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diff --git a/25505.txt b/25505.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b788038 --- /dev/null +++ b/25505.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5737 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merryweathers, by Laura E. Richards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Merryweathers + +Author: Laura E. Richards + +Illustrator: Julia Ward Richards + +Release Date: May 17, 2008 [EBook #25505] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRYWEATHERS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +THE MERRYWEATHERS + +[Illustration: "'TU-WHOO!' SAID THE SNOWY OWL."] + + + + +THE MERRYWEATHERS + +BY + +LAURA E. RICHARDS + + AUTHOR OF "CAPTAIN JANUARY," "MELODY," "QUEEN + HILDEGARDE," "GEOFFREY STRONG," ETC. + + =Illustrated by= + JULIA WARD RICHARDS + +[Illustration] + + BOSTON + DANA ESTES & COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + _Copyright, 1904_ + BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY + + * * * * * + +_All rights reserved_ + +THE MERRYWEATHERS + + + =Colonial Press= + Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. + Boston, Mass., U. S. A. + + + + + TO + + H. H. F., Jr. + + WITH AFFECTIONATE GREETING. + + + + +FOR REMEMBRANCE + + + The sunlight falls in gold upon the golden fields, + The ruffling wave gives back the sky in blue; + The asters fringe the meadow's skirts in purple pride, + And proud the goldenrod is standing, too. + + Oh! clear and far across the lonely water, + The wild bird calls his mate at close of day; + My heart cries out, my heart cries out in answer, + And oh, I fondly think of them that's far away. + + Oh, fair the fields where now their feet are treading! + Oh, green the trees that blossom o'er their head! + Oh, deep and sweet the skies above them spreading, + And on their hearth the fire-glow warm and red! + + Still may they hear, across the lonely water, + The wild bird call his mate at close of day; + Still may their hearts, still may their hearts make answer; + Still may they kindly think of them that's far away! + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE ARRIVAL 11 + + II. THE CAMP 26 + + III. AUF DAS WASSER ZU SINGEN 39 + + IV. AFTER THE PICNIC 55 + + V. KITTY AND WILLY 75 + + VI. A DISCUSSION 90 + + VII. WATER PLAY 106 + + VIII. THE MAIL 119 + + IX. MR. BELLEVILLE 138 + + X. PUPPY PLAY 155 + + XI. MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL 171 + + XII. "SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT" 186 + + XIII. ABOUT VISITING 204 + + XIV. MOONLIGHT AGAIN 220 + + XV. CONCERNING VARIOUS THINGS 239 + + XVI. ON THE DOWN 259 + + XVII. THE SNOWY OWL 273 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "'TU-WHOO!' SAID THE SNOWY OWL" (_See page 281_) _Frontispiece_ + + "'HERE IS YOURS,' SAID BELL; 'NEXT TO OURS'" 28 + + "''TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!'" 81 + + "'COME ON! COME IN!'" 107 + + "MR. CLAUD BELLEVILLE WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH" 138 + + MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL 175 + + "'SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!' SAID I" 217 + + "HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE + MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE" 233 + + + + +THE MERRYWEATHERS + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ARRIVAL + + +"OH, Peggy, I am afraid!" + +"Why, Margaret!" + +"Yes, I am. I feel very shy and queer, going among strangers. You see, I +have never really been away in my life; never in this way, I mean. I was +always with father; and then--afterward--I went to Fernley; and though +so many people have come into my life, dear, delightful people, I have +never somehow gone into theirs. And now, to go into a whole great big +family, only two of whom--I mean which--oh, dear me! I don't know what I +mean, but I have only seen two of them, you know, and it is formidable, +you will admit, Peggy." + +"Well, I feel just a scrap queer myself," said Peggy; "but I never +thought you would. And anyhow, we needn't; we both know the boys so +well, and though you have not actually seen the Snowy, you really know +her very well. Darling thing! Oh, I cannot wait till we get there! Do +you think we ever _shall_ get there, Margaret? This is the longest +journey I ever made in my life." + +"How about the journey from Ohio?" + +"Oh, that is different. I know all the places along the road, and they +slip by before one can think. Besides, a long journey always seems +shorter, because you know it is long. Well, you needn't laugh, you know +perfectly well what I mean. Oh, Margaret, I saw a glimpse of blue behind +the trees. Do you suppose that is the lake? do you think we are nearly +there? Oh! I am so excited! Is my hat on straight?" + +Margaret Montfort, by way of reply, straightened her cousin's hat, and +then proceeded to administer sundry coaxing pats to her hair and her +ribbons. + +"You are a trifle flyaway, dear!" she said. "There! now, when you have +taken the black smut off your nose, you will be as trim as possible. Am +I all right?" + +"You!" said Peggy, with a despairing look, as she rubbed away at her +nose; "as if you ever had a pin or an eyelash out of place! Margaret, +how _do_ you do it? Why does dust avoid you, and cling to me as if I +were its last refuge? How do you make your collar stay like that? I +don't see why I was born a Misfit Puzzle. Oh--ee! there _is_ the lake! +just look, how blue it is! Oh! Margaret, I _must_ scream!" + +"You must _not_ scream!" said Margaret with quiet decision, pulling +Peggy down into the seat beside her. "You must be good, and sit still. +See! that old gentleman is watching us, Peggy. He will be scandalized +if you carry on so." + +"He doesn't look a bit scandalized; he looks awfully jolly." + +"Peggy!" + +"Well, he does, Margaret. Do you suppose Mr. Merryweather is anything +like that? _Margaret!_" + +"What is it, Peggy? _please_ don't speak so loud!" + +"Perhaps it _is_ Mr. Merryweather. I think--I am almost perfectly sure +it must be. Why, he is positively staring at us. It _must_ be Mr. +Merryweather!" + +"Is Mr. Merryweather specially addicted to staring? I should not suppose +so. This gentleman is not in the least my idea of Mr. Merryweather; and +if he does stare,--there! he is looking away now,--it is because he sees +a great big girl dancing and jumping in her seat as if she were Polly +Peppercorn." + +"Next station Merryweather!" chanted the brakeman. + +"There! Margaret, he is getting his things together. It is! it _is_, I +tell you. Oh! I _shall_ scream!" + +Peggy's threat was uttered in so loud a stage whisper, that Margaret +looked up in alarm, fearing that the gentleman must have heard. She met +a glance so kind, so twinkling with sympathetic merriment, that she +smiled in spite of herself. + +The gentleman lifted his hat, instantly, and stepped forward. He was not +tall, but broad and muscular, with keen, dark eyes that sparkled under +shaggy white eyebrows; a most vigorous, positive-looking old gentleman. + +"A thousand pardons!" he said, in a deep, gruff voice which was the very +essence of heartiness. "You also are getting off at Merryweather, young +ladies? I beg the privilege of assisting you with your parcels; I +insist upon it! Permit me, madam!" and he took possession of Margaret's +travelling-bag, Margaret blushing and protesting, while Peggy's blue +eyes grew to absolute circles, and her little mouth opened to another. + +"You are very kind!" said Margaret. "Indeed, I can carry it +perfectly--thank you so very much! Yes, we are going to Mr. +Merryweather's camp. Do you know--" + +"Harry Monmouth!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "Astonishing! Going there +myself. Permit me to introduce myself--Colonel Ferrers, at your +service." + +He lifted his hat again, and bowed low. + +"Our name is Montfort," said Margaret timidly, attracted and yet alarmed +by his explosive utterance, so different from the quiet speech of the +Montfort men. + +"Not John's daughters!" cried the Colonel. "I'll be shot if you are +John's daughters!" + +"Oh! no," cried Margaret, her eyes lightening. "Not his daughters, but +his nieces. Do you know Uncle John, Colonel Ferrers?" + +"Know John Montfort? know the nose on my face? not that there is any +resemblance; fine-looking man. I have known John Montfort, my dear young +ladies, ever since he was in petticoats. John, Dick, Jim, Roger--fine +lads! used to stay at Roseholme--my place in Dutchess County--forty +years ago. School-boys when I was in college. All over the place, +climbing, hunting, fishing, falling off the roofs--great boys! haven't +heard of them for twenty years. Where are they now? all living, I--eh, +what?" + +"My father, Roger Montfort, is dead," said Margaret, softly; "so is +Uncle Richard. Uncle John and Uncle James are living, Colonel Ferrers; +this is Uncle James's daughter. Peggy dear, Colonel Ferrers! and I live +with Uncle John at Fernley House. Oh! how delightful to meet some one +who knows Uncle John!" + +"Pleasure is mine, I assure you!" said the Colonel, gallantly. "Harry +Monmouth! takes me back forty years. Knew Roger, your father, well, Miss +Montfort. Great scholar; fine fellow! nose in his books all day long, +just like my brother Raymond; great chums, Roger and Raymond. I remember +once--ha! here we are!" + +"Merryweather!" shouted the brakeman. The train drew up beside a little +wayside station. On one side of the track, a platform and a shed, with a +few barrels and boxes lying about; on the other, a long stretch of dark +blue water, ruffling into brown where the wind swept it. + +The three travellers, emerging, found three persons awaiting them on the +platform. Gerald Merryweather was first, his hand on the rail, his face +alight with joy and eagerness; close beside him was another person, a +tall girl in gray, at sight of whom Peggy, who had been apparently +stricken dumb by the aspect of Colonel Ferrers, shouted aloud and +tumbled off the car-step, to the imminent peril of life and limb. + +"Snowy! Snowy! is it really you?" + +"You dear Peggy!" cried Gertrude Merryweather, taking her in her arms, +and giving her a hearty kiss. "I am _so_ glad! and this is Margaret--oh! +welcome, most welcome, to Merryweather! Dear Colonel Ferrers, how do you +do? it was so good of you to come! But where is Hugh? haven't you +brought him?" + +Colonel Ferrers drew her a step aside. + +"My dear Gertrude," he said, in a confidential tone, "there is no need +of my telling _you_ that Hugh is one of the most astonishing--I will say +_the_ most astonishing boy I ever saw in my life. Expected to come; +looking forward to it for weeks, greatest pleasure of the summer. +Yesterday morning, Elizabeth Beadle had an attack of lumbago; painful +thing; confined to her bed; excellent woman, none better in the world. +Never could understand why good people should have lumbago; excellent +complaint for scoundrels; excellent! well, the boy--his great-aunt, you +understand!--refuses to leave her. Says she likes to have him read to +her! Preposterous! I insisted, Elizabeth Beadle insisted, with tears in +her eyes; tears, sir! I mean my dear! Boy immovable; Gibraltar +vacillating beside him; tottering, sir, on its foundations. I had to +come away and leave him, perfectly happy, reading Tennyson to Elizabeth +Beadle. Ask somebody else to coerce a boy like that; Thomas Ferrers is +not the man for it. Where's my Cochin China Chittagong?" + +"Jack?" said Gertrude, laughing. "He is behind the shed, with the +horses. The old horse doesn't like the train, and will not stand tying. +As soon as Jerry gets the trunks--" + +"Checks?" cried the Colonel, in answer to Gerald's request. "Two of +them, sir. Sole-leather trunk, green carpet-bag. Anything for me by +express? box, hamper, basket, that sort of thing, eh, what?" + +"I should think there was, sir!" said Gerald. "A basket of peaches as +big as the camp, or very near it; and a hamper that says 'salmon!' as +plainly as if it could speak. You're awfully good, sir!" + +"Nothing of the sort!" retorted the Colonel. "Pity if I can't have a +little gratification once in a way. Ah! there is my Cochin China--how +are you, sir, how are you? prancing, as usual, like an Egyptian +war-horse. Come here, and be introduced to the Miss Montforts! We are in +luck, sir! Miss Montfort, Miss--eh? thank you! Miss Peggy Montfort, my +nephew, John Ferrers. Here sir! take the bags, will you? Which way, +Gerald? eh? what?" + +While the colonel was explaining (and exploding) to Gerald and Gertrude, +and Margaret looking and listening in quiet amusement, Peggy had been +hanging back, overcome in her turn by the shyness which her companion +had conquered. But now Gertrude took her by the hand, and while the +trunks were being hoisted on the wagon by Gerald and Jack, aided by a +tall and powerful lad in blue overalls, the two walked up and down the +little platform in earnest talk. Fragments of it reached Margaret where +she stood, as they passed and repassed. + +"Yes, last week. She is very well, she says, and fluffier than ever, on +account of the heat. She has enjoyed her school very much. She wanted +Grace to join her, and I think she might have, if all this had not come +about. Oh, Peggy, I was so glad!" + +"Blissful, my dear, is no word for it! they have no eyes for any one +else. He can't remember that there is any one else, and she--" + +"Well, I always said that if Grace did care for any one--" + +"Yes, in October. The wedding is to be at Fernley, and--" + +"Anybody coming with me?" inquired Gerald, wistfully. "Margaret, will +you risk life and limb with me and the old horse?" + +"With pleasure!" said Margaret. "Is he very wild? He doesn't look so." + +"Only by comparison with the young horse!" said Gerald. "Jacob, don't +strain your back lifting that carpet-bag!" + +Jacob, the youth in blue overalls, smiled calmly, and swung a large +trunk over his shoulder as if it were a hand-satchel. + +"It's you I'm scared about, Gerald," he said slowly; "fear you'll do +yourself a hurt pulling on the reins. Frank hasn't been out since +yesterday." + +"I'll risk him!" said Gerald. "Now, Margaret." He held out his hand, and +Margaret stepped lightly up to the seat of the Concord wagon. + +"Now," said Gerald, "Jack, if you'll drive the beach-wagon--is that all +right, Toots?" + +"Certainly!" said Gertrude. "Peggy, you and I will sit together behind; +that is, if you do not mind the front seat, Colonel Ferrers? So! all +right now, Jack! we'd better let the old horse go first, for he doesn't +like to stay behind the new one. Oh! Jacob! how are you going home? we +must make room for you somewhere." + +"I'll go across lots," said the blue youth, "and be there to take the +horses when you get there. You better hurry them up the least mite, so's +I sha'n't have to wait too long!" + +With a benign smile he vaulted over a five-barred gate, and went with a +long, leisurely stride across the fields. + +"He'll run when he gets round the corner!" said Gerald. "I know that's +the way he does it. Get up, Frank! do _play_ you are alive, just for +once. Oh, Margaret, I am so glad to see you. I thought September would +never come. It has been the longest summer I ever knew. Haven't you +found it so?" + +"Why, no!" said truthful Margaret. "It has seemed very short to me." + +"Oh, well, of course it has been short too, summers always are; like the +dachshund!" + +"The dachshund!" repeated Margaret. "What can a dachshund have to do +with summer, Gerald?" + +"A description I once heard," said Gerald. "I was walking with Beppo, my +dachs, and a little boy stopped to look at him. 'Ain't he long?' he +said. 'My! ain't he short?' Even so summer. Oh, I _am_ glad to see you. +Get up, Frank!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE CAMP + + +[Illustration: "'HERE IS YOURS,' SAID BELL; 'NEXT TO OURS.'"] + +A LONG, low, irregular building, with a wide verandah in front, the lake +rippling and ruffling almost up to the piers; beyond, great hills +rolling up and away. To right and left, boat-houses and tents; hammocks +swung between the trees, fishing-rods ranged along the sides of the +building. This was the Camp. As the wagons drove up, Mrs. Merryweather +hurried from the house, and Mr. Merryweather and Phil came up with long +strides from the wharf. Amid a chorus of eager welcome, a babel of +questions and answers, the travellers were helped out and escorted to +the verandah. + +"Most welcome, all!" cried Mrs. Merryweather. "Are you very tired? No? +that is good! Well, but you must be hungry, I am sure. There are +doughnuts and milk on the table; or if you would rather have tea--" + +"They are not hungry, Miranda!" said Mr. Merryweather. "They cannot be +hungry at three o'clock. Dined at Wayport, Ferrers? Of course! Jack, +show your uncle his tent! Miss Montfort--" + +"I'll show them the way, Papa!" said Gertrude. "Where is Bell, Mammy? +Oh, there she is! Bell, here are Margaret and Peggy; girls, this is +Bell!" + +Bell Merryweather, a sturdy, blue-eyed girl with the general aspect of a +snow apple, greeted the guests with a hearty shake of a powerful hand, +and a cordial smile. + +"We have been looking forward so to your coming!" she said. "Don't you +want to come out to your tent? Here, I'll take your bag, Margaret; shall +I say 'Margaret' at once? it will be so much nicer. This way!" + +She led the way, Margaret following, Gertrude and Peggy after them, +still talking eagerly. A row of flagstones led past the boat-house, and +on under solemn pines and feathery birches to where a line of tents +stood facing the water. + +"Here is yours," said Bell; "next to ours, this big one; we are three, +you see. Yours is small, but I hope you can be comfortable." + +"Comfortable!" echoed Peggy; "I should think so! Oh, Margaret, do look! +how perfect everything is! Oh, what ducky beds! the red blankets are +just like home; our boys have red blankets. Oh, I shall be perfectly +happy here!" + +Margaret, accustomed to the wide spaces and ample closets of Fernley +House, was a little bewildered at the first glance around her. The tent +was hardly bigger than the stateroom of a moderate-sized steamer. Could +two persons live here in anything approaching comfort? A second glance +showed her how compactly and conveniently everything was arranged. The +narrow cots, with their scarlet blankets and blue check pillows, +stood on either side; between them was a table, with blotter of birch +bark, and an inkstand made by hollowing out a quaintly shaped piece of +wood and sinking in the hollow a small glass tumbler. Above the head of +each bed hung a long shoe-bag with many pockets, while opposite the foot +were rows of hooks for dresses, a shelf on which stood pitcher, basin, +etc., and a chest of drawers. All was fresh, neat, and tidy. + +"Yes, I am sure we shall be happy!" said Margaret, repeating Peggy's +words. + +"Here is the hook for your lantern," said Bell. "Here is a little jar +for crackers, but be sure to keep it covered, or the squirrels will +carry them off. I hope you will not mind a squirrel coming in now and +then? they are so tame, they come hopping in to see if we have anything +for them; I often leave a bit of something." + +"Oh! what fun!" said Peggy. "I love to tame squirrels. Ours at home will +come and eat from our hands. Will yours do that?" + +"Not often; at least, not for me. The boys can bring them sometimes. I +think they like boys best. But I have a dear little field-mouse who +brings me her babies to look at now and then, just to show me how they +are growing. There, now, we go on chattering, when I know you ought to +rest awhile, and unpack and stow away. It takes quite a bit of planning +for two persons to fit into a tent. By and by, when you are all settled, +would you like to go out on the water? Hurrah! we'll come for you. Come +on, Toots!" + +The two sisters walked slowly down the long slip that led to the +floating wharf, and sat down with their feet hanging over the edge. + +"Well, Bell!" said Gertrude, eagerly. + +"Well!" said Bell, slowly. + +"What do you think of them? Isn't she lovely? and isn't Peggy a dear?" + +"Yes," said Bell. "I think you have just hit it, Toots. Peggy is a dear; +just a hearty, jolly dear; but Margaret is lovely. Do you see a little +hint of Hilda? I can't tell where it is; not in the features, certainly, +nor in the coloring. I think it is in the brow and eyes; a kind of noble +look; I don't know how else to put it. You wouldn't say anything false +or base to this girl, any more than you would to Hilda; you wouldn't +dare. My lamb! I speak as if falseness and baseness were the usual note +of your conversation." + +"I thought you were a trifle severe," said Gertrude, smiling. "Well, +anyhow, it is a joy to have them here, and dear Colonel Ferrers, too. +What shall we do this evening? Here come the boys for a council." + +The twins, Gerald and Phil, came running down the wharf, followed by +Jack Ferrers. The latter, whom some of my readers may have known as an +awkward, "leggy" boy, was now a man. Very tall, towering three or four +inches above the six-foot Merryweathers, he still kept his boyish +slenderness and spring, though the awkward angles were somehow softened +away. He no longer stooped and shambled, but held his head up and his +shoulders back; and if he did still prance, as his uncle declared, like +the Mighty Ones of Scripture, it was not an ungraceful prancing. +Briefly, Jack Ferrers was a fine-looking fellow. + +"Council of War?" asked Gerald; "or do we intrude?" + +"Sit down!" said Bell. "We were just beginning to plan the evening. What +are your ideas, if any?" + +The boys--for they were still the boys, even if they had passed one and +twenty--stretched themselves along the wharf in picturesque attitudes. + +"I would sing!" announced Gerald. "Prose will not express my feelings at +this juncture. + + "My fertile brain is simmering, + My fancy's fire is glimmering; + I'd fain betake + Me to the lake, + When bright the moonlight's shimmering. + +"Your turn, Ferguson. Go on; the song upraise!" + +"Let me see!" said Phil. "Well--on the whole-- + + "I can't agree with himmering; + _My_ fancy's fire is dimmering; + If you would know + The thing I'd doe, + Methinks I'll go a swimmering." + +"Oh! no, Phil," said Gertrude. "Not the very first night the girls are +here; it will take them a day or two to get used to camp ways, Margaret +at least; and we want to do something all together, something that +Colonel Ferrers will like, too. I think--" + +"Sing it! sing it!" cried Gerald. "The song upraise, Tintinnabula! no +escape! 'Trimmering' is still left you." + +"Is there only one vowel?" demanded Bell, laughing. "I refuse to be +fettered. Wait a second!--now I have it. + + "Forbear, forbear your clamoring, + And cease this hasty hammering; + I think, with Jerry, + 'Twere wise and merry + To row by moonlight glamouring. + +Your turn, Toots!" + +"I cannot!" said Gertrude. "You know I cannot, Bell. Besides, there +aren't any more rhymes." + +"Oh!" cried Gerald, "you know what you are telling, and you know what +happens to people who tell them. Perpend, Tootsina! + + "You yodel, yodel yammering, + You stutter, stutter stammering; + And when you cry, + 'I will not try!' + We know you're only shammering." + +"Gracious!" said Gertrude. "Don't you suppose I would make rhymes if I +could? It's really a dreadful thing to be the only prose member of a +large family. But Jack comforts me; you can't make them either, can you, +Jack?" + +"Not to save my life!" said Jack. "Never could see how they do it." + +"But you can set them to music!" said Gertrude. "That is the delightful +thing about you." + +"And you can illustrate them! That is one of the many delightful things +about you!" said Jack, with a low bow. + + "'They built it up for forty miles, + With mutual bows and pleasing smiles!'" + +quoted Gerald. "A truce to this badinage! Compliment, unless paid to +myself, wearies me. We go, then, in canoes?" + +"In canoes!" replied the others in chorus. + +"'Tis well! Any special stunts in the way of arrangement?" + +"Oh!" said Jack, "in plain prose--Bell, will you come with me? It's our +turn to get supper, isn't it? and I have an idea--just a little +one--which we can talk over while we are getting it." + + "Oh, guard it, guard it tenderly, + Thy one idea--thy first!" + +sang Gerald. + + "And we, the while, console ourselves; + 'Twill be the last, at worst! + +Nay! nay!" he went on, as Jack seized him by the shoulders, and made a +motion toward the water. + + "Duck not the bard, the tuneful bard, + Who all thy soul reveals; + To hear the truth, I own, is hard, + Yet dry thy tearful squeals!" + +"False construction!" said Bell. "You cannot dry squeals." + +"They were tearful ones!" Gerald protested. "It was the tears I would +have dried. Tears, idle tears, I know not whence they come; tears from +the depth of some despairing fiddler." + +"Suppose you dry _up_!" said Jack, dipping Gerald's head lightly in the +water. + +"No ducking between swims!" proclaimed Phil. "Law of the Medes and +Persians!" + +"Besides, it is time to be making the fire!" said Bell, rising. "Leave +him to his conscience, Jack, and come along!" + +"Yes, leave me to me conscience!" said Gerald. + + "'Twill cradle me with songs of Araby; + Arrah be aisy! hear it sing to me!" + +"Jerry, what _has_ got into you?" asked Gertrude, a few minutes later, +when Phil had followed the others to the house, leaving the two Reds, as +their mother called them, together. "Has the rhyming spider bitten you? +you are really wild!" + +"Nice little sister!" said Gerald, rolling over, and resting his head +on Gertrude's knee. "Nice little red-haired, cream-colored, comfortable +sister! If I were as good-looking as you, Toots, who knows? As it +is--but still I am happy, my child, happy! I say! Toots!" + +"Yes, Jerry!" + +"What do you think of her?" + +"Oh, Jerry, she is a darling!" + +"_Dixisti!_" cried Gerald. "Thou hast spoken." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +AUF DAS WASSER ZU SINGEN + + +"HARRY MONMOUTH!" said Colonel Ferrers. "This is pleasant. Merryweather, +you are a lucky dog!" As he spoke, he looked around him, and repeated, +"A lucky dog, sir!" + +The horn had just blown for supper, three long blasts, and already the +campers were in their places at the long table, with its shining white +cover. Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather, their six children, Bell, Gertrude, +and Kitty, Gerald, Philip, and Willy, the two Montforts, with the +Colonel and his nephew, made a party of twelve, and filled the table +comfortably, though there was still room for more. The room was a long +one, with a vast open fireplace stretching half across one side. At one +end were rows of book-shelves, filled to overflowing; at the other, the +walls were adorned with models for boats, sketches in water-color and +pen and ink, birds' nests, curious fungi, and all manner of odds and +ends. It was certainly a cheerful room, and so Miles Merryweather +thought, as his eyes followed the Colonel's. + +"We like it!" he said, simply. "It suits us, the place and the life. +It's good for young and old both, to get away from hurry and bustle, and +live for a time the natural life." + +"Nature, sir!" said the Colonel. "Nature! that's it; nothing like it! +When I was a lad, young men were sent abroad, after their school or +college course; the grand tour, Paris, Vienna, that sort of thing: very +good thing in its way, too, monstrous good thing. But before he sees the +world, sir, a lad should know how to live, as you say, the natural life. +Ought to know what a tree is when he sees it; upon my soul, he ought. +Now my milksop--best fellow in the world, I give you my word, except +that little fellow at home there--well, sir! when he came to me, he +didn't know the difference between an oak and an elm, give you my word +he didn't. Remember one day--he heard me giving directions to Giuseppe +about cutting some ashes--clump of them in the field below the house, +needed thinning out--and he wanted to know how ashes could be cut; +thought I meant those in the fireplace, sir. Monstrous! Well, I taught +him a little, and you and your young folks have taught him a great deal. +H'm! I don't know that he is now more disgracefully ignorant than +nine-tenths of the young men of his age. Set of noodles! I'll tell you +what, Merryweather! You ought to have a kind of summer school here: get +other boys, a dozen, two dozen; teach 'em to see with their eyes, and +all the rest of it. I knew a boy once who thought a bat was a bird, give +you my word I did. And another who thought oysters grew on bushes. Get +up a school, sir, and I'll come myself, and be a boy again." + +"That is a great inducement," said Mr. Merryweather, laughing: "but, +Colonel, I hope you have brought a boy's appetite with you, at least. +Who are the cooks to-night, Miranda? Oh, I see; Bell and Jack. Well, +that is all right, Colonel; they make one of our best combinations. What +have you there, Jack?" + +Jack, in a white cap, and an apron reaching not quite half-way to his +knees, advanced bearing a mighty dish, from which rose fragrant steam. + +"H'm! ha!" said the Colonel, sniffing. "Smells good! you had no hand in +this, I'll be bound, sir!" + +"Indeed, Colonel Ferrers," said Bell, who followed with the teapot and a +plate piled high with feathery rolls, "it is all Jack's doing, every +bit. It is his famous pilaff, that the old Greek professor taught him +to make in Germany; and it is almost the best thing you ever tasted in +your life." + +"H'm!" said the Colonel, frowning heavily, and looking immensely +pleased. "So this is what he was doing while he was supposed to be +studying. I always knew the rascal was deceiving me. Ha! it _is_ good; +it's uncommon good! So you did learn something besides fiddling, eh, +Jack?" + +"Cooking is a part of chemistry, Uncle," said Jack, soberly; "a very +important part. This dish is chemically prepared, sir; please regard it +as a demonstration!" + +"And please try my fried potatoes as a further demonstration!" said +Bell. "Margaret, you are not eating anything." + +"She never does!" said Peggy. + +"Oh!" cried Margaret, "but I never ate so much before. Oh, please not!" +as Phil tried to heap her plate with potatoes. "They are delicious, but +I really cannot!" + +"I can!" said Gertrude, holding out her plate. + +"I'll warrant you!" said Phil. "No one doubted that, sweet Chuck!" + +"We do not look for the Camp Appetite till after twenty-four hours," +said Mrs. Merryweather. "Give Margaret time! in two days she will eat +twice as much as she does now." + +"Harry Monmouth!" exclaimed the Colonel. "At that rate, it is fortunate +for you all that I do not outstay my two days. Twice as much as I am +eating now would clear your larder, dear madam. Yes, thanks, +Merryweather, a little more!" + +"Oh, Colonel Ferrers!" + +"Oh, Uncle Tom! you are not going away in two days? We counted on a week +at least!" cried all in chorus. + +"Impossible, dear people, impossible! Like nothing better; enchanted to +stay all summer; delightful place. But--Elizabeth Beadle's condition, +you understand; and the boy--I must get back. He is too young to have +the responsibility. Most amazing boy in the world; I haven't the +slightest doubt that he is doing her more good than all the doctors in +the world--parcel of fools, mostly--but still he is too young; I must +get back." + +"Let me go, Uncle!" said Jack. + +"Or me, Colonel Ferrers!" cried Gertrude. "Any one of us would love to +go!" + +The Colonel beamed on them with his kindliest smile, but shook his head +resolutely. "Thanks! thanks!" he said, heartily. "Good children! kind +and thoughtful children! but I must go. Couldn't be easy, you +understand." + +"The fact is," said Jack, "Uncle Tom cannot be comfortable for more than +twenty-four hours away from Hugh. After that length of time he becomes +restive, and symptoms develop which--" + +"Hold your tongue, sir!" cried the Colonel. "Nothing of the sort, sir! +Mrs. Merryweather, I hoped you were teaching this fellow better +manners. Symptoms, indeed! You have seen no symptoms in me, of anything +except pure pleasure--pleasure in everything except the gabbling of a +goose!" + +"Surely not, dear friend!" said Mrs. Merryweather, laughing. "But all +the same, I think I should not try to detain you when once you had made +up your mind that Hugh needed you." + +"All against me!" cried the Colonel. "'The little dogs and all'--I beg +ten thousand pardons, my dear madam; you know the quotation! Well," he +added, his face changing suddenly as he turned to Mrs. Merryweather and +spoke in a lower tone, "fortunate old fellow, eh? to have one young +face--two, perhaps, for my Giraffe loves me too--brighten when one +comes. Ah! you, with all your wealth--richest woman of my acquaintance, +give you my honor!--cannot tell what these boys mean to me. Hilda, too: +most astonishing how I miss that child! but all your young people are so +good to me--" + +"Colonel!" cried Gertrude from the other end of the table. "Will you +come with me in my canoe after tea?" + +"Will I?" cried the Colonel. "Won't I? Lead the way, my dear!" + + * * * * * + +The young moon shone bright; the lake lay a broad sheet of luminous +black, with a silver path stretching across it. Four canoes lay beside +the wharf, and the campers were taking their places. In the birch canoe, +the original _Cheemaun_, Mrs. Merryweather was going as passenger, with +her husband and Phil at bow and stern; in the _Nahma_ was Colonel +Ferrers, with Gertrude and Peggy; Kitty and Willy in the _Rob Roy_, +Gerald and Margaret in the _Wenonah_. + +"All ready?" asked the chief. "Where shall we go? Where are Jack and +Bell?" + +"Oh, they started ahead," said Phil. "They had some stunt on hand, and +we are to meet them over by the Black Shore." + +"Ready--give way all!" + +The paddles dipped, the canoes shot out along the silver path, gliding +swift and silent as spirits. For a time no one spoke. The _Cheemaun_, +with the powerful arms at either end, took the lead and kept it easily: +next came the _Nahma_ and the _Rob_, nearly abreast, and vying with each +other; but the _Wenonah_ lagged behind, and seemed in no special hurry. + +"Like it?" asked Gerald, presently. + +"Oh!" said Margaret, softly. + +Gerald gave a little grunt of content, and was silent again. The paddle +dipped noiseless in the liquid silver, the dark prow crept noiseless +along the shining way. + +"It is another world!" said Margaret presently, still speaking under her +breath. "I never dreamed of anything like it. A silver world! Oh!" + +"What is it?" + +"Nothing--I was only thinking--one ought to be very good, to live in a +world so beautiful as this, Gerald!" + +"Some of us are, Margaret!" + +Silence again. + +"I'm awfully glad you like it!" said Gerald. "I hoped you would. +I've--I've been looking forward all summer to your coming." + +"I was very glad to come," said Margaret, simply. "I was afraid, but I +was glad, too." + +"Afraid? I should like to know what you were afraid of!" + +"Oh--I don't know! I have never been with many people, you know. I have +never seen a large family together before. How happy you all are!" + +"That's what we are!" said Gerald. "Especially now! I say, Margaret! the +child Toots has fallen a victim." + +"Fallen a--what do you mean, Gerald? not into the water?" + +"Charms!" said Gerald. "Yours. Bowled her over completely. Nice child, +the child Toots. Think so?" + +"I think she looks as good as she is beautiful," said Margaret. "Does +she really like me? I am very glad, for I know I shall love her." + +"Don't you think she is the image of me?" asked Gerald, plaintively. + +"No, I never thought of it!" said downright Margaret. "Oh! hark, Gerald; +what is that? I hear music." + +They listened. Directly in front of them lay a deep black shadow, and +forth from this shadow stole notes of music, low, sweet, almost +unearthly in their purity and clearness. + +"Evidently the stunt of Tintinnabula and the Camelopard!" said Gerald. +"That is the Black Shore yonder, and the noise is that of the +Tree-browser's fiddle, in sooth a goodly noise. Approach we along the +moonglade! that is what we call the wake here. Pretty?" + +"Lovely!" murmured Margaret. "Oh! but hush, and listen!" + +The other canoes had slackened their speed, and now all four crept on +abreast over the luminous water. From the black shadow ahead forms began +to detach themselves, black rocks, dark trees stooping to the water's +edge, fir and pine, with here and there a white birch glimmering +ghostlike; and still the music rose, ever clearer and sweeter, thrilling +on the silent air. It seemed no voice of anything made by man; it was as +if the trees spoke, the rocks, the water, the very silence itself. But +now--now another tone was heard; a human voice this time, a full, rich +contralto, blending with the aerial notes of the violin. + + "Over all the mountains is peace; + Among the tree-tops + Hardly a breath is stirring; + The birds are silent, + Silent in the woodland; + Only wait! only wait! + Soon thou too shalt rest." + +"Harry Monmouth!" murmured the Colonel under his breath. "Am I alive, or +is this the gate of Heaven?" + +"Oh! who is it?" whispered Margaret. + +"Tintinnabula! rather a neat thing in voices, the Tintinnabula's. Nor +does the song altogether excite to strenutation. Ah! but that is the +best yet!" + +The notes changed. It was Schubert's Serenade now that rose from voice +and violin together. No one stirred. The canoes were now close inshore, +and the long, soft fingers of fir and cedar brushed Margaret's cheek as +she sat motionless, spellbound. It was a world of soft darkness, black +upon black: the silver world they had just left seemed almost garish as +she looked back on it. Here in the cool shadow, the voices of the night +pouring forth their wonderful melody--"Oh!" she thought; "if this might +last forever!" + +But it was over. Floating round a great rock that stretched far out from +the shore, they came upon the musicians, their canoe drawn up close to +the rock. + +"Here they are!" cried Willy. "It's Bell and Jack, Kitty; I knew it was. +You are such a silly!" + +"I don't care!" pouted Kitty. "It did sound like nymphs; I am sure that +is just the way they sound." + +"You are quite right, Kitty," said her mother. "Children, you have given +us a great treat. May we not have some more?" + +"Oh, we were only waiting for you," said Bell; "now we must have +choruses, many of them!" + +And lying close together, the paddles stretched across from one canoe to +another, the Merryweathers sang, to Jack's accompaniment, song after +song in chorus: German student songs, with merry refrain of "_vivallera +la_" and "_juch heira sa sa!_" Scottish ballads and quaint old Highland +boat-songs; till Mr. Merryweather declared that it was time to go home. + +So home they went, down the moonglade once more, across the glimmering +floor of the lake, singing as they went; till, twinkling through the +fringe of trees, they saw the lights of the Camp, and the long outline +of the float, and the boats swinging at their moorings. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AFTER THE PICNIC + + +"AND what comes next on the programme?" asked the Chief. + +"Coma, I should say," replied Colonel Ferrers. "After that watermelon, I +see nothing else for it. It's my avowed belief that my nephew there +could not stir if his life depended on it; it stands to reason. The boy +has eaten more than his own weight. Monstrous!" + +"What a frightful calumny!" cried Jack, laughing. "Really, Uncle Tom, +you cannot expect me to sit still under that." + +He rose lightly to his feet, and grasping a branch of the tree above his +head, drew himself up, and after kicking his long legs several times in +the air, finally twisted them round the branch, and in another moment +had disappeared in the shadowy depths of the great hemlock. + +"Oh! I say!" his voice floated down. "This is a great tree to climb. +You'd better come up, Uncle Tom, if you feel the slightest symptoms of +coma." + +The other lads did not wait to be invited, but flung themselves at the +tree, and were soon lost to sight, though not to sound. Colonel Ferrers +turned to his hostess with a frown which tried hard not to turn into a +smile. + +"Now, did you ever hear of such impudence as that?" he asked. "These +young fellows of to-day are the most impudent scoundrels I ever came +across. Time was, though, when we could have climbed a tree with the +best of them; eh, Merryweather?" + +"I have no doubt you could now, Colonel," said his host, "if you were +put to it; but I confess it is more comfortable under a tree than in +it, nowadays, especially after a Gargantuan feast like this." + +It had indeed been a great picnic. The boys, while on a tramp, had +discovered a grove of pines and hemlocks, huge old trees, which had +unaccountably escaped the woodman's axe. The pines shot up straight and +tall for a hundred feet and more, their trunks seamed and scarred, their +clouds of dusky green plumes tossing far overhead; the hemlocks were no +less massive in girth, but they were twisted into all manner of +grotesque shapes, and their feathery branches hung low, making a dense +canopy over the heads of the picnickers. Here, under one of these +hemlocks, the cloth had been laid, and decorated with ferns and hemlock +tassels. Then the baskets were unpacked, and the campers feasted as only +dwellers in the open air can feast. Ham and pasty, sandwiches and rolls, +jam and doughnuts--nothing seemed to come amiss; and they finished off +with a watermelon of such mighty proportions that it took all the +united energies of the boys to dispose of it. + +But it was finally disposed of, and now came the hour that is apt to be +a little difficult at picnics; the hour between the feast and the going +home. + +"I have a new game," said Mrs. Merryweather. "Perhaps you would like to +try it presently; but first, Colonel Ferrers, while the boys are +skylarking, or rather tree-larking, up there, I want to hear the story +you were telling Miles on the drive over. I could not hear very well on +the back seat, and besides, I was making up my game. It was some +adventure of yours when you were a boy." + +"Capital story!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Do tell it, Colonel; I want to +hear it again." + +The Colonel smiled, and puffed meditatively at his cigar. + +"Story of the barrel, eh?" he said. "Upon my word, now, I think it is +pretty hard to make me tell that story before all these young people. +What do you say, Gertrude? you don't want to hear about your old +friend's being a young fool, do you?" + +"Oh! Colonel Ferrers," said Gertrude; "a story that makes your eyes +twinkle so must be one that we all want to hear. Do begin, please!" + +And all the girls, who had been putting away the table-cloth and +"tidying-up" generally, gathered about the Colonel in an eager group. + +"Well! well!" he said, glancing from one bright face to another. "After +all, what are we old fogies for, but to point a moral and adorn a tale? +Listen, then. This happened when I was a young jackanapes of about my +nephew's age; I knew everything in the world then, you understand, and +nobody else knew much of anything. That was my belief, as it is the +belief of most young men." + +"Uncle," said a voice from above, "there are three young men up here who +are prepared to drop things on your head if you slander their +generation." + +"Slander your generation, sir?" cried the Colonel, "by likening it to my +own? Of all the monstrous insolence I ever heard--you may be thankful, +sir, that I name yours in the same breath with it. Be good enough to +hold your tongue, sir, and attend to your business, which is that of +listening to me. Well, my dear madam, at the period of which I speak, I +was in the office of my uncle, Marmaduke Ferrers, India merchant, +importer of tea, silks, that sort of thing. Learning the trade, you +understand; though, as I say, I was not aware that there was anything in +particular to learn. This is one of the lessons I did learn. One day I +was sent to the warehouse to count some barrels, and see them stowed +away in the vault where they belonged. They were a special thing, +barrels of minerals for some collection museum, I forget what. Out of +our own line, but we had undertaken to store and keep them for a time. +The vault was directly under the warehouse, which was some way from the +office. So! I went down and found no one there; The men were at their +dinner, you understand. They may have been a little in a hurry, may have +started a few minutes before the bell rang; I don't know how it was. At +any rate, I was in a towering passion; thought the whole business was +going to the dogs for want of discipline, wanted to dismiss every man in +the warehouse. Men who had been there before I was born, and knew more +about tea than I was likely to know in my lifetime. Well, sir, it came +into my ass's head that I would give these men a lesson, show them that +there was some one in the place that meant to have things done when he +wanted them done. I would stow those barrels myself. I was strong as a +bull, you remember--I beg ten thousand pardons! you and your husband +were infants when this happened; not out of long clothes, I am positive. +But I was uncommonly strong, and thought Milo and Hercules would have +found me a tough subject to tackle. Well--speaking of tackle--there was +the rope and pulley, all ready for lowering; block up at the ceiling, +rope dangling,--just over the trap that led into the vault. There were +the barrels; nothing was easier, I thought. Child's play; I would have +every one of the barrels lowered and stowed before those scoundrels came +back from their dinner. I pushed the first barrel to the edge of the +trap (lifted the trap-door first, you understand), hooked on the 'fall,' +pleased as Punch with myself--the only man in the world, I give you my +word; then I got a good hold on the rope, and--kicked the barrel over +the edge." + +"Oh! Colonel Ferrers!" cried the girls. + +"Ha! ha! ha!" roared the boys in the tree. + +"Loaded with minerals, you understand! stone, metal, I don't know what. +The barrel went down, and I went up." + +"_Oh!_ Colonel Ferrers!" + +"Up to the ceiling, I give you my word. High room, too, great warehouse, +twenty feet if it was one. There I hung, and there I swung, a spectacle +for gods and men." + +"What _did_ you do?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, as soon as she could +control her laughter. "Dear friend, it is most heartless to laugh, but +how can we help it? How did you ever get down? did you have to wait till +the men came back?" + +"No, madam. My pride would not allow that. I learned my lesson, or a +part of it, while I hung there like Mahomet's coffin; I learned that +Gravitation did not trouble itself about superior young men; but I did +not learn all that there was to learn; that took the sequel. Well, I +hung there, as I say, revolving slowly; centrifugal force, you +understand; I was really exemplifying the workings of natural forces; +interesting demonstration, if there had been any one there to see. My +crumb of comfort was that there was no one. I must get down before those +men came back from dinner; that was the one thing necessary in the world +at that moment. I measured the space of the trap as I swung; I prided +myself on my correct eye; you see I was a most complete ass: I have seen +only a few completer. I thought I could jump down astride of the trap, +so to speak, and get no harm. I came down the rope, hand over fist, till +I got to the end of it; only about six feet between me and safety: then +I jumped." + +"And did you--" + +"No, my dear madam, I did not. I went down into the cellar, on top of +the barrel, and I carry the mark of the edge of that barrel on my +shoulders to this day, and shall to my latest day. And the moral of this +story," the Colonel concluded, glancing up into the depths of the great +hemlock, "the moral, my young friends, is: wait till you know something +before you decide that you know everything." + +When the laughter had subsided, Mr. Merryweather said: "Your story, +Colonel, reminds me of a scrape that Roger and I once got into, years +ago. No, it wasn't Roger, it was my brother Will. My children all know +it, but it may be new to you and our other guests. It happened when we +were out sailing one day, on this very pond. The water was pretty low +that year, and we got over into a cove on the north side, where we +seldom went, and didn't know the ground thoroughly. Indeed, in very low +water, one is apt to find that one doesn't know any ground thoroughly. +New ledges and rocks are constantly cropping out--as you shall hear. +Well, we were sailing along in fine style, before a fair wind, when +suddenly--we ran aground." + +"On the shore?" asked the Colonel. + +"No; on a rock. It was getting dark, and we could not see very well, but +I could see a nose of rock, and it looked like the end of a ledge. 'I'll +get out and shove her off!' said I. I sounded with an oar, and found the +water barely ankle-deep on the ledge. So I took off my shoes and +stockings, rolled up my trousers a little, and stepped in--up to my +neck!" + +"Ha! ha!" roared the Colonel. "Ho! ho! that was sport. I wish I had seen +you." + +"Wait a moment!" said the Chief. "The picture is not ready for +exhibition yet. When Will had got through laughing at me, he went to +work--I found I could not stir the boat alone--he went to work and got +ready. Stripped to the skin--he had on a new suit, and was something of +a dandy in those days--stepped carefully overboard--and landed in water +three inches deep." + +"Merryweather, you are making this up!" + +"Indeed I am not, my dear sir. There we stood, I up to my chin, he with +his toes under water, and laughed till we were so weak that we had to go +ashore and sit down before we had strength to push that boat off. There +is my Roland for your Oliver, Colonel. And now, Miranda, I think we are +ready for your game. Come down, boys!" + +The boys came scrambling down, still laughing over the stories, and soon +all were seated on the carpet of dry, fragrant pine-needles. The girls +had found some oak-leaves ("It is my belief," said Mr. Merryweather, +"that if Bell went to a picnic in a coal-mine or on a sand-bank, she +would still manage to find oak-leaves somewhere!"), and were busily +twining garlands for the heads of the company. + +"Are we all ready?" asked Mrs. Merryweather. "Well! my game--a very +simple one--is called _Vocabulary_. It came from my reading the other +day an admirable little book written by a wise professor, in which he +deplores the poverty of our vocabularies, and makes a suggestion for our +enlarging them. He advises us to add two or three words to our list +every week. The first time we use a new word, he says, it will be +embarrassing to us and, it may be, amusing to our hearers; but if we +have courage and patience, we shall be doing a good work not only for +ourselves, but for all our generation and the generations that are to +come. Well, this naturally appealed to me, and I was thinking of +proposing it to you all this evening; and then, as we were driving over, +it occurred to me that it might be made into a rather amusing game." + +"Miranda," said her husband, "is there anything in life that you do +_not_ think can be made into a rather amusing game? But go on!" + +"Dear Mammy!" said Phil. "Do you remember when you and I both had the +toothache, and you thought it might be amusing to count the jumps and +see how many there were in a minute?" + +"Well, so it would have been," said his mother, "if we had only had a +little more fortitude. Now if you are all going to laugh at me, you +shall not learn the game." + +"Oh, we will be good!" exclaimed the Merryweathers. "We truly will." + +"The game of _Vocabulary_," said Mrs. Merryweather, "is played thus. +One--I, for example--begins to tell a story. I say, 'I went out to walk +this morning, and I met--' there I stop short, and you, in turn, give a +verb synonymous, more or less, with 'met.' This goes around the circle +till some one cannot find a verb, and that some one must continue the +story, stopping at any word he likes. I fear this is not very clear; +perhaps we can illustrate it best playing it. I will begin as I +suggested. I went out to walk this morning, and on my way I met--" she +stopped. + +"Encountered!" said Mr. Merryweather. + +"Approached!" said the Colonel. + +"Ran up against!" said Gerald. + +"Fell afoul of!" said Phil. + +"Fell in with!" said Bell. + +"Peggy, you come next." + +"Oh! I can't!" cried poor Peggy. "They have said everything; Mrs. +Merryweather, I can't _ever_ play anything of this kind, you know. I am +too stupid." + +"Nonsense, my child; you are not in the least stupid. If you cannot +think of a word, go on with the story." + +"But I don't know how!" cried Peggy, her eyes growing large and round, +with a look that Gertrude and Margaret knew only too well. The tears +were not far behind those round blue eyes; and Margaret hastened to the +rescue. "You met a man, dear!" she whispered. "That is all you need +say." + +"Well--I met a man!" said Peggy, with a gasp. + +"Person!" + +"Individual!" + +"Anthropoid ape!" + +"Masculine mortal!" + +"Chump!" + +"I object to the definition!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "In case of a +false definition, the falsifier takes up the thread. Go on, Jerry." + +"This man (he _was_ a chump, you'll see!) was so ugly that not a crow +dared to stay in the same county with him, and so disagreeable that it +gave one spasms to look at him; also, he had not the manners to take off +his hat--" he stopped short. + +"Cap!" + +"Hood!" + +"Helmet!" + +"Bonnet!" + +"Head-dress!" + +"Tam-o'-shanter!" + +"Mitre!" + +"Tiara!" + +"Fez!" + +"Turban!" + +"Beretta!" + +"I give in!" cried the Colonel. "I cannot think of another thing, so I +continue the tale. + +"This odious person, after passing me in the unmannerly fashion +described, was about to proceed further; but I, seizing him by the coat +collar, lifted my stout stick, and gave him a good sound--" + +"Thrashing!" + +"Licking!" + +"Beating!" + +"Chastisement!" + +"Hiding!" + +"Walloping!" + +"Whipping!" + +"Scourging!" + +"Drubbing!" + +"Trouncing!" + +"Thwacking!" + +"Lashing!" + +"Flogging!" + +"Caning!" + +"Larruping!" + +"Fustigating!" + +"Basting!" + +"Leathering!" + +"Thumping!" + +"Whopping!" + +"Rib-roasting!" + +"Dear me!" cried Mrs. Merryweather. "This is rather terrible, I think. +There seem to be more terms to express personal violence than anything +else." + +"We haven't begun to give them all, either!" said Phil. "If we are +allowed to use modern slang--I know you prefer ancient, Mammy--" + +"I know you are a saucy boy!" said his mother. + +"My dear friends," said the Chief, rising. "This is all very fine: but +the simple fact is, it is beginning to rain, and I think it advisable +for us to beat, fustigate, (where _did_ you get that, Miranda?) or +wallop, a retreat!" + +Then there was scrambling up, and running to and fro, and gathering up +of baskets and shawls. The good old horse, which had been grazing +peacefully in a clearing hard by, was harnessed, and Mr. and Mrs. +Merryweather, Colonel Ferrers, and the _impedimenta_ bundled in and off +as hastily as might be. Finally, as the rain began to pour down in good +earnest, the younger campers gathered into a solid phalanx and walked +home across the fields, singing in chorus, and informing all whom it +might concern that they were + + "Marching along, + Fifty score strong, + Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +KITTY AND WILLY + + +"MA!" said Willy Merryweather. + +"Baa!" replied his mother, without looking up from her writing. + +Willy fidgeted, and looked over his shoulder. "Mammy, I wish you would +speak to Kitty." + +"Speak to Kitty? certainly. How do you do, Kitty?" + +Willy looked uncomfortable, but went on. + +"I spoke for the Rangeley boat, and now she wants it. She always wants +it, and it isn't fair." + +"I don't always want it, Willy! I haven't been in it for two days. I +think you are very unkind." + +By this time Mrs. Merryweather had finished her sentence; she looked +up, and surveyed the two children with a half-abstracted gaze. + +"Who are you?" she asked, abruptly. "I thought Kitty and Willy were +here." + +Kitty took hold of the hem of her apron, and Willy felt of the knife in +his pocket. + +"Who are you?" repeated Mrs. Merryweather in a tone of wonder. "You +should always answer a question, you know." + +"We are Kitty and Willy ourselves!" murmured the children, the red +beginning to creep around their ears. + +"Oh, no!" said Mrs. Merryweather, reprovingly. "Don't say such things as +that, my dears. I know Kitty and Willy perfectly well; they are brother +and sister, two cheerful, affectionate children, who love each other. I +don't know anything about you two; run away, please, for I am busy." + +As the children moved slowly away, she called after them: "If you should +see Kitty and Willy, you might send them to me, if you please!" + +Round on the other side of the big oak-tree, sheltered from the eyes +that looked so abstractedly over their glasses, Willy rubbed his +shoulders uncomfortably against the bark, while Kitty kicked a bit of +stick to and fro. + +"There isn't any use in talking to Mammy when she does that way!" said +Willy, half to himself, but with a side glance at Kitty. "If she would +have only listened to me--" + +"She never will!" said Kitty, responding to the half glance. "She always +says there is no need of quarrelling, and she doesn't see why she should +have to hear disagreeable remarks." + +"Other children scrap," said Willy. "I don't see why we can't now and +then." + +"Well, she just won't have it, Will, so where's the use? Never mind +about the Rangeley; you may have it, and I'll take the _Wobbler_." + +"I don't care!" said Willy. "You may have her." + +"So may you!" + +Silence. Willy rubbing his shoulders, Kitty kicking her bit of stick. + +Presently Kitty looked up brightly, and shook her curls back. "I've got +over mine, Willy!" she announced. "Are you getting over yours?" + +"Ye-es!" said Willy, slowly. "I--s'pose I am." + +"Why don't we go together?" asked Kitty. "Then we can both have the +Rangeley." + +"All right!" said Willy, brightening at once. "Where shall we go? We +might play Pirate a bit--" + +"And then go for the milk! That would be great!" + +"All right, come on, Kit." + +"Oh! but, Willy--" + +"Well?" + +"We must go and tell Mammy first." + +Once more the two children presented themselves before their mother, who +was still writing busily. At the first "Mammy!" she looked up quickly. + +"Well, dears!" she said, "I was wondering where you were. What are you +going to play this afternoon?" + +"We thought perhaps we might have the Rangeley together, and play +Pirate!" said Willy. + +"And then go for the milk!" said Kitty. + +"To be sure!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "Yes, Papa said you might have the +boat if you wanted it. That will be very nice, only be careful, dears. +Give Mammy a kiss, and have a great good time." + + * * * * * + +"Run her up!" said the Pirate Captain. + +"Ay, ay, sir!" replied the mate. + +The Jolly Roger fluttered up to the mast-head: skull and crossbones +black as ink could make them, ground very nearly white; it was a +splendid flag. The Captain was a terrible figure, clad in yellow +oilskins many sizes too big for him, with ferocious mustaches curling up +to his eyes. His belt contained a perfect armory of weapons; item, a +pistol that had lost its barrel; item, three wooden daggers, assorted +sizes; item, one tomahawk, home-made. The mate was scarcely less +terrifying, for though a blue petticoat showed beneath his oilskin +jacket, and curls flowed from under his sou'wester, he made up for it by +a mass of oakum beard and whisker that was truly awe-inspiring. Also, he +had the truncheon which used to be a curling stick, and a deadly weapon +of singular appearance which was understood to be a boomerang. + +"Look out, Bill! avast there! dost see any foes about?" + +"Ay, ay, sir! I see a craft on the jib boom--" + +"_Lee bow_, Kitty!--I mean Bill; not jib boom! You are always saying +that." + +[Illustration: "''TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!'"] + +"I meant lee bow!" said Bill, anxious to please. "Anyhow, I see a craft, +your Honor. I think she is a plate ship from the Spanish Main. Shall we +run her down?" + +"Give me the glass!" exclaimed the Pirate Captain: and through that +instrument, which the ignorant might have mistaken for a battered tin +horn, he scrutinized the "craft," which lay on the water at some +distance. + +"'Tis not a plate ship!" he announced at length. "I think we have had +enough plate ships lately. This is a Dutch lugger from Samarcand, laden +with raisins and fig-paste and lichi nuts and cream dates. I shouldn't +wonder if she had narghiles too, and scimitars,--I need a new +scimitar,--and all sorts of things. Up helm, and crowd on all sail in +pursuit!" + +"Ay, ay, sir! stunsels?" + +"Stunsels, balloon-jibs, topgallant spinnakers, royal skyscrapers, +everything you can think of. Ha! we are off! Row hard now, Bill! The +lubbers are asleep, and we shall run them down easily. Are the cutlasses +ready?" + +"Ay, ay, sir!" + +"Ho! we are gaining on them. Ho, ho! bend to your oars, my hearties! +grappling-chains ready there! ho! on to the chase!" + +Now Phil was very busy making a fly for lake trout, and explaining the +manufacture of it to Peggy; and Peggy was absorbed in watching him, and +in counting the number of separate aches she felt after her first lesson +in rowing. Moreover, the bloody pirates had conducted their conversation +in a half-whisper, and the wind was the other way. But suddenly, Peggy +looked up and saw them, now at only a few yards distance. + +"Good gracious!" she cried. "What is it? Do look, Phil!" + +Phil looked hastily around; chuckled, and fell into an attitude of +abject terror. "Mercy! mercy!" he cried; cowering down in his seat. +("It's the kids; please be frightened!) Oh! what will become of us? We +are lost!" + +"Oh! save me, spare me!" cried Peggy, following suit, and clasping her +hands in supplication. + +The pirate bark ran alongside, and grappling-irons were tossed aboard +the ill-fated merchantman. The Pirate Captain, standing in the stern of +his vessel, surveyed them with baleful looks. + +"What ship is this?" + +"The _Weeping Woodchuck_, Captain Zebedee Moses of Squedunk, please your +Honor's Worship!" + +"Well I am Captain England, and this is the _Gory Griffin_. If you have +a cargo of raisins and fig-paste and cream dates, hand them over; +otherwise, prepare to walk the plank this instant!" + +"Oh, spare us! spare this tender maiden!" cried Phil. "I have no +fig-paste, but wouldn't fresh doughnuts do as well, O man of blood? +Life is sweet--and fish is needed for supper!" + +At these remarks the pirate's ferocious scowl relaxed somewhat. "Hand +over your doughnuts!" he said, briefly. "This once I spare ye, but cross +not my path again! I jolly well forgot about tea," he added, as Phil +tossed him some doughnuts; "I suppose it must be about time to go for +the milk, perhaps, is it?" + +Phil looked at his watch. "Well, I should say it jolly well was!" he +replied. "You'd better be off, young ones--I mean Scourges of the Deep!" + + * * * * * + +It was quite a pull over to the point where the milk-cans were waiting, +but Kitty and Willy were both good oars, and the doughnuts were crisp +and fortifying. + +"Let's take the point by storm!" suggested the gallant England, who had +not had his fill of glory. "The cans might be treasure, you know, and +we can creep up silently." + +"But there's no one to hear us be silent!" said Kitty. + +"Oh, that's nothing! We can hear ourselves, and, anyhow, it is good +practice. Come on, now! Be silent as the grave!" Leaving the boat on the +shore, they crept up the beach, pounced on the milk-can,--a tall +"separator" which held the whole provision for the family supper and +breakfast,--and bore it in triumph to the boat. But, alas! for the +gallant pirates! In getting aboard, one of them slipped; the other +stumbled; between the two, neither could tell just how, the tall can +toppled, and fell into the boat; the stopper flew out--"Then all the +mighty floods were out!" + + * * * * * + +"But where _can_ the children be?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, for the +tenth time. + +The horn had blown for supper, the fish were fried, the campers were +hungry and thirsty; and the milk had not come. + +"Where _can_ they be?" said every one. + +Mr. Merryweather put down the glass with which he had been sweeping the +lake. "They are out there!" he said. "I see them, but they don't seem to +be rowing. Give me the megaphone, will you, Jerry? Thanks!" + +A calm roar went out across the lake. "Come--in--to--tea!" + +A faint pipe was heard in reply. "Don't--want--any--tea!" + +The second roar was still calm, but peremptory. "_Come--in!_" + +Slowly, very slowly, the oars rose and fell, and the boat crept over the +water. What could be the matter with the children? + +"Too much bloodshed has upset the gallant England!" said Phil. "When it +comes to Willy's not wanting his tea!" + +"They have had some accident!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Broken an oar, +probably, or lost a rowlock. No. They are both rowing. Well, here they +come." + +The whole family started for the wharf, but a piteous wail arose from +the now approaching boat. + +"Please don't everybody come down! we want just Papa and Mamma." + +"Stay here, dear people, please!" said Mrs. Merryweather; and both +parents hurried down to the wharf, toward which two dejected little +figures were now tugging a very heavy boat. + +"What's the matter, Will?" said Mr. Merryweather. "Speak up, son." + +"We--spilt the milk!" said Willy, in a carefully measured tone. + +"Oh, my dears! all of it?" inquired their mother. + +"Every drop!" said Willy, grimly. + +"Oh, Mammy, we are so sorry!" cried Kitty. "The old can--just--upset! +and we are so wet, and it keeps splashing all over my legs!" + +"There! there! come ashore; never mind about the milk!" said Mr. +Merryweather. + +"Never mind!" echoed Mrs. Merryweather, heartily. "My poor chicks, where +have you been all this time? Why didn't you come straight home?" + +"We were--afraid!" sobbed Kitty. "We have been rowing around for ever +and ever so long, and we are so tired, and hungry, and--wet--" + +But by this time Kitty was near enough for her father to bend down and +lift her bodily out of the boat, and put her, all dripping milk as she +was, into her mother's arms. On her mother's shoulder she sobbed out the +rest of the pitiful little story. Kitty was twelve, and not specially +small of her age; but she was the baby, and Mrs. Merryweather sat down +on the wharf and rocked to and fro, hushing her. + +"There! there!" she said, soothingly. "My lamb! as if all the milk in +the world were worth your crying about! and crying into the spilt milk, +too, and making the boat all the wetter! Hush! hush! Run along, Papa and +Willy--dear little boy, it really is only funny, so don't fret, not one +little scrap. Kitty and I will come in about two minutes." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A DISCUSSION + + +THE morning reading was over, but the girls lingered in the pine parlor, +where the whole family had been gathered to hear some thrilling chapters +of Parkman. Margaret and Bell had their sewing, Gertrude her +drawing-board; Peggy was carving the handle of a walking-stick, while +Kitty struggled with some refractory knitting-needles. + +It was a pleasant place in which they were sitting: a little clear space +of pine-needles, embroidered here and there with tiny ferns, and shut in +by walls of dusky pine, soft and fragrant. The tree-trunks made +excellent (though sometimes rather sticky) chair-backs; the sunshine +filtered in through the branches overhead, making a golden half-light +which was the very essence of restfulness. + +"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret, breaking the silence that had +followed the departure of the rest of the family. "How strange it seems, +sitting here in this green peace and quiet, to read of all those +terrible happenings. How can it be the same world?" + +"He was a man, that La Salle!" exclaimed Peggy. "I never heard of such a +man. Think of that winter voyage! Think of that man, brought up in +luxury, with every kind of accomplishment, and that kind of thing, +wading in snow-water up to his knees, and sleeping on the frozen ground, +rolled in his blanket, while his clothes dried and froze stiff on the +trees! think of him standing alone against courts and savages, and +winning every time--till he was killed by those wretches. It is the +greatest story I ever read. Now, if all history were like this, +Margaret, I never should complain." + +"Don't you like history, Peggy?" asked Bell, looking up in wonder. + +"I used to detest it," said Peggy, laughing. "Julius Caesar, and William +the Conqueror, and all those people used to bore me dreadfully, though +Margaret did her very best to make them interesting; didn't you, you +dear?" + +"I tried, Peggy," said Margaret, with a smile; "but you never would +admit that they were real people, just as real as if they were alive +to-day." + +"Oh, well, of course I know they were alive once, but so were mummies, +and you can't expect me to be interested in _them_. However, I think I +really am improving. 'Hereward' brought William alive for me, it truly +did; and this Parkman book delights me. Oh! I should like to have made +that voyage down the Mississippi, girls! I think, on the whole, I would +rather be Cavalier de La Salle than any one I ever heard of." + +"In spite of all the suffering and tragedy?" said Gertrude. "I could not +say that, much as I admire him." + +"Who would you be, if you could choose? Let us all say!" cried Bell. "A +new game! two minutes for reflection!" and she took out her watch with a +business-like air. + +"Oh!" cried Gertrude. "But there are so many!" + +"Silence!" said Bell; and there was an instant of absolute stillness. +Taking advantage of it, a chipmunk ran across the brown carpet, and +pausing midway, sat up on his haunches and surveyed the new and singular +mountain ranges that had risen on his horizon. One of the mountains +stirred--whisk! he was gone. + +"Time's up!" said Bell. "Margaret, I will begin with you. With all +history to choose from, who will you be?" + +"Oh! must I be first?" cried Margaret. "As Gertrude says, there are so +many; and yet when you come to think them over, there is something +against every one; I mean something one would not like to do or to +suffer. But,--on the whole,--I _think_ I would be Elizabeth of Hungary." + +"Our Lady of the Roses? Well, she was lovely, though I should be sorry +to marry her husband. The story would have been somewhat different if I +had; but I am not a saint. Peggy, your turn!" + +"This man we are reading about!" said Peggy, decidedly. "La Salle!" + +"Toots!" + +"Bell, you know I never _can_ decide between Shakespeare and Raphael. I +have to be both; they lived quite far enough apart for separate +incarnations." + +"Greedy, grasping girl!" said Bell. "Kitty, who are you?" + +"Jim Hawkins!" said Kitty, promptly. + +"No fiction allowed this time, Missy, only history!" + +"Oh, dear! well, then--Francis Drake!" + +"Bound to have a pirate, aren't you, Kitty?" said Gertrude, +mischievously. + +"He wasn't a pirate!" cried Kitty, indignantly. "He was a great hero." + +"_L'un n'empechait pas l'autre_, in those days!" said Bell. + +"Well, now for yourself, Bell!" said Margaret. "It is your turn." + +"Oh, I didn't need any two minutes," said Bell. "I am always William the +Silent. I should be Beethoven if it were not for the deafness, but that +I could not have borne." + +"You all want to be men, don't you?" observed Margaret, thoughtfully. + +"Why--yes, so we do! you are the only one who chose a woman." + +"Everybody would be a man if they could!" cried Peggy, throwing grammar +to the winds, as she was apt to do when excited. + +"No, indeed, everybody would not!" cried Margaret, her soft eyes +lighting up. "Nothing would induce me to be a man." + +"I don't think you would make a very good one, to be sure!" said Peggy, +looking affectionately at her cousin. "But I bet--I mean wager--you told +me I might say 'wager,' Margaret!--that none of the other girls would +hesitate a minute if they had the chance. I wouldn't! Think of it! No +petticoats, no fuss, no having to remember to do this, and not to do +that; and no hairpins, or gloves, or best hats--" + +"Ah!" said Bell; "that is only the smallest part, Peggy. I don't mind +the hairpin part--though of course it is a joy to get out here and +dispense with them--but still, that is only a trifle. The thing I think +about is the freedom, the strength, the power to go right ahead and _do_ +things!" and, as she spoke, Bell threw her head back and stretched her +arms abroad with a vigorous gesture. "Of course we girls are all well +and strong, but it isn't the same strength as a man's. We are +constantly running up against things we cannot, ought not to do. I _do_ +envy the boys, I cannot help it." + +"Yes!" cried Margaret, leaning forward, a soft flush rising to her +cheeks. "I know--it is glorious to see them; but, Bell, isn't the very +weakness part of our strength? Isn't it just because women _know_ +the--the things they cannot do, that they are able to understand and +sympathize, and--and help, in ways that men cannot, because they do not +know?" + +"I think Margaret is right!" said Gertrude, slowly. "And besides, there +is strength and strength, Bell. For long endurance of pain or hardship, +the woman will outlast the man nine times out of ten, I believe; and I +heard Doctor Strong say once that women would often bear pain quietly +that would set a man raving. Yes, I come over to your side, May +Margaret. I would take Joan of Arc, if it were not for the stake. Let +me see--oh, I know! I will be Grace Darling." + +"Who was she?" asked Kitty. + +"The lighthouse-keeper's daughter, at Longstone, off the Yorkshire +coast. A ship, the _Forfarshire_, was wrecked on the rocks near by, and +there seemed no chance of saving any of the crew; but Grace persuaded +her father to try, and just those two rowed out, in a most terrible +storm, to the reef on which the vessel had been wrecked, and saved the +nine men, all that were left out of sixty-three, who were clinging to +the rocks, waiting for death. Why wasn't that just as fine as commanding +an army, or even leading a forlorn hope in battle? Then there was dear +Margaret Roper--I think she is the one for you, May Margaret!--and +Cochrane's Bonny Grizzy, and--oh, ever and ever so many of them. Yes, I +take up my stand once and for all on my own side." + +"Well!" said Bell, shaking her head. "I hear what you say, Betsy, but +it makes no difference,--does it, Peggy?--though I admit the force of +your remarks." + +"Not a bit!" said Peggy. "I wouldn't have been Mrs. La Salle for a +farm." + +"There wasn't any!" said Margaret. + +"The principle remains the same," said Peggy, "as Miss Russell used to +say." + +"There is another thing!" said Margaret. "Your life out here, Bell, +shows me how much girls _can_ do; I mean in the active, outdoor, +athletic way. More than I ever dreamed they could do. It really seems to +me that, except just for the petticoats, you have very few drawbacks. I +suppose it is having all the brothers. Why, you know as much as they do +about the woods and all." + +"Yes, it's partly the boys," said Bell; "but it is much more Papa. You +see, from the time we could walk, he has always taken us out into the +woods and fields, and made us use our eyes and ears, and talked to us +about things. We should not know anything, if it were not for Papa." + +"He does seem to know almost everything!" said Margaret. "I never saw +any one like him." + +"There _isn't_ any one like him," said Gertrude, decidedly. "What have +you got there, Margaret?" + +Margaret had drawn a letter from her pocket, and was looking it over. + +"An argument on my side," she said, smiling. "May I read it aloud?" + +"Do! do!" cried all the girls. + +Margaret smoothed out the crumpled pages affectionately. "He carried it +in his pocket two days before he remembered to post it!" she said. "I +judge from the date, and the appearance of the envelope. There was candy +in his pocket, and"--she sniffed at the letter--"yes! tar, without +doubt. Now listen! + + "'DEAR COUSIN MARGARET:--We miss you awfully, + and Uncle John says it is no kind of a house + without you, and it isn't. We went a walk + yesterday, Susan D. and me and the dogs, + because you know it was Sunday; Uncle John was + coming too, but he had roomatizm and coud not. + Well Cousin Margaret, we walked over the big + hill and just then the dogs began howling and + yelling in the most awful manner, and running + round and round like they were crazy; and we + ran to see what was up, and we found out, I + tell you! It was white hornets, about ten + thousand of them, and the dogs had rolled in a + nest of them, and they were stinging their + noses, and they flew at us with perfeck fewry, + I mean the hornets did. I hollered and ran, but + Susan D. said wait she knew what to do, so she + said "Come on," and we ran down to the brook + and she took mud and put it on my stings before + she touched her own, and it took a good deal of + the pane out though not all. And then she put + it on the dogs' noses, and they understood like + persons, and poked them into the mud themselves + and soon forgot their pane. But I thought I + would tell you this Cousin Margaret, because + Susan D. did really behave like a perfeck + brick, and you always said girls were as brave + as boys but I never thought so before but now I + do; because I hollered right out when they + stung me which I am ashamed of. You said + confession was good for the sole, and so I + think: so now I will say good-by from + + "'BASIL.'" + +"What a dear boy!" cried Gertrude. + +"Oh, he is!" said Margaret, the happy tears springing to her eyes. "He +is one of the very dearest boys that ever lived, Gertrude; so manly and +honest, and so funny, too. Gerald knows him!" she added, shyly. "I wish +he had been at home when you were there, Peggy." + +"Yes; he must be a brick!" said Peggy. "Now, Margaret, you know he is, +and you know that nothing but 'brick' expresses what I mean. Girls, I +appeal to you. Margaret wants me to talk like a professor all the time, +and I am not a professor, and am never likely to be one. Bell, isn't +'brick' all right?" + +Bell looked conscious. "I confess I say it, Peggy; I confess it seems +much heartier than the same thing in what my mother calls good English. +Still--I believe it would sound very queer to me if she used it; the +mother, I mean." + +"Grace used to say 'a quadrangular piece of baked clay!'" said Gertrude. +"Don't you remember, Peggy?" + +"So she did--dear thing! Well, but, Bell, would you have girls talk just +the way grown-up people do? It would sound awfully stiff and poky. I +don't mean that it sounds so when your mother talks!" she cried; "of +course you know I don't mean that. But girls _aren't_ grown-up, you +know." + +"But they are going to be!" said Margaret. "If they don't learn good +English now, how are they going to do it later? It does seem to me a +terrible pity, with all our great, glorious language, to use so little +of it, and to use it so often wrong. You may think me priggish and +professorial, and anything else you like, Peggy dear, but that is what I +think." + +"I love you to distraction," said Peggy; "you are an angel, but I think +you carry it too far. What would you say instead of 'brick?' how would +you describe this boy--who simply _is_ a brick?" + +Margaret reflected. "I should say he was a nice, manly boy!" she said, +presently. + +"Nice! now, Margaret! 'nice' is niminy, you know it is, and piminy too." + +"The great advantage of 'brick,'" said Bell, "is that it is one word, +and 'nice manly boy' is three, and doesn't mean the same thing then." + +"There!" cried Peggy, in triumph. "What do you say to that, Margaret? +Find one word in your old 'good English' that does express 'brick?'" + +"Well--it isn't easy!" Margaret admitted. "'Trump' is the only one I can +think of, and I suppose that was slang fifty years ago." + +"The mother says that when a word has held its own for twenty years, it +isn't slang any more," said Gertrude. "The question is--" + +At this moment the sound of a horn was heard; a long, ringing blast, +followed by a second and a third. + +The girls sprang to their feet. "Hurrah for a swim!" cried Bell. "Come, +bricks and trumps--I'll race you all to the tents!" And off they went +with a flash of petticoats, leaving the chipmunk to speculate on the +sudden upheavals of nature. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WATER PLAY + + +THE floating wharf, as has been said, lay at the end of a long, narrow +slip that ran out on piers over the water. Down the slip, one by one, +now came the Merryweathers and their guests, in bathing array, the boys +shouting and skylarking,--the girls singing and tossing their long hair +about. Jack and Phil brought out a long spring-board, and set it up at +the end of the wharf; and then the fun began. Mr. Merryweather was the +first to run along the board, and take a sober and dignified dive. He +was followed by Gerald, turning handsprings, and carolling to the effect +that he was a pirate king, he was; hurrah for the pirate king! Next +came Jack, who turned a back somersault, ending with a noble splash; +and so, one by one, like so many ducks, they dove and leaped and tumbled +in, and splashed and swam about in the clear water. Peggy was with the +rest, splashing as merrily as any of them; but Margaret sat on the +wharf, in her pretty blue bathing-dress, her feet tucked under her, +looking on. + +[Illustration: "'COME ON! COME IN!'"] + +"Come on, Margaret!" cried Peggy. "Come on! come in! It's perfectly +great!" + +"In a minute," said Margaret. "I like to watch you a bit first; it takes +me a little while to get my courage up." + +"Come, oh, come with me!" sang Gerald, emerging from the water, at her +feet, and clinging to the wharf, while he shook the drops from his hair +and eyes. "Come swim with me and be my swan! Come where the duckweed +twineth! Come!" + +"Oh, Gerald, yes; in just a minute. Is it very cold?" + +"Cold? No; just right. Liquid crystal, sparkling sapphire, perfection! +Come, you must have your swimming lesson. Forget the cheerful +swain,--behold the stern instructor!" + +He held out his hand with an imperative gesture. Margaret laid hers in +it timidly. + +"Let me get near the rope!" she said, rather nervously. + +"Here is the rope, close by your hand. Now, then, hold fast! There we +go!" + +With one hand on the rope, and the other in Gerald's, Margaret slid into +the water, giving a little cry as it bubbled up about her. "Gerald!" + +"Right here, my lady. There; both hands on the rope now. Take it easy! +Now you are all right." + +"Ye'--yes, Gerald. Oh, isn't it glorious?" + +"Rather! It's really the element to live in, you see. A mistake was +made somewhere. If I had but gills, I should ask no more of fate. As it +is--" + +He dove, and came up on the other side of the rope. "Don't you think I +would be charming with gills,--pretty little quivering, rosy +gills,--instead of side whiskers?" + +"I never saw you in side whiskers," said Margaret, demurely, "so I +cannot tell. You certainly don't seem to need the gills, though. How +_do_ you manage to keep under so long? Yesterday, when you stayed down +picking up these pebbles, I was sure something had happened. Really, +Gerald, I was very much frightened." + +"I ought to have been switched," said Gerald. "I never thought of your +noticing. I say, come down with me, and I'll show you the trick of it. +It's just as easy!" + +"Not for worlds!" cried Margaret, clutching the rope, as if she expected +to be dragged from it by force. "I never should come up alive. Oh, +look, Gerald! what are they going to do now?" + +"Going to dive over the elephants. Do you mind--oh, here is the child, +Toots. Toots, will you stay here by Margaret, while I take my place in +the ring? You are sure you are all right, Margaret?" + +"Oh, yes; do go. I want to see it. Gertrude, what _are_ they doing?" + +"Look and see," said Gertrude. "Put your arms on the rope, and lift +yourself higher. That's right." + +Phil and Jack and Willy had placed themselves side by side, on their +hands and knees, at the edge of the wharf, and were calling loudly for +Gerald. He stepped back to the farther end of the float, then, running +forward, soared into the air, over the backs of the "elephants," and +came down straight as an arrow into the water; then, scrambling out, +took his place in the row, while Phil performed the same manoeuvre. +Over and over and over they went, running, rising, plunging, rising +again. Margaret grew dizzy watching them. Now Mr. Merryweather advanced, +holding a rubber hoop, which was neither more nor less than the +discarded tire of a bicycle. This he and Gerald held out at arm's +length, and the other boys dove through it, amid the applause of the +girls. + +"Oh, pretty!" cried Peggy. "Do you do that, girls?" + +"Gertrude does; I haven't tried it yet," said Bell, who was floating +placidly, her arms under her head, her face turned to the sky. + +"I am going to try," said Peggy. "May I, Mr. Merryweather?" + +"By all means!" said the Chief, heartily. "Take a good run--steady, +Jerry. Hold it out well--there! hurrah!" + +For Peggy had gone through the hoop like a bird, and after a clean dive, +was coming up again, radiant and panting. + +"Oh, Peggy, how splendid!" cried Margaret, her eyes shining with +pleasure and pride in her Peggy's prowess. "Gertrude, didn't she do it +well? Such a pretty, graceful thing to do." + +"_C'etait une corquerre!_" said Gerald, heartily. "_Elle est aussi une +corquerre, la Peggy._ You will be doing it soon yourself." + +"Oh, never, never! You cannot seem to understand, Gerald, that I am not +_made_ for these things. I love to see them; I admire them intensely, +but I cannot so much as think of trying." + +"_Point de stonte pour Marguerite?_" said Gerald. "Alas the day! Because +you really would do them so corkingly, you know, if only you should do +them. Well, see here, I am going to give you a troll. You will like +that, I am sure." + +"A troll? I thought they were mountain goblins. I don't want one, thank +you, sir! water nixies and pixies are as much as I can bear in the +goblin line." + +"Verb, not substantive!" replied Gerald. + +"I troll, thou lettest thyself be trolled, he, she, or it sees you being +trolled and wishes that he, she, or it had such luck. Observe!" + +He climbed into one of the Rangeley boats that lay near the float, +loosed her moorings, and, taking up the oars, brought her close to the +rope. "Now, Margaret, catch hold; here, at the stern!" + +"What are you going to do with me, Gerald? I fear thee, ancient mariner, +I fear thy skinny hand!" + +"I hold you with my glittering eye, you cannot choose but come. I am +going to take you off a-trolling. Hold on tight with your hands, and let +all the rest of you go, as if you had nothing to do with it." + +He took a few strokes, slowly and easily. Margaret, clinging to the +stern, was drawn along without effort or motion of her own. Her long +hair floated behind her; her white arms gleamed like ivory through the +clear water; her face was alight with pleasure. + +"'Not wholly bad, Lysander Pratt?'" quoted Gerald, interrogatively. + +"Oh, Gerald! it is almost too perfect! no, you needn't stop, I only said +_almost_. The water feels like silk flowing by me: no, silk is rough +beside it; it feels like--like--" + +"Like water, possibly?" said Gerald; "stranger things have been." + +"Well, there isn't anything else like it, is there? Oh! are you sure you +will not take cold or anything, Gerald? I could go on forever, floating +here--trolling, I mean." + +"Nothing easier," said Gerald, pulling on with long, steady strokes. "We +will just keep on; I ask nothing better. Years passed. A form was seen, +gray and bent with age, feebly tugging at a pair of oars. Trailing +behind the crazy boat, another figure might be distinguished--I forbear +further description, Margaret: I may grow old, but not you; please stay +as you are always. Anyhow, the people will flock to the shore. Ha! the +Muse! the afflatus descends. + + "The people thronged the rocky shore, + And viewed that graybeard old and hoar; + 'Oh! why thus dodderest at the oar, + Unhappy soul?' + The answer came: 'Forever more + She wished to troll!'" + +"Gerald, I think we'd better go back now." + +"Wait! she hasn't finished. Never interrupt a Muse! it isn't the thing +to do. + + "And still along that rocky coast, + A gibbering yet a gallant ghost, + He dodders, dodders at his post, + Nor nears the goal; + For she, the spook he cares for most, + Still loves to troll." + +"Gerald, take me back, please! see, we are ever so far from shore, and +it is time for me to go in, I am sure." + +"Just look down, Margaret! see the bottom, all white sand; isn't that +pleasant? Hi! there's a bream watching his nest. See him fanning about +over it, never leaving the place. He'll keep that up for hours at a +time. Domestic party, the bream! this is an excellent opportunity to +study the habits of--" + +"Gerald, I am cold!" + +"We'll be there in two minutes!" said Gerald, settling to his oars. +"Hold tight, now, Margaret! troll as the wolves of Apennine were all +upon your track!" and with long, powerful strokes he sent the boat +flying through the water, while Margaret fairly shrieked with delight +and excitement. + +Her face had been turned away from the float; but now she was speeding +toward it, and looked eagerly to see what the others of the party were +doing. To her great amazement, no one was in sight. The wharf lay wet +and glistening in the sunshine, but no blue-clad figures leaped and +pranced across it, no merry faces emerged from the blue, sparkling +water. All was silent and solitary. + +"Why, Gerald," cried Margaret, "where are they all? have they gone in? +Surely I heard their voices just a moment ago, and a great splash: where +can they be?" + +"A stunt!" replied Gerald. "For our benefit, I presume, but I scorn +their levity. I advise you to take no notice of their childish pranks. I +myself was young, once upon a time, but what then?" + +They were now at the float, and Margaret looked about her, in utter +amazement. All was silent; not a voice, not a whisper; no soul was in +sight. It was as if she and Gerald were alone in the world. She stepped +out on the float: at the instant, up from under her feet rose a sound as +if the biggest giant that ever swung a club were sneezing. "A--_tchoo_!" + +Margaret screamed outright. "Gerald! what is it?" + +"Come out from there!" cried Gerald. "They are under the float, +imbeciles that they are. The Pater has gone ashore, and the others +manifest their nature, that is all. Come out, Apes of the Apennines! or +I'll--" + +The threat remained unfinished, for the Merryweathers came out. Swarming +up from under the float, where they had been treading water at their +ease, with plenty of breathing-space, they flung themselves with one +accord upon Gerald's boat, capsized it, and dragged him into the water. +A great splashing contest ensued, with much shouting and merriment, and +they were still hard at it when "All in!" sounded from the boat-house. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE MAIL + + +"STILL raining, Phil?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, looking up from her +writing. + +"Still, honored parent! or rather, to be exact, anything but still. Up +on the hill, the wind is fierce. I had to ride round the blast once or +twice, instead of going through it. Solid old wind, that!" + +He threw off his dripping oilskin jacket, and came in, unslinging the +letter-bag from his shoulder as he came. + +"Letters! letters!" he cried. "Who wants letters?" + +Every one gathered around him, holding out eager hands. + +"One for me, Phil!" + +"For me, Protector of the Poor!" + +"Oh! please, Phil! I want three at least." + +"If there is none for me, Fergy my boy, I shudder at the consequences +for you!" + +Phil distributed letters and papers; the family subsided on chairs and +benches with their treasures, and for some minutes nothing was heard but +the rustle of paper and the steady downpour of the rain. + +"Oh!" cried Peggy, presently. "Oh--eee! splendid!" + +"Sapolio!" exclaimed Gerald; and "Well! well!" said Mrs. Merryweather. + +The three exclamations were simultaneous, and Bell, who had no letters, +raised her hand with an imperative gesture. "Exclamation must be +followed by explanation!" she said. "Law of the Medes and Persians. We +shall be glad to hear from the exclaimers." + +"Who? me? did I?" asked Peggy, looking up with sparkling eyes. +"Semiramis has eight puppies. Think of it! eight whole puppies!" + +"I never buy more than half a puppy at a time," said Gerald, "unless it +is for a veal and ham pie." + +"Gerald!" + +"Well, it's a fact, Mater; I never do. What kind of puppies, thou of +Limavaddy?" + +"Gordon setters, black and tan: oh, she says they are perfect beauties. +She says--this is Jean, you know, my sister--'they are all like Semmy +except one, and he is _blue_.' Who ever heard of a blue puppy? You shall +have one, Snowy: I promised you one, don't you remember? oh--eee! and +the new colt is a perfect beauty too, and they have named her Peggy. +Oh!" + +Peggy looked down at her letter, then looked up again shyly. "I--don't +suppose you would care to hear any of it?" she said, interrogatively. + +"Indeed we should!" said Mrs. Merryweather, heartily. "We should like it +extremely, Peggy. A letter from the Far West; why, it will be a journey +for all of us." + +"Great!" said Phil. + +"Corking!" said Gerald. And one and all, in their several ways, +expressed their desire to hear the letter. + +Dimpling with pleasure, her rosy face beaming, Peggy began to read. + +"'Dear old'--oh, well, I won't read just the beginning, because it is +just the way we talk to each other, you know. I wish you knew Jean, +Snowy. Let me see! oh, yes, here it is. + +"'This is eight birthdays all at once, for what do you think, Peggy? +this morning we missed Semmy at breakfast, and could not find her +anywhere. There were kidneys, and you know she always finishes the dish +off, because she is so fond of them. Well, and so I went to look for +her, and she wasn't in her box, or in the shed, or behind the kitchen +stove, or anywhere where she usually is. So I went out to the stable, +and there I heard little squeaks and squeals, the funniest you ever +heard, and then a growl in Semmy's voice as I opened the door. Then the +dear thing heard my step, and was ashamed of growling, and began +thumping her tail on the floor till I should have thought she would +break it. And there she was, all cuddled down in a pile of hay, and the +dear little darling things all cuddled round her. I never saw anything +so perfectly dear! they were all blind, and bald all over, and pink, and +squealing like anything; you never _did_ see anything so lovely in all +your life, at least I never did. Well, she let me take them up, one by +one, old darling, though I could see that it made her nervous. Most of +them are like her, beautifully marked, with pink noses, and black ears, +and just the right blackness and tanness on them; but one is very queer, +great splotches of black on his nose and his hind quarters, and all the +rest of him white. So they named him "Magpie," right off; but I haven't +come to the names yet. He is not very pretty, but he looks _very_ +bright, and I shouldn't wonder if he was terribly clever, to make up for +not being so handsome as the others. And the other different one is a +perfect beauty, though you may not think so when I tell you that he is +_blue_. Yes, truly blue; of course I don't mean sky blue, nor navy, but +the black is all mixed in through the white,--I can't explain to you +just how it is--but anyhow, at a little distance, he does truly and +honestly look blue. Well, so--I was the first to find them, so Father +said I might name them, but of course I wanted us all to do it together; +so we all thought, and each made a list. Oh, Peggy, we did want you; and +I wanted to wait till you could send your list too, but the others +thought you would not mind, and it is nicer to have them named quickly, +because then their names seem to belong to them more, and they look +like them. Perhaps, I mean, if you had been called something else till +you were two or three years old, you might not have been so just exactly +Peggy as you are, you dear old thing.' + +"Perhaps I ought not to have read that," said Peggy, looking up with a +blush; "but it is as like Jean as I am like Peggy, if I am like it, +whatever it is." + +"You certainly are like 'it,'" said Gertrude, laughing, "and 'it' +certainly is a dear old thing. Go on, please. We are all longing to hear +the list." + +Peggy threw her a kiss, and went on. + +"'I will not give you all the lists, for that would take up all the rest +of my letter; but here is the one we finally made out. There are three +females, and five males, you know: _Cleopatra_, _Meg_ (Merrilies; that +was Flora's, because she is just reading "Guy Mannering"), _Diana_, +_Guy_ (for the same reason), _Shot_, _Hector_, _Ajax_, and _Magpie_.' + +"Well, I do think that is a queer list," Peggy concluded, folding up the +letter. "I wish they had called one 'Gray Brother,' or 'Bagheera.'" + +"But they are not wolves or panthers," objected Mr. Merryweather. "I +should say that was a very fair list of names, Peggy, as names go. It is +always hard to find a good name for a dog. 'Shot' is an excellent name. +We had a good old dog named Shot, and I have always liked the name." + +"Mammy," said Bell, "are we not to hear something from you?" + +"From me, my dear?" repeated Mrs. Merryweather. "What would you like to +hear?" + +"I should think you were an amiable gramophone," replied her daughter, +with affectionate disrespect. "And I _think_ you really know what I +mean, madam, in spite of that innocent look. On reading your letters, +you and Jerry exclaimed: 'Well, well!' and 'Sapolio!' at the same +instant, and your letters are on the same kind of paper, I cannot help +seeing that. Have you something to break to us? 'Sapolio' is a baleful +utterance, delivered as Jerry delivered it just now." + +"Gee! I should think it was!" muttered Gerald, gloomily. He had +brightened up while Peggy was reading her letter, but now his usually +bright face was clouded with unmistakable vexation. + +"Oh!" said Mrs. Merryweather, with what seemed a rather elaborately +cheerful expression. "My letter? It is from Cousin Anna Belleville. She +tells me that Claud has been with her at Bar Harbor for some time, and +that he is coming to visit us on his way back. He will be here some day +next week, she thinks." + +A certain pensiveness stole over the aspect of the Merryweathers. Bell +and Gertrude exchanged a swift glance, but said nothing. Gerald +whistled, "Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket!" + +After a brief silence, Mr. Merryweather said, thoughtfully, "I was +thinking of taking the boys off on a camping trip next week." + +"You cannot, Miles," said his wife, quickly. "It is out of the +question." + +"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Merryweather. "I only--a--quite so!" + +He relapsed into inarticulate murmurs over his pipe. Mrs. Merryweather, +after a reproachful glance at him, turned to Gerald, as she folded her +letter. "You have a letter from Claud, Gerald?" she asked, cheerfully. + +"I have, madam," said Gerald, with a brow of thunder. "He informs me +that he is looking forward with the greatest pleasure to roughing it a +bit with us, and says that we must make no preparations, but let him +take things just as they are. He's a Christian soul, that's what he is." + +"What is to be the order of the evening?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, +addressing Bell with a shade of warning in her voice. "Are we to have +games, or boat-building?" + +"Oh! boat-building! the regatta is to-morrow, and we are not half +ready." + +There was a general rush toward cupboards and lockers, and in an +incredibly short space of time the whole room was a pleasant litter of +chips, shingles, and brown paper. The rules for the regattas at +Merryweather were few and simple. All boats must be built by their +owners, unaided; no boat must be over a foot long from stem to stern; +all sails must be of paper. Aside from these limitations, the fancies of +the campers might roam at will; accordingly, the boats were of every +shape and description, from Kitty's shingle, ballasted with pebbles, to +Phil's elaborate catamaran. Peggy was struggling with a stout and +somewhat "nubbly" piece of wood, which was slowly shaping itself under +the vigorous strokes of her jack-knife. + +"She's coming on!" Peggy declared, cheerfully. "She really begins to +look quite like a boat now, doesn't she, Mr. Merryweather?" + +"Certainly!" the Chief assented. "I don't see why she should not make a +very good boat, Peggy. I would round off her stern a bit, if I were you. +So! that's better." + +"What is her name, Peggy?" inquired Mrs. Merryweather. "I must be +entering the names in the Log." + +"The _Lovely Peggy_, of course!" said Phil. "What else should it be?" + +"It might be the _Limavaddy_!" said Gerald. + +"Gerald, I _wish_ you would tell me what you mean by 'Limavaddy,'" said +Peggy. "It sounds like--I don't know what; tea-caddy, or something like +that. Mrs. Merryweather, won't you tell me what it means?" + +"It is a compliment he is paying you, Peggy," said her hostess, smiling. +"Peg of Limavaddy is the charming heroine of a charming ballad of +Thackeray's. + + "'This I do declare, + Happy is the laddy + Who the heart can share + Of Peg of Limavaddy. + Married if she were, + Blest would be the daddy + Of the children fair + Of Peg of Limavaddy. + Beauty is not rare + In the land of Paddy, + Fair beyond compare + Is Peg of Limavaddy.' + +That is not one of the prettiest stanzas, but it shows you why Gerald +has nicknamed you." + +"I say with Captain Corcoran," Gerald observed, pausing in the critical +adjustment of a sail: + + "'Though I'm anything but clever, + I could talk like that forever.' + +As thus! + + "When she makes the tea, + Brews it from a caddy, + Who so blithe as she, + Peg of Limavaddy? + + "See her o'er the stove, + Broiling of a haddie; + Thus she won my love, + Peg of Limavaddy. + + "But building of a boat, + Her success is shady; + Bet you she won't float, + Peg of Limavaddy!" + +"Wait till to-morrow," cried Peggy, laughing, "and you'll see whether +she floats or not. And anyhow, she is my first boat. Isn't there a +special class for beginners, Mr. Merryweather?" + +"No, no! no fear or favor shown; the rigor of the game, little Peggy. +Margaret, have you given up?" + +"Oh, yes, please, Mr. Merryweather!" said Margaret, looking up from her +knitting with a smile. "I could not; it simply was not possible. Gerald +was positive at first that he could teach me, but after one lesson he +was equally positive that he could not. I needed no conviction, because +I knew I could not." + +"Nobody can do absolutely everything," said Gerald, "except the +Codger,--I allude to my revered uncle, Margaret,--and I have at times +desired to drown him for that qualification. You shall be the starter, +Margaret; you'll do that to perfection." + +"What are the duties of a starter?" asked Margaret; "I shall be very +glad to do anything I really can." + +"To sit still and look pretty!" said Gerald, demurely. "I _think_ you +can manage it." + +"Have I the full list?" asked Mrs. Merryweather. "I'll read it aloud. + +"The _Principal Whale_,--Papa." + +"I wish you would not call my father names!" murmured Gerald. + +"Jerry, do be still! + +"The _Tintinnabula_, Bell. + +"The _Jollycumpop_, Gertrude. + +"The _Come-at-a-Body_, Gerald. + +"The _Molasses Cooky_, Phil. + +"The _Polly Cologne_, Kitty. + +"The _Whopper_, Willy." + +"Is that all?" + +"All but Peggy's," said Gertrude. "Peggy, you must decide on the name of +your boat." + +"Oh! Gertrude, that is the hardest part of all. Margaret, you must name +her for me." + +"Why not _Semiramis_, after the happy mother of the puppies?" suggested +Margaret. + +"The whole puppies!" echoed Gerald. "Don't half name them, Margaret!" + +"Why isn't that the name for the boat?" cried Phil. + +"It is! it is!" cried all the rest. "The _Whole Puppy_, it is!" And +Peggy laughing, submitted. + +"I never _was_ so teased in all my life!" she said; "but I feel it doing +me good." + +"That is our one object, my charming child!" said Gerald, gravely. "We +invited you here in the hope that our united efforts might counteract +the pernicious influences of Fernley House." + +"Nobody will ever explain to me what a Come-at-a-Body is!" said +Margaret. "Whenever I ask, you all say, 'Oh, hush! it might come!' Mrs. +Merryweather, won't you tell me?" + +"I will read you the description of it in the Log," said Mrs. +Merryweather, smiling; "that is the best I can do for you." + +She turned over the pages of the book that lay open in her lap. "Here it +is!" she said. "Now mark and learn, Margaret. + +"'The Come-at-a-Body is found only in its native habitat, where it may +be observed at the proper season, indulging in the peculiar actions that +characterize it. It has more arms than legs, and more hair than either. +It moves with great rapidity, its gait being something between a wallop +and a waddle; and as it comes (one of its peculiarities is that it +always comes, and never goes), it utters loud screams, and gnashes its +teeth in time with its movements.' + +"Now, my dear, you know all that I do!" Mrs. Merryweather concluded with +a candid smile. + +"Thank you so much!" said Margaret, laughing. "I am certainly +enlightened." + +At this moment Phil, who was sitting near the door, laid down his work, +and held up a warning hand. "Hark!" he said. "What is that?" + +"Only the wind!" said some one. + +"Or the car rattling o'er the stony street!" said another. + +"No!" said Phil. "I heard a voice, I am sure. Listen!" + +All were silent. Outside the rain was pouring, the wind wailing in long +sighing gusts; but--yes! mingling with the wind, a voice was certainly +calling: + +"Hallo! hallo, there! Merryweather!" + +Gerald sprang to his feet, and struck his twin brother on the shoulder. +"The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!" he cried. "I should know that +voice in the shock of spears: it is Claud Belleville!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MR. BELLEVILLE + + +[Illustration: "MR. CLAUD BELLEVILLE WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH."] + +THE Montforts and Jack Ferrers looked up with much curiosity and some +apprehension as the twins returned ushering in the unexpected visitor. +Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather and the girls welcomed him cordially, but +Margaret could not help contrasting their somewhat subdued cheerfulness +with the joyous outburst that had welcomed herself and Peggy on their +arrival. + +Mr. Claud Belleville was a tall, pallid youth, with blond hair carefully +arranged, pale blue eyes, in one of which an eyeglass was neatly fitted, +and a languid air. He spoke with a pronounced English accent, and, on +being presented to the other guests, said "Oh! very, very, very!" in +a most affable tone. + +The Merryweathers bestirred themselves, some bringing dry garments, some +preparing a hasty meal; the guest meanwhile stood in the centre of the +hearthstone, and adjured them not to put themselves to inconvenience. + +"Now, my dear people, I beg of you!" he said. "Nothing, positively +nothing, but a biscuit and a cup of tea! Really, now, I cannot allow it. +Thanks, Jerry! awfully good of you, don't you know! oh! very, very, +very! now, my dear fellow, _not_ your best coat! It is too absurd." + +"It isn't my best, it's my worst!" said Gerald, bluntly. + +"Oh! very good! very diverting! thanks awfully! don't mention it. Well, +Cousin Miranda, this is charming; this is positively charming. So +delightfully primitive, don't you know! oh, very, very, very! I told my +people that before I went back to Paris I must positively look you up. +It is such an age since I have seen any of you. My little cousins are +all grown up into young ladies, and such charming young ladies: I +congratulate you, Cousin, _de tout mon coeur_!" + +"Thank you, Claud!" said Mrs. Merryweather, quietly. "I trust your +mother is quite well? I only received her note, and Gerald yours, +to-day. She spoke of your coming next week; if we had known that you +were coming to-night, we would have sent to the station for you." + +"Ah, yes; I knew that!" said Mr. Belleville. "I know your hospitality +never fails, Cousin Miranda. But you know me, too--a butterfly--here +to-day, gone to-morrow! A summons from the Dunderblincks--races going on +at their place, don't you know; midsummer _fetes_, that sort of +thing--changed my plans. Mamma said, 'You will have to give up the Camp, +_Cheri_!' 'No!' I said. 'They expect me; I have passed my word, it is +all I have. I go to the Camp to-day.' I came--I saw--I dare not say I +conquered!" Here he bowed, and threw a killing glance at Gertrude, who +was passing at the moment, carrying the teapot. + +"_Can_ this be the little Gertrude?" he added, addressing her, and +lowering his voice to a sentimental half-tone. "She has not forgotten +Cousin Claud?" + +"Certainly not, Claud!" replied Gertrude, smiling. "It is only three +years since you were with us at home for two or three weeks. I remember +you perfectly." + +"Only three years!" murmured Mr. Belleville. "Is it possible? but what +momentous years! The change from the _petite fille_, the charming child, +to the woman, the--but I must not say too much!" + +"You'll burn your bloom--your boots, if you stand so near the fire!" +said Gerald, in a growl so threatening that Margaret looked up +startled. + +"_Your_ boots, dear fellow!" Mr. Belleville corrected him. "Right! I am +a little near the cheerful blaze. I am a fire-worshipper, you know; oh, +very, very, very!" + +"Boys, you'd better see to the boats before you go to bed!" said Mr. +Merryweather, speaking for the first time since his greeting of the +newcomer. + +"All right, sir!" said the twins, rising with alacrity. "Jack, will you +come along?" + +"Always thoughtful, Cousin Miles!" said Mr. Belleville. "Always the prop +of the family! so unchanged!" + +Mr. Merryweather's reply was inarticulate, and its tone caused his wife +to begin hastily a series of inquiries for the visitor's family. + +The twins and Jack Ferrers walked slowly down the slip in the rain. No +one spoke till they reached the float; then Gerald said slowly: +"Sapolio--Saccarappa--Sarcophagus--_Squedunk_!" + +"Feel better?" asked his brother, sympathetically. + +"There is one thing," said Gerald, still speaking slowly and +emphatically, "that I wish, in this connection, distinctly understood. +Indoors he is safe: hospitality--salt--Arabs--that kind of thing. But if +in the immediate proximity of the cleansing flood"--he waved his hand +toward the lake--"he continues to patronize the parents, in he goes! I +have spoken!" + +"I should not presume to restrain my half-hour elder!" said Phil. "Jack, +I'm afraid we shall have to put this curled darling in your tent. It's +only for the night, fortunately." + +"Oh! of course! delighted!" said Jack, somewhat embarrassed. + +"Very, very, very, eh?" said Phil. "Oh! what's the use of making +believe, with any one we know so well as you? It's a nuisance, and we +don't pretend it isn't." + +"Mark my words, John Ferrers!" broke in Gerald. "We mean to be civil to +this youth. He is our second cousin, and we know it. He is also a +blooming, blossoming, burgeoning Ass, and he doesn't know it. They +seldom do. We mean, I say, to be civil to him, barring patronage of the +parents. He has been our thorn, and we have borne him--at intervals, +mercifully not too short--all our lives. But we aren't going to pretend +that we love him, because we don't. No more doesn't he love us. + + "The love that's lost between us + Is not the love for me; + But there's a flood both fair and broad, + In which I'd duck my charming Claud + As gladly as could be!" + +. . . . . . . + +"Are you ready?" asked the Chief. + +"Oh! no, Pater! not just yet. My rudder has got fouled with the cargo." + +"Somebody lend me a safety-pin, please! my mainsail is coming loose." + +"Has anybody got any ballast to spare? just one pebble!" + +These cries and many others resounded from the float, where the campers +were gathered, and were putting the last touches to their toy boats. +Finally Mr. Merryweather declared that there should be no more delay. +The boats were carefully placed in the Ark, a great white rowboat manned +by the Chief and Phil, who proceeded to row out leisurely to a +white-flagged buoy at some distance from the shore. Gerald and Jack in +one canoe, Gertrude and Peggy in another, were stationed at either side +of the course; while Margaret and Claud Belleville, in a Rangeley boat, +were so placed as to take the time of the various boats as they came in. +This arrangement was not satisfactory to all the campers, but when +protests were made in the family council the night before, Mr. +Merryweather had calmly remarked that it was impossible to please +everybody, and that the visitors should be given the post of honor. +Gerald muttered that he did not see why Margaret should be butchered to +make a Claudian holiday; to which his father replied that the matter was +settled, and perhaps he, Gerald, would better be seeing to the lanterns. + +"Aren't you a little hard on the boy?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, when she +and her husband were left alone together. + +"He needs something to bite on!" was the reply. "He is going through a +kind of moral teething." + +This regatta was the first that Margaret had ever seen, and she was +greatly excited. + +"Tell us when we are just right!" she cried to the Chief as she passed +the Ark. "Oh! anchor by the red flag? yes, I remember, you told me +before. Now, Mr. Belleville, will you throw out the anchor, please?" + +"Must I?" rejoined Mr. Belleville. "It seems a pity! So charming to row +about a bit, don't you think? oh! well, if you insist!"--as he met +Margaret's horrified gaze. "Here goes!" + +The anchor splashed overboard, and the young man laid down his oars. + +"You take this _au grand serieux_, I see, Miss Montfort, like my good +cousins themselves. I confess I never can attain their perennial +youthfulness, try how I will. I feel a Methuselah, I give you my word I +do. Oh! very, very, very!" + +"I don't understand you," said Margaret, simply. "We are here to take +the time, as the boats pass the line. There is no other object in our +being here." + +"No other? Alas! poor Claud!" sighed Mr. Belleville. "Now, to me, Miss +Montfort, the sailing of toy boats is the smallest possible factor in +this afternoon's pleasure. It is not, believe me, the childish sport +that I shall remember when I am far away." + +"Oh!" said Margaret, vaguely, her eyes on the white boat. + +"You do not ask what it is that I shall carry with me across the ocean?" +Claud's voice dropped to its favorite smooth half-tone, what he was fond +of describing to his friends as "_ma mi-voix caressante_." + +"There is a glamour, Miss Montfort, a magic, that does not always put +itself into words. The perfect day, the perfect vision, will dwell with +me--" + +"Oh, look!" cried Margaret, starting forward, eagerly, "they are giving +the signal. Gerald repeats it. Oh, they are off! Look, look, Mr. +Belleville! What a pretty sight." + +It was, indeed, a pretty sight. The fairy fleet started in line, their +white and brown sails taking the breeze gallantly, their prows (where +they had prows) dancing over the dancing ripples. One or two proved +unruly, turning round and round, and in one case finally turning bottom +side up, with hardly a struggle. But most of the little vessels kept +fairly well within the course, heading, more or less, for the shore. + +Margaret was enchanted. + +"How wonderfully they keep together!" she said. "Oh! but now they begin +to separate. Look, there is a poor little one wobbling off all by +itself. I wonder--I am afraid it is Peggy's. Yes, I am sure it is. Poor +Peggy! Oh! the first three are going much faster than the rest. I wonder +whose they are. How prettily they sail! Did you ever see anything +prettier?" + +"I see something infinitely prettier," said Mr. Belleville, fixing his +eyes on his companion. But Margaret, wholly unconscious of his +languishing gaze, was watching the race with an intensity of eagerness +that left no room for any other impressions. + +The three forward boats came on swiftly, their prows dipping lightly, +their paper sails spread full to the breeze. Shouts came ringing over +the water, from the other boats, and from the shore, where the rest of +the campers were gathered in an excited knot. + +"_Jollycumpop!_" + +"_Come-at-a-Body!_" + +"Good work, _Jolly_! Keep it up!" + +"The _Whale_ is gaining. Hit her up, Spermaceti!" + +"_Jollycumpop_ has it! _Jollycumpop!_" + +"The _Jolly is_ first," cried Margaret; "but the _Come-at-a-Body_ is +very, very close. Which do you think will win, Mr. Belleville?" + +"Which do you wish to win?" asked Mr. Belleville. + +"Oh, how can I tell? One is Gertrude's, the other Gerald's." + +"There can be little doubt in that case, I imagine," said Claud +Belleville, with a peculiar smile. "As a matter of simple +gallantry--dear me, how unfortunate!" + +As he spoke, his oar slipped from his hand, and fell with a splash into +the water. The _Come-at-a-Body_ was nearest to the Rangeley boat. The +oar did not absolutely touch the tiny vessel, but the shock of the +disturbed water was enough to check her gallant progress. She +paused,--wavered,--finally recovered herself, and went bravely on. But +in that pause the _Jollycumpop_ crossed the line triumphantly, amid loud +acclamations. + +"The little Gertrude wins!" exclaimed Mr. Belleville, recovering his oar +with graceful composure. "We can hardly regret an accident which +contributes even slightly to give the victory where it so manifestly +belongs, can we, Miss Montfort?" + +But Margaret Montfort turned upon him, her fair face flushed with anger, +her gentle eyes full of fire. + +"Mr. Belleville, you dropped that oar on purpose!" she said, quietly. + +"How can you suspect me of such a thing?" replied Mr. Belleville, +laughing. "But, _quand meme_! would it have been wholly unjustifiable if +I had done so?" + +"Wholly, to my mind!" said Margaret. "In fact, I cannot imagine such a +thing being done by any one who--" she checked herself. + +"By any one who is related to these dear people?" said Mr. Belleville, +lightly. "Ah! Miss Montfort, a bond of blood does not always mean a bond +of sympathy. These dear people bore me, and I bore them. Believe me, it +is reciprocal. But do you yourself never tire of this everlasting +childishness, these _jeux d'enfance_, on the part of persons who, after +all, are mostly beyond the nursery?" + +"I do not!" said Margaret, concisely. "If you will take in the anchor, +Mr. Belleville, I think I should like to go ashore, if you please." + +"I have offended you!" cried Claud Belleville. "You, to whom from the +first instant I have felt so irresistibly drawn. I am unfortunate, +indeed. But you cannot be seriously angry. Give me a chance to redeem +myself, I implore you, Miss Montfort. See what a charming little cove +opens yonder, just opposite. Delightful to drift and dream for an hour, +in the company of one who understands--oh, very, very, very." + +"I do not understand," said Margaret, "and I have no desire to do so, +Mr. Belleville. I beg you to take me ashore at once,--this moment." + +"And if I were bold enough to delay obedience for a few moments? If I +felt confident that I could overcome this stern--" + +"Gertrude," called Margaret, as the owner of the victorious +_Jollycumpop_ passed them with a triumphant greeting, "can you give us a +tow?" + +"Certainly," said Gertrude. "Anything wrong?" + +"On the contrary, dear cousin," said Claud, "I challenge you to a race." + +And with a glance at Margaret, half reproachful, half mocking, he bent +to his oars, with the first sign of energy he had shown since his +arrival. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +PUPPY PLAY + + +"BELL, may I speak to you a moment?" said Margaret. + +Bell looked up from a critical inspection of the _Tintinnabula_, which +had been somewhat injured in the race. "Certainly, May Margaret!" she +said. "Do you want to know why my poor boatie did not win? I have just +found out." Then, looking up, and seeing Margaret's disturbed face, she +rose instantly. + +"Something is wrong?" she said, quickly. "Come this way, under the +trees, where it is quiet. You have had no bad news, dear?" + +"Oh, no!" said Margaret. "But--Bell, I have something very disagreeable +to tell you. It seems terrible to say anything that may make trouble, +but nothing makes so much trouble as untruth, and I do think you ought +to know this. I don't think the _Jollycumpop_ really won the race!" + +"My dear Margaret! she came in well ahead; didn't you see--" + +"Listen, Bell!" and Margaret told in a few words the story of the +dropped oar. + +Bell listened with keen attention, and when Margaret had finished, +whistled two bars of the Siegfried _motif_ very correctly before she +spoke. + +"The little animal!" she said at last. "Well, Margaret, do you know, the +best thing to do, in my opinion, is--to say nothing about it, at +present." + +"But--Bell! Gerald really won!" + +"I know! but, even as it is, Jerry can hardly keep his hands off Claud. +My one prayer is that we may be able to get the boy off to-morrow +without an open quarrel breaking out. You see, Margaret, when they were +little, it was all right for Jerry to thrash him. He did it punctually +and thoroughly, every time they met, and it was very good for the boy; +but now of course it is out of the question." + +"Why did he come here?" inquired Margaret. "Did ever any one manage to +make so much trouble in so short a time? the very air seems changed." + +Bell shrugged her shoulders. "His mother made him come, probably," she +said. "He is really devoted to his mother; when you see him with her, +you forgive a great deal. She is very fond of my father, and is always +hoping that he may be able to influence Claud, and to appreciate him. +After all, the boy has no father, and he has been systematically spoiled +ever since he was born. I wish to-morrow were over." + +"Then," said Margaret, slowly, "I am to say nothing about this matter." + +"Please not!" said her friend. "My dear, I see you are troubled, because +you saw the horrid thing done; and you don't think it right to conceal +the truth, even for a time. I am just as angry as you, but remember, +there is 'a time to speak and a time to be silent.' This is a time to be +silent, I am very sure; if we were to tell the boys now, it would be a +match thrown into a powder-magazine. To-morrow, when Claud is safely off +to his Dunderblincks, we will tell them; there will be an explosion +then, but it will do no harm; and in a day or two the two boats can have +a race by themselves, and that will decide the case. Are you convinced, +Justitia?" + +"Entirely!" said Margaret. "You are very wise, Bell; I suppose I was too +angry to see clearly; I have never been so angry in my life. As you say, +I suppose it is because I saw it; and it _was_ a horrid thing to see. I +too wish to-morrow were over." + + * * * * * + +The morrow came, and the morning passed peacefully enough. The wagon was +ordered which was to carry the visitor to the evening train. The elders +began to breathe freely, and it was with a mind comparatively at rest +that Mr. Merryweather strolled down to the float after dinner, to +inspect a boat which had been hauled up for repairs. The other +"menfolks" of the family followed him, and all stood round after the +fashion of their kind, saying little, but enjoying themselves in their +own way. + +"I'd caulk her a bit, Jerry," said the Chief; "and then give her a +couple of coats of shellac. She'll do then for the rest of the season." + +"All right, Pater!" said Jerry. + +"And if it be possible," his father went on, "so far as in you lies, do +not spill the shellac about. Shellac is an excellent thing in its place, +but I don't like it on the seat of my chair, where I found it this +morning, nor sprinkled over the new 'Century,' as it was last night. And +it isn't as if there were any to spare; the can is very low." + +"I know!" said Gerald, penitently. "I am awfully sorry, Pater. I threw a +cushion at Fergs, and it upset the can. I scraped up as much as I could; +I think there is enough left for this job. If not, would that varnish +do?" + +"Varnish--" said Mr. Merryweather; and he plunged into a dissertation +upon the abominations of most varnishes and the iniquities of their +makers. Gerald replied, defending certain kinds for certain purposes; +the others chimed in, and a heated discussion was going on, when Claud +Belleville joined the party. In spotless gray tweeds, with a white +Manila hat and a lavender necktie, he made a singular contrast to the +campers in their flannel shirts and dingy corduroys. + +At his appearance, Gerald rose from his squatting posture at the stern +of the boat, while Phil and Jack amiably made way for the newcomer at +the edge of the wharf, where, for some unexplained reason, men always +like to stand. Claud, finding himself between Gerald and his father, +turned toward the latter with an air of cheerful benevolence. + +"Cousin Miles," he said, "you must promise me, you really must, to come +to us at Bar Harbor before the end of the summer. I gave my word to +Mamma that I would induce you to come. She longs to see you." + +"I should like very much to see her," said Mr. Merryweather. "We were +always very good friends, your mother and I. Give her my love, and tell +her that some time when she is in New York I shall run on to see her; +possibly this autumn, before you sail. It would not be possible for me +to leave here now." + +"Oh, but yes!" cried Mr. Belleville, airily. "It could be possible, +Cousin Miles. Here are the boys, absolutely _au fait_ in bog-trotting of +every description; in fact, suited to the life--in all its aspects." He +swept Gerald with a comprehensive glance, from his mop of red hair, +tanned into rust-color, to his feet, clad in superannuated "sneakers." + +"They can do all the honors of the place as they should be done," he +added. "But you, Cousin Miles, you must positively come to Bar Harbor. +You live too much the life of the fields. Mamma is constantly deploring +it. We will show you a little life, Mamma and I. I will put you up at my +Club, and take you out in my new auto; in a week, you will not know +yourself, I give you my word. Oh, very, very, very!" + +As the speaker stood beaming benevolence at Mr. Merryweather, and +diffusing contempt among the rest of the party, two hands were laid on +his shoulders; hands which gripped like steel, and propelled him forward +with irresistible force. He staggered, struggled to save himself--and +the next instant disappeared with a loud splash beneath the water. + +Gerald confronted his father with a face of white fire. + +"I told him, sir, plainly and distinctly, that if he patronized you I +should duck him!" he said. "He has had fair warning: this has gone on +long enough." + +"Gerald," said Mr. Merryweather, gravely, "you are behaving like a +foolish and ill-tempered child. I am fully able to take care of myself. +We will talk of this later. Meantime you will apologize to your cousin." + +"Oh, certainly, sir! I intended to, of course." + +While this brief colloquy had been going on, Phil and Jack, with +sparkling eyes, waited at the edge of the wharf for the reappearance of +Mr. Belleville. Up he came presently, splashing and sputtering, his eyes +flashing angry sparks. Phil held out a hand; a vigorous pull, a +scramble, and he stood once more on the wharf. Gerald walked up to him +at once. "I beg your pardon, Claud!" he said. "I had no business to do +it, and I apologize." + +Claud gave a spiteful laugh, and shook himself in his cousin's +direction, spattering him with drops. "Don't mention it, dear fellow!" +he said, through his chattering teeth. "It serves me right for expecting +civilized manners in the backwoods. This no doubt appears to you an +exquisite pleasantry, and its delicacy will be appreciated, no doubt, by +others of your circle. _Enfin_, in the presence of your father, whom I +respect, I can but accept your apology. Since you are sorry--" + +"I did not say I was sorry!" Gerald broke in. "I said I begged your +pardon." + +"My son, will you go at once and attend to the fire?" said Mr. +Merryweather. + +"Father--" + +"_At once!_" repeated Mr. Merryweather. + +Gerald went. + +"Phil, take your cousin in, and get him some dry clothes. His own will +be dry before the wagon comes, if you hang them by the kitchen stove. +Hurry now!" + +Phil and Claud went off in surly silence, and Mr. Merryweather turned to +Jack Ferrers, who had remained an amused but somewhat embarrassed +spectator of the scene. + +"Puppy play, Jack!" he said, quietly. "You have seen plenty of it in +Germany. One puppy _is_ a puppy, more's the pity, and the other has red +hair. Well! well! I did hope this could have been avoided; but we must +not let it go any further. I wish Roger were here. I wonder if you can +help me out, Jack." + +"I'll do my best, sir!" said Jack, heartily. + +"You see, I must go off; I ought to be at the village landing this +moment, to see about that freight that is coming. Do you think you can +keep the peace till I come back?" + +"I think I can," said Jack. "I'll make a good try for it, anyhow, Mr. +Merryweather." + +"That's a good lad!" said the Chief. "You could knock both their heads +together, if you put your mind--and your biceps--to it; but I hope that +will not be necessary. In any case, don't let them fight! I promised his +mother." + +He nodded, and, settling himself in a boat, departed with long, powerful +strokes. + +Jack, left alone, shook his curly head, and felt of his arms. + +"Ah'm fit!" he said, quoting another and a bigger Jock than himself. +"But it's a pity. That fellow is not only a puppy, he is a cur. I never +saw anybody who needed a thrashing more." And he went and coiled himself +in a hammock, and prepared to keep watch. + +An hour later Mr. Claud Belleville, once more dry, if somewhat shorn of +his glory, reappeared upon the scene. As he came out of his tent, Gerald +strolled carelessly out of the boat-house, his hands in his pockets. + +"Cousin Rowdy, a word with you, if you please!" said Claud. + +"Cousin Cad, two, if you like!" said Gerald. + +"In France, where I live," Mr. Belleville resumed, "when we are +insulted, we fight." + +"No! do you really?" cried Gerald, his eyes sparkling as he began +eagerly to turn back his cuffs. "Hooray! I say, shake hands, Claud. I +didn't think you had it in you. There's a bully place up behind the +woodshed. Come on!" + +Claud Belleville, who really was no coward, started forward readily: but +at this moment Destiny intervened, in the shape of six foot four of John +Ferrers. Uncoiling his length from the hammock, he took two strides +forward, and lifting Gerald in his arms as if he were an infant, carried +him off bodily. Gerald, who was strong and agile as a young panther, +fought and struggled, pouring out a torrent of angry protest; but in +vain. When Jack put forth his full strength, there was no possibility of +resistance. He bore the furious lad to his tent, and throwing him on +the cot, deliberately sat down on his feet, in calm and cheerful +silence. Gerald twisted and writhed, exhausted himself in struggles, +threats, prayers; all in vain! Jack sat like a statue. Finally the boy +relapsed into sullen silence, and lay panting, his hand clenched, his +blue eyes dark with anger and chagrin. + +By and by came the sound of wheels; a wagon stopped in front of the +camp. There were sounds of leave-taking; "Good-by, Claud!" "Our love to +your mother!" in various tones and modulations; then the sound of wheels +once more, rattling up the hill and away in the distance. Then Jack +Ferrers rose, and smiled down on his prostrate friend. + +"Awfully sorry, old man!" he said. + +Gerald was silent. + +"Jerry! you're not going to cut up rough?" + +"I have nothing to say," said Gerald, coldly. + +"You are my guest, and manners forbid. We will change the subject, if +you please." + +"Manners didn't forbid your chucking the Charmer into the drink!" said +Jack. "Ho! did you see him blink when he came up? It was worth while, +Jerry, even if I have to fight you, but I don't believe I shall. You +see, your father had to go off, and he asked me to keep the peace, and I +said I would; and I didn't see any other way, wildcat that you are. A +sweet condition the Charmer would have been in to go back to his Mamma, +if I had not done as I did!" + +"I might have known the Pater was at the bottom of it!" said Gerald, his +face lightening, and his voice taking on its own kindly ring. "Fine man; +but the extent to which he won't let me thrash Claud is simply +disgusting. When it comes to setting a Megatherium on a man--" + +"And to the Megatherium sitting on the man--" said Jack, laughing. + +"No more o' that, Jack, if thou love me! There's the horn! Come on, and +let that flint-hearted parent see that we are all right." + +The pair strolled in to supper, arm in arm, singing, to the tune of +"Home, Sweet Home!" + + "Claud, Claud, sweet, sweet Claud! + There's no ass like Claud, + There is no ass like Claud!" + +and were promptly silenced by Mrs. Merryweather. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL + + +MRS. MERRYWEATHER had had a busy day. There had been a picnic at Oak +Island, which had taken all the morning and a good part of the +afternoon; then there had been a dozen letters to write for the late +mail; and finally she had taken Kitty's turn with Willy at getting +supper, as Kitty had a headache. The sisters protested, each one +claiming her right to take the extra duty; but Mrs. Merryweather had her +own reasons for being glad of the hour of play-work with her little boy. +Willy had been rather out of spirits, which meant that he, as well as +his sister, had eaten too many huckleberries; this afternoon he had +been decidedly cross, and required treatment. + +Coming into the kitchen at five o'clock, she found the fire lighted, and +the kettle on, for Willy was a faithful soul; but he was frowning +heavily over his chopping-tray. + +"I wish mince-meat had never been invented!" he said, gloomily. + +"Do you?" said his mother. "I don't! I am glad it was, even if I did not +have three helps last night." + +"I was so hungry, I had to eat something," said Willy, in an injured +tone. "When I grow up, I mean to have beefsteak every day, and never +have anything made over at all." + +"I'll remember that, the next time we have brown-bread brewis!" said his +mother smiling. + +"Oh! that's different!" said Willy. + +"Most things are different," said Mrs. Merryweather, "if you look at +them in a different way. Is that ready, son?" + +"As ready as it is ever going to be. I've chopped till my arm is almost +broken." + +"So I see! It looks as if you had cracked it. Well, now, it isn't time +yet to make the rolls, so we can take breath a bit. Come out on the +porch, and let us play something till the kettle boils." + +"I don't feel like playing!" said Willy, dolefully; "I don't feel like +doing anything, Mammy." + +Mrs. Merryweather looked at him a moment; then taking his hands in hers, +she said suddenly, "'For heaven's sake let us sit upon the ground, and +tell sad stories of the death of kings!' That is a passage from Richard +II., and it seems to fit the occasion. Sit down, Willy; right here on +the floor by me; I'll begin. Two minutes for composition!" + +She was silent, looking out over the water, while Willy glanced sidewise +at her, half-interested in spite of himself. + +"I have it!" she said, presently. + + "King John put on such frightful airs, + He met his death by eating pears. + +"Your turn, Willy! two minutes!" + +"Oh, Mammy, I can't play!" + +"But you _are_ playing. Only one minute more." + +"Well, then--does it have to be the real way they died? because I don't +know." + +"No! facts not required in this game." + +"Well, then-- + + "King Og + Was lost in a bog." + +"Your metre is faulty," said his mother, thoughtfully, "but the +statement is interesting. My turn; you shall hold the watch for me." + +"Time's up!" cried Willy, beginning to kindle. + +"Oh! is it? What short minutes! Let me see! + + "King Xerxes + Was killed by Turkses." + +[Illustration: MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL.] + +"Oh! I wanted Xerxes. Wait, Mammy. I have one! + + "King David + Could not be saved!" + +"Good!" cried his mother. "That is the best yet. But we might branch out +a little, I think, Willy. This condensed couplet is forcible, but not +very graceful. How do you like this? + + "Tiglath-pileser, Tiglath-pileser, + He tried to buy a lemon-squeezer; + But no such thing had e'er been seen, + So in a melancholy green, + Oh, very green, and very yellow, + He pined away and died, poor fellow!" + +"That is splendid," said Willy, "but you took a little more than two +minutes. My turn now! + + "The great and mighty Alexander + Was bit to death by a salamander." + +"_Done_ to death is more poetic!" said his mother. + +"Yes, but 'bit' is more savage. I like 'bit.' Your time's up, Mammy!" + +"Oh! Willy, I am going to give you a subtle one this time; one in which +something is left to the imagination. + + "The Emperor Domitian + Consulted a physician!" + +"But you didn't kill him." + +"No, but the physician did." + +"Really?" + +"No, not really. What do you think of this game?" + +"I think it's bully. Did you really just make it up, Mammy?" + +"Just! Now the kettle is boiling, and we must come in; but as we go, let +me inform you that-- + + "The Emperor Tiberius + He died of something serious; + But now we'll stop, + And make the pop- + Ov_ers_ before we weary us!" + +Willy's gloom was effectually banished, and he continued to slaughter +kings till the supper-horn blew. + +The effect of this and other mental exercises, added to a cup of tea, +was such that when bed-time came, Mrs. Merryweather found herself +singularly wide awake. In vain she counted hundreds; in vain she +ransacked her memory for saints, kings, and cities alphabetically +arranged; in vain she made a list of Johns, beginning with the Baptist +and ending with John O'Groats; the second hundred found her wider awake +than ever, as she tossed on her narrow cot. Mr. Merryweather, in the +opposite cot, was breathing deep and regularly; he was sound asleep, at +least, and that was a good thing. Other than this, no sound broke the +perfect stillness of the night. The full moon rode high, and lake and +woodland were flooded with silver light. A glorious night! Mrs. +Merryweather sighed; what was the use of staying in bed on such a night +as this, when one could not sleep? If only there were some excuse for +getting up! + +Suddenly she remembered that, the night being very warm, and the two +children apparently entirely recovered from their slight indisposition, +they had been allowed to sleep out on the Point, in accordance with a +promise made some days ago by their father. She had not been quite +willing, but had yielded to pressure, and they had gone out, very happy, +with their blankets and the india-rubber floor-cloth. + +Mrs. Merryweather sat up in bed. "I ought to go and see if those chicks +are all right!" she said. "After all, they certainly were not quite well +this afternoon, whatever Miles may say." She glanced half-defiantly at +the other cot, but Miles said nothing. She rose quietly, put on wrapper +and slippers, and opening noiselessly the screen-door of the tent, +slipped out into the open, and stood for a moment looking about her. How +beautiful it was! what a wonderful silver world! Sleep was good, but +surely, to be awake, on such a night as this, was better. + +She stole past the other tents, pausing an instant at the door of each +to listen for the regular breathing which is the sweetest music a mother +can hear; then she made her way out to the Point, through the sweet +tangle of fern and berry-bushes, under the bending trees that dropped +dew on her head as she passed. + +The Point lay like the prow of some great vessel in a silver sea. One +tall pine stood for the mast; under this pine, rolled in scarlet +blankets, their rosy faces turned toward the moon, lay the children, +sound asleep. Willy had curled one arm under his head, and his other +hand was locked in his sister's. + +"Dear little things!" murmured their mother. "That means that +Kitty-my-pretty was a little bit frightened before she went to sleep. +Dear little things!" + +She stood there for some time looking down at them. + +"The moon is full on their faces!" she said. "My old nurse would tell me +that they would be moonstruck 'for sartain sure!' How terrified I used +to be, lest a ray of moonlight should shine on my bed, and I should wake +a lunatic!" + +She glanced up at the moon; looked again, and yet again. "That is very +singular!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "Something seems to be happening to +the moon." + +Something _was_ happening to the moon. It was as if a piece had been +bitten out of the shining round. Was it a little cloud? no! no cloud +could possibly look like that, so black, so thick, so--"Good gracious!" +said Mrs. Merryweather; "it is an eclipse!" + +An eclipse it certainly was. Slowly, surely, the black shadow crept, +crept, over the silver disk; now a quarter of its surface was hidden; +now it went creeping, creeping on toward the half. + +"It is going to be a total eclipse!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "I suppose +I ought to wake some of them." + +She stood a moment more, looking irresolutely at the sleeping children. +"I cannot possibly wake them!" she said at last. "Little lambs! they are +sleeping so beautifully, and they certainly were _not_ quite themselves +this afternoon. Besides, there will be plenty more eclipses; I'll go and +wake some of the others." + +The black shadow crept on. Hardly less silent, Mrs. Merryweather paused +before the tent where her daughters slept. Bell and Gertrude scorned +cots, and their mattresses were spread on the floor at night, and rolled +up in the daytime. There the two girls lay, still and placid, +statue-like, save for the gentle heaving of their quiet breasts. A fair +picture for a mother to look on. Miranda Merryweather looked, and drew a +happy breath; looked again, and shook her head. "I cannot wake them!" +she murmured to herself. "They are both tired after that expedition; +Bell paddled very hard on the way back; she was much more flushed than I +like to see her, when she came in. And Gertrude sleeps so lightly, I +fear she might not get to sleep again if I were to wake her now." + +The black shadow crept on; the mother crept into the boys' tent, and +stood beside Gerald's cot. The lad lay with his arms flung wide apart; +his curly hair was tossed over his broad open forehead; his clear-cut +features were set as if in marble. + +"He has such a beautiful forehead!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "He sleeps +so very sound, that if I were to wake him he might not be able to sleep +again. Dear Jerry!" + +She moved over to Phil's cot: Phil was uneasy, and as she stopped to +straighten the bedclothes, he turned on his side, muttering something +that sounded like "Bother breakfast!" + +"Poor laddie!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "He looks as if he might have a +headache. I wish I had made him take a nice little cup of hot malted +milk before he went to bed. It is out of the question to wake him, when +he is sleeping so uneasily." + +She left the tent, with hardly a glance toward Jack Ferrers, who lay in +the farthest cot. The idea of waking him, and having him disturb her own +boys, was too preposterous to be entertained for an instant. + +The black shadow had crept entirely over the moon; no silver disk now, +only a shield of dull bronze; "like some of the Pompeiian bronzes!" Mrs. +Merryweather thought. "It is very extraordinary. I suppose I really +_ought_ to wake Miles." + +She entered her own tent, and stood by her husband's cot. Miles +Merryweather was sleeping quite as soundly as any of his children; in +fact, he was a very statue of sleep; but his wife laid her hand gently +on his shoulder. "Miles!" she said; it must be confessed that she did +not speak very loud. "Miles, there is an eclipse!" + +Mr. Merryweather did not stir. + +"Miles! do you want to wake up?" + +No reply; no motion of the long, still form. Mrs. Merryweather breathed +more freely. "Miles was more tired to-night than I have seen him all +summer!" she said. "He cannot remember that we are not twenty-five any +more. It is very bad for a man to get overtired when he is no longer +young. Well, I certainly did try to wake him; but such a _very_ sound +sleep as this shows how much he needed it. I am sure it is much more +important for him to sleep than to see the eclipse; it isn't as if he +had not seen plenty of eclipses in his life. Of course, if it had been +the sun, it would have been different." + +She stood at the door of the tent, watching. Slowly, slowly, the black +shadow passed; slowly, slowly, the silver crescent widened to a broad +arc, and finally to the perfect argent round; once more the whole world +lay bathed in silver light. Mrs. Merryweather gazed on peacefully, and +murmured under her breath certain words that she loved: + + "'Queen and huntress, chaste and fair, + Now the sun is gone to sleep, + Seated in thy silver chair, + State in wonted measure keep. + Hesperus entreats thy light, + Goddess excellently bright!' + +"But if Roger had been here," said Miranda Merryweather, "I should +certainly have waked him, because he is a scientific man, and it would +have been only right!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +"SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT--" + + "A wet sheet and a flowing sea, + A wind that follows fast--" + + +PHIL MERRYWEATHER was singing as he brought his boat about. "Slacken +your sheet, Peggy! easy--that's right! a half-hitch--look here, young +lady! I believe you have been humbugging us all; don't tell me you never +sailed a boat before!" + +"Never in all my life!" said Peggy, looking up joyously. "I have only +dreamed of it and thought about it, ever since I can remember. And I +have read the 'Seaman's Friend,' and 'Two Years Before the Mast,' so I +do know a little bit about how things ought to go. I think every girl +ought to learn how to sail a boat, if she possibly can; but out on the +ranch, you see, there really wasn't any chance. We could only make +believe, but we used to have great fun doing that." + +"How did you make your believe? I should like to hear about it. Ease her +off a bit--so--as you are!" + +"Why, we made a boat out of the great swing in the barn. It is a huge +barn, and the swing is big enough for three elephants to swing on at +once; and Hugh fastened hammocks along it lengthwise, and then rigged +ropes and pulleys for us, and an old canvas hammock with the ends cut +off for a sail; so we swung, and called it sailing, and had storms and +shipwrecks, and all kinds of adventures. It was great fun. Oh, I do wish +some of you could come out to the ranch some day. If there was only +water, it would be the best place in the world--except this and +Fernley." + +"I'm coming some day!" said Phil. "See if I don't. It must be corking +sport, riding about over those great plains." + +"Oh! it is!" cried Peggy. "When you come, Phil, you shall ride Monte. He +is the most beautiful creature, a Spanish jennet. Jack Del Monte sent +him to brother Jim, but he isn't up to Jim's weight, so he lets me ride +him. He is like the horses in poetry, that is the only way I can +describe him; white as milk, with great dark eyes, and graceful--oh, I +_do_ want you to see him. No horse in poetry was ever half so beautiful; +in fact, I think I take back what I said; I don't really think poets +know much about horses; do you?" + +"'Zebra-footed, ostrich-thighed,'" quoted Phil, laughing. + +"I know!" said Peggy, indignantly. "Now, the idea, Phil! one thinks of a +poor dear horse all over ostrich feathers behind, which is dreadful. But +then, I don't understand poetry, except about battles, Macaulay and +Scott. Don't you love 'Marmion'?" + +"Indeed I do!" said Phil, heartily. "Hi!" + +This last brief exclamation was made in a tone of some concern. + +"What is it?" asked Peggy. "Am I trimming wrong?" + +"Right as a trivet! but--have you ever heard of a williwaw, Peggy?" + +"It's a squall, isn't it? Captain Slocum tells about them in 'Sailing +Alone Round the World.'" + +"That's it! Well, I think we are going to get one. If you will take the +helm again for a moment, I'll take in a reef." + +Peggy took the tiller in her strong little brown hand, and looked on +admiringly while Phil reefed the sail with creditable swiftness. Soon +all was tight, and the two young people watched with cheerful interest +the coming on of the squall. + +On it came, a line of white on the water, a gray curtain of driving +rain above it. The wind began to sing in the rigging of the sailboat; +next moment she heeled heavily over, and sped along with her lee rail +under water. + +"I'd sit pretty well up to windward if I were you," shouted Phil. +"You'll be dryest on the gunwale, if you don't mind!" + +As Peggy seated herself with alacrity on the gunwale, Phil looked at her +with approval. Her eyes were shining, her whole rosy face alight with +happy excitement. + +"Now, that's the kind of girl I like to see!" said this young gentleman, +forgetting that he had been seeing three of the same kind ever since he +could remember; but sisters are different! + +"Not so bad, eh?" he said, as he took another turn on the sheet. + +"Oh, Phil, it is perfectly splendid! why, we are simply flying! Oh, I +wish it was like this all the time." + +"Hi!" said Phil again. "Everybody doesn't seem to be of your opinion, +Peggy. That boat over there will be in trouble if she doesn't look out. +Sapolio! there is something wrong. We'd better run over and see." + +At a little distance a small boat was tossing violently on the water; +her sail was lowered, and a white handkerchief was fluttering from the +stern like a signal of distress. + +"Ready about!" said Phil. Peggy crouched down on the seat, the boom +swung over, and the gallant little _Petrel_ flew swiftly as her namesake +to the rescue. + +"Anything wrong?" asked Phil, as he ran alongside the crippled boat. + +"Broke our rudder!" was the reply, from a pleasant-looking lad; "must +have been cracked before we started. If you could lend us a pair of +oars--I was very stupid to come out without a pair--" + +At this moment a clear, shrill voice was heard above the noise of wind +and water, crying aloud, "My Veezy Vee! my Veezy Vee! It _is_ my Veezy +Vee! Don't tell me it isn't, for it simply _is_!" + +"_Viola!_" cried Peggy. "Vanity! can it be you?" + +"Oh, my dear! I was once, perhaps, but with all my crimps out, how can +you have the heart? If ever I get ashore alive,--" + +"Don't be ridiculous, Viola!" said the lad, in a tone of brotherly +tolerance. "You are in no more danger--now--then if you were in bed. +Though I admit it might have been rather fussy if we hadn't met you!" he +added, with a meaning look at Phil. + +"How far have you to go?" asked Phil. "Buffum's Point? Well, now, look +here! that will be a long, hard pull against this wind. You'd much +better let us tow you down to our camp, and then you can ship a new +rudder, and go home any old time when the wind sets right." + +The young man hesitated. "Why--you're awfully good," he said, "but I +think we'd better get home--" + +"Oh, do, _do_ let us go, Tom!" cried the pretty girl who had waved the +handkerchief, and who seemed still, somehow, to be waving everything +about her. "No, I won't be quiet! It's my Veezy Vee, I tell you; it's +Peggy Montfort, and I am simply expiring to talk to her. Besides, if I +am going to be drowned, I want to be drowned with another girl. Oh, +Peggy, isn't it dreadful? Do you think we shall ever get home alive?" + +Here the wind caught her hat, and in a frantic effort to retain it, she +very nearly fell overboard. "There!" she cried. "I told you so, Tommy; I +knew I should be drowned." + +"I never said you wouldn't," replied her brother, with some heat, "if +you play such pranks as that. You simply _must_ sit still, Vi!" + +"Oh, it's all very well to say I must sit still, Tommy Vincent. If _you_ +had a hat that was the pride of your life, instead of a felt saucepan, +perhaps you wouldn't want to have it carried off and drowned before your +eyes. My precious hatty!" + +"Why, we are all right, Viola," said Peggy. "It is perfectly splendid, I +think. Besides, the worst of it is past. Look! the sky is lightening +already; the whole thing will be over soon." + +"But I am drenched to the skin!" cried poor Viola. "The rain has gone +through and wet my poor bones, I know it has; I shall _never_ be dry +again, I am convinced, never: there isn't a school-book in the world dry +enough to dry me, Peggy, not even Hallam's 'Middle Ages.'" + +"Pooh! who cares for a wetting?" said Peggy, shaking herself like a +Newfoundland dog. "It only adds to the fun." + +"Oh! that's all very well for you, Veezy Vee!" cried poor Viola. "But if +_you_ had on a silk waist, you would feel differently, I know you +would. And my hat simply _was_ the sweetest thing you ever saw; wasn't +it, Tom? Sugar was salt beside it; wasn't it, Tom?" + +Tom, who had been holding a consultation with Phil over the broken +rudder, answered by a brief, though not unfriendly growl, and paid no +further attention to her. The painter of his boat was made fast to the +_Petrel's_ stern, and the latter was soon winging her way toward the +Camp, towing the disabled boat behind her. + +"Aren't you Vincent of 1903?" asked Phil, leaning over the stern, his +hand on the tiller and one eye on the clouds. "Thought so! Used to see +you about the yard. My name is Merryweather; 1902." + +"Glad to know you!" said Tom Vincent. "I thought it must be you; I used +to see you rowing, of course. Your brother--" + +He was interrupted by excited squeaks from his sister, who was gazing at +Phil with sparkling eyes. + +"No!" she cried. "It _can't_ be! It would be _too_ delicious! _not_ +Merryweather! Don't ask me to believe it, Peggy, for it simply is beyond +my powers. _Not_ the Snowy's brother!" + +"Yes, indeed!" said Peggy, laughing as she, too, leaned back over the +stern. "Let me introduce you; Mr. Philip Merryweather, Miss Viola +Vincent." + +"Awfully glad!" said Phil, making a motion toward where his hat should +have been. "I've often heard my sister speak of you, Miss Vincent." + +"Oh! Mr. Merryweather, I _adore_ the Snowy!" cried Viola. "She is simply +the dearest creature on the face of the earth. I would give the wide +world--I would give my very best frill to see her. Don't tell me she is +near here, for I should expire with joy; simply expire!" + +"I certainly will not," said Phil, smiling, "if the consequences would +really be so terrible, Miss Vincent. Otherwise, I might venture to +predict that you would see her in about ten minutes. If you feel any +untoward symptoms developing, please consider it unsaid!" + +"Oh! Tom, isn't it _too_ thrilling?" cried Viola. "Oh! Tom, aren't you +perfectly _rigid_ with excitement? It makes Tom rigid, Mr. Merryweather, +and it makes me flutter; we are so different. _Aren't_ you rigid, +Tommy?" + +"Viola, don't be a goose!" said her brother, good-naturedly. "I am not +in the least rigid, though I shall be delighted to see Miss +Merryweather, of course." + +"You can see the camp now, through the trees," said Phil. "There is the +flag, just over that tall pine. Flag by day; lantern by night. That is +'Merryweather.' Ready about, Peggy, for the last tack!" + +The squall had passed, and though the water was still rough, the waves +were tossing merrily in blue and white under a brilliant sun. The +_Petrel_ sped along, the silver foam bubbling up before her prow, and +the _Seamew_, as the other boat was named, followed as swiftly. + +Peggy leaned back over the stern once more, and holding out her hand to +her old schoolmate, gave her slender fingers a squeeze that made her cry +out. + +"Dear old Vanity," said Peggy; "I forgot how soft your hands always +were. But I am so glad to see you, even if I am not going to expire +about it. Do tell me how you came here, and where you are staying, and +all about it, now that we can hear ourselves speak." + +"How did I come here, my dear?" repeated Viola Vincent. "Witchcraft!" + +"What do you mean, you foolish thing?" + +"My dear, what I say; simply that and nothing more, just like the Raven. +Witchcraft! The very minute I get home, I am going to get a pointed +black hat and a red cloak, and a crutch-stick. I think they will be +quite sweet, don't you? Don't you think pointed hats are quite sweet, +Mr. Merryweather?" + +"Pointed hats," replied Phil, gravely, "have always seemed to me the +acme of sweetness; that is why they call them sugar-loaf hats, I +suppose." + +"Oh! Mr. Merryweather, you _are_ funny! Oh, I _hoped_ you were going to +be funny," cried Viola; "you _look_ funny, and--" + +"Thank you!" said Phil; and "Viola, don't be a goose!" said her brother +again. + +"I mean it as a compliment!" cried Viola. "Mr. Merryweather, I mean it +as the very highest compliment I can pay, I truly do. With such a simply +entrancing name as Merryweather, it would be such a dreadful pity to be +sober as a judge, you know; though the only judge I know is too frisky +for anything. Kittens, my dear, I--I mean, Mr. Merryweather--I _beg_ +your pardon! are actually _grim_ beside Judge Gay; aren't they, Tommy? +Did you ever see a grim kitten, Mr. Merryweather? Wouldn't it be too +horrid for anything? Well, but what I meant to say is, the only weeniest +speck of a fault I ever had to find with the Snowy--darling thing!--was +that she was a little bit--just the tiniest winiest scrap--too serious. +If your name were Tombs, you know, or Graves, or Scull,--I knew a girl +named Scull,--of course you would have to _be_ serious to live up to it; +but when your name is Merryweather, you ought to live up to _that_, and +so I always told the Snowy." + +"I am sure the Snowy was always jolly enough," said Peggy, bluntly, +"except when you wanted to get into mischief, Vanity!" + +"Yes, but I _always_ wanted to get into mischief," replied Viola; "so +that made it a little hard for me, Peggy, you must admit it did, +especially when I adored the Snowy, and couldn't bear to have her look +grave at me. Mr. Merryweather, when the Snowy looked _really_ grave at +me, it froze my young blood, just like Hamlet's; didn't it, Peggy? I +used to go and sit on the radiator to get thawed out, didn't I, Peggy?" + +"Oh, of course," said Peggy, laughing. "But all this time, Vanity, we +have not heard about the witchcraft that brought you to this part of the +world." + +"Oh! so you haven't. Well, now you shall. You see I am eighteen this +summer, so Puppa said I should choose where we should go, whether to the +mountains, or to Newport, or to this lake, where he knew of a camp he +could have. So I thought I would say Newport, on account of my new +frills; I had some perfectly heavenly new frills, and of course Newport +is the best place to show them. But just as I was going to _say_ +'Newport,' _something_ made me turn right round and say to come here. I +supposed it was partly because of course I knew Puppa hated Newport, and +he is such a perfect duck about going there; but now I know that it was +witchcraft, and something inside me, black cats or something, made me +know, without knowing anything about it, that you and the Snowy were +going to be here, Peggy. So now I am perfectly happy! Oh! Oh! Why, there +_is_ the Snowy! Oh, Snowy, you darling! It's me! It's Vanity! How _do_ +you do? Isn't this _too_ perfectly entrancing for anything!" + +With a graceful turn, Phil brought his boat alongside the wharf, where a +group of campers, Gertrude among them, were gathered to receive them. +Gertrude had Viola in her arms in a moment, and was welcoming her with a +warmth that made the emotional little creature sob with real pleasure +and affection. + +"Oh, Snowy!" she cried, "I always liked you better than any one else, +Snowy. I never thought I was going to see you again." + +"My dear, dear little Viola!" cried Gertrude. "Have you dropped from the +clouds? Why, this is too good to be true. But you are wet through! Come +in this moment with me, and get on dry things!" + +She hurried Viola away to the tents, and Mr. Merryweather took +possession of her brother with the same hospitable intent, though Tom +Vincent protested that he was "no wetter than was entirely comfortable." + +Phil, taking in his sail, turned an expressive eye on his twin, who had +come aboard to help him. + +"Gee!" he said, thoughtfully. "A new variety, Obadiah! Pollybirdia +singularis, as Edward Lear hath it." + +"She's mighty pretty!" said Gerald. + +"She is that!" said Phil. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ABOUT VISITING + + +"GOOD-BY, Tommy, dear. Be sure to tell Mamma that I thought she would +not mind my staying, when Mrs. Merryweather was so perfectly heavenly as +to ask me. Be sure to tell her that my skirt is _all_ cockled up, so +that you could put it in your waistcoat pocket, Tom; and that the _only_ +way to save it is to press it _damp_, and let it _dry_ before I put it +on. Tell her that I have got on a dress of the Snowy's that is simply +_divine_,--more becoming than anything I ever had on; and that my silk +waist has run--oh, tell her it has run _miles_, Tom, so that I can +never--" + +"There, there, Vi!" cried Tom Vincent, pushing his boat off. "_I_ must +run, before you swamp me entirely with messages. I'll come back for you +to-morrow, and bring your toggery. Ever so many thanks, everybody. +You've been awfully good. I've had a corking time. Good-by!" + +The sail filled, the boat swung round, and was soon speeding along the +lake, while her owner still waved his cap and looked back to the wharf, +where the campers stood, giving back his greeting with hearty good will. + +"Nice chap!" said Gerald to Phil. + +"Corker!" said Phil to Gerald. + +"Nor," added Gerald, turning to look after the girls as they walked back +along the slip, "nor is the sororial adjunct totally devoid of +attraction. What thinkest, Fergy?" + +He shot a quick glance at his brother, and seemed to await his reply +with some eagerness. + +"I think she's as pretty as a picture," said Phil, soberly. + +"You have a nose on your face, if it comes to that," said Gerald. "At +least it passes for one. _Weiter!_" + +"I think she's awfully jolly, and all that," said Phil. "Nice, jolly, +good-natured girl." + +"Granted; she's great fun." + +"But," Phil went on, slowly,--"oh, well! you know what I mean. If our +girls went on like that, we should be under the painful necessity of +ducking them. Now, Peggy--" + +He paused and examined the mooring of the boat, critically. + +"Now, Peggy," Gerald repeated, jogging him with his elbow. "Always +finish a sentence when you can, son. It argues poverty of invention to +have to stop in the middle. You can always fall back on 'tooral looral +lido,' if you can't think of anything else. What about Peggy?" + +"Oh, nothing. Only she is just like the rest of us, and that seems more +natural; that's all." + +"And 'beyond a doubt we are the people; and wisdom will perish with +us,'" quoted Gerald, his face brightening as he spoke. "'Tis well. Come +on, thou antiquated ape, and let us pump out the float." + +Meantime the girls had sought their favorite pine parlor, and were deep +in talk. _High_ would be a more descriptive adjective; for Viola Vincent +was the principal talker, and her shrill, clear treble quivered up to +the very tree-tops, startling the birds in their nests, and sending the +squirrels scampering to and fro with excitement. + +"My dear, this is too delicious, simply _too_! I should expire, if I +lived here, of pure joy. Oh, Snowy, what a darling you are! Your nose is +just as straight as ever, isn't it? Rulers, my dear, are crooked beside +it, aren't they? If I had a straight nose, I should pass away from sheer +bliss. My nose turns up more every year; it's the only aspiring thing +about me. Pothooks are straight by comparison. Isn't it a calamity?" + +"Tiptilted like the petal of a flower," said Gertrude, laughing. "I +always thought your nose one of your prettinesses, Vanity, and I believe +you think so, too." + +"Oh! my _dear_, how _can_ you?" cried Viola, caressing her little nose, +which was certainly piquant and pretty enough to please any one. "You +don't really mean it, do you? You just say it to comfort me, don't you? +You _are_ such a comforting darling! Where did you get that heavenly +shade of green, Snowy? I never saw anything so lovely in my life. It is +just the color of jade. My dear, I saw some jade bracelets the other day +that were simply _made_ for you. I wanted to tear them from the girl's +arms, and say, 'What are you doing with the Snowy's bracelets?' She was +a dump, with a complexion like Doctor Somebody or other's liniment. A +person who can wear jade is simply the--" + +"Oh, come, Vanity!" said Peggy, good-naturedly. "Come out of the +millinery business, and tell us about yourself, and about the other +girls. What has become of Vex--of Vivia Varnham?" + +"My dear! haven't you heard?" + +"Not a word! You have never written, you know, since we left school, and +she would not be likely to." + +"You didn't love each other quite to distraction, did you?" said Viola. +"Poor V. V.! she really was the limit sometimes, wasn't she? I never +minded her, of course, because I never listened to what she said. +Besides, she was like pickles, you know; you just took her with the rest +of your dinner, and she didn't make much difference. I used to tell her +so. Well, poor V. V.! You never could guess: married, my dear!" + +"Married!" echoed Peggy and Gertrude. + +"Married! to a missionary; widower, with four children. Gone to China! +You need not believe it unless you like; I don't believe it myself, +though I saw them married." + +"It is hard to believe, Vi!" said Gertrude. "How did it happen?" + +"My dear, _the_ limit! positively, the boundary line, arctic circle, and +that sort of thing. Love at first sight, on both sides. Spectacles, +bald,--not the spectacles, but he,--snuffy to a degree! You really never +_did_! I was the first person she told. I simply screamed. 'My dear!' I +said, 'you _cannot_ mean it. You could _not_ live with that waistcoat!' + +"She told me I was frivolous--which I never attempted to deny--and said +I did not understand, which was the truth. She looked really quite sweet +in her wedding-dress, and when she went away she was quite softened, she +truly was, and wept a little weep, and so did I. You see, Snowy, the +very first thing I can remember in my life is V. V.'s breaking my doll +over my head. I miss her dreadfully, I do indeed; nobody has been--well, +acidulated, to me since she went, and I need the tonic. And speaking of +tonics, where is Beef? where is the Fluffy? You know"--turning to +Margaret--"I used to call the Snowy and the Fluffy and the Horny my +triple tonic, Beef, Wine, and Iron; and the Fluffy was Beef. Steady and +square, you know, and red and brown; exactly like beef; simply _no_ +difference except the clothes. How is she, Snowy?" + +"The Fluffy--Bertha Haughton, you know, Margaret--is teaching in +Blankton High School; very busy, very happy, indeed, perfectly absorbed +in her work. I have a letter from her in my pocket this minute, that +came last night. Would you like to hear it?" + +And amid a clamor of eager assent, she drew out the letter and read as +follows. + +"'Dear Snowy: It is good to hear about all the jolly times at Camp. I +wish I could come, but see no way to it just now. Yes, I know school is +over, but there are the rank lists to make out, and all kinds of odd +end-of-the-year chores to be done; besides, two of my boys have +conditions to work out,--going to college in the fall,--and I am +tutoring them. They are two of the dearest boys that ever were, only not +very bright, and I have promised to stand by them.' This is the way she +behaves, after teaching all the year; she is incorrigible! 'All the +others passed without conditions, and three of them got honors, so I am +very proud and happy. This has been the best year of all; but then, I +say that every year, don't I? I do feel more and more that I am doing +the thing in the whole world that I like best to do.' + +"The rest is just messages, and so on; but you see how happy she is, and +how utterly absorbed." + +"My dear, it is _too_ amazing!" cried Viola Vincent. "The very thought +of teaching makes me simply dissolve with terror; little drops of water, +my dear, would be all that would be left of poor Vanity; not a grain of +sand to hold her together. Hush! let me tell you something! Last year I +tried to teach a class in Sunday school,--great, terrible boys, taller +than I was,--and I _almost_ expired, I assure you I did. They never knew +their lessons, and two of them made eyes at me, and the rest made faces +at each other; it was simply excruciating. Then the rector asked me if I +didn't think I could dress more simply; said I set an example, and so +on. I told him I was dressed like a broomstick then, as far as +simplicity was concerned, and so I was, simply and positively like a +broomstick; only my dress--it was a rose-colored foulard, _the_ most +angelic shade you ever saw, girls; just like a sunset cloud, somebody +said--happened to have ruffles to the waist, and ribbons fluttering +about more or less. He _said_ I fluttered, and I told him I certainly +did. 'I always flutter, Mr. Monk,' I said. 'When I don't flutter, I +shall be dead.' Which was true. He was quite peevish, but I was firm; +you know you _have_ to be firm about such things. Only, the next Sunday +he happened to come by when one of those great dreadful boys asked me if +Solomon's seal was tame, and I said I didn't think it was. Well, I +_didn't_! But he wrote me a note next day, saying he thought teaching +was not my _forte_, and perhaps I would like visiting better. I fully +agreed with him, so now I visit, and it is simply dandy. I just love +it!" + +"Tell us about your visiting, Vi!" said Gertrude. "I am going to take it +up next winter, and I should like to know how you do it." + +"My dear! Such sport! There are some dear old ladies I go to see, +perfect old ducks; in a Home, you know. I go once a week, and I put on +_all_ my frills, and never wear the same dress twice if I can help it, +and I tell them all about the parties I go to, and what I wear, and what +my partners are like, and about the suppers, and take them my German +favors, and they simply _love_ it! Mr. Monk thinks it's terrible that I +don't read them tracts; my dear, they abominate tracts, and so do I; we +found that out at once. So I read them the gayest, frilliest little +stories I can find, that are really _nice_, and they _adore_ it. One +day--my _dears_! will you promise never to breathe it if I tell you +something? never even to _sneeze_ it?" + +"We promise! We promise!" cried all the girls. + +"Well--hush! It was simply fierce; and _the_ greatest sport I ever had +in my life. There is one old lady in the Home who is too perfectly sweet +for anything. Miss Bathsheba Barry; did you ever hear such a delicious +name? She is just my height, and as pretty as a picture in her cap and +kerchief. They all wear caps and kerchiefs, and little gray gowns, the +most becoming costume you ever saw; I am going into the Home the very +minute my looks begin to go, because I _do_ look quite--but wait! Hush! +not a word! Well! I had been teasing Miss Barry for ever and ever so +long to let me dress up in her things, because I knew they would suit +me, and at last, one day, the dear old thing consented. It was the time +for the matron's afternoon visit, and she is very jolly, and I wanted to +surprise her. So I put on the little gray gown, and the delicious cap, +just like Rembrandt's mother, and the white net kerchief--don't you +adore white net, Snowy? it softens the face so!--and the apron; and then +I went and sat down in Miss Barry's chair by the window, with her +knitting, and put on her spectacles--oh! how she did laugh. Then we +heard steps, and Miss Barry went into the closet and shut the door all +but a crack to peep through, and I turned my head away from the door, +and knitted away for dear life. Oh, girls! The door opened, and I heard +Mrs. Poddle say, 'This way, gentlemen! This is Miss Barry's room.' +_Gentlemen!_ My dears, I thought I should pass away! Then there came +great, loud men's steps, and I heard Mr. Monk's voice--'This is one of +our most interesting inmates, Bishop! Eighty-seven years old, and as +sprightly as a girl. A most pious and exemplary person. Good morning, +Miss Barry! How is your rheumatism to-day?' + +[Illustration: "'SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!' SAID I."] + +"'Simply fierce, your reverence!' said I, in a little squeaky voice, as +like Miss Barry's as I could make it. I kept my face turned away, and +pretended to be counting stitches very hard. + +"'Ahem!' said Mr. Monk. I could hear that he was surprised, for, of +course, Miss Barry wouldn't say 'simply fierce,' but it slipped out +before I knew it. + +"'Miss Barry,' he said, 'I have brought Bishop Ballantyne to see you. I +am sure you will be glad to receive him.' + +"'Oh, I should perfectly _love_ to see the Bishop!' I said; because +Bishop Ballantyne is simply a duck, an adorable duck; but still I did +not turn round; and I could hear Miss Barry squeaking with laughter in +the closet, and it was really getting quite awful. But now Mr. Monk +began to suspect something. I believe he thought I had been drinking, or +rather that Miss Barry had, poor old dear. He said, in a pretty awful +voice: 'What does this mean? Miss Barry, I desire that, if you are +unable to rise, you will at least turn round, and receive Bishop +Ballantyne in a fitting manner. I cannot conceive--I must beg you to +believe, Bishop, that this has never happened before. I am beyond +measure distressed. Miss Barry,--' + +"And then he stopped, for I turned round. I had to, of course; there was +nothing else to do. + +"'How do you do, Bishop Ballantyne?' I said. 'Can you tell me whether +Solomon's seal was tame or not?' + +"For a minute they both stared as if they had seen a ghost; but then the +Bishop went off into a great roar of laughter, and I thought he would +laugh himself into fits, and me, too; and the more solemn Mr. Monk +looked, the more we laughed; and Miss Barry was cackling like a hen in +the closet--oh, it was great, girls, it truly was! At last Mr. Monk had +to laugh too, he couldn't help it; it was simply too utter, you know. He +said I was enough to break up an entire parish; and the Bishop said he +would take me into his, cap and all. And then the matron came back, and +Miss Barry came out, and we all stayed to tea, the Bishop and Mr. Monk +and I, and had the time of our lives; at least, I did. + +"So you see, girls, visiting _can_ be the greatest sport in the world, +if you only know how to do it. But we all had to promise Mr. Monk and +Mrs. Poddle not to tell, because they said it was enough to break up the +discipline of the Home, and I suppose it was." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +MOONLIGHT AGAIN + + +THE evening was showery, and indoor games were the order of it. The +first half-hour after the dishes were washed (a task performed to music, +all hands joining in the choruses of "John Peel," "Blow, ye winds of +morning," etc.) was spent quietly enough, four of the party at +parcheesi, the others busy over crokinole and jackstraws; but by and by +there was a cry of "Boston!" and instantly boards and counters were put +away on their shelf, and the decks cleared for action. The whole party +drew their chairs into a circle, and the fun began. A pleasant sight it +was to see Mr. Merryweather blindfold in the middle of the circle, +calling out the numbers two by two, and trying to catch the flitting +figures as they changed places. A pleasant sight it was to see the +young people leaping, crouching, and gliding across the circle, avoiding +his outstretched arms with surprising agility. + +"Two and Fourteen!" he would cry; and Gerald and Bell would slip from +their places, like shadows. Gerald was across in two long, noiseless +lopes, while Bell whisked under her father's very hand, which almost +closed on her flying skirt; and a shout of "All over!" greeted the +accomplishment of the exchange. + +"This will never do!" said Mr. Merryweather. "You all have quicksilver +in your heels, I believe. Seven and Twelve! Come Seven, come Twelve!" + +Seven and Twelve were Jack Ferrers and Peggy, and they came. Jack, +gathering his long legs under him, crept on all fours half-way round the +circle, and then made a plunge for the chair which Peggy had just +vacated. He landed on the edge, and over went chair and Jack into the +fireplace with a resounding crash. This startled Peggy so that she ran +directly into Mr. Merryweather's arms, and was caught and firmly held. + +"Let me see!" said Mr. Merryweather. "One pigtail! But I believe all you +wretched girls dress your hair precisely alike for 'Boston.' Ha! +peculiar sleeve-buttons! Now who has buttons like these? Peggy!" + +Then it was Peggy's turn to be blindfolded, and a vigorous "_Colin +Maillard_" she made, flying hither and thither, and coming within an ace +of catching Gerald himself, who was rarely caught. Finally she seized a +flying pigtail belonging to Kitty; and so the merry game went on till +all were out of breath with running and laughing. + +Phil went to the door to breathe the cool air, and came back with the +announcement, "All clear overhead, perfectly corking moonlight. Why do +we stay indoors?" + +"Canoes!" cried the younger Merryweathers; and there was a rush for the +door; but the Chief stopped them with a gesture. "Too late!" he said. +"It is nine o'clock now; time you were in bed, Kitty." + +"We might sit on the float and sing a little," suggested Mrs. +Merryweather. + +"The float! The float!" shouted the boys and girls. There was a +snatching up of pillows and wraps, and the whole family trooped down to +the float, where they established themselves in a variety of picturesque +attitudes. Again it was a wonderful night; the late moon was just rising +above the dark trees, no longer the full round, but still brilliant +enough to fill the world with light. + +"This has been a wonderful moon!" said some one. + +"Yes," said Gerald; "it is quite the last thing in moons, not the +ordinary article at all. We don't have ordinary moons on this pond. Who +made that highly intellectual remark?" + +"It was I," said Bell, laughing; "and I maintain, Jerry, that this moon +_has_ been a very long, and a very--well, a very splendid one. Just +think! not a single cloudy evening till this one; and now it clears off +in time to give us our moonlight hour before bed-time." + +"The harvest moon is always long," said Mr. Merryweather. "Bell is +perfectly right, Jerry." + +"Strike home!" said Gerald, baring his breast with a dramatic gesture. +"Strike home! + + "'There's no more moonlight for poor Uncle J., + For he's gone whar de snubbed niggers go.'" + +"I was just going to propose singing," said his mother; "but before we +begin, suppose we do honor to this good moon, that has treated us so +well. Let every one give a quotation in her honor. I will begin: + + "'That orbed maiden with white fire laden, + Whom mortals call the moon, + Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor, + By the midnight breezes strewn.' + +Shelley. I am a cloud, be it understood!" + +"I should hardly have guessed it," said Mr. Merryweather. "My turn? I'll +go back to Milton: + + "'Now glowed the firmament + With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led + The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, + Rising in clouded majesty, at length + Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, + And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.'" + +"Oh, I say!" murmured Gerald; "that is a peach!" + +"Jerry," said his mother, plaintively, "have you _no_ adjectives, my +poor destitute child? I can imagine few things less peach-like than that +glorious passage. But never mind! Jack, it is your turn." + + "'The gray sea and the long black land, + And the yellow half-moon large and low--'" + +said Jack, half under his breath. + +"It isn't yellow, and it isn't half," said Gerald. "But never mind, as +the Mater says. Margaret, you come next." + +Margaret looked up, her face full of tranquil happiness. + +"I was thinking," she said, "of some lines from 'Evangeline,' that I +have always loved. I say them over to myself every night in this +wonderful moon-time: + + "'Beautiful was the night. Behind the black wall of the forest, + Tipping its summit with silver, arose the moon. On the river + Fell here and there through the branches a tremulous gleam of + the moonlight, + Like the sweet thoughts of love on a darkened and devious spirit.'" + +"Peggy, what have you for us?" asked Mrs. Merryweather. + +"Oh!" cried poor Peggy, "you know I never can remember poetry, Mrs. +Merryweather. I shall have to take to 'Mother Goose.' I know I am +terribly prosy--well, prosaic, then, Margaret; what's the difference? +But I can't think of anything except: + + "'The Man in the Moon + Came down too soon,'-- + +and that doesn't go with all these lovely things you have all been +saying." + +"It gives me mine, though!" said Phil. And he sang, merrily: + + "'The Man in the Moon was looking down, + With winking and with blinking frown, + And stars beamed out bright + To look on the night; + The Man in the Moon was looking!'" + +"Phil!" cried Gertrude. "How can you? Comic opera is an insult to a moon +like this." + +"Oh, indeed!" said her brother. "Sorry I spoke. Next time I'll sing it +to some other moon,--one of Jupiter's; or the brick one in Doctor Hale's +story. Go on, Toots, since you are so superior. It's your turn." + + "'Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, + That tips with silver all the fruit-tree tops,'" + +said Gertrude. "I can't remember the next line." + +"What I miss in this game," said Gerald, in a critical tone, "is +accuracy. There isn't a fruit-tree on the Point." + +"And the moon, of course, limits herself strictly to the point!" said +Gertrude, laughing. + +"It's more than you do!" retorted her brother. "But a truce to badinage! +I go back to prose and 'Happy Thoughts.' 'I say "O moon!" rapturously, +but nothing comes of it.'" + +"But something shall come of it this time, Jerry," said his mother. +"Perhaps we have had enough quotations now. Give us the 'Gipsy Song.'" + +Nothing loth, Gerald sang the wild, beautiful song, his sisters humming +the accompaniment. Then one song and another was called for, and the +night rang with ballad and barcarole, glee and round. There never +seemed to be any limit to the Merryweather repertoire. + +Presently Bell whispered to Gertrude; the latter passed the whisper on +to Margaret and Peggy. Silently all four girls rose and slipped away, +with a word breathed into Mrs. Merryweather's ear, begging her to keep +up the singing. + +"Where are the girls going?" asked their father. + +"They will be back in a moment," said Mrs. Merryweather. "Give us 'Prinz +Eugen,' boys; all of you together!" + +And out rolled, in booming bass and silvery tenor, the glorious old camp +song of the German wars: + + "Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter, + Woll't dem Kaiser wied'rum kriegen + Stadt und Festung Belgerad." + +This was a favorite song of the Merryweather boys, and they never knew +which verse to leave out, so they generally sang all nine of them. They +did so this time, and finally ended with a prolonged roar of: + + "Liess ihm bringen recht zu Peterwardein." + +A moment of silence followed. Indeed, none of the singers had any breath +left. + + "'And silence like a poultice falls, + To heal the blows of sound!'" + +quoted Mr. Merryweather. "Hark! what is that?" + +Again the sound of singing was heard. This time it came from the +direction of the tents. Girl's voices, thrilling clear and sweet on the +stillness. The air was even more familiar than that of "Prinz Eugen," +one of the sweetest airs that ever echoed to moonlight and the night: + + "Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten, + Dass ich so traurig bin;"-- + +The girls came singing out into the moonlight, hand in hand. They were +in bathing-dress; their long hair floated over their shoulders; their +white arms shone in the white light. Instead of coming back to the +float, they plunged into the water, and swam, still singing, to a rock +that reared a great rounded back from the water. Up on this rock they +climbed, and sat them down, shaking off the water in diamond spray; and +still their voices rang out, clear and thrilling on the quiet air: + + "Die schoenste Jungfrau sitzet + Dort oben wunderbar; + Ihr goldnes Geschmeide blitzet, + Sie kaemmt ihr goldenes Haar." + +"Gee!" muttered Gerald to himself. + +"Pretty!" said Mr. Merryweather, taking his pipe from between his teeth. +"Miranda, I don't know that I ever saw anything much prettier than +that." + +His wife made no reply, but her eyes spoke for her. None of the lads +could look more eagerly or more joyfully at that lovely picture. Were +not two of the maidens her very own? + +Gertrude was facing them as she sang. Her red-gold hair fell like a +mantle of glory about her, far below her waist; her arms, clasped behind +her head, were like carved ivory; her face was lifted, and the moon +shone full on its pure outlines and candid brow. Bell's rosy face was +partly in shadow, but her noble voice floated out rich and strong, +filling the air with melody. There was no possibility of doubt, to Mrs. +Merryweather's mind, which two of the quartette were most attractive. +Yet when she said softly to the son who happened to be next her: "Aren't +they lovely, Jerry?" he answered, abstractedly, "Isn't she!" and his +eyes were fixed, not on stately Gertrude, or stalwart Bell, but on a +slender figure between them, that clung timidly to the rock, one hand +clasped in Peggy's. Also, it is to be noted that, when the song was +over, and Peggy made an exceptionally clean and graceful dive off the +rock, Phil exclaimed, "Jove! that was a corker!" to which John Ferrers +replied, "Yes; the sweetest contralto I ever heard." + + * * * * * + +"I never heard you sing better than you did last night," said Jack to +Bell. It was next morning, and he was stirring the porridge +industriously, while she mixed the johnny-cake. + +[Illustration: "HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE +MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE."] + +"So glad!" said Bell, simply. "I aim to please. I'd put in a little more +water, Jack, if I were you; it's getting too stiff." + +Jack poured in the water, and stirred for some minutes in silence. +Presently he said: "I heard from those people last night." + +"From the Conservatory? Oh, Jack! do tell me! I have been thinking so +much about it. Is it all right?" + +"I think so," said Jack, slowly. "They offer me two thousand, and there +is an excellent chance for private pupils besides; I have decided to +accept it." + +"Oh, Jack, how splendid! Oh, I am so glad! I knew it would come--the +chance--if you only had patience, and you surely have had it. How happy +Hilda will be!" + +"Yes," said Jack, soberly. "I owe it to Hilda, every bit of it, as I owe +several other things. This, for example." + +"This?" repeated Bell. "Meaning the porridge?" + +She spoke lightly, yet there was an undertone of feeling in her voice. + +"The porridge, and all the rest of it," said Jack. "The place, the life, +the friends, the happiness, and--you--all!" + +It might have been noted that the "all" was added after a moment's +pause, as if it were an afterthought. + +"Dear Hilda!" said Bell, softly. "We all owe her a very great deal." + +"If it had not been for Hildegarde Grahame," said Jack, "I should have +grown up a savage." + +"Oh! no, you would not, Jack." + +"Yes, I should, Bell. When I first came to Roseholme, I was just at the +critical time. I adored my father, who was an angel,--too much of one to +understand a mere human boy. I came to please him, and at first I didn't +get hold of Uncle Tom at all, nor he of me. He thought me an ass,--well, +he was right enough there,--and I thought him a bear and a brute. I was +on the point of running away and starting out on my own account, my +fiddle and I against the world, when I met Hilda, and she changed life +from an enemy into a friend." + +Bell was silent for a moment; then, "I have often wondered--" she said, +and broke off short. + +"So have I!" said Jack. "I don't know now why I didn't. Yes, I do, too." + +"Why?" asked Bell, her eyes on her mixing-bowl. + +"It's hard to put it into words," said Jack, with a queer little laugh. +"I suppose I felt that I never should have had a chance; but--but yet, I +am not sure that I should not have tried my luck, even then, if--if +something else had not happened to me." + +Bell asked no more questions: the johnny-cake seemed to be at a critical +point; she stirred assiduously, and Jack, turning to look at her, could +see only the tip of a very rosy little ear under the brown, clustering +hair. + +There was another silence, broken only by the singing of the teakettle +and the soft, thick "hub-bubble" of the boiling porridge. + +"Bell!" said Jack, presently. + +"Yes, Jack." + +"I had another letter last night, that I haven't told you about yet." + +"From Hilda?" + +"No. From the manager of the Arion Quartette. They want me to go on a +tour with them in the autumn, before the Conservatory opens. It's a +great chance, and they offer me twice what I am worth." + +"Oh, Jack!" cried Bell, turning her face, shining with pleasure, full on +him. "How glorious! how perfectly glorious! Oh! this is great news +indeed." + +"There is only one difficulty," said Jack. "I have to provide my own +accompanist." + +"But you can easily do that!" said Bell. + +"Can I?" cried Jack Ferrers, dropping the porridge spoon and coming +forward, his two hands held out, his brown face in a glow. "Can I, Bell? +There is only one accompanist in the world for me, and I want her for +life. Can I have her, my dear?" + +"Oh, Jack!" cried Bell, and another spoon was dropped. + + * * * * * + +"Children, you are letting that porridge burn!" cried Mrs. Merryweather, +as she hurried into the kitchen a few minutes later. + +"Oh, Mammy, I am so sorry!" said Bell, looking up, + + "All kind o' smily round the lips, + And teary round the lashes." + +"Oh, Mammy, I am so glad!" cried Jack Ferrers; and without more ado he +kissed Mrs. Merryweather. "I like burnt porridge!" said this young +gentleman. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +CONCERNING VARIOUS THINGS + + +"WHERE are you going, Margaret?" asked Willy. + +"Up to the farm. Bell lost one of her knitting-needles, and thought she +might have dropped it there; she is up there now, hunting for it, and +here it was in my tent all the time. Would you like to come with me, +Willy?" + +Willy twinkled with pleasure, and fell into step beside her, and the two +walked along the pleasant grassy road through the fields, talking +busily. They had become great friends, and Willy was never tired of +hearing about Basil, who, he declared, "must certainly be a corker." + +"I suppose he is, Willy," said Margaret, with resignation. "There seems +nothing else for any nice person to be. Did I tell you how brave he was +when a great savage dog attacked our poor puppies? Oh, you must hear +that." + +The recital of Basil's heroism lasted till they reached the farmhouse, +both in a state of high enthusiasm, and Willy filled with ardent +longings for attacks by savage dogs, that he might show qualities equal +to those of the youthful hero. (N. B. Basil, honest, freckled, and +practical, would have been much surprised to hear himself held up as a +youthful embodiment of Bayard and the Cid in one.) + +"I'll wait for you out here, Margaret," he said, when they came to the +door. "No, I don't want to come in; they will tell me how I've grown, +and I do get so tired of it. I'll sit on the fence and think; I like to +think." + +Margaret nodded sympathetically and went in. The door opened directly +into a wide, sunny kitchen, as bright as sunshine and cleanliness could +make it. An elderly woman was standing before a great wheel, spinning +wool; beside her, Bell, Gertrude, and Peggy stood watching with absorbed +attention. All looked up at Margaret's entrance, and the woman, who had +a kind, strong face and sweet brown eyes, laid down her shuttle with a +smile of welcome. + +"I want to know if this is you," she said. "You're quite a stranger, +ain't you? I kind o' looked for you when the gals come in." + +"I meant to come, Mrs. Meadows, I truly did; but I was tidying up the +tent, and I am so slow about it." + +"Mrs. Meadows," said Peggy, laughing, "she wipes every nail-head three +times a day, and goes over the whole with a microscope when she has +finished, to see if she can find a speck of dust." + +"Doos she so?" inquired Mrs. Meadows. "I don't hardly dare to ask her to +set down in this room, then. What with the wool flyin' and all, it's a +sight, most times." + +"Now, Mrs. Meadows!" exclaimed Gertrude. "When you know you are almost +as particular as she is! But, Margaret, do you see what we are doing? We +are having a spinning lesson. It is _so_ exciting! Come and watch." + +"I came to bring your knitting-needle," said Margaret. "Look! it was in +my tent, just the end of it sticking out of a crack in the floor. If I +had not tidied up, in the way you reprobate, Bell, you might never have +got it again." + +"Oh! yes, somebody would have stepped on it," laughed Bell. "But I +confess I am very grateful for this special attack of tidying. Now, Mrs. +Meadows, I shall be all ready for that new yarn as soon as you have it +spun." + +"My land! don't you want I should color it? I was callatin' to color all +this lot." + +"No, I like this gray mixture so much; it is just the color for the +boys' stockings. By the way, have you seen the boys, Mrs. Meadows? I was +looking for them everywhere before I came up." + +"Let me see, where did I see them boys?" Mrs. Meadows pondered, drawing +the yarn slowly through her fingers. "Gerild and Phillup, you mean? They +passed through the yard right after dinner, I should say it was, on +their velocipedies; going at a great rate, they was. Here's Jacob, mebbe +he'll know." + +Jacob, massive and comely, in his customary blue overalls, entered, +beaming shyly. "Good mornin', ladies!" he said. "Mother treatin' you +well?" + +"Very well, Jacob!" said Bell. "We are having a spinning lesson, and +find it very interesting." + +"I want to know. Well, I allers got on without that branch of edication +myself," said Jacob. He was standing near the door, and the girls +noticed that he kept his hands behind him. + +"Mother, ain't you give the girls no apples?" he said. + +"There!" cried Mrs. Meadows, apologetically. "I never thought on't." + +"Now, ain't that a sight!" said Jacob, reprovingly. "I thought I could +trust you not to let 'em starve, mother, but yet someways I felt I ought +to bring the apples myself. I dono's they're fit to eat, though." + +Still beaming shy benevolence, he brought from behind him a basket of +beautiful rosy apples, every one of which had evidently been polished +with care--and the sleeve of his coat. + +"Oh, what perfect beauties!" cried the girls. "Oh, thank you, Jacob!" + +"What kind are they?" asked Peggy. "They _are_ good!" Peggy never lost a +moment in sampling an apple, and her teeth now met in the firm, crisp +flesh with every sign of approval. + +"Benoni! about the best fall apple there is, round these parts; that is, +for any one as likes 'em crips. Some prefer a sweet apple, but I like a +fruit that's got some sperit in it, same as I do folks. Well, I wish you +all good appetite; I must be goin' back to my hoein' lesson, I guess." + +"Oh! Jacob, have you seen Jerry and Phil, lately?" asked Gertrude. + +"No, I ain't. Yes I hev, too. They went rocketin' past me this noon, and +give me some sarse as they went, and I give it 'em back. I ain't seen +'em sence. They're up to mischief, wherever they be, you can count on +that." + +Jacob diffused his smile again, and withdrew. The girls, still eating +their apples, turned eagerly to Mrs. Meadows. "Now, Mrs. Meadows," they +said, "we must go on with our lesson. Margaret, sit down and learn with +us; you know you want to learn." + +"Indeed, I do!" said Margaret. "But I don't think I'd better now, girls. +Willy came up with me, and he is waiting for me outside; I promised to +look at a nest he has found, and I don't like to disappoint him. May I +come some other day, please, Mrs. Meadows?" + +"Well, I guess you may!" said Mrs. Meadows. "Sorry to have ye go now, +but glad to see ye next time, and so you'll find it nine days in the +week, Miss Montfort. Good day to ye, if ye must go." + +Margaret shook the good woman's hand, nodded gaily to the girls, and +went out, to find Willy sitting patiently on the fence. + +"Was I a very long time, Willy?" she asked. "I thought you might have +got out of patience and gone home." + +"No!" said Willy, soberly. "You were a good while, but then, girls +always are. When a fellow has sisters, you know, he gets used to +waiting." + +"Oh! indeed!" said Margaret, much amused. + +"Yes," said Willy. "I don't think girls have much idea of time, do you?" + +"Why, Willy, I don't know that I have ever considered the question. You +see, I have always been a girl myself, so perhaps I am not qualified to +judge. But--do you think boys have so very much more idea? It seems to +me I know some one who has been late for tea several times this week." + +Willy looked conscious. "Well," he said, "I know; but that is different. +When you are late for tea,--I mean when a boy is,--he is generally doing +something that he wants very much indeed to get through with, fishing, +or splicing a bat, or something that really has to be done. Besides, he +knows they won't wait tea for him, so it doesn't make any difference." + +"I see!" said Margaret. "And girls are never doing anything important. +Aren't you rather severe on us, Willy?" + +Willy was about to reassure her kindly, for he was extremely fond of +her; but at this moment a cheery "Hallo!" was heard, and the twins rode +up on their bicycles, bright-eyed and flushed after a fine spurt. + +"Neck and neck!" said Gerald. "Margaret, I hope you don't object to +being a winning-post. That was a great run." + +"Where have you been?" asked Margaret, as the two dismounted and walked +along on either side of her. + +"Over to the Corners, to send a telegram for the Pater. And thereby +hangs a tale." + +"May we hear it? We love a tale, don't we, Willy?" + +Willy did not look particularly enthusiastic, but he murmured something, +which Gerald did not wait to hear. + +"Well, the Pater desired to send a telegram, even winged words, to that +man who has been trying to send us shellac for the last three weeks, and +who has, we fear, broken down from the strain. A neat despatch it was: +'Send to-morrow, or not at all.--M. Merryweather.' Well, we had just +sent it, when we heard some one behind us say, '_Oh_, gosh!' in a tone +of such despair that we turned round to see if it was the shellac man in +person. It was little Bean, the pitcher of the Corners team, all dressed +up in his baseball togs, scarlet breeches and blue shirt, quite the bird +of paradise, and reading a yellow telegram, and his face black as +thunder. He was an impressionist study, wasn't he, Fergy? We asked what +was up, or rather down, for elevation had no part in him. It appeared +that a match was on for this afternoon, between the Baked Beans and the +Sweet Peas, the Corners and the Spruce Point team. The Beans were all +here except the pitcher and first-baseman, brothers, who were to come +over by themselves, as they lived at some distance from the rest of the +team; and this telegram conveyed the cheering information, that, instead +of coming over, they had come down with mumps, and were, in point of +fact, in their little beds." + +"Oh, what a shame!" said Margaret. "Poor lads! and mumps are such a +distressing thing." + +"I rejoice to see that you also get your singular and plural mixed in +regard to mumps," said Gerald. "You are human, after all. But to tell +the truth, I don't know that sympathy with the mumpers was the +prevailing sentiment at the Corners." + +"Gee! I should think not," said Phil. "This was the match of the season, +you see, Margaret. The farmers had come from far and near, and brought +their wives and babies; and the Corner fellows had got this gorgeous +uniform made, and bought out all the red flannel in the county; and here +were these two wretched chumps down with mumps." + +"Oh! but Phil," cried Margaret, "they didn't do it on purpose, poor +things; and think how they were suffering! You are heartless, I think." + +"They would have suffered more if the Baked Beans had got hold of them," +said Phil, with a grin; "or the other fellows either, for that matter. +But as it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened for +the Beans. He wasn't much of a pitcher." + +"What do you mean?" asked Willy, beginning to be interested. "Did they +get another pitcher?" + +"Did they? Well, I should remark! I let on in a casual way that the +former pitcher of a certain college team was not more than a hundred +miles from the spot at that moment. You should have seen that fellow's +face, Margaret. It really was a study. Perfect bewilderment for a +minute, and then--well, I believe he would have gone down on all fours +and carried Jerry to the field if he would not have gone in any other +way." + +"Oh! please, Phil. I am bewildered, too. Is Gerald a--a pitcher?" + +"Is he? My child, he is the great original North American jug." + +"Oh, pooh!" said Gerald. "Don't be an ass, Ferguson! You are as good a +first-baseman as I am pitcher, any day. Of course we were glad to help +them out, though I drew the line at scarlet breeches. My mother's angry +shade hovered above me and forbade. + + "'Go fight in fortune's deepest ditches, + But oh, avoid the scarlet breeches!' + +I could hear her say it. So I told him that my hair and my temper were +the only red I ever wore, and he submitted, though sadly. So we played; +and it was a great game. And we smote them hip and thigh, even to the +going down of the sun; or would have, if the day had been shorter. Phil +made three runs, Will." + +"Jerry made three more Will," said Phil; "and pitched like one o'clock, +I tell you. I never saw you play better, Obadiah. Those last balls were +perfect peaches. I wish you had seen the game, Margaret." + +"So do I," said Margaret. "I have never seen a game of baseball." + +"Oh! I say!" cried Phil and Willy. "What a shame!" + +"Where do you live?" asked Willy, in such open wonder and commiseration +that the others all laughed. + +"She lives in an enchanted castle, Willy," said Gerald; "with a magician +who keeps her in chains--of roses and pearls. He has two attendant +spirits who help to keep her in durance that is not precisely vile. How +is Mrs. Cook, Margaret? Do you know, you have hardly told me anything +about Fernley all this time? I want to know ever so many things. What +became of the pretty lady whose house was burned? Do you remember that? +I never shall forget it as long as I live." + +"Indeed, I do!" said Margaret, blushing. "She is still abroad, Gerald. I +doubt if she ever returns, or at least not for a long time. She is well, +and really happy, I think. Isn't it wonderful?" + +"You didn't see Miss Wolfe come down the ladder!" said Gerald. "That was +the most wonderful thing I ever saw. Just as she stepped out on the +window-sill, the fire caught the hem of her skirt. I thought she was +gone that time. I was just going to drop you and run, when she stooped +and squeezed the skirts together--woollen skirts, fortunately--and put +it out; and then came swinging down that rope to the ladder, and down +the ladder to the ground, as if she had been born in a circus. I tell +you, that was something to see. Pity you missed it." + +"Why did she miss it?" asked Willy. "And what do you mean by dropping +her, Jerry?" + +Gerald, whose eyes were shining with the excitement of recollection, +turned and looked down at his small brother as if suddenly recalling his +existence. + +"Margaret was--busy!" he said, briefly. "And, I say, Father William, +don't you want to take my biky down and give him a feed of oats? he is +hungry. See him paw the ground!" and he gave the bicycle a twirl. + +"I must go," said Phil, remounting his own. "Come along, Willy, and I'll +race you to Camp." + +But for once Willy held back. "I was going to take Margaret to see a +redwing's nest," he said. "I promised her I would." + +"Oh! Margaret will excuse you," said Phil. "Won't you, Margaret? +Redwings' nests always look better in the morning, besides. Come on, +boy, and I'll tell you all about the game." + +Willy still hesitated, looking at Margaret; and she in her turn +hesitated, blushing rosy red. "Don't let me keep you, Willy dear," she +said. "If you would like to hear about the game--" + +"_Go on_, young un!" said Gerald, in a tone of decision so unlike his +usual bantering way, that Willy stared, then yielded; and slowly +mounting the bicycle, started off with Phil along the road. + +They rode for some time in silence, Phil being apparently lost in +thought. + +"Well!" said Willy at last, in an injured tone. + +"Well, what is it, Belted Will?" + +"I thought you were going to tell me about the game," said Willy, +moodily. "I say, Phil! I think it was awfully rude of you and Jerry to +yank me off that way, when I had promised Margaret to take her +somewhere, and we were going straight there when you came along and +broke in. I don't think that's any kind of way to do, and I am sure Ma +would say so, too. What do you suppose Margaret thinks of me now?" + +"Ri tum ti tum ti tido!" carolled Phil. "What do I suppose she thinks of +you, Belted One? Why, she thinks you are one of the nicest boys she ever +saw; and so you are, when not in doleful dumps. See here, old chap! +you'll be older before you are younger, and some day you will know a +hawk from a handsaw, _or_ hernshaw, according to which reading of +'Hamlet' you prefer. And now as to this game!" + +He plunged into a detailed account of the great match, and soon Willy's +eyes were sparkling, and his cheeks glowing, and he had forgotten all +about Margaret and the redwing's nest. + +But as they crested the hill, which on the other side dipped down to the +camp, Phil glanced back along the road. Margaret and Gerald were +walking slowly, deep in talk, and did not see the wave of his hand. +"Heigh, ho!" said Phil; but he smiled even while he sighed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +ON THE DOWN + + +ONE afternoon, when most of the campers were off fishing, Margaret +wandered alone up to the top of the great down behind the camp. +Thoroughly in love with the camp life as she was, in most of its +aspects, she could not learn to care for fishing. To sit three, four, +five hours in a boat, on the chance of killing a harmless and beautiful +creature, did not, she protested, appeal to her; and many a lively +argument had she had on the subject with Bell and Gertrude, who were +ardent fisher-maidens. + +"But, Margaret, it is the sport!" Bell would cry. "It isn't just +killing, it is sport!" + +"But, Bell, if the sport does not amuse me!" Margaret would answer. "If +I want to kill something, I would rather kill spiders, though I am +trying not to be so afraid of them--or mosquitoes." + +Then the girls would cry out that she was hopeless, and would gather up +their reels and rods and leave her to her own peaceful devices, having +even the generosity not to twit her with inconsistency when she enjoyed +her delicately-fried perch at supper. + +These solitary afternoons were sure to be pleasant ones for Margaret. +She loved the merry companionship of the campers, but she loved, too, to +wander through the woods, among the great straight-stemmed pines and +dark feathery hemlocks, or to track the little clear brook through its +windings, from the great bog to its outlet into the lake; or, as now, to +stroll about over the great down, looking down on the blue water below. + +It was a perfect afternoon. Little white clouds drifted here and there +over the tops of the wooded hills, but they only made the sky more +deeply and intensely blue. There was just enough breeze to ripple the +water so that it caught every sunbeam, and set it dancing on the +tremulous surface. Below her a fish-hawk poised and dipped, seeking his +dinner; far out, two black specks showed where her friends were at their +"sport." Margaret drew a long breath of content. + +"Oh, pleasant place!" she said. "How glad I am that I am not in that +boat. Oh, pleasant place!" + +She looked about her with happy eyes. Before her, the earth fell away in +an abrupt descent to the lake, steep enough to be dignified by the name +of precipice; but behind and on either hand it rolled away in billowy +slopes of green, crowned here and there with patches of wood, and +crossed by irregular lines of stone wall. + +"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret a third time. "How many beautiful +places I know! What a wonderful world of beauty it is!" + +Her mind went back to Fernley House, the beloved home where she lived +with her uncle John Montfort: to the rose-garden, where they loved to +work together, the sunny lawns, the shady alleys of box and laurel, the +arbors of honeysuckle and grape-vine. She could almost see the beloved +uncle, pruning-knife in hand, bending over his roses; if only he did not +cut back the Ramblers too far! She could almost see her little cousins, +her children, as she called them, Basil and Susan D., running about with +their butterfly-nets, shouting and calling to each other. Did they think +of her, as she hourly thought of them? Did Uncle John miss her? She must +always miss him, no matter how happy she might be with other friends. A +wave of homesickness ran through her, and brought the quick tears to her +eyes; but she brushed them away with an indignant little shake of her +head. + +"Goose!" she said. "When will you learn that it is a physical +impossibility to be in two places at once? You don't want to leave this +beautiful place and these dear people yet? Of course, you don't! Well, +then, don't behave so! But all the same, it would be good to hear Uncle +John's voice!" + +At this moment she heard,--not the beloved voice for which she +longed,--but certainly a sound, breaking the stillness of the afternoon; +a sound made neither by wind nor water. It did not sound like a bird, +either; nor--a beast? + +"Oh, to be sure!" thought Margaret. "It may be a sheep. I saw the flock +up there this morning. Of course, it is a sheep." + +The sound came again, louder this time, and nearer; something between a +snorting and a blowing; it must be a very large sheep to make such a +loud noise. + +Margaret turned to look behind her; but it was not a sheep that she +saw. + +Just behind the rock on which she was sitting the land rose in a high, +green shoulder, on the farther side of which it sloped gradually down to +a little valley. Over this shoulder now appeared--a head! A head five +times as big as that of the biggest sheep that ever bore fleece; a head +crowned by long, sharp, dangerous-looking horns. And now, as Margaret +sat transfixed with terror, another head appeared, and another, and +still another; till a whole herd of cattle stood on the ridge looking +down at her. + +Jet black, of colossal size, with gleaming eyes and quivering nostrils, +they were formidable creatures to any eyes; but to poor Margaret's they +were monsters as terrible as griffin or dragon. All cattle, even the +mildest old Brindle that ever stood to be milked, were objects of dire +alarm to her, but she had never seen animals like these. Tales of the +wild cattle of Chillingham, of the fierce herds that roam the Western +prairies and the pampas of the South, rushed to her mind. She felt fear +stealing over her, a wild, unreasoning panic which neither strength nor +reason could resist. She dared not move; she dared not cry out for help; +indeed, who was there to hear if she did cry? She sat still on her rock, +her hands clasped together, her eyes, wide with terror, fixed on the +enemy. + +The leader of the herd met her gaze with one which to her excited fancy +seemed threatening and sinister. For a moment he stood motionless; then, +tossing his head with its gleaming horns, and uttering another loud +snort, he took a step toward her; the rest followed. Another step and +another. Margaret glanced wildly around her. On one side was the +precipice, on either hand a wide stretch of open meadow; no hope of +escape. She must meet her death here, then, alone, with no human eye to +see, no human hand to help her in her extremity. She crouched down on +the rock, and covered her eyes with her hands. The cattle drew nearer. +Snuffing the air, tossing their horns, with outstretched necks and eager +eyes, step by step they advanced. Now they were close about her, their +giant forms blocking the sunlight, their gleaming eyes fixed upon her. +Margaret felt her senses deserting her; but suddenly--hark! another +sound fell on her ear; a sound clear, resonant, jubilant; the sound of a +human voice, singing: + + "I'm an honest lad, though I be poor, + And I niver was in love afore--" + +"_Gerald!_" cried Margaret. "Gerald, help!" and she dropped quietly off +the rock, under the very feet of the black cattle. + +When she came to herself, she was propped against the rock, and Gerald +was fanning her with his cap and gazing at her with eyes of anxiety and +tenderness, which yet had a twinkle in their depths. + +"Better?" he asked, as he had asked once before under somewhat similar +circumstances. "Do say you are better, please! The house isn't on fire +this time, and neither is the Thames." + +Margaret struggled into a sitting posture. "Oh! Gerald," she said, "I am +so ashamed! You will think I am always fainting, and, indeed, I never +have in all my life except these two times. But they were so +terrible--ah! there they are still." + +Indeed, the herd of cattle was standing near, still gazing with gleaming +eyes; but, somehow, the look of ferocity was gone. She could even +see--with Gerald beside her--that they were noble-looking creatures. + +"Oh, no!" said Gerald. "Don't call them terrible; you will hurt their +poor old feelings. I know them of old, Horatio; fellows of infinite +jest." + +"Are they--are they tame?" asked Margaret, in amazement. + +"Tame? I should say so. Look at this fellow! I have known him from a +calf. Did um want um's nosy rubbed?" he added, addressing the huge +leader, who was snuffing nearer and nearer. "Come along, then, Popolorum +Tibby, and tell um's prettiest aunt not to be afraid of um any more." + +"But--but they came all around me!" said poor Margaret. + +"Small blame to them! Showed their good sense, not to say their taste. +But to be wholly candid, they came for salt." + +"For salt? Those great monsters?" + +"To be sure! Ellis, the farmer, makes regular pets of them, and I always +put a lump of salt in my pocket when I am coming their way. I never saw +them in this pasture before, though; the fence must be broken. I believe +I have some grains of salt left now. See him take it like a lady!" + +He held out his hand, with a little heap of salt in it. The huge ox came +forward, stepping daintily, with neck outstretched and nostrils spread; +put out a tongue like a pink sickle, and neatly, with one comprehensive +lick, swept off every particle of salt, and looked his appreciation. + +Gerald patted the great muzzle affectionately. + +"Good old Blunderbore!" he said. "I almost carried you when you were a +day old, though you may not believe it. Come, Margaret, give him a pat, +and say you bear no malice." + +Margaret put out a timid hand and patted the great black head. +Blunderbore snuffed and blew, and expressed his friendliness in every +way he could. + +"Why, he is a dear, gentle creature!" said the girl. "I shall never be +afraid of him again. And yet--oh, Gerald, I am so glad you came!" + +"So am I!" said Gerald. + +"Because," Margaret went on, "of course, I see how silly and foolish I +was; but all the same, I was terribly frightened, and I really don't +know what would have become of me if you had not come, Gerald." + +"But I did come, Margaret! I will always come, whenever you want me, if +it is across the world." + +"But--you must think me so _very_ silly, Gerald!" + +"Do you wish to know what I think of you?" asked Gerald. + +Margaret was silent. + +"Because, for the insignificant sum of two cents, I would tell you," he +went on. + +"I haven't two cents with me," said Margaret. "I think it is time to go +home now, Gerald." + +"Generosity is part of my nature," said Gerald; "I'll tell you for +nothing. Margaret--sit down, please!" + +Margaret had risen to her feet. The words had the old merry ring, but a +deep note quivered in his voice. The girl was afraid, she knew not of +what; afraid, yet with a fear that was half joy. "I--I must go, Gerald, +indeed!" she said, faintly. + +"You must not go," said Gerald, gravely. "It is not all play, Margaret, +between you and me. My cap and bells are off now, and you must hear what +I have to say." + +Margaret, still hesitating, looked up in his face, and saw something +there that brought the sweet color flooding over her neck and brow, so +swift and hot that instinctively she hid her face in her hands. + +But gently, tenderly, Gerald Merryweather drew the slender hands away, +and held them close in his own. + +"My dearest girl," said the young man, "my dearest love, you are not +afraid of me? Sit down by me; sit down, my Margaret, and let me tell you +what my heart has been saying ever since the day I first saw you." + +So dear Margaret sat down, perhaps because she could hardly stand, and +listened. And the black cattle listened, too, and so did the fish-hawk +overhead, and the little birds peeping from their nest in the birch wood +close at hand; but none of them ever told what Gerald said. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE SNOWY OWL + + +"I THINK it is a horrid bother, if you want to know!" said Willy. + +"Willy Merryweather! aren't you ashamed of yourself? I never heard +anything so odious, when we are all so happy, and everything is so +perfectly lovely. I don't see what you mean." + +"I don't care, it _is_ a bother. Nothing is the way it used to be; it's +all nothing but spooning, all over the lot." + +"I should not think you would use vulgar expressions, anyhow, Willy." + +"'Spooning' isn't vulgar," said Willy, sulkily. "I've heard Pa say it, +so there! And--look here, Kitty! Of course, it's all corking, and so on, +and anyhow, girls like that kind of fuss; but it does spoil everything, +I tell you. Why, Pa couldn't get a crew for the war canoe yesterday. He +wanted to go to Pine Cove--at least I did, awfully, and he said all +right, so we would; and then Jerry was off with Margaret in the +_Keewaydin_, and Bell and Jack were out in the woods fiddling, and Peggy +and Phil--I say, Kitty! You don't suppose _they_ are going to get +spoony, do you?" + +Kitty looked very wise, and pursed her lips and nodded her head with an +air of deep mystery. + +"You don't!" repeated Willy, looking aghast. + +"Hush, Willy!" said Kitty. "Don't say a word! don't breathe it to +anybody! I hope--I _think_ they are!" + +"What a mean, horrid shame!" cried Willy, indignantly. "I do think it is +disgusting." + +His sister turned on him with flashing eyes. "It is you that is the +shame!" she cried. "It is you who ought to be ashamed, Willy. Do you +want poor Phil to be all alone when Jerry is married? Do you know that +twins sometimes pine away and _die_, Willy Merryweather, when the other +of them dies?" + +"Jerry isn't going to die," said Willy, uncomfortably. "What nonsense +you talk, Kitty." + +"Well, marries. I should think very likely they would, then, if they +didn't get married themselves. I think you are perfectly heartless, +Willy. And dear Peggy, too, so nice and jolly! and if she goes away back +out West _without_ falling in love with Phil, we may never, never see +her again; and she has promised me a puppy of the very next litter +Simmerimmeris has. So there!" + +Willy was silent for a moment, kicking the pebbles thoughtfully. + +"Do you think she is--that?" he asked at length, shamefacedly. + +"Of course I don't _know_!" said Kitty, judicially. "Of course very +likely nothing is positively decided yet; but I am sure she likes him +very, very much, and he takes her out whenever he has a chance." + +"There's nobody else for him to take out," put in Willy; "the others are +all spoon--" + +"Willy, don't be tiresome! and just think! if they should get married +and go to live out West, then you and I could both go out to see them, +and ride all the ponies, and punch the cows, and have real lassoes, +and--and--" + +The children were coming home through the wood. Kitty's voice had +gradually risen, till now it was a shrill squeak of excitement; but at +this moment it broke off suddenly, for there was a rustling of branches, +and the next moment Gertrude stood before them with grave looks. + +"My dear chicks," she said, "you must not talk so loud. I was in the +pine parlor, and could not help hearing the last part of what you were +saying. And anyhow, I would not talk about such things, if I were you. +Suppose Peggy had been with me! How do you think she would have felt? +Mammy would not like to have you gossiping in this foolish way." + +The children hung their heads. + +"Oh! Toots," said Kitty, "I am sorry! I didn't realize that we were +getting anywhere near the house. We were only thinking--at least I +was--how lovely it would be if Peggy and Phil should--" + +"Kitty dear, hush!" said Gertrude, decidedly. "You would better not +think, and you certainly _must not_ talk, about anything of the kind. +There are enough real love-affairs to interest you, you little +match-maker, without your building castles in the air. Let Peggy and +Phil alone!" + +"I should think there were!" said Willy. "That's just what I was saying, +Toots; it's nothing but spooning, all over the place. There's no fun +anywhere; this wretched love-making spoils everything. _I_ think it's +perfectly childish." + +"Do you, Willy dear?" said his sister; and her smile was very sweet as +she laid her hand on the boy's shoulder. + +"Yes, I do. Here are the white perch rising like a house afire, and I +can't get a soul to go with me. It was just the same yesterday, and it's +like that almost every day now." + +"Oh, Willy! I'll go with you," cried Kitty, eagerly. "Why didn't you +tell me the perch were rising? Let's come right along this minute. Toots +will help us with the boat, won't you, Toots?" + +"Yes, I'll help!" said the Snowy Owl. + +Ten minutes later the white boat was speeding on her way to the +fishing-ground, the little rowers bending to their oars, chattering +merrily as they went. + +"That's one comfort!" Willy was saying. "We've got Toots. Nobody will +get her away from us." + +"I should hope not," said Kitty. "There's nobody good enough, in the +first place; and besides, of course somebody must stay with Papa and +Mamma." + +"I suppose you will be grown up yourself some day!" said Willy, gruffly. + +"I shall be likely to marry very young," said Kitty, seriously. "I heard +Aunt Anna say so." + +Gertrude stood on the wharf, looking after the retreating boat. "Poor +Willy!" she said, with a smile; "it _is_ hard on him!" + +She looked around her. It was afternoon, a still, golden day. The lake +was as she loved best to see it, a sheet of living crystal, here deep +blue, here glittering in gold and diamonds, here giving back shades of +crimson and russet from the autumn woods that crowded down to the +water's edge. Far out, her eye caught a white flash, the gleam of a +paddle; there was another, just at the bend of the shore; and was that +dark spot the prow of a third canoe, moored in the fairy cove of Birch +Island? Gertrude smiled again, and her smile said many things. + +Presently she raised her arms above her head, and brought them down +slowly, with a powerful gesture. "How good it would be to fly!" she +said, dreamily. "To fly away up to the iceberg country, where the snowy +owls live!" + +She stood for a long time silent, gazing out over the shining water. At +last she shook herself with a little laugh, and turned away. The white +canoe, her own especial pet, was lying on the wharf. She launched it +carefully, then taking her paddle, knelt down in the bow. A few long, +swift strokes, and the canoe shot out over the lake, and rested like a +great white bird with folded wings, then glided slowly on again. It was +a pity there was none to see, for the picture was a fair one: the +stately maiden kneeling, her golden hair sweeping about her, her white +arms rising and falling slowly, rhythmically, in perfect grace. + +"Tu-whoo!" said the Snowy Owl. + +But only the loon answered her. + + +THE END. + + + + +BOOKS FOR GIRLS + +By Laura E. Richards + + +_The_ MARGARET SERIES + + Three Margarets + Margaret Montfort + Peggy + Rita + Fernley House + + +_The_ HILDEGARDE SERIES + + Queen Hildegarde + Hildegarde's Holiday + Hildegarde's Home + Hildegarde's Neighbors + Hildegarde's Harvest + + +DANA ESTES & COMPANY + +Publishers + +Estes Press, Summer St., Boston + + + + +The Captain January Series + +By LAURA E. RICHARDS + +Over 350,000 copies of these books have been sold + + CAPTAIN JANUARY $ .50 + Same. Illustrated Holiday Edition 1.25 + Same. Centennial Edition Limited 2.50 + + MELODY .50 + Same. Illustrated Holiday Edition 1.25 + + MARIE .50 + + ROSIN THE BEAU .50 + + NARCISSA .50 + + SOME SAY .50 + + JIM OF HELLAS .50 + + SNOW WHITE .50 + +Each volume attractively bound in cloth, with handsome new cover design. +Frontispiece by Frank T. Merrill + +DANA ESTES & COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + +Estes Press, Summer Street, Boston + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 10, "Bellville" changed to "Belleville" (Mr. Claud Belleville) + +Page 11, "282" changed to "281" (See page 281) + +Page 45, "develope" changed to "develop" (symptoms develop which) + +Page 78, double word "and" removed (must go and tell) Original read +(must go and and tell) + +Page 132, "Limavady" changed to "Limavaddy" (Peg of Limavaddy!") + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merryweathers, by Laura E. 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