, washed her, and put her in the hammock, all in so short a time
+that only a yellow stain on the grass showed that a tragedy had
+happened.
+
+Then mother went back to her jam.
+
+Beth snickered at intervals, however, though Ethelwyn sternly bade her
+be quiet.
+
+"You were so yellow and funny, sister," said Beth, giggling.
+
+Ethelwyn opened her mouth for a reply that would do justice to the
+subject, when Bobby, their next door neighbor came along. "Hullo,
+Bobby," they cried.
+
+"Hullo," said Bobby at once.
+
+"Come in and see our birthday presents," said Ethelwyn, and Bobby at
+once trotted up the walk.
+
+He was a round-faced little chap, with small freckles on his button of a
+nose.
+
+His family had just moved into town from a farm.
+
+"Where have you been, Bobby?" asked Ethelwyn as they went towards the
+house.
+
+"I went down to the grocery for mother; I thought I knew the way but I
+got mixed up, and stopped under a lamp-post, to think. Pretty soon a
+woman came along and put a white letter in a box; so I thought I'd save
+trouble if I put mother's grocery list in, and I did. A man in gray
+clothes came along, and unlocked it, and took the letters all out. I
+told him 'bout my list, and he laughed, and gave it to me, and asked me
+if I didn't know 'bout letter boxes? I didn't, so he told me, and took
+me along with him down town."
+
+"Sister--" began Beth, giggling, "went to the grocery--"
+
+"Let's play in the house," said Ethelwyn frowning at Beth. "You can stay
+awhile, can't you, Bobby?"
+
+"I guess I'd better ask, first," said Bobby. He trotted home and soon
+came back with his face shining from soap and water, and his hair
+brushed straight up so that it looked like a halo around the full moon.
+
+Then Nan, the minister's daughter, came in. She had also come to live in
+their town and was the same funny, outspoken Nan, as always.
+
+"It's a very convenient thing that I know you children," she had said,
+"for it's a great trouble to have to find out, and learn to know
+everybody in a town."
+
+They were playing games in the nursery, when mother came up-stairs,
+having finished the jam, ordered the groceries, and paid Mrs. O'Neal.
+
+She was going to combine resting and mending, as usual, so she came to
+the nursery, just as they were beginning a temperance lecture.
+
+Bobby was selling tickets, and mother cheerfully paid a penny, and sat
+in her low rocker near the window.
+
+Nan had chosen to be lecturer, so Ethelwyn, Beth, and Bobby made a
+somewhat reluctant and highly critical audience. Besides, there were the
+dolls in various uncomfortable attitudes, but very amiable nevertheless.
+
+And to them all, Nan now came forward and made a profound bow.
+
+"My subject is Temperance, ladies and gentlemen," she began, "and I hope
+you'll pay attention, because it's a true subject, as well as a useful
+one.
+
+"I wish men wouldn't get drunk. It's dreadful smelly even going by a
+saloon, so I don't see how they can. I think it would be very nice if
+pleecemen would think once in a while about stopping such things as
+drunkers, but they probably like to have saloons around for themselves.
+A nice thing would be, to have ladies, like your mother and me, for
+pleecemen. Then we'd scrub things up, and pour things out, till you
+couldn't smell or taste a thing. But men are meaner than women"--Bobby
+looked dubious--"some men aren't though"--he looked relieved. "The
+reason we are so nice and 'spectable, is because my father is a
+minister, and doesn't dare do disgraceful things, and your mother
+doesn't get time. So we should be thankful, instead of wishing we had a
+candy store in the family, and being sorry we have to set examples for
+other kids. No! No! No! children, I mean. That's all, and I hope you
+won't forget all I've told you."
+
+"Let's play church now," said Ethelwyn promptly, "and I choose to be
+preacher, because I know about Moses and Abiram. The choir will please
+sing Billy Boy."
+
+So they put on nightgowns for surplices.
+
+"What can I do?" said Beth, who was tired of always being an audience.
+
+"Take up the collection," said Ethelwyn, "we need some more pennies."
+
+"'The sermon, beloved," said Ethelwyn after the singing, and a little
+preliminary ritual, "is about Moses and Abiram, who both wanted to be
+boss of the temple.
+
+"'I will be boss,' said Moses.
+
+"'Not much,' said Abiram, standing on his tippest toes.
+
+"Then they fit, and I've forgotten which one whipped, 'cause we haven't
+got that far yet; anyway it's lunch time, so do hurry and take up the
+collection."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XII_
+_Sunday_
+
+    No matter how bad we are through the week,
+    When Sunday comes 'round we grow very meek.
+
+
+"I hope, Beth," said Ethelwyn, who always woke up first, "you will
+remember to-day is Sunday, and not quarrel with your sister," But Beth
+cuddled down in the pillows and refused to answer a word. After a while,
+Ethelwyn, watching the sunbeams dancing on the pink wall, went to sleep
+herself, and opened her eyes only when her mother kissed her awake.
+
+Sierra Nevada, being a devout Roman Catholic, always went to early mass
+on Sunday mornings, and their mother gave them their baths, to their
+great delight and comfort. The bath was all ready for them now, crystal
+clear with the jolly sunbeams dancing on its silver disk.
+
+"We'll get a sunshine bath," said Beth, trying to catch the golden
+drops.
+
+"Inside and outside," said mother smiling.
+
+"You look so pretty, motherdy," said Ethelwyn approvingly, "So much
+prettier than black, cross old 'Vada, who always rolls her eyes at me
+and says, 'Miss Effel, you is de troublesomest chile dat ebba was bown.'
+You have sense, and in that blue gown, white apron, and cap, you are
+pretty. You get prettier all the time you are getting old, mother.
+You'll be a beautiful angel when you are very old."
+
+"Thank you," said her mother laughing. "Come on now, do you know your
+verse?"
+
+"I did," said Ethelwyn, "but the verse hasn't any sense: it's about St.
+Peter's wife's mother being sick with the fever--"
+
+"And St. Peter cut off the priest's right ear, and then he went out and
+crew bitterly," said Beth, jumping up and down to see how high she could
+splash.
+
+"Elizabeth!" said her mother, going off into spasms of laughter. "You
+are a heathen! Can't you ever get things right? I will say, though, I
+think the verses they select for infant classes are anything but
+suitable, but for pity's sake don't say the one you told me, you will
+disgrace me. I will hear you after breakfast."
+
+But Aunt Mandy the cook was sick with the toothache, which she called a
+"plum mizzery" in her face, and mother was so busy, that 'Vada, who had
+returned and was more solemn than ever, dressed them and took them to
+Sunday-school.
+
+The infant class sat on seats that began close to the floor, and
+gradually rose to the top of the room. Ethelwyn and Nan sat high up,
+while Beth was a little way below. Bobby sat near her, and had grinned
+all over his round face when she came in.
+
+"I've brought my white mouse in my pocket; I'm going to stay for church,
+and I get lonesome," he whispered.
+
+"Uh huh," said Beth nodding, "I've brought my paper dolls." But sister
+punched her in the back with her parasol to be quiet, and just then the
+teacher asked her verse.
+
+Beth thought hard. "Mother said I mustn't tell you about the priest
+crewing about his cut off ear," she said thoughtfully, "but I know
+another verse about St. Peter, it's easier to merember than the other
+one, 'cause it's poetry."
+
+    "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn't keep her--"
+
+"Next!" said the teacher with a face red, and then she coughed.
+
+The next was Bobby, who cheerfully took up the refrain, where Beth left
+off.
+
+    "--Put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well,"
+
+he concluded promptly.
+
+The older pupils, with two scandalized exceptions,--Ethelwyn and
+Nan--laughed, and the younger ones turned around and looked interested.
+The teacher coughed again and changed the subject.
+
+But the adventures of Bobby and Beth were by no means over, for when
+they came out into the large room where the hundreds of scholars sat,
+the infant class was marshaled up into the choir seats to sing "Precious
+Julias" as Beth still called it. The upright of the front seat was
+standing unfastened from the floor, waiting for repairs, but no one knew
+it, Beth and Bobby least of all. They, and six other infants pressed
+close up against it, and sang with all their might.
+
+Unfortunately they pressed too hard on the loose back. All at once it
+went over, and eight unfortunate infants sprawled flat on their faces,
+hats rolling off, and books tumbling down.
+
+Everybody stopped singing to laugh, but it changed to little shrieks of
+dismay, as a poor frightened white mouse, thrown out of Bobby's pocket
+by the shock, went running down the aisle.
+
+Bobby ran after it in hot pursuit.
+
+Beth followed loyally, for she had seen where it went.
+
+They caught the trembling little creature at the door, and then they
+looked at each other.
+
+"Let's go home," said Bobby.
+
+"Uh huh, let's," said Beth.
+
+They met Beth's mother on the way to church. "We'll stay at home to-day,
+mother," said Beth, "we've had just all we can stand."
+
+So they went home and played church in the front yard, until Ethelwyn
+and Nan came home just before the sermon.
+
+Those young ladies had fully intended solemnly to lecture the two at
+home, but it was very pleasant under the trees, with the birds, and
+Bobby and Beth singing lustily, so they joined in, and Ethelwyn then
+preached. "I choose to," she said, "because I went to an awfully dry
+lecture on art or clothes or something, with mother. I slept some,
+'cause it was almost as hard to understand as a sermon, but when I was
+awake I heard a good deal that will do you good.
+
+"Clothes," she went on after this introduction, "will ruin your health
+if you don't look out, and study statoos and things for some kind of
+line, clothes-line, I guess. So when you see a lot of white
+statoos--which aren't as interesting as the circus but more good for
+learning, which is always the way in this life--learnified things are
+likely to be dry--you'll learn something. But I went to sleep before I
+found out what or why statoos is the thing to study; but they are so
+cold-looking, from being undressed, that I think it would be a kind act
+to make pajamas for them, and trousers for our dolls so they will live
+longer--"
+
+"_I_ will not," said Beth firmly, from the congregation. "It wouldn't be
+fun to have all boy dolls, and you know it, sister, and besides wasn't
+Billy Boy the first doll we broke after Christmas? and he's up-stairs
+now waiting for his funeral."
+
+"O, let's have it now," said Nan, who didn't like sermons unless she
+preached them.
+
+"No, here's mother and we'll have to have dinner now, so we will have
+the funeral to-morrow," said Ethelwyn.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XIII_
+_The Four Together_
+
+    Begins with a funeral and ends with a feast.
+    Sorrow is drowned for this time at least.
+
+
+It fell out that there were _two_ doll funerals the next day.
+
+Beth lost Ariminta, her composition doll, and she went down into the
+garden early to find her. She looked in Bose's kennel, but it wasn't
+there; then she saw a robin in the path digging worms, and he looked so
+wise that she followed him to the early harvest apple-tree, and sure
+enough! there was Ariminta on a lower branch where she had put her the
+night before. She was very wet, for it had rained, and her wig was quite
+soaked off. So, filled with remorse, Beth went after the glue-pot.
+
+"I never knew such a mean mother as I am," she said, "I haven't any
+thinkery at all, worth mentioning. If your grandmother, my dear, should
+leave me out, till my hair soaked off--say, sister," she broke off
+suddenly to ask--"what keeps our hair on?"
+
+Ethelwyn never at a loss for an answer, said promptly, "Dust, child"
+
+"I haven't any," said Beth, feeling her short brown curls cautiously for
+fear they would come off.
+
+"It's small in small persons, and big in big persons," said Ethelwyn,
+with a patient air of having given much thought to the subject.
+
+"Ho!" said Beth. "Well if Ariminta's going to be dry for Billy Boy's
+funeral, I'll have to dry her in the oven."
+
+But alas! for Beth's "thinkery not worth mentioning!" In her haste to
+get back to prepare herself and family for the funeral, she forgot to
+tell Aunt Mandy, who was going to make cake, and so started a fire in
+the stove. When she opened the oven door to put in the cake, she took
+out Ariminta's remains, and that is why there were two subjects for a
+funeral instead of one.
+
+Beth was exceedingly sorry, and wept a few real tears over Ariminta.
+
+"I'm a double widow, and a orphing to-day," she said, "and I don't
+reserve a single child to my name!"
+
+Nan and Bobby came to the funeral, and Bobby chose to be undertaker,
+while Nan insisted on preaching the sermon.
+
+"You preached yesterday," she said to Ethelwyn, who also wished to.
+
+"And you did the day before--"
+
+"I think I ought to," said Beth, "because it's my fam'ly."
+
+"That's why you shouldn't, child," said Nan. "Would my father enjoy
+preaching my funeral sermon, do you think?" she asked triumphantly. And
+while they were doubtfully considering this, she began the service.
+
+Beth attired in Aunt Mandy's large black shawl was very warm and
+mournful.
+
+The family, especially Billy Boy's widow, were wrapped in black calico
+swaddling garments, and looked more stiff than ever, but still smiling.
+
+The remains were in cigar boxes, all but Billy's wig and eyes which Beth
+had thoughtfully saved for another doll.
+
+"I am sorry I have to preach this sad sermon," said Nan.
+
+"Might have let me, then," said a voice from the congregation.
+
+"The mourners will please keep quiet," said the preacher sternly, "and
+if the widow and orphans wouldn't grin so, I'd be glad. You'd better be
+thinking about how you'd feel to be buried, and you are likely to be in
+this family," she continued with an offensive accent on _this_.
+
+"Let's hurry up, I'm hot," said the chief mourner.
+
+So they went down and buried the boxes, singing "Billy Boy" as a
+requiem. Bose watched their departure with interest, and dug up both
+boxes without delay.
+
+Bobby and Nan were invited to stay to lunch, and they accepted with
+cheerful alacrity.
+
+"I asked mother, for fear you'd ask me if I could stay, and she said yes
+indeed I _could_, and she'd be glad to have me," said Nan. Bobby yelled
+his request over the fence, and was told he could stay too.
+
+They had strawberry jam, hot biscuit, fried chicken, and little frosted
+spice cakes, for which Mandy was famous.
+
+"Just supposing your mother and mine had said no, about this luncheon,"
+said Nan to Bobby. "I never could have gotten over the loss of these
+cakes."
+
+"You've eaten four. I'm glad Mandy made a good many," said Beth calmly.
+
+"Why Beth!" said her mother horrified.
+
+"Yessum, she has," continued Beth. "I've passed them four times, and she
+took one every time. I've had five!" she concluded.
+
+In the afternoon the postman brought them a letter from their Cousin
+Gladys, who was in Paris with her father and mother. So they all
+gathered around mother to hear it.
+
+     "DEAR E. AND B.," it began.
+
+     "This is a silly city.
+
+     "They talk like babies. No one can understand them. I'd like them
+     better if they'd talk plain American.
+
+     "Their stoves look like granddaddy long legs; they are funny boxes,
+     and when you are cold, they wheel them into your room, and stick
+     the pipe in the hole, and by and by wheel them out. We live in an
+     artist's house on a street that means Asses street, and our front
+     room is a saloon but not a drinking one, and it runs right through
+     the up-stairs to the skylight. You have to pay for that. Think of
+     charging for daylight! We went to a bird show and I saw a cockatoo
+     sitting on a pole asleep. 'Scratch its back with your parasol,
+     Gladys,' said mother, so I did, and it opened one eye when I
+     stopped, and said, 'Encore,' I was put out to think even the birds
+     didn't talk American, but when I said so, mother laughed but I
+     don't see why.
+
+     "Write and tell me all the news. No more now from
+
+     "Your cousin,
+
+     "GLADYS."
+
+"O, it's thundering!" said Bobby when the letter was finished.
+
+Beth at once climbed into her mother's lap, as if for protection.
+
+"Are you afraid of a shower, Beth?" asked Nan.
+
+"No,--not--a shower," said Beth, "only I don't like it when it goes over
+such a bump!"
+
+Mother kissed her and sent the others up-stairs to get ready for a show.
+
+"Get up a good one and I'll pay five cents admission," she said.
+
+"Oh I'll go too," said Beth, "p'raps when I am busy I won't notice the
+noise."
+
+By and by they called Mrs. Rayburn, and she went up-stairs with her
+sewing, and dropped her nickel into a box, because the whole force was
+in the show. They were getting ready in the next room, from which was
+heard much giggling.
+
+Presently the door opened, and in walked Ethelwyn draped in a green
+denim closet door curtain, and bobbing up and down at every step.
+
+"What is this?" said mother.
+
+"You have to guess, it's a guessing show."
+
+Then came Beth in her Japanese costume, fanning vigorously.
+
+Nan followed in a Turkey red calico wrapper, beloved of 'Vada's heart.
+She tumbled down every two or three steps, which might have been the
+fault of the wrapper, or part of the show.
+
+Last of all was Bobby, very hot and sweaty, in a moth-ball smelling fur
+rug, and ringing a bell.
+
+"It looks like the four seasons," said mother.
+
+"O mother, but you are smart," said Ethelwyn; "we thought you couldn't
+possibly guess, so we were going to charge you another nickel!" she
+continued in a disappointed voice.
+
+"I will pay it for guessing," said mother, laughing.
+
+"I'm spring, all dressed in green, and I spring when I walk," said
+Ethelwyn beginning again.
+
+"I'm summer," said Beth fanning.
+
+"And I'm fall," said Nan, tumbling down, "that hurts the worst," she
+added with pride.
+
+"I'm Christmas," said Bobby, "and I know now why it doesn't come in
+summer. My! I'm hot!" he continued, mopping his brow.
+
+"I'm Fourth of July," said Beth.
+
+"And I'm Thanksgiving and turkey--"
+
+"There isn't a thing but April fool in spring, I do believe," said
+Ethelwyn, disgusted.
+
+"Decoration Day, Arbor Day, and May Day," said mother. "It was a fine
+show, and the sun is out. You may go down now, and buy peanuts with your
+money."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XIV_
+_The Wedding and the Visit_
+
+    Out in the country, God's flowers bravely grow.
+    And all the dusty wayside is edged with golden glow;
+
+
+They were up in the nursery the next morning, having a wedding. A doll
+had opportunely lost her wig, and that always meant a good deal of
+excitement for the wigless one, for she was at once put to bed, and
+given medicine through the opening on top of the head, or made into a
+boy doll.
+
+This last happened now; poor cracked and dead Billy Boy's wig was
+jauntily glued on the wigless head, and the late Janet became Lord
+Jimmy, and was in the process of being wedded to Arabella, the walking,
+talking doll from Paris.
+
+They were propped up in the doll house, and Beth was marrying them.
+
+"Lord Jimmy," she said, "wilt thou marry Arabella and nobody else and
+be her quilt in time of trouble--?"
+
+"A quilt!" said Ethelwyn. "What's that?"
+
+"A comfort then," said Beth with dignity, "or something like that.
+Anyway I wish you wouldn't talk in the middle of the wedding--and give
+her clothes, and things to eat, eh? Make him nod 'yes,' sister." So
+Ethelwyn, reaching out an energetic hand, clutched the bridegroom by the
+waist and made him bow so low, that his freshly-glued wig came off.
+
+"O, for goodness sake, sister," said Beth, in an exasperated tone, "I
+never knew any one that could upset things like you--"
+
+But their mother was heard calling them, in a way that meant something
+nice, so the poor bald-headed bridegroom and his wig were left at the
+feet of the haughty Arabella, who stared rigidly at the landscape
+outside, and tried not to see him.
+
+"We are going to drive out to Grandmother Van Stark's to spend the day,
+and perhaps a little longer," said mother.
+
+"Oh won't that be the nicest thing!" they cried in a breath. "Who can go
+on the pony?"
+
+"Ethelwyn may ride out, and Beth back," said mother.
+
+"I've always been so thankful to think you weren't born a _no_ and
+_don't_ mother," said Ethelwyn, hugging her. "Are we going right away?"
+
+"Right away."
+
+Sure enough there was Joe leading Ninkum, their own pony. Mother and
+Beth were to go in the phaeton.
+
+All the way out they played games with the trees and flowers. Ethelwyn
+rode alongside the phaeton.
+
+They counted the spots they passed that were purple with thistles, and
+they were many. Others were pink and white with clover and daisies.
+Their mother told them the story of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, when
+they drove down the lane bordered with golden Spanish needles.
+
+But they enjoyed the missing word game the most, because it was new.
+
+"It's your turn to make up a game, mother," said Beth.
+
+"I will give you lines that rhyme, only I will leave off the last word,
+after the first line," said mother, "and you must guess what that word
+is."
+
+    "There was a man rode to the mill.
+    The road ran steeply up the--"
+
+"Hill," cried Beth.
+
+"Yes; now let sister guess the next."
+
+    He stopped beside a flowing--"
+
+"Rill?" asked Ethelwyn, after thinking awhile.
+
+"Yes."
+
+    "This horse was dry, so drank his--"
+
+"Fill."
+
+    "Along there came a girl named--"
+
+"Jill."
+
+    "He wished that his was Jack, not--"
+
+"Will."
+
+    "For people sometimes called him--"
+
+"Bill."
+
+    "This really was a bitter--"
+
+"Pill."
+
+    "And made him feel both vexed and--"
+
+"Ill." Mother had to tell them that, because they both guessed sick.
+
+    "He brought his gun along to--"
+
+"Kill."
+
+    "A bird to give to Jill a--"
+
+"Quill?" Ethelwyn guessed after a long time.
+
+    "They lingered long, they lingered--"
+
+"Till," and again mother had to tell them this.
+
+    "The sun went down and all was--"
+
+"Still."
+
+They had both missed one, so they each had to pay a forfeit or get up a
+game.
+
+But they were now within sight of Grandmother Van Stark's fine old
+colonial house, and there on the porch stood grandmother herself, who
+had seen them coming, so had come out to meet them.
+
+"Oh isn't our grandmother pretty though?" said Ethelwyn, as they turned
+in at the circular driveway. She had snow white hair, dark eyes and a
+very stately carriage.
+
+She welcomed them warmly, and invited them into the grand old hall with
+its white staircase and mahogany rail.
+
+Modern children seemed almost out of place in this old-time house.
+
+"I always seem to think you need short-waisted frocks, and drooping hats
+like Sir Joshua Reynolds's, and the Gainsborough pictures," said their
+mother laughing.
+
+"O may we go up to the attic and dress up?" begged Ethelwyn.
+
+"After while," said grandmother. "It is luncheon time now. I am glad you
+came to-day, my daughter, for Nancy, the housemaid, has gone home for a
+week's rest, and there is a meeting of the women of the church this
+afternoon to arrange about a rummage sale, and a loan exhibition, and
+they are rather depending upon me to contribute to both; but as Nancy is
+away, I cannot well leave for I am a little overtired with more duties
+than usual. So I have made a list of things that I will lend, and give.
+I should like you to take it down."
+
+"Yes, mother, I will, but what about the children--?"
+
+"O mother, please let me stay," begged Beth. "I will take excellent care
+of grandmother, and I will take Nancy's place, so grandmother can lie
+down; I know how, I've watched Nancy lots of times. You can take
+sister."
+
+This was the final arrangement, and soon after luncheon they drove away
+to town. Grandmother disappeared up the beautiful staircase after
+shutting the blind doors, and shading the hall from the afternoon sun.
+
+Then Beth arrayed in a red sweeping cap, instead of Nancy's white one,
+which she and cook failed to find, and armed with a huge silver salver
+for cards, instead of Nancy's small one, took up her position in the
+hall, on the bottom stair, to await visitors: but the hall was full of
+slumberous shadows, with sunshine flecks dancing down from the blind
+doors to the polished floor. It is not strange, therefore, that by and
+by the red sweeping cap began to droop over the silver salver, until
+finally they all settled down together, and the new parlor maid was
+sound asleep, to the music of the tall old clock in the corner of the
+hall back under the stairway.
+
+Then some one came up the walk, and rapped briskly with the end of his
+riding whip on the blind doors.
+
+The parlor maid suddenly awoke, stumbled to the door, and fumbled with
+the fastenings, but it was no use, she couldn't open them; thereupon she
+turned the slats and looked through at the young clergyman standing
+there.
+
+The red cap nodded affably.
+
+"Could you climb in through the window, s'pose?" she asked.
+
+This was such a new and startling novelty at the Van Stark homestead,
+that the visitor laughed, while the parlor maid patiently waited for his
+decision.
+
+He had shone in athletics at his college, so when he stopped laughing,
+he put his hands on the stone window-sill leading into the library, and
+vaulted in so lightly and easily, that Beth was delighted to think she
+had thought of it.
+
+She then went back to adjust her sweeping cap, which had dropped off,
+and to pick up the salver, which she had put down to free her hands.
+
+"Put your card there," she instructed him, bobbing her head towards the
+exact centre of the salver, and thereby completely covering one eye with
+that abominably big and wobbly cap.
+
+The reverend gentleman gravely complied, whereupon the maid swung
+herself around, but with caution, somewhat after the manner of a boat
+carrying too much sail.
+
+After Mrs. Van Stark had come down, the parlor maid reappeared without
+her badges of office, and was duly presented to the rector of the
+church, who made no sign, save a twinkle of his eye, of having met her
+in another, and humbler capacity, but shook hands and talked to her
+without that insufferable air of patronage which elder people at times
+seem to delight to bestow upon their juniors.
+
+As he was taking his leave, he explained that he was going down into the
+grove for a little while to read and to take pictures.
+
+As he went out, they met, coming in, an old lady whom Grandmother Van
+Stark greeted with rare cordiality, kissing her on both cheeks and
+calling her Tildy Ann. She called grandmother Jane Somerset, and
+explained that her son, going to town, had brought her that far on his
+way, and would call for her on his return.
+
+She had brought her knitting in a beautiful silk bag, and explained that
+she was making a long purse of black silk and steel beads, for the sale
+at the church.
+
+Beth brought grandmother's bag down to her, and grandmother produced
+silk stockings that she was knitting for the same purpose.
+
+They sat down for a comfortable chat, and Beth, feeling that it was too
+prehistoric an atmosphere for her, by and by stole up-stairs to the
+attic and went on a rummage for old clothes in which to dress up.
+
+She found an old figured silk gown, with short sleeves. By much rolling
+up and pinning, she made the skirt the right length. Then she pulled out
+an old green silk calash and set it on her head. This she felt was a
+finishing touch, so she softly crept down the stairs and past the old
+ladies, who had entirely forgotten her, and out on the lawn; then she
+walked down the circular driveway and out into the road, where presently
+the clergyman, striding along to where his pony was tied, overtook her.
+
+He looked with astonishment at the quaint little figure in the silk
+frock, but when the disguised parlor maid looked out from the depths of
+the great bonnet, he went off into peals of laughter again.
+
+"You seem to laugh a great deal," said Beth.
+
+He at once stopped and said:
+
+"It is a weakness of mine, and now let me beg a favor of you. Will you
+come back to the porch, and sit in a Chippendale chair, and let me take
+your picture for the sale at the church?"
+
+"Yes, I don't mind at all," said Beth promptly, turning around and
+putting her hand in his. "You see Mrs. Tildy Ann and grandmother were
+having such a long-way-back time, I had to dress up to match
+everything."
+
+"I see," said the minister. "But she may presently miss you and be
+worried."
+
+"O that's so," said Beth. "Let's hurry. I promised to take care of
+grandmother," she added, in a remorseful tone.
+
+But nothing had happened, and the picture proved a great success, many
+of them being sold at the fair.
+
+"I don't like it much," said Beth, when she saw one, "for it reminds me
+of how I forgot to take care of my Grandmother Van Stork."
+
+"It will do you good, I trust," said her mother.
+
+"It'll improve my thinkery, I hope," said Beth.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XV_
+_The Lost Invitation_
+
+    A heartache when the heart is young,
+      Seems quite too big to bear;
+    But when it ends in laughter,
+      Away goes every care.
+
+
+When they started to return the next day, Beth in triumph mounted
+Ninkum. She had a little difficulty in turning around to wave a farewell
+to dear grandmother on the porch, because the pony took this opportune
+time to munch the grass at the road-side, and Beth nearly went over his
+head.
+
+"Dear me, Ninkum, you are very rude," she said, much vexed. "You try to
+spill me off, besides making Grandmother Van Stark feel as though you
+didn't have enough to eat while you were visiting her!"
+
+There was another disturbing feature also, and that was sister, whose
+countenance kept peering above the phaeton top, and who shouted
+exceedingly unwelcome advice, until silenced and firmly seated by the
+maternal command.
+
+However, these were small things, compared with the bliss of galloping
+down the smooth road, bordered by flowers and green fields.
+
+"I am very fond of wild flowers," said Ethelwyn by and by, "because they
+come right from God's garden, and they keep things so cheerful and
+bright out in the country."
+
+"I remember some verses about wild flowers and woods that a friend of
+mine wrote," said mother, "and I intend sometime to put some of them to
+music."
+
+"O say one, mother," said Ethelwyn, who loved verses. So Mrs. Rayburn
+began:
+
+    "I know a quiet place,
+      Where a spring comes gurgling out,
+    And the shadowed leaves like lace
+      Fall on the ground about.
+
+    "A tempting grapevine swing
+      Is swung from the near-by trees,
+    And life is a dreamful thing
+      Lulled by the birds and bees.
+
+    "Flowers at the great trees' feet
+      Are sheltered quite from harm;
+    For above the blossoms sweet,
+      The oak holds forth his arm.
+
+    "Perhaps if I lie quite still,
+      I may hear far down below,
+    The first and joyous thrill
+      Of things, when they start to grow."
+
+"I've wondered if they do get out of the seed with a little cracky pop,"
+said Ethelwyn.
+
+"What, sister?" asked Beth, coming up on Ninkum.
+
+"Flowers and things."
+
+"I've wondered how things know how to make themselves flowers, and not
+potatoes, or something like that," said Beth; "but I suppose God tells
+them."
+
+"And I've often thought what was it that makes part of them stalk and
+leaves, and then all at once end in a flower," said Ethelwyn. Then,
+after a moment's silence, she proposed, "Let's have another game."
+
+"Yes, mother, you think of one."
+
+"I was thinking of one this morning," said mother, "for I thought likely
+you would be asking me to make up one, though it isn't my turn."
+
+"O, but motherdy, you are so much smarter than we are!" said Ethelwyn.
+
+"That is one way to get out of it," said mother, laughing. "Well, I will
+tell you a story, and leave a blank occasionally, which you must fill up
+with the name of a tree.
+
+"There were two little girls who dressed exactly alike, and, as they
+were very near the same age, it was difficult to tell which was the--"
+
+"Elder?" said Ethelwyn, after a hard think.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I didn't really know there was such a tree, but I had heard something
+like it, and thought there wasn't a younger tree."
+
+"One of the little girls was named Louise and the other Minerva, and
+people grew to calling them by their initials, which together made--"
+
+"Elm," said Beth.
+
+"They were very good children, and people used to say what a nice--"
+
+"Pear," they both said at once.
+
+"They were. They had cheeks like a--"
+
+"Peach."
+
+"It was spring, and they were invited to a sugaring off party, and they
+saw the men tap the trees to make--"
+
+"Maple sugar," cried Beth, who knew that, if she knew anything.
+
+"So, when they went home, they tapped a tree in the front yard, and
+invited a party to come and eat maple sugar; but they tapped the wrong
+tree, and their father was vexed, saying, 'I ought to take a ---- to
+----'"
+
+But mother had to tell them these words for they had never heard of
+birch, or of yew. "'I wonder if you will be ----'"
+
+"Evergreen," said Ethelwyn, after a little prompting.
+
+"'All your life.' 'I thought,' said one, 'that maple sugar parties were
+very ----'"
+
+"'Pop'lar? (mother had to tell them this also), 'at this time of year.'"
+
+"---- laughed their father."
+
+"Haw, haw," said Ethelwyn, who had been thinking of the tree under which
+they played at home.
+
+"'I'll have to take you to the seashore to play on the ----'"
+
+"Beech," said Beth in triumph.
+
+"Then he lighted a cigar and knocked off the ----"
+
+"Ash," said Ethelwyn.
+
+"And walked down street, whistling a song from 'Mikado.' Tit ----"
+
+"Willow," they both cried at once, for they knew that song as well as
+the tree.
+
+"You have done well," said mother, "but you each have two fines to pay,
+and it really is your turn next time; so you must remember to think up a
+game. But here we are at home, and there is 'Vada coming out to meet
+us."
+
+"O, 'Vada, what has happened since we went away?" said Ethelwyn,
+climbing out.
+
+"Mista Bobby gwine to give a party this ebenin'; it's his birthday, and
+his uncle brought him some fiah works like those you all had las' yeah,"
+said 'Vada.
+
+"O goody! did he invite us?"
+
+"Nome, not to say invite. But he's been in to see if you all was
+expected home."
+
+"O, it won't matter," said Beth easily; "we'll go anyway. Of course he
+knew we would come."
+
+When Nan came over, she brought her invitation with her. It was very
+formally enclosed in a small envelope, and informed his friend that
+Bobby would be at home on that very evening.
+
+This struck Beth as very silly.
+
+"Of course he'll be at home if he's going to give a party! Just as
+though he'd be anywhere else!" she remarked.
+
+They wished to go over immediately and tell Bobby that they were home
+and all ready to be invited, but their mother would not allow this.
+
+"He will come over by and by," she said. But the day went by and no
+invitation came, although great preparations were going on, as they
+could see, for they kept very near the window that looked out on Bobby's
+lawn. A slow drizzling rain was falling, or they would probably have
+been much nearer. But Bobby was evidently very busy getting ready. They
+caught only flying glimpses of him, and their hearts grew heavy within
+their breasts.
+
+"O dear! I shall never, never get over this, never!" said Beth,
+swallowing the lump in her throat.
+
+"I wouldn't have thought Bobby could have done it," said Ethelwyn, also
+swallowing.
+
+After their bath, they begged for their best slippers, silk stockings,
+and embroidered petticoats, and on having their hair done in their
+dress-up-and-go-away-from-home style. "Because," said Ethelwyn,
+"something may happen yet to make him think of us."
+
+So mother let them have on what they liked, for she was very sorry for
+them.
+
+In the evening, after dinner, when the electric lights came flashing
+out, it was worse, because, still standing forlornly by the window, they
+saw the orchestra come, with their instruments, and presently the
+sounds of music came floating up to them. Then the ice cream man came,
+and Beth, who had almost melted to tears at the sight of the orchestra,
+shed them openly when the ice cream went around the side of the house.
+Having no handkerchief, she wiped her eyes on Soosana, her big rag doll.
+She always loved Soosana when she was unhappy, for she was so squeezy
+and felt so comfortable.
+
+"I hope Bobby will be sorry when he has time to think about it," she
+remarked in a subdued tone.
+
+"Look at that!" said Ethelwyn in such a hopeful voice that Beth at once
+emerged from her eclipse behind Soosana, and looked with all her eyes.
+
+There was Bobby, resplendent in a new suit and slippers with shining
+buckles, running across the lawn.
+
+Ethelwyn and Beth at once pushed up the window, in order to meet him
+half-way.
+
+"Do you want us, Bobby?" called Beth encouragingly.
+
+"Yes; why on earth don't you come?" cried Bobby. "We are all ready to
+dance and Nan and everybody but you, are there, and I wouldn't let 'em
+begin till you came, so hurry up."
+
+"We will," they cried in a breath, "and we would have come a long time
+ago if you only hadn't forgotten to invite us till so late. What made
+you, Bobby?"
+
+"Why I didn't!" said Bobby in a surprised tone. "I took your invitation
+over to your front door and--and--your bell is pretty high up--"
+
+"Yes, I can't reach it at all," said Beth breathlessly; "go on."
+
+"So I shoved it under the door--"
+
+Ethelwyn disappeared like a flash, and, sure enough, under the carpet's
+edge she could see sticking out the little white corner of the
+envelope. She knelt down and pulled it out, then ran back.
+
+"We'll come right over in a minute, Bobby," she called happily. "We're
+pretty nearly all dressed for fear you'd remember you had forgotten--"
+
+"All right, hurry up," called up Bobby.
+
+Down on the floor went Soosana, all damp with tears, but she still
+smiled broadly at the ceiling in the dark. She probably did not, if the
+truth were known, quite enjoy being used as a handkerchief, but she felt
+it was her mission in this life to act as comforter, and so she bore it
+with cheerfulness. The next morning she was told by happy, though
+sleepy, Beth that it was a "beyewtiful party, with fireworks, and ice
+cream, and dancing, and games, and souvenirs. I should never have been
+so happy again, Soosana, if I had missed going, I know," she concluded,
+kissing Soosana with such fervor, that she put a dent in that portion
+of her doll's head where she had been kissed; but this time Soosana was
+sure she did not care.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XVI_
+_The Mail and Ethelwyn's Visit_
+
+    Good-bye, speed by
+      Days till we meet again.
+    Hearts' ease, ne'er cease,
+      Keep free from fret or pain.
+
+
+There had come an interesting mail that morning, for it began with
+another letter from Cousin Gladys, who was in London now for the winter,
+and there was also one from Aunty Stevens and from Grandmother Van
+Stark. While the two children ate their oatmeal and cream, they read
+their cousin's letter. This was it:
+
+     "DEAR COUSINS:
+
+     "We have seen the Coronation, and my eyes ached, there was so much
+     to see and do. It was worse than a circus with six rings.
+
+     "The King is not pretty, but I suppose that won't hinder him from
+     being good, and nurse is always saying, 'Pretty is that pretty
+     does, Miss Gladys.' I think she thinks that the two hardly ever go
+     together. The dear Queen is pretty, however, and so young-looking
+     and sweet that even nurse has to give in about her.
+
+     "I will tell you all about it when we come home, but it tires me
+     now even to think about it. One morning I begged to go back to the
+     hotel and rest, and nurse was so disappointed that I told her she
+     could go out and I would stay alone. I dug around in my trunk and
+     got rather homesick, looking at the things I had at home. I found
+     some jacks but no ball, so I thought I would go down to a near-by
+     shop, and buy one. I slipped down and out, before I had time to
+     think about mother making me promise not to go anywhere alone. I
+     turned a corner or two, but didn't find the right kind of a shop.
+     It was cloudy, and sort of foggy, and crowds and crowds of people
+     were pushing along. I knew all at once that I was lost, and I began
+     to feel a lump in my throat, bigger than any ball you ever saw, and
+     just then I saw a tall man coming towards me. I saw only his legs,
+     but they looked so Americanish that I rushed up, and said, 'Please
+     take me to the L---- Hotel,' He stopped at once and said, 'Well, I
+     certainly will; I am going there myself.' He was a minister from
+     New York. He laughed when I told him about the jacks, and then he
+     talked to me in such a nice way about going out alone, that it made
+     a great impression on me. I found mother and nurse in such a state
+     when I got back. I was kissed and then put to bed to eat my supper,
+     but the minister came to call in the evening, and when I had
+     promised never to do such a thing again, they let me get up. He was
+     so nice, and brought me a ball. I play jacks every day now, and
+     think of America and nice 'things like that. I shall be glad to get
+     there again.
+
+     "Yours truly,
+
+     "GLADYS.
+
+     "P.S.--I can probably beat you at jacks when I get back, I practice
+     so much."
+
+"I'll get mine out to-day," said Ethelwyn, "and we'll see whether she
+can or not. When will she come home, mother?"
+
+But mother was reading Aunty Stevens's letter, and did not hear.
+
+"The Home is getting on beautifully," she said presently. "There are
+ten pale little children out there now. Dick is quite well and strong
+again, and helps with the work in every way. They are very anxious that
+we shall come on this summer."
+
+"O let's; for my birthday," said Ethelwyn. "Can't we, mother?"
+
+"I will see. But Grandmother Van Stark would like one of you to come out
+and stay with her for a few days. Peter is coming in this afternoon and
+will take one of you out."
+
+"O me!" they cried at once.
+
+"Let's pull straws," suggested Ethelwyn; so she ran to find the broom.
+It was she who drew the longest straw, and Beth drew a long breath,
+saying with cheerful philosophy, "Well, I am thankful not to leave
+mother. I'd prob'ly cry in the night, and worry dear grandmother." So
+every one was satisfied, and Ethelwyn, dimpling delightfully under her
+broad white pique hat, bade them good-bye, and took her place beside
+Peter in the roomy old phaeton.
+
+"Are you any relation of St. Peter's?" she asked politely, after they
+were well on the way.
+
+"Nobody ever thought so," said Peter, looking down at her with a twinkle
+in his eye.
+
+"Well, I didn't know," she said. "I thought I'd like to ask you some
+questions about him if you were. We have had a good deal about him at
+Sunday-school lately. I'm studying my lessons nowadays for a prize; they
+are going to give a sacrilegious picture to the child that knows her
+verses the best by Easter, and I think maybe I'll get it, for I'm only
+about next to the worst now."
+
+"How many are there of you?"
+
+"O, a lot; but if I do get it, I shall ask for a goat and cart instead.
+We have plenty of pictures at home, but we are much in need of a goat
+and cart."
+
+Peter had a peculiar habit, Ethelwyn afterwards told her grandmother, of
+shaking after she had talked to him awhile, and gurgling down in his
+throat. She felt sorry for him. "He was prob'ly not feeling well; maybe
+what Aunt Mandy calls chilling," she said.
+
+She found grandmother making pumpkin pies, for the minister and his wife
+were coming to dinner the next day. Grandmother was famous for making
+pumpkin pies, and never allowed any one else to make them.
+
+"It's my grandmother's recipe," she said, and Ethelwyn nearly fell off
+her chair trying to imagine grandmother's grandmother.
+
+"I shouldn't suppose they would have been discovered then," she said,
+after a struggle. "Pumpkin pies don't go out of style like clothes, do
+they, grandmother?"
+
+"Mine never have," said grandmother proudly. "I suppose Mandy never
+makes pumpkin pies."
+
+"Yes she does, but they don't grow in yellow watermelons; they live in
+tin cans."
+
+"Pooh!" said grandmother, "they can't hold a candle to these."
+
+"No, but why would they want to?"
+
+"Hand me that japanned box with the spices, please, dear. Now you'll see
+the advantage of doing this sort of thing yourself; here are mustard and
+pepper boxes in this other japanned box, but I know just where they
+always stand, so I could get up in the night and make no mistake."
+
+Just then grandmother was called away from the kitchen.
+
+"Don't meddle and get into mischief, will you, deary?" she said. And
+Ethelwyn promised.
+
+She intended to keep her word, but while she was smelling the spices,
+it struck her that it would be a good joke to season the pies from the
+other box. "Like an April fool," she thought; so she took a spoon and
+measured in a liberal supply of mustard and red pepper; then she went
+out into the yard.
+
+It was fortunate that the minister and his new wife were not coming
+until the next day. Ethelwyn, however, spent a very unhappy afternoon.
+That night she woke up sobbing, and crawled into grandmother's big bed.
+
+"What's the matter, child?" said grandmother, sitting up in bed with a
+start. "Are you sick?"
+
+"Yes, grandmother, awful! You'll never like me again, I know." And then
+she told her about the pumpkin pies.
+
+"Well, child, I am thankful you told me," said grandmother with a sigh,
+"for when you are as old as I am, and have a reputation for doing
+things, it goes hard to make a failure of them, and I should have been
+much mortified. Fortunately there are plenty of pie shells, and there is
+more pumpkin steamed, so that I can season and put them together in the
+morning. But I am glad, dear child, that your conscience wouldn't let
+you sleep comfortably until you had told; be careful, however, never
+again to break your word. Remember the Van Starks' watchword, 'Love,
+Truth, and Honor.' Now cuddle down here and go to sleep."
+
+Ethelwyn, feeling much relieved, slept in the canopy bed with
+grandmother, until long past daylight. When she came down-stairs, the
+great golden pies were coming out of the oven, and the minister and his
+wife violated propriety and made Grandmother Van Stark proud and happy
+by eating two pieces each.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XVII_
+_Out at Grandmother's_
+
+    Grandmother's house, I tell you most emphatic,
+    Is full of good times from cellar to the attic.
+
+
+There came to Grandmother Van Stark's one day, a forlorn black tramp
+kitten, mewing dismally.
+
+Ethelwyn, who loved kittens devotedly, was melted to the verge of tears
+by his wailing appeals in a minor key; so she cuddled him and fed him on
+Lady Babby's creamy, foamy milk. In the intervals of eating, however, he
+still wailed like a lost soul.
+
+"The critter don't stop crying long enough to catch a mouse," said cook,
+eyeing the disconsolate bundle of grief with strong disfavor.
+
+"He almost did this morning, Hannah," said Ethelwyn in his defense. "I
+saw him watching a hole, and he's so little yet, I grabbed him away.
+Besides, I don't like mice myself, and I was so afraid I'd see one or
+two."
+
+"No danger; his bawling will keep them away," said Hannah, grimly.
+
+"O, well then, his crying is some good, after all," returned Ethelwyn,
+triumphantly. "That's a good deal nicer than killing the poor little
+things."
+
+"Humph!" said Hannah.
+
+But Grandmother Van Stark had given orders that Johnny Bear--so named
+from one of Ernest Thompson-Seton's illustrations, which Ethelwyn
+thought he resembled--was to be treated tenderly and fed often, because
+Ethelwyn loved him, and she herself loved to feed hungry people and
+animals.
+
+But one morning there was a great commotion over the discovery that a
+mouse had been in Grandmother Van Stark's room.
+
+"This is a chance for Johnny Bear to make a reputation as a mouser,"
+said grandmother. "We will take him up-stairs to-night and he shall have
+a chance to catch that mouse."
+
+"O grandmother, I'm sure he will," said Ethelwyn, earnestly; so she
+talked to him that afternoon about it.
+
+It had rained in the afternoon,--a cold drizzly rain, so Nancy had
+lighted a little snapping wood-fire in Grandmother Van Stark's
+sitting-room. Into this opened the sleeping room in which was Ethelwyn's
+small bed, and the big mahogany tester bed, where Grandmother Van Stark
+had slept for more years than Ethelwyn could imagine.
+
+Ethelwyn put Johnny Bear and his basket in front of the grate. It was
+so "comfy" that he stopped yowling at once and began to purr.
+
+"How does middle night look, Nancy?" said Ethelwyn, as she lay in her
+little brass bed, watching the dancing shadows on the wall.
+
+"Like any other time, only stiller," replied Nancy. "Go to sleep now,
+Miss Ethelwyn."
+
+So Ethelwyn presently fell asleep and woke up with a little start just
+as the clock was striking twelve.
+
+Johnny Bear was stirring around uneasily in the other room. He had been
+very still; his stomach was full, and his body warm, so that there
+really was no possible excuse for making a noise. In fact, there was a
+faint scratching in the closet that concentrated his attention, and
+froze him into a statue of silence.
+
+Presently he pounced, and a little shriek, piteous and faint, told the
+story. Then Johnny Bear played ball with his victim, and ran up and
+down the room as gaily as if he had never known what it was to cry.
+
+But all at once something went wrong; a crackle in the grate sent a
+glowing coal over the fender and on the rug, where it smoldered and
+smoked, and then ran out a little tongue of flame. So Johnny Bear began
+to mew again loudly and uneasily, the clock struck twelve, and Ethelwyn
+awoke.
+
+"Hush, Johnny Bear, dear," she said softly from the other room; "you'll
+wake up grandmother."
+
+But grandmother was awake, and lifted her head just in time to see the
+tongue of fire.
+
+She was over the side of the bed in a minute, and, snatching up a
+pitcher of water, dashed it over the rug.
+
+Ethelwyn jumped up too and snatched Johnny Bear in her arms.
+
+"I don't think twelve o'clock at night looks stiller, do you,
+grandmother?" she asked. "Aren't you glad Johnny Bear came to live with
+us, and--oh! oh!" he cried, for she had stepped on a soft little mouse,
+lying quite still now on the floor.
+
+"O Johnny, how could you?" she said sorrowfully, quite forgetting her
+instructions to him in the afternoon.
+
+"But he is brave, isn't he, grandmother?"
+
+"Very," said grandmother, "and he shall have a saucer of cream in the
+morning. But come now, chicken; I've put out the fire, and covered the
+other, so I think we can sleep in peace."
+
+So they both went to sleep, and Johnny Bear from that time on wept no
+more.
+
+The next morning, Ethelwyn joyfully told Hannah and Peter all about it.
+Their praise was unstinted enough to suit even her swelling heart, and
+she proudly took the saucer of cream to Johnny, saying, "There,
+darling, everybody loves you now, even Peter and Hannah and Nancy,
+because you did your duty so nobly. I knew you would, so I loved you all
+the time."
+
+"Miss Ethelwyn," said Nancy, appearing, "there are callers in the
+drawing-room, and your grandmother wishes you to come in."
+
+Ethelwyn went in, and was presented to several of the ladies of the
+church, who had come to see about a reception to be given to the
+clergyman and his new young wife. It was, Ethelwyn found with joy, to be
+given at Grandmother Van Stark's.
+
+"O may I stay up?" she begged, and grandmother, who always found it hard
+to deny her grandchildren anything, said she might. When evening came,
+Ethelwyn dressed in her best white frock, a little later than the hour
+when she usually went to bed, came down the staircase with grandmother,
+who was more stately and lovely than ever? In her black velvet gown,
+with the great portrait brooch of Grandfather Van Stark, surrounded by
+diamonds, in the beautiful old lace around her neck.
+
+Grandmother was permitted to sit while receiving the guests. Between her
+chair and where the clergyman and his wife stood, Ethelwyn slipped her
+own little rocker, and sat there, highly interested in the streams of
+people that came by.
+
+"It's like a funeral," she announced during a slight lull.
+
+Grandmother and the clergyman looked around startled.
+
+"Why, child, what do you know about funerals?" asked grandmother, while
+the clergyman, of course, laughed.
+
+"'Vada took me and Beth once to a big mercession, and we went into a big
+church and the folks all went up and looked at somebody, just like
+to-night. 'Vada said it was a big gun's funeral, just like you and your
+wife, you know," she concluded cheerfully, nodding to the clergyman.
+
+"Well of all things--" began grandmother, but a new lot of people coming
+in demanded her attention.
+
+The clergyman and his wife, laughing heartily, shook hands with the new
+people, and Ethelwyn was rather indignant to hear her remark repeated
+several times.
+
+"I'm not going to say anything more," she thought, "they always laugh
+so."
+
+She sat very quiet, indeed, until by and by the lights and the pink,
+blue, and white gowns danced together in a rainbow, and then she knew
+nothing at all about the rest of it, nor that the minister himself
+carried her up-stairs and put her in Nancy's care.
+
+But the first thing of which she thought in the morning, was the
+refreshments, in which she had been so vitally interested the day
+before; so she came very soberly down-stairs to a late breakfast.
+
+"Well, chicken," said grandmother, "how did you like the reception?"
+
+"Not very much," said Ethelwyn. "I'm so ashamed to think I didn't get
+any ice cream--"
+
+"There's some saved for you; and I think I see your mother and Beth
+coming in the gate, I was so sorry they couldn't come last night."
+
+"I do believe they _are_ coming," said Ethelwyn, standing on tiptoes,
+"and, yes, see, they have Bobby and Nan with them, to help take me
+home!"
+
+There was a wild triple shriek from the surrey, followed by three small
+forms climbing rapidly down. They were proudly escorted by Ethelwyn to
+see Johnny Bear, the chickens, Peter, Hannah, and Nancy, all before
+mother was fairly in the house and the surrey in the barn.
+
+They ate the reception refreshments with such zeal that grandmother
+said, "Well there! I was wondering what we would do with all the things
+that were left, but I needn't have worried."
+
+"No, the mothers are the only ones that need worry,--over the after
+results," said Mrs. Ray burn, laughing.
+
+They started home in the afternoon, all standing on the surrey steps and
+seats to wave a farewell to dear Grandmother Van Stark as long as they
+could see her.
+
+Of course they played games going home, and this time Ethelwyn had
+really made up one.
+
+"I'll say the first and last letter of something in the surrey or that
+we can see, and then whoever guesses it can give two letters." So she
+gave "m----r," and Beth guessed mother at once; then Beth gave "h----s,"
+and Bobby disgraced himself by guessing horse, but he was warm, because
+it really was harness, and Nan guessed it. Then she gave "f----s," and
+that took them a long time, because it didn't sound at all like
+flowers, but Bobby finally guessed it, and then he gave them "g----s,"
+which mother guessed as girls.
+
+"You tell us a story, motherdy," said Ethelwyn, cuddling up close. "I
+just love to hear you talk, I haven't heard you for so long."
+
+"Were you homesick for me?"
+
+"Not ezactly," said Ethelwyn, "but I had a lonesome spot for you all
+whenever I thought about it."
+
+Ethelwyn always pronounced the word "exactly" wrong. Her mother liked to
+hear her say it, however, and one or two more; "for they will grow out
+of baby-hood all too fast," she said.
+
+"I went over to see Miss Helen Gray yesterday," said Mrs. Rayburn, "and
+she told me some funny stories about Polly, her parrot. You know she is
+really a very remarkable bird. Ever since Miss Helen has lived alone,
+she and Polly have been great friends, and it seems as though Polly
+really understands things she says to her. She bought her in New
+Orleans, where she boarded next door to the Cathedral. So Polly soon
+learned to intone the service, not the words, but exactly the
+intonation.
+
+"One day Miss Helen, who allowed her all sorts of liberties, let her
+out, but first she made her tell where she lived. '1013 H---- Street,'
+Polly said. 'Will you be good and not get lost?' 'Yep,' said Polly, so
+she went out, and Miss Helen heard her talking in the yard. A lady came
+along beautifully dressed.
+
+"'La, how fine,' said Polly.
+
+"The lady looked around angrily, thinking it was a boy.
+
+"'Didn't see me, did you?' said Polly, and then the woman saw the funny
+little green bird on the lawn and she petted and complimented her until
+Polly felt very much puffed up.
+
+"Miss Helen went in for a few minutes, though, and when she came out,
+Polly was gone, stolen probably by some one that slipped up behind her.
+
+"Poor Miss Helen grieved and grieved over her, and offered great
+rewards, but to no avail. In about a year she went to Florida, and one
+day, going by a bird fancier's that she knew, the man invited her to
+come in, saying that he had a lot of new parrots to show her.
+
+"O I wonder: if Polly is there!' she said, and told him about her.
+
+"'No, I haven't any that know as much as that,' said he; 'but there is
+one who looks as if she understood things, but she won't, or can't,
+talk.'
+
+"So Miss Helen went in, and there, sure enough, was her poor Polly
+huddled up sulkily in a cage.
+
+"'Polly,' called Helen, and Polly started and came to the front of the
+cage.
+
+"'Helen, Helen,' she called, going perfectly wild; '1013 H---- Street.
+I'll be good! Yep! Yep! Yep!' and then she began to intone the service.
+
+"The bird fancier was astonished enough.
+
+"'I bought her and some six others from two sailors,' he said, 'but I
+never dreamed she could talk!'
+
+"Miss Helen paid him a big price and went off with Polly on her finger
+chattering like one mad."
+
+"O I'd love to see her," cried Beth.
+
+"Well go over there some day. Here we are at home."
+
+"I'm glad," said Ethelwyn. "It's nice to go away, but it's nicer to come
+back."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XVIII_
+_How They Bought a Baby_
+
+       Spend your money
+       Speed you, honey,
+    Quick as you can fly
+       Up the street,
+       Toys and sweet
+    Money burns to buy.
+
+
+And all this time they had saved their birthday money!
+
+It was accidental, for they had in the multitude of other events and
+presents, forgotten they had it until one morning, in emptying their
+banks for "peanut" nickles, with a dexterity born of long practice, they
+discovered the two gold coins, for they each had been given one, of
+course, and they rushed off at once to show them.
+
+"Haven't we saved this money, though?" they said, full of pride, and
+then they straightway sat down to make plans for spending it.
+
+"Let's each buy a puppy for a parting gift to Bobby and Nan," suggested
+Ethelwyn, as she and Beth were soon going away to visit the Home.
+
+"Yes, sir, let's," said Beth. "They dearly love Bose, and Mr. Smithers,
+our vegetable man, has six and will sell us two, I know."
+
+Mr. Smithers said he would be charmed--or words to that effect--to sell
+them two Newfoundland puppies at five dollars each, and they struck a
+bargain at once.
+
+It was easier to do because mother had gone to town on business and was
+to be away all day.
+
+Mr. Smithers promised to bring them in that afternoon, and they went off
+to wait until then with what patience they could muster.
+
+They met Joe on their way to the barn, and noticed that his usual ruddy
+countenance was grave and pale.
+
+"My sister is sick," he explained, "and she's getting no better."
+
+"Why don't you tell mother?" asked Ethelwyn.
+
+"O it's everything your mother's done for us this summer, without
+bothering her more," he said. "I'm going to try to get my sister up in
+the country, but--I can't yet awhile."
+
+"Will it cost very much, Joe?"
+
+"No, not much, but there's so many of us to feed and clothe that we
+never have any money left for anything else."
+
+"Mother will help, I know," said Ethelwyn, and they went up to the
+house, pondering deeply.
+
+"Those horrid puppies! I wish we'd never heard of them," said Ethelwyn.
+"Then we could give Dick the money. What did you think about them for?"
+
+"You did yourself."
+
+"No, I didn't. Anyway, let's watch for Mr. Smithers at the back garden
+gate, and tell him not to bring them."
+
+So they went down through the garden, and, looking over the gate, they
+saw a very sulky little colored girl carrying a long limp bundle of
+yellow calico, with a round woolly head protruding at the top.
+
+"O that cunning baby I Where'd you get him?" they cried both at once,
+opening the gate to look at him.
+
+The sulky nurse shifted the bundle to her other shoulder.
+
+"Allus had him, mos'," she said; "him or 'nuther one, perzactly like
+him, to lug roun' while ma's washin'."
+
+"Don't you like to play with him?" asked Ethelwyn in a shocked tone.
+
+"No, I don't," was the emphatic reply; "nor you wouldn't needa, ef you
+had it to do contin'ul."
+
+"Why, you can play he's a doll."
+
+"He's showin' off now, but when he gits to bawlin', you ain't a gwine to
+make no mistake 'bout his bein' nuffin' 'tal but a cry-baby," she
+continued, preparing to move on.
+
+"Would you sell him?" asked Beth eagerly.
+
+"Yessum, I sholy would," said his sister with a gleam of interest; "we
+ain't a gwine to miss him, wid six mo'! I'll sell him easy fo' a
+dolla'."
+
+There was a hurried consultation between Beth and Ethelwyn.
+
+"It's cheaper, and would leave nine dollars for Joe. Bobby could keep
+him one day, and Nan the next, or we could get something else for one of
+them. I think Nan would like him the best."
+
+"We will buy him," said Ethelwyn, at the end of the consultation.
+
+There was a moment of hesitation, and then the yellow bundle went into
+Ethelwyn's outstretched arms.
+
+Beth went off to get the money. She ran breathlessly down the street to
+get the change, she was so afraid the girl would change her mind and
+take back the baby.
+
+There was no doubt but that the girl was in rather a dubious state of
+mind over it, but the silver dollar clinched her resolution, and she
+walked firmly off, without a backward glance in the direction of the
+gurgling Samuel Saul, which was the alliteral name of the yellow bundle.
+
+Ethelwyn and Beth, after a further consultation, took him to the attic.
+They considered it providential that Sierra Nevada was assisting in the
+laundry, and that the coast was therefore free from all observers.
+
+Samuel Saul was rocked in the cradle in which the ancestors of the
+children, as well as themselves, had been rocked, and he, well contented
+with the motion and not ill pleased with his surroundings, presently
+fell into a delicious slumber.
+
+"'Rockabye baby on the tree top,'" came from the open attic window, and
+floated down to Joe currying Ninkum, and to 'Vada, Mandy, and Aunt
+Sophie in the laundry.
+
+Joe smiled at the cheerful refrain, and 'Vada, sure that they were in no
+mischief, mopped her dripping brow, and went on with her work.
+
+Watching Samuel Saul's peaceful slumbers grew a little monotonous after
+a while, so Beth descended to the kitchen for a plate of cookies and a
+glass of water, and leaving this substantial luncheon beside their
+sleeping charge, they went down-stairs and for a while played on the
+piano with more strength than anything else. After that they took more
+cookies and went over to play with Bobby.
+
+Bobby, making a chicken yard out of wire netting, was delighted to have
+assistance, and they telephoned for Nan, who speedily joined them.
+
+"Mother's gone to town to-day to see your grandfather, who owns a bank,
+Bobby," said Ethelwyn.
+
+"I expect it's on account of his losing a whole lot of money," rejoined
+Bobby, standing on tiptoe on a box to pound in a nail.
+
+"Where did he lose it? Were there holes in his pockets?" asked Beth,
+unrolling the wire at Bobby's order.
+
+"On change," said Bobby, with his mouth full of nails.
+
+"Our money is in your grandfather's bank, and the Home money and
+Grandmother Van Stark's. I hope he hasn't lost anybody's but his own,"
+said Ethelwyn anxiously.
+
+"You're not very polite," said Nan.
+
+"Well I do, but if he lost only change, prob'ly it's his own, and
+mother's gone to give him some more."
+
+"Pooh!" said Bobby, "it's not--"
+
+But before he could say anything more, excited voices were heard, and
+four black and shining faces appeared over the top of the fence, while a
+guilty eye looked through a knot-hole farther down.
+
+"Has you all seen anything of a low down black pickaninny which is
+los'?" This remark came from 'Vada.
+
+"Which is _stole_," corrected a mountain of flesh, quivering with wrath.
+
+"Is it Samuel Saul?" asked Ethelwyn.
+
+"It is so; will you projus him?" asked the mountain.
+
+"He's in the attic asleep; his sister sold him to us for a present to
+Bobby and Nan--"
+
+"O let's see him," cried Nan, with lively interest.
+
+"You all is gwine to leab him alone--" began the mountain, when Mandy
+turned ponderously in her direction.
+
+"Will you, Martha Jane Jenkins, please kindly rec'lect dat you is
+'sociatin' wid quality now, an' take a good care how you talk, though
+sholy it may be de fus time dat you has ebber been in good sassity--"
+
+"Dat is sholy de trufe w'en I has been wid you," said Martha Jane
+Jenkins, wrathfully.
+
+But now from the open attic windows were heard such piercing shrieks
+that they all with one consent turned in that direction.
+
+"Americky, you go bring me you brudda," instructed Martha, cuffing
+soundly the girl with the guilty eye.
+
+Presently America and the children returned with the wailing Samuel Saul
+to the place where Mandy, 'Vada, and Aunt Sophie were standing, loftily
+ignoring the angry mother and making caustic remarks calculated to add
+to her discomfort.
+
+In the capacious arms of his mother, Samuel Saul ceased his repining and
+contentedly gurgled again. As the united ones went off, Martha Jane
+Jenkins with her head in the air and America remorsefully weeping in the
+rear, Ethelwyn said, "Well, our dollar's gone, and our baby too, and I
+thought we had made such a bargain. I don't know what Mr. Smithers will
+say."
+
+"And poor Joe too," said Beth.
+
+"There comes Mr. Smithers now," exclaimed Bobby.
+
+"Yes an' I ain't got your puppies either, for when I got home I found my
+boy had sold two and given away two, so there wasn't any left but what
+we wanted to keep."
+
+"Well, I'm thankful," said Ethelwyn; "for we bought a baby instead, only
+its mother took it back, and we just had to use the rest of the money
+for something else. Thank you, Mr. Smithers."
+
+"You're entirely welcome," responded he.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XIX_
+_Bobby's Grandfather_
+
+    And now let's be glad,
+      While everything's bright.
+    Days that are sunny
+      Are shadowed by night.
+
+
+That evening there was considerable news to tell mother when she came
+from town, and she both laughed and lectured them a little over the baby
+episode. After the children told her what Bobby had said about his
+grandfather losing money, they asked anxiously, "Oh mother, did he lose
+anything of ours?"
+
+For the first time in a long while the two straight worry lines came
+back between mother's eyes, and the children immediately climbed in her
+lap to kiss them away.
+
+"I can't tell yet, dearest ones," she said after a while. "I have been
+very foolish to leave so much of our money in one bank, I am afraid, but
+I had such faith, too much, perhaps, and I fear--"
+
+It was very comforting to have their dear warm cheeks against her own,
+and courage, almost vanquished during this trying day, came back. After
+awhile she laughed with them again, and told them stories until bedtime,
+promising them also that Joe's sister would be sent to the Home as soon
+as she was able.
+
+The next morning, however, the lines came back, and the children, seeing
+them, resolved that they would write Bobby's grandfather a letter.
+
+"If there's anything I'm glad of, it's that I know how to write," said
+Ethelwyn. "It was very hard to learn."
+
+They went up-stairs to the nursery where their own small desks were and
+taking some of their beloved Kate Green a way paper with pictures of
+quaint little children on it, after much trouble, ink, and many sheets
+of paper, as well as consultations with Bobby and Nan, they finished and
+posted a very small envelope to Bobby's grandfather, whose address they
+obtained from Bobby.
+
+Bobby's grandfather, on coming down the next morning to the bank, found
+this communication among the official-looking matter on the desk. The
+picture in the corner of the envelope was surrounded by these words:
+
+    "Little Fanny wears a hat,
+      Like her ancient granny;
+    Tommy's hoop was--think of that--
+      Given him by Fanny."
+
+The poke-bonneted pair with Tommy and his hoop looked curiously out of
+place among their official surroundings.
+
+The lines of worry were thickly sown in the banker's face, and as there
+were no round, rosy-cheeked children in his silent home to kiss them
+away, they stayed and grew deeper each day. He half smiled, however, as
+he picked up the Greenaway envelope and curiously broke the seal. This
+is what he read:
+
+     "DEAR BOBBY'S GRANDFATHER,
+
+     "We live next door to Bobby, who is quite often a nice boy, though
+     he wishes us to say always, and we are sorry to learn that you are
+     losing change money, for your sake, and for fear you'll go on and
+     lose ours, Grandmother Van Stark's and the Home's. Ours doesn't
+     matter so much as the others, for we have $9.00 left of our
+     birthday money, and it's lasted so long that it will prob'ly go on
+     lasting, specially if we forget it, or unless we buy more babies,
+     which we shan't do now because of not being able; but dear
+     grandmother without money would be awful, and the Home not to have
+     money for the poor little city children that are sick would be
+     awful, too. Please, please don't lose that, and we will pray for
+     you and love you hard all the days of our life. Amen.
+
+     "As there is no more paper in our boxes on account of spoiling so
+     much we will say good-bye.
+
+     "ETHELWYN, BETH, NAN, and BOBBY.
+
+     "P.S.--The first one she wrote it.
+
+     "P.S.--My mother said because she had faith in you was why you have
+     our money, and so have we."
+
+When the banker had finished this somewhat remarkable epistle, of which
+the children had been so proud, there were tears in his eyes, although
+his mouth was smiling, and the lines of worry did not seem so deep nor
+so stern.
+
+He pushed his other mail aside unread, and sat for a long time thinking.
+Presently he called for his stenographer, and dictated telegram after
+telegram, the import of which made that impassive person start and
+glance up in amazement several times. Then, seizing a sheet of paper,
+the banker started to write a letter for himself.
+
+     "DEAR CHILDREN, (it began)
+
+     "Do not worry. I shall not lose one penny of yours, nor Grandmother
+     Van Stark's, nor the blessed Home's, nor any one's, I hope, but my
+     own, and not enough of that to hurt; at any rate, I shall still
+     have enough, I think, to buy a railroad ticket to Bobby's house. So
+     tell him that I wish he'd tell his mother to have a good supper
+     to-morrow night, and you children must plan it and all come and eat
+     with me.
+
+     "Yours, with love,
+
+     "BOBBY'S GRANDFATHER.
+
+     "P.S.--Be sure to have plenty of candy for supper."
+
+The excitement and the joy that this letter produced were something
+startling. Away went the worry lines from Mrs. Rayburn's dear face, and
+back came the laughter the children loved. In Bobby's house they planned
+a most wonderful menu of fried chicken, candy, cake, and ice cream.
+Mandy baked spice cakes at Nan's and Bobby's special request, and nobody
+thought anything whatever about indigestion or after effects; for where
+everybody laughs and is happy, there is no need to fear indigestion.
+
+The children went to the station to meet the guest, and, when the train
+came in, greeted him with shouts of welcome, and, proudly surrounding
+him, marched down the street like a royal procession.
+
+There would not be words enough to describe the feast that followed at
+Bobby's house. All the children wished to sit next to his grandfather,
+so that he had to change places at every course (all of which had candy
+interludes) and thus that mighty matter was accomplished to the entire
+satisfaction of the children.
+
+And after supper Bobby's grandfather played games with them and soon
+lost his worry lines, probably on the floor where he was playing horse
+or bear. No one picked them up, so it isn't positively known where he
+lost them. When Ethelwyn and Beth suddenly bethought themselves that
+they were to go with their mother to the Home the next day, to take
+Joe's sister there, it was at once decided that Bobby and Nan should go
+too, for one beautiful outing before school should begin.
+
+"And we will need it," said Bobby, with a deep sigh over the arduous
+educational duties before him.
+
+Then Bobby's grandfather brought out some curious knobby-looking bundles
+from his valise, and while the children shut their eyes, he hid the
+packages and then turned the children loose to find them. There was a
+great outfit of Kate Greenaway writing paper for Ethelwyn; a black
+doll-baby apiece for Beth and Nan; and a watch with a leather fob and
+jockey cap attachments for his namesake, Bobby. There were also a book
+and a game for each one. While they were playing with their gifts, Mrs.
+Rayburn and Bobby's grandfather talked apart, and it was a happy talk,
+as Ethelwyn and Beth could see when they came up to where they were
+sitting.
+
+When at last it was time to say good-night, Ethelwyn and Beth had a
+surprise for Bobby's grandfather. It was four silver dollars. "Two of
+our dollars are gone to help take Joe's sister to the Home," Beth
+explained, "but this is for you on account of your losing the change
+money. It's from us all, instead of good-bye presents we were going to
+get for Nan and Bobby. They said they'd rather."
+
+Bobby's grandfather hesitated just a little and was about to make a
+gesture of refusal, when, seeing their mother shake her head, he kissed
+the children's red cheeks and said, with a shake in his voice, "You dear
+children, I'll keep these and your letter, as long as I live, so as not
+to forget your faith in me."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XX_
+_The Visit to the Home_
+
+    On the train we ran through rain,
+      Then out in sun and blue;
+    And all the trees bent down and raced,
+      And all the houses too.
+
+
+Somehow, that night, after the children were all in bed, and the grown
+people were talking over the next day's journey, it seemed to Bobby's
+grandfather that he too would like to go along, and he said he could not
+for the life of him see why Bobby's mother should not go too, and also
+Nan's father and mother if they wished.
+
+Well, it was short notice, but by telegraphing, telephoning and telling
+by mouth they arranged it; and the next morning quite an imposing party
+boarded the Eastbound Limited, and took possession of the drawing-room
+car, for Bobby's grandfather never did things on a niggardly plan.
+
+He and Bobby's mother were seated on one side, and Nan's mother (her
+father could not leave) and Mrs. Rayburn were across from them, while
+Nan, Ethelwyn, Beth, and Bobby appeared and disappeared, like meteors,
+in the most unexpected places. Joe's sister was not well enough that day
+to accompany them, so it was arranged that her brother should bring her
+as soon as she felt better.
+
+If I have, by the use of the word "grandfather," given you an idea of
+decrepitude and old age, in the case of Bobby's grandfather, I wish at
+once to change that idea.
+
+He was a very erect and handsome man, with a white mustache indeed, but
+with a firm mouth underneath that gave no sign of diminished force.
+
+He had always told Mrs. Rayburn that he thought it was very foolish for
+her to give such large sums of money for charity.
+
+"It's not right," he now repeated, twirling his mustache. The morning
+paper lay across his knees, and, as he spoke, with an air of finality
+and disapproval, he picked it up.
+
+"What isn't right, grandfather?" asked Bobby, suddenly appearing on the
+back of his chair, and encircling his grandfather's neck with a pair of
+sturdy legs.
+
+His grandfather drew him down by one leg into his lap.
+
+"Giving all your money away to people who don't appreciate it," he
+explained.
+
+"How do you know they don't?" asked Bobby.
+
+"Because, sir, people don't appreciate what is given to them, as much as
+they do what they earn."
+
+Bobby pondered over this.
+
+"I like my Christmas presents better than the money I get for chopping
+kindling," he replied at length; "because the Christmas money is more,
+for one thing."
+
+"And more certain," put in his mother, laughing; "the kindling money
+isn't always earned."
+
+"Are you talking about the Home money?" asked Ethelwyn, looking over the
+back of the chair in front of them.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But we like to give it, and so will you, when you see how nice it is,
+and Dick and Aunty Stevens and the best cookies that she can make.
+What's the good of keeping money? We can always buy more down at your
+bank," she concluded easily.
+
+"You may not always think so, young lady, nor take such wide views of
+things. When you grow up, you may wish you had more money," said the
+banker, laughing.
+
+"Does keeping money make folks happy?" inquired Beth, suddenly popping
+up.
+
+The lines in grandfather's face deepened, and there came over it a look
+of care.
+
+"Not always, child, I must confess," he said at length.
+
+"Besides, my father says not to lay up treasure for roth and must to
+corrupt!" put in Nan, coming to the surface. At this, they all shouted,
+much to Nan's discomfiture.
+
+For awhile the banker looked out on the showery landscape, then he
+turned to the children's mother.
+
+"Perhaps you are right, Mrs. Rayburn," he said gently. "The world is all
+too selfish;" and he sighed as he said it.
+
+"It is indeed," came the emphatic answer. "There is no crime, there is
+no sin, that has not for its basis selfishness. It is the evil part of
+life, and the Christ life that ought to be man's pattern, is the type of
+unselfishness."
+
+"Well," said the banker, taking up his paper, "I am open to conviction."
+
+The sun was shining when they arrived at the pretty station, and they
+all stopped on the platform to listen a moment to the organ note of the
+sea. As they waited, a wagon drove up, and a young fellow jumped out and
+ran towards them.
+
+"It's--it's--Dick! Dick who used to walk on crutches!" cried Ethelwyn,
+fairly rubbing her eyes in astonishment.
+
+There were no signs of lameness now in this tall youth, and his face was
+radiant with happiness. He could not speak for a moment, as he shook
+hands with those whom he knew, and of whom he had almost constantly
+thought with heartfelt gratitude.
+
+"My sakes! Aren't you mended up well, though?" said Beth, walking
+around him admiringly.
+
+They all laughed at this, of course, and Dick was then introduced to
+Bobby's mother, his grandfather, and Bobby himself.
+
+"Dick is the first patient of the Home," said Mrs. Rayburn, "and he does
+it credit. He is Mrs. Stevens's right-hand man now. Where and how is
+dear Mrs. Stevens?"
+
+"She is well but could not leave to come to the train," said Dick. "She
+can hardly wait to see you, though."
+
+"I do sincerely trust she has baked a bushel of cookies," said Ethelwyn,
+as they climbed into the wagon.
+
+The approach to the Home was very beautiful. The sun was going down in a
+blaze of glory, and the wagon wound around the hill road to where the
+cottage, gay with flags and striped awnings, crowned its summit.
+
+Then, above the roar of the sea and the clatter of hoofs, came the
+sound of children's voices calling from the broad piazza,
+
+"Welcome home! Welcome home!"
+
+Then a child's voice sang,
+
+    "To give sad children's hearts a joy,
+      To give the weary rest,
+    To give to those who need it sore,
+      This makes a life most blest."
+
+As Bobby's grandfather helped the grown people out of the wagon--the
+children had climbed down without waiting for help--he cleared his
+throat once or twice.
+
+"I'm nearer conviction than I was," he said.
+
+As she hurried towards the porch, Mrs. Rayburn smiled to herself.
+
+Nan's mother waited, and walked up with Bobby's grandfather. Over her
+had come a great and happy change; her eyes were now full of earnest
+light, and she had forgotten her headaches and other small ills.
+
+She now looked up into the banker's face.
+
+"After all, life to be beautiful and to reach rightly towards eternity
+should be helpful, and self-forgetful; do you not think so?" she said.
+"I was long learning the two great commandments, which embody the whole
+decalogue, and I probably never should have learned them if it had not
+been for these blessed children, and their mother."
+
+"H--m, h--m," said the banker.
+
+On the porch were twenty children. In forty eyes the new light of
+happiness was dawning. At the beginning, many of them had been hopeless
+and even evil, but now it was all different, for they had found out that
+they could laugh.
+
+Aunty Stevens herself, full of laughter and bubbling over with joy at
+seeing her friends again, surrounded by the shouting children, made them
+more than welcome.
+
+Bobby's grandfather was armed with a huge box, which he had
+mysteriously guarded all day; he now set it down upon the porch.
+
+"If you children don't make this box lighter at once, I shall have no
+use for you," he declared. And they all, scenting candy with infallible
+instinct, fell upon it with rapture.
+
+They had tea on the lawn, that evening, and, after a consultation with
+Mrs. Stevens, Bobby's grandfather sent a message over the telephone that
+was followed very shortly by a man with ice cream and a huge cake. When
+eight o'clock came, one of the teachers began to play a march on the
+piano in the hall. At once the children fell into line, marking time
+with their feet, and singing,
+
+    "Good-night, good-night,
+    Children and blossoms who sleep all the night,
+    Always will wake up happy and bright,
+    Good-night, good-night!"
+
+As they sang, they marched away to bed. The others followed them in.
+
+The boys' dormitories were in a building on one side of the lawn, and
+the girls' on the other, while the babies' nursery was in the main
+building.
+
+The spirit of the Home was helpfulness, so each child aided some one
+else in getting ready for the night. When they were in their white
+night-gowns, they all dropped upon their knees, and one of the teachers
+said a short prayer after which they all joined with her in the Lord's
+Prayer.
+
+When the guests came down into Aunty Stevens's sitting-room where the
+open fire was dancing--for the evening was a trifle chilly--Bobby's
+grandfather put a few questions to Mrs. Stevens.
+
+"When the children are thievish and given to bad language and lying,
+what do you do?" he asked.
+
+"In some way they seem to shed those things, as a worm does its cocoon,
+after they are here for a while," she answered. "In the light of loving
+care, the sunny child nature comes out--it cannot help it, any more than
+a rose can help blooming in the sun; and, with the other children who
+have been here from the first to regulate things, we do not have much
+trouble. They are too young to stay vicious, and when they go away they
+are well enough grounded in good habits not to forget them, we hope, and
+to go on helping others."
+
+"Do you have to refuse many applicants?"
+
+"Yes, that is one trouble. We ought to be able to take at least fifty
+children, and we need an infirmary; but those things will come in time."
+
+Bobby's grandfather opened his mouth to speak, just as Bobby himself
+climbed into his lap with a question trembling on his lips.
+
+"Well, sir?" inquired his grandfather.
+
+"May I have some of the money you're going to leave me, to give now,
+just as Ethelwyn and Beth did?" asked Bobby.
+
+"How do you know I'm going to leave you any, you young freebooter?"
+
+"Well, I s'posed you would; most people would think so, 'cause I'm named
+for you, and you always said you liked me," remarked Bobby, somewhat
+embarrassed.
+
+His grandfather patted him comfortingly on the back.
+
+"Yes, Bobby, I do like you, and all the better for your request. We'll
+build the infirmary, and maybe more. I am open to conviction no more,"
+he added, looking towards Mrs. Rayburn, "for I _am_ convicted and I hope
+converted."
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENTS
+
+
+
+
+MOLLY BROWN SERIES
+College Life Stories for Girls
+
+By NELL SPEED.
+
+Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 60c. per vol., postpaid
+
+MOLLY BROWN'S FRESHMAN DAYS.
+
+Would you like to admit to your circle of friends the most charming of
+college girls--the typical college girl for whom we are always looking
+but not always finding; the type that contains so many delightful
+characteristics, yet without unpleasant perfection in any; the natural,
+unaffected, sweet-tempered girl, loved because she is lovable? Then seek
+an introduction to Molly Brown. You will find the baggage-master, the
+cook, the Professor of English Literature, and the College President in
+the same company.
+
+MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS.
+
+What is more delightful than a re-union of college girls after the
+summer vacation? Certainly nothing that precedes it in their
+experience--at least, if all class-mates are as happy together as the
+Wellington girls of this story. Among Molly's interesting friends of the
+second year is a young Japanese girl, who ingratiates her "humbly" self
+into everybody's affections speedily and permanently.
+
+MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS.
+
+Financial stumbling blocks are not the only things that hinder the ease
+and increase the strength of college girls. Their troubles and their
+triumphs are their own, often peculiar to their environment. How
+Wellington students meet the experiences outside the class-rooms is
+worth the doing, the telling and the reading.
+
+Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.
+
+HURST & COMPANY   Publishers   NEW YORK
+
+
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+
+MOTOR MAIDS SERIES
+Wholesome Stories of Adventure
+
+By KATHERINE STOKES.
+
+Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid
+
+THE MOTOR MAIDS' SCHOOL DAYS.
+
+Billie Campbell was just the type of a straightforward, athletic girl to
+be successful as a practical Motor Maid. She took her car, as she did
+her class-mates, to her heart, and many a grand good time did they have
+all together. The road over which she ran her red machine had many an
+unexpected turning,--now it led her into peculiar danger; now into
+contact with strange travelers; and again into experiences by fire and
+water. But, best of all, "The Comet" never failed its brave girl owner.
+
+THE MOTOR MAIDS BY PALM AND PINE.
+
+Wherever the Motor Maids went there were lively times, for these were
+companionable girls who looked upon the world as a vastly interesting
+place full of unique adventures--and so, of course, they found them.
+
+THE MOTOR MAIDS ACROSS THE CONTINENT.
+
+It is always interesting to travel, and it is wonderfully entertaining
+to see old scenes through fresh eyes. It is that privilege, therefore,
+that makes it worth while to join the Motor Maids in their first
+'cross-country run.
+
+THE MOTOR MAIDS BY ROSE, SHAMROCK AND HEATHER.
+
+South and West had the Motor Maids motored, nor could their education by
+travel have been more wisely begun. But now a speaking acquaintance with
+their own country enriched their anticipation of an introduction to the
+British Isles. How they made their polite American bow and how they were
+received on the other side is a tale of interest and inspiration.
+
+Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.
+
+HURST & COMPANY   Publishers   NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+GIRL AVIATORS SERIES
+Clean Aviation Stories
+
+By MARGARET BURNHAM.
+
+Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid
+
+THE GIRL AVIATORS AND THE PHANTOM AIRSHIP.
+
+Roy Prescott was fortunate in having a sister so clever and devoted to
+him and his interests that they could share work and play with mutual
+pleasure and to mutual advantage. This proved especially true in
+relation to the manufacture and manipulation of their aeroplane, and
+Peggy won well deserved fame for her skill and good sense as an aviator.
+There were many stumbling-blocks in their terrestrial path, but they
+soared above them all to ultimate success.
+
+THE GIRL AVIATORS ON GOLDEN WINGS.
+
+That there is a peculiar fascination about aviation that wins and holds
+girl enthusiasts as well as boys is proved by this tale. On golden wings
+the girl aviators rose for many an exciting flight, and met strange and
+unexpected experiences.
+
+THE GIRL AVIATORS' SKY CRUISE.
+
+To most girls a coaching or yachting trip is an adventure. How much more
+perilous an adventure a "sky cruise" might be is suggested by the title
+and proved by the story itself.
+
+THE GIRL AVIATORS' MOTOR BUTTERFLY.
+
+The delicacy of flight suggested by the word "butterfly," the mechanical
+power implied by "motor," the ability to control assured in the title
+"aviator," all combined with the personality and enthusiasm of girls
+themselves, make this story one for any girl or other reader "to go
+crazy over."
+
+Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.
+
+HURST & COMPANY   Publishers   NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+DREADNOUGHT BOYS SERIES
+Tales of the New Navy
+
+By CAPT. WILBUR LAWTON
+Author of "BOY AVIATORS SERIES."
+
+Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid
+
+THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS ON BATTLE PRACTICE.
+
+Especially Interesting and timely is this book which introduces the
+reader with its heroes, Ned and Herc, to the great ships of modern
+warfare and to the intimate life and surprising adventures of Uncle
+Sam's sailors.
+
+THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS ABOARD A DESTROYER.
+
+In this story real dangers threaten and the boys' patriotism is tested
+in a peculiar international tangle. The scene is laid on the South
+American coast.
+
+THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS ON A SUBMARINE.
+
+To the inventive genius--trade-school boy or mechanic--this story has
+special charm, perhaps, but to every reader its mystery and clever
+action are fascinating.
+
+THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS ON AERO SERVICE.
+
+Among the volunteers accepted for Aero Service are Ned and Herc. Their
+perilous adventures are not confined to the air, however, although they
+make daring and notable flights in the name of the Government; nor are
+they always able to fly beyond the reach of their old "enemies," who are
+also airmen.
+
+Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.
+
+HURST & COMPANY   Publisher   NEW YORK
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+
+
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+MOTOR RANGERS SERIES
+HIGH SPEED MOTOR STORIES
+
+By MARVIN WEST.
+
+Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid
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+THE MOTOR RANGERS' LOST MINE.
+
+This is an absorbing story of the continuous adventures of a motor car
+in the hands of Nat Trevor and his friends. It does seemingly impossible
+"stunts," and yet everything happens "in the nick of time."
+
+THE MOTOR RANGERS THROUGH THE SIERRAS.
+
+Enemies in ambush, the peril of fire, and the guarding of treasure make
+exciting times for the Motor Rangers--yet there is a strong flavor of
+fun and freedom, with a typical Western mountaineer for spice.
+
+THE MOTOR RANGERS ON BLUE WATER; or,
+The Secret of the Derelict.
+
+The strange adventures of the sturdy craft "Nomad" and the stranger
+experiences of the Rangers themselves with Morello's schooner and a
+mysterious derelict form the basic of this well-spun yarn of the sea.
+
+THE MOTOR RANGERS' CLOUD CRUISER.
+
+From the "Nomad" to the "Discoverer," from the sea to the sky, the scene
+changes in which the Motor Rangers figure. They have experiences "that
+never were on land or sea," in heat and cold and storm, over mountain
+peak and lost city, with savages and reptiles; their ship of the air is
+attacked by huge birds of the air; they survive explosion and
+earthquake; they even live to tell the tale!
+
+Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.
+
+HURST & COMPANY   Publishers   NEW YORK
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+BUNGALOW BOYS SERIES
+LIVE STORIES OF OUTDOOR LIFE
+
+By DEXTER J. FORRESTER.
+
+Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid
+
+
+
+THE BUNGALOW BOYS.
+
+How the Bungalow Boys received their title and how they retained the
+right to it in spite of much opposition makes a lively narrative for
+lively boys.
+
+THE BUNGALOW BOYS MAROONED IN THE TROPICS.
+
+A real treasure hunt of the most thrilling kind, with a sunken Spanish
+galleon as its object, makes a subject of intense interest at any time,
+but add to that a band of desperate men, a dark plot and a devil fish,
+and you have the combination that brings strange adventures into the
+lives of the Bungalow Boys.
+
+THE BUNGALOW BOYS IN THE GREAT NORTH WEST.
+
+The clever assistance of a young detective saves the boys from the
+clutches of Chinese smugglers, of whose nefarious trade they know too
+much. How the Professor's invention relieves a critical situation is
+also an exciting incident of this book.
+
+THE BUNGALOW BOYS ON THE GREAT LAKES.
+
+The Bungalow Boys start out for a quiet cruise on the Great Lakes and a
+visit to an island. A storm and a band of wreckers interfere with the
+serenity of their trip, and a submarine adds zest and adventure to it.
+
+Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.
+
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+
+
+
+Works of J.T. Trowbridge
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+girls. Enthusiasm abounds on every page and interest never grows old. A
+few of the best titles are given:
+
+COUPON BONDS.
+CUDJO'S CAVE.
+THE DRUMMER BOY.
+MARTIN MERRYVALE, HIS X MARK.
+FATHER BRIGHT HOPES.
+LUCY ARLYN.
+NEIGHBOR JACKWOOD.
+THE THREE SCOUTS.
+
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+BOOKS BY
+Charles Carleton Coffin
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