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diff --git a/26215.txt b/26215.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8a073c --- /dev/null +++ b/26215.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8532 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation, by +Annie Fellows Johnston + +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 Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation + +Author: Annie Fellows Johnston + +Illustrator: Etheldred B. Barry + +Release Date: August 8, 2008 [EBook #26215] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +_The_ LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION + +ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON + + + + +THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION + + + + +Works of ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON The Little Colonel Series + + (_Trade Mark, Reg. U.S. Pat. Of._) + Each one vol., large 12mo, cloth, illustrated + + The Little Colonel Stories $1.50 + (Containing in one volume the three stories, "The + Little Colonel," "The Giant Scissors," and + "Two Little Knights of Kentucky.") + + The Little Colonel's House Party 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Holidays 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Hero 1.50 + The Little Colonel at Boarding-School 1.50 + The Little Colonel in Arizona 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation 1.50 + The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding 1.50 + The above 9 vols., _boxed_ 13.50 + _In Preparation_--A New Little Colonel Book 1.50 + + The Little Colonel Good Times Book 1.50 + + +Illustrated Holiday Editions + + Each one vol., small quarto, cloth, illustrated, and printed + in colour + + The Little Colonel $1.25 + The Giant Scissors 1.25 + Two Little Knights of Kentucky 1.25 + Big Brother 1.25 + + +Cosy Corner Series + + Each one vol., thin 12mo, cloth, illustrated + The Little Colonel $.50 + The Giant Scissors .50 + Two Little Knights of Kentucky .50 + Big Brother .50 + Ole Mammy's Torment .50 + The Story of Dago .50 + Cicely .50 + Aunt 'Liza's Hero .50 + The Quilt that Jack Built .50 + Flip's "Islands of Providence" .50 + Mildred's Inheritance .50 + + +Other Books + + Joel: A Boy of Galilee $1.50 + In the Desert of Waiting .50 + The Three Weavers .50 + Keeping Tryst .50 + The Legend of the Bleeding Heart .50 + Asa Holmes 1.00 + Songs Ysame (Poems, with Albion Fellows Bacon) 1.00 + + L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + 200 Summer Street Boston, Mass. + +[Illustration: "'GEE WHIZ!' EXCLAIMED ROB, IN A TEASING TONE, 'SAY THAT +AGAIN, WON'T YOU PLEASE?'" (_See page 163_)] + + + + + +The Little Colonel's + +Christmas Vacation + +By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON + + Author of "The Little Colonel Series," "Big Brother," + "Ole Mammy's Torment," "Joel: A Boy of Galilee," + "Asa Holmes," etc. + +Illustrated by ETHELDRED B. BARRY + + BOSTON * L. C. PAGE + & COMPANY * PUBLISHERS + + + + + _Copyright, 1905_ + + By L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + + (Incorporated) + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + Published October, 1905 + + + + Ninth Impression, June, 1908 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. WARWICK HALL 1 + II. "THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME TO THE NEW" 22 + III. AN EXCURSION 46 + IV. "KEEP TRYST" 70 + V. A MEMORY-BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 95 + VI. CHRISTMAS CAROLS 121 + VII. HOMEWARD BOUND 138 + VIII. A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 156 + IX. A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 176 + X. THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 198 + XI. IN THE ATTIC 218 + XII. HUMDRUM DAYS 235 + XIII. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 254 + XIV. "CINDERELLA" 273 + XV. A HARD-EARNED PEARL 292 + XVI. "SWEET SIXTEEN" 315 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "'GEE WHIZ!' EXCLAIMED ROB, IN A TEASING TONE. + 'SAY THAT AGAIN, WON'T YOU PLEASE?'" + (_See page 163_) _Frontispiece_ + + "MADAM'S CONVERSATION LED FAR AWAY FROM THE + CREST AND ITS LESSON" 25 + + "STUDYING THE FACE OF THE HANDSOME YOUNG FELLOW + WITH INTEREST" 105 + + "'I TELL YOU SOMEBODY WAS TRYING TO SANDBAG ME'" 152 + + "ONE OF THE BOYS HAD DARED HIM TO CARRY IT" 221 + + "'I NEARLY FAINTED WHEN I HAPPENED TO LOOK UP'" 248 + + "SHE RODE OVER TO ROLLINGTON" 299 + + "'NO MATTAH WHAT LIES AHEAD . . . I'LL NOT + DISAPPOINT THEM'" 333 + + + + +THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +WARWICK HALL + + +WARWICK HALL looked more like an old English castle than a modern +boarding-school for girls. Gazing at its high towers and massive portal, +one almost expected to see some velvet-clad page or lady-in-waiting come +down the many flights of marble steps leading between stately terraces +to the river. Even a knight with a gerfalcon on his wrist would not have +seemed out of place, and if a slow-going barge had trailed by between +the willow-fringed banks of the Potomac, it would have seemed more in +keeping with the scene than the steamboats puffing past to Mount Vernon, +with crowds of excursionists on deck. + +The gorgeous peacocks strutting along the terraces in the sun were +partly responsible for this impression of mediaeval grandeur. It was for +that very purpose that Madam Chartley, the head of the school, kept the +peacocks. That was one reason, also, that she proudly retained the coat +of arms in the great stained glass window over the stairs, when +circumstances obliged her to turn her ancestral home into a +boarding-school. She thought a sense of mediaeval grandeur was good for +girls, especially young American girls, who are apt to be brought up +without proper respect for age, either of individuals or institutions. + +In the dining-room, two long lines of portraits looked down from +opposite walls. One was headed by a grim old earl, and the other by an +equally grim old Pilgrim father of _Mayflower_ fame. The two lines +joined over the fireplace in the portraits of Madam Chartley's +great-grandparents. It was for this great-grandmother, a daughter of the +Pilgrims and a beautiful Washington belle, that Warwick Hall had been +built; for she refused to give up her native land entirely, even for the +son of an earl. + +At his death, when the title and the English estates were inherited by a +distant cousin, the only male heir, this place on the Potomac was all +that was left to her and her daughter. It had been closed for two +generations. Now it had come down at last to Madam Chartley. Although +it found her too poor to keep up such an establishment, it also found +her too proud to let her heritage go to strangers, and practical enough +to find some way by which she might retain it comfortably. That way was +to turn it into a first-class boarding-school. She was a graduate of one +of the best American colleges. The patrician standards inherited from +her old world ancestors, combined with the energy and common sense of +the new, made her an ideal woman to undertake the education of young +girls, and Warwick Hall was an ideal place in which to carry out her +wise theories. + +The Potomac was red with the glow of the sunset one September evening, +when four girls, on their way back to Washington after a day's +sightseeing, hurried to the upper deck of the steamboat. Some one had +called out that Warwick Hall was in sight. In their haste to reach the +railing, they scarcely noticed a tall girl in blue, already standing +there, who obligingly moved along to make room for them. + +She scrutinized them closely, however, for she had seen them in the +cabin a little while before, and their conversation had been so amusing +that she longed to make their acquaintance. Her face brightened +expectantly at their approach, and, as they leaned over the railing, she +studied them with growing interest. The oldest one was near her own age, +she decided after a careful survey, about seventeen; and they were all +particular about the little things that count so much with fastidious +schoolgirls. She approved of each one of them from their broad silk +shoe-laces to the pink tips of their carefully manicured finger-nails. + +As the boat swung around a bend in the river, bringing the castle-like +building into full view, a chorus of delighted exclamations broke out +all along the deck. The four girls hung over the railing with eager +faces. + +"Look, Lloyd, look!" cried one of them, excitedly. "Peacocks on the +terraces! It's the finishing touch to the picture. We'll feel like Lady +Clare walking down those marble steps. There surely must be a milk-white +doe somewhere in the background." + +"Oh, Betty, Betty!" was the laughing answer. "You'll do nothing now but +quote Tennyson and write poetry from mawning till night." + +"They're from Kentucky," thought the girl in blue. "I'm sure of it from +the way they talk." + +As the boat glided slowly along, Lloyd threw her arm around the girl +beside her, with an impulsive squeeze. + +"Kitty Walton," she exclaimed, "aren't you _glad_ that the old +Lloydsboro Seminary burned down? If it hadn't, we wouldn't be on ouah +way now to that heavenly-looking boahding-school!" + +The sudden hug loosened Kitty's hat, held insecurely by one pin, and in +another instant the strong breeze would have carried it over into the +river had not the girl in blue caught it as it swept past her. She +handed it back with a friendly smile, glad of an opportunity to speak. + +"You are new pupils for Warwick Hall, aren't you?" she asked, when Kitty +had laughingly thanked her. "I hope so, for I'm one of the old girls. +This will be my third year." + +"How perfectly lovely!" exclaimed Kitty. "We've been fairly crazy to +meet some one from there. Do tell us if it is as fine as it looks, and +as the catalogue says." + +"It is the very nicest place in the world," was the enthusiastic reply. +"There are hardly any rules, and none of them are the kind that rub you +up the wrong way. We don't have to wear uniforms, and we're not marched +out to walk in wholesale lots like prisoners in a chain-gang." + +"That's what I used to despise at the Seminary," interrupted Lloyd. "I +always felt like pah't of a circus parade, or an inmate of some asylum, +out for an airing. Keeping in step and keeping in line with a lot of +othahs made a punishment out of the walk, when it would have been such a +pleasuah if we could have skipped along as we pleased. I felt resentful +from the moment the gong rang for us to stah't. It had such a bossy, +tyrannical sawt of sound." + +"You'll not find it that way at Warwick Hall," was the emphatic answer. +"There are bells for rising and chapel and meals, but the signal for +exercise is a hunter's horn, blown on the upper terrace. There's +something so breezy and out-of-doors in the sound that it is almost as +irresistible a call as the Pied Piper of Hamelin's. You ought to see the +doors fly open along the corridors, and the girls pour out when that +horn blows. We can go in twos or threes or squads, any way we please, +and in any direction, so long as we keep inside the grounds. There's an +orchard to stroll through, and a wooded hillside, and a big meadow. On +bad days there is over half a mile of gravel road that runs through the +grounds to the trolley station, or we can take our exercise going round +and round the garden walks. The garden is over there at the left of the +Hall," she explained, waving her hand toward it. "Do you see that +pergola stretching along the highest terrace? That is where the garden +begins, and the ivy running over it was started from a slip that Madam +Chartley brought from Sir Walter Scott's home at Abbotsford. + +"It is the stateliest old garden you ever saw, and the pride of the +school. There's a sun-dial in it, and hollyhocks from Ann Hathaway's +cottage, and rhododendrons from Killarney. There's all the flowers +mentioned in the old songs. Madam has brought slips and roots and seeds +from all sorts of places, so that nearly every plant is connected with +some noted place or person. I simply love it. In warm weather I get up +early in the morning, and study my Latin out in the honeysuckle arbour. +Latin is my hardest study, but it doesn't seem half so hard out there +among the bees and hummingbirds, where it's all so sweet and still." + +"Oh, will they let you do things like that?" came the same amazed +question from all four at once. + +"You wait and see," was the encouraging reply. "That isn't the +beginning." + +The four exchanged ecstatic glances. + +"Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves," exclaimed Kitty, bethinking +herself of formalities. "I am Katherine Walton, and this is my big +sister, Allison. That is Lloyd Sherman and Elizabeth Lewis. They're +almost as good as sisters, for they live together, and Lloyd's mother is +Betty's godmother. And we're all from the same place, Lloydsboro Valley, +Kentucky." + +"And I am Juliet Lynn from Wisconsin. That is, I lived there till papa +had to come to Washington. He's a Congressman now. I was sure that you +were from Kentucky, and I've been hoping that you were new girls for the +Hall ever since I heard you talking about some house-party where you all +did such funny things." + +"Oh, yes, that was one we had this summer at The Beeches," began Kitty, +glibly, "when we all took turns--" + +But, with a big-sister frown of warning, Allison said, in a low aside: +"For pity's sake, don't stop to tell all that long rigmarole over _now_. +We want to hear some more about the school." + +"What is Madam Chartley herself like?" she asked, turning to Juliet. +"She must be something of an old dragon if she can keep forty girls +straight with so few rules. We've pictured her as a big British +matron, dignified and imposing,--a sort of lioness rampant, you know, +with a stern air, as if she was about to say in a deep voice, +'England--expects--every--man--to--do--his--duty,--sir!'" + +"But she isn't that way at all!" cried Juliet, almost indignantly. +"She's just as American as you are, for she was born and educated in +this country. She has the gentlest voice and sweetest manner. Her hair +is snow-white, and there's something awfully aristocratic about her, for +she is--sort of--well, I hardly know how to express it, but just what +you'd expect the 'daughter of a hundred earls' to be, you know. But you +won't feel one bit in awe of her. The girls simply adore her." + +"But isn't she something to be afraid of when you break the rules?" +queried Kitty, anxiously. "When you have midnight feasts and pillow-case +prowls and all that?" + +Juliet shook her head. "We don't do those things. I tell you it isn't +like any other boarding-school you ever heard of." + +"Then I know I sha'n't like it," declared Kitty. "All my life I've +looked forward to going off to school just for the jolly good times I'd +have. You see we were only day-pupils at Lloydsboro Seminary, and there +wasn't a chance for that kind of fun, except the one term when Lloyd and +Betty boarded in the school while their family was away from home. We +managed to stir up a little excitement then, and I'd hoped for all sorts +of thrilling adventures here. I'm horribly disappointed that it's so +tame and goody-goody." + +Juliet's face coloured resentfully. "It isn't tame at all!" she +declared. "It's only that we are always so busy doing pleasant things +and going to interesting places that nobody cares for stolen spreads. +Some girls don't like the place just at first, because it's so different +from what they've been used to. But by the end of the term they're so in +love with Warwick Hall and everything about it that nothing could induce +them to change schools. There's only one girl I ever heard of who didn't +like it." + +"And why didn't she?" asked Lloyd and Allison, in the same breath. + +"Well, she came from some ranch away out West, Wyoming or Nevada or some +of those places, where she'd been as free and easy as a squaw, and she +couldn't stand so much civilization. You see, from the minute you enter +Warwick Hall you feel somehow that you're a guest of Madam Chartley's +instead of a pupil. She uses the old family silver and the china has her +great-grandfather's crest on it, and she brought over a London butler +who grew up in the family service. She keeps him for the same reason +that she keeps the peacocks, I suppose. They give such a grand air to +the place. + +"Lida Wilsy--that's the girl from the ranch--couldn't live up to so much +stateliness, especially of the stony-eyed butler. Hawkins was too much +for her. She told her roommate that she thought it was foolish to have +so many forks and spoons at each place. One was enough for anybody to +get through a dinner with. Life was too short for so much fuss and +feathers. She never could learn which to use first, and she would get +her silverware so hopelessly mixed up that by the time dessert was +brought on maybe she would have nothing to eat it with but an oyster +fork. I've seen her ready to go under the table from embarrassment. Not +that she cared so much what the girls thought. She joked about it to +them. Her father owned the biggest part of a silver mine, and they could +have had Tiffany's whole stock of forks if they'd wanted them. It was +Hawkins she was afraid of. Of course he was too well trained to show +what he thought of her mistakes, but you couldn't help feeling his high +and mighty inward scorn of such ignorance. It fairly oozed from his +finger-tips." + +Kitty's black eyes sparkled, anticipating times ahead when she would +certainly make it lively for Hawkins. + +"There's grandfathah!" cried Lloyd, catching sight of a white-haired old +gentleman who had just come up on deck. "I want to tell him about the +garden before we lose sight of it." + +Juliet's glance followed her with interest as she darted away, for it +was a distinguished-looking old gentleman who lifted his hat with +elaborate courtesy at her approach. He was dressed in white duck, and +the right coat-sleeve hung empty. + +"It's Colonel Lloyd," explained Allison, noting Juliet's glance of +curiosity. "He's bringing us all to school, for it wasn't convenient for +mother or Mrs. Sherman to come." + +"They don't look alike," remarked Juliet, surveying them with a puzzled +expression. "But what is it about them--there is such a startling +resemblance?" + +"Everybody notices it," said Kitty. "When Lloyd was smaller, they used +to call her the Little Colonel all the time, but especially when she was +in a temper. They call her Princess now." + +"Princess," echoed Juliet. "That name suits her exactly." + +She cast another admiring glance at the slender, fair-haired girl, +standing with her hand in her grandfather's arm, pointing out the +beauties of the place they were slowly passing. + +"And she will suit Warwick Hall," she added, with a sudden burst +of schoolgirl enthusiasm, "just as the peacocks suit it, and the +coat of arms, and Madam Chartley herself. She's got that same +'daughter-of-a-hundred-earls' air about her that Madam has." + +"Oh, it all sounds so delightful and fascinating," sighed Betty, pushing +back the brown hair that blew in little curls about her face, and +smiling at the slowly disappearing Hall with a happy light in her brown +eyes. "I can hardly wait for to-morrow." + +The boat had glided on until only the high, square tower was left in +view, with the red sunset glow upon it. + + "'The splendour falls on castle walls + And snowy summits old in story'"-- + +Betty sang half under her breath, with a farewell flutter of her +handkerchief, as the boat rounded a bend in the river which hid the +tower from sight. Already she was in love with the place, and already, +as Lloyd had predicted, she was fitting some line of Tennyson to it at +every turn. + +Acquaintance progressed rapidly in the next half-hour. Long before they +reached Washington, Juliet knew, not only that she had guessed Allison's +age correctly at seventeen, that Betty was sixteen, and Lloyd and Kitty +a year younger, but that each girl in her own way would make a desirable +friend. Incidentally she learned that Allison and Kitty had lived in the +Philippines, and were daughters of the brave General Walton who had lost +his life there in his country's service. When they parted at the +boat-landing, it was with delightful anticipations of the next day, and +with each one eager to renew an acquaintance so pleasantly begun. + + * * * * * + +If Warwick Hall suggested ancient stateliness on the outside, it was +informal and frivolous enough within, when forty girls were taking +possession of their rooms on the opening day of the school year. In and +out like a flock of twittering sparrows, the old pupils darted from one +room to another, exchanging calls and greetings, laughing over old jokes +and reminiscences, and settling down into familiar corners with an ease +that the new girls envied. + +Juliet Lynn, quickly establishing herself in her last year's quarters, +started down the corridor to announce at every door that she was the +first one unpacked and settled. All the other rooms were in hopeless +confusion, beds, chairs, and floors being piled with the contents of +open trunks. + +At the first door where she paused, a shower of shoes and slippers was +the only answer to her triumphant announcement. At the next a laughing +cry of "Help! help!" greeted her. At the third she was informed that +there was standing-room only. + +"Don't you believe it, Juliet!" called a gay voice from the chiffonier, +where an earlier visitor was perched. "There's always room at the top. +I've discovered where Min keeps her butter-scotch. Come in and have +some." + +"No, I'm going the rounds to see what everybody is about," she answered. +"You're all in such a mess now, I'd rather look in later. I'm one of the +early settlers, and have been in order for ages." + +"What's the odds so long as you're happy?" called the girl on the +chiffonier. "Besides, it's no better next door. They'll invite you to +make yourself at home under the bed, as they did me. Come on back and +tell us your summer's experiences. Min has had one dizzy whirl of +adventures after another." + +But Juliet kept on down the hall. She wanted to find what rooms had been +assigned to the girls whom she had met the day before on the boat, and +to hear their first impressions of Warwick Hall. Presently, through a +half-open door, she caught sight of Betty, sitting at an open window +overlooking the river. With chin in hand and elbows resting on the sill, +she was gazing dreamily out at the willow-fringed banks, so absorbed in +her thoughts that she did not hear Juliet's first knock. But at the +second she started up and called cordially: "Oh, I'm so glad to see you! +Come in!" + +"Why, you're all unpacked and put away, too!" exclaimed Juliet, in +surprise, looking around the orderly room. "I thought that I was the +only one, but I see you've even hung your pictures." + +"Yes, we don't know any of the other girls yet, so we didn't lose any +time running back and forth to their rooms, as everybody else is doing. +We've been through ever so long. Lloyd is out exploring the grounds +with Allison, but I was too tired after all the sightseeing we have +done. I'd be glad not to stir out of my room for a week." + +She pushed a rocking-chair hospitably toward her guest, and leaned back +in the opposite one. + +"I don't want to sit down," said Juliet. "I'm just exploring. I think +it's so much fun to poke around the first day and see how everybody is +fixed. You don't mind, do you, if I walk around and look at your +pictures?" + +"No, indeed!" answered Betty, cordially. "Help yourself." + +Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she sat up straight in her +chair, and adjusted the side-combs which were slipping out of her curly +hair. It was a pleasing reflection that the mirror showed her, of a slim +girl in a linen shirt-waist and a dark brown skirt just reaching to her +ankles. But it held her gaze only long enough for her to see that her +belt was properly pulled down and her stock all that could be desired. +The friendly brown eyes and the trusting little mouth never needed +readjustment. They always met the world with a smile, and thus far the +world had always smiled back at them. + +"Last year," said Juliet, as she wandered around, "the girl who had this +room simply plastered the walls with posters. It was so sporty-looking. +She had hunting scenes between these windows, and there was a frieze of +hounds and a yard of puppies where you have that panel of photographs. +Oh, what perfectly beautiful places!" she cried, moving nearer. "Do tell +me about them. Is that where you live?" + +"Yes, this is our Lloydsboro Valley corner--the Happy Valley we call +it," answered Betty, crossing the room to point out the various places: +"Locust," her home and Lloyd's, a stately white-pillared mansion at the +end of a long locust avenue; "The Beeches," where the Waltons lived; the +vine-covered stone church; the old mill; the post-office, and a row of +snap shots showing Lloyd and her mounted on their ponies, Tarbaby and +Lad. + +"What good times you must have there!" sighed Juliet, presently. + +Betty opened a drawer in the writing-desk and took out six little books, +bound in white kid, her initials stamped in gold on each cover. + +"Just see how many!" she exclaimed. "I started to keep a record of all +my good times when I went to Lloyd's first house-party. When godmother +gave me this volume, number one, I thought it would take a lifetime to +fill it, but so many lovely things happened that summer that it was +full in a little while. Then I went abroad in the fall, and that trip +filled a volume. Now I am beginning the seventh." + +Juliet stared at the pile of white books in amazement. "What a lot of +work!" she cried. "Doesn't it take every bit of pleasure out of your +good times, thinking that you'll have to write all about it afterward? I +tried to keep a diary once, but it looked more like the report of a +weather bureau than anything else, and my small brother got hold of it +and mortified me nearly to death one night when we had company, by +quoting something from it. It sounded dreadfully sentimental, although +it hadn't seemed so when I wrote it. That's the trouble in keeping a +journal, don't you think so? You'll often put down something that seems +important at the time, but that sounds silly afterward." + +"No," said Betty, hesitatingly. "I always enjoy going back to read the +first volumes. It's interesting to see how one changes from year to year +in opinions as well as handwriting. See how little and cramped the +letters are in this first volume. It's good exercise, and, as I expect +to write a book some day, every bit of practice helps." + +Betty made the announcement as simply as if she had said she intended +to darn a stocking some day, and Juliet looked at her in open-mouthed +wonder. She had never encountered a girl of that species before, and +more than ever she felt that her friendship would be worth cultivating. +When she finally took her departure, there was no time for any further +tour of inspection, but she ran into several rooms on the way back to +her own to say, hastily: "Girls, do all you can to get that Kentucky +quartette into our sorority! I'll tell you about them later. We must +give them a grand rush to-morrow night at the old girls' welcome to the +new. I hope I'll get to take Elizabeth Lewis. My _dears_, she's a +perfect genius! She's written poems and plays that have been published, +and she's at work on a _book_!" + +As Juliet closed the door behind her, Betty took up the new volume in +the series of little white records, and began turning the blank pages. +Like the new school year, it lay spread out before her, white and fair, +hers to write therein as she chose. + +"And I'll try my hardest to make it the best and happiest record of them +all," she said to herself. As she dipped her pen into the ink, there was +a knock at the door, and a white-capped maid looked in. + +"Madam Chartley would be pleased to see you at once in the pink room, +miss," she announced, and Betty, much surprised, rose to answer the +unexpected summons. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME TO THE NEW" + + +AS Betty opened the door, she ran into Kitty Walton, who at sight of her +struck an attitude on the threshold, crossing her hands on her breast, +and rolling her eyes upward until only the whites were visible. + +"What new pose is this, you goose?" laughed Betty, shaking her gently by +one shoulder. + +"Don't laugh," was the solemn answer. "This is pious resignation to +fate." Then her hands dropped and she turned to Betty tragically. + +"I've just come from an interview with Madam Chartley," she explained. +"And what do you think? That blessed old soul expects me to live up to +the motto on her teacups! But how can I give Hawkins his just due _if_ I +do? I had the loveliest things planned for his tormenting, but I'd be +ashamed to look her in the face if she ever found me out after this +interview. + +"Oh, Betty, I don't want to renounce the world and the flesh and all the +other bad things this early in the term, but I'm afraid that I've +already done it. She's laid a spell on all of us." + +"Has she sent for Lloyd and Allison, too?" + +"Yes, Allison was the first victim. She came back in a regular +dare-to-be-a-Daniel mood, and announced that she intended to start in, +heart and soul, for the studio honours this year. Then Lloyd had her +turn, and she came back looking like Joan of Arc when she'd been +listening to the voices. I vowed she shouldn't have that effect on me, +but here I am, perfectly docile as you see, fangs drawn and claws cut. I +tremble for the effect on you, sweet innocent. Your wings will sprout +before you get back." + +Betty laughed and hurried past her down the stairs. Evidently it was +Madam's custom to make the acquaintance of her new girls in this way, +one at a time. Only fifteen freshmen were admitted each year, so it was +possible for her to take a personal interest in every pupil. + +Betty's heart fluttered expectantly as she paused an instant in the door +of the pink room. Madam Chartley had looked very imposing and dignified +as she presided at the lunch-table that noon, with the stately Hawkins +behind her chair and the stately portraits looking down from the walls. + +She looked now as if she might be the original of one of these old +portraits herself, as she sat there in the high-backed chair, with the +griffins carved on its teakwood frame. Her gray gown trailed around her +in graceful folds. There was a soft fall of lace at wrists and throat, +and her white hair had a sheen like silver against the pink brocade with +which the chair was upholstered. + +With a smile which seemed to take Betty straight into her confidence, +she held out her hand and drew her to a seat beside her. An +old-fashioned silver tea-service stood on a table at her elbow, and when +the maid had brought hot water, she busied herself in filling a cup for +Betty. + +"There!" she said, as she passed it to her. "There's nothing like a cozy +chat over a cup of tea for warming acquaintances into friends." + +Betty wondered, as she took a proffered slice of lemon, if Madam began +all her interviews in this way, and if she was to hear the same little +sermon about the crest on the ancestral teacups that Kitty had heard. It +certainly was an interesting crest. She lifted the fragile bit of china +for a closer survey. A mailed arm, rising out of a heart, clasped a +spear in its hand, and under it ran the motto, "I keep tryst." + +[Illustration: "MADAM'S CONVERSATION LED FAR AWAY FROM THE CREST AND ITS +LESSON"] + +But Madam's conversation led far away from the crest and its lesson. At +first it was about a quaint old English inn, where is served delicious +toasted scones with five o'clock tea. When she mentioned that, it was as +if they had discovered a mutual friend, for Betty cried out joyfully +that she had been there, and had spent a long rainy afternoon in one of +its rooms, where Scott had written many chapters of "Kenilworth." Betty +remembered afterward that not a word was said about school and its +obligations. It was of the Old Curiosity Shop they spoke, and the House +of Seven Gables. Madam promised to show her the autographs of Dickens +and Hawthorne, which she had in her collection, and a pen which had once +belonged to George Eliot. + +Then Betty found that Madam had known Miss Alcott, and, before she +realized what she was doing, she had thrown herself down impulsively on +the stool at her feet, and, with both hands clasping the griffin's head +on the arm of the high-backed chair, was asking a dozen eager questions +about "Little Women" and the author who had been her first inspiration +to write. + +Nearly an hour later, when she went back to her room, it was with +something singing in her heart that made her very solemn and very happy. +It was the immortal music of the Choir Invisible. She had been in the +unseen company of earth's best and noblest, and felt in her soul that +some day she, too, would have a right to be counted in that chorus, +having done something really great and worth while. + +That evening after dinner Kitty bounced into the room where Allison sat +talking with Lloyd and Betty during recreation hour. + +"To-morrow night there's to be the Old Girls' Welcome to the New!" she +cried. "Come on in, Juliet, and tell them about it." + +Juliet thrust her head through the half-open door. + +"Haven't time to stop," she answered, "but I'll tell this much. It's the +first of the great social functions. Everybody wears her party clothes +and a sweet smile. It's the first lesson of the year in How to attain +Ease under New and Exacting Conditions. No matter how the seniors snub +you later on, in order to teach you your proper place, you'll all be +birds of a feather that one time, and flock together as peaceably as pet +hens. + +"Each new girl has an escort appointed by the entertaining committee, +who sends her flowers and calls for her and sees that her programme is +filled. So there are never any wallflowers the first night. No, Allison, +it isn't a dance. The programmes are for progressive conversation. +Somewhere in the background there's a piano playing waltzes and +two-steps, and so forth, but you talk out the numbers instead of dancing +them. Changing partners so often keeps you from getting bored, and +strangers can tell who is talking to them, for there are the names on +their programmes. You can refer to that when anybody comes up to claim +you. I'm to take Lloyd, and Sybil Green is to take Kitty. I haven't +found out the other assignments yet. I'll let you know as soon as I do. +Continued in our next." + +With an airy wave of the hand she withdrew, leaving them to an animated +discussion of what to wear. + +"You must remember that this isn't the only time you're to appear in +public, Katherine Walton," said Allison, severely, when Kitty proposed +her best array. "There's to be a reception at the White House next week, +and Friday night we're to go in to Washington to see Jefferson in 'Rip +Van Winkle,' and there's to be a studio tea soon, and a recital, and +all sorts of things. I saw the bulletin of the term's entertainments in +the hall this evening." + +"_We_'ll never be seen at those things," insisted Kitty. + +"We'll scarcely be a drop in the bucket. But to-morrow night, isn't the +whole affair for us? We'll be the whole show. We'll be _it_, Allison, +and 'it's my night to howl.' I intend to wear my rose-pink mull and a +rosebud in my raving tresses, and carry the gorgeous spangled fan that +the dear old admiral gave me in Manila. So there!" + +"Then don't come near me," said Allison, with a warning shake of her +head, "for I am going to wear my cerise crepe de chine. It's lovely by +itself, but by the side of anything the shade of your pink mull it's the +most hideous, sickly colour you ever saw. I _wish_ you'd wear that pale +green dress, Kitty. You look sweet in that, and it goes so well with +mine." + +"But, my dear sister," laughed Kitty, "I don't expect to spend any time +getting acquainted with _you_. I'll probably not be near you the whole +evening. It's not expected that, just because we are from Kentucky, we +have to pose as those two devoted creatures on the State seal,--stand +around with our hands clasped, exclaiming 'United we stand, divided we +fall!' to every one that comes up." + +"Nevah mind, Allison," said Lloyd, laughing at Kitty's dramatic gestures +and her sister's worried expression. "I'll play 'State seal' with you. I +have a pale green almost the shade of Kitty's, and I'll wear the coral +clasps and chains that were Papa Jack's mothah's. He gave them to me +just before I left home. I'll show them to you." + +She began to rummage through her trunk. Betty sat looking at the +ceiling, trying to decide the momentous question of dress for herself. +Finally she announced: "I'll just wear white, then I'll harmonize with +everybody, and can run up to the first one of you I happen to see when I +need a spark of courage. I know I'll be terribly embarrassed. It makes +me cold right now to think of meeting so many strangers." + +But Betty's courage needed no reinforcing next evening, when Maria +Overlin, one of the seniors, took her in charge. The reception took +place in what had been the ballroom, in the days when Warwick Hall was +noted for its brilliant entertainments. Even its first hostess could not +have received her distinguished guests with courtlier grace than Madam +Chartley received her pupils, when, to the music of a stately minuet, +they filed past her down the long line of teachers. + +For once, each of the new girls, no matter how timid or inexperienced in +social ways, tasted the sweets of popularity, and the four whom Juliet +Lynn had dubbed the Kentucky quartette were overwhelmed with attentions. + +Juliet, who had hoped to escort Betty, was glad that Lloyd had fallen to +her lot when she saw what an admiring little court flocked around her +wherever she turned. In the pale green dress, with its clasps of pink +coral carved in the shape of tiny butterflies, she looked more +princess-like than ever. She wore a bracelet of the coral butterflies +also, and a slender circlet of them about her throat. They gave a soft +pink flush to her cheeks. + +No sooner had she passed the receiving line than she was surrounded by a +group of white-gowned girls clamouring for an introduction and a place +on her programme. + +"Whose initials are these?" she whispered to Juliet presently when the +card was all filled and there were still several girls asking to be +allowed to write their names on it. + +"Couldn't I give Miss Bartlett this line where there's nothing but G. M. +scrawled on it?" + +"Mercy, no!" exclaimed Juliet. "That's for Gabrielle Melville. It would +never do for you two to miss each other to-night. I put them down for +her, as she's to play later in the evening on the violin, you know, and +I knew she'd never get here in time to do it herself. She always has +such frantic times dressing. Just struggles into her things, never can +find half her clothes, and what she does manage to fall into catches and +rips in the struggle. Her hat is always over one ear, and her belts +never make connection in the back, but she's so adorable that nobody +minds her wild toilets. They laugh and say, 'Oh, it's just Gay.' That's +her nickname, you know. Here's Emily Chapman coming to claim you. Emily, +you can tell Lloyd some things about Gay, can't you?" + +"I rather think so," laughed Emily. "We roomed together last year, and I +got her again this term. It took a fight, though, for she's the most +popular girl in school." + +"Is she pretty?" asked Lloyd. + +"We think so, don't we, Juliet? If she had any enemies, they might say +that she has red hair and a pug nose. But that would be exaggerating. +Her hair is that beautiful bronzy auburn that crinkles around her face +and blows in her eyes till she always seems to be bringing a breeze with +her." + +"And her nose isn't pug exactly," chimed in Juliet. "There's just a +darling, saucy little tip to it, that seems to suit her. She wouldn't be +half as pretty with the approved Gibson girl kind, no matter how perfect +it was." + +"And her complexion is so lovely," Emily resumed, enthusiastically. "And +her eyes are a jolly, laughing kind of brown, with an amber sparkle in +them, except when she gets into one of her intense, serious moods. Then +they are almost black, they're so deep and velvety. She's never twice in +the same mood. Oh! There she comes now." + +A side door opened, and a slim little thing all in white, with a violin +under her arm and a distracted pucker on her face, hurried up to the +piano. Nervously feeling her belt to make sure that she was presentable +before turning her back on the audience, she whispered to the girl who +was to play her accompaniments, and began tuning the violin. Then, +tucking it under her chin as if she loved it, she listened an instant to +the piano prelude, and drew her bow softly across the strings. + +"Good!" whispered Emily. "It's that Mexican swallow song. She always +has such a rapt expression on her face when she plays that. She makes me +think of St. Cecilia. She's so earnest in all she does. If it's no more +than making fudge, she throws her whole soul into it, just that way. +She's as intense as if the fate of a nation depended on whatever she +happens to be doing." + +As Lloyd joined loudly in the applause which followed the performance, +another girl came up to claim her attention. It was Myra Carr, the +senior who had taken Allison under her wing. + +"Doesn't Gay play splendidly?" she exclaimed, not knowing that she had +been the previous topic of conversation. "We think she's a genius. She +improvises little things sometimes in the twilight that are so sweet and +sad they make you cry. Then she's unconventional enough to be a genius. +She's always shocking people without meaning to, and so careless, she'd +lose her head if nature hadn't attended to the fastenings. + +"We all love her dearly, but we vowed the last time we went sightseeing +that she should never go with us again unless she let us tie her up in a +bag, so that nothing could drop out by the way. First she lost her hat. +It blew off the trolley-car, one of those 'seeing Washington' affairs, +you know. She had to go bareheaded all the rest of the way. Then she +lost her pocketbook, and such a time as we had hunting that. The time +before, she lost a locket that had been a family heirloom, and we missed +our train and got caught in a shower looking for it." + +"Where does she live?" asked Lloyd, watching the bright face that was +making its way toward them across the crowded room. + +"At Fort Sam Houston, down in San Antonio. Her father is an army officer +at that post." + +There was no time for further discussion, for Gabrielle was coming +toward her with outstretched hand. + +"This is Juliet's Princess, isn't it?" she asked, with a smile that +captivated Lloyd at once, flashing over the whitest of little teeth. +"You're getting all sorts of titles to-night. I heard a girl speak of +you as a mermaid in that pale sea-green gown and corals, but I've come +over here on purpose to call you the 'Little Colonel.' You don't know +how much good it does me to hear a military title once more. Out at the +fort it's all majors and captains and such things." + +Then, dropping her grown-up society manner, she suddenly giggled, +turning to include Emily in the conversation. + +"Oh, girls, I had the worst time getting dressed this evening that I +ever had in my life. When I unpacked my trunk yesterday, everything was +so wrinkled that there was only one dress I could wear without having it +pressed; this white one. So I laid it out, but, when I went to put it on +to-night, I found that mamma had made a mistake in packing, and put in +Lucy's skirt instead. Lucy is my older sister," she explained to Lloyd. +"We each had a dotted Swiss this summer, made exactly alike, but Lucy is +so much taller than I that her skirts trail on me. Just look how +imposing!" + +She swept across the floor and back to show the effect of her trail. + +"Of course there was nothing to do at that late hour but pin it up in +front and go ahead. I'm afraid every minute that I'll trip and fall all +over myself, but I do feel so dignified when I feel my train sweeping +along behind me. The pins keep falling out all around the belt, and I +can't help stepping on the hem in front. I love trains," she added, +switching hers forward with a grand air that was so childlike in its +enjoyment that Lloyd felt impelled to hug her. "It gives you such a +dressed-up, peacocky feeling." + +Then she looked up in her most soulful, intense way, as if she were +asking for important information. "Do you know whether it's true or not? +_Does_ a peacock stop strutting if it happens to see its feet? My old +nurse told me that, and said that it shows that pride always goes before +a fall. I never was where they kept peacocks before I came to Warwick +Hall, and I've spent hours watching Madam's to see if it is true. But +they are always so busy strutting, I've never been able to catch them +looking at their feet." + +She glanced at her own feet as she spoke, then gasped and, covering her +face with her hands, sank limply into a chair in the corner behind her. + +"What's the matter?" cried Juliet, alarmed by the sudden change. + +"Look! Oh, just _look_!" was the hysterical answer, as she thrust out +both feet, and sat pointing at them tragically, with fingers and thumbs +of both hands outspread. + +"No wonder they felt queer. I was so intent on getting my dress pinned +up, and in rushing out in time to play, that I couldn't take time to +analyze my feelings and discover the cause of the queerness. Madeline +blew in at a critical point to borrow a pin, and that threw me off, I +suppose." + +From under the white skirt protruded two feet as unlike as could well be +imagined. One was cased in dainty white kid, the other in an old red +felt bedroom slipper, edged with black fur. + +"And it would have been all the same," sighed Gay, "if I had been going +to an inaugural ball to hobnob with crowned heads. And I had hoped to +make _such_ a fine impression on the Little Colonel," she added, in a +plaintive tone, with a childlike lifting of the face that Lloyd thought +most charming. + +If the mistake had been made by any other girl in the school, it would +not have seemed half so ridiculous, but whatever Gay did was +irresistibly funny. A laughing crowd gathered around her, as she sat +with the red slipper and the white one stretched stiffly out in front of +her, bewailing her fate. + +"Anyhow," she remarked, "I'll always have the satisfaction of knowing +that I put my best foot foremost, and if they had been alike I couldn't +have done that. Now could I?" And the girls laughed again, because it +was Gay who said it in her own inimitable way, and because the old felt +slipper looked so ridiculous thrust out from under the dainty white +gown. As others came crowding up to see what was causing so much +merriment in that particular corner, Gay attempted to slip out and go to +her room to correct her mistake. But Sybil Green, pushing through the +outer ring, came up with Allison and Kitty. + +"Gay," she began, "here are the girls that you especially wanted to +meet: General Walton's daughters." + +Gay's face flushed with pleasure, and, forgetting her errand, she +impulsively stretched out a hand to each, and held them while she +talked. + +"Oh, I'm so glad to meet you!" she cried. "I wish that I had known that +you girls were here yesterday before papa left. He is Major Melville, +and he was such a friend of your father's. He was on that long Indian +campaign with him in Arizona, and I've heard him talk of him by the +hour. And last week"--here she lowered her voice so that only Allison +and Kitty heard, and were thrilled by the sweet seriousness of it. "Last +week he took me out to Arlington to carry a great wreath of laurel. When +he'd laid it on the grave, he stood there with bared head, looking all +around, and I heard him say, in a whisper, 'No one in all Arlington has +won his laurels more bravely than you, my captain.' You see it was as a +captain that papa knew him best. He would have been so pleased to have +seen you girls." + +Kitty squeezed the hand that still held hers and answered, warmly: "Oh, +you dear, I hope we'll be as good friends as our fathers were!" And +Allison answered, winking back the tears that had sprung to her eyes: +"Thank you for telling us about the laurel. Mother will appreciate it so +much." + +While this conversation was going on at Lloyd's elbow, Betty came up to +her on the other side. "Please see if my dress is all right in the +back," she whispered. "It feels as if it were unfastened." Then, as +Lloyd assured her it was properly buttoned, she added, in an undertone: +"Have you met Maud Minor? She's one of the new girls." + +Lloyd shook her head. + +"Then I'm going to introduce you as soon as I can. She knows Malcolm +MacIntyre." + +"Knows Malcolm!" exclaimed Lloyd, in amazement. "Where on earth did she +ever meet him?" + +"At the seashore last summer. She can't talk about anything else. She +thinks he is so handsome and has such beautiful manners and is so +adorably romantic. Those are her very words. She has his picture. +Evidently he has talked to her about you, for she's so curious to know +you. She asked a string of questions that I thought were almost +impertinent." + +"Where is she?" asked Lloyd. + +"There, that girl in white crossing the room with the fat one in +lavender." + +Lloyd gave a long, critical look, and then said, slowly: "She's the +prettiest girl in the room, and she makes me think of something I've +read, but I can't recall it." + +"I know," said Betty, "but you'll laugh at me if I say Tennyson again. +It's from 'Maud'-- + + "'I kissed her slender hand. + She took the kiss sedately. + Maud is not seventeen, + But she is tall and stately.' + +"But she is not as sedate as she looks," added Betty, truthfully. "I'd +like her better if she didn't gush. That's the only word that will +express it. And it seemed queer for her to take me into her confidence +the minute she was introduced. Right away she gave me to understand that +she'd had a sort of an affair with Malcolm. She didn't say so in so many +words, but she gave me the impression that he had been deeply +interested in her, in a romantic way, you know." + +Lloyd looked at Maud again, more critically this time, and with keener +interest. Then her thoughts flew back to the churchyard stile where they +had paused in their gathering of Christmas greens one winter day. For an +instant she seemed to see the handsome boy looking down at her, begging +a token of the Princess Winsome, and saying, in a low tone, "I'll be +whatever you want me to be, Lloyd." + +Juliet's voice broke in on her reverie. "Miss Sherman, allow me to +present Miss Minor." + +Maud was slightly taller than Lloyd, but it was not her extra inches +alone which seemed to give her the air of looking down on every one. It +was her patronizing manner. Lloyd resented it. Instinctively she drew +herself up and responded somewhat haughtily. + +"My dear, I've been simply _dying_ to meet you," began Maud, effusively. +"Ever since I found out that you were the girl Malcolm MacIntyre used to +be so fond of." + +Lloyd responded coldly, certain that Malcolm had not discussed their +friendship in a way to warrant this outburst from a stranger. + +"Do you know his brothah Keith, too?" she asked. "We're devoted to both +the boys. You might say we grew up togethah, for they visited in the +Valley so much. We've been playmates since we were babies. You must meet +the Walton girls. They are Malcolm's cousins, you know." + +Before Maud realized how it came about, Lloyd had graciously turned her +over to Allison and Kitty, and made her escape with burning cheeks and a +resentful feeling. Maud's words kept repeating themselves: "So adorably +romantic. The girl Malcolm _used to be_ so fond of!" They made her +vaguely uncomfortable. She wondered why. + +For another hour she went on making acquaintances and adding to her +store of information about Warwick Hall. They couldn't have +chafing-dishes in their rooms, one frivolous sophomore told her. The +insurance companies objected after one girl spilled a bottle of alcohol +and set fire to the curtains. But once a week those who pined for candy +could make it over the gas-stove in the Domestic Science kitchen. Those +who were too lazy to make it could buy it Monday afternoons from Mammy +Easter, an old coloured woman who lived in a cabin on the place. She was +famous for her pralines, the sophomore declared. "We have jolly charades +and impromptu tableaux up in the gymnasium sometimes. Oh, school at the +Hall is one grand lark!" + +"Don't you believe it," said the spectacled junior who monopolized Lloyd +next. "It's a hard dig to keep up to the mark they set here. But I must +say it is an agreeable kind of a dig," she added. + +"It's good just to wake up in the morning and know there's going to be +another whole day of it. The classes are so interesting, and the +teachers so interested in us, that they bring out the very best in +everybody. Even a grasshopper would have its ambition aroused if it +stayed in this atmosphere long." + +She peered at Lloyd through her glasses as if to satisfy herself that +she would be understood, and then added, confidentially: "I can fairly +feel myself grow here. I feel the way I imagine the morning-glories do +when they find themselves climbing up the trellis. They just stretch out +their hands and everything helps them up,--the sun and the soil, the +wind and the dew. And here at Warwick Hall there's so much to help. Even +the little glimpses we get over the garden wall into the outside world +of Washington, with its politics and great men. But those two people +over there help me most of all." She nodded toward Madam Chartley and +Miss Chilton, the teacher of English, who were now seated together on a +sofa near the door. + +"When I look at them I feel that the morning-glory vine must climb just +as high as it possibly can, and shake out a wealth of bells in return +for all that has been given toward its growth. Don't you?" + +"Yes," answered Lloyd, slightly embarrassed by the soulful gaze turned +on her through the spectacles. "Betty would enjoy knowing you," she +exclaimed. "She is always saying and writing such things." + +"Oh, I thought that you were the one that writes," answered the junior. +"Aren't you the one the freshmen are going to elect class editor for +their page of the college paper?" + +"No, indeed!" protested Lloyd, laughing at the idea. "Come across the +room with me and I'll find Betty for you." + +"There won't be time to-night," responded the junior, "for there goes +the music that means good night. They always play 'America' as a signal +that it's time to go." + +"What makes you so quiet?" asked Betty, a little later, as they slowly +undressed. She had chattered along, commenting on the events of the +evening, ever since they came to their room, but Lloyd had seemed +remarkably unresponsive. + +"Oh, nothing," yawned Lloyd. "I was just thinking of that fairy-tale of +the three weavers. I'll turn out the light." + +As she reached up to press the electric button, she thought again, for +the twentieth time, "I wonder what it was that Malcolm told Maud Minor." +Then she nestled down among the pillows, saying, sleepily, to herself: +"Anyway, I'm mighty glad that I nevah gave him that curl he begged +for." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +AN EXCURSION + + +IT was a Sabbath afternoon in October, sunny and still, with a purple +haze resting on the distant woodlands across the river. A warm odour of +ripe apples floated across the old peach orchard, for a few rare +pippin-trees stood in its midst, flaunting the last of their fruitage +from gnarled limbs, or hiding it in the sear grass underneath. + +Here and there groups of bareheaded girls wandered in the sun-flecked +shade, exchanging confidences and stooping now and then to pounce +joyfully upon some apple that had hitherto evaded discovery. Betty, who +had been reading aloud for nearly an hour to a little group under one of +the largest trees, closed her book with a yawn. Lloyd and Kitty leaned +lazily back against the mossy trunk, and Allison, with her arms around +her knees, gazed dreamily across the river. The only one who did not +seem to have fallen under the drowsy spell of the Indian summer +afternoon was Gay. Up in the tree above them, she lay stretched out +along a limb, peering down through the leaves like a saucy squirrel. + +"What a Sleepy Hollow tale that was!" she exclaimed. "It just suits the +day, but it has hypnotized all of you. Do wake up and be sociable." + +She began breaking off bits of twigs and dropping them down on the heads +below. One struck Lloyd's ear, and she brushed it off impatiently, +thinking it was a bug. Gay laughed and began teasingly: + + "There was a young maiden named Lloyd, + Whom reptiles always annoyed. + An innocent worm would cause her to squirm, + And cloyed--toyed--employed-- + +I'm stuck, Betty. Come to the rescue with a rhyme." + +"So with germicide she's overjoyed," supplied Betty, promptly. + +"That's all right," said Kitty, waking up. "Let's each make a Limerick. +Five minutes is the limit, and the one that hasn't his little verse +ready when the time is up will have to answer truthfully any question +the others agree to ask." + +"No," objected Lloyd. "I'd be suah to be it. I can make the rhymes, but +the lines limp too dreadfully for any use." + +"We won't count that," promised Kitty, looking at her chatelaine watch. +"Now, one, two, three! Fire away!" + +There was silence for a little space, broken only by the soft cooing of +a far-away dove. Then Betty looked up with a satisfied smile. The +anxious pucker smoothed out of Lloyd's forehead, and Allison nodded her +readiness. + +"Lloyd first," called Kitty, looking at her watch again. + +A mischievous smile brought the dimples to the Little Colonel's face as +she began: + + "There's a girl in our school called Kitty, + Evidently not from the city. + With screeches and squawkin's + She upset the nerves of poah old Hawkins. + Oh, her behaviour was not at all pretty." + +A burst of laughter greeted Lloyd's attempt at verse-making, for the +subject which she had chosen recalled one of Kitty's outbreaks the first +week of school, when the temptation to upset Hawkins's dignity was more +than she could resist. No one of them who had seen Hawkins's wild exit +from the linen closet the night she hid on the top shelf, and raised +his hair with her blood-curdling moans and spectral warnings (having +blown out his candle from above), could think of the occurrence without +laughing till the tears came to their eyes. + +"Now, Allison," said Kitty, when the final giggle had died away. "It's +your turn." Allison referred to the lines she had scribbled on the back +of a magazine: + + "There is a young maiden, they say, + Who grows more beloved every day. + When we talk or we ramble, there's always a scramble + To be next to the maid who is _Gay_." + +"Whew! Thanks awfully!" came the embarrassed exclamation from the boughs +above, and Betty cried, in surprise: "Why, I wrote about her, too. I +said: + + "Like the bow on the strings when she plays, + So she crosses with music our days. + Our hearts doth she tune to the gladness of June, + And the smile that brings sunshine is Gay's." + +"My dear, that's no Limerick, that's poetry!" exclaimed Kitty, and Gay +called down: "It's awfully nice of you, girls, but please change the +subject. I'm so covered with confusion that I'm about to fall off this +limb." + +"Well, here's something mean enough to brace you up," answered Kitty. +"It's about Maud Minor. It's hateful of me to write it, but I happened +to see her going down the terrace steps and it just popped into my head: + + "There is a young lady named Maud, + Whose manners are overmuch thawed. + She'll beat an oil-well. When they'd gushed for a spell + _It_ would take a back seat and applaud." + +"What's the matter, Kitty?" asked Betty, "I thought you admired her +immensely." + +"I did that first week, but it's just as I say. She gushes over me so, +simply because I am Malcolm's cousin. I know very well that I am not the +dearest, cutest, brightest, most beautiful and angelic being in the +universe, and she isn't sincere when she insists that I am. She overdoes +it, and is so dreadfully effusive that I want to run whenever she comes +near me. I wish she wasn't going on the excursion to-morrow." + +"She doesn't worry me," said Gay. "I meet her on her own ground and fire +back her own adjectives at her, doubled and twisted. She has let me +alone for some time." + +The discussion of Maud led their thoughts away from Gay's Limerick, and +Kitty forgot to ask for it. They sat in silence again, and the +plaintive calling of the dove sounded several times before any one +spoke. + +"It's so sweet and peaceful here," said Betty, softly. "It makes me +think of Lloydsboro Valley. I could shut my eyes and almost believe I +was back in the old Seminary orchard." + +"I'm glad we're not," said Allison. "For then we'd miss to-morrow's +excursion. And I like having our holiday on Monday instead of Saturday, +as we did there." + +"What excursion are you talking about?" asked Gay, lazily swinging her +foot over the limb. + +Betty explained. "We're going to see some rare old books and illuminated +manuscripts. Miss Chilton has a friend in Washington who has one of the +finest private collections in the country, and she offered to take any +of the freshman class who cared to go. Ten of us have accepted the +invitation. We're going to the Congressional Library in the morning, +take lunch at some restaurant, and then call on this lady early in the +afternoon. It will be the only chance to see them, as she is going +abroad very soon, and the house will be closed for the winter." + +"There are other things in the collection besides books," said Allison +"Some queer old musical instruments,--a harpsichord and a lute, and an +old violin worth its weight in gold. Some of the most noted violinists +in the world have played on it." + +"Oh, I know!" cried Gay, raising herself to a sitting position and +throwing away the core of the apple she had been eating. "That's the +excursion I missed last year when I sprained my ankle. I never was so +disappointed in my life. I'm going right now to ask Miss Chilton to take +me, too. I'm wild to get my fingers on that violin." + +Swinging lightly down from the limb to the ground, she twisted around +like a contortionist in a vain attempt to see her back. + +"There!" she exclaimed, feeling her belt with a sigh of relief. "For a +wonder there's nothing torn or busted this trip. I must be reforming +Girls, what do you think! I haven't lost a single thing for a whole +week." + +"Don't brag," warned Lloyd. "Mom Beck would say you'd bettah scratch on +wood if you don't want yoah luck to change." + +Gay shrugged her shoulders at the superstition, but she reached over and +lightly scratched the pencil thrust through Betty's curly hair. + +"There goes the first bell for vespers," said Kitty, as they strolled +slowly back toward the Hall, five abreast and arm in arm. With one +accord they began to hum the hymn with which the service always +opened,--"Day is dying in the west." + +"It's going to be a fair day to-morrow," prophesied Gay, pausing an +instant on the chapel steps. "There's Miss Chilton. I'll run over and +ask her now." + +"It's all right," she whispered several minutes later, when she slipped +into the seat next Lloyd. "I can go. It'll be the greatest kind of a +lark." + +As Sybil Green passed through the hall next morning, where the +excursionists were assembling, Gay stopped her and began slowly +revolving on her heels. "Now view me with a critic's eye," she +commanded. "Gaze on me from chapeau to shoe sole, and bear witness that +I am properly girded up for the occasion. See how severely neat and +plain I am. See how beautifully my belts make connection in the back. +Three big, stout safety-pins will surely keep my skirt and shirt-waist +together till nightfall, and there's not a thing about me that I can +possibly lose." + +She was still turning around and around. "Not a watch, ring, pin, or +bangle! Not even a pocketbook. Miss Chilton is carrying my car-fare, +and my handkerchief is up my sleeve." + +"You might lose your balance or your presence of mind," laughed Sybil. +"You'll have to watch her, girls. How spick and span you all look," she +added, as they trooped past, behind Miss Chilton, most of them in +freshly laundered shirt-waist suits, for the Indian summer day was as +warm and sunny as June. + +"It would be just about Gay's luck to run into a watering-cart or lean +up against a freshly painted door, in that pretty pongee suit," she +thought, watching them out of sight. + +But for once Gay's lucky star was in the ascendant. The trip to the +library left her without spot or wrinkle, and as she followed Miss +Chilton into the restaurant she could not help smiling at her reflection +in the mirror. It looked so trim and neat. + +The restaurant was crowded. The waiters rushed back and forth, balancing +their great trays on their finger-tips in a reckless way that made Gay +dodge every time they passed. + +"Oh, you needn't laugh," she exclaimed, when some one jokingly called +attention to her. "I'm born to trouble; and I have a feeling that +something is going to happen before the day is over." + +Something did happen almost immediately, but not to Gay. Two of the +pompous coloured men collided just as they were passing Miss Chilton's +table. One tray dropped to the floor with a tremendous crash of breaking +dishes. The other was caught dexterously in mid-air, but not before its +contents had turned a somersault and wrought ruin all around it. A bowl +of tomato soup splashed over Lloyd's immaculate shirt-waist and ran in +two long red streaks across the shoulders of her duck jacket, which she +had hung on her chair-post. Her little gasp of dismay was followed by +one from Maud Minor, whose dainty gray silk waist was spattered +plentifully with coffee. + +There was a profusion of apologies from the waiters and a momentary +confusion as the wreck was cleared away. In the midst of it, Miss +Chilton was pleased and gratified to hear a low-pitched voice at the +table behind her say: "Those are Warwick Hall girls. I recognize their +chaperon, but I would have known them anywhere from the ladylike way +they treated the affair. So quiet and self-controlled, not a bit of fuss +or excitement, and it probably means that the day's outing will be +spoiled for two of them." + +The girls proceeded with their dessert, but Miss Chilton sat +considering. + +"If you girls were only familiar with the city," she said at last, +looking at her watch, "I could let you go to some shop and get new +shirt-waists, and you could meet me at my friend's afterward. But even +if you could find your way to the shop, I would be afraid to risk your +finding her house. You would have to change cars and walk a block after +leaving the last one. I must keep my engagement with her promptly, for +she is an extremely busy woman, and has granted this view of her library +as a personal favour to me." + +"Do let me take them, Miss Chilton," urged Gay, eagerly. "I'm the only +old girl in the crowd. I learned my way all about town during last +Christmas vacation. We could meet you in time to see part of the things. +All I care for is that violin. _Please_ say yes. I'll be the strictest, +most dignified chaperon you ever heard of." + +Miss Chilton laughed at the expression of ferocity which Gay's face +suddenly assumed to convince her that she could play the part she begged +for. + +"Really that seems to be the only way out of the difficulty," she +answered. "I'll give you a note to the department store which Madam +Chartley always patronizes, so that you can have your purchases +charged." + +"What if we can't find anything to fit," suggested Maud, "and it should +take such a long time to alter them that we'd be too late to meet you?" + +Miss Chilton considered again. "It's almost preposterous to imagine +that, but it is always well to provide for every emergency. If anything +unforeseen should happen to delay you, or you can't find the proper +things to make yourselves presentable, just go to the station and take +the first car back to the school. I'll inquire of the ticket agent, and +if you've left a card saying 'gone on,' I'll know that you are safe. If +you've left no word, I'll put these girls on the car for home, and come +back and institute a search for you." + +While the others busied themselves with finger-bowls, she wrote a hasty +note on a leaf torn from her memorandum book, which she gave to Maud. +Then she handed a card to Gay. + +"You are the pilot, so here is my friend's address on this card. I've +marked the line of cars you're to take, and the avenue where you +change." + +"Better let Lloyd take it," suggested Kitty. But, with a saucy grimace, +Gay folded it and slipped it under her belt. + +"There!" she said, fastening it with a big black pin she borrowed from +Allison. "I've woven that pin in and out, first in the ribbon and then +through the card, till it's as tight as if it had grown there." + +"Can't you take us down an alley?" asked Lloyd. "It mawtifies me +dreadfully to have to go down the street looking like this." + +"The car-line that passes this door goes directly to the department +store," answered Gay. "It's only a few blocks away, but we'll take it. +That tomato soup on you certainly does look gory." + +Maud had taken the veil from her hat and thrown it over her shoulders in +a way to hide the coffee stains. "Never mind," she said, carelessly, as +they left the restaurant. "Just hold your head up and sail along with +your most princess-like air, and people will be so busy admiring you +that they won't have time to look at your soupy waist." + +"Ugh! It smells so greasy and horrid," sniffed the Little Colonel, +ignoring Maud's remark. "It's just like dishwatah and bacon rinds. I +want to get away from it as soon as possible." + +"Misses' white shirt-waists?" repeated the saleswoman in the big +department store, when they reached it a few minutes later. "Certainly. +Here is something pretty. The newest fall goods." + +She led them to a counter piled high with boxes, and they made a hasty +selection. Some alteration was needed in the collar of the one Lloyd +chose, and in the sleeves of Maud's. While they waited in the +fitting-room, turning over some back numbers of fashion-plates and +magazines, Gay amused herself by wandering around the millinery +department, trying on hats. Presently she found one so becoming that she +ran back to them, delighted. + +"It isn't once in a thousand years that I find a picture hat that looks +well with my pug nose!" she cried. "But gaze on this!" + +She revolved slowly before them, so radiantly pleased over her discovery +that she looked unusually pretty. Both girls exclaimed over its +becomingness. Then Lloyd's gaze wandered from the airy structure of +chiffon and flowers down Gay's back to her waist-line. + +"Mercy, child!" she exclaimed. "You've lost your belt. Every one of +those three safety-pins is showing, and they each look a foot long!" + +Gay's hand flew wildly to the back of her dress, but she felt in vain +for a belt under which to hide the pins. She turned toward them with a +hopeless drooping of the shoulders. + +"_How_ did I lose it?" she demanded, helplessly. "It had the safest, +strongest kind of a clasp. When do you suppose I did it, and where? I +must have been a sight parading the street this way like an animated +pincushion." + +She passed her hand over the obtrusive pins again. "I certainly had it +on when we left the restaurant. Yes, and after we got on the car to come +here, for I remember just after you paid the fare I ran my fingers down +inside of it to make sure that Miss Chilton's card was still safely +pinned to it." + +Then she rolled up her eyes and fell limply back against the wall. + +"Girls!" she exclaimed, in a despairing voice, "the card is lost with +it, too. I've no more idea than the man in the moon where Miss Chilton's +friend lives, or what her name is, or what car-line to take to get +there. Do either of you remember hearing her say anything that would +throw any light on the subject?" + +Neither Lloyd nor Maud could remember, and the three stood staring at +each other with startled faces. + +"Maybe you dropped your belt coming up in the elevator," suggested Maud. +"You might inquire. As soon as we get our clothes on, we'll help you +hunt." + +Gay flew to lay aside the picture hat for her own, and, with her hands +clutching her dress to hide the unsightly safety-pins, started on her +search through the store. + +"We came straight past the ribbon counter and the embroideries to the +silks, and then we turned here and took the elevator," she said to +herself, retracing her steps. But inquiries of the elevator boy and +every clerk along the line failed to elicit any information about the +lost belt. + +"No, it was only an ordinary belt that no one would look at the second +time," she explained to those who asked for a description. "Just dark +blue ribbon with a plain oxidized silver clasp. But there was an address +pinned to it that is very important for me to find." + +The floor-walker obligingly joined in the search, going to the door and +scanning the pavement and the street-crossing at which they had left the +car, but to no purpose. + +"I can buy a new belt and have it charged," she said to Lloyd, when she +came back to report, "but there is no way to get the lost address. If I +could only remember the name, I could look for it in the directory, but +I never heard it. Miss Chilton always spoke of the lady as 'my friend.'" + +"I heard her speak it once," said Lloyd, "but I can't remembah it now." + +"Go over the alphabet," suggested Maud. "Say all the names you can think +of beginning with A and then B, and so on. Maybe you will stumble across +one that you recognize as the right one." + +Lloyd shook her head. "No, it was an unusual name, a long +foreign-sounding one. I wondahed at the time how she could trip it off +her tongue so easily." + +"Then we're lost! Hopelessly, helplessly undone!" moaned Gay. "All our +lovely outing spoiled! You won't get to see the books, nor I the violin. +I know you are hating me horribly. There's nothing to do but go back to +Warwick Hall, and leave a note with the ticket agent for Miss Chilton." + +The tears stood in her eyes, and she looked so broken-hearted that Lloyd +put her arms around her, insisting that it didn't make a mite of +difference to her. That she didn't care much for the old books, anyhow, +and for her not to grieve about it another minute. + +Maud's face darkened as she listened. Presently she said: "I don't care +particularly about the books, either, but I don't see any use of our +losing the entire holiday. You know your way about the city, Gay; I have +some car-fare in my purse, and so has Lloyd. We can go larking by +ourselves." + +The dressmaker came back with Maud's waist. She put it on, and Gay went +for her belt. While Lloyd was still waiting for her waist, Maud +sauntered out of the fitting-room, and asked permission to use the +telephone. She was still using it when Gay joined them. + +"Wait a minute," Maud called to her invisible auditor, and, still +holding the receiver, turned toward the girls. + +"Such grand luck!" she exclaimed, in a low tone. "I just happened to +think of a young fellow I know here in town--Charlie Downs. He is always +ready for anything going, and, when I telephoned him the predicament we +are in, he said right away he would meet us down here and take us all to +the matinee." + +"Charlie Downs," echoed Gay. "I never heard of him." + +"That doesn't make any difference," Maud answered, hurriedly. Then, in a +still lower tone, with her back to the telephone: "He's all right. He's +a sort of a distant relative of mine,--that is, his cousin married into +our family. I can vouch for Charlie. He's a young medical student, and +he's in old Doctor Spencer's office. Everybody knows Doctor Spencer, one +of the finest specialists in the country." + +She turned toward the telephone again, but Gay stopped her. "It's out of +the question, Maud, for us to accept such an invitation. It's kind of +him to ask us, but you're in my charge, and I'll have to take the +responsibility of refusing." + +"Well, I never heard the like of that!" said Maud, angrily, looking down +on Gay in such a scornful, disgusted way that Lloyd would have laughed +had the situation not been so tragic. Gay, trying to be commanding, +reminded her of an anxious little hen, ruffling its feathers because the +obstinate duckling in its brood refused to come out of the water. + +"Madam Chartley wouldn't like it," urged Gay. + +"Then she should have made rules to that effect. You know there's not a +single one that would stand in the way of our doing this." + +"Yes, there is. It's an unwritten one, but it's the one law of the Hall +that Madam expects every one to live up to." + +"May I ask what?" Maud's tone was freezingly polite. + +"The motto under the crest. It's on everything you know, the old earl's +teacups, the stationery, and everything--'Keep tryst.'" + +"Fiddlesticks for the old earl's teacups!" said Maud, shrugging her +shoulders. "It's unreasonable to expect us to keep tryst with Miss +Chilton now." + +"Not that," said Gay, ready to cry. "We're to keep tryst with what she +expects of us. She expects us to do the right thing under all +circumstances, and you know the right thing now is to go home. We were +recognized at the restaurant as Warwick Hall girls, and we might be +again at the matinee. What would people think of the school if they saw +three of the girls there with a strange young man without a chaperon?" + +"You're the chaperon. If you'd do to take us shopping, you'd do for +that." + +"Oh, Maud, don't be unreasonable," urged Gay. "It's entirely different. +Don't be offended, please, but we can't go. It's simply out of the +question." + +"Indeed it isn't," answered Maud, turning again to the telephone. "Go +home if you want to, but Lloyd and I will do as we please. I'll accept +for us." + +This time Lloyd stopped her. "Wait! Let's telephone out to the Hall and +ask Madam." + +Maud shrugged her shoulders. "You know very well she'd say no if you +asked her beforehand." Then the two heard one side of her conversation +over the telephone. + +"Hello, Charlie! Sorry to keep you waiting so long." + +"The girls are afraid to go." + +"What's that?" + +"I don't suppose so." + +"I'm perfectly willing. I'll ask them." + +Then turning again, with the receiver in her hand: "He says that the +matinee will probably be over before the second train out to the Hall, +and, if it isn't, we can leave a little earlier and be at the station +before Miss Chilton gets there, and she need never know but what we've +just been streetcar riding, as we first planned." + +"Then that settles it!" exclaimed Lloyd. "If he said that, I wouldn't go +with him for anything in the world." + +"Why?" demanded Maud. Her eyes flashed angrily. + +"Because--because," stammered Lloyd. "Well, it'll make you mad, but I +can't help it. Papa Jack said one time that an honourable man would +never ask me to do anything clandestine. And it would be sneaking to do +as he proposes." + +Maud was white with rage, and the hand that held the receiver trembled. +"Have the goodness to keep your insulting remarks to yourself in the +future, Miss Sherman." + +"Please don't go," begged Gay. "I feel so responsible for getting you +home safely, and it _would_ be sneaking, you know, to pretend we'd been +simply trolley-riding when we'd been off with him." + +"You're nasty little cats to say such things!" stormed Maud. "I don't +want to have anything more to do with either of you. Go on home and +leave me alone. Hello! Hello, Charlie!" + +They heard her make an engagement to meet him at the drug-store on the +next corner. Then she sailed out of the store past them, without a +glance in their direction. Gay began fumbling up her sleeve for her +handkerchief. The tears were gathering too fast to be winked back. + +"It's all my fault," she sobbed. "Oh, if I hadn't lost that unlucky +belt. To think that I begged to be a chaperon, and then wasn't fit to be +trusted." + +Lloyd tried vainly to comfort her. A little later two +disconsolate-looking girls took the first afternoon train out to Warwick +Hall, and stole up to Lloyd's room. As Betty was with Miss Chilton, no +one knew of their arrival, and they spent several uncomfortable hours +agonizing over the question of what they should say when they were +called to account. They decided at last that they would give no more +information about Maud than that a distant relative had called for her. + +At five o'clock, Miss Chilton reached the ticket-office with her little +brood, and found Lloyd's card with the words "gone on" scribbled in one +corner. Lloyd and Gay, watching at the window for their arrival, saw +with sinking hearts that Maud was not with them. They hoped that she +would come on the same train, and would be forced to make her own +explanations. But they were not called upon to explain her +disappearance. Miss Chilton, almost distracted with an attack of +neuralgic headache, went to her room immediately, and sent down word +that she would not appear at dinner. + +"She'll surely come on the next train," Gay whispered to Lloyd, but the +whistle sounded at the station, and they watched the clock in vain. +Ample time passed for one to have walked the distance twice from the +station to the Hall, but no one came. + +It was half-past six when they filed down to dinner. The halls were +lighted, and all the chandeliers in the great dining-room glowed. + +As they passed the window on the stair-landing, Lloyd pressed her face +against the pane and peered out into the darkness. Gay, just behind her, +paused and peered also. + +"What do you suppose has happened?" she whispered. "It's as dark as a +pocket, and Maud hasn't come yet." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +"KEEP TRYST" + + +LLOYD and Betty were starting to undress when there was a light tap at +the door, and Gay's head appeared. In response to their eager call, she +came in, and, shutting the door behind her, stood with her back against +it. + +"No, I can't sit down," she answered. "It's too late to stop. I only ran +in to tell you that Maud got home about five minutes ago. 'Charlie' came +with her as far as the door and Madam has just sent for her to demand an +explanation. She told her roommate that she knew she was in for a +scolding, and that, as one might as well be killed for a sheep as a +lamb, she made her good time last as long as she could. After the +matinee they had a little supper at some roof-garden or cafe or +something of the kind, where there was a band concert. Then he brought +her out on the car, and they strolled along the river road home. The +moon was just beginning to come up. She's had a beautiful time, and +thinks she has done something awfully cute, but she'll think differently +by the time Madam is through with her." + +"Will she be very terrible?" asked Lloyd, pausing with brush in hand. + +"I don't know," answered Gay. "Nothing like this has happened since I +have been at the Hall, but I've heard her say that this is not a reform +school, and girls who have to be punished and scolded are not wanted +here. If they can't measure up to the standard of good behaviour, they +can't stay. As long as this is the first offence, she'll probably be +given another trial, but I'd not care to be in her shoes when Madam +calls her to judgment." + +No one ever knew what passed between the two in the up-stairs office, +but Maud sailed down to breakfast next morning as if nothing had +happened. The only difference in her manner was when Lloyd and Gay took +their places opposite her at the table. They glanced across with the +usual good morning, but she looked past them as if she neither saw nor +heard. + +"Cut dead!" whispered Lloyd. Gay giggled, as she unfolded her napkin. +"I'm very sure she has no cause to be angry with us. We are the ones +who ought to act offended." + +Soon after breakfast they were called into Miss Chilton's room, but to +their great relief found that she already knew what had happened, and +that they were to be questioned only about their own part in the affair. +So presently Gay passed out to her Latin recitation, and Lloyd wandered +around the room, waiting for the literature class to assemble. + +Miss Chilton's room was the most attractive one in the Hall. It looked +more like a cheerful library than a schoolroom. Low book-shelves lined +the walls, with here and there a fine bust in bronze or Carrara marble. +Pictures from many lands added interest, and the wicker chairs, instead +of being arranged in stiff rows, stood invitingly about, as if in a +private parlour. There were always violets on Miss Chilton's desk, and +ferns and palms in the sunny south windows. The recitations were carried +on in such a delightfully informal way that the girls looked forward to +this hour as one of the pleasantest of the day. + +This morning, to their surprise, instead of questioning them about the +topic they had studied, Romance of the Middle Ages, she announced that +she had a story which Madam Chartley had requested her to read to them, +and she wished such close attention paid to it that afterward each one +could write it from memory for the next day's lesson. + +"I have a reason for wishing to impress this little tale indelibly on +your minds," she said, "so I shall offer this inducement for +concentrating your attention upon it: five credits to each one who can +hand in a full synopsis of the story, and ten to the one who can +reproduce it most literally and fully." + +There was a slight flutter of expectancy as the class settled itself to +listen, and, opening the little green and gold volume where a white +ribbon kept the place, she began to read: + + +"Now there was a troubadour in the kingdom of Arthur, who, strolling +through the land with only his minstrelsy to win him a way, found in +every baron's hall and cotter's hut a ready welcome. And while the +boar's head sputtered on the spit, or the ale sparkled in the shining +tankards, he told such tales of joust and journey, and feats of brave +knight errantry, that even the scullions left their kitchen tasks, and, +creeping near, stood round the door with mouths agape to listen. + +"Then with his harp-strings tuned to echoes of the wind on winter moors, +he sang of death and valour on the field, of love and fealty in the +hall, till those who listened forgot all save his singing and the noble +knights whereof he sang. + +"One winter night, as thus he carolled in a great earl's hall, a little +page crept nearer to his bench beside the fire, and, with his blue eyes +fixed in wonderment upon the graybeard's face, stood spellbound. Now +Ederyn was the page's name, an orphan lad whose lineage no man knew, but +that he came of gentle blood all eyes could see, although as vassal +'twas his lot to wait upon the great earl's squire. + +"It was the Yule-tide, and the wassail-bowl passed round till boisterous +mirth drowned oftentimes the minstrel's song, but Ederyn missed no word. +Scarce knowing what he did, he crept so close he found himself with +upturned face against the old man's knee. + +"'How now, thou flaxen-haired,' the minstrel said, with kindly smile. +'Dost like my song?' + +"'Oh, sire,' the youth made answer, 'methinks on such a wing the soul +could well take flight to Paradise. But tell me, prithee, is it possible +for such as _I_ to gain the title of a knight? How doth one win such +honours and acclaim and reach the high estate that thou dost laud?' + +"The minstrel gazed a little space into the Yule log's flame, and +stroked his long hoar beard. Then made he answer: + +"'Some win their spurs and earn the royal accolade because the blood of +dragons stains their hands. From mighty combat with these terrors they +come victorious to their king's reward. And some there be sore scarred +with conquest of the giants that ever prey upon the borders of our fair +domain. Some, who have gone on far crusades to alien lands, and there +with heart of gold and iron hand have proved their fealty to the Crown.' + +"Then Ederyn sighed, for well he knew his stripling form could never +wage fierce combat with a dragon. His hands could never meet the brawny +grip of giants. 'Is there no other way?' he faltered. + +'I wot not,' was the answer. 'But take an old man's counsel. Forget thy +dreams of glory, and be content to serve thy squire. For what hast such +as thou to do with great ambitions? They'd prove but flames to burn away +thy daily peace.' + +"With that he turned to quaff the proffered bowl and add his voice to +those whose mirth already shook the rafters. Nor had he any further +speech with Ederyn. But afterward the pretty lad was often in his +thoughts, and in his wanderings about the land he mused upon the +question he had asked. + +"Another twelvemonth sped its way, and once again the Yule log burned +within the hall, and once again the troubadour knocked at the gate, all +in the night and falling snow. And as before, with merry jests they led +him in and made him welcome. And as before, was every mouth agape from +squire's to scullion's, as he sang. + +"Once more he sang of knights and ladyes fair, of love and death and +valour; and Ederyn, the page, crept nearer to him till the harp-strings +ceased to thrill. With head upon his hands, he sat and sighed. Not even +when the wassail-bowl was passed with mirth and laughter did he look up. +And when the graybeard minstrel saw his grief, he thought upon his +question of the Yule-tide gone. + +"'Ah, now, thou flaxen-haired,' he whispered in his ear. 'I bear thee +tidings which should make thee sing for joy. There is a way for even +such as thou to win the honours thou dost covet. I heard it in the royal +court when last I sang there at the king's behest.' + +"Then all aquiver with his eagerness did Ederyn kneel, with face +alight, beside the minstrel's knee to hear. + +"'Know this,' began the graybeard. ''Tis the king's desire to 'stablish +round him at his court a chosen circle whose fidelity hath stood the +utmost test. Not deeds of prowess are required of these true followers, +with no great conquests doth he tax them, but they must prove themselves +trustworthy, until on hand and heart it may be graven large, "_In all +things faithful._" + +"'To Merlin, the enchanter, he hath left the choice, who by some strange +spell I wot not of will send an eerie call through all the kingdom. And +only those will hear who wake at dawn to listen in high places. And only +those will heed who keep the compass needles of their souls true to the +north star of a great ambition. The time of testing will be long, the +summons many. To duty and to sorrow, to disappointment and defeat, thou +may'st be called. No matter what the tryst, there is but one reply if +thou wouldst win thy knighthood. Give heed and I will teach thee now +that answer.' + +"Then smiting on his harp, the minstrel sang, so softly under cover of +the noise, that only Ederyn heard. Through all the song ran ever this +refrain. It seemed a brooklet winding in and out through some fair +meadow: + + "''Tis the king's call. O list! + Thou heart and hand of mine, keep tryst-- + Keep tryst or die!' + +"Then Ederyn, with his hand upon his heart, made solemn oath. 'Awake at +dawn and listening in high places will I await that call. With the +compass needle of my soul true to the north star of a great ambition +will I follow where it leads, and though through fire and flood it take +me, I'll make but this reply: + + "''Tis the king's call. O list! + Thou heart and hand of mine, keep tryst-- + Keep tryst or die!' + +"Pressing the old man's hand in gratitude (he could say no word for the +strange fulness in his throat that well-nigh choked him), he rose from +his knees and left the hall to muse on what had passed. + +"That night he climbed into the tower, and, with his face turned to the +east, kept vigil all alone. Below, the rioters waxed louder in their +mirth. The knife was in the meat, the drink was in the horn. But he +would not join their revels, lest morning find him sunk in sodden +sleep, heavy with feasting and witless from wine. + +"As gray dawn trailed across the hills, he started to his feet, for far +away sounded the call for which he had been waiting. It was like the +faint blowing of an elfin horn, but the words came clearly. + +"'Ederyn! Ederyn! One awaits thee at nightfall in the shade of the +yew-tree by the abbey tower! Keep tryst!' + +"Now the abbey tower was the space of forty furlongs from the domain of +the earl, and full well Ederyn knew that only by especial favour of his +squire could he gain leave of absence for this jaunt. So, from sunrise +until dusk, he worked with will, to gain the wished-for leave. Never +before did buckles shine as did the buckles of the squire entrusted to +his polishing. Never did menial tasks cease sooner to be drudgery, +because of the good-will with which he worked. And when the day was +done, so well had every duty been performed, right willingly the squire +did grant him grace, and forthwith Ederyn sped upon his mission. + +"The way was long, and, when he reached the abbey tree, he fell +a-trembling, for there a tall wraith stood within the shadows of the +yew. No face had it that he could see, its hands no substance, but he +met it bravely, saying: 'I am Ederyn, come to keep the king's tryst.' + +"And then the spectre's voice replied: 'Well hast thou kept it, for 'tis +known to me the many menial tasks thou didst perform ere thou couldst +come upon thy quest. In token that we two have met, here is my pledge +that thou may'st keep to show the king.' + +"He felt a light touch on the bosom of his inner vestment, and suddenly +he stood alone beside the gruesome abbey. Clammy with fear, he knew not +why, he drew his mantle round him and sped home as one speeds in a +fearsome dream. And that it was a dream he half-believed, when later, in +the hall, he served at meat those gathered round the old earl's board. +But when he sought his bed, and threw aside his outer garment, there on +his coarse, rough shirt of hodden gray a pearl gleamed white above his +heart, where the wraith's cold hand had touched him. It was the token to +the king that he had answered faithfully his call. + +"Again before the dawn he climbed into the tower, and, listening when +the voices of the world were still, heard clear and sweet, like +far-blown elfin horn, another summons. + +"'Ederyn! Ederyn! One awaits thee at the midnight hour beside black +Kilgore's water. Keep tryst!' + +"Again to gain his squire's permission he toiled with double care. This +time his task was counting all the spears and halberds, the battle-axes +and the coats of mail that filled the earl's great armament. And o'er +and o'er he counted, keeping careful tally with a bit of keel upon the +iron-banded door, till the red lines that he marked there made his eyes +ache and his head swim. At last the task was finished, and so well the +squire praised him, and for his faithfulness again was fain to speed him +on his way. + +"It was a woful journey to the waters of Kilgore. Sleep weighed on +Ederyn's eyelids, and haltingly he went the weary miles, footsore and +worn. But midnight found him on the spot where one awaited him, another +wraith-like envoy of the king, and it, too, left a touch upon his heart +in token he had kept the tryst. And when he looked, another pearl +gleamed there beside the first. + +"So many a day went by, and Ederyn failed not in his homely tasks, but +carried to his common round of duties all his might, as if they were +great feats of prowess. Thus gained he liberty to keep the tryst with +every messenger the king did send. + +"Once he fared forth along a dangerous road that led he knew not where, +and, when he found it crossed a loathly swamp all filled with slime and +creeping things, fain would he have fled. But, pushing on for sake of +his brave oath, although with fainting heart, he reached the goal at +last. This time his token made him wonder much. For when he wakened from +his swoon, a shining star lay on his heart above the pearls. + +"Now it fell out the squire to whom this Ederyn was page was killed in +conflict with a robber band, and Ederyn, for his faithfulness, was taken +by the earl to fill that squire's place. Soon after that, they left the +hall, and journeyed on a visit to a distant lord. 'Twas to the Castle of +Content they came, where was a joyous garden. And now no menial tasks +employed the new squire's time. Here was he free to wander all the day +through vistas of the joyous garden, or loiter by the fountain in the +courtyard and watch the maidens at their tasks, having fair speech with +them among the flowers. And one there was among them, so lily-like in +face, so gentle-voiced and fair, that Ederyn well-nigh forgot his oath, +and felt full glad when for a space the king's call ceased to sound. And +gladder was he still, when, later on, the earl's long visit done, he +left young Ederyn behind to serve the great lord of the castle, for so +the two friends had agreed, since Ederyn had pleased the old lord's +fancy. + +"Yet was he faithful to his vow, and failed not every dawn to mount to +some high place, when all the voices of the world were still, and listen +for the sound of Merlin's horn. One morn it came: + +"'Ederyn! Ederyn! One waits thee far away. By the black cave of Atropos, +when the moon fulls, keep thy tryst!' + +"Now 'twas a seven days' journey to that cave, and Ederyn, thinking of +the lily maid, was loath to leave the garden. He lingered by the +fountain until nightfall, saying to himself: 'Why should I go on longer +in these foolish quests, keeping tryst with shadows that vanish at the +touch? No nearer am I to a knight's estate than, when a stripling page, +I listened to the minstrel's tales.' + +"The fountain softly splashed within the garden. From out the +banquet-hall there stole the sound of tinkling lutes, and then the lily +maiden sang. Her siren voice filled all his heart, and he forgot his +oath to duty. But presently a star reflected in the fountain made him +look up into the jewelled sky, where shone the polar constellation. And +there he read the oath he had forgotten: 'With the compass needle of my +soul true to the north star of my great ambition, I will follow where it +leads.' + +"Thrusting his fingers in his ears to silence the beloved voice of her +who sang, he madly rushed from out the garden into the blackness of the +night. The Castle of Content clanged its great gate behind him. He +shivered as he felt the jar through all his frame, but, never taking out +his fingers, on he ran, till scores of furlongs lay between him and the +tempting of that siren voice. + +"It was a strange and fearsome wood that lay between him and the cave. +All things seemed moaning and afraid. He saw no forms, but everywhere +the shadows shuddered, and moans and groans pursued him till nameless +fears clutched at his heart with icy chill. Then suddenly the earth +slipped way beneath his feet, and cold waves closed above his head. He +knew now he had fallen in the pool that lies upon the far edge of the +fearsome wood,--a pool so deep and of such whirling motion that only by +the fiercest struggle may one escape. Gladly he would have allowed the +waters to close over him, such cold pains smote his heart, had he not +seemed to hear the old minstrel's song. It aroused him to a final +effort, and he gasped between his teeth: + + "''Tis the king's call! O list! + Thou heart and hand of mine, keep tryst-- + Keep tryst or die!' + +"With that, in one mighty struggle he dragged himself to land. A +bow-shot farther on he saw the cave, and by sheer force of will crept +toward it. What happened then he knew not till the moon rose full and +high above him. A form swathed all in black bowed over him. + +"'Ederyn,' she sighed. 'Here is thy token that the king may know that +thou hast met me face to face.' + +"He thought it was a diamond at first, that sparkled there beside the +star, but when he looked again, lo, nothing but a tear. + +"Then went he back unto the joyous garden by slow degrees, for he was +now sore spent. And after that the summons came full often. Whenever all +the world seemed loveliest and life most sweet, then was the call most +sure to come. But never once he faltered. Never was he faithless to the +king's behest. Up weary mountain steps he toiled to find the sombre face +of Disappointment there in waiting, and Suffering and Pain were often at +his journey's end, and once a sore Defeat. But bravely as the months +went by he learned to smile into their eyes, no matter which one handed +out to him the pledge of Duty well performed. + +"One day, when he no longer was a beardless youth, but grown to pleasing +stature and of great brawn, he heard the hoped-for call of which he long +had dreamed: 'Ederyn! Ederyn! The king himself awaits thee. Midsummer +morn at lark-song, keep tryst beside the palace gate.' + +"As travellers on the desert, spent and worn, see far across the sand +the palm-tree's green that marks life-giving wells, so Ederyn hailed +this summons to the king. The soul-consuming thirst that long had urged +him on grew fiercer as the well of consummation came in sight. Hope shod +his feet with wings, as thus with every nerve a-strain he pushed toward +the final tryst. So fearful was he some mishap might snatch the cup away +ere it had touched his thirsty lips, that three full days before the +time he reached the Vale of Avalon, and sat him down outside the +entrance to the palace. + +"Now there came prowling through the wood that edged the fair domain the +gnarled dwarfs that do the will of Shudderwain. And Shudderwain, of all +the giants thereabouts, most cruel was and to be feared. Knowing full +well what pleasure it would give the bloody monster, these dwarfs laid +evil hands on Ederyn. Sleeping they found him, and bound him with hard +leathern thongs, and then with gibes and impish laughter dragged him +into a dungeon past the help of man. + +"Two days and nights he lay there, raging at fate and at his +helplessness, till he was well-nigh mad, bethinking him of all his +baffled hopes. And like a madman gnawed he on the leathern thongs till +he was free, and beat his hands against the stubborn rock that would not +yield, and threw himself against the walls that held him in. + +"The dwarfs from time to time peered through the slatted window overhead +and mocked him, pointing with their crooked thumbs. + +"'Ha! ha! Thou'lt keep no tryst,' they chattered. 'But if thou'lt swear +upon thy oath to go back to the joyous garden, and hark no more for +Merlin's call, we'll let thee loose from out this Dungeon of thy +Disappointment.' + +"Then was Ederyn tempted, for the dungeon was foul indeed, and his heart +cried out to go back to the lily maiden. But once more in his ears he +thrust his fingers and cried: + + "'To the king's call alone I'll list! + Oh, heart and hand of mine, keep tryst-- + Keep tryst or die!' + +"On the third night, with the quiet of despair he threw him prone upon +the dungeon floor and held his peace, no longer gnawing on his thongs or +beating on the rock. A single moonbeam straggled through the slatted +window, and by its light he saw a spider spinning out a web. Then, +looking dully around, he saw the dungeon was hung thick with other webs, +foul with the dust of years. Great festoons of the cobweb film shrouded +his prison walls. As up and down the hairy creature swung itself upon +its thread, the hopeless eyes of Ederyn followed it. + +"All in a twinkling he saw how he might profit by the spider's teaching, +and clapped his hand across his mouth to keep from shouting out his joy, +so that the dwarfs could hear. Now once more like a madman rushing at +the walls, he tore down all the dusty webs, and twisted them together in +long strands. These strands he braided in thick ropes and tied them, +knotting them and twisting and doubling once again. All the while he +kept bewailing the stupid way in which he wasted time. 'Three days ago I +might have quit this den,' he sighed, 'had I but used the means that lay +at hand. Full well I knew that heaven always finds a way to help the man +who helps himself. No creature lives too mean to be of service, and +even dungeon walls must harbour help for him who boldly grasps the first +thing that he sees and makes it serve him.' + +"So fast and furiously he worked that, long before the moonbeam faded, +his cobweb rope was strong enough to bear his weight, and long enough to +reach twice over to the slatted window overhead. By many trials he at +last succeeded in throwing it around a spike that barred the window, +and, climbing up, he forced the slats apart and clambered through. Then +tying the rope's end to the window, he slid down all the dizzy cliffside +in which the dwarfs had dug the dungeon, and dropped into the stream +that ran below. + +"Lo, when he looked around him it was dawn. Midsummer morn it was, and, +plunging through the wood, he heard the lark's song rise, and reached +the palace gate just as it opened to the blare of trumpets for the +king's train to ride forth. When Ederyn saw the royal cavalcade, he +shrunk back into the wayside bushes, so ill-befitting did it seem that +he should come before the king in tattered garments, with blood upon his +hands where the sharp rocks had cut, and with foul dungeon stains. + +"But that the king might know he'd ever proven faithful, he sank upon +his knees and bared his breast at his approach. There all the pledges +glistened in the sunlight, in rainbow hues. There Pain had dropped her +heart's blood in a glittering ruby, and Honour set her seal upon him in +a golden star. A diamond gleamed where Sorrow's tear had fallen, and +amethysts glowed now with purple splendour to mark his patient meeting +with Defeat. But mostly were the pledges little pearls for little duties +faithfully performed; and there they shone, and, as the people gazed, +they saw the jewels take the shape of letters, so that the king read out +before them all, '_Semper fidelis_.' + +"Then drew the king his royal sword and lightly smote on Ederyn's +shoulder, and cried: 'Arise, Sir Knight, Sir Ederyn the Trusty. Since I +may trust thee to the utmost in little things as well as great, since +thou of all men art most worthy, henceforth by thy king's heart thou +shalt ride, ever to be his faithful guard and comrade.' + +"So there before them all he did him honour, and ordered that a prancing +steed be brought and a good sword buckled on his side. + +"Thus Ederyn won his sovereign's favour. Soon, by his sovereign's grace +permitted, he went back to the joyous garden to woo the lily maiden. +When he had won his bride and borne her to the palace, then was his +great reward complete for all his years of fealty to his vow. Then out +into the world he went to guard his king. Henceforth blazoned on his +shield and helmet he bore the crest--a heart with hand that grasped a +spear, and, underneath these words: + +"_'I keep the tryst!'_" + +Slipping the white ribbon back between the pages to mark the place, Miss +Chilton laid the little green and gold volume on the table, and smiled +at the circle of attentive faces. + +"I am sure you understand why I have read this story," she said. "It is +the motto of the school. Tradition has it that Sir Ederyn was an ancient +member of Madam Chartley's family. At any rate, it has borne his crest +for many, many generations, and there could be no better motto for a +school. The world expects us to do certain things. We must keep tryst +with these expectations. You all know what happened yesterday. Madam +looks for a certain course of conduct from her girls. She does not make +rules. She only expects what the inborn instinct of a true lady would +prompt you to do or to be. I am sure that after this explanation none +of you will fail to keep tryst with her expectations." + +That was the only public reference to Maud's escapade. She left the room +with a very red face when the class was dismissed. The little story put +her so plainly in the wrong before the other girls that it made her +cross and uncomfortable. + +Every member of the class had five marks to her credit, and Betty was +the lucky one whose almost literal reproduction of the story gave her +ten. She copied it all down in her white record afterward, adding a +verse that she had once seen in an autograph album: + + "Life is a rosary + Strung with the beads of little deeds, + Done humbly, Lord, as unto thee." + +She repeated the verse aloud to Lloyd. "I'd like to make that kind of a +rosary. I'd like to act out that story. It just strikes my fancy. It +would be such a satisfaction to lay aside a token each night, as Ederyn +did, that I had kept tryst with duty,--had perfect lessons, or lived +through a day just as nearly right as I possibly could." + +She went on writing after she had made the remark, but Lloyd, pleased by +the thought, sat staring at the lamp. It was nearly bedtime, and +presently, putting aside her book, she rose and crossed over to the +bureau. In a sandalwood box in the top drawer was a broken fan-chain of +white beads--tiny Roman pearls that she had bought in a shop in the Via +Crucia. She had intended to string them sometime, mixing with them here +and there some curious blue beads she had seen made at a glass-blower's +in Venice--large blue ones with tiny roses on the sides. + +Betty, busy with her diary, did not notice how long Lloyd stood with her +back toward her, pouring the little Roman pearls from one hand to the +other. + +"It seems almost babyish," Lloyd was saying to herself. "But othah girls +keep memory-books and such things, and this is such a pretty idea. No +one need know. Yes, I'll begin the rosary this very night, for every +lesson was perfect to-day, and I truly tried my best in everything." + +Hesitating an instant longer, she rummaged through the drawer for a +piece of fine white silk cord which she remembered having placed there. +When she found it, she knotted one end securely, and then slowly slipped +one little pearl bead down against the knot. + +"There!" she thought, with a hasty glance over her shoulder at Betty, as +she dropped the string back into its box. "There's one token that I've +kept tryst, even if I nevah earn any moah. I'm going to have that string +half-full by vacation." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A MEMORY-BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON + + +THE string of white beads grew steadily, but work went hand in hand with +play at Warwick Hall, as Kitty's memory-book testified. She brought it +out to liven the recreation hour one rainy afternoon, late in the term, +when they were house-bound by the weather. Its covers, labelled "Gala +Days and Bonfire Nights," were bulging with souvenirs of many memorable +occasions. She sat on the floor with it spread open on her lap. Betty +was on one side and Lloyd on the other, while Gay leaned against her +back and looked over her shoulder. + +Kitty opened her treasure-house of mementos with a giggle, for on the +first page was a water-colour sketch of Gay as she had appeared on the +welcoming night. She had painted her with two enormous feet protruding +from her flowing skirts, one cased in a party slipper with an +exaggerated French heel, the other in a down-trodden bedroom slipper +painted a brilliant crimson. + +"You mean thing!" cried Gay, laughing over the ridiculous caricature of +herself. + +"That isn't a circumstance to some of them," remarked Allison, who was +virtuously spending her recreation hour in sewing buttons on her gloves +and mending a rip in the lining of her coat-sleeve. "Wait till you come +to the programme of the recital given by the students of voice, violin, +and piano. The pictures she made all around the margin of it are some of +the best she has done. The sketch of Susie Tyndall, tearing her hair and +shrieking out the 'Polish Boy,' is simply killing." + +"Kitty Walton," exclaimed Gay, as she bent over the grotesquely +decorated programme, "where do you keep this book o' nights? I'll surely +have to steal it. Think what it will be worth to us when we are old +ladies. There's one thing certain, you could never pose as a saintly old +grandmother with such a record for mischief as this to bear witness +against you." + +Kitty looked up with a startled expression. "You know, it never occurred +to me before that I'd ever look at this book through spectacles. I +wonder if I'll find it as amusing then, when I'm dignified and +rheumatic, as I do now." + +"I'm sure _that_ will be pleasant to recall," said Betty, pointing to a +withered rose pinned to the next page. "That will properly impress your +grandchildren." + +Underneath the rose was written the date of a private reception granted +the Warwick Hall girls at the White House. + +"I had such a lovely time that afternoon," sighed Betty. "It was so much +nicer to go as we did, for a friendly little visit under Madam's wing, +than to have pushed by in a big public mob. Wasn't Cora Basket funny? +She was so overawed by the honour that she fairly turned purple. Her +roommate vows that, when she wrote home, she began, 'Preserve this +letter! The hand that is now writing it has been shaken by the President +of the United States of America!'" + +"Cordie Brown was funnier than Cora," said Allison. "She wanted to +impress people with the idea that the affair was nothing to her. That it +rather bored her, in fact. She went around with her nose in the air, +trying to appear so superior and indifferent, as if crowned heads and +their ilk made her tired." + +"What's this?" demanded Lloyd, as they turned the next leaf, through +which a single long black hair had been drawn. Underneath was the +gruesome legend, "Dead men tell no tales." + +"Oh, that's only a 'hair from the tail of the dog of the child of the +wife of the wild man of Borneo,'" laughed Kitty, attempting to turn the +page; but Lloyd, laying both palms across it, held it fast. + +"You know it's not, you naughty thing. You've been up to some prank." + +"It a p. j. A private joke," explained Kitty, bending over the book and +laughing till her forehead touched her knees. "I'm dying to tell you, +for it's the funniest thing in the collection. It happened at the +Hallowe'en party, and I promised not to tell." + +"Promised whom?" demanded Betty. + +"Can't tell that, either," was all that Kitty would say. She flipped +over the next leaf. A gilded wishbone was fastened to the page by the +bit of red ribbon run through it. + +"That's 'In Memoriam' of the grand spread at the Thanksgiving Day feast. +And this button pasted on just below it, popped off the glove of +Mademoiselle La Tosto the afternoon she came to the Studio Tea and Art +reception. You know how the girls buzzed around her like a swarm of +bees, begging for her autograph. I'd rather have this button than a +dozen autographs, for it dropped off her glove as she clapped her hands +in that vivacious Frenchy way of hers, when she saw my caricature of +Paderewski that the girls stuck up on the wall. Understand, young +ladies, she was _applauding_ it. I walked on air all afternoon." + +"Why undah the sun have you saved this tea leaf?" asked Lloyd, pointing +to one pasted carefully in the corner of the next page. + +"Don't you remember the day that we went down to Mammy Easter's cabin, +and her old black grandmother was there, and told our fortunes? She was +a regular old hag, Gay. I wish you could have seen her,--teeth all gone; +skin puckered as a dried apple; she looked more monkey than human. But +she's a fine fortune-teller. I made a few hieroglyphics to recall what +she said. This mark is supposed to be a coach and four. She said that +Allison was to wed wid de quality and ride in a car'age, but sorrow +would be her po'shun if she walked proud. She said that I'm bawn to +trouble as de spah'ks fly upwa'd, case I won't hah'k to counsel, and +that I mustn't marry the first man that axes me, and I mustn't marry the +second man that axes me, but the third man that axes me, him I can +safely marry. This tea leaf stands for the third man. I'm to have three +sons and one daughter, and my luck will come to me through running water +when the weather-vane points west." + +Kitty pointed to several pencil scratches beside the tea leaf, intended +to signify a brook and a weather-vane on a steeple. + +"What did she say about Betty?" asked Gay. + +Kitty studied the next line of hieroglyphics a moment. "Oh, I see now. I +intended this for a ship. She said there was a veil done hanging ovah +her future, so she couldn't rightly tell, but she could see ships coming +and going and crowds of people, and she could see that her fortune was +mixed up with a great many other persons. She said that the teacup held +gold for her, and the signs all 'pinted friendly.'" + +"And Lloyd?" queried Gay, trying to decipher the next line of pencil +marks. "Surely that's not a cat I see." + +"A cat, a teapot, and a ball of knitting," laughed Kitty. "I supposed +that Lloyd's fortune would be something thrilling, but according to the +old darky, it's to be the tamest of all. She said, 'I see a rising sun, +and a row of lovahs, but I don't see you a-taking any of 'em, honey. Yo' +ways am ways of pleasantness and all yo' paths am peace, but I'se +powahful skeered dat you'se gwine to be an ole maid. I sholy is.'" + +"Is that so, Lloyd?" asked Gay, leaning over Kitty's shoulder to laugh +at the Little Colonel's teased expression. Kitty answered for her. + +"Not if we can help it. We want her for a cousin, and we think that she +ought to marry Malcolm just for the sake of being able to claim us as +her dear relations. Look how she's blushing, girls." + +"I'm not!" was the indignant answer. "You're just trying to make me get +red, because you know I do it so easily." + +She turned the page hastily and began to talk about its contents to +change the subject. There were scraps of ribbon, as they went farther +on, a burnt match, a peacock feather, a tiny block of wood with a hole +shot through it, a strand of embroidery silk, a faded pansy,--a hundred +bits of worthless rubbish which an unknowing hand would have swept into +the waste-basket; but to Kitty each one was a key to unlock some happy +memory of her swiftly passing school-days. As the four heads, brown and +golden, black and auburn, bent over the book, the rain beat against the +windows in torrents. + +With needle in air, Allison sat a moment watching the water stream down +the pane. "This makes me think of that afternoon in old Lloydsboro +Seminary," she said, musingly, "when Ida Shane read the 'Fortunes of +Daisy Dale' aloud to us. I wonder what has become of Ida. She was living +in a little country town up in the mountains the last time I heard of +her, taking in sewing and doing her own work." + +"She's the girl who caused so much excitement at the Seminary," Betty +explained to Gay. "The one who got our Shadow Club into disgrace. She +tried to elope one night, but the teachers found it out and sent her +home. It didn't do any good, for she ran away with Ned Bannon the next +summer, and they were married by a justice of the peace. I don't see how +Ida could do it when she'd always been so romantic, and planned to have +her wedding just like Daisy Dale's, in cherry blossom time, and in the +little stone church at Lloydsboro, with the vines over the belfry. It's +so quaint and English looking, just like the one that Daisy was married +in. Instead of being all in white, she was married in the dress she +happened to have on when she ran away,--just an old black walking skirt +and plaid shirt-waist. No veil, no trail, and no orange-blossoms, and +she had counted on having all three. It was so prosy and commonplace +after the grand things she had planned." + +"She's had it prosy enough ever since, too," remarked Allison. "Ned +drinks so hard that he can't keep a position. She didn't reform him one +single bit, and I reckon she understands now why her aunt objected so +strongly to her marrying him. Poor Ida, to think of her having to take +in sewing to keep her from actual starvation! It's awful!" + +"Poah Ida!" echoed Lloyd. "I don't see how she does it. When she was in +the Seminary, she couldn't do anything with her needle but embroidah. I +used to have Mom Beck do her mending and darning when she did mine." + +"Thank fortune _my_ mending is done!" exclaimed Allison, dropping her +thimble into her work-bag, and throwing her coat across a chair. "It's +almost time for the bell. I must take Juliet Lynn the papers I promised +her." + +Lloyd and Betty, looking at the clock, scrambled to their feet, and a +moment after only Gay and Kitty were left on the rug with the +memory-book open between them. + +"Do you think that Lloyd really cares for your cousin?" asked Gay. + +"No," was the emphatic answer. "You can make her blush that way about +anybody, and I love to tease her. When she first came back from Arizona, +I used to think she liked Phil Tremont, a boy she met out there, and +then I thought maybe it was Joyce's brother Jack. She talked so much +about the duck hunts they had together, and what a splendid fellow he +was, and how much her father admired him. But the Princess is so +particular that I believe the old darky told her fortune truly. If she's +so particular at fifteen, 'I'se powahful skeered she's gwine to be an +old maid. I sholy is.' For what will she be at twice fifteen?" + +Gay laughed at the imitation of the old coloured woman, then asked: "But +doesn't your cousin come up to her standard? According to Maud Minor he +is as handsome as a Greek god, as accomplished as all the Muses put +together, and as entertaining as a four-ring circus." + +"Oh, Malcolm's all right," answered Kitty. "We're awfully fond of him, +but we're not so crazy about him as to think all that. I have a picture +of him somewhere in my box of photographs, if you'd like to see it." + +Climbing on a chair to reach the box on the top of the wardrobe, she +took it down and began rummaging through it. In a moment she tossed a +photograph to Gay, who still sat on the floor, Turk fashion. + +[Illustration: "STUDYING THE FACE OF THE HANDSOME YOUNG FELLOW WITH +INTEREST"] + +"Here is one he had taken years ago when he and Keith used to play they +were two little Knights of Kentucky, and went around trying to set the +wrongs of the world to rights." + +While Gay was still exclaiming over it, she threw down another. "Here's +the one I was looking for. It was taken this summer at Narragansett Pier +on his polo pony." + +Gay seized it, studying the face of the handsome young fellow with +interest. "Why, he's almost grown!" she cried. + +"Yes, he's nearly eighteen, and he is even better looking than that +picture. And here's Keith, the one I'm so fond of. We always have so +much fun when they come out to grandmother's for the holidays." + +The box slipped and the entire contents showered over the floor. Gay +helped her to put them back into the box, glancing at each one as she +did so. One in a cadet uniform attracted her attention. + +"Who's this? Now _he's_ the one I'd like to know. I suppose it's because +I've lived at an army post always that I adore anything military. _He_ +looks interesting." + +Kitty leaned over to look. "Oh, that's my brother Ranald. He's away at +military school. Won't he be teased when I tell him what you said? He's +dreadfully bashful with girls, though you'd think he oughtn't to be. He +was under fire ever so many times with papa in the Philippines when he +was a little chap. You know he was the youngest captain in the army, at +one time, and was on General Grant's staff when he was still in short +trousers." + +"Why, of course, I know," cried Gay, enthusiastically. "I heard some +officers talking about it one night at dinner just after it happened. +Papa toasted 'The Little Captain' in such a pretty speech that the +officers who had fought with your father cheered. But I never dreamed +then that I'd ever know his sister, or be sitting here holding his +picture, talking about him. I'm going to take possession of this," she +added, when all the other photographs were back in the box. + +"You don't care, do you? I'd like it to add to my collection of heroes. +I'll put it in a frame made of brass buttons and crossed guns and all +sorts of ornaments that the officers have given me off of their +uniforms." + +"No, I don't care," answered Kitty. "Allison has one like it, and I can +get another any time by writing home for it. I wish you would take it, +for that would give me such a fine thing to tease him about. I could +worry him nearly distracted." + +"I don't care how much you tease him so long as I may keep the picture," +laughed Gay. "I'm a thousand times obliged to you." + +As she sat looking at it, she exclaimed, suddenly: "Kitty Walton, you're +an awfully lucky girl to have such nice boys in your family. I wish I +knew them. I haven't a brother or even a forty-second cousin." + +"Well, you can know them if you'll come home with me to spend the +Christmas vacation. Ranald always brings a boy home with him for the +holidays, and mother said Allison and I might bring a friend. I'm sure +she'd rather have you than anybody else, she knows your father and +mother so well." + +The amber lights in Gay's brown eyes deepened. "Oh, I'd _love_ to!" she +cried. "I'd dearly love to! It's too far to go away back to San Antonio +for such a short time, and I hated to think of the holidays, knowing +I'd have to stay here at the Hall, with all you girls gone. Are you sure +your mother won't object?" + +"You wait and see," advised Kitty. "You don't know mammy! You'll not +have any doubt of your welcome when her letter comes." + +"Oh, it would be too lovely for anything!" exclaimed Gay, listening with +a far-away look in her eyes, as Kitty began outlining plans for the +coming holidays. Presently, in sheer joy at the prospect, they pulled +each other up from the floor, and, springing on to the bed, danced a +Highland fling in the middle of it, till a slat fell out with a +terrifying crash. + + * * * * * + +With the coming of December the holiday gaieties began. A spirit of +festivity lurked in the very air. A mock Christmas tree was one of the +yearly features of the school, when each pupil's pet fad or peculiarity +was suggested by appropriate gifts. Preparations for the tree began +early in the month, and whispered consultations were carried on in every +corner, with much giggling and profound assurances of secrecy. + +The practising of Christmas carols went on in the music-rooms, and +snatches of them floated down the halls and through the building, till +the blithe young hearts were filled to overflowing with the cheer and +good-will of the sweet old melodies. Now the usual Monday sightseeing +gave way to shopping, and every moment that could be snatched from +school work was given to crochet-needles and embroidery-hoops, to the +finishing of an endless variety of gifts, and the wrapping of same in +mysterious packages. + +One Monday Betty did not join the others in their weekly shopping +expedition. Her few purchases had been made, and she wanted the day to +work on unfinished gifts. She was making most of them with her needle. +She was glad afterward that she had decided to stay when a slow winter +rain began to fall. It melted the light snow-fall which whitened the +ground into a disagreeable compound of slush and mud. + +It was almost dark when Kitty and Allison burst into the room, their +arms full of bundles, and began displaying their purchases. Lloyd +followed more slowly, and, dropping her packages on the floor by the +radiator, stood trying to warm her fingers through her wet gloves. +Presently, in the midst of the exhibition, with her hat still on, she +flung herself across her bed, piled up as it was with strings and +crumpled wrapping-paper. "Excuse me if I mash your bargains, Kitty," she +said, weakly, closing her eyes. "But I'm as limp as a rag! So ti'ahed--I +feel as if I were falling to pieces. We tramped around in the wet so +long, and then inside the stores there were such crowds that we were +pushed and jammed and stepped on everywhere we turned. It seemed to me +we waited hours for our change. Then the car we came out on was so +ovah-heated that we almost stifled. I'm suah I caught cold when the icy +wind struck us aftah we left the station." + +She shivered as she spoke. Betty sprang up and began tugging at her wet +wraps. + +"Don't lie there that way," she begged. "Let me help you get into some +dry clothes, and ask the housekeeper for a glass of hot milk." + +At first Lloyd protested that she was too tired to move. Betty could be +as persistent as a mosquito at times. She insisted until Lloyd finally +allowed her to have her way, and got up wearily to put on the dry skirts +and stockings which she brought to her. A hot dinner made her feel +somewhat better, but her face was flushed when they went up-stairs for +the study hour. Betty saw her wipe her eyes as she took out her Latin +grammar, and instantly forgave the petulant way in which Lloyd had +answered her several times during the evening. + +"Don't try to study, Lloyd," she urged. "I know you don't feel well." + +"No," acknowledged the Little Colonel, "every bone in my body aches, and +my head is simply splitting." + +"Let me run down to the sanitarium and ask Miss Gilmer to come up and +see if she can't do something for you," began Betty, but Lloyd +interrupted her, stamping her foot with a touch of her old childish +imperiousness. + +"You sha'n't go! I'm not sick! I've just caught a plain cold." + +"But people don't catch just plain colds nowadays," persisted Betty. +"They always catch microbes at the same time, that are apt to turn into +la grippe and pneumonia and all sorts of dreadful things. 'A stitch in +time saves nine,' you know," she added, wisely, quoting from the motto +embroidered on her darning-bag, which happened to be hanging on a +chair-post in the corner. "'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of +cure' every time." + +"Oh, for mercy's sake, Betty," cried Lloyd, impatiently, "let me alone +and don't be so preachy. I'm not going to repoa't a little thing like a +headache and a soah throat to the nurse. She'd put me to bed and keep me +there for a week. I'd get behind with my lessons, and lose all the +holiday fun. Like as not mothah and Papa Jack would come straight aftah +me, and take me home befoah we'd had the mock Christmas tree or any of +the things I've been looking forward to so long." + +Betty picked up her algebra again without an audible reply, but inwardly +she was saying: "I know she is sick, or she wouldn't be so cross." + +The next day found Lloyd with such high fever that she was installed at +once in the sanitarium. "It is la grippe that she has," the nurse told +Betty. "It is the real thing, and not what people always claim to have +with an ordinary cold. The worst will probably be over in a few days, +but it will leave her so exhausted and so susceptible to other things +that I shall keep her with me for a week at least." + +Lloyd rebelled at first, but she had to submit as her fever mounted +higher, and the world grew, to her blurred fancy, one great, throbbing +ache. She was glad to give herself up to Miss Gilmer's soothing touches. +Mrs. Sherman did not come, for a letter from the school physician +assured her that Lloyd was receiving every care and attention that she +could have had at home, and the case was quite a simple one. + +Miss Gilmer, the nurse, was a big motherly woman, who seemed to radiate +comfort and cheer, as a stove does heat. After the first few days, Lloyd +would have enjoyed the time spent with her in the cheerful room assigned +her had she not been haunted by the thought that she was falling behind +her classes. + +"It's a pretty good sawt of a world, aftah all," she said one day, as +she sat propped up among the pillows, enjoying a dainty mid-afternoon +lunch Madam Chartley had personally prepared and sent in hot from the +chafing-dish. Bouillon in the thinnest of fragile china, and a toasted +scone which recalled delightfully the little English inn she had visited +near Kenilworth ruins. By some oversight, no spoon had been sent in on +the tray, and Miss Gilmer supplied the deficiency by bringing one of her +own from a little cabinet in the next room. + +"It has a history," Miss Gilmer said, and Lloyd looked at it with +interest before dipping it into the cup. + +"Why, the handle is a May-pole!" she exclaimed, with pleasure. "And the +date down among the garlands is the queen's birthday, isn't it? I +remembah we were up in the Burns country that day, when we saw the +school-children celebrating it." + +"To think of an American girl remembering that date!" cried Miss Gilmer, +in a pleased tone. "It is a great day on my calendar, for it was then +that I met Madam Chartley, for the first time, on the queen's birthday. +She has been my good angel ever since. It was she who sent me that +May-pole spoon, as a souvenir of that meeting." + +"Oh, would you tell me about it?" asked Lloyd. "It sounds so +interesting." + +Taking up some needlework from a basket on the table, Miss Gilmer leaned +back as if to begin a long story. + +"There isn't so much to tell, after all," she said, pausing to thread +her needle. "It was long ago, when Madam Chartley was Alicia Raeburn, +and I was a bashful little English schoolgirl at St. Agnes Hall. Alicia +had come from America to visit her uncle, who was proctor of the +cathedral. His grounds joined the school premises on the south, and I +often used to peep through the hedge and watch her strolling around the +garden. She was older than I, and the difference in our ages seemed +greater then than now, for I was still wearing short frocks, and she +had just put on long ones. I had heard that she was to be presented at +court next season. That, and the fact that she was an American, and very +beautiful, and that she looked lonely strolling around the old proctor's +garden by herself, threw a glamour of romance about her. + +"I would have given a fortune to have made her acquaintance, and I spent +hours down by the brook dreaming innocent little day-dreams in which I +pictured such meetings. Suddenly heliotrope became my favourite flower +instead of roses, because she so often wore a bunch of it tucked in the +belt of her gray dress. Indeed, because she so often wore it, I grew to +regard it as sacred to her alone, and felt that no one else had a right +to wear it. Fortunately, at that season of the year it grew only in the +proctor's conservatory, so that the schoolgirls could not obtain it. I +would have inwardly resented it, if any one of them had taken such a +liberty as to wear her flower. She seemed to me the most beautiful and +perfect creature I had ever seen, and I worshipped her from afar, and +imitated her in every way possible. I don't suppose you can understand +such an infatuation." + +"Indeed I do undahstand," interrupted Lloyd, eagerly. She was thinking +of Ida Shane, and the way she had fallen under the spell of her +charming personality. Even yet the odour of violets brought back the +same little thrill it had awakened when violets seemed made for Ida's +exclusive wearing. Miss Gilmer's feeling for the beautiful Alicia +Raeburn was no deeper than hers had been for Ida. She could readily +understand about the heliotrope. + +"Well, then," Miss Gilmer went on, "you can imagine my state of mind +when at last I actually met her. It was on the queen's birthday. At our +school, instead of having the May-pole dance on May-day, we waited until +the queen's birthday, and on that occasion Alicia was one of the invited +guests. It was quite by accident she spoke to me. She dropped her +handkerchief, and I sprang to pick it up. But she must have seen the +adoration in my poor little embarrassed face, for I went quite red I am +sure. I could fairly feel the hot blood surge over me. She said +something pleasant to cover my confusion, and then swept her skirts +aside for me to share her seat. She wanted to ask some questions about +the customs of the school, she said. + +"That was the beginning of our acquaintance. Next day she waved her +handkerchief over the hedge to me, and the next called me over for a +little chat. She was lonely in the great garden. After awhile I plucked +up courage to tell her how I had watched her through the hedge, and +dreamed about meeting her. I could not put it into words, but she could +readily see that the good Victoria and the queen of the May were not the +sovereigns who claimed my dearest allegiance. It was the 'Queen Rose of +the rosebud garden of girls,' the beautiful Alicia Raeburn. + +"She went away that summer, but we had grown to be such friends that she +promised to write to me once a year, in order that I might not lose her +entirely out of my life. She knew what a lonely little orphan I was, and +she never denied me the joy of that yearly letter. They were full of her +travels and the interesting experiences of her life, for she married a +young English officer and went to India. + +"They came back to England once. I saw her then. It was at a great ball +given for the Prince of Wales when he honoured the little cathedral town +with a visit. She could hardly believe that I was the little schoolgirl +who had eyed her so adoringly through the hedge. I had grown so large. +But she found from others what a lonely life I had, and, knowing how +much her friendship meant, she still gave me the pleasure of that yearly +letter, written on the queen's birthday. That she should remember +through all her busy years shows one of the finest traits of her +character. + +"Once she was too ill to write, but the message came just the same. She +sent this spoon with the May-pole handle, and on her card was scrawled +the one line, 'I keep the tryst.' She had told me the story of their +family crest. You don't know how many times in the next few years the +sight of that card and the souvenir spoon helped me. Her fidelity to a +promise made me rely on her and her friendship when all others failed +me. My guardian died and left my property in such shape that I found I +would have to support myself, and I began to take training for a +professional nurse. When she heard of it, she wrote and told me that +she, too, had been obliged by her husband's death to earn her own +living, and that she had established this school in her +great-grandmother's old mansion. She offered me the position of +professional nurse here. I came on the next steamer, and have been here +ever since. + +"You don't know how many times I've thought how different my life would +have been if she had failed in that one little matter of sending a +yearly letter. No doubt it was a bore to her oftentimes, but it was the +line that kept us in touch and finally drew me to this happy anchorage. +Alicia Chartley is a great woman, my dear. She has left her imprint on +every girl who has passed through this school, and there'll be a long +line of them to rise up and call her blessed. Not so much for the fine +ladies she has made of them with her high-bred ways and ideals, but for +the example she has set them always in that one thing. No matter in how +small a duty, she has never once failed to keep the tryst." + +Lloyd would have liked to ask some questions about Madam's girlhood, but +some one called Miss Gilmer into the office just then, so, taking the +tray with its empty cup and plate, she passed out. Lloyd thumped her +pillows and lay looking out of the window at the sparrows on the balcony +railing. All the ache was gone, and, with a delightful sense of +drowsiness and of well-being, she began slipping into a little doze. +Even illness had its bright side, she thought, languidly. She liked Miss +Gilmer's reminiscences. They opened into a world so delightfully +English. When she came back she would ask for more stories. Down from +the distant music-room stole the faint echo of one of the carols. She +opened her eyes to listen. + + "God rest you, merry Christians, + Let nothing you dismay, + For Christ our Lord and Saviour + Was born on Christmas Day." + +Lloyd liked that carol. "'Let nothing you dismay,'" she repeated, +softly. "No, it doesn't really make any difference what happens," she +thought, closing her eyes again and curling up like a sleepy kitten. "It +will all come right in the end, as it did with Miss Gilmer. I'll not +worry about missing so many lessons and so many pearls on my rosary. +I'll just be thankful for Christmas and all it brings." + +Again through her drowsy senses echoed the refrain, and she dropped to +sleep, repeating, slowly, "'Let--nothing--you--dismay!'" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHRISTMAS CAROLS + + +"THIS is the worst time of all the yeah to be sick," fretted the Little +Colonel, pausing in her restless journey around the room. She had been +pacing from window to fireplace in the nurse's office, and from +fireplace to window again, watching the clock and the slowly westering +sun, as if watching would hasten the day to its close. + +Miss Gilmer, who was placidly knitting, changed needles without looking +up. "That is what people always say. I've never yet found one whose +calendar had a time when illness would be convenient." + +"But now, just befoah the holidays, a thousand things are waiting to be +done. I'm behind a whole week with my studies, and my Christmas presents +that I'm going to make are scarcely begun. You haven't even let me look +at the material. I feel like a caged lion, and I'd like to roah and claw +and ramp around till I'd smashed my bah's." + +"You'll have your liberty soon," laughed Miss Gilmer. "I think it will +be safe to let you go down to the dining-room this evening, and I'll +give you your honourable discharge in the morning. But, if I were in +your place, I would make no attempt to catch up with the classes this +term. I would lock the unfinished presents away in a drawer, and not +give any this Christmas. You ought to spend the holidays as quietly as +possible, doing nothing but rest." + +Lloyd turned toward her with an exclamation of dismay. + +"Oh, Miss Gilmer! That's impossible! We've planned for a gayer Christmas +vacation than we've evah had befoah. Every day will be full to the brim. +And I _must_ make up the recitations I have missed. I've had such good +repoah'ts all term that I can't beah to spoil everything right at the +end. When I was in bed, feeling so bad, I made up my mind I wouldn't +worry about them, but now I feel as good as new, only a little weak, and +one always feels weak aftah fevah. It's to be expected. You know I +wasn't dangerously ill." + +"No," admitted Miss Gilmer, "but your little illness has left you with +less strength than you think you have. You are like an ice-pond that is +just beginning to freeze over. A very light weight will break it +through at that stage, but if there is no strain until it has frozen +properly, it can bear the weight of the most heavily loaded wagons." + +Lloyd slipped into a chair and stared dismally at the fire. + +"But I am strongah than you think, Miss Gilmer. Except one time when I +had the measles, I'd never been sick in my life till last week. I don't +believe it's good for people to coddle themselves and worry all the time +for feah they are going to be ill." + +"Oh," answered the nurse, "I fully agree with you in that, still I +should not be doing my duty if I did not put up a warning signal when I +see danger ahead. I do see it now. You are getting on very nicely, but +the ice is very thin,--far too thin for any such extra weights as double +study hours and holiday dissipations. If you don't walk lightly, +there'll be a nervous breakdown." + +Some one called Miss Gilmer away before she could finish her warning, +and Lloyd sat facing the fire and this unpleasant bit of counsel for +nearly half an hour. A verse from her favourite carol came echoing +through the halls from the distant music-room, for it was practice hour +again, but this time it did not fit her mood, and it brought no cheer. +It was all well enough for those girls up-stairs, happy and well and +able to do as they pleased, to be singing "Let _nothing_ you dismay," +but she couldn't help being dismayed at Miss Gilmer's opinion of her +condition. She was ready to cry, thinking how all her holidays would be +spoiled should she follow the nurse's advice. + +With her chin in her hand and her elbow on the arm of the chair, she sat +picturing her doleful Christmas if she could have no part in the giving, +and must be left out of all the merrymaking they had planned. Tears +welled up into her eyes, and her miserable reverie might have ended in a +downpour had it not been interrupted by the entrance of Gay and Betty. +Having taken a hasty run across the terraces, they had obtained +permission to spend the rest of the recreation hour with Lloyd. + +"We can't waste a minute now," exclaimed Gay, as she pulled out her +knitting-work and began clicking her ivory needles through a rainbow +shawl she was making. "I believe Betty sleeps with her embroidery hoops +under her pillow, and I know that Allison paints in her sleep." + +"What would you do if you were in my place?" mourned Lloyd. She repeated +the nurse's dismal warning. + +"Boo! She magnifies her office," said Gay, glancing over her shoulder to +make sure that they were alone. "I suppose it is perfectly natural that +she should. When you're with Miss White, she makes you feel that there's +nothing in life to live for but Latin. When you're with Miss Hooker, +mathematics is the chief end of man. With Professor Stroebel the violin +is the one and only. So of course a professional nurse is in duty bound +to make hygiene the first consideration. Don't listen to them, listen to +me. I change my mind a dozen times a day, and have a new fad every +fortnight, so it stands to reason that my advice is more broad-minded +than the advice of a person who rides only one hobby, and rides that in +a rut." + +Lloyd laughed at Gay's foolishness, but groaned when Betty told her how +far the classes had advanced during her absence from recitations. + +"I'll have to work like a beavah this next week to catch up. I stah'ted +out to have perfect repoah'ts, and I feel that I must stick to it, as +Ederyn did when he heard the king's call. It is an obligation that I +_must_ meet. I must keep tryst or die." + +Gay looked at her admiringly. "I knew you were like that," she +exclaimed. "If there is anything I envy it is strength of character." + +The admiring glance and Gay's remark carried greater weight than all the +nurse's warning. There was another reason now for persevering in her +determination. Gay expected it of her, and she could not fall below +Gay's expectation of what a strong character should accomplish. + +Gay, having finished a white stripe across the shawl, opened the +sweet-grass Indian basket hanging on her chair-post, and took out +several skeins of zephyr of a delicate sea-shell pink. + +"Let me hold it while you wind," begged Lloyd. "It's such an exquisite +shade, like the heart of a la France rose. It makes me think of the +stories mothah used to tell me. Everything in them had to be pink, from +the little girl's dress to the bow on her kitten's neck. Her slippahs, +parasol, flowahs in the garden, papah on the wall, icing on the cake, +everything had to be pink." + +"What a funny little creature you must have been," laughed Gay, secretly +making note of Lloyd's favourite colour, and resolving to change the +names on two packages laid away in her trunk. The blue sachet-bag with +the forget-me-nots should go to Betty instead of Lloyd, as she had +originally intended. Lloyd should have the one with the garlands of pink +rosebuds. + +"My room at home is furnished in pink," Lloyd went on. "Oh, Gay, I'm +wild for you to see Locust. I'm going to have you and the Walton girls +and Katie Mallard, one of our neighbahs, spend two days and nights with +us. While I've been cooped up heah getting well, I've planned some of +the loveliest things to do that you evah dreamed of. It's going to be +the gayest vacation that evah was." + +When Miss Gilmer returned at the end of the hour, Lloyd looked so much +brighter and better that she gave her an unexpected furlough. + +"There, run along to your room with the other girls. I'll expect you +back at bedtime, for I want to keep you under my wing one more night, +but you're at liberty till then on one condition,--you're not to look +into a book." + +"I'll promise! Oh, I'll promise!" cried Lloyd, impetuously throwing her +arms around the nurse. "You're _such_ a deah! Not that I'm anxious to +get away from you," she added, fearing that her delight might be +misunderstood. "But I just want to get _out_!" + +True to her promise, Lloyd opened no books, but, flying to her room, she +took out one of the uncompleted Christmas gifts, a pair of bedroom +slippers, and worked with feverish haste until dinner was ready. It was +good to be at the table again with the other girls after her week of +solitary meals in the nursery. Afterward it was a temptation to linger +in the library talking with them, but the thought of the many tasks +undone sent her hurrying back to her room. + +Betty followed presently with the Walton girls, and they all worked +steadily on their various gifts until the bell rang for the evening +study hour. Then Allison and Kitty reluctantly departed, and Betty took +out her algebra. Lloyd crocheted in silence for half an hour longer, her +fingers flying faster and faster in her eagerness to complete the task. +Finally she laid it down with a sigh of relief. + +"There!" she exclaimed aloud. "That's done. They're all ready for the +bows. Now, thank fortune, I can check them off my list." + +Betty looked up with an absent-minded smile, nodded approvingly at the +finished slippers standing on the table, and then went on with her +problems. Lloyd opened her bureau-drawer to search for the ribbon which +she had bought for the bows. As she rummaged through it, her hand +touched the little sandalwood box that held the unfinished rosary. She +glanced over her shoulder. Betty was deep in her algebra. So, taking out +the string of beads, she passed it slowly through her fingers. Then she +held it up, and, looping it around her throat, looked in the mirror. + +"I suppose it's mighty childish of me," she said to herself, "but I +can't enjoy my vacation if I go home with a single one of this term's +pearls missing. I've _got_ to make up those lessons, no mattah what the +nurse says. I can rest aftahward." + +A few minutes later she presented herself at Miss Gilmer's door with the +announcement that she would go to bed an hour earlier than usual, in +order to get a good start for the next day. + +All that week she worked with a restless energy that kept her keyed to +the highest pitch of effort. She scarcely ate, and her sleep was broken, +but her eyes were so bright and her manner so animated, that Betty wrote +home that Lloyd's little spell of illness seemed to have done her good. + +By studying before breakfast, and snatching every minute she could spare +from other duties, she managed to have perfect recitations in each +study, and at the same time to make up the lessons she had missed. Five +o'clock Saturday afternoon found her with the last task done. She +slipped ten more little Roman pearls over the silken cord; five for the +week's advance work, and five for the days she had missed. Then with a +sigh of relief she put the sandalwood box into her trunk, already partly +packed for home-going, and flung herself wearily across the bed. + +The mock Christmas tree had been lighted the evening before, and the +gifts distributed. She had not enjoyed it as she had expected to, +although some of the jokes were excruciatingly funny, and the girls had +laughed until they were limp. She was too tired to laugh much. She was +glad that Sunday was coming before the day of leave-taking. She made up +her mind that she would skip dinner, and ask Betty just to slip her +something from the table. + +Then she remembered that this was the night the carols were to be sung +in the chapel. She could not miss that. It was the prettiest service of +all the year, the old girls said. Some one had told her it was a custom +for everybody to wear white to the carol-singing, but it was hard to +remember things, maybe she had only dreamed it. She wished that she did +not have to remember things, but could lie there without moving, until +morning. What was it her mother used to sing to her? "Asleep in the arms +of the slow-swinging seas." Oh! The white seal's lullaby. That was what +she wanted. How good it would feel to be rocked by the restful motion +of the waves, to be caught in that long sleepy sweep of the +slow-swinging seas. + +When she opened her eyes again it was to find the room lighted, and +Betty dressing for the carol service. She had slept an hour. + +"It'll never do to miss the carols," Betty assured her, when she +suggested skipping dinner. "Come on, I'll help you dress. Just tell me +what you want to wear, and I'll lay out your things while you're shaking +your wits together. You'll feel better after you've had a hot dinner." +So struggling with the weariness which nearly overpowered her, Lloyd +forced herself to follow Betty's example, and go down to the dining-room +when the bell rang. An hour later she fell into line with the other +girls, as, all in white, they filed into the chapel. + +"How Christmasey it looks and smells," she whispered to Allison, as the +doors swung open and a breath from the pine woods greeted them. The +chancel was wreathed and festooned with masses of evergreen. To-night +tall white candles furnished the only light. Far down the dim aisles +they twinkled like stars against the dark background of cedar and +hemlock. + +Betty was glad that they had entered early. The deep silence of those +moments of waiting, the dim light of the Christmas tapers, and the +fragrance of the pine seemed as much a part of the service as anything +which followed. In the expectant hush that filled the little chapel, she +pictured the three kings riding through the night, until she could +almost see the shadowy desert and hear the tread of the camels who bore +the wise men on their starlit quest. She saw the hillside of Judea, +where the shepherds kept their night-watch by their flocks, and all the +mystery and wonder of the first great Christmastide seemed to vibrate +through her heart, as the deep organ prelude suddenly filled the air +with the jubilant chords of "Joy to the world, the Lord has come." + +Presently the music changed, and the girls looked around expectantly. +From far down distant halls and corridors came a chorus of girlish +voices: "Oh, little town of Bethlehem." So sweet and far away it was, +the audience in the chapel involuntarily leaned forward to listen. +Across the campus it sounded, gradually drawing nearer and clearer, +until, with a triumphant burst of melody, the doors swung open and the +white-robed choir swept in. + +Only the best voices in the school had been chosen for this choir, and +weeks of training preceded the service. One after another they sang the +sweet old tunes of the Christmas waits until they reached Lloyd's +favourite, "Let nothing you dismay." She listened to it with pleasure +now, since her greatest cause for dismay had been removed. She had kept +tryst with the term's obligations, as the last pearl on the rosary could +testify. + +In the hush that followed that carol, an old man, with silvery hair and +benign face, rose under the tall candles of the chancel. + +"It's the bishop," whispered Gay to Lloyd. "Old Bishop Chartley. He is +Madam's uncle, and he always comes down for this service." + +Then even her irrepressible tongue grew still, for, in a deep voice that +filled the chapel, he began to read the story of the three wise men who +followed the star with their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, +until it led them to Bethlehem's manger. An old, old story, but it +bloomed anew once more, as it has bloomed every year since first the +wondering wise men started on their quest. + +The bishop closed the Book. "How shall we keep the King's birthday?" he +asked. "What gifts shall we bring? To-day in a quaint old tale, beloved +in boyhood, I found the answer. It is the story of a strange country +called Cathay, and this is the way it runs: + +"'The ruler thereof is one Kublan Khan, a mighty warrior. His government +is both wise and just, and is administered to rich and poor alike, +without fear or favour. On the king's birthday the people observe what +is called the White Feast. Then are the king and his court assembled in +a great room of the palace, which is all white, the floor of marble and +the walls hung with curtains of white silk. All are in white apparel, +and they offer unto the king white gifts, to show that their love and +loyalty are without a stain. The rich bring to their lord pearls, +carvings of ivory, white chargers, and costly broidered garments. The +poor present white pigeons and handfuls of rice. Nor doth the great king +regard one gift above another, so long as all be white. And so do they +keep the king's birthday.'" + +Lloyd, leaning forward, listened with such breathless interest that it +attracted Gay's attention. "That's just like your pink story," she +whispered. Lloyd gave her fingers a responsive squeeze, but never took +her eyes from the benign old face. The bishop was applying the story to +the audience before him. + +"As these pagans of Cathay kept the feast of Kublan Kahn, so we may make +of Christmas a White Feast, whose offerings are without stain. We need +make no weary pilgrimages across the trackless sands, as did those +Eastern sages. 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my +brethren' (these are the King's own words), 'ye have done it unto me.' +At our very doors we may give to Him, through His poor and needy. + +"But there is another way. You are all familiar with the motto of this +house, and the legend which gave rise to it. Clad in the white garments +of Righteousness, we may keep the tryst as Ederyn kept it, and bring to +the King the white pearls of a well-spent life. Days unstained by +selfishness, days filled up with duties faithfully performed. It matters +not how small and commonplace our efforts seem, the rice and the pigeons +of the poor showed Kublan Kahn his subjects' loyalty as fully as the +ivory carvings and the costly broidered garment. Nor doth the great King +regard one gift of ours above another, so long as all be white. If only +on our breasts the tokens Duty gives us spell out the words, '_semper +fidelis_,' then ours will be the royal accolade: 'Well done, thou good +and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' To give +_ourselves_, unstained and gladly, thus may we keep the White Feast on +the birthday of the King." + +Then the choir stood again, but Lloyd scarcely noticed what it sang. She +was thinking of the bishop's story, and her secret hidden away in the +sandalwood box. She was so glad now that she had strung the pearls. She +had begun it because it pleased her fancy to act out the story of +Ederyn, but now the sacred meaning the old bishop gave the story +thrilled her through and through. The King's call suddenly seemed very +sweet and personal. Henceforth she would string the pearls in answer to +that call. + +When they all knelt in the closing prayer, she fervently echoed the +bishop's petition: "Grant that we make of this Christmastide a White +Feast, and that all our days may be worthy of thy acceptance, unstained +by selfishness and full of deeds to show our love and loyalty." + +The white-robed choir filed slowly out, their music sounding fainter and +fainter until it died away across the campus, and the white-robed +audience was left kneeling in silence. There were tears in Gay's eyes +when she arose. Such music always stirred her to the depths. Kitty went +back to her room humming one of the carols, and Betty stole away to +write the bishop's sermon in her little white record, while the memory +of it was still warm in her heart. + +At Miss Gilmer's request, Lloyd waited a moment in the vestibule. At +first she wished that Miss Gilmer had not detained her. She wanted to go +on with Allison, who had her by the arm. Afterward, however, she was +glad of the waiting. It gave her an opportunity to meet the venerable +bishop. + +"So you are going home to-morrow for the holidays," he said, genially, +as he held out his hand. "Godspeed, daughter. May you keep the White +Feast with joy." + +It seemed to Lloyd that that "Godspeed" followed her like a +benediction. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HOMEWARD BOUND + + + "O Warwick Hall, dear Warwick Hall, + Thy happy hours we'll oft recall! + No time or change can break thy tie, + Though for awhile we say good-bye-- + Good-bye! Good-bye!" + +AMID a flutter of handkerchiefs and a babel of parting cries, each +'bus-load of girls departed from the Hall to the station singing the +farewell song of the school. + +A dozen times on the way home Allison, humming it unconsciously, found +the rest of the party joining in. It was an uneventful journey, but a +merry one to the five girls, travelling for the first time without a +chaperon. For the first few hours they had the observation car to +themselves. Even the porter mysteriously disappeared. + +"He's curled up asleep somewhere, rest his soul," said Gay, when she had +rung for him several times. + +"All the better," answered Kitty. "We don't really need the table, and +it's nice to have him out of the way. This is as good as travelling in +a private car. We can 'stand on our head in our little trundle-bed, and +nobody nigh to hinder.' Oh, girls, I'm so crazy glad that we're on our +way home that I'm positively obliged to do something to let off steam. +I've exhausted my vocabulary trying to express my delight, so there's +nothing left but to howl." + +"Or to wriggle," suggested Gay. "Why not try facial expression? How is +this for transcendent joy?" + +The grotesque smile which she turned upon them was so ridiculous that +they screamed with laughter. + +"Oh, Gay, do stop!" begged Betty. "You're as bad as a comic valentine." + +"I'd like to see you do any better," retorted Gay. + +"Let's all try," suggested Kitty. "Line up in front of this mirror, +girls. Now all look pleasant, please. Now let your smiles express +rapture. Now, frenzied delight!" + +Fascinated by their own ugliness, the five girls stood in a row +distorting their pretty faces with hideous grins and grimaces until they +were weak from laughing. The banging of the car door sent them scuttling +into their seats. A portly old gentleman passed through the car to the +rear platform, and, slamming the door behind him, stood looking down +the rapidly vanishing track. Evidently it was too breezy a view-point +for the old gentleman, even with his coat-collar turned up and hat +pulled down to meet his ears, for in a moment he came in and passed back +to his seat in a forward car. The girls sat demurely looking out of the +windows until he was gone, then they faced each other, giggling. + +"Suppose he had caught us making those idiotic faces," exclaimed +Allison. "He would have taken us for a lot of escaped lunatics." + +"No, he wouldn't," insisted Gay. "He was a real benevolent-looking old +fellow, the kind that understands young people, and he'd know that it +was just that Christmas has gone to our heads, and made us a little +flighty. I'm sure that his name is James, and that he has six old maid +daughters. He lives out West, and he's taking home a trunk full of +presents for them." + +"Let's guess what he has for them," said Kitty. "I'll say that the +oldest one is named Emmaline, and he is taking her a squirrel fur muff." + +"And the next one is Agnes Dorothea," said Betty, taking her turn, as if +it were a game. "She's the delicate one of the family, and a sort of +invalid. So he bought her a lavender shoulder shawl that caught his +fatherly eye in a show window, because it was so soft and fluffy. But it +will shrink and fade the first time it is washed till Agnes Dorothea +will look like a homeless cat if she wears it. Still she will persist in +putting it on because dear father brought it to her from Washington." + +"He'd certainly think you all were crazy if he could heah yoah +remah'ks," laughed Lloyd. + +"Speaking of shawls," cried Gay, "that reminds me of that rainbow shawl +in my bag. I haven't taken a stitch in it since we started, and I +intended to knit all the way home. I simply have to, if I'm to get it +done in time." + +Taking out the square of linen in which the fleecy zephyr was wrapped, +she settled herself by the rear window in a big arm-chair, with her feet +drawn up under her, and fell to work with all her might. + +"It's so nice and cosy to have the car all to ourselves," sighed +Allison, stretching out luxuriously on the sofa. Betty, bending over her +embroidery, smiled tenderly at a picture that her memory showed her just +then. She was comparing this journey with the first one she had ever +taken. And she saw in her thoughts a little brown-eyed girl of eleven, +setting forth on her first venture into the wide world, with a +sunbonnet tied over her curls, and an old-fashioned covered basket on +her arm. What a dread undertaking that journey had been from the +Cuckoo's Nest to the House Beautiful. She remembered how frightened she +was, and how she had studied the picture of Red Ridinghood, printed in +colours on the border of her handkerchief, until she was afraid to speak +even to the conductor. She saw a possible wolf in every stranger. + +Somehow her thoughts kept going back to that time, even in the midst of +Gay's most amusing nonsense, and Kitty's brightest repartee. Even when +Allison began to sing "O Warwick Hall," and she chimed in with the +others, "Dear Warwick Hall," she was not thinking of school, but of the +Cuckoo's Nest, and Davy, and the old weather-beaten meeting-house, in +whose window she had passed so many summer afternoons, reading the musty +dog-eared books she found in the little red bookcase. + +"What are you smiling about, Betty, all to yoahself?" asked Lloyd. "You +look as if you are a thousand miles away." + +Betty glanced up with a little start. "Oh, I was just thinking about the +Cuckoo's Nest, and wishing that I could see Davy's face when they open +the Christmas box I sent. There are only trifles in it, but the box will +mean a lot to them, for Cousin Hetty never has time to make anything of +Christmas." + +Lloyd sat up with a sudden exclamation. "Oh, Betty, I _beg_ yoah +pah'don. There's a lettah for you in my bag from some of them that I +forgot to give you. Hawkins came up with it just as we drove off, and +there was so much excitement and confusion I nevah thought of it again +till this minute. I'm mighty sorry I forgot." + +"It doesn't make any difference," Betty assured her. "Good news can +afford to wait, and, if it's bad news, it would have spoiled all the +first part of this trip." + +She tore open the envelope and glanced down the page. Lloyd, looking up, +saw a distressed expression cross her face and the brown eyes fill with +tears. + +"Oh, it's poor little Davy that's in trouble," said Betty, answering +Lloyd's anxious question. "He had his leg badly hurt last week, broken +in two places. He was riding one of those heavy old farm horses, +hurrying home to get out of a storm. Going down a steep, slippery hill, +it stumbled and fell on him. He'll have to lie in bed for weeks, with +his knee in plaster, and he's so tired of it already, and _so_ lonesome. +Nobody has any time to sit with him. I know how it is. I was sick myself +once at the Cuckoo's Nest. Oh, I'd give anything if I could spend my +vacation there with him." + +"And give up all your good times at home?" cried Kitty. "He surely +couldn't expect such a sacrifice as that." + +"But it wouldn't be any sacrifice. Not a mite! I haven't seen him for +such a long time, and I'd love to go. He used to be the dearest little +fellow, never out of my sight a moment during the day. They used to call +him 'Betty's shadow.'" + +"Why don't you go if you wish it so much?" was on the tip of Gay's +tongue, but she stopped the question just before it slipped off, +remembering Betty's dependence on her godmother. Kitty had told her all +about it one time. Naturally she wouldn't want to ask for the money, +even for such a short journey, when so much was being spent to keep her +at school with Lloyd; and naturally she would not want to ask to leave +Locust at Christmas, when that was the time of all the year when she +could be of service, and in many ways add greatly to the pleasure of the +entire household. + +The nonsense stopped for a few minutes. No one knew what to say to +comfort Betty, although they were genuinely sorry, and glanced from time +to time at the brown head turned away from them toward the window. She +was looking at the flying landscape through a blur of tears, recalling +the way little Davy's dimpled fingers had clung to hers, his chubby feet +followed her. Of course he was much larger and older, she told herself, +not at all like the little fellow she had left so long ago. He was big +enough to stand pain now, and probably the worst of his suffering was +over. Still, she saw only a solemn baby face when she pictured him, and +heard only the lisping voice, saying as he used to say when stumped toe +or bruised finger brought the tears: "It hurth your Davy boy. Tie a wag +on it, Betty." How he had loved her stories! What a pleasure they would +be to him now in the long days he would be forced to spend in bed. + +Suddenly conscious of the silence around her, Betty turned, realizing +that her depression had cast a shadow on the spirits of all the rest. + +"Don't think about my bad news any more," she said, brightly. "It +probably isn't half as bad as I have been picturing it. My imagination +always runs away with me. It isn't Davy the baby that's had such an +awful accident. It was that thought that hurt me so at first. I keep +forgetting that it's five years since I left there. I'm going to drop +him a postal card at the next station. I can write to him every day, and +make a sort of game of the letters with riddles and suggestions of +things for him to do, and that will help the time pass." + +"First call to dinnah in the dinah," called a coloured waiter, passing +through the car in white jacket and apron. + +"Now we'll have to stop all our foolishness," said Allison, sedately, as +she rose to lead the way to the dining-car. They followed as decorously +as grandmothers, each realizing the responsibility that devolved on her, +since they were travelling without a chaperon. + +To be sure, Gay choked on an olive when Kitty made some wicked remark +about the fussy old woman across the aisle, who wouldn't be pleased with +anything the waiter brought her; and it was too much for their gravity +when an excessively dignified man at the next table, who had been +staring at the wall like a wooden Indian, suddenly sneezed so violently +that his eye-glasses dropped into his soup with a splash. + +Otherwise they were models of propriety, and more than one head turned +to look at the bright girlish faces, and smile at the keen, unspoiled +enjoyment which they evidently found in life and in each other. + +They did not stay long in the observation-car when they went back to it +after dinner. Other people had come in, and it was not so attractive as +when they occupied it alone. The lamps had been lighted so early that +short December day that it seemed much later than it really was, and +they were all tired. At nine o'clock, when they went to their berths in +the forward end of the car, they found several sections already made up +for the night, and the porter was moving on down toward theirs. + +The fussy old woman, who had been so hard to please at the table, came +squeezing her way through the valises that blocked the aisle, and took +possession of the section opposite Betty and Lloyd. + +"Oh, my country!" whispered Lloyd. "I wondah if she's going to keep up +that grumbling and scolding all night. I'm glad that I am not that poah +henpecked maid of hers. She certainly makes life misahable for her." + +It was nearly two hours before Jenkins, the long-suffering maid, +succeeded in settling her mistress to her satisfaction behind the +curtains of her berth. The girls made no attempt to get into the +dressing-room until the little comedy was over. They laughed until they +were hysterical over each scene as it occurred. A comedy in three acts, +Betty called it--the losing of the cold-cream bottle and the finding of +same in madam's overshoe. The unavailing search for a certain black silk +handkerchief in which madam was wont to tie her head up in of nights, +and the substitution of a towel instead, which the porter obligingly +brought. + +Next there was a supposed case of poisoning, Jenkins in her trepidation +having administered three pink pellets from a bottle instead of two +white ones from a box. Five minutes' reign of terror after that mistake +brought the poor maid to a witless state that left her almost helpless. +Various trips were made to the dressing-room, at which times the old +lady's face was massaged, her grizzly hair rolled on crimping-pins, and +her shoulders rubbed with an evil-smelling liniment which permeated the +whole car. She seemed as oblivious to the presence of the other +passengers as if she were on a desert island, and, being somewhat deaf, +made Jenkins repeat her timid replies louder and louder until they were +almost screaming at each other. + +Every one on the car was smiling broadly when at last she subsided +behind the curtains. The smiles grew to audible mirth when she confided +in a loud voice to Jenkins, stowed away in the berth above her, that she +hoped to goodness nobody on board would snore and keep her awake. + +Jenkins's answer, floating tremulously down, convulsed the sleepy girls: +"Hi 'ope not, ma'am. Hit's a bad 'abit, ma'am, halmost, you might say, +han haffliction." + +"What?" came in a thunderous voice from the lower berth, and Jenkins, +craning her head turtle-wise over the edge of her bed, called back in a +tremulous squeak: "Hi honly said as 'ow hit were a bad 'abit, ma'am!" + +"Hump!" was the answer. "See that you don't do it yourself. I've got my +umbrella here ready to punch you if you do." + +A titter ran from seat to seat. The girls, unable to stifle their +amusement any longer, seized their bags and hurried down the aisle to +the dressing-room, where, under cover of the rattle of the train, they +could laugh as freely as they pleased. + +When Lloyd and Betty stole back to their berths a few minutes later, +they looked at each other with an amused smile. From the opposite +section came an unmistakable sound, long-drawn and penetrating as a +cross-cut saw. Madam was evidently asleep. Betty giggled, as from +Jenkins's perch came a gentle echo. + +"'Hi honly said as 'ow hit were a bad 'abit, ma'am,'" whispered Lloyd. +"Wouldn't you love to jab the old lady herself with an umbrella?" + +Gay, in the dressing-room, was carefully counting over her toilet +articles, as she put them back into her bag. "Soap-box, comb, nail-file, +tooth-powder--I haven't lost a thing this trip, Allison. I'm beginning +to feel proud of myself. Here's my watch and here's my tickets, buttoned +up in this pocket. Mamma had it made on purpose, so in case of a wreck +at night I'd have them on me. She patted the pocket sewed securely in +the dark blue silk robe she wore, made in loose kimono fashion. + +"Now I'm all ready," she added, dropping her shoes into her bag and +closing it. In her soft Indian moccasins, beaded like a squaw's, she +executed a little heel and toe dance in the narrow passage outside, +while she waited for Allison to gather up her clothes and follow. She +thought every one else was in bed, and when suddenly the outside door +opened and she heard some one coming in from the next car, she flew +down the aisle like a frightened rabbit. + +It was only a brakeman who stood just inside the door a moment with his +lantern, and then went out again. All the lights had been turned down in +the car, and Gay stumbled several times over shoes and valises +protruding in the aisle. But finally, with a bound, she made her escape, +as she supposed, from whoever it was that had caught her dancing in her +moccasins in the passage. + +She gave a headlong dive into her berth. Just then the car lurched +forward, sending her bag banging against the window, but she did not +loosen her hold of it, and she was still clinging to it five minutes +later. + +For, with a scream of terror, she rolled out of the berth far faster +than she had rolled in. It was madam's fat body that writhed under her, +and her stern voice that yelled "Murder! murder!" in a voice calculated +to wake the dead. + +"'Elp! 'elp!" screamed Jenkins from the upper berth, afraid to look out +between the curtains, but bravely pushing the button of the porter's +bell till some one, wakened by the cries and persistent ringing, wildly +called "Fire!" + +"It's train robbahs!" gasped Lloyd, sitting up. Little cold shivers ran +up and down her back, but she was conscious of a pleasant thrill of +excitement. Heads were thrust out all up and down the aisle. The bell +and the cries of murder and 'elp never stopped until the porter and +Pullman conductor came running to the rescue. + +But there was nothing for them to see. At the first yell, Gay had +tumbled hastily out, still clinging to her bag. Before the old lady had +sufficiently recovered from her surprise enough to wonder what sort of a +wild beast had pounced in upon her, Gay was safe in her own berth, drawn +up in a knot, and trembling behind her closely buttoned curtains. Her +heart beat so loud that she thought it would certainly betray her. + +"You must have had the nightmare," said the conductor, politely, trying +not to smile as the angry face, under its towel turban, glared out at +him. + +"Nightmare!" blazed the irate old lady. "I'm no fool. Don't you suppose +that I know when I'm hit? I tell you somebody was trying to sandbag me. +I thought a Saratoga trunk had fallen in on me. It's your business to +take care of passengers on this train, and I intend to hold the company +responsible. I shall certainly sue the railroad for this shock to my +nervous system as soon as I get home. I have a weak heart and I can't +stand such performances as this." + +[Illustration: "'I TELL YOU SOMEBODY WAS TRYING TO SANDBAG ME'"] + +It took a long time to pacify her. Gay lay in her berth, shaking first +with fright and then with laughter. She could not go to sleep without +sharing her secret with the other girls, but she was afraid to trust +herself to speak. She had grown almost hysterical over the affair. +Finally she crept in beside Lloyd to whisper, brokenly: "_I_ am the +nightmare that sandbagged the old lady. _I_ am the Saratoga trunk that +fell on her. Oh, Lloyd, I'll never brag again. I had just told Allison I +hadn't lost a single thing this trip, and then I turned around and lost +myself. I got into the wrong berth. Oh! oh! It was so funny to see her, +all done up in that towel. It'll kill me if I can't stop laughing." + +She crept back to her own side of the aisle again, and Lloyd got up to +repeat it to Betty and Allison, who passed it on to Kitty. It was nearly +half an hour before they stopped giggling over it, and then Kitty +started them all afresh by leaning out to say, in a stage whisper, as a +certain duet was renewed by Jenkins and her mistress, "'Hi honly said as +'ow hit were a bad 'abit.'" + +It was snowing next morning, just a few flakes against the window-pane, +as they sat in the dining-car at breakfast, but the landscape grew +whiter as they whirled on toward home. + +"Just as it ought to be for Christmas," declared Allison. "Oh, The +Beeches will look so lovely in the snow, and the big log fire will seem +so good, I can hardly wait to get there!" + +"I know just how it's all going to be," exclaimed Kitty, wriggling +impatiently in her seat. "It will be this way, Gay. They'll all be down +at the station to meet us, mother and little Elise and Uncle Harry and +his dog. Aunt Allison will probably be there, too, and grandmother, if +she feels well enough. And old black fat Butler will be standing by the +baggage-room door with his wheelbarrow, waiting to take our trunks. And +we'll all talk at once. Everybody along the road will be calling +'Howdy!' to us, and at the post-office Miss Mattie will come out to +shake hands with us, and tell us how glad she is to see us back. Then +it'll be just a step, past the church and the manse and the Bakewell +cottage, and we'll turn in at The Beeches, _and the fun will begin_." + +Betty turned to Gay. "That doesn't sound very exciting or especially +interesting to a stranger, but, oh, Gay, the Valley is so _dear_ when +you once get to know it. And when you go back, you feel almost as if +everybody were related to you, they're all so friendly and cordial and +glad to welcome you home." + +Even to impatient schoolgirls homeward bound, the journey's end comes at +last, so by nightfall it all happened just as Kitty had predicted. Such +a royal welcome awaited Gay that she felt drawn into the midst of things +from the moment she stepped from the car. + +"You're right, Betty," she whispered as she left her. "It _is_ a dear +Valley, and I feel already as if I belong here." + +The two groups separated when the checks had been sorted out and the +baggage disposed of. Then, still laughing and talking, Kitty led one on +its merry way toward The Beeches, and the other whirled rapidly away in +the carriage toward the lights of Locust. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A PICNIC IN THE SNOW + + +"WHAT a good gray day this is!" exclaimed Betty next morning, turning +from the window to look around the cheerful breakfast-room, all aglow +with an open wood-fire. "It's so bleak outside that there is no +temptation to go gadding, and so cosy indoors that we'll be glad of the +chance to stay at home and finish tying up our Christmas packages." + +"Yes," assented Lloyd, who, having finished her breakfast, was standing +on the hearth-rug, her back to the fire and her hands clasped behind +her. "And for once I intend to have mine all ready the day befoah, so I +need not be rushed up to the last minute. For that reason I am glad that +mothah had to take the early train to town this mawning, to finish her +shopping. If she'd been at home, I should have talked all the time, +without accomplishing a thing." + +"I think your tissue-paper and ribbon was put into my trunk," said +Betty, drumming idly on the window-pane. "I'll go and unpack it in a +minute, and have it off my mind, as soon as I see who this is coming up +the avenue." + +A tall young fellow had turned in at the gate, and was striding along +toward the house as if in a great hurry. + +"It's Rob Moore!" she exclaimed, in surprise. "I thought he wasn't +coming home until Christmas eve." + +"So did I," answered Lloyd, crossing the room to look over Betty's +shoulder. "I'll beat you to the front doah, Betty." + +There was a wild dash through the hall. Both slim figures bounced +against the door at the same instant. There was a laughing scuffle over +the latch, and then the two girls stood arm in arm between the white +pillars of the porch, gaily calling a greeting. + +Rob waved a pair of skates in reply, and quickened his stride until he +came within speaking distance. One would have thought from his greeting +that they had seen each other only the day before. Rob never wasted time +on formalities. + +"Hurry up, girls! Get your skates. The ice is fine on the creek, and +there's a crowd waiting for us down at the depot." + +"Who?" demanded Lloyd. + +"Oh, the MacIntyre boys and the Walton girls and that little red-headed +thing that they brought home from school with them. Kitty's going to +have a picnic on the creek bank for her." + +"A picnic in Decembah!" ejaculated Lloyd. + +"That's what she said," Rob answered, clicking his skates together as he +followed the girls into the house. "They telephoned over to me to hustle +up here and get you girls. They're on their way to the station now. +We're to meet them in the waiting-room." + +"They should have let us know soonah," began Lloyd, "so that we could +have had a lunch ready. There'll be nothing cooked to take this time of +day." + +"They didn't know it themselves," he interrupted. "Kitty proposed it at +the breakfast-table, and they just grabbed up whatever they could get +their hands on and started off." + +"We have so much to do to-day," said Betty. "I don't see how we can ever +get through if we stop for this." + +"Let everything slide!" begged Rob. "Do your work to-morrow. This will +be lots of fun. The ice may not last more than a day or so, and the +MacIntyre boys are not going to be out here all vacation." + +"I suppose we could tie up those packages to-night," said Lloyd, with an +inquiring look at Betty. + +"Of course," Rob answered for her. "And I'll help you with anything you +have to do. Come on." + +"Well, then, you run out to the kitchen and ask Aunt Cindy to give you +something for a lunch,--anything in sight, and we'll get ready while Mom +Beck finds our skates." + +Rob rubbed his ears apprehensively. "I'd as soon beard the lion in his +den as Aunt Cindy in her kitchen. She's never forgiven my early thefts." + +"Go on, goosey," laughed Lloyd. "Don't you know that since you're +'growed up,' as Aunt Cindy says, she swears by you? I heard her tell Mom +Beck last night she reckoned she'd have to make a batch of little sugah +hah't cakes right away, for Mistah Rob would be coming prowling round +her cooky jah." + +"Am I growed up?" asked Rob gravely, throwing back his shoulders and +looking into the mirror at the tall reflection it showed him. + +"You are in inches and ells," laughed Lloyd, "but you're not always six +feet tall in yoah actions." + +"It's only when I am in your society that I appear so juvenile," +retorted Rob. "When I'm away at school with the other fellows, I feel +and act as old as Daddy, but when I'm back home, where you all seem to +expect me to be a kid, I naturally adjust myself to that role just to be +companionable and obliging. You would be afraid of me if I were to turn +out my whiskers and stand back on my dignity. You know you would." + +"Don't try it, Bobby," advised Lloyd. "It wouldn't be becoming. Trot out +to Aunt Cindy and get the lunch. That's a good little man. We'll be +ready in just a few minutes." + +Even in her baby days, Lloyd had been patronizing at times to her +good-natured playmate, ordering him about with a princess-like right +that always seemed part of the game. So now he laughingly shrugged his +shoulders and started to the kitchen, while Lloyd followed Betty +up-stairs to change her slippers for heavy-soled walking-boots. + +A few minutes later the three were hurrying down the avenue to the gate, +under the bare windswept branches of the locusts. + +"Aunt Cindy had disappeared temporarily," said Rob. "There wasn't a soul +in the kitchen, so I rummaged around till I found this old basket, and +filled it with a little of everything in sight. It is a long way to the +creek. We'll be ready to eat nails by the time we tramp over there in +this snappy weather." + +"It is snappy," agreed Lloyd. "Betty, yoah cheeks are as red as fiah." + +The rosy face under the brown tam-o'-shanter smiled back at her. "So are +yours. Aren't they, Rob? They are as red as her coat." + +"Hello!" exclaimed Rob, noticing for the first time the long red coat +that Lloyd wore. "That's something new, isn't it? I thought you looked +different, but I couldn't tell exactly what it was. That's a stunner, +sure enough, Princess. It sort of livens up the landscape." + +"I'm glad you like it," laughed Lloyd, "but I don't believe you would +have seen it at all if Betty hadn't called yoah attention to it. You'll +nevah get on in society, Bobby, if you don't learn to notice things. +You'll miss all the chances most boys take advantage of to pay +compliments and make pretty little speeches." + +Rob scowled. "You know I don't go in for that sort of stuff." + +"But you ought to," persisted Lloyd, who was in a perverse mood. "I +considah it my duty to take you in hand and teach you. You may practise +on Betty and me. Now we've been talking to Gay all term about our +friends in Lloydsboro Valley, and naturally we want everybody to put +their best foot foremost and show off their prettiest. Malcolm and Keith +will leave a charming impression of themselves, because they will make +her feel in such an easy graceful way that she has made that sawt of an +impression on them. If she wears an especially pretty dress, or says an +especially bright thing, or plays unusually well, they will notice it in +some way so that she will know that they noticed it, and that they were +pleased. Naturally that will please her, and she will like them bettah +for it." + +Rob faced her with a whimsical expression. "Look here, Lloyd Sherman, +I've played every kind of a game that you've asked me to ever since I +learned to walk. I've been your man Friday when you wanted to be +Robinson Crusoe, and played B'r Fox to your B'r Rabbit. You've scalped +me and buried me and dug me up. You've made me be Pharaoh with the ten +plagues of Egypt, or a Christian martyr thrown to the wild beasts, just +as it pleased your fancy. I've even played dolls with you week at a +time, but I swear I draw the line at this. I'll do anything in reason to +help entertain your chum,--ride or dance or skate or get up private +theatricals,--but I'll _not_ make a ninny of myself trying to be flowery +and get off complimentary speeches. It comes natural to some people, but +I'm not built that way. I'd be as awkward at it as a fish out of water." + +Lloyd turned her head with a despairing gesture. "Oh, Rob, you're +hopeless! You don't undahstand at all! Nobody wants you to be flowery, +and nobody likes flat-footed, out-and-out compliments. They're not nice +at all. I just meant--well--I scarcely know what I _did_ mean, but you +know how Malcolm does. It isn't that he says a thing in so many words, +but he has a way of somehow making you feel that he has noticed nice +things about you, and that he is _thinking_ compliments." + +"Gee whiz!" exclaimed Rob, in a teasing tone. "Say that again, won't you +please, and say it slowly, so that I can take it all in. Do I get the +thought? To be agreeable one must not say things, but must cultivate an +air of having noticed that you are agreeable, and stand off and think +compliments so hard that you can actually feel them flying through the +air. Is that your idea?" + +"Oh, Rob! Stop your teasing." + +"Well, that is what you said, or words to that effect. Didn't she, +Betty?" + +The brown eyes flashed an amused smile at him. They walked along in +silence for a few minutes, then he said, humbly, but with a twinkle in +his eye which boded mischief: "Well, I'll do the best I can to please +you, Lloyd. I'll watch Malcolm till I get the hang of it, then I'll +stand off and think compliments about your friend till her ears burn and +she is duly impressed. Grandfather is always saying, 'Who does the best +his circumstance allows, does nobly. Angels could do no more.'" + +"I wish I had never mentioned the subject," pouted Lloyd, as they walked +on down the frozen pike. "I simply meant to give you a little advice for +yoah own good, and you've gone and made a joke of it. I am suah you'll +say or do something befoah the mawning is ovah that will make Gay think +you are perfectly dreadful." + +Rob only laughed in answer, leaving her to infer that she had good +reason for her fears. As they passed the only store which the Valley +boasted, Kitty came rushing out, a bright new tin saucepan dangling at +her side like a drum. It was tied by a piece of twine, and she was +beating a tattoo upon it with a long-handled iron spoon. Keith +followed, his overcoat pockets bulging with parcels. + +"Are you playing Santa Claus this early?" cried Betty, as he hurried +across to shake hands with them. + +"No; Kitty decided that no social function in the woods was properly a +picnic without a fire and some kind of a mess to cook. So we stopped at +the store, and she's loaded me down with stuff for fudge. Malcolm and +the girls are on ahead in the waiting-room." + +"Where's Ranald?" asked Lloyd, as they crossed the railroad track and +walked along the platform toward the door of the station. + +"He's gone hunting with John Baylor, the boy he brought home from school +with him," answered Kitty. "We can't get him within a stone's throw of +Gay. I teased him so unmercifully in my letters about the girl who had +asked for his picture to put in her group of heroes that he won't even +look in her direction." + +As Lloyd greeted Malcolm, whom she had not seen since the close of the +summer vacation, and then stood talking with him while Allison +introduced Rob to her guest, she was conscious that Rob was watching +every motion, and making note of it, to tease her afterward. A few +moments later, when they were all discussing a choice of places for the +picnic-grounds, he edged over to her. + +"Now I understand what you mean," he said, in a low voice. "Malcolm +didn't say anything about that red coat. He just gave a sort of quick, +pleased glance at it, as if it had hit him hard, and made some gallant +speech about a Kentucky cardinal. I tried my best to follow suit. So +when I was introduced, I gave the same kind of a glad start when I saw +her hair, and was about to make a similar reference to a Texas redbird, +when my courage failed me. So I just stood off and fired the name at her +in thought till I'm sure she understood." + +"You mean thing!" exclaimed Lloyd, under her breath. "Her hair isn't +red. It's just a deep, rich, bronzy auburn, and perfectly lovely. I do +wish I'd nevah said anything. Now you'll not act natural, and you won't +like each othah as I had hoped you would." + +A gayer picnic party never started down the pike than the one that went +laughing along the road that winter morning, under barbed-wire fences, +through pasture gates, across bare woodlands, and over frozen +corn-fields. It was a still gray morning, with the chill of snow in the +air, and presently the snow began to fall in big feathery flakes. + +Gay was delighted. She held up her face to let the cold, star-shaped +crystals settle on it. She caught them on her sleeve to marvel over +their airy beauty. "It's like frozen thistle-down!" she cried. "I hope +it will snow all day and all night until everything is covered. I never +saw a white Christmas." + +"This will stop the skating," said Allison, "unless we had a broom to +sweep the ice as it falls." + +Rob offered to go back for one, but they were so far on their way they +all protested it would not be worth while. + +"How much farthah is it?" asked Lloyd, presently. For the last half-mile +she had had nothing to say, and had fallen behind the others. + +"I'm so tiahed I can hardly take another step." + +Rob looked at her curiously. It seemed strange for Lloyd to admit that +she was tired. He had known her to tramp nearly all day after nuts, and +then be ready for a horseback ride afterward. + +"We'll stop just over this hill," he replied. "There's a good place to +camp. Here! Catch hold of my skate-strap, and I'll help pull you up." + +"It helps some," she said, clinging to the strap swung over his +shoulder, "but I don't believe I'll evah get ovah this hill." + +"It looks like a grove of Christmas trees!" cried Gay, as they started +down the other side toward the creek. Little cedars from two to five +feet high dotted the hillside, and the snow had drifted across them till +the branches drooped with the soft white burden. It began blowing +faster, and coming down like a thick white sheet between them and the +creek. + +Rob, who had often picnicked here on his hunting trips, led the way +farther down the hill to a cavelike opening under an overhanging ledge +of rocks. + +"This will keep the wind off your backs," he said. "Huddle down here a +few minutes until we build a fire. Then you'll be all right." + +Some charred sticks and ashes between two flat rocks, with an old piece +of sheet iron laid on top, marked the spot where many meals had been +cooked. The boys began at once foraging for firewood. There was plenty +of it all around,--dead limbs and broken twigs,--and soon they had a big +heap ready to light. + +"Now if somebody can donate a piece of paper to start a blaze, we'll +have you warm in a jiffy," said Rob. + +Keith slapped his pockets. "I haven't a scrap," he declared. "Malcolm, +you might be able to spare that bunch of letters you carry around in +your pocket. You've read them enough to know them by heart, I should +think." + +"Oh, keep still, can't you?" muttered Malcolm, in an aside. "Don't get +funny now." + +"See him get red!" whispered Keith to Betty. "They're from a girl he met +at the first college hop last fall. She's older than he is, but he +thinks she's the one and only." + +Then he turned to Malcolm again. "You might at least spare the envelopes +when it's to keep us from freezing. It would be a big sacrifice, but to +save your own blood and kin, you know--" + +Malcolm stole a quick glance at Lloyd, but she was leaning wearily +against the ledge of rocks, paying no attention to Keith's remarks. +Kitty solved the difficulty by diving into Keith's pockets after the +packages, and emptying the brown sugar and chocolate into the saucepan. +She handed the wrapping-paper and bag to Rob, saying if that was not +enough she would scratch the label off the can of evaporated cream. + +Carefully holding his hat over the pile of twigs to shield it from the +wind, Rob applied a match to the paper. It blazed up and caught the +wood at once, and in a few moments a comfortable fire was crackling in +front of them. Back in the cavelike hollow, under the rocks, the boys +found a big, dry log, which other campers had put there for a seat. They +rolled it forward toward the fire. Some flat stones were soon heated for +the girls to put their feet on, and, warmed and rested, they began to +investigate the contents of the baskets. + +"Oh, Rob!" groaned Lloyd. "What a lunch you did pick up for a wintah +day! These slabs of cold pumpkin pie would freeze the teeth of a polah +beah, and there's nothing else but pickles and cheese and apples and raw +eggs." + +"That's fine!" exclaimed Allison. "We can roast the eggs in the ashes, +and I've brought bacon to broil over the fire on switches. And here's +crackers and gingersnaps and salmon--" + +"And peanuts," added Kitty, "don't forget them. Or the fudge. We will +have that ready in a little while." + +"Now what could be jollier than this?" cried Gay, as she took the long, +pointed switch that Rob cut for her, and held a piece of bacon over the +fire to broil. "It's a thousand times nicer than a picnic in the summer, +when you get so hot, and the mosquitoes and redbugs and spiders swarm +all over you." + +Lloyd, with a sigh of relief, saw that Rob was "acting natural" at last, +and he and Gay were showing off to mutual advantage. She was enjoying +the novel experience so fully that she was in her brightest spirits, and +he was talking to her with the familiar ease with which he talked to +Lloyd and Betty, even scolding her with brotherly frankness when she +dripped bacon grease around too promiscuously. + +The eggs were saltless, the bacon smoked and black, because, held in the +flame as often as against the embers, nearly every piece caught fire and +had to be blown out. Smoke blew in their eyes, and the snow fell thicker +and thicker. But, with their feet on the hot stones, their backs to the +sheltering ledge of rocks, and the fire crackling in front of them, they +sang and laughed and ate with a zest which no summer picnic could have +inspired. + +No one had remembered to bring a pail for water, and rather than tramp +over another hill to a distant spring, they quenched their thirst with +handfuls of snow. The fudge boiled over, and more than half of it was +lost in the ashes. + +"It's a good thing that it did," Allison declared, tossing the empty +salmon box and a bag of peanut shells into the fire. "Ugh! The mixture +we've already eaten is enough to kill us! I think we ought to start back +home now. I'm sure that I heard the one o'clock train whistle." + +But Kitty protested. They hadn't been out half long enough, she said. If +the ice on the creek had been free from snow, they would have skated for +hours, and she thought as long as that sport had been spoiled, they +ought to do something to make up for it. Gay had never gathered any +mistletoe. She thought it would be fun for them all to go around by +Stone Hollow, and get some off the big trees that grew in the +surrounding pastures. + +Lloyd listened to the ready assent of the others with a sinking heart. +She had been leaning back against the rocks for some time, taking no +part in the conversation. She had grown so tired that she dreaded the +long tramp home, and had been vainly wishing that Tarbaby could suddenly +appear on the scene, or some one with a conveyance. Even a wheelbarrow +or a go-cart would have been welcome. She could not remember that she +had ever felt so exhausted before in all her life. + +"But I won't be the one to hang back and spoil every one's fun," she +said to herself, "They wouldn't let me go home the shorter way by +myself. It would only break up the pah'ty if I proposed it. But I do not +see how I can evah drag myself all the way around by Stone Hollow." + +At another time they might have noticed that she lagged behind, that she +had little to say, and that she looked white and tired. But Gay, her +spirits rising in the wintry air, was in her most rollicking mood. Even +Kitty had never known her to say so many funny things or to tell so many +amusing experiences. She followed on behind with Lloyd, watching +admiringly as Gay's bright face was turned first toward Malcolm, then +toward Rob, jubilant to see that her guest was captivating them as she +did every one else who fell under the charm of her vivacious manner. + +Betty and Allison were on ahead with Keith, keeping a sharp lookout for +mistletoe. Lloyd scarcely heard what any one said. She plodded along +like one in a dream. It was an effort just to lift her feet. Only one +thing in life seemed desirable just then, that was her warm soft bed at +home. If she could only creep into that and shut her tired eyes and lie +there, she wouldn't care if she didn't waken for a month. She felt that +it would be bliss to sleep through Christmas and the entire vacation. + +The long walk came to an end at last. The roundabout route through Stone +Hollow led them near Locust, and, with their arms full of mistletoe, the +merry picnickers parted from Lloyd and Betty at the gate. Gay exclaimed +enthusiastically over the beautiful old avenue, leading under the +snow-covered locusts to the house, but to Lloyd's relief her invitation +to come in was refused. There were a dozen reasons why they could not +stop, but they promised to be over early next morning. + +"It has been the very loveliest picnic I ever went to in my whole life," +declared Gay, as they turned away. "I'd like to turn around and do it +all over again." + +"So would I," echoed Betty, warmly. "I'm not at all tired." + +Lloyd looked at her in vague wonder as they plodded up the avenue. "I +don't know what's the mattah with me," she said, "that I couldn't keep +up with you all, unless it's true what Miss Gilmer said. The ice is too +thin for holiday dissipations, and this picnic was too great a weight +for it." + +Betty glanced at her white face anxiously. "Go and lie down the rest of +the afternoon," she said. "I'll tie up your packages." + +"Oh, if you only would!" exclaimed Lloyd, gratefully. "But it seems too +much to ask of any one. Don't tell mothah that I got so woh'n out. I'll +be all right by evening." + +"She hasn't come home yet," said Betty, looking ahead of them at the +smooth expanse of newly fallen snow. "There isn't a track either of foot +or wheel." + +"Then maybe I'll have time for a nap, and be all rested when she comes," +said Lloyd. "I don't want her to get any of Miss Gilmer's notions about +me." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY + + +LLOYD stood at the window in the falling twilight and looked out across +the snow. It had been an ideal Christmas Day. She could feel the chill +of the white winter world outside as she leaned against the frosty pane, +but in her scarlet dress, with the holly berries at her belt and in her +hair, she looked the embodiment of Christmas warmth and cheer, and as if +no cold could touch her. + +The candles had not yet been lighted, but the room was filled with the +ruddy glow of the big wood fire. It shone warmly on the frames of the +portraits and the tall gilded harp with its shining strings, and gave a +burnishing touch to Betty's brown hair, as she stood by the piano, +fingering for the hundredth time the presents she had received that day. +Her dress of soft white wool suggested, like Lloyd's, the Yule-tide +season, for in the belt and shoulder-knots of dull green velvet were +caught clusters of mistletoe, the tiny waxen berries gleaming like +pearls. + +"Everything is _so_ lovely!" she sighed, happily, picking up her camera +to admire it once more. It was her godmother's gift, and the thing she +had most longed to own. + +She focussed it on Lloyd, who, in her scarlet dress, stood vividly +outlined by the firelight against the curtains. "I took three pictures +this morning while Rob was here, all snow scenes. The house, the locust +avenue, and a group of little darkies running after your grandfather, +calling out, 'Chris'mus gif', Colonel!' I think I'd better carry my +things all up to my room," she added, presently. "There'll be so many +people here soon, and so much moving around when the hunt begins, that +they'll be in the way." + +"You'll need a wheelbarrow to take them in," answered Lloyd, turning +from the window to watch her gather them up. "You'd bettah call Walkah +to help you." + +"Santa Claus certainly was good to me," answered Betty, picking up Mr. +Sherman's gift, a beautiful mother-of-pearl opera-glass. It was like the +one he had given Lloyd, except for the difference in monograms. She +rubbed it lovingly with her handkerchief, and laid it beside the camera +to be carried up-stairs. There were books from the old Colonel, an +ivory photograph-frame exquisitely carved from Lloyd. Dozens of little +articles from the girls at school, and remembrances from nearly every +friend in the Valley. There was more than her arms could hold, and, +bringing a large tray from the dining-room, she made two trips up and +down stairs with it before her treasures were all lodged safely in her +room. + +Left alone for the first time that busy day, Lloyd stood a moment longer +peering out into the snowy twilight, and then crossed the room to the +table where her gifts were spread out. There had never been so many for +her since her days of dolls and dishes and woolly lambs. The +opera-glasses like Betty's were what she had wished for all year. The +purse her grandfather had slipped into the toe of her stocking was the +prettiest little affair of gray suede and silver she had ever seen. She +had thought of a dozen delightful ways to spend the gold eagle which it +held. + +The book-rack which Betty had burnt for her, with her initials on each +end, was already nearly filled with the books that different friends had +sent her. Rob's gift had been a book. So had Miss Allison's and Mrs. +MacIntyre's and the old family doctor's. Malcolm had sent a great bunch +of American Beauties. She drew the vase toward her and buried her face +a moment in the delicious fragrance. Then she nibbled a caramel from +Keith's box of candy. The rosebud sachet-bag which Gay made lay in the +box of handkerchiefs that good old Mom Beck had given her. + +She patted the thick letter from Joyce that told so much of interest +about Ware's Wigwam. She intended to have the water-colour sketch of +Squaw's Peak framed to take back to school with her. Mary's fat little +fingers had braided the Indian basket which came with Joyce's picture, +and Jack himself had killed the wildcat, whose skin he sent to make a +rug for her room. Lloyd was proud of that skin. As she stood smoothing +the tawny fur, the diamond on her finger flashed like fire, and she +stood turning her hand this way and that, that the glow of the flames +might fall on her new ring. + +It was a beautifully cut stone in an old-fashioned setting, with the +word "_Amanthis_" engraved inside; but not for a fortune would Lloyd +have had the little circlet changed to a modern setting. For just so had +it been slipped on her grandmother's finger at her fifteenth Christmas. +She had worn it until her daughter's fifteenth Christmas, and now she, +in turn, had given it to Lloyd. All day it had been a constant joy to +her. Aside from the pleasure of possessing such a beautiful ring, she +had a feeling that in its flashing heart was crystallized a triple +happiness,--the joy of three Christmas days: hers, her mother's, and the +beautiful young girl with the June rose in her hair, who smiled down at +her from the portrait over the mantel. + +She smiled up at it now in the same confiding way she had done as a +child, saying, in a low tone: "And when you played on the harp, it +flashed on yoah hand just as it does on mine." Pleased by the fancy, she +crossed the room and struck a few chords on the harp, watching the +firelight flash on the ring as she did so. + + "'Sing me the songs that to me were so deah, + Long, long ago, long ago!'" + +There was a step in the hall, and the portieres were pushed aside as the +old Colonel came in. She did not stop, for she knew he loved the old +song, and that she was helping to bring back his happy past, when he +threw himself into a chair before the fire, and sat looking up at +Amanthis. + +When she had finished the song, she perched herself on the arm of his +chair, and began ruffling up his white hair with the little hand which +wore the diamond. + +"Well, has it been a happy day for grandpa's little Colonel?" he asked, +fondly, passing his arm around her. + +"Oh, yes, grandfathah! Brim full and running ovah with all sawts of +lovely surprises. I'm mighty glad I'm living. And the best of it is, +although the day is neahly ovah, the fun isn't. There's still so much to +come." + +"What kind of a performance is this one on the programme for to-night?" +he asked. "Betty said I had to go the whole round, but I haven't been +able to gather a very good idea of what's expected of me." + +"It's just a progressive Christmas pah'ty, grandfathah," she explained, +tweaking his ear as she talked. "We couldn't agree about the celebration +this yeah. Judge Moore wanted us all to go to Oaklea. Mrs. Walton +thought they had the best right on account of their guests, so we +arranged it for everybody to take a turn at entahtaining. At five +o'clock they're all to come heah for a Christmas hunt. They ought to be +coming now, for it's neahly that time. At half-past six we'll have +dinnah at Oaklea. At half-past eight we'll go to The Beeches and finish +the evening with a general jollification. Then we'll come home by +moonlight." + +"What is a Christmas hunt?" asked the Colonel. "You'll have to enlighten +my ignorance." + +"It's a game that mothah and Betty thought of. Betty has worked like a +dawg to get the rhymes ready. She scarcely took time to eat yestahday, +and she gave up going to the charade pah'ty that Miss Allison gave for +Gay in the aftahnoon. It's this way. We've hidden little gifts all ovah +the house, from attic to cellah. When the guests come, each one will be +given a card with a rhyme on it, like this." + +Slipping from the arm of the chair, she went out into the hall a moment, +and came back with a Christmas stocking, trimmed with holly and hung +with tiny sleigh-bells. "Little Elise Walton is to distribute the cards +from this. Heah is a sample. Miss Allison happens to be on top." + +Adjusting his eye-glasses the Colonel turned so that the firelight shone +on the card, and read aloud: + + "Seek where bygone summers + Have dropped their roses fair. + A little Christmas package + Is waiting for you there." + +"Now where would you look if that cah'd were for you?" she demanded. + +"In the conservatory?" he replied, inquiringly. + +"That is what Miss Allison will do, probably," answered Lloyd, her +cheeks dimpling at the thought. "But aftah awhile she will remembah the +old dragon that mothah always keeps full of rose-leaves just as +Grandmothah Amanthis did. See?" + +She lifted the lid of a rare old cloisonne rose-jar that had stood on +the end of the mantel for a longer time than Lloyd's memory could reach, +and took out a small box. Taking off the cover, she disclosed what +appeared to be a ripe cherry with a bee clinging to its side. + +"Take the bee in yoah thumb and fingah and pull," she ordered. "See? +It's a cunning little tape-measuah for her work-basket." + +A sound of sleigh-bells jingling rapidly toward the house made her clap +the lid on the box and drop it hastily back into the rose-jar. + +"There they come!" she cried, "and the candles haven't been lighted. +Hurry, grandfathah! We can't wait to call Walkah! Throw open the front +doah!" + +Flying to the hall closet for the long taper kept for the purpose, she +held it an instant toward the blazing logs, and then darting around the +room, passed from one candelabrum to another, till every waxen candle +was tipped with its star of light. In her scarlet dress and the holly +berries, her cheeks glowing and the taper held above her head as she +tiptoed to reach the highest one, she looked like some radiant acolyte +of Joy. + +Betty, rushing breathlessly down-stairs at the sound of the +sleigh-bells, paused an instant between the portieres at sight of her. +"Oh, Lloyd!" she cried, clasping her hands. "You've given me the +loveliest idea! I've only got it by the tail feathers now, but I'll find +words for it all some day." Then, without waiting to explain, she ran +out to the porch, where, between the tall pillars, the old Colonel +waited with elaborate courtesy to receive the coming guests. + +As the sleighs glided nearer, Betty looked back through the door swung +hospitably open to its widest, and saw Lloyd hastily thrusting the taper +back into the closet. + +"She lighted it at the Christmas fire," thought Betty, struggling with +the tail feathers of her lovely idea, in an effort to grasp all that +Lloyd's act suggested. "And red is the emblem of joy. It might go this +way: 'She touched the Christmas tapers with the Yule log's heart of +flame.' No, it ought to start,-- + + "Lighting the candles of Christmas joy, + With a spark from the Yule log's fire." + +But there was no time for making poetry, with so many voices calling +"Merry Christmas," and so many outstretched hands grasping hers. In +another instant the house seemed filled to overflowing, and the dim old +mirrors were flashing back from every side one of the gayest scenes the +hospitable old mansion had ever known. + +The hunt began almost immediately. As soon as Elise had emptied the +stocking of its contents, up-stairs and down-stairs and in my lady's +chamber went old and young at the bidding of the rhymes. + +"I feel like a 'goosey gander,' sure enough," said Allison presently. +"For I've been all over the house, and there's no place left to wander. +Where would you go if you had this card?" + +She thrust hers out toward Gay, who read: + + "Standing with reluctant feet + Where Brooks and Little Rivers meet." + +Gay puzzled over it a moment, and then suggested that she try the +library. "I have," answered Allison. "Keith found his package in there, +behind the picture of a Holland windmill and canal, but there is +nothing else in the room that suggests water that I have been able to +find." + +"Who wrote 'Little Rivers'?" + +Allison stood thinking a moment, and then cried out: "Well, of course! +Why didn't I think to look among the books?" Flying down-stairs, she +began glancing along the library shelves until she found the book she +sought and Brooks's sermons standing side by side. Between them was +wedged a thin package which proved to contain a picture which she had +long wanted, a photograph of Murillo's painting of the Madonna. + +To Betty's surprise the Christmas stocking held a card for her. She had +supposed her part of the game would be only making the rhymes and +helping to hide the gifts. There was no rhyme on her card, simply the +statement, "Some little men are keeping it for you." + +Remembering Allison's experience, she ran up-stairs to Lloyd's room, +where in a low bookcase were all the juvenile stories that her childhood +had held dear. A set of Miss Alcott's books stood first, and, taking out +the well-thumbed copy of "Little Men," she shook it gently, fluttering +the leaves, and turning it upside down. But the volume held nothing +except a four-leaf clover, which Lloyd had left there to mark the place +one summer day. Betty turned away, as puzzled as any of the others whom +she had helped to mystify. + +Then she remembered two little wooden gnomes carved on the Swiss +match-box and ash-tray in the Colonel's den. She dashed in there, but +the gnomes kept guard over nothing but a few burnt matches. Nearly half +an hour went by of bewildered wandering from place to place, until she +happened to stray into Mr. Sherman's room. She stood by the desk, +letting her eyes glance slowly over its handsome furnishings. Then, with +a start of surprise that she had not thought of it before, she bent over +a paper-weight. It was a crystal ball supported by two miniature bronze +figures. The tiny Grecian athletes were evidently the little men who +were keeping something for her, for the toy suit-case standing between +them bore a tag on which was printed her initials. + +The suit-case was not more than two inches long. She supposed it +contained bonbons. One of the girls had used a dozen like them for place +cards at a farewell luncheon just before they went away to school. It +did not open at the first pull, and when, at the second, it came +forcibly apart, there was no shower of pink and white candies, as she +had expected. Only a bit of folded paper fell out. Smoothing it on the +desk, Betty read: + + "Dear little girl, you have helped all the rest + To a happy time with your patient hands. + Now fly for a week to the Cuckoo's Nest, + With godmother's love, for she understands." + +Then Betty was glad that she was all alone in the room when she found +the suit-case, for the tears began to brim up into her eyes and spill +over on to the paper that had a crisp new greenback pinned to it. The +tears were all happy ones, but she hardly knew what they were for. +Whether she was happier because her heart's desire was granted, and she +could spend her vacation with Davy, or whether it was because of that +last line, "With godmother's love, _for she understands_." + +"Lloyd must have told her what I said that day on the train," she +thought. It was the crowning happiness of the day for Betty. She was +singing under her breath when she danced out into the hall to join the +others. + +Some of the articles were so cleverly hidden that she had to give an +occasional hint to the bewildered seekers. In the seats of chairs, over +the deer's antlers in the hall, high up in the candelabra, strapped +inside of umbrellas, poked into glove fingers, all of them were in +unexpected places. Yet the directions of the verses seemed so plain when +once understood that the hunters laughed at their own stupidity. + +Even Judge Moore and the old Colonel were swept into the game, and Mrs. +MacIntyre's silvery hair bent just as eagerly as Elise's dark curls over +each suspected spot and out-of-the-way corner until she found the volume +of essays that had been hidden for her. + +By quarter-past six every one's search had been successful except Rob's. +"It would take a Christopher Columbus to find this place," he said, +scowling at his verse. "And I'd be willing to bet anything that it isn't +the bank that Shakespeare had in mind. Give me a hint, Lloyd." He held +out the card: + + "I know a bank where the wild thyme grows. + Unseen it lies, unsung by bard. + Something keeps watch there, no man knows, + And over your gift it's standing guard." + +"I haven't the faintest idea what it is," she said. "Betty wrote so many +of them yestahday aftahnoon while I was at the pah'ty, and she wouldn't +tell me this one. She said she thought you'd suahly guess it, but she +didn't want you to have a hint from any one. Come ovah to-morrow, and +we'll find it if we have to turn the house upside down." + +The sleighs had made one trip to Oaklea and returned for another load, +when Rob finally gave up the search. Lloyd and Gay climbed into the same +seat, and, as they cuddled down among the warm robes, Gay caught Lloyd's +hand in an impetuous squeeze. + +"Oh, I'm having such a good time!" she exclaimed. "I've been in a dizzy +whirl ever since five o'clock this morning. I never had a sleigh-ride +before to-day. I don't wonder that Betty calls this the House Beautiful. +Look back at it now. It's fairy-land!" A light was streaming from every +window, and the snow sparkled like diamonds in the moonlight. + +The drive to Oaklea was so short that the Judge and Mrs. Moore were +welcoming them at the door before Gay had fairly begun her account of +the day's happening. Dinner was announced almost immediately, and she +was ushered into one of the largest dining-rooms she had ever seen, and +seated at the long table. Such a large Christmas tree formed the +centrepiece that she could catch only an occasional glimpse through its +branches of Lloyd, seated on the other side between Malcolm and John +Baylor. + +Gay was between Ranald and Rob. While she kept up a lively chatter, +first with one and then the other, a sentence floating across the table +now and then made her long to hear what was being said on the other side +of the Christmas tree. She heard Malcolm say, in a surprised tone: "Maud +Minor! No, indeed, I didn't! Why, I scarcely mentioned you. Don't you +believe--" + +A general laugh at one of the old Colonel's stories drowned the rest of +the sentence, and left Gay wondering which one of Maud's many tales was +not to be believed. + +"I'll ask her after dinner," thought Gay. But it was a long time till +all the courses that followed the turkey gave way in slow succession to +plum pudding and the trifles on the Christmas tree. Then Gay had no +opportunity to ask her question, for Malcolm still stayed by Lloyd's +side when the company broke up into little groups in the hall and the +adjoining parlours. + +"The children are growing up, Jack," said the old Judge, laying his hand +on Mr. Sherman's shoulder, as several couples passed on their way to the +music-room. "There's Rob, now, the young rascal, taller than his +father; and it seems only yesterday that he was riding pickaback on my +shoulders, and tooting his first Christmas trumpet in my ears. And young +MacIntyre there is nearly a full-fledged man. He'll soon be eighteen, he +tells me. Why, at his age--" + +The Judge rambled off into a series of reminiscences which would have +been very entertaining to the younger man had his eyes not been +following Lloyd. He did not like to think that she was growing up. He +wanted to keep her a child. In his fond eyes she was always beautiful, +but he had never seen her look as well as she did to-night. The scarlet +dress and the holly berries gave her unusual colour. He fancied that +there was a deeper flush on her face when Malcolm leaned over her chair +to say something to her. Then he told himself that it was only fancy. +Looking up, Lloyd caught sight of her father in the doorway, and flashed +him a smile so open and reassuring that he turned away, thinking, "My +honest little Hildegarde! She asked for her yardstick, and I can surely +trust her to use it as she promised." + +Presently Malcolm, hunting through his pockets for a programme he was +talking about, took out a bunch of letters. As he hastily turned them +over, several unmounted photographs fluttered out and fell at Lloyd's +feet. An amused smile dimpled her mouth as her hasty glance showed her +that they were all of the same girl,--evidently kodak shots he had taken +himself. Probably that was the girl and these were the letters that +Keith had teased him about at the picnic. + +Neither spoke, and he reddened uncomfortably at her amused smile, as he +put them back into his pocket. At that moment, Rob turned toward them, +holding his new watch in his hand. + +"I have just been showing Ranald the present Daddy gave me," he said to +Lloyd. "It reminded me that I hadn't told you,--I've put that same old +four-leaf clover into the back of this watch that I had in my silver +one. I wouldn't lose my luck by losing your hoodoo charm for anything in +the world." + +At the sight of the clover Lloyd blushed violently. But it was not the +little dried leaf that deepened the quick colour in her cheeks. It was +the thought of the last time he had shown it to her, and the scene it +recalled at the churchyard stile, when Malcolm had begged for the tip of +a curl to carry with him always as a talisman; as a token that he was +really her knight, as he had been in the princess play, and that he +would come to her on some glad morrow. + +"He'll have a pocket full of such talismans by the time he's through +college," she thought, recalling the kodak pictures she had just seen. +"I'm _mighty_ glad that I didn't give him one." + +Over at The Beeches, Elise and her little friends had arranged to give a +Christmas play, so promptly at the hour agreed upon the party +"progressed" in Mrs. Walton's wake. There they found the third royal +welcome, and the gayest of entertainments. It had been an exciting day +for all of them, and, as Kitty expressed it, they were all wound up like +alarm-clocks. They would go off pretty soon with a br-r-r and a bang, +and then run down. + +The play passed off without a hitch in the performance, and ended in a +blaze of spangles and red light, when the fairy queen, trailing off the +stage, went through the audience showering on her guests Christmas +roses, supposed to have been called to life by her magic wand, and +distributed as souvenirs of her skill. + +Then somebody came up to Gay with her violin. With Allison to play her +accompaniments, she chose her sweetest pieces, and threw her whole soul +into the rendering of them. She was so grateful to these dear people +who had taken her in like one of themselves, and given her such a happy, +happy holiday-time that she did her best, and Gay's best on the violin +was a treat even to the musical critics in the company. Kitty was so +proud of her she could not help expressing her pleasure aloud, much to +Gay's embarrassment. To hide her confusion, she started a merry jig +tune, so rollicking and irresistible that hands and feet all through the +rooms began to pat the time. Keith seized his Aunt Allison around the +waist and waltzed her out into the floor. + +"Come on, everybody!" he cried. + +Lloyd was standing in the doorway, talking to Doctor Shelby, the +white-haired physician of the village, one of her oldest and dearest +friends. + +"Go on, Miss Holly-berry," he said. "If I wasn't such a stiff old +graybeard, I'd be at it myself. There's Ranald wanting to ask you." + +Lloyd waltzed off with Ranald, as light on her feet as a bit of +thistle-down, and the old doctor's eyes followed her fondly. + +"She's like Amanthis," he said to himself. "And she will grow more like +her as the years go by, so spirited and high-strung. But they'll have to +watch her, or she'll wear herself out." + +Presently he missed the flash of the scarlet dress, in and out among +the others, and he did not see it again until the music had stopped and +the revel was ending with the chimes, rung softly on the Bells of Luzon. +As he stepped back to allow several guests to pass him on the way up to +the dressing-room, he caught sight of Lloyd in an alcove in the back +hall. She was attempting to draw a glass of ice-water from the cooler. +Her hands shook, and her face was so pale that it startled him. "What's +the matter, child?" he exclaimed. + +"Nothing," she answered, trying to force a little laugh. "It's just that +I felt for a minute as if I might faint. I nevah did, you know. I reckon +it's as Kitty said. We've been wound up all day, and we've run so hah'd +we've about run down, and we have to stop whethah we want to or not." + +He looked at her keenly and began counting her pulse. "You are not to +get wound up this way any more this winter, young lady," he said, +sternly. "Go straight home and go to bed, and stay there until day after +to-morrow. The rest cure is what you need." + +"And miss Katie Mallard's pah'ty?" she cried. "Why, I couldn't do it +even for you, you bad old ogah." + +She made a saucy mouth at him, and then, with her most winning smile, +held out her hand to say good night, for the guests were beginning to +take their departure. "_Please_, Mistah _My_-Doctah,"--it was the pet +name she had given him years ago when she used to ride on his +shoulder,--"please don't go to putting any notions into Papa Jack's head +or mothah's. I'm just ti'ahed. That's all. I'll be all right in the +mawning." + +"Come, Lloyd," called Mrs. Sherman. "We're ready to start now." She saw +with a sigh of relief that her mother was bringing her coat toward her, +so she would not have to climb the stairs for it. She was tired, +dreadfully tired, she admitted to herself. But it had been such a happy +day it was worth the fatigue. + +As she drove homeward in the sleigh, she slipped her hand out of her +muff, and turned it in the moonlight to watch the sparkle of the new +ring. She wondered if the two girls who had worn it in turn before her +had had half as happy a fifteenth Christmas as she. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT + + +IT was nearly noon when Lloyd wakened next morning. Her head ached, and +she wondered dully how anybody could feel lively enough to sing as Aunt +Cindy was doing, somewhere back in the servants' quarters. The sound of +a squeaking wheelbarrow had wakened her. Alec was trundling it around +the house, with the parrot perched on it. The parrot loved to ride, and +its silly laugh at every jolt of the squeaking barrow usually amused +Lloyd, but to-day its harsh chatter annoyed her. + +"Oh, deah!" she groaned, sitting up in bed and yawning. "I feel as if I +could sleep for a week. I wouldn't get up at all if it wasn't for Katie +Mallard's pah'ty. I hate this day-aftah-Christmas feeling, as if the +bottom had dropped out of everything." + +She dressed slowly and went down-stairs. "Where's mothah, Mom Beck?" she +asked, pausing in the dining-room door. The old coloured woman was +arranging flowers for the lunch-table. + +"She's done gone ovah to Rollington, honey, with the old Cun'l. Walkah's +mothah is sick, and sent for 'em. I'm lookin' for 'em to come home any +minute now. Come right along in, honey. I've kep' yoah breakfus' good +and hot." + +"I don't want anything to eat. I'm not hungry now. I'd rathah wait till +lunch. Where's Betty, Mom Beck?" + +"Now listen to that!" ejaculated the old woman, sharply. "Don't you +remembah? She went off on the early train this mawning to that place you +all calls the Cuckoo's Nest. I packed her satchel befoah daylight." + +"I had forgotten she was going," exclaimed Lloyd, turning to the window +with a discontented expression, which only the snowbirds on the lawn +could see. She had come down-stairs expecting to talk over all the +happenings of the previous day with Betty, and to find her gone gave her +a vague sense of injury. She knew the feeling was unreasonable, but she +could not shake it off. + +The flash of the new ring gave her a momentary pleasure, but she was in +a mood that nothing could please her long. When she strolled into the +drawing-room, everything was in spotless order, and so quiet that the +stillness was oppressive. Even the fire burned with a steady, noiseless +glow, without the usual crackle, and the ashes fell on the hearth with +velvety softness. + +Some of her new books lay on a side table. She picked them up and +glanced through them, catching at a paragraph here and there. But one +after another she laid them down. She was not in a mood for reading. +Then she took a candied date from the bonbon dish, but it seemed to lack +its usual flavour. After nibbling each end, she threw it into the fire. +Slipping her new opera-glass from its case, she went to the window and +turned the lens on the distant entrance gate. The road in each direction +seemed deserted. So she put the glass back in its case, and, after +strolling restlessly around the room, walked over to the harp and struck +a few chords. + +"It's all out of tune!" she exclaimed, fretfully, thrumming the faulty +string with impatient fingers. "Everything seems out of tune this +mawning!" + +As she spoke, the string broke with a sudden harsh twang that made her +jump. She was so startled that the tears came to her eyes, and so +nervous that she flung herself face downward on the pillows of the +long-Persian divan, and began sobbing hysterically. The strain of the +last few weeks had been too much for her. Miss Gilmer's prophecy had +come true. The ice had given away under the extra weight put upon it. + +She was sobbing so hard that she did not hear the sound of carriage +wheels rolling softly up the avenue through the snow, and when the front +door banged shut she started again, and began trembling as she had done +when the harp-string broke. She was crying convulsively now, so hard +that she could not stop, although she clenched her fists and bit her +lips in a strong effort to regain self-control. + +Mrs. Sherman, her face all aglow from the cold drive, and looking almost +girlishly fair in her big hat with the plumes, and her dark furs, +hurried in to the fire. The Colonel, throwing back his scarlet lined +cape, pushed aside the portiere for her to enter. He was the first to +catch sight of the shaking form on the divan. + +"Why, Lloyd, child, what's the matter?" he demanded, anxiously. "What's +the matter with grandpa's little girl?" + +Mrs. Sherman, with a frightened expression, hurried to her, and, bending +over her, tried to get a glimpse of the tear-swollen face buried so +persistently in the cushions. + +"Nothing's happened! No, I'm not sick," came in smothered tones from the +depths of the pillows. "It's j-just crying itself, and I--I--I c-can't +stop-p-p!" + +A long shiver passed over her, and Mrs. Sherman, stroking her forehead +with a soothing hand, waited for her to grow quiet before plying her +with questions. But the old Colonel paced impatiently back and forth. + +"The child _must_ be sick," he declared. "She'll be coming down with a +fever or something if we don't take vigorous measures to prevent it. I +shall telephone for Dick Shelby this minute." + +He started toward the hall, but a wild wail from Lloyd stopped him. + +"I won't have the doctah! I'm not sick, and you sha'n't send for him! I +j-just cried because the harp-string b-broke so suddenly that it +s-scared me!" + +The Colonel paused and looked at her in amazement. Not since the time +when she, a five-year-old child, had flung a handful of mud over his +white clothes had she spoken to him in such a defiant tone. He answered +soothingly, as if she were still that little child, to be coaxed into +good behaviour. "Oh, yes, you won't mind the doctor's coming if grandpa +wants him to. He'll keep you from getting down sick, and spoiling all +the rest of your vacation. I'll just ask him to step up and look at +you." + +"No, don't!" demanded Lloyd, as he started again toward the hall. "No, +you sha'n't!" she insisted, springing up and stamping her foot. "I won't +have the old doctah, and I won't take any of his nasty old medicine! +He'll make me stay home from Katie's pah'ty this aftahnoon and from the +matinee to-morrow--and there's nothing the mattah, only I'm cross and +nervous, and the moah you bothah me the hah'dah it is to stop crying!" + +Then ashamed of her petulant outburst, she threw her arms around his +neck, and sobbed on his shoulder. In the end she had her own way, for +the glass of hot milk which her mother sent for, as soon as she found +Lloyd had eaten no breakfast, soothed her overstrung nerves. A brisk +walk to the post-office in the bracing December air gave her an appetite +for luncheon. Then she slept again until time to dress for Katie's +party, so that when the old Colonel watched her start off, she looked so +bright and was in such buoyant spirits that he wondered vaguely if her +crying spell could have been the remnant of some childish tantrum +instead of the forerunner of an illness. + +He banished the thought instantly from his loyal old heart, ashamed of +having applied such a word as tantrum to anything Lloyd might choose to +do. Of course she had felt ill, he told himself. So wretched that she +hadn't known what she was saying when she stormed at him so angrily. He +resolved to watch her closely, and take matters in his own hands if she +showed any more alarming symptoms. + +There was a matinee next day in Louisville, to which Mrs. Sherman took +all the girls in the neighbourhood. That was the end of the Christmas +gaieties for Lloyd. Doctor Shelby was at Locust on her return. He came +out of the old Colonel's den, where he had been sitting for several +hours, deep in a game of chess, and found her shivering in front of the +fire with a nervous chill, sobbing hysterically. + +She stormed at him almost as she had done at her grandfather, protesting +that she was only tired and nervous, and that she would be all right as +soon as she had had her cry out. But she submitted meekly when he +ordered her mother to put her to bed. The old doctor had always indulged +her, but there was a sternness in his manner now that made her obey +him. + +He called to see her the next day, and the next. But his visits did not +seem like professional ones. There was nothing said about medicine or +symptoms. He only asked her about school and the good times she had been +having, and the extra studying she had been doing. Then he sat and joked +and talked with her and her mother, as had been his habit ever since +Lloyd could remember. The third afternoon she was down in the +drawing-room when he came. + +"We'll soon be having Miss Holly-berry back again," he said, playfully +pinching her pale cheek. + +"And without taking any nasty old medicine," she answered. "I don't mind +doctahs when they can cure people without giving them pills and +powdahs." + +The Colonel looked up sharply. "What's that?" he asked. "Haven't you +been giving her anything, Dick? It seems to me the child would get along +faster if she had a good tonic." + +"I am going to prescribe one this morning," the doctor answered. "That's +what I came up for." He laughed at the look of disgust on Lloyd's face. + +"It isn't bad," he assured her, with an indulgent smile. "Why, I know +dozens of girls who would say that the tonic I am going to prescribe is +the most agreeable that could be given. I've even had them beg for it. +This is it, simply to lengthen your Christmas vacation. Didn't I hear a +certain young lady wishing the other night that she could stretch hers +out indefinitely?" + +Lloyd's dimples deepened. "How much longah will you make it? A week? If +I stay out much longah than that, it will be such hah'd work to catch up +with my classes that the game won't be worth the candle." + +"But I would make it so long that there would be no necessity of having +to catch up, as you call it. You could simply make a fresh start in a +new class." + +Lloyd looked up in alarm. "When?" she demanded. + +"Um--well, next fall, let us say," he answered, deliberately. "Yes, +surely by that time you'll be well and sound as a new dollar." + +"Next fall!" she gasped, her face growing white and her eyes strangely +big and dark. "You don't mean--you _couldn't_ mean that I must leave +school." + +"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. You are overtaxing yourself and must +stop--" + +"Oh, I can't!" interrupted Lloyd, speaking very fast. "I _won't_! It's +cruel to ask it when I've worked so hard to keep from falling behind +Betty and the girls. Oh, you don't _know_ what it means to me!" + +The old doctor looked up in amazement at this unexpected outburst. + +"No," he answered, slowly, after a moment's silence. "I don't suppose I +do. I had no idea it would be a disappointment to you. I would gladly +save you from it if I could. But listen to me, my little girl, and try +to be reasonable. You are on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Nothing +can mean as much to you as your health. What will keeping up with the +other girls amount to if the strain and the overtaxing makes an invalid +of you for life, perhaps? + +"Mind you, I am not saying that the work itself is too great a tax. +Madam Chartley's is one of the best regulated schools I have ever +inquired into. Ordinarily a girl ought to be able to take the course +with perfect ease. But you see that little spell of la grippe left you +weak and unfit for any extra strain, and, instead of easing up a bit, +you went on piling on all that extra load of lessons and Christmas +preparations and vacation dissipations. It was like trying to walk on a +broken foot. The more you tried, the worse it got. The mischief is done +now, and there is no remedy but to stop short off." + +Lloyd sat very still for a moment, staring out of the window in a dazed, +unseeing way, as if not fully understanding all he said. Then she turned +with a piteous appeal in her face to Mrs. Sherman. + +"Mothah, it isn't so, is it? I won't have to give up school now! You +wouldn't make me, would you, when you know how I love it? Oh, it will +neahly _kill_ me if you do! Please say no, mothah! _Please_!" + +Mrs. Sherman's eyes were full of tears. "My poor little girl," she +exclaimed as Lloyd threw herself into her arms. "I'm afraid we must do +as the doctor says. He would not ask such a sacrifice if it were not +necessary. You know how dearly he has always loved you." + +Without waiting to hear any more, Lloyd sprang up and ran out of the +room. Rushing up-stairs, she bolted her door behind her, and threw +herself across the bed. + +"It is the first great disappointment she has ever had in her life," +said her mother, looking after her with a troubled face. "Couldn't you +make the sentence a little easier, doctor? Couldn't she go back and take +one study, just to be with the girls?" + +He shook his head. "No, Elizabeth. She is too ambitious and high-strung +for that. One study wouldn't satisfy her. She'd chafe at not being able +to keep up in everything. She has nothing serious the matter with her +now, but it would not take long to make a wreck of her health at the +gait she has been going. There must be no more parties, no more regular +school work, and even no more music lessons this winter. She must have +the simplest kind of a life. Keep her out-of-doors all you can. A little +prevention now will be worth pounds of cure after awhile." + +"I suppose you are right, Dick," said the old Colonel, huskily, "but I +swear I'd give the only arm the Yankees left me to save her from this +disappointment." + +Lying across the bed up-stairs, Lloyd cried and sobbed until she was +exhausted. The handkerchief clutched in her hand in a damp little ball +had wiped away the bitterest tears she had ever shed. In her inmost +heart she knew that the doctor was right. It had been weeks since she +had felt strong and well. She remembered the way she had lagged behind +at the picnic, and what an effort it had been to talk and make herself +agreeable lately. Recalling the last few weeks, it seemed to her that +she had been in tears half the time. She admitted to herself that she +would rather be dead than to be an invalid for life like her great-aunt +Jane. To sit always in a darkened room that smelled of camphor, and to +talk in a weak, complaining voice that made everybody tired. Of course +if there was danger of her growing to be like _her_, she would rather +leave school than run such a risk. But why, oh, _why_ was she forced to +make such a choice? The other girls didn't have to. She had done no more +than they to bring about such a state of affairs. + +They could go back to dear old Warwick Hall, but she would have to stay +behind. And she would always be behind, for, even if she went back with +them another year, it couldn't be the same. They would have done so much +in the meantime,--gone on so far ahead, made new friends and found new +interests, and she would have to drop back in the class below, and +never, never stand on the same footing with them again. It was so hard, +so cruel, that she should have to face a blighted life at only fifteen. + +She unlocked the door presently at her mother's knock, but she didn't +want to be comforted. Nothing anybody could say could change things, she +sobbed, or make the disappointment any easier to bear. So Mrs. Sherman +wisely withdrew, and left her to fight it out alone. + +The next time she peeped into the room, Lloyd was asleep, worn out with +the violence of her grief, so she tiptoed down-stairs, leaving the door +ajar behind her. The Colonel was pacing up and down the library. + +"I declare I can't think of anything but that child's disappointment!" +he exclaimed, as she came in. "I can't read! I can't settle down to +anything. I have been trying to think of some pleasure we could give her +to make up for it in a way. A winter in Florida, maybe. Poor baby! if I +could only bear it for her, how glad I would be to do it!" + +Mrs. Sherman picked up a bit of needlework from the table where she had +left it, and, sitting down by the window, began to hemstitch. + +"I don't know, papa," she said, slowly, "but I'm beginning to fear that +we have done too much of that for Lloyd; smoothed the difficulties out +of her way too much; made things too easy. We've fairly held our arms +around her to shield her not only from harmful things, but from even +trifling unpleasantness. Maybe if she had had to face the smaller +disappointments that most children have to bear, the greater ones would +not seem so overwhelming. She could have met this more bravely." + +The Colonel sniffed impatiently. "All foolishness, Elizabeth! All +foolishness! That may be the case with ordinary children, but not with +such a sweet, unspoiled nature as Lloyd's." + +It was nearly dark when Lloyd wakened. She heard Kitty's voice down in +the hall, asking to see her, and Gay's exclamation of surprise and +regret at something her mother said in a low voice. She knew that she +was telling them the doctor's decision. Then Mom Beck tapped at the door +to ask if she would see the girls awhile, but she sent her away with a +mournful shake of the head. She was too miserable even to speak. + +The low murmur of voices went on for some time. It grew loud enough for +her to distinguish the words when the girls came out into the hall again +to take their departure. Lloyd raised herself on her elbow to listen. +Kitty was telling something that had happened that afternoon at the +candy-pull from which they were just returning. A wan smile flitted +across Lloyd's face, in sympathy with the merry laugh that floated up +the stairs. But it faded the next instant as she whispered, bitterly: +"That's the way it will always be. They will go on having good times +without me, and they'll get so they'll nevah even miss me. I'll be left +out of everything. There's nothing left to look forward to any moah. Oh, +it's all so dah'k and gloomy--I know now how Ederyn felt, for I'm just +like he was, walled up in a dreadful Dungeon of Disappointment." + +The fancy pleased her so that she went on making herself miserable with +it long after the door closed behind Kitty and Gay. Over and over she +pictured Warwick Hall, which just then seemed the most desirable place +in all the world. She could see the shining river, as she had watched it +so many times from her window, flowing past the stately terraces between +its willow-fringed banks. She could hear the breezy summons of the +hunter's horn, calling the girls to rambles over the wooded hills or +through the quaint old garden. She could see the sun streaming into the +south windows of the English room, with the class gathered around Miss +Chilton, eager and interested. All the dear, delightful round of +inspiring work and play would go on day after day for the others, but it +would go on without her. Henceforth she would be left out of everything +pleasant and worth while. + +She would not go down to dinner. She could not take such a puffed, +tear-swollen face to the table to make everybody else unhappy, and she +couldn't throw off her despondent mood. Maybe in a few days, she +thought, she might be able to hide her feelings sufficiently to appear +in public, but it would always be with a secret sorrow gnawing at her +heart. Just now she shrank from sympathy, and she didn't want any one to +cheer her up. It did not seem possible that she could ever smile again, +and she wasn't sure that she wanted to. + +Mom Beck brought up the daintiest of dinners on a tray, but carried it +back almost untasted. As soon as she was gone, Lloyd undressed and crept +into bed. + +Sleep was far from her, however, and she lay with her eyes wide open. +The room was full of soft shadows and the flicker of firelight on the +furniture. She could think of only one thing, and she brooded over that +until it seemed to her feverish, disordered fancy that her +disappointment was the greatest that any one had ever been forced to +bear. + +"Why couldn't it have happened to some girl who didn't care?" she +thought, bitterly. "Some girl like Maud Minor, who doesn't like school, +anyhow. It doesn't seem fair when I've tried my best to do exactly +right, to leave a road of the loving hah't in everybody's memory, to +keep the tryst--" + +That thought brought a fresh reason for grief. There was the string of +pearls. Now she could not finish her little white rosary. The fire +flared up and shone brilliantly for a few moments, lighting a group of +pictures over her bed. They were the photographs she had taken in +Arizona. There was Ware's Wigwam. The firelight was not bright enough to +enable her to read the lines Joyce had written under it, but she knew +the inscription was the Ware family's motto, taken from the "Vicar of +Wakefield": "Let us be inflexible, and fortune will at last change in +our favour." A shadow of a smile actually came to her lips as she +remembered Mary Ware gravely explaining it. + +"Why, even Norman knows that if you'll swallow your sobs and _stiffen_ +when you bump your head or anything, it doesn't hurt half as bad as if +you just let loose and howl." + +And there was the photograph of old Camelback Mountain, bringing back +the story of Shapur, left helpless on the sands of the Desert of +Waiting, while the caravan passed on without him to the City of his +Desire. She remembered that when she hung it over her bed she had +thought, "If ever _I_ come to such a place, this will help me to bear +it patiently." + +Then she thought of Joyce, how bravely and uncomplainingly she had met +her disappointment. Not only had she left school and given up her +ambition to be an artist, but she had had to give up the old home she +loved, all her friends, and everything that made her girlhood bright, to +go out into the lonely desert and work like a squaw. + +The thought of Joyce brought back all the lessons she had learned in the +School of the Bees. But she sighed presently: "Oh, deah, all those +things sounded so nice and comforting when they seemed meant for othah +people. They don't seem so comforting now that I'm in trouble myself. +It's like the poultice Aunt Cindy made for Walkah's toothache. She was +disgusted because he didn't stop complaining right away, and said it +ought to have cured him if it didn't. But it wasn't such a powahful +remedy when she had the toothache herself. She grumbled moah than +Walkah. It's all well enough to say that I'll seal up my troubles as the +bees seal up the things that get into the cells to spoil their honey, +but now the time is heah, I simply can't!" + +Nevertheless, what the School of the Bees taught did help. So did the +sight of the patient old Camelback Mountain, that had inspired the +legend of Shapur. And more than all the little group in front of the +Wigwam helped, as she remembered how bravely they had met their +troubles. + +One by one her happy Arizona days came back to her. After all, it was +something to have lived fifteen beautiful years untouched by trouble. +She was thankful for that much, even if the future held nothing more for +her. If she couldn't be happy, she could at least take Mary's advice and +"not let loose and howl" about it any more. If she couldn't be bright +and cheerful, she could "swallow her sobs and stiffen." With the +resolution to try Mary's remedy for her woes in the morning, she lay +drowsily watching the firelight flicker across the picture of the +Wigwam. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +IN THE ATTIC + + +IF the sun had been shining next morning, it would have been easier for +Lloyd to keep her resolution, and face the family bravely at breakfast. +But the rain was pouring against the windows; a slow, monotonous rain +that ran in little rivers over the lawn, melting the snow, and turning +the white landscape into a dreary scene of mud and bare branches. + +Twice on the way down-stairs she paused, thinking that she could not +possibly sit through the meal without crying, and that it would be +better to go back and breakfast alone in her room than to be a damper on +the spirits of the family. Even so slight a thing as the tone of +sympathy in her grandfather's "good morning" made the tears spring to +her eyes, but she winked them back, and answered almost cheerfully his +question as to how she felt. + +"Oh, just like the weathah, grandfathah. All gray and drippy; but I'll +clean up aftah awhile." + +She could not smile as she said it, but the effort she made to be +cheerful made the next attempt easier, and presently she acknowledged to +herself that Mary was right. It did help, to swallow one's sobs. + +After breakfast she stood at the window, watching her father drive away +to the station in the rain. As the carriage disappeared and there was +nothing more to watch, she wondered dully how she could spend the long +morning. + +"Some one wants you at the telephone, Lloyd," called the Colonel, on his +way to his den. + +"Oh, good! I hope it is Kitty," she exclaimed, anticipating a long visit +over the wire. + +But it was Malcolm MacIntyre who had rung her up, to bid her good-bye. +He and Keith were about to start home. They had intended to go up to +Locust, he told her, for a short call before train time, but it was +raining too hard. Would she please make their adieus to her mother and +the rest of the family. He had heard that she was not going back to +school. Was it true? She was in luck. No? She was disappointed? Well, +that was too bad. He was awfully sorry. But she mustn't worry over +missing a few months of school. It wouldn't amount to much in the long +run. For his part, if he were a girl and didn't have to fit himself for +a profession, he would be glad to have such a postscript added to his +Christmas vacation. He'd noticed that usually the postscript to a girl's +letter had more in it than the letter itself. Possibly it would be that +way with her vacation. He hoped so. + +Although it was in the most cordial tone that he expressed his regret at +her disappointment, and bade Princess Winsome good-bye until the "good +old summer-time," it was with a vague feeling of disappointment that +Lloyd hung up the receiver and turned away from the telephone. + +"He doesn't undahstand at all!" she thought. "He hasn't the faintest +idea how much it means to me to give up school. He thinks that, because +I'm a girl, I haven't any ambition, and that it doesn't hurt me as it +would him. Maybe it wouldn't have sounded quite the same if I could have +seen him say it, but ovah the telephone, somehow--although he was mighty +nice and polite--it sounded sawt of patronizing." + +She went into the library to deliver Malcolm's farewell messages to her +mother. "He seems so much moah grown up this time than he evah has +befoah," she added. "I don't like him half as much that way as the way +he used to be." + +Mrs. Sherman was busy about the house all morning, so Lloyd found +entertainment following her from room to room, as she inspected the +linen closet, superintended the weekly cleaning of the pantry, and +rearranged some of the library shelves to make room for the Christmas +books. But in the afternoon she had a number of letters to write, +acknowledging the gifts which had been sent her by distant friends, and +Lloyd was left to her own amusement. + +[Illustration: "ONE OF THE BOYS HAD DARED HIM TO CARRY IT."] + +The doctor did not want her to read long at a time. The rain was pouring +too hard for her to venture out-of-doors, and about the middle of the +afternoon the silence and loneliness of the big house seemed more than +she could endure. + +"I could scream, I'm so nervous and ti'ahed of being by myself," she +exclaimed. "If just a piece of a day is so hah'd to drag through as this +has been, how can I stand all the rest of the wintah?" + +She was counting up the weeks ahead of her on the big library calendar, +when, through the window, she caught sight of Rob coming toward the +house. The rain was running in streams from the bottom of his +mackintosh, and from a huge umbrella that spread over him like a tent. +It was an enormous advertising umbrella, taken from one of the delivery +wagons at the store. One of the boys had dared him to carry it. +"_Groceries, Dry Goods, Boots and_" appeared in black letters on the +yellow side turned toward Lloyd. "_Shoes. Jayne's Emporium_," she +called, supplying the rest of the familiar advertisement from memory. + +"What on earth are you doing with that wagon-top ovah you?" she asked +from the front door, where she stood watching his approach. He was +striding along whistling as cheerily as if it were a midsummer day. He +looked up and smiled in response to her call, and twirled the umbrella +till the rain-drops flew in every direction in a fine spray. Lloyd felt +as if the sun had suddenly come out from behind the clouds. + +"I've come to finish my Christmas hunt," he said, as he stepped up on +the porch and shook himself like a great water-spaniel. + +"Oh," cried Lloyd, "I intended to ask Betty befoah she went away where +she had hidden yoah present, and she left next mawning so early that I +was still asleep. Maybe mothah knows." + +But Mrs. Sherman, busy with her letters, shook her head. "I haven't the +faintest idea," she answered. "But I remember she said something about +Rob's being the hardest one of all to find, so you'll probably be kept +busy the rest of the day. Don't you children bother either Mom Beck or +Cindy to help you hunt," she called after them. "They have all they can +attend to to-day." + +"Let's see that verse again, Rob," said Lloyd, as they went out of the +library into the drawing-room. He fumbled in several pockets and finally +produced the card. + + "I know a bank where the wild thyme grows. + Unseen it lies, unsung by bard. + Something keeps watch there, no man knows, + And over your gift it's standing guard." + +As on Christmas Day, the only bank the verse suggested was in the +conservatory, a long, narrow ledge of ferns and maidenhair, green with +overhanging vines and graceful fronds. For nearly half an hour they +poked around in it, lifting the ferns from the warm, moist earth to see +if anything lay hidden at their roots. It was like April in the +conservatory, steamy and warm, and the fragrance of hyacinths and white +violets made it a delightful place in which to linger. + +"Bank--bank--" repeated Lloyd, puzzling over the verse again, when they +had given up the search in the conservatory and gone back to the +drawing-room. "It might mean a savings-bank, but there hasn't been one +in the house since that little red tin one of mine that you dropped into +the well with my three precious dimes in it. I've felt all these yeahs +that you owed me thirty cents." + +"Now, Lloyd Sherman, there's no use in bringing up that old quarrel +again," he laughed. "You know we were playing that robbers were coming, +and we had to lower our gold and jewels into the well, and you tied the +fishing-line around the bank your own self. So I am not to blame if the +knot came untied at the very first jerk. We've wasted enough breath +arguing that point to start a small cyclone." + +They laughed again over the recollection of their old quarrel, then Rob +read the verse once more. Presently he stopped drumming on the table +with his thumbs, and said, slowly, as if trying to recall something long +forgotten: "Don't you remember,--it seems ages before we dropped your +red bank in the well,--that I had a remarkable penny savings-bank? It +was some sort of a slot machine in the shape of a little iron dog. Daddy +brought it to me from New York. There was some kind of an indicator on +the side of it that looked like the face of a watch. That was my +introduction to puns, for Daddy said it was a _watch_ dog, made to guard +my pennies. Surely you haven't forgotten old Watch, for after the +indicator was broken I brought the safe over here, and we kept it on +the door-mat in front of your playhouse, to guard the premises." + +"I should say I do remembah!" answered Lloyd. "Probably it's up in the +attic now. But what has that to do with the rhyme?" + +"Don't you see? That must be the 'bank' where the wild thyme grows. I +don't know whether Betty refers to the wild time we used to have playing +in the attic, or the wild time that the watch kept. But I'm certain that +that is the bank she means." + +"Come on, then," cried Lloyd. "Let's go up to the attic and hunt for it. +I haven't been up there for ovah a yeah." + +Rob led the way to the upper hall, and then up the attic stairs, taking +the steep steps two at a time in long leaps. + +"That isn't the way you used to climb these stairs," laughed Lloyd. +"Don't you know you had to weah little long-sleeved aprons when you came +ovah to play with me, to keep yoahself clean? You always stepped on the +front of them and stumbled going up these steps." + +A headless and tailless hobby-horse of Rob's, on which they had ridden +many imaginary miles, stood in one corner, and he crossed over to +examine it, with an amused smile. + +"It certainly didn't take much to amuse us in those days," he said, +touching the rockers with his foot, and starting the disabled beast to +bobbing back and forth. "How long has it been since we used to ride this +thing? Is my hair white? I declare I never had anything make me feel so +ancient as the sight of this old hobby-horse. I feel older than +grandfather." + +Lloyd had opened a dilapidated hair-covered trunk, and was bending over +a family of dolls stowed away inside. "Heah is old Belinda!" she +exclaimed. "And Carrie Belle May, and Rosalie, the Prairie Flowah! 'And, +oh, Rob! Look at poah Nelly Bly, all wah-paint and feathahs, just as you +fixed her up for a squaw that day we had an Indian massacre in the grape +arbour. I had forgotten that we left her in such a fix!" + +"I'll never forget that day," answered Rob. "Don't you remember how sore +I made my arm, trying to tattoo an anchor on it with a darning-needle +and clothes bluing? What else have you buried in that old trunk?" + +Despite his six feet and seventeen years, Rob dropped down on a roll of +carpet beside the trunk, and watched with interest as Lloyd lifted out +one article after another over which they had quarrelled, or in whose +pleasure they had shared in what now seemed a dim and far-away playtime. +Don't you remember this? Don't you remember that? they asked each other, +finding so many things to laugh over and recall that they quite forgot +the object of their search. + +Lloyd was sitting with her back against the warm chimney, which ran up +through the middle of the attic, but presently she began to feel chilly, +and sent Rob over to a chest, away back under the eaves, for something +to put around her. It was packed full of old finery they had used on +various occasions for tableaux and plays. The first thing he pulled out +was a gorgeous red velvet cloak covered with spangles. + +"That will do," she said, as he held it up inquiringly. "It's good and +warm." + +He pushed the chest back into place. Then, straightening up, his glance +fell on the discarded playhouse, standing back in a dim corner. With a +whoop he pounced upon it. + +"Here's old Watch!" he exclaimed, holding up the little iron dog. "And +he is the bank where the wild time grows, for here is the gift he is +standing guard over." Throwing the spangled cloak over Lloyd's +shoulders, he seated himself again on the roll of carpet, and began to +untie the little package fastened to the dog's neck with a bit of +ribbon. Inside many layers of tissue-paper, he came at last to a +memorandum-book, small enough to fit in his vest-pocket. It was bound in +soft gray kid, and on the back Betty had burned in old English letters, +with her pyrography-needle, the motto of Warwick Hall: "I keep the +tryst." Over it was the crest, a heart, out of which rose a mailed arm, +grasping a spear. + +"Betty did that," said Lloyd. "She traced the letters on first with +tracing-papah, and then burnt them. I remembah now, she made it a few +days befoah we came home. She thought we would have our usual tree, and +she intended to hang this on it for you. Then when we had the hunt +instead of a tree, she took this way of giving it to you. That is an +appropriate motto for a memorandum-book, isn't it? You'll appreciate it +moah when she tells you the story about it. Miss Chilton read it to the +English class one day, and had us write it from memory for the next +lesson." + +"Then what's the matter with your telling it to me?" asked Rob, eying +the mailed hand and the spear with interest. "I'll be gone before Betty +gets back. Go on and tell it. This is an ideal time and place for +story-telling." + +He leaned comfortably back against the warm chimney and half-closed his +eyes. The patter of the rain on the roof made him drowsy. + +"Well," assented Lloyd, "I can't tell it with as many frills and +flourishes as Betty could, but I remembah it bettah than most stories, +because I had to write it from memory." Drawing the glittering cloak +closer around her, she began as if she were reading it, in the very +words of the green and gold volume: + + "'Now there was a troubadour in the kingdom of + Arthur, who, strolling through the land with only + his minstrelsy to win him a way, found in every + baron's hall and cotter's hut a ready welcome.'" + +Here and there she stumbled over some part of it, or told it +hesitatingly in her own words, but at last she ended it as well as Betty +herself could have done: + + "So Ederyn won his sovereign's favour, and, by his + sovereign's grace permitted, went back to woo the + maiden and win her for his bride. Then henceforth + blazoned on his shield and helmet he bore the + crest, a heart with hand that grasped a spear, + and, underneath, the words, 'I keep the tryst.'" + +"That's a corking good motto," said Rob as she paused. "I like that +story, Lloyd, and I'll remember it when I keep the engagements that I +put down in this little book." + +He sat a moment, flipping the leaves and whistling a bar from "The Old +Oaken Bucket." + +"Stop!" commanded Lloyd, suddenly, clapping her hands over her ears, and +making a wry face. "You're off the key. Haven't I told you a thousand +times that it doesn't go that way? This is it." + +Puckering up her lips, she whistled the tune correctly, and he joined +in. At the end of the chorus he looked at his watch. + +"It's been like old times this afternoon," he said. "I'll tell you what, +Lloyd, let's come up here once a year after this, just to keep tryst +with our old playtimes. I'll put that down as the first engagement in my +memorandum-book. A year from to-day we'll take another look at these +things." + +"All right," assented Lloyd, cheerfully. Then a wistful expression crept +into her eyes as she peered through the tiny attic window. Twilight was +falling early on account of the rain. A deep gloom began to settle over +her spirits also. + +"Rob," she said, slowly, "I haven't told you yet. I didn't want to spoil +our aftahnoon by thinking about it any moah than I could help, and you +made me almost forget it for a little while. I couldn't talk about it +when you first came without crying,--this yeah is going to be _such_ a +long, hah'd one. They aren't going to let me go back to school aftah the +holidays. The doctah says I am not strong enough, and it is such an +awful Dungeon of Disappointment that it just breaks my hah't to think +about it." + +To Rob's consternation she laid her head down on old Belinda, who still +lay limply across her lap, and began to sob. He sat in embarrassed +silence for a moment, scarcely knowing her for the same little companion +whom he had taught to meet hurts like a boy. He remembered the many +times she had winked back the tears over the bruises and bumps and cuts +she had encountered in following his lead. He was bewildered by the +unfamiliar mood, and it hurt him to see her so grieved. + +"There! there! Don't cry, Lloyd!" he begged, hurt by the sight of the +fair head bowed so dismally over the old doll. "I know how it would +knock me out to have to stop now, just when I've got into the swing of +things, so I know just how you feel. I'm mighty sorry." + +Then, as the sobs continued: "I'd go off and whip somebody if it would +do any good, but it won't. You'll have to brace up as Ederyn did, and +you'll get out of your dungeon all right." + +There was no answer. School was so very dear, and the disappointment so +very bitter. It had all surged over her again in a great wave. He tried +again. + +"It's tough, I know, but it will be easier if you take it as all the +Lloyds have taken their troubles, with your teeth set and your head up. +Somehow, that's the way I've always thought you would take things. Don't +cry, Lloyd. Don't! It breaks me all up to see you this way, when you've +always been so game." + +She straightened up and wiped her eyes, announcing suddenly: "And I'm +going to be game now. If there's one thing I nevah could beah, it was +for you to think I was a coward, and I can't have you thinking it now. +It's a sawt of tryst I've kept all these yeahs, unconsciously, I +suppose. Ever since I was a little thing, if I thought 'Bobby expects it +of me,' I'd do it, no mattah what it was, from jumping a fence to +climbing on the chimney. I've lived up to yoah expectations many a time +at the risk of killing myself." + +"Indeed you have," he answered, in a tone of hearty admiration. There +was a tender light in his gray eyes which she did not see, she was so +busy wiping her own. + +"I'm done crying now," she announced, springing to her feet and +thrusting Belinda back into the trunk. "Come on, let's go down and pop +some cawn ovah the library fiah. Put this cloak away first." + +He pushed the chest back to its place under the eaves and started after +her, pulling out his handkerchief as he went, to wipe away a stray +cobweb into which he had thrust his hand. It reminded him of the story. + +"You know," he suggested, consolingly, "there's bound to be some way out +of your dungeon. I'll spend all the rest of the vacation helping you +twist cobwebs for your rope, if you like." + +She made no answer then to his offer of assistance. She felt that she +could not steady her voice if she tried to speak her appreciation of +his sympathy. + +So she called out, as she dashed past him: "As Joyce used to say at the +house pah'ty, 'the last one down is a jibbering Ornithorhynchus!'" + +Away they went in a mad race, whose noisy clatter made it seem to the +old Colonel in his den that the rafters were falling in. But on the +landing she paused an instant. + +"It--it helps a lot, Rob," she said, wistfully, "to have you +undahstand,--to know that you know how it hurts." + +"I wish I could really help you," he answered, earnestly. "You're a game +little chum!" + +She flashed back a grateful smile from under her wet eyelashes, and led +the race on down the next flight of stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HUMDRUM DAYS + + +ALL through the rest of that week, and through New Year's Day, Lloyd +managed to keep her resolution bravely. Even when the time came for the +girls to go back to school without her, she went through the farewells +like a little Spartan, driving down to the station with tearful Betty, +who grieved over Lloyd's disappointment as if it had been her own. + +When the train pulled out, with the four girls on the rear platform, she +stood waving her handkerchief cheerily as long as she could see an +answering flutter. Then she turned away, catching her breath in a deep +indrawn sob, that might have been followed by others if Rob had not been +with her. He saw her clench her hands and set her teeth together hard, +and knew what a fight she was making to choke back the tears, but he +wisely gave no sign that he saw and sympathized. He only proposed a +walk over to the blacksmith shop to see the red fox that Billy Kerr had +trapped and caged. But a little later, when she had regained her +self-control and was poking a stick between the slats of the coop where +the fox was confined, to make it stretch itself, he said, suddenly: + +"By cricky, you were game, Lloyd! If it had been me, I couldn't have +gone to the station and watched the fellows go off without me, and joke +about it the way you did." + +Lloyd went on rattling the stick between the slats and made no answer, +but Rob's approval brightened her spirits wonderfully. It was not until +the next day, when he, too, went back to school, that she fully realized +how lonely her winter was going to be. She strolled into her mother's +room, and threw herself listlessly into a chair by the window. + +"What can I do, mothah? I mustn't read long, I mustn't study, Tarbaby is +lame, so I can't ride, and I've walked as far as I care to this +mawning." + +"What would you like to do?" asked Mrs. Sherman, who was dressing to go +out. + +"Nothing but things that I can't do," was the fretful answer. "It would +be lots of fun if I could go out in the kitchen and beat eggs, and make +custah'd pies and biscuits and things. I'd love to cook. I haven't had +a chance since I was at Ware's Wigwam. But Aunt Cindy scolds and +grumbles if anybody so much as looks into the kitchen. She says she +won't have me messing around in her way." + +"I know," sighed Mrs. Sherman. "Cindy is getting more fussy and exacting +every year. But she has cooked for the family so long that she seems to +think the kitchen is hers. If she were not such a superior cook, I +wouldn't put up with her whims, but in these days, when everybody is +having so much trouble with servants, we'll have to humour her. She's a +faithful old creature. You might cook on the chafing-dish in the +dining-room. There are all sorts of things you could make on that." + +Lloyd shrugged her shoulders impatiently. "But not bread and pies and +things you do with a rolling-pin. That's the pah't I like." + +She sat a moment, swinging her foot in silence, and then broke out: + +"If I were a girl in a story-book, this disappointment would turn me +into such a saintly, helpful creatuah that I'd be called 'The Angel of +the Home.' I've read about such girls. They keep things in ordah, and +mend and dust and put flowahs about, and make the house so bright and +cheerful that people wondah how they evah got along without them. Every +time they turn around, there are lovely, helpful things for them to do. +But what can _I_ do in a big house like this moah than I've always tried +to do? I've tried to be considerate of everybody's comfo't evah since I +stah'ted out to build a road of the loving hah't in everybody's memory. +The servants do everything heah, and don't want to be interfered with. I +wish we were dead poah, and lived in a plain little cottage and did our +own work. Then I wouldn't have time to get lonesome. I'd be lots +happiah. + +"One day, when Miss Gilmer and I were talking about Ederyn in his +Dungeon of Disappointment, she said that we could always get out of our +troubles the same way that he did; that the cobwebs he twisted into +ropes were disagreeable to touch. Nobody likes to put their hands into +dusty cobwebs, and that they represent the disagreeable little tasks +that lie in wait for everybody. She said that, if we'll just grapple the +things that we dislike most to do, the little homely every-day duties, +and busy ourselves with them, they'll help us to rise above our +discontent. I've been trying all mawning to think of some such cobwebs +for me to take hold of, and there isn't a single one." + +Mrs. Sherman smiled at the wobegone face turned toward her. "Fancy any +one being miserable over such a state of affairs as that!" she laughed. +"Actually complaining because there's nothing disagreeable for her to +do! Well, we'll have to look for some cobwebs to occupy you. Maybe if +you can't find them at home, you can do like the old woman who was +tossed up in a basket, seventy times as high as the moon. Don't you +remember how Mom Beck used to sing it to you? + + "'Old woman! Old woman! Old woman, said I, + O whither, O whither, O whither so high? + _To sweep the cobwebs out of the sky_, + But I'll be back again, by and by.'" + +She trilled it gaily as she fastened her belt, and took out her hat and +gloves. + +"Fate must have given her just such a cobwebless home as you have, and +she had to soar high to rise above her troubles. Come on, little girl, +get your hat and coat, and we'll go in search of something disagreeable +for you to do; but I hope your quest won't take you seventy times as +high as the moon." + +They drove down to the store to attend to the day's marketing. While +Mrs. Sherman was ordering her groceries, Lloyd went to the back of the +store, where one of the clerks was teaching tricks to a bright little +fox-terrier. She was so interested in the performance that she did not +know when Miss Allison came in, or how long she and her mother stood +discussing her. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Sherman, "she has been brave about it. She never +complained but once, and that to me this morning. But we know how +unhappy she is. Jack and papa worry about her all the time. They want me +to take her to Florida. They think she must be given some pleasure that +will compensate in a way for this disappointment. But it is not at all +convenient for me to leave home now, and I feel that for her own good +she should learn to meet such things for herself. It would be far +easier, I acknowledge, if there was anything at home to occupy her, but +I cannot allow her to interfere with Mom Beck's work, or Cindy's. They +resent her doing anything." She repeated the conversation they had had +that morning. + +"Loan her to me for the rest of the day," said Miss Allison. "I can show +her plenty of cobwebs, the kind she is pining for." + +So it happened that a little later, when Miss Allison crossed the road +to the post-office, and started up the path toward home, Lloyd was with +her, smiling happily over the prospect of spending the day with the +patron saint of all the Valley's merrymakings. From Lloyd's earliest +recollection, Miss Allison had been the life of every party and picnic +in the neighbourhood. She was everybody's confidante. Like Shapur, who +gathered something from the heart of every rose to fill his crystal +vase, so she had distilled from all these disclosures the precious attar +of sympathy, whose sweetness won for her a way, and gained for her a +welcome, wherever she went. + +As they turned in at the gate, Lloyd looked wistfully across at The +Beeches, and her eyes filled with tears. Miss Allison slipped her arm +around her and drew her close with a sympathetic clasp, as they walked +around the circle of the driveway leading to the house. + +"I know just how you feel, dear. Like the little lame boy in that story +of the 'Pied Piper of Hamelin.' Because he couldn't keep up with the +others when they followed the piper's tune, he had to sit and watch them +dance away without him, and disappear into the mountainside. He was the +only child left in the whole town of Hamelin. It _is_ lonely for you, I +know, with all the boys and girls of your own age away at school. But +think how much lonelier Hamelin would have been without that child. +You'll find out that old people can play, too, though, if you'll take a +hand in their games. I want to teach you one after awhile, which I used +to enjoy very much, and still take pleasure in." + +Miss Allison led the way up-stairs to her own room. As they passed the +door leading to the north wing, Lloyd exclaimed: "I'll nevah forget that +time, the night of the Valentine pah'ty, when Gingah and I went into the +blue room, and the beah that Malcolm and Keith had tied to the bed-post +rose up out of the dah'k and frightened us neahly to death." + +"We had some lively times that winter with Virginia and the boys," +answered Miss Allison. "I kept a record of some of their sorriest +mishaps. Wait a minute until I speak to the housemaid, and I'll see if I +can find it." + +Miss Allison had been wondering how she could best entertain Lloyd, but +the problem was solved when she found the journal, in which she had +written the history of the eventful winter when her sister's little +daughter Virginia and her brother's two boys had been left in her +charge. Lloyd had taken part in many of the mischievous adventures, and +she sat smiling over the novelty of hearing herself described with all +the imperious ways, naughty temper, and winning charm that had been hers +at the age of eight. + +"It is like looking at an old photograph of oneself," she said, after +awhile. "It seems so strange to be one of the characters in a book, and +listen to stories about oneself." + +"That reminds me of the game I spoke of," said Miss Allison. "I invented +it when I was about your age. I had just read 'Cranford,' and the story +of life in that simple little village seemed so charming to me that I +wished with all my heart I could step into the book and be one of the +characters, and meet all the people that lived between its covers. Then +I heard some one say that there were more interesting happenings and +queer characters in Lloydsboro Valley than in Cranford. So I began to +look around for them. I pretended that I was the heroine of a book +called 'Lloydsboro Valley,' and all that summer I looked upon the people +I met as characters in the same story. + +"It happened that all my young friends were away that summer, and it +would have been very lonely but for my new game. The organist went away, +and, although I was only fifteen, I took her place and played the little +cabinet organ we used then in church and Sunday school. That threw me +much with the older people, for I had to go to choir-practice to play +the organ, and also attend the missionary teas. Gradually they drew me +into a sewing-circle that was in existence then, and a reading club. I +found it was true that my own little village really had far more +interesting people in it than any I had read about, and I learned to +love all the dear, cranky, gossipy old characters in it, because I +studied them so closely that I found how good at heart they were despite +their peculiarities and foibles. + +"That's what I want you to do this winter, Lloyd. Join the little choir, +and meet with the King's Daughters, and learn to know these interesting +neighbours of yours. And," she added, smiling, "I promise you that +you'll find all the cobwebs you need to help haul you out of your +dungeon." + +"Oh, Miss Allison!" exclaimed Lloyd, looking horrified at the thought. +"_I_ couldn't sing in the choir and join the King's Daughtahs and all +that. They're all at least twice as old as I am, and some of them even +moah." + +"Yes, you can," insisted Miss Allison. "We need your voice in the choir, +and you need the new interest these things would bring into your life. +So don't say no until after you've given my game a trial. The King's +Daughters' Circle is to meet here this afternoon, and I want you to help +me. I'm going to serve hot chocolate and wafers, and, as long as it is +such a cold, blowy day, I believe I'll add some nut sandwiches to make +the refreshments a little more substantial." + +Privately, Lloyd looked forward to the afternoon as something stupid +which she must face cheerfully for Miss Allison's sake, but she found +her interest aroused with the first arrival. It was Libbie Simms, whom +she had known all her life, in a way, for she could scarcely recall a +Sabbath when she had not looked across at the dull, homely face in the +opposite pew, and pitied her because of her queer nose and +mouse-coloured hair. In the same way she had known Miss McGill, who came +with Libbie. She had simply been one of the congregation who had claimed +her attention for a moment each week, as she minced down the aisle like +an animated rainbow. All she knew about Miss McGill was that she usually +wore so many shades of purple and pink and blue that the clashing +colours set one's teeth on edge. + +But in five minutes Lloyd had forgotten their peculiarities of feature +and dress, and was listening with interest to their account of a call +they had just made in Rollington. They had been to see a poor +washerwoman who had five children to support. The youngest, a baby who +had fits, was very ill, about to die. At the mention of Mrs. Crisp, +Lloyd recalled the forlorn little woman in a wispy crepe veil, who had +enlisted her sympathy to such an extent one Thanksgiving Day that she +and Betty had walked over to Rollington from the Seminary to carry the +greater part of the turkey and fruit that had been sent them in their +box of Thanksgiving goodies. + +There was so little poverty in the Valley that, when any real case of +suffering was discovered, it was taken up with enthusiasm. Lloyd +wondered how she could have thought Libbie Simms so hopelessly ugly, +when she saw her face light up with unselfish interest in her poor +neighbours, and heard her suggestions for their relief. And her +conscience pricked her for making fun of Miss McGill's taste when she +saw how generous she was, and listened to her humourous description of +several things that had happened in the Valley. She was certainly +entertaining, and looked at life through spectacles as rose-coloured as +her necktie. + +The library filled rapidly, and soon a score of needles were at work on +the flannel garments intended for the Crisp family. Lloyd, on a stool +between Katherine Marks and Mrs. Walton, sewed industriously, interested +in the buzz of conversation all around her. + +"This is not malicious gossip," explained Mrs. Walton, in an amused +undertone, smiling with Lloyd and Katherine at a remark which +unintentionally reached their ears. "But in a little community like +this, where little happens, and our interests are bound so closely +together, the smallest details of our neighbours' affairs necessarily +entertain us. It _is_ interesting to know that Mr. Rawles and his +great-aunt are not on speaking terms, and it is positively exciting to +hear that Mr. Wolf and Mrs. Cayne quarrelled over the leaflets used in +Sunday school, and that she told him to his face that he was a hypocrite +and no better than an infidel. It doesn't make us love these good people +any the less to know that they are human like ourselves, and have their +tempers and their spites and feuds. We know their good side, too. Wait +till calamity or sickness touches some one of us, and, see how kind and +sympathetic and tender they all are; every one of them." + +"You'll hear more gossip here in one afternoon than at all the Cranford +tea-tables put together," said Katherine Marks. "But it is a mild sort, +like the kind going on behind us." + +Miss McGill, with her head close to Abby Carter's, was saying: "Oh, but, +my dear, he gets more suspicious and foxy every day of his life. I don't +see how Emma Belle puts up with such a cranky old father." + +"I know," responded Abby. "They say he drives the cook nearly +distracted, going into the kitchen every day and lifting the lids off +all the pots and pans to smell what's cooking for dinner. Then he makes +a fuss if it's not to his liking." + +"Yes," responded Miss McGill, "but that isn't a circumstance to some of +his ways. I ran in there last night a few minutes, to show Emma Belle a +pattern she wanted. He got it into his head we were hiding something +from him, and he actually climbed up on the dining-room table and peeped +through the transom at us. I nearly fainted when I happened to look up +and saw that old monkey-like face, with its dense, gloomy whiskers, +looking down at me. I just screamed and sat jibbering and pointing at +the transom. I couldn't help it. He gave me such a turn, I didn't get +over it all night. Emma Belle was so mortified she didn't know what +to do. It isn't as if he was crazy. He's just mean. That girl has the +patience of a saint." + +[Illustration: "'I NEARLY FAINTED WHEN I HAPPENED TO LOOK UP'"] + +Before the afternoon was over, Lloyd decided that Miss Allison was +right. The Valley held a number of interesting characters, whose +acquaintance was well worth cultivating if she wanted to be entertained. +Part of the time, while the needles were flying, Mrs. MacIntyre read +aloud. Miss Allison called Lloyd into the dining-room when it was time +to serve the refreshments. + +"I'm going to ask a favour of you, dear," she said. "I want you to sing +for us presently. No, wait a minute," she added, hurriedly, as Lloyd +drew back with an exclamation of dismay. "Don't refuse till you have +heard why I ask it. It is on account of Agnes Waring. These meetings are +the great social events of the winter to her. She never gets to go +anywhere else except to church. She's passionately fond of music, and I +always make it a point to prepare a regular programme when the Circle +meets here. But all my musicians failed me this time, and I cannot bear +to disappoint her. I know you are timid about singing before older +people, but this is one of the cobwebs I promised to find for you. It +will be disagreeable, but I have a good reason for thinking that you +will find it the first strand of the rope that is to lift you out of +your dungeon. I'll tell you some things about Agnes after awhile that +will make you glad you have had such an opportunity." + +When Lloyd went back to the library, bearing a pile of snowy napkins, +she stole several glances at Agnes Waring in her journey around the room +to distribute them. All that she knew of her was that she was the +youngest of three sisters who sewed for their living. She was almost as +slim and girlish in figure as Lloyd, although she was nearly twice as +old. She had kept the timid, shrinking manner that she had when a child. +That and her appealing big blue eyes, and almost babyish complexion, +made her seem much younger than she was. It was a sensitive, refined +face that Lloyd kept glancing at, one that would have been remarkably +pretty had it not been so sad. + +Lloyd had sung in public several times, but always in some play, when +the costume which she wore seemed to change her to the character she +personated. That made it easier. It was one of the hardest things she +had ever done, to stand up before these twenty ladies who had been +exchanging criticisms so freely all afternoon, on every subject +mentioned, and sing the songs which Miss Allison chose for her from the +Princess play: The Dove Song, with its high, sweet trills of "Flutter +and fly," and the one beginning: + + "My godmother bids me spin, + That my heart may not be sad. + Sing and spin for my brother's sake, + And the spinning makes me glad." + +It was with a very red face that she slipped into her seat after it was +over, surprised and pleased by the applause she received. They were all +so cordial in their appreciation, that presently she was persuaded into +doing what Miss Allison had suggested. When the circle broke up she had +consented to join the choir, and to meet with them the next Friday +night, when they went to the Mallards' to practise. + +The carriage came for her soon after the last guest departed, and Miss +Allison stepped in beside her to take the finished garments over to +Rollington. It was the quaintest of little villages, settled entirely by +Irish families. Only one lone street straggled over the hill, but it was +a long one with little whitewashed cabins and cottages thickly set along +each side. Mrs. Crisp's was the first one on the street, after they left +the Lloydsboro pike. It was clean, but not half so large or comfortable +as the negro servants' quarters at Locust. + +It was so late that Miss Allison did not go in, only stopped at the door +to leave the bundle and inquire about the baby, promising to come again +next morning. Lloyd had a glimpse of the two children next in age to the +baby. They were playing on the floor with a doll made of a corn-cob +wrapped in a towel, and a box of empty spools. + +"Just think!" she exclaimed as she climbed into the carriage again. "A +cawn-cob doll! And the attic at home is full of toys that I don't care +for! I'm going to pick out a basketful to-morrow and bring them down to +these children. And did you see that poah little Minnie Crisp? Only +eight yeahs old, and doing the work of a grown woman. She was getting +suppah while her mothah tended to the sick baby. Oh, I wondah," she +cried, her face lighting up with the thought. "I wondah if Mrs. Crisp +would mind if I'd come down to-morrow and cook dinnah for them. That's +what I've been crazy to do,--to cook. I could bring eggs and sugah and +all the materials, and make lemon pie and oystah soup and potato +croquettes. I know how to make lots of things. Oh, do you suppose she +would be offended?" + +"Not in the least," responded Miss Allison, heartily. "She is a very +sensible little woman who is nearly worn out in her struggle with +poverty and sickness. She has been too proud and brave to accept help +before, when she was able to stagger along under her own burden, but now +she will be very grateful. And the children will look upon you as a +wonderful mixture of Santa Claus, fairy godmother, and Aladdin's lamp." + +Then she turned to peer into the happy face beside her. + +"Here are your cobwebs!" she exclaimed, gaily. "A whole skyful, and you +can sweep away to your heart's content. You need have no more humdrum +days unless you choose." + +Lloyd looked back at the cottage where four towheads at the window +watched the departing carriage. Then with a smile she leaned out and +waved her hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS + + +LLOYD hurried down the road to the post-office, her cheeks almost as red +as her coat from her brisk walk in the wintry air. It was too cold to +saunter, or she would have made the errand last as long as possible. +There would be nothing to do after she had called for the mail. The day +before she had had her visit to Mrs. Crisp to fill the morning. It +brought a pleasant thrill now to think of the little woman's gratitude +and the children's pleasure in the dinner she had cooked in the clean +bare kitchen. She wished she could go every day and repeat the +performance, but her family would not allow it. They said it was just as +injurious for her to waste her strength in charity as it was in study, +and she must be more temperate in her enthusiasms. + +She wished that Miss Mattie would invite her into the tiny office behind +the rows of pigeonholes and letter-boxes, and let her sit by the window +awhile. Just watching people pass would be some amusement, more than she +could find at home. + +She was passing the Bisbee place as she made the wish. It was a white +frame house standing near the road, and commanding a view of both +station and store, as well as the approach to the post-office. To her +surprise, some one tapped on the pane of an up-stairs window. Then the +sash flew up, and Mrs. Bisbee called in her thin, fluttering voice: +"Lloyd! Lloyd Sherman! If you're going to the post-office, I wish you'd +ask if there is anything for me. I don't dare set foot out-of-doors this +cold weather." + +Then, fearful of draughts, she banged the window down without waiting +for a reply. Lloyd smiled and nodded, glad of an opportunity to be of +service. As she hurried on, she remembered that Miss Allison had spoken +of this gentle little old lady, with her fluttering voice and placid +smile, as one of the most interesting and "Cranfordy" characters in the +Valley, and that, while she never went out in the winter, and seldom in +the summer, except to church, she kept such a sharp eye on the +neighbourhood happenings from the watch-tower of her window that Mrs. +Walton laughingly called it the "Window in Thrums." + +It was with the feeling that she was stepping into a story that Lloyd +opened the gate five minutes later and started up the path. A vigorous +tapping on the window above, and a beckoning hand motioned her to come +up-stairs. Hesitating an instant on the porch, she opened the front door +and stepped into the hall. + +"Do come up!" called the old lady, plaintively, from the head of the +stairs. "I've been wishing so hard for company that I believe my wishing +must have drawn you. Now that daughter is married and gone, I get so +lonesome, with Mr. Bisbee in town all day, that I often find myself +talking to myself just for the sake of sociability. Not a soul has been +in for the last two days, and usually I have callers from morning till +night. This is such a good dropping-in place, you know. So central that +I see and hear everything." + +She ushered Lloyd into a room, gay with big-flowered chintz curtains, +and quaint with old-fashioned carved furniture. There was a high +four-poster bed in one corner, with a chintz valance around it, and pink +silk quilled into the tester. The only modern thing in the room was a +tiled grate, piled full of blazing coals. It threw out such a +summer-like heat that Lloyd almost gasped. She was glad to accept Mrs. +Bisbee's invitation to take off her coat and gloves. She moved her chair +back as far as possible into the bay-window. + +"I reckon you feel it's pretty warm in here," said Mrs. Bisbee. "I have +to keep it that way so that I can sit over here against the window +without catching cold. I couldn't afford to miss all that's going on in +the street. It's my only amusement." + +She drew her work-basket toward her and picked up the quilt pieces she +had laid down when she went to welcome Lloyd. She was making a silk +quilt of the tea-chest pattern, and the basket was full of bright silk +scraps and pieces of ribbon. + +"It's like a panorama, I tell Mr. Bisbee. Oh, by the way, I've been +aching to find out. Where did you all go that day just before Christmas +when you started off, a whole party of you, traipsing down the road with +a new saucepan and baskets and things? I heard you had a picnic in the +snow. Is that so?" + +Lloyd really gasped this time, but not from the heat. She was so +surprised that Mrs. Bisbee should have taken such an interest in her +affairs, or in any of the unimportant doings of their set, as to +remember them longer than the passing moment. Mrs. Bisbee was +associated in Lloyd's mind with solemn churchly things, like the +Gothic-backed pulpit chairs or the sombre brown pews. Lloyd had never +seen her before, except when she was singing hymns, or sitting with +meekly folded hands through sermon-time. It was almost as surprising to +find that she was inquisitive and interested in human happenings as it +would have been to discover that the ivy-covered belfry kept an eye on +her. + +In the midst of her description of the picnic, Mrs. Bisbee leaned +forward and peered eagerly out of the window over her spectacles. + +"I don't want to interrupt you," she said; "I just wanted to make sure +that that was Caleb Coburn out again. He has been house-bound with +rheumatism ever since Thanksgiving." + +Lloyd looked out in time to see a tall, stoop-shouldered man with a +bushy beard go slowly across the road. He was buttoned up in a heavy +overcoat, and limped along with the aid of two canes. + +"He's the queerest old fellow," commented Mrs. Bisbee, looking after +him, with a gentle shake of the head. "Lately he has taken to knitting, +to pass the time." + +"To knitting!" echoed Lloyd, in amazement. "That big man?" + +"Yes. He calls it hooking. He has a needle made out of a ham bone. Fancy +now! Daughter said it was the funniest thing in life to see him propped +up in bed with a striped skull-cap on, hooking his wife a shawl." + +Lloyd laughed, but she followed the stooped figure with a glance of +sympathy. She knew from experience how hard it was to spend the time in +enforced idleness. Old Mr. Coburn had always been a familiar figure to +her. She recognized him on the road as she did the trees and the houses +which she passed daily, but he had never aroused her interest any more +than they. Now the knowledge that he was lonely like herself, so lonely +that, big, bearded man as he was, he had learned to knit in order to +occupy the dull days, seemed to put them on a common footing. + +Lloyd took a long step forward out of her childhood that morning when +she wakened to the fact that some things are as hard to bear at fifty as +at fifteen. With a dawning interest she watched the people of the Valley +go by, one by one,--people whom she had passed heretofore as she had +passed the fence-posts on the road. It could never be so again, for +henceforth she would see them in a new light,--the light of +understanding and sympathy shed on them by Mrs. Bisbee's choice bits of +gossip or scraps of personal history. + +She had watched the procession for nearly an hour, when Agnes Waring +suddenly turned the corner, and went into the store with a bundle in her +arms. Mrs. Bisbee, pausing in the act of threading a needle, looked out +again over her spectacles. + +"There goes a girl I'm certainly sorry for. She is a born lady, and +comes of as good a family as anybody in the Valley, but she has to work +harder than any darkey in Lloydsboro. She's up at four o'clock these +winter mornings, milks the cow, chops wood, gets breakfast, and maybe +walks two or three miles with a big bundle like that, taking home +sewing, or going out to fit a dress for somebody." + +Miss Allison had already awakened Lloyd's interest in Agnes, and she +leaned forward to watch her, while Mrs. Bisbee went on. + +"She's never had any of the pleasures that most girls have. To my +certain knowledge she's never had a beau or been to a big party or +travelled farther than Louisville. I suppose you could count on the +fingers of one hand the times she has been on a train. She's wild about +music, but she's never had any advantages. By the way, she was in here +the day after the King's Daughters met at Allison MacIntyre's, to fit a +wrapper on me. Knowing how few outings she has, I encouraged her to talk +it all over, as I knew she was glad to do. I declare she made as much of +it as if it had been the governor's ball. She told me how much she +enjoyed your singing. She said that, if there was any one person in the +world whom she envied more than another, it was Lloyd Sherman. Not for +your looks or the handsome things you have (for the Valley is full of +pretty girls, and many of them are wealthy), but for the advantages you +have had in the way of music and travel. + +"They have an old piano, about all that was saved out of the wreck when +their father lost his fortune. She'd give her eyes to be able to play on +it. But she wasn't much more than a baby when her father died, so she +missed the advantages the older girls had. You see she is twenty years +younger than Marietta, and nearly twenty-five years younger than Sarah. +Poor Agnes! I suppose she will never know anything but work and poverty. +It's too bad,--such a sweet, refined girl, and as proud as she is +poor." + +Lloyd echoed Mrs. Bisbee's sympathetic sigh, as she looked after the +hurrying figure in its worn jacket and shabby shoes. She was just coming +out of the store again. + +"I feel so sorry for her sistahs, too," she ventured. "I nevah knew till +the othah day that Miss Marietta has been an invalid so long. Miss +Allison told me she had been in bed for fifteen yeahs! It's awful! Why, +that is as long as my whole lifetime has been." + +"She was to have been married," began Mrs. Bisbee, pouring out the +romance at which Miss Allison had only hinted. "She was engaged to +Murray Cathright, one of the finest young lawyers I ever knew, steady as +a meeting-house. He had the respect and confidence of everybody. Well, +Marietta had her trousseau all ready, and a beautiful one it was. Her +father had sent to Paris for the wedding-gown, and all her linen was +hand-embroidered by the nuns in some French convent. + +"They certainly had all that heart could wish in those days. It is a +pity that Agnes was too young to enjoy her share of luxuries. Well, just +a week before the time set for the wedding, Murray Cathright +mysteriously disappeared. He had gone away on a short business trip. His +family traced him to a hotel in Pittsburg, and then lost all clue, +except that just before leaving the hotel he had asked the clerk for the +time-tables of an Eastern railroad. There was a terrible wreck on that +road that same night. The entire train went through a bridge into the +river, and they thought he must have been swept away with the +unidentified dead. But it was months before Marietta would believe it. + +"She acted as if her mind were a little touched all that summer. Used to +dress up every evening in the clothes he had liked best, with a flower +in her hair, and go down to the honeysuckle arbour to wait for him. +She'd sit there and wait and wait all alone, until her father'd go down +and lead her in. The next day she'd go through the same performance. It +ended in a spell of brain fever. She came out of that with her mind all +right, but she never was strong again. After all the rest of their +troubles came, she had a stroke of paralysis. It's left her so she can't +walk. But she can lie there and make buttonholes and pull basting +threads. She's a perfect marvel, she's so patient and cheerful. People +like to go there just on that account. You'd never know she had a +trouble to hear her talk. But I know what she's suffered, and I know +that she still keeps the wedding-gown. It's laid away in rose leaves +for her to be buried in." + +Mrs. Bisbee paused and spread out the finished quilt-piece on her knee, +patting it approvingly before choosing the scraps for another block. +Then she wiped her spectacles. "Sometimes I don't know which I'm the +sorriest for, Marietta, who had such a good man for a lover as Murray +Cathright was, and lost him, or Agnes, who's never had anything." + +"Why don't people invite her out and give her a good time?" asked Lloyd. +"Her being a seamstress oughtn't to make any difference to old family +friends, when she's such a lady." + +"It doesn't," answered Mrs. Bisbee. "People used to be nice to those +girls, and they were always invited everywhere at first. But after +awhile there was Marietta always in bed, and Agnes a mere baby, and poor +Miss Sarah with the burden of their support. She had only her needle to +keep the wolf from the door. She couldn't accept invitations then. There +was no time. Gradually people stopped asking her. She dropped out of the +social life of the Valley so completely that Agnes grew up without any +knowledge of it. All she has known has been hard work. Miss Allison has +tried to draw her into things, but the older sisters are proud, as I +said. Agnes cannot dress suitably, and they can make no return of +hospitalities, so she has never ventured into anything more than the +King's Daughters' Circle." + +"There's Alec with the carriage!" exclaimed Lloyd. "He's stopping at the +stoah. If I hurry, I can ride back home. I've stayed so long that mothah +will wondah what has become of me." + +"Don't go!" begged Mrs. Bisbee, as Lloyd began drawing on her coat. "I +don't know when I've enjoyed a morning so much. Since daughter's married +and gone I miss her young friends so much. She used to have the house +full of them from morning till night. Now I fairly pine for the sight of +a fresh young face sometimes. You've livened me up more than you can +know. _Do_ come again!" + +Lloyd went away highly pleased by her cordial reception. She had enjoyed +being talked to as if she were grown, and these glimpses into the lives +of her neighbours were more interesting than any her books could give +her. When she passed the lane leading up to the house where the three +sisters lived, she wished that she could turn over a leaf and read more +about them. She wondered if Miss Marietta ever took out the beautiful +wedding-dress that was to be her shroud. She mused over the newly +discovered romance all the way home. + +If it had not been for that morning's call, and the interest it aroused +in her neighbours, several things might not have happened, which +afterward followed each other like links in a chain. Probably Miss Sarah +would have walked up to Locust just the same, to take home a wrapper she +had finished, and not finding Mrs. Sherman at home would have stepped +inside the door a moment to warm by the dining-room fire; and Lloyd, +with the courtesy that never failed her, would have been as graciously +polite as her mother could have been. But if it had not been for the +interest in her that Mrs. Bisbee's story gave, several other happenings +might not have followed. + +As Lloyd looked at the gray-haired woman on whom toil and poverty and +care had left their marks, and remembered there had been a time when +Miss Sarah had been as tenderly cared for as herself, a sudden pity +surged up into her heart. She longed to lighten her load in some way, +and to give back to her for a moment at least the comforts she had lost. +With a quick gesture she motioned her away from the dining-room door. +"No, come in heah!" she exclaimed, leading the way into the +drawing-room, and pushing a big armchair toward the fire. + +Blue and cold from her long walk against the wind, Miss Sarah sank down +among the soft cushions and leaned back luxuriously. + +"It's so ti'ahsome walking against the wind," exclaimed the Little +Colonel. "When I came in awhile ago, I was puffing and blowing. I'm +going to make you a cup of hot tea. That's what mothah always takes. No! +It won't be any _trouble_," she exclaimed, as Miss Sarah protested. "It +will be the biggest kind of a pleasuah. It will give me a chance to use +mothah's little tea-ball. I deahly love to wiggle it around in the cup +and see the watah po'ah out of all the little holes. I've been wishing +somebody would come, or that I had something to do. Now you have granted +both wishes. I can have a regulah little tea-pah'ty. Excuse me just a +minute, please." + +Left to herself, Miss Sarah sat looking around at the handsome +furnishings: the thick Persian rugs, the old portraits, the tall, +burnished harp in the corner, the bowl of hothouse violets on the table +at her elbow, until Lloyd returned, bearing a toasting fork and a plate +of thinly sliced bread. Miss Sarah turned toward her with wistful eyes. + +"I have always loved this old room," she said. "This is the first time I +have been in it for twenty years. It is an old friend. I have spent many +happy hours here in your grandmother's day. She was always entertaining +the young people of the Valley. Sometimes that time seems so far away +that I wonder if it was not all a dream. It was a very beautiful dream, +at any rate. I often wish Agnes could have had a share in it. She has +missed so much in not having _her_ friendship." + +She nodded toward the portrait over the mantel. "Amanthis Lloyd was my +ideal woman when I was a young girl like yourself," she added, softly, +with her eyes on the beautiful features above her. + +"I have missed so much, too," said Lloyd, following Miss Sarah's gaze. +"And yet it seems to me I must have known her. The portrait has always +seemed alive to me. I used to talk to it sometimes when I was a little +thing, and I nevah could beah to look at it when I had been naughty. I +wish you would tell me about her." + +She knelt on the hearth-rug as she spoke, and held the long +toasting-fork toward the fire. "Mothah and grandfathah often talk about +her, but they don't tell the same things that one outside of the family +might." + +By the time the toast was delicately browned and buttered, Mom Beck came +in with the tea-tray, and placed it on the table beside the bowl of +violets. + +"Good!" exclaimed Lloyd, seating herself on the other side of the table +as the old woman left the room. "I didn't think to tell her to bring +cold turkey and strawberry preserves and fruit cake, but she remembered +that I didn't eat much lunch, and she is always trying to tempt my +appetite. She's the best old soul that evah was. Oh, Miss Sarah, I'm so +glad you came. I haven't had a pah'ty like this for ages. Heah! I'll let +you wiggle the tea-ball in yoah own cup, so that you can make it as +strong as you like, because you're company." + +The dimples deepened playfully in her cheeks as she passed the tea-ball +across the table. Miss Sarah smiled, although her eyes felt misty. "You +dear child!" she exclaimed. "That was Amanthis Lloyd all over again. She +never reached out and gave pleasure to other people as if she were +bestowing a favour. She always made it seem as if it were only her own +pleasure which you were enhancing by sharing. You don't know what an +interest I have taken in you for her sake, as I've watched you growing +up here in the Valley. I used to hear remarks about your temper and your +imperious ways, and day after day, as I've watched you ride past the +house beside your grandfather, sitting up in the same straight, haughty +way, I've thought she's well named. She's the Colonel over again. + +"But to-day, in this old room, you are startlingly like her in some way, +I can hardly tell what." She glanced up again at the portrait. "Your +eyes look at me in the same understanding sort of way. They almost +unseal the silence of twenty years. I have never said this to any one +else. But I used to look at her sometimes and think that George Eliot +must have meant her when she wrote in her 'Choir Invisible' of one who +could 'be to other souls the cup of strength in some great agony.' She +was that to me. People always used to go to her with their troubles." + +Lloyd bent over her cup, her face flushing. "Then I'm so glad you think +I'm even a little bit like her," she said, softly. "Nobody evah told me +that befoah. I've always wanted to be." + +The thought gave her a glow of pleasure all through the meal. Long after +Miss Sarah went away, warmed and quickened in heart as well as body, it +lingered with her. Afterward it prompted her to pause before the +portrait with a questioning glance into the clear eyes above her. + +"'The cup of strength to other souls in some great agony,'" she +repeated. "And you were that! Oh, I would love to be, too, if I didn't +have to suffer too much first to learn how to sympathize and comfort. +Maybe that is what I am to learn from this wintah's disappointment,--a +way to help othah people beah their disappointments. If I could do +that," she whispered, looking wistfully at the face above her, "if only +one person in the world could remembah me as Miss Sarah remembahs _you_, +you beautiful Grandmothah Amanthis, it would be worth all the misahable +time I have had." + +Then she turned suddenly and went into the library to look for the poem +Miss Sarah had quoted. She had never taken the volume from the shelves +before. She did not care for poetry as Betty did, and it took her some +time to find the lines she was looking for. But when she found them, she +took the book back to the drawing-room, and read the page again and +again, with a quick bounding of the pulses as she realized that here in +words was the ambition which she had often felt vaguely stirring within +her. Even if she could not reach the highest ones, and be "the cup of +strength," or "make undying music in the world," she could at least +attempt the other aims it held forth. She could at least try "to ease +the burden of the world." She could live "in scorn for miserable aims +that end with self." + +With the book open on her lap, and her hands clasped around her knees, +she sat looking steadily into the fire. She did not know what a long, +long step she was taking out of childhood that afternoon, nor that the +sweet seriousness of her new purpose shone in her upturned face. But +when the old Colonel came into the room and found her sitting there in +the firelight, he paused and then glanced up at the portrait. He was +almost startled by the striking resemblance,--a likeness of expression +that he had never noticed before. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +"CINDERELLA" + + +LLOYD sat on the window-seat of the stair-landing, looking out on the +bare February landscape. She was thinking of the poem she had learned +three weeks before, on the afternoon of Miss Sarah's visit, and it made +her dissatisfied. When one was all a-tingle, as she had been, with a +high purpose to help ease the burden of the world and make undying music +in it, and when one longed to do big, heroic deeds and had ambitions +high enough to reach the stars, it was hard to be content with the +commonplace opportunities that came her way. + +The things she had been doing seemed so paltry. To carry a glass of +jelly to the Crisps, a pot of pink hyacinths to Miss Marietta, to write +a letter for Aunt Cindy, to sit for an hour with Mrs. Bisbee,--these all +were so trivial and pitifully small that she felt a sense of disgust +with herself and her efforts. Yawning and swinging her foot, she sat in +the window-seat several minutes longer, then started aimlessly +up-stairs to her room. In the upper hall the door leading into the attic +stairway stood open, and for no reason save that she had nothing else to +do, she began to mount the steps. She had not been up in the attic since +Christmas week, when she and Rob had gone to finish his Christmas hunt. + +She stood looking around her an instant, then, moved by some +unaccountable impulse, drew out the chest containing the fancy-dress +costumes they had used in so many plays and tableaux. One by one she +shook them out and hung them over Rob's headless hobby-horse, when she +had finished examining them. There were the velvet knickerbockers and +blouse she had worn as Little Boy Blue at the Hallowe'en party at the +Seminary. There was Betty's Dresden Shepherdess dress, and the +godmother's gown, and the long trailing robe of the Princess Winsome. +Even the little tulle dress she had worn as the Queen of Hearts at +Ginger's Valentine party, years ago, came out of the chest as she dived +deeper into its contents, and a star-spangled costume of red, white, and +blue, in which she had fluttered as the Goddess of Liberty one Fourth of +July. + +Slippers and buckles and plumes, fans and gloves and artificial +flowers, were piled up all around her. The hobby-horse was hidden under +a drapery of velvet and lace and silk. Still the chest held a number of +old party gowns that had never been cut down to fit their childish +revels. + +As Lloyd shook them out, thinking of the gay scenes they had been a part +of, the picture of Agnes Waring in her worn jacket and shabby shoes +flashed across her mind, followed by Mrs. Bisbee's remark: "She's never +had any of the pleasures that most girls have. Twenty-five years old, +and to my certain knowledge she's never had a beau or been to a big +party, or travelled farther than Louisville." + +Lloyd pressed her lips together and stood staring at the old finery +around her, thinking hard. A sudden vision had come to her of this +modern Cinderella, and of herself as the fairy godmother. Her eyes shone +and her cheeks grew pink as she stood pondering. If she could only make +an occasion, it would be easy enough to provide the coach and the +costume, even the glass slippers. There lay a pair of white satin ones, +beaded in tiny crystal beads that shone like dewdrops. Suppose she +should play godmother and send Agnes to a ball. Suppose the shy, timid +girl should look so fine in her fine feathers that people would stare +at her and wonder who that beautiful creature was. Suppose a prince +should be there who never would have noticed her but for the magic glass +slippers, and then suppose-- + +Lloyd did not put the rest of the delightful daydream into words, but +just stood thinking about it a long time, until her expression grew very +sweet and tender over a little romance which she dreamed might grow out +of her plan to give Agnes pleasure. + +"If I only had thought of it in time to have had a Valentine pah'ty," +she exclaimed aloud, "that would have been the very thing. But it is too +late now. This is the seventeenth." Then she clasped her hands +delightedly as that date suggested another. "It is five days till +Washington's Birthday. Maybe there will be time to get up a Martha +Washington affair. I'll ask Miss Allison about it this very night at +choir practice. She always has so many new ideas." + +Tumbling the costumes back into the trunk, helter-skelter, she danced +down the stairs, impatient to tell her mother about it. But there were +guests in the library who had been invited to spend the afternoon and +stay to dinner, and Lloyd had no opportunity to speak of the subject +that was uppermost in her thoughts. Immediately after dinner she +excused herself, to slip into her red coat and furs, while Mom Beck +lighted the lantern they were to carry. + +It was only a short distance to the Mallard place, where the choir was +to meet that week, so they did not need Alec's escort this time. The +wind flared their lantern as they went along the quiet country road. +They could see other lights bobbing along toward them, and, as they +neared the gate, Lloyd recognized Mrs. Walton's voice. She and Miss +Allison were coming up with their brother Harry. + +"Is that you, Lloyd?" called Mrs. Walton, as they drew nearer. "I hoped +you would come early, for I have a letter from the girls that I know you +will want to read. They are full of preparations for a grand affair to +be given on the twenty-second,--a Martha Washington reception. As usual, +Kitty wants to depart from the accustomed order of things, and have a +costume in George's honour, instead of Martha's. She says why not, as +long as it is his birthday. She's painted a picture of the dress she has +concocted for the occasion. It is green tarlatan dotted all over with +little silver paper hatchets, and trimmed with garlands and bunches of +artificial cherries." + +"Oh, I'm so glad you brought the pictuah with you to-night!" exclaimed +Lloyd. "And I'm wild to see the lettah. Kitty always writes such funny +ones. And I'm glad I met you out heah befoah the choir practice begins. +I want to ask you about a celebration I have been planning. It's for +Agnes Waring," she explained, catching step with them as they turned in +at the gate. "So of co'se I can't talk about it befoah all the othah +people. + +"I happened to be looking ovah a chest of old costumes to-day, thinking +of all the fun we'd had in them, when I remembahed her and what Mrs. +Bisbee had told me about her nevah having good times like othah girls. +She said she'd nevah had any attention, and nevah been to a big pah'ty. +I thought I'd like to give her one on the twenty-second, because I could +offah her a costume then without hurting her feelings. I was suah that +you and Miss Allison could suggest something moah than I had thought of. +I don't know exactly how to begin. People will think it strange, and +Agnes might, too, if I gave a pah'ty just for her, when all her friends +whom I would want to invite are so much oldah than I." + +Miss Allison and her sister exchanged glances in the lantern-light, then +Mrs. Walton said, hesitatingly: "Why--I don't know--I'm sorry, Lloyd, +that we didn't know before. We've already made plans which I am afraid +will interfere with yours. The King's Daughters' Circle has arranged to +have an oyster supper at my house on the afternoon and evening of the +twenty-second. Most of the people you would want to ask will be busy +there, for everybody in the Valley lends a hand at these +entertainments." + +They could not see the disappointment that shadowed Lloyd's face as she +listened to this announcement in silence. But Miss Allison knew it was +there, and, as they walked on up the path together, she slipped her arm +around Lloyd's waist. + +"Never mind, dear," she said. "You shall not have your beautiful plan +spoiled by the old oyster supper. We'll combine forces. As Agnes is a +member of the Circle, maybe you can bring about what you want more +naturally and easily this way than in any other. The girls who are to +wait on the table are to powder their hair and wear white kerchiefs and +Martha Washington caps. But we had intended to ask you to take charge of +the fancy-work table, as you have more time for getting up elaborate +costumes. We wanted to ask you to dress in as handsome a costume of that +period as you could find. We remember what lovely brocade gowns and +quilted petticoats and old-fashioned fol-de-rols used to be laid away in +your grandmother's attic that belonged to _her_ grandmother. If you +like, you may give your place to Agnes, and let her be the belle of the +ball." + +Lloyd returned the pressure of the arm about her with an impulsive hug. +"Oh, I _knew_ you'd think of something perfectly lovely," she cried. +"That would be much the best way, for she is so timid and quiet you +couldn't keep her from being a wall-flowah at an ordinary pah'ty. But +this way she will have something to do, and she'll have to talk when +people come to buy things. I wish it were not so long till to-morrow! I +want to tell her about it this minute." + +Usually the choir practice was a bore to Lloyd. She was one of the few +members who sang by note, and Mrs. Walton, the leader, had to take them +through the simple anthems over and over again, until they caught the +tune by ear. Lloyd, knowing that her strong young voice was needed, sang +dutifully through the tiresome repetitions, but sometimes she wanted to +put her fingers in her ears to shut out the sound. To-night she did not +chafe inwardly at the false starts and the monotonous chant, "Oh, be +thankful! Oh, be thankful!" which had to be sung over numberless times +in order that the bass and alto singers might learn to come in at the +proper places with their responsive refrain. She was so absorbed in +thinking of the pleasure in store for Agnes, and imagining what she +would say, that she sang the three measures over and over, unheeding how +long the choir stuck there, or uncaring how many times they seesawed up +and down on the same tiresome notes. + +The excitement began for Agnes next day, when Lloyd delivered Miss +Allison's invitation, and bore her away in the carriage to search +through the attic for a costume. She had never been farther than the +door at Locust. Her journeys thither had been to carry home some +finished garment. But many an hour of patient sewing had been brightened +by her sisters' tales of the place. Both Miss Sarah and Miss Marietta +remembered it affectionately, for the sake of the woman who had welcomed +them there on so many happy occasions in the past. + +Agnes thought she knew just how the interior of Locust would look, +especially the stately old drawing-room, with its portraits and candles, +its harp and the faint odour of rose-leaves; and really there was +something familiar to her in its appearance as she caught a glimpse of +it on her way up-stairs to Lloyd's room. But she had never imagined such +a dainty rose of a room as the pink and white bower Lloyd led her into. +There might have been a throb of resentment that all such beauty and +luxury had been left out of her life, if there had been time for her to +look around and compare it with her own scantily furnished room at home. + +Lloyd hurried over to the bed, eager to display a gorgeous brocade gown +of rose and silver laid out there, which Mrs. Sherman had brought down +from the attic in her absence, and from which Mom Beck had pressed all +the wrinkles. + +"It's as good as new," said Lloyd. "I'm glad that mothah wouldn't let us +cut it up last yeah, when we wanted to make it fit Katie. There are pink +slippahs to match, but I hoped you'd rathah weah these. They make me +think of Cinderella's glass ones, and they're twice as pretty." + +She tossed the crystal beaded slippers over to Agnes for her inspection. +"Try them on," she urged. "I want to see how you'll look." + +In a few moments the shabby shoes and the old brown dress lay in a heap +on the floor like a discarded chrysalis, and Agnes stepped out, a +dazzled butterfly, in her gorgeous robes of rose and silver. + +Lloyd clasped her hands ecstatically. "Oh, Agnes, it's _lovely_! And +it's almost a perfect fit. If Miss Sarah can just take it up a little on +the shouldahs, and change the collah a tiny bit, it will look as if it +were made for you. When yoah hair is powdahed and you have this little +bunch of plumes in it, you'll be simply perfect. It doesn't mattah if +the slippahs do pinch a little. They look so pretty you can stand a +little thing like that for one evening." + +Lloyd walked around and around her, till she had admired her to her +heart's content, and then led her away to show to Mrs. Sherman. "You +ought to carry yoah head that way all the time," she said. "It's +becoming to you to 'walk proud,' as old Mammy Easter used to say." + +It was with the air of a duchess that Agnes sailed into the +drawing-room, and with the feeling that at last she had come into her +own. On every side the dim old mirrors flashed back the reflection of +the slender figure with its head proudly high. She looked at it +curiously, scarcely recognizing the delicate, high-bred features for her +own. There was colour in her face for one thing. The dull browns and +grays, which she wore for economy's sake, were apt to make her look +sallow. But this wonderful rose-pink lent a glow to her cheeks, and +pleasure and expectancy brightened her eyes, and left her a-tingle with +these new sensations. + +"You'll be the feature of the occasion," Mrs. Sherman assured her. "Come +up to lunch with us Thursday. We'll powder your hair and help you dress, +and take you down in the carriage with us. Tell your sisters that we'll +see that you get home safely that night." + +So to the other pleasures of the twenty-second was added the +undreamed-of delight of being invited out to lunch, and forgetting for +awhile that there were such tiresome things in the world as +sewing-machines and endless ruffling for other people. Although she wore +her old brown dress, darned at the elbows, and, with her usual timidity, +scarcely ventured a remark at the table unless directly questioned, she +was all aglow with the new experience. + +Afterward it was easy to talk and laugh with Lloyd, as they went through +the conservatory cutting the flowers which were to decorate the tables +at The Beeches. Hyacinths and lilies-of-the-valley made a spring-time of +their own under the sheltering skylight. Agnes bent over them with a cry +of delight. "They make you forget the calendar, don't they?" she said, +looking shyly up at Lloyd. She wanted to add, "And so do you. You make +me forget that I am ten years older than you. It seems only pussy-willow +time by my feelings to-day." But their friendship was too new as yet for +such personal speeches. + +As they went back to the drawing-room with a basket piled full of +hothouse blooms, Mrs. Sherman called to Lloyd that she needed her +up-stairs a few moments. Hastily excusing herself, she left Agnes with a +new magazine for her entertainment. When she came down later, the +magazine was lying uncut on the table, and Agnes, seated in front of the +piano, was fingering the keys with light touches which made no sound, +they pressed the ivory so gently. She started guiltily as Lloyd came in. + +"I couldn't help it!" she stammered. "It drew me over here like a +magnet. It has been the dream of my life to know how to play, but it is +all such a mystery. I've puzzled over the music in the hymn-book many a +time, the little notes flying up and down like birds through a fence, +and then watched Miss Allison's fingers on the organ keys, going up and +down the same way." + +"It is just as easy as reading the alphabet," said Lloyd. "I'll show +you. Wait till I find my old music primer. It is somewhere in this +cabinet." + +Hastily turning over the exercise books and worn sheets of music that +filled one of the lower shelves, she dragged out an old dog-eared +instruction book, which she propped up on the rack in front of Agnes. + +"Heah," she said, pointing to a note. "When one of those little birds, +as you call them, perches on this place on the fence, then you're to +strike the A key on the piano. If it lights on the line just above it, +then you strike the next key, B. See?" She ran her fingers lightly up +the octavo and began again with A. Agnes leaned hungrily over the page, +reading the printed directions below each simple measure, where the +fingering was plainly marked. + +"Oh, I could learn to do it by studying this!" she cried, her face all +alight. "I am sure I could. I don't mean that I could ever learn to play +as you do, or Miss Allison, but I could learn simple things and the +accompaniments to old songs that Marietta loves. It would be almost as +great a joy to her and sister Sarah as it would to me, for my learning +to play has always been one of our favourite air-castles. If you could +loan me this instruction book for awhile--" She hesitated. + +"Of co'se!" cried Lloyd, thrilled by the eagerness of the eyes which met +hers. "I'll give you a lesson right now, if you like. I'll teach you a +set of chords you can use for an accompaniment. They are so easy you can +learn them befoah you go home, and you can surprise Miss Marietta by +singing and playing for her. They fit evah so many of the ballads." + +Turning the leaves of the instructor, she found the simple chords of +"Annie Laurie," and wrote beside each note the letters that would enable +Agnes to find them on the keyboard. "This isn't the right way to begin," +she said, with a laugh, "but we'll take this short cut just to surprise +Miss Marietta. You can come back aftahward and learn about time and all +the othah things that ought to come first. I'll give you a lesson every +week for awhile, if you like." + +The eyes that met hers now were brimming with happy tears. + +"If I like," Agnes repeated, with a tremulous catch of the voice. "As if +I wouldn't jump at the chance to have the key to paradise put into my +hands. It's the happiest thing that ever happened to me." + +With her heart as well as her whole attention given to the effort, it +was not long before Agnes found her fingers falling naturally into +place, and she played the chords over and over, humming the tune softly, +with a pleasure that was pathetic to Lloyd. + +"Oh, I could keep on all day and all night!" exclaimed Agnes, when Mrs. +Sherman called to them that it was time to dress. "I've never been so +happy in all my life! You don't know what it means to me!" she cried, +turning a radiant face to Lloyd's. "You've lifted me clear off the +earth. I wish I could run home before the reception begins and play this +for Marietta. I want to see her face when I open the old piano." + +Lloyd followed her up the stairs, wondering at the girl's uplifted mood. +She did not see how such a trifle could bring about such a +transformation in any one's spirits, not realizing that this bit of +knowledge which Agnes had picked up was to her a veritable key which +would open the door she had longed for years to enter. + +When Agnes swept into the house at The Beeches, she was in such high +spirits that people looked twice to be sure that they knew the radiant +girl presiding so gaily over the fancy-work table. + +"She is actually talking," Miss McGill whispered to Libbie Simms. +"Talking and laughing and making jokes like other girls. Somebody has +surely worked a hoodoo charm on her." + +But happiness was the only hoodoo, and, under its expanding influence, +she fairly bloomed that night. Lloyd, hovering near her, jubilant over +the success of her popular Cinderella, beamed and dimpled with pleasure, +and stored away the many compliments she overheard, to repeat to Agnes +next day. Once she darted into the butler's pantry, where Miss Allison +was slicing cake, to announce, in an excited whisper: "Agnes has +actually had three invitations to suppah. She's gone in now with Mistah +John Bond. I must run back and take charge of the sales, but I just had +to tell you. Do peep in and see her there at the cawnah table, eating +ice-cream and talking away as if she'd been used to such attentions all +her life. Isn't it great? Now people can't shake their heads and say +poah girl, she's nevah had any attentions like othah girls. Nobody takes +any interest in her." + +Miss Allison turned to give Lloyd's cheek a playful pinch. "You dear +little fairy godmother! All Cranford will take an interest in her, now +that she has blossomed out so unexpectedly. Even old Mr. Wade, who never +says nice things about any one, asked me who our distinguished-looking +guest was, and, when I told him Agnes Waring, he fairly gasped and +dropped his eye-glasses. Then he gave his usual contemptuous sniff that +always makes me want to shake him, and walked away, saying: 'Who'd have +thought it! Well, well, fine feathers certainly do make fine birds!'" + +Lloyd hurried back to her place behind the fancy-work table. Nearly +every one was out in the room where supper was being served, and except +for an occasional question from some one who strolled by to ask the +price of a laundry-bag or a hemstitched centrepiece, no one disturbed +her. To the music of mandolin, guitar, and piano, played softly behind +the palms in one corner, she went on with her pleasing day-dreams for +Agnes. She would make other opportunities for her next week, take her in +town to a concert or a matinee. She wished she could offer her clothes, +but she dared not take that step. There would be the Waring pride to +reckon with if she did. + +In the midst of this reverie, Agnes came up all a-flutter, saying, +shyly: "Lloyd, would you mind if I didn't go back in the carriage with +you? Your mother wouldn't think it strange, would she? It was because I +had no other way to get home that she invited me. But Mr. Bond has +asked to take me home behind his new team. He wants me to see what fine +travellers his horses are." + +"Of co'se mothah wouldn't think it strange!" exclaimed Lloyd. +"Especially if it is Mistah Bond who wants to take you. She and Papa +Jack are so fond of him." + +"He wants me to join the choir," Agnes went on, in a lower tone, as a +group of people crowded around the table. "Mrs. Walton and Mrs. Mallard +and Miss Flora Marks have asked me also. I've pinched myself black and +blue this evening, trying to make sure that I am awake. Oh, Lloyd, +you'll never, never know how I have enjoyed it all." + +There was no time for further conversation then. People were beginning +to leave, and were crowding around the table to claim the articles they +had purchased earlier in the evening. But it was not necessary for Agnes +to repeat that she was radiantly happy. It showed in every word and +laugh and gesture. Lloyd went home that night nearer to the Castle of +Content than she had been for many weeks. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A HARD-EARNED PEARL + + +THE reaction came next day, however, when a budget of letters from the +girls turned her thoughts back to all that she was missing. Betty was +rooming with Juliet Lynn now, and they were writing a play together in +spare minutes. Allison had had honourable mention three times in the +Studio Bulletin, and a number of her sketches had been chosen for +display on the studio walls. Kitty had surprised them all by the +interest she had suddenly taken in French, and had translated a poem so +cleverly that Monsieur Blanc had sent it home for publication in a Paris +paper. The work was so interesting now, Betty wrote, and the time so +full, Warwick Hall grew daily more inspiring and more dear. + +The old ache came back to Lloyd as she read. She felt that she had +fallen hopelessly behind the others. She was so utterly left out of all +their successes. The little efforts she had made to fill her days with +things worth while suddenly shrivelled into nothing, and she sat with +the letters in her lap, staring moodily into vacancy. + +"What's the use?" she sobbed. "All that I can do heah doesn't amount to +a row of pins. I am out of it." + +Thinking of Warwick Hall and the girls and all that she was missing, she +sat pitying herself until the tears began to come. She let them trickle +slowly down her face without attempting to wipe them away or fight them +back. Nobody was there to see, and she could be as miserable as she +chose. In the midst of her gloomy reverie she heard the door-bell ring. + +Dabbing her handkerchief over her eyes, she started across the room to +make her escape up-stairs before Mom Beck could open the front door. But +she was too late. As she pushed aside the portieres, she heard Agnes +Waring ask if she were at home, and Mom Beck immediately ushered her in. + +"I came to bring the costume back," she began, hurriedly. "No, I must +not sit down, thank you. I am on my way to Mrs. Moore's to fit a lining. +But I just had to stop by and tell you what a lovely time I had +yesterday and last night. You should have seen Marietta's face this +morning when I opened the piano and played and sang for her. The tears +just rolled down her face, but it was because we were so happy. + +"She said she had been afraid that I would grow morose and bitter +because I had so few pleasures, and she is so glad about the music +lessons and my joining the choir. Mr. Bond is going to come by for me +next Friday night. Sister Sarah said she had no idea that colours could +make such a difference in one till she saw me in that costume. She has +been looking over the silk quilt pieces your mother sent Marietta, and +she recognized two pieces that are parts of dresses your grandmother +used to wear. One is a deep rich red,--a regular garnet colour, and the +other is sapphire blue. She said that if they had belonged to any one +else but Amanthis Lloyd she couldn't do it,--but instead of cutting them +up into quilt pieces she--she is going to make them into shirt-waists +for me." + +The colour deepened in Agnes's face as she made the confession, with an +unconscious lifting of the head that made Lloyd remember Mrs. Bisbee's +remark about the Waring pride. She hastened to say something to cover +the awkward pause that followed. + +"Grandmothah Amanthis and Miss Sarah were such good friends, even if +there was so much difference in their ages. I know she would be glad for +you to use the silk that way. Looking pretty in it and having good times +in it seems a bettah way to use it as a remembrance of her than putting +it into a quilt, doesn't it?" + +Then, to change the subject, which disconcerted her more than it did +Agnes, she held up the package of letters. + +"I heard from the girls to-day, and they are all getting on so +beautifully, and making such good records, that it neahly breaks my +hah't to think I can't be with them." She laughed nervously. "I suppose +you wondahed what made my eyes so red, when you came in. I've been +regularly howling. I couldn't help it. I sat heah thinking about deah +old Warwick Hall, and all that I had to give up, till I was so misahable +I _had_ to cry." + +Agnes, turning toward the window so that her face could not be seen, +looked out at the bare branches of the locusts. + +"I wonder," she began, slowly, "if it would make any difference to +you--if it would make your disappointment any easier to bear--to know +how much your being in the Valley this winter has meant to me. Fifty +years from now one term more or less in your studies won't amount to +much. It will not count much then that you've solved a few more problems +in algebra, or learned a little more French, or fallen behind the others +in a few credit marks, but it will make all the difference in the world +to me that you were here to open a door for me. + +"If you've done nothing more than give me that one music lesson, it has +showed me the possibility of all that I may accomplish, and started me +on the road to my heart's desire. If you've done no more than prove to +me that I can conquer my timidity and be like other girls, and accept +the little pleasures just at hand for the taking, don't you see that you +have opened up a way for me that I never could have found alone? And to +do that for any one, why, it's like teaching him a song that he will +teach to some one else, and that one will go on repeating, and the next +and the next, until you've started something that never stops. If I were +making up the accounts in the Hereafter, I am very sure I'd count it +more to your credit,--the unselfish way you are helping people than all +the lessons you could learn in a term at school. I am not saying half +what I feel. I couldn't. It is too deep down. But, oh, I do want you to +know that your disappointment has not all been in vain." + +The voice that uttered the last sentence was tremulous with feeling. +Tears were very near the surface now. Before Lloyd could think of any +reply to her impetuous speech, she had started toward the door. + +"Mrs. Moore will wonder what is keeping me," she said, as she turned the +knob. "Good-bye!" + +With a lighter heart than Lloyd could have believed possible half an +hour earlier, she went up to her room. Dropping the damp little ball of +a handkerchief into her laundry-bag, she opened a drawer for a fresh +one. By mistake she drew out, not her handkerchief-box, but one that in +some previous haste had been pushed into its place,--the sandalwood box +containing the pearl beads. She took up the uncompleted rosary and began +slipping the beads back and forth over the string,--the string that +would have been two-thirds full by this time if she could have gone on +with school work. Suddenly she looked at it with widening eyes. + +"I wondah," she said aloud, "I wondah if I couldn't slip one moah on for +yestahday. She said herself that it ought to count for moah than school +work. In a way she said it was like making 'undying music in the +world.' And what was it old Bishop Chartley said at the carol service?" +She stood with a little pucker on her forehead, trying to recall his +words about keeping the White Feast. + +"So may we offer our pearls, days unstained by selfishness." That was +it. She could go on with her rosary then, and, instead of perfect +lessons at school, she could fill the string in token of days spent +unselfishly at home. Days not stained by regrets and tears and idle +repining for what could not be helped. + +With a deep sigh of satisfaction, she slipped one more pearl bead down +the string, and laid it back in the box. + +"That is for yestahday. I can't count to-day, for I sat for an houah +thinking about my troubles and pitying myself and making myself just as +misahable as possible." + +So the little string began to grow again, and, though she was +half-ashamed of the childish pleasure it gave her, it did help when she +could see every night a visible token that she had tried to live that +'day through unselfishly and well,--that she had kept tryst with the +duty of cheerfulness which we all owe the world. + +[Illustration: "SHE RODE OVER TO ROLLINGTON"] + +But not all her pearls were earned as easily as the one that marked her +efforts for Agnes. One day, when she rode over to Rollington with some +illustrated magazines for the Crisp children, she was met by an +announcement from Minnie, the oldest one, who had charge of the family +in her mother's absence. + +"Mis' Perkins said I was to tell you she didn't see why folks passed her +by when she liked wine jelly and good things just as well as some other +people she knew." + +"Who is Mrs. Perkins?" asked Lloyd, astonished by such a message. + +Minnie nodded her towhead toward a weather-beaten house of two rooms +across the street. "She lives over there. She's sick most of the time. +She saw you cooking in our kitchen that day that you came and got +dinner, and ma sent her over a piece of the pie you made, and she's been +sort of sniffy ever since, because nobody does such things for her." + +Minnie seemed so anxious that Lloyd should include Mrs. Perkins in her +visit that finally Lloyd agreed to be escorted over to see her. Wrapping +the baby in a shawl, and staggering along under its weight, Minnie +ordered the other children to stay where they were, and led the way +across the street. + +The tilt of Lloyd's dainty nose, as she went in, said more plainly than +words, "Poah white trash!" For the house had a stuffy smell of liniment +and bacon grease. An old woman came forward to meet them in her stocking +feet and a dirty woollen wrapper. Her uncombed gray hair straggled +around her ears, and her wrinkled face was unwashed and grimy. Lloyd was +thankful that she did not offer to shake hands. She sat down on the edge +of a chair, breathing the stuffy air as sparingly as possible. + +She had always been taught that old age must be respected, no matter how +unlovely, and as Mrs. Perkins counted her aches and pains in a weak, +whining voice, pity got the better of Lloyd's disgust. She began to feel +sorry for this poor old creature, for whom no one else seemed to have +any sympathy. She complained bitterly of her neighbours and the +church-members who professed to be so charitable, but who left her to +suffer. + +Then she praised the lemon pie that Lloyd had made, until Lloyd gladly +promised to make one for her. "I'll bring it down the last of the week," +she promised, later, when she rose to go, and Mrs. Perkins introduced +the subject again. But that was not what the old woman wanted. + +"Why can't you come down here and make it in my kitchen?" she whined, +"same as you did in Mrs. Crisp's. I get dreadful lonesome setting here, +and it would be so much company to see you whisking around beating eggs +and rolling out the crust. Then I could smell it baking, and eat it hot +out of the oven. It's been many a long day since I've done a thing like +that. It makes my mouth water, just thinking of it." + +"Certainly I could do it heah, if you would like it bettah," promised +Lloyd, rashly. "Is there anything I can do for you befoah I go?" + +"Yes, there is," was the ready answer. "I didn't eat much dinner, and +I'm that weak and faint I'd like if you'd make me a cup of tea." + +"Certainly," answered Lloyd again. "If you'll just tell me where to find +things." + +"I'll be going on," said Minnie Crisp, beginning to wrap the baby up in +its shawl again. "Those kids will be turning the house upside down if +I'm not there to watch them." + +Nobody paid any attention to her departure, for Lloyd, hanging her coat +over the back of a dusty chair, had gone into the kitchen before Minnie +finished making a woollen mummy of the baby. + +"The tea is in a paper bag in the corner cupboard," called Mrs. Perkins. +"Mrs. Moore sent it to me. It's green tea, and I never did care for any +kind but black. I'd pretty nigh as soon have none as green. You might +poach me an egg, too, if you feel like it, and make a bit of toast." + +With a shiver of disgust, Lloyd looked around her. Everything was dirty. +She wished she dared run across the street and prepare the lunch in Mrs. +Crisp's immaculate kitchen. There everything shone from repeated +scrubbings with soft soap and sand. She enjoyed cooking over there. As +she opened the cupboard door a roach ran out, and she jumped aside with +another shiver of disgust. She wanted a pan in which to poach the egg, +but nothing looked clean enough to use. Finally she chose a battered +saucepan, but dropped it when she discovered that a spider had woven a +web inside. + +Spiders had always been an abomination to Lloyd. It made her feel cold +and creepy to touch a cobweb. But the story of Ederyn flashed through +her thoughts, and she grasped the pan, determined to use it or die in +the effort. She had started and she would not turn back. It was plainly +her duty to minister to the wants of this complaining old invalid whom +others neglected, and she would keep tryst at any cost. With many an +inward shudder she went on with her task. As the water in the kettle was +already steaming, it was not long before the lunch was ready, and she +carried it in. + +"It's simply impossible for me to come and make the pie in this dirty +kitchen," thought Lloyd, "and I can't tell her so. Maybe I could ask +Mrs. Crisp to invite her ovah and she could see it done there." + +While she worried over the problem of introducing the subject tactfully, +Mrs. Perkins herself opened the way. She hadn't been well enough to do +any cleaning for several weeks, she said. If she could get a little +stronger, she intended to do two things: to slick up the place a bit, +and to go on a visit to Jane O'Grady's up near the black bridge. She had +been wanting to spend the day with Jane all winter, but didn't have any +way to get there. It was too far to walk. Lloyd saw her opportunity and +seized it. + +"Why, mothah will send the carriage for you, Mrs. Perkins, any day you +set. She'd be glad to. Alec can drive you ovah early in the mawning, +when he is out for the marketing, and go for you befoah dah'k." + +"Then you may send to-morrow," said Mrs. Perkins, ungraciously. "I don't +want to risk putting it off. Folks usually forget such promises +overnight. So I'd best make sure of it." + +Lloyd flushed angrily, but the next instant excused the old woman's +rudeness on the score of her ill health. She had a plan that she was +anxious to carry out, and she hurried home to begin, all a-tingle with +her charitable impulses. She was surprised that her mother should treat +it so lightly. + +"Of course you can have the carriage," said Mrs. Sherman. "But, my good +little Samaritan, I must warn you. That old woman is a pauper in spirit. +She hasn't a particle of proper pride. People have done too much for +her. She'll take all she can get, and grumble because it isn't more. So +you mustn't be disappointed if, instead of thanks, you get only +criticism." + +But Lloyd, full of the zeal of a true reformer, danced down to the +servants' quarters to find May Lily, one of the cook's grandchildren. +May Lily, a neat-looking coloured girl of seventeen, had been one of +Lloyd's most loyal followers since they made mud pies together on the +Colonel's white door-steps, and the readiness to serve her now was +prompted not so much by the promised dollar as the desire to still +follow her lead. So next morning, soon after Mrs. Perkins's departure in +the Sherman carriage, a mighty revolution began in the house she left +behind her. + +May Lily, strong and willing, went to work like a small cyclone. Under +Lloyd's direction, she swept and scrubbed and scoured. The bed was +aired, the stove was blacked, the windows washed, the tins polished till +they shone like new. By four o'clock not a cobweb or a speck of dust was +to be seen in either room. Lloyd sat down to wait for Mrs. Perkins's +return. She felt that it was safe to breathe now, and she did not have +to sit gingerly on the edge of the chair. Every piece of furniture had +been washed and rubbed. She could keep her promise about the pie very +comfortably now. Everything smelled so clean and wholesome to her that +she was sure that Mrs. Perkins would notice the change at once and be +pleased. + +Mrs. Perkins did notice the change the moment she entered the door, but +it was with a displeased face. "Hm! Hm!" she sniffed. "Smells mightily +of soft soap in here. What have you been doing? I never could bear the +smell of soft soap or lye. Hm! Hm!" + +Then she turned accusingly on Lloyd. "Didn't you know better than to put +stove-blacking on that stove? When it gets het up, it will smoke to +fare-ye-well, and start my asthma to going again full tilt. Some folks +are mighty thoughtless, never have no consideration for other people." + +Lloyd shrank back, almost overcome by such a reception. It was like a +dash of cold water in her face. She was angry and indignant. + +"Well," continued Mrs. Perkins, still sniffing around the room, as she +put her bonnet and shawl away. "Now you're here I'd like it if you would +put on the teakettle and make me a good strong cup of coffee. Jane +O'Grady gave me a pound, all parched and ground. I haven't had any +before to-day for weeks. I'm plumb tuckered out with the visit." + +Lloyd hurried to build up the fire, thankful that May Lily had spent +much time scouring the old coffee-pot. Otherwise she could not have +brought herself to touch it. It shone like new now. As she poured the +water into it, three tiny streams spurted out of the side, hissing and +sputtering over the stove. + +"Now just see what you done!" scolded Mrs. Perkins. "You hadn't ought to +have scoured that coffee-pot so. You'd ought to have let well enough be, +for you might have known you'd rub holes in it and make it leak." + +"I'll get you a new one in place of it at once," said Lloyd, stiffly, +her indignation rising till she could hardly speak calmly. "I'll go this +minute." + +There was a small grocery store farther up the hill, where a little of +everything was kept in stock, and Lloyd dashed out bareheaded, glad of +an excuse to cool her temper. By the time she had made the coffee in the +new pot, Alec drove up to the door for her. + +"You'll come again to-morrow to make that lemon pie, won't you?" asked +Mrs. Perkins, anxiously. + +"No, I can't come till the day aftah." + +"What? Thursday?" was the impatient answer. "Time drags awful slow for a +body that can only sit and wait." + +"I have an engagement to-morrow," said Lloyd, stiffly, remembering it +was the day for Agnes Waring's music lesson. "But you can depend on me +Thursday." + +Mrs. Sherman only laughed when Lloyd repeated her day's adventure at +home, but the old Colonel fairly snorted with indignation. + +"Poor white trash!" he exclaimed. "Don't go near her again!" + +"But I promised," answered Lloyd, dolefully. "I must keep my promise." + +"Then tell Cindy to make a pie, and let Alec take it down," he +suggested. + +"No, she said she wanted to smell it cooking, and to eat it hot out of +the oven, and I promised her she might." + +The Colonel glared savagely at the fire. "Beggars shouldn't be +choosers," he muttered, then turned to Mrs. Sherman. "Little daughter, +are you going to let that poor child of yours be imposed on by that +creature?" + +"I can't interfere with her promise, papa," she answered. "It may be a +disagreeable experience, but it will not hurt her any more than it hurt +the old woman to sweep the cobwebs out of the sky. Hers was a thankless +job, too, but no doubt she was better for the exercise, and she must +have learned a great deal on such a trip." + +It was in the same spirit in which Ederyn cried, "Oh, heart and hand of +mine, keep tryst! Keep tryst or die!" that Lloyd gathered up the +necessary materials and started off on Thursday to Mrs. Perkins's +cottage. This time there was no admiring audience of little towheads +tiptoeing around the table, as there had been at Mrs. Crisp's. But +everything was clean, and, with her recipe spread out before her, Lloyd +followed directions to the letter. + +Mrs. Perkins, watching the beating of eggs and stirring of the golden +filling, the deft mixing of pastry, grew cheerful and entertaining. She +forgot to complain of her neighbours, and was surprised into the telling +of some of her girlish experiences that actually brought an amused +twinkle to her sharp old eyes. Lloyd was vastly entertained. She had, +too, a virtuous feeling that in keeping her promise she had given +pleasure to one who rarely met kindness. It gave her a warm inward glow +of satisfaction. + +To her mortification, when she finally drew the pie from the oven, the +meringue, which had been like a snowdrift a moment before, and which +should have come out with just a golden glow on it from its short +contact with the heat, was all shrivelled and brown. + +"The nasty little oven was too hot!" cried Lloyd, in disgust. + +"Just my luck," whined Mrs. Perkins. "I might have known that I'd never +get anything I set my heart on. But you can scrape off the meringue, and +I'll try and make out with the plain pie." + +Although she ate generously, she ate grumblingly, disappointed because +of the scorched meringue, and it wasn't as sweet as she liked. + +That night, Lloyd, mortified over her failure, stood long with the white +rosary in her hand. "Maybe I ought to count the poah pie as I would an +imperfect lesson," she thought, hesitating, with a bead in her fingers. +Then she said, defiantly: "But I did my best, and the day has certainly +been disagreeable enough to deserve two pearls." + +After another moment of conscientious weighing of the matter, she +slipped the bead slowly down the string. "There!" she exclaimed. "I +suahly went through the black watahs of Kilgore to get that one." + +Next day when she stopped in Rollington to pay for the coffee-pot, and +drove by the Crisps' to ask about the baby, Minnie Crisp told her +several things. Mrs. Perkins was sick all night, and had told her ma +that it was the lemon pie that was the cause of the trouble; that it +would have made a dog sick. "Them was her words," said Minnie, +solemnly. + +"I don't wondah!" cried Lloyd. "The greedy old thing! There was enough +for foah people, and it was very rich, and she ate it all." + +"And she didn't like it because you had May Lily scrub and clean while +she was gone," added Minnie, with childlike lack of tact. "She talked +about you dreadful after you went away. Didn't she, ma?" + +"Shoo, Minnie!" answered Mrs. Crisp, with a wave of her apron. "Don't +tell all you know." + +"I didn't," answered the child. "I didn't say a word about the names she +called her,--meddlesome Matty, and all that." + +Lloyd took her leave presently, with a flushed face and a sore heart. On +the way home she stopped at The Beeches, and Mrs. Walton, who saw at a +glance that something was wrong, soon drew out the story of her +grievance. + +"Don't pay any attention to that old creature," she said, laughing +heartily, "and forgive my laughing. Everybody in the Valley has had a +similar experience. The King's Daughters long ago gave her up in +disgust. She's one of those people who doesn't want to be reformed and +won't stay helped. Her house will be just as dirty next week as when +you first went there." + +"I didn't suppose there were such people in the world," said Lloyd, in +disgust. + +"You'll find out all sorts of disagreeable things as you get older," +sighed Mrs. Walton. "It is one of the penalties of growing up. But still +it is good to have such experiences, for the wiser we grow the better we +know how to 'ease the burden of the world,' and that is what we are here +for." + +Lloyd's eyes widened with surprise. Here was another person quoting from +the poem she had learned. She was glad now that she had committed it to +memory, since on three occasions it had made people's meaning clearer to +her. + +"Yes," she answered, the dimples stealing into her smile. "But the next +time I'll find out first if they really want their burden eased, and if +that burden is dirt, like Mrs. Perkins's, I'll suahly let it alone." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +"SWEET SIXTEEN" + + +THE red coat Lloyd wore that winter was long remembered in the Valley, +for wherever it went it carried a bright face above it, a cheery +greeting, and some pleasant word that made the day seem better for its +passing. + +Mrs. Bisbee and the little Crisps were not the only ones who learned to +watch for it. As all the lonely town of Hamelin must have felt toward +the one child left to it after the Pied Piper had passed through its +streets, so all the Valley turned with tender regard to the young girl +left in its midst. Mothers, whose daughters were away at school, stopped +to talk to her with affectionate interest. The old ladies whom she +regularly visited welcomed her as if she were a part of their vanished +youth. The young ladies took her under their wing, glad to have her in +the choir and the King's Daughters' Circle, for she was bubbling over +with girlish enthusiasm and a sincere desire to help. + +So she found the cobwebs in the neighbourhood sky, and disagreeable +enough they were at times, even more disagreeable than her experience +with Mrs. Perkins. But she swept away with praiseworthy energy, till +gradually she found that the accumulation of outside interests, like the +cobweb strands which Ederyn twisted, made a rope strong enough to lift +her out of herself and her dungeon of disappointment. + +After the novelty of giving music lessons had worn off, it grew to be a +bore. Not the lessons themselves, for Agnes's delight in them never +flagged. It was the tied-up feeling it gave her to remember that those +afternoons were not her own. It happened so often that the afternoons +devoted to Agnes were the ones which of all the week she wanted to have +free, and she had to give up many small pleasures on account of them. + +It grew to be a bore, also, calling on some of the people who claimed a +weekly visit. She never tired of Mrs. Bisbee's lively comments on her +neighbours and her interesting tales about them. But there was old Mr. +and Mrs. Apwall, who, with nothing to do but sit on opposite sides of +the fire and look at each other, were said to quarrel like cat and dog. +It mortified Lloyd dreadfully to have them quarrel in her presence, and +have them pour out their grievances for her to decide which was in the +wrong. + +She always rose to go at that juncture, flushed and embarrassed, and +vowing inwardly she would never visit them again. But they always +managed to extract a promise before she got to the door that she would +drop in again the next time she was passing. + +"Somehow you seem to get husband's mind off himself," Mrs. Apwall would +whisper at parting. "He isn't half so touchy when you've cheered him up +a spell." + +And Mr. Apwall would follow her out through the chilly hall to open the +front door, and say, huskily: "Come again, daughter. Come again. Your +visits seem to do the madam a world of good. They give her something to +talk about beside my fancied failings." + +So inwardly groaning, Lloyd would go again, painfully alert to keep the +conversation away from subjects that invariably led to disputes. And +inwardly groaning, she went dutifully to the Coburns' at their repeated +requests. The first few times the garrulous old couple were interesting, +but the most thrilling tale grows tiresome when one has heard it a +dozen times. She could scarcely keep from fidgeting in her chair when +the inevitable story of their feud with the Cayn family was begun. They +never left out a single petty detail. + +No one will ever know how often the thought of the little rosary in the +sandalwood box helped Lloyd to listen patiently, and to keep tryst with +the expectations of those about her, so that at nightfall there might be +another pearl to slip on the silken cord, in token of another day +unstained by selfishness. + +There was rarely time for envying the girls at school now. The days were +too full. Almost before it seemed possible, the locusts were in bloom +and it was mid-May by the calendar. In that time perfect health had come +back to her. There were no more crying spells now, no more hours of +nervous exhaustion, of fretful impatience over trifles. She went singing +about the house, with a colour in her cheeks that rivalled the pink of +the apple blossoms. + +"Spring has come indoors as well as out," said Mrs. Sherman one morning. +"I think that we may safely count that your Christmas vacation is over, +and you may go back to your music lessons whenever you choose." + +The night before her birthday, Lloyd sat with her elbows on her +dressing-table, peering into the mirror with a very serious face. + +"You'll be sixteen yeahs old in the mawning, Lloyd Sherman," she told +the girl in the glass. "'Sweet sixteen!' You've come to the end of lots +of things, and to-morrow it will be like going through a gate that +you've seen ahead of you for a long, long time. A big, wide gate that +you have looked forward to for yeahs, and things are bound to be +different on the othah side." + +Next morning, just in fun, she trailed down to breakfast in one of her +mother's white dresses, with her hair piled on the top of her head. It +was very becoming so, but it made her look so tall and womanly that she +was sure her grandfather would object to it. + +"He'll nevah let me grow up if he can help it," she said, half-pouting, +as she gave a final glance over her shoulder at the mirror, vastly +pleased with her young ladylike appearance. "He'll say, 'Tut, tut! +That's not grandpa's Little Colonel.' But I can't stay his Little +Colonel always." + +She was standing by the window looking down the locust avenue when he +came in to breakfast, so she did not see his start of surprise at sight +of her. But his half-whispered exclamation, "_Amanthis!_" told her why +he failed to make the speech she expected to hear. With her hair done +high, showing the beautiful curve of her head and throat as she stood +half-turned toward him, he had caught another glimpse of her startling +resemblance to the portrait. He could not regret losing his Little +Colonel if that loss were to give him a living reminder of a beloved +memory. + +After breakfast, when an armful of birthday gifts had been duly admired +and the donors thanked, and she had spent nearly an hour enjoying them, +she strolled down the avenue, feeling very much grown up with the long +dress trailing behind her. She wandered down to the entrance gate, +hoping to meet Alec, who had gone for the mail. She was sure there would +be a letter from Betty, for Betty never forgot people's birthdays. Then +she trailed back again under the white arch of fragrant locust blooms. +At the half-way seat she sat down and tucked a spray of the blossoms +into her hair and fastened another at her belt. She had not long to wait +there, enjoying the freshness of the sweet May morning, for in a few +minutes Alec came up the avenue with a handful of letters and papers. +She sorted out her own eagerly, six letters and a package. + +She opened Betty's first. It was a long one, ending with a birthday +greeting in rhyme, and enclosing a handkerchief which she had made +herself, sheer and fine and daintily hemstitched, with her initials +embroidered in one corner in the smallest letters possible. + +The letters from Allison and Kitty were profusely illustrated all around +the margins, and by the time Lloyd had read them, and Gay's ridiculous +summary of school news, she felt as if she had been on a visit to +Warwick Hall, and had seen all the girls. The next letter was from +Joyce, a good thick one. But before she read it, curiosity impelled her +to open the package, which was a flat one, bearing a foreign postmark +and several Italian stamps. There were two photographs inside. She +slipped the uppermost one from its envelope. + +"Why, it is Eugenia Forbes!" she exclaimed aloud. "But how she has +changed!" + +The picture was not at all like the Eugenia whom Lloyd remembered, the +thin slip of a girl who had raced up and down the avenue five years +before at her house-party. She had blossomed into a beautiful young +woman. + +"A regulah Spanish beauty!" Lloyd thought, as she looked at the picture, +long and admiringly,--the picture of a patrician face with great dark +eyes and a wealth of dusky hair. The old self-conscious, dissatisfied +expression was gone. It was a happy face that smiled back at her. It had +been nearly a year since Lloyd had had a letter from Eugenia. She had +written from the school near Paris that her father was on his way over +from America to join her and take her home immediately after her +graduation. Lloyd had sent a reply addressed to her cousin Carl's +office, but had heard nothing more. + +Thinking that the other photograph was her cousin Carl's, Lloyd +unwrapped it, wondering if he had changed as much as Eugenia. To her +surprise, it was not a middle-aged man she saw, with gray moustache and +kindly tired eyes. It was the handsome boyish face of a stranger, yet so +startlingly familiar that she looked at it with a puzzled frown. + +"Why should Eugenia be sending me this?" she thought. "And where have I +seen that man befoah?" Then, "Phil Tremont!" she exclaimed aloud the +next instant. "That's who it reminds me of. It is almost exactly like +him, only it is oldah-looking, and the nose isn't quite like his." + +She turned the picture over. There on the back was written in Eugenia's +hand the word Venice, and a date underneath the name, Stuart Tremont. + +"Phil's brother!" gasped Lloyd, in astonishment. "How strange that she +should know him!" + +Tearing open the envelope lying on the bench beside her, Lloyd unfolded +a twenty-page letter from Eugenia, written on thin blue foreign +correspondence paper. Before her glance had travelled half-way down the +second page, she gave another gasp, and sat staring at an underscored +sentence in open-mouthed amazement. Then, never waiting to gather up the +other letters which fluttered into the grass at her feet, as she sprang +up, she rushed off toward the house as hard as she could go, waving +Eugenia's letter in one hand and the photographs in the other. + +"Mothah!" she called, as she reached the end of the avenue. She was +tripping over her long skirt, and scattering hairpins at every step, as +her reckless flight sent her hair tumbling down over her shoulders. + +"Mothah!" she shrieked again, as she stumbled up the porch steps. + +"Here in my room, dear," came the answer from an upper window. Falling +all over herself in her undignified haste, Lloyd tore up the stairs. A +final tangling of skirts sent her headlong into her mother's room, where +she half-fell in a breathless, laughing heap, and sat at Mrs. Sherman's +feet with her hair almost hiding her eager face. + +"Guess what's happened!" she demanded, breathlessly. "_Eugenia is +engaged!_ And to Phil Tremont's brother Stuart!" + +Then she sat enjoying her mother's surprise, which was almost as great +as her own. "And she isn't much moah than eighteen," Lloyd exclaimed, +rocking back and forth on the floor, with her arms clasped around her +knees, while her mother examined the pictures. + +"She looks twenty at least in this picture," answered Mrs. Sherman, +"even more than that. Eugenia was always old for her years. If you +remember, she was wearing long dresses when we left her the summer we +were in Europe together." + +"Yes, but it doesn't seem possible that Eugenia is old enough to be +_married_," insisted Lloyd. "I can hardly believe it is true." + +She sat staring dreamily out of the window until a slight breeze +fluttering the sheets of paper still clutched in her fingers reminded +her that she had read only two of the twenty pages. + +"Heah is what she says about it," began Lloyd, reading slowly, for the +closely written sheets were hard to decipher. + + "'I know you are going to wonder how it all came + about, so I'll begin at the beginning. Last summer + papa came on to Paris in time for Commencement. He + was so pleased because I took first honours, when + he hadn't expected me to take any, that he said he + would do as fathers sometimes did in + fairy-tales,--grant me three wishes, anything in + reason; for he had had an unusually successful + year and could well afford it. + + "'Well, I thought and thought, but I couldn't + think of anything I really wanted, as I just had + an entire new outfit in clothes, so I told him + finally I'd like to stop in London long enough to + have a tailor make me a riding-habit, and I'd + think of the other two wishes sometime during the + year. So we went to London. Papa is such an old + darling, and we've grown to be real chums. After + the tailor had taken my measure, we drove to our + banker's for the mail, and who should papa meet + there but Doctor Tremont, an American physician + whom he knew years ago when they were young men. + They belonged to the same college fraternity. + + "'They forgot all about poor little me, sitting + over in the corner of the office, and stood and + talked about old times, and asked each other about + Tom, Dick, and Harry, until I was thoroughly tired + of waiting. But after awhile the handsomest young + man came into the room, and Doctor Tremont + introduced him to papa as his oldest son, Stuart. + Then they remembered my humble existence, and papa + brought them both over to me. In about two minutes + we all felt as if we had known each other always. + + "'Doctor Tremont said he had had a very hard + winter in Berlin, making some study of microbes + with a noted scientist,--I forget his name. He + said Stuart had been closely confined also (he was + taking a medical course), and they were off on a + hard-earned holiday. They were going coaching up + in the lake regions, first in England, then in + Scotland, and maybe later would go over to the + Isle of Skye. + + "'Would you believe it, before we left the bank, + Doctor Tremont had persuaded papa that he needed a + vacation also, and almost in no time it was + arranged that we should join them on their + coaching trip. We had a perfectly ideal time, and + Stuart and I got to be the best of friends. We + corresponded all summer and fall after that. I + didn't expect to see him again for two years, + because he intended to stay abroad until he had + finished his medical course. But along in the + winter papa's health broke down, and the doctor + told him he must keep away from business for a + year, and ordered him to Baden-Baden for the + water. + + "'He was horribly ill after we got there, and I + was so frightened and inexperienced that I thought + he was going to die, and I telegraphed for Doctor + Tremont. It isn't far from Berlin, you know, as we + Americans count distances. But the doctor had gone + to Paris for several weeks, and Stuart came at + once in his place. Of course he wasn't an + experienced physician like his father, but he was + such a comfort, for he cheered papa up so much, + and assured us that the doctor in charge was doing + everything that his father could do. And he helped + nurse papa, and boosted up my spirits mightily, + and was so dear and thoughtful and considerate + that, when he went away, I felt as if the bottom + had dropped out of everything. You can't imagine + how kind and lovely he was all that week. Papa + fairly swore by him. + + "'We wrote to each other every week after he went + back to Berlin. Early this March papa and I went + down into Italy. We shifted about from place to + place,--Naples, Sorrento, Rome, Florence, and + finally to Venice. I don't know why I never wrote + to you those days. You were often in my thoughts, + but you know how it is when one is constantly on + the wing. + + "'I used to wish daily that Stuart could be with + us. He is the most satisfactory of travelling + companions, but I didn't know how very much I + wished it until one day in Venice. Papa was asleep + at the hotel, and I was so lonely that I started + out by myself to explore. I left a message with + the clerk that I had gone to vespers at Saint + Mark's Cathedral. There was a crowd of tourists in + the square in front of the cathedral, feeding the + pigeons. Hearing their English speech after so + many months of nothing but foreign tongues made me + homesick. In the whole plaza, no one but myself + seemed to be alone. They were walking in groups or + couples, and everybody seemed so gay and happy + that I was glad to cross over to the cathedral to + get out of sight. + + "'The vesper service had just begun, and I stood + inside the door listening to the chanting of the + monks' voices, and getting more homesick every + moment. Just as the tears were ready to brim over, + I looked up, and there in the dim light beside me + stood Stuart. I thought I must be dreaming, but it + was a very happy dream, for I felt that I could + never be homesick or unhappy again when he looked + down and smiled. + + "'I couldn't believe that I was awake and that he + was really there, until we got outside the + cathedral and he began to talk. Then he told me + that he had gone to the hotel, and they had given + him the message I had left for papa. It never + occurred to me to wonder why he had come to + Venice. It just seemed so natural and lovely that + he should be there that I never even asked him + why. He called a gondola, and we got in and went + drifting down the canals under the bridges and + past the old palaces, with the sunset turning + everything around us to rose-colour and gold. Oh, + I can't begin to tell you how perfectly heavenly + it all was. There was a new moon in the sky when + we turned back to the hotel, and, though Stuart + _hadn't_ proposed in the same way that Laurie did + to Amy in "Little Women," he had told me why he + came so far to find me, and I liked his way a + great deal better than Laurie's. + + "'Wasn't it all romantic? Papa was awfully + surprised to see him, and nearly as glad as I, and + I told him that now I'd claim the other wishes he + had promised me at Commencement, and take the two + in one. I wished that he would say yes to the + question Stuart had come to ask him. Dear old dad, + he always keeps his promises, so he said yes after + awhile. After Stuart had explained that he didn't + intend to ask him to give me up. When he finishes + his medical course here next year, he has a + position waiting for him near New York City. We're + to have a little home on the Hudson, and papa is + to live with us. So is Doctor Tremont, when he + gets through with his microbe business. We are + done with hotels for ever. + + "'I cannot remember ever having had a home, Lloyd. + I have always lived either in a hotel or at + boarding-school. And Stuart says the only one he + can remember distinctly was the one presided over + by his great-aunt Patricia, and she never did + understand boys. This summer I shall spend with + papa in Switzerland. He is about well now. Then in + the fall, when he goes back to New York, I am + going to a delightful school near Berlin which I + have just heard of. It is a school where none but + the daughters of the German nobility are + received, as a rule. They make an exception + sometimes in the case of Americans like myself. + There they are taught all the housewifely arts + that delight a good frau's soul. Don't laugh at + me, Lloyd. I'm going to learn how to broil and + brew and conduct a well-regulated establishment + from attic to cellar. + + "'A year from this June, Cousin Jack and Cousin + Elizabeth are to bring you and Betty on to New + York to be my bridesmaids. I'd love to have Joyce, + too, if it were possible for her to leave home. + She has been so good to Stuart's brother Phil. + Isn't it strange that we should all be so linked + together? I'd like to have all of you girls that I + met at your never-to-be-forgotten house-party. + That was where I had my first taste of a real + home, and found out that there is something to + live for besides the things that money can buy. + + "'I have looked so often lately at my little + Tusitala ring. I have been a better girl because + of that ring, Lloyd, and I intend it shall be the + inspiration of all my married life,--to help me + leave a road of the loving heart in the memory of + every one around me. + + "'I wish everybody in the world could be as happy + as I am. I am sending Stuart's picture, so that + you can see for yourself what a fine, splendid + fellow you are to have for a cousin some day. Give + my love to your father and mother and Betty, and + do write soon and tell me that you are glad. + "'Your loving cousin, + "'EUGENIA.'" + +Lloyd looked up from the reading of the letter, wondering what sort of +an expression she would find on her mother's face. To her surprise, it +was one of approval, and there were tears in her eyes. + +"Poor motherless child!" said Mrs. Sherman, softly. "I shall write to +her to-day. I don't approve of early marriages, but Eugenia has always +been more mature than most girls of her age, and she does need a home +sadly. The care and pleasure of one will develop her character in a way +that nothing else will. Let me see. She will be nearly twenty next June. +Yes, I have no doubt but that, with this next year's training in +housekeeping which she intends to take, she will be far better fitted +for home-making than many an older woman." + +"And may Betty and I be bridesmaids?" interrupted Lloyd, eagerly, a +starlike expectancy shining in her eyes. + +Mrs. Sherman considered a moment, then answered, slowly: "There is no +reason why you should not be, so long as you are willing to go as little +maids, and not young ladies. I am very jealous for your girlhood, Lloyd +dear. I must guard against anything that would shorten it in the least. +Mother's baby must not grow up too fast." + +"I don't want to grow up fast, honestly!" cried Lloyd, scrambling to her +feet and tripping over the long skirts again as she threw her arms +around her mother's neck. "I'm not dignified enough yet to fit yoah +dresses, and my hair simply won't stay up. Sweet sixteen doesn't seem +half as old when you really get there as you think that it is going to. +I'll do my hair down and weah short skirts as long as you want me to, +but, oh, I'm so glad that I'm going to be a bridesmaid! It will be +_such_ fun. I must write to Betty this minute to tell her that you are +willing." + +That night Lloyd sat before her dressing-table again, this time with the +new photographs propped up in front of her. Stuart's picture almost +seemed to bring Phil before her eyes, and for a moment, instead of the +familiar walls of her room, she saw the moonlighted desert, and smelled +the orange-blossoms, and heard a strong young voice ringing out across +the silence of the sandy cactus plains: + + "Till the sun grows cold, + And the stars are old, + And the leaves of the Judgment + Book unfold." + +"Wouldn't it be strange," she thought, "if he were really the one +written for me in the stars, as Betty said in the beginning, and that we +should meet at Eugenia's wedding again, and that some day, a long time +after, I should find that he is the prince? But it couldn't be Phil," +she said to herself after another glance. "He doesn't measuah up to Papa +Jack's yardstick. Neithah does Malcolm now, for that mattah," she mused, +with her chin in her hand. "Jack Ware might, or Rob, but they seem moah +like brothahs than anything else, and would not fit my ideal of a prince +at all." + +"'As the falcon's feathahs fit the falcon,'" she quoted, dreamily. "It +would have to be some strangah that I've nevah yet seen, to do that. Or, +maybe Mammy Easter's grandmothah was right when she read my fortune in +the teacups. Maybe I'll be an old maid. I wish I knew. I _wish_ I knew!" + +She peered wistfully into the mirror, as if she half-expected to see a +shadowy hand stretch out of its dim background, and lift the veil of the +future to her eager gaze. "The thoughts of youth are long, long +thoughts." Lloyd's flew back to Eugenia's romance for an instant, then +drifted far beyond the two in the gondola, with the Venetian sunset +turning all their little world to rose-colour and gold. + +[Illustration: "'NO MATTAH WHAT LIES AHEAD . . . I'LL NOT DISAPPOINT +THEM'"] + +One is a mariner at sixteen, sailing toward an undiscovered country, +with seaweed and driftwood on the crest of every wave beginning to +whisper, "Land ahead." Toward the dim outline of that untried shore, +Lloyd drifted now in her reverie. + +"I _wish_ I could know what the next sixteen yeahs hold for me," she +whimpered. "I hope it will be something bettah than I could choose for +myself. Mothah and Papa Jack expect so much of me." + +Then her glance fell on the unfinished rosary, and, picking up the +string of tiny pearls, she looped it around her throat, and faced the +girl in the mirror with resolute eyes. + +"No mattah what lies ahead," she said, bravely, "I'll not disappoint +them. I'll keep the tryst!" + + +THE END. + + + + +BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE + + + THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS + (Trade Mark) + +_By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON_ + + Each 1 vol., large 12mo, cloth decorative, per vol. $1.50 + + The Little Colonel Stories. + (Trade Mark) + +Illustrated. + +Being three "Little Colonel" stories in the Cosy Corner Series, "The +Little Colonel," "Two Little Knights of Kentucky," and "The Giant +Scissors," put into a single volume. + + + The Little Colonel's House Party. + (Trade Mark) + +Illustrated by Louis Meynell. + + + The Little Colonel's Holidays. + (Trade Mark) + +Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman. + + + The Little Colonel's Hero. + (Trade Mark) + +Illustrated by E. B. Barry. + + + The Little Colonel at Boarding School. + (Trade Mark) + +Illustrated by E. B. Barry. + + + The Little Colonel in Arizona. + (Trade Mark) + +Illustrated by E. B. Barry. + + + The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation. + (Trade Mark) + +Illustrated by E. B. Barry. + + + The Little Colonel, Maid of Honour. + (Trade Mark) + +Illustrated by E. B. Barry. + + + The Little Colonel. + (Trade Mark) + Two Little Knights of Kentucky. + The Giant Scissors. + Big Brother. + + +Special Holiday Editions + + Each one volume, cloth decorative, small quarto. $1.25. + +New plates, handsomely illustrated, with eight full-page drawings in +color. + + "The books are as satisfactory to the small girls, + who find them adorable, as for the mothers and + librarians, who delight in their + influence."--_Christian Register._ + + These four volumes, boxed as a four volume set $5.00 + + +In the Desert of Waiting: THE LEGEND OF CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN. + + +The Three Weavers: A FAIRY TALE FOR FATHERS AND MOTHERS AS WELL AS FOR +THEIR DAUGHTERS. + + +Keeping Tryst. + + +The Legend of the Bleeding Heart. + + Each one volume, tall 16mo, cloth decorative $0.50 + Paper boards .35 + +There has been a constant demand for publication in separate form of +these four stories, which were originally included in four of the +"Little Colonel" books. + + +Joel: A Boy of Galilee. By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON. Illustrated by L. J. +Bridgman. + + New illustrated edition, uniform with the Little Colonel + Books, 1 vol., large 12mo, cloth decorative $1.50 + +A story of the time of Christ, which is one of the author's best-known +books. + + +=Asa Holmes=; OR, AT THE CROSS-ROADS. A sketch of Country Life and +Country Humor. By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON. With a frontispiece by Ernest +Fosbery. + + Large 16mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.00 + + "'Asa Holmes; or, At the Cross-Roads' is the most + delightful, most sympathetic and wholesome book + that has been published in a long while."--_Boston + Times._ + + +=The Rival Campers=; OR, THE ADVENTURES OF HENRY BURNS. By RUEL PERLEY +SMITH. Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +Here is a book which will grip and enthuse every boy reader. It is the +story of a party of typical American lads, courageous, alert, and +athletic, who spend a summer camping on an island off the Maine coast. + + "The best boys' book since 'Tom Sawyer.'"--_San + Francisco Examiner._ + + +=The Rival Campers Afloat=; OR, THE PRIZE YACHT VIKING. By RUEL PERLEY +SMITH. + + Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +This book is a continuation of the adventures of "The Rival Campers" on +their prize yacht _Viking_. An accidental collision results in a series +of exciting adventures, culminating in a mysterious chase, the loss of +their prize yacht, and its recapture by means of their old yacht, +_Surprise_. + + +=The Rival Campers Ashore.= By RUEL PERLEY SMITH, author of "The Rival +Campers," "The Rival Campers Afloat," etc. + + Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +"The Rival Campers Ashore" deals with the adventures of the campers and +their friends in and around the town of Benton. Mr. Smith introduces a +new character,--a girl,--who shows them the way to an old mill, around +which the mystery of the story revolves. The girl is an admirable +acquisition, proving as daring and resourceful as the campers +themselves. + + +=The Young Section-Hand=; OR, THE ADVENTURES OF ALLAN WEST. By BURTON E. +STEVENSON, author of "The Marathon Mystery," etc. + + Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by L. J. Bridgman, $1.50 + +Mr. Stevenson's hero is a manly lad of sixteen, who is given a chance as +a section-hand on a big Western railroad, and whose experiences are as +real as they are thrilling. + + +=The Young Train Dispatcher.= By BURTON E. STEVENSON, author of "The +Young Section-hand," etc. + + Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +The young hero has many chances to prove his manliness and courage in +the exciting adventures which befall him in the discharge of his duty. + + +=Captain Jack Lorimer.= By WINN STANDISH. + + Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by A. B. Shute, $1.50 + +Jack is a fine example of the all-around American high-school boy. He +has the sturdy qualities boys admire, and his fondness for clean, honest +sport of all kinds will strike a chord of sympathy among athletic +youths. + + +=Jack Lorimer's Champions=; or, sports on Land and Lake. By WINN +STANDISH, author of "Captain Jack Lorimer," etc. + + Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +All boys and girls who take an interest in school athletics will wish to +read of the exploits of the Millvale High School students, under the +leadership of Captain Jack Lorimer. + +Captain Jack's Champions play quite as good ball as do some of the teams +on the large leagues, and they put all opponents to good hard work in +other summer sports. + +Jack Lorimer and his friends stand out as the finest examples of +all-round American high school boys and girls. + + +=Beautiful Joe's Paradise=; OR, THE ISLAND OF BROTHERLY LOVE. A sequel +to "Beautiful Joe." By MARSHALL SAUNDERS, author of "Beautiful Joe." + + One vol., library 12mo, cloth, illustrated, $1.50 + + "This book revives the spirit of 'Beautiful Joe' + capitally. It is fairly riotous with fun, and as a + whole is about as unusual as anything in the + animal book line that has seen the light. It is a + book for juveniles--old and young."--_Philadelphia + Item._ + + +='Tilda Jane.= By MARSHALL SAUNDERS. + + One vol., 12mo, fully illustrated, cloth decorative, $1.50 + + "It is one of those exquisitely simple and + truthful books that win and charm the reader, and + I did not put it down until I had finished + it--honest! And I am sure that every one, young or + old, who reads will be proud and happy to make the + acquaintance of the delicious waif. + + "I cannot think of any better book for children + than this. I commend it unreservedly."--_Cyrus + Townsend Brady._ + + +=The Story of the Graveleys.= By MARSHALL SAUNDERS, author of "Beautiful +Joe's Paradise," "'Tilda Jane," etc. + + Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by E. B. Barry, $1.50 + +Here we have the haps and mishaps, the trials and triumphs, of a +delightful New England family, of whose devotion and sturdiness it will +do the reader good to hear. + + +=Born to the Blue.= By FLORENCE KIMBALL RUSSEL. + + 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.25 + +The atmosphere of army life on the plains breathes on every page of this +delightful tale. The boy is the son of a captain of U. S. cavalry +stationed at a frontier post in the days when our regulars earned the +gratitude of a nation. + + +=In West Point Gray.= By FLORENCE KIMBALL RUSSEL. + + 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.25 + +West Point forms the background for the second volume in this series, +and gives us the adventures of Jack as a cadet. Here the training of his +childhood days in the frontier army post stands him in good stead; and +he quickly becomes the central figure of the West Point life. + + +=The Sandman: His Farm Stories.= By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS. With fifty +illustrations by Ada Clendenin Williamson. + + Large 12mo, decorative cover, $1.50 + + "An amusing, original book, written for the + benefit of very small children. It should be one + of the most popular of the year's books for + reading to small children."--_Buffalo Express._ + + +=The Sandman: More Farm Stories.= By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS. + + Large 12mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated, $1.50 + +Mr. Hopkins's first essay at bedtime stories met with such approval that +this second book of "Sandman" tales was issued for scores of eager +children. Life on the farm, and out-of-doors, is portrayed in his +inimitable manner. + + +=The Sandman: His Ship Stories.= By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS, author of "The +Sandman: His Farm Stories," etc. + + Large 12mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated, $1.50 + + "Mothers and fathers and kind elder sisters who + put the little ones to bed, and rack their brains + for stories, will find this book a + treasure."--_Cleveland Leader._ + + "Children call for these stories over and over + again."--_Chicago Evening Post._ + + +=Pussy-Cat Town.= By MARION AMES TAGGART. + + Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in + colors, $1.00 + +"Pussy-Cat Town" is a most unusual delightful cat story. Ban-Ban, a pure +Maltese who belonged to Rob, Kiku-san, Lois's beautiful snow-white pet, +and their neighbors Bedelia the tortoise-shell, Madame Laura the widow, +Wutz Butz the warrior, and wise old Tommy Traddles, were really and +truly cats. + + +=The Roses of Saint Elizabeth.= By JANE SCOTT WOODRUFF, author of "The +Little Christmas Shoe." + + Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in + colors by Adelaide Everhart, $1.00 + +This is a charming little story of a child whose father was caretaker of +the great castle of the Wartburg, where Saint Elizabeth once had her +home. + + +=Gabriel and the Hour Book.= By EVALEEN STEIN. + + Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in + colors by Adelaide Everhart, $1.00 + +Gabriel was a loving, patient, little French lad, who assisted the monks +in the long ago days, when all the books were written and illuminated by +hand in the monasteries. + + +=The Enchanted Automobile.= Translated from the French by MARY J. +SAFFORD. + + Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in + colors by Edna M. Sawyer, $1.00 + +The enchanted automobile was sent by the fairy godmother of a lazy, +discontented little prince and princess to take them to fairyland, where +they might visit their story-book favorites. + + +=The Red Feathers.= By THEODORE ROBERTS, author of "Brothers of Peril," +etc. + + Cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +"The Red Feathers" tells of the remarkable adventures of an Indian boy +who lived in the Stone Age, many years ago, when the world was young, +and when fairies and magicians did wonderful things for their friends +and enemies. + + +=The Wreck of the Ocean Queen.= By James Otis, author of "Larry Hudson's +Ambition," etc. + + Cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +This story takes its readers on a sea voyage around the world; gives +them a trip on a treasure ship; an exciting experience in a terrific +gale; and finally a shipwreck, with a mutineering crew determined to +take the treasure to complicate matters. + +But only the mutineers will come to serious harm, and after the reader +has known the thrilling excitement of lack of food and water, of attacks +by night and day, and of a hand-to-hand fight, he is rescued and brought +safely home again,--to realize that it's only a story, but a stirring +and realistic one. + + +=Little White Indians.= By FANNIE E. OSTRANDER. + + Cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.25 + +The "Little White Indians" were two families of children who "played +Indian" all one long summer vacation. They built wigwams and made camps; +they went hunting and fought fierce battles on the war-trail. + +A bright, interesting story which will appeal strongly to the +"make-believe" instinct in children, and will give them a healthy, +active interest in "the simple life." + + + + +PHYLLIS' FIELD FRIENDS SERIES + +_By LENORE E. MULETS_ + +Six vols., cloth decorative, illustrated by Sophie Schneider. Sold +separately, or as a set. + + Per volume, $1.00 + Per set, 6.00 + + =Insect Stories.= + =Stories of Little Animals.= + =Flower Stories.= + =Bird Stories.= + =Tree Stories.= + =Stories of Little Fishes.= + +In this series of six little Nature books, it is the author's intention +so to present to the child reader the facts about each particular +flower, insect, bird, or animal, in story form, as to make delightful +reading. Classical legends, myths, poems, and songs are so introduced as +to correlate fully with these lessons, to which the excellent +illustrations are no little help. + + +THE WOODRANGER TALES + +_By G. WALDO BROWNE_ + + =The Woodranger.= + =The Young Gunbearer.= + =The Hero of the Hills.= + =With Rogers' Rangers.= + + Each 1 vol., large 12mo, cloth, decorative cover, illustrated, + per volume, $1.25 + Four vols., boxed, per set, 5.00 + +"The Woodranger Tales," like the "Pathfinder Tales" of J. Fenimore +Cooper, combine historical information relating to early pioneer days in +America with interesting adventures in the backwoods. Although the same +characters are continued throughout the series, each book is complete in +itself, and, while based strictly on historical facts, is an interesting +and exciting tale of adventure. + + + + +THE LITTLE COUSIN SERIES + + +The most delightful and interesting accounts possible of child life in +other lands, filled with quaint sayings, doings, and adventures. + +Each one vol., 12mo, decorative cover, cloth, with six or more full-page +illustrations in color. + + Price per volume, $0.60 + +_By MARY HAZELTON WADE (unless otherwise indicated)_ + + =Our Little African Cousin= + + =Our Little Alaskan Cousin= + By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet + + =Our Little Arabian Cousin= + By Blanche McManus + + =Our Little Armenian Cousin= + + =Our Little Brown Cousin= + + =Our Little Canadian Cousin= + By Elizabeth R. Macdonald + + =Our Little Chinese Cousin= + By Isaac Taylor Headland + + =Our Little Cuban Cousin= + + =Our Little Dutch Cousin= + By Blanche McManus + + =Our Little English Cousin= + By Blanche McManus + + =Our Little Eskimo Cousin= + + =Our Little French Cousin= + By Blanche McManus + + =Our Little German Cousin= + + =Our Little Hawaiian Cousin= + + =Our Little Hindu Cousin= + By Blanche McManus + + =Our Little Indian Cousin= + + =Our Little Irish Cousin= + + =Our Little Italian Cousin= + + =Our Little Japanese Cousin= + + =Our Little Jewish Cousin= + + =Our Little Korean Cousin= + By H. Lee M. Pike + + =Our Little Mexican Cousin= + By Edward C. Butler + + =Our Little Norwegian Cousin= + + =Our Little Panama Cousin= + By H. Lee M. Pike + + =Our Little Philippine Cousin= + + =Our Little Porto Rican Cousin= + + =Our Little Russian Cousin= + + =Our Little Scotch Cousin= + By Blanche McManus + + =Our Little Siamese Cousin= + + =Our Little Spanish Cousin= + By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet + + =Our Little Swedish Cousin= + By Claire M. Coburn + + =Our Little Swiss Cousin= + + =Our Little Turkish Cousin= + + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE COLONEL TRADEMARK REG. U.S. PAT. OFFICE] + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Frontispiece, "BOB" changed to "ROB" to match text. (EXCLAIMED ROB, IN) + +Page 50, "dreadfuly" changed to "dreadfully" (so dreadfully effusive) + +Page 176, "wth" changed to "with" (with the ruddy glow) + +Page 256, "amost" changed to "almost" (Lloyd almost gasped) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation, by +Annie Fellows Johnston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION *** + +***** This file should be named 26215.txt or 26215.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/2/1/26215/ + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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