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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2483.txt b/2483.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..70a87cc --- /dev/null +++ b/2483.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9371 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext Janice Day, The Young Homemaker, by Long +by Helen Beecher Long + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Scanned by Aaron Cannon <cannona@fireantproductions.com> + + + + + +Janice Day, The Young Homemaker + +by Helen Beecher Long + + + + +CHAPTER I. WHEN MOTHER WAS A GIRL + +"Why, that is Arlo Junior. What can he be doing out of doors so +early? And look at those cats following him. Did you ever!" +Janice Day stared wonderingly from her front bedroom window at +the boy crossing the street in the dim pre-dawn light, with a cat +and three half-grown kittens gamboling about him. Occasionally +Arlo Junior would shake something out of a paper to the ground +and the cats would immediately roll and frolic and slap playfully +at one another, acting as the girl had never seen cats act +before. + +The pleasantly situated cottage belonging to Mr. Broxton Day +stood almost directly across the way from the Arlo Weeks' place +on Knight Street. Therefore Janice often said that, "the days +and nights and weeks are very close together!" + +Knight Street, as level as the palm of one's hand, led straight +into Greensboro, where it crossed Market and Hammond Streets, +making the Six Corners--actually the heart of the business +district of this thriving mid-western town. + +The Day cottage was a mile and a half from the Six Corners and +the Farmers & Merchants Bank in which Mr. Broxton Day held an +important salaried position. Besides his house and his situation +in the bank, Mr. Day considered another of his possessions very +important indeed, although he did not list it when he made out +his tax return. + +This that he so highly valued possessed the very brightest hazel +eyes in the world, wore a wealth of free brown hair in two plaits +over her shoulders, and was of a slender figure without bordering +upon that unfortunate "skinniness" which nature abhors as she +does a vacuum. + +Janice possessed, also, even teeth that flashed when she smiled +(and she smiled often), a pink and white complexion that the sun +was bound to freckle if she was not careful, and a cheerful, +demure expression of countenance that went a long way toward +making her good to look upon, if not actually good looking. + +In a spick and span blue-checked bungalow apron, she stood at her +window just as Dawn swept a brush of partially-hued color across +the eastern horizon. Having had it in her mind when she went to +bed the night before to arise early, she had of course awakened +long before it was really time to get up to make sure that daddy, +for once, got a proper breakfast. + +For the Days, father and daughter, were dependent on hired +service, and such service in the form of Olga Cedarstrom was +about as incapable and stupid as fate had yet produced. + +Having caught the first glimpse of that mischievous youngster, +Arlo Weeks, Junior, with the cats, Janice raised her window +softly as far as the lower sash would go, to peer out at the +strange procession. The boy and the cats entered the Day's side +gate and disappeared around the comer of the kitchen ell. + +"Now! what can that rascal be about? If he does anything to +bother Olga there will be trouble. And everything here goes +crossways enough now, without Arlo Junior adding to it, I +declare!" + +Janice could very clearly remember when the cottage had been a +real home instead of "just a place to stay"; for her mother had +been dead only a year. The experiences of that year had been +trying, both for the sorrowing widower and the girl who had been +her mother's close companion and confidant. + +Janice was old enough and well trained enough in domestic affairs +to have kept house very nicely for her father. But she had to go +to school, of course; an education was the most important thing +in the world for her. And the kind of help that came into the +Days' kitchen often balked at being "bossed by a slip of a +gur-r-rl," as one recent incumbent of the position had said. + +Olga Cedarstrom was stupid and often cross in the morning; and +she was careless and slatternly in her ways. But she did not +object when Janice came down early to get her father's breakfast, +and serve it daintily, as her mother had taught her. + +Only, Olga could not be taught to do these things. She did not +want to learn. She said she had a "fella" and would be married +soon; and under the circumstances she did not consider that she +needed to learn anything more about domestic work! + +Janice did not wish to go down into the kitchen so early, for +that would awaken Olga who would come from her room, bleary-eyed +with sleep and with her temper at a saw-tooth edge, to ask, "why +she bane get oop in de middle of de night?" + +Janice had washed and dressed and read her morning Bible chapter, +which she always managed to find time for, even when she did not +get up as early as on this occasion. For her age, and perhaps +because of her mother's death, which still seemed recent to +Janice, she was rather serious-minded. Yet she was no prig, and +she loved fun and was as alert for good times as any girl of her +age in Greensboro. + +The talk she had had overnight with daddy had perhaps put her in +a rather more serious mood than usual. The talk had been all +about her mother and the hopes the mother and father had had and +the plans they had made for their little girl's future. + +To carry through those plans necessitated the proper schooling of +Janice Day. She was already in the upper grade of the grammar +school. Even if the household affairs were all "at sixes and at +sevens," she must stick to her books, for she had ambitions. She +was quite sure she wanted to teach when she grew up. + +There was another reason that spurred Janice Day to the point of +early rising, although daddy had not even hinted that he missed +the comfortable, daintily served breakfasts which he used to +enjoy when Mrs. Day was alive. It was something he had said +about an entirely different matter that started this serious +train of thought in the girl's mind. + +She had expressed herself as so many of us do when we are in +difficulties, or when we see conditions we would like to have +changed: "Oh, if things were only different!" + +Broxton Day had looked at her with his head held sideways and a +quizzical smile in his eyes as well as on his lips. + +"Different? Do you want to know how to bring about a change? Do +something. Don't just talk, or think, or wonder, or wish, or +hope; but do! It is all right to say that good things become a +reality because somebody has a good thought. Actually, thinking +does not bring things about. It is doing. Do something in the +world, my dear. Don't wait for somebody else to set the example, +or to lead. Do what you can yourself while you are waiting for a +leader. Do something. + +"Of course thought must precede action, and, furthermore, must +accompany action if action is not to run wild. But in the end +thought must become action and we must all of us--little girls, +as well as adults--do something if the conditions we do not like +are to be changed." + +That was really what had got Janice Day out of bed so early on +this morning. Poor daddy! He sometimes had most awful meals +served to him. And the house was usually in a state of confusion +if it was not actually dirty. + +Olga had come straight from a peasant cottage in her + +country, and her idea of scrubbing the kitchen floor was to dash +pails of water over it and then sweep the water out of the back +door with a broom. + +There was a Swedish colony established around the pickle +factories on the northern edge of the town, and Olga went over +there with her "fella" to a dance or downtown or to a picture +show almost every evening. No wonder she was not fit for work in +the morning. + +When Janice had come up to bed the previous evening she had +brought with her the "treasure-box" which daddy usually kept in +the wall safe in the living room. It contained certain heirlooms +and trinkets that had been her mother's, and were now Janice's +most sacred possessions. + +She had had to beg daddy for the treasure-box, for he, too, +prized its contents beyond words. But Janice was a careful girl, +and daddy trusted her, and he knew, too, that the mementoes of +her dead mother seemed to bring the woman closer to the little +daughter; and so, in the end, he had allowed Janice to carry the +treasure-box to her room to be kept for the night, but to be +returned to its usual place after the girl had had it by her and +looked at its contents for a while. + +There were a few pieces of jewelry--more valuable for their +associations than for their intrinsic worth, the gold framed +photographs of Grandfather and Grandmother Avion, which clasped +like a little book, and the miniature of Janice's mother painted +on ivory when she was a girl by a painter who had since become +very famous. + +This last was the girl's dearest possession--the memento of her +mother which she cared for above everything else. Daddy had put +it into her keeping with a reverence that could not fail to +impress Janice Day, young as she was. Broxton Day had worshipped +his wife for her higher qualities as well as having loved her for +her human attributes. + +Something of this attitude toward his dead wife Janice, young as +she was, understood. She knew, for instance, that there was no +other woman in the world as a mate for Broxton Day now that her +mother was gone. All the more must she try, therefore, to fill +her mother's place in his life. + +She had taken the miniature out of the treasure-box and was +looking with dimming eyes at it by the window when, shifting her +glance, she had seen Arlo Weeks, Junior, crossing the street. +This was her mother when she was a girl! What a sweet, demure +face it was. Janice did not realize that much of the expression +of the countenance in this miniature was visualized in the flesh +in her own face. + +No wonder daddy had fallen in love with such a pretty, pretty +girl! So thought Janice Day. And-- + +What was Arlo Junior, the mischievous torment of the +neighborhood, doing with those cats? This sudden query shattered +her dream completely. She returned the miniature to the +treasure-box, and closed and latched the cover. + +"Goodness knows," murmured Janice Day, "there are cats enough +around this house without Arlo Junior bringing any more upon the +premises. Sometimes I hear them squalling and fighting when I +wake up in the night." + +With the treasure-box in her hand, she opened her bedroom door +and crossed the hall to the storeroom. The window of this room +was over the back porch. She heard a step on the porch flooring. +The door of the summer kitchen was seldom locked. Was Arlo +Junior down there? + +That boy was constantly getting into trouble with the neighbors. +There was a regular feud between Olga Cedarstrom and Arlo Junior. +Olga had chased him half a block only the other day, threatening +him with a broom. + +And the cats! Here they came from all directions--over +the back yard fences and from the barn. Fat cats, lean cats, +shabby "ash-barrel" cats, and pet cats with ribbons and collars. +Amazedly, Janice Day owned to herself that she had never seen so +many cats gathered in a more or less harmonious group before. + +Instead of fighting or "mauling," they approached the back porch +of the Day house as though on pleasure bent. Was that Arlo Junior +giggling down there? + +She put down the treasure-box and tried to open the window. But +the sash stuck. She distinctly heard the door below close and +footsteps receding from the porch. + +Wishing to make sure that it was Arlo Junior who had been below, +the girl ran back to her bedroom. Yes! there he was scuttling +across the street in evident haste to get under cover. + +"Now, isn't that odd?" murmured Janice. Suddenly a sound +floated up from below--an echoing wail that seemed wrenched from +the very soul of a tortured cat. The cry reverberated through the +house in a most eerie fashion. + +Fortunately her father slept in the front of the house and there +was a closed door between the front and the back halls on both +floors. But Janice heard Olga's big, flat feet land upon the +floor almost instantly. That feline wail had evidently brought +the Swedish girl out of her dreams, all standing. + +That sound sent Janice out of the room on a run. She must reach +the seat of trouble before Olga got to the place! Otherwise, the +trouble was bound to increase and become--what? Even Janice's +imagination, trained, as it was, by the succession of incompetent +and unwilling kitchen helpers, could not picture that. + +Before Janice Day could reach the hall, Olga was padding down the +stairs to the kitchen. From the rear arose increasing howls. +The cats may have mysteriously gathered in apparent amity; but so +many of them shut up in that outer kitchen with no escape could +not possibly dwell for long in harmony. + +There certainly was no harmony in these mounting wails. The +principle motif seemed to be furnished by the cat that had first +voiced his complaint. But now, as Janice plunged down the stairs +after Olga, the thin, high scream of the initial feline chorister +was crossed, in warp and woof, by basset strains. + +The sounds rose and fell, as though proceeding from cats in +torment--an agonizing oratorio like nothing Janice had ever heard +before. She screamed to the Swedish girl, but her voice was +drowned by the caterwauling in the back kitchen. Olga wrenched +open the door. Janice, arriving to look over her shoulder at the +very moment she did so, saw the back kitchen practically filled +with cats. + +When one cat loses its temper it seems as though every other cat +within hearing gets excited. In the corners, out of the way of +the battlefield, kittens and tabbies were rolling and playing +upon the dried twigs and leaves that Janice knew must be catnip +that Arlo Junior had flung upon the floor to bait the cats into +the kitchen. But the cats in the middle of the room were +preparing for the representation of a busy day at Donnebrook +Fair. + +"Them cats! In de clean kitchen what I scrubbed last night only +I bane kill them cats!" And there was not a cat in the lot as +mad as Olga Cedarstrom. + +There was a hod of coal beside her. Olga seized the good-sized +lumps of stove coal, one after another, and began volleying with +a strong overhand throw at the excited animals. + +Olga proved to be an excellent shot. She hit a cat with almost +every lump of coal she threw. But she could not, after all, have +easily failed to do this, there were so many cats in the kitchen. + +"Oh, don't! Don't, Olga! Stop!" shrieked Janice. "You will hurt +them" + +"Hurt them?" repeated the girl. "I bane mean to hurt dem" and, +slam! went another lump of coal. + +"But they can't get out!" gasped Janice. + +"Den how dey get in, huh?" demanded Olga, and threw another lump +with terrific force. + +There was a howl, higher and more blood-curdling than any that +had heretofore assailed their ears. One big cat scrambled up the +wall, and up the window panes, seeking an exit. One of the +creature's legs dragged limply. + +"Olga Cedarstrom!" shrieked Janice, "you have broken that poor +cat's leg." + +"I bane break all his legs!" rejoined this quite ferocious girl. +"How dese cats coom here? I bane sure you know!" + +She turned to glare at Janice Day so savagely, a lump of coal +poised in her smutted hand, that the girl was really frightened. +She backed away from the angry woman. + +Then she thought of something she might do to save the cats and +the back kitchen from complete wreck. Janice darted out of the +room to the porch. In a moment she had unlatched the +summer-kitchen door and flung it wide open. + +Instantly there boiled out of the room cats big and cats little, +cats of all colors and every degree of fright. One of the last +to escape was the poor cat with the broken leg. There was +nothing Janice Day could do for it. She did not dare to try to +touch it. + +She ventured back into the house to find Olga Cedarstrom still +breathing out threatenings and slaughter. Olga was in her +nightgown and a wrapper. She had not even stopped for slippers +when she came from her bed. Now she padded to the back stairs, +turning to shake her clenched fist at Janice and cry: + +"I leave! I leave! I bane going to pack my troonk. The man pay +me oop to last night, and I leave!" + +"I am glad of it!" gasped Janice, finding her voice again. "It +wasn't my fault, and it wasn't the poor cats' fault. I am glad +you are going, so there!" + +But she became more serious as she prepared the nice breakfast +she had promised herself the night before her father should have. +She heard Olga go to the telephone in the hall. She called a +number and then talked in Swedish for several minutes to whoever +answered. + +Janice's father came into the dining room just as his little +daughter brought in the breakfast. When he saw the steaming +coffee pot and the covered dishes and toast-rack his face +brightened. But he had to be told of the domestic catastrophe +impending. + +"Well," he said cheerfully, "we couldn't get anybody any worse +than Olga, that is sure. I will see what they have at the +intelligence office, and I may send a woman up after you get home +from school this afternoon. I'll 'phone you first, daughter. I +don't have to see Olga, do I? She was paid last night." + +No, Janice told him, he need not bother about a servant who was +on the point of going. Before it was time for Janice to leave +for school, a taxicab appeared, driven by a man of Olga's own +nationality. He went upstairs for the girl's trunk. + +This he shouldered and carried out to the cab. Olga followed +him, wearing the red hat with the green plume which had so amused +Janice when the Swedish girl had arrived. She drove away in the +cab without even looking back at Janice Day. + +The latter had tidied up the kitchen and dining room. The back +kitchen would have to remain as it was until later. And Janice +felt that she would like to get hold of Arlo Weeks, Junior, and +make him clean up that kitchen! + +She changed to her school dress, strapped together the books she +had studied the night before, put on her hat, and stood a moment +in the hall, wondering if all would be right until she should +return at three o'clock. + +And then for the first time, and suddenly, Janice remembered the +treasure-box. + +She darted upstairs to her bedroom. How careless of her to have +left it there! She knew the simple combination of the wall safe +in the living room, and She determined to open the safe and put +the box away. + +But when she entered her bedroom she found that the treasure-box +was not there. Instantly she remembered having taken it with her +when she ran into the storeroom to see what Arlo Junior was doing +with the cats. + +In trying to open the window in the storeroom she had set the box +down on a trunk--on Olga's trunk. + +Startled, indeed alarmed and shaking, Janice Day went as fast as +she could to, the storeroom. Olga's trunk was gone. She did not +see the treasure-box anywhere in the room. + +She searched the room diligently. She ran from room to +room--Olga's, her own, even the other bedrooms. She halted at +last in her own room, sobbing and alarmed. + +The treasure-box was gone. Olga's trunk had gone. Olga herself +had gone. + +And the photographs of Grandfather and Grandmother Avion, the +old-fashioned jewelry, the diary her mother had kept as a little +girl, the miniature Janice thought so much of--all, all the +keepsakes her father had entrusted her with the night before, +seemed to have gone With Olga and the trunk. + + + +CHAPTER II. THE HUNT FOR THE TREASURE-BOX + +This was a very tragic happening in Janice Day's life. She had +never been regardless of important matters; that was why daddy +had not even warned her to be careful of the treasure-box. + +He assumed that she would consider its precious contents and +guard it accordingly. Why! He had not even mentioned it this +morning, he had been so confident of her good sense. + +And because of Arlo Junior and a bunch of cats she had forgotten +all about her mother's miniature and all the other heirlooms in +the treasure-box! Her tears were those of anger at herself as +well as sorrow because of the disappearance of the heirlooms. +Yet at the moment she did not fully appreciate the full weight of +the happening. + +Janice could not stand and cry about it. She had assured herself +that the treasure-box was not where she had left it--was not in +the storeroom at all, as far as she could see. Olga certainly +had not picked it up and placed it in any of the rooms on this +second floor, or anywhere else where it could be easily seen. + +Janice could only believe that the Swedish girl, either by +intention or in some involuntary way, had carried the +treasure-box off with her. Yet it did not seem as though Olga +Cedarstrom, bad temper and all, could be a thief! That was an +awful thought. + +"Maybe she has done it to plague me," Janice thought. "She is +awfully mad at me. She thought it was my fault that the cats got +into the back kitchen. And now she means to pay me back. She +means to return it." + +"But where has she gone? And what shall I do?" were the final +queries formed in Janice Day's mind. + +She must not stand idle. It was nearing school time. Nor could +she neglect the matter until she came home from school at three +o'clock. If Olga Cedarstrom were really dishonest, she might be +getting farther and farther away from Greensboro while Janice +remained inactive! + +She must do something. + +Janice went slowly downstairs. First Of all it was her duty to +communicate with her father at the bank. She hated to tell him +of this happening, for she realized keenly her fault in the +matter. But not for a moment did the girl consider hiding the +unfortunate affair from Broxton Day. + +She went to the telephone and called the bank When she asked for +Mr. Day. She could almost see him taking the receiver from the +hook when the bell on his telephone rang. + +"Yes?" Daddy's voice sounded clearly and courteously over the +wire. "This is Day." + +"Often when he said this over the telephone Janice would respond, +giggling: "And this is Knight--Street! Number eight-forty-five." + +But she did not feel at all like joking on this occasion. All in +a rush she told him of the tragic happening. + +"And I don't know what to do, Daddy," was the way in which she +ended her story. + +Even over the telephone the girl realized that her father was +more startled than she expected him to be, His voice did not +sound at all natural as he asked: + +"Do you mean to tell me that everything that was in that box is +lost, Janice? Everything?" + +"Oh, Daddy!" choked the girl, "I put everything back before I +closed the box--mamma's picture, and her diary, and all." + +"There were other things--" + +"Oh, yes! The jewelry and the photographs," said Janice. + +"More than those," her father's hoarse voice said quickly. "I +cannot explain to you now, my child. Didn't you know there was a +false bottom in that box?" + +"A false bottom to the treasure-box, Daddy?" she cried +wonderingly. "A secret compartment." + +"Oh! I didn't know--" + +"No, of course not. I blame myself, my dear," he added, and she +knew that he was striving to control his voice. "Do not cry any +more. I will explain when come home." + +"Oh, Daddy!" + +"Are you sure you have looked carefully for the box?" and he now +spoke more moderately. + +"Oh, yes, Daddy." + +"Looked everywhere?" + +"Indeed I have." + +"Then, daughter, by the face of the clock in front of me, I +advise you to hurry away to school. I will see what can be done. +You say Olga went away in a taxicab?" + +"Yes, Daddy." + +"Of course, you did not notice the number of the car?" + +"Oh, no, sir. But the man was a Swede like Olga. And he came in +and carried down her trunk." ' + +"I will see what can be done. Go to school like a good girl and +do not let anxiety spoil your recitations. Good-bye." + +He hung up the receiver and Janice followed his example. There +seemed nothing else she could do. + +She would have been late for school had not Stella Latham driven +by the Day cottage in her father's car just as Janice came out. +Stella lived some distance out of town, her father being a +well-to-do farmer, and she was driven in daily by either her +brother or one of the farm hands. + +Janice saw the automobile coming in the distance and soon +recognized the Latham car. + +"Dear me!" she sighed, "I hope Stella will not turn down Hester +Street. If she comes this far she'll be sure to ask me to ride, +and then I can get to school on time" + +With rather anxious eyes Janice watched the oncoming car. Yes, +it passed Hester Street and came on down Knight Street to make a +later turn off toward the schoolhouse. The car almost shot past +Janice before the girl inside saw her on the sidewalk. Then the +girl suddenly leaned out of the swiftly moving car. + +"Oh, Janice Day!" screamed Stella, warning her driver to stop +with one hand while she beckoned to Janice with the other. +"Hurry! You'll be late. Get in here." + +Janice ran after the car, glad of the lift. Stella was a buxom +girl, a year or two older than Janice, but in the latter's grade +at school. "Ever so nice" Janice thought her. But, Janice +thought most of her school friends were "nice." She was friendly +toward them, so they had no reason to be otherwise than kind to +her. + +Not that Janice Day was either namby-pamby or stupid. She had +opinions, and expressed them frankly; and she possessed a strong +will of her own. But she not to hurt other people's feelings; +and if she stood up for her opinions, she usually did so without +antagonizing anybody. + +"You're just the girl I wanted to see, anyway, Janice, before +school," Stella said, as the younger girl hopped into the tonneau +and the chauffeur let in the clutch again. + +"Now you see--all of me!" said Janice brightly, trying to put the +trouble of the lost treasure-box behind her. + +Her eyelids were just a little red, and she took one more long, +sobbing breath. But Stella was so very much interested in her +own affairs that she noticed nothing at all strange about her +friend. + +"Oh, Janice!" Stella said, "I'm to have a birthday party. You +know, I told you all about it before." "Yes, Stella, you told +me," agreed Janice. + +"Of course I did. And I want you to come. I couldn't really +have a party without you, Janice. But I am not so sure about +some of the girls." + +"Oh, dear me!" murmured Janice. "If I was going to have a +regular party I'd invite all the girls in our class--or else none +at all." + +"Now, that's just like you! You always are so quick. How did you +know I didn't want to invite her?" complained Stella, pouting. + +"I didn't know. Whom do you mean to leave out?" Janice asked, +smiling. + +"There! That's what my mother says! You are always so shrewd and +sly." + +"Oh!" cried Janice not at all pleased, "does your mother think I +am sly?" + +"We-ell, she said you were shrewd," admitted Stella, changing +color. "Now, don't get mad, Janice Day. I want you to help me." + +"You go about it in a funny way," said Janice, rather piqued. "I +am not sly enough to be of any use to you, I guess." + +"Now, don't be angry!" wailed the other girl. "What I mean is, +that you always see through things and can get out of +difficulties." + +"I didn't know I got into difficulties--not many anyway," Janice +added, with a little sigh. + +"Dear me, Janice! don't split hairs--please," said the very +selfish and self-centered Stella. "I want your help. Do tell me +how to get out of asking that girl to my party without offending +her friends--for she has got friends, curiously enough." + +"For goodness' sake!" gasped Janice. "What girl do you wish to +snub, Stella?" + +"There you go with your nasty insinuations!" exclaimed Stella, +whiningly. "I don't want to snub anybody. But some people are +impossible!" + +"Meaning me?" Janice asked with twinkling eyes. + +"Of course not. Why will you so misunderstand me? I wouldn't +snub you, Janice Day. I am speaking of Amy Carringford." + +"Oh! It is Amy you wish to snub, is it?" Janice said, with a +change of tone. + +Even Stella noted the change. She seized Janice's arm. + +"Now, don't! You made me say that. I don't really want to snub +her. I don't want to hurt her feelings. But, of course, I can't +have those pauper children at my party--Amy and Gummy. 'Gummy!' +What a frightful name! And his pants are patched at the knees. +They wouldn't--either of them--have a decent thing to wear, of +course." + +Janice said nothing for a long minute. Stella's blue eyes, which +were actually more staring than pretty, began to cloud ominously. +Instinctively she sensed that Janice was not with her in this. + +"Amy Carringford is a nice girl, I think," Janice Day said +mildly. "And perhaps she has a party dress, Stella." + +"There you go! Always standing up for anything mean or common," +stormed Stella. "I might have known you wouldn't help me." + +"Why did you ask me then?" Janice inquired with some rising +spirit. + +"Because you're always so sharp about things; and you can help me +if you want to." + +Stella Latham was certainly much more frankly spoken than +politic. Janice Day excused her schoolmate to a degree. She +usually found excuses for every one but herself. + +"I was only trying to help you," Janice said slowly. you haven't +really anything against Amy, have you?" + +"She's a pauper--a regular pauper." + +"Why, that's not so," interrupted Janice. "A pauper must be one +who is supported at the public expense. We had that word only +the other day in our lesson, you know, Stella. And Amy +Carringford--or her folks-- aren't like that." + +"Nobody knows what or who they are. They've only just come here +and from goodness knows where. And they live in that little +tumble-down house in Mullen Lane, and--" + +"Oh, dear me, Stella!" interrupted Janice, with a sudden laugh. +"That list of crimes will never send anybody to jail. You are +awfully critical. Amy has awfully pretty manners, and just +wonderful hair. She sings and dances well, too. And +Gummy--'Gumswith' is his full name--" + +"'Gumswith!' Fancy!" ejaculated the farmers critical + +daughter. + +"Yes, isn't it awful?" returned Janice. "Anybody would be sorry +for a boy with such a name. And he hasn't even a middle one they +can call him by. You know it isn't his fault, Stella, that he +has such a horrid name." + +"No, I don't suppose it is. But--" + +"And Amy is so nice. She is just about my size, Stella, and if +you promise never to tell--" + +"What is it? A secret?" eagerly demanded Stella, as Janice +hesitated. + +"Yes. Or it will be a secret if you promise." + +"Cross my heart, Janice," declared Stella, who loved secrets. + +"Well--now," said Janice Day, most seriously, "if you invite Amy, +and she can't come because she hasn't any party dress, I'll lend +her one of mine that was made for me just before my mother died. +I am wearing only black and white. I've outgrown those new +dresses that were made for me then, I guess. And Amy is just a +weeny bit smaller than I am." + +"But Janice Day! you--you're helping Amy Carringford. You're not +helping me at all!" + +"Why, yes I am helping you," said Janice warmly. "At least, I am +trying to. If you will invite Amy with the rest of us girls, +I'll see that she has a party dress. I should think that was +helping you a whole lot, Stella Latham. You said you didn't want +to hurt her feelings." + +The car reached the schoolhouse. Janice was out of it like a +flash with her schoolbooks and lunch. The bell was tolling. + +"Now, isn't that just like Janice Day?" grumbled Stella, +following her from the automobile. "She is a sly little thing!" + +Mr. Broxton Day felt much more troubled than Janice possibly +could feel about the disappearance of the treasure-box and the +keepsakes it contained. Intrinsically, the value of the articles +that she named was not very great, although nothing could replace +the diary or the miniature of his dead wife. But as he had +intimated to Janice over the telephone there was something else. +There was that lost with the so-called treasure-box that meant +more to him than the mementoes his daughter had known about. + +During this lonely year that had passed since his wife's death, +Mr. Day's experiences with domestic help had been disheartening +as well as varied. + +Olga Cedarstrom had been with them two months. She had come +rather better recommended than some of her predecessors. Instead +of obtaining her services through an agency, Mr. Day had found +her in "Pickletown," as the hamlet at the pickle works was +called. + +There Olga, recently arrived in Greensboro, had been living with +friends. Mr. Day went over there first of all to search for the +girl. + +But her whilom friends knew nothing about Olga since the previous +evening. They did not know that she contemplated leaving Mr. +Day. And she had not appeared at Pickletown after she had +departed from eight hundred and forty-five Knight Street that +morning. + +Mr. Day did not wish to put the police on the trail of the absent +Olga. In the first place there was no real evidence that the +Swedish girl had stolen the box of mementoes. + +If she had taken them at all, she must have done so just to pique +Janice, not understanding how really valuable the contents of the +box were. If possible, Mr. Day wished to recover the lost box +without the publicity of going to the police, both for Olga's +sake and for his own. + +And then as Janice had told him, the taxicab driver had been in +the house. He had gone upstairs to the storeroom for Olga's +trunk--to the very room in which Janice had last seen the +treasure-box. + +It might be that the driver was the person guilty of taking the +box. Olga might know nothing about it. Yet her disappearance +without informing her friends of her intention to leave +Greensboro looked suspicious. + +Mr. Day had to search further. He had two other persons to +discover. One was Olga's "fella"; the other was the Swedish +taxicab driver. + +From people who knew Olga around the pickle factories it was easy +to learn that Olga's friend was a hard working and estimable +young man named Willie Sangreen. Just at this time Willie was +away from home. They could tell Mr. Day nothing about Willie's +absence either at his boarding-house, or where he was employed. +But in both instances they were sure Willie would be back. + +In hunting for the Swedish taxicab driver Mr. Day had even less +good fortune. There were two taxicab companies in Greensboro and +less than a dozen independent owners of cabs. Before noon he had +learned, beyond peradventure, that there was not a cab driver in +town of Swedish nationality. + +He presumed that the cab must have come from out of town. Where +it had come from, and where it had gone with Olga, and Olga's +trunk, and, possibly, with the treasure-box, seemed a mystery +insolvable. + +If Olga or the cab driver had stolen the box of heirlooms it +seemed that all trace of their whereabouts had been skillfully +covered. + + + +CHAPTER III. DELIA + +In spite of her anxiety Janice fixed her mind upon her +recitations with her usual success. During the past few months +so many, many things had happened to trouble the home pool that +the girl was pretty well used to seeing it ruffled. + +"Help" came and went at the Day cottage on Knight Street in a +procession of incompetents. Some incumbents of the domestic +situation remained but a week. Olga Cedarstrom had been longer +than any in Mr. Day's employ. + +Often, when they were without a girl, Janice had spent her +Saturday holiday trying to clean house and set things to rights, +and when daddy had come home from the bank he had donned a +kitchen apron and helped. + +The house was by no means kept as it had been when Mrs. Day was +alive. For she had been a trained housewife, and she knew how to +make the domestic help do the work properly. + +Now there was dust under the furniture and in the corners. Pots +and pans were grimy. Because of the rough methods of cleaning +pursued by Olga, the baseboards of the kitchen were streaked with +a "high-tide" mark of soapy water. + +The stove and the gas range were smeared with grease. Scarcely a +cooking utensil but was sticky. The silver went unpolished. The +yolk of egg ("the very stickingest thing there was" Janice +declared,) could be found on the edges of plates and spoons. + +And the laundry! The "wet wash," the "flat work" laundry, and +the complete service laundry were all only a little worse than +the attempts of the hired help to wash clothes properly. + +Bed and table linen wore out twice as fast as it should, Janice +knew. Nobody would wash and turn socks and stockings as they +should be washed and turned. Fruit stains were never removed. + +Either the girls used kerosene in boiling the clothes and the +odor of it clung to them even after they were laid away in the +bureau drawers, or she threw chloride of lime into the water +which ate holes in the various fabrics. Mother used to make +Javelle water to whiten the clothes, but Janice did not know how +it was made, nor had she time to make it. + +Indeed, with school-closing in the offing and lessons and +examinations getting harder and harder, the girl scarcely had +time to keep her own clothing neat and mended. She knew that +right now daddy was wearing socks with holes in them. + +So, when her mind was not fixed upon her lessons, it was not +likely that even Stella Latham's birthday party occupied much of +Janice's thought. She started home from school as soon as she +was released, considering if she could get the back kitchen +cleaned up before it was time to get supper for daddy. The lumps +of soft coal Olga Cedarstrom had thrown at the cats had made an +awful mess of the place, Janice very well knew. + +As she turned the corner into Knight Street there was Arlo Weeks, +Junior, just ahead of her. Arlo Junior, the cause of the +morning's trouble! Arlo Junior, the cause of Olga's leaving the +Days in the lurch! More, Arlo Junior, who was the spring of +Janice Day's deeper trouble, for if it had not been for that +mischievous wight, Olga Cedarstrom could not have run off with +the treasure-box! + +Arlo Junior had black, curly hair like his father. He had +snapping brown eyes, too, and was quick and nervous in his +movements. Of all the Weeks' children (Daddy said there was a +"raft" of them!) Arlo Junior was the worst behaved. He was +forever in trouble. + +To report him to his parents was just like shooting cannon balls +into a stack of feathers. His mother, tall, cadaverous, and of +complaining voice and manner, only declared: + +"He's too much for me. I tell Arlo that Junior ought to be +locked up, or handcuffed, or something. And that's all the good +it does." + +To complain to Mr. Weeks of his namesake was quite as +unsatisfactory. + +"What? The young rascal!" Mr. Weeks would emphatically say. +"Arlo did that? Well, I tell you what. If you catch him at any +of his tricks, you thrash him. That's what you do--thrash him! +You have my full permission to punish him as though he were your +own boy. That's the only way to deal with a rascal like him." + +So, you see, both parents shed responsibility, both for Arlo +Junior's mischief and punishment, just as easily as a duck sheds +rainwater. Under these circumstances +, +Arlo Junior usually went without punishment, no matter what he +did. + +And here he was, swaggering along the walk with some of his +mates, hilariously telling them, perhaps, of how he had tolled +all the cats of the neighborhood into the Days' back kitchen. + +Janice Day was a very human girl indeed. The thought of Junior's +trick and all it had brought about made her very, very angry. +She rushed right into the group of boys, all fully as big as she +was, soundly boxed Arlo Weeks' ears, and just as many times as +she could do so before he outran her and left her, panting and +still wrathful, on the curb. + +The other boys backed away, leaving Arlo Junior to fight his own +battle--or run, if that seemed to him the part of wisdom, as +evidently it had. + +"I hope that will teach you to bring cats into our kitchen, Arlo +Junior!" Janice cried after him. + +"No, 'twon't," declared the boy, rubbing the ear that had +received the greater number of her blows. "I knew how to do it +before, didn't I? My, Janice Day! but you can slam a fella." + +"I wish I could hurt you more," declared the girl. "You've made +me enough trouble." + +She marched on, leaving the scattered crowd of urchins to gather +again about Arlo Junior, but now in a scoffing rather than in an +admiring crowd. The bubble of Arlo Junior's conceit had been +punctured. He had been whipped by a girl! + +"Now," thought Janice, as she went along home, "I would not want +Daddy to know I did that. Fighting a boy on the street! I guess +Miss Peckham, who is always peering through her blinds at what I +do, if she had seen me would be sure to say I was misbehaving +because I had no mother to make me mind. As though I wouldn't +behave just as well for Daddy as I used to for dear mother! + +"Only I haven't really behaved very well to-day," she went on, +reviewing the matter to herself. "I don't care! Yes, I do too! +No matter what Arlo Weeks, Junior, did, I oughtn't to have fought +him on the street like that. Oh, dear!" mused the girl, "I don't +know whether I am sorry I hit Arlo Junior or am sorry that I'm +not sorry. It's awfully confusing." + +She choked back a sob, dashed the tears from her eyes, and +suddenly saw that the hazy object she had been looking at for the +past minute was really a human figure squatting on the side porch +steps of the Day's cottage. + +"Why! who can that be?" thought Janice Day, staring with all her +might at the odd-looking creature perched thus on the steps, with +a bulging old-fashioned black oilcloth bag beside her. + +It was a woman in a cheap, homemade calico dress, and with rows +upon rows of flounces on the skirt. She sat on the +next-to-the-top step of the porch while her shoes were planted +flat-footed on the walk. She was very short-waisted, while her +limbs, accentuated by the model of the flounced skirt seemed +enormously long. + +Indeed, she looked like the halves of two people mysteriously +glued together. Her nether limbs without doubt belonged to a +giantess; her body although broad and sturdy, was almost +dwarflike. Her arms were very short. + +Above this strange figure was a fat, baby-like face, with +staring, light-blue eyes and whisps of straw-colored hair laid +flat to her, head under a close fitting hat. + +"It's another one," groaned Janice, her heart sinking. "I know +she must be from the intelligence office, because--well--she +looks so unintelligent, I + guess!" + +Janice opened the gate and approached the ungainly woman +doubtfully. Surely daddy could not have seen her before hiring +this very peculiar-looking person. He must have accepted her +services over the telephone, and "sight, unseen." + +The newly hired girl wreathed her flabby face in a vacuous smile. +She bobbed up from her seat, bringing the oilcloth bag with her, +and towering over Janice Day in a most startling manner. + +"How-de-do! I guess you are after bein' Mr. Day's little girl, +heh?" + +The voice from the giantess made Janice jump. It was high and +squealing, like a bat's voice; and some people's ears are not +attuned to the bat's cry and cannot hear it at all. + +"Ye-es. I am Janice Day," admitted the girl. + +"Well," squealed the newcomer, "I'm the lady your paw sent up to +do the work. You're a right pretty little girl, ain't you?" + +Janice ignored this bit of flattery as she mounted the steps and +drew forth the door key. + +"What is your name, please?" she asked the woman. + +"Why, I'll tell you," said the other in a most confidential tone, +blundering up the steps after Janice and stooping to get her lips +near the girl's ear. "My real name is Mrs. Bridget Burns; but my +friends all call me Delia. I don't like 'Bridget.' Would you +mind callin' me Delia, or else Mrs. Burns, heh?" + +"I think father would prefer to call you by your first name," +Janice said, trying not to show her surprise and amusement. "We +will call you Delia if that pleases you." + +"You're a real nice little girl, I can see that," said Delia, +with a huge sigh of satisfaction, following Janice, bag and all, +into the house. + +Janice led the way up the back stairs to the girl's room. It was +just as Olga had left it--as untidy and "mussed up" as ever a +room was. + +Delia uttered a high, nasal ejaculation. "I guess your last girl +wasn't very clean," she said. "Who was she?" + +"She was a Swede," Janice replied wearily. + +"Heh! Them Swedes!" sniffed Delia, voicing a pronounced national +prejudice. + +"She left in a hurry," Janice explained. "She--she got mad. One +of the neighbor's boys played a trick on her and she left." + +"Ye don't be tellin' me? Couldn't she spank the boy? Sure, 'tis +no sinse them foreigners has." + +"I hope you will not take offense so easily," Janice rejoined. +"Here is clean linen for your bed. We send the flat work to the +laundry. There is a broom and carpet sweeper in the storeroom, +and plenty of dust cloths. You would better put your own room in +order first. Then you can come down and I will show you about +getting dinner." + +"Sure, you is very young to be so knowin' about housework. Is +your mother dead?" + +"Yes." + +"I didn't know but she'd gone off and left you and your + +paw," observed this strange creature, "So many of them be's doin' +that now." + +"Oh!" gasped the girl. + +"So that's why your paw did the hirin' through Murphy's Agency! +Well, I like to work where there's no lady boss," said Delia. +"You and me is goin' to get on fine." + +Janice wondered if that were so. In no very enthusiastic frame +of mind, she descended the stairs to put away her hat and coat +and to place her books on the table in the living room. + + + +CHAPTER IV. MORE TROUBLES THAN ONE + +Janice dreaded to have this new houseworker look into that back +kitchen and see its condition. What Olga had done with the soft +coal ammunition was enough to make Delia depart before she had +even taken up her new duties. + +Yet Janice shrank from cleaning the room herself. She had a lot +of home work to do for school, and she would have to show the new +girl, too, just where everything was kept and what was expected +of her. + +Fortunately the dinner-getting would be a simple matter. There +was a roast already prepared for the oven, potatoes and another +vegetable, and a salad. The latter were in the house. Olga had +been no dessert maker, but there were canned pears in the +refrigerator and some baker's cake (Daddy called it "sweetened +sawdust") in the cupboard. + +The girl would have to be told about these things. Fortunately +they had not begun to use the summer kitchen as yet. It was true +that Olga had only the day before cleaned the place, as well as +she knew how, in preparation for the approaching warm weather. + +But to put things to rights in that room again, and to remove all +traces of the bombardment of the cats, would take half a day or +more. And Janice Day shrank from the use of the scrubbing brush +and strong soda-water. + +She decided that the back kitchen could not be cleaned this +afternoon. She put on her bungalow apron and took the salad from +the icebox where it had lain on the ice in a cheesecloth bag. +She usually prepared the salad herself, for daddy was fond of it +and most of the itinerant help they had had considered "grass +only fit for horses and cows." + +She was decanting the oil, drop by drop, into the salad dressing +when Delia appeared in the kitchen. There was one good point +about the giantess; her face and hands looked as though they were +familiar with soap and water. She had removed the ruffled +monstrosity and had put on a more simple frock. It did not serve +to make her look less ungainly; but nevertheless it, likewise, +was clean. + +"Are you doing the cooking?" asked the new incumbent, her weak, +squeaky voice quite above high C. "An' do I help you?" + +"I am fixing the salad because my father likes it prepared in a +certain way. I will show you what, else there is to do, Delia." + +Janice spoke in rather a grown-up way because she had had so much +experience with a class of houseworkers only too willing to take +advantage of her youth and inexperience. + +"Isn't that nice!" sighed Delia, with her rather, foolish smile. + +Janice wondered whether the woman was making fun of her, or if +she was quite as silly as she appeared. But if Delia would only +do the work and do it half-way right, Janice told herself she did +not care if Delia was actually an idiot. At least the new girl +seemed good-natured. + +And she was not all thumbs! But Janice stuffed the end of a +kitchen towel into her mouth more than once to stifle her giggles +when she chanced to think Of how daddy would look when he caught +his first glimpse of the gigantic Delia. + +When the vegetables were peeled and on the stove, and the roast +was cooking in the covered roaster, Janice led Delia through the +lower part of the house. She tried to explain what there was to +do on the morrow when Delia would be alone all day, with daddy at +business and herself at school. + +"Yes, ma'am," said Delia, after each item was explained. "And +then what do I do?" + +Her vacant face advertised to all beholders that she promptly +forgot what she was told. One particular formula for work drove +the previously explained item immediately out of Delia's head. + +"Isn't it a nice house?" was her final whistling comment as they +came back to the kitchen. "And where does this door lead?" + +She opened the back kitchen door. She stared at the +coal-littered floor, at the streaked and smutted walls, at the +overturned chairs and a broken flower-pot or two that had come to +ruin during the bombardment. + +"Sure! whativer struck the place?" asked Delia in her high, +squeaking voice. "What happened?" + +Janice told her. Delia shook her head and slowly closed the +door--slowly but firmly. "If folks will hire them Swedes, 'tis +all they can expect," was her comment. + +There was a finality to this that was uncanny. Janice became +sure, right then and there, that Mrs. Bridget Burns would never +clear up the wreck Olga Cedarstrom had made of the back kitchen. +The girl wished with all her heart that she had boxed Arlo +Junior's ears harder. + +Miss Peckham, her sharp chin hung upon the top rail of the +boundary fence, called Janice just before daddy came home. As +the Day house was on the corner of Love Street, Miss Peckham was +the nearest neighbor. + +She was a weazened little woman, with very sharp black eyes, who +had assumed the censorship of the neighborhood years before. +Living alone with her cats and Ambrose, her parrot, Miss Peckham +rigidly adhered to the harshest precepts of spinsterhood. + +Even Janice could understand that Miss Peckham considered daddy +not at all fit to bring up, or have the sole care of, a daughter, +and that Mr. Broxton Day was not to be altogether trusted. + +Miss Peckham's nature overflowed with tenderness toward animals, +and it was regarding one of her pets she now called to Janice +about. + +"You haven't seen him, have you, Janice? You haven't seen my +Sam?" + +"Your Sam?" murmured Janice, rather non-plussed for the moment. +"You don't mean the dog you bought of the butcher, do you, Miss +Peckham?" + +"No, indeed. That's Cicero. But Sam, the cat. He's got black +and yellow on him, Janice. You've seen him, I know." + +And suddenly Janice remembered that she had seen him. He had been +one of those cats tolled into the back kitchen by Arlo Junior. +Worse than all, Sam was the cat Olga Cedarstrom had hurt with a +lump of coal. She remembered that he was the last to escape when +she opened the kitchen door, dragging his injured leg behind him. + +How could Janice tell her of this awful thing that had happened +to Sam? The poor cat had probably dragged himself off into some +secret place to lick his wounds --to die, perhaps. + +"You've seen him! I know you have, Janice Day," cried the shrewd +maiden lady. "What have you done to poor Sam?" + +"Why, Miss Peckham! I haven't done a thing to him," declared +Janice + +Miss Peckham, however, had read the girl's face aright. She saw +that Janice knew something about the missing cat. + +"You tell me what you know!" she stormed, her clawlike hands +shaking the top rail of the fence. "I wouldn't trust none of you +young ones in this neighborhood. You are always up to some +capers." + +"But really, honestly, I haven't done a thing to your Sam," +Janice said, shrinking from telling all she knew about the +injured animal. + +"You know where he is?" Miss Peckham accused. + +"Oh, I don't, either." + +"When did you see him last?" probed the other, sharply. + +"This--this morning." + +"What time this morning?" + "Before breakfast. Early," gasped Janice, wondering what she +would say next. + +"Humph! Something funny about the way you answer," said the +suspicious spinster. "where was Sam when you saw him that +early?" + +"Running across our back yard," Janice gasped, telling the exact +truth--but no more. + +"Ha!" exploded the other, "What made him run?" + +After all, Janice Day did not want to "tell on" Arlo Junior. +Arlo Junior was the child of all others in the neighborhood whom +Miss Peckham carried on guerrilla warfare with. She had +threatened to go to the police station and have Arlo Junior +locked up the very next time he crossed her path in a mischievous +way. + +Janice knew that Miss Peckham was a very active member of the +Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and if she knew +that Arlo Junior had been in any way connected with Sam's injury, +she would be all the more bitter toward the young rascal. + +And really, after all, it was Olga Cedarstrom who had hurt the +cat. But to tell Miss Peckham that, and how it all came about, +would do little to pacify the spinster. So Janice kept silent. +It seemed to her that she had gone about as far in the path of +deceit as she could go. + +"You saw him running; what made him run?" repeated Miss Peckham. + +"He--he was frightened, I guess, Miss Peckham. There were other +cats. It was early this morning before anybody else was up +around here. The cats all ran out of our yard." + +"And I warrant you'd done something to make 'em run," declared +the tart-tongued neighbor. "Oh, I know all you young ones around +here. You ain't no better than the rest of 'em, Janice Day." + +"Oh, Miss Peckham!" murmured the girl. + +"And if I find out that you done something outrageous to those +cats--to my Sam, 'specially--it'll be the sorriest day of your +life. Now, you see if 'tisn't!" + +She turned and flounced into her house. Janice came slowly back +to the kitchen door where she found the new houseworker frankly +listening. + +"Guess she's a sharper, ain't she?" squeaked the woman. "Well, I +won't tell her 'bout the cats in the back kitchen. But o' +course, if folks will hire them Swede--" + + + +CHAPTER V. FATHER AND DAUGHTER + +It did seem to Janice Day at this time as though trouble after +trouble was being heaped upon her young shoulders. Miss Peckham +and her search for her Sam was, of course, a small matter +compared to the loss of the treasure-box and the heirlooms in it. + +Janice waited eagerly for daddy to come home and report on this +matter; and his report, when he did come, sunk Janice's heart +fathoms deep in an ocean of despair. + +"Oh, Daddy, it can't be!" she cried, sobbing against his coat +sleeve in the hall. "Olga wouldn't be so wicked! How could +she?" + +"It is pretty sure that she has left town and has left no address +behind her. It looks as though she had deliberately tried to +efface herself from the community," said Mr. Broxton Day slowly. +"Are you sure, Janice, that the box cannot be found?" + +"Oh, Daddy! I've looked everywhere. Dear Mamma's picture that I +loved so much! And her, diary I" + +"More than that, daughter, more than that," said her father, his +own voice breaking. "I should have been more careful about +allowing you to take the box. There was something else--" + +"Oh, Daddy! what? I didn't know there was a secret compartment +in the treasure-box," she added wonderingly. + +"You would scarcely understand, my dear," he told her with a +heavy sigh. "It was but a shallow place. There were letters in +it--letters which I treasured above everything else in the box. +Letters your Mamma wrote me before you were born, when I was away +from home and she thought she might never see me again. We were +young, then, my dear; and we loved each other very much." + +His voice trailed away into silence. The girl, young as she was, +was awed by his grief. She suddenly realized that her own sorrow +over the lost treasure-box was shallow indeed beside her father's +despair. + +It was some time later that she told him just how well she had +searched for the missing box. She narrated, too, all the +particulars of the early morning cat episode and the trouble +brought about by the mischief-loving Arlo Junior, which she had +been unable to tell him earlier in the day. + +"It would seem, then," Mr. Day observed, not unamused by the +account of the neighbors' boy's practical joke, "that if Olga +took the box it was on the spur of the moment. She certainly had +not planned to leave us, but lost her temper and went because she +was in a rage." + +"Yes, sir. I suppose so," admitted Janice. "And she was mad at +me, too. I could see she thought I had shut the cats in the back +kitchen." + +"Yet Olga's going," said Mr. Broxton Day, still thoughtfully, +"was skillfully planned--just as though she had everything +arranged for it before the row this morning. Don't just +understand that." + +"Oh, Daddy! You don't suppose Olga was one of those awful crooks +we read of in the papers?" + +Mr. Broxton threw back his head and laughed in his very heartiest +fashion. + +"Whatever else she was," he said, finally, "I don't think she was +a lady buccaneer. Olga Cedarstrom appeared to be almost as +stupid a person as I ever saw. But she was bad tempered--no doubt +of that." + +"Yes, Daddy, her disposition was not very sweet," + +admitted Janice, with a sigh. + +"But it looks queer," her father pursued. "Sending for an +out-of-town taxi, and all I say, daughter which way did it +drive?" + +"The taxicab?" + +"Yes." + +"Toward town, Daddy. Right along Knight Street." + +"Humph! might have gone right through town and taken the Napsburg +pike. Yet, they could have turned off at Joyce Street and got +into the Dover pike. Or gone to Clewitt, or Preston. Oh, well," +finished Broxton Day, "that cab could have come from, and +returned to, any one of a dozen places within a few miles of +Greensboro." + +"But how do you know she was not driven right to the railroad +station, as long as you are sure she did not go to Pickletown?" + +"I found out," said Mr. Day, quietly, that there isn't a Swede in +town who drives a taxi. And you say the driver was a Swede, and +that it was a regular taxicab." + +"Oh, yes, Daddy. He was one of her own kind of folks. I heard +them talking together when he went up for her trunk. I wish I +had taken the number of that cab!" cried Janice woefully. + +"Never mind. Don't blame yourself too harshly, girly." + +"But I do blame myself, Daddy," she cried, wiping her eyes. +"Those dear pictures and the diary! And most of all mother's +miniature! Why, Daddy Day! I'd give a million dollars rather +than have lost the treasure-box." + +"No use crying over the spilled milk," he said, reflectively. +"It does seem to me as though Olga was not just the sort of +person who would steal--I say! You told me she telephoned for the +taxi?' + + "Yes. At least, she telephoned and talked to somebody over the +'phone in Swedish." + +"You don't say!" repeated Mr. Day thoughtfully using a Yankeeism +that betrayed his birthplace if nothing else did, although he had +long since come from New England to the Middle West. "Then in +all probability she telephoned to a friend, and the friend sent +the taxicab. I wonder if that Willie Sangreen is in this? + +"I tell you!" he exclaimed finally. "In the morning I will go +and see the superintendent of our telephone exchange personally. +Perhaps, when I explain the case, he will tell me the number Olga +called up." + +"Oh, Daddy! can you do that?" + +"There is a record made of every call," he told her. "Now don't +worry more than you can help, Janice. We'll do something about +it. Never fear." + +His encouraging "do something" was bound to cheer his little +daughter. She hurried away to see if dinner was not ready, and +caught Delia frankly listening at the door. + +"Why, Delia, why didn't you knock or speak?" Janice asked. + +But Delia was absolutely unruffled. She drawled: + +"I didn't know but you wanted to talk to your Paw some more, and +the dinner could wait." + +When, a little later, they were seated at table and Delia +appeared with the first hot dishes, it must be confessed that her +appearance somewhat startled Mr. Broxton Day. + +Their anxiety about the lost treasure-box had precluded his +having asked any questions regarding the new houseworker; her +appearance was as startling as though she had come straight from +a sideshow. + +Janice put her napkin to her lips to hide their trembling. But +her eyes danced. Daddy's amazement was quickly smothered. He +was silent, however, until Delia was out of the room again. + +"What do you think of her, Daddy?" giggled the little girl. + +"I certainly did not see her before hiring her. In fact, I did +my business over the phone with the manager of the intelligence +office. I gathered from him that + +she was a woman of middle age, and "settled," whatever that may +mean. If it means that she can work and stay settled here-- But +what a queer looking creature! How does she seem to take hold, +Janice? Does she seem intelligent?" + +"I haven't made up my mind yet," murmured his little daughter. +"She doesn't look as though she knew anything at all. But maybe +she does. You said yourself that we couldn't have anybody worse +than Olga." + +"I don't know about that," he retorted. "I may have to take that +back. Sh! Here she comes again." + +Aside from the fact that she served cold plates for the roast and +vegetables, and hot ones for the salad; that from her great +height she was almost certain to spill food on the table before +she got a dish set down before them; and that she kept bouncing +in and out of the dining room to ask them if they were ready for +dessert; she managed to get through the meal without making Mr. +Day and Janice any great discomfort. + +In the living room, later, when Mr. Day was in his comfortable +chair and Janice had her school books spread out upon the table +under the reading lamp, the father said softly: + +"Well, my dear, it is not the sort of life I hoped we would lead +when we built this house. Your dear mother was such a wonderful +housekeeper, and could manage so well. I never had a thought or +a care about the housekeeping affairs. But now--" + +"I know, Daddy," broke in Janice earnestly. "If only I didn't +have to go to school!" + +"That is something that cannot even be discussed," he rejoined, +smiling at her gravely. "As I told you last night, my dear, what +your mother and I planned regarding your education must be +carried through if possible." + +"But college is a long way ahead," said Janice wistfully. "And +meanwhile you are not comfortable and the house is going to rack +and ruin, just as Miss Peckham says." + +"Did the old girl say that?" he wanted to know, with rather a +rueful smile on his lips. + + "Yes. She was in here the other day and she is so nosey. She +was bound to go all through house, although I did not want her +to. I know it doesn't look spick and span as it should--" + +"That is not your fault, Janice," her father said quickly. +"Don't let it worry you. You must stick to your books. And if +we can get nobody better than this woman--or Olga--to help, we +must expect things to be in rather bad shape about the house. + +"I suppose there are good housekeepers for hire--somewhere. +They certainly do not seem to be in Greensboro. And, then, I +cannot afford to pay a very high wage. You see, my dear, we are +not rich." + +"No, Daddy," Janice agreed. "I quite know that. But we have +enough, and to spare, I am sure." + +"So far we have managed to pull along," he said smiling at her +quizzically. "And perhaps we shall be even better off in time. +I am up to my neck, as the boys say, in an investment in Mexican +mines. I was able to get into it before your dear mother died, +and she quite approved. Several Greensboro men have invested in +the same string of mines and there is ore being got out--ore of +good quality. + +"But thus far there have been no dividends. Rather, we have had +to put in more money for improvements. But when once we get +started producing, you and I may have something like riches." + +"Oh, won't that be nice, Daddy!" she exclaimed, wide-eyed and +red-cheeked in her excitement. "To be really rich!" + +"Well, we shall be able to engage somebody better fitted perhaps +for the position of housekeeper," sighed Mr. Day, turning to his +newspaper again. + +"That's all right, Daddy," she said. "But meanwhile I am going +to do all I can to make things go smoother. Just as you said last +night, it can only be brought about by somebody's doing +something. I'll do something, you see if I don't." + +She made this declaration cheerfully. But when she closed her +books, kissed daddy, and went up to bed, her countenance was +overcast with an expression far from cheerful. + +Only the evening before she had sat here and looked her treasures +over. The diary which mother had kept when she was a little +girl--all the innocent little secrets she had written on the +pages which Janice so delighted to read! + +And the lovely miniature, with mother in the very dress she wore +the evening she and Broxton Day were betrothed. Janice knew all +about that. Her mother had talked freely of her courtship and of +what a splendid young man daddy had appeared to be in her eyes. + +Her mother's frequently expressed admiration for the young man +who came from New England to win his fortune in the Middle West +was doubtless the foundation of Janice Day's unusual fondness for +her father. + +That by her carelessness she should have brought about the loss +of the treasure-box and those things which both she and daddy +considered of such personal value, was the thought that weighed +most heavily on the girl's heart. + +Without turning on her light, she went to the window and looked +out into the soft spring darkness! Daddy's letters! Mother's +miniature! The treasured old diary that Janice so loved! + +Her troubled little heart overflowed. She flung herself down +with her face hidden in her arms folded upon the window sill, +while ungovernable sobs shook her body. + +The loss of the treasure-box was a disaster for, which she could +not easily forgive herself. + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE CARRINGFORDS + +Janice Day was a friendly little soul; but she was not a girl who +made those close friendships that so many girls make during their +schooldays. There was no one girl from whom she was almost +inseparable. + +Janice was just as good friends with Amy Carringford as she was +with Stella Latham; only Amy had been attending the grammar +school a much shorter time than had the farmer's daughter. + +Now circumstances attending Stella's proposed birthday party +caused Janice to become much better acquainted with Amy +Carringford. In seeking to do something for Stella, Janice was +determined to do something for Amy. + +The Carringford family had taken up their residence during the +winter in Mullen Lane; and it must be confessed that Mullen Lane +was not considered an aristocratic part of the town. Of course, +poor people have to live where living is cheap; but it was said +that Mrs. Carringford, who was a widow, had bought the little +cottage--not much better than a hut--in which she and her little +family had taken up their dwelling. + +Why people like the Carringford, manifestly well bred and +intelligent, had chosen Mullen Lane to live in puzzled not only +the busybodies, like Miss Peckham, of this part of Greensboro, +but amazed other people as well. + +Wherever Mrs. Carringford appeared--at church, Or in the +neighborhood stores on Knight and Cassandra Streets--people saw +that she was a well bred woman, though plainly, even shabbily, +dressed. + +There were several children besides Amy and the +Unfortunately-named Gumswith, and they dressed poorly, too. But +even if Gummy's trousers were patched at the knees, as Stella +Latham had pointed out, they were patched neatly, and his linen +was fresh. + +Of course, nobody called on Mrs. Carringford; at least, almost +nobody. The rickety little cottage in Mullen Lane did not +attract callers by its outward appearance, that was sure. That +it was a shelter for a family that had been sorely tried by fate, +none of the neighbors knew. + +It was Janice Day, when she made a frank attempt to know Amy +Carringford better, who began first to learn particulars about +the Carringford family. There was not much queer or mysterious +about them; merely they were people who failed to advertise their +private affairs to the community at large. + +Janice had gained Stella Latham's promise that she would not tell +the secret of the party dress, if Amy should consent to borrow +it, before she sounded Amy as to whether she was going to accept +the invitation to + +the party or not. According to Stella, who was really very silly +about such things, the birthday party was to be a very "dressy" +affair. Stella talked about this phase of it in season and out. + +First of all, Janice demanded that one of the highly ornate +invitations Stella's mother had had printed in the Greensboro +Bugle printing office should be sent to Amy. There should be no +hedging, Janice determined, after that. Amy was to be asked like +the other girls and boys of their grade. + +"But if she hasn't got a decent dress?" murmured Stella, when she +was mailing the invitation to Amy. + +"I told you I'd see that she did have a party dress," Janice said +sharply. "I can't agree to find whole trousers for Gummy," and +she giggled; "so you needn't invite him if you don't want to. +But Amy will be all right." + +"Maybe she will be too proud to wear your dress, Janice Day!" +exclaimed Stella. + +"Then she won't come," rejoined Janice. "But you are not to tell +a soul that the dress is mine, if she does wear it." + +"We-ell," sighed Stella, somewhat relieved. + +The farmer's daughter knew that there would be much comment if +she left Amy off the invitation list. She was glad to leave the +matter in Janice Day's hands. And she did not remark again, at +least, not openly, upon Janice being "so sly." + +Without being at all sly, Janice did go about doing something for +Amy Carringford with considerable shrewdness. She had never +walked home with Amy from school. She did not like the purlieus +of Mullen Lane. But this afternoon she attached herself to Amy +with all the power of adherence of a mollusk, and they were +chattering too fast to stop abruptly when they came to the comer +of Knight Street, where usually Janice turned off. + +Mullen Lane touched Love Street at its upper end, so Janice could +go all the way to the Carringford house without going much out of +her way. She went on with Amy, swinging her books; and at first +Amy did not seem to notice that Janice was keeping with her right +into the muddy, littered lane on which she lived. + +"Why, Janice!" said Amy, finally, "you are away out of your way." + +"Oh, I can go up the lane to Love Street," returned Janice +carelessly, and just as though she were used to doing that. + +Amy, who was a pretty, blonde girl, gazed at her companion rather +curiously; but Janice was quite calm. + +"That is the house where I live," said Amy, in a changed tone, as +they came in sight of the cottage. + +"Oh, yes," replied Janice. + +Aside from the fact that the house needed paint and new window +shutters, and a new roof, and new planks for the piazza, and +numerous other things, it was not such a bad looking house. +Janice noticed something at first glance: it was only things that +poor people could not get or that a boy could not tinker that was +needed about the Carringford house to make it neat and +comfortable. + +The fences were on the line, had been braced, and there were no +pickets missing. The gates hung true. The walks were neatly +kept and there were brilliant flower beds in front, for flower +seeds cost little. What the Carringford could do to make the +place homelike without spending money, had certainly been done. + +"It's an awful place to live," ventured Amy, still gazing +sidewise at Janice. + +"Oh," said the latter brightly, "you don't mean that! You are all +together and are all well." + +"Yes, there are a lot of us." And Amy said it with a sigh. "It +seems as though there were an awful lot of children, now that +father's dead." + +"Did you lose your father recently--just as I did my mother?" +asked Janice softly. + +"Year and a half ago. That is why we came here, There was some +insurance money. Somebody persuaded mother to buy a home for us +with it. I don't know whether it was good advice or not; but she +bought this place because it was cheap. And she could not pay +for it all, at that; so I don't know but we're likely to lose the +money she put into it, and the old shack, too." + +Amy spoke rather bitterly. Janice, with natural tact, thought +this was no time to probe deeper into the financial affairs of +the Carringfords. She saw Gummy, who was a year older than Amy, +in the yard. He had got home from school first, and he stared +when he saw Janice. + +"Hullo, Gummy!" the latter called to the boy with the patched +trousers. "What are you doing there? Are you laying sod for a +border to that garden-bed?" + +"No. I'm trimming an opera cloak with green ermine," said the +boy, but grinning. "What are you doing around here in Dirty-face +Lane?" + +"Oh, Gummy!" exclaimed Amy. + +"What a name to call the street!" objected Janice. + +"Well, that's what it is," returned the boy, continuing to pound +the sod into place. "Nobody in this street ever washes his +face." + +"Why Gummy Carringford!" exclaimed his sister again. + +"I'm sure Amy washes her face whether you do or not," chuckled +Janice. + +"Oh, me!" sniffed the boy, but his eyes still twinkling. "I'm +always 'gummy'!" + +Janice's laughter was a silver peal that brought three or four +younger Carringfords, including the twins, to the side door. +They peered out at their sister and the girl with her, but were +bashful. + +"What a jolly lot of little ones!" sighed Janice. "You know, Amy, +I'm all alone. I haven't any brothers or sisters." + +"Don't you want to adopt me?" asked Gummy, who overheard her. + +"I certainly would have to change your name," declared Janice. + +"No," and he shook his head, his freckled face becoming grave. +"Got to stick to the old name--just like gum sticks." + +"Oh, my dear, is that you?" cried Mrs. Carringford, coming to the +door, her brown face flushing pink. "And one of your +schoolmates?" + +She came out on the porch. She had a very pleasant smile, Janice +thought, and her brown eyes were as bright as a woodpecker's. + +"This is Janice Day. She's in my class, Mother," said Amy, +rather hesitatingly, it must be confessed. + +"Yes, I know her name," said Mrs. Carringford, and now Janice was +near enough to take the hand of Amy's mother. "How do you do, my +dear? I have seen you before. I am always glad to meet Amy's +school friends." + +Had it not been for the warmth of the good woman's greeting +Janice would have felt that she was unwelcome at the little +cottage on Mullen Lane. Amy seemed to hang back, and not invite +her schoolmate into the house. + +"Here is something the postman brought you, Amy," her mother went +on briskly. + +She reached inside the door to a shelf and brought forth an +object that Janice recognized. It was the big white envelope +containing the invitation to Stella Latham's party. + +"Hi! I know what that is," cried Gummy, rising to look at the +envelope. "Lots of the fellows got 'em. That Latham girl that +lives out on the Dover pike is going to have a party. Crickey! +I didn't suppose she would invite us." + +"She hasn't invited you I guess," his mother told him. "It is +addressed to your sister." + +"Oh! I see." + +Amy had flushed brightly, and her eyes sparkled. She was tearing +open the envelope eagerly. + +"Oh!" she sighed, "I didn't expect this. Did you get yours, +Janice?" + +"Yes, Stella asked me. But she didn't send out: all the +invitations at once," said Janice slowly, + +"You'll go of course, won't you?" + +"Why--" + +Then suddenly Amy's voice stopped. She looked at her mother. +The glow went out of her face. She let one of the smaller +children take the invitation out of her hand. + +"I don't know," she said slowly. "I'll have to see." + +"Won't you come in, Janice?" asked Mrs. Carringford, seeking to +cover her daughter's embarrassment. + +"I will for a minute, thank you," was Janice Day's smiling reply. +"You know, I like Amy, Mrs. Carringford, and I have never been to +her house before, and she has never been to mine." + +Her speech helped to cover her friend's hesitation. Amy tripped +in behind Janice and suddenly gave her a hearty squeeze. + +"She's an awfully nice girl, Mumsy!" she said to her mother. + +Janice laughed. But her bright eyes were taking in much besides +the smiling expression on her friends' faces. The Carringford +kitchen was like wax. Mrs. Carringford had been washing in one +comer of the room, and there was a boiler drying behind the +stove. But there was nothing sloppy or sudsy about the room. +The woman had whisked off the big apron she had worn when Janice +entered, and now the latter saw that her work dress was spotless. + +"Oh, dear me!" thought Janice, "how nice it would be if our +kitchen--and our whole house--were like this. How delighted Daddy +would be." + +But there was something else she did not at first see. She had to +get acquainted with all the younger Carringfords. She must talk +with Mrs. Carringford. Gummy came in after washing his hands and +rubbing his shoes clean on the doormat to talk to the caller. +Then Amy carried Janice off upstairs to her own tiny room under +the eaves. + +There was no carpet on the stairs. The matting on the floor of +Amy's room was much worn. There was nothing really pretty in the +room. Janice suddenly realized that this spelled "poverty." + +Yet it was cheerful and speckless, and there were pictures of a +kind, and little home-made ornaments and a few books. + +The window curtains were of the cheapest, but they were looped +back gracefully. There was a workbox and stand that Gummy had +made for Amy, for the brother was handy with tools. + +Altogether there was something about the room, and about the ugly +little house as well, that Janice Day realized she did not have +at home. She had had it once; but it was not present now in the +Day house. In the Carringford dwelling the magic wand of a true +homemaker had touched it all. + +The two girls chatted for almost an hour. It was mostly about +school matters and their friends and the teachers. Amy talked, +too, about friends in Napsburg, where the Carringfords had lived +before moving to Greensboro. Janice was adroit in keeping the +conversation on rather general topics, and did not allow the +question of Stella's party to come to the fore and never once did +she speak of what any of the girls would wear on that occasion. + +The time to leave came, and then Janice felt she should enter the +wedge which would afterwards gain for her the desired end. + +"You'll go to Stella's party, won't you?" asked Janice as she +prepared to go home. + +"Oh, I don't know. I'll see," Amy hurriedly said. + +"Of course you will go," Janice declared firmly. "I want you to +go with me. I sha'n't feel like going at all if you stay away, +Amy." + +They kissed each other on the stairway, and then Janice ran home, +swinging her books. She thought the Carringford were very +pleasant people. But there were several mysteries about them. +First of all she wanted to know how Gummy came to have such an +awful, awful name! + + + +CHAPTER VII. ARLO JUNIOR AGAIN + +Just as Janice was running in at the Love Street gate she was +halted by Arlo Junior. Junior kept well out of the way at first, +but his tone was confident well as ameliorating. + +"Aw, I say, Janice?' he begged, "you ain't mad at me, are you?" + +"Why shouldn't I be?" she demanded, her face flushing and the +hazel eyes sparking in an indignant way. + +"Well, I mean-- Well, I hope you ain't," stammered Arlo Junior, +unable entirely to smother a grin, and yet plainly anxious to +pacify Janice. "You see, Janice, my mother was coming up from +downtown and she Saw you whacking me the other day." + +"Oh!" + +"Yes, she saw you," said Junior, nodding. "So I had to tell her +something of what made you do it." + +"Indeed?" demanded Janice scornfully. "And what did you tell +her?" + +"I told her about the cats. Anyway, I told her left your back +kitchen door open and that the cats got in there and fought. Oh, +Je-mi-ma, how they did fight! didn't they? I heard 'em after I +got back into the house that morning," and Junior began to +giggle. + +"They didn't fight," said Janice shortly. "What you heard was +Olga pitching coal at 'em. And then she up and left us. We had +to get another girl. And this new girl won't clean up the mess +in the back kitchen. That's what you did Arlo Weeks and I've got +to clean up that room because of you." + +"Oh, Je-mi-ma!" gasped Junior, giggling no more now. "Is that how +Miss Peckham's Sam-cat got hurt?" + +"What do you know about that?" demanded Janice quickly. + +"Miss Peckham's been all over the neighborhood talking about it. +She found the cat with a broken leg. Got a veterinary. Put it +in a plaster cast. Did you ever?" + +"Well!" murmured Janice. + +"I tell you what; don't let's say anything about it," begged +Junior eagerly. "I tell you what I'll do. I'll come over +Saturday and help you clean up all the mess the cats and the girl +made. But don't say a word." + +"Well," said Janice again. + +"Now you promise, Janice," wheedled Junior. "If my mother learns +all about the cat business, there will be a big row. And all I +did--really--was to open that back kitchen door and then shut it +again after the cats got inside." + +"They would never have gone in if you hadn't thrown the catnip in +there," declared Janice warmly. "You know that very well, +Junior." + +"Well, you won't say anything about it, will you, Janice, if I +come and clean up the kitchen?" + +"Well," said Janice for a third time, "let's see you do it. I +won't promise until the kitchen is cleaned." + +But Arlo Junior went off with a grin on his face. He knew Janice +would not tell if he kept his share of the agreement. + +Janice was anxious to know how Delia, the new girl, was getting +on with the housework. There was a strong smell of scorching +vegetables the moment Janice opened the back door. The kitchen +was empty, but the pots on the stove foretold the fact that +dinner was in preparation at least two hours before it was +necessary. + +And the vegetables! Janice ran to save them. There was a +roaring fire under them; but it was the water that had boiled +over, after all. Delia knew nothing, it was evident, about +simmering vegetables. Boiling them furiously was her way. + +"Oh, dear," sighed the girl, "I wonder if anything else can +happen to the Days! There must be something the matter with me +or someone would sometime do something right in this house. +Daddy's dinner will not be fit to eat. + +"That book on dietary that I got out of the library and tried to +read said that good cooking was most important. I don't know, +for I guess I didn't understand much of the book--not even of +that part I read--but I do know that a well-cooked meal tastes +better than a dried-out one. Oh, dear!" + +Janice shoved the pots back on the stove, and shut off the drafts +so that the fire would die down. She + +wondered where Delia could be. She had not seen her outside the +house. She ran up the back stairs and looked in the girl's room +before she went to her own. + +Delia was not upstairs. Janice could not see that much had been +done in the way of housework--at least on the upper floor. Then, +suddenly, she discovered where the new girl was. + +From the living room came the loud drumming of the player piano. +The instrument had not been much in use since the death of +Janice's mother. Somehow it seemed to both Janice and daddy that +they did not care to hear the piano that mother played so +frequently for them in the evening. + +But the instrument was in use now--no mistaking it. There are +different ways of playing a mechanical piano. Delia's way was to +get all the noise out of it that was possible. + +Janice ran downstairs in some vexation. There was no particular +crime in the new girl's using the instrument, even without asking +permission. Yet when there was so much to do about the house +and, as she saw plainly, there had been so little done, Janice +was vexed enough to give Delia a good talking to. + +And then she hesitated with her hand on the knob of the +living-room door. If she got Delia angry the woman might leave +as abruptly as Olga Cedarstrom had left. It was a thought +suggesting tragedy. Janice waited to calm herself while the new +girl pumped away on the piano in a perfect anvil chorus. + +Janice opened the door. By the number of rolls spread out on the +top of the piano it was plain that Delia had played more music +than she had done housework. The Garibaldi March came to a noisy +conclusion." + +"Oh, my!" sighed Delia, in her squeaky voice, "ain't that +wonderful?" + +"I should say it was," Janice said quickly. "Wonderful, indeed!" + +"Oh!" shrieked Delia, flopping around on the bench and glaring at +Janice, one hand clutching at her bosom. "You scare't me." + +"I think you ought to be scared. Your vegetables were boiling +over, Delia." + +"Oh, you came in so sudden!" gasped the big woman. "I--I've got +a weak heart. You oughtn't to scare me so. I can see mebbe that +Swede girl had a hard time here. There is more than cats is the +matter. And that woman next door has been around to find out how +her cat's leg come broke." + +If a fluffy little kitten, chasing a ball of yarn, had suddenly +turned around and attacked Janice, tooth and nail, the girl would +have been no more surprised. + +"Why, Delia, I am sorry if I frightened you," Janice said. "But, +you know, this is not your part of the house; and having put on +the vegetables, even if it is too early, I should think you would +remain in the kitchen and watch the pots." + +The giantess arose and wiped an eye. She sniveled into the +corner of her apron. + +"Well, I didn't expect to be bossed by a child," she squeaked, +"when I came to work here. I don't like it." + +She flounced out of the room, leaving the piano open and the +rolls strewn about. + +"Oh, dear me! Now I have done it!" groaned Janice Day. "What will +Daddy say if I have got Delia mad, and she goes? It is just +awful!" + +It really did seem to be a tragic situation. Janice shook her +head and looked around the room. Everything was just as it had +been the night before when they went to bed, save the opened +music cabinet and littered piano. + +There were daddy's cigar ashes in the tray; a cup with tea +grounds in it as he had left it by his elbow. The smoking stand +was not tidied nor the table. There was dust on everything, and +a litter of torn papers on the rug. + +Why had Delia not cleaned up the room, if she had so much time to +play the piano? + +"I suppose if I ask her why she did not sweep and dust in here +she will tell me that she forgot whether I said to use the blue +dustcloth or the pink," groaned Janice. + +One girl they had had actually gave that excuse as + +logical when the work was neglected. There was nothing laughable +in this situation--nothing at all! + +"Oh, if I could only do something myself," murmured the young +girl. + +After what had occurred she thought it best to say nothing more +to Delia at the time. She hated to bother daddy again; but she +wondered what he would do if he had to confront such +circumstances at the bank. + +"Of course, men's work is awfully important," Janice sighed; "but +what would daddy do if confronted by these little annoying things +that seem to be connected with the housework?" + +There were a dozen things Janice would have preferred to do right +now. But she could not have daddy come home and see such a +looking living-room. She put on apron and cap and went to work +immediately to do what Delia should have done earlier in the day. + +In an hour or so the room was swept, dusted, and well aired. She +had returned the music rolls to the cabinet and closed the piano. +She wished there was a key to it so that Delia could not get at +it again, for if the new girl was musically inclined Janice +foresaw little housework done while she was at school and daddy +was at work. + +Then Janice ventured into the kitchen. Delia was not there. The +vegetables were already cooked and were in the warmer where they +would gradually become dried out. Janice had done the marketing +on her way to school that morning, and had sent home a steak. +The steak was already cooked and was on a platter, likewise in +the warming oven. And it was yet an hour to dinner time. + +Janice opened the door to the stairway. There was no sound from +that part of the house. She went to the back door then, and +there was Delia talking earnestly with Miss Peckham over the +boundary fence. + +The fact smote Janice like a physical blow. She remembered what +Arlo Junior had said about the cat. Miss Peckham had found the +poor creature and had sent for the veterinary doctor to treat +him. + +What Janice had already admitted regarding the cat, and what +Delia might tell Miss Peckham, would breed trouble just as sure +as the world! What should she do? + +She might have been unwise enough to have run out and interfered +in the back-fence conference. But just then she heard daddy's +key in the front door and she ran to meet him. + +"Oh, Daddy! Did you find out anything more about Olga and where +she went?" the young girl cried as soon as she saw Broxton Day. + +"I guess I have found nothing of importance," said her father, +shaking his head gravely. + +"Oh, my dear! Nothing?" + +"Nothing that explains where the treasure-box went to, Janice," +he said. "Nor much that explains any other part of the mystery." + +"But the telephone number? Who did she call up?" + +"Yes, I found out about that," he admitted, hanging up his coat +and hat. "She called the public booths in the railroad station. +There was somebody waiting there to answer her. And who do you +suppose it was?" + +"I couldn't guess, Daddy." + +"Willie Sangreen. He is the young man who is checker at the +pickle works, and who I told you was Olga's steady company. He +has gone away, and nobody seems to know where." + +"They have gone away together!" cried Janice, in despair. + +"She knew where he was going to be at that hour, sure enough; she +would probably have called him at the telephone in the railroad +station, anyway. And the catastrophe," he smiled a little, "and +Olga's getting so angry, may have changed their plans completely. +Maybe he did meet her somewhere." + +"Oh, Daddy! what kind of a looking man is Willie Sangreen?" cried +Janice. + +"I really could not tell you." + +"But maybe it was he who drove the taxicab?" suggested the girl. + +"That might be worth looking up," said her father. "And yet, it +does not explain," he added, as they went into the living-room, +"why Olga should have stolen the treasure-box. That seems to be +the greatest mystery." + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THEY COME AND GO + +"Daddy, do you mind if we have dinner a little early this +evening?" Janice asked. + +"I have my appetite with me, if that is what you want to know," +said Broxton Day, smiling down upon her. + +"Well, Delia has it all ready, I think. Too early, of course." + +"Bring it on!" cried her father jovially. "I can do it justice." + +Janice wondered if he could. Already the food, she knew, was +drying up in the warming oven. She hurried out into the kitchen. +Delia had not come in from the backyard. Janice shrank from +interfering with that back-fence conference; but she could not +see daddy's dinner spoiled. + +"Come, Delia!" she called, opening the door. "My father has come +home." + +"Oh, my! Is your paw arrived?" asked the giantess; coming +lingeringly away from the fence. + +Janice saw Miss Peckham's snappy little eyes viewing her at the +kitchen door with no pleasant expression. She felt that something +was brewing--something that would not be pleasant. But the +spinster retired without speaking to her. + +"You have dinner ready very early, Delia," Janice said, as the +big woman lumbered into the kitchen. + +"Didn't you just say your paw had come?" demanded Delia in her +squeaky voice. + +"Yes. But you have everything ready at five o'clock instead of +at six." + +"Oh, yes. I don't never believe in keepin' folks waitin' for +their victuals," said Delia, tossing her head. "You ain't got +any call to be critical--no you ain't." + +It was of no use! Janice saw that as plainly as she saw +anything. This giantess has a dwarf's brain. As daddy said, +when he became particularly "Yankeefied," "she didn't know +beans!" It would be quite useless to talk to her, or to expect +her to remember what she was told to do. + +"I will do all I can to hide the rough corners from Daddy," +Janice thought. "I'll watch Delia before I go to school, and +come home from school to straighten her out just as quickly as I +can. I just won't run to him with every little household +trouble." + +But it was a wretched dinner. It was so badly cooked that daddy +shook his head over it mournfully. + +"It is a mystery to me how they manage to boil one potato to mush +while another is so hard you can't stick your fork into it," he +said. "And no seasoning! This steak now--or is it steak?" + +"Now, Daddy!" said Janice, half laughing, yet feeling a good deal +like crying. + +"Well, I wasn't quite sure," said her father. "I wonder if these +cooks think that meat grows, all seasoned, on 'the critter'? +They must believe that. However, does she do the other work +well?" + +"I--I don't know yet," murmured Janice. "I'll help her all I +can, Daddy, and tell her how, if she'll let me." + +"Well, maybe we can make something of her," said Broxton Day, +with his hearty and cheerful laugh. "Remember, Olga wanted to +boil fresh pork chops for our breakfast when she first came." + +"I do wish we knew where Olga had gone to," said Janice. "It +doesn't seem as though that girl would deliberately steal. I +can't believe it. And if we don't get back that treasure-box and +what it contains, Daddy, my heart will--just--be--broken." + +"There, there! Don't give way about it. There is a chance yet of +finding Olga--and the box, too," said her father, trying to +comfort his little daughter. "I will not give up the search. +Willie Sangreen will of course come back to his job, and he must +know what has become of Olga. Those Swedes are very clannish +indeed, over there at Pickletown; but some of them bank with us, +and I am sure they will be on the lookout for the + +girl. Only, of course, I have not told them why I am so anxious +to find her." + +They finished dinner, and Delia came in to clear away, with her +plump lips pouting and a general air about her of having been +much injured. But Mr. Day, now so used to the vagaries of hired +help, made no comment. + +He and Janice went into the living-room. This, at least, was +homelike and clean. He settled into his chair and picked up the +paper. Just then there was a ring at the front doorbell. + +Janice would have jumped up to answer it; but she heard the +giantess going through the hall. There was a voice. Janice +recognized it with a start. Then the giantess approached the +living-room door, heavy footed, with a clatter of smaller +bootheels behind her. + +Delia threw open the door as Mr. Day dropped his paper to look +up. Her fat face was wreathed in a triumphant smile, and she +said: + +"It's the nice lady from nex' door. I guess she come to see your +paw about them cats." + +Mr. Day looked puzzled. + +Janice could have screamed as Miss Peckham marched in. Delia +apparently intended to stand in the doorway and enjoy whatever +there was to enjoy; but as Mr. Day rose from his seat to welcome +the neighbor, he said firmly: + +"Thank you, Delia. We shall not need you in here at present. +You may go." + +The giantess tossed her head and lumbered out of the room, +slamming the door behind her with unnecessary violence. + +"Good-evening, Miss Peckham," said the man, offering the spinster +a chair. "I don't know just what Delia meant about cats; but I +presume you will explain." + +"Huh!" snapped Miss Peckham, "I guess that girl of yours hasn't +told you about what she done to my Sam. No, indeed! I guess not!" + +She was evidently working herself up into a violent state of +mind, and Mr. Day, who knew his next door + +neighbor very well, hastened to smooth the troubled waters. + +"I had not heard anything about cats, Miss Peckham, save the +misfortune of a cat convention in our back kitchen yesterday +morning. Janice told me about that, of course; but she could +scarcely be blamed for it." + +"I don't know why she shouldn't be blamed!" ejaculated the angry +woman. "And my Sam's got a broken leg." + +"I am sorry if any of the cats were injured. It was a +thoughtless joke of--" he caught Janice's eye and understood her +meaning, "of one of the neighbor's boys He meant no particular +harm, I fancy." + +"You needn't try an' lay it on no boy!" exclaimed Miss Peckham. +'"Twas a girl done it. My Sam--" + +"You mean that a girl broke the cat's leg?" queried Mr. Day, +quietly. + +"I mean just that. 'Twas a girl. And that is the girl!" and she +pointed an accusing finger at the flushed Janice. + +"Oh, I never!" exclaimed the latter under her breath, and shaking +her head vigorously. + +Mr. Day gave her a smiling look of encouragement. + +"I feel sure," he said, to Miss Peckham, "that if Janice had by +chance injured an animal--a cat, or any other--she would have +told me. But although it may have been a girl who broke your +cat's leg, it was not Janice." + +"You don't know anything about it!" cried Miss Peckham angrily. +"You don't know what goes on here all day long while you are +gone. I pity you, Mr. Day--I pity you from the bottom of my +heart. You ought to have a woman here to manage this girl of +yours. That's what you need!" + +"Oh!" gasped Janice, her color receding now. She was very angry. + +"Ah! don't you flout me, Janice Day!" exclaimed the spinster, +eyeing Janice malevolently. "I know how bad you act. I don't +live right next door for nothin'. An' 'tisn't only at home you +act badly, but on the street. Fighting with boys like a hoodlum. +Oh, I heard about it!" + +"Wait! Wait!" exclaimed Mr. Day, with sternness. "I think you +are out of bounds, Miss Peckham. I do not ask you to tell me how +to take care of my little daughter. And I am sure I do not +believe that you are rightly informed about her actions, even if +you do live next door." + +Miss Peckham sniffed harder and tossed her head. "Let us get +back to the cats," he went on quietly. "Have you found that one +of your cats has been hurt?" + +"His leg's broke. The doctor said it was a most vicious blow. +He's put it in a cast, and poor Sam is quite wild." + +"But why do you blame Janice?" + +"She done it!" exclaimed the spinster nodding her shawled head +vigorously. "She ought to be looked after." + +"No, Janice did not hurt the cat," said Mr. Day with assurance, +"unfortunately the cat was hurt on our premises. But it was the +girl working for us, not my little girl, who injured your cat." + +"What do you mean?" demanded Miss Peckham sharply. "Not this big +thing you've got here--the one that let me in?" + +"The Swedish girl," explained Mr. Day. "The cats were shut into +our back kitchen, and before Janice could open the door to let +them out, Olga, I believe, pelted them with coal." + +"But what did she shut 'em up in the kitchen for?' demanded Miss +Peckham, still pointing and glaring at Janice. + +"Oh, I didn't!" exclaimed the latter, shaking her head +vigorously. + +"That was not my daughter's doings," Mr. Day repeated. "As I tell +you, your cat was undoubtedly hurt on our premises. If I can do +anything to satisfy you--pay the doctor's bill, or the like--" + +"I don't want money from you, Broxton Day," exclaimed + +the woman rising. "I didn't come here for that purpose. I came +here to tell you that your house is goin' to rack and ruin and +that your girl needs a strong hand to manage her. That's what +she needs. You ain't had no proper home here since your wife +died." + +"I fear that is only too true, Miss Peckham," replied Mr. Day. + +"If Mrs. Day knew how things was goin' she'd turn in her grave, I +do believe," went on the neighbor, perhaps not wholly in +bitterness. + +The man's face paled. Miss Peckham did not know how much she was +adding to the burden of sorrow in the hearts of Broxton Day and +his little daughter. Janice was sobbing now, with her face +hidden. + +"What you need is an intelligent woman to take hold," went on the +neighbor, warming to her subject. "Take this creature you got +now. Ugh! Big elephant, and don't scarcely know enough to come +in when it rains, I do believe." + +"The class of people one finds at the agencies is admittedly not +of a high order of intelligence," said Mr. Day softly. + +"I should say they weren't--if them you've had is samples," +sniffed Miss Peckham. "Why don't you get somebody decent?" + +"I wish you would tell me how to go about getting a better +houseworker," sighed Mr. Day. + +"Get a working housekeeper--one that's trained and is +respectable. Somebody to overlook--" + +"But I cannot afford two servants," the man hastened to submit. + +"I ain't suggesting another servant. Somebody that respects +herself too much to be called a servant. Of course it's hard to +find the right party. + +"However, some women can do it. And that is the kind you need, +Broxton Day. Somebody who will be firm with your girl, here, +too." + +"I am afraid," said Janice's father quietly, "that the sort of +person you speak of is beyond my means; perhaps such a marvel is +not in the market at all," and he + +smiled again. "Thank you for your interest, Miss Peckham." + +He rose again to see her to the door. The spinster might have +considered remaining longer and offering further advice; but +daddy knew how to get rid of people quickly and cheerfully when +their business was over. + +"Oh, Daddy! what a dreadful woman she is," sobbed Janice, when he +came back into the living-room. + +"Not so bad as that," he said, chuckling, and patting her +shoulder comfortingly. "It is her way to make much of a little. +You see, she did not want anything for her injured cat, she +merely wanted to come in and talk about it." + +"But--but, Daddy," confessed Janice, blushing deeply, "I really +did fight Arlo Junior on the street. I boxed his ears." + +Mr. Day had great difficulty to keep from laughing, but Janice +was too absorbed in her troubles to notice it. + +"Well, well! Taking the law into your own hands, were you?" + +"Yes, Daddy. I guess it wasn't very ladylike. But I'm not a +hoodlum!" + +"Why was it that you did not want me to mention Arlo Junior?" +asked Mr. Day curiously. + +"Well, you see, I sort of promised him I wouldn't tell about what +he did to the cats, if he came in here Saturday and helped me +clean that back kitchen." + +"Ho, ho! I see. Well, perhaps you are quite right to shield the +young scamp under those circumstances," said her father, with +twinkling eyes. + +Mr. Day talked to his daughter for a while longer. He asked her +about her school work and her school pleasures, about what the +girls and boys in her circle of friends were doing. He tried to +keep in close touch with the motherless girl's interests, and +especially did he not want her to go to bed with sad and +troublous thoughts in her mind. + +After a cheerful and happy half hour Janice kissed her + +father good-night and went to her own room. + +Janice did all she could the next morning before going to school +to start Delia right in the housework. But the giantess was +still sullen and had much to say about "it comin' to a pretty +pass when children boss their elders." + +This was an objection that Janice had contended with before. She +only said, pleasantly: + +"When you have once learned just how we do things here, I sha'n't +have to tell you again, Delia. But wherever you go to work, you +know, you will have to learn the ways of the house." + +"I was doin' housework, I was, when you was in your cradle," +declared the woman. + +"But evidently not doing it just as we like to have it done +here," insisted Janice cheerfully. "Now, try to please daddy, +Delia. Everything will be all right then." + +Delia only sniffed. She "sniffed" in a higher key than Janice +had ever heard anybody sniff before. Certainly Mrs. Bridget +Burns was not turning out to be as mild creature as Janice had +first believed her to be. She could be stubborn. + +When she got to school that morning Janice found that there was +another disturbing incident in the offing. Amy Carringford +squeezed her arm as they hurried in to grammar recitation, and +smiled at her. But it was with gravity that she whispered in +Janice's ear: + +"I guess I shall have to refuse Stella's invitation." + +"Oh, you must go!" + +"No, I can't go." + +"Don't dare say that, Amy!" responded Janice, earnestly. "You +haven't told her you aren't coming, have you?" + +"No-o." + +"Don't you dare!" repeated Janice. + +"But--but, I don't see how I can--" + +"Wait! I'll tell you after school. Don't say a word to Stella +about not going to the party. I tell you, if you don't go, I +sha'n't!" + +"Oh, Janice!" + +There was no time for more whispering. Amy's big luminous eyes +were fixed on her friend a good deal through the several +recitations they both attended. It was evident she was puzzled. + +At lunch hour Amy always ran home, for Mullen Lane-- at least, +the end on which she lived--was not far. And, perhaps, she did +not care to join the girls who brought nice lunches in pretty +baskets. So Janice could not talk with her new friend until +school was out. + +Janice had determined to make a friend of Amy Carringford. Oh, +yes, when Janice Day made up her mind to a thing she usually did +it. And she had conceived a great liking for Amy, as well as a +deep interest in the whole Carringford family. + +"Now, Janice, what did you mean?" Amy asked, as they set off from +the schoolhouse with their books. "I just can't go to that +party!" + +"Daddy says that it is a mistake to say that the word can't is +not in the dictionary, for it is--in the newer ones. But I am +sure it ought not to be found in the 'bright lexicon of +youth'--like 'fail,' you know," and Janice laughed. + +"You are just talking," giggled Amy, clinging to Janice's arm. +"I don't know what you mean." + +"You are going to know soon, my dear," returned Janice. "Come +home with me. Your mother won't mind, will she?" + +"No. I'll send word by Gummy." + +"My, that sounds almost like swearing--'by Gummy!' exclaimed +Janice, her hazel eyes dancing. "And there Gummy goes. Grab him +quick. Tell him you'll stay to supper." + +"Oh, no! I'll tell him I'll stay till supper," rejoined Amy, as +she ran after her brother. + +She caught up with Janice within half a block laughing and +skipping. Never had Janice seen Amy so light-hearted. Even the +thought that she could not go to the party at Stella Latham's +house did not serve to make Amy sorrowful for long. And Janice +guessed why. + +Amy Carringford had been hungry for a close friend. Perhaps +Janice was starved, too, for such companionship. At any rate, +Amy responded to Janice's friendliness just as a sunflower +responds to the orb of the day and turns toward it. + +The two girls went on quite merrily toward the Day cottage at +Eight Hundred and Forty-five Knight Street. There was plenty to +chatter about without even touching on the coming party. Janice +had plans about that. + +When the two came in sight of the Day house those plans --and +almost everything else--went out of Janice's head. There was a +high, dusty, empty rubbish cart standing before the side gate of +the Day premises; and from the porch a man in the usual khaki +uniform of the Highway Department was bringing out a black +oilcloth bag which Janice very well remembered. + +"Oh, dear me! what can have happened?" Janice cried starting to +run. "That is Delia's bag--the very one she brought with her." + +She arrived at the gate just as the man came through the opening. +He was a dusty-faced man, with a bristling mustache, and great, +overhanging brows. He looked very angry, too. + +"Oh, what is the matter?" asked Janice, as the man pitched the +oilcloth bag into the cart, and turned back toward the house +again. + +But he was not regarding at all the girl or her chum who then ran +up. He turned to bellow in through the open door: + +"Hi! Come out o' that, Biddy Burns! Ye poor innocent! Sure, with +your two little children home cryin' all day alone and me at +work, ye should be ashamed of yerself, me gur-rl! If I was the +kind of a feyther ye nade, I'd be wearin' a hairbrush out on ye, +big and old as ye be. Come out o' that--or will I come in afther +ye?" + +"Mercy me!" gasped Amy. + +"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Janice, tugging at the man's + +sleeve, "what are you doing to Delia?" + +"'Delia,' is it? More of her foolishness. She's Biddy Burns, +and her husband is dead--lucky man that he is. And I'm her +feyther and the grandfeyther of her two babies--Tessie and +'Melia. And if she don't come home this minute with me, I'll put +the young ones in a home, so I will!" + +Delia, in the flounced dress, and weeping, just then appeared. +She stumbled down the steps and came to the gate, blubbering like +a child. + +"Sure, he says I've got to go ho-ome," sobbed the giantess. +"'Tis me father--he tells the truth. But I wanted to earn money +myself. He never lets me do nothing I want to do!" + +"Ye big, foolish gur-rl!" ejaculated the man gruffly. "Was it +workin' for you she was, Miss?" + +"Yes," said Janice breathlessly. + +"And they had a pianny," sobbed Delia;. "'Twas be-a-utiful!" + +"You come home an' play on the washboard--that's the kind of a +pianny you nade to play on," grumbled her father. "I'm sorry for +ye," he added turning to Janice, "if your folks has to depend on +the likes of her to do the work. Sure, it's not right good sinse +she's got." + +He came behind the giantess suddenly and boosted her with strong +arms up to the seat at the front of the wagon. Then he climbed +up himself and the turnout rattled away heavily along the street. + +Delia's departure was one of the most astounding things that had +happened to the Days during the months of their dependence upon +itinerant houseworkers. + + + +CHAPTER IX . SHOCKS AND FROCKS + +Janice found herself clinging tightly to Amy Carringford's hand +and Amy clinging tightly to hers, as the rubbish wagon rattled +away with Delia and her grim father perched on the high seat, +while the black oilcloth bag rattled around in the otherwise +empty body of the cart. + +"Oh, Janice!" gasped Amy at last. + +"Oh, Amy!" rejoined her friend. "And no dinner for daddy when he +comes home!" + +Amy could not comment on this catastrophe for the moment, for +Miss Peckham (the only neighbor who seemed to have marked the +departure of Delia) came swiftly into view. Miss Peckham's +blinds were always bowed, and one never knew which blind she was +lurking behind. + +"Well!" she exclaimed (and Janice thought she said it quite +cheerily), "so that one's gone, has she?" + +"They--they just seem to come and go," Janice replied, almost in +tears. "Oh, dear! Delia wasn't much; but I did hope she would +stay a little longer." + +"'Much'!" sniffed Miss Peckham. "I should say she wasn't. And +she isn't even sensible. I should think even a girl of your age +could have seen she was more'n half crazy. Wouldn't expect your +father to notice nothing. He's only a man." + +"Oh! Really crazy, do you mean?" Amy Carringford burst out. + +"She never was more'n half bright, that Biddy Garrity. That was +her name before she married Tom Burns. And he died. Blowed up +in the powder mill. That was old Garrity who came for her. She +ain't got no right to run off and leave her two children and that +old man to get along as best they can. But she does it--often. I +thought there would be trouble just as soon as I seen her sitting +on your steps t'other day." + +"Well, I wish we'd known it," sighed Janice. "She-- she did seem +sort of funny. But she wasn't much worse than some of the others +we've had." + +"Humph!" sniffed Miss Peckham, "just what I told your father last +night. You need a manager here--somebody to take hold" + +"I shall have to take hold now and see about getting dinner for +daddy," Janice responded, recovering a measure of her +self-confidence. "Come on in, Amy, and watch me work." + +"If I come in and help you," said her friend. "I guess you won't +have to do it all." + +A glance through the lower rooms proved that Delia had done +little more toward straightening the house this day than the day +before. + +"Goodness, mercy me, Janice Day!" exclaimed Amy Carringford. +"I'm awfully glad we don't have to have servants. It must be +awful!" + +"It just is," sighed Janice. "You never know when you come home +from school whether you will find the girl or not. And you're +'most always sure to find that not half the work's been done. +Well, I can get daddy some sort of a dinner myself tonight." + +"What are you going to cook? Let me help," said Amy eagerly. "I +know how to make lovely rolls--only you have to set the sponge +the night before. And Judge Peters's pudding is just luscious! +Only you have to have currants and citron and chopped nuts to go +into it." + +"We won't have either of those things for dinner, then," said +Janice, with a cheerful laugh. + +"Well, we don't have them nowadays," sighed Amy. "But we used +to." + +"I suppose you have had to give up lots of nice things since your +father died," rejoined, her friend sympathetically. "But," and +she giggled, "Gummy said yesterday he couldn't give up his name." + +"The poor boy!" Amy declared, shaking her head. "Give me an +apron, Janice. I am going to peel those potatoes and that +turnip. Potatoes and turnip mashed together makes a nice dish. +And Gummy can't really give up his name." + +"'Gumswith'! It's awful," murmured Janice. "How ever--" + +"Well I'll tell you. Poor dear father had a half-brother who was +lots older than he. Grandmother Carringford had been married +before she married our grandfather, you see. And her first +husband's name was Mr. Gumswith. John Gumswith. It's not so bad +as a last name, you see." + +"No," agreed Janice, her eyes twinkling. "Not when you say it +quick." + +Amy laughed again, busy peeling the vegetables. And she peeled +them thin, Janice noticed. Amy had evidently been taught the +fine points of frugal housekeeping. + +"So poor Gummy got his name from John Gumswith, Junior. I guess +father's half-brother was a queer man. He said he'd never marry, +because he was always wandering about the world." + +"Like a peddler?" ventured Janice. + +"No. But he went to foreign countries. He always expected to +earn a lot of money by some stroke of fortune, mother says. But +none of us children ever saw him. Before Gummy was born Uncle +John Gumswith started off for Australia, and mother and father +never heard of him, or from him after that." + +"But they named poor Gummy after him," commented Janice, busy +with the onion she was chopping to season the hamburger roast, +and trying to keep the juice of the onion out of her eyes. + +"You see," Amy confessed confidentially, "when father and mother +were married Uncle John gave them a little nest egg. You +understand? He had some money, and he gave some of it to them. +And then, he was father's only living relative; so they named the +first baby 'Gumswith'--so that the family name should not die out +you know." + +"My goodness!" exclaimed Janice, but whether because of the +saddling of Gummy Carringford with such a name, or because of the +squirting of onion juice into her left eye, she did not explain +at the moment. + +"So Gummy is Gummy," sighed his sister. "Father didn't name him +that just for the money's sake. Mother says a million dollars +wouldn't really pay for such a name. But father thought a lot of +Uncle John Gumswith. + +"But when Gummy grows up, he will have to go through life, so he +says, signing has name 'G. Carringford,'" and Amy began to giggle +at this thought. + +"It is really too bad," said Janice, but her mind was on another +subject just then. "How quick you are, Amy! You know how to do +everything, don't you?" + +"No I don't. But what I know, I know well," said her friend in +her quiet way. "Is your water hot? This turnip wants to go +right on, for it take longer to cook than the potatoes." + +"Here you are," said Janice, seizing the pot and carrying it to +the stove. There she poured boiling water over the turnip and +set the pot where it would continue to simmer. "It's too early +to put the roast in yet. Come on upstairs, Amy. I know that +Delia neither made up my bed nor dusted my room. I did daddy's +before I went to school this morning." + +"Such a nice house!" murmured Amy, as she followed Janice +upstairs by the way of the front hall. + +"And not half kept," sighed Janice. "When dear mother was with +us--" + +She and Amy said no more until Janice's bedroom was all spick and +span again. Janice hugged her friend heartily when at last the +pillows were plumped up at the head of the bed. + +"You're a dear!" she said. "You do like me, don't you, Amy?" + +"Of course I do." + +"Then you'll go to Stella's party with me, you?' + +"Oh, but, Janice, I can't!" + +"There's that word can't' again," said Janice lightly. "I don't +believe in it--no ma'am! You can go if you want to." + +"I--I haven't a thing nice enough to wear!" confessed Amy +desperately, her face flaming and water standing in her eyes. +"As though that was a good reason! Let me show you what I am +going to wear." + +But the pretty black and white dress that Janice brought forth +from her closet only made Amy shake her head. + +"Yes. I know. But it is new--and very nice." + +"I've never worn it yet," confessed Janice. + +"And everything I've got is as old as the hills," groaned Amy +Carringford. + +"Well, look here--and here--and here!" Janice tossed as many +frocks upon the bed. "What do you suppose is going to become of +those?" + +"Oh, Janice! how pretty they are. This pink and white one--" + +"M-mm! my mother made them for me," said Janice, trying to speak +bravely. "And now they are too small, anyway. I've grown a lot +since a year ago." + +"Oh, Janice!" + +"So you are going to wear one of them to Stella's party," +declared Janice confidently. "The pink and white one if you +like." + +"Oh, Janice, I can't. My mother wouldn't let me." + +"I'm going to make her let you. I'm going to beg her on my +knees!" declared Janice, laughing. "Do get into it, Amy, and see +if it fits you. + +"Wel-l-l!" + +It did. There was no doubt but that Amy was just a wee bit +smaller than Janice and that the frocks were an almost perfect +fit. + +"But--but to take a whole new dress from you--a gift! Oh, +Janice! I know it isn't right. Mother will not hear of it" + +"Mother's going to hear of it--and from me," declared Janice. +"To-morrow's Saturday. After I get all the work done, and Arlo +Junior helps me clean that back kitchen, I am going to bring this +dress down to your house. I know when she once sees it on you, +she won't have the heart to say 'No.'" + +So, perhaps Janice Day was sly, after all. + + + +CHAPTER X. OTHER PEOPLE'S TROUBLE + +Daddy, of course, laughed. If it had not been for his sanguine +temperament, and his ability to see the funny side of life, +Janice often wondered what they should do. + +"They say," she thought, "that every cloud has a silver lining. +But to dear daddy there is something better than silver linings +to our clouds. Something to laugh at! I wonder if, after all, +being able to see the fun in things isn't the biggest blessing in +the world. I am sure Miss Peckham isn't happy, and she never +sees anything funny at all! But daddy--" + +When she told him at dinner time how Delia had departed on the +rubbish wagon with her angry father, Broxton Day laughed so that +he could scarcely eat. + +"But what are we going to do?" cried Janice. + +"Don't be a little Martha, honey, troubled with many things. I +would have given a good deal to have seen that departure. 'Good +riddance to bad rubbish,' is an old saying back in Vermont where +I was brought up, Janice. And Delia going in the rubbish wagon +seems fitting, doesn't it?" + +"It was funny," admitted his little daughter. "But what shall we +do?" + +"Why, try the next applicant," said Broxton Day easily. "I will +look in at the agencies again." + +"I'm afraid that won't do any good, Daddy," sighed Janice. +"Delia came from the agency, and you see what she was like. And +Olga--" + +"No," interrupted Mr. Day, "Olga came direct from Pickletown." + +"Well, it doesn't matter. There were plenty of others from the +agencies, all as bad or worse than Olga and Delia," and Janice +looked much downcast. + +"Oh, little daughter, little daughter!" admonished Mr. Day, +"don't give way like that. Some time, out of the lot, we'll find +the right person." + +"Well, maybe," agreed Janice, cheerful once more. "I guess we've +already had all the bad ones. Those that are left to come to us +must be just ordinary human beings with some good and some sense +mixed in with the bad." + +It proved to be a very busy day, indeed, for Janice-- that +Saturday. But she did not overlook her promise to Amy +Carringford. Yet it was mid-afternoon when she started for +Mullen Lane with the pink and white party dress in a neat package +over her arm. + +Janice could not overlook the poverty-stricken appearance of the +Carringford cottage. It could not, indeed, be ignored by even +the casual glance. But its cleanliness, and everybody's neatness +about the little dwelling, portrayed the fact that here was a +family putting its best foot forward. Mrs. Carringford was +proud. Janice Day knew that she must be very cautious indeed if +she would see Amy adorned with her own finery. + +"Dear Mrs. Carringford," she whispered to her friend's mother, +"I've got a surprise for you. I want Amy to come upstairs with +me, and by and by, when we call you up, please come and look into +her room." + +Amy, according to agreement, had said nothing about the dress to +her mother. She was eager, but doubtful just the same. + +"I don't think it is right, Janice," she declared, over and over. +"I don't see how I can accept the dress from you, when I have +nothing to give in return." + +"Oh, that is a very niggardly way to receive," cried Janice, +shaking her head. "If we can't accept a present save when we can +return it--why, daddy says that is the most selfish thought in +the world." + +"Selfish!" + +"For sure! We are too selfish to allow other people to enjoy +giving. Don't you see? It's fun to give." + +"But it is not fun to be the object charity," complained Amy, +with some sullenness. + +"Why, my dear," exclaimed Janice Day, "you are not always going +to be poor. Of course not. Some day you will be lots better +off. Gummy will grow up and go to work, and then you will all be +well off. And, besides, this sort of giving, between friends, +isn't charity." + +"Gummy wishes to go to work now," sighed Amy. "But mother wants +to keep him at school." + +"He might work after school and on Saturdays." + +"Oh, that would be fine! But who would give him such a job? You +see, we do not trade much with the storekeepers, and mother isn't +very well known--" + +"You wait!" exclaimed Janice. "I believe I know somebody who +needs a boy." + +"Oh, I hope you do, Janice." + +Meanwhile Amy was getting into that lovely, dainty dress again. + +"You do look too sweet for anything in it," Janice declared. The +latter ran out to the stairs and called to Mrs. Carringford. +"Oh, do come up and look! Do, Mrs. Carringford!" + +She kept Amy's bedroom door shut, and held Mrs. Carringford for a +moment at the top of the stairs. + +"Oh, Mrs. Carringford," she murmured, "don't you want to make two +girls just awfully happy?" + +"Why, my dear child--" + +"You know, I have been growing just like a weed this past year. +Daddy says so. I have outgrown all the pretty clothes my--my +mother made me for last summer, and which of course I could not +wear. Amy is just a wee bit smaller than I " + +"My dear!" + +"Wait!" gasped Janice, almost in tears she was so much in +earnest. "Just wait and see her! And I want her to go to the +party. And there are stockings, and pumps, and a hat, and +everything! Look at her!" + +She flung open the bedroom door. Amy stood across the room from +them, flushing and paling by turns, and looking really +frightened, but, oh! so pretty. + +"Why, Amy!" murmured Mrs. Carringford, her own cheeks flushing. + +What mother can look at her little daughter when she is +charmingly dressed without being proud of her? She turned +questioningly to Janice. + +"Does your father know about this?" + +"Daddy quite approves," said Janice demurely. "I never could get +any wear out of them. You can see that, Mrs. Carringford. + +"And if you let Amy wear them, we'll both be so happy!" + +Mrs. Carringford kissed her. "You are a sweet, good child," she +said rather brokenly. "I don't blame Amy for loving you." + +So it was agreed that Amy should wear the party dress. Janice had +errands to do at the store, and she begged for the company of +Gummy Carringford to help her carry the things she bought. + +"You know, I can't carry them all, and sometimes Harriman's +delivery doesn't get around until midnight and we have to get up +and take the things in." + +"Come on," said Gummy, who knew about the dress for his sister, +"I'll carry anything you want." + +But Janice really had another reason for getting Gummy +Carringford to Harriman's store. She maneuvered to get Mr. +Harriman himself to wait on her, and when Gummy was out of +ear-shot she began to confide in the proprietor. + +"Do you see that boy who is with me, Mr. Harriman?" she asked. + +"Oh, yes. I've seen him before I guess. One of your neighbors?" + +"He goes to our school. And he is a very nice boy." + +"What's his name?" + +"His name is 'G. Carringford'," Janice told demurely. + +"Oh! 'G?'" queried Mr. Harriman. "Is that all?" + +"Well, you know, it isn't his fault if he has dreadful name," she +said. "And it doesn't really hurt him. He can work just as +hard--and he wants work." + +"I thought you said he went to school?" + +"After school and on Saturdays," she explained. "He doesn't know +you, Mr. Harriman, so I suppose he is bashful about speaking to +you. But you know him now, because I introduced G. Carringford. +Won't you try him?" + +The outcome of this attempt to help the Carringfords was one of +the many things Janice had to confide to daddy that evening. As +she told him, she had put little dependence upon the hope of +finding another houseworker easily. And that was well, for Mr. +Day had found nobody at the agencies. He would not trust +engaging a girl again, unseen. + +"Perhaps next week will bring us good fortune, my dear," he said. +"How did you get on to-day, all alone? I see the silver has been +polished." + +"Only some of it, Daddy. And I have been a busy bee, now I tell +you." + +"Bravo, my dear! The busy bee makes the honey." + +"And has a stinger, too," she replied roguishly. "I guess Arlo +Junior thinks so." + +"So Junior came over according to promise?" said her father, +interested. + +"Yes, indeed. And he did work, Daddy! You should have seen +him." + +"The vision of Arlo Weeks, Junior, working really would be worth +the price of admission," chuckled Broxton Day. + +"That isn't the worst of it--for Arlo," said Janice gaily. "You +see, his helping me clean up that back kitchen got him a bad +reputation." + +"Why, Janice! How was that?" + +"Oh, he did the cleaning very well. As well as it could be done. +That soft coal made marks on the walls that never will come off +until they are painted again. It's awful smutchy--that coal." + +"I know," agreed Broxton Day. "But about Arlo?" + +"I'm coming to that," she said smiling. "You see, Arlo Junior +was just about through when his mother come over looking for him. +She wanted him to go on an errand. She saw what he had been doing +for me, for he had an apron on and the broom in his hand." + +"Caught with the goods, in other words?" chuckled Mr. Day. + +"Yes. And we couldn't tell her why he was helping me. So she +said right out: + +"'Why, Arlo Junior! If you can help Janice like this-- and you +and she were fighting the other day--you can come right home and +clean out the woodshed. It needs it.' + +"And--and," laughed Janice, "he had to do it. He worked pretty +near all day to-day. And he scowled at me dreadfully this +afternoon." + +"He will be playing other tricks on you," warned her father. + +"Well, there will be no Olga to make them worse," she sighed. +"That is one sure thing. Oh, dear, Daddy, I wonder where she +is--and the treasure-box! It is too, too hateful for anything!" + +"I called up the pickle factory where Willie Sangreen works. +They had heard nothing from him. It looks as though Olga and he +must have gone away together. Stole a march on all their friends +and got married, maybe." + +"But why should she take my treasure-box?" cried Janice. "Oh, +Daddy! I can never forgive myself for my carelessness." + +"Don't worry, child. You could not really be blamed," he +rejoined sadly. + +"But that doesn't bring back mother's picture and the other +things," murmured the anxious Janice, watching his clouding face. + +As always when they were alone, daddy washed the supper dishes +and Janice dried them. Daddy with an apron on and his sleeves +rolled up, and a paper cap on his head (she made him wear that +like a regular "chef"), made a picture that always pleased his +daughter. + +"I think you would make a very nice cook, Daddy dear? she often +told him. "In fact, you seem to fit in almost anywhere. I guess +it's because you are always ready to do something." + +"Flattery! Flattery!" he returned, pinching her cheek. + +"But it is so, you know, Daddy. You always know what to do--and +you do it." + +"That is what they tell me at the bank," said Mr. Day, with +rather a rueful smile. "This Mexican mine business is developing +some troubles, and they want me to go down there and straighten +them out." + +"Oh, Daddy!" she cried breathlessly. + +"No," he said, shaking his head. "That is what I tell them. I +cannot leave you alone." + +"But take me!" she cried, almost dancing up and down. + +"Can't be thought of, Janice. That is a rough country +--and you've got to stick to school, besides. You know, my dear, +we had already decided on that." + +"Yes, I know," she sighed. "But of course you won't go away and +leave me? We--we've never been separated since--since dear mamma +died." + +"True, my dear. And we will not contemplate such separation. I +have told them at the bank it would be impossible." It was not +of their own troubles that they talked mostly on this evening, +however, but of some other people's troubles. After they were +out of the kitchen and settled in the living-room, Janice began +to tell him about the Carringfords. "They are just the nicest +people you ever saw Daddy. Amy and Gummy are coming over here +tomorrow after Sunday School so that you can meet them." + +"'Gummy'!" ejaculated Mr. Day. + +Janice told him all about that boy's unfortunate name. + +"You see," she explained, "Mrs. Carringford told me herself this +afternoon that his Uncle John Gumswith was a very nice man." + +"Seems to me," said daddy, quite amused, "that doesn't make the +boy's name any less unfortunate. And have they never even heard +of the uncle since he went to Australia?" + +"No, sir." + +"Well," chuckled Mr. Day, "Gummy had better go to the Legislature +and get his name changed. That's a handicap that no boy should +have to shoulder." + +"It is awful. And it makes Gummy shy, I think. He wanted to +work after school hours and on Saturday. But he didn't seem to +know how to get a job. So I," Janice proceeded quite in a +matter-of-fact way, "got him one." + +"You did!" + +"Yes, Daddy. I went to Mr. Harriman, the grocer. You know we +trade there. And I know that he can use a boy just as well as +not. So I told him about Gummy--" + +"Did you tell Harriman his name?" chuckled her father. + +"I said he was 'G. Carringford,'" Janice replied, her eyes +twinkling. "But you needn't laugh. Mr. Harriman did." + +"Did what?" + +"Laugh; I really wanted Gummy to take a nom de plume, or whatever +it is they call 'em." + +"An alias, I guess it would be, in Gummy's case," said her +father. "And wouldn't he?" + +"No," said Janice, shaking her head. "Gummy seems to think that +he's in honor bound to stick up for his name. That is what he +says." + +"Amen! Some boy, that!" + +"He's a nice boy," declared Janice. "You'll see. And he got the +job." + +"Oh, he did! So I see that my Janice is a real 'do something' +girl." + +"Why, yes, I hadn't thought of that," she agreed, all smiles at +his praise. "I did do something, didn't I? Gummy is going to +work for Mr. Harriman, and that'll help them. But it was about +Amy and Stella Latham's party I wanted to tell you" + +"Oh, was it, indeed?" her father murmured. + +She related the circumstances attached to the coming party and +Amy Carringford's reason for not being able to go. + +"And you ought to see Amy in that pink and white dress. She's +just too sweet for anything!" + +"All right, daughter. I agree to give your little friend the +frock if her mother is willing." + +"I just made Mrs. Carringford agree," said Janice, bobbing her +head earnestly. "They are awfully proud folks." + +"With a proper pride, perhaps." + +"I guess so. They are real nice anyway--even if Gummy does wear +patched pants." + +"And does he?" asked daddy, seriously. "Perhaps we had better +look through my Wardrobe in his behest." + +"But, Daddy! he can't wear your clothes. He'd be lost in them," +Janice giggled. + +"True. But his mother may know how to cut the garments down and +make them over for the boy? You ask her, Janice. I will lay out +a couple of suits that I will never be able to wear again." + +And so they forgot their own troubles, for the time being, in +seeking to relieve those of some other people. + + + +CHAPTER XI. MRS. WATKINS + +Although it was probable that most of the Day's neighbors felt +more or less curiosity, if not interest, in their domestic +misfortunes, it was only Miss Peckham who seemed to keep really +close observation, in season and out, of all that went on in and +about the Day house. + +Janice could have wished that the spinster would give more of her +attention to her cats and Ambrose, the parrot, and less to +neighborhood affairs. For the child knew that not even a peddler +came to the door that the sharp-visaged woman behind her bowed +blinds did watch to see what Janice did. + +"She watches every move I make, Daddy," complained the girl one +day. "I don't see why she cares who comes to see me. She's the +meanest thing--" + +"Now, Janice, dear!" + +"I don't care, Daddy, just this once! Why, this afternoon three +of the girls were here, and after they left Miss Peckham called +me over to the fence and asked me when the Beemans were going to +Canada. + +"The Beemans talk of going there before long, but are not certain +about it; and Annette told the rest of us girls all about it as a +great secret. Miss Peckham + +deliberately listened at her window, and then, because she +couldn't hear all we said, she tried to make me tell her the +whole story. Now, isn't that mean?" + +"Oh, well, Janice--" + +"You wouldn't listen like that, Daddy Day, and you wouldn't let +me, so there!" + +"Maybe not, Janice. But then, you know, we do many things that +Miss Peckham does not approve of--many things that she would not +think of doing." + +"Now, Daddy, you are joking! You know you are!" + +"Maybe so--half way. But then we are responsible for ourselves, +and not for Miss Peckham. But I am sorry, daughter, that she +troubles you. Perhaps," he added more lightly, "we shall get +things on a more satisfactory basis here before long, and then +Miss Peckham will not think it necessary to look after us so +much." + +"You know better than that, Daddy Day. Miss Peckham will look +after us till we are hundreds of years old," answered Janice. +But now she spoke with a smile on her lips. + +The disappointment of the coming and going of Bridget Burns made +both father and daughter shrink from trying another houseworker +unless she appeared more than ordinarily promising. So for a day +or two daddy went personally to the agencies and looked the +prospective workers over. His reports to Janice were not +hopeful. + +"Oh, dear me, Daddy!" Janice sighed, "I do wish I could do it +all. Maybe I ought only to go to school part time--" + +"No, my dear. We will scrabble along as best we can. You must +not neglect the studies." + +"At any rate," she exclaimed, "it will soon be vacation time. I +can do ever so much more in the house then." + +"Nor do I believe that is a good plan," her father said, shaking +his head. "The best thing that could happen to you would be for +you to go away for a change. I have a good mind to send you back +East. Your Aunt Almira--" + +"Oh, Daddy! Never! You don't mean it?" cried the girl. + +"Why, you'll like your Aunt Almira. Of course, Jase Day is not +such an up-and-coming chap as one might wish; but he is a good +sort, at that. And there is your cousin, Marty." + +"But I don't know any of them," sighed Janice. "And I don't want +to leave you." + +"But if we cannot get any help--" + +"I'll get along. What would you do in this house alone if I went +away?" she demanded. + +"I'd shut it up and go down to the Laurel House to board." + +"Oh, that's awful!" + +"No. I get my lunch there now. It's not very bad," said Broxton +Day, smiling. + +"I mean it's awful to think of shutting up our home for the +summer. You haven't got to go away to Mexico, have you, Daddy?" +she queried with sudden suspicion. + +"Well, my dear, it may be necessary," he confessed. + +"And you'd send me away to Vermont while you were gone?" + +"I don't know what else to do--if the necessity arises. Jase Day +is my half-brother--the only living relative I have. Your +mother's people are all scattered. I wouldn't know what else to +do with you, my dear." + +"Mercy!" she sighed, winking back the tears, "it sounds as though +I--I were what you call a 'liability' in your bank business. +Isn't that it? Why, Daddy! I want to be an 'asset,' not a +'liability.'" + +"Bless you, my dear, you are! A great, big asset!" he laughed. +"But you must not neglect the necessary preparation for life +which your studies give you. Nor must I let you overwork. Have +patience--and hope. Perhaps we shall be able to find a really +good housekeeper, after all." + +When, on Wednesday afternoons Janice came home from school, she +saw Miss Peckham beckoning to her from her front porch, the girl +had no suspicion that the maiden lady was about to interfere in +her and daddy's affairs. No, indeed! + +"Now I wonder what she wants!" murmured Janice, going reluctantly +toward the Peckham house. "And she's got company, too." + +The spinster was sitting on her porch behind the honeysuckle +vines, with her sewing table and the big parrot, Ambrose, chained +to his perch beside her. There was, too, a second woman on the +porch. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Peckham," Janice said, swinging her books +as she came up the walk from Miss Peckham's gate. "Hello, +Polly!" + +"Polly wants cracker!" declared the bird, flapping his wings and +doing a funny little dance on his perch. + +"Be still!" commanded Miss Peckham. With her sharp little black +eyes she glanced from Janice to the other woman. "This is the +girl," she said. + +Janice, feeling as though she was under some important scrutiny +looked at the second woman in curiosity. She found her a not +unpleasant looking person. She was much wrinkled, yet her cheeks +were rather pink and her lips very vivid. Janice wondered if it +was possible that this color was put on by hand. + +The woman sat in a rocking chair with her long hands folded idly +in her lap. On the hands were white "half mits"--something +Janice knew were long out of fashion but which were once +considered very stylish indeed. + +The woman's eyes were a shallow brown color--perhaps "faded" +would be a better expression. It seemed as though she were too +languid even to look with attention at any one or anything. + +"This is the girl, Sophrony," Miss Peckham repeated more sharply. + +"Oh, yes," murmured the strange woman, as though awakened from a +brown study. "Yes. Quite a pretty little girl." + +"Pretty is as pretty does," scoffed Miss Peckham. "At any rate, +she's healthy. Ain't you, Janice Day?" + +"Ah--oh--yes, ma'am!" stammered Janice, "I guess I am." + +"Well, I don't see the doctor going to your house none," said +Miss Peckham, in her snappy way. "I guess I would ha' seen him +if he'd called." + +"Oh, yes," agreed Janice, "you would have seen him." + +"Heh?" Miss Peckham stared at the little girl sharply. But she +saw that Janice was quite innocent in making her comment. +"Well," said the maiden lady, "this is Mrs. Watkins." + +Considering this an introduction, Janice came forward and offered +the faded looking woman her hand. Mrs. Watkins' own hand +reminded Janice of a dead fish, and she was quite as glad to drop +it as Mrs. Watkins seemed to be to have it dropped. + +"Oh, yes," said the latter woman, "she is a pretty girl." + +"Mrs. Watkins has come to see me," explained Miss Peckham. "She +an' I have been friends for years and years. We used to go to +school together when we were girls." + +"Oh!" said Janice. But she could think of nothing else to say. +She did not understand why she was being taken into Miss +Peckham's confidence. + +"Yes, Sophrony Watkins and I--Sophrony Shepley was her maiden +name. She married Tom Watkins--and Tom was a shiftless critter, +if there ever was one." + +Janice was startled. Miss Peckham seemed to be unnecessarily +plain spoken. But the languid Mrs. Watkins made no comment. + +"And now Sophrony has come down to doin' for herself," went on +the neighborhood censor. "I sent for her to come over here. +She's been livin' in Marietteville. You tell your pa that we'll +come into see him to-night after supper." + +"Oh!" murmured Janice. Then she "remembered her manners," and +said, smiling: "Please do, Miss Peckham. I will tell daddy you +are coming." + +Miss Peckham waved her hand to dismiss her young neighbor. "And +if 'twas me," she said complacently to her companion, "first +thing I'd do would be to cure that young one of calling her +father 'daddy.' That's silly." + +Even this remark did not forewarn Janice of what was coming. "I +just believe," she thought, going on her way, "that that +faded-out little woman is a book agent and will want to sell +daddy a set of books he'll never in this world read." + +But in getting dinner and tidying up the dining room and living +room, Janice forgot all about Mrs. Sophronia Watkins. Janice was +working very hard these days-- much harder than any girl of her +age should work. The evening before she had fallen asleep over +her studies, and to-day her recitations had not been quite up to +the mark. + +The lack of system in the housekeeping made everything harder for +her, too. It was all right for daddy to help wash the dinner +dishes, and even to blacken the range and the gas stove as he did +on this evening, but there were dozens of things going wrong +every day in the house which neither Janice nor her father could +help. + +There were the provision bills. Janice knew very well that the +butcher took advantage of her ignorance. She was always in a +hurry in the morning, running to school; and she could not stop +to see meat weighed, or vegetables properly picked out and +measured. + +At Mr. Harriman's, the grocer's, it was not so bad. There were +certain articles of established standard that she knew her mother +had always ordered; but in the matter of butter and cheese and +eggs, she realized that she often ordered the best, and got +second or third quality and first-quality prices. + +Had she been able to spend the time marketing she would have +conserved some of daddy's money and things would have been much +better on the table. Yet, with the kind of houseworkers they had +had, much of the good food that was bought was spoiled in the +cooking. + +Daddy sometimes said: "The Lord sends the food, but the cooks +don't all come from heaven, that is sure, Janice." + +He was vigorously polishing the cookstove on this Wednesday +evening and they were cheerfully talking and joking, when the +sound of bootheels on the side porch announced the coming of +visitors. + +"Oh, dear me! who can that be?" whispered Janice. + +"Save me, My Lady--save me!" cried daddy, appearing to be very +much frightened, and dodging behind the stove. "Don't let the +neighbors in until I have got rid of this blacking brush and got +on my vest and coat--" + +But the caller who now hammered on the door with quick knuckles +was no bashful person. Mr. Day had no chance to escape from the +kitchen Miss Peckham turned the knob and walked right in. + +"Come in, Sophrony," she said, over her shoulder, to the person +who came behind her. "You can see well enough that this man and +his gal need somebody to take hold for 'em. Come right in." + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE FADED-OUT LADY + +Janice was not as much surprised--at first as her father was by +the appearance of the spinster and Mrs. Watkins. She remembered +that Miss Peckham had said she would call this evening, although +the girl had not expected her at the back door. + +Their neighbor had managed to time her appearance at a rather +inopportune moment, and when daddy rose up from behind the stove +to confront the two women, in a voluminous apron and with a +smutch across his cheek, Janice could not entirely smother her +amusement. + +"Oh! Oh!" she giggled. "Good evening, Miss Peckham! This--this +is Mrs. Watkins, Daddy," and she directed her father's attention +to the faded-out lady. "Ahem! I am glad to see you, Miss +Peckham--and Mrs. Watkins," Mr. Day said, bowing in that nice way +of his that Janice so much admired. Even with a blacking brush +in one hand and a can of stove polish in the other, Mr. Broxton +Day was very much the gentleman. + +"You find us considerably engaged in domestic work," continued +Mr. Day, a smile wreathing his lips and his eyes twinkling. "And +if you don't mind, I'll finish my job before giving you my full +attention. Janice, take + +Miss Peckham and her friend into the living room." + +"Oh, no. You needn't bother," said Miss Peckham shortly. +"Here's chairs, and we can sit down. It's interesting to watch a +man try to do housework, I've no doubt." + +"You said something then, Miss Peckham," said Mr. Day, +cheerfully, and began industriously daubing the stove covers. + +"I brought Mrs. Watkins in here to see you, Mr. Day, 'cause I got +your welfare and hers at heart," pursued the spinster. + +That sounded rather ominous, and Mr. Day poised the dauber and +stared doubtfully from his neighbor to the washed-out looking +woman. + +"Mrs. Watkins is a widow," went on Miss Peckham. + +Mr. Day made a sympathetic sound with his lips, but fell to +polishing now, making the stove covers rattle. Miss Peckham +raised her voice a notch. "She's a widow, and she's seen +trouble." + +"We're born to it--as the sparks fly upward," observed +Mr. Day, under his breath. + +"Mrs. Watkins has come to an age when nobody can say she's +flighty, I sh'd hope," continued Miss Peckham. "She's settled. +And she's got to earn her livin'." + +"Now, Marthy!" objected Mrs. Watkins. + +"Well, 'tis so, Sophrony, ain't it?" demanded her friend. + +"Oh, of course, expenses are heavy, and it's desirable that I +should--should--well, add to my income. But I've come to no +great age, Marthy Peckham, I'd have you know!" + +"Oh, bosh, Sophrony!" ejaculated Miss Peckham. "Well, as I say, +Mr. Day, Mrs. Watkins is a widow, and she needs a settled place." + +"Just what are you trying to get at, Miss Peckham? I don't +understand you," asked Mr. Day, his face actually getting rather +pale. + +Neither did Janice understand; but her father looked so funny +that the girl giggled again. Miss Peckham gave her a reproving +glance. + +"I sh'd think you'd understand your need well enough, Broxton +Day," she said sternly. "First of all that gal ought to be +learned manners. But that's incidental, as you might say. What +I am tellin' you is, that here's your chance to get a housekeeper +that'll amount to something." + +"Oh! Ah! I see!" exclaimed Mr. Day in staccato fashion, and +evidently very much relieved. "Mrs. Watkins is looking for a +position?" + +"Well, she ought to be. But it does take a stick of dynamite to +get her goin', seems to me. Speak up, Sophrony!" + +"Why, I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. Day," said the faded-out lady, +simpering. "I've been considerin' acceptin' a position such as +you have. Of course, I ain't used to working out--" + +"Oh, fiddlesticks? put in Miss Peckham, "He don't care nothin' +about that, Sophrony. He can see you ain't no common servant." + +"Assuredly I can see that, Mrs. Watkins," said Mr. Day, suavely. +"But do you think you would care to accept such a position as I +can offer you?" + +"I should be pleased to try it," said Mrs. Watkins, with a sigh. +"Of course, it would be a comedown for me--" + +"Land's sake, Sophrony!" ejaculated her friend, "with me to +sponsor you, I don't guess anybody in this neighborhood will +undertake to criticize." + +"Wait a moment," said Mr. Day, and Janice was delighted to see +that he was not entirely carried off his feet. "Let us understand +each other. I pay so much a month," naming a fair sum, "and I +expect the cooking and all the housework except the heavy washing +done by whoever takes the place." + +"Well, now, Mr. Day," began Mrs. Watkins, "you see, I shouldn't +expect to be treated just like an ordinary servant. Oh, no." + +"That's what I tell her," snorted Miss Peckham. + +"Folks that have had the off-scourings of the earth, like you +have had, Broxton Day, in your kitchen, ain't used to having +lady-help about the house." + +"I hope Janice and I will appreciate Mrs. Watkins' efforts, if +she wishes to try the place," Mr. Day said, in rather a +bewildered tone. + +"That gal herself can do a good deal I sh'd think, morning and +night. She ain't helpless," said Miss Peckham, staring at +Janice. + +"Janice has her school work to do," said Mr. Day firmly. "She +takes care of her own room and does other little things. But +unless Mrs. Watkins wishes to undertake the full responsibility +of the housework it would be useless for her to come." + +He was firm on that point. The faded-out lady smiled feebly. "I +am always willing to do as far as I can," she sighed. "The work +for three people can't be so much. I am perfectly willing to +try, Mr. Day. I'm sure nothin' could be fairer than that." + +Daddy and Janice looked at each other for an instant. It flashed +through both their minds that the faded-out lady did not sound +very encouraging. Later when the two had gone, daddy put away +the blacklug tools, saying: + +"Well, it will be a new experience, Janice. She is different +from anybody we have ever had before." + +"Oh, Daddy! I think she's funny," gasped the girl. + +He smiled at her broadly, shaking his head. "I presume she does +seem funny to you. But at least she is a ladylike person. We +must treat her nicely." + +"Why, as though we wouldn't!" gasped Janice. + +"But don't offend her by showing her you are amused," warned her +father. "That may be hard, for it does strike me that Mrs. +Sophronia Watkins is a character, and no mistake." + +"I wouldn't hurt her feelings for the world," declared Janice. +"But, Daddy, do you suppose it is rouge she has on her face? And +does she use a lipstick?" + +"For goodness' sake! Where did you hear about such things?" he +laughed. + +"Why, of course I know something about most everything," declared +Janice, quite confidently. "And her face doesn't look just +natural." + +"Don't get too curious, Janice," he said laughing. "If she can +cook and keep the house clean, as far as I am concerned she can +paint herself like a Piute chief." + +One shock, however, Mr. Broxton Day was not exactly prepared for. +Mrs. Watkins came to the house the next day for a late +breakfast--which she got herself, Janice and her father having +already cooked their own and eaten it. + +"I haven't been used to getting up very early," confessed the +woman, preening a bit. "But, of course, I shall change my +breakfast hour to conform with yours." + +"I hope so," said Broxton Day, hurrying away to business. + +He got the shock mentioned at night when he came to the dinner +table. The table was very neatly set; but there were three +places. The meal was not elaborate but the food seemed to be +cooked all right. Mrs. Watkins brought in the dishes and then +sat down with Mr. Day and Janice to eat. + +Janice did not look at daddy, but her own face was rather red and +she was uncomfortable. + +"Your daughter," said Mrs. Watkins severely, informs me that you +have not been in the habit of having anybody at your table at +meal time but your two selves. Of course, I could only engage to +assist you here with the understanding that I am to be considered +one of the family." + +"Why--er--yes; that will be all right," Janice's father said, +though a bit doubtfully. "It would scarcely do to consider you, +Mrs. Watkins, in the same category as the ordinary help Janice +and I have had." + +"I am glad you see it that way," said the faded-out lady. And +she was quite colorless at the moment. It was evident that the +rouge and lip-stick were used only on important occasions. + +"I am glad you see it that way," she repeated. "I could consider +no let-down as a lady, in accepting any position. Manual labor +is no shame; but one must be true to one's upbringing." + +"Quite so, Mrs. Watkins--quite so," agreed Mr. Day. + +"Janice, child," said the woman quickly, "run out to the kitchen +and get the rest of the potatoes. And see if the coffee is +ready." + +Her tone rather startled Janice; but she did as she was bade and +that without even a glance at daddy. + +"I never consider I have had a real dinner," Mrs. Watkins +continued, "unless I have a bit of good cheese with it. I find +none in the house, Mr. Day. Indeed," she added, "your pantry +sadly needs stocking up." + +"Why--er--that may be so. We have been living a good deal +'catch-as-catch-can,'" and he smiled upon her. "Give Janice a +list of the things you need, and she will go to Harriman's for +you in the morning." + +"No. I prefer to do my own marketing, always. A child like +Janice--thank you Janice, for the potatoes-- can scarcely be +expected to use judgment in the selection of provisions. You +might telephone to the stores where you are in the habit of +trading and inform them that I have charge of your household now. +They will then expect me." + +"Oh, well! All right," he said, but doubtfully. + +"I have not yet brought my bag from Marthy's, next door. I will +go after it when dinner is over, while Janice clears the table. +I will send for my trunk, which is at Marietteville, later." + +"Suit yourself, Mrs. Watkins," said Mr. Day. + +"Have you any choice as to which of the two empty bedrooms I +consider mine?" the woman asked, heaping her plate a second time +with food. + +"What's that?" asked Mr. Day, rather non-plussed. + +"Which chamber shall I sleep in?" she repeated, quite calmly. + +"Why--I-- Really, Mrs. Watkins, isn't the small room beyond +Janice's quite sufficient for you?" he asked, a little color +coming into his face now. + +"Oh, my dear Mr. Day! I could not consider that for a moment. +Why, that is the girl's room--merely a bedroom for the hired +help. I could not possibly consider myself in the same class--" + +"Except on pay-day, Mrs. Watkins?" asked the man bluntly. "We +are glad to have you with us, of course; and we will consider +your quite different status in the family, as you demand. But--" + +"No, Mr. Day," Mrs. Watkins said with decision, interrupting him. +"I could not contemplate for a moment occupying the girl's room. +Why you might want it again any time." + +"Not while you are with us," said Mr. Day wonderingly. "I do not +think I could afford to have two helpers." + +"It does not matter," said the faded-out lady stubbornly. +"Janice, get the coffee now. It does not matter. I refuse +positively to sleep in that little, poked-up room. I prefer my +windows opening to the east." + +"But the east room is the one Mrs. Day always used," said the +man, with sudden hoarseness. "I cannot allow you to use that +one. The spare chamber on the other side of the hall, if you +insist." + +"Very well," said the woman with a small toss of her head. "Will +you have a cup of coffee, Mr. Day?" + +"No, Mrs. Watkins. I prefer a cup of tea at dinner time. A New +England habit that has clung to me." + +"Indeed? Janice, go and make your father a cup of tea, that's a +good child." + +"Never mind, Janice," said daddy quickly. "I do not wish it now. +And, Mrs. Watkins." + +"Yes, Mr. Day?" simpered the faded-out lady. + +"I wish it distinctly understood that Janice is to give her +complete attention to her school work between dinner and bedtime, +unless she should chance to have more freedom during those hours +than is usual. She will assist you as you may have need after +school, and even in the morning before she goes to school. But +the hours after dinner are for her school work. Do you quite +understand me, Mrs. Watkins?" + +Mrs. Watkins' pale, wrinkled face did not color in the least, nor +did the washed-out brown eyes change their expression. But there +was an added sharpness to the woman's voice: + +"You object to Janice's giving me a hand with the lighter tasks, +Mr. Day?" she queried. + +"Not at all. But her education must not be neglected." + +"Ah! I quite understand," sniffed Mrs. Watkins. "You object to +my going out this evening then? But I really must have my bag +with my toilet requisites." + +"I have no wish to restrict your use of the evening, as long as +your work is done," said Mr. Day, rising from the table. "Come, +Janice, it is time you were at your books." + +He led the way into the living room. Mrs. Watkins gave a violent +sniff at their departure. Then she finished her coffee. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. STELLA'S PARTY + +It was not going to be altogether pleasant sailing with Mrs +Watkins in the house. Broxton Day saw that to be the fact, +plainly and almost immediately. Janice had realized it even +before her father had occasion to mark Mrs. Watkins' most +prominent characteristic. + +She was a person who was determined to take advantage if she +could. In the parlance of the section of the country from which +Broxton Day hailed, she was one of those persons who "if you give +'em an inch they take an ell." + +From the first she made a strong attempt to carry things with a +high hand. Mr. Day was almost sorry he had allowed her to come +into the house. Mrs. Watkins did most of the housekeeping from +her station in a rocking chair on the porch where she sat, +wearing the mitts aforementioned. + +Her idea of keeping the house in order was to clean all the rooms +that were not absolutely needed, and then close them up tight, +draw the shades down and close the blinds, making of each an +airless tomb into which Janice was made to feel she must not +enter for fear of admitting a speck of dirt. + +Most of the work was done on Saturday, when Janice was at home. +There was no playtime now for the girl-- none at all. + +But Janice would not complain. Mrs. Watkins could be very mean +and petty, indeed; but to daddy she showed her best side. And as +far as he saw, the house was run much better than had been the +case of late. + +Mrs. Watkins was ladylike in her demeanor. They became used to +her sitting at the table with them and quite governing the trend +of conversation at meals, as she did. Neither Janice nor her +father liked to have the woman bring her tatting, which was her +usual evening employment, into the living-room after dinner, for +that was the only time when daughter and father could be +confidential. But they did not see how they could overcome this +annoyance without offending the woman. + +At the end of the month Mr. Day was startled by the increase in +the household bills. Mrs. Watkins had served them rather better +food, it was true, than they had been getting of late; but a good +many cutlets, sweetbreads, chops and steaks, seemed never to have +appeared on the dinner table. + +"I always feel the need of a hearty lunch Mr. Day," sniffed Mrs. +Watkins. "I really need it after doing the morning's work. To +keep one's self in condition is a duty we owe ourselves don't you +think?" + +"You seem to have stocked up pretty well with canned goods, Mrs. +Watkins," was Broxton Day's rejoinder, now scanning the long +memorandum from Harriman's. "Dear, dear! French peas? And +imported marmalade? And canned mushrooms? Do you use all these +things, Mrs. Watkins?" + +"Oh, they are most useful, Mr. Day. One never knows when one may +have company or wish to make a special dish. I have been used to +the best, Mr. Day. Of course, if you wish to limit my +purchases--" and she sniffed. + +"Humph! I am not a rich man. We are not in the habit of using +imported provisions of this quality. I expect you to buy good +food and all that is sufficient. But such luxuries as these we +cannot afford." + +Mrs. Watkins merely sniffed again. Broxton Day, when he paid the +bills at the stores, pointed out to Mr. Harriman and to the +butcher that the goods bought seemed to cost considerably more +than they previously had. + +"Why, Mr. Day, you are buying a different quality of goods from +what you have been used to," said Harriman. "Here's butter, for +instance. That is our best-- print butter, seven cents a pound +higher than the tub butter you used to buy. Those eggs are +selected white Leghorns, come to us sealed in boxes, and are +fifteen cents more a dozen than ordinary fresh eggs." + +The butcher told him something else. "Yes, you are getting the +best grade of everything we carry, Mr. Day. That lady at your +house evidently knows what she wants." + +"Look here!" exclaimed Broxton Day, with some heat. "I haven't +suddenly become a millionaire. I can't stand these prices. When +she comes in here to buy, give her the grade of meat we have +always had. And remember that I can't, and won't, pay for +sweetbreads at a dollar and a half a pair." + +"Why, bless you!" said the butcher, grinning, "I've never seen +the lady. She always telephones. She's some relative of yours, +isn't she, Mr. Day? She certainly does order high-handed." + +"And she wanted to do the marketing herself," groaned Broxton +Day, as he went away after paying the bill. "I wonder what I am +up against? Things do go better at the house; but I wonder if I +can stand the pressure." + +He did not know how much Janice had to do with making things at +the house go so much more smoothly. The little girl was +determined that daddy should not be troubled by household matters +if she could help it. + +With Olga Cedarstrom or the half-foolish Delia in the house, it +was impossible to keep from daddy's eyes the things that went +wrong. Now it was different. Mrs. Watkins was very sly in +making everything appear all right before Broxton Day. On the +other hand Janice showed an equal amount of slyness (of which she +had been previously accused!) in helping hide the numerous things +that would have troubled daddy. + +There was waste in the kitchen. Mrs. Watkins was a big eater, +but a delicate eater. She never wished to see the same thing on +the table twice. A poor family could have been fed fairly well +from what the woman flung into the garbage. + +Janice had never been used to seeing such recklessness, even when +only an ignorant servant was doing the work. At those times food +was bought with a less lavish hand. Now there was seldom anything +left, so Mrs. Watkins said, from one meal to warm up for another. + +"I don't know what to do--I really don't," Janice confessed to +Any Carringford who, by this time, had become her very closest +friend and confidante. "Daddy has many business troubles, I +know. It bothers him greatly to be annoyed by household matters. +And he ought not to be so annoyed. But that woman!" + +"It is too bad, honey," Amy said. "I wish my mother could help +you. She knows everything about housekeeping." + +"I know that is so," agreed Janice. "I wish Mrs. Watkins was a +lady like your mother, Amy. Then the house would go all right +and daddy needn't be bothered at all. I feel I ought to do +something; but I don't know what." + +Aside from cooking the meals, which she did very nicely, it must +be confessed, Mrs. Watkins gradually allowed most of the +responsibility for the housework to slide on to Janice's young +shoulders. + +The young girl got up an hour earlier than usual, and she busied +herself sweeping and dusting and making beds right up to the +minute she had to seize her books and lunch and run to school. +She was quite sure that Mrs. Watkins went back to bed after +breakfast, and really did little towards keeping the house in +order until afternoon. + +And if there was any scrubbing, or hard work to do, that was left +until Saturday. Nobody ever saw Mrs. Watkins on her knees, +unless it was at her devotions! + +However, Janice Day was too sanguine to be made melancholy by +these affairs. She was of a naturally cheerful nature--an +attribute she inherited from her father. It took more than the +faded-out lady to cause the girl overwhelming anxiety. + +The stroke that had been the hardest for her to bear since her +mother's death was the loss of the treasure-box and the heirlooms +in it. Whether or not the Swedish girl, Olga Cedarstrom, had +carried the valuables away with her, Janice felt all the time +that she had only herself to blame because of the loss. And she +realized that the loss of the packet of letters had saddened +daddy dreadfully. + +"If I had not been careless! If I had put the box back into the +wall-safe before I went to bed! If I had remembered when I saw +Arlo Junior and the cats! Dear me," murmured Janice more than +once, "'If,' 'if,' 'if!' If the rabbit hadn't stopped for a nap +beside the track, the tortoise would not have won the race." + +"But, what under the sun," Gummy Carringford asked, "could have +become of Olga and her fella? That is certainly a mystery." + +With Amy and her brother, the boy with the odd name, Janice often +discussed the lost treasure-box. She and daddy did not speak so +much together about it as at first. It seemed to be hopelessly +lost. + +With the Carringfords Janice had become very friendly, as has +been said. In the first place, Mrs. Carringford very much liked +Janice Day. And how could she and her children help but be +grateful to the little girl who lived at Eight-forty-five Knight +Street? + +The birthday party at Stella Lathams' house was now at hand. +Mrs. Carringford had not yet been able to make over Mr. Day's +clothes to fit Gummy; and he was not invited to the party, +anyway. He was one grade in advance of the three girls in +school, and Stella considered this excuse enough for not inviting +him to her birthday fete. But Amy was radiant in the pink and +white frock Janice had donated. + +"Never mind," said Gummy, who was of a cheerful spirit, too. +"I'm glad the party will be on Friday instead of Saturday night. +I'll be out of the store early enough Friday night to come to the +Latham place to beau you girls home." + +"Maybe we'll have beaux of our own and won't want you," said Amy +roguishly. + +"Don't mind what she says, Gummy," cried Janice. "I won't have +any beau but you. I shall expect you. So don't fail me." + +Stella Latham's expectations had been high, indeed, regarding her +party; nor was she disappointed. Her father and mother had done +everything they thought would please their only daughter; and +surely the cost had not been considered. + +The house, and the grounds around it, were charmingly +lighted--the outside lamps being those gaudy and curious forms +containing lighted candles, and called Japanese lanterns. + +The Latham place on the Dover pike, was one of the show places of +the countryside. Mr. Latham was wealthy and could well afford to +give his daughter's friends an entertainment that might better, +perhaps, have been offered older guests. + +Stella was growing up too fast. Because she was aping older and +foolishly fashionable folk, she was becoming an exacting, +precocious girl--not at all the innocent and joyous child she +should have been at fourteen years of age. + +Her mother feared that all was not right with Stella; yet she was +too weak and easy-going a woman to correct her daughter with a +strong hand. She had observed Janice Day on two occasions when +the latter had come with other young friends of Stella's to the +house, and had commented favorably upon Janice's character. + +"There is a girl you might pattern after, Stella, and it would do +you good," said the somewhat unwise Mrs. Latham. + +"Humph! I don't see why you say that, Ma," said Stella. "Janice +Day isn't half as pretty as Mary Pierce. And she dresses in half +mourning because of her mother's death. She hasn't got any style +about her." + +"She is a very shrewd and sensible young person," declared Mrs. +Latham. "I wish you were more like her." + +It was from this remark that Stella had derived the statement +that Janice was "sly." That term, quite justly, might have been +applied to Stella. For Stella would have cared very little if +neither Janice nor Amy Carringford had come to the birthday +party. + +Only Mr. Latham had insisted that his daughter should invite +every girl in her grade at school. He was wiser than his wife. + +"You don't want any ill-feelings among your mates," he told +Stella. + +Janice Day, therefore, whether "shrewd" or "sly," had helped +Stella in the matter of fulfilling Mr. Latham's command. Amy, as +sweet as a rose, appeared in the pretty pink and white dress that +had been made by the dear fingers of Janice's mother. + +At first Janice could scarcely look at her friend in the frock +without feeling the tears start to her eyes. But, then,she knew +that mother would have approved fully of this gift she had made. +And Amy Carringford was good and attractive. + +There was such a large number of young folks at the Latham place +that evening that when it came time for the refreshments, every +one of the farmer's hired help was called in, either as waiters +or in the kitchen. + +It took a good many waiters, too, for there were many steps to be +taken back and forth to the kitchen. Mr. Latham had had a large +canvas canopy stretched out in one corner of the yard, and under +this were set the tables. And pretty, indeed, did they look +under the soft lights of the numerous candles in their shiny +whiteness of heavy napery, polished silver, dainty porcelain, and +brilliant cutglass. + +What appealed more, however, to the hearty appetites of the young +people were the quantifies of sandwiches, the olives and pickles +and the bowls of salad, the rich cakes, the heaps of ice-cream, +the hot chocolate. The Lathams were lavish at all times, and +when they gave a formal party the table was heaped with the +richest and most delicious food they could provide. No wonder it +took many hands to make things run smoothly. + +"Goodness!" said Stella, within hearing of Janice and Amy, +"there's such a crowd in that kitchen you've no idea! And some +of the help are perfectly useless! You know, mother had the +folks come up from both tenant houses to help, and one of the +women--the Swedish one --has just broken one of mother's biggest +cutglass dishes." + +"I thought I heard a crash out there," said Janice. + +"It is too bad," Amy added. "Of course the woman did not mean +to." + +"Well!" sniffed Stella, "that won't make the dish whole. It's +worth money, too." + +"Dear me," said Amy reflectively. "I guess Swedish girls must be +bad luck. You know, it was a Swedish girl that stole that box +from Janice." + +"What box?" asked Stella, quickly. "A jewel box?" + +"All the jewelry I owned," said Janice, with rather a rueful +smile. "But more than that. Mother's miniature --and other +things. At least, we suppose that Olga took the box when she +left us so hurriedly." + +"Olga!" exclaimed Stella. "Fancy! You don't mean that was her +name?" + +"Yes, 'Olga' she was called," Janice said wonderingly. + +"That's the name Of this girl that broke the dish." + +"Why, how funny!" exclaimed Amy +. +"That's not funny," rejoined Janice seriously. "Is she named +Olga Cedarstrom?" + +"Goodness! I don't know her last name. She comes from one of +our tenant houses. It's far away. Mother sent her home with a +flea in her ear, now I tell you, after she had broken that dish." + +Janice was disturbed. "I wish you knew her last name. What sort +of looking girl is she? Are you sure she has already left the +house?" + +"Come on!" cried Amy, jumping up. "Let's run around there and +see. Take us to the kitchen door, Stella." + +"Well, yes. We can look. But I guess she has gone," said the +farmer's daughter. + +They had been sitting on the front porch. Stella led them +quickly around to the rear of the big house. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. COULD IT BE OLGA? + +It was a beautiful evening, this of Stella Latham's birthday +party. It was not often that the climate gave the people of +Greensboro, this early in the season, such a soft and temperate +night. + +There was no moon, but the stars plentifully besprinkled the +heavens, and their light bathed the area surrounding the Latham +house, beyond the radiance of the Japanese lanterns, sufficiently +for the three girls to see objects at some distance. + +Before they reached the back door of the farmhouse, Amy cried +aloud: + +"Oh, girls! What's that? A ghost?" + +"Ghost your granny!" exclaimed Stella. "That is somebody running +along the hedge in a white skirt." + +"It is a woman or a girl," Janice agreed, staring at the rapidly +moving figure. "Is there a path there?" + +"That is the path to one tenant house. Wait till I ask Anna, the +cook." + +She hurried to the back door, and her two friends, waiting at the +pasture-lane bars, heard her ask if the woman who had broken the +dish had gone. + +"The awkward thing!" exclaimed Anna, the cook. "She's just this +minute left." + +"What is her name, Anna?" asked Stella, knowing that Janice was +deeply interested. + +"I don't know, Miss. Some outlandish Swedish name." + +"Olga?" + +"Humph! Maybe!" + +"Olga Cedarstrom?" + +"Goodness me! Don't ask me what else besides 'Olga' she is +named," said the irritable cook, "for I couldn't tell you. I +couldn't tell you my own name, scarcely, to-night. I'm that +flurried." + +Hearing all this plainly, Janice murmured to Amy: "I wish I dared +follow her. Suppose it should be Olga?" + +"Well, she is going right to that small house that belongs to Mr. +Latham. Stella says she lives there, whoever she is." + +Just then a figure popped up beside them. Gummy's cheerful voice +demanded: + +"What's the trouble, girls?" + +"Oh!" cried Janice. + +"Goodness!" said the boy's sister. "How you scare one, Gummy! +Why, it isn't near time to go home." + +"I got off earlier than I expected. So I came out and have been +hanging around at the back here for half an hour." + +"Oh. Gummy! did you see that woman?" Janice asked, seizing his +jacket sleeve. + +"What woman?" + +"See there?' cried his sister, pointing. "That white thing going +over the hill." + +"Yes, I saw her. She came out of the kitchen, and she was +crying. They had a row in there." + +"Oh, Gummy! What did she look like?" murmured Janice. + +"Yes, Gummy, tell us quick!" urged his sister. + +"I tell you she was crying, and she had her handkerchief up to +her face. So I did not see much of it. But her hair was 'lasses +color, and she had it bobbed back so tight that I guess she +couldn't shut her eyes until she undid it," chuckled Gummy. + +"Oh, Amy!" ejaculated Janice, with clasped hands, "that is the +way Olga used to do her hair." + +"Not Olga, the Swede, who robbed you?" demanded the boy, +interested at once. + +"Yes. It might be Olga. If you had only seen her face--" + +"I'll see her face all right," declared Gummy, starting off. +"I'll tell you just where she goes and what she looks like. +Don't you girls go home without me." + +He was gone on the track of the flying woman like a dart. He was +out of sight, being in dark garments, before Stella came back +from the kitchen door. + +"Don't tell her about Gummy," whispered Amy quickly. "She'll +think, maybe, that he's been hanging around like those strange +boys over the fence in front." + +"Not a word," agreed Janice, smiling. "I wouldn't give Gummy +away." + +"There isn't anybody in the kitchen who knows that girl very +well," said Stella, who was really showing herself interested in +Janice Day's trouble. "I asked them all. This girl, Olga, is +staying with Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson has a little baby to +care for and couldn't come to-night. So this friend of hers came +up to help. And she helped all right!" concluded Stella, with +emphasis. "That dish is in a thousand pieces." + +"Isn't it too bad?" said Amy, sympathetically. + +"It's a mean shame," Stella declared. "I bet she'd steal. You'd +better come over here tomorrow and find her. I'll bring you back +in the auto with me after I go shopping, and we'll ride around by +Mr. Johnson's house. He's one of father's farmers, you know." + +"I'll tell daddy," Janice said, but in some doubt. "I'm awfully +much obliged to you, Stella. You are real kind." + +This pleased Stella Latham. She liked being praised, and as long +as kindness did not cost her much of anything, she was glad to be +kind. + +The entertainment of her boy and girl friends continued gaily, +despite the breaking of the big cutglass dish. It was almost +eleven o'clock when the party broke up and the guests began to +leave, shouting their congratulations to Stella as they went. + +Janice and Amy Carringford found Gummy waiting for them at the +front gate. + +"Oh, Gummy!" whispered Janice, "did you see her?" + +"Sure," declared the boy. "That's what I went after, wasn't it? +A sight of the Swedish girl's phisamahogany?" + +"Gummy!" remonstrated his sister. + +"But was it Olga?" demanded Janice, too deeply interested in the +subject of Olga to be patient with sisterly reproof. + +"Oh, say! How can I be sure of that? I never saw her before." + +"Tell us all about it, Gummy," urged Janice. + +"Why, you see," said the excited boy. "I ran's hard as I could +and I overbrook that girl at the took" + +"What? What?" gasped Janice. "Say that again, Gummy." + +"Oh--I--" + +His sister went off into a gale of laughter. "Oh, Gummy!" she +cried, "you 'overbrook' her at the 'took,' did you? Your +tongue's twisted again." + +"Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed Gummy. "Of course, I mean I overtook her +at the brook." + +"That's better," giggled Amy. "But you did get awfully 'gummed +up,' Gummy, didn't you?" + +"Huh!" he snorted. + +"He's the most awful boy you ever saw, Janice. He is always +getting twisted in his talk." + +"Like the young man in church who asked the girl if he could +'occupew a seat in this pie?'" + +"Even worse than that," cried Amy, much to her brother's disgust. +"Why, years ago when we lived in Napsburg, where the twins were +born, he made an awful mistake--and to our minister, too." + +"Aw," objected Gummy, "can't you keep anything to yourself?" + +"Go on," urged Janice. + +"Now, I say!" again protested the boy. + +"Listen, Janice!" giggled Amy. "It's awfully funny. The minister +met Gummy on the street and asked him what we had decided to call +the twins. + +"'You know, I expect to christen them, Gumswith,' he said to +Gummy, 'and I want to be sure to get the names right. What are +they?' + +"And what do you suppose Gummy said?" + +"I am sure I couldn't guess," Janice declared. "Let's see: the +twins are Sydney and Kate, aren't they? + +"That is right," giggled Amy. "But Gummy told the minister we +had decided to call them 'Kidney and Steak'!" + +Janice herself was convulsed with laughter at this. Gummy was +annoyed about it. + +"Why don't you keep something to yourself once in a while, Amy?" +he growled to his sister. "Janice will think I'm a perfect +chump." + +"Come on now, Gummy," Janice interrupted cheerily. "You are +keeping something to yourself that I very much want to know." + +"Oh! About that Swede! Amy knocked it clear out of my head," +declared the boy. + +"Well, let us hear about it," urged Janice. + +"Why, I overtook the girl at the brook," said Gummy, getting the +statement right this time. "She might be just the girl you are +looking for, from what you told me about her looks. I saw her +face plainly when I passed her." + +"Where did she go?" + +"To that little house at the end of the farm road, just where it +opens into the turnpike. Oh, I've seen the place before. I +drove out past there the other day for Mr. Harriman." + +"That must be the Johnson's house," Janice said. "That is what +Stella said the tenant's name was." + +"Well, she went in there," said Gummy. "She seemed in a dreadful +hurry. She pounded on the door, and she called to them in +Swedish. I waited behind the hedge until she got in and the +family was quieted down again." + +"That's good! It's 'most sure to be Olga, Janice, and you can +see her to-morrow and get your box back--at least, find out where +it is," said Amy encouragingly. + +"Well, I'll tell daddy," sighed Janice. "It may be the same +Olga. I hope so. And if she has got my box of treasures--well! +I'll forgive her anything if I only get back mother's picture and +daddy's letters." + + + +CHAPTER XV. THE LOST TRAIL + +Mr. Day had not yet gone to bed when the young folks reached the +house; but Mrs. Watkins had long since retired. The light in the +living room assured Janice that her father awaited her return, +and bidding Amy and Gummy good-night at the gate, she ran into +the house in great excitement. + +"Oh, Daddy! Daddy! Guess!" she cried to him. "Just think! She +broke a big cutglass dish, and I'm 'most sure it's Olga--" + +"Wait!" exclaimed Mr. Day, putting up both hands. "Mercy, I +pray, my dear. I don't know what you are talking about." + +"But you know Olga, Daddy." + +"To my sorrow," he groaned, "It can't be that you have found out +anything about that Swedish girl? I have been searching +Pickletown again this evening." + +"Oh, Daddy!" she cried, "maybe Olga is just where you can find +her to-morrow. And she did break one of Mrs. Latham's very best +dishes, and--" + +"Let us hear all about this in due order," laughed Broxton Day. +"I can see that you are far too much excited to go promptly to +bed. Explain yourself, my dear." + +When he had heard it all, he did not appear to be as much +impressed as Janice expected him to be. It was a small chance, +in his opinion, that the girl who had broken Mrs. Latham's dish +was the same Olga who had for two months held sway in the Day +kitchen. + +"But we will make a pilgrimage to the cottage on the back of the +Latham farm," Daddy promised. "If I can get away from the bank +early to-morrow afternoon, we will go. I know the place, and +there is a family of Swedish people living there. Of course, by +chance, it might be Olga your friend Gummy followed home." + +"Oh, no! It would be providential, Daddy," Janice declared, +smiling. "You say yourself that Providence is not chance." + +"True," he agreed, with gravity. "If we get back the +treasure-box, with all in it, I shall be very, very thankful +indeed, and shall consider it a Providential happening." + +"Daddy, dear!" whispered Janice. + +It was at these times, when they spoke of the lost treasures, +that Janice was so heart-stricken because of daddy's expression +of countenance. Those letters from her dear, dead mother, which +her father prized so highly, were continually in Broxton Day's +mind. She realized it was a loss that time would hardly mend. + +"And all my fault! All my fault!" she sobbed when she was alone +in her bedroom. "Had I not been so dreadfully careless Olga +would never have got hold of that box when she was mad and run +off with it. And suppose she doesn't think the things in it are +worth much? She might throw them away!" + +So, despite the good time they had had at Stella Latham's party, +Janice went to bed in no happy frame of mind. + +Saturday was bound to be a very busy day; and Janice did not wake +up early. Daddy left a note for her on the table saying he would +be at home with some kind of a conveyance not long after the bank +closed at one o'clock. + +She knew what that meant. They were to ride out to the Johnson +house and make inquiries for the girl, Olga. Janice was sorry she +had slept so late, for Mrs. Watkins expected her to do what she +termed "her share" of the work. + +"If your pa lets you sit up till all hours, so that you're not +fit for anything in the morning, should I be blamed?" complained +the faded-out lady. "I'm sure I have enough to do every day, and +all day. I have got to have some help on Saturdays and that is +all there is to it." + +Janice knew well enough that the reason the work piled up so upon +the last day of the week was because it was allowed to accumulate +through the other days. But the kitchen floor did have to be +scrubbed. It was a sight! + +If the woman would only mop it every other day it would not be so +bad; but it seemed to Janice that Mrs. Watkins would just wade +through dirt to her knees in the kitchen before she would use +either mop or scrubbing brush. + +It was true that daddy did not often look into the kitchen, now +that there was somebody supposedly capable of keeping the room, +as well as the rest of the house, in order. And Janice was glad +he did not look around the house much. + +Such training as she had enjoyed under her mother's eye had made +Janice thorough. Mrs. Day had been a thoroughly good +housekeeper. + +And she had always kept so well up with her housework that there +were never any difficult jobs left to haunt one, and her house +looked always neat. Nor was she obliged to keep half her +prettily furnished rooms shut up to keep them clean! + +Janice did all she could on this short Saturday morning. She had +first of all to he sure that daddy's room was dusted--every bit. +Then there were the halls and stairs to do. After those, the +porches must be swept. + +"For you know," sighed Mrs. Watkins, "it looks so much better for +a child like you to be out sweeping the porch and paths than what +it would me." + +Janice could not quite understand this reasoning. But she knew +it must be a deal easier for Mrs. Watkins to rock in a chair in +the house than to wield the broom. That went without saying. + +She did not think of lunch, although the faded-out lady did not +neglect her own. Janice was down on her hands and knees, with +scrubbing brush and pail, when the housekeeper carried some +savory dish or other into the dining room. + +"I presume since you had your breakfast so late you will not care +to eat now," said the woman. To tell the truth, a tear or two +dropped into the strong soda water in the pail. + +"Though I don't believe salt will help start the grease-spots on +this floor," Janice thought, rubbing her eyes with the wrist of +one hand. "There! I am a regular cry-baby. I said I would do +something to relieve daddy of bothering about the housework. And +if scrubbing a floor is the best I can do--" + +Suddenly a shadow appeared at the door. Janice looked up and +squealed. There was daddy himself--at least an hour and a half +too early. + +"Well, well!" exclaimed Broxton Day, rather sternly, "what is +the meaning of this?" + +"Dirt on the floor boards--scrubbing brush--elbow grease," +retorted his daughter, making vigorous explanatory motions. +"Didn't you ever see a 'scrub lady' before, Daddy?" + +"Humph! so there is a Cinderella in the house is there?" he said. + +Mrs. Watkins opened the dining-room door. She was swallowing a +mouthful which seemed to go down hard. Mr. Day's unexpected +appearance disturbed her. + +"Oh, Mr. Day," she cried, feebly, "have--have you had your +lunch?" + +"I have, Mrs. Watkins," he replied. Then to Janice: "No matter +how much you may like to scrub floors, my dear, you will have to +leave this one for Mrs. Watkins to finish. There is a car at the +door. I have borrowed it for a couple of hours, and you must +make haste and put on something different and come with me to +look for Olga." + +"Well," Janice got up from her knees slowly. + +"Hurry," said daddy sternly. And he stood and waited until +Janice went out of the room. + +"So you will not have lunch, Mr. Day?" asked Mrs. Watkins coolly. + +"No. But there is one thing I will have, Mrs. Watkins," he said +sternly. "I will have you attend to your work, and not put it on +Janice, while you remain here!" + +"I do not understand you, sir," said the woman, her nose in the +air. + +"Let me make myself plain then," said Broxton Day. "I will not +pay you wages to shift such work as this," pointing to the +scrub-pail, "upon my daughter. I want that understood here and +now. I can no longer give you carte blanche at the grocery and +provision store. I will do the marketing myself hereafter. You +will furnish the lists." + +"Sir?" ejaculated Mrs. Watkins haughtily. + +"I have kept tabs on the accounts this last week. In no seven +days since I was married have the expenses for the table been +half what they have been this week." + +"I am not used to a poverty-stricken household, Mr. Day!" sneered +Mrs. Watkins. + +"But you soon will be," Broxton Day told her grimly, "if I let +you have a free hand in this way. I am not a rich man, and I +soon will be a poor one at this rate." + +"I want you to understand, Mr. Day, that no lady can demean +herself." + +"Wait a moment," said the man, still grimly. "I did not hire you +to be a lady. I hired you to do the housework. I can't have you +here unless you keep your share of the contract. Please remember +that, Mrs. +Watkins." + +He left her abruptly and walked through to the front of the +house. He saw that at her place on the dining table was the +remains of a broiled squab-chicken--a very tasty bit for a hard +working woman like Mrs. Watkins. + +"Are you ready, daughter?" he called up the stairway. + +"Just a minute or two, Daddy," replied Janice. + +She felt that they were in trouble again. All she had tried to +do to keep him from knowing just how badly things about the house +were going had been for naught. + +But she winked back the tears and "practised a smile" in her +looking glass before she ran down to join daddy on the porch. +There was a big touring car out in front. Janice knew it +belonged to the vice-president of the Farmers ad Merchants Bank. + +"Oh, what a fine car, Daddy!" she whispered, clinging to his +hand. "Let's play it is ours--while we are in it, of course." + +"Would you like to have a car my dear?" he asked her, as they +settled themselves in the tonneau, and the driver started the +machine. + +"Oh!" she cried. "I could just jump out of my skin when I think +of it! Every time I ride with Stella + +Latham I'm just as covetous as I can be. I guess I am real +wicked, Daddy." + +"I shouldn't be surprised," he returned, smiling. "It would be +nice to have all the comforts and the luxuries of the +rich--without their troubles." + +"M-mm!" said Janice. "But even their troubles can't be so bad. +Not as bad as poor people's troubles." + +"Like ours?" he returned, smiling down at her. + +"It is a fact that we cannot keep a hired girl. We're not as +lucky as the man I heard of who was boasting of having kept a +cook a whole month. But it seemed that this month his house was +quarantined for scarlet fever." + +"Oh, Daddy!" giggled Janice. "Let's get a yellow, or a red, card +from the Board of Health, and tack it up outside the door." + +"And so keep Mrs. Watkins, whether or no? I am not sure that we +can stand her, my dear." + +"We-ell, there are worse," Janice confessed. "And we have had +them," commented her father rather grimly. "Ah, that's the little +house where the Johnsons live!" + +"Oh, dear me! If it should be our Olga!" + +"We'll know about that pretty soon," said Mr. Day comfortingly. +"Stop here, Harry." + +The car was halted, and Mr. Day jumped out and went up to the +house. When he knocked a tall, pale woman, with a little baby in +her arms, opened the narrow door. It took but a glance to reveal +her nationality. + +"You bane want my hoosban'?" asked the Swedish woman. + +"No, Mrs. Johnson," replied Mr. Day. "I came to inquire about a +young woman that I believe is staying here." + +"No vooman here but me," declared the other, shaking her head +vigorously. + +"What? Haven't you a friend here named Olga?" + +"Olga bane gone," declared the woman sullenly. + +"Gone away? exclaimed Mr. Day. "Since last evening?" + +"She bane gone." + +"Are you Mrs. Johnson?" asked the man, earnestly. + +"My name bane Yonson--yes," she agreed. "I don't know nottin' +'bout Olga. She bane gone. She did not mane to break dish, +anyway." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Mr. Day, remembering what Janice had told him +about the accident at the Latham's the evening before. "We have +not come about the dish. It is for another matter entirely that +we wish to find Olga." + +"I not know where Olga bane go," pursued Mrs. Johnson, shaking +her head vigorously. + +"She went away this morning, then?" + +"Yah. She bane go dis mornin'." + +"Is her name Olga Cedarstrom?". + +"No! No!" exclaimed Mrs. Johnson, shaking her head vigorously. +"You not b'know dis Olga. She 'nudder girl." + +"Where is your husband?" asked Mr. Day hopelessly. "Perhaps he +can tell me more about her." + +"Yon Yonson gone to Dover," declared his wife, suddenly shutting +the door and leaving Mr. Broxton Day outside on the step. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. A LETTER FROM POKETOWN + +"It looks as though we had come upon a fool's errand," said Mr. +Day, coming back to the car and his daughter. "Mrs. Johnson says +that girl was not named Cedarstrom, and that she has already gone +away." + +"Do you suppose it is the truth, Daddy?" asked the anxious +Janice. + +"Well, it is probably the truth. All Olgas are not named +'Cedarstrom,' of course. And I fancy the girl was frightened +because of the broken cutglass dish and escaped early this +morning." + +"Why? Would Mrs. Latham try to make her pay for it?" + +"Perhaps. At least, this mysterious Olga thought she would be +made to pay for the dish. Or perhaps she feared arrest. +Sometimes these foreigners are very ignorant regarding our laws. +She might easily have been frightened away." + +"But if she is our Olga--" + +"This woman here is stubborn. She will probably tell us nothing +more about her friend. And she said flatly that the name was not +Cedarstrom." + +"Oh, dear!" sighed Janice, "it is too, too bad." + +"It is too bad that the trail seems lost. I will try to see Mr. +Johnson himself. We will make sure that the girl was not the one +we are after. But, you see, we are inquiring for Olga for a +reason that is likely to frighten her and her friends. I think +some of those people over in Pickletown might tell me more than +they do about Olga and that Willie Sangreen." + +"It is just too bad!" half sobbed Janice. "I hoped we should +find the treasure-box this time." + +"Have patience. Rome was not built in a day," said her father. + +"We're not building Rome," the girl retorted, but trying to smile +again. "I guess even that was an easier job than finding a lost +Swedish girl." "Don't + worry, honey." + +"But I can't help worrying," said Janice, sobbing again. + +"You are overwrought, my dear. Don't let your mind run upon +unpleasant things. That treasure-box. +" +"Will never be found, Daddy!" cried his little daughter. "I am +sure! And if it isn't found I don't --don't--know--what +I--shall--do." + +He put his arm about her and hugged Janice tight against his +side. "Don't lose hope so easily. And see here! Here is +something new I forgot to tell you." + +"What is it, Daddy?" she asked, as he began to search an inner +pocket of his coat. + +"A letter. From your Aunt Almira. Just listen to it." + +"Oh, Daddy! From Aunt Almira in--in Poketown?" + +"Yes. My half-brother's wife--and a good soul she + is." + +He drew the letter from its envelope and unfolded it. He began to +read the epistle with a smile wreathing his lips, for Aunt +Almira's communication was unintentionally funny: + +"'Dear Brocky: + +"'Jase won't never get around to writing you, far as I see, so I +had better do so before you get the suspicion that we are all +dead. We might as well be and buried, too, here in Poketown--for +it is right next door to a cemetery for deadness, I do believe. +You know what it was when you was lucky enough to get out of it +twenty years ago. Well, it is worse now. There has been nothing +new in Poketown since you went away, excepting the town pump's +been painted once. + +"That time you came to see us with Laura, when Janice was a +little girl--" + +"Why, Daddy!" interrupted Janice, her eyes round with wonder, "I +don't remember Poketown at all." + +"You were too little to recall that visit. I have only been back +there once since you and your dear mother and I visited Jase and +Almira." Then he went on, reading aloud: + +"'You remember the house needed painting and the front gate hung +by one hinge. Well, it still needs painting and that one hinge +has give up the ghost now. So you see, there hasn't been many +changes. You're the only Day, I guess, that ever had any "get up +and get" to them. + +"'But my heart has been full of thoughts of you since we heard of +poor Laura's death. We often speak of you and wonder how you and +that little girl get on all stark alone. I know how I should +feel if Jase and Marty was left as you and Janice be.'" + +"Oh," gasped Janice, "she'd be dead!" + +"Well," mused her father, "Almira, living in such a dead place as +Poketown, evidently considers that she knows about how she would +feel in her grave." + +"Is it such an awful place, Daddy?" Janice asked seriously. + +"What do you mean?" he inquired, in surprise. "Oh, Poketown, I +mean, of course. +"It is a lovely place. But it must be confessed that it is a +good deal behind the times. It is not as bad as Aunt 'Mira makes +it out to be, I guess. Only, the old Day house has pretty well +gone to rack and ruin." + +"Well. Let's hear the rest," urged Janice. + +"'Jase says to be mighty careful if you should have to go down to +that Mexico place. He reads in his Ledger that sometimes there +is shooting down there and that the Mexicaners don't care who +they shoot.'" + +"Oh, Daddy!" cried Janice, "you don't mean you are going to +Mexico?" + +"I wrote them when I thought it might be necessary," he +confessed. + +"And you would send me East if you went? Oh, Daddy, please!" + +"Well, my dear, that seemed the wisest thing to do." + +"Oh, Daddy!" + +"Don't worry now. We have engaged a new superintendent at the +mines, and I guess things will go on all right. Listen to what +your Aunt 'Mira says: + +"'Of course, if you have to go down there on business, you send +Janice right to us. I'm speaking for Jase as well as myself. We +ain't rich, of course; but there's enough to fill another mouth +yet awhile, so don't be bashful. + +"'Hoping this finds you and Janice in health, it leaving us all +the same, I will close, + +"'Your, sister-in-law and Janice's aunt, "'ALMIRA DAY.'" + +"I hope you won't have to go, and that I won't have to go, +Daddy!" exclaimed the girl anxiously. + +"She's a good soul--Almira. She'd do her best by you." + +"I don't want anybody to do their best by me--only you, Daddy." + +"But you see, my dear, I couldn't leave you alone at home here. +Certainly not with a woman like Mrs. Watkins." + +"We-ell!" + +"Why, she would be imposing upon you all the time. No, indeed. +I feel that she is not the woman for our house, after all." + +"Oh, dear, Daddy! isn't it funny how many people there are in the +world who don't just fit?" + +"Right you are, my dear," he agreed, laughing again. "'Round pegs +in square holes.' The woods are full of them." + +"That Mrs. Watkins never should have gone out to work.' + +"I guess not." + +"And people like Mrs. Carringford have got their own families and +their own troubles. So we can't get them." + +"What put Amy's mother in your mind?" + +"I wish you could see their house, Daddy." + +"I have," he said, rather grimly. "And it is sight!" + +"Not inside! Oh, not at all, Daddy!" she cried. "It is as neat +as wax. Mrs. Carringford is just a love of a housekeeper. I +wish you could see how neat everything is kept," and she sighed. + +The automobile soon brought them to the house at Eight Hundred +and Forty-five Knight Street. Mr. Day had become serious again +as they came in sight of the cottage in which so much of a +disturbing nature had happened of late. + +For a few days, it was true, Broxton Day had hoped the new +housekeeper would prove an efficient and trustworthy employee, +but what he had seen on coming unexpectedly home this Saturday +noon, had caused doubt to rise in his mind. + +Experience had taught him that domestic servants are the most +independent of laborers. To dare call one to account--especially +one like Mrs. Watkins--was to court disaster. + +He had felt this to be the case at the time, yet he was unwilling +to see Janice made a drudge of by the too ladylike Mrs. Watkins. +If the kitchen floor had to be scrubbed, and the houseworker +would not scrub it, he would do it himself! + +In this mood he entered his home. All was quiet. There was +nobody in the living room or dining room. On the table in the +latter room were the dirty dishes and the remains of Mrs. +Watkins' lunch. + +"Oh! where is she?" gasped Janice, following her father through +the rooms. + +Mr. Day led the way to the kitchen. The pail stood where Janice +had left it, the scrubbing brush beside it. The fire in the +range had gone out. + +With a smothered cry Janice darted upstairs. In a moment her +voice reached his expectant ear: + +"Oh, Daddy, she's gone!" she cried. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. MISS PECKHAM WASHES HER HANDS + +"It seemed that Mrs. Sophronia Watkins had never sent for her +trunk; so all she had to do was to pack her bag and walk out of +the house. And she had done that very thing. + +"'What can't be cured, must be endured,'" quoted Daddy. "Here is +a nice little island of clean floor where you scrubbed, Janice. +I will build the fire, heat water, and finish the job." + +'"Oh, no, Daddy! Let me. Your poor knees--" "My knees are not +poor, I'd have you know," he retorted, laughing. "You dust +around and make the house presentable for Sunday. 'Thus endeth +the lesson.' No more 'lady' housekeepers, Janice, for us." + +"No-o. I s'pose not. But who shall we get?" + +"That is on the knees of the gods, my child," answered Daddy, who +often used quotations that Janice did not altogether understand, +but which she thought were very fine, just the same. +"I guess you mean that nobody knows unless he's omniscient," she +said now. "That's a big word, Daddy, but we had it in our lesson +the other day. And I guess only somebody who knows everything +could guess who will work for us next. Oh, dear!" + +"These three weeks have been an expensive experience," said her +father, ruefully enough. "Besides the addition to our household +bills, Mrs. Watkins asked me the other evening for her month's +wages. 'Salary,' she called it. She was about ten days ahead of +time; but I gave it to her. + +"So we can figure that our month's expenses have been about +doubled. We could not stand that for long, Janice. Perhaps it +is a blessing that Mrs. Watkins has taken herself off." + +"Just the same, Daddy, I'm sorry you came home and caught me +scrubbing the floor," Janice sighed. "We were getting along +without your being bothered--after a fashion." + +"At your cost," he said grimly. "No; we'll hobble along +somehow." + +"But it's such a hobble, Daddy! It seems to me that I'm not much +of a 'do something' girl or I'd manage better than I do." And +Janice sighed. + +"You do wonders, daughter, for a girl of your age. Maybe it is +daddy who fails." + +"Oh, Daddy, never!" + +Janice hurried to do the things Mrs. Watkins had left undone. +And so she forgot some little purchases that had to be made, +until it was almost dark. + +Remembering these, she put on her hat and jacket in haste, and +telling her father where she was going, ran out to the street. +There were the "Weeks' tribe," Junior in the lead, with most of +the other children of the neighborhood, running through Love +Street in a noisy and excited throng. + +"What can be the matter now? A fire?" wondered Janice. + +Her errand took her in an opposite direction. But she saw people +standing at their gates and chatting to each other as though +there was some neighborhood interest that she did not know about. + +"What is the matter with everybody?" Janice asked one girl whom +she met. + +"Why, didn't you see it?" was the surprised answer. + +"Maybe I did, only I didn't know what it was," laughed Janice. + +"A dancing bear. A great, big, brown fellow. You never saw the +like," said her acquaintance. + +"Well," thought Janice, "we cannot hire a dancing bear to do our +housework, that is sure. So I don't believe he interests me." + +She did the errand and hastened home, for daddy and she had not +yet had supper. She ran in at the side door, and as she did so +she heard voices in the kitchen. She halted, listening; for one +of the voices she recognized as Miss Peckham's and it was +high-pitched and angry. + +"I wash my hands of you both--I can tell you that? exclaimed the +spinster from next door. "I don't know why I should have put +myself out to help you, Broxton Day, in any case." + +"I do not see why you should," Daddy replied rapidly. "Yet I +believe you meant well, and I thank you." + +"'Meant well'?" sniffed the visitor. "I don't know what that's +got to do with it. I gave you both--both Sophrony and you--the +chance of your lives. And neither of you appreciate it. I wash +my hands of you +. +Janice pushed open the door quietly and stepped in, closing it +after her. Miss Peckham, with flashing black eyes and more color +in her face than usual, had drawn herself up commandingly in the +middle of the kitchen floor and was staring at Mr. Day angrily. + +"There's that gal!" exclaimed the spinster. "She's the one to +blame." + +"I assure you to the contrary, Janice was doing her best to hide +Mrs. Watkins' shortcomings from me," said Mr. Day, smiling warmly +at his daughter. + +"It don't matter. 'Twas over her you and Sophrony quarreled. +You admit it." + +"I certainly do not admit that I quarreled with Mrs. Watkins," he +said firmly. "She evidently took offense + +at what I said to her, and she left. Now she cannot come back. +Under no circumstances would I consider it." + +"Well, I wash my hands of you both!" exclaimed Miss Peckham +again, and she turned sharply toward the back door--the door +opposite the one by which Janice had just entered. + +The matter of washing her hands seemed important, if only a +figure of speech. She repeated it angrily as she jerked open the +kitchen door. And then she uttered a strange, squeaking cry that +startled Janice and her father before they caught sight of what +had caused the woman's fright. + +Miss Peckham seemed transfixed with terror. She threw up her +hands stiffly and toppled over backward. She fell just as though +she had not a joint in her body, and she fell so hard that her +feet sprang up into the air when her shoulders and the back of +her head struck the floor. + +Standing upright, framed by the doorframe, was a huge, shaggy, +ragged looking bear, and he was snuffling and whining as bears do +when they want something. Really the bear was begging, but none +of those in the kitchen for a moment realized that fact. + +Mr. Day grabbed the poker. Janice squealed and hid behind him. +But her single affrighted cry was all the sound Miss Peckham +made. She really had collapsed in what Janice thought was a +faint. + +Before Mr. Day could attack the creature, a whining voice from +the darkness behind the bear said: + +"Bread-butter, please, Signore--Signora. Pietro no bite. He +gooda bear. Give supper, please. Pietro lika bread-butter." + +The bear came down upon his forepaws, still whining. They could +see, then, the chain by which a very dark man, with little gold +rings in his ears, held the animal in leash. The trainer smiled +very broadly while Pietro snuffed curiously at the soles of Miss +Peckham's shoes. + +And Miss Peckham kicked the harmless Pietro on the nose. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. ALL IN THE DAY'S WORK + +The huge brown bear whined again and seemed grieved that his +innocent attentions should be so ungratefully received. The +hysterical Miss Peckham kicked again and Pietro backed away and +left space for his suavely smiling master in the doorway of the +Day's kitchen. + +"I--I wash my hands of you!" moaned the prostrate spinster. + +"What--How did you come to bring that bear into my yard?" +demanded Mr. Day, finally recovering his voice. + +"Boy tella me you give Pietro supper," said the man with the very +engaging smile. "Bread-butter. Pietro lika heem." + +"That Arlo Weeks Junior!" cried Janice suddenly. "Oh, Daddy, +there he is outside." + +There was a loud explosion of laughter back of the bear and his +trainer, on the dark porch, and then the clatter of running feet. +Junior's proclivity for practical jokes was too well known for +the Days to doubt his connivance in this most surprising +happening. + +"No maka troub', Signore," whined the Italian master of the bear +in about the same tone Bruin himself had begged. + +Mr. Day was helping the overwrought Miss Peckham to her feet. + +"Of all things!" he muttered, "Take her out the other way, +Janice--do." + +"I wash my hands of you!" repeated the spinster, scarcely aware +yet of what had happened. Then she suddenly descried the bear +again. She shrieked in a most ear-piercing tone: + +"There it is! I know Janice Day did that! Don't talk + +to me! She's the plague of the neighborhood. No wonder Sophrony +couldn't stand it here. Bringing bears into the house!" + +"Oh! Oh, Miss Peckham! I never!" cried Janice. + +"Don't deny it. You--you horrid child!" declared the spinster; +and repeating again that she "washed her hands" of them all, she +ran out of the house by the other door and quickly disappeared in +the direction of her own cottage. + +"Well, I never!" exclaimed Mr. Day, falling into a chair. Then +he burst into uproarious laughter. + +The Italian, who had been about to withdraw, and was tugging on +the bear's chain, began to smile again. He foresaw leniency when +the master of the house could laugh like this. + +Janice gave way to merriment, too. It was funny. Much as she +was sorry for Miss Peckham's fright, the situation altogether was +one to amuse her. + +Pietro waddled into the kitchen and sat up like a dog to beg. A +bear is a foolish looking beast at best, unless it becomes +ill-tempered; and this big brown thing, so his smiling master +said, "had the heart of a child." + +"And the stomach of an ostrich!" declared Janice, after almost +every cold scrap in the house had followed several slices of +"bread-butter" down Pietro's cavernous maw. + +The old fellow was as good-natured as he could be. After the +feast he went through his little repertoire of tricks with little +urging. + +He "played soldier" and went through his own particular manual of +arms with his master's stick as a gun. He "played dead," but +with his little pig-like eyes twinkling all the time. + +Finally he danced with his master, and with such abandon, if not +grace, that the dishes rattled on the shelves in the kitchen +cupboard. + +"There, that will do. He's paid for his supper. Next thing +he'll have the house down about our ears," declared Mr. Broxton +Day. + +"Grazias, Signore; grazias, Signora," said the bear trainer, over +and over again, and bowing deeply as he jerked Pietro by the +chain toward the door. + +His eyes, his teeth, and the little gold rings in his ears, all +twinkled together. Janice thought he was a very polite man. + +"And I hope he is always kind to Pietro," she said, when the +foreigner and his strange pet were gone. "But, Daddy! Don't we +have the greatest happenings in our house?" + +"Right you are, my dear. An aristocratic lady has left us flat; +the neighborhood censor has washed her hands of us; and we have +entertained a highly educated bear, all in a single day. As you +might say, all these astonishing happenings are 'all in the Days' +work.' The Days certainly do entertain the most astonishing +adventures." + +"Oh, my! Don't we?" giggled his daughter. + +"And now, if Pietro the bear has left us anything in the house to +eat, let us have supper, Janice. I expect that hereafter Miss +Peckham's opinion of us will be too acrimonious for speech." + +"Oh, she never did like me much," sighed Janice. "And now Arlo +Junior has made it worse again. Just think! The bear on top of +the cats--" + +"Scarcely that, my dear," laughed her father. "But if she really +believes you introduced that bear for the praise of scaring her, +her poor Sam's getting hurt over here will be a small incident +compared with this ursine hold-up. The neighbors are going to +hear about this, I feel sure." + +Nor was he mistaken on that point. Before forty-eight + +hours had elapsed it was noised around the neighborhood that +"that very ladylike person, Mrs. Watkins" had been obliged to +leave the Days and had returned to Marietteville, because of the +treatment accorded her in "that house, which she had entered only +as a favor." + +It was told that Janice had invited a tramp with a dancing bear +into the house and that "no lady who deemed herself such" could +endure rudeness of that character. Somehow, the neighborhood +censor did not figure in the story of the dancing bear; perhaps +she feared to be ridiculed. + +But Janice told Mrs. Carringford all about it. That good woman +had serious troubles of her own; but she was not so selfish that +she could not sympathize with Janice. + +"I do wish I could do something to help you and your father, my +dear," said the woman. "When people have as nice a house as you +have Amy has told me all about +it +--it does seem too bad that it can't be kept as a home should be +kept." + +"Like yours, Mrs. Carringford," said Janice. + +"My dear," sighed Mrs. Carringford, "I don't know how long we'll +have our home, poor as it is. We owe a lot of money on it. I am +afraid I did wrong in trying to buy this place," and she shook +her head sadly. + +Janice did not feel like asking the friendly woman pointblank +what she meant; but Amy afterward explained. + +"You see, Janice, Mr. Abel Strout, of Napsburg, owned this house. +It was he who advised mother strongly to + +buy a home with father's insurance money. We didn't know how +much it cost to keep up a house after you get possession of it. + +"Mr. Strout took part of our money in payment and mother gave a +mortgage to him for the balance of the price. And that mortgage +is troubling mother greatly." + +"I guess mortgages are bad things," Janice observed, with a wise +nod of her head. + +"They are when poor folks have 'em, anyway. You see, mother held +back some money to live on. But taxes and repairs and +assessments have to come out of that, as well as the interest on +the mortgage that comes due half-yearly. And that isn't all." + +"No?" asked Janice, interested. + +"Now it seems that Mr. Strout only wrote that mortgage + +for a year and he can do what he calls 'call it in' a month from +now. Of course, mother can't pay the mortgage; it is hard enough +to pay the interest on it. And so Mr. Strout says he will just +take the house back and we--we'll lose our money, and all," +finished Amy with almost a sob. + +"Why, I think that is too mean for anything!" cried her friend. +"Can't he be stopped?" + +"I don't know how. And I guess mother doesn't. He says he would +accept a payment on the principal--that's +the mortgage, you know. But mother doesn't dare give up any more +of our money. There is nobody earning any but Gummy. And how +far do you suppose his three dollars a week goes in buying food +for all us children, for instance?" + +Janice had no answer for this; but she determined to tell daddy +the particulars of Mrs. Carringford's trouble. Besides, she had +in her mind, and had had for a long time, a desire to bring her +father and Amy's mother together. She wanted them to know each +other, and for a very definite reason. + + + +CHAPTER XIX. A FLARE-UP + + At school the first of that week there was little talked about, +of course, save the glories of Stella's party. No girl in the +grammar grade had ever celebrated her birthday with such +magnificence. The commendation she heard on all sides made +Stella very proud. + +Because so many of the girls tried to show her their appreciation +of the nice time they had had at the Latham farm, Stella began to +feel quite puffed up. She considered herself to be the most +important person in her grade, at least, if not in the whole +school. + +It was a privilege to be taken up by the Latham car after school +and set down at one's door; and Stella distributed such favors +with no lack of shrewdness. She meant such rides to bring her +popularity. Janice had often been the recipient of these +kindnesses, and as she had told her father, it did delight her to +ride in an automobile. + +But since she had become so friendly with Amy Carringford, Janice +had frequently walked home with her, or Amy had accompanied her +to the Day house after school. + +Stella was shallow enough when it came to displaying her own +friendship for another girl; but suddenly it struck the farmer's +daughter that a girl who had once been much in her company was +showing a preference for somebody else. + +"That Janice Day is sly," she muttered to herself, passing Janice +and Amy as they wended their chattering way homeward. "She +thinks I don't notice what she's doing. I'll give it to her +to-morrow, see if I don't!" + +This threat she proceeded to put into practice. And it came most +unexpectedly both to Janice and Amy. + +Janice, of course, was perfectly innocent and quite unsuspicious +of any attack, and Amy did not dream that Stella did not like +her. Had not the farmer's daughter invited Amy to her party? In +fact Amy was liked by almost everybody, teachers and pupils +included. + +In arithmetic Stella always was dull, and on this particular +morning she was more than ordinarily careless in recitation. +Miss Marble gave her a sharp word and propounded the same +question to Amy Carringford. The latter returned the correct +answer, and then gave the red-faced Stella a deprecatory smile. + +"Don't you grin at me, you pauper!" hissed Stella, and so loudly +that several of the girls near by heard her words. + +Even Miss Marble took notice of Stella's speech, although she +could not overhear what she said. + +"No communicating during recitations, Stella," she said sharply. + +Amy had paled to her very lips and the tears sprang to her eyes. +Janice was too far away to understand; but she was +interested--she could not fail to be. + +None who heard the unkind remark of Stella Latham but felt sorry +that one of their mates should be so rude and ungracious. + +"Of course, we all know Amy Carringford is poor--just as poor as +poverty," one of them said at recess. "But that is no reason for +telling her so!" + +This girl was quite energetic in saying this--and more--to the +offending Stella. + +"Just because you ride in an automobile, and your father owns a +farm, you need not think that you are better than anybody else in +our class--for you're not, Stella Latham! Amy Carringford is +every whit as good as you are." + +"Is that so?" snapped Stella. "She's a poverty stricken thing. +She hasn't got a decent thing to wear--" + +"What nonsense, Stella," drawled another and older girl, +shrugging her shoulders. "I noticed particularly the other +night. Amy had as pretty a frock on as anybody at your party." + +"Yes! And where did she get it?" flared out Stella. + +"Her mother made it, I fancy," said the same girl, laughing. + +"That dress was given her by Janice Day. Amy couldn't have come +to my party otherwise--so now! You just ask Janice if what I say +isn't so," cried Stella, stamping her foot. + +"I don't believe it," said the first speaker shortly. + +"So I'm a story-teller, am I?" almost shrieked Stella. "You just +ask Janice." + +Just then Janice strolled into the room where the girls were +gathered at this lunch hour. Amy, of course, had run home for +her lunch--and run home in tears, Janice knew. The latter knew +that Stella was the cause of Amy's trouble, but up to this point +she had not discovered the exact reason for the flare-up. + +"You think I don't tell the truth," pursued Stella, in a loud and +angry voice. "I suppose you'll believe what Janice Day says. +You just ask her who gave that nasty Amy Carringford the dress +she wore to my party." + +Janice stopped stock still for a moment. Her schoolmate's +statement was like a blow in the face. Mean of disposition as she +knew Stella Latham to be, she had not thought the girl would tell +the secret of Amy's pretty dress. + +After the ban of silence Janice had put upon the farmer's +daughter, and the latter's promise to obey that mandate and tell +nobody about the pink and white frock, this deliberate breaking +of Stella's word astounded Janice Day. Her face flushed, then +paled, and she looked as though she were the person guilty of the +outrage, rather than Stella. + +"What nonsense!" exclaimed the older girl, but looking at Janice +curiously. "Why put it on Janice, Stella? You are saying +something you do not know anything about." + +"Oh! I don't?" exclaimed the farmer's daughter. "You just ask +Janice, I tell you." + +"Do your own asking," said another. "Janice doesn't look very +pleasant," and she laughed. + +"You tell 'em!" commanded Stella, starting toward Janice +threateningly. "Didn't you give Amy that dress so she could come +to my party? Didn't you?" + +Janice had begun to recover her confidence--and her good sense, +too. She could not deny the accusation; but she determined to +put Stella before her fellow schoolmates in just the right light. + +"I do not know that it is a crime for one girl to help another," +Janice said quietly, and still very pale. "If I did what Stella +claims I did, it was nothing shameful I am sure--either for Amy +or for me." + +"Of course it wasn't!" murmured one of the other girls. + +"Bully for you, Janice!" said another, in commendation. + +"It really was only our business--Amy's and mine. But Stella knew +about it. In fact, Stella came to me about Amy in the first +place. She wanted to invite Amy and she feared--so she +said--that Amy would not have a +party dress. I undertook to find her one, and hard +enough time I had getting Amy and her mother to agree +to use the dress. + +"But that," said Janice scornfully, "is a purely personal matter +between them and me. I want to ask you girls, though, what you +think of a person who, after having given her word to keep the +matter a secret, deliberately taunts Amy with the fact that she +took the dress from me? That is what I want to know." + +The other girls were silent for the moment. Janice Day's +scornful question was too pointed to be ignored. Stella broke out +again in anger, her voice high and shrill: + +"I don't care! So there! She is a dowdy little thing, and she +had no business to come to my party, anyway." + +"Stella," said the older girl grimly, "you're making yourself +awfully ridiculous. And worse. You can't keep a secret. And +you don't keep your word. I guess there will be more than Amy +Carringford who will be sorry that they ever went to your old +party. Now, stop yelling. Here comes Miss Marble." + +The flare-up was only the beginning of a very unhappy time at +school for Amy Carringford. Nor could Janice escape being +unhappy, too, with her new friend. + +That Stella was unable to raise any cabal against Janice and Amy, +but quite the contrary, made the situation only a degree more +bearable for the two friends. Although the other girls did not +join Stella Latham in mourning the poor girl who lived in Mullen +Lane, the latter felt deeply the fact that she was considered +different from her schoolmates. + +"Oh, I wish mother would let me go to work," Amy sighed, on more +than one occasion, and to Janice's sympathetic ear. "I declare! +I'd go out as a servant in somebody's home, if mother would let +me. We need the money so." + +"Goodness! Don't say such things," pleaded Janice. "We need a +servant right now, bad enough. But you would not want to come +and scrub and sweep and wash and iron even for daddy and me--you +know you wouldn't." + +"I don't care. Mother says she must go to work somewhere. I'll +then have to come to school on part time only. Somebody must +look after the twins and Edna May." + +"Oh, Amy! what will your mother do?" + +"She doesn't know. She has tried to get work to do at home. But +all the sewing machine work she can obtain is so heavy. And so +poorly paid! What do you suppose she gets for stitching those +great, heavy motorman's coats--putting them all together except +making buttonholes and sewing on buttons, which is done in the +factory?" + +"I have no idea," said Janice. + +"Thir-ty-sev-en-cents!" exclaimed Amy, tragically. "Think of it! +And they almost kill her, they are so heavy to handle." + +"Oh, my dear! I wouldn't let her do them." + +"I guess we wouldn't--Gummy and I--if we could help it," sobbed +Amy. "But something must be done by the Carringford family to +help out. When Mr. Strout comes over from Napsburg next week he +will make us pay off something on that mortgage, or turn us out +of the house --such as it is." + +"Dear Amy, I wish I could do something for you," sighed Janice. + +She said nothing more than that at the time. But that very +evening she did not at once open her schoolbooks when she and her +father sat down finally in the living room, the supper dishes +washed and put away and the kitchen swept. + +They had remained without any help since the departure of Mrs. +Sophronia Watkins. Mr. Day had gone every day to the +intelligence offices and brought back the most discouraging +reports. + +"But, Daddy, isn't there any person in the whole of Greensboro or +in the county any more who has to work for her living?" asked +Janice. + +"That man, Murphy, at whose office I engaged Delia, says that +there are no good houseworkers any more. He says the girls who +come to him for situations are all 'specialists,'" said daddy, +gloomily enough. + +"Special dunces, I guess," Janice rejoined rather tartly, "if +Delia was a sample." + +"But she wasn't," said daddy, with a smile. "At any rate, he +tells me he has good cooks, and good chambermaids, and good +laundresses; but he has no combinations of those trades." + +"Oh!" + +"Girls do not like to go out to service in families where +'general housework' is expected. It seems," he added grimly, +"that to get good help we should engage two or three girls, and +then have a lady, like Mrs. Watkins, to superintend." + +"I guess we'll have to give up and go to boarding, then," sighed +Janice. "Only I am sure I should just detest a boarding house, +Daddy." + +"I am afraid we should both dislike such a life as that. Your +dear mother gave us too good and comfortable a home." + +"But we ought to be used to the discomforts of housekeeping by +this time," said Janice. "But, oh, Daddy! There are other folks +who have worse times than we do." + +"So I believe," he agreed, nodding, as he unfolded his paper. + +"Wait, Daddy?' she begged. "I want to tell you." + +"About other people's troubles?" he asked, with a quizzical +smile. + +"Yes, I do. It's about the Carringfords." + +"Ah-ha! You were saying once that they were in trouble over their +home, were you not? I looked that place up. A fellow named +Strout--" + +"And he's so mean!" declared Janice with vigor. + +"Yes. That seems to be his middle name," agreed her father +quietly. "I am afraid Mrs. Carringford got into the hands of a +sharper when she undertook to buy that cottage in Mullen Lane of +Abel Strout." + +"Oh, dear, Daddy! isn't there any way of helping them out of +their trouble?" Janice asked disappointedly. + +"I cannot tell that until I know all the particulars." + +"Oh! Let me tell you--" + +"Do you know them, my dear?" he asked, interrupting her. + +"Well, I know some of them," she confessed, with less vehemence. + +"I think you had better ask Mrs. Carringford to come to see me. +If she will tell me about it, I may be able to advise her, at +least. I know Strout is a sharper." + +"Oh, my dear! That is so good of you," Janice cried. "I'll tell +her." + +"She can bring her papers here, instead of to the bank," added +Mr. Day on second thought. "Perhaps she will like that better. +Any evening that she chooses, my dear." + +Janice could scarcely wait until the next day to tell her friend, +Amy what her father had said. + + + +CHAPTER XX. STELLA KEEPS ONE SECRET + +It was on this evening, too, that Daddy told Janice he had made a +point of seeing and talking with Johnson, Mr. Latham's tenant. +The man had a small account in the Farmers and Merchants Bank, +for, like most of his nation, "Yon Yonson," as his wife had +called him, was a frugal man. + +"He came into the bank and I inquired about the girl who visited +his wife and who broke Mrs. Latham's cutglass dish," said Mr. +Day. "Johnson says he knows little about the girl--not even +where she lives, or really who she is. Only he told me her last +name was not Cedarstrom." + +"So that, I fear," added Mr. Day, shaking his head, "is another +lost trail. It does seem that the mystery of the disappearance +of our treasure-box, Janice, is likely to remain a mystery. + +"At least, that girl at the Latham's was another girl than our +Olga. Johnson says she was only visiting his wife for a day or +two. She was a friend of has wife's. I think they believe Latham +wants to find the girl to make her pay for that broken dish, so +they are less willing to talk about her than might otherwise be +the case." + +"Just the same," sighed Janice, "I do wish Gummy had known just +how our Olga looked." + +"How is that?" + +"Then he would have known for sure whether it was Olga Cedarstrom +or not. Just his seeing that her hair was strained back from her +face doesn't prove anything." + +"I should say it did not," laughed her father. "That manner of +wearing the hair seems to be a common failing with these Swedish +women. Besides, didn't I tell you that Johnson says that girl is +not named 'Cedarstrom?'" + +"We-ell, it is awfully funny, Daddy. It doesn't seem as though a +girl could disappear so completely--wiped right off the map--" + +"Vigorously expressed, I admit," her father interrupted. "But we +must not begin to doubt everybody's word about it. I guess +Johnson is honest." + +"And those other people who knew her in Pickletown?" + +"They simply don't know what has become of her. Or of Willie +Sangreen, either," Daddy admitted. "That does seem strange. Of +course the two have gone off somewhere to be married and have not +told their friends." + +"It proves that Olga did take dear mother's miniature --and--and +those letters," said Janice excitedly. "Or she would not hide +herself." + +"Yes. I thought we had already agreed on that," her father said. + +It was evident that he did not wish uselessly to discuss the +matter of the lost keepsakes. Janice, young as she was, realized +that her father was growing more grave and more serious every +day. She did not believe that this change was altogether due to +business anxieties, or even to their household vexations. + +At night, after she was supposed to be in bed and sound asleep, +the girl heard him walking back and forth the length of the +living room; or, sometimes, now that the weather was so mild, he +tramped up and down the front porch until very, very late. + +There was surely some trouble on his mind that he did not care to +confide to his little daughter. Broxton Day sighed more often +than had been his wont even during those hard, hard days +immediately following the death of Janice's mother. His hearty +laugh was not so spontaneous nor heard as often as before. + +Janice could not speak about this change in her father. She +believed she knew why he was so grave and why some of his nights +were sleepless. + +Broxton Day had loved his wife with a passionate devotion. He +must miss her presence more and more as the days went on. In +spite of all the companionship Janice could give him, the man's +existence was a lonely one. + +"And, too, her heart told her that she had been the unwitting +cause of this new burden which had come upon daddy's mind. Those +letters which Janice had never seen--the presence of which she +had not even suspected in the secret compartment of the lost +treasure-box--had been Broxton Day's most precious possession. +Janice had lost them! Her carelessness had given the angry Olga +the opportunity to take the box away with her. + +The letters had been written at a time when Janice's father and +mother were very close together in spirit, if not in actual +contact. Even Janice could understand that Laura Day must have +revealed her very soul to her husband in those epistles. + +Oh, if she could only bring them back! + +So sorrow began to be entertained in the Day house on Knight +Street, as a continual guest. It did seem, too, that Janice +could do very little to relieve her father of any of the +embarrassments of their situation. She + +worked as hard as she could before she went to school and after +she came home, but she could not begin to do all that was needed +to be done. And she was so tired sometimes after supper that she +fell asleep over her homework. + +Their meals became, too, a mere round of bacon-and-egg breakfasts +and delicatessen suppers. Shop-cooked meats and potato salads +were on the bill of fare too often to tempt the appetite of +either Mr. Day or his daughter, and the latter began to depend a +good deal upon "baker's stuff" for her lunch. + +With the unfortunate experiences they had had with help, however, +Janice did not wonder that daddy found nobody to suit him at the +agencies. Olga, Delia, Mrs. Watkins--and all those who had come +and gone before --were enough to fill the mind of any person with +despair. + +Janice did not forget to tell Mrs. Carringford what Mr. Day had +said regarding her trouble, and that on the very next day. + +"He'll be sure to see some way out for you, Mrs. Carringford," +the girl assured her friend's mother, with much confidence. +"Daddy is always doing things for folks. He doesn't just advise; +he is sure to do something." + +"Yes, I should not be surprised if Mr. Broxton Day was a +do-something man," said Mrs. Carringford, smiling. "He must be +when he has such a do-something daughter." + +"And you really will come up to see him this evening?" urged +Janice, blushing rosily at what she considered a compliment. + +"I--I--well, my dear, I could not accept any financial +favor from your father. I would not have a right to do +so. The Carringfords must be independent." + +"But, Mrs Carringford, you mustn't feel that way! I have no idea +Daddy could give you much money, even if you, would let him. +But, you see, he knows so much more about such things as +mortgages, and loans, and real estate, that he can give you good +advice. And he says that Mr. Abel Strout's middle name is +'Mean'!" + +Mrs. Carringford laughingly agreed to that, and in the evening +she came to the house with Gummy, Amy being left at home to take +care of the little ones. + +Mr. Day had already met and quite approved of Mrs. Carringford's +two older children, Gummy and Amy, for he had seen them both at +the house. But he had had no idea, in spite of Janice's +enthusiastic praise, that Mrs, Carringford was quite the woman +she was. + +He saw now a very gentle, pretty woman whose soft, wavy hair was +becoming prematurely gray, with an intelligent countenance and +eyes that fixed one's attention almost immediately. Here, Mr. +Day saw, was a capable, energetic spirit--a woman who would carry +through whatever she undertook could it be carried through at +all, yet who was not objectionably self-assertive-like +Miss Peckham, for instance. + +If Mrs. Carringford had made a mistake in her purchase of the +property in Mullen Lane, it was because she had been badly +advised, if not actually cheated, by the sly old fellow who had +for years owned the property which he had taken for a bad debt. + +Abel Strout had doubtless been glad to get rid of the Mullen Lane +place, and for the first payment made upon it by Mrs. +Carringford. But he had been foxy enough to make a hard and fast +bargain with the widow. He had her tied up in a contract that, +if she failed to meet her obligations in a small way, even, would +enable him to walk in and take the place away from her. + +And he had done more than that. For some reason best known to +himself he had first transferred the property to one John +Jamison--a farm hand of that section-- and had then had this +Jamison transfer the property to Mrs. Carringford, he paying the +difference represented by the mortgage he held. + +"He said Jamison had grown tired of his bargain a week after he +bought it," Mrs. Carringford explained. "He wanted Mr. Strout to +take it back. Strout said by making the transfer he would be +aiding both Mr. Jamison and me." + +And now a change was coming. Since the transfer Mullen Lane +property had begun to look up. A factory was going to be built +in the vicinity, and that part of Greensboro was likely to offer +a better field for real estate operations. + +Broxton Day knew all this, which Mrs. Carringford did not. He +saw that what Strout wanted was to get the property back into his +own hands again. He would refuse to renew the mortgage and +frighten Mrs. Carringford into giving up her home. + +The way the matter figured out, the expense of paying interest +and taxes on the Mullen Lane property was no greater than rental +would be elsewhere for the Carringford family. In the end, if +the widow held on, the place might really be more valuable than +it now was, and would sell for considerably more than she had +agreed to pay Abel Strout for it. + +"I tell you what you do," Broxton Day finally said, having +thought the matter over. "Strout has told you he will accept a +small payment on the mortgage, and will then renew the balance +for another year." + +"Yes. But ought I to spend any more of the little sum I have +left in that way, when my children may need it for food?" asked +the anxious widow. + +"You show me by these papers that you are fixed fairly well for +another year. You and your son will both earn something, of +course, during the next twelve months. So if I were you, I would +throw a sprat to catch a herring, and he smiled. + +"You mean?" the widow asked doubtfully. + +"I mean for you to offer him fifty dollars against the principal +of the mortgage. No matter of whom you would get money, you +would have to pay the same interest you pay Strout now and no +matter whom I might get money from for you, so that you could pay +off Strout and get rid of him, there would be the additional +expense of making the new mortgage, and all that." + +"But is he to be trusted?" + +"Not at all. At the end of the year he will want more money, if +he thinks you will have difficulty in getting it and there is a +chance of your having to give up your home." + +"Oh!" + +"But a year from now I prophesy," said Mr. Day, "that your little +house will be worth much more than it is to-day. At least it +will be worth no less. It will be easier a year from now to +raise another mortgage than it is right now. Just toll Strout +along a little," and he laughed. + +"Do you think I can do this, Mr. Day?" asked Mrs. Carringford +doubtfully. + +"You can to it for your children's sake, I have no doubt. And +remember, in any case, if Strout demands the entire mortgage paid +at once, within three days I will try to obtain for you a new +mortgagee. You shall not lose your home, or what money you have +already put into it, if I can help it." + +"Oh, Mr. Day! exclaimed the woman, warmly. "If I can go home +with this confident feeling--" + +"You may. Of course, you are in debt. It is going to be a hard +struggle for you to get along. But your children are growing up +and in time will be able to shoulder a part of the burden which +you have assumed for their sake. Take courage, Mrs. Carringford. +Everything will turn out right in the end, I am sure." + +It was plain that Mrs. Carringford was greatly comforted. When +she left, Janice whispered to her father: "I'm awfully proud of +you, Daddy. You do have such a way with you!" + +But helping other people out of their troubles was not helping +the Days out of their particular Slough of Despond. So many +difficulties seemed reaching out to clutch at Janice and Daddy! +The girl thought it was like walking through a briar-patch. +Every step they took, trouble retarded them. + +First and foremost the disappearance of that strange Olga +Cedarstrom, and the loss of the box of heirlooms, was continually +in Janice's mind. The girls at school knew about it, although +only Amy knew just how serious the loss was to the Days. + +The puzzle regarding the girl named Olga who had helped in the +Latham's kitchen the night of Stella's birthday party, had been +noised abroad among Janice's school friends, and more or less +comment was made upon it. + +"Say, Janice, did you ever find out what became of that Swede who +broke Mrs. Latham's dish the night we were all there?" asked one +of the girls one day. "Didn't you say she might be the very girl +who ran away from your house?" + +"Yes! I did think so. But it was not the same. Her friends +said this girl was not named Cedarstrom." + +"Well, who'd want such a name, anyway?" laughed another of the +party. + +Stella was herself one of those present; but at this time she was +not speaking to Janice. She laughed maliciously when Janice Day +had gone. + +"What's the matter with you, Stella?" asked Bertha Warring. +"Your 'ha, ha' is like that of the villain in the melodrama. +What is the matter?" + +"Oh, never mind," returned Stella, apparently very much enjoying +her own secret thoughts. + +"Tell us, Stella; then we'll all laugh," urged another. + +"Oh, no. You girls say I can't keep a secret. But I'll + +show you--and that Janice Day--that I can. I know something +about the Olga-girl that she'd like to know; but Janice shall +never learn it from me," and Stella laughed again maliciously. + + + +CHAPTER XXI. THE CLOSING OF SCHOOL + +Janice heard from Gummy and Amy just how Abel Strout acted and +what he said when he came to see their mother about the renewal +of the mortgage and the payment of the half year's interest. +Gummy was very much excited over it. + +"You strought to see that Stout man, anyway--" + +"Oh, dear, me, Gummy, there you go again!" gasped Janice, with +laughter, while the boy's sister giggled desperately, too. + +"What's the matter now?" he demanded, in some surprise. + +"Another lapsus linguae--I looked it up, and that is what they +call it," said Janice. +"Say! Why don't you talk so people can understand you?" Gummy +demanded. "Don't talk Latin to a fellow." + +"And you sounded as though you were using 'pig-Latin,'" laughed +Amy. "You said we "strought' to see Mr. 'Stout'." + +"Oh! Jicksy! Did I?" exclaimed the boy. I'm always saying one +thing and meaning another, aren't I? Is that a lapsus linguae? + +"It is in this case, Gummy. But go on--do." + +"Well, Mr. Strout looks just like a piece of that green-speckled +cheese Mr. Hardman has in his showcase --in the face, I mean." + +"In the face of the showcase?" giggled Amy. + +"Or the face of the cheese?" asked Janice demurely. + +"Now, say, you girls go too far," complained Gummy, yet +good-naturedly. "I mean Strout's face. It looks like the +cheese, for he's all speckled. And the cheese is called +Rockyford and tastes funnier than it looks." + +"Oh, oh!" cried Janice, "you've got your cheese mixed with melons +this time. It is Rockyford melons and Roquefort cheese." + +"Jicksy! They sound pretty near the same," grumbled Gummy. +"Anyhow, that is how Abel Strout looks in the face--speckled. +And he came in, in that yellow dust-coat of his, looking like a +peeled sapling--so long and lean." + +"My, what a wealth of description you have at your tongue's end," +cried Janice, still in a gale of laughter. "A face like +Roquefort cheese with a figure like a peeled sapling. Well!" + +"You keep on you girls, and I won't ever get anywhere," +complained Gummy. + +"Go on, Gummy," urged Janice. + +"Well, he was just as nasty-mean as he always is. The only time +I ever saw him pleasant was when he was wheedling mother out of +her money before she bought the house. But he started in real +bossy this time." + +"I should say he did," agreed Amy, feelingly. + +"'Well, Mrs. Carringford,' said Strout, 'I hope you are ready to +take up that mortgage right now, without no hanging back.' He +knew of course that mother didn't have a whole thousand dollars +left--no, sir! He knows all right just what she had in the +beginning, and that we've been living off it for more than a +year," said Gummy. + +"So mother told him she could not take up the mortgage. That she +did not dare put any more money into the place --except the +interest and the taxes--until prospects were brighter. + +"'Well,' he said--mean old hunks!--'money is dreadful +tight right now, and I don't see how I can let you have +a thousand any longer. 'Tain't in the bill of +agreement.' + +"Mother said: 'Mr. Strout, when you sold me the place you said I +could have plenty of time to pay for it. You knew my children +were small and that I could not do much toward paying the +mortgage until they grew bigger and could help.' + +"'You got anything like that writ into your contract?' asked Mr. +Strout. + +"'It was verbally understood,' said mother. + +"'That don't mean nothin' in business,' said Strout. 'I might +tell you the moon was made o' green cheese, but I wouldn't +guarantee it. Talk's one thing; a written guarantee is another. +That mortgage is writ for a year, and the year is up.' + +"Oh!" exclaimed Gummy hotly, "I could have hit him for speaking +so mean to my mother." + +"I don't blame you," Janice said sympathetically. "But never +mind. Tell the rest." + +"Why, all mother could say was what your father told' her to say. +She said: 'You said when you were here several weeks ago that you +would let me pay off some of the principal and let the mortgage +stand.' + +"'How much?' he snapped at her--just like a hungry dog +at a bone, you know," continued Gummy. + +"'I will spare fifty dollars,' said mother. + +"'Fifty fiddlestrings!' shouted Strout. 'Won't hear to it! +Won't listen to it!' + +"But already, you see," chuckled Gummy, "mother had pushed the +interest money toward him across the table. He grabbed it. He +couldn't keep his hands off real money, I guess--his own or +anybody else's." + +"Oh, Gummy!" murmured Amy. + +"Well, didn't he just act so?" cried the boy. "Why, he counted +that interest money just as hungrily! And he folded it and put +it in his wallet." + +"You tell it just as it was," sighed Amy. "Of course I do. Well, +mother said: 'You can give me my receipt for that, Mr. Strout, if +you don't mind.' And then he did go off the handle!" chortled +Gummy. "You see, he had tricked himself." + +"How was that, Gummy?" Janice asked wonderingly. + +"He made mother pay interest on the note six months in advance. +When he accepted that interest he--what do you call it?--Oh! He +tacitly renewed the note, which runs what they call concurrently +with the mortgage. So the mortgage is good for another year." + +"Oh! Is that what daddy told your mother to do?" cried Janice. +"Now I understand." exclaimed the delighted +Gummy. + +"Oh! Daddy didn't mean it as a trick--" + +"Not a tricky trick," explained Gummy volubly. "Of course not. +But mother just let Mr. Strout trick himself. When he saw what +he had done he tried to hand the money back; but mother said: + +"'Oh, no, sir!, You can give me the written receipt or not, just +as you please. Both of these children'-- that's Amy and me--'saw +me give you the money and know its purpose. Their testimony is +good in court. + +You have refused any payment on the principal of the mortgage; +but you have accepted interest for the ensuing six months. You +have therefore renewed the note for a year, as it is written for +a year.' + +"Oh, wasn't Strout mad!" chuckled Gummy. + +"And I was proud of mamma," added Amy. + +"You bet! Strout said to mother: 'Somebody's been talking to +you--I can see that.' + +"'Yes, they have,' she told him. 'And somebody who knows you +very well, Mr. Strout.' Meaning your father, Janice, of course. + +"'So you think you will hold on to this shack and make something +on it, do you?' he remarked. + +"'At least,' mother answered, 'I hope to keep it for a shelter +for my children and not lose what I have put in it.' + +"'Well,' said he, in such a nasty tone! 'You just wait!' And then +he stamped out of the house." + +"Oh, but I am afraid of him," sighed Amy. "He spoke so +threateningly." + +"Yes, Momsy and Amy think he has something up his sleeve," said +Gummy, carelessly. "But I think Abel Strout is licked, thanks to +Mr. Day." + +Janice was very careful to repeat the particulars of this scene +Gummy had so vividly related to her father in the evening. + +"Maybe he has something 'up his sleeve,' as Gummy says," Janice +observed. "Can that be possible, do you think, Daddy?" + +"Well, it is hard to say. Now that I have gone into this thing +for Mrs. Carringford, I suppose I might go a little deeper. Do +you know if she had the title to that property searched before +she bought it?" + +"I'll ask her, Daddy." + +"Don't ask in a way to frighten her," advised Mr. Day, on second +thought. "It may be all right. Just ask her who looked up the +title. Tell her I will have the money ready for her to take up +Strout's mortgage when it becomes due next time; but that +meanwhile I shall have to have the title searched if that was not +done before." + +"Oh, Daddy! do you believe there could be some--some--" + +"Some flaw in it?" asked her father, supplying the word that +Janice had heard but could not remember. + +"Yes." + +"There might be. This is an old part of Greensboro, and some of +the old titles conflicted." + +"But then Mrs. Carringford would not have to lose, would she? +Wouldn't Mr. Strout have to give her back her money?" + +"Perhaps not. Not if he could prove that he knew nothing about +the flaw in the title. Or rather, not if Mrs. Carringford could +not prove that Strout did know his title was fraudulent. +Besides, the place might have been sold for taxes some time. +That would invalidate the title in this state, unless the +original owner, or his heirs, who owed the taxes, had +quitclaimed." + +"Dear me, Daddy Day? she cried, "it sounds awfully complicated." + +"It is, for little girls. But we will see what we shall see," +which to say the least, was not a very comforting statement. + +Janice had found a colored woman who lived at the end of Love +Street to take the washing home each week and who did it very +satisfactorily. But the woman had small children and so could +not go out to work. + +Besides, such women as they had hired to come in to work by the +day had been very unsatisfactory. Nobody seemed to take any +interest in the work. + +"Why," Janice thought, "we haven't even cleaned house properly +this spring. And here it is June--and school almost closing!" + +It was a fact that the last few days of the spring term were at +hand. Janice was so busy that she did not know what to do. When +she went to see Mrs. Carringford to ask her the question Daddy +had told her to put, she broke down and cried, telling Amy's +mother how bad she felt about the house. + +"I got down the curtains and put them to soak; but I can't starch +them and put them on the stretcher and hang them again," +confessed Janice "The house looks so bare! And every inch of +paint needs scrubbing--even in the rooms that Mrs. Watkins shut +up so tight. She did not clean the paint." + +"Can't you hire somebody to help you?" asked Mrs. Carringford. + +"If you mean can daddy pay for it--he'd be glad to!" cried +Janice. "But I just can't find anybody at all." + +"I might come over and help you a couple of days, Janice," said +Mrs. Carringford, doubtfully. + +"Oh! Could you?" + +"I can't come very early in the morning; but Amy can get supper +for the children, so that I could stay until after your dinner at +night, Janice." + +"Mrs. Carringford! if you'll come and help us," gasped Janice, "I +think I'll just cry for joy." + +"Don't do that, my dear. Of course, this is only a stop-gap. +But I will try to do what I can for you toward cleaning house and +putting everything to rights again." + +And a single day's work made such a difference Daddy came into +the house toward evening without knowing what Janice had arranged +with Mrs. Carringford, and began to "snuff" at once. + +"Why, Janice, how clean everything smells!" he cried when the +girl ran to meet him. "What is happening?" + +"We are cleaning house. At least, she is." + +"'She'? Who?" he cried. + +"You'll never guess." + +"I--I--Surely none of the neighbors has taken pity on us and come +in to clean?" + +"That is exactly what has happened," Janice said. "Mrs. +Carringford, Daddy!" + +"Mrs Carringford!" he repeated. "Not come to work for us?" + +"Oh, dear! I wish she was going to work for us all the time," +confessed the girl with a sigh. "But she is going to put us all +straight once more, at least. The children don't want her to go +out to work; but she will do this for us." + +"Well, 'small mercies thankfully received; larger ones in +proportion,'" murmured daddy. "The whole house to be cleaned +once more? And without my Janice to be dragging herself to +death?" + +"Oh, Daddy!" + +"Well, I have been worried, dear," he confessed. "I wrote your +Aunt Almira, half promising that you should go to see them after +school closed." + +"Oh, Daddy!" shrieked Janice again. "To Poketown?" + +"You won't find it so bad. And you need a rest, I believe. This +old house--" + +"Oh! you sha'n't talk so about our beautiful home," gasped +Janice. + +"If it is going to be such a burden to you, my dear--" + +"It isn't! It isn't " she cried excitedly, and actually stamping +her feet. "You don't mean to shut up our home, Daddy? I won't +hear to it," and she burst into a flood of tears. + +Mrs. Carringford came into the living-room, neat, smiling, and +very, very good to look upon, the man thought. It was a blessing +to have a real housekeeper, and homemaker as well, in the house. + +"Quite overwrought, Mr. Day," she said putting her arms about the +sobbing Janice. "She works too hard and tries to do too much." + +"I know it," he said, shaking his head. + +"And, besides," said the good woman, "Janice is growing up. She +is growing too fast, perhaps. And she does need, Mr. Day, +something that no father--no matter how willing and thoughtful he +may be--can give her." + +"That is--?" asked the man, paling a little. + +"The companionship of a woman, Mr. Day," said Mrs. Carringford. +"She should be more with some woman whom you can trust. Not the +women you have had here to work for you." + +Janice had run away to bathe her eyes and make herself tidy. +Broxton Day listened to this woman's advise with a serious +countenance. + +"I was just suggesting her going to spend a part of the summer +with her aunt in Vermont. And she doesn't want to," he +explained. + +"That would take her a long way from you and from her home. She +loves her home, Mr. Day. Janice is a born homemaker, I believe." + +"What can I do, then?" exclaimed the man, at his wit's end. +"Were any people ever situated so unfortunately as Janice and I?" + +"There have been thousands like you and your daughter," said Mrs. +Carringford. "Janice will be all right after school closes, for +she will not have so much to do. Let her books rest this summer. +See that she plays instead of works. If you will, let her be a +good deal with other girls." + +"I would be willing to have her fill the house with them. Only +that, too, adds to the work." + +"Well, we'll see," sighed Mrs. Carringford, preparing to go back +to the kitchen. "She can run over and see my Amy, and Amy can +come here. They are about the same age, and like kittens they +should play more than work. I will gladly do what I can for you, +Mr. Day. You have been very kind to me and mine." + +He wanted to tell her that that was not so. That he had really +done nothing, and the favor was on the other side. But she +hurried away to attend to dinner. + +And it was a nice dinner that was served at the Day table that +evening. Like the faded-out lady, Mrs. + +Carringford sat down to eat with them. But there was a different +air about Mrs. Carringford. She was really a gentlewoman. + +Janice recovered her spirits and chattered like a magpie; and Mr. +Day himself found that for the first time in many months, he had +really enjoyed a well-cooked meal and a social meal at his own +table. + +Mrs. Carringford came day after day until the entire house was +cleaned. Daddy found a man to clean up the yard, cart away +ashes, smooth the walks and dig over the flowerbeds. The local +florist supplied growing plants for out of doors, and the Day +place bloomed again as it was wont to do when Mrs. Day was alive. + +Meanwhile Janice and her mates were just as busy as bees +concluding the spring term at school. There were the final +examinations which were now close at hand. Janice really trembled +over these. + +"My sakes, Amy! what if I shouldn't pass? I'm awfully shaky on +physiology, especially." + +"Goodness, Janice! you'll pass, of course. Anybody as bright and +quick as you are!" + +"It's awfully nice of you to say that. But my recitations have +gone off like anything lately and I really am afraid of these +exams." + +Amy tried to comfort her friend, but with little success. + +Then there were many outside pleasures, and Janice, in a happier +mood this time, remarked that school really did interfere with +the real business of life--such as the picnics that the beautiful +spring days made so thoroughly pleasurable. + +"Dear me, I'd like to go to a picnic every day," she sighed +happily to Amy one Saturday afternoon, after jolly hours spent +with the boys and girls of her circle of closest friends in the +woods, now white with dogwood. + +Some of the girls were going away for a part of the summer +vacation. But Janice would not admit that she even contemplated +such a change. + +Stella Latham was one of those who expected to migrate. She was +going to some relatives who had a summer place on the shore of +one of the Great Lakes, and she talked a good deal about it. + +But she did not talk to Janice. All she said in the latter's +hearing was something that only puzzled and annoyed Daddy's +daughter. "I guess if somebody who thinks she is so smart only +knew what I know about that Swedish girl, Olga, she'd give her +very eyes to have me tell her--so now!" + +"I don't even know what she means," confessed Janice, wearily, to +Amy. + +"She just means to be mean--that's all!" said the practical Amy. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. SOMETHING DOES HAPPEN + +"I hope something will happen so I can't go to Poketown," was the +thought continually rising to the surface of the troubled pool of +Janice Day's mind. + +She did not know what Mrs. Carringford had said to daddy, nor how +much he had been influenced by that wise woman's observations +regarding this very matter. So, as the days went by, Janice +continued to fear the worst. + +For the very worst that could happen, Janice thought, was for her +to be separated from her father and from her home. When the +possibility of his having to go to Mexico was first talked about, +the thought of their separation had made a very deep impression +on the girl's mind. She had never recovered--how could she? +--from the going away of her mother. If her father went out of +her life too, it seemed to Janice as though she would be an +orphan indeed. + +So, without knowing anything personally about her Aunt Almira or +Uncle Jason or Marty, her cousin, the girl felt that their +association could in no way replace that of daddy. + +"I just wish something would happen so that I couldn't go to +Poketown," was repeated over and over in her thought. + +"Perhaps that is wicked," Janice told herself. "But wicked, or +not, it does seem as though it would just kill me to leave home." + +After Mrs. Carringford had finished cleaning house, the home +seemed so much better and brighter that Janice loved it more than +ever. She did not want to leave Eight Hundred and Forty-five +Knight Street, even for a day. + +"I don't care if Arlo Junior does toll cats into our back kitchen +and we entertain dancing bears and that half-crazy Delia and +folks like Mrs. Watkins or Olga Cedarstrom," she said to daddy. +"This is just the nicest house in all the world. Don't you think +so yourself, Daddy?" + +"I never expect to have so much happiness in another house as I +have had in this one, my dear," Mr. Day said. "And we will hope +for more happiness here in the future. But my little girl must +not try to do everything. It is all right to be a homemaker; but +you must not try to do it all yourself. We must find somebody to +help, regularly." + +Secretly Janice was urging Mrs. Carringford to come every day to +the house and keep it in that "neat as a new pin" condition in +which the sweet-natured woman had left it when the extra cleaning +was finished. + +"But my dear child, how will my own house get along without me? +Amy cannot do it all, even if it is vacation-time." + +"But, dear Mrs. Carringford, just think!" begged Janice. "Kate +and Sydney are both big enough to help Amy." + +"And they are a team!" sighed Mrs. Carringford. + +"They'll be good. They will do a good deal for me," said Janice +frankly. + +"You bribe the twins." + +"Oh, they are only teeny, weeny bribes, and of course children +expect pay when they do things for you. Look how eagerly Gummy +works for his pay," for Gummy was working every day for Mr. +Harriman now, and his wages had been doubled. + +"Don't let him hear you catalogue him as a child," said the boy's +mother, smiling. "I must do nothing to neglect my own brood. +Yet I feel that I must earn money. Gummy's wages will not even +feed us. And it will last only until September. He must go back +to school again then." + +"Then come and see daddy," urged Janice. "You know he'll be more +than glad to have you. Why, it would be just heavenly for us. + +"I must think about it," said the over-urged woman. "If I could +get work in a store downtown I would have more regular hours +perhaps. For a home cannot be kept on an eight-hour-a-day +schedule." + +But Janice hoped. To do something to bring about peace and +comfort for daddy and herself had been her determination for +weeks. If only Mrs. Carringford could be coaxed to agree, Janice +foresaw plain sailing. + +This had been her hope ever since she had seen how perfectly +Amy's mother kept her own poor cottage. It had been her hope +when she had first brought Mrs. Carringford and Mr. Day together. +But would her hope come to fruition? + +Nevertheless, she was happier now that she did not have to go to +school. She had time to work out of doors in the flowerbeds and +to get dainty little suppers, sometimes, for daddy. + +Yet, at other times she was very tired. She showed daddy a +cheerful countenance almost always. But there were occasions +when Janice Day felt anything but cheerful "inside," as she +expressed it. + +Somehow daddy seemed to guess, however, when she was not quite +herself during these sultry days, for often at breakfast he said: + +"Daughter, dress yourself in your best bib and tucker and meet me +at the corner of Joyce Street at four-thirty. I'll be on the +Maplewood car and will save a seat for you. We will go out to +the Branch Inn for supper." + +Such excursions delighted Janice, especially with daddy. It made +her feel positively grown up to be taken about by such a +well-groomed and handsome man as Broxton Day. + +And almost everywhere they went people seemed to know daddy. +Even the managers and waiters at the inns and restaurants knew +him, for Mr. Day often attended business conferences and +luncheons with the bank's customers, at these places. + +Sometimes very well dressed men came and sat down at their table +and talked business with Broxton Day. They were always very kind +and polite to Janice. + +But whenever she heard Mexico and the Mexican mines mentioned, +the girl was worried and listened attentively. She knew that +those properties down beyond the Rio Grande in which her father +was interested so deeply, were still in a very uncertain state. +As yet dividends from her father's investment, she knew, had been +very small. + +She thought daddy watched her very closely at times. His keen +glance seemed almost like that of a person "lying in wait" for +one. That was the way Janice expressed it to herself. + +She did not understand what these looks meant. Did he doubt that +she was really quite as cheerful and happy as she would appear? + +On her own part, after she had gone to bed, Janice Day listened +often for his step, to and fro, hour after hour, on the +honeysuckle-sheltered porch. Was he thinking about the lost +letters? Would neither he nor his daughter ever be able to get +over--to forget-- the mementoes of dear mother, and their +disappearance with Olga Cedarstrom? + +Janice often cried herself to sleep thinking of this loss. But +she cried quietly so that daddy should not hear her; and she was +always very careful in the morning to remove all traces of tears +or sleeplessness before appearing in his presence at the +breakfast table. + +"What's been done to-day, daughter?" was often daddy's question +at night, accompanied by one of his keenly interrogating glances. + +When she catalogued the day's industries sometimes he shook his +head. + +"But where is the fun? When do you play? What have you been +doing to celebrate your freedom from the scholastic yoke?" he +would demand. + +"We-ell, you know, Daddy, I can't be a gadabout all the time--and +with Miss Peckham watching me from behind her blinds every time I +go out," and she giggled. + +"Miss Peckham be eternally-- Hem! I don't suppose I can use +strong language in regard to the lady who has washed her hands of +us, can I?" + +"Not very strong language, Daddy," she rejoined, laughing aloud +now. + +"Well, in that case, we'll merely ignore our neighbor. That means +you, too, Janice; and you must play a little more in spite of +Miss Peckham." + +"But, Daddy, I do play, as you call it. There was the picnic in +Emmon's Woods, and the straw ride to Clewitt--" + +"And the picnic on the Latham farm to which I found you did not +go," interrupted daddy. "How about that, daughter?" + +"Oh--oh--well, you know, Daddy, I--I--" + +"What's all this stammering about, honey," asked daddy, putting +his arm about his daughter. + +"Daddy, Amy and I just couldn't go to that picnic. Of course, it +was not given by Stella, but by all the boys and girls of our +crowd, but it was on Stella's farm. And-- Well, Daddy, Stella +doesn't really like Amy and me just now. It's nothing--just +about that dress Amy wore to Stella's party. I told you all +about that. Stella promised not to tell, you know, and then she +did. I'm not mad at Stella--I was, though, for a while--but +she's still mad at me. She'll be all right in a little while, +though, Daddy." + +"I trust so, daughter. Do your best to make friends again. You +will all be happier if you are on a friendly footing with your +companions." + +These first days of the long vacation were not really happy ones +for Janice, although she tried to make believe they were. All +the time she was hoping to herself that daddy would not insist on +her visiting his relatives in the East. + +He had not really said that he contemplated sending her +willy-nilly, to Aunt Almira. Yet the girl felt that daddy +believed her health called for a change. And that was not what +she needed. She was sure that the air of Poketown would never in +this world make her feel any happier or healthier than she felt +right here at home in Greensboro. + +"I just hope something will happen to keep me from going to +Poketown--or anywhere else," Janice repeated, over and over +again. + +And then, it did happen. Nothing that she had imagined, of +course. + +And this happening shocked Janice Day almost as much as anything +could. It came in the afternoon, when she was getting dinner for +daddy. She heard the clang of a gong, and an automobile stopped +before the house. She ran to the window. It was a white painted +ambulance-- not from the City Hospital, but a private ambulance. +And two men in white uniforms were preparing to take somebody on +a stretcher out of the car. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. THE SILVER LINING TO A VERY BLACK CLOUD + +Janice dropped the mixing spoon and the dishcloth and ran out +upon the side porch, and from thence down the steps and the walk +to the gate. Her heart beat so that she could scarcely get her +breath. + +The white uniformed men were drawing the stretcher out of the +ambulance, and Janice, horrified and all but breathless, suddenly +saw her father sitting up on the stretcher. + +"Don't be scared, Janice. Be a brave girl," he cried. "It is +only my leg." + +"But--but what have they done to your leg, Daddy?" she cried, +wringing her hands. + +One of the uniformed men laughed. It was a cheerful laugh, and +he was a jolly looking man. But Janice thought it was very easy +indeed for him to laugh. + +"It isn't his leg--or any of his relations" she thought. + +"I tell you what they have done to him," he said, taking hold of +both handles at the foot of the stretcher. "They have just set a +compound fracture below the knee and put it into splints. Your +daddy is going to have a glass leg for some time to come, and you +must take good care of it. Where shall we carry him?" + +While he spoke and the other man was taking hold of the other +handles of the stretcher, Mr. Day lay down again. He did not +groan, but he was very white. He gave Janice's hand a strong +grip, however, when she got to him. + +"Pluck up your courage, dear," he said. "This is no killing +matter." + +But now neighbors began to hurry to them. Children, of course, +for Knight Street was well supplied with them. But Mrs. Arlo +Weeks and Mrs. Peckinpaw came from across the street, while Miss +Peckham appeared from her cottage. + +"Dear me! Was he picked up that way?" asked Mrs. Weeks, in her +high, strident tone. "My Arlo had a fit once--" + +"Tain't a fit," said Mrs. Peckinpaw, who was a very old woman and +who never spoke to Miss Peckham because of some neighborhood +squabble which had happened so long before that neither of them +remembered what it was about. + +"Tain't a fit," she said acidly; "for then they foam at the +mouth, or drool. I never knew he had anything the matter with +him, chronic." + +The jolly looking man laughed. Miss Peckham on the other side of +the stretcher, and without looking at the other women, asked: + +"Oughtn't he be took to the hospital? There's nobody here to +take care of him but that fly-away young one." + +"I won't have him taken to a hospital!" cried Janice stormily. +"You bring him right into the house--" + +"Well, 'tain't fittin'," said Miss Peckham decidedly. + +"I guess both Mr. Day and his daughter know what they want," said +the cheerful looking man, decidedly. "He wanted to be brought +home. Now, my little lady, where shall we put him? All ready, +Bill?" + +"All ready," said Bill, who had the handles at the head of the +stretcher. + +"But what's the matter with him?" demanded Mrs. Peckinpaw again. +"Is it ketchin'?" + +"He has a compound fracture of the tibia," declared the cheerful +man. + +"Oh! My mercy!" ejaculated Mrs. Peckinpaw, shrinking away from +the stretcher. "I--I didn't kmow Mr. Day drank!" + +She had evidently heard alcoholism called by so many queer +sounding terms that anything she not understand she set down to +that dread trouble. But Miss Peckham had run ahead into the +house. + +"Take him right up to his bedroom," she said commandingly to the +men with the stretcher. + +"Well, if that woman's goin' to take hold, they don't need me," +said Mrs. Peckinpaw, snappishly, and she retained her stand upon +the strictly neutral ground of the sidewalk. + +Mrs. Arlo Weeks was "all of a quiver," as she herself said. She +followed the men as far as the steps and there sank to a seat. + +"My, my! I feel just like fainting," she murmured. + +Meanwhile the two uniformed men were carrying Mr. Day into the +house. + +"Right up here!" cried Miss Peckham from the stairway. + +"No," said Mr. Day, "put me on the couch in the living room. Fix +it, Janice." + +At this Janice awoke from her apathy. She rushed in ahead and +fixed the pillows on the couch, and got a warm cover to put over +him. + +"I'm to be laid up some weeks," Mr. Day said courageously. "I +don't want to be put upstairs where I don't know a thing about +what's going on in the house. I'll stay downstairs." + +"That couch ought to be made up like a bed for you, Mr. Day," +said the cheerful man, as Janice dropped down the back which made +it into a bed-lounge. + +"Do that later," said Mr. Day. "Here! Where's Mrs. Weeks?" + +Janice ran to call her. Miss Peckham was descending the stairs, +her nose in the air. She seemed offended that she could not rule +the proceedings. + +"Mrs. Weeks," said Janice to the woman from across the street, +"will you come in? Father wants to speak to you." + +"I--I don't know as my legs will carry me," sighed Mrs. Weeks. +"Have they put him to bed? Has he got his clo'es off?" + +"He just wishes to speak to you," explained Janice. "Right in +here." + +She led the way into the living room. Miss Peckham was still +"sniffing" in the doorway. The two ambulance men were preparing +to depart. + +"When Arlo Weeks comes home from business, tell him I want to see +him," said Mr. Day to the woman. "He'll help me off with my +clothes and get me into bed here. I shall be all right." + +He spoke quite cheerfully now, and even Janice was recovering her +self-possession. + +"Oh, well, I'll telI him," murmured Mrs. Weeks. "I'm sick o' +shock, myself. But we have to sacrifice when our neighbors needs +us. Yes, Mr. Day, I'll send Arlo over." + +She trailed out after the two men. Mrs. Peckham sniffed after +her, too. + +"Well," the spinster said, "I can make him some broth. He'll need +nourishing victuals. And he ain't been gettin' anything of late, +I guess, but what that child's messed up." + +She departed kitchenward. Janice and daddy looked at each other +hopelessly. Then together, and in chorus, they murmured: + +"But I thought she had washed her hands of us!" + +"I don't want broth," grumbled Broxton Day, after a minute. "I +want my dinner. What have you got that's good, Janice?" + +"Stew--lamb stew. Nice," she groaned. "And plenty of vegetables +like you like." + +"'Like you like' is almost as good as the stew will be," chuckled +her father faintly. "We must get that woman out of the house, +Janice. She will be an Old Man of the Sea." + +"No, no!" giggled the girl. "An 'Old Maid of the Sea,' you +mean." + +"Maybe I do. But how to get rid of her--" + +"I know! Wait!" Janice dashed out of the room and out of the +house. A crowd of children was still at the gate. + +"Arlo Junior!" she called into the dusk, "Come here! I want you." + +"You want my pa. He ain't home yet," said Junior, drawing near +slowly. + +"I want you to do an errand for me," said Janice hastily. "Come +here--close. I'll tell you. Your mother won't mind." + +"All right," said Junior, offering an attentive ear. + +"You know where Gummy Carringford lives?" + +"Course I do." + +"Well, you run there, and see his mother; and you tell her--" + +Janice in whispers told the boy just what to say to Mrs. +Carringford, and he repeated it before he darted off on the +errand. Arlo Junior was a great boy to play tricks, but he would +not play them at such a time as this. + +Janice went back to her father's side and left Miss Peckham, whom +she heard moving about the kitchen, strictly alone. Daddy told +her all about the accident. + +It seemed, when he came down the stairs from the Chamber of +Commerce, where he had gone on an errand, a scrubwoman had left a +cake of soap on the next to the top step." + +"Of course, it was just my luck to find it for her," said Broxton +Day, with rather a grim laugh. "Maybe she wanted that soap. But +I did not. I kicked right up, Janice, and it is a wonder I did +not break my back as well as my leg." + +"Oh, Daddy!" + +"I landed so hard at the bottom of the flight that I was +unconscious for a few minutes. Luckily Dr. Bowles, the surgeon, +has offices in that very building. They picked me up and carried +me to him and he fixed up the leg. It will be as good as new, he +says, after a while." + +"Oh, dear, Daddy! you might have been killed," cried Janice, +suddenly sobbing. + +"Well, it's all over now--but the shouting," muttered Mr. Day, +his face suddenly contorted with pain. "Don't fuss, my dear. +This is something that can be mended, I am sure. Don't give way +to tears." + +"Oh, but, Daddy! I know! I know!" sobbed the girl, hiding her +face in his shoulder. "But something did happen--and I--I wished +for it!" + +"Wished for me to break my leg?" gasped daddy. + +"Oh, no! Oh, no! But I wished something would happen so that I +would not have to go to live at Poketown this summer. +And--now--something--has--happened." + +"Quite true, my dear," said Mr. Day, after a moment's silence. +"You got your wish. But as usual, you did not get it just as you +wished it. Still, the very blackest cloud has its silver +lining." + +Janice could not imagine a silver lining to this cloud --not just +at that moment. She only realized that daddy was suffering from +an accident that it did seem her wish had brought to him. It was +a very serious and disturbing thought for the girl + +Janice did not want to go out into the kitchen to see what Miss +Peckham was about. She had left the tender breast and shoulder +of lamb for the stew simmering on the back of the stove, and the +vegetables were all ready to put in it. What the spinster would +do toward making broth Janice did not know. And daddy did not +want broth. + +Just now, however, the girl felt too much disturbed to entertain +an argument with Miss Martha Peckham. Things would have to go on +as they would, until-- + +Suddenly Janice heard voices in the kitchen-- Miss Peckham's +high-pitched voice and another. Janice saw that her father was +quiet and did not notice, so she got up from his side and stole +to the kitchen door to listen. + +"Well, ma'am? exclaimed Miss Peckham, don't see as it's any more +of your business than 'tis mine. I'm makin' this gruel--" + +"And I will finish preparing the dinner, if you do not mind, Miss +Peckham," said the soft voice Mrs. Carringford. "I see that +Janice has it almost ready. Do you think, Miss Peckham, that a +man with a broken leg needs gruel?" + +"Well, I couldn't find nothing to make broth out of--" + +"Or broth?" pursued Mrs. Carringford. "I know Mr. Day's +appetite, and I do not believe that broken leg + +has made it any the less hearty." + +"Seems to me you know a good deal!" snapped Miss Peckham. +"Specially about this kitchen." + +"You know, I have been working here for some time," Mrs. +Carringford said. "Thank you, Miss Peckham. You need not stay. +If there is anything we need you for, I will let you know. +Good-night." + +The spinster banged out at the kitchen door without even coming +into the front part of the house. + +"Not even to 'wash her hands of us' again!" giggled Janice, who +ran out into the kitchen with a cry of joy. + +"Oh, Mrs. Carringford!" she said, throwing her arms about the +woman's neck, "have you really come to stay?" + +"I guess I shall have to, my dear. Daytimes, anyway," said Amy's +mother, kissing her. "You'd soon go to rack and ruin here with +the neighbors coming in and littering everything up. Yes, tell +your father I will accept the offer he made me. And now, we'll +have dinner just as soon as possible. How is he?" + +"He says he is all right," gasped Janice, catching her breath. +"And he says there is always a silver lining to the very blackest +cloud. Now I know he's right. You are the silver lining to this +cloud, Mrs. Carringford--you really, truly are!" + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. "WHERE THERE'S SMOKE THERE'S FIRE." + +If it had not been for Mrs. Carringford's presence in the house, +this experience certainly would have been a very hard one for +Janice Day. For although the trials of housekeeping had been +serious for the young girl, they were not all that had so vexed +her and weighted her mind with sorrow. + +But her father's injury shocked her out of the mental rut which +she had been following. She had to wait on him, hand and foot; +and it gave her so many new thoughts and new things to do, that +for a time at least Janice Day's old troubles were pretty much +sloughed away. + +They had managed to make Mr. Day comfortable on the living-room +couch, and it was easier to care for him there than it would have +been were he in his bedroom. Besides, he very much objected to +"being invalided to the upper story" while he was tied down with +a broken leg. + +Mr. Arlo Weeks came in night and morning to help turn the injured +man, and remake his bed. Mr. Weeks was, after all, a good +neighbor; he was more helpful than anybody else who came to the +Day house, save Mrs. Carringford. + +The surgeon came now and then to restrap the broken leg. Some of +Mr. Day's business associates called to see how he was getting +on. The injured man was not hard to take care of. He could +read, propped up on the couch, and although he suffered +considerable pain he did not allow Janice to discover that he was +uncomfortable. + +But at first he did net sleep well at night, and he had some +fever. Mrs. Carringford was careful in his diet; and she never +seemed to contradict him or to thwart his wishes. She had a way +with her that Janice could but admire and pattern after. + +The girl saw that even daddy was not quite his very sensible self +when he was an invalid. He had to be humored at times; and they +did all that was possible to keep him from fretting. + +Broxton Day had been a very active man. Business affairs of +which he had sole charge were bound to go wrong when he could not +wield power as he was wont. And these things all bothered him +when the nagging pain of the broken leg increased, as it +sometimes did, at night. + +"Oh, what should I have done without you, Mrs. Carringford?" +breathed Janice, often taking comfort in the kindly woman's arms +for a momentary hug. I do think Amy and Gummy and the little +ones are awfully nice not to make any more objection than they do +to your being up here." + +"Oh, they quarrel enough with me about it at times," laughed Mrs. +Carringford. "But I tell them if it was not here, it would have +to be somewhere else. I have got to work, my dear. I can see +that plainly. Every day the appetites of my little family +increase and their needs grow. The rate at which Kate and Edna +May and Syd wear out shoes-- Well!" + +"Let them go barefooted," giggled Janice. "I know they are +teasing you all the time about it" + +"No!" cried Mrs. Carringford, with warmth. "I know we live in +Mullen Lane and it is not always possible for me to dress my +children as nicely as I wish; but they shall not run barefoot +like the little hoodlums that live about us. And Syd bothers me +to death about it." + +But Janice could only laugh a bit at this. She herself sometimes +ran barefooted around the house and yard, though she was growing +too big for that now, and she did not blame the little +Carringfords for wanting to do so. + +At any rate, she was very, very grateful to Mrs. Carringford for +stepping into the breach at this time and helping them--and +grateful to Amy and Gummy, as well. + +Amy was a smart little housewife, and she had a gentle but firm +way with the smaller children that kept them well in hand when +their mother was out of the way. + +Gummy, driving Mr. Harriman's delivery wagon, was at the Day +house once or twice a day to see his mother, and of course Mrs. +Carringford was always at home by seven or eight o'clock at +night. The Days had set forward their dinner hour while Mr. Day +was held in the house. + +Janice would not sleep upstairs herself at first, while her +father so often needed her. She made up a bed on another couch +that was drawn in from the dining room, and slept there. Often +in the night daddy grew restless and was thankful for a glass of +fresh water or for some other small comfort. + +There was one night Janice knew she should never forget, no +matter to what age she lived. It was soon after her father was +brought home "an invalid," as he laughingly called it. He had +been in much pain all day, and Janice new it well enough, +although he smothered his groans when she was within hearing. + +But he could not smother his mutterings at night. Toward dark he +grew feverish and very restless. And when one has a "glass leg," +as the ambulance man had called it and cannot twist and toss to +relieve that restless feeling, one's situation is, indeed, +pitiful. + +Janice put out the living-room light early. The light only made +the night flying insects buzz and blunder at the window screens. +And how is it that moth millers will get into the most closely +screened house? This was a vexing mystery to Janice. + +After it was dark and the insects went to buzz elsewhere daddy +dropped to sleep. Janice had been upstairs to remove her +clothing, and had come down again with a thin negligee over her +nightgown. + +She listened to her father's uneven breathing and to his restless +murmurs. Before creeping into her own cot across the room, she +went softly to daddy's side and knelt on the floor. His face was +flushed and his thick hair wet with perspiration. The barber had +not been to shave him for two days, and Janice just knew the +"prickles" on his face must feed very uncomfortable. + +His head rolled from side to side upon the pillow. She wished +she could do something to relieve him. She did not want to wake +him up; but if she could only lave his face and hands with cool +water-- + +Suddenly his mutterings became intelligible. Janice was held +there on her knees--absorbed and almost breathless. + +"Laura!" + +The name was uttered so passionately--so reverently --that +Janice found the tears spring unbidden to her eyes. Daddy had +spoken her dead mother's name in his sleep. Indeed, it seemed as +though he called to the loved one who had gone from them never to +return. + +"Laura!" + +"Daddy!" breathed the girl. "It's me, not mamma! I-- I'm all +that's left to you!" + +He seemed, even in his sleep, to have heard Janice's murmured +words. + +"All that was left to me," Broxton Day sighed, repeating, as +Janice thought, what she had said. Or did he repeat Janice's +words? "Your dear thoughts-- and gone! gone! If I could only +find them again. The box--Olga." His mutterings trailed off into +unrecognizable delirium. He muttered, and his inflamed face +moved from side to side upon the pillow. He did not know her at +all this heartsick, sobbing little daughter! + +For Janice could understand at last what went on in his poor, +troubled brain. He was dreaming of the packet of letters--the +letters that were so precious to Broxton Day. In the secret +compartment of the lost treasure-box. In the fever of the man's +brain nothing else seemed so important to him as his lost wife's +letters! + +Of course, all of Janice Day's school friends did not go away +from Greensboro for the summer vacation; or, if they did go away +for a little visit, they were soon back again. + +And when the girls heard that Janice's father had broken his leg +and that Janice was tied to the house with him, they began to +come to see her, and inquire about daddy, and cheer her up. + +None of them realized that, with Mrs. Carringford at the head of +housekeeping affairs, Janice had not felt so free and cheerful +for some months as she did at this time. + +Daddy soon grew better, and he began to sleep peacefully at +night. The surgeon, Dr. Bowles, who came occasionally, said the +bones were knitting all right. Mr. Weeks and Janice even got the +patient up into a wheel chair which had an arrangement that made +it possible for the broken leg to rest stiffly before daddy, and +he could wheel himself out on the front + +porch. + +There was just the one thing to trouble the girl; that was the +mystery of the lost treasure-box and the secret sorrow she felt +because she had been careless with it. Without her carelessness, +she told herself, Olga Cedarstrom would never have taken it out +of the house --if that was really how the keepsakes had come to +disappear. + +It was Bertha Warring who chanced, when she first came to see +Janice after her return from an exciting trip to Chicago, to +mention that girl, Olga. At least she spoke of the "Olga" who +had been at the Latham house and had broken Mrs. Lantham's glass +dish the night of Stella's party. + +"I meant to speak to you about what Stella said, Bertha remarked, +"before I went away. But we went in such a hurry. You know, +Stella can be awfully mean." + +"Why, she's not always nice," admitted Janice whose opinion of +the farmer's daughter had changed a good deal during the past few +months. + +"I must say you let Stella down easy when you say that," laughed +Bertha. + +"Oh, she gets mad, and says mean things. But I don't think--" + +"Now, stop it, Janice Day!" exclaimed the other girl "You know +very wall that Stella is just as mean as a girl can be. See how +she spoke of Amy Carringford. And Amy is an awfully nice girl." + +"Yes, Amy is nice," admitted Janice, happily. + +"Well, now, look here," said Bertha, earnestly. "Stella said +something you did not hear once about that Swedish girl." + +"Oh, I guess I am not particularly interested in that girl," +Janice said slowly. "My father asked the Johnsons about her. +You know that girl was staying with them at the time of the +party. She ran away, I guess, because she was afraid Mrs. Latham +would make trouble about the broken dish. But the Johnsons said +her name was not Cedarstrom." + +"Mercy, what a name!" laughed Bertha. "Just the same, there is +something about that girl that Stella knows, and that she said +you would give a good deal to know." + +"Why, I can't imagine--" + +"That's just it," said Bertha, quickly. "It sounded so +mysterious. I ought to have told you about it there and then. +But you know how jumbled up everything was, just the last days of +school." + +"That is so," admitted the puzzled Janice. + +"But, you know, Stella and I went away on the same train +together." + +"No! Did you?" + +"Yes. She changed cars before we got to Chicago; but she sat in +the chair car with me for a long way. And I pumped her about +what she meant when she spoke the way she did regarding that +Swede." + +"Yes?" + +"Why, she giggled, and made fun, and wouldn't say anything much +at first. But I hammered at her," said Bertha, "until I got her +mad. You know Stella loses her temper and then--well, it's all +off!" and Bertha laughed gaily. + +"Oh, Bert!" admonished Janice warmly, "I don't think we ought to +get her mad." + +"Oh, she'll get glad again," said Bertha carelessly. "Don't worry +about Stella, Miss Fussbudget." + +Janice laughed then, herself. She did not mind Bertha Warring's +sharp tongue. + +"Well, as I was saying, I got her finally to say something more +about that Olga. And what do you suppose she did say?" + +"I could not guess," said the wondering Janice. + +"Why, that it was very true her name was not Cedarstrom now. +That is just the way she said it before she got up and flounced +out of the car." "Oh, Bert!" gasped Janice. + +"Do you see? I was some minutes catching on to it," Bertha said, +rather slangily. "But you see, I guess. That girl had been known +as 'Olga Cedarstrom' at some time or other, you mark my word. +And Stella found it out and would not tell you." + +"Then she must be married. Of course her name is not Cedarstrom +now," murmured Janice. + +"Oh! Is that it? I didn't know but she was a real crook," said +Bertha, "and had what they call an 'alias.'" + +"No-o, I don't believe so. The last daddy learned about her over +at Pickletown, some of the Swedish people there thought she must +have gone off to get married. She was going with a young man who +works in one of the pickle factories. His name is Willie +Sangreen." + +"And what's become of him?" asked the interested Bertha. + +"He went away, too." + +"They ran off and got married! Of course!" cried the +romance-loving Bertha. "And that Stella Latham found it out and +wouldn't tell you. Maybe your father-- Oh! but he can't go +looking for them now that he has a broken leg, can he?" + +"I am afraid not. We'll have to wait. But do you really +suppose, Bert, that Stella is sure of what she says? Perhaps she +doesn't really know for sure about that Olga." + +"Where there's so much smoke there must be some fire," Bertha +said, with a laugh, as Janice walked out to the front gate with +her. "I guess Stella knows-- Oh, Janice! Talking about smoke," +cried Bertha suddenly, looking back at the Day house and up at +the roof, "what is all that smoke coming out of your kitchen +chimney?" + +Her startled friend looked in the direction indicated. Out of the +chimney-mouth, and between the bricks, poured a vomit of black +smoke. Then, as the girls looked, red flames darted out with the +smoke-- spouting four or five feet into the air above the top of +the chimney. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. ABEL STROUT AT THE ROOT OF IT + +The shock of seeing the chimney on fire did not overcome Janice +Day as much as the thought that daddy was lying down, resting, in +the living room, and that she would never be able to get him up +and into his wheelchair and out of doors before the whole house +was in a blaze. + +For those lurid flames darting out of the chimney looked very +terrifying indeed. Bertha Warring ran out into the street, +screaming; but Janice darted back into the house. + +Somebody outside screamed. "Fire! Fire!" Janice believed it must +have been Miss Peckham. Little ever got past the sharp eyes of +that neighbor in the next cottage. + +Janice heard her father ejaculate some exclamation, but she did +not go to him first. She rushed, instead, to the telephone in +the hall. + +Seizing the receiver, she rattled the hook up and down, hoping to +get a quick response. + +"Janice!" she heard her father call. + +"Yes, Daddy. I'm coming!" she cried. Then her ear came the +leisurely question: + +"Number, please?" + +"Central! give me the Fire Department--please!" ejaculated the +excited girl. + +"Number, please?" again drawled the unruffled Central. + +"Oh, quick! Quick!" cried Janice into the instrument. "Give me +the Fire Department. Our house is on fire!" + +"Great heavens!" ejaculated her father from the living room. He +was awake and heard Janice now. + +"Do be quick, Central!" cried Janice. "The Fire De--" + +"Market, two, three hundred," said Central. + +"It's a wonder," thought Janice, even in her present state of +mind, "that she doesn't call 'Information'!" + +"Janice! Where is the fire?" called her father. + +"It's the chimney. Wait, Daddy! I'll come and help yon. The +kitchen chim-- Oh!" + +Somebody on the wire just then said crisply: "Central Fire +Station. What's wanted?" + +"Fire!" shouted Janice. "Our house! Eight-forty-five Knight +Street!" + +"I hear you!" exclaimed the man at the other end, and Janice +almost threw the receiver back on the hook, and darted into the +living room. + +Mrs. Carringford happened to be out. Janice, now that Bertha +Warring had deserted her, was all alone in the house with the +injured man. + +"Oh, Daddy!" she gasped, seeing him already in his chair. + +"Give me a push, child. Where is the fire? This is something +new--the first time the Days were ever burned out." + +"It's the kitchen chimney. But I can't get you down the front +steps--" + +Meanwhile she was pushing him out on the porch. People were +running toward the house now and many were shouting. But it did +not look like a very helpful crowd. + +Just then Janice saw a wagon being driven rather wildly along the +street toward the house. It was not a part of the Fire +Department equipment, although she looked eagerly for that. The +nearest fire station was fully half a mile from the Day house. + +The children in the street scattered as the horse's pounding feet +on the macadam warned them of his approach. The driver stood up, +his feet braced against the dashboard, yelling to the horse to +stop as he swung back on the reins. + +It was Gummy! + +"Hi, Janice! Your chimneys on fire!" he shouted, when he had +stopped the horse. + +"Well, for goodness sake!" exclaimed Janice, "doesn't he suppose +we know it, with all this crowd--and noise --and everything?" + +Gummy tumbled out of the covered wagon. He came down on all +fours, he was in such a hurry; but he was up again in a moment. + +"Hi, Janice! I can put it out, if I can get out on to that ell +roof through that little window up there." he cried. + +"That's the hired' girl's room," gasped Janice. + +"What's he going to do? Take pails of water out there and throw +them down the chimney?" + +"Give the boy a chance," said daddy. "Maybe he can do +something." And to Janice's amazement, her father was smiling. + +Gummy ran around to the back of the wagon. He dropped the +tailboard, backed around, and got a bag on his shoulders. With +this he staggered toward the house. + +"Oh, Gummy!" screamed Janice, "what have you got in that sack?" + +"Salt," replied the boy, panting up the steps. "Half a shushal +of balt. I was takin' it out to Jones's. + +"Salt?" gasped Janice, in her excitement not noticing at all that +Gummy had again "gummed up his speech," to quote his own +expression. "Why, what good is salt? That chimney is blazing." + +"Salt will do the trick. Show me the way to that window. Salt +will put out a fire in a chimney better than anything else." + +"Let him have his way, Janice," said her father quickly. + +She thought she heard the gong of some of the fire apparatus +approaching; but she was not sure. She gave Gummy a hand, and +they ran upstairs with the sack of salt between them. + +Here was the small room. She flung open the door and Gummy flung +up the lower sash of the window. He almost dived out upon the +tinned roof of the kitchen ell. + +"Quick! Give me that salt I" he cried reaching in for it. + +Janice helped him lift the bag out of the window. He dragged it +along the roof toward the chimney that now vomited black smoke +and flames in a very threatening volume. Fortunately the light +wind drifted it away from the main part of the house. + +"Oh, Gummy, you'll be burned to death--and then what will your +mother say?" cried Janice. + +Gummy was so much in earnest that he did not even laugh at this. +He dragged the sack of salt as close to the burning chimney as he +dared. Then he got out his pocketknife and cut the string. + +Everybody in the street below was yelling to him by this time, +telling him what to do and how to do it. Gummy gave them little +attention. + +The smoke choked him and occasionally a tongue of flame seemed to +reach for him. But Gummy Carringford possessed a good deal of +pluck, and he was strong and wary for so young a boy. Shielding +his face as best he could from the heat and smoke, he began to +cast double handfuls of salt into the chimney. + +The chimney was fortunately not as high as his head and Gummy +could do this as well as a man. The soot which had gathered in +the chimney (perhaps it had not been cleaned out since the house +was built) was mostly at the bottom, and the flames came from +down there; but the hot bricks would soon set the roof on fire, +if not the walls inside the house. + +The salt smothered the fire wherever it landed. It was better +than sand for such a purpose, for salt is damp and seems to +possess smothering qualities all its own when rained upon the +flames. + +Before half the contents of the bag had been thrown down the +chimney the flames no longer leaped above its top. The smoke +continued to roll up, and Gummy had pretty well smothered it +himself when the Fire Department apparatus came clanging up to +the house. + +One of the fireman with a portable extinguisher rushed upstairs, +got out at the small window and reached Gummy's side quickly. + +"Good boy, kid," he said. "Let's give it the lad," and he began +to squirt the contents of the fire extinguisher down the chimney. + +Gummy staggered back and sat down, coughing. His face and hands +were pretty black and he was breathless. When he got back +downstairs and the firemen had declared the conflagration +entirely extinguished, Gummy found himself quite a hero. + +The excitement had hurt nobody, after all. Janice was glad Mrs. +Carringford was not there at the time, or she certainly would +have been worried about Gummy. + +"You are an awfully smart boy, Gummy," Janice declared, clinging +to the boy's hand. "I won't ever make fun of you again when you +get mixed up in talking." + +Mr. Day overheard this and laughed heartily. He too, shook Gummy +cordially by the hand. + +"You have a head on you, son," he said. "How came you to think +about the salt?" + +"I saw a chimney on fire in the country once, and they put it out +with salt," the boy replied. "I've got to hurry back to the +store and get more salt for the Jones's now. I guess Mr. +Harriman will be mad." + +"Oh, no he won't. I'll call him up on the telephone and tell him +to put this sack on my account. He won't scold you, I am sure," +said Mr. Day. + +In fact, everybody who heard about the matter praised Gummy +Carringford. They began to say "that boy with the funny name is +considerable of a boy," and things like that. Mr. Day gave him a +little money, although Gummy did not want to take that. + +"You treat your little brothers and sisters with it, Janice's +father said laughing. "They didn't have the fun of seeing you +put out the fire." + +"We-ell," said the thoughtful boy, "I'll see what Momsy says +about it first." + +When Mrs. Carringford returned to the house Mr. Day himself told +her of the fire and of what Gummy had done, and how proud she +should be of him, too. And Mrs. Carringford was proud--Mr. Day +could see that. + +"Boys are awfully nice to have around the house, aren't they, +Daddy?" Janice said that evening as they sat alone. "I never did +think before that I'd care to have a brother. You see, you are +just like a brother to me, Daddy." + +"I see," said Daddy, chuckling. "When it comes to chimney fires +and such excitement, a boy comes in handy, is that it?" + +"Why--ye-es, Berta Warring ran away, crying, and I couldn't do +much but squeal myself," said Janice gravely. + +"And telephone for the Fire Department, and help me out, and aid +Gummy to carry up the salt, and--" + +"Oh, but, Daddy, those are all such little things!" sighed +Janice. + +Janice thought things were going pretty well after that. They +were so glad to have their house saved from destruction, and so +proud of Gummy, that everybody seemed all right. But there was +trouble coming, and one afternoon Amy brought it to the Day +house. + +Amy, in tears, came to see her mother. Janice chanced to be in +the kitchen when she entered from the Love Street gate. Amy had +in tow a curly-haired dapper little man who looked too oily to be +honest, and with little gimlet eyes that seemed to bore right +through one. + +"Oh, Mother!" gasped Amy, "this--this man's come to take our +house away from us!" + +"What is this now?" exclaimed Mrs. Carringford, in as much +surprise as fear. + +"Yes, he has. He said so. He's got papers, and all," sobbed +Amy. + +"Ahem! the young lady puts it very crassly indeed," said the +curly-haired man. "You, I presume, are Mrs. Josephine +Carringford," he went on, reading from a paper. + +"Yes." + +"I am serving you in the suit of Mrs. Alice G. Blayne, of +Croydon, Michigan, my client, to recover a certain parcel of +property situated on Mullen Lane and now occupied by you and your +family, Mrs. Carringford," said the man glibly, and thrusting a +paper into the woman's hand. + +"But I bought my home through Mr. Abel Strout, of Napsburg," +gasped Mrs. Carringford. She did not recognize Jamison, the farm +hand, in the transaction at all. She now felt that man was but +Abel Strout's tool. + +"Oh! As to that, I have nothing to say," said the curly-haired +lawyer, smiling in a way Janice did not like at all. "I merely +represent my client. The property has been claimed by several +people, I believe, and may have been sold a dozen times. That +will not invalidate my client's claim." + +"But I never even heard of this Mrs, Blayne," murmured Amy's +mother. + +"A poor widow, ma'am," said the lawyer blandly. "And one who can +ill afford to lose her rights. She as heir of old Peter +Warburton Blayne who lived in that house where you now reside for +a great many years. He died. His heirs were not informed. The +place was sold for taxes--for a nominal sum, ma'am. Of course, a +tax-deed has no standing in court if the real owner of the +property comes forward ready to pay the back taxes, accrued +interest, and the fixed court charges." + +"But I got a warranty deed!" cried Mrs. Carringford. + +"That is a matter between you and the person you say you bought +the house of," said the lawyer calmly. "If you consider that you +have a case against him you will have to go to court with him. +Ahem! An expensive matter, my dear madam, I assure you. +Probably the man who sold to you had every reason to believe he +had a clear title. It has passed through several hands since +Peter Blayne died, as I say. + +"I cannot advise you as to that, ma'am," pursued the lawyer. +"Those papers are in regard to this suit that is already entered +against you. Of course, it would be cheaper for you to settle +the case out of court; but you will probably want to fight us. +Most women do." + +At this point Janice got to her feet and ran out of the room. +She rushed in to where her father was writing on a lapboard +across the arms of his chair. + +Meanwhile Mrs. Carringford and Amy were clinging together and +facing the dapper, voluble, little lawyer in the kitchen. Amy +was sobbing excitedly; but her mother said firmly: + +"Abel Strout is at the root of this--" + +"I assure you," said the lawyer politely, "my client is Mrs. +Blayne. I have nothing to do with Abel Strout." + +"He is at the root of it, nevertheless," said Mrs. Carringford +confidently. "I saw it in his eye when he was last in my house. +He means to turn me and my children out, and ruin us!" + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. THE CLOUDS LOWER + +Janice was so excited she could scarcely speak intelligibly for a +minute. But finally she made her father understand what was +going on in the kitchen. + +"And he's come to take their house right away from them," +concluded the girl. "He's given her a paper, and she's got to +give him the house--and everything!" + +"Oh, no; not so bad as all that," said daddy, soothingly. +"Things aren't done in just that way-- not even by shyster +lawyers. This is just a notice of suit he has given her. But +you run, Janice, and tell them to come in here. I will hear what +this man has to say." + +So Janice ran back to the kitchen. She held the door open, and, +with rather a commanding air for so young a girl, looking +straight at the curly-haired man: + +"You and Mrs. Carringford come into the living room. My father +wants to see you." + +"Hey?" said the man. "Who is this?" + +"Mr. Broxton Day," said Mrs. Carringford, quietly. "I think we +had better see Mr. Day before we go any farther in this matter." + +"Oh, I have no interest in seeing anybody else, ma'am," said the +lawyer hastily. "Of course, you can take advice if you wish to. +Every move you make, however, will cost you money, as you'll +find. It will be throwing good money after bad money, I assure +you." + +"Now if you feel like settling the matter out of court--" + +"We will go in, and you can say all that before Mr. Day," said +Mrs. Carringford firmly. "It seems to me I shall understand it +better in front of him." + +"Daddy is waiting for you," said Janice urgently. "He has a +broken leg so he can't come here to get you," she added looking +at the lawyer significantly. + +Maybe the fact of this assurance--that Broxton Day was +practically helpless physically--led the lawyer to take a chance +in the living room. But he was manifestly very ill at ease from +the moment he heard Mr. Day's name mentioned. + +"Will you oblige me with your name, sir?" said daddy in his +ever-courteous way. + +The curly-haired man fumbled for a card and finally handed one to +Mr. Day. + +"'Mr. Jonas Schrimpe,'" repeated daddy. "Are you practising at +the bar here in Greensboro?" "My office is in Napsburg, Mr. Day. +Three Forty-two Main Street." + +"Ah! Are you acquainted with Mr. Abel Strout?" + +"I have nothing to do with Mr. Strout," said the man, rather +sharply. "I have already told the lady that. My client is Mrs. +Blayne--" + +"I understand," said Mr. Day suavely. "I merely asked you a +question, Mr. Schrimpe. Do you know Mr. Strout?" + +"Well--I know him by sight." + +"Naturally. As I chance to remember his office is in the same +building on Main Street as your own. I remember the number," +said Mr. Day smiling. "Three Hundred and Forty-two Main Street." + +Mr. Schrimpe fidgeted and turned very red in the face. Mr. Day +went on quietly: + +"Is this client of yours in Napsburg?" + +"She lives in Croydon, Michigan." + +"In Michigan! How came she to pick out you Mr. Schrimpe, for an +attorney in this matter? Forgive the question; I am curious." + +"Why--I--I was recommended to her." + +"Ah! By a friend, I suppose." + +"She--she heard of me down here, and wanted to put the case in a +lawyer's hands on the spot." + +"'On the spot,'" repeated Mr. Day. "Why not in some lawyer's +hands in Greensboro, rather than Napsburg?" + +Mr. Schrimpe seemed very confused, as well as angry; but he did +not dare to assert himself. Mr. Day held out his hand for the +paper the lawyer had given to Mrs. Carringford. + +"Just leave it to me, Mrs. Carringford," he said confidently. "I +know just what to do. Possibly had I not broken my leg I would +have been able to warn you of this." + +"Then that Abel Strout is at the root of it, just as I said," she +cried. + +"Not a doubt of it," replied Mr. Day. "That John Jamison was but +a dummy." + +"I assure you," began the red-faced lawyer, but Mr. Day +interrupted: + +"Your assurances would not be accepted before this court, I am +afraid, Mr.--ah Schrimpe. Now would you mind, as you are in +town, calling upon Mrs. Carringford's legal adviser in regard to +this affair?" + +I--oh--" + +"Oh, Mr. Day!" interjected Mrs. Carringford, "a lawyer's services +cost so much." + +"This man is my own lawyer," said Mr. Day promptly. "I assure +you that he will look into this suit without charging you much, +Mrs. Carringford. If Mr. Schrimpe--" + +"Oh, if it's not out of my way as I go back to the railroad +station," growled the curly haired man. + +"Not at all. It is over the bank--the Farmers and Merchants +Bank. Mr. Randolph E. Payne is the gentleman." +"Great Scott!" gasped Mr. Schrimpe, actually appearing to +shrivel, "Mr. Payne?" + +"Yes. He is known to you?" + +"Everybody knows Mr. Payne." + +"He is well known. As good a lawyer, I believe, as we have in +this part of the State. You do not mind meeting him?" + +"Er--will he see me, Mr. Day?" + +"I will telephone to him at once. I assure you he will give you +a hearing--and thank you. Good day, Mr. Schrimpe." + +Although daddy could not leave his chair, Janice saw that he had +a way of getting rid of visitors promptly when he wanted them to +go. Mr. Schrimpe scuttled out in a hurry. + +"Wheel me to the telephone, Janice," said Mr. Day cheerfully. "I +hope Payne frightens that little shrimp out of a year's growth. +If ever I saw a shyster lawyer, I saw one when that fellow came +into the room." + +"Oh, Mr. Day! but this suit? That summons? What shall I do?" + +"Do nothing yet! assure you, Mrs. Carringford, you will have one +of the best lawyers in the State to tell you what to do when the +times comes. Of course, if the matter comes to court, you will +have to go into court and meet them. But don't worry till that +time comes. That is my advice." + +"Then they can't take our home away from us?" cried Amy +joyfully." + +"Hold on!" advised Daddy. "I do not say that. I don't wish to +encourage you with any false hopes--nor to discourage you, +either. I know nothing--absolutely nothing--regarding the legal +status of this case. I have my suspicions that Abel Strout is +behind it." + +"Oh, I am sure of that!" cried Mrs. Carringford. + +"Nevertheless, it may be that there is an unsatisfied claimant of +the old Peter Warburton Blayne property. This Mrs. Alice G. +Blayne may be perfectly honest in her contention." + +"But in that case won't Mr. Strout or Mr. Jamison give me my +money back?" asked Mrs. Carringford. + +"If there was much chance of that, do you think Strout would have +stirred up any such suit as this?" asked Mr. Day quietly. "No. +Strout at least thinks he sees his way to making you lose the +house. Jamison was his dummy--used by him in order to keep, +himself out of trouble." + +"Oh, Mr. Day! Don't say that" + +"I say he thinks he has a chance. But he may be mistaken. +Strout is sly. This may be merely 'strike suit' started in the +hope of scaring you into making a disastrous settlement with him. +He wants to get the property back. The foundations for that +factory are already being laid. Property values Mullen Lane are +going up." + +"Oh, dear me!" sighed Mrs. Carringford, starting back toward the +kitchen, "this is a wicked world." + +"Nothing the matter with the world," said Mr. Day, cheerfully. +"It's some of the folks in it." + +He called Mr. Randolph E. Payne's office then and talked to the +successful lawyer for some time. To Janice, afterward, he would +say nothing more encouraging than he had said to the widow. + +"When one mixes up with a sharper like Abel Strout, one is likely +to be burned before he is through. Strout is always and forever +trying little, nasty, legal tricks. And Schrimpe is an instrument +fitted to Strout's hand. + +"Perhaps they have found some ignorant woman who really was a +relative of Peter Blayne, and who may have a small claim on the +property. It is enough to invalidate the deed Mrs. Carringford +has and yet she will be unable to prove that Strout and his man +Jamison knew about the fault in the title. + +"If he makes her sue to recover the thousand dollars she paid the +legal fees will eat up that sum--and he can afford to hire +lawyers and dribble along through the courts better than she +can." + +"Oh, Daddy!" + +"Yes, I am afraid, if Strout--or, rather, Schrimpe-- has a good +case it will be better to settle it out of court." + +"But, dear Daddy! Mrs. Carringford has no money to pay lawyer's +fees, or settle cases," urged Janice. + +"True. And that is the unfortunate part of it. Let us wait and +see what Mr. Payne advises after he has looked into the matter. +Whatever he says, she would better do." + +This ended the matter for the time being. But all the dark +clouds of trouble seemed to have lowered upon the Carringfords +again. Janice Day was sorry for them, but this was a case in +which she positively could not "do something" to help. She could +only offer her sympathy. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII . INFORMATION THAT IS TOO LATE + +During the days immediately succeeding the fire and the +Carringford's poignant trouble, Janice Day had a mental problem +to solve which occupied her thoughts a good part of the time. + +Daddy's broken leg was getting along nicely. With the aid of +crutches he could get around very well indeed. He had even gone +down to the bank in an automobile. + +So Janice did not have to give him quite the close care and +attention that she previously had. Daddy declared she was making +a mollycoddle of him, anyway--that she babied him too much. + +She had more freedom of action, therefore, and now she proceeded +to put a certain plan she had made into effect. Janice had not +forgotten what Bertha Warring had said regarding the information +Stella Latham had hidden from her, Janice, at the time school +closed. + +Could it be that, after all was said and done, the Olga who had +broken Mrs. Latham's dish was the same Olga that had run away +with the Day's treasure-box? Was it Olga Cedarstrom, with her +name changed, and Stella had known it to be so, all the time? + +Really, when Janice thought of this she felt exceedingly angry +with Stella. She had intended, after Stella had acted so meanly +toward Amy Carringford, to let the farmer's daughter strictly +alone in the future. She would have as little to do with her as +it was possible, considering that she had to go to school with +her. That was at first. Then her anger had cooled. Now it was +aflame again. + +But if Stella knew positively that the Swedish girl who had +visited Mrs. Johnson had been married, and therefore her name was +no longer Cedarstrom, Janice was determined to find it out. +Unpleasant as might be to ask Stella, Janice would do just this. + +She knew Stella had returned from her visit to the lake shore +resort. Janice had seen her flying past in the Latham car more +than once within the week. Janice could not stop her at such +times; she could not expect Stella to put herself out at all to +give her any information. So she set forth one August morning to +trudge through the heat and dust out to the Latham farm. There +was no interurban car that would take her near there; and how she +did wish daddy could afford an automobile! + +Indeed, just as she turned up the road leading to the door of the +Latham house a motor-car turned, too, into the road, powdering +Janice with dust. The latter saw the malicious smile of Stella +Latham, driving the car herself, as the farmer's daughter looked +back over her shoulder at the pedestrian. + +Janice kept grimly on; nor would she show Stella that she was +hurt or ruffled in temper. Stella waited on the porch for her +schoolmate to approach. A man came to take the car around to the +garage. + +"Well, what do you want?" asked Stella, when Janice came within +hearing. "Are you begging more old clothes for that protegee of +yours, Amy Carringford?" + +"I have come on my own business, Stella," said Janice gently. +"It is something that I want to know, and you can tell me." + +Stella was smiling broadly; but it was by no means a pleasant +smile. She was spiteful. She had found since coming back from +her summer vacation that the girls had not forgotten her behavior +toward Amy Carringford and some of them still resented it. She +was nowhere near as popular as she had been; and even her +father's motorcar could not regain the friendship of many of her +schoolmates whom she wished to be chums with. + +Stella laid all this to "that sly Janice Day." She dared not so +speak of Janice before her mother; for Mrs. Latham liked Janice. +Just now, however, Stella's mother was not at home, and she felt +free treat Janice in any way she chose. + +"Of course, you expect me to tell you everything you want to +know, Janice Day," said Stella. "But I don't know why I should." + +"You will tell me, won't you, Stella, if you really know that the +Swedish girl who broke your mother's dish is the same girl who +used to work for daddy and me?" + +"Why should I?" + +"Because it is the right thing to do, isn't it? You do not know +what it means to us if we can find that +girl--" + +"And why should I care?" snapped Stella "You never did anything +for me, Janice Day." + +"I think I tried to--at least once," her schoolmate said mildly. + +"Nothing of the kind! You did something for Amy Carringford--the +pauper! You were spoons with her then, and you wanted to get her +to my party. You begged an invitation for her and then dressed +her up. like a freak so she could come, and--" + +"That is not so, Stella," Janice interrupted with some spirit. +"But I want to talk about Olga, not about Amy." + +"Go along with your old Olga!" cried the other angrily. "I +wouldn't tell you anything about her if I knew." + +"I shall go to Mrs. Johnson again then. And if Mrs. Johnson is +not willing to tell me, I shall come back and see your mother." + +"Oh! you will?" sneered Stella. "So you think the Johnsons will +tell you about Olga's last name do you?" + +"I will ask them." + +"Good luck to you!" jeered Stella, as Janice went on through the +Latham's yard. "You can ask anybody you like, but you'll get +nothing out of me I assure you!" + +Janice made no further reply. She was hurt to the quick, for she +did not believe she deserved any such treatment from her +schoolmate. And it did, too, worry Janice Day when she knew she +had an enemy. + +"Friends are so much nicer to make than enemies," was one of +daddy's sayings; and his little daughter always bore that fact in +mind when in contact with her schoolmates. + +But really, one could do nothing with Stella Latham, once that +subborn person had made up her mind to be "mad." Stella gloried +in showing all the perversity with which she was cursed; so +Janice sighed and gave it up. + +"No use. I hope I won't have to ask Mrs. Latham. Then there will +be trouble, I fear." + +The walk over the hill and down the lane, crossing the brook +Gummy Carringford had once spoken of, was a pleasant walk, after +all. It was not dusty, and there were shade trees part of the +way. By the time Janice came to the little house which her +father and she had once visited to look for Olga, she was quite +cool and collected again. + +But as soon as she drew near to the tenant house the girl was +startled. There was not a sign of life about it. There were no +wagons or farm tools about the sheds or barnyard. There were no +cattle in the stable, nor pigs in the pen, nor poultry in the +wired run. + +"Goodness me! have the Johnsons gone, too?" cried Janice. + +She hurried to the little house. There were no curtains at the +windows, and she could see right through the empty house. + +"That's what Stella meant!" exclaimed Janice. "Oh, the mean, +mean thing! To let me walk away over here without telling me +that they had gone! And now she is waiting back there to laugh +at me when I return!" Janice Day did not like to be laughed at +any more than other people. And she particularly shrank from +facing the sarcastic Stella on this occasion. + +"At least, I will make some inquiries elsewhere, first," she +thought, and set forth along the public highway, on which the +little house fronted, toward another dwelling that was in sight. + +There were people in this house, that was sure. There were +children playing in the yard and a pleasant-faced woman on the +front porch, sewing and keeping an eye on the children. + +She did put out a somewhat forbidding air when Janice turned in +at the gate; but then she saw the girl had no bag or sample case, +so she brightened up again. + +"You haven't anything to sell, I guess?" the woman began, even +before Janice uttered a word. + +"Oh, no," answered the girl. + +"Come up and sit down," said the woman. Then she added: "Dear +me, you are only a little girl. It's hot walking. Will you have +a drink of water?" + +"No, thank you. I got a drink at the well back there," and +Janice pointed at the tenant house on Mr. Latham's place. + +"Oh, yes; Latham's cottage." + +"The Johnsons used to live there, did they not? asked the caller. + +"Swedes--yes," said the woman. + +"I was looking for them." + +"But goodness, you're not a Swede!" exclaimed the woman. + +"Oh, no," laughed Janice. "But I wanted to see them about a +friend of theirs--a girl who used to work for us." + +"Oh! I thought you couldn't be a foreigner," said the woman. +"Well," she added, "I'm afraid you'll have to go a long way to +find out anything from the Johnsons." + +"You don't mean--" + +"I mean they've left the country," said the woman. + +"Left this part of the country?" + +"They have gone back to Sweden," said Janice's informant, nodding +over her sewing. "Yes. They had a stroke of luck. Mrs. Johnson +told me herself in her broken talk. Near's I could find out her +grandfather had died and left her a bit of property, and she and +her family were going back to the place they came from ten years +ago, to attend to it. Lucky folks, some of them foreigners. I +don't see for the life of me why they ever leave their homes and +come over here, when they've got money and land comin' to them at +home." + +The woman talked on, even faster than Miss Peckham was wont to +talk. But her volubility gave Janice a chance to recover her +self-possession. She saw quite clearly that her errand had come +to naught. Even if the Lathams positively knew the missing Olga +had been named Cedarstrom before her marriage they probably did +not know where Olga now was. + +The people who were the more likely to know, these Johnsons, had +gone back to their native land. Janice wondered, despairingly, +if Olga had gone back to Sweden too. + +But the girl was able to hide her trouble from this new +acquaintance. The woman was glad to have her stay-- and talk. +Rather, the hostess did the talking. It was evident that she got +little chance for conversation, living as she did on this rather +lonely road. + +Janice planned what she would do, however, while she listened. +Rather than go back and perhaps have another quarrel with Stella, +she decided she would go home and tell her father what she had +found out. He might write to Mrs. Latham for information--if the +farmer's wife had any--regarding Olga. + +At least, it was one sure thing, that such information as Janice +had obtained was much too late. An ocean separated her now from +the Johnsons, Olga's friends. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. GUMMY COMES INTO HIS OWN + +Janice bade her new acquaintance good-bye with some difficulty. +The woman by the roadside did love to talk. But when the girl +was well rested she went on. + +She remembered very clearly the way she and daddy had come to the +little Johnson cottage in the automobile. So she knew she could +find her way back. One thing she did not take into +consideration, however; that was, that an automobile gets over +the ground a great deal faster than one can walk. + +An hour later, past mid-afternoon, dusty and footsore, she was +still marching towards Greensboro along a very pleasant, but a +very wearisome, road. She heard the rumble of wheels behind her, +but she was too tired to turn to look. + +Motor car after motor car had passed her while she was trudging +along in the dust, and not one driver stopped to offer her a +lift. + +But a friendly voice now hailed her as a horse was drawn down to +a walk. It reached Janice Day's ear like an angelic whisper: + +"Don't you want to ride, Miss?" + +She wheeled about with almost a scream of joy. "Gummy +Carringford!" + +"Jicksy! Is that you, Janice?" gasped the boy. "I'd never know +it, you're so smothered in dust. What are you doing away out +here? Get in--do!" + +He offered her a hand and pulled her up to the high step into the +front of the covered wagon. She almost fell to the seat. + +"You are the best boy!" she gasped. + +"Ain't I? They can't get along without me at my house. What +under the sun are you wandering around for away out here?" + +She told him in broken sentences, and he sympathized with her +because of her disappointment. + +"I could have told you the Johnsons had gone, if you'd asked me. +But I did not suppose you were interested in them any more," he +said. + +"And daddy, being out of the bank, did not know that Mr. Johnson +had withdrawn his account and sailed for Europe. Oh, dear me, it +is so exasperating! Everything about that Olga, and connected +with her, is so mysterious." + +"I wonder if I couldn't find out something about her in +Pickletown?" suggested Gummy. + +"Daddy has been there often, I believe," she said doubtfully. + +"But not of late." + +"Why, no, I suppose not. He's been tied to the house with a +'glass leg,'" cried Janice laughing a little. + +"You know I deliver orders over there twice a week for Mr. +Harriman. A lot of those people can't even talk English. We've +a Swede for a clerk in the store. They write down what they want +for me, and he puts up the orders. + +"But I know a lot of them to talk to--especially the boys that +work in the pickle factories I'll begin by asking them," said +Gummy, with eagerness, for he wanted to help. + +"That will be nice of you, Gummy," Janice said. "You never do +know when we might come across some news of her." + +"And you say you think she's married?" + +"It may be so. To Willie Sangreen. At least, she was going with +a man by that name when she worked for us." + +"Don't know any Sangreens over at Pickletown," said Gummy, +shaking his head. "And of course I haven't seen your Olga." + +"That is so, Gummy. But if the girl at Johnson's that night was +really Olga Cedarstrom, you'd know her again, wouldn't you?" + +"Guess I would if I saw her," declared the boy. "No fear about +that. I'll keep my eyes open, Janice." + +With this promise he chirruped to the horse, that jogged along +without paying very much attention to Gummy. He knew the road +better than the boy did, for he had been over it many more times. + +"Do you suppose that lawyer that came to see my mother will cheat +us out of our home, Janice?" asked the boy suddenly, showing +where his thoughts were anchored. + +"Not if it can be helped, Gummy," returned the girl +sympathetically. "I know daddy's friend, Mr. Payne, will do all +he can for her." + +"He hasn't sent any word to her, or anything," sighed Gummy. "We +just don't know what to do." + +"All you can do is to sit tight and hold on, I guess," Janice +said. "That is what daddy says he does when things look stormy +for him." + +"But, you see, it means so much to us," said the boy, shaking his +head. "Jicksy! And me with such a miserable old name!" + +"Why, Gummy!" + +"How'd you like to be called Zerubbabelbubble, or something like +that?" he demanded. "Nice enough for you. 'Janice'! That's a +fancy name. But 'Gumswith'! Jicksy!" + +"Why, Gummy!" exclaimed the girl again, didn't know you hated it +so." + +"I do. I don't talk about it. I know Pa gave it to me because +he thought a heap of his half brother. And Uncle John Gumswith +was a nice man, I guess. He set my father up in business in the +first place, when he was married." + +"Oh, is that so, Gummy?' + +"Yes! Don't kick about the old name before Momsy. You see, I +guess Uncle John wanted them to name a boy after him; and maybe +they thought if they did so it might do me some good sometime." + +"Oh, Gummy! That your uncle would give you money because you +were named after him?" + +"Yes," said Gummy, nodding. "I don't know. But--" + +"And your uncle's never been heard from? You never saw him, +even?" + +"Nor he me," grinned Gummy. "He went off to Australia and never +wrote. He was always traveling around the world, Pa said; and he +never did write. Just walked in on his folks without announcing +he was coming." "A regular wanderer," said Janice. + +"And now, jicksy!" exclaimed Gummy, vigorously, "how I'd like to +have him walk in on us now." + +"Oh, Gummy" she said eagerly, catching the drift of his desire. +"With his pockets full of money!" + +The boy nodded vigorously. "You see, Janice, it would be worth +while being called 'Gumswith' then, sure enough." + +Janice could not blame Gummy Carringford feeling as he did. He +really should have something to pay him for being called by such +an atrocious name! And Janice herself would be glad to have rich +relative walk into the Day house and present daddy--with an +automobile, for instance. + +They came in sight of the house at Eight Hundred and Forty-five +Knight Street just as the very kind of automobile Janice would +have loved to own was drawing up before the front door--a +handsome, great, big touring car, big enough for her to have +taken most of her friends out riding in at once. + +"Oh, who is that?" she cried. + +"Man. Don't know him," said Gummy, cheerfully, as the single +occupant of the tonneau stepped out of the car and entered the +gate. + +He was a well-dressed man, of more than middle age, and Janice's +heart began to beat faster. It did seem as though something must +be about to happen. + +Daddy was on the porch and she could see him greet the gentleman +without rising. The stranger took a seat at Mr. Day's request. +And if Janice had been near enough to have heard the first words +that passed between them, she would have suffered a great drop in +the temperature of her excitement. + +"How's the leg, Broxton?" asked the visitor. + +"Coming on, Randolph. What's the news?" + +"Well, yes, I have news," said the lawyer, nodding. + +"I know it. Or you would not have found time to get up into this +part of the town. Well, what can you tell Mrs. Carringford?" + +"Nothing much about that Mullen Lane property, I fear, that she +will want to hear." + +"Too bad, too bad," said Broxton Day. "I am sorry for her. She +is a hard working woman--and proud. No chance of helping her?" + +"I can settle the case for five hundred dollars. I cannot +connect Abel Strout with this shake-down--for that is what it is. +The woman up in Michigan never heard of her great-uncle's +property down here till this little Schrimpe told her. But we +can't connect him with Strout. Strout's skirts are clear. And +this Schrimpe had a perfect legal right to drum up trade. He's +that kind of lawyer," said Mr. Payne, with disgust. + +"Five hundred dollars--and she will still owe Abel Strout a +thousand on the mortgage," sighed Mr. Day. + +"Yes. But I suppose, in time, the property will be worth it." + +"It's worth it now," said Mr. Day. "That is what is the matter +with Strout. But Mrs. Carringford hasn't the money to spare. +And at the present time nobody would put a second mortgage on the +property." + +"I suppose the woman up in Michigan gets about twenty-five--maybe +fifty--dollars out of it. That would settle any quitclaim of +this character. Half a dozen other heirs were bought off at the +time; but she was overlooked. The rest of the five hundred Mrs. +Carringford can raise it--will be split between Schrimpe and his +principal." + +"There are some mighty mean people in this world," said Broxton +Day, grimly. + +"You've said it," agreed the lawyer. "Now, maybe I'd better see +Mrs. Carringford. I understand she is here?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you know much about her?" + +"I know she is a fine woman. They came here from Napsburg after +the husband died--" + +"Alexander Carringford, wasn't he?" asked Mr. Payne, taking some +papers from his pocket. + +"I believe so." + +"They came originally from Cleveland?" + +"Maybe." + +"A correspondent of mine in Cleveland has written me about a +family of Carringfords, and I shouldn't be surprised if these +were the same people. If they are--" + +"What's all the mystery, Payne?" asked Broxton Day, with sudden +interest, for he saw that the lawyer meant more than he had said. + +"If this is Alexander Carringford's widow, I don't know but my +news is in two pieces." + +"Meaning?" + +"Bad news, and good news. Let's call the woman." + +At that moment Janice, who had gone into the house through the +back way, appeared at the open door. + +"This is my little housekeeper, Randolph," said Broxton Day, +smiling proudly upon his daughter. "Janice, this is Mr. Payne." + +The girl came forward without timidity, but without boldness, and +accepted the visitor's hand. + +"Is Mrs. Carringford out there?" asked Janice's father. + +"Yes, Daddy. And Gummy." + +"'Gummy'!" ejaculated the lawyer. "What's that? A game, or +something to eat?" + +Janice's dear laughter rang out with daddy's bass tones. "Oh, +no, sir," she said. "Gummy is 'Gumswith Carringford.'" + +"My soul!" ejaculated the lawyer, getting up quickly from his +chair, "it is the right family. Come inside. Let's see Mrs. +Carringford somewhere where we can talk without the neighbors +seeing and hearing everything." + +For he had noticed the bowed blinds of Miss Peckham's cottage +only a few yards from the end of the porch. + +"Tell her to come into the living room, Janice," said Mr. Day, +rising slowly and reaching for his crutches. But it was evident +that he understood the lawyer's excitement no more than Janice +did. + +The girl ran back to the kitchen and urged Mrs. Carringford to +come in. "And Gummy, too," she said. "Maybe he wants you. It is +Mr. Payne, and he is daddy's lawyer." + +"It's about the home, Gummy!" ejaculated Mrs. Carringford. + +"Oh, I hope he'll tell us how to beat out that Abel Strout!" + +"Maybe it's to say that Mr. Strout can take our home," faltered +Mrs. Carringford. + +"Come on, Momsy!" said her big boy. "I'm not afraid. If worse +comes to worst, it won't be so long before I can support you and +the kids, anyway." + +Now Janice thought that was a very nice speech and she remembered +to tell daddy about it afterward. + +They went into the living room and Mr. Day introduced Mrs. +Carringford to his companion. The latter looked hard at Gummy. + +"What is your name, boy?" he asked rather sternly. + +"Carringford, too, sir," said Gummy, politely. + +"The whole of it!" commanded the lawyer. + +"Er--Gumswith Carringford," said the boy, with flashing eye but +cheeks that would turn red. + +"Indeed?" returned the lawyer, staring oddly at Gummy. "You are +something of a boy, I take it." Then he wheeled to confront Mrs. +Carringford. + +"I am told," Mr. Payne said, "that your husband was Alexander +Carringford, of Cleveland?" + +The woman was somewhat surprised, but said that that statement +was correct. She could not see, during the next few minutes' +cross-examination, what these questions had to do with that +little cottage in Mullen Lane, and whether her family was to be +turned out of it or not. + +After even his legal suspicion was satisfied as to Mrs. +Carringford's identity, Mr. Payne said, again looking at Gummy: + +"Did you and your husband name this boy after a certain relative +named John Gumswith. Mrs. Carringford?" + +"My husband's elder brother. Yes, sir. Gumswith is named after +his Uncle John." + +"Humph! I should consider it something of a punishment if I were +the boy," muttered the lawyer. Then he asked: + +"Have you heard from this relative--this John +Gumswith--recently?" + +"No, sir. Not for fifteen years," said Mrs. Carringford, her +face suddenly paling. + +"Do you know where he is?" + +"I only know that he started for Australia fifteen years ago." + +"Sit down, Mrs. Carringford," said Mr. Day softly. "I assure you +this is nothing to worry about." + +I--should--say--not," agreed the lawyer. "Quite the opposite. +And the boy need not look so scared, either. If he can stand +that name he carries around with him--" + +"Boy!" exclaimed Mr. Payne, "what would you say if somebody gave +you two thousand pounds?" + +"Er--what, sir?" gasped Gummy. "Two thousand pounds of what? +Must be an elephant! That's a ton." + +How Mr. Payne did laugh at that! But neither Gummy nor Janice +saw anything funny in his speech. Mrs. Carringford was watching +the lawyer's face, and she said nothing. + +"I mean two thousand pounds in money. That is something like ten +thousand dollars. How about it?" asked Mr. Payne again. + +"Me?" exploded Gummy. + +"Yes. Because your name is 'Gumswith Carringford.' Isn't it +worth it?" chuckled the lawyer. + +Gummy looked all around, paling and flushing by turn. Then he +grinned widely and looked at Janice. + +"Jicksy!" he murmured, "the old name is worth something, after +all, isn't it?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. "BUT WE LOSE" + +It was such a happy surprise for Mrs. Carringford-- and for Gummy +as well--that they were well prepared for the piece of bad news +which Mr. Payne had first told to Mr. Broxton Day. A five +hundred dollar loss on the Mullen Lane property did not look so +big when it was understood that, through Gummy, the Carringfords +were going to get almost ten thousand dollars. + +It seemed that more than a year before, Mr. John Gumswith, of +Melbourne, Australia, had died, leaving a considerable fortune to +friends he had made there and with whom he had lived for more +than a dozen years. But he had left a legacy, too, "to any son +that my brother, Alexander Carringford, of Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. +A., may have had who has been duly christened 'Gumswith' after +me, to perpetuate my family name." + +"Of course," said Mr. Payne, dryly, "nobody challenged the will, +and so it was probated. I should, myself, doubt the good sense +of a man who would fasten such an ugly name upon a boy whom he +had never seen, and who never did him any harm--" + +"Mr. Payne," breathed Gummy, when he heard this, and earnestly, +"for ten thousand dollars I'll let anybody call me anything he +wants to. Names don't break any bones." + +At that Mr. Payne and Mr. Day laughed louder than they had +before. But Janice knew that Gummy was not selfish, nor did he +think so much of money. He was delighted that he could help his +mother in her sore need. + +"At any rate," said Mr. Payne, "the administrator of Mr. John +Gumswith's estate had his legal adviser communicate with +Cleveland lawyers; and they traced the Carringford family to +Napsburg. Then I was requested to find them, and--they have +found me!" and he + smiled. + +"I congratulate you, madam. Of course, the courts will allow a +proper amount to be used by you for Gumswith's support." + +"I guess not!" said Gummy. "I'm almost supporting myself--am I +not, Mother? The money's for you and the children." + +"Oh, no, Gumswith, I--I cannot use your fortune," cried the +mother quickly. + +"I have not yet finished," resumed the lawyer, with a queer +smile. "The boy has been left two thousand pounds for his name. +The father receives a thousand pounds, payable either to him, or, +if he be dead, to his widow. So you see there will be another +five thousand dollars coming to you, Mrs. Carringford." + +At that, Mrs. Carringford for the first time lost control of +herself. She hugged Gummy and sobbed aloud. + +"Pretty fine boy. Pretty fine boy," said Mr. Payne. + +"He is that," agreed daddy, smiling across at Janice. "He put out +the fire our chimney, didn't he Janice?" + +So this made them all laugh and they were all right again. There +was much to talk over before Mr. Payne went, besides the bad +fortune about the Mullen Lane property. And Mrs. Carringford and +the Days talked after Gummy had rushed out to drive back to +Harriman's store. The dinner was late that night in the Day +house. + +Indeed, Janice forgot, in all the confusion and excitement, to +tell her father where she had been that afternoon, what she had +gone for, and how sadly she had been disappointed. + +All this wonderful fortune for the Carringfords continued to +create so much excitement at the Day house, as well as in the +little cottage in Mullen Lane, that for several days Janice +scarcely thought about Olga Cedarstrom and the lost treasure-box. + +For out of the good luck of the Carringfords, bad fortune for the +Days suddenly raised its head. Mrs. Carringford had a good deal +of extra work to do, anyway, for she had to go to the lawyer's +office and to the court, and interest herself in many things she +had known little about before. She was fighting to save her +home. + +Indeed, Amy declared the Carringford family did not know "whether +it was on its head or its heels." Only Gummy. Nothing seemed to +disturb Gummy. And he would not give up his place with Mr. +Harriman. + +"He keeps saying," Amy told Janice, laughing and sobbing +together, "that the ten thousand dollars is for the family. He +is going to keep on working until school begins, and even then +after school and on Saturdays. Really, Janice, he is darling +brother." + +"I believe you," said Janice wistfully, for of late she had begun +to realize that a household of just two people was awfully small. + +It became quite shocking when she suddenly understood that Mrs. +Carringford must give up looking after the Day household and +attend thereafter strictly to her own family. Of course, Mr. Day +had seen this from the first; but it came as a shock to his +little daughter. + +"Oh, but Amy, and Gummy, and the little ones get everything! +They get their money and are going to own their home, and get +their mother all the time, too. It is fine for them, Daddy, but +we lose!" + +"I am afraid we do," said her father, nodding soberly. "We shall +have to go back to the mercies of the intelligence office, or go +to boarding." + +"No, no!" cried Janice to this last. "Not while vacation lasts, +at any rate. Why! I've learned a lot from Mrs. Carringford, and +we can get along." + +"You are a dear little homemaker, Janice," he said. "When you get +a few more years on your shoulders I have no doubt that we shall +have as nice a home as we once had before dear mother went away. +But you cannot do everything. We cannot afford two in service--a +cook and a housemaid. We shall have to struggle along, 'catch as +catch can,' for some time I fear." + +"But no boarding-house," declared Janice. "No giving up our own +dear home, Daddy." + +"All right. I am going to get down tomorrow, crutches or no +crutches, and I will make the rounds of the agencies." + +"Oh, dear!" she sighed. Then suddenly, for she was looking out +of the window: "Who do you suppose that is, Daddy, coming in at +the side gate? Why! It's a black woman--awfully black. And +she--" + +Janice left off breathlessly and ran to the kitchen door. A +woman of more than middle age but, as said herself, "still mighty +spry," approached the porch. + +Hers was not an unintelligent face. Her dark eye beamed upon +Janice most kindly. Her white, sound teeth gleamed behind a +triumphant smile. She carried a shabby bag, but she dropped that +and put out both hands as she came to the door. + +"Ma bressed baby!" she cried in a voice that shook with emotion. +"Nobody's got to tell me who you is! You's your darlin' mamma's +livin' image! Ma sweet Miss Laura, back a little chile ag'in!" + +The dark eyes were suddenly flooded and the tears ran down the +negro woman's plump cheeks. She was not wrinkled, and if her +tight, kinky hair was a mite gray, she did not have the +appearance of an old person in any way. Her voice was round, and +sweet, and tender. + +"You don' know me, honey. You kyan't 'member Mammy Blanche. But +she done hol' you in her arms w'en you was a mite of a baby, jes' +as she held you dear mamma --my Miss Laura. Ah was her mammy, +an' she growed up right under ma eye. Don' you understun', +honey? The Avions was mah white folks. + +"When Mistah Day come co'tin' an' merried yo' mamma, and kerrled +her off here to Greensboro, Ah come along, too. An' Ah nebber +would o' lef' you, only ma crippled brudder, Esek, an' his +crippled wife done need me to tak' care ob dem. + +"But Esek's daid. An' here Ah is back, chile--Ma soul an' body! +ef dar ain' Mistah Brocky Day on crutches!" + +"Blanche! Mammy Blanche!" exclaimed the man with real warmth, as +well as wonder, in his tone. "Is it really you?" + +"It's mah own brack se'f!" cried the woman, as daddy came +hobbling forward to meet her just as though she were the finest +company that had ever come to the Day house. + +"You couldn't be more welcome if you were a queen, Mammy +Blanche," he cried. "You know--?" + +He halted, and his own countenance fell. The old woman clung +tightly to his hand with both of hers. + +"Ah, yes; Ah got yo' letter long, long ago, Mistah Brocky. It +nigh broke my heart. Ma lil' Miss Laura! But, glory!" and she +turned suddenly to Janice, "here she is ober again!" + +"I know it," said Broxton Day, wiping his eyes. "Come in and sit +down, Mammy. Janice does not remember you, I suppose. But I +remember well enough that we never had any housekeeping troubles +when Mammy Blanche was on hand." + +"Sho' not! Sho' not," chuckled the old woman. "And Mammy Blanche +jest as spry now, an' able to do for you, as she used to be." + +"What? Have you come to stay with us awhile, Mammy Blanche?" +asked Broxton Day. "Your brother?" + +"Esek is daid. His wife's gone back to her own people. Ah ain't +got nobody, nor nohin' of mah own in dis here worl' Mistah +Brocky, onless dey is under dis here roof. I has come to stay, +sah, if you is of a min' to give mah ol' bones house room." + +Janice had been breathless. But she had listened, and gradually +she had begun to understand. She could remember a good deal that +her dear mother had told her about Mammy Blanche. And this was +she! + +The girl put her hand confidently into that of the black woman's. +She looked up at her father brightly. + +"I take it all back, Daddy," she murmured. "I was ungrateful and +suspicious of fate, wasn't I? We don't lose." + + + +CHAPTER XXX. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED + +It took several days for Janice to understand thoroughly just +what it meant to have Mammy Blanche in the house. Of course, +Mrs. Carringford had been perfectly capable; yet she felt that +she must ask Janice or Mr. Day once in a while about things. + +Not Mammy Blanche! She knew what to do, and how to do it, and +just what "the white folks" wanted. She remembered just as +perfectly how Mr. Day liked things on the table, and what he was +fond of, and even how he wanted his bed made, as though she had +only been absent from the house a week instead of ten years. + +"Why, bress your heart, honey," she said to Janice, "Ah come into +dis here house when it was fust built. Ah cleaned it wid mah own +han's. Ah put up de fust curtains at de windahs. Ah knowed +where everything was in dem days. "But Ah spec' now you's had so +many no-count folks in de house fixin' fo' you dat Ah can't find +a bressed thing. Dars's dat old walnut wardrobe up in de +sto'room. It come from de Avion place, it did. Ah bet de +cobwebs ain't been swep' off de top o' dat wardrobe since yo' +poor mamma died." "It was too tall for Mrs. Carringford or me to +reach it," admitted Janice. + +"Well, Ah's gwine to give dis place one fine over-haulin; come +dis fall," went on Mammy Blanche. "Ah'll fix dem cobwebs." + +It proved to be unnecessary for Janice to worry about the +housekeeping in any particular. But she had not lost another +worry, and in spite of all the wonderful things that had +happened, and the interesting matters that were continually +cropping up, the lost treasure-box containing the mementoes of +her mother was continually fretting her mind. + +The opening of school was drawing near, and Janice began to take +exciting little "peeps" between the covers of textbooks. She +loved study, and daddy had been insistent this summer that she +should let lessons strictly alone. + +She had plenty of time to sit in the kitchen while Mammy Blanche +was at work there, listening to wonderful tales of her mother's +childhood, and of the "doin's" on the Avion plantation on the +other shore of the Ohio River. + +"All gone now, chile," sighed Mammy Blanche. "Somebody else +livin' in the Avion home." + +But better than all, Janice, the homemaker learned many new and +interesting things about housekeeping. Mammy Blanche had a +"sleight," as she called it, in doing housework, and Janice might +well copy her methods. + +Amy came often to see her, of course; and Gummy was at the house +almost every day with orders from the store. One Saturday +morning, while Janice was sweeping the porch, she saw Gummy +driving toward the house almost as madly as he had the day the +chimney caught fire. + +"Why, Gummy!" she cried, running out to meet him as he drew up +the horse at the curb, "what is the matter?" + +"You'd never guess!" shouted the boy. "What do you suppose? I +just saw that pickle-girl in Olga-town." + +"What? gasped Janice. + +"I--I mean I've seen that Pickletown in Olga--Oh, jicksy!. Do +you know what I mean, Janice Day?" + +"Yes! Yes!" she cried. "You've seen Olga." + +"Then jump right in here and I'll drive you to her," said the +boy, without running the risk of another lapsus linguae. + +Without waiting even for a hat, and throwing her broom back over +the fence, Janice scrambled in. But when Gummy started the horse +she said to him: + +"Don't think you are driving in a chariot race. You'll kill Mr. +Harriman's poor old nag. Drive slower, Gummy. She won't get +away, will she?" + +"No. I think she's been living in that house some time. But I +never go there for orders, and I never happened to see her +before." + +"Where is it?" + +"Away down by the canal," said Gummy. + +"Oh! Then it is a long way off." + +"Yes." + +"What will Mr. Harriman say?" + +"There are not many orders this morning. And this is important, +Janice." + +"I guess it is," agreed the girl, her face pale but her eyes +sparkling with excitement. + +They did not say much after that until they came in sight of the +house by the canal. Oh, if it should be Olga! Janice began to +tremble. Should she have gone to daddy first about it? + +But daddy was still on crutches and was not fit to come out in +this delivery wagon, that was sure. + +What should she say to Olga if it were she? Ought she to stop +and ask a policeman to go with them to the house? And yet it was +a fact that she absolutely did not know for sure whether Olga had +taken the treasure-box or not. + +Suddenly she uttered a little exclamation. Gummy glanced ahead, +too. + +"Yes," he said, "that's the woman. That's the one I saw that +night at Stella Latham's. + +"It--it is Olga Cedarstrom," murmured Janice. Gummy drew the old +horse to a stop. Janice leaped down. The Swedish woman turned +and looked into Janice's blazing countenance. Her own dull face +lit up and she actually smiled. + +"Vell!" she exclaimed, "iss it Janice Day? I bane glad to see +you. Iss your fader well?" + +"Oh, Olga!" gasped Janice. + +"Huh? What iss it the matter?" + +"We have looked everywhere for you!" + +"For me? Why for me? I don't vork no more. I keep house for my +hoosban'," and Olga smiled broadly. + +"You--you are married to Mr. Sangreen?" asked Janice doubtfully. + +"I bane married right avay when I left you. We go to his +folks--dey leev up in Michigan. He try vork dere and I coom back +on a veesit to Yon Yonson's wife. He vork for Misder Latham." + +"Yes, I know!" cried Janice, anxiously. + +"Now Willie bane coom back to his old yob at de pickle vorks. +And how is you? You look fine." + +"Oh, Olga, we have been dreadfully worried. When-- when you went +away from our house did you see a little box--like a jewel box? +I left it on your trunk in the storeroom." + +"On my troonk?" repeated the woman. "Where it stood in de +storeroom?" + +"Oh, yes!" cried Janice clasping her hands. + +It had suddenly impressed her that beyond any doubt, Olga was not +a thief. Whatever had happened to the treasure-box, Olga did not +knowingly have it in her possession. +"I remember de leetle box. Yes! You t'ink I take it?" + +"We haven't been able to find it since you left, Olga," cried +Janice. + +"Huh! I saw it. But--Here! This boy will drive us back mit him +to your house?" + +"Oh, yes, Olga!" cried Janice, with a glance at Gummy, who +nodded. + +"I'll go mit you," said the woman, and immediately she climbed to +the high seat." Janice followed her. Gummy turned the horse +about and away they went on the return journey. + +On the way Janice thought it best to say nothing more about the +lost treasure-box; but she told Olga of how she had tried to +trace her through the Johnsons. + +"My bad look!" cried Olga. "I break a dish by that Latham +woman's house and she vant me to pay for it. Huh! People ought +not to use such spensive dishes. Me, I use common chinnyware in +my house." + +When they arrived at the house on Knight Street, Olga jumped +briskly down and followed Janice inside. Gummy called after them +that he would wait. He was so excited and interested himself +that he could not leave until the mystery was cleared up; + +"Ve go oop to dot storeroom," declared Olga and proceeded to do +so, with Janice trembling and hoping beside her. + +Once in the room the woman seized a strong chair, climbed upon +it, and, being tall herself, she could reach over the carved +strip of woodwork on the front of the wardrobe to the space that +lay behind. In a moment she brought something forth covered with +dust and cobwebs that caused Janice to utter a shriek of delight. +"That iss it, yes?" said Olga. "I be mad mit you dot morning I +leaf here. The box was on my troonk and when Willie come up the +stairs for it, I grab de box and pitch it up hyar. I don't know +you vant it, Janice-- and your fader." + +"Well," sighed Broxton Day, when he heard the good news and had +the treasure-box in his hands, "'All's well that ends well.' But +what a peck of trouble that Swedish girl made us!" + +"No, no I" exclaimed Janice warmly. "I did it. It was my fault. +I was the careless one, or the box would not have been where she +could see it. But I am awfully glad, Daddy, that Olga proved not +to be a thief." + +Daddy showed her the tiny spring in the bottom of the box which, +when released, enabled him to lift up the thin partition. He +removed the thin packet of letters, and put them in a leather +case, placing the case into the wall safe. + +"I know where they are now, my dear. Do what you will with the +other keepsakes and the treasure-box itself. I cannot tell you +how glad I am to get these letters back." + +But Janice thought she did know something about that. + +"That Mexican mine business is not likely to cause us any more +trouble until spring, anyway," said daddy one night at dinner. + +"Oh, Daddy! then won't you have to go down there?" Janice cried. + +"Not likely. Fact is, there is a big fight on in the mining +country, and the mines have got to shut down. But the government +promises us that we shall be able to open up again next spring. +We might as well sit tight and hold on, as I tell them. I'm +sorry that so much of our funds are tied up in the business, +however. Politics below the Rio Grande are 'mighty onsartain,' as +Brother Jase would say." + +"Now that Mammy Blanche is here with us, I would not have to go +to Poketown, even if you did go to Mexico, Daddy. Would I?" + +"M-mm! Well, that's hard telling," he replied, with twinkling +eyes. "Let's not cross that bridge till we come to it." + +So Janice saw nothing but a cheerful vista before her --with +school coming soon, pleasure in study, plenty of fun between +times, and such a fortunate state of affairs at Eight Hundred and +Forty-five Knight Street that she did not have to worry about +daddy's comfort or her own at all. + +Mrs. Carringford had had no easy time of it with the shyster +lawyer and the others who were making trouble for her over her +property. But in the end her own lawyer triumphed; and then the +mortgage on the place was cleared off, much to the satisfaction +of both the Carringfords and the Days. + +"It does seem," said Janice with an ecstatic sigh, to Amy +Carringford one day when both girls had their sewing on the +porch, "that everything always does turn out for the best for us +Days." + +"Humph!" returned Amy, threading her needle, "I guess they +wouldn't turn out so 'right' if you and your father didn't do +something to turn 'em out." + +And, perhaps, that was so, too. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext Janice Day, The Young Homemaker, by Long + diff --git a/2483.zip b/2483.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4553df --- /dev/null +++ b/2483.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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