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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15541-h.zip b/15541-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e1dd97 --- /dev/null +++ b/15541-h.zip diff --git a/15541-h/15541-h.htm b/15541-h/15541-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c09bd4e --- /dev/null +++ b/15541-h/15541-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4739 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of What Two Children Did, by Charlotte E. Chittenden. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" +alt="Cover" title="" /> +</div> + + +<h1>WHAT TWO CHILDREN DID</h1> + +<h2>BY CHARLOTTE E. CHITTENDEN</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" +alt="Frontispiece" title="" /> +</div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +HURST & COMPANY<br /> +PUBLISHERS</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center">Copyright, 1903,<br /> +BY GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO.<br /> +<i>Published, September, 1903</i> +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><i>[E-book Transcriber's Note: Obvious typos have been corrected and +missing punctuation provided.]</i></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I_On_the_Way">CHAPTER I</a></td><td align='left'>On the Way</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II_At_the_Shore">CHAPTER II</a></td><td align='left'>At the Shore</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III_Beth_and_Her_Dolls">CHAPTER III</a></td><td align='left'>Beth and Her Dolls</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV_The_Wedding">CHAPTER IV</a></td><td align='left'>The Wedding</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td><td align='left'>The New Way</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI_A_Plan">CHAPTER VI</a></td><td align='left'>A Plan</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII_The_Secret">CHAPTER VII</a></td><td align='left'>The Secret</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII_The_Reward">CHAPTER VIII</a></td><td align='left'>The Reward</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX_Once_a_Year">CHAPTER IX</a></td><td align='left'>Once a Year</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_X_Beths_Birthday">CHAPTER X</a></td><td align='left'>Beth's Birthday</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI_The_Day_After">CHAPTER XI</a></td><td align='left'>The Day After</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII_Sunday">CHAPTER XII</a></td><td align='left'>Sunday</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII_The_Four_Together">CHAPTER XIII</a></td><td align='left'>The Four Together</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV_The_Wedding_and_the_Visit">CHAPTER XIV</a></td><td align='left'>The Wedding and the Visit</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV_The_Lost_Invitation">CHAPTER XV</a></td><td align='left'>The Lost Invitation</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI_The_Mail_and_Ethelwyns_Visit">CHAPTER XVI</a></td><td align='left'>The Mail and Ethelwyn's Visit</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII_Out_at_Grandmothers">CHAPTER XVII</a></td><td align='left'>Out at Grandmother's</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII_How_They_Bought_a_Baby">CHAPTER XVIII</a></td><td align='left'>How They Bought a Baby</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX_Bobbys_Grandfather">CHAPTER XIX</a></td><td align='left'>Bobby's Grandfather</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX_The_Visit_to_the_Home">CHAPTER XX</a></td><td align='left'>The Visit to the Home</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td></tr> +</table></div> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>What Two Children Did</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/006.png" +alt="CHAPTER I On the Way" title="CHAPTER I On the Way" /> +</div> + +<p><a name="CHAPTER_I_On_the_Way" id="CHAPTER_I_On_the_Way"></a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>In the train we're watching<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Outdoors speeding by:<br /></span> +<span>Endless moving pictures,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Framed by earth and sky.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Do you think God made a mistake when He sent us here?" asked Beth.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayburn came back presently to a realizing consciousness of the two +anxious faces opposite hers, and with a smile dismissed the sentinel +lines.</p> + +<p>"God never makes mistakes," said she, with refreshing faith and +emphasis. "It is we who do that."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Serpent, child," said Ethelwyn crushingly, beginning on cake.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why did you ask that question?" asked their mother.</p> + +<p>"We thought you looked as though we'd made you an awful lot of trouble," +said Ethelwyn, regarding the gorgeous ceiling of the car.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you did, although I was not thinking of it just then; you ran +away—"</p> + +<p>"Walked, mother," corrected Beth, "to the 'lectric car, with +grandmother's gold dollar, to go down to buy a trunk specially for our +dolls—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Your mistake was in not asking—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Their mother laughed now in a bright fashion they loved, and squeezed +them up tightly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Can you tell us 'bout things, mother?" asked Ethelwyn. "P'raps we could +help some."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am going to, but not now, for the porter wishes to make up our +beds."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"That I don't just know," said her mother, "but it's a good sign when we +know they are mistakes."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/018.png" +alt="CHAPTER II At the Shore" title="CHAPTER II At the Shore" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II_At_the_Shore" id="CHAPTER_II_At_the_Shore"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Underneath the washing waves<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The requiem of the sea,<br /></span> +<span>For those whose hopes are buried there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is tolling ceaselessly.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's another door to Paradise," said Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"We've lost a lot of time, I'm afraid," said Ethelwyn after they had +given her a bear hug and a kiss.</p> + +<p>"That ocean is the prettiest thing, mother. P'raps that's the way to +Paradise where father and grandfather and brother have gone."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said their mother, helping them into their clothes. "It is one of +the ways."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Hoty potys is the twissedest things," she remarked, worse tangled than +ever.</p> + +<p>"Hose supporters, dear child," corrected Ethelwyn with the exasperating +air that always roused Beth's wrath.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Christ's people?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, like them in trade, at least. They are poor and need help—"</p> + +<p>"Are we rich people now, and can we buy things for them?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Is the money more than grandmother's gold dollar?" asked Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"Much more."</p> + +<p>"O, then we'll have fun spending it for folks; I'd like to. But, oh, +I'm hungrier than I ever was before."</p> + +<p>"Me, too," said Beth. "I feel a great big appeltite inside me."</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O, mother, can this pretty sea do that? What was it they were saying +about a tide?"</p> + +<p>Their mother tried to explain all she knew about the tides, and when she +had finished, Ethelwyn said:</p> + +<p>"I think it would be easier to remember to call it tied, and then +untied."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/026.png" +alt="CHAPTER III Beth and Her Dolls" title="CHAPTER III Beth and Her Dolls" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III_Beth_and_Her_Dolls" id="CHAPTER_III_Beth_and_Her_Dolls"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Dollie's poor mother is quite full of care,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As she who lived in a shoe,<br /></span> +<span>For this child is tousled, this one undressed—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mother has all she can do.<br /></span> +<span>More dollies there are, than possible clothes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Some of them must go to bed.<br /></span> +<span>And some to be healed by mother with glue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lacking an arm or a head.<br /></span> +<span>Then others, wearing the invalid's clothes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Care not a fling or a jot<br /></span> +<span>Nor know that to-morrow their own fate may be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bed, or the mucilage pot.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The first Sunday that the children were at the seashore was warm and +beautiful.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Does that mean eat?" said Elizabeth, a scene in one of her picture +books of lions devouring their prey coming into her mind.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"They don't need it; they're not born in sin—"</p> + +<p>"Everything is," emphatically. "Don't try to teach a minister's child +things, for pity's sake. I'll do the baptizing. Come along."</p> + +<p>The rainwater barrel, half sunken in the ground, was at one of the rear +corners of the house.</p> + +<p>"We are not allowed to play in that, I think," said Elizabeth uneasily.</p> + +<p>"That doesn't mean me, I'm older'n you. Here, give me the doll without a +wig."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'm perfectly degusted with this whole preformance," she said as she +went stalking off, dripping as she went.</p> + +<p>Then the young man laughed and laughed, until he became aware of +Elizabeth wistfully staring at him.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"My dolls. They're baptized clear to the bottom; please get 'em out."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"From Paradise?" queried Beth, getting up at once and bristling all over +with questions she wanted to ask him about that interesting place.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"But I'm anxious to see a sweetheart that has been in Paradise, mother," +she explained.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/036.png" +alt="CHAPTER IV The Wedding" title="CHAPTER IV The Wedding" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV_The_Wedding" id="CHAPTER_IV_The_Wedding"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Bells ring,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Birds sing,<br /></span> +<span>Every one is gay;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hearts beat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Chimes sweet,<br /></span> +<span>On a bridal day.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>It was one of the things for the children to remember always, that Miss +Dorothy was married while they were there to help.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The morning on which the wedding was to take place dawned as bright and +golden as could be desired.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"My father," returned Nan loftily, "is not given to making mistakes of +that kind. There weren't husbands enough to go 'round anyway."</p> + +<p>"What is a husband?"</p> + +<p>"You've been helping make one, child, and you ask that!"</p> + +<p>So Elizabeth concluded it was a small portion of the refreshments that +had escaped her notice.</p> + +<p>Afterwards they went down to the harbor from which the bride and groom +were to sail.</p> + +<p>"Like the owl and the pussy cat," said Ethelwyn, cheerfully.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You can look at us when you get lonesome," suggested Beth.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>'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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you glad you have us, and specially mother?" asked Beth, kissing +her.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Let's sing awhile, sister, while mother thinks of a story or two," +suggested Beth.</p> + +<p>So they squatted in front of the grate and sang,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Chick-a-dee-dee, chick-a-dee-dee,<br /></span> +<span>I am so glad that Jesus loves me."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then they sang what they called "Precious Julias,"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Little children who love Mary Deemer."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Why," Beth stopped to ask, "does it say Precious Julias when it's 'bout +Mary Deemer, sister?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I'm as good as you are, anyway," began Beth wrathfully, when she saw +Nan in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Nan breathed a contented breath. "O, it's gone now. It's a sharp, +pointed thing that sticks me when I'm lonesome."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I know a verse that father says he thinks ought to be in the Bible," +said Nan.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>They all followed her, and sure enough there was the gold of the sky +shining through the misty rain clouds.</p> + +<p>"Now, if God and the angels would just peek out a minute, I'd be +thankful," said Elizabeth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/046.png" +alt="CHAPTER V The New Way" title="CHAPTER V The New Way" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a></h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">It's—hard—to—work—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And easy to play;<br /></span> +<span>I'll tell you what we've done,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We play our work<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And work our play,<br /></span> +<span>And all the hard is gone.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the midst of Ethelwyn's recitation of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," she +paused to say, after, "The eager children cry,"</p> + +<p>"What do you s'pose the silly things cried for?"</p> + +<p>"'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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I've a poem, too," said Ethelwyn, taking her place in the audience, and +Elizabeth began:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"The saints be praised," said Mrs. Flaharty, fanning herself with her +apron.</p> + +<p>Then Ethelwyn came forward. "This is my poem," she said, bowing to the +audience.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"A little girl lived way down East,<br /></span> +<span>She rose and rose, like bread with yeast,<br /></span> +<span>She rose above the tallest people,<br /></span> +<span>And far above the highest steeple.<br /></span> +<span>She kept right on till by and by<br /></span> +<span>She took a peek into the sky—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Oh, what did she see?" asked Elizabeth, interested at once.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"My sister is smart," complacently remarked Elizabeth to Nan, who had +just come over.</p> + +<p>"So am I, then," said Nan, not to be outdone. "I can make up beautiful +poems."</p> + +<p>"Let's hear one."</p> + +<p>So Nan came forward, bowed profoundly and began:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"I have a little kitty,<br /></span> +<span>Who is so very pretty,<br /></span> +<span>Tho' growing large and fat,<br /></span> +<span>I fear she'll be a cat.<br /></span> +<span>One day, my sakes, she saw a dog,<br /></span> +<span>Her tail swelled up just like a log;<br /></span> +<span>He barked, she spit,<br /></span> +<span>She does not love dogs, not a bit."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"What color is she?" asked Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"That is left for your guessing part," said Nan promptly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Flaharty now reluctantly arose.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/054.png" +alt="CHAPTER VI A Plan" title="CHAPTER VI A Plan" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI_A_Plan" id="CHAPTER_VI_A_Plan"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">It's nice to get gifts,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But better to give:<br /></span> +<span>For giving leaves always a glow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That warms up a part<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In every heart;<br /></span> +<span>The joy of it never can go.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"There's our money," said Ethelwyn, cuddling her hand in her mother's. +"Let's make one with it."</p> + +<p>"Would you like that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed we should," they answered in a breath.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But," said Elizabeth, climbing up into her mother's lap, "isn't doing +things for poor children like Dick, better than that?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, we don't mind then, do we, sister?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"O, mother," they cried, turning around to hug her.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>Down went the heads again, and dead silence reigned except for the +crackling of the fire and the clicking of Aunty Stevens' needles.</p> + +<p>"May we go away and think it over?" said Ethelwyn soberly.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>So Beth kissed them all with fervor, her mind quite made up.</p> + +<p>While they were away, Aunty Stevens said, "Isn't that a pretty hard +test?"</p> + +<p>The children's mother shook her head thoughtfully at the dancing fire.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"No doubt at all about it," said the older woman, nodding emphatically +over her flying needles.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you are quite right, but what are you among so many?" asked Aunty +Stevens, smiling across at her friend.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mrs. Rayburn, laughing, "I hope you don't think the cases +are parallel."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Ethelwyn came a moment later.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>But Ethelwyn's voice was hoarse, and the next morning she was not well +enough to go to town.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/068.png" +alt="CHAPTER VII The Secret" title="CHAPTER VII The Secret" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII_The_Secret" id="CHAPTER_VII_The_Secret"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Such fun to have a secret!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To tell one too is fun.<br /></span> +<span>But then there is no secret<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That's known to more than one.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, deary, but I'm feeling pretty well to-day, so we will work +together. Let me tie this apron around you."</p> + +<p>Then Aunty Stevens brought out the dearest little moulding-board and +rolling-pin, and drew out of a corner a small table.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Here's your dough, dear. Now roll it out to fit this little plate."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now what comes?" said the little cook, lifting a red and floury face.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O isn't it sweet?" said Ethelwyn. "Nobody can cook like you, Aunty +Stevens. Nobody. I think it's a great—great appomplishment."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Ethelwyn," said Mrs. Stevens with a gasp. "I suppose it's no +harder than to resurrect them from anywhere else."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Aunty Stevens and she then went out on the porch that faced the sea.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O Aunty Stevens," said Ethelwyn, getting up close to hug and kiss her.</p> + +<p>"I can give the cottage, and I can manage it, and your money can fit it +up, and hire teachers."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Ethelwyn, wildly excited. "You can teach them to make +pies like mine—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, they can be taught to do all sorts of things about a house—"</p> + +<p>"And Dick?"</p> + +<p>"He shall be the first one."</p> + +<p>"And his 'dopted aunt?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. She can help in many ways."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I see Nan coming. Suppose 'Vada should take you two down to have your +luncheon on the beach."</p> + +<p>"The pie, too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and other things, if your throat is better, so you can go."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well Ethelwyn," said Aunty Stevens, meeting her, "how was the picnic?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>When the train stopped, and Elizabeth appeared, Ethelwyn and she rushed +at each other, and both began to talk at once.</p> + +<p>"I've a secret that will make your eyes stick out—then I made a pie—"</p> + +<p>"I saw the doctor that makes bone people. There was one for a sign at +the pittalhos where we were—"</p> + +<p>"Hospital, child."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Wait till you know the secret. I saved you a piece of pie—Nan wanted +it—"</p> + +<p>"I rode up in an alligator—"</p> + +<p>"Elevator."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And so they chattered on until they reached home.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/080.png" +alt="CHAPTER VIII The Reward" title="CHAPTER VIII The Reward" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII_The_Reward" id="CHAPTER_VIII_The_Reward"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>To help the sorry, hungry poor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or ease a burdened one,<br /></span> +<span>Begins to bring the answer, when<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We pray "Thy Kingdom come."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the Rayburn sitting-room one evening, the children were looking over +a portfolio of photographs.</p> + +<p>Aunty Stevens as usual was knitting, and laughing with them over the +pictures.</p> + +<p>Ethelwyn was showing them, for she had seen them before.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"He is sort of kind-looking," said Beth, who always liked to say +something nice about every one.</p> + +<p>"He is better than pretty," said Ethelwyn. "He's a very good musician. +He can play the piano."</p> + +<p>"Where does he live?"</p> + +<p>"Paradise, I think. Mebbe not, though."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry for his folks."</p> + +<p>"This is Handel."</p> + +<p>"What of?" and Nan got up to look.</p> + +<p>"Not a dipper-handle, but a man of that name. He could play too."</p> + +<p>"He looks kind of like a woman—look at his hair."</p> + +<p>"That is his wig."</p> + +<p>"Was he a bawheady?" and Beth got up to look more closely at the man who +was afflicted like her beloved doll.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose he must have been. But it doesn't show like your doll's," said +Nan.</p> + +<p>"This is a bust of Diana."</p> + +<p>"Where is she busted?"</p> + +<p>"All but her head and shoulders."</p> + +<p>"Who did it?"</p> + +<p>"A man I guess. This is the 'Kiss of Judas.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't Judas mean-looking?"</p> + +<p>"Looks like a bug thief." This from Beth.</p> + +<p>"Burglar, child," said Nan.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Elizabeth Rayburn!" said Ethelwyn, dropping the photographs and coming +over to her mother, followed by Nan. "Our mother isn't old at all!"</p> + +<p>"No I know she isn't, only she must be toler'bly old, to know so much +goodness."</p> + +<p>"I'm just old enough to love you," said their mother, laughing and +hugging them all three at once in a way she had.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Goodness me! I shall never sit in it, if it's feeble, Nan," said Aunty +Stevens, laughing.</p> + +<p>"No, <i>for</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Ethelwyn!"</p> + +<p>"Why it is, mother."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell father, but he is likely to go on a long time when he is once +started," said Nan.</p> + +<p>"If I don't go to sleep, I'll be sure to wiggle," said Beth.</p> + +<p>But they all went to sleep.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think you will then?" asked Beth.</p> + +<p>But Nan's mother stopped further disclosures by turning her daughter +around, and setting her down with emphasis on the other side of her.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/090.png" +alt="CHAPTER IX Once a Year" title="CHAPTER IX Once a Year" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX_Once_a_Year" id="CHAPTER_IX_Once_a_Year"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Birth days,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Earth days,<br /></span> +<span>Seem very few;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Year days,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dear days,<br /></span> +<span>When life is new.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>By constant and hard work, the house was ready for occupancy on +Ethelwyn's birthday.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You have chosen the very best way to do so," said Mrs. Rayburn.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The morning train brought a bevy of pale-faced, joyless-looking waifs.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Dick was general, for he was not yet strong enough to run, so he sat in +his wheel-chair, and directed the others.</p> + +<p>"We made him general, for generals never have anything to do but boss +others; they are never killed or anything," explained Nan.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There was a whole family of quaint dolls for Elizabeth, labeled by +Dorothy's husband, "Heathen dolls: never baptized."</p> + +<p>"Nor never will be, by Nan," said Elizabeth, fondly hugging them to her, +and fixing guilty Nan with a steadfast glance.</p> + +<p>There was the cunningest watch for Ethelwyn about the size of a quarter +of a dollar.</p> + +<p>"It's a live one, though," said its owner proudly, shaking it and +holding it up to her ear.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At last they were in the sitting-room again.</p> + +<p>The adopted children clean and dressed in white gowns were asleep in +their dainty iron beds, and dreaming of happiness past, and to come.</p> + +<p>Nan, her father, and mother, and Mrs. Stevens came in for a last word.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"School and business call us to town, Nan, but we shall come every +summer, and spend Christmas here, too, I hope."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Then they were all quiet for a little while, until Mrs. Rayburn went to +the piano, and touching the keys, sang softly:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"And does thy day seem dark,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All turned to rain?<br /></span> +<span>Seek thou one out whose life<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is filled with pain.<br /></span> +<span>Put out a hand to help<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This greater need,<br /></span> +<span>And lo! within thy life<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sun will shine indeed."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/098.png" +alt="CHAPTER X Beth's Birthday" title="CHAPTER X Beth's Birthday" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X_Beths_Birthday" id="CHAPTER_X_Beths_Birthday"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>The space between our birthdays seems to grow apace,<br /></span> +<span>When we're young they loiter; when we're old they race.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>That was one reason.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Uh huh," said Beth.</p> + +<p>They were not up yet, and the door leading into their mother's room was +open.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Wake up, children: the day is new.<br /></span> +<span>It's full of joy for dears like you."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What's them?" asked Beth, still with her eyes shut.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"I can make my own," said Beth, fully awake now, "and I can help make +yours when it comes to that, I guess."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>No wonder the oatmeal and the muffins lost their flavor!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I feel thankful that we are a large family of relatives," said Beth, +after a long and speechless period of rapture.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"O I wanted to go too," wailed Katie.</p> + +<p>"You were asleep, dear, when I went, but I told them the nuts were from +you, too."</p> + +<p>"But I wanted to hear them say, 'thank you!' Take me now."</p> + +<p>"I have to go down town for auntie. But she'll let you go."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," said their busy aunt when asked.</p> + +<p>So Katie went up-stairs to make herself tidy.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It's just the thing," thought Katie, "and kind of partly mine because +it's in our room."</p> + +<p>So she took it with her when she went, and it burned her little hand +like fire.</p> + +<p>Ethelwyn and Beth were preparing a tea party in the doll house.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I can't stay," said Katie feebly, "I feel kind of sick inside."</p> + +<p>So saying she rushed home, but it was no use; poor Katie's conscience +grew worse all the time, and presently she came back.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>But Ethelwyn and Beth put their arms around her, and comforted her dear +little sore heart.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/110.png" +alt="CHAPTER XI The Day After" title="CHAPTER XI The Day After" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI_The_Day_After" id="CHAPTER_XI_The_Day_After"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>In the lovely playtime, life seems always gay.<br /></span> +<span>In the sober worktime, sometimes it grows gray.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>You can't do this unless you are a mother, but mothers can do almost +everything at once.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"When our mother rests, she darns stockings," said Beth, who was +dressing her doll near by.</p> + +<p>"Not on Sunday, child!" said Ethelwyn scandalized.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Then mother went back to her jam.</p> + +<p>Beth snickered at intervals, however, though Ethelwyn sternly bade her +be quiet.</p> + +<p>"You were so yellow and funny, sister," said Beth, giggling.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hullo," said Bobby at once.</p> + +<p>"Come in and see our birthday presents," said Ethelwyn, and Bobby at +once trotted up the walk.</p> + +<p>He was a round-faced little chap, with small freckles on his button of a +nose.</p> + +<p>His family had just moved into town from a farm.</p> + +<p>"Where have you been, Bobby?" asked Ethelwyn as they went towards the +house.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Sister—" began Beth, giggling, "went to the grocery—"</p> + +<p>"Let's play in the house," said Ethelwyn frowning at Beth. "You can stay +awhile, can't you, Bobby?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>They were playing games in the nursery, when mother came up-stairs, +having finished the jam, ordered the groceries, and paid Mrs. O'Neal.</p> + +<p>She was going to combine resting and mending, as usual, so she came to +the nursery, just as they were beginning a temperance lecture.</p> + +<p>Bobby was selling tickets, and mother cheerfully paid a penny, and sat +in her low rocker near the window.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And to them all, Nan now came forward and made a profound bow.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>So they put on nightgowns for surplices.</p> + +<p>"What can I do?" said Beth, who was tired of always being an audience.</p> + +<p>"Take up the collection," said Ethelwyn, "we need some more pennies."</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>"'I will be boss,' said Moses.</p> + +<p>"'Not much,' said Abiram, standing on his tippest toes.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/120.png" +alt="CHAPTER XII Sunday" title="CHAPTER XII Sunday" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII_Sunday" id="CHAPTER_XII_Sunday"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>No matter how bad we are through the week,<br /></span> +<span>When Sunday comes 'round we grow very meek.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"We'll get a sunshine bath," said Beth, trying to catch the golden +drops.</p> + +<p>"Inside and outside," said mother smiling.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said her mother laughing. "Come on now, do you know your +verse?"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I've brought my white mouse in my pocket; I'm going to stay for church, +and I get lonesome," he whispered.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn't keep her—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Next!" said the teacher with a face red, and then she coughed.</p> + +<p>The next was Bobby, who cheerfully took up the refrain, where Beth left +off.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"—Put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>he concluded promptly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Bobby ran after it in hot pursuit.</p> + +<p>Beth followed loyally, for she had seen where it went.</p> + +<p>They caught the trembling little creature at the door, and then they +looked at each other.</p> + +<p>"Let's go home," said Bobby.</p> + +<p>"Uh huh, let's," said Beth.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>So they went home and played church in the front yard, until Ethelwyn +and Nan came home just before the sermon.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</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."</p> + +<p>"O, let's have it now," said Nan, who didn't like sermons unless she +preached them.</p> + +<p>"No, here's mother and we'll have to have dinner now, so we will have +the funeral to-morrow," said Ethelwyn.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/130.png" +alt="CHAPTER XIII The Four Together" title="CHAPTER XIII The Four Together" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII_The_Four_Together" id="CHAPTER_XIII_The_Four_Together"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Begins with a funeral and ends with a feast.<br /></span> +<span>Sorrow is drowned for this time at least.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>It fell out that there were <i>two</i> doll funerals the next day.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>Ethelwyn never at a loss for an answer, said promptly, "Dust, child"</p> + +<p>"I haven't any," said Beth, feeling her short brown curls cautiously for +fear they would come off.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Beth was exceedingly sorry, and wept a few real tears over Ariminta.</p> + +<p>"I'm a double widow, and a orphing to-day," she said, "and I don't +reserve a single child to my name!"</p> + +<p>Nan and Bobby came to the funeral, and Bobby chose to be undertaker, +while Nan insisted on preaching the sermon.</p> + +<p>"You preached yesterday," she said to Ethelwyn, who also wished to.</p> + +<p>"And you did the day before—"</p> + +<p>"I think I ought to," said Beth, "because it's my fam'ly."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Beth attired in Aunt Mandy's large black shawl was very warm and +mournful.</p> + +<p>The family, especially Billy Boy's widow, were wrapped in black calico +swaddling garments, and looked more stiff than ever, but still smiling.</p> + +<p>The remains were in cigar boxes, all but Billy's wig and eyes which Beth +had thoughtfully saved for another doll.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry I have to preach this sad sermon," said Nan.</p> + +<p>"Might have let me, then," said a voice from the congregation.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>this</i>.</p> + +<p>"Let's hurry up, I'm hot," said the chief mourner.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Bobby and Nan were invited to stay to lunch, and they accepted with +cheerful alacrity.</p> + +<p>"I asked mother, for fear you'd ask me if I could stay, and she said yes +indeed I <i>could</i>, and she'd be glad to have me," said Nan. Bobby yelled +his request over the fence, and was told he could stay too.</p> + +<p>They had strawberry jam, hot biscuit, fried chicken, and little frosted +spice cakes, for which Mandy was famous.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You've eaten four. I'm glad Mandy made a good many," said Beth calmly.</p> + +<p>"Why Beth!" said her mother horrified.</p> + +<p>"Yessum, she has," continued Beth. "I've passed them four times, and she +took one every time. I've had five!" she concluded.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"DEAR E. AND B.," it began.</p> + +<p> "This is a silly city.</p> + +<p> "They talk like babies. No one can understand them. I'd like them + better if they'd talk plain American.</p> + +<p> "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.</p> + +<p> "Write and tell me all the news. No more now from</p> + +<p> "Your cousin,</p> + +<p> "GLADYS."</p></blockquote> + +<p>"O, it's thundering!" said Bobby when the letter was finished.</p> + +<p>Beth at once climbed into her mother's lap, as if for protection.</p> + +<p>"Are you afraid of a shower, Beth?" asked Nan.</p> + +<p>"No,—not—a shower," said Beth, "only I don't like it when it goes over +such a bump!"</p> + +<p>Mother kissed her and sent the others up-stairs to get ready for a show.</p> + +<p>"Get up a good one and I'll pay five cents admission," she said.</p> + +<p>"Oh I'll go too," said Beth, "p'raps when I am busy I won't notice the +noise."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Presently the door opened, and in walked Ethelwyn draped in a green +denim closet door curtain, and bobbing up and down at every step.</p> + +<p>"What is this?" said mother.</p> + +<p>"You have to guess, it's a guessing show."</p> + +<p>Then came Beth in her Japanese costume, fanning vigorously.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Last of all was Bobby, very hot and sweaty, in a moth-ball smelling fur +rug, and ringing a bell.</p> + +<p>"It looks like the four seasons," said mother.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I will pay it for guessing," said mother, laughing.</p> + +<p>"I'm spring, all dressed in green, and I spring when I walk," said +Ethelwyn beginning again.</p> + +<p>"I'm summer," said Beth fanning.</p> + +<p>"And I'm fall," said Nan, tumbling down, "that hurts the worst," she +added with pride.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I'm Fourth of July," said Beth.</p> + +<p>"And I'm Thanksgiving and turkey—"</p> + +<p>"There isn't a thing but April fool in spring, I do believe," said +Ethelwyn, disgusted.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/142.png" +alt="CHAPTER XIV The Wedding and the Visit" title="CHAPTER XIV The Wedding and the Visit" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV_The_Wedding_and_the_Visit" id="CHAPTER_XIV_The_Wedding_and_the_Visit"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Out in the country, God's flowers bravely grow.<br /></span> +<span>And all the dusty wayside is edged with golden glow;<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They were propped up in the doll house, and Beth was marrying them.</p> + +<p>"Lord Jimmy," she said, "wilt thou marry Arabella and nobody else and +be her quilt in time of trouble—?"</p> + +<p>"A quilt!" said Ethelwyn. "What's that?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"O, for goodness sake, sister," said Beth, in an exasperated tone, "I +never knew any one that could upset things like you—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"We are going to drive out to Grandmother Van Stark's to spend the day, +and perhaps a little longer," said mother.</p> + +<p>"Oh won't that be the nicest thing!" they cried in a breath. "Who can go +on the pony?"</p> + +<p>"Ethelwyn may ride out, and Beth back," said mother.</p> + +<p>"I've always been so thankful to think you weren't born a <i>no</i> and +<i>don't</i> mother," said Ethelwyn, hugging her. "Are we going right away?"</p> + +<p>"Right away."</p> + +<p>Sure enough there was Joe leading Ninkum, their own pony. Mother and +Beth were to go in the phaeton.</p> + +<p>All the way out they played games with the trees and flowers. Ethelwyn +rode alongside the phaeton.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But they enjoyed the missing word game the most, because it was new.</p> + +<p>"It's your turn to make up a game, mother," said Beth.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"There was a man rode to the mill.<br /></span> +<span>The road ran steeply up the—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Hill," cried Beth.</p> + +<p>"Yes; now let sister guess the next."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>He stopped beside a flowing—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Rill?" asked Ethelwyn, after thinking awhile.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"This horse was dry, so drank his—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Fill."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Along there came a girl named—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Jill."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"He wished that his was Jack, not—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Will."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"For people sometimes called him—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Bill."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"This really was a bitter—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Pill."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"And made him feel both vexed and—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Ill." Mother had to tell them that, because they both guessed sick.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"He brought his gun along to—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Kill."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"A bird to give to Jill a—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Quill?" Ethelwyn guessed after a long time.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"They lingered long, they lingered—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Till," and again mother had to tell them this.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"The sun went down and all was—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Still."</p> + +<p>They had both missed one, so they each had to pay a forfeit or get up a +game.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>She welcomed them warmly, and invited them into the grand old hall with +its white staircase and mahogany rail.</p> + +<p>Modern children seemed almost out of place in this old-time house.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"O may we go up to the attic and dress up?" begged Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother, I will, but what about the children—?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Then some one came up the walk, and rapped briskly with the end of his +riding whip on the blind doors.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The red cap nodded affably.</p> + +<p>"Could you climb in through the window, s'pose?" she asked.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Beth brought grandmother's bag down to her, and grandmother produced +silk stockings that she was knitting for the same purpose.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You seem to laugh a great deal," said Beth.</p> + +<p>He at once stopped and said:</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the minister. "But she may presently miss you and be +worried."</p> + +<p>"O that's so," said Beth. "Let's hurry. I promised to take care of +grandmother," she added, in a remorseful tone.</p> + +<p>But nothing had happened, and the picture proved a great success, many +of them being sold at the fair.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It will do you good, I trust," said her mother.</p> + +<p>"It'll improve my thinkery, I hope," said Beth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/158.png" +alt="CHAPTER XV The Lost Invitation" title="CHAPTER XV The Lost Invitation" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV_The_Lost_Invitation" id="CHAPTER_XV_The_Lost_Invitation"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>A heartache when the heart is young,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seems quite too big to bear;<br /></span> +<span>But when it ends in laughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Away goes every care.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>However, these were small things, compared with the bliss of galloping +down the smooth road, bordered by flowers and green fields.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O say one, mother," said Ethelwyn, who loved verses. So Mrs. Rayburn +began:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"I know a quiet place,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where a spring comes gurgling out,<br /></span> +<span>And the shadowed leaves like lace<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fall on the ground about.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>"A tempting grapevine swing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is swung from the near-by trees,<br /></span> +<span>And life is a dreamful thing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lulled by the birds and bees.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Flowers at the great trees' feet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are sheltered quite from harm;<br /></span> +<span>For above the blossoms sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The oak holds forth his arm.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Perhaps if I lie quite still,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I may hear far down below,<br /></span> +<span>The first and joyous thrill<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of things, when they start to grow."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"I've wondered if they do get out of the seed with a little cracky pop," +said Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"What, sister?" asked Beth, coming up on Ninkum.</p> + +<p>"Flowers and things."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother, you think of one."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O, but motherdy, you are so much smarter than we are!" said Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Elder?" said Ethelwyn, after a hard think.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"One of the little girls was named Louise and the other Minerva, and +people grew to calling them by their initials, which together made—"</p> + +<p>"Elm," said Beth.</p> + +<p>"They were very good children, and people used to say what a nice—"</p> + +<p>"Pear," they both said at once.</p> + +<p>"They were. They had cheeks like a—"</p> + +<p>"Peach."</p> + +<p>"It was spring, and they were invited to a sugaring off party, and they +saw the men tap the trees to make—"</p> + +<p>"Maple sugar," cried Beth, who knew that, if she knew anything.</p> + +<p>"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 +----'"</p> + +<p>But mother had to tell them these words for they had never heard of +birch, or of yew. "'I wonder if you will be ——'"</p> + +<p>"Evergreen," said Ethelwyn, after a little prompting.</p> + +<p>"'All your life.' 'I thought,' said one, 'that maple sugar parties were +very ——'"</p> + +<p>"'Pop'lar? (mother had to tell them this also), 'at this time of year.'"</p> + +<p>"—— laughed their father."</p> + +<p>"Haw, haw," said Ethelwyn, who had been thinking of the tree under which +they played at home.</p> + +<p>"'I'll have to take you to the seashore to play on the ——'"</p> + +<p>"Beech," said Beth in triumph.</p> + +<p>"Then he lighted a cigar and knocked off the ——"</p> + +<p>"Ash," said Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"And walked down street, whistling a song from 'Mikado.' Tit ——"</p> + +<p>"Willow," they both cried at once, for they knew that song as well as +the tree.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O, 'Vada, what has happened since we went away?" said Ethelwyn, +climbing out.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"O goody! did he invite us?"</p> + +<p>"Nome, not to say invite. But he's been in to see if you all was +expected home."</p> + +<p>"O, it won't matter," said Beth easily; "we'll go anyway. Of course he +knew we would come."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This struck Beth as very silly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"O dear! I shall never, never get over this, never!" said Beth, +swallowing the lump in her throat.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't have thought Bobby could have done it," said Ethelwyn, also +swallowing.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>So mother let them have on what they liked, for she was very sorry for +them.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I hope Bobby will be sorry when he has time to think about it," she +remarked in a subdued tone.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>There was Bobby, resplendent in a new suit and slippers with shining +buckles, running across the lawn.</p> + +<p>Ethelwyn and Beth at once pushed up the window, in order to meet him +half-way.</p> + +<p>"Do you want us, Bobby?" called Beth encouragingly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can't reach it at all," said Beth breathlessly; "go on."</p> + +<p>"So I shoved it under the door—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"All right, hurry up," called up Bobby.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/174.png" +alt="CHAPTER XVI The Mail and Ethelwyn's Visit" title="CHAPTER XVI The Mail and Ethelwyn's Visit" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI_The_Mail_and_Ethelwyns_Visit" id="CHAPTER_XVI_The_Mail_and_Ethelwyns_Visit"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Good-bye, speed by<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Days till we meet again.<br /></span> +<span>Hearts' ease, ne'er cease,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Keep free from fret or pain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"DEAR COUSINS:</p> + +<p> "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.</p> + +<p> "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.</p> + +<p> "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.</p> + +<p> "Yours truly,</p> + +<p> "GLADYS.</p> + +<p> "P.S.—I can probably beat you at jacks when I get back, I practice + so much."</p></blockquote> + +<p>"I'll get mine out to-day," said Ethelwyn, "and we'll see whether she +can or not. When will she come home, mother?"</p> + +<p>But mother was reading Aunty Stevens's letter, and did not hear.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O let's; for my birthday," said Ethelwyn. "Can't we, mother?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O me!" they cried at once.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Are you any relation of St. Peter's?" she asked politely, after they +were well on the way.</p> + +<p>"Nobody ever thought so," said Peter, looking down at her with a twinkle +in his eye.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"How many are there of you?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's my grandmother's recipe," she said, and Ethelwyn nearly fell off +her chair trying to imagine grandmother's grandmother.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Mine never have," said grandmother proudly. "I suppose Mandy never +makes pumpkin pies."</p> + +<p>"Yes she does, but they don't grow in yellow watermelons; they live in +tin cans."</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" said grandmother, "they can't hold a candle to these."</p> + +<p>"No, but why would they want to?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Just then grandmother was called away from the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Don't meddle and get into mischief, will you, deary?" she said. And +Ethelwyn promised.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, child?" said grandmother, sitting up in bed with a +start. "Are you sick?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, grandmother, awful! You'll never like me again, I know." And then +she told her about the pumpkin pies.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/186.png" +alt="CHAPTER XVII Out at Grandmother's" title="CHAPTER XVII Out at Grandmother's" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII_Out_at_Grandmothers" id="CHAPTER_XVII_Out_at_Grandmothers"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Grandmother's house, I tell you most emphatic,<br /></span> +<span>Is full of good times from cellar to the attic.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>There came to Grandmother Van Stark's one day, a forlorn black tramp +kitten, mewing dismally.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"The critter don't stop crying long enough to catch a mouse," said cook, +eyeing the disconsolate bundle of grief with strong disfavor.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"No danger; his bawling will keep them away," said Hannah, grimly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Humph!" said Hannah.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But one morning there was a great commotion over the discovery that a +mouse had been in Grandmother Van Stark's room.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O grandmother, I'm sure he will," said Ethelwyn, earnestly; so she +talked to him that afternoon about it.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"How does middle night look, Nancy?" said Ethelwyn, as she lay in her +little brass bed, watching the dancing shadows on the wall.</p> + +<p>"Like any other time, only stiller," replied Nancy. "Go to sleep now, +Miss Ethelwyn."</p> + +<p>So Ethelwyn presently fell asleep and woke up with a little start just +as the clock was striking twelve.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hush, Johnny Bear, dear," she said softly from the other room; "you'll +wake up grandmother."</p> + +<p>But grandmother was awake, and lifted her head just in time to see the +tongue of fire.</p> + +<p>She was over the side of the bed in a minute, and, snatching up a +pitcher of water, dashed it over the rug.</p> + +<p>Ethelwyn jumped up too and snatched Johnny Bear in her arms.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"O Johnny, how could you?" she said sorrowfully, quite forgetting her +instructions to him in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>"But he is brave, isn't he, grandmother?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>So they both went to sleep, and Johnny Bear from that time on wept no +more.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Miss Ethelwyn," said Nancy, appearing, "there are callers in the +drawing-room, and your grandmother wishes you to come in."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's like a funeral," she announced during a slight lull.</p> + +<p>Grandmother and the clergyman looked around startled.</p> + +<p>"Why, child, what do you know about funerals?" asked grandmother, while +the clergyman, of course, laughed.</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>"Well of all things—" began grandmother, but a new lot of people coming +in demanded her attention.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to say anything more," she thought, "they always laugh +so."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well, chicken," said grandmother, "how did you like the reception?"</p> + +<p>"Not very much," said Ethelwyn. "I'm so ashamed to think I didn't get +any ice cream—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I do believe they <i>are</i> coming," said Ethelwyn, standing on tiptoes, +"and, yes, see, they have Bobby and Nan with them, to help take me +home!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"No, the mothers are the only ones that need worry,—over the after +results," said Mrs. Ray burn, laughing.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Of course they played games going home, and this time Ethelwyn had +really made up one.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Were you homesick for me?"</p> + +<p>"Not ezactly," said Ethelwyn, "but I had a lonesome spot for you all +whenever I thought about it."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'La, how fine,' said Polly.</p> + +<p>"The lady looked around angrily, thinking it was a boy.</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"O I wonder: if Polly is there!' she said, and told him about her.</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"So Miss Helen went in, and there, sure enough, was her poor Polly +huddled up sulkily in a cage.</p> + +<p>"'Polly,' called Helen, and Polly started and came to the front of the +cage.</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>"The bird fancier was astonished enough.</p> + +<p>"'I bought her and some six others from two sailors,' he said, 'but I +never dreamed she could talk!'</p> + +<p>"Miss Helen paid him a big price and went off with Polly on her finger +chattering like one mad."</p> + +<p>"O I'd love to see her," cried Beth.</p> + +<p>"Well go over there some day. Here we are at home."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad," said Ethelwyn. "It's nice to go away, but it's nicer to come +back."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/204.png" +alt="CHAPTER XVIII How They Bought a Baby" title="CHAPTER XVIII How They Bought a Baby" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII_How_They_Bought_a_Baby" id="CHAPTER_XVIII_How_They_Bought_a_Baby"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">Spend your money<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Speed you, honey,<br /></span> +<span>Quick as you can fly<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Up the street,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Toys and sweet<br /></span> +<span>Money burns to buy.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>And all this time they had saved their birthday money!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Haven't we saved this money, though?" they said, full of pride, and +then they straightway sat down to make plans for spending it.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was easier to do because mother had gone to town on business and was +to be away all day.</p> + +<p>Mr. Smithers promised to bring them in that afternoon, and they went off +to wait until then with what patience they could muster.</p> + +<p>They met Joe on their way to the barn, and noticed that his usual ruddy +countenance was grave and pale.</p> + +<p>"My sister is sick," he explained, "and she's getting no better."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you tell mother?" asked Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Will it cost very much, Joe?"</p> + +<p>"No, not much, but there's so many of us to feed and clothe that we +never have any money left for anything else."</p> + +<p>"Mother will help, I know," said Ethelwyn, and they went up to the +house, pondering deeply.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"You did yourself."</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't. Anyway, let's watch for Mr. Smithers at the back garden +gate, and tell him not to bring them."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"O that cunning baby I Where'd you get him?" they cried both at once, +opening the gate to look at him.</p> + +<p>The sulky nurse shifted the bundle to her other shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Allus had him, mos'," she said; "him or 'nuther one, perzactly like +him, to lug roun' while ma's washin'."</p> + +<p>"Don't you like to play with him?" asked Ethelwyn in a shocked tone.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," was the emphatic reply; "nor you wouldn't needa, ef you +had it to do contin'ul."</p> + +<p>"Why, you can play he's a doll."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Would you sell him?" asked Beth eagerly.</p> + +<p>"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'."</p> + +<p>There was a hurried consultation between Beth and Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"We will buy him," said Ethelwyn, at the end of the consultation.</p> + +<p>There was a moment of hesitation, and then the yellow bundle went into +Ethelwyn's outstretched arms.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Bobby, making a chicken yard out of wire netting, was delighted to have +assistance, and they telephoned for Nan, who speedily joined them.</p> + +<p>"Mother's gone to town to-day to see your grandfather, who owns a bank, +Bobby," said Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Where did he lose it? Were there holes in his pockets?" asked Beth, +unrolling the wire at Bobby's order.</p> + +<p>"On change," said Bobby, with his mouth full of nails.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You're not very polite," said Nan.</p> + +<p>"Well I do, but if he lost only change, prob'ly it's his own, and +mother's gone to give him some more."</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" said Bobby, "it's not—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Has you all seen anything of a low down black pickaninny which is +los'?" This remark came from 'Vada.</p> + +<p>"Which is <i>stole</i>," corrected a mountain of flesh, quivering with wrath.</p> + +<p>"Is it Samuel Saul?" asked Ethelwyn.</p> + +<p>"It is so; will you projus him?" asked the mountain.</p> + +<p>"He's in the attic asleep; his sister sold him to us for a present to +Bobby and Nan—"</p> + +<p>"O let's see him," cried Nan, with lively interest.</p> + +<p>"You all is gwine to leab him alone—" began the mountain, when Mandy +turned ponderously in her direction.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Dat is sholy de trufe w'en I has been wid you," said Martha Jane +Jenkins, wrathfully.</p> + +<p>But now from the open attic windows were heard such piercing shrieks +that they all with one consent turned in that direction.</p> + +<p>"Americky, you go bring me you brudda," instructed Martha, cuffing +soundly the girl with the guilty eye.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"And poor Joe too," said Beth.</p> + +<p>"There comes Mr. Smithers now," exclaimed Bobby.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You're entirely welcome," responded he.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/218.png" +alt="CHAPTER XIX Bobby's Grandfather" title="CHAPTER XIX Bobby's Grandfather" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX_Bobbys_Grandfather" id="CHAPTER_XIX_Bobbys_Grandfather"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>And now let's be glad,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While everything's bright.<br /></span> +<span>Days that are sunny<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are shadowed by night.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The next morning, however, the lines came back, and the children, seeing +them, resolved that they would write Bobby's grandfather a letter.</p> + +<p>"If there's anything I'm glad of, it's that I know how to write," said +Ethelwyn. "It was very hard to learn."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Little Fanny wears a hat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like her ancient granny;<br /></span> +<span>Tommy's hoop was—think of that—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Given him by Fanny."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The poke-bonneted pair with Tommy and his hoop looked curiously out of +place among their official surroundings.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"DEAR BOBBY'S GRANDFATHER,</p> + +<p> "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.</p> + +<p> "As there is no more paper in our boxes on account of spoiling so + much we will say good-bye.</p> + +<p> "ETHELWYN, BETH, NAN, and BOBBY.</p> + +<p> "P.S.—The first one she wrote it.</p> + +<p> "P.S.—My mother said because she had faith in you was why you have + our money, and so have we."</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"DEAR CHILDREN, (it began)</p> + +<p> "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.</p> + +<p> "Yours, with love,</p> + +<p> "BOBBY'S GRANDFATHER.</p> + +<p> "P.S.—Be sure to have plenty of candy for supper."</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"And we will need it," said Bobby, with a deep sigh over the arduous +educational duties before him.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/230.png" +alt="CHAPTER XX The Visit to the Home" title="CHAPTER XX The Visit to the Home" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX_The_Visit_to_the_Home" id="CHAPTER_XX_The_Visit_to_the_Home"></a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>On the train we ran through rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then out in sun and blue;<br /></span> +<span>And all the trees bent down and raced,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all the houses too.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He had always told Mrs. Rayburn that he thought it was very foolish for +her to give such large sums of money for charity.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>His grandfather drew him down by one leg into his lap.</p> + +<p>"Giving all your money away to people who don't appreciate it," he +explained.</p> + +<p>"How do you know they don't?" asked Bobby.</p> + +<p>"Because, sir, people don't appreciate what is given to them, as much as +they do what they earn."</p> + +<p>Bobby pondered over this.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And more certain," put in his mother, laughing; "the kindling money +isn't always earned."</p> + +<p>"Are you talking about the Home money?" asked Ethelwyn, looking over the +back of the chair in front of them.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Does keeping money make folks happy?" inquired Beth, suddenly popping +up.</p> + +<p>The lines in grandfather's face deepened, and there came over it a look +of care.</p> + +<p>"Not always, child, I must confess," he said at length.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>For awhile the banker looked out on the showery landscape, then he +turned to the children's mother.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are right, Mrs. Rayburn," he said gently. "The world is all +too selfish;" and he sighed as he said it.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the banker, taking up his paper, "I am open to conviction."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's—it's—Dick! Dick who used to walk on crutches!" cried Ethelwyn, +fairly rubbing her eyes in astonishment.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My sakes! Aren't you mended up well, though?" said Beth, walking +around him admiringly.</p> + +<p>They all laughed at this, of course, and Dick was then introduced to +Bobby's mother, his grandfather, and Bobby himself.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"She is well but could not leave to come to the train," said Dick. "She +can hardly wait to see you, though."</p> + +<p>"I do sincerely trust she has baked a bushel of cookies," said Ethelwyn, +as they climbed into the wagon.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Then, above the roar of the sea and the clatter of hoofs, came the +sound of children's voices calling from the broad piazza,</p> + +<p>"Welcome home! Welcome home!"</p> + +<p>Then a child's voice sang,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"To give sad children's hearts a joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To give the weary rest,<br /></span> +<span>To give to those who need it sore,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This makes a life most blest."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'm nearer conviction than I was," he said.</p> + +<p>As she hurried towards the porch, Mrs. Rayburn smiled to herself.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She now looked up into the banker's face.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"H—m, h—m," said the banker.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Bobby's grandfather was armed with a huge box, which he had +mysteriously guarded all day; he now set it down upon the porch.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Good-night, good-night,<br /></span> +<span>Children and blossoms who sleep all the night,<br /></span> +<span>Always will wake up happy and bright,<br /></span> +<span>Good-night, good-night!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As they sang, they marched away to bed. The others followed them in.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"When the children are thievish and given to bad language and lying, +what do you do?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Do you have to refuse many applicants?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Bobby's grandfather opened his mouth to speak, just as Bobby himself +climbed into his lap with a question trembling on his lips.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir?" inquired his grandfather.</p> + +<p>"May I have some of the money you're going to leave me, to give now, +just as Ethelwyn and Beth did?" asked Bobby.</p> + +<p>"How do you know I'm going to leave you any, you young freebooter?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>His grandfather patted him comfortingly on the back.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>am</i> convicted and I hope +converted."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ADVERTISEMENTS</h2> + + + + + +<p><b>MOLLY BROWN SERIES</b><br /> +<b>College Life Stories for Girls</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>By NELL SPEED.</b><br /> +<br /> +Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 60c. per vol., postpaid<br /> +<br /> +MOLLY BROWN'S FRESHMAN DAYS.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Would you like to admit to your circle of friends the most charming of<br /> +college girls—the typical college girl for whom we are always looking<br /> +but not always finding; the type that contains so many delightful<br /> +characteristics, yet without unpleasant perfection in any; the natural,<br /> +unaffected, sweet-tempered girl, loved because she is lovable? Then seek<br /> +an introduction to Molly Brown. You will find the baggage-master, the<br /> +cook, the Professor of English Literature, and the College President in<br /> +the same company.<br /> +<br /> +MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS.<br /> +<br /> +What is more delightful than a re-union of college girls after the<br /> +summer vacation? Certainly nothing that precedes it in their<br /> +experience—at least, if all class-mates are as happy together as the<br /> +Wellington girls of this story. Among Molly's interesting friends of the<br /> +second year is a young Japanese girl, who ingratiates her "humbly" self<br /> +into everybody's affections speedily and permanently.<br /> +<br /> +MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS.<br /> +<br /> +Financial stumbling blocks are not the only things that hinder the ease<br /> +and increase the strength of college girls. Their troubles and their<br /> +triumphs are their own, often peculiar to their environment. How<br /> +Wellington students meet the experiences outside the class-rooms is<br /> +worth the doing, the telling and the reading.<br /> +<br /> +Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.<br /> +<br /> +HURST & COMPANY Publishers NEW YORK<br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<p><b>MOTOR MAIDS SERIES</b><br /> +<b>Wholesome Stories of Adventure</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>By KATHERINE STOKES.</b><br /> +<br /> +Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid<br /> +<br /> + +<br /> +THE MOTOR MAIDS' SCHOOL DAYS.<br /> +<br /> +Billie Campbell was just the type of a straightforward, athletic girl to<br /> +be successful as a practical Motor Maid. She took her car, as she did<br /> +her class-mates, to her heart, and many a grand good time did they have<br /> +all together. The road over which she ran her red machine had many an<br /> +unexpected turning,—now it led her into peculiar danger; now into<br /> +contact with strange travelers; and again into experiences by fire and<br /> +water. But, best of all, "The Comet" never failed its brave girl owner.<br /> +<br /> +THE MOTOR MAIDS BY PALM AND PINE.<br /> +<br /> +Wherever the Motor Maids went there were lively times, for these were<br /> +companionable girls who looked upon the world as a vastly interesting<br /> +place full of unique adventures—and so, of course, they found them.<br /> +<br /> +THE MOTOR MAIDS ACROSS THE CONTINENT.<br /> +<br /> +It is always interesting to travel, and it is wonderfully entertaining<br /> +to see old scenes through fresh eyes. It is that privilege, therefore,<br /> +that makes it worth while to join the Motor Maids in their first<br /> +'cross-country run.<br /> +<br /> +THE MOTOR MAIDS BY ROSE, SHAMROCK AND HEATHER.<br /> +<br /> +South and West had the Motor Maids motored, nor could their education by<br /> +travel have been more wisely begun. But now a speaking acquaintance with<br /> +their own country enriched their anticipation of an introduction to the<br /> +British Isles. How they made their polite American bow and how they were<br /> +received on the other side is a tale of interest and inspiration.<br /> +<br /> +Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.<br /> +<br /> +HURST & COMPANY Publishers NEW YORK<br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<p><b>GIRL AVIATORS SERIES</b><br /> +<b>Clean Aviation Stories</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>By MARGARET BURNHAM.</b><br /> +<br /> +Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid<br /> +<br /> +THE GIRL AVIATORS AND THE PHANTOM AIRSHIP.<br /> +<br /> +Roy Prescott was fortunate in having a sister so clever and devoted to<br /> +him and his interests that they could share work and play with mutual<br /> +pleasure and to mutual advantage. This proved especially true in<br /> +relation to the manufacture and manipulation of their aeroplane, and<br /> +Peggy won well deserved fame for her skill and good sense as an aviator.<br /> +There were many stumbling-blocks in their terrestrial path, but they<br /> +soared above them all to ultimate success.<br /> +<br /> +THE GIRL AVIATORS ON GOLDEN WINGS.<br /> +<br /> +That there is a peculiar fascination about aviation that wins and holds<br /> +girl enthusiasts as well as boys is proved by this tale. On golden wings<br /> +the girl aviators rose for many an exciting flight, and met strange and<br /> +unexpected experiences.<br /> +<br /> +THE GIRL AVIATORS' SKY CRUISE.<br /> +<br /> +To most girls a coaching or yachting trip is an adventure. How much more<br /> +perilous an adventure a "sky cruise" might be is suggested by the title<br /> +and proved by the story itself.<br /> +<br /> +THE GIRL AVIATORS' MOTOR BUTTERFLY.<br /> +<br /> +The delicacy of flight suggested by the word "butterfly," the mechanical<br /> +power implied by "motor," the ability to control assured in the title<br /> +"aviator," all combined with the personality and enthusiasm of girls<br /> +themselves, make this story one for any girl or other reader "to go<br /> +crazy over."<br /> +<br /> +Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.<br /> +<br /> +HURST & COMPANY Publishers NEW YORK<br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<p><b>DREADNOUGHT BOYS SERIES</b><br /> +<b>Tales of the New Navy</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>By CAPT. WILBUR LAWTON</b><br /> +Author of "BOY AVIATORS SERIES."<br /> +<br /> +Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid<br /> +<br /> +THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS ON BATTLE PRACTICE.<br /> +<br /> + +<br /> +Especially Interesting and timely is this book which introduces the<br /> +reader with its heroes, Ned and Herc, to the great ships of modern<br /> +warfare and to the intimate life and surprising adventures of Uncle<br /> +Sam's sailors.<br /> +<br /> +THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS ABOARD A DESTROYER.<br /> +<br /> +In this story real dangers threaten and the boys' patriotism is tested<br /> +in a peculiar international tangle. The scene is laid on the South<br /> +American coast.<br /> +<br /> +THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS ON A SUBMARINE.<br /> +<br /> +To the inventive genius—trade-school boy or mechanic—this story has<br /> +special charm, perhaps, but to every reader its mystery and clever<br /> +action are fascinating.<br /> +<br /> +THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS ON AERO SERVICE.<br /> +<br /> +Among the volunteers accepted for Aero Service are Ned and Herc. Their<br /> +perilous adventures are not confined to the air, however, although they<br /> +make daring and notable flights in the name of the Government; nor are<br /> +they always able to fly beyond the reach of their old "enemies," who are<br /> +also airmen.<br /> +<br /> +Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.<br /> +<br /> +HURST & COMPANY Publisher NEW YORK<br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<p><b>MOTOR RANGERS SERIES</b><br /> +<b>HIGH SPEED MOTOR STORIES</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>By MARVIN WEST.</b><br /> +<br /> +Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid<br /> +<br /> + +<br /> +THE MOTOR RANGERS' LOST MINE.<br /> +<br /> +This is an absorbing story of the continuous adventures of a motor car<br /> +in the hands of Nat Trevor and his friends. It does seemingly impossible<br /> +"stunts," and yet everything happens "in the nick of time."<br /> +<br /> +THE MOTOR RANGERS THROUGH THE SIERRAS.<br /> +<br /> +Enemies in ambush, the peril of fire, and the guarding of treasure make<br /> +exciting times for the Motor Rangers—yet there is a strong flavor of<br /> +fun and freedom, with a typical Western mountaineer for spice.<br /> +<br /> +THE MOTOR RANGERS ON BLUE WATER; or,<br /> +The Secret of the Derelict.<br /> +<br /> +The strange adventures of the sturdy craft "Nomad" and the stranger<br /> +experiences of the Rangers themselves with Morello's schooner and a<br /> +mysterious derelict form the basic of this well-spun yarn of the sea.<br /> +<br /> +THE MOTOR RANGERS' CLOUD CRUISER.<br /> +<br /> +From the "Nomad" to the "Discoverer," from the sea to the sky, the scene<br /> +changes in which the Motor Rangers figure. They have experiences "that<br /> +never were on land or sea," in heat and cold and storm, over mountain<br /> +peak and lost city, with savages and reptiles; their ship of the air is<br /> +attacked by huge birds of the air; they survive explosion and<br /> +earthquake; they even live to tell the tale!<br /> +<br /> +Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.<br /> +<br /> +HURST & COMPANY Publishers NEW YORK<br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<p><b>BUNGALOW BOYS SERIES</b><br /> +<b>LIVE STORIES OF OUTDOOR LIFE</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>By DEXTER J. FORRESTER.</b><br /> +<br /> +Cloth Bound. Illustrated. Price, 50c. per vol., postpaid<br /> +<br /> + +<br /> +THE BUNGALOW BOYS.<br /> +<br /> +How the Bungalow Boys received their title and how they retained the<br /> +right to it in spite of much opposition makes a lively narrative for<br /> +lively boys.<br /> +<br /> +THE BUNGALOW BOYS MAROONED IN THE TROPICS.<br /> +<br /> +A real treasure hunt of the most thrilling kind, with a sunken Spanish<br /> +galleon as its object, makes a subject of intense interest at any time,<br /> +but add to that a band of desperate men, a dark plot and a devil fish,<br /> +and you have the combination that brings strange adventures into the<br /> +lives of the Bungalow Boys.<br /> +<br /> +THE BUNGALOW BOYS IN THE GREAT NORTH WEST.<br /> +<br /> +The clever assistance of a young detective saves the boys from the<br /> +clutches of Chinese smugglers, of whose nefarious trade they know too<br /> +much. How the Professor's invention relieves a critical situation is<br /> +also an exciting incident of this book.<br /> +<br /> +THE BUNGALOW BOYS ON THE GREAT LAKES.<br /> +<br /> +The Bungalow Boys start out for a quiet cruise on the Great Lakes and a<br /> +visit to an island. A storm and a band of wreckers interfere with the<br /> +serenity of their trip, and a submarine adds zest and adventure to it.<br /> +<br /> +Any volume sent postpaid upon receipt of price.<br /> +<br /> +HURST & COMPANY Publishers NEW YORK<br /></p> + + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<p><b>Works of J.T. Trowbridge</b><br /> +<br /> +Here is an author who is famous—whose writings delight both boys and<br /> +girls. Enthusiasm abounds on every page and interest never grows old. 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A library is incomplete<br /> +without the entire set.<br /> +<br /> +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, LIFE OF—American Statesman and Discoverer of<br /> +Electricity.<br /> +<br /> +CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, LIFE OF—Discoverer of America.<br /> +<br /> +DANIEL BOONE, LIFE OF—Famous Kentucky Explorer and Scout.<br /> +<br /> +DANIEL WEBSTER, LIFE OF—American Statesman and Diplomat.<br /> +<br /> +DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN ORATORS—Who Have Helped to Mould American<br /> +Events.<br /> +<br /> +EMINENT AMERICANS—Makers of United States History.<br /> +<br /> +JOHN GUTENBERG, LIFE OF—Inventor of Printing.<br /> +<br /> +NAPOLEON AND HIS MARSHALS—Celebrated French General and Commander.<br /> +<br /> +ORATORS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION—Whose Speeches Ring With Patriotism.<br /> +<br /> +PAUL JONES, LIFE OF—American Naval Hero.<br /> +<br /> +PATRICK HENRY, LIFE OF—Distinguished American Orator and Patriot.<br /> +<br /> +PHILIP H. SHERIDAN, LIFE OF—"Little Phil"; Famous Union General During<br /> +the Civil War.<br /> +<br /> +WASHINGTON AND HIS GENERALS—First President of the United States,<br /> +Revolutionary Army General and Statesman.<br /> +<br /> +Any book mailed, postage paid, upon receipt of 50c.<br /> +<br /> +Send for Our Complete Book Catalogue.<br /> +<br /> +HURST & CO. Publishers, NEW YORK<br /></p> + + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<p><b>Oliver Optic Books</b><br /> +<br /> +Few boys are alive to-day who have not read some of the writings of this<br /> +famous author, whose books are scattered broadcast and eagerly sought<br /> +for. Oliver Optic has the faculty of writing books full of dash and<br /> +energy, such as healthy boys want and need.<br /> +<br /> +ALL ABOARD; or, Life on the Lake.<br /> +BOAT CLUB; or, The Bunkers of Rippleton.<br /> +BRAVE OLD SALT; or, Life on the Quarter Deck.<br /> +DO SOMETHINGS; a Story for Little Folks.<br /> +FIGHTING JOE; or, The Fortunes of a Staff Officer.<br /> +IN SCHOOL AND OUT; or, The Conquest of Richard Grant.<br /> +LITTLE BY LITTLE; or, The Cruise of the Flyaway.<br /> +LITTLE MERCHANT; a Story for Little Folks.<br /> +NOW OR NEVER: or, The Adventures of Bobby Bright.<br /> +POOR AND PROUD; or, The Fortunes of Katie Redburn.<br /> +PROUD AND LAZY; a Story for Little Folks.<br /> +RICH AND HUMBLE; or, The Mission of Bertha Grant.<br /> +SAILOR BOY: or, Jack Somers in the Navy.<br /> +SOLDIER BOY; or, Tom Somers in the Army.<br /> +TRY AGAIN; or, The Trials and Triumphs of Harry West.<br /> +WATCH AND WAIT; or, The Young Fugitives.<br /> +WORK AND WIN; or, Noddy Newman on a Cruise.<br /> +THE YANKEE MIDDY; or, The Adventures of a Naval Officer.<br /> +YOUNG LIEUTENANT; or, The Adventures of an Army Officer.<br /> +<br /> +Any of these books will be mailed, postpaid, upon receipt of 50c.<br /> +<br /> +Get our complete catalogue—sent anywhere.<br /> +<br /> +HURST & CO., Publishers, NEW YORK<br /></p> +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's What Two Children Did, by Charlotte E. 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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 + + + + +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. 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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. 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