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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: Peggy-Alone + +Author: Mary Agnes Byrne + +Illustrator: Anna B. Craig + +Release Date: January 26, 2008 [EBook #24431] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY-ALONE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="The girls paused and waved their handkerchiefs." BORDER="2" WIDTH="419" HEIGHT="656"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 419px"> +The girls paused and waved their handkerchiefs. +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +PEGGY-ALONE +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +MARY AGNES BYRNE +</H2> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AUTHOR OF<BR> +"THE LITTLE WOMAN IN THE SPOUT,"<BR> +"LITTLE DAME TROT,"<BR> +"ROY AND ROSYROCKS,"<BR> +"THE FAIRY CHASES," ETC.<BR> +</H4> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +DRAWINGS BY +<BR> +ANNA B. CRAIG +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY +<BR> +CHICAGO —— AKRON, OHIO —— NEW YORK +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +<I>Copyright, 1909</I> +<BR> +<I>By</I> +<BR> +<I>The Saalfield Publishing Co.</I> +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO MY SISTER TRESS +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">PEGGY-ALONE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">UNCLE FRED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">GUMDROPS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE GARDEN OF GOOD INTENTIONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">A DISGUSTED POET</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">A SCORNFUL BEAUTY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THEATRICALS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">PICNICKING</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">TISSUE-PAPER HATS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">ALENE'S VISITORS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">TAFFY PULLING</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">A STRING OF FISH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A GIRLISH TIFF</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">AFTER THE SHOW</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">LAURA'S PROPOSITION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">IN THE BERRY PATCH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">TO THE RESCUE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">THE BLUE BOX</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">MRS. KUMP'S BIRTHDAY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">TO CHINA IN A GLASS-BOAT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">VEXATIONS AND CONSOLATIONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">THE CRIMSON BAG</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">THE GARDEN PARTY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">IVY'S FRIEND</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">AN ADVENTURE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap27">IN THE TOWER</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +PEGGY-ALONE +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PEGGY-ALONE +</H3> + +<P> +"Down, Prince!" +</P> + +<P> +High above the shrill exclamations of surprise and terror came that +thin silvery command which the dog, great black fellow that he was, +obeyed at once, and his flight in pursuit of those daring petticoats +which had intruded on his master's orchard was brought to an +ignominious end. +</P> + +<P> +"Girls, say, girls, don't be frightened! He won't bite!" +</P> + +<P> +One of the children had already scaled the wall, dropping her apron of +apples on the way. She stood ready to help the second down, while the +third and largest, who had kept in the rear between the smaller ones +and their pursuer, waiting to see them safely over ere hastening her +own steps, on hearing those friendly words paused and looked back. +</P> + +<P> +Some distance away, under the apple trees on the grassy terrace, stood +a little girl dressed all in white; a wreath of green ivy-vines crowded +her glossy curls which fell to her waist and framed her thin face; one +tiny hand was raised in a beckoning gesture and the other was placed +firmly on the head of the dog. +</P> + +<P> +Leading him, she approached the girl who waited in mute surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Do tell them not to go. They needn't be afraid of Prince now!" +</P> + +<P> +"She says not to be afraid," hallooed the largest girl, whereupon the +fugitives came back and seated themselves upon the wall overlooking the +scene. +</P> + +<P> +The girl with the dog had come forward. She stood looking half shyly, +but with evident good-will, from the little maids on the wall to their +friend who had turned after recalling the others, and came back a few +steps to meet her. +</P> + +<P> +"What are their names?" inquired the stranger. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Ivy Bonner," the other said in a formal tone, pointing to her +thinner companion, who swung her feet on the outside of the wall and, +though she sat only half-facing them, seemed to see everything that +went on. "And this is my sister Nettie," she continued, indicating the +chubby, flaxen-haired party whose ruddy cheeks and great staring blue +eyes reminded one of an over-grown doll-baby. +</P> + +<P> +As each name was pronounced its owner gave a ceremonious little bow +such as is always used in make-believe introductions, and the newcomer +bowed gravely to each in acknowledgment. Then she turned again to the +largest girl. +</P> + +<P> +"And yours?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am Laura—Laura Lee." +</P> + +<P> +"What's hers?" called Ivy, who felt that there was something lacking in +the ceremony. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my name's Alene Dawson," was the answer, and then, turning to +Laura, she added with a somewhat rueful laugh, "but Uncle sometimes +calls me Peggy-Alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Why does he call you such a funny name?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you see I'm so much by myself, now that mother and father went +away and left me here with Uncle Fred. I get lonesome all by myself!" +</P> + +<P> +"I should think you would!" cried Laura compassionately. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's sit down," suggested Alene. They did so, side by side, on the +grass, while Prince reclined lazily beside them. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you live in the Big House?" inquired Laura, glancing toward a +building which stood far up on the level ground overlooking the +terraced hill; a substantial house whose gray stone walls and square +tower were partly hid with vines. It was the most pretentious +habitation in the town and occupied the most beautiful site. Laura and +her friends regarded it somewhat as a fairy palace, around which they +wove many fanciful romances. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a-visiting there now but when Uncle goes down town and the maids +are all at work I don't know what to do with myself; and when I saw you +all here among the trees I just hurried down, I was so glad to see a +crowd of girls, but naughty Prince ran ahead and scared you away! What +were you playing?" +</P> + +<P> +"We weren't playing; we were just picking apples." +</P> + +<P> +Alene looked horrified. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, Mr. Dawson allows us to come in and take all we want," +explained Laura hurriedly, while a shrill voice from the wall cried: +</P> + +<P> +"We weren't <I>stealing</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +"I never thought that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she looked as if she did," commented Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"I looked surprised because—well—to think you would eat such green +apples." +</P> + +<P> +This statement brought forth a ripple of amusement from the two critics +and Alene with reddened cheeks turned to the girl at her side. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, they are dangerous, aren't they?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't mind those kids, they giggle at 'most anything. You see we are +used to eating them and they are not injurious if you eat 'em with +salt," explained Laura, though not very clearly. +</P> + +<P> +"She's to take the kids and the apples with a little salt!" cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Just try one!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene sank her teeth rather gingerly into the rounded green cheek of +the proffered apple. +</P> + +<P> +"It's rather sour!" she said, trying to repress a grimace but unable to +keep the tears from her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Laura took from her apron pocket a tiny glass saltcellar and shook some +of its contents lightly over the next bite which Alene heroically +swallowed. +</P> + +<P> +"It's not so very bad," she murmured. So intent was she on accepting +Laura's intended kindness graciously that she envied the ease with +which Ivy and Nettie disposed of the apples, biting off great mouthfuls +and chewing them, core and all, with evident enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +Laura forgot to eat any herself, being content to watch Alene's +performance and never dreaming what a task it was for her. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Laura!" came a voice in a loud, hissing tone intended for a +whisper; "she's got lace on her petticoat." +</P> + +<P> +"And silk stockings and slippers!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush—'tisn't polite to whisper before comp'ny," admonished Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mind the little thing," said Alene in a confidential aside to +Laura, regardless of the fact that the "little thing" was nearly as +large as herself. +</P> + +<P> +"But she acts years and years older," was Laura's inward comment. "I +guess she's used to 'sociating with grown folks." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't like to wear lace-trimmed things, either," continued Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I think they're lovely," said Laura, tenderly fingering one of +the flounces which billowed like waves against her own blue print. +</P> + +<P> +"But you don't have to wear them and be 'called down' by your governess +every minute for fear they'll get torn or dirty!" +</P> + +<P> +"Have you a governess?" inquired Laura in a tone of awe. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but she took sick just after mother went away and had to go to +the hospital. You see mother expected her to come here and take care +of me. Uncle hasn't told mother 'cause he don't want to spoil their +trip and he thinks it won't hurt me to learn to take care of myself. +It's the first time I ever went round without a nurse or someone +tagging after me, telling me to do this or not to do that—it's lovely +to be free, girls!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Give me liberty or give me death!'" said Laura in a tragic tone, and +Alene squeezed her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Laura, it's so nice to talk with someone who understands! But in +spite of being so free, I get so <I>lonely</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura's eyes shone with sudden comprehension. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you poor little lonely baby," she said to herself, and then aloud, +</P> + +<P> +"Alene, I wish you could join the Happy-Go-Luckys." +</P> + +<P> +"The Happy-Go-Luckys? What are they?" +</P> + +<P> +"A kind of <I>club</I>—you know." +</P> + +<P> +"A club," said Alene, in such a doubtful tone that Laura took a sudden +fit of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Alene, you're so funny! It's not a club to <I>hit</I> with, but just +us—a crowd of girls—to go together for fun and to do things." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Laura! Would you really let me join, if Uncle will allow?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd love to, but we have some rules and bylaws—to be eligible the +candidate's age must be at least twelve!" Laura from long practice was +able to repeat the big words glibly. +</P> + +<P> +"And I won't be twelve till July the seventeenth! Oh, Laura!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's not so far off!" +</P> + +<P> +"But what'll become of me till then? I'll die of loneliness!" +</P> + +<P> +"I was going to say that July seventeenth is so near, and you seem so +much older, that we'll have a special election, and—well, we'll +stretch the rules to let you in." +</P> + +<P> +Alene gave a sigh of relief. +</P> + +<P> +"As I'm not so very large, you won't have to stretch them very far," +she said, encouragingly. +</P> + +<P> +"If she's little, she's old, like Andy Daly's pig!" Again came that +sibilant whisper. +</P> + +<P> +"Alene, don't mind her!" +</P> + +<P> +"But why does she say that?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's an old Irish saying. You see, Andy Daly took his pig to market +and they objected to its size—'If it's little, it's old' said Andy +Daly; and so they say, 'If it's little, it's old, like Andy Daly's +pig!'" +</P> + +<P> +Alene laughed and called over to the whisperer: +</P> + +<P> +"If I'm little, I'm old enough to be a Happy-Go-Lucky—so there!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +UNCLE FRED +</H3> + +<P> +"Where is Peggy-Alone, Prince?" inquired Mr. Frederick Dawson. +</P> + +<P> +The dog had come bounding over the grass to meet him at the Tower House +gate, strange to say unaccompanied by the little girl who was usually +the first to greet him each evening on his return from the office. +</P> + +<P> +With Prince barking and snapping at his hand, the young man hurried +along the path and into the great hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Prince, I know she's hiding somewhere, to jump out and scare her +poor old Uncle and set his nerves all a-tremble! It was thoughtful of +you to give me warning!" he said aloud. He hung up his hat, keeping a +sharp lookout for the delinquent but she was nowhere in sight; no +dancing footsteps were heard coming from any part of the house. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope she isn't sick," he soliloquized, beginning to feel uneasy. +"She's getting pale and listless. The poor little thing must be lonely +here all day with no one but the servants. I wish she knew some +children to play with! Confounded luck for the governess to fall sick +and leave me as a sort of head nurse!" His grumbling anxious thoughts +ended in an abrupt exclamation. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, there!" +</P> + +<P> +Through the open door of the library he saw a little white-robed maid, +seated in a great leather revolving chair, with her eyes fixed upon an +object on the table beside her. If she noticed the young man's +entrance or heard his voice she gave no sign, nor did she pay any +attention to Prince, who led the way into the room, and strove with a +great show of canine solicitude, in merry barks and gambols, to attract +his young mistress' attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Alene!" her Uncle said sharply, but the silence remained unbroken. +</P> + +<P> +Half alarmed, he came forward and shook her by the shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"For heaven's sake, child, is anything the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +Still she made no reply; she kept gazing, gazing in one direction as +though fascinated. +</P> + +<P> +Following her glance, he saw the fragments of a fancy Mexican +tobacco-jar, which he had shown to her only the day before. +</P> + +<P> +"Alene, I'm ashamed of you!" he cried in an angry tone. "Has the +breaking of this jar brought you to such a state as this? Why, anyone +would think—I'd swear it was the truth myself were anyone else in +question—yes, they would think me an ogre who ate little girls who +chanced to break something!" Turning away, he paced the floor with +rapid steps backward and forward. The longer he walked, the faster he +went, and higher the angry red glowed in his cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +For a time Alene kept her unaccountable position. Presently her eyes +strayed sidewise toward her agitated companion, who, intent on his own +angry mutterings, was unaware of her inspection. The gleam of mirth +that overspread her countenance was quickly banished; she rose and +stood beside her chair and then crossed the floor to his side. +</P> + +<P> +A little hand stole into his, a pair of blue eyes gazed contritely +upward. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Uncle, you said it was a present and I felt so badly! You aren't +angry?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't I? Do I look as if I'd beat a child?" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly his angry mood passed away, and he threw himself into a chair, +in a paroxysm of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Polly-Wog, what shall I do to make you pay up for this?" +</P> + +<P> +"The jar? Did it cost so awfully much?" +</P> + +<P> +"The jar you gave me when I came in, I thought you were in a trance! I +had a wild notion to lose no time in bringing the doctor!" +</P> + +<P> +She glanced ruefully at the broken vase. +</P> + +<P> +"I was just wondering if it could be pieced together again—" +</P> + +<P> +"Before the ogre got back?" +</P> + +<P> +Alene perched herself on the arm of his chair with one arm around his +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"You're more like a fairy godmother—father, I mean." +</P> + +<P> +"How did the terrible accident occur?" +</P> + +<P> +"I picked it up to admire it and my hand got sort o' dizzy and let it +fall." +</P> + +<P> +"And you didn't think of running away and pretending you knew nothing +about it, or blaming it on the maid?" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Uncle Fred—as if I'd be so dishonorable!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I might, if I had such an ogre for an uncle as yours appears to +be! I shouldn't fancy being ground to sausages!" +</P> + +<P> +"Like Andy Daly's pig was, I guess! I must tell you about him, but +there's something else to ask you first—something very important! +Since you're the good fairy, you ought to grant me three wishes but +I'll let you off with one." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll not insist on granting the three until I hear Number One—Here +goes! One, two, three—" +</P> + +<P> +"Can I—may I—join the Happy-Go-Luckys?" implored Alene in an +impressive voice, with clasped hands. +</P> + +<P> +"The Happy-Go-Luckys! You're sure you don't mean the Ku Klux Klan? +Hark, there's Kizzie coming to announce dinner. Come along and you can +tell me all about it while we eat." +</P> + +<P> +She took his arm with a mock fine-lady air, and walked beside him with +mincing steps across the hall to the dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +It was a square apartment with windows opening upon a green vista of +gardens, now shut away by latticed blinds, through which the fresh +spring air found way. +</P> + +<P> +The bay window was filled with immense potted palms; another window led +to a balcony where baskets with myrtle and other vines hung round like +a heavy green curtain. The room was finished in light colored +woodwork. A square rug in a pattern of tiny green and white tiles +partly covered the polished floor; in the center stood a cosy round +table, whose snowy napery and old silver and china were lit by a bronze +lamp with an ornamental shade that resembled a gorgeous peony. +</P> + +<P> +Seated opposite her Uncle, Alene, in her eagerness to relate her +afternoon's adventure, almost forgot to touch the tempting dishes which +Kizzie, the maid, served so deftly. +</P> + +<P> +Her usually pale cheeks glowed and her eyes beamed brightly while she +told of her new friends and the club. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dawson listened with flattering attention. +</P> + +<P> +"You may, you shall, you must, join the Happy-Go-Luckys! As a society +for the prevention of loneliness to Peggy-Alone or any other forlorn +little girl, it strikes me as a good thing," he declared. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Uncle, you're a dear old thing!" +</P> + +<P> +"An article of <I>virtu</I> as it were. Be careful how you handle me!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene gave him a reproachful look. +</P> + +<P> +"There, don't start that deadly stare again! I'm not insinuating +anything!" +</P> + +<P> +His air of alarm amused Alene. She laughed merrily. Her joy over his +permission to join the Happy-Go-Luckys banished from her Uncle's mind +any doubts he may have had of her mother's approval. However, he knew +something of Alene's new friends, being personally acquainted with Mr. +Lee, whose work as a riverman allowed him little time at home, while +Mrs. Bonner was a widow who kept a small boarding house; both families, +though poor, were highly respectable. +</P> + +<P> +"Since I'm left in charge of Alene, I'll use my own judgment, which +tells me that it's the very thing for her. She looks improved already +and I'll not let any snobbish question deprive her of happiness." +Which settled the matter there and then for all concerned. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">* * * * * *</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter now, Alene, that you pucker your brows over that +ponderous tome?" +</P> + +<P> +It was after supper, and Uncle Fred, seated in an easy chair beside the +reading table in the library, was lazily puffing a pipe. +</P> + +<P> +A stand near by held a large dictionary over whose pages Alene's head +was bent. +</P> + +<P> +Glancing up with a puzzled expression, she said: "I don't quite +understand; this book says it means 'plain,' and I'm sure lots of +children are quite ugly long before they are that age, and I don't +think the girls are plain—Laura has lovely eyes and I never heard I +was. Am I ugly, Uncle?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, one wouldn't pick you out in a crowd when all the lights were +out, for a fright—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Uncle Fred, do be sober a minute!" +</P> + +<P> +"Alene, I'm ashamed of you to hint that your guardian is ever anything +else!" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean grave!" +</P> + +<P> +"A 'most potent, reverend and grave' old fellow am I!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, sometimes, Uncle Fred, you act as if you weren't any more than +nine," said Alene, returning to the book with an air of tolerant +resignation that amused the young man. He crossed to her side. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me what you are hunting; perhaps I can help you." +</P> + +<P> +Alene ignored his air of exaggerated solemnity. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, Laura said one must be twelve years old to be legible—to the +Club, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Then if I'm not too old, I'm old enough to belong! But if I were you, +I'd quit the L's and try something else very like it, with an E +before," suggested Uncle Fred. +</P> + +<P> +"Eligible, of course—how stupid of me!" +</P> + +<P> +On the way upstairs that night Alene paused and gave way to a fit of +laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the fun now?" called Uncle Fred from his cosy position by the +table. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems so funny to think that I," here came a series of mirthful +sounds, "to think that you would think that I was afraid of you." +</P> + +<P> +Uncle Fred's chair was overturned by his energetic uprising in pursuit +of the little tease, who heeded the warning and was safely out of sight +on the landing, with one parting giggle as the door of her room was +shut with a resounding clap. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GUMDROPS +</H3> + +<P> +"Not a red gum drop was cast!" cried Laura as she jumped lightly from +the garden wall and joined Alene, who for some time had been pacing the +orchard impatiently with Prince jumping beside her. +</P> + +<P> +Alene's look of pleased anticipation changed to dismay. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm so sorry!" +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Uncle Fred would have given me money to buy some, if I knew you +wanted them!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura's laugh rang out merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Alene, it's <I>votes</I>! We don't buy them like 'lectioneers do—we +get enough to give each member one red and one white gumdrop. Those +who are for a candidate put in a white and those against her a red!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene danced with joy. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'm elected!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are now a member of the Happy-Go-Luckys and your name is duly +inscribed on the books!" said Laura, in her judicial tone. +</P> + +<P> +"And they all put in the white drops! How lovely of them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, all but Ivy; she put hers in her mouth to taste it, and before +she knew, it was gone!" +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me, and what did she do then?" +</P> + +<P> +"She whispered it to me at the last minute, just after I got out the +little mustard box where we cast our votes, and so I allowed her to put +in a button instead. After it was over, some of us wanted to save the +gumdrops for the first meeting you attended, but those greedy +youngsters had devoured 'em all but two which I managed to keep." +</P> + +<P> +Laura pressed into Alene's hand a small tinsel-paper package. +</P> + +<P> +"You must eat half of each," said Alene, wisely surmising that it was +Laura's own portion that had been saved, and resolving to leave for +another day the blue ribbon-tied box of candy Uncle Fred had given her +that morning, which she had just placed in the grass at the foot of a +tree, awaiting Laura's arrival. +</P> + +<P> +Seated on the green beneath the trees, they ate the gumdrops, whose +scarcity perhaps made them seem the more delicious, and exchanged +confidences concerning themselves and the Happy-Go-Luckys. +</P> + +<P> +Alene, who was an only child, envied Laura's claim to two small sisters +and a baby brother and one brother older than herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Ivy is the only girl in the Bonner family." +</P> + +<P> +"Like me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not quite—she has six brothers, four of them older than she is!" +</P> + +<P> +"Gracious, I'd be lost in such a crowd of boys!" +</P> + +<P> +As for the Club, it had formal meetings when an excursion to the woods +or an exhibition was in view; then verbal notice was given to assemble +at the home of one of the members. The other meetings were when two or +more members met by chance or appointment for any object, whether +study, play or conversation. +</P> + +<P> +"So you see this is a meeting of two members, and I think I see a +third," concluded the President, Miss Lee, craning her neck in the +direction of the side street. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Lol," cried a shrill voice, and Ivy's curly head peeped over +the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go and help her over," said Laura, rising quickly. As the wall +was not very high, Alene idly wondered why such an active-looking girl +should need assistance in scaling it. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I never dreamed she was lame," she murmured a moment later, +swallowing something that seemed to choke her, when she saw Ivy coming +forward on a pair of slender crutches. She strove to hide her emotion +as she hurried down the grassy terrace to greet her. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy may have noticed her start of surprise, for she said with a queer, +unchildish laugh, as though she had read her thought: +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't know I used these," with an expressive glance toward the +crutches. "You see I kept 'em on the other side of the wall the other +day. I wanted you to treat me as you would if I were like the rest, +not handled gently and pitied!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene tried to keep the pity from her countenance, for Ivy's words made +her feel worse than ever. She wished she could run away somewhere, for +a while, to have a good cry. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't mind her, Alene! I do believe she talks that way to make us +feel bad," said Laura in what Alene thought a very unfeeling manner; +but she learned later that Laura's seeming harshness toward Ivy was +only a cloak to hide her sympathy, and that it gave her an influence +over the child who would otherwise use her infirmity to tyrannize over +the others. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy threw her crutches on the grass and sank down, saying, +</P> + +<P> +"Horrid things! I hate them—and it makes me feel so mean to have to +beg to get them back when the kids take 'em away from me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do they do that?" inquired Alene, indignantly. +</P> + +<P> +"They have to do it sometimes, for she beats them with the crutches," +explained Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the only way I can reach 'em!" said her friend, in self-defense. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy was an elfin-looking creature with sparkling black eyes that seemed +to see right through one; her small head was covered with a thick mop +of curls of a blackness that, in some lights, had blue and green shades +like the plumage of a bird; her wasted cheeks and brown, claw-like +hands told pathetically of weary months on a sick-bed, which indeed she +had only recently quitted, as Alene learned later. +</P> + +<P> +"What a lovely sash you have on," she exclaimed, with a sudden change +of mood, holding up an end of Alene's plaid sash. "It's like a baby +rainbow stolen from a fairy sky and hung 'round your waist." +</P> + +<P> +Alene glanced at her sash with a new interest. She cared little for +pretty clothes and seldom noticed what those around her wore; that she +was dressed finer and more fashionably than Laura and Ivy had not once +occurred to her. +</P> + +<P> +"That sounds like poetry," she observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she writes poetry, too!" Laura returned proudly. "You must let +Alene see some of it—and she keeps a book where she writes all about +the sky when the sun sets—she sees lovely rivers and golden hills and +ladies riding in skiffs—" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Lol!" cried Ivy with a hectic color reddening her cheeks. "It's +just silly stuff, you know, that I put down to pass away the time when +I'm laid up," she explained. "I thought of it one evening when the +boarders were at supper; the boys were eating and mother of course too +busy to stay with me. Hugh brought in my supper on a tray and hurried +back to the dining-room and I sat there alone and ate my meal and +watched the sky from my couch, which was drawn up close to the window. +What wonderful things I saw then!" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me about them, won't you?" implored Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"There were great purple mountains and emerald lakes and wonderful +golden caves—people, too—angels with harps flying through the white +clouds, ladies with crowns and long robes gliding along and little +children swimming the river on the back of great swans like in the +fairy books. Every evening it changed and at last I commenced to write +about the different things I saw each day, and so I called it my Sunset +Book. As for sunrises—" Ivy gave a sudden arch glance at Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"Lazybones, I don't believe you ever saw one!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd love to see your book!" cried Alene; "and there are some beautiful +sunsets looking from the Tower!" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy glanced up toward the tower of the Big House that rose almost as +high as a church spire from the top of the hill. +</P> + +<P> +"I do believe one could see behind the hills over there in the west, to +the other side of the world from those windows," she exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you and Laura come up this evening and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Won't your folks object?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's no folks there but Uncle Fred and he's no objector. Promise +to come and see how far we can see!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Over the hills and far away.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we promise," cried Laura. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE GARDEN OF GOOD INTENTIONS +</H3> + +<P> +"Oh, Lol, I could hardly keep my face straight! To think we were +actually invited up to the Big House really and truly, and were right +there where we had so often pretended to live, you as Countess Terilla +and I the Lady Clare-Come-to-See; I could hardly make this face of mine +behave." +</P> + +<P> +"Your eyes just shook inside; little, shining imps danced in them, +wanting to come out. Yes, I saw them and—" +</P> + +<P> +"And I was so glad of the chance to giggle out loud when you said +something that wasn't at all funny but gave us a chance to pretend it +was. I could have screamed!" +</P> + +<P> +"After all, it wasn't near so fine as our palace, with its red room and +its green room and its blue room with everything to match." +</P> + +<P> +"But that library was beautiful. You couldn't help but see lovely +things if you were writing there!" +</P> + +<P> +"Alene is such a dear little thing! She never gave a thought to her +home being so much finer than ours; she only thought of giving us a +good time!" said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"She's no snob! She thinks people are what they are in themselves!" +</P> + +<P> +"And thoughts are the most precious things—that's the reason she +wanted to give you the pleasure of seeing His Gorgeous Lordship from +the tower window!" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Ivy was silent; her gaze was far away; again she was +looking from that little narrow window so close to the clouds. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know, Lol, if I owned the Big House I'd live in the tower when +I wasn't in the library. But it wasn't me in particular, Lol, that +Alene wanted. To her I'm only a lesser planet when you're near—it's +hearts that count!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she's so good-hearted that you forget her pretty clothes and rich +relations, and come to lock on her as just a little girl like the +others!" Ivy smiled indulgently as Laura applied her remarks to Alene, +and the unconscious Laura continued, "At first when I proposed that she +should join the Happy-Go-Luckys, it was just because she looked so +lonely with only the dog to play with, in that great house with its +acres of grounds; and when she said her Uncle called her 'Peggy-Alone', +I could see the tears back of her smile and it came to me, 'what if +Nettie or Lois were to be left all alone?' They're so used to tagging +after me all their lives, you know, and so I just asked her in, though +I was dreadfully afraid you would all be against it." +</P> + +<P> +"And so we were! Just because we knew she was rich and might be in the +way when we wanted some fun, or would look down on us because we're +poor. That," glancing at her crutches, "makes some people mild and +sweet-tempered, they say, but it only makes me hatefuller and selfisher +every day! Lol, I'm going to tell you something so you'll see what a +selfish thing I am. I swallowed that gumdrop on purpose so I wouldn't +have to vote! I didn't have the courage to vote against her because +you were so eager to have her join." +</P> + +<P> +"And then you got sorry as you always do." +</P> + +<P> +"No, don't give me too much credit! I got ashamed when I compared my +conduct with others; but you were unselfish—you didn't stop to +consider the disadvantages to yourself. You only thought of her." +</P> + +<P> +While Laura, with reddened cheeks, disclaimed this with as much +earnestness as if taxed with a crime, Ivy went on unheeding: +</P> + +<P> +"I thought it over this morning when I took out my Sunset Book, and +instead of writing down what we saw from the tower window—which no one +<I>could</I> describe, no painter nor poet that ever lived, glimpses of +glory that God lets shine down, sometimes, when the Pearly Gate is +opened just a narrow chink (to let some little white angel in perhaps) +and the clouds reflect it, just as the river does the trees, you +know—well, I wrote this instead!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura took the precious book and perused it seriously. +</P> + +<P> +"May I keep it and read it to Alene? I know she'd enjoy it!" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy demurred, but at last consented and on Laura's next meeting with +Alene she brought forth a green paper-covered copy-book and, with a few +preliminary remarks, proceeded to read: +</P> + +<P> +"'Once upon a time—'" +</P> + +<P> +"It begins all right, anyway," interrupted Alene, settling herself +comfortably against a tree, and half closing her eyes, as if to hear +the better. +</P> + +<P> +"'Once upon a time,'" Laura's voice went on, "'I wandered far away +until I came to a narrow path, on one side of which was a beautiful +garden blooming with flowers and fruit, with gay birds skimming through +the air, while on the other side the grass and flowers lay withered, +the trees leaned over, leafless and dead, and perched in their branches +were mute, broken-winged birds. I went on until I came to the Witch of +the Woods, who stood leaning on her hazel staff, with her red cloak +wrapped around her, and her long, silvery hair falling, tangled, en her +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"'What ails the little maiden that she looks so puzzled? Perhaps I can +smooth the wrinkles from her brow!' she said in a harsh, cracked voice. +</P> + +<P> +"'Oh, wise woman!' I cried, for I felt so badly about what I had seen +that I never thought of being afraid—'please tell me the mystery of +the blighted garden!' +</P> + +<P> +"'My child, you have come through the Garden of Good Intentions—on one +side are those which never came to blossom but died in the bud, whilst +on the other are those which sprouted and grew and bloomed in beauty +year after year, evergreen—' +</P> + +<P> +"'And the voiceless birds?' +</P> + +<P> +"'The mute birds of the broken wings are kind deeds, thought of, but +left undone, while those performed multiply and fly, gay singing-birds, +making many hearts glad!'" +</P> + +<P> +The reader's voice ceased; the book fell in her lap; a silence +followed; Prince lay blinking in the sunshine; the birds and insects +gave no token of their presence—even the leaves of the trees hung +motionless. +</P> + +<P> +The girls, sitting in the shade side by side, vaguely realized the +calm; the heat gave them only a sense of well-being; their thoughts +were at first too shadowy for words. +</P> + +<P> +Alene was thinking of Ivy's story. It reminded her of the text she had +heard the previous Sunday in the little vine-covered church on the +crest of the hill; "Be ye kind one to another, merciful, forgiving one +another even as God hath forgiven you in Christ." She wished that she +too might go through the Garden of Good Intentions whilst flowers +sprang up and birds sang sweetly round about her. But what could she +do, what deed of kindness perform, however small, that might perhaps +bloom as a wild flower by the wayside to gladden the passer-by? +</P> + +<P> +She gave a start when with a sudden bark Prince leaped up and ran to +chase some stray chickens; a breeze blew up till every leaf and blade +of grass quivered with joy; a bird twittered softly and was answered by +his mate and presently from each bush and tree came the voices of its +lodgers in a song of praise. +</P> + +<P> +Then Laura spoke, showing that her thoughts had divined Alene's in a +sympathetic wave. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, what do you think, Alene, of a 'Kind Deeds' article in the +Happy-Go-Luckys' constitution, pledging each member to the sending out +of little birds with strong wings that can fly?" +</P> + +<P> +"And planting seeds to spring up in fragrant flowers? Oh, Laura!" +cried Alene, "that would be beautiful!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A DISGUSTED POET +</H3> + +<P> +When Laura rashly undertook the rôle of stage manager, or to say more +truly, when the position devolved upon her as a matter of course, +because she was the president of the Happy-Go-Luckys, she accepted the +honor and the duties in blithe confidence, never dreaming of +difficulties. +</P> + +<P> +For a time everything went smoothly, and that lively sympathy for +others in like position which marked her after years would never, +perhaps, have been called forth was it not for her discovery one day in +the attic of an old reader which contained something she thought could +be used as a dialogue in the coming exhibition. +</P> + +<P> +It was a poem in which each of four children expresses a cherished +ambition to the mother, who comments on the wish with approval or +censure. +</P> + +<P> +The piece required two boys, and Laura's brother Mat and his chum, Hugh +Bonner, were called upon, and after some grumbling on their part and as +much coaxing on the part of the girls they "came in to help the +Happy-Go-Luckys out," as they expressed it. +</P> + +<P> +They were assigned their characters; Laura took the rôle of mother, +giving the girls' parts to Alene and Ivy. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"I ask for beauty, for an eye<BR> +Bright as the stars in yonder sky;<BR> +For tresses on the air to fling<BR> +And put to shame the raven's wing;<BR> +Cheeks where the lily and the rose<BR> +Are blended in a sweet repose;<BR> +For pearly teeth and coral lip,<BR> +Tempting the honey bee to sip,<BR> +And for a fairy foot as light<BR> +As is a young gazelle's in flight,<BR> +And then a small, white, tapering hand—<BR> +I'd reign, a beauty, in the land!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This was Alene's verse, but Ivy read it over and over instead of her +own, and the oftener she read, the more discontented she grew. +</P> + +<P> +"Why should Alene wish for 'a fairy foot, as light as is the young +gazelle's in flight' when she has one already—two of 'em for that +matter?" she thought. "The other wish is fine, I know—'a noble gift,' +the mother says, but I don't care, I can't do justice to it as I could +to the other! Of course, I don't care much for the 'eye, bright as the +stars,' and all that rubbish, but I can imagine being light and gay and +dancing!" +</P> + +<P> +Although Ivy learned her part she went through it at rehearsal in such +a spiritless way that Laura could not have failed to remark it if she +were not occupied with so many other things. +</P> + +<P> +When Alene's turn came and she stepped forward rather timidly to +recite, Ivy listened eagerly to her rendition. It proved to be +letter-perfect but expressionless. Ivy was justified in thinking that +she herself could have done much better. +</P> + +<P> +"She says it just in the way you might wish for a piece of plum cake or +another gum-drop," she mused bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +No one suspected her dissatisfaction except Hugh, who someway +understood all the moods of the frail little sister whom he worshiped. +</P> + +<P> +In her sick spells, dating from a fall five years before, no one could +move her so tenderly, nor place her in so comfortable a position as +this sturdy lad of fifteen. +</P> + +<P> +He resented Ivy's affliction even more than she did herself. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why it couldn't have been one of us big lubbers of boys +instead of her," he grumbled to his mother. "She seems to be made to +run and dance and play—almost to fly like a bird." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the Lord's will," returned Mrs. Bonner with a sigh. +</P> + +<P> +"Umph! I don't know! When doctors fail to cure a disease, it seems +pesky mean to blame it on the Lord! If we were only rich enough, I bet +we could find some clever doctor who could make her O.K.! Why couldn't +it have been a rich girl instead of her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Hugh! That is wrong! Why need it be any poor little creature?" +said the mother, who thought to herself that in this case money would +indeed be a desirable thing; she never envied the rich except when she +thought of Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +But the boy, with all youth's revolt, hated the seeming injustice and +his resentment often extended to those whose wealth made the difference +so marked. +</P> + +<P> +When Ivy, trying to conceal her own disapproval, spoke of Alene's +joining the Happy-Go-Luckys, Hugh was opposed to it. +</P> + +<P> +"I know just how it will be, and you girls are makin' a big guess when +you take her in," he had warned. +</P> + +<P> +"But she seemed so lonely, and Laura wanted it so much—" +</P> + +<P> +"So did that city chap who used to go with us boys. He looked all +right, but my, nothin' suited him. He laughed at our dug-bait, and +fishin' rods, and our old-fashioned skiff and things, and talked about +his pa's yacht and motor-cars and his ma's diamonds, until we were sick +of 'em all!" +</P> + +<P> +"But Alene is different," replied Ivy, and her brother said no more but +wore a look of "just wait and you'll find out that I told you so," that +was exasperating. +</P> + +<P> +As time passed and he heard nothing but praises of Alene, and saw for +himself her unassuming manners and her evident good will, he was +obliged to confess that she was a good little thing in spite of her +citified dress and her haughty relations; but in this dialogue affair +he thought it too bad that the fortunate little maid, who had +everything else, should stand in Ivy's way. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give a hint to Laura," he suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, no, Hugh! Don't say a word to anyone! Not for the world!" +</P> + +<P> +"After all, your part is fine. The other is silly stuff—sounds like +some empty-headed thing!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Hugh, it's beautiful! Anyway, I could just enter into part of it! +I'm tired of being tied to crutches and people thinkin', because of +them, one never even wants any foolishness and fun, like other girls!" +</P> + +<P> +Hugh looked troubled. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a wonder Laura didn't think you might—" +</P> + +<P> +"Laura didn't think anything about it! She just saw it was about a +poet, and so the very thing for me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe Alene would—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know she'd give it up if she knew I wanted it! She's an +unselfish little thing. She took it because it was all that was left +when Laura disposed of the 'soulful poet' part," Ivy said. Then after +a silence, "I wonder why bad health makes me cranky and selfish and +envious, instead of patient and meek, like the little girls in story +books!" +</P> + +<P> +Hugh smiled. He couldn't imagine his sprightly sister in the story +book rôle of uncomplaining heroine, and he wouldn't wish to have her +so, not for the world. Ivy was Ivy with all her faults; he wouldn't +wish to have her otherwise except a happier Ivy, with the blessing of +health and strength, flitting gaily through life, having part in the +work and the play of the world. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A SCORNFUL BEAUTY +</H3> + +<P> +Ivy could not have complained of Alene's want of animation had she +followed her home after rehearsal one afternoon a few days later. +</P> + +<P> +She entered the library, threw her hat on a chair and herself upon a +snug little sofa that stood invitingly in the embrasure of a window, +which, by drawing the crimson curtains, could be shut off from the rest +of the room, leaving a cosy den—her favorite place for dreaming and +reading, where her eyes, straying from her book, rested on an +ever-varying picture of sky and river, which the window framed. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, not waiting to shut herself away, and paying no attention to +the smiling landscape, she opened a sheet of foolscap paper that she +had held clasped tightly in her hand, and gravely perused the lines of +Ivy's angular writing which covered it. A similar sheet had been given +to the other actors in the dialogue so that each might learn his part +at leisure. +</P> + +<P> +"'I ask for beauty—' yes, you little numskull, ask for it,—that's all +people think you're good for! Laura, of course, never thought of it +that way but others will! And I don't wish for it, I'd rather be a +poet any day! +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'I ask the poet's gift, the lyre,<BR> +With skillful hand to sweep each wire,<BR> +I'd pour my burning thoughts in song,<BR> +In lays deep, passionate and strong,<BR> +Till heart should thrill at every word<BR> +As mind is thrilled at song of bird!<BR> +Oh, I would die and leave some trace<BR> +That earth had been my dwelling place,<BR> +Would live in hearts forevermore<BR> +When this frail, fitful life is o'er!<BR> +Oh, for the gifted poet's power—<BR> +This is my wish, be this my dower!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Alene jumped to her feet, and standing in the window facing the room, +recited the words with a dash and a fire that brought forth a "Bravo!" +from Uncle Fred, who on his way through the hall had heard her voice +and, stopping softly at the door, witnessed her performance. +</P> + +<P> +It formed a pretty picture, the little tragedienne, standing where the +crimson draperies made an effective background for her slender, +white-robed figure, with the long strands of rumpled brown hair +straying over her shoulder, and her earnest, gray eyes deepening to +black or sparkling into blue, her whole face lit with passion. +</P> + +<P> +"You do your part well, Peggy," said the young man. +</P> + +<P> +Alene's blushes of pleasure faded suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"But it's not my part, it's Ivy's! Why does everyone think when you're +rich that's all you are good for or can wish for! This is my part," +and she pointed tragically at the detested verse. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, I see," said Uncle Fred, glancing at the lines. "It's a pretty +thing. 'Tis a pity to have it spoiled, as I fear it will be, since you +dislike it. "Why not suggest a change?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid Laura would feel hurt; besides it is more suitable to Ivy +as she is a poet!" +</P> + +<P> +"The very reason she may wish for something else!" +</P> + +<P> +"Anyway, she said the verse in a sing-song style that just spoiled it!" +declared Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor stage manager! It's almost as bad as being the leader of a +choir! Pity Laura's not a mind reader! But why not be perfectly +honest with her, and tell her how you feel about it; perhaps Ivy has no +preference in the matter." +</P> + +<P> +Alene thought that was out of the question; besides it would be selfish +to want Ivy's part, just because she herself preferred it; poor Ivy, +who, though so clever, was never quite happy. +</P> + +<P> +"Then act on the Golden Rule; but don't spoil it by murdering the +dialogue in revenge," said Uncle Fred. To which Alene assented, though +she declared it was very hard. +</P> + +<P> +"Since Laura's stars refuse to shine, why doesn't she call on me? Now, +I rather fancy the part," said the young man; and taking the paper with +an air of solemnity that the twinkling of his eyes belied, he proceeded +to read the verse with an exaggerated air, emphasizing the wrong words +and using gestures which seemed so funny to Alene that she threw +herself on the rug and screamed with laughter. The noise attracted +Mrs. Major and Kizzie, who reached the door in time to witness the +bewildering wind-up, as the actor, dwelling softly on the words, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"And for a fairy foot as light<BR> +As is the young gazelle's in flight."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +gave his right foot an upward movement bringing his toe in contact with +the chandelier, and then executed a backward kicking act I am sure no +gazelle, old or young, would wish to emulate. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THEATRICALS +</H3> + +<P> +The rehearsals went on. Alene and Ivy recited their parts in the +dialogue in the same listless way, secretly criticising each other's +rendition, but Laura, busy in directing and arranging so many things, +failed to notice the discontent of those two important members of the +Company. +</P> + +<P> +It was only their love of the manager that kept them silent, and even +then it was a hard task, considering Alene's ingenuousness and Ivy's +impulsiveness, both traits alike foes to concealment. +</P> + +<P> +At the last meeting before the great event, everything seemed to go +wrong; the little ones forgot their lines or refused to obey the stage +manager, declaring she was cranky, and threatening to throw up their +parts and go out on the hillside to play; the boys were in a +mischievous mood and teased their sisters unmercifully; Laura was on +the point of tears, which fact Alene discovered by her unusual rigidity +of countenance. +</P> + +<P> +Laura crying would be something terrible! Alene had seen the others +whimper and complain. She had been present when Ivy, in her sudden +fierce passions of anger, would attack the little ones viciously with +her crutches, unless they had previously stolen them away; in which +event she would gnash her teeth, and stamp her feet, in powerless rage, +and only Laura could bring peace by banishing her tormentors. But no +matter what happened, Laura seemed a rock upon which to lean, and if, +in adjusting a grievance, she sometimes failed to use tact, and the +remedy proved worse than the disease, they knew in their hearts she was +acting in good faith, trying to do what was right. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore it behooved Alene upon this occasion to redouble her efforts +to be helpful and cheering. +</P> + +<P> +She won over the babies by promising them each a beautiful doll out of +the trunkful she had at home; whereupon the big boys promised to be +good if she would give them one also, but Alene took their chaffing +good-naturedly and things began to proceed more smoothly. +</P> + +<P> +The last thing on the program, "The Wishes," was called. +</P> + +<P> +Laura, strange to say, for the first time found fault. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Ivy, <I>do</I> put a little animation into it! One would think you +were delivering a funeral oration," she cried testily. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy's nerves, overwrought by the preceding irritations, gave way: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, no wonder, for I hate it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hate that? Why, it's the finest thing in the whole piece; even the +mother says 'a noble gift,' while she chides Alene for wanting mere +beauty!" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy's thin cheeks were like crimson roses. "I'd rather be a dancing +beauty than a broken-winged robin!" she declared defiantly. +</P> + +<P> +"And I'd rather be a poet than go mincing through the world with just a +pretty face!" exclaimed Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Alene, would you really like my part?" cried the astonished Ivy. +"Why didn't you say so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, because I thought anyone would prefer it to that detestable +beauty part! Why didn't you speak out?" +</P> + +<P> +Now it would have taken quite a long explanation, each having, as we +know, several reasons for not having spoken, so they only looked at +each other and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +Laura glanced from one speaker to the other, her look of surprise +changing to compunction. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, girls, why didn't I ask you which verse you preferred instead of +portioning it off as I thought you would like?" she queried ruefully. +While they sought to reassure her, Mrs. Lee entered the room, and +learning the cause of the excitement, said: +</P> + +<P> +"That's just like Laura! The other morning I heard a great uproar. In +I came to find Laura helping to dress Lois, insisting upon putting a +certain shoe on her foot, while she cried against it. I investigated +and found—" +</P> + +<P> +"That I was bent on cramming her fat little footsie into a shoe two +sizes too small for her—I had picked up Elmer's shoe in mistake!" +</P> + +<P> +Although Ivy and Alene were somewhat embarrassed when they rehearsed +the dialogue after exchanging rôles and did not render the new parts +with the power of which they were capable, the improvement was marked +and brought forth much applause, which however was not to be compared +with the hand clappings received the night of the performance—but that +is another story. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Bonner's double parlors were used, the front for the audience, +which filled the room. All of the boarders attended, and the neighbors +came, bringing their own chairs. The back parlor, ordinarily used as a +dining-room, was the stage, the sliding doors making a good substitute +for a curtain. +</P> + +<P> +Mat had a funny speech by way of introduction; then Lois was called for +a song about lovers meeting at the garden gate, which in her baby +English she rendered, "Meet me at the Garbage Gate." An original poem +by Laura was unexpectedly brought to light by a mischievous friend, and +read in a sing-song style by Lafe Bonner: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"That poor old slate<BR> +I always did hate,<BR> +But I had to use it<BR> +At any rate.<BR> +One day by accident (?)<BR> +It fell on the floor,<BR> +It broke to pieces,<BR> +And I saw it no more."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Fortunately the author's blushes were hidden along with herself back in +a corner of the stage. "It's the only 'pome' I ever executed and I +felt like executing Lafe when I heard him reciting it," she explained +later. +</P> + +<P> +Nettie, looking more than ever like a great waxen doll in her pink +gingham and golden curls, brought down the house by her recitation: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Little Bobby, come to daddy!<BR> +Holdy up his tiny paddy,<BR> +Did he hurt his blessed heady?<BR> +Darling, come and get some bready,<BR> +Don'ty cry, poor little laddie,<BR> +Come and kiss his precious daddy."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Baby Elmer represented Bobby, and the little maid went through the +piece with appropriate gestures, unconscious of her audience and not +forgetting a word,—to the joy of her instructor, Laura, whose heart +beat nervously while she watched the performance. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Frederick Dawson and a few of his companions had come in rather +late and seats were found for them in the rear, as they refused to +allow any at the front to be vacated for them. It was just before the +doors opened on the great dialogue where Laura was the mother, in a +neat wrapper and gray wig and spectacles, standing in the midst of an +interesting family. The back of an easy chair served to support Ivy, +who was dressed in white, with red sash and hair ribbons. +</P> + +<P> +What spirit she put in her lines, all leading up to, and centering in, +the wish for the young gazelle's light footfall, the rest being only a +prelude to that! +</P> + +<P> +Then the other little white-robed girl from her seat in the big chair +rose to declare her wish. A color that was not all excitement glowed +in her cheeks, thrilling Uncle Fred with the conviction that the +Happy-Go-Luckys by banishing loneliness had brought the blessing of +health to Alene. +</P> + +<P> +It was her first appearance before the public, and the thought of it +had brought her much nervous apprehension that she might forget her +lines, falter, or even run away at the last moment. To perform even +before the other boys and girls at rehearsal had always brought a +preliminary nerve tension which she had tried to conceal. This, +however, was nothing compared with her dread of the great night when +she thought of facing a whole roomful of people; but now, strange to +say, all her tremors died away. She found it less difficult to recite +before the crowd than at rehearsal; she forgot herself in the joy of +her lines. That she recited even better, if anything, than when her +Uncle had overheard her in the library is all that need be said. +</P> + +<P> +When the ensuing applause died away and the doors refused to open +again, Uncle Fred noticed the lips of a small boy seated near him +puffed out in disdain. Stooping with a show of solicitude to learn the +cause, he heard him say to a companion: +</P> + +<P> +"'A lip to tempt the honey-bee to sip'—I bet she never felt a stinger +or she wouldn't wish for such a silly thing!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why that Dawson girl wants the poet's gift, 'the liar!' +Do all poets tell whoppers, I wonder?" said the other boy, looking up +into Uncle Fred's face with wide, wondering eyes. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PICNICKING +</H3> + +<P> +Such a merry crowd of Happy-Go-Luckys they were as they came marching +along the country road that summer day, wearing gay caps of +tissue-paper with floating streamers, while their brothers' hats were +decorated with rosettes of the same material. +</P> + +<P> +The day was a perfect one for their picnic; sudden, saucy breezes +tempered the warm atmosphere, making the paper ribbons dance merrily +around the heads of the girls. +</P> + +<P> +As they came along with dancing steps and smiling faces, and lips of +laughter and song, the sight of them was enough to lighten the heart of +an onlooker and bring to his mind the shepherds and shepherdesses of +old, who surely could not have been merrier nor a whit more picturesque. +</P> + +<P> +But suddenly the gay voices fell to murmurs. A whispered command was +borne along the line even to the last straggler. Laura's voice, low +but impressive, said, "Hats off!" and off came those gay bonnets and +the rosette-trimmed hats, and along the road the children went in +solemn silence, with stately step; for over the hill alongside the road +they saw a neat little house whose upper windows overlooked the road, +all the blinds upstairs and down were closed, and on the door swung +long bands of black crêpe. +</P> + +<P> +It was this sad emblem which had curbed so suddenly the mirth of the +Happy-Go-Luckys, and made them pay respect in their own childish but +expressive way to the grief of the mourners; and it was not until the +little house had been left far behind that the awe was lifted from +their spirits, and the joy of childhood reasserted itself. +</P> + +<P> +They had reached a road bordered with trees that almost met above them, +forming a long green arbor into which the sunlight stole through every +little chink, and Ivy was moving along almost forgetful of her +crutches, her eyes intent on the green loveliness of the place and the +pretty pink parasol with white lace trimmings which Alene carried, when +suddenly the latter gave a shrill scream and threw the parasol away +from her as far as she could. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately the others gathered around, while she stood grimacing, +saying nothing but "Ugh! Ugh!" to all their questions. They were +greatly puzzled, until someone picked up the pink parasol at which its +owner pointed so tragically, to find that all the fuss was caused by +two caterpillars which had fallen from the trees. +</P> + +<P> +"'Fraid cat!" said Hugh, contemptuously; "I've seen little tads of four +and five let 'em crawl up their bare arms!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not a 'fraid cat! But those ugly, crawly things make me feel +creepy!" Alene returned with crimsoning cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Those ugly things, as you call them, turn into beautiful butterflies!" +returned Hugh, in a tone that to Alene sounded offensively +preacher-like. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, let them wait until they are butterflies before perching on my +parasol," she retorted. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just one's nerves! They <I>are</I> ugly things, and Alene's not used +to seeing them," said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"And they say the great Napoleon couldn't bear to touch velvet, and he +was no coward!" cried Ivy, who felt that her brother was often unjust +to Alene. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of their protests, Hugh had his own opinion in the matter. +There are some boys to whom Alene's timidity would have appealed, but +he was not one of that kind. He was the most outspoken and the least +gentle of all the boys with whom the Happy-Go-Luckys associated. But +his downright honesty and fearlessness, his renown among the boys as an +athlete, and especially his devotion to his little sister which Laura +dilated upon, and of which new proofs were daily shown, had awakened +Alene's admiration, and made her the more resent his calling her a +coward. +</P> + +<P> +"I've stumbled over my toe!" wailed little Lois, carrying the stubbed +toe and tearstained face to Laura for repairs. +</P> + +<P> +Mat ran to stroke the offending stone with an exaggerated air of +sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +"Naughty girl! The poor stone was standing in the road, never moving +until you came along and gave it a kick," he said reproachfully, at +which they all laughed, and the caterpillar affair was forgotten for +the time by all except Alene, who had picked up her parasol and walked +along with an air of unconcern that gave her friends no hint of the +tears so bravely forced back. +</P> + +<P> +"'Fraid cat!" her thoughts ran; "why couldn't Hugh have been polite +enough to keep from that slighting remark or at least laugh +good-naturedly with the rest, and paid no more attention to it, instead +of making so much of such a trivial affair!" +</P> + +<P> +She felt at first that the day was spoiled so far as she was concerned; +but the gay chatter of the others, the new experience of tramping the +country paths, climbing fences and crossing runs, discovering new +beauties at every step, made her presently forget her chagrin. +</P> + +<P> +As the day wore on, the smaller children cast wistful glances toward +the baskets, and even went so far as to peek through any little opening +to make sure that certain favorite morsels, which they had seen put in, +had not mysteriously disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +"Laura, you and mother must have loaded this basket with cobblestones," +cried Mat with a groan, leaning sideways almost to the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Cobblestones! You take very good care not to call them that when +you're begging mother to cut her fresh pies! I'll tell her what you +call 'em in company!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's funny how heavy this basket's grown in the last half hour!" +</P> + +<P> +"I've noticed they always do grow heavier toward noon," commented Hugh. +"Can't we lighten 'em some way?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't we? Just let me try! Keep off, Nettie, or I'll eat you up—I'm +as hungry as Red Riding-hood's famous—or infamous—bear!" +</P> + +<P> +"It was a wolf!" declared Nettie, in the tone of one who knew. +</P> + +<P> +"So much the better to eat you up, my honey!" Mat smacked his lips +voraciously, displaying two rows of firm white teeth, and made a dart +at the little girl. She ran screaming to Laura, who, Ivy often +declared, was the children's real and truly Noah's ark of refuge. +</P> + +<P> +Everybody was hungry and they only waited to reach a suitable place for +lunch. +</P> + +<P> +"I know the very spot," said Hugh, leading the way. +</P> + +<P> +"Behold a Moses to lead us out of the wilderness!" cried Mat. +</P> + +<P> +"And behold the Promised Land!" Ivy screamed in delight, as her brother +set his basket among the great knotted roots of a tree that helped to +shade a stretch of green-sward which extended gradually to the river. +</P> + +<P> +"This Moses remains to dine," said Hugh. +</P> + +<P> +The girls spread a white cloth on the ground and proceeded to unpack +the baskets. +</P> + +<P> +Although they had made frequent stops on the road, Laura feared the +walk had over-taxed Ivy's strength, and wished her to rest; but she +refused to be left out of any activity. She it was who sat, a spirit +of prodigality, in the midst of the baskets, dealing out the good +things one by one, while Alene and Laura arranged them artistically, +piling in the center a pyramid of fruit, and placing the cakes and pies +and pickles in the most tempting proximity, not forgetting sandwiches, +and plain bread and butter. Indeed, as Mat remarked when he came up +from the spring with a pail of cold water, "The very look of it was +enough to give an imaginative person the nightmare." +</P> + +<P> +"Then don't eat any of it, Mr. Matthew," cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank heaven, I'm not imaginative! I think I'll try a snack of that +jelly-roll," he returned, reaching for the cake in Ivy's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you won't! Why, even those greedy children haven't been +allowed a taste of anything, though it's a wonder their eyes have left +a morsel! What are you laughing at?" she inquired, as Mat's glance +strayed beyond her. +</P> + +<P> +Net waiting for an answer she turned her head to find her little +brother Claude standing at her shoulder, balancing in his out-stretched +palm a slice of brown bread from which he had just taken a huge bite, +whose buttered and jellied traces were seen on his plumped-out cheeks. +Not far away was Lois with a monster pickle. At a distance, with backs +discreetly turned, were two other small sinners whom Ivy eyed +suspiciously, and she turned at last with a hopeless shake of her head +to Laura, whom she suspected was to be blamed. But she was mistaken in +her surmise for Alene was the real offender. Not being used to the +always hungry state of a half dozen small brothers and sisters, she +could not withstand the children's pathetic glances. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't suppose it will spoil their appetite for dinner?" she +inquired anxiously, when the truth was disclosed. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't the faintest fear that it will," returned Ivy, in a dry tone. +</P> + +<P> +"The wisdom of the innocents! Wish I had tackled Alene instead of +you," deplored Mat. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment he was hailed by Hugh: +</P> + +<P> +"Come along, Mat! We boys are going to pick some wild strawberries for +dessert. I noticed some vines up there over the hill as we came along." +</P> + +<P> +"That will be lovely; run along, little boy," said Ivy, and Mat, with a +last despairing glance at the feast, was gone, leaving her free to +resume her task. +</P> + +<P> +Although there was quite a crowd, almost a dozen young people to feed, +the baskets seemed to disgorge enough for twenty. But then they were +Happy-Go-Lucky baskets! +</P> + +<P> +"Leagues and Clubs someway have a selfish sound—as though everyone +outside didn't count for anything," Ivy said one day. "We mustn't let +ourselves get narrow that way," and they did not, for as Laura remarked +later, "When it came to picnics and good times generally, the +Happy-Go-Luckys was very 'stretchible'—it took in all the kids!" +</P> + +<P> +While the girls proceeded blithely to get lunch, helped or hindered by +the younger children, loud voices were heard and presently a crowd of +ragged boys appeared on the upper road. +</P> + +<P> +The girls, expecting them to go on their way, paid no attention to +them, but the lads attracted by the bounteous display of dainties, at +once gave notice of the find, and with whoops of delight came running +down the hillside and attacked the spread. +</P> + +<P> +The girls were alarmed but stood their ground nobly. +</P> + +<P> +"You had better go! Hugh Bonner and the other boys will soon be here!" +said Laura warningly. +</P> + +<P> +"I've heard of the redoubtable Hughie—we ain't goin' to force our +company, we just want them cakes an' things! Come on, boys! Hurry!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura stood guard over the table and Ivy raised a crutch to strike the +foremost but both girls were swept aside. +</P> + +<P> +Some of the little ones turned to Laura for protection, while the +others ran screaming in the direction of the berry-patch, and a moment +later the berry-pickers were seen on the side of the hill. +</P> + +<P> +Hugh, being somewhat in advance, saw the whole engagement. +</P> + +<P> +When Laura and Ivy were routed, he noticed Alene turning as if for +flight. However, instead of running away as he had expected, she +stooped, picked up the pail of water left by Mat, and, turning back +with a sudden movement, dashed the fluid into the boys' faces. +</P> + +<P> +Choked and blinded by the unexpected assault, they fell back. +</P> + +<P> +The smallest boy, who had been in the rear, was the first to recover +from the sudden bath. With uplifted hand he made an angry dash at +Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you dare to strike that girl!" cried a boy who came running down +from the road. He evidently belonged to the gang but had only appeared +on the scene in time to witness their rout. He was a well-built lad of +fifteen, with a bearing that showed him to be above his associates, of +whom he proclaimed himself the leader by collaring the angry boy who +had made the attack on Alene. Then the berry-pickers came hurrying +along with cries of, "A rescue, a rescue!" and the strange boys fled, +leaving the girls mistresses of the field. +</P> + +<P> +Alene was surprised to find herself a heroine. The girls declared the +day lost but for her, and the boys, who had all witnessed the last of +the engagement, were loud in her praises. +</P> + +<P> +"I heard that big boy say you were a brave little thing and I agree +with him," declared Hugh, who had experienced a sudden compunction for +his hasty judgment in the caterpillar affair. +</P> + +<P> +Whereupon the last vestige of Alene's resentment vanished. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'm entitled to some of the glory," remarked Mat modestly, +joining the group around the re-arranged feast. "Didn't I, with +remarkable foresight, provide the pail of water for Alene to drown the +enemy in?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TISSUE-PAPER HATS +</H3> + +<P> +Blame it all on those tissue-paper hats; the surprise and horror of +good Mrs. Ramsey when she beheld Alene Dawson among that madcap crowd, +skipping along gaily intent on her play, unobserving the pained +expression of the portly lady who was coming up the other side of the +street. Mrs. Ramsey had stopped suddenly, "so flustrated by the +sight," as she said later, that she had not the strength to hail Alene +and when her breath came it was too late, the happy crowd had passed +from sight around the corner leading to the fields, and her feeble, +"Why, Alene Dawson, I'll tell your Uncle about this!" sounded no +farther than her own ears. +</P> + +<P> +Panting with indignation and the heat of the day, she resumed her way +up the steep street and in due time reached her home, a showy, buff +brick house with fancy turrets and pointed roofs and tiny windows with +wooden ornamentations, that gave warning of the interior, where none of +the rooms was of good size or well proportioned. Most of the space on +the first floor was taken by the reception hall which was not often +used and the whole gave the impression of being built to show off the +hall, of which its owner was very proud. +</P> + +<P> +She was also very proud of her two daughters, Hermione and Vera, whom +she found on this occasion sitting in the study, a tiny alcove on the +second story, which overlooked the garden. They were apparently deep +in the mysteries of a French grammar which Vera had seized on hearing +the click of the gate announcing Mrs. Ramsey's return, while Hermione +busied herself in hiding under the cushion of her chair two borrowed +books of fairy tales which their mother had denounced and forbidden and +banned and would have burned with a zeal like to that which animated +the burners of the witches. +</P> + +<P> +"When I was your age I never cared for reading. I knew most books were +lies from beginning to end. You couldn't hire me to read about goblins +and witches," she often declared. +</P> + +<P> +"What a dull, tiresome girl mamma must have been," said Vera in a low +aside. +</P> + +<P> +"But she didn't have to play exercises on the piano!" returned Hermione. +</P> + +<P> +"No, nor try to <I>parlez vous</I> with a gibbering foreigner." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see any use for foreign babbling. As the nurse in the French +tale says to the little girl who is studying English, 'Since the <I>bon +dieu</I> wrote the Bible in French, it shows that he thought it good +enough for anybody,'" said Hermione, laughing, and Vera continued, +</P> + +<P> +"Grandpa was too poor to pay for extras, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +"I almost wish we could say the same of Pa Ramsey, only I'd hate to be +poor—I don't see how poor people can stand it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, they are used to it. They don't mind it," returned Vera with a +yawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Tissue-paper hats!" they cried when their fond parent, sinking on a +lounge, had recovered sufficient breath to relate her adventure; +"Tissue-paper hats!" +</P> + +<P> +Hermione's thoughts flew to her own room where, reposing in a box, was +her best hat, a huge affair of fine white straw, with ribbons and +flowers galore, whose glories made Alene's headgear appear the more +offensive. She was wishing she had been along with Alene, wearing her +own hat, of course, until her mother went on to say: +</P> + +<P> +"That wasn't the worst of it! What can Frederick Dawson mean to allow +Alene to associate with the town children!" +</P> + +<P> +"Town children, mamma! Do you mean from the poorhouse?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Miss Density, mamma means that Lee girl and Ivy Bonner and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, them! They go to our room! That Bonner girl is awfully bright +but so sarcastic, and Laura Lee is all right!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Ramsey shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"This comes of the public schools, where the president's child is made +to rub shoulders with the miner's!" +</P> + +<P> +"And the miner's child often beats him in his lessons and the rest of +the scholars are apt to remark and remember it," said Hermione. "Only +for that, the rich boys could pose as being extra smart!" +</P> + +<P> +"I should have got you girls a governess only papa said he couldn't +possibly afford it, as times are dull; when the children are grown it's +embarrassing to know how to meet their former schoolmates!" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing easier! Just turn your shoulder or look straight ahead!" +Vera stood up, and, using a chair to represent the offending party, +illustrated her remarks with appropriate gestures. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but the girls aren't like that chair. They wouldn't be sat upon +so easily!" exclaimed Hermione. +</P> + +<P> +"They would understand the next time unless they were unusually dense," +retorted Vera. +</P> + +<P> +Hermione laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"I can imagine I see you trying to cut Ivy Bonner that way! She would +toss up her head and give you the 'icy stare'. As for Laura, she +wouldn't understand; she'd only think it a pity you were so +near-sighted!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, girls, don't get to quarreling," interrupted their mother. +"I'll make it a point to warn Alene's uncle. I'm sure her mother would +have collapsed had she been in my place to-day! I'm afraid the Dawsons +will be vexed because I've not had her over here to get better +acquainted with you girls!" +</P> + +<P> +"You have asked her often enough, dear knows, and she never came, yet +she seems very intimate with those other girls!" commented Hermione. +</P> + +<P> +"I admire her taste," said Vera. "It's all because her mother's not +here to look after her. Some men are queer. Very likely her uncle +never sees the difference between those town girls and others!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what difference is there, except that Ivy and Laura are more +clever than the average?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hermione, you talk like a—a socialist! The barriers between the +classes must be preserved, especially in these times when education is +trying to sweep them away! Else where would we land?" +</P> + +<P> +"We, the royal family," muttered Hermione in an aside to Vera. "Don't +you remember Grandpa Green's prize pigs?" +</P> + +<P> +Vera pretended not to hear, and their mother, taking breath, continued, +"There's no use talking, girls, those children are not in the Dawson +set! The idea of wearing tissue-paper hats on the street in broad +daylight!" So saying, she sailed from the room and the hidden books +were promptly brought forth and the interrupted reading resumed. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ALENE'S VISITORS +</H3> + +<P> +"Alene, Mrs. Ramsey stopped in the office yesterday to lecture me on +the criminality of tissue-paper hats," said Uncle Fred at supper the +next evening. Although his voice was solemn, the twinkle in his eyes +told much to the observant Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Tissue-paper hats! Why, Uncle!" +</P> + +<P> +"She was surprised, or I should say scandalized, when I remarked that I +had superintended the putting on of yours, and that I was sorry I was +too young, or not old enough, to go along with you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Uncle Fred, you are just the right age for—anything; but we +couldn't coax you to go that day!" Alene protested. +</P> + +<P> +"And then I told her of my surprise when I reached the office that +morning to find my hat adorned with a red-white-and-blue rosette, which +horrified her so much that I was glad—I mean sorry, that she hadn't +met me wearing it." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish she had, meddling thing!" +</P> + +<P> +"She thinks I'm very lax in my duty to allow you on the street without +a <I>chaperone</I>. Alene, I'm a failure as a stern old guardian! I think, +to put myself right with the townspeople, I'll have to get arrested for +beating my incorrigible niece!" +</P> + +<P> +"If they find fault with you, just send them to me and I'll—I'll +settle them," cried Alene, with angry vehemence, holding her fork in +such a threatening position that Kizzie, coming in with the tray, half +paused. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be alarmed, Kizzie. She's not going to attack you or me; she's +only indignant because everyone doesn't agree with her in holding me up +as a model guardian!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mr. Fred, how you do go on!" returned Kizzie with a laugh and a +blush, giving Alene a glance that showed upon whose side she stood. +</P> + +<P> +"But I haven't come to the end of my tale. It seems that Mrs. Ramsey's +real object in paying me a visit was not to lecture me, as I supposed, +but to say that her two daughters are coming to visit you to-morrow +afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, bother! Laura and Ivy promised to come and stay for tea!" +grumbled Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the more the merrier. The Ramsey girls seem to be amiable +enough," returned Mr. Dawson who failed to see any reason for the +little girl's vexation. Indeed, Alene herself could not define what +was, in reality, the dismay any hostess might feel if called upon to +entertain a group of people which she knows to be utterly uncongenial. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry, child! Just do the best you can," was the advice of the +housekeeper, when Alene, kneeling on a chair at the window next +morning, viewed the forbidding, rain-soaked grounds. +</P> + +<P> +"But I depended on the garden to help me out," said she, giving a +reproachful glance at the soggy grass and dripping trees. "The girls +could swing and run about in the grass, and now we'll all have to stay +cooped together in the house! I wouldn't mind it a bit with Laura and +Ivy. We could do lots of things inside—but the Ramsey girls!" +</P> + +<P> +"There's the tower room and the wide halls. Surely you can play some +games there! It does seem unfortunate how things turn out sometimes, +but we must just bear it!" said Mrs. Major. +</P> + +<P> +"That's what makes it so much harder, we <I>must</I> bear it! Ivy says if +we could take our burdens just because we wanted to for a noble cause, +like some of the martyrs did, it wouldn't be half so hard as when they +are put on one!" grumbled Alene. "But there, I'm not going to cry +about it!" +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't, either," cried Kizzie, broom in hand, her face glowing +from an attack on the upstairs carpets. "It would only make things +damper!" +</P> + +<P> +The smiling visage of the plump little maid seemed to have captured +some of the sunshine hidden away by the clouds; it radiated from her +blue eyes, her yellow hair, her round rosy cheeks; Alene, turning from +the depressing outside where the rain was steadily falling, felt an +answering glow when she met that sunny gaze, and retorted gaily: +</P> + +<P> +"Does she mean to be profane or funny, or only puny!" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to tell you what I was thinkin' about! Wouldn't it be fun for +you and the girls to make taffy this afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +Alene clapped her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Kizzie, the very thing! And please, <I>please</I> let me be chief +cook—I think it would be lovely to potter round the pans and things!" +</P> + +<P> +"I could come in and show you how, only Mrs. Major let me off this +afternoon and my sister's expecting me—but I might send her word," +said Kizzie. +</P> + +<P> +"No, you mustn't do that. Just tell me how much to use and where to +find the stuff—but I don't want anyone to help me!" +</P> + +<P> +So Alene listened solemnly, with a delightful sense of responsibility, +to the directions given by Kizzie and the housekeeper. It seemed so +easy, just so many cups of sugar, so much vinegar and water, a lump of +butter not too large and enough vanilla to make it taste; then the +greased pans and the flour to use in pulling it. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know it by heart! Don't say another word till I bring you some +upstairs to the sewing-room this afternoon! And I'll save some for +Kizzie when she comes." +</P> + +<P> +As the girls intended coming at one o'clock to stay not later than +five, Alene felt secure in having provided something that would pass +the greater part of the time, so she paid no more attention to the +weather. It could not interfere with the taffy pulling. +</P> + +<P> +She flew happily round making her preparations and it did not seem any +time until Prince gave a joyous bark to notify her of the near approach +of friends. +</P> + +<P> +She ran to the door. Sure enough, it was Laura and Ivy making their +way through the rain; they were coming around the curve of the walk +which led from the front gate. +</P> + +<P> +"And Laura's holding the umbrella over Ivy so that she herself gets +nothing but the drippings," Alene observed. She seized an umbrella +from the rack and hastened to meet them, while Prince ran on ahead to +assure them of a welcome. +</P> + +<P> +The barking of the dog and the chatter of the girls made such a din +that it reached Mrs. Major, who came and stood in the hall, enjoying +the excitement. +</P> + +<P> +After greeting the visitors she went upstairs, feeling a pleasant glow +in the consciousness that the little girl, whose loneliness had been a +source of anxiety to the older inmates of the house, was now +light-hearted and happy with companions of her own age. +</P> + +<P> +"Girls, girls, I'm so glad you've come in spite of the rain!" cried the +beaming Alene, dancing round, more of a hindrance than an aid in her +endeavors to help them off with their things. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother was against my going out in the rain, but Hugh knew how much I +wanted to come, and just as he was coaxing her, Laura came in, and they +hustled me off!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's well I did, or the Bonners would have had a weeping Ivy on their +hands, and dear knows it's moist enough without that, so I carried her +away just for pity!" explained Laura, who stood before the rack mirror +surveying a few locks of straight hair which stuck to her forehead. "I +was just telling Ivy it's good there's no lightning; but the rain does +take the starch out of things. Just look at my poor hair, while Ivy's +curls are kinkier than ever!" +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Lol, I'd gladly turn some of the kinks over to you if I could," +cried Ivy with a laugh, as she gave her mop of curls a vigorous +smoothing, trying in vain to make them lie closer to her head. "But +talking of lightning, when I was quite small I remember one day in +school it stormed hard. The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed +and one of the girls got frightened and began to cry, which surprised +me very much; not because she cried, but because she was a doctor's +daughter—I don't know why I thought a doctor's daughter should be +braver than anyone else's child!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's funny the thoughts we have and the queer things we believe when +we're small," returned Alene. "A girl told me one day if you put beads +in the oven more beads would grow. So I put in my string of pink coral +but it only got hot and didn't grow a bit bigger! I never believed in +that girl again!" +</P> + +<P> +"I never told you of the spring that Ivy and I made when we were +little. We thought it would be so nice to have cold water handy, so we +dug a hole in the cellar, big enough to put a good-sized tin pan in, +and filled the pan with water. We put pebbles in the bottom and moss +around the rim and thought we had a perpetual well; but when we came +back to it the old pan was dry. The water had leaked through the +holes! We were awfully disappointed that no other water had run in!" +</P> + +<P> +As Laura completed her contribution to ancient history, divested of +their rain-coats, hats and rubbers, they were ready to follow Alene +into the library. +</P> + +<P> +"Ivy's brought a book along, 'Tales of the Angels.' Let's read turn +about," proposed Laura. +</P> + +<P> +Sitting close together, Ivy half reclining among the cushions of the +little sofa and Alene upon a leather arm chair with Laura between them +on a hassock, all shut in by the crimson curtains of the cosy corner, +where the rain beat against the window panes and the vines stirred in +the wind emphasizing the comfort of their snug retreat, they spent a +happy time reading and talking over the beautiful little stories until +Prince's renewed barking attracted their attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Somebody's coming," announced Ivy, peering through the blurred window +pane. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess it's the Ramseys," said Alene, going out to meet them. +</P> + +<P> +"I hoped the rain would keep them away," murmured Ivy with a grimace. +</P> + +<P> +"So did I," answered Laura. "I felt like turning back when Alene said +they were coming, but I hated to hurt her feelings!" +</P> + +<P> +They heard Alene greeting the new-comers, then footsteps and voices in +the hall, and presently the three girls came in together. +</P> + +<P> +The sisters were in the midst of an argument. Vera had found a small +rent in her silk umbrella for which she declared Hermione's umbrella +responsible. +</P> + +<P> +"But I was walking ahead of you all the way, not near enough for the +rib to touch your umbrella! It must have been done when you crowded up +against the fence to let Mrs. Park and her baby carriage go past." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I couldn't go in the muddy street, could I? I don't see why +they bring babies out on such a day as this, brushing others up against +damp walls! But it's just a little cut such as only an umbrella point +could give. It never touched the fence!" Vera's grumbling came to a +sudden pause—"Oh say, Alene, I didn't know you had company!" +</P> + +<P> +"I had no chance to tell you on the way in." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Vera gives no one a chance when she has a grievance to air!" said +Hermione. "Howdy'do, girls!" +</P> + +<P> +She crossed the room and sat beside Ivy and Laura. Vera took an easy +chair near the table, somewhat apart from the group, and gave all her +attention to the careful removing of her kid gloves. The conversation +with her mother as to the manner in which to meet her poorer +schoolmates in society was fresh in her mind. Now was the opportunity +to act upon her convictions. She resolved to be very cool in her +treatment of Laura and Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +The other girls chattered away, apparently unmindful of her +abstraction. Alene was showing them some sheet music which had come in +the mail a few days before. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's the new Raindrop two-step. How appropriate for to-day," cried +Hermione. "Have you tried it yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it's real sweet! Would you like to come into the music room and +hear it?" +</P> + +<P> +They all assented, and presently from the little room opening off the +library came the notes of a piano. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to try the step," said Hermione, "if only there was someone +to dance with!" +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Vera?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sulking in the library, I guess. Come, Laura, won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +Laura hesitated until Ivy joined in, "Do, Lol! She dances beautifully, +Hermione, only she—she won't sometimes," and as the two girls paired +off, "When I'm along she seems to think I'll mind it more because—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know," returned Alene, slipping her hand from the keyboard to +give Ivy's brown fingers a sympathetic squeeze. +</P> + +<P> +"But I won't let her; I don't want to be a <I>bete noire</I> to my friends!" +said Ivy, leaning her head against the piano and letting her eyes stray +from Alene's nimble fingering to the graceful swaying of the girls in +the dance. Around the room they circled, out along the hall, and +presently back again through the library. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TAFFY PULLING +</H3> + +<P> +Vera found that being cool was very dull. Besides, it had no effect +upon the others. As time went by and the gay strains of the piano +mingled with talk and laughter filled the air, and the dancing began, +and the two girls whirled by, their twirling skirts almost brushing +hers, it dawned upon her that she was being left out in the cold! Her +coolness was reacting upon herself! If Alene had helped her by +devoting herself to her, to the exclusion of the others, she felt that +she might have carried out her original program. As it was, she came +to the conclusion that Alene was too stupid to perceive her superiority. +</P> + +<P> +Shortly after the dancers had sunk on a divan near the piano, Vera came +in from the library, declaring that she too wished to dance; but the +girls failed to respond to the invitation, saying they were tired. +</P> + +<P> +Presently with a smile she slipped up to Alene and gave her what on the +surface seemed a playful pinch on the arm but Alene drew back with a +rueful glance while tears of pain came into her eyes, and when she +thought herself unobserved she pulled up her sleeve and found a great +bruised spot already getting black and blue. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" the watchful Ivy commenced but she checked herself and pretended +not to have seen this little by-play. Somewhat later when Alene was +sitting beside Ivy, whose arm was around her waist, Vera came again to +Alene and with some humorous remark reached out to give her another +pinch. As Alene shrank back, Vera gave a scream and turned suddenly +away. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that vicious Alene, she can't take a joke!" she cried, rubbing her +arm, but Hermione to whom she complained gave her little sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +"Serves you right," was all she replied. +</P> + +<P> +Laura, looking up from a book in which she had been absorbed, received +an expressive glance from Ivy which told her as plainly as words that +something unusual had taken place. She learned what it was when they +found themselves apart. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Alene could hardly keep the tears back and when Vera came with +that sweet, unconscious air, and reached for a second pinch, Alene put +out her hand to ward her off—at the same time mine flew up some way, I +don't know how, it seemed to go of its own accord and Vera didn't know +what had happened! Neither did Alene! I thought I'd die laughing when +she turned round to me and asked, 'What's the matter with Vera?'. +'Looks as if she had a pain,' said I—" +</P> + +<P> +"She thinks it was Alene, so she won't bother her again. I've heard +the girls at school talking of the Ramsey grip! She only uses it when +she's vexed with a girl. I don't see what Alene did to her!" +</P> + +<P> +"She doesn't want her to be so friendly with us," explained the +observant Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +Laura laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"She doesn't know that Alene is a true Happy-Go-Lucky," she said with +proud confidence. +</P> + +<P> +"No, they stick together like—like postage stamps!" +</P> + +<P> +"Girls," cried Alene, "I'm taking Hermie and Vera up to see the tower +room. Do you care to come along?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not I, thank you, I'll wait for some brighter day," returned Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"The distinguished author of the Sunset Book does not wish to look from +the tower window upon anything less than a sunset!" explained Laura. +"So I'll stay and try to console her in the absence of one." +</P> + +<P> +Ivy curled herself among the cushions of the friendly little sofa in +the cosy corner and fell to dreaming, while Laura sat at the piano and +played several pieces, some of which, though very difficult, she +rendered by ear with expression and fidelity. Laura's talent was fully +known to Ivy, who on this occasion found the sweet sounds chiming in +with her own idle fancies. +</P> + +<P> +How long she lay snuggled there, half hid by the crimson curtains, +while the rain made its unwearied assault upon the window panes and the +wind soughed mournfully among the trees, she did not know. When she +awoke, Laura was playing the two step, to the wonder and admiration of +the Ramsey girls who were practising the dance together. Ivy did not +see Alene anywhere and for a moment she had a strange, half-waking +dream, that she was upstairs all alone in the tower room, weeping +because Vera had beat and pinched her. +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't I go up with them? I thought only of myself, as usual," +Ivy muttered. She was on the point of rising to go in search of Alene +when a noise was heard and there in the doorway stood a queer little +figure enveloped from head to foot in a blue gingham apron. That she +was no stranger was evidenced by Prince leaping joyfully beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"I've come to invite you-alls to a taffy pulling in the kitchen," she +said, with a drawl and an odd little courtesy that made everybody +laugh, "No one admitted except <I>en costume</I>," pointing to her apron, +"so each of you must find one hidden somewhere in the hall or +dining-room!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hurrah!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good fun!" +</P> + +<P> +"Come along!" +</P> + +<P> +A rush was made and the search began. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy was the first to find an apron in the folds of an umbrella on the +hall rack, the very place where, strange to say, Laura had searched +unsuccessfully a moment before. With the help of the latter she was +soon draped in its red and white bars and joined Alene in watching the +others. +</P> + +<P> +Hermione's search at the back of a door was rewarded by the discovery +of a costume hanging on the knob; Vera found another folded under a +cushion in the dining-room and Laura, by lifting the lid of a +covered-dish on the sideboard, disclosed the last. +</P> + +<P> +"We look like a crowd of orphans out for a walk," said Ivy, as holding +on to each other's apron strings, they filed into the kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm the mammy and you-alls are tied to my apron string! Behave +yourselves, chillun!" cried Alene, glancing back warningly along the +line. +</P> + +<P> +The kitchen was a square room with tiled-linoleum floor covering. A +highly-polished, range whose copper boiler glowed like a mirror +occupied one side along with a spotless sink; besides a mammoth +cupboard, there was an old-fashioned corner cupboard with glass upper +doors; two well-scoured tables stood at convenient points, the one near +the window having a rug beside it and a hospitable rocking chair, +which, with a few other chairs, a small time-piece and a calendar, +completed the furnishings. The wide door opened upon a commodious +porch with two steps leading to the garden. +</P> + +<P> +It was a very jewel of a kitchen, this in which good Mrs. Major reigned +queen. Mr. Dawson declared that he always regarded his boots +doubtfully ere venturing in upon the floor and that he was afraid to +touch the immaculate objects it contained. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really cook potatoes and make vulgar mush in those pots on that +range? Do you actually use these tables?" he would ask, and one day, +running his hand across a shelf, he pretended to find a speck of dust +which he carried away in triumph to preserve. +</P> + +<P> +"You girls think I'm only fooling," he said to Kizzie and Alene one +day; "but I assure you if I were to make a grease-spot on that table +I'd run away with visions of Mrs. Major, butcher knife in hand, at my +heels, and I'd never dare to enter the house again!" +</P> + +<P> +His niece did not share in his scruples as she and her guests entered +upon the spot dedicated to quiet and order, and soon, like spirits of +disorder, upset its calm. Half a dozen cooking utensils were brought +forth, drawers opened, cupboards and pantry rifled. +</P> + +<P> +"One would think we each had forty mouths to eat with, judging by all +the material set out," said Laura, who, following where the others led +in their mad assault upon the provisions, tried to keep a semblance of +order, by returning things to their places. +</P> + +<P> +Amid all the havoc Vera was the only one who preserved her calm. +Seated in the rocking chair, she swung lazily back and forth, pausing +occasionally to reach for a cube of sugar or to taste the various +condiments on the table. She was enjoying herself thoroughly in spite +of the consciousness that it was all on a par with tissue-paper hats +and other affairs peculiar to the Happy-Go-Luckys, that queer club of +which she had heard. +</P> + +<P> +"They get a lot of fun out of it. I don't see why the girls in our set +couldn't start one!" +</P> + +<P> +While she pictured herself presiding over the new club, which no one +outside the favored few would be allowed to enter, the other girls, +after careful measuring, had placed on the range a pot half filled with +the materials necessary for the taffy of which Alene wished to make +enough not for themselves only, but to share liberally with all the Lee +and Bonner children. +</P> + +<P> +"Sweets to make it sweet, and sours to make it sour, fire to heat, +water to dissolve, and butter to make it run down our throats!" intoned +Ivy like a witch making an incantation over her brew, while Alene, +taking a large spoon, kept stirring the mixture until, exhausted, she +was relieved by Hermione. +</P> + +<P> +"Our motto is 'Keep Stirring,'" said Hermione; "but this takes so long +a time to thicken, my arm's about broke." +</P> + +<P> +"I never made sugar taffy, but molasses doesn't take any time hardly!" +returned Laura. +</P> + +<P> +After a consultation the mixture was emptied into a square, buttered +pan and carried to the porch to cool. +</P> + +<P> +When Laura went out presently to test it, she uttered a cry of dismay. +</P> + +<P> +"It's gone back to sugar, girls!" she announced when the others came +hastily to investigate. +</P> + +<P> +Sure enough, instead of taffy ready for pulling, they found a sheet of +sugar that could be broken into pieces. +</P> + +<P> +"Put the pan back on the stove with some water, and let it melt, so we +can try again," someone suggested. +</P> + +<P> +They made surmises as to where the fault lay. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely not in the stirring," cried Hermione, rubbing her elbow. +</P> + +<P> +With renewed vigor they attacked the melted sugar—they stirred and +stirred. Even Vera lent a hand, and the stuff boiled and boiled but +thickened very slowly and when set out to cool hardened as before. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep stirring! Indeed, I think if we stirred it from now until +doomsday it would stay just sugar," declared Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure I remember the recipe just as Kizzie told it," said the +disappointed Alene who, as head cook, felt responsible for the +disaster. "I'll run up to the sewing-room and ask Mrs. Major what she +thinks is wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, girls, guess where the trouble was! In the stirring, after all," +she said, returning a few minutes later, breathless from her hurried +trip. +</P> + +<P> +"No!" +</P> + +<P> +"It can't be!" +</P> + +<P> +"We didn't stop a minute!" +</P> + +<P> +"But we shouldn't have commenced! All we have to do is to let it alone +until it thickens!" +</P> + +<P> +"My poor broken arm feels worse than ever," grumbled Hermione. +</P> + +<P> +"'Love's labors lost,'" said Ivy, and Vera declared that she had +suspected they were overdoing it! +</P> + +<P> +"The third time's the charm," cried Laura, breaking hopefully into the +chorus of lamentations, "Let's get to work!" +</P> + +<P> +When the mixture was returned to the fire she took Alene by the +shoulder and placed her on a chair with her back to the stove, "for +fear her reproachful glances set the pan a-tremble and that obstinate +sugar be glad of the chance to escape taffying!" +</P> + +<P> +Whereupon Ivy, with a parting grimace toward the range, gravely moved +her chair around and the others followed her example, until all had +turned their backs upon the offending pan. +</P> + +<P> +After a while Ivy craned her neck stealthily. She saw the mixture +bubbling. She gave a scream. +</P> + +<P> +"It's stirring of its own accord! Girls, girls, stop it, stop it!"' +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not surprised," Hermione remarked. "The poor thing no doubt feels +very much 'stirred up.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it's fairly boiling over with rage," said Alene. Then, forgetful +of the prophesied consequences, she flew to test it. +</P> + +<P> +They crowded around her as she poured a spoonful of the sweet into a +glass of water, Then followed a hilarious cheer— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Joy, joy, our task is done!<BR> +The sugar's thickened!<BR> +Taffy's won!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A STRING OF FISH +</H3> + +<P> +"Let me alone and I'll die myself," cried Alene who, after a vigorous +rocking in the big swing, was coming to a leisurely stop which Kizzie's +appearance threatened. The latter, seeing that her good intentions +were not necessary, stood inactive until the swinging died away. +</P> + +<P> +"Kizzie's mad and I am glad," sang Alene, noticing a cloud on the +girl's usually good-natured countenance. "What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the fish wagon didn't come and Mrs. Major says Mr. Fred can't do +without his fish. I have to go round to the big gate to watch for one +of the boys to come along from the river, and I had just finished my +work in a hurry, so's to have an hour at the sewing machine, to finish +my waist." +</P> + +<P> +"If that's all, I can watch for the boys and buy the fish, so just give +me the basket, Kizzie darlin'!" +</P> + +<P> +The girl's face brightened. +</P> + +<P> +"If you would—if you're sure you ain't puttin' yourself out!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it will be fun for me! So run in to the machine and make it run." +</P> + +<P> +Alene took the basket on her arm and went singing along the walk toward +the big gate, while Kizzie smilingly re-entered the house calling a +thousand thanks upon the head of the obliging little maid. +</P> + +<P> +Tired of racing with the shadows cast by the swing on the sunny spots +amid the trees, Prince lay sunning himself on the front door steps. He +now came forward with a merry barking and joined his young mistress. +He rubbed his nose against the basket and looked up inquiringly into +her face. +</P> + +<P> +"You want to carry the basket, old fellow? Well, here it is!" +</P> + +<P> +Prince wagged his tail and took the basket, and then they had a merry +race along the wide pathway to where the double iron gate between thick +vine-covered posts opened upon a short flight of stone steps leading to +Forest Street, the finest residence avenue of the town. +</P> + +<P> +Alene ensconced herself upon the shaded upper step with Prince keeping +guard over the basket at her side, and fell into a pleasant reverie. +</P> + +<P> +Presently she heard boyish tones; and the group of lads for whom she +was waiting came in sight. Bare-legged, with trousers turned up at the +knees, coatless, wearing a variety of hats, some having brims minus +crowns and others crowns only, they came along carrying fishing-rods +and tin cans for holding bait. +</P> + +<P> +Several had strings of beauties yet moist from the river, whose scaly +sides glittered in the morning sunshine. +</P> + +<P> +Alene rose hurriedly at the first sign of their coming, intending to +parley with the first comer, but her courage oozed away when a nearer +view of him disclosed the boy who had rushed to strike her at the +picnic. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps the others were his partners in the raid of that memorable day. +This thought kept her standing mute and inactive while the boys filed +past her up the street. +</P> + +<P> +"What will Kizzie think of me? Mrs. Major will scold her, and I +promised!" Alene gazed forlornly up the street as the lads got farther +and farther away, bearing the precious freight which she had made no +effort to buy. They were all gone but one, a tall boy who was almost +at her side when she glanced around. +</P> + +<P> +Noticing only that he had a magnificent string of fish, she held her +basket toward him in desperation, feeling that she must redeem her word +to Kizzie, and save her from the housekeeper's wrath, and Uncle Fred +from a meal minus the fish, for which he had a special liking. +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes were fixed upon the fish which she felt were the only ones she +could get now. If she let them go, her opportunity would be lost and +her good offices in Kizzie's behalf fruitless, so she gasped hurriedly, +"Say!" +</P> + +<P> +The boy had noticed the little girl standing like a statue gazing up +the street. He had given her a glance as he approached but her eyes +were intent upon the fish; he was going on his way, half glad to escape +notice when he heard her feeble call. +</P> + +<P> +He came to a standstill. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you speak to me?" +</P> + +<P> +His voice sounded strangely familiar to Alene. Hastily looking from +the fish to their owner, she encountered a pair of frank, gray eyes, +whose rather deep setting and coal black brows gave the whole face an +odd, but singularly attractive expression. +</P> + +<P> +She recognized him at once. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, is it you?" she exclaimed, in a startled voice. +</P> + +<P> +The boy flushed. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be scared—I won't rob you," he said, with a note of vexation +that recalled Alene to herself. +</P> + +<P> +"I must have appeared ridiculous standing here looking half scared to +death," she thought. +</P> + +<P> +"I never dreamed of such a thing! I guess I did look funny but it was +because of those other boys," she replied with an expressive nod up the +street. +</P> + +<P> +"The rascals! I came near giving them up that day! I hope it didn't +spoil your fun! How the rest did guy that fellow who tried to strike +you! I bet he'll never try to strike a girl again!" +</P> + +<P> +His tone giving assurance that he had effectually disposed of the +delinquent caused his hearer a thrill of satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm jolly glad you weren't afraid of me!" he concluded with an air +of relief. +</P> + +<P> +Then the humor of the situation seemed to strike Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"The idea! No, I wasn't a bit afraid. I knew you didn't mean to rob +me but I intended to rob you!" she said in a mischievous tone. +</P> + +<P> +He gave a ringing laugh and looked very much relieved. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, say, I would never have suspected it! What did you want, the +fishin' rod or bait?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not those ugly, squirming things. I've seen Hugh digging for +them!" she drew back from the can with a look of disgust. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I've nothin' else worth takin' 'cept the fish!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's it. Mrs. Major wants them." +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Major wants my fish? Why, I never heard tell of the lady!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it's for Uncle Fred's supper! She's the housekeeper, you know, +and the fish-cart didn't come round to-day! So I told Kizzie I'd come +out and get some from the boys, you know!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I see! Well, it won't do to disappoint Uncle Fred, the +housekeeper and Kizzie and you—especially you!" So saying, he +tendered her the big string of fish. +</P> + +<P> +As Alene reached for it, one of the fishes gave a sudden jump. She +recoiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Do put them in the basket, won't you? Their tails wriggle up so!" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed, and while he busied himself to obey her, Alene opened her +little silver purse. When the boy glanced up from his task she offered +him a silver dollar. +</P> + +<P> +"They're not for sale, thank you!" he said, turning away. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, then I can't take them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Turn about's fair play!" he cried, quickening his steps; a beam of +mischief shone in his eyes, lighting up his face. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean? Come back and get your fish," cried Alene, swinging +the basket as far as she could reach. She rushed up the street a short +distance but, seeing the hopelessness of overtaking him, came to a halt +while the dog stood barking beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, Prince, take the basket and follow him," cried Alene excitedly, +but Prince failed to understand why he should rob his master of the +supper they had procured for him. He took the basket in his mouth and +waited for Alene to lead the way. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Prince, you—you idiot! Boy, boy, say!" she screamed with such a +sharp, insistent treble that it reached the lad's ears. He turned +around and waved his hat. +</P> + +<P> +"Highway robbery!" he cried, making a trumpet of both hands, and then +with a parting wave he passed from view, leaving the exasperated and +almost tearful Alene to return to the house, with the disobedient +Prince at her side proudly carrying the spoils. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A GIRLISH TIFF +</H3> + +<BR> + +<TABLE BORDER ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top"> +<BR> +GRAND PANORAMA!<BR><BR> +MOVING PICTURES! THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS!<BR> +AT JARRETT'S HALL,<BR><BR> +FRIDAY EVENING, JULY THE 16TH<BR><BR> +<I>Admission .................. 25 cts.</I><BR> +<I>Reserved Seats ............. 50 cts.</I><BR> +<BR> +</TD> +</TR> +</TABLE> + +<BR> + +<P> +Thus read the attractive handbills scattered throughout the town by +half a dozen small boys, while a man went from street to street posting +gorgeous pictures of the different scenes, until the whole population, +especially the younger portion of it, was aroused into the desire or +intention of attending the show. +</P> + +<P> +The boys who by a happy chance were on hand when the advance agent +stepped from the train, and had secured the privilege of distributing +the bills with the accompanying reward of free admission to the hall, +were the envied of their less favored friends. +</P> + +<P> +Loud was the lamentation of Lafe Bonner, Ivy's eleven-year-old brother, +whose only consolation was the memory of a happier time in the early +spring when the circus had come to town with its elephants and caged +animals, its clown in cap and bells, to say nothing of its fine ladies +in red and green velvet habits all gold bespangled, riding so +gracefully the high-stepping horses to the music of the band, perched +high on a scarlet-and-gold mirrored chariot—not to forget the calliope +bringing up the rear. Then, with glowing countenance and swift-beating +heart, Lafe and his companions had followed the parade to "the +bottoms," a level space sacred to the circus and baseball, where men +were busy erecting tents for the afternoon's show. +</P> + +<P> +One lusty fellow whose bronze cheeks were tanned by the wind and sun of +many climes immediately engaged the three boys to carry water to the +animals, in exchange for passes to the evening performance, the memory +of which would never, never fade from Lafe's mind, were he to live as +long as Methuselah himself. Every detail, the sawdust-covered +racetrack around the ring, the acrobats swinging and diving so far, far +up in the air that one held his breath till they made a safe descent; +the jokes of the clown never too old to evoke laughter, the noises of +wild animals which might break through their barred cages and cause a +panic among the people, a possibility that lent spice to the whole; the +peanuts and lemonade,—weak in lemon but strong in sugar, and of a +lovely shade of pink,—genuine circus lemonade, on which they had spent +their last pennies, with all this comparatively fresh in his memory no +wonder that Lafe gazed longingly on the posters, and read with avidity +every item concerning the attraction, which, if not the circus, was +related to it in a sort of third or fourth cousin degree. +</P> + +<P> +Lafe could not gain entrance by the drawing-of-water method, nor yet, +alas, by scattering bills; and he knew it was useless to apply at home. +Did not the pinching of shoes worn the first time the Sunday previous +remind him of his mother's latest ill-spared expenditure? All he could +do, therefore, was to grumble at his luck in having missed the agent. +This he did so persistently and in tones so loud that everybody either +commiserated or scolded him, with the exception of Ivy, who only +laughed and dubbed him Master Glumface. To her, who measured every woe +with her own, his disappointment seemed a pitifully small thing to +bewail. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, I'm sure I'd love to see the Pilgrim's Progress—that picture +where Christian is crossing through the Dark Valley just gives me +thrills—and yet I don't go round like a big baby complaining. And I +didn't even see the circus when it was here, only the side show!" she +said. +</P> + +<P> +Lafe gave her a withering glance. He felt inclined to catch hold of +that provoking curl that bobbed so impertinently in his direction as +she tossed her head, and give it a good hard pull. +</P> + +<P> +But Laura, who had just come in, soothed his ire by saying in a +sympathetic voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Lafe seems so much taken with the circus and things I shouldn't wonder +if he turns out to be an actor! Don't you remember how well he did at +our exhibition?" Ivy nodded. "So of course, he feels it worse than we +do. But I'd love to go too and take Nettie. She's wild about that +picture where the angels are flying. She thinks they have real angels +at the show. Mat has a quarter saved up toward a bicycle and—" +</P> + +<P> +"He'd better get an automobile while he's about it," interrupted Lafe. +</P> + +<P> +"He wants me to take it and go; as if I would do such a thing! You +know, Ivy, he made me take that dime he had saved up when the circus +came, and go to the side show with you; and we had a lot of fun shaking +hands with the giant and the fat lady and seeing the animals; but this +is different, and his mind is quite set on the bicycle." +</P> + +<P> +Which remark reminded Ivy that her admission to the side show—the +bright silver dime—was given her by Lafe, and that before he had any +hope of himself seeing the circus. So she began to feel sorry for her +flippant attitude and said in a more kindly tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, this is only Friday noon and the performance doesn't come off +till to-night. Who knows what may turn up before then?" +</P> + +<P> +This might have had the intended effect were it not for that curl which +in some way affected Lafe's nerves. It now gave a careless bob that +exasperated him. +</P> + +<P> +"'Something may turn up;'" he muttered, "an earthquake or Mat's +motor-car, perhaps!" +</P> + +<P> +He went away in disgust and Ivy turned to Laura with a sigh: +</P> + +<P> +"Now, what did I say to make him flare up that way?" +</P> + +<P> +"He thought you didn't care—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't—I don't! Laura, if I were to go sympathizing with six +brothers—and boys are always clamoring for attention—I'd end in a mad +house!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura could hardly repress a smile at the thought of Ivy's six sturdy +brothers depending on her in their troubles, knowing as she did that +stone bruises, torn garments and other calamities incident to boyhood +were always carried to their mother, while, as Laura often said, Hugh +made himself a regular oak-tree for Ivy to twine around. +</P> + +<P> +No further remarks were made on the subject, however, and the two girls +started side by side on their way to a shady spot near home, to spend a +few hours of the hot afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +The wind caught them rather sharply at a street corner and Ivy's +endeavors to balance her crutches while holding her hat in place +renewed her irritation. +</P> + +<P> +"If some people had troubles like this, they would have room to +preach," she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure I never thought of preaching," returned Laura stiffly. "But +there's no use always harping on one's own trials and thinking nobody +else has any!" +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning me, of course! Anyway, I don't care to play this afternoon. +I think I'll go home," said Ivy, turning away with crimsoning cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +Laura gave a backward glance at the haughty little maid hurrying along +as fast as she could, while the wind sent the mop of curls flying +around her head in all directions. +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments she stared blankly down the street, half expecting +Ivy to turn around, but she failed to do so, and Laura, with a +heightened sense of injury, went on her way intending to take the first +side-street home. +</P> + +<P> +But the longer the distance grew between herself and Ivy, the unhappier +she became, the more she repented her harsh words. It was really no +wonder that Ivy had thought them unfeeling at a time, especially, when +she was already upset by her encounter with Lafe. Perhaps, too, this +was one of Ivy's bad days when the least contradiction irritated her. +</P> + +<P> +In this strain ran Laura's thoughts and the longer she pondered, the +slower she walked until at last she came to a standstill. +</P> + +<P> +It was right at the top of a hilly street which commanded a fine view. +In the distance were the blue shadows of mountains; the river swept +along between green-verdured hills; a steamboat with lowered stacks was +passing beneath the bridge that hung like a black line connecting the +east and west sides of the town. Overhead shone the midday sun in a +sky of cloudless blue, but nature spread her canvas all in vain for +Laura. Another time she would have paused to drink in the beauty of +the scene, to follow with admiring eyes the movements of the boat +which, brave in a new coat of paint, swept along in a wake of billowing +foam, but to-day she stood unheeding. All that she saw was the +pathetic figure of a little girl with crutches receding in the distance. +</P> + +<P> +Something clutched at Laura's throat. Her resentment against Ivy died +away, leaving only blame for herself. With a sudden resolve she turned +and hurriedly retraced her steps. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing but a cross cat would act the way I did!" +</P> + +<P> +Faster and faster she went until, as she came around a corner, she +almost collided with someone hastening up the street. A little hot +hand clutched her arm— +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Lol, is it you? I came back to make up! Someway I can't bear to +be on the outs with you!" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy was breathless and perspiring and her hat was blown all to one side. +</P> + +<P> +Laura reached over and set it straight carefully, almost caressingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Ivy-vine, neither can I—Isn't it funny? Shall we go on?" +</P> + +<P> +Laughing softly and blinking back the tears of which they were half +ashamed, they continued up the street, happy in the reconciliation, so +facile and so complete in childhood, when bygones are bygones, and +there is no danger of ghosts, once laid, ever rising up again to give +added rancor to future disagreements. +</P> + +<P> +What a beautiful day it was and how the sun shone and how blissfully +they drank in the air! +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Lol, see, there's a wagon in front of Jarrett's Hall! I do +believe those men belong to the show!" cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go up and look round," proposed Laura. +</P> + +<P> +They had reached a long building fronting on Main Street, the first +story of which was occupied by a half dozen stores. They climbed a +covered stairway that led to the second story. At the top of the "hall +stairs," as they were called, was the main entrance to the hall which +occupied the second story of the edifice. These stairs also opened +upon a sort of court, from which a broad flight of stone steps led to +an upper street. +</P> + +<P> +By walking along the court, the girls were on a level with the inner +windows of the hall. The outside shutters stood wide open to admit +light, and a few children were peering curiously through the dusty +panes. Further away was a narrow door sacred to the use of actors or +employes of the hall. +</P> + +<P> +Laura observed that this door was closed when she and Ivy first +appeared upon the scene; but after a time, leaving Ivy at a good +position at the window with her inquisitive eyes pressed against the +glass, Laura strayed back and found the door open. +</P> + +<P> +She hastened to the threshold and took a long, eager look into the +dingy hall, from the curious little box-like office at the "grand +entrance," as the double wooden door was styled, past the rows of rough +benches to the stage at the upper end of the hall, where some +carpenters and other employes were busy making arrangements for the +evening's performance. +</P> + +<P> +Neither the dust nor the dinginess was seen by Laura. A subtle +fascination held her in thrall—she saw everything through a golden +light. +</P> + +<P> +She, who had been stage manager so often under the disadvantages of +improvised platforms and home-made curtains, could appreciate a real +hall and a real stage with a real curtain, were they ever so crude. +</P> + +<P> +She was on the point of returning to fetch Ivy to view the magic scene +and share her joy, when one of the men, who appeared to be a personage +of authority, left the stage where he had been directing the movements +of everybody, and proceeded down the aisle. +</P> + +<P> +His coat brushed against a bench and sustained a smudge of dust which +he viewed with an exclamation of disgust. +</P> + +<P> +Returning to the dressing-room, he hunted round and found a +feather-duster which he carried away in triumph. +</P> + +<P> +He came down the aisle for the second time, wielding the brush with +vigor, making frantic dabs at the benches on each side, and raising +great clouds of dust that rose and enveloped him, and settled back +again on the furniture. +</P> + +<P> +Laura was so interested in his movements that she forgot her manners, +and stood watching his ineffectual efforts at cleaning up, with a smile +of amusement mingled with compassion. +</P> + +<P> +At length the stranger was seized with a fit of coughing as the dust +invaded his throat, and he stood for a moment to rest from his labors. +</P> + +<P> +Then for the first time he noticed the little girl standing smiling in +the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +He gave her an answering smile, lifted his hat and, to Laura's dismay, +crossed over to her side. +</P> + +<P> +He was very dark and foreign looking; she recognized him as one of the +gentlemen whom she and Ivy had noticed on the street. +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon, <I>mademoiselle</I>," he said; "but perhaps you are the good fairy +to help me out!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura answered him with a blush and a look of inquiry. +</P> + +<P> +"The dust, <I>c'est</I> terrible," he went on to explain; "but there is no +one to remove it from the seats. The ladies will have fear for their +beautiful costumes. Can you not direct me to someone who will +manipulate this woman's weapon? I confess it is beyond my powers!" +</P> + +<P> +He glanced so ruefully at the feather brush that Laura laughed aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I can dust the benches in a little while, if you wish!" +</P> + +<P> +"Did not my heart tell me you were my good angel? Oh, <I>mademoiselle</I>, +if you will be so kind!" +</P> + +<P> +He handed the duster to Laura with a sigh of relief and returned to the +overseeing of things in another part of the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Lol, it's like belonging to the troupe," cried Ivy, who came at +her friend's call and seated herself on a back seat where she could see +everything that went on, while Laura gave the benches a careful +overhauling. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the open doorway was filled with a group of curious children, +wide-eyed and smiling, among whom were Nettie Lee and little Claude +Bonner. +</P> + +<P> +Laura's task completed, she placed the duster upon a front seat and +turned to go away with Ivy. They had almost reached the door when they +heard a voice: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Merci, mademoiselle</I>," cried the foreign gentleman, overtaking them; +"may I prevail upon you to accept this ticket to the performance, as a +slight acknowledgment of my obligations—or, better still," as he +glanced at Ivy, "come to the side door tonight and ask for Mr. Edmonds +and bring your sister and," his eyes strayed to the line of wondering +childish faces at the door, "the rest of your little brothers and +sisters!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura's surprised and happy look and Ivy's gasp of pleasure gave +testimony to their delight, and the man smiled as he watched them going +away joyfully. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Merci, mademoiselle!</I>" cried Ivy, with a titter of delight, "Oh, Lol, +isn't it lovely to be able to go after all!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it's fine! But I shall have to hurry home; there will be so much +to do. I must help Nettie to get ready." +</P> + +<P> +That little girl who was walking behind them clapped her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you going to wear, Laura?" +</P> + +<P> +"Me? My white, I guess—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll wear my old standby—the dotted lawn." +</P> + +<P> +They went down the street chatting gaily but presently Ivy's enthusiasm +died away; her mind seemed intent on something else. At last she +turned to Laura, saying in a rather choked voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Lol, would you mind taking Lafe instead of me? You know he is so +anxious to go!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura veiled her surprise at this new phase in her friend, who had +always hitherto claimed the best as her right. Her eyes glistened as +she replied, +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed, I would mind his coming instead of you, but I shouldn't +mind his coming along; tell him to bring Donald, too." +</P> + +<P> +"But what will Mr. Edmonds think?" +</P> + +<P> +"He said all my little brothers and sisters. I'm sure you folks are +just the same thing. Lois is too small to go, she can't keep awake +after eight, so we can smuggle Claude in, instead." Whereupon that +little lad who had been walking along dejectedly at Nettie's side gave +a whoop of delight. Laura continued, "It's too bad Hugh and Mat can't +pose as my little brothers!" +</P> + +<P> +"They are so inconveniently tall. Seems to me I can see Hugh's legs +lifting his poor head up higher and higher every day," said Ivy +dolefully. Laura laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"The oak will never grow beyond the ivy's reach, so never fear! But +I'd better hurry home, for there's Alene, too—I must send a note to +her!" +</P> + +<P> +"That will be splendid! Oh, Lol, your Mr. Edmonds will think when he +sees us all of that verse in the Scriptures, 'Go out into the highways +and byways and call the lame, the halt and the blind.'" +</P> + +<P> +When they paused to say good-bye at the parting of the ways Ivy said +with a sudden rush of words: +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Lol, don't go to thinking I'm a heroine because I proposed to +keep in the background for once! You don't know how I hesitated and +hated it." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you remember your story about the blooming flowers and the +singing birds?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Laura, it's so much easier for me to write about kind deeds than +to do them!" +</P> + +<P> +"I only wish the rest of us Happy-Go-Luckys may do as well when the +time comes!" returned Laura. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS +</H3> + +<P> +"Come here, Nettie," cried Laura; "I'll plait your hair so it will be +wavy for to-night, and then I want you to take a note to Alene." +</P> + +<P> +Nettie was glad of the chance to visit the Towers but she objected to +having her hair brushed so vigorously. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother, do make Nettie behave! She won't keep still and her hair gets +all tangled!" +</P> + +<P> +"Nettie, you are too big to make so much noise. If you don't wish to +go with the others to-night, say so and Laura needn't bother," +admonished Mrs. Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I want to go but I hate this fussing," returned the little +girl. +</P> + +<P> +"It would only serve you right if mother kept your hair cut straight +around from your ears, like the Hoover children!" remarked Laura. +</P> + +<P> +This veiled threat had a good effect; Nettie made no more trouble and +soon her long tresses were confined in six tight braids and she was +free to seize her hat and go on her mission. +</P> + +<P> +Holding the note folded tightly in her hand, she went up the steep +street and along the vine-covered wall of the Tower grounds, and +finally reached the stone steps leading to the double gates of iron, +through which a broad walk in the midst of grass and trees curved +toward the house. +</P> + +<P> +The gate opened readily to Nettie's touch and then shut with a loud +bang that attracted the attention of a big, black dog which came +bounding across the grass. At his first bark Nettie's heart stood +still. She paused just inside the gate, too terrified to move, but in +a moment she felt secure, for she saw Alene coming along the walk, +calling imperiously to Prince. +</P> + +<P> +"What a shame to scare the little girl! Go right home, sir! Don't be +frightened, Nettie, he won't harm you. He only barks that way to let +you know how glad he is to see you! Come in, girlie!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's only a note from Laura; I can't wait," said Nettie shyly. +</P> + +<P> +Alene glanced at the note. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't that fine? Yes, tell her I'll be down at seven, if Uncle Fred +is willing! And you are going, too; I thought there was something up +when I saw your hair; Laura's so proud of it and no wonder! But come +in just for a moment!" +</P> + +<P> +She took Nettie's hand and led her to the house, back to the immaculate +kitchen, where, sitting in the rocking chair, the little girl enjoyed +some cakes and milk provided by Kizzie, while Alene brought Prince in +to beg her pardon and get better acquainted. +</P> + +<P> +Their friendship grew so rapidly that by the time Nettie was ready to +go home she was brave enough to stroke his glossy head, and she +screamed with delight when, accompanied by Alene, all three raced to +the gate. +</P> + +<P> +"You won't be afraid next time," said Alene encouragingly as she held +the gate open. +</P> + +<P> +"No indeed, thank you!" returned Nettie, "Good-bye! Good-bye, Prince!" +</P> + +<P> +She turned away, joyfully clasping to her breast a satin-striped box, +in which beneath paper lace and tinsel was the most delicious candy; a +whole box full all but a few bites, as Alene had said; while the latter +leaned over the wall calling more good-byes, and Prince kept up a +continuous barking that said so plainly, once you understood his +language, "Good-bye! Good-bye! Come back again!"' +</P> + +<P> +But when Alene, with an armful of flowers, reached the Lee house that +evening, she found poor Nettie in a state of revolt; the process of +being washed and dressed in her stiff-starched pique and having her +plaits undone was very trying to both her and Laura. +</P> + +<P> +She glanced up at the yellow canary swinging so blithely in his cage. +</P> + +<P> +"I do wish people were like birds," she cried, "they are always dressed +just in their feathers!" +</P> + +<P> +"Even then you wouldn't want to take your bath," said Laura, giving a +last touch to the shining locks which hung like a veil to the child's +waist. "I'll be ready in a minute, Alene," she continued, as she +released the little girl, "I didn't feel satisfied until I saw you +coming!" +</P> + +<P> +"I got all ready when Nettie left, and could hardly wait for Uncle Fred +to come home to show him your note. The old dear said yes, right away, +but insisted upon my taking some dinner first. Then I waited to gather +these roses for your Mother. Shall we start now?" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy was standing at the door with her seven-year-old brother awaiting +their coming, and taking note of Alene's dress of white challis +o'erstrewn with pink rosebuds which, as they came nearer, disclosed a +yoke embroidered in the same design, while a wreath of roses adorned +her hat. She thought it was a beautiful costume, and that the other +girls looked nice, too, though Laura's white dimity and Nettie's blue +pique were as well worn as her own familiar lawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Lafe?" inquired Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"He ran ahead with Donald to join us later. I think they are ashamed +to be seen with this mob!" returned Ivy with a laugh. "What will Mr. +Edmonds think of us?" +</P> + +<P> +Laura declared he wouldn't care, but when they reached the hall where a +great crowd was congregated, and she saw so many getting their tickets +at the box-office and filing, one by one, past the door-keeper, she +began to feel less confident. +</P> + +<P> +They threaded their way slowly through the crowded court, where all the +children of the town seemed to have collected and finally reached the +side door. +</P> + +<P> +"Here comes an orphan asylum," was the derisive and no doubt envious +cry of a boy who had heard of the wonderful luck that had befallen the +Lees and their friends. Indeed the knowledge seemed general, and as +they came along, first Laura with Nettie clinging to her skirts, and +then Alene, to whom it was all so new and exciting, trying to keep +little Claude safe from harm, with Ivy bringing up the rear, they were +the objects of many curious glances. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Edmonds said to ask for him," Laura faltered, when the line halted +at the side door. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—Ah," said the young man who was on guard. He turned to look for +that gentleman, and Laura glancing backward, felt like a kite with a +long, embarrassing tail, which stretched apparently to the upper street. +</P> + +<P> +What a relief it was to hear a genial voice saying, +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, <I>mademoiselle</I>, is it you? Come in, come in!" +</P> + +<P> +The speaker's smiling countenance and kindly air banished Laura's fears +and she passed the threshold proudly, followed by her triumphant train. +</P> + +<P> +Glancing at Mr. Edmonds, Ivy saw his smile grow broad and broader as +they filed past one by one. Her trepidation vanished and when her turn +came she met his amused glance with an answering smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Are there any more of you?" he inquired, in a whimsical tone. +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir, unless Lafe and Donald; I guess they're ashamed to be seen!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hello there, Lafe and Donald," cried the gentleman, and the two boys, +who were standing aloof, ashamed to be seen, and yet afraid they +wouldn't, pushed their way through the crowd with an air of bravado +which their blushing cheeks denied, and were duly admitted. Upon +reaching the inside they joined a crowd of their chums, leaving the +girls to be piloted to a reserved bench by an usher whom Mr. Edmonds +had delegated. +</P> + +<P> +How happy and proud they felt as they settled themselves in their +places and looked around them! +</P> + +<P> +The stage was in darkness, making it seem the more mysterious in +contrast with the glaring light of the auditorium. +</P> + +<P> +The hall was filling rapidly with the citizens, their wives and +daughters, all dressed in their best, and our party was much interested +in watching the new arrivals when suddenly Ivy gave Laura a nudge, and +the latter, following her glance, saw a short gentleman accompanied by +a tall lady in a rustling summer-silk coming up the aisle followed by +two girls, one dressed in white, the other in pale green, with mammoth +white hats. +</P> + +<P> +"The Ramseys!" whispered Laura, and Alene, who was watching the little +ones, looked up in time to receive a gracious smile from Vera, who +appeared not to see the other girls, although she was entering the seat +directly in front of them. +</P> + +<P> +On being seated Hermione looked around and seemed pleasantly surprised +to see them. She nodded and smiled and holding her arm, leaned back to +whisper, +</P> + +<P> +"Don't mention taffy or my arm will start stirring again!" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly the lights went down in the main hall, to shine with redoubled +brilliancy upon the stage. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at the Jacks-in-the-boxes!" cried Nettie, as several heads were +seen popping from under the stage. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the band," explained Laura. Sure enough, it was the musicians +who took a row of chairs in front of the curtain, and with a +preliminary tuning up and a few toots of the clarinet, began a swinging +march. +</P> + +<P> +How hard it was for the little ones to keep their feet still, though +they knew that was the proper thing to do! Claude, however, found his +little legs swinging in time, being careful not to let them touch the +floor, and Nettie's bright head and busy hands kept up a sort of +lilting movement, both children requiring some outlet for all that +pent-up exhilaration. +</P> + +<P> +The music died gradually to the softest murmur, the curtain ascended +slowly, a movement and flutter went through the hall, and the people +settled themselves in their seats with their faces turned to the stage. +</P> + +<P> +Up, up, the curtain soared toward the ceiling. Little Claude watched +it with a fascinated glance, expecting it to go right through the roof +but when it stopped just in time he gave a sigh of relief and directed +his eyes toward the stage. Then his face lengthened—as far as such a +chubby face could—for all that he saw in front of him was a huge round +affair of some soft material, all decked with flowers. +</P> + +<P> +"Great scissors!" he muttered, as he gazed upon it in amazement; then +he noticed at the other side of the hall a portly gentleman who held a +sort of wand with which he pointed toward the stage where something +interesting was taking place but, alas, all that was visible to Claude +was the topmost part which resembled a clouded sky. +</P> + +<P> +He gave a sigh of disappointment and glanced toward the girls. Alene +was leaning forward with a rapt expression, Ivy's mouth was half +opened—she appeared to have forgotten the world—and Laura's head was +craned painfully to one side of that huge affair in front. Then he +glanced at Nettie who sat beside him. Her face was the picture of woe, +her lips were curled ready to cry. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter?" he whispered sympathetically. +</P> + +<P> +A tear came running slowly down her cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you see—I can't see a thing!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene, attracted by their restlessness, glanced round. There they sat, +looking blankly at Hermione's mammoth hat, that shut away everything +else from their gaze. To be sure, it was a beautiful creation of white +chiffon, green foliage and pink ribbons; but when one has feasted his +eyes for a week on gorgeous posters, and has been washed and starched +and brought to the show to see wonderful things on a real stage, a +girl's hat, be it ever so fine, is surely a poor substitute! +</P> + +<P> +"You little martyrs!" exclaimed Alene, feeling that she must do +something to help them. +</P> + +<P> +She knew it would be useless to have them change places with her or the +other girls. It was only by leaning to one side that they were able to +see the pictures, for the brim of Hermione's hat met that of Vera's, a +rival in pale green and white, forming a screen which completely hid +the stage. +</P> + +<P> +With a sudden compunction Alene remembered that her own hat was of +goodly proportions, with a lovely lace cascade rippling over the brim. +She glanced behind to find that she, too, was an offender, for a little +girl whose head was on a level with Claude's, sat directly in the rear. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment only Alene hesitated, then she reached for her hat pin, +and whispering, called the attention of Laura and Ivy to the situation. +They gave her a nod and following her example took off their hats +which, while not so fine as Alene's and the Ramsey girls', were just as +effectual in shutting out the view. +</P> + +<P> +The people back of them nodded their approval and the mother of the +little maid whom Alene had first noticed leaned forward to thank her, +but the action of the three girls gave little relief so long as those +other hats stood up defiantly in front. +</P> + +<P> +What could be done? They were all missing the first scene and Nettie +and Claude might just as well have remained at home for all enjoyment +they were having. +</P> + +<P> +Alene leaned over and tapped Hermione on the shoulder. The latter +glanced around. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you mind removing your hat, Hermione? The children—" +</P> + +<P> +"What a shame! Thank you for telling me! I'll tell Vera, too!" +</P> + +<P> +Vera glanced at her sister wonderingly when she commenced to unfasten +her hat. +</P> + +<P> +"The children can't see," she explained. "Take yours off too, Vera, +do!" +</P> + +<P> +"Are you crazy'? The very idea! No one can see it if I do!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's the point, no one wants to see it!" +</P> + +<P> +Vera tossed her head. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just in people's way!" persisted Hermione. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it will be in my own way if I have to keep it in my lap." +</P> + +<P> +Just then came a loud whisper from the rear— +</P> + +<P> +"Country style! No one in the city ever wears a hat at the theatre!" +</P> + +<P> +A chorus of low laughter followed this remark, and Vera, not knowing it +was made by Ivy, began to have doubts as to the correctness of her +position. +</P> + +<P> +It was Alene, she knew, who had inaugurated the style here, and she was +from the city. Vera noticed, besides, that all over the hall the women +and children who wore large hats were taking them off. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if it's the correct thing. But what's the use of having a fine +hat if it's not to be worn in public?" she murmured, as with a show of +complacency the "screen" was removed. +</P> + +<P> +Claude and Nettie gave a murmur of joy when they beheld the beautiful +painted canvas spread out before them. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of the scene when the curtain fell, the lecturer in a few +words thanked the ladies for their courtesy and thoughtfulness. "To +have regard for the rights and feelings of others is to act upon the +Golden Rule! Not alone for the audience but for myself also I thank +you! Especially do I thank the little girls who set the good example." +He turned to the bench where the originators of the movement sat and +gave them an impressive bow, then he stepped back, and the band started +up with a crash and a bang that resounded throughout the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"It was Alene who deserved all the credit," commented Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed," agreed Laura warmly. +</P> + +<P> +"He looked straight at me," whispered Vera. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Vanity, it was all Alene's work!" returned her sister. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment Alene's gaze, straying to another part of the hall, +spied her Uncle Fred who had come in unobserved by the girls and taken +a seat not far away. +</P> + +<P> +He was looking in her direction with such a pleased and happy +countenance that Alene, meeting his glance, flashed him a radiant smile +over the heads of the people. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder what makes him look so pleased," she murmured. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AFTER THE SHOW +</H3> + +<P> +Meanwhile, outside in the court, many boys and girls who were unable to +attend the show found a great attraction in its immediate vicinity. +</P> + +<P> +To watch the doors through which so many lucky individuals passed had +proved very interesting earlier in the evening, and after the door had +closed upon the latest comer to creep closely to doors and windows, and +listen to the hum and flutter of the crowd, and then to hear the band's +inspiring strains was a source of joy. But when the music ceased and a +great calm settled on the audience, they knew very well it was because +the show had commenced, and that, alas, was not visible through thick +boards. +</P> + +<P> +One window, whose shutters were pierced by penknives in former years, +was held valiantly all the evening by a special clique of youngsters +who relieved each other at intervals in pressing their eyes to the +holes, thus getting glimpses of the mysteries within. +</P> + +<P> +A certain ingenious lad had repaired to a nearby house, borrowed a red +hot poker, and returning to the hall, bored two peep-holes through +another shutter, while an enterprising companion pried open a third +window, thus giving a full view of the pictures to all who were +fortunate enough to get near. +</P> + +<P> +All these delinquents at first were thrown into intermittent thrills of +fright whenever the word went round that the constable was coming; but +when, after many false alarms, that worthy man was discovered sitting +comfortably in the hall, well up toward the stage, they felt secure, +knowing they could easily find safety in flight at the first show of +activity on his part. +</P> + +<P> +The panorama moved on. Christian's movements were followed with +intense interest, especially by the younger onlookers. Claude found a +special fascination in the big bag fastened upon the hero's shoulders. +He wondered what it contained and when, toward the end, it was lost in +some mysterious way that he could not understand, he felt very much +disappointed not to have found out. Nettie whispered she guessed it +was old clothes, but Claude knew it was something more interesting than +that. +</P> + +<P> +At last came the Dark Valley and then the Grand Transformation scene, +when through the great pearly gates a glimpse of the Celestial City was +obtained. Little white-robed angels, with crowns and harps, were seen +flying through the pink tinted air; the white walls and shining domes +of the heavenly mansions glittered in the distance, and Christian's +trials were past. The children, gazing enraptured at the scene, were +sorry that it could not last forever. +</P> + +<P> +Nettie felt a special interest in one chubby cherub who reminded her of +Lois, and wished for a closer acquaintance, and Claude still hoped to +see the bag bobbing up again to display its contents, like a wizard's +hat but, alas, in a moment the fairy scene was blotted out by the +descending curtain! +</P> + +<P> +Everybody rose and took place in the procession toward the door. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment a crash was heard; a pane of glass was shattered by some +one outside leaning too heavily against it. In a moment the score of +heads which were peering in had disappeared. The red-faced constable +was seen edging his way through the crowd, and Claude and Nettie had +visions of handcuffs and the jail in store for the offenders, who, +however, were far away when the enforcer of the law arrived upon the +scene. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy nudged Alene, who in turn nudged Laura, who looked round just in +time to see Mr. Edmonds standing near the box-office. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Bon jour, mesdemoiselles</I>," he cried, with a smile and a bow that +included them all. "I hope you enjoyed your evening." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed, thank you, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"It was beautiful!" +</P> + +<P> +"Lovely!" +</P> + +<P> +"Where do you keep Lois, I mean the cherub?" murmured Nettie in so shy +a tone that only her lips were seen moving, and Claude wished he were +well enough acquainted to ask about the missing bag. +</P> + +<P> +The girls felt a thrill of pride at their prominent position. Speaking +to one of the show people was next to being a real actor, but they had +to move on with the crowd which pressed around them. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Edmonds handed the beaming Laura a pretty book, which proved to be +an illustrated copy of the Pilgrim's Progress, and with a parting <I>au +revoir</I>, re-entered the box-office. +</P> + +<P> +"Decidedly forward, keeping everyone back this way," said Mrs. Ramsey, +who was slightly in the rear, having waited to fasten Vera's hat. +"Alene Dawson is a bold piece! The idea of making everybody remove +their hats! I was glad I wore a close-fitting bonnet or I'd actually +have had to take mine off too. One can't be odd, you know!—Oh, +there's Mr. Dawson! Good evening! Why don't you call upon me to +chaperone Alene for you? She seems so forsaken, poor thing! I assure +you I'll take her gladly any time with my girls!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are very kind, but to-night is a sort of a Club affair I believe!" +</P> + +<P> +"Club affair!" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it the Happy-Go-Luckys?" inquired Hermione with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Alene came on their invitation." +</P> + +<P> +"But to be out so late, going home alone!" gasped the lady. +</P> + +<P> +"She is never alone! Half a dozen of the girls and boys intend +escorting her home to-night and, besides, you see I am not far in the +rear!" +</P> + +<P> +"What a likely tale!" cried Mrs. Ramsey, as the crowd carried the +gentleman away. "As if the Lees or the Bonners could afford such an +expense! I'll wager Fred Dawson paid for them all; but then he's +always been odd—don't you remember that little foreigner he made such +a fuss over because Mrs. Truby had him arrested for stealing? He +actually spent a lot of money to get him off!" +</P> + +<P> +"But the boy was innocent, mamma. Don't you remember how the lady +found the money a long time afterward, where she had hidden and +forgotten it?" +</P> + +<P> +"But that is not the point—Fred Dawson didn't know he was innocent. +And there's old Miss Marlin, the best teacher of painting and the +languages in town—who charges outlandish prices because he upholds +her, and he actually gives her a house, rent free!" +</P> + +<P> +"She is his old teacher and very feeble! Dawson is a great-hearted +fellow. In his quiet way he does more good than many of our famed +philanthropists," said the usually silent Mr. Ramsey. +</P> + +<P> +"Philanthropy, indeed! Were I Alene's mother I wouldn't like it at +all, throwing his money away. If he doesn't marry, it will all go to +Alene!" +</P> + +<P> +"She will have plenty in any case; her father is very well fixed!" +commented Mr. Ramsey. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Alene an heiress?" cried Vera. "How funny! No one would ever +guess it from her manner!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's well you are not; you would want an air-ship in order to live up +in the clouds above the heads of ordinary people! Alene has brains!" +returned Hermione. +</P> + +<P> +"An unspoiled child, I should judge," said her father. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LAURA'S PROPOSITION +</H3> + +<P> +"There's a club or something of that kind. I think it's a branch of +the Sunshine Society," said Laura, as they sat under the trees on the +terrace one bright afternoon, "that keeps a record of the birthdays of +certain members who are sick or shut away from active life, and +everybody is invited to a sort of surprise party, as it were; letters, +books, or mementos of any kind are sent to reach the person on a +certain date; it's a red-white-and-blue letter date for her, I guess—" +</P> + +<P> +"Not blue," interrupted Ivy, "I'd call it a red letter day!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—" said Alene when Laura paused as if to ponder over something +suggested by her words. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she returned, coming back to the present, to find her two +friends waiting interestedly. "Well, it strikes me as a good idea for +adoption by the Happy-Go-Luckys. It wouldn't be original with us, but +if we wait to do only things which have never been done before, we may +remain idle forever and ever, for there's nothing original under the +sun." +</P> + +<P> +"Except original sin," suggested Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +Laura gave her a withering glance that included Alene who always found +Ivy's sallies amusing. Perhaps Alene's smile on this occasion caused +Ivy to continue: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Lol, I've found that's true, especially when one's writing. If +you put down something you think is decidedly fine or smart, you're +sure to find that the Bible or Shakespeare or the Daily Observer in +to-day's paper has said it all so much better! But excuse me, I'm +interrupting you!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura was too full of her subject to give more than a stiff little +contraction of the lips to Ivy's digression; she went on to say:— +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what made me think so much of the birthday idea was what Mother +said when she came home from Mrs. Kump's this morning. The old lady +lives all alone. She makes a living by doing odd jobs, so Mother +wanted to get her to do some quilting. She does it beautifully, in an +old-fashioned way that few understand now-a-days. When Mother got +there she found her going round doing her work on her hands and +knees—her feet were too sore to walk on. She told Mother she had been +that way for a week. She was glad of the quilting, not having been +able to do any other kind of work for some time. Mother was afraid she +might be in actual want, but she didn't dare say a word for fear of +offending her. Mrs. Kump happened to remark that Thursday, the day +after to-morrow, is her birthday, and hearing that, just after reading +about the birthday party, made me think of the Happy-Go-Luckys' 'Be +kind' clause. So, girls, what do you think?" Laura turned to them a +shining, expectant countenance. +</P> + +<P> +"That we might set some birds a-flying straight to the poor old lady," +was Alene's prompt reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, the birds will be the best in this case as it is rather quick +time for flower seeds to take root and bloom," remarked Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"But these are a kind of magic flowers that spring up in a single +night," said Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"And who knows, some of them may turn out regular century plants. I +read a poem not long ago, about a pebble cast upon the beach, that sent +out ripples to the farther shore, which I suppose means that sometimes +our smallest action may have a far reaching influence," said Ivy, who +reclined on the grass, with her eyes fixed dreamily on the blue expanse +of sky that stretched across the river and met the dark blue line of +hills beyond. +</P> + +<P> +"Come down out of the clouds! We have work to do and precious little +time for its doing," cried Laura, giving her a shaking. She sat up +laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds like a sermon on the shortness of time! What's time to us +children of eternity? But what shall we give to poor old Mrs. Kump?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's the question," said Laura, glad to have arrived at something +practical, a matter she often found rather difficult with Ivy. "Mother +has promised a loaf of bread." +</P> + +<P> +"And I'll ask Mother to give some rolls—but that's bread too; sounds +so dry—I hate dry bread!" +</P> + +<P> +"Kizzie always gives me a dish of honey for breakfast. I'll ask her +for some of it, and Mrs. Major gets the loveliest little pats of butter +from the country, marked with a dear little cow—I'm sure she will give +me one!" +</P> + +<P> +"Instead of a bird that will be a butterfly," interposed Ivy; "or a +cowslip!" +</P> + +<P> +"Or a buttercup and a honey-bee," returned Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"You wretches! Here's one to get even. As Mrs. Kump works at +quilting, we ought to send her a quilting-bee!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura's sally was greeted with groans. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, there's something you won't groan about. Mrs. Kump was +lamenting that she couldn't go out to pick any berries this year and so +will miss her jam. Let's go blackberrying to-morrow morning, if the +boys will go along; we can get home before noon and I'll make her a jar +of jam." +</P> + +<P> +"Splendid!" cried Alene, "I've never gone berrying in my life!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with you, Ivy? You are not usually so shy!" +</P> + +<P> +"It will be too far for me," said Ivy dejectedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you think I meant to go? Why, just around the road, on the +hillside near the bridge!" +</P> + +<P> +"There's not a berry left there! Hugh went over this morning and found +the bushes stripped! The nearest place is Thornley's, three miles +away!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then of course we won't go! I wonder if you could go horseback? I +was thinking that Mat could borrow the groceryman's horse." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Lol, I never learned to ride. Besides, it would be so jolty! The +rest of you go without me; the walk will be only a pleasure for you!" +</P> + +<P> +The girls protested against this; they talked of other things connected +with Mrs. Kump's birthday party, and the blackberry project was +apparently abandoned. +</P> + +<P> +A bright thought had come to Alene, however, which she resolved to keep +a secret until she found if she could carry out her plan. +</P> + +<P> +It all depended on her uncle, whom she expected to come up the street +at any moment, on his way home from the office. She jumped up when she +saw him coming. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay here, girls, until I speak to Uncle Fred." +</P> + +<P> +She ran to the wall and climbed up at the spot where she had first seen +her new friends. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dawson crossed in answer to her call. +</P> + +<P> +After a few moments' conversation she returned to the girls, saying +gaily:— +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right, he says we may have it!" +</P> + +<P> +They gazed upon her wonderingly. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +Alene laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"There, I forgot it was a secret. Well, here goes—All the horses are +out at the farm now, but Uncle Fred says we may have the surrey if Mat +can get a horse!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura clapped her hands, and Ivy, who had been unusually silent and +depressed in the last half hour, brightened and her face was fairly +radiant with joy as she cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Alene! You good fairy godmother! It's just like Cinderella and +her pumpkin coach!" +</P> + +<P> +"But we mustn't wear glass slippers," said Laura. "You see, Alene, +when we go a-berrying we always wear our heaviest shoes and battered +bonnets and patched dresses, for the thorns tear our shoes and clothes." +</P> + +<P> +Alene's face clouded. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I can't find a battered dress or a patched bonnet. Will I +have to stay at home?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, you goose! Just wear the plainest you have!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE BERRY PATCH +</H3> + +<P> +As if in a dream Alene heard a voice: +</P> + +<P> +"It's after five o'clock, Miss Alene. You better get up if you want to +be ready by six!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene sat up with a yawn. She blinked her eyes and gazed solemnly at +the rosy, smiling face of the little maid. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder why it's so much easier to get up the night before!" she +ejaculated. +</P> + +<P> +Kizzie laughed as she crossed the room and raised the blinds. The lace +curtains billowed in the fresh air and the soft light of dawn stole +into the room. A pretty room it was, too, with blue and gray matting, +blue tinted walls, its white stand and dresser, and little brass bed. +</P> + +<P> +With another yawn Alene slipped her feet to the white rug beside the +bed, stood up, and lifting her gown as if for a skirt dance, skipped +lightly to a willow rocker which stood invitingly before one of the +tall windows overlooking the terrace and the town. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll run downstairs and get some breakfast ready, and then come back +and help you with your hair and buttons," said Kizzie. +</P> + +<P> +Alene knelt down beside the chair and buried her face in its blue +cushions to say her morning prayers. +</P> + +<P> +There was a time when she had first come to the Towers when to her +regular prayers she always added a sort of petition—"Please, dear +Lord, I am so lonely!" +</P> + +<P> +Now her heart was filled with the beauty of the day, its promises of +joy. She had so much that for herself there was nothing more to +ask—only thanks to give, but for her friends, beginning with Mrs. +Kump, the latest, and ending with her parents, the oldest and best +beloved, she petitioned many blessings. +</P> + +<P> +Only a few moments given to God, but they were a consecration for the +day! +</P> + +<P> +Alene rose with a song on her lips and proceeded with her bath and +dressing. She found herself doing so many things now-a-days that a few +months before would have seemed an impossibility. +</P> + +<P> +"I used to be a bigger baby than Nettie or even Lois," she reflected as +she buttoned her shoes and started to comb her hair. This was always a +difficult task. The comb that went through those long locks so +smoothly when manipulated by some one else, encountered many snarls, +and Alene was glad when Kizzie came back to relieve her. A vigorous +brushing and curling soon brought the refractory hair to the required +state, and the glossy brown curls were finally tied at the nape of her +neck with a bow of blue ribbon. +</P> + +<P> +She was too excited to eat her breakfast; it was only Kizzie's reminder +that, "Mr. Fred will ask if you ate a good breakfast. He will be +displeased if you don't," that induced her to partake of anything. +</P> + +<P> +She had scarcely finished her bowl of milk and crackers when the big +gate clanged through the still air, then came a medley of gay voices; +the walk resounded beneath the tread of light footsteps, and Prince's +sonorous bark gave forth a challenge. +</P> + +<P> +"There they come!" +</P> + +<P> +"Here they are!" Alene rushed from the table. +</P> + +<P> +She paused for a moment in the open doorway in sheer amazement and then +she gave a peal of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"No wonder Prince was scared!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +For there stood the girls with their sunbonnets drawn over their faces, +and their skirts spread out to display each rent and patch, of which +there were not a few. Laura put one foot forward that a dilapidated +shoe, from which her toes peeped, might not escape notice, and Ivy +seemed proud of a pocket, turned inside out, that was apparently all +holes. +</P> + +<P> +A snickering sound came from the depths of the bonnets and then their +laughter rang out loud and long. +</P> + +<P> +"We had rehearsed a speech about tramping along the tracks all night, +but I couldn't say a word to save my life when I saw your bewildered +face!" explained Ivy when their mirth had subsided. +</P> + +<P> +"You poor girl!" remarked Laura with a commiserating glance at Alene's +neat blue gingham gown with its trimming of fancy braid; "is that the +'very worstest' you could scare up?" +</P> + +<P> +"Kizzie helped me to look through my trunk and wardrobe and we couldn't +find a thing plainer. I looked it over but there's not a tear in it! +I might have sewed a patch on, but that would have been make-believe!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene's tone was disconsolate. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, never mind, come along! There's Hugh waiting near the gate and +Mat's minding the rig! You needn't take your hat, I brought Nettie's +bonnet; it will do fine. It's too big for her!" +</P> + +<P> +They ran along the walk and scrambled into the surrey. The girls took +the back seat, Hugh jumped in beside Mat, and with gay good-byes to +Kizzie and Prince they were off on their way to the country. +</P> + +<P> +The bells of the factories rang out, calling the men to work. Few +pedestrians, however, were seen for the majority of the working people +lived in the streets nearer the river, while the merchants and +leisurely class occupied residences in the upper streets, along which +they drove. Occasionally an energetic maid was seen cleaning the front +steps or porch, and just on the out-skirts of the town they passed a +group of boys going the same way, who eyed them curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, Hughie," cried one, "where are you bound for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Berryin'!" +</P> + +<P> +"So are we!" +</P> + +<P> +Mat gave the grocer's slow-going nag a touch that livened him and they +were soon carried out of range of the lads. +</P> + +<P> +"It's that Stony Road gang!" Hugh glanced round to explain. +</P> + +<P> +"The ones who tried to steal our lunch that day? But I didn't see Mark +Griffin with them—he's your fish-boy, Alene," said Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess he'll join them later on; that's his home!" +</P> + +<P> +Hugh pointed to a low stone house that stood some distance in from the +road, beyond a well-trimmed hedge and broad stretch of lawn, with +grape-arbors and barns showing in the rear. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, his folks must be well off," said Laura in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Old man Griffin owns the boat-yards over in Westville." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, his son might find better company than that, surely!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mark's been away at school most of his life and when he came home this +vacation, the first thing we knew he was hobnobbing with that gang. +They steal and play cards and torture animals!" +</P> + +<P> +"Horrors!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think he would torture anything, he doesn't look like that +kind of a boy!" exclaimed Alene, warmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Might as well be bad as in bad company," returned Hugh, with that +"preacher air" of his which Alene always found exasperating. +</P> + +<P> +"Mark and Jack Lever used to be thicker'n flies, but I've not seen 'em +together this year," interposed Mat. +</P> + +<P> +"Jack's fine as silk, couldn't stand the Stony Road pace, I guess! +Fact is, I haven't seen him for six weeks. He's never in his father's +store; must be out of town." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee up!" interposed Mat. "If I didn't keep up a perpetual song, I +believe Old Hurricane'd stop still and never go on again; can easily +see he used to be a race horse!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he always raced the last few yards home for his grub!" +</P> + +<P> +"He's doing splendiferous. Only for him we wouldn't be here, so don't +spurn the ladder by which we climb," cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he'd make a better ladder than anything else, he's so bony; +besides that he'd rather stand still any day and let us climb him!" +</P> + +<P> +"You ungrateful Mat! But, Oh, girls and boys, to sit and let the air +blow upon us, and feast our eyes on the glorious sunrise and the lovely +green fields and flowers! The air is like champagne I tasted once, +kind of thin and clear and nippy and refreshing!" +</P> + +<P> +"If I knew you were a boozer, Miss Bonner, nothing would have induced +me to undertake the management of this nervous racer. If the air +brings on an attack of the delirium tremenjous, how can I manage the +two of you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just manage your own tongue, Mr. Lee, but that would be an +impossibility," said Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Talking of wine and things reminds me of Claude," said Laura. "I +overtook him coming down street the other day and we walked together. +He stopped to peer in at the bars of the jail. 'I'd hate to be put in +a stall like the poor drunkards.' (He called them Dunkards.) 'And I'm +sure you never will, Claude,' said I. He threw back his shoulders and +said, 'Well, I drank root-beer till I was six years old and then swore +off and haven't drank a drop since!' I could have screeched!" +</P> + +<P> +Hugh laughed heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"The little scamp! He insisted on taking the pledge when I did last +year! The temperance lecturer was here. He was a speaker, I can tell +you! When he cried that ancient warning: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'Young men, Ahoy there!<BR> +'What is it?'<BR> +'The rapids are below you.'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +I could see some of our old soaks shrinking in their seats; and when he +wound up, 'Shrieking, howling, blaspheming, over they go,' it was +simply immense! There was such a stampede for the platform that you'd +think we were drowning, and scrambling for life-buoys. I knew from the +way Mother spoke when I set out for the hall that she would like me to +pledge myself. Someway I didn't see any use in it, but that lecturer +made me see lots of things, so I up and followed old man Potter who +hadn't drawn a sober breath ever since I could remember. Claude clung +to my coat-tails. "I want a ribbon, too!" he screamed. The lecturer +gave one look at the little shaver and the crowd roared as he pinned a +badge on the boy's coat. Ah, here we are at the patch!" +</P> + +<P> +Mat turned the horse into a lane leading to the left. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's your bonnet, Alene," cried Laura. "Don't forget the buckets, +boys!" +</P> + +<P> +Mat tied Old Hurricane to the fence beneath a shady tree and they +started for the nearest clump of bushes, each carrying a tin cup, +which, when filled with berries, was to be emptied into one of the +buckets placed at a convenient spot. +</P> + +<P> +Alene gave a gasp of joy, when parting the branches she found an +abundance of delicious fruit. Her first scratch, a tiny one on the +back of her hand, was proudly exhibited to the others. +</P> + +<P> +"How many have you eaten?" inquired Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a one!" +</P> + +<P> +"Show your tongue, little girl," said Ivy in a doubting tone. "Why, +you poor thing, you haven't tasted one! Look at mine," she opened her +mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Mrs. Kump!" said Alene. +</P> + +<P> +The others laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there will be plenty for her. Eat all you wish, Alene; Mat and +Hugh are noted pickers, there's no fear of our taking home empty +buckets," said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +Alene's lips were soon in the same state as Ivy's. The air had given +her a sharp appetite, and when in the course of the morning, Laura +found a package of sandwiches and tarts hidden under the seat of the +surrey, she declared that nothing had ever tasted quite so good as the +portion she disposed of, along with her tin of clear cold water from a +neighboring well. +</P> + +<P> +While enjoying luncheon her eyes wandered over the berry patch which +sloped gently upward to the road. A great many children and a few men +and women were scattered over the field, stripping the bushes. +</P> + +<P> +Across the patch a barred gate led to fields of pasture, and some of +the boys on the safe side of the fence were goading a great red bull +into a state of frenzy. +</P> + +<P> +As he tossed his head and bellowed, stamping and goring the ground, +Alene was glad there was a strong fence between them. She thought she +recognized among the mischievous lads one of the crowd they had passed +on the road in the early morning. +</P> + +<P> +The girls brushed away the crumbs of the feast and went back to the +bushes, while the boys returned the borrowed water bucket to its owner, +who lived a short distance up the lane. +</P> + +<P> +Alene was busy picking the ripe berries from an unusually heavy-laden +branch, rejoicing to see her measure filling so rapidly, when she heard +a terrified shriek. +</P> + +<P> +She jumped to her feet, letting the cup fall from her grasp, and turned +to find the other girls standing with horror-stricken faces, gazing +across the patch. In a moment she knew what had happened. The wide, +barred gate had become unfastened in some way, probably by one of the +boys. It was standing wide open and the angry bull had come through +and was seen tearing like a mad creature in the middle of the patch. +</P> + +<P> +Everyone sought places of safety, the small children clinging to their +elders with frightened cries, while one or two of the more courageous +young men who tried to head the animal and turn him back to his pasture +were compelled to fly, to escape injury. +</P> + +<P> +The three girls stood for a moment as if paralyzed; then Laura grasped +Ivy's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick, quick, to the fence! He's coming straight upon us!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's my red dress," gasped Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +Alene glanced round. She saw they were not far from the fence but that +it would be necessary to skirt a row of thick-grown bushes in order to +reach it. Could they do so in time? +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime Mat and Hugh, returning leisurely along the lane, were +startled into activity by the sight that met their view. Their gaze at +once sought the place where they had left the girls. It was deserted; +but not far away, Ivy's dress made a bright spot that immediately held +their glance, and the bull apparently had singled it out for attack; +his mad flight led straight in the path of the girls. +</P> + +<P> +The boys, with one impulse, made a dash across the fence; with clenched +hands and set teeth they stumbled onward; but alas, they were too far +away to render any help! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO THE RESCUE +</H3> + +<P> +And then an unlooked-for actor appeared upon the scene; a boyish +figure, supple and well built, sprang, as if miraculously, out of a +dense clump of bushes, just beyond the terror-stricken girls. +</P> + +<P> +With a ringing shout he darted straight in front of the infuriated +brute, and flung his coat defiantly in its eyes. Angry and snorting, +it tossed the coat aside and started after its tormentor. +</P> + +<P> +The trembling girls, thus suddenly and unexpectedly rescued from their +peril, found new anxiety for the safety of their brave deliverer. +</P> + +<P> +With bated breath they watched him as, having succeeded in diverting +the attention of the enemy, he half circled the field with the maddened +creature in hot pursuit, so close at times that he felt its hot breath +on his neck. +</P> + +<P> +Always heading in one direction, toward the open gate of the pasture +field, the boy led the race, and finally breathless and almost +exhausted, he gained the goal. +</P> + +<P> +Through the gate he ran and gave, as he cleared it, a sudden jump to +one side, while the momentum of the bull carried it forward and beyond +him. A moment later he stood in the friendly grass of the berry-patch, +with the gate closed securely between him and the foe. +</P> + +<P> +"It's Mark Griffin!" cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I knew him at once," returned Alene. +</P> + +<P> +The three girls clapped their hands joyfully, starting a round of +applause. Soon from every part of the patch came cheers and shouts and +whistling; a small boy, who perhaps was the cause of all the trouble, +scrambled from a tree near the big gate with a whoop that would have +startled an Indian brave. He ran across the field, picked up the coat +from where it lay on the ground almost in ribbons, and returned it to +its owner. +</P> + +<P> +With a humorous glance at the crumpled and grass-stained object Mark +flung it over his shoulder and, followed by the urchin and one or two +other boys, started away from the field and was soon out of sight down +the lane. +</P> + +<P> +"He wouldn't wait a minute," explained Hugh apologetically, when he and +Mat returned to the girls. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy curled her lip. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a great deal in the way things are asked," she said, and Hugh +knew she was offended. +</P> + +<P> +"Who wouldn't run away from a lot of girls ready to slobber over him +with thanks and prayers?" said Mat with a broad grin. +</P> + +<P> +"As if we would make him a courtesy and say, 'Thank you, sir, for +saving my life!'" retorted Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +Hugh busied himself picking up the tins and the upset buckets. He +sympathized with Mark's dislike of a scene. +</P> + +<P> +"Any of you fellows would have done the same if you had the chance," +the latter had said. +</P> + +<P> +"Did she expect us to bring a fellow by the coat collar to be thanked? +Girls are queer, they always enjoy fussing and the limelight," +concluded Hugh. He kept resolutely away from them. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with Hugh?" whispered Laura after a time. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"He seems kind o' grumpy." +</P> + +<P> +Ivy picked out a monster berry and put it into her mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"The wind's changing I guess! Boys are like weather-vanes, you never +can tell what way they're going next!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura smiled at the idea of comparing staid, dependable Hugh with +anything so uncertain as a weather-vane. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy kept on filling her tin cup and pretended not to pay any attention +to her brother. She knew her uncalled-for, sarcastic remark had +offended him. Had it been anyone else, she would have made ample +apology, but it was only poor old Hugh—it was not necessary to trouble +herself about him. He would "come round" after while, as he always +did. No matter how far in the wrong Ivy might be, it was always Hugh +who made the first advances toward a reconciliation. Perhaps if he had +waited longer, Ivy might have behaved differently, but Hugh never +waited. +</P> + +<P> +Sure enough, he soon gave signs of the "coming round" process, but +instead of "coming round" to Ivy with a handful of flowers he had +found, he gave them to Alene. +</P> + +<P> +After that it was to Alene he came when he had an especially large +berry to show; he insisted upon her eating it; he compared the state of +his tin cup and hers, and they made a wager as to whose cup would be +filled the first. +</P> + +<P> +His celerity amazed Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"How can you fill yours so quickly?" +</P> + +<P> +"By sticking to a good bush when I find one!" +</P> + +<P> +"You girls lose time by flitting from bush to bush like butterflies," +added Mat. +</P> + +<P> +"We are more like busy bees, Mat. We gather only the best as we fly! +There's Laura, no boy can beat her picking berries," said Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe there's a good deal in what Hugh says," remarked Laura, "not +only in berry picking, but in work and study. We accomplish more by +sticking to one thing at a time. They say 'Beware of the man of one +book.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I would indeed be beware of him. He'd be an insufferable bore!" +retorted Ivy, as she moved away to another bush. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we will transmigrate ourselves into robins and do the 'babes in +the wood' act!" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy gazed at the speaker compassionately. +</P> + +<P> +"Has the poor boy gone daffy?" +</P> + +<P> +Mat pointed to the two buckets, by that time filled with berries. +</P> + +<P> +"We will cover them over with leaves!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know what Claude does when he's angry or out of humor?" +inquired Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Throws himself on the floor and kicks, I guess!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, he runs to a corner and hides his face!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"If I were you, I'd follow his example!" +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm not angry or out of humor with you, Ivy. On the contrary, I +feel as mild as a lamb, and I'm so razzle-dazzle-dizzled pleased with +getting these buckets filled in spite of you girls, that I +could—could—" +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't, whatever it is you could do, be wise and don't do it!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's the time?" asked Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"Eleven A.M.!" +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure of the A.M.?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm surer of it than of the eleven! I made a guess at that!" +</P> + +<P> +"We'd better start home. It will take some time to make the jam and +get Mrs. Kump's basket ready," said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +Mat made a horn of his hands and gave a yell. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that for?" +</P> + +<P> +"To call our party in." +</P> + +<P> +"We don't want everybody in the field; we're all here but Alene and +Hugh." +</P> + +<P> +"Where are they? Haven't seen 'em for some time! Ah, here they come!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hugh took me over to see a thrush's nest," explained Alene. Her face +glowed with animation beneath Nettie's pink lined bonnet; her lips and +fingers were stained with berries and Laura asked herself if this could +be the white-cheeked, forlorn, little Peggy-Alone she had seen standing +beside Prince on the terrace just a couple of months before. +</P> + +<P> +They trooped gaily into the carriage, Mat again took the reins and away +they went on the return trip. +</P> + +<P> +They came into the town by a different route, which led past the +Ramseys' buff cottage. +</P> + +<P> +"There's Vera and her mother and some ladies sitting on the porch," +remarked Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"And see, there's Hermione at an upstairs window," said Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +The girls waved their hands to that smiling friend and the boys +gallantly doffed their hats as they raced Old Hurricane past the house. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Ramsey gazed after the vehicle with a look of amazement. She had +obtained a glimpse of the girls, in their print dresses and sunbonnets, +but had failed to recognize them. +</P> + +<P> +"Who can they be?" +</P> + +<P> +"They evidently know you," said one of the ladies, smilingly. "Didn't +you see that little curly-headed girl swinging her bonnet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at us, surely!" +</P> + +<P> +Vera smiled at her mother's shocked tone. +</P> + +<P> +"That was Ivy Bonner; they were waving at Hermione upstairs." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought it looked like Dawson's rig, but surely Alene wasn't—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she was there, with her face all stained with berry juice! I +guess they were out picking blackberries!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Ramsey raised her eyes in despair. "What does Fred Dawson mean by +allowing it? If that poor child's mother only knew!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BLUE BOX +</H3> + +<P> +It was eight o'clock when Jed Granger, a youth of eighteen, who acted +as a sort of under gardener at the Towers, left a hamper at the Lee +home. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a note from Alene," explained Laura, running her eyes over the +sheet of tinted paper. "Of all the foolish things to do!" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy sat beside the kitchen table, writing a neat label for Mrs. Kump's +jar of jam. She glanced up at Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just listen! Mother, listen to this!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Laura Dear:— +</P> + +<P> +Good luck! Uncle Fred gave me two dollars to buy something for Mrs. +Kump. Didn't have time to consult you or Ivy but I know you will be +pleased! It's on top of the hamper. Be sure and look at it. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Good-bye!<BR> + "Alene D."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Candy! Let's look at it!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura, still wearing a look of disgust, opened the package, displaying +a box of pale blue and silver tied with narrow ribbons, which after a +careful untying and lifting of the lid disclosed a splendor of +lace-work and tinsel-paper, over layer upon layer of bon bons and +candied fruit, with a cute little silver tongs. +</P> + +<P> +"Delicious! And what a beautiful box!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's certainly very fine!" +</P> + +<P> +"But for old Mrs. Kump!" cried Laura. "The money or something +substantial would do so much better!" +</P> + +<P> +"There's plenty of substantials in Alene's hamper," said Mrs. Lee. +"Butter, coffee, tea." +</P> + +<P> +"But this fine candy and the ribbons and fixings! It's like throwing +the money away!" said Laura sharply, as she wrapped up the box and +replaced it on the hamper. +</P> + +<P> +Though Ivy had doubts of the usefulness of Alene's gift, she felt a +certain satisfaction in having it to send along with the more practical +things; she wished she had a volume of her own poetry, bound in blue +with the name just as she had often pictured it in silver letters, +"Early Blossoms," to send; it would go so well with Alene's box. +Laura's condemnation, however, made this seem a foolish desire, which +she would not dare to mention. +</P> + +<P> +They returned to the work of getting everything ready for the boys to +carry to Mrs. Kump. Ivy completed her label and pasted it on the jar, +where the fancy initials looked effective. Laura and her mother +proceeded with the packing. The former still wore a disapproving +countenance and her vexation hung round them like a cloud. +</P> + +<P> +"This reminds me of something that happened to me once upon a time," +said Mrs. Lee, who had occasion to move the hamper. Ivy smiled +encouragingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Ob, a story, a story! Come and sit here, Lol, and listen!" +</P> + +<P> +"Once upon a time," Mrs. Lee began, "I and my cousin Clementina, just +about my own age, ten years, were the best of chums, even thicker than +you Happy-Go-Lucky girls, for we had just ourselves to play with, all +the other members of both families being much older; the next in age +was my sister Roxana, going on sixteen. Clemmie and I used to watch +the store windows and I remember one day we stood transfixed at a new +display in Smithley's drug store. In addition to drugs, they sold many +other things, so there we stood, Clemmie admiring a pair of pink +garters with silver buckles, while I looked longingly at a volume of +<I>Jane Eyre</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"'Only thirty cents! If I only had a pair!' sighed Clementina. +</P> + +<P> +"'A dollar and a half,' I lamented, for in those days there were no +cheap editions of books. +</P> + +<P> +"Day after day on our way to and from school we stopped before our +idols. Clem told me she often dreamed of that pair of garters with its +shining buckles! +</P> + +<P> +"'Saturday's my birthday; if some kind, rich old gentleman would happen +along and adopt me before then, the first thing I'd ask for would be a +pair of pink garters like these!' +</P> + +<P> +"That day when I reached home I found a small package which my +godmother, Mrs. Keyes, had left for me. It was a pretty handkerchief +with my initial in the corner, and knotted inside was a silver half +dollar. To me that was quite a fortune and Roxana gave me much advice +as to its disposal, but I scarcely heard what she said; I was thinking +of something else; you can guess what it was." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we know, we know," cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Friday evening, I sneaked away from Clem and went to Smithley's. +</P> + +<P> +"I could hardly control my voice to speak when the proprietor came +forward. I had come to a halt near the show window. +</P> + +<P> +"'What's your lowest price for <I>Jane Eyre</I>?' I found myself saying. +</P> + +<P> +"'A dollar and a half. It's a most fascinating book, but for your own +reading I'd advise—' +</P> + +<P> +"'Thank you, sir, but I think I'll buy those.' +</P> + +<P> +"I pointed to the garters. Mr. Smithley wrapped them up and tied the +package with a pink and white cord. +</P> + +<P> +"I could hardly wait to get home before opening the precious parcel. I +wanted to show it to mother the first thing, but she was not in and I +proudly displayed it to Roxana. She eyed the garters dubiously. +</P> + +<P> +"'Very easily soiled! How much did you pay for them?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Thirty cents, at Smithley's.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Thirty cents! The idea! For something you can't wear!' +</P> + +<P> +"'I don't intend wearing them! It's my present for Clementina's +birthday!' +</P> + +<P> +"'You foolish thing! Why didn't you consult me? A pair of black ones +would wear so much longer!' +</P> + +<P> +"Roxana's manner did not chill my pleasure. I went upstairs and wrote +an inscription on a card:— +</P> + +<P> +"'For Clementina on her Tenth Birthday, from Edna,' and placed it with +the garters. +</P> + +<P> +"I could hardly wait for the next day! I pictured Clem's surprise and +rapture. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother came home, and after supper I slipped away to get the package +to show to her. I knew when I returned to the sitting-room, that +Roxana had told her about my purchase and how she regarded it. +</P> + +<P> +"She said it was pretty but—well, they kept on about it, until I began +to think myself a culprit. I could hardly see the pink garters for my +tears. At last Roxana suggested an exchange. By that time I didn't +care for anything; all my pleasure in the gift was spoiled. +</P> + +<P> +"'I'll not give Clementina anything,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"'Don't be unreasonable, child, the black garters will be so useful,' +chided my mother. +</P> + +<P> +"'But Clementina admired these!' +</P> + +<P> +"'She never dreamed of owning them, though,' said Roxana. +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes, she did!' +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it resulted in Roxana's carrying off my foolish purchase and +coming back with her sensible one. +</P> + +<P> +"I can smile at it now, but at the time it was a real tragedy to me. +Mother never suspected my disappointment. We were all so used to +accepting Roxana's opinions as laws that to rebel against them would +lay oneself open to the charge of treason. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the next day I went to Clementina's. She came running down to +the front gate to meet me. +</P> + +<P> +"'Happy birthday,' I faltered, thrusting the little package into her +hands. +</P> + +<P> +"'Why, Edna,' she said, but I hurried away, not daring to wait to see +her open it. +</P> + +<P> +"That was apparently the end of our friendship. +</P> + +<P> +"When we met again, Clementina treated me very coolly; I was terribly +cut up but I did not blame her. I knew it would have been better taste +not to have given her anything, but it was too late then. +</P> + +<P> +"For several days we kept apart. +</P> + +<P> +"I avoided Smithley's window, but one day I stopped before it almost in +spite of myself. There hung the pink garters, with their shining +buckles. They seemed to mock my chagrin. Then all at once Clementina +stood at my side. She held out her hand! +</P> + +<P> +"'Forgive me, Edna, I might have known it was Roxana!' +</P> + +<P> +"My lip trembled. +</P> + +<P> +"'Carrie Smithley told me just now. You see, she was in the store when +you bought the pink garters and when Roxana returned them she told Mr. +Smithley what a foolish thing you had bought; she said you were too +stubborn to come back yourself and she had to do it. She always had to +do the things the rest of the family shirked!' +</P> + +<P> +"I had to smile at Clem's mimicking Roxana, it was so true to life. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Clem! She said she never expected me to give her anything, but +when she opened the parcel and saw the black garters, she rushed into +the darkened parlor and cried and cried, on the sofa behind the door! +Not because of the garters, but because she expected different +treatment from me—'It just seemed like a slap in the face,' she said." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess it did," murmured Ivy. "Is that the end?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's a kind of a sequel," said Mrs. Lee with a smile. "Clementina +gave a glance into Smithley's window. +</P> + +<P> +"'Say, Edna, would you care if—' +</P> + +<P> +"'Oh, Clem, I'd be so glad!' said I." +</P> + +<P> +"And so it ended happily after all!" cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; and Cousin Clem has them to this day—put away in a cedar box +that belonged to her mother!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura smiled rather doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"And of course there's a moral, Mother Lee, but this is different!" +</P> + +<P> +Going home, Ivy talked the matter over with her mother. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm inclined to take Mrs. Lee's view. The poem says 'Give to the +hungry potatoes,' but I guess it doesn't mean to give potatoes only!" +said that lady. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MRS. KUMP'S BIRTHDAY +</H3> + +<P> +Mrs. Kump's home, a one-storied frame building, stood on the west bank +of a run that trickled down from the hills to the river; a small window +faced the main road, while two others with the 'front' door between, +opened upon a porch thickly trellised with grape vines; a couple of +steps at one end of the porch led to a wooden platform which bridged +the stream. +</P> + +<P> +At six o'clock that morning the dew lay heavy upon the matted grape +leaves, and over the little vegetable garden behind the house, with its +outlying poles of hop-vines and sweet-peas. +</P> + +<P> +The scent of pennyroyal came from the banks of the stream; the birds +twittered round the little gray house and the sun shone upon it feebly, +through a thick wall of fog. +</P> + +<P> +Stepping softly across the bridge and through the green opening of the +porch went Hugh and Mat, those worthy aids of the Happy-Go-Luckys; in +front of the door they placed the birthday offerings, and then, giving +a resounding knock on the panel, they ran and hid in the bushes across +the road. +</P> + +<P> +Presently the door opened and a gray head peered forth, then out +stepped a thin figure in a blue calico wrapper. With hands upraised +she advanced to the porch steps. +</P> + +<P> +"The grocer's man made a mistake," the boys heard her say. She gazed +along the road but no one was in view. Retracing her steps she bent +over the baskets. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a card on 'em. The owner's name, I reckon. I'll get my specs +and see!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now's our chance to light out!" whispered Mat, and away they flew. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Lee crossed the bridge that same evening, followed by Nettie in +starched white frock and golden curls. +</P> + +<P> +A clump of hollyhocks made a gorgeous splash of color against the wall +of the house beneath the end window. Four-o'clocks, ragged-robins and +blue lark-spur struggled up through the cabbages and long grass of the +little garden, to bid them welcome, and at the door they were met by +the mistress of the house, who had heard their footsteps. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Kump was a large-boned woman of medium height; her complexion was +of golden bronze; the flesh had fallen, giving her cheeks a square set, +and her dark eyes gleamed brightly beneath a broad wrinkled brow; a cap +of black lace surmounted her head, a white net fichu was crossed on her +breast and fastened with a cameo pin in a wide gold frame, and her +dress was of silver gray. +</P> + +<P> +She led the way into the little sitting-room and drew aside the muslin +half-curtains. Through the open window came the murmur of the running +stream, the scent of pennyroyal, and the rays of the setting sun. +</P> + +<P> +A striped rag carpet covered the floor and the walls, with gorgeous +papering of flowers and vines, were hung with many old fashioned +pictures. +</P> + +<P> +There was the Lord's Prayer in an intricate design of crimson and gold, +a framed sampler and motto, and smaller pictures in square and oval +frames; these for the most part friends and relatives of the owner, +their pictured features shadowed and dimmed by time. +</P> + +<P> +In the middle of the room a square table with a red, woolen cover, held +a half-dozen books cross-cornered one upon the other in several groups; +a glass lamp filled with red-colored water and oil stood in the center, +the top covered with a paper shade and the bottom swathed in a woolen +mat. +</P> + +<P> +A high, wooden mantel, painted black, occupied the other end of the +room; the fireplace was hidden by a square, cambric screen, with a +cut-out picture of fruit and flowers pasted in the center. Nettie's +glance was immediately taken by a white marble book, with yellow +painted edges and clasps, lying upon the old glass-knobbed bureau. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Kump drew the straight-backed rattan rocker to the open window, +giving it a hurried dusting with her black silk apron, and invited Mrs. +Lee to be seated. +</P> + +<P> +Then, as she noticed her visitor looking at the quilting frames which +occupied one end of the room, she said, +</P> + +<P> +"You'll think I'm slighting your quilt, Mis' Lee!—I got so far back on +the job, with my poor legs bothering me so! But sez I to myself, 'I'll +try and catch up on Thursday,' but when I went to the door this mornin' +and found the good fairies' offerings, I fairly wilted. I made up my +mind to keep the day, and I'm keepin' it; I haven't done a stroke of +work!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Lee looked interested. +</P> + +<P> +"The day—yes—I believe you told me—" +</P> + +<P> +"My birthday—sixty-seven—the years do run up when once you begin to +count 'em! But about the baskets—thinks I to myself, 'The grocer's +man left 'em at the wrong place,' but he must have druv away fast, +there wasn't a soul in sight, and then I comes in for my specs and +there was my name writ in black and white 'Mrs. Keturah Kump, with best +wishes for her birthday!' I nearly wilted! I got so narvous-like that +I could hardly lift 'em! And who was livin' to care for me or my +birthday? All my folks dead—all but the young ones. They live out +west and don't bother their heads about me. But about the +baskets—you'd orter see what they held—a good share of +everything—I'll show you my cupboard stocked, and lots of things down +cellar—and there, I'd been worryin' and doubtin', not bein' able to +work for so long. I don't mind tellin' you, Mis' Lee, now that things +is changed for the best, that I was about at the end of my string. +Sugar and tea about out and not enough flour to last a day longer! I +unpacked the baskets and stood and looked at the things—butter and +eggs and bread and cake and blackberry jam, the only spread I ever et, +and I put 'em away as if in a dream, leavin' out a snack to make +breakfast, though I was so excited I couldn't swallow a bite! +</P> + +<P> +"I put on a drawin' of tea, and puttered about settin' the table, when +all at once I spied a little passel that I had set aside when I brought +the baskets in. So I opened it—and what do you think! I sat right +down by the table and cried and cried! It seemed to me that the other +things might be for any old, worn-out woman, but this was just for me, +and it went straight to my heart! The loveliest blue box, the inside +fixed with lace just like the valentines that poor David sent me when +he came courtin', and it was filled with candy, the loveliest you ever +saw!—with real cherries and vi'lets fixed up, lookin' too good to eat! +Just think—for me, a poor old woman that most people would think it +all wasted on! Something beautiful came over the day, I felt young +again, and vigorous and proud and happy all at once, just like I used +to feel long years ago when I'd first see the Johnny-jump-ups in the +spring, way down in the medder near the creek!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Kump rose suddenly and went to the big bureau, wiping her glasses +as she went. Coming back, she proudly displayed Alene's box. +</P> + +<P> +"Take some, child," she said to Nettie, "and you too, Mis' Lee! I +thought at first it was too good for me to eat but it'll get spiled, so +I'll eat it little by little, and I can keep the box to hold some +trinkets I've had for years! Just see the little silver tongs! +Nothin' was too good for me! Why, I felt so perked up that I got out +my best dress and my silk apron, to do honor to the day!" +</P> + +<P> +A score of years seemed to fall from the speaker, her eyes gleamed +brightly, as she glanced from her silver-toned best dress to her +listener's sympathetic countenance. +</P> + +<P> +As she wended her way homeward with Nettie, who carried a huge bouquet +from Mrs. Kump's garden, Mrs. Lee's thoughts dwelt on the old lady's +words. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish the girls had been along to hear—Ah, there they are!" she +said, as, coming in sight of the Bonner house, she saw Laura and Ivy +seated on the front steps. +</P> + +<P> +Nettie gave a screech of delight and jumped across a gutter to make a +short cut to exhibit her flowers. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Bonner, hearing voices, came to the door and one of the boys +brought out chairs for her and Mrs. Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"As you are all so much interested, I guess I'll sit down a while and +tell you all about Mrs. Kump's birthday!" said Mrs. Lee. "Now, not so +many questions! Yes, she got the baskets with her name printed so +artistically on the card, and she never suspects who gave the things. +She has enough to tide her over for a long time, and the jam went to +the right spot, but guess what it was that pleased her the most." +</P> + +<P> +"Old ladies are very fond of tea," ventured Mrs. Bonner. +</P> + +<P> +"The print of butter!" cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Bonner's coffee cake," said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +They made several other guesses but Mrs. Lee still shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"I know," said Nettie quickly, "it was that blue box!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not Alene's candy!" cried Laura, incredulously. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that was it!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Lee thereupon told what Mrs. Kump had said, word for word. +</P> + +<P> +A silence followed the recital. +</P> + +<P> +"Who would have thought it?" Laura said at last. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Laura dear, you forgot the thought behind the gift. 'The love of +the giver is greater than the gift of the lover,'" said Mrs. Lee. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO CHINA IN A GLASS-BOAT +</H3> + +<P> +At the upper end of the wharf a small boat was anchored, gay in red +paint with black trimmings. It consisted of a single deck only, on +which was a raised cabin that extended the whole length of the boat, +having doors at each end and several small windows on the sides. +</P> + +<P> +The girls hastened along the broad plank, over the shallow space of +water between the boat and the shore, and entered the wide front +opening. +</P> + +<P> +The interior resembled a country store. +</P> + +<P> +A counter, running three quarters of the length of the boat and stacked +with all sorts of glassware, divided the room in two parts. +</P> + +<P> +Sandwiched between the counter and the shelves, which were also heavily +laden with glass, was a clerk, intent upon the customers who crowded +the narrow aisle. +</P> + +<P> +And what queer customers they were! Boys and girls, for the most part +poorly dressed, who kept an eye on the different articles displayed, or +hovered round the large scales at one end of the counter, guarding +strange looking bundles and baskets. +</P> + +<P> +To Laura, who had visited the boat each summer for as long as she could +remember, it was a familiar scene, but everything proved new and +wonderful to Alene. +</P> + +<P> +For a time they were content to wait and watch before making any +investments. +</P> + +<P> +"What are they doing?" inquired Alene, pointing to two boys who had +dragged a battered basket and a great bundle to the scales. +</P> + +<P> +"Just watch and you'll see." +</P> + +<P> +The clerk took the basket which was filled with pieces of old iron, +small bolts, nails, and such things, rusty and apparently good for +nothing, and weighed it on the scales; its owners watched carefully to +verify its correct weight, and while they calculated its value the +clerk proceeded to weigh the bundle. +</P> + +<P> +"Rags," whispered Laura to the wondering Alene. "They buy them from +all the towns along the river and sell them in the city to make paper +and things." +</P> + +<P> +"The iron?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, silly—that's made over I guess at the foundries." +</P> + +<P> +Alene became interested in watching the two boys whose property had +been valued. With an air of importance they turned their attention to +choosing its equivalent in crystal ware. +</P> + +<P> +After examining critically the different articles, the older boy at +last decided upon a large plate with "Give us this day our daily bread" +in fancy letters around the rim, but his companion hesitated between +two pitchers. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Laura!" Alene's cry of dismay drew Laura's attention. "He's +going to buy that purple monstrosity!" +</P> + +<P> +"I think that blue one with the bulgy sides is out o' sight," the boy +was saying, his gaze straying from one to the other; "I wonder which ma +would like the best!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura stepped forward with an elder-sisterly air. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it for water?" she inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; ma broke her chiny one the other day and I want to s'prise her." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'd buy that white one with the frosted flowers; it will look so +cool with the water sparkling through. You think the blue one is +prettier I know, but it would not be so suitable for water. Don't you +think so?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's so, thank y', miss," said the boy, lifting the straw crown +which served him as a hat. +</P> + +<P> +Alene drew a breath of relief. "Oh, Laura, you know just what to do! +I'm sure he wanted the purple-blue one awfully and he took the other +just to please you!" she whispered as the boys left the boat with their +treasures, giving a doubtful look backward at the abandoned pitcher. +</P> + +<P> +Laura shrugged her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, boys are funny; they mean well but their tastes run to bright +things. Any girl in a gaudy dress is beautiful in their eyes!" +</P> + +<P> +"And there isn't always a Laura near to point out the superiority of +the girl in plain white," returned Alene with a sanctimonious air at +which they both laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Now for our own choosing," said Laura briskly, and the clerk came +forward to her nod. +</P> + +<P> +They spent a delightful half hour at the counter fingering the pretty +things, sometimes having as much trouble to decide between different +objects as the boys had with their pitchers. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take this sweet little blue goblet for Ivy, and that pitcher for +Mrs. Major, and the berry dish for Kizzie. I'd like to get Uncle Fred +a new tobacco-jar to replace the one I broke, but I don't see any." +Alene pointed out the things desired, all of which Laura had helped in +selecting; then Laura bought her mother a cake-stand and Mrs. Bonner +had commissioned her to buy a dozen tumblers, which purchase took much +time and thought. +</P> + +<P> +Presently Alene became aware of a pattering on the roof. Softly it +came at first, then more and more insistent. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Lol, it's raining like—like in the days of Noah!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"It's only a summer shower," said Laura carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +Having completed their purchases, they strayed to the far end of the +boat and discovered a narrow, paneled door which led to a tiny private +cabin. +</P> + +<P> +"It would make a lovely play-house!" exclaimed Laura as they peeped in. +</P> + +<P> +It certainly looked inviting with its gay rug and crimson-cushioned +furniture. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you say? Let's slip in and wait for the rain to be over!" +</P> + +<P> +Laura's proposition almost took Alene's breath away. +</P> + +<P> +"But will they allow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, what difference could it make? It's empty, so we won't be in +anyone's way!" returned Laura airily, and as the rain still beat upon +the boat, and they were both very tired, having been on their feet for +several hours, so they entered the inviting little parlor without +further hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +It was cosy and snug within but rather stuffy, the small windows being +closed; but the girls seated side by side on the big chair beside the +table found the situation very enjoyable. +</P> + +<P> +"I feel like a traveler, as if we were taking a sail to some outlandish +place," said Laura, getting up to adjust her hat before a small mirror +set in the wall, beneath which was a stationary wash-stand with holes +for bowl and pitcher. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's pretend we're on one of those funny Chinese boats like Uncle +Fred told me about; they have large, painted eyes without which no +Chinaman would set sail. They say; 'No got eye, no can see—no can +see, no can walkee!'" +</P> + +<P> +Alene placed her bundles on the center table and leaned back cosily in +the cushioned chair. She was in the midst of a reverie where a +queer-looking Chinese mandarin was trying to persuade her to buy a blue +glass pitcher, when Laura's voice brought her back to reality. +</P> + +<P> +"Alene, Alene, it's moving—the boat!" +</P> + +<P> +"But it's tied to that big iron ring—it can't move from the wharf!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a creaking and straining of the woodwork around them which +they had not noticed before. Laura ran to a window, followed by Alene. +The hills appeared to be gliding by! Sure enough, the boat was moving; +it had left the shore while they were talking. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment they had a strange sensation. +</P> + +<P> +"It's like being abducted," said Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, dear, I wonder how far they will go!" +</P> + +<P> +They ran through the paneled door to the front of the boat. The clerk +was busy arranging his stock. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I thought everybody was gone!" he cried in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"We went into the cabin to rest awhile; we never dreamed you were going +away. Where will the boat go?" +</P> + +<P> +The young man laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, don't get scared! We are only bound across the river a few miles +above, to catch the train! Wait, maybe I can get Jones to return and +land you first." +</P> + +<P> +He came back in a few minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"He says he can't do it; the captain is coming on the train and if we +fail to meet him 'on the dot' it's as much as his job is worth. But it +won't take very long and then we'll put back and land you at home." +</P> + +<P> +The girls were forced to be content. They returned to the cabin and +discussed the situation. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish Ivy could have come along, she would enjoy this," cried Laura. +</P> + +<P> +When the boat at length drew near to shore and a plank was thrown out, +they went on deck and gazed around. +</P> + +<P> +In front and on each side as far as they could see, a steep, scrubby +bank reached up to the railway tracks which swept along the foot of the +hills. A small wooden tower stood near the tracks a short distance +away. The rain had ceased as suddenly as it had come and the sunlight +lay on river and land. +</P> + +<P> +"The train must be late," remarked the clerk. A muffled rumble was +heard—"Hark, there it is now!" +</P> + +<P> +But it turned out to be a freight, which drew its long length past, +like a many-jointed snake. +</P> + +<P> +Time passed slowly to the impatient girls. The young man ran up to the +tower to make inquiries. +</P> + +<P> +"The operator says our train may be hour late," he reported. +</P> + +<P> +He felt very sorry for their dilemma, but he knew it would be useless +to ask the man in charge to make a special trip to let them off. +</P> + +<P> +Laura and Alene glanced at each other. +</P> + +<P> +"If he says one hour, it may be more and then it will take quite a time +to get back," murmured the former. +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't we walk to some bridge and cross over?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know the way, and I never heard of any bridge nearer than +Westville, three miles above. Let's take a walk, it'll help pass the +time," proposed Laura. +</P> + +<P> +They crossed the plank and wandered arm in arm along the shore. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose they'll soon have the bellman out ringing for us! To think +the dire fate I've often predicted for Nettie when she tarries on the +way from school should happen to myself instead!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, there!" +</P> + +<P> +Across the water came this welcome hail. A skiff manned by a boy came +in sight rounding the bend of the river. +</P> + +<P> +The girls paused and waved their handkerchiefs. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he calling to us? I wonder who it can be!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's Mark Griffin!" cried Alene, with a gulp of delight. +</P> + +<P> +They stood watching the movements of the skiff, fearing it would turn +in some other direction and leave them in their plight. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe he's going on down the river," wailed Laura. +</P> + +<P> +Alene waved her handkerchief more energetically. +</P> + +<P> +"He wouldn't do that!" +</P> + +<P> +"But he doesn't know we're abducted and cast away on this unfriendly +coast," rejoined Laura, whose courage increased with the nearer +approach of the boat. +</P> + +<P> +It was evident the rower had no intention of turning aside; he aimed in +their direction with even and rapid strokes of the oars which soon +covered the expanse of water between. +</P> + +<P> +"I noticed you girls running out on deck when the boat drew off and I +thought something was wrong and hurried over to see," he explained half +shyly, as he drew the boat to shore. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, have you come to take us home?" cried Alene. "How lovely of you!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll run back to the cabin for our packages," and Laura, not waiting +for his reply, hurried away. +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't object to going with me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Object! Why, we are delighted at the chance! We didn't know what to +do!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene told the cause of their predicament, which the boy had already +guessed. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems funny you thought we would object to being rescued by you; +you didn't wait to find out if we objected or not, that day at the +picnic, and the day you faced the mad bull!" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, you see the old fellow was so quick he didn't give me a +chance! But this is different!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene was silent. She was afraid he might think her a great baby were +she to say how very, <I>very</I> much relieved she was by his presence. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I guess Hugh Bonner would object," returned the lad. +</P> + +<P> +Alene stepped gingerly into the boat, trying to hide her nervousness +when it rocked beneath her and Mark came to her assistance. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit here in the bow and I'll bail out this water," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Alene found it a very spacious and pleasant seat; the rolling of the +boat which had alarmed her when standing gave her only a delightful +sensation. She put her hand over the side of the skiff and let the +water glide through her fingers while she watched with interest the +movements of the boy. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't answer my question," he remarked at last. +</P> + +<P> +"What question?" +</P> + +<P> +"About Hugh objecting." +</P> + +<P> +"Why should he object? Here's Laura with our bundles!" She moved +aside to let her friend step into the boat. +</P> + +<P> +The packages were put in a safe place, Mark grasped the oars, Laura, +who felt perfectly at home on the water, took a third oar and they +started on their homeward way. +</P> + +<P> +"How glad I am to leave the bleak coast of China!" cried Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean Glass-gow, don't you?" spoke up the boy, pointing over his +shoulder to where the friendly clerk stood calling, 'Bon voyage!' from +the deck of the glass-boat. +</P> + +<P> +The girls laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess we will have to forgive him?" +</P> + +<P> +Alene glanced across the water. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose we had better, at any rate until we reach dry land," she +replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't Ivy be sorry she missed this good chance to say 'thank you, +sir,' for rescuing us again?" remarked Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean the little girl with the big, snapping eyes and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; she was offended with Hugh because he failed to drag you back +with him to be thanked prettily by us girls!" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't want any thanks, but I suspect Hugh wasn't sorry I wouldn't +go with him. I'm afraid he doesn't approve of me?" +</P> + +<P> +Laura became suddenly occupied with her rowing and Alene felt called +upon to answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—" she hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't be afraid to say; I know they think I'm a bad case!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—no, Hugh said you were all right by <I>yourself</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then he doesn't like my chums?" +</P> + +<P> +"He said if you would give up those Stony Road boys—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm no snob to go back on a boy because he's poor!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's not that! Hugh and his chums are poor but—" +</P> + +<P> +"They say they torture animals!" broke in Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"I told them I was sure you wouldn't allow that," Alene protested. +</P> + +<P> +Her warm defense seemed to mollify the boy; his air of mockery and +resentment fell away and he gave her a grateful glance. Then his +attention became absorbed in keeping the skiff a safe distance from +some passing barges. +</P> + +<P> +For a time there was silence. The boy cleared the tow and continued +rowing, giving all his attention to the boat. +</P> + +<P> +The girls glanced at each other, fearing they had offended him. +</P> + +<P> +With a sudden impulse he ceased his energetic rowing and let the skiff +drift. His face flushed as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"For myself I make no defense, but you may tell Mr. Hugh that so far as +my chums are concerned he's bearing false witness. They may be poor +and rough and unruly, but they're not cruel! They belong to the +Torchlights!" +</P> + +<P> +"The Torchlights?" cried the girls in duet. +</P> + +<P> +But the boy had resumed his oars, cutting the water vigorously as +though glad of a vent for his pent-up indignation. Alene wondered what +he meant by the Torchlights, but did not like to ask; Laura more +venturesome inquired, +</P> + +<P> +"The Torchlights? What are they?" +</P> + +<P> +"A sort of club," he responded, shutting his mouth with an air of +finality that vexed them. +</P> + +<P> +They glanced at each other. Laura's half-curled lip said plainly, "As +if we really cared!" and Alene's returned scornfully, "The idea!" +</P> + +<P> +They pretended not to notice his taciturnity and talked lightly to each +other of their purchases and other personal matters. +</P> + +<P> +The lad, left to his own reflections, continued rowing manfully. +Presently he announced, +</P> + +<P> +"I'll land you at the upper end of the wharf, that will be nearer home." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thank you, that will save us quite a walk!" returned Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"And I'll get home before Uncle Fred," cried Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't they all have been scared if we had had to wait for the +glass-boat to take us home?" +</P> + +<P> +The boy smiled. He thought there were others who would have been +scared in that event. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Mr. Fred Dawson your uncle?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Do you know him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I used to be captain of the Fred Dawson Baseball Club," he replied +with a tone of pride. +</P> + +<P> +"How nice!" and Alene determined to ask her uncle all about it that +very night. "Ah, here's the wharf! It seems to be coming right up to +us!" +</P> + +<P> +A few minutes later their light, little craft swept in to shore. +</P> + +<P> +Mark gallantly gathered up the bundles and handed them out to Laura, +who had skipped lightly across the bow to the bleached stones of the +wharf, then he gave his hand to his more timid passenger and she +stepped ashore. +</P> + +<P> +"And the Happy-Go-Luckys will be on time as usual," cried Laura, as +they said good-by to Mark, who intended taking the skiff farther up the +river. +</P> + +<P> +"The Happy-Go-Luckys? Who are they?" he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"A sort of a club," returned Laura demurely, glancing mirthfully at +Alene ere they turned away to climb the hilly homeward path. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VEXATIONS AND CONSOLATIONS +</H3> + +<P> +Ivy turned disconsolately from the window. She had waved good-by to +Laura and Alene when they had looked round at the corner ere passing +from view on their way to the glass-boat. +</P> + +<P> +The trip had been postponed from day to day in the hope of her being +able to go along, and even at the last moment her friends had wished to +give it up and devote the afternoon to an indoor meeting of the +Happy-Go-Luckys; but Ivy would not have it so; she insisted on their +going, she vetoed every argument to the contrary, but now that they +were beyond recall and she faced the empty room she almost regretted +her persistence. +</P> + +<P> +And yet it was a pleasant room enough, with nothing of luxury to +recommend it but having an air of quiet comfort. An unobtrusive wall +paper, a green-and-oak carpet, a bright rug before the fire-place, +which was filled with tall ferns; a picture of the "Mammoth Trees of +California," above the mantel, a lamp with a green globe hanging over +the center-table, a few chairs, and Ivy's couch drawn close to the two +windows with their snowy curtains—all beautifully neat and clean, but +alas, so tiresomely familiar to the little prisoner. Even the sight of +her books piled at the foot of the lounge wearied her! +</P> + +<P> +She threw aside the beloved Sunset Book after vainly trying to get +interested in it. How flat and unprofitable it seemed! Why could she +never write anything but the trite and useless things that almost +anyone who was able to hold a pen could say as well or better? The +verses about the four o'clocks, which the other day had seemed a pretty +conceit, to-day sounded silly, fit only for the little waste-basket at +her side, where she threw them with disdain. +</P> + +<P> +Life was unprofitable, friends noticeable only by their absence; even +the faithful Hugh had deserted her. He had made no motion toward +"making up" since the day they went blackberrying—it would have served +him right if the bull had put an end to her! If that boy Mark Griffin +hadn't interfered—and why he had she didn't know, what business was it +of his?—Hugh, instead of wearing his air of indifference, would be +crying his eyes out beside her dead body—or rather her grave, for she +would be buried and done with by this time. But no; here she herself, +instead of Hugh, was crying over it! For the last week he had been +even less attentive than ever; he was up and out long before she awoke +in the mornings, came home at noon to snatch a hasty lunch and was off +again after supper until bedtime, with only a careless nod to her, Ivy, +whom he had hitherto allowed to claim all his attention and the little +leisure time he could spare from his work as office-boy and assistant +clerk in a real-estate firm down street. +</P> + +<P> +Heigho! Who was that coming? Claude and Nettie, hand in hand, with +beaming faces and crumby lips! +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you greedy youngsters, where do you put all the cake and things +you devour, anyway?" +</P> + +<P> +Simultaneously two mouths were opened wide. +</P> + +<P> +"They are big enough naturally, you needn't stretch them! No wonder +you are both noted dunces in your class—you are nothing but mouth and +stomach! Come here, I've a little time. Let's see what you can do!" +</P> + +<P> +"I can figure!" said Nettie proudly, but she eyed the slate upon which +Ivy had written, half abashed. +</P> + +<P> +"Three plus two equals what?" said Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"Six!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, try again!" +</P> + +<P> +"Six!" cried Nettie decidedly again. +</P> + +<P> +"No; five, stupid!" +</P> + +<P> +"Six," reiterated Nettie, "Teacher says so!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's three multiplied by two; I said three <I>plus</I>—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's six at our school," declared Nettie doggedly, her eyes half +filled with tears. +</P> + +<P> +"To think you are any relation to Laura! Why, she's as bright—" +</P> + +<P> +"She's big, and awful old, and not half as nice as Nettie!" cried +Claude. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed, no wonder you stand up for her! You don't even know the +alphabet!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I do!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, see here!" Ivy picked up his primer. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to study—it's vacation!" said Claude, drawing back. +</P> + +<P> +"He may injure his brain by overstudy; such a precocious scholar!" +</P> + +<P> +Nettie pursed out her lip. "Precious scolder herself!" she muttered. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Claude, I'll give you this big red apple if you say it +correctly," urged Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"A—B—C," commenced Claude bravely, "A—B—C—Poke Bonnet." +</P> + +<P> +"No, that's D!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it looks like a poke," returned Claude. +</P> + +<P> +"How funny! It only needs a bow and string, see?" cried the little +girl. +</P> + +<P> +Claude proceeded with the letters: +</P> + +<P> +"L—M—N—the same old hoop—I ought to know its name." +</P> + +<P> +"O," whispered Nettie. +</P> + +<P> +He turned upon her indignantly— +</P> + +<P> +"I was just going to say O—that's easy! P—Q—R—little wormy +thing—Oh, bother T—U—V—W—let's see, see-saw, X—wizie!" he +concluded triumphantly and with a sudden movement he snatched the apple +from Ivy's lap. +</P> + +<P> +"Come back, you didn't earn it!" commanded Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"I did, didn't I, Nettie?" he cried, digging his uneven little teeth +into the rosy cheek of the apple. +</P> + +<P> +"Come here at once!" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy reached for her crutches but Nettie, too quick for her, grabbed one +and fled with Claude, while Ivy in a rage threw the other after them. +Across the floor it sailed and hit against the wall with a resounding +clap. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the end of my teaching, and everything I do trying to help +others ends just that way! Now in the story-books the children are +good and no matter how dull, anxious to learn and thankful to be +taught, and the teacher gets some satisfaction out of it! I believe +the only respectable children are in books; the others are imps! Dear +me! I feel like knocking my head against the wall!" She threw herself +upon the sofa and pressed her face against its fir-scented cushions. +</P> + +<P> +Presently soft footsteps were heard. A lady entered the room, and +glancing from the discarded crutch to the couch, crossed the floor and +placed her hand caressingly on the curly mop of hair. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you asleep, Ivy?" she inquired gently. +</P> + +<P> +"No, mamma, just thinking." +</P> + +<P> +"Is there anything I can do? Here is a cool drink." +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you—yes, I guess I will, I am rather thirsty!" She sat up +and eagerly drank the lemonade. +</P> + +<P> +"Were the children naughty? I thought they might amuse you for a +while—" +</P> + +<P> +"They were simply diabolical—but just on a par with all the rest! The +girls gone to enjoy themselves—and that hateful Hugh running away +every day as though afraid I might encroach on his valuable time—and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hugh? Why, what has he done?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's not been the same since that day we went blackberrying." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"'We have pleasant words for the stranger,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And smiles for the sometimes guest;</SPAN><BR> +But for our own the bitter tone<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Though we love our own the best,'"</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +quoted Mrs. Bonner. "I'm afraid that's your way with Hugh, sometimes, +Ivy, and as for the girls leaving you alone, you almost ran them out of +the house!" +</P> + +<P> +"They might as least have called in on their way home!" +</P> + +<P> +"Have they gone past?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't seen them, but they were to be back about half past four and +see, it's nearly six—Ah, here they are now!" +</P> + +<P> +The girls came bustling in. +</P> + +<P> +"All the way from China!" cried Laura breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy listened to their adventures with glowing eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"So the buccaneers took you captive for ransom and carried you across +the ocean; but a gallant ship, flying the American colors and commanded +by a brave knight, came to your relief, swept the pirate fleet from off +the sea and brought you away, leaving the waves red with gore!" +</P> + +<P> +"And here we are with all our valuables intact, even to this little +vase of purest amethyst," said Alene, handing Ivy the blue glass +goblet, while Laura gave a package to Mrs. Bonner, saying impressively: +</P> + +<P> +"And these tumblers of priceless glittering crystal are yours, dear +madame; here's your change—fifteen cents—they only cost a nickle +apiece." +</P> + +<P> +This called forth a chorus of mirthful exclamations, in the midst of +which two little figures came quietly in. Emboldened by Ivy's smiling +countenance, they stole to her side and displayed a collection of +bright pebbles which they had picked up from the flat, tar-coated roof +of the foundry, which, being built against a hill, was easily reached +from the upper street. +</P> + +<P> +"We gathered them for you," said Nettie shyly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, girls, while you were in China, these tots journeyed to the +sea-shore in search of treasure, and I'm the Princess Lazybones who +sits at home, and receives her subjects' peace-offerings." +</P> + +<P> +"There, Alene has forgotten something," said Mrs. Bonner, picking up a +small bundle from the table. Laura reached for it, intending to +overtake Alene who had gone away a few minutes before, but a glance +showed that it was marked in pencil, "For Laura," in Alene's +handwriting. +</P> + +<P> +"For me, and she didn't buy a single thing for herself," grumbled +Laura, untying the cord. "Isn't it just too sweet!" She held up a +dish of pale pink glass with a knot of blue forget-me-nots in the +corner. +</P> + +<P> +"It's beautiful!" exclaimed Ivy. "I was just going to say that +somebody else forgot to buy a single thing for herself, but I see Alene +didn't forget her!" +</P> + +<P> +"That little sly piece, and I never noticed her at it!" Laura said, +secretly hoping that a certain quaint amber-colored bowl which she had +deftly tucked away among Alene's purchases would prove as pleasant a +surprise to Alene. +</P> + +<P> +Hugh, coming in to supper just before Laura went home, peeped into the +room in time to hear Ivy's laughing remark, +</P> + +<P> +"We should confer upon Sir Mark the title of 'Rescuer-in-Chief to the +Happy-Go-Luckys!'" +</P> + +<P> +Hugh, with a hasty nod to the girls, turned away. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be in such a hurry, Hugh! I've just been telling Ivy how +thrilling it was, when just in our moment of despair, Mark Griffin +appeared—" +</P> + +<P> +"Like the hero on a stage," interrupted Hugh. +</P> + +<P> +"No, in a skiff," corrected Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"I've no time for rhapsodies now," said Hugh curtly. He turned away +with Ivy's voice, "Hear! Hear!" ringing mockingly on the air. +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +Through the open window came the sound of children's voices, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Here comes an old woman from New Foundland.<BR> +With all of her children in her hand,"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +shrill and clamoring, but powerless to disturb Ivy who, seated beside +the window with her blue goblet beside her and a pad of writing paper +on her lap, was busy writing. +</P> + +<P> +After a series of brow puckerings and erasures, she gave a sigh of +contentment. +</P> + +<P> +"There it's finished! I'll read it over and put it in the Sunset Book +to-morrow!" +</P> + +<P> +The old woman from New Foundland had gone home to bed, and Claude, one +of her shrill-voiced children, had rushed in sleepily and thrown +himself upon the rug, where he lay oblivious to all things, when the +absent-minded Ivy came out of her trance; the first thing she saw was +his chubby, outstretched form with both arms flung above the touzled +head from which his cap had partly fallen. +</P> + +<P> +The smile of sisterly love and pride with which she enveloped him, must +have pierced the vale of unconsciousness, for the lad stirred and +smiled in his sleep. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy took the goblet and poured the pebbles into her lap. They fell +against one another with a velvety sound, and gave forth a rainbow of +color, like precious stones in the light of the lamp. +</P> + +<P> +She mused happily over them, the children's treasures, gathered so +carefully and given so generously. +</P> + +<P> +"How cross I was to-day and all for nothing! I must be one of those +'hirelings' who are always 'looking for consolations' for I feel +consoled to-night; if only Hugh—" +</P> + +<P> +A noise was heard in the little entry; footsteps and voices, and then a +pushing as of something being moved up the steps. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that? It's Hugh's voice and there's someone with him!" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy glanced expectantly toward the open doorway. Presently Hugh and +another boy, their faces reddened with exertion, appeared carrying some +object between them. Could it be—yes, it was a writing desk, such as +Ivy had often seen in dreams and store windows, but never hoped to +possess! Her heart gave a sudden jump and then seemed to stand still. +</P> + +<P> +"Bub, be careful you don't scrape it against the side of the door! +Hello, sis—where's the best place to put it?" +</P> + +<P> +Hugh tried to speak in a careless tone, but Ivy's scream of pleasure, +the sudden crimson roses that bloomed in her thin cheeks, and the +shower of stars which flashed through and dried the mist in her eyes, +brought a funny grip to his throat; he gulped and made a wry face. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Fatty, look out! You knocked my hand against the wall!" +</P> + +<P> +Attracted by the noise, Mrs. Bonner came in, Claude awoke and everybody +crowded round to see the new article of furniture. +</P> + +<P> +It was placed where Ivy could admire it at leisure, and the strange boy +having said good-night, Hugh displayed a lovely bronze key, unlocked +the lid and disclosed all its attractions. +</P> + +<P> +"See this little drawer and the shelves, and the place for your ink and +paper, and the large drawer below, and then there's a secret drawer +I'll show you when the rest are not here," Hugh whispered the latter +part. +</P> + +<P> +A secret drawer! Ivy clapped her hands—what a heavenly culmination of +attractions! And the desk as a whole, of quartered-oak with bronzed +handles and a shelf with a tiny mirror above, was indeed a beauty. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Hugh, how—where did you get it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've been working overtime nights at Pearson's furniture store. The +old man's sick and his son had to stay home evenings. I bargained to +stay in his place and take it out this way! I kind of thought you'd +like it," Hugh explained breathlessly, glancing from his auditors to +the desk. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Hugh!" cried Ivy deprecatingly. +</P> + +<P> +"It was dead easy! Hardest part was to keep it quiet so to surprise +you. It wouldn't do to get too friendly or I'd a blurted it out!" +</P> + +<P> +Hugh's head was bending over the desk, dangerously close to Ivy as it +proved, for she gave his hair a sudden pull. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Hugh, you good-for-nothing!" she cried. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CRIMSON BAG +</H3> + +<P> +"Uncle Fred, I'm going to play being poor for a whole week," said +Alene, meeting Mr. Dawson at the gate one evening. +</P> + +<P> +"What put that idea into your head, child?" +</P> + +<P> +"You see it's so much more exciting to do things when you haven't +money! We felt quite hilarious this afternoon when Nettie discovered +that one could get a great big sugar cake for a cent at the new bakery. +It was Ivy's treat and we all went in a crowd and bought half a dozen +for five cents! We really don't see how they can afford to give such +big ones!" +</P> + +<P> +"They depend on large sales and small profits, no doubt; besides it +will attract other customers. A good advertisement too, for here am I, +for one, who would have gone past the new bakery a hundred times, never +once glancing that way, never dreaming of those elephantine sugar +cakes, were it not for you! Are you sure the bakery didn't bribe you +girls to sound their praises?" +</P> + +<P> +"The idea!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's not so foolish after all; I'm almost famished for one of those +sugar cakes. Greedy Alene, to devour them every one!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I did not! There was Laura and Ivy, and Nettie and Claude, and +Lois and little Elmer, besides myself, to divide among!" +</P> + +<P> +"Which suggests my school days and problems in arithmetic! I think +this would be a question in short division or would it be short cake?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed! We all had almost enough! But, Uncle, do behave! Here's +my purse; I want you to keep it." +</P> + +<P> +"'With all my lordly goods I thee endow!' Why, thank you, Miss Dawson! +I hear the gold pieces clinking! But I don't know if my mamma will +allow me to accept such valuable presents!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a little gurgling laugh from Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"Do let me finish! I only want you to keep it for me until the end of +the week!" +</P> + +<P> +"Indian giver! Indian giver! Take your old purse! I guess it was +only the clink of pennies I heard, anyway!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene clasped her hands behind her back. +</P> + +<P> +"You must keep it or I can't play being poor! Now Uncle, won't you be +good! I feel so ashamed to have so much when the other girls have so +little, and I want to try it for just one little week; besides, it will +be fun!" +</P> + +<P> +"Fun for you, but what a temptation to put in your own Uncle's way! +However I don't want to be too selfish. I'll keep the purse." +</P> + +<P> +"For a week. Thank you, Uncle!" +</P> + +<P> +"Have you any more stray pennies to put in my charge?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have exactly six cents left and I must get along on that." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you allow me to contribute an occasional quarter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, not more than a nickel at a time. Just pretend I'm a poor +little girl who is hired to run errands at the Towers!" +</P> + +<P> +"And if you demand part of the content of the purse?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't give it to me! But I shan't!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene held her week's allowance in her hand until they entered the +house; then she placed it beside her plate at dinner. She found it +troublesome keeping track of it. +</P> + +<P> +"I need a small purse to put it in. There's a pretty one for a quarter +at Nixon's store—ah, I forgot already, I haven't enough money." +</P> + +<P> +Uncle Fred offered her the use of a flat red-morocco pocketbook, but +Alene said it was not convenient to carry, and besides, people would +expect so much from its size! She at last decided to use a small knit +bag of crimson silk with silver rings, which she kept in a box upstairs. +</P> + +<P> +The next day she had a long letter to mail to her parents, and the +girls accompanied her to the post-office. +</P> + +<P> +On the way back they heard music. +</P> + +<P> +They soon came to where the players stood, a crippled Italian and a +little, dark-skinned boy, with a harp and violin. +</P> + +<P> +At the conclusion of several numbers the boy went through the crowd, +holding out his battered cap. +</P> + +<P> +Laura put in all she had, a bright new cent. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't a penny," lamented Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"I have just one solitary, shamed little fellow, done up in crimson +satin and silver buckles," announced Alene, taking the pretty bag from +her wrist. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy giggled. +</P> + +<P> +"Everybody is looking, Alene! They expect a piece of silver, at least, +from that gorgeous purse!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I can't help it! I paid a nickle postage on my letter, you +know!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know, but the rest of the town is in ignorance of that great +expenditure." +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't laugh, Miss Bonner. Considering the amount of my capital, +it was a big payment to meet!" +</P> + +<P> +"And so early, too, in your poverty-stricken career, I can sympathize +with you," said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +The bright bag with its shining rings, over which the heads of the +three girls were bent, seemed to have attracted the attention of the +crowd as Ivy had said, and the penny, hidden away in its crimson +corner, while Alene fumbled in vain for it, held them longer in the +public gaze. +</P> + +<P> +Laura gave a relieved sigh and Ivy a squeak of delight when it at last +appeared, and Alene dropped it, as if it burned her fingers, into the +outstretched cap. +</P> + +<P> +As she turned away with cheeks that were blazing to match the hue of +the bag, a tall boy standing near lifted his hat courteously, and gave +way to her. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Mark!" whispered the irrepressible Ivy. "And looking as grave as +a cemetery, without the ghost of a smile!" +</P> + +<P> +"If he hadn't, I'd never, <I>never</I> have spoken to him again!" declared +Alene. "Girls, I can sympathize now with those who would like to help +others and can't." +</P> + +<P> +"Giant Generosity with his pigmy purse," suggested Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"It's so much pleasanter as well as more blessed to give," remarked +Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"But, after all, money isn't everything!" said Alene. "If we are poor +we can still give love and sympathy and unselfishness—" +</P> + +<P> +"And advice," broke in Ivy. "And feel the richer the more we give!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene said never a word to her uncle, that evening, relative to the +state of her finances. She kept her collapsed purse hidden away. +</P> + +<P> +"When one is poor, one is too proud to beg!" Which reflection did not +keep her from being very glad when Mr. Dawson remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"Here, child, is a nickle for the little maid who trimmed my lamp so +nicely." +</P> + +<P> +She dropped him a courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Uncle. I think she will be very glad to get it. I feel +quite prosperous again," she said, shutting the coin away in her +crimson bag. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dawson laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"I suspect you will find that wealth has its uses, and when you are of +age and have command of a large sum of money, I only hope that you will +use it well. I think your experiences as a Happy-Go-Lucky will teach +you much that you would not otherwise learn." +</P> + +<P> +"There's one thing I should like to do—find that clever doctor who +cures the lame children, and have him cure Ivy. When I'm grown up I'll +build a hospital just for the poor children—but then it will be too +late to help her!" +</P> + +<P> +"My friend Dr. Medway, who assists in those operations, promised to pay +me a visit this summer," remarked the gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +Alene clapped her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm so glad!" +</P> + +<P> +"What about, Miss Jump-at-Conclusions?" +</P> + +<P> +"To think that if I'm not grown up, someone else is," said Alene +mysteriously. +</P> + +<P> +Uncle Fred made no reply but smiled thoughtfully as he puffed away at +his pipe. +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +Heralded by Prince's loud barking, and escorted by Jed and Kizzie, who +ran out to investigate, a vendor, laden with a large square basket, +came to the kitchen door. Alene, who was at luncheon, hurriedly gulped +down her coffee and joined the group. +</P> + +<P> +The man opened his basket and exhibited some really fine specimens of +Mexican drawn-work, beaded moccasins and Indian blankets. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Major bought a centre piece, Kizzie a collar-and-cuff set, and +Alene looked longingly at a pair of dainty moccasins that were now, +alas, beyond her means. She thought regretfully of the cut-steel purse +in Uncle Fred's possession. +</P> + +<P> +"But even if he were here I wouldn't ask for it. That would be +breaking my word," she said sturdily. The man used all his persuasive +powers in vain; she looked and longed and sadly shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +At last he took from the bottom of the basket a long wooden box, and +raised the lid. +</P> + +<P> +"How lovely!" They all crowded round with cries of admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"You thinka them vair fine!" the man said, picking up a handful and +turning them over in the light till they shone like fairy lanterns of +rainbow-tinted dew. +</P> + +<P> +"Here-a is whata you call heem, black fire opal, here-a meelk, here-a +cherry, here-a blue!" cried the seller volubly. +</P> + +<P> +Alene stood in silent ecstasy! How she would love to buy three, one +each for Laura, Ivy and herself! She knew she could borrow the money +from Mrs. Major, and repay her upon Uncle Fred's return that evening, +or even let it stand until the next week, when she would regain her +fortune but— +</P> + +<P> +"And here-a, leettle lady, ees de jewelry—de feela-gree broocha and de +Swastika charm," continued the man persuasively, having noted the +little girl's indecision. The others, who were aware of her vow of +voluntary poverty, looked on in sympathy and were ready, as she knew, +to help her if she desired. +</P> + +<P> +"The other girls often wish to buy, and it's just as hard for them when +they can't; besides, it wouldn't be right to borrow for such things +when one is poor, and I'm not supposed to know this week that I'll be +able to afford it next," reasoned Alene, shaking her head the more +energetically to fortify her resolution. +</P> + +<P> +The man, disappointed, slowly repacked his wares, shouldered them and +shambled away, while Alene stood looking on. +</P> + +<P> +"After all, opals are unlucky," said Kizzie consolingly. +</P> + +<P> +Alene felt Prince's soft nose against her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"You feel sorry, don't you, old fellow? But this is what the rest of +the Happy-Go-Luckys have to bear all the time! I've been used to going +through the world picking up everything I fancied, with never a thought +for others who had to go without. This is a sort of experience week +for me! But cheer up, Prince Sobersides, and come along for a run!" +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +"Girls, this is the Crimson Bag's last night, and it's my treat!" +announced Alene, when she met her friends Saturday evening. +</P> + +<P> +They proceeded blithely down the street, dressed in their best, in +honor of the evening which was generally observed in the town as the +gala time of the week, when the stores were kept open to accommodate +the workingmen who were paid that night, and the young people +promenaded Main Street as far as the ice-cream parlors. +</P> + +<P> +When the girls reached "Clyde's Parlors and Restaurant," as the highly +gilded sign in the window proclaimed it, they found the place crowded. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy gave Laura a nudge and the latter, turning suddenly, collided with +another girl. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon—Oh, Hermione, is it you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't think it's my ghost that nearly knocked your hat off! Ah, +there's your other two-thirds, Alene and Ivy! How d'you do, girls?" +She paused for a chat until Vera with several other girls came along on +their way out of the store. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, good evening, Alene! Let me introduce my friends," she said, +proceeding with the ceremony and totally ignoring Laura and Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"And these are my friends, Miss Lee and Miss Bonner," said Alene. +</P> + +<P> +Vera soon hurried her party away, but they had gone only a few steps +when she paused at a show case, apparently much interested in its +contents. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see what Alene Dawson is going to buy!" she explained in an +undertone. "That's the reason she likes to go with those girls; she +can 'show off' more with them and act the Lady Bountiful! Mamma says +it's a shame for her uncle to allow her so much money to throw away!" +</P> + +<P> +Hermione shrugged her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, come along, girls; it's none of our affair," said she, but Vera's +words had aroused the curiosity of the others and they loitered beside +her. +</P> + +<P> +All unconscious of their spying, Alene and her friends went their way. +Instead of taking seats at one of the many little tables placed +invitingly around, they stopped at the next counter. Alene unfastened +the crimson bag and gravely searched within it. +</P> + +<P> +"More show!" whispered Vera. +</P> + +<P> +"Three Dill pickles, please; you need not wrap them up," said Alene, +laying a nickle on the counter. +</P> + +<P> +Then Vera made a hasty retreat amid the raillery of her friends. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE GARDEN PARTY +</H3> + +<P> +"Letters for the whole bunch!" cried Lafe Bonner, coming into the +sitting-room on his return from the post-office. "Hugh Bonner, +E—s—q—Esquimau—wonder why they call his nibs that? Master Donald +Bonner, Master Roy Bonner, Little Claude Bonner, Master Walter Bonner +and—" Lafe stammered and got very red when he saw the address 'Gen. +Lafayette Bonner.' "One for me, too," he continued hurriedly; "and +last for Mrs. L. Bonner." +</P> + +<P> +All the members of the family in reach took their letters, and Ivy, +seated at her new writing desk in the corner next to the window, turned +round expectantly, saying, +</P> + +<P> +"Where's mine?" +</P> + +<P> +Lafe held up his empty hands. +</P> + +<P> +"You may search me! Somebody's forgotten this time!" +</P> + +<P> +"Come here," commanded Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +Lafe advanced, wearing a guileless expression until Ivy ran her hand +into his empty coat pocket, and fumbling round, found a snug space in +the lining and brought forth the missing epistle. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I couldn't fool her in that," mused Lafe sheepishly, when he +read the contents of his high titled note: +</P> + +<BR> + +<TABLE BORDER ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top"> +<BR> +YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO A<BR> +<BR> +GARDEN PARTY AT THE TOWERS ON<BR> +<BR> +WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER THE FIRST.<BR> +<BR> +HOURS 1:30 TO 8 P. M.<BR> +<BR> +</TD> +</TR> +</TABLE> + +<BR> + +<P> +The opening of the mail, always an important event in the town, had +proved a pleasantly exciting one that day. +</P> + +<P> +There was a shower of white envelopes from the little square window. +Almost everyone who called received one or more, according to the +number of children in the family; many regular inquirers who were never +known to get even a circular, were at last rewarded, and proudly waved +their little white banners so that all the world might see. The +unusually large number of mail-bearing pedestrians gave Main Street a +gala air. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy, on watch at the window, hugged herself and smiled contentedly, for +was she not one of the conspirators who, in league with the Post-office +Department, had sent all those little white flags a-flutter through the +town? +</P> + +<P> +It was Mr. Dawson who had suggested the idea. +</P> + +<P> +"You have enjoyed so many merry-makings at your friends' hands, don't +you think it would be a good thing to make some return, Alene alanna?" +he inquired one evening, when they sat by the library table, he smoking +a pipe as usual, while Alene finished a page of a daily journal which +she sent each week to her parents. +</P> + +<P> +She beamed at the questioner across the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Uncle Fred, I'd love to! What shall we do? May I get the girls +to help, and make it a regular Happy-Go-Lucky affair?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly—and the boys, too, if you wish. I notice they are +generally mustered in, 'to help or to hinder,' as the case may be. You +might have an outside party if the weather is fine." +</P> + +<P> +"And then we could invite so many more!" +</P> + +<P> +"Invite all the town if you wish. I'll see that there's enough big +sugar cakes to go round if we break the bakery. Suppose you ask Mrs. +Major and Kizzie in, and see how it strikes them!" +</P> + +<P> +Alene skipped away and soon returned with the buxom housekeeper and the +rosy little maid, all in a stir of excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"I see Alene had no trouble in finding enthusiastic allies," said Uncle +Fred in his genial way, that always set people at ease. +</P> + +<P> +Everybody found seats and a pleasant hour followed in offering +suggestions and making plans, while Prince lay on the rug lazily +nodding approbation, or giving a friendly bark when Alene asked his +opinion. +</P> + +<P> +That was only the beginning of a happy time. The girls were deep in +blissful preparations the next ten days; the cheerful helpers, Mat and +Hugh, held many consultations with Jed and the gardener and Uncle Fred; +an array of pavilions, swings, maypoles, rustic seats and tables sprang +up in the Towers' grounds, and the kitchen range glowed like a furnace, +turning out enough good things to feed a multitude. +</P> + +<P> +Laura, Ivy, and Alene spent two afternoons in the library, making out +lists and addressing invitations. Uncle Fred peeped in once or twice, +bringing sheets of postage-stamps. +</P> + +<P> +"May I take a few invitations? There are some fellows big and little +I'd like to ask," he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +Alene glanced up from her task, pen in hard and nodded absent-mindedly. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose so." +</P> + +<P> +Apparently overwhelmed by her condescension, he furtively picked up +half a dozen invitations and slouched away with a culprit-like mien +that made Ivy lean back in her chair and laugh till she was out of +breath. +</P> + +<P> +Alene gazed at her wonderingly with such an innocent air that another +explosion resulted, and sober Laura, all unaware of the little by-play, +gave Ivy a smart rap on the back, which only increased her mirth. +</P> + +<P> +"Hysterics?" inquired Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought she was choking, but she's only practising to be a +contortionist," returned Laura, gazing apprehensively at the convulsed +figure beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"You girls will be the death of me, along with Mr. Dawson; he looked so +funny," explained Ivy, in gasps, wiping her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +They settled back to work with a will. +</P> + +<P> +"Shall we ask Mark Griffin?" inquired Laura. "I have him on my list." +</P> + +<P> +"So have I." +</P> + +<P> +"And I!" +</P> + +<P> +"One invitation will answer, I fancy! Kindly address it, Miss Dawson." +</P> + +<P> +"And now the Happy-Go-Luckys may be as reckless as they please; fall +off tree-tops, get lost in the grape-arbors, or tumble into the +fountain—it's all the same," cried Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>If</I> he comes!" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps he won't, without his band of buccaneers. I wonder if they +are the Torchlights," said Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"He 'shut up like a clam' as Mat says, when I asked him that day, but I +got even with his High Mightiness," returned Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, girls," broke in Ivy, "I feel kind of lonesome! Everybody in +town will have a bid but us." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor child, she shall have one!" Alene held out for inspection a +missive duly stamped and addressed. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Ivy, you might address Hermione's, and I'll send Vera's." +</P> + +<P> +Ivy made a grimace. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad you don't put it the other way!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to ask Hermione to help in our tissue-paper work, but we +can't ask her without Vera." +</P> + +<P> +"Hermione's a dear, so for her sake let's set up with Vera," said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy gave a prodigious groan. +</P> + +<P> +"'Take the bitter with the sweet,' though it will be Vera bitter." +</P> + +<P> +So it came to pass that the library was the scene of many more busy +hours, and the working-force of the Happy-Go-Luckys was increased by +the Ramsey girls, who threw themselves heartily into the making of +tissue-paper caps, rosettes and flowers, in which Vera proved an adept, +and her productions were so much admired and praised by the others that +she became quite amiable, and gave them no reason to regret the +invitation. +</P> + +<P> +The time went fast enough to these busy workers, though it seemed very +slow to the rest of the young people. +</P> + +<P> +Every lawn in town flew yards of dainty garments all belaced and +beruffled; many small frocks and waists having seen much service were +patched and mended to see more, there was an epidemic of ribbons, +curling-irons, and fancy slippers, which grew worse as the great day +approached, and when it came at last—as fine a day as one could +wish—each house sent forth its quota of shining-faced, bedizened +merry-makers to besiege the Towers' gates. +</P> + +<P> +The smaller children were directed to the library, where they were +captured by the larger girls, decorated with tissue-paper favors and +set loose; "like a flock of birds and butterflies," as Hermione said, +or "a plague of hungry locusts," to quote Ivy, who stood on the porch +at the front door watching their flight. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want this old red cap," declared Claude. +</P> + +<P> +"And I want a yellow one like Lawa's weaf," wailed Lois, while Nettie, +for once figuring as amiability, with a blue top-knot on her golden +tresses, only lingered with the others to give them countenance, as it +were. +</P> + +<P> +"Shoo, shoo!" cried the unfeeling Ivy, waving them away with her +skirts. "Who are those boys who went past just now, looking so much +amused, Laura? The short one stared at you as if he knew you." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't notice," returned Laura, glancing after the lads. +</P> + +<P> +"It's that boy you made buy the white pitcher," said Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"The other looks like one of Mark Griffin's soldiers of misfortune. +Hoy, Mat!" Ivy hailed the latter in passing. "Who are those boys?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bud Waters and Artie Orr; they came with Mark Griffin and Jack +Lever,—there's Jack now." +</P> + +<P> +"That thin boy leaning on the cane? I wondered who he was!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he's been laid up with a broken leg; is just able to hobble +round; that's the reason we haven't seen him and Mark together for so +long. They are hobnobbing with the Stony Road gang to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"The gang? Why, are they all here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Five or six, I should say. Mr. Dawson seemed to know them and sent +Jed to show them round." +</P> + +<P> +"That explains where Uncle Fred's invitations went." +</P> + +<P> +"I shouldn't wonder if he knows all about the Torchlights, too!" +</P> + +<P> +"Neither should I, Laura." +</P> + +<P> +"The Torchlights?" cried Vera; "Who are they?" +</P> + +<P> +"'A sort of club,'" said Laura, shutting her lips together in an +imitation of Mark. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IVY'S FRIEND +</H3> + +<P> +In the middle of the afternoon as Ivy sat alone on a bench beneath a +tree, listening to the band and watching the children circling merrily +round a number of maypoles, she heard a voice at her side: +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, but may I have part of your seat?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly!" she said, making room for the speaker, a middle-aged +man with genial blue eyes and a blonde beard, who was dressed in an +easy-fitting, light suit, and carried a large book which he placed with +his hat on the grass at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess he's a friend of the housekeeper's; I noticed him speaking +with her to-day," thought Ivy, her gaze straying back to the +light-footed dancers. +</P> + +<P> +"It looks easy, twirling those ribbons around the poles, but isn't it +rather warm weather, for dancing?" +</P> + +<P> +Ivy turned upon him a pair of eyes full of pity for his ignorance. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it would be lovely! I'm sure I'd never think of the heat if—" +she glanced eloquently at the crutches which leaned against the tree. +</P> + +<P> +"It's too bad, at a time like this especially; I shouldn't like that +either! Though my dancing days are past, I like to walk a lot and +gather 'yarbs an' things,'" he said. Taking up the big black book, he +displayed a collection of pressed plants, leaves and flowers, in which +Ivy took so much interest that he showed her through the book, +explaining the value and rarity of his treasures gathered from many +places, and relating incidents connected with his travels in search of +them. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy gave a sigh of admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"How lovely to travel that way! One could write a book about it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you like to write? I hope then you will get a chance some day to +visit all those countries." +</P> + +<P> +Ivy shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Not hopping around on those," she said bitterly, and with a few +sympathetic questions he drew from her the sad story of her affliction. +She was afterwards surprised at her own volubility, being, as a rule, +very shy with strangers. +</P> + +<P> +"I have seen children who were even worse than you completely cured," +he said; he related several instances while Ivy listened with flaming +cheeks and glistening eyes. A dozen questions trembled on her tongue +when a crowd of girls came along, one of whom paused beside her, saying, +</P> + +<P> +"Ivy, Ivy, come on! Don't you hear the bell?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Laura, I forgot all about eating," said Ivy somewhat ruefully. +</P> + +<P> +The stranger smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you are the only one to forget, for see, the youngsters are +racing from everywhere right upon us." He glanced at his watch. "Four +o'clock—it's time for me to seek my place at the visitors' table!" He +picked up his book and hat while the girls hurried away. +</P> + +<P> +The children assembled in front of the Towers and marched in five +battalions headed by chiefs wearing different colored tissue-paper +wreaths. +</P> + +<P> +Laura with yellow roses led the yellow-capped tots; Vera with blue +flowers, the blue-capped ones; Hermione crowned with lilacs, the +lavender; Ivy in crimson roses, the red, and Alene in pink roses, the +pink. +</P> + +<P> +A few of the children marched in wrong companies. Lois, despite her +blue cap, clung closely to her beloved "Lawa." +</P> + +<P> +"With Claude it's not color blindness, but Nettie," explained Ivy, when +that rebellious red-cap was seen stepping brazenly in Vera's train. +</P> + +<P> +Vera for once seemed to forget herself in seeing to the welfare of her +small charges, who one and all regarded her with admiring eyes; she +enjoyed the sensation of being the centre of attraction and graciously +accepted their homage, although the majority were "nobodies" whom she +had affected to despise. +</P> + +<P> +"Vera bitter has become Vera sweet," observed Ivy, giving a shy nod to +the Botanist who was seated with the other grown-ups at the visitors' +table watching the children filing past. Beside him was Mrs. Ramsey, +resplendent in black net over coral-colored silk, who at that moment +was explaining for his benefit: +</P> + +<P> +"The tall, fair girl, wearing blue flowers, is my daughter Vera, and +there is Hermione, my oldest, in white with the lilac wreath." +</P> + +<P> +"The Happy-Go-Luckys are partial to tissue-paper," Mr. Dawson said, +smilingly. +</P> + +<P> +"The dear girls! And the tots look like fairies in those pretty caps!" +said the lady, proud of her daughters' success. +</P> + +<P> +"This active life has certainly done wonders for Freddie's little +niece. She was pale and delicate when she came here in the spring and +look at her now!" and Miss Marlin, a slight little woman in Quakerish +gray, smiled at Alene whose cheeks outvied the roses in her wreath. +</P> + +<P> +"Her mother will be delighted to find her so improved," said Mrs. +Ramsey. "My girls think the world of Alene and that funny club, the +what-do-you-call-'ems?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Happy-Go-Luckys," suggested Mrs. Major, who wore her best black +silk in honor of the day. +</P> + +<P> +The Happy-Go-Luckys, unconscious of having won a champion, passed on to +their respective tables; soon all were placed and with mirth and +laughter the feast began. +</P> + +<P> +And what a feast it was! +</P> + +<P> +"Niagaras of lemonade, seas of milk and coffee, pyramids of fruit, +hills of candy, mountains of cake, whole continents of toothsome +things—" +</P> + +<P> +"Not forgetting Sandwich Islands," said Jack Lever, interrupting Mat's +flow of oratory. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that in reference to our cannibalistic appetites?" inquired Mark +Griffin. +</P> + +<P> +"'The bogie man will get you if you don't be good!'" squealed Artie Orr +in a high falsetto voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is that farmer-looking gentleman at the visitors' table? The one +speaking to Mr. Dawson?" Ivy asked in an aside of Kizzie who flitted +from one table to another, her rosy face like a small sun shining above +a cloud of pink and white lawn. +</P> + +<P> +"He's visitin' Mr. Fred—he's from the city, I think. He just came +to-day and I didn't hear his name." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, that's Dr. Medway," said Alene; "he's from Dr. Luke's hospital." +</P> + +<P> +"I never dreamed he was a doctor! I talked away like a graphophone, +and he told me about many children worse than I am who were cured, just +think!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Ivy, Ivy, he'll cure you then!" cried Alene with a quick breath of +ecstasy. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy's joy subsided; the tears came in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"But I guess it would cost a fortune," she said dejectedly. +</P> + +<P> +Shortly after lunch Dr. Medway, sauntering along the walk enjoying a +cigar and escorted by Prince, who had taken a fancy to him, was +arrested by a voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon, sir, but are you Dr. Medway?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am. What can I do for you, young man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ivy, the little lame girl—I'm her brother, Hugh Bonner—you told her +about so many cures—Oh, sir, if you would undertake to cure her—why, +I haven't any money now, but I'd pay you some day if it took me a +lifetime, and I'd—I'd work my fingers to the bone for you!" cried the +lad, forgetting in his earnestness the dignified speech he had +prepared, and speaking with all the intensity of his long-cherished +desire. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a good brother, Hugh, my lad, but I'm not a Shylock. I heard +of the little girl before I came here. I shall see your mother about +her to-morrow; and be assured the main thing is to cure Ivy—nothing +else matters!" and the doctor gave Hugh's hand a vigorous grip. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AN ADVENTURE +</H3> + +<P> +"Where is Lois?" Laura flitted from one group of people to another, +growing anxious in her continued failure to get any information. +</P> + +<P> +"She was naughty, and she's gone!" screamed Claude and Nettie, who came +rushing hand in hand out the front door. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did she go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Over the roof." +</P> + +<P> +Laura grew pale. +</P> + +<P> +"The roof? Whereabouts? Where is she, I say? Where were you?" She +took hold of their shoulders as if to shake the answers out of them. +</P> + +<P> +Alas, when they spoke her worst fears were confirmed! The children had +climbed the four flights of steps to the tower room, where Lois had +crawled out upon the roof; they called to her and in trying to turn she +had slipped out of sight over the edge. +</P> + +<P> +Laura ran moaning toward the foot of the tower, dreading to find a +little crushed body lying there inert, but no! the crowd was gazing +upward horror-stricken, and she caught a glimpse of a white object +clinging to a swinging ladder high up in the air. +</P> + +<P> +Between the second story and the sloping tower roof a scaffold had been +erected by workmen who were repairing the walls. Fearing possible +injury to the children by falling stones, Mr. Dawson had instructed +them not to work on the day of the picnic and they had secured the +scaffold from the reach of mischievous boys, placing it fortunately +just in position to arrest the child's fall. +</P> + +<P> +"If only she doesn't get dizzy!" a voice was saying and Laura for the +first time noticed that a boy was scaling the wall. Favored by the +thick vines and uneven stones up he went with the agility of an +acrobat. He was bareheaded and the sun shone on his face, reddened +with exertion, and on his sandy hair and Laura recognized him as one of +the Stony Road boys, the one she had talked with on the glass-boat. +</P> + +<P> +"It's Bud Waters—the rest of us were too heavy to try it, and he was +off like a squirrel, soon as he saw the child," explained Mat +hurriedly. He was with a crowd of boys, among whom were Mark, Hugh, +and Jed, carrying a coil of rope. +</P> + +<P> +"We're going up to the roof—if she only holds out that long!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mat, Mat, it's our Lois!" wailed Laura. She saw Mat's face blanch, +and the crowd passed, leaving her half crazed. She knew that Alene and +Ivy were standing beside her with tears in their eyes, murmuring half +audible prayers, but she did not see them. Her gaze turned steadily +upon the little hanging figure, and on the boy who went climbing up the +wall. +</P> + +<P> +Ah, he has almost reached the goal—he has grasped the ladder—a thrill +went through the crowd—he is holding the little one safe from harm! +Then, seated beside her on the ladder, he gave a whoop of joy that was +answered by the crowd's enthusiastic cries. A moment later the other +boys were seen at the narrow windows above and the rope came gliding +over the roof. +</P> + +<P> +Then everything became a blur to Laura; she heard a shout of many +voices and knew no more until she found herself sitting on a bench with +Mrs. Major fanning her, Miss Marlin demanding fiercely from everybody +why she had forgotten to bring her lavender salts, Kizzie dancing round +with a glass of water, and Ivy and Alene kneeling on the grass chafing +her hands, and then, oh blessed sight, Uncle Fred coming across the +lawn with Lois safe in his arms! +</P> + +<P> +On seeing her big sister, she stuck a tiny finger into her mouth half +abashed. +</P> + +<P> +"Lawa, don't cwy! I didn't mean to go so far down the woof!" she +cried, cuddling into Laura's arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, girls! I could kneel to that boy! I'd go and kiss him now only I +know boys hate to be fussed over!" declared Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give him a bushel of kisses!" cried Lois rapturously, whereupon +they kissed her all round while Nettie looked on enviously at the stir +the little maid was making. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder why when I'm naughty I get a scolding instead of kisses," she +confided to Claude. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it's because you've never been quite that naughty, though +you've been pretty bad," he said, which latter assurance consoled his +chum. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE TOWER +</H3> + +<P> +Later in the evening when the smaller children had gone home, some of +the others proposed a visit to the tower room to view the sunset, and a +gay crowd scurried up the stairs. +</P> + +<P> +Ivy, who could climb the stairs almost as nimbly as her mates, lingered +in the rear with Jack Lever. +</P> + +<P> +"It's pretty hard lines," he remarked smilingly, answering her +sympathetic expression. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed, but you will be all right in no time! Just be thankful +it won't last for years and years!" +</P> + +<P> +"The brave little gipsy!" thought Jack. He gave her a kindly glance, +noting with an insight gained by his late acquaintance with pain, the +marks of suffering always so pathetic on a childish face. +</P> + +<P> +"Things like this teach us a lot, don't you think? I feel as if I'd +become quite old, tied so long to a sofa, like a thing-um-bub—those +lace affairs the girls make, you know—" +</P> + +<P> +"A tidy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Untidy I call 'em, always sticking to a fellow's coat! If it wasn't +for the Torchlights, I'd have gone all to pieces." +</P> + +<P> +Ivy started, but curbing her curiosity and profiting by Laura's +experience she merely repeated, +</P> + +<P> +"The—the Torchlights?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, our club, you know." +</P> + +<P> +Ivy felt that Jack was ready and willing to enlarge upon the theme; she +chuckled inwardly, gleefully anticipating the tale she would have for +the other girls. +</P> + +<P> +Alas, at that moment Jed came up the stairs with a large pitcher of +lemonade and glasses on a tray, and Kizzie followed with a huge frosted +cake. +</P> + +<P> +"We thought you would like this, along with the sunset," she said. +</P> + +<P> +Together they climbed the fourth and last flight of stairs and received +a noisy greeting from the others on entering the tower room. +</P> + +<P> +Jack gave them an elaborate bow. +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you, my friends, we feel flattered by this demonstrative +welcome." +</P> + +<P> +"We don't want to throw cold lemonade on your joy, me boy, but your +credentials are excellent," returned Mat, taking the cake from Kizzie. +</P> + +<P> +Jed and the little maid, assisted by the boys, proceeded to pour out +lemonade and to cut cake amid the clinking of glasses and merry talk. +</P> + +<P> +The tower room was of octagon shape; crimson tapestry curtains edged +with tarnished gilt fringe hung at the eight narrow windows, and a rug +of faded crimson velvet half covered the painted floor. A heavy walnut +table and a revolving bookcase graced the centre of the room, and an +old fashioned wooden settee and several ancient chairs stood round, now +occupied by the young people who ate and drank and chattered, the +majority quite unmindful of their journey's object—Old Sol, in his +departing splendor, glorifying the clouds with prismatic color, ere he +sank beyond the far-reaching hills. +</P> + +<P> +"You look quite uplifted," cried Alene, when Ivy, one of the few +onlookers, turned from the window. +</P> + +<P> +She gave an expressive glance backward toward the fast-fading sky. +</P> + +<P> +"It's that and something Hugh just told me. He spoke to Dr. Medway—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know, and oh, I'm so glad!" +</P> + +<P> +"And I too!" cried Laura, joining them. +</P> + +<P> +"I like Dr. Medway; he never once called me 'an interesting case' but +talked as if I were just a little girl he would like to see cured. +When I think of it I feel so queer, I have to keep tight hold of my +crutches, to keep from floating away into the air, like a balloon!" +Ivy glanced across the room. "Things seem to be upside down, for there +I imagine I see Hugh and Mark Griffin buzzing together like two old +gossips!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's not imagination; all the boys are as amiable as the children when +they play Mrs. Come-to-See! They were tottering on the brink of +friendship and Lois toppled them over into each other's arms." +</P> + +<P> +"You Happy-Go-Luckys look to your laurels; Hugh and I belong to a club +of our own now!" called Mat. +</P> + +<P> +"What, the Torchlights?" chorused the three. +</P> + +<P> +He looked surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know about it?" +</P> + +<P> +They looked wise but said not a word, and Ivy whispered to the girls +how near she had come to finding out. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment, taking a glass of lemonade, Mark Griffin stood up. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"To the clever and plucky,<BR> +The Happy-Go-Lucky—club!"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +he cried, with a sly smile, which told them he knew all about it. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know?" asked one. +</P> + +<P> +"Who told you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hugh, that was shabby of you!" +</P> + +<P> +"You girls are always patching up some mystery or other. How was I to +know?" said Hugh. +</P> + +<P> +Jack Lever, who was leaning against the table, came over and sat on the +settee beside the girls. +</P> + +<P> +"Mark didn't play fair; he never said a word about it till Mat and Hugh +had told your secret, so to get even I'll tell you his." +</P> + +<P> +Amid the girls' applause and Mark's protests he commenced. +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to know Phillip Gamer, the first Torchlight, ran away from +home when he was twelve to join the Salvation Army. He was a drummer +boy in the ranks until a detective, hired by his dad, shadowed him and +brought him home, but last year at school he said the Army had helped +him to a view of a question which had puzzled him all his life. His +mother declared that even as a baby, he had protested in lusty tones +against silver-backed hair-brushes and perfumed soaps, and when the +nurse perambulated him in the park, a bunch of ragged, barefoot kids +would surround the beaming youngster in his silk-lined carriage. There +might be a dozen other baby vehicles round, which they wouldn't think +of touching, nor of speaking to those tony babies, but they seemed to +overlook Phil's frills and laces and took to him like brothers. +</P> + +<P> +"At school he refused one of the high-priced rooms, because it would +separate him in a way from the boys he wished most to meet, the boys +who thought things out for themselves. Phil's coming knocked out that +feeling,—a sort of caste—which divided the rich scholars from the +poor; his room was a meeting point—the plane upon which they became +fellow-men. Here the Torchlights came into being. Our counter-sign, +The Brotherhood of Man, and though there was only one of us who +intended to work as a minister in the slums, each was pledged to +individual effort in his own locality. +</P> + +<P> +"Mark and I were the only Torchlights from this town, and the first +thing I did when I got home was to break my bones in a runaway, and +that put me out of the race." +</P> + +<P> +"But it didn't keep him from doing a lot for the boys," said Mark. +"Every week we all visited him and had a jolly evening with games, +reading and singing and a dandy lunch. At first Jack's people rather +scouted the idea of entertaining the Stony Road gang. The first night +one of them cut a fine china plate in two, and another shied egg-shells +over his shoulder against the wall. Mrs. Lever was horrified, but we +begged her to wait and give us another trial." +</P> + +<P> +"Now mother and the rest are completely won over and help us lots. I +believe I would have knocked my brains out against the wall this +summer, only for the Torchlights. I found we can't do good to others +without receiving a reactionary benefit. As Phil says, many a rich lad +joins in a patronizing way, thinking he's going to revolutionize +things, and soon finds it's himself that needs to be done over." +</P> + +<P> +"We were surprised to find a sister club ahead of us here, but we are +not at all jealous!" said Mark. +</P> + +<P> +"We can help each other out." +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you in the name of the Happy-Go-Luckys! The Torchlights are +fine!" said Laura heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"We might all take for our club poem this little verse," and, half +embarrassed by the sudden silence, Alene recited softly— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"'Jesus bids us shine,<BR> +With a clear pure light,<BR> +Like a little candle,<BR> +Burning in the night.<BR> +In the world is darkness,<BR> +So we must shine,<BR> +You in your corner,<BR> +And I in mine.'"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Your lights are torches, you can take them with you out into the +world," said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"As we are all so solemncholy, I'll propose a toast: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'To the dear, ducky duckies,<BR> +The Happy-Go-Luckys!'"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +cried Mat. +</P> + +<P> +"And here's another—take it for your motto: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'For lofty flights<BR> +The Torchlights!'"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ivy's neat allusion brought forth three cheers for Bud Waters. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dawson inquired about Bud to-day. I bet he'll look out for him, +though he has been kind to the Torchlights all along." +</P> + +<P> +The girls glanced at each other as if to say, "What did I tell you?" +</P> + +<P> +"The other day he gave us the use of a big room over his offices; said +we could use it for a library and he'd provide the books and +furniture," said Mark. +</P> + +<P> +"When there's 'something doing' in the way of reform, Fred Dawson is +right there," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +Whereupon there followed three ringing cheers for that gentleman, which +made Alene color with pride. And then the meeting adjourned. +</P> + +<P> +They all descended to the first floor, where the boys joined the men in +the library, and the girls went outside for a parting ramble and chat, +with Prince gambolling around them. +</P> + +<P> +"There are things about the Torchlights we might copy," remarked Laura. +"They take in members whether they like them or not, and try to help +them." +</P> + +<P> +"We might invite Hermione and Vera to start with," suggested Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +"That would be kind. I think they would like it," said Alene. +</P> + +<P> +They had reached the grassy terrace beneath the apple-trees, and Ivy, +with a sudden recollection exclaimed, +</P> + +<P> +"Girls, it was here we first met, or I should say parted, for Net and I +ran so hard we lost our apples in tumbling over the wall, leaving poor +Lol to be eaten up by Prince." +</P> + +<P> +"That was the fifteenth of June. I remember it so well," said Laura. +</P> + +<P> +"We have had some lovely times together since then," said Alene. +</P> + +<P> +"To-day was the loveliest of all," declared Ivy. +</P> + +<P> +Then Alene uttered hopefully a prediction that in time proved a true +one: +</P> + +<P> +"Girls, we'll have a happier time still on the anniversary of that +day—Ivy will be cured, and we'll dance round the Maypole together, the +'maddest, merriest' Happy-Go-Luckys in all the world!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peggy-Alone, by Mary Agnes Byrne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY-ALONE *** + +***** This file should be named 24431-h.htm or 24431-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/3/24431/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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