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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Dorothy's House Party, by Evelyn Raymond,
+Illustrated by S. Schneider
+
+
+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: Dorothy's House Party
+
+
+Author: Evelyn Raymond
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 15, 2009  [eBook #28805]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY'S HOUSE PARTY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by D Alexander and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 28805-h.htm or 28805-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28805/28805-h/28805-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28805/28805-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+DOROTHY'S HOUSE PARTY
+
+by
+
+EVELYN RAYMOND
+
+Illustrations by S. Schneider
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chatterton-Peck Company
+New York, N. Y.
+
+Copyright 1908
+by
+Chatterton-Peck Co.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MOONLIGHTED FIGURE BY THE LILY POND.
+_Dorothy's House Party._]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                                    PAGE
+
+     I END OF AN INFAIR                                       9
+
+    II CHOOSING THE GUESTS                                   21
+
+   III THE FIRST AND UNINVITED GUEST                         35
+
+    IV TROUBLES LIGHTEN IN THE TELLING                       44
+
+     V RIDDLES                                               61
+
+    VI A MORNING CALL                                        79
+
+   VII A MEMORABLE CHURCH GOING                              93
+
+  VIII CONCERNING VARIOUS MATTERS                           106
+
+    IX HEADQUARTERS                                         118
+
+     X MUSIC AND APPARITIONS                                133
+
+    XI MORNING TALKS                                        145
+
+   XII THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH                           159
+
+  XIII IN THE GREAT KITCHEN                                 174
+
+   XIV AUNT BETTY TAKES A HAND                              189
+
+    XV A MARVELOUS TALE AND ITS ENDING                      203
+
+   XVI THE FINDING OF THE MONEY                             215
+
+  XVII THE STORY OF THE WORM THAT TURNED                    229
+
+ XVIII CONCLUSION                                           244
+
+
+
+
+DOROTHY'S HOUSE PARTY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE END OF AN INFAIR
+
+
+Dorothy sat up in bed and looked about her. For a moment she did not
+realize where she was nor how she came to be in such a strange and
+charming room. Then from somewhere in the distance sounded a merry,
+musical voice, singing:
+
+     "Old Noah of old he built an ark--
+       One more river to cross!
+     He built it out of hickory bark--
+       One more riv----"
+
+The refrain was never finished. Dorothy was at the open window calling
+lustily:
+
+"Alfy! Alfy Babcock! Come right up here this very, very minute!"
+
+"Heigho, Sleepy Head! You awake at last? Well, I should think it was
+time. I'll be right up, just as soon as I can put these yeller
+artemisias into Mis' Calvert's yeller bowl."
+
+A fleeting regret that she had not waked earlier, that it was not she
+who had gathered the morning nosegay for Mrs. Betty's table, shadowed
+the fair face of the late riser; but was promptly banished as the full
+memory of all that happened on the night before came back to her.
+Skipping from point to point of the pretty chamber she examined it in
+detail, exclaiming in delight over this or that and, finally, darting
+within the white-tiled bathroom where some thoughtful person had
+already drawn water for her bath.
+
+"Oh! it's like a fairy-tale and I'm in a real fairy-land, seems if!
+What a dainty tub! What heaps of great soft towels! and what a lovely
+bath-robe! And oh! what a wonderful great-aunt Betty!"
+
+A moisture not wholly due to the luxurious bath filled Dorothy's eyes,
+as she took her plunge, for her heart was touched by the evidences of
+the loving forethought which had thus prepared for her home-coming
+before she herself knew she possessed a birthright home. Of her past
+life the reader if interested may learn quite fully, for the facts are
+detailed in the two books known as "Dorothy's Schooling," and
+"Dorothy's Travels."
+
+So though it was still a radiantly happy girl who welcomed Alfaretta
+it was a thoughtful one; so that Alfy again paused in her caroling to
+demand:
+
+"Well, Dolly Doodles, what's the matter? If I'd been as lucky as you
+be I wouldn't draw no down-corners to my mouth, I wouldn't! I'd sing
+louder'n ever and just hustle them 'animals' into that 'ark' 'two by
+two,' for 'There's one more river to cross! One more river--One more
+river to cro-o-o-oss!'"
+
+But without waiting for an answer the young farm girl caught her old
+playmate in her strong arms and gave her a vigorous hug.
+
+"There, Miss Dorothy Calvert, that don't begin to show how tickled I
+am 'bout your good fortune! I'm so full of it all 't I couldn't hardly
+sleep. Fact. You needn't stare, though 'tis a queer thing, 'cause if
+there's one thing more to my liking than another it's going to bed on
+such a bed as Mis' Calvert has in every single one of her rooms. There
+ain't no husk-mattresses nor straw shake-downs to Deerhurst. No,
+siree! I know, for I went into every single chamber from roof to
+cellar and pinched 'em all. The 'help' sleep just as soft as the old
+lady does herself. Softer, Ma says, 'cause old-timers like her if they
+didn't use feathers just laid on hard things 't even Ma'd despise to
+have in her house. However, everybody to their taste! and say, Dolly,
+which of all them pretty dresses are you goin' to put on? What? That
+plain old white linen? Well, if you don't beat the Dutch and always
+did! If I had all them silks and satins I'd pick out the handsomest
+and wear that first, and next handsome next, and keep right on, one
+after another, till I'd tried the lot, if I had to change a dozen
+times a day. See! I found them cardinal flowers down by the brook and
+fetched 'em to you."
+
+With one of her sudden changes of mood Alfaretta dropped down upon
+the floor and pulled from the pocket of her old-fashioned skirt a
+cheap paper pad. It was well scribbled with penciled notes which the
+girl critically examined, as she explained:
+
+"You see, Dorothy, that your story is like reading a library book,
+only more so; and lest I should forget some part of it I've wrote it
+all down. Listen. I'll read while you finish fixin'. My! What a
+finicky girl you are! You was born----"
+
+"But, Alfy, please! I protest against hearing my own history that
+way!" cried the other, making a playful dash toward the notes, which
+Alfaretta as promptly hid behind her. Then, knowing from experience
+that contest was useless, Dorothy resigned herself to hearing the
+following data droned forth:
+
+"You was born----"
+
+"Of course!"
+
+"'Twon't do you a mite of good to interrupt. I'm in real down earnest.
+You'll--you'll be goin' away again, pretty soon, and having come into
+your fortunes you'll be forgettin'----" Here Alfy sobbed and dabbed
+her knuckles into her eyes--"'Cause Ma says 'tain't likely you'll ever
+be the same girl again----"
+
+"I should like to know why not? Go on with your story-notes. I'd even
+rather hear them than you talking foolishly!"
+
+"Well, I'll have to begin all over again. You was born. Your parents
+were respectful--respective--hmm! all right folks though deluged with
+poverty. Then they died and left you a little, squallin' baby----"
+
+"Alfy, dear, that's unkind! I don't admit that I ever could be a
+squaller!"
+
+Alfaretta raised her big eyes and replied:
+
+"I ain't makin' that up. It's exactly what Mis' Calvert said her own
+self. 'Twas why she wouldn't bother raisin' you herself after your Pa
+and Ma died and sent you to her. So she turned you into a foundling
+orphan and your Father John and Mother Martha brung you up. Then your
+old Aunt Betty got acquainted with you an' liked you, and sort of
+hankered to get you back again out of the folkses' hands what had took
+all the trouble of your growing into a sizable girl. Some other folks
+appear to have took a hand in the business of huntin' up your really
+truly name; and Ma Babcock she says that Mis' Calvert'd have had to
+own up to your bein' her kin after awhile, whether or no; so she just
+up and told the whole business; and here you be--a nairess! and so
+rich you won't never know old friends again--maybe--though I always
+thought you--you--you--Oh! my!"
+
+Alfaretta bowed her head to her knees and began to cry with the same
+vigor she brought to every act of her life. But she didn't cry for
+long; because Dorothy was promptly down upon the floor, also, and
+pulling the weeper's hands from her flushed face, commanded:
+
+"It's my turn. I've a story to tell. It's all about a girl named
+Alfaretta Babcock, who was the first friend I ever had 'up-mounting,'
+and is going to be my friend all my life unless she chooses otherwise.
+This Alfy I'm talking about is one of the truest, bravest girls in the
+world. The only trouble is that she gets silly notions into her auburn
+head, once in a while, and it takes kisses just like these--and
+these--and these--to drive them out. She's going to be a teacher when
+she grows up----"
+
+Alfy's tears were dried, her face smiling, as she now interrupted:
+
+"No. I've changed my mind. I'm either going to be a trained nurse or a
+singer in an opera. Premer donners, they call 'em."
+
+"Heigho! Why all that?"
+
+Alfaretta dropped her voice to a whisper and cautiously glanced over
+her shoulder as she explained:
+
+"Greatorex!"
+
+"Miss Greatorex? What has that poor, learned dear to do with it?"
+demanded Dorothy, astonished.
+
+"Everything. You see, she's the first woman teacher I ever
+saw--the first _woman_ one. Rather than grow into such a stiff,
+can't-bend-to-save-your-life kind of person I'd do 'most anything.
+Hark! There's somebody to the door!"
+
+Both girls sprang to open it and found a maid with a summons to
+breakfast; also with the request that "Miss Dorothy should attend Mrs.
+Calvert in her own room before going below stairs."
+
+Dorothy sped away but Alfaretta lingered to put the cardinal flowers
+into a vase and to admire afresh the beautiful apartment assigned to
+her friend.
+
+There was honest pleasure in the good fortune which had come to
+another and yet there was a little envy mingled with the pleasure. It
+was with a rather vicious little shake that she picked up the soft
+bath-robe Dorothy had discarded and folded it about her own shoulders;
+but the reflection of her own face in the mirror opposite so surprised
+her by its crossness that she stared, then laughed aloud.
+
+"Huh! Ain't you ashamed of yourself, Alfy Babcock? When you put on
+that two-sticks, ten-penny-nails-look you're homely enough to eat hay!
+'Tain't so long ago that Dolly hadn't no more in this world than
+you've got this minute. Not half so much either, 'cause she hadn't
+nobody belongin', nobody at all, whilst you had a Ma and Pa and a
+whole slew of brothers and sisters. All she's found yet is a
+terrible-old great-aunt and some money. Pa says 'money's no good,'
+and--I guess I'll go get my breakfast, too."
+
+Her good temper quite restored, this young philosopher skipped away
+and joined her mother and sisters in the great kitchen where they were
+already seated at table.
+
+In Mrs. Calvert's room the happy old lady greeted Dorothy with such a
+warmth of affection that the girl felt no lack of others
+"belongin'"--for which lack Alfaretta had pitied her--and only yearned
+to find a way to show her own love and gratitude. There followed a
+happy half-hour of mutual confidences, a brief reading of the Word, a
+simple prayer for blessing on their new lives together, and the pair
+descended to the cheerful room where their guests were assembling:
+each, it seemed, enjoying to the utmost their beautiful surroundings
+and their hostess's hospitality.
+
+Jests flew, laughter rang, and the Judge could scarcely refrain from
+song; when just as the meal was over James Barlow appeared at the
+long, open window, his mail bag over his shoulder, and instant silence
+succeeded as each person within waited eagerly for his share in the
+contents of the pouch.
+
+There were letters in plenty, and some faces grew grave over their
+reading, while for the Judge there was a telegram which Jim explained
+had just come to the office where was, also, the post-office.
+
+"Hmm! that ends my vacation in earnest! I meant to stay a bit longer
+out of business, but--Mrs. Calvert, when's the next train cityward,
+please?"
+
+Mrs. Betty returned:
+
+"I've half a mind not to tell you! But, of course, if--Dorothy, you'll
+find a parcel of time tables in that desk by the fireplace. Take them
+to Judge Breckenridge, please."
+
+Nor was he the only one to make them useful; for it followed that the
+Deerhurst "infair," begun on the night before and planned to extend
+over several days must be abruptly ended. The hostess was herself
+summoned elsewhere, to attend the sick bed of a lifelong friend, and
+the summons was not one to be denied. Even while she was reading the
+brief note she knew that she must forsake her post and with a thrill
+of pride reflected that now she had one of her own kin to install in
+her place. Young as Dorothy was she must act as the hostess of
+Deerhurst, even to these gray-headed guests now gathered there. But,
+presently it appeared, that there would be no guests to entertain.
+President Ryall was needed to supervise some changes at his college;
+merchant Ihrie must hasten to disentangle some badly mixed business
+affairs; Dr. Mantler would miss the "most interesting case on record
+if he did not come at once to his hospital;" and so, to the four old
+"boys," who had camped together in the Markland forests, the end of
+playtime had indeed come, and each after his kind must resume his
+man's work for the world.
+
+Young Tom Hungerford's furlough from West Point expired that morning,
+and his mother felt that when he returned to the Academy she must
+establish herself for a time at the hotel near-by. At her invitation
+Mrs. Cook and Melvin were to accompany her; that these Nova Scotians
+might see something of lads' military training outside their own
+beloved Province.
+
+Catching the general spirit of unrest, Miss Greatorex suddenly
+announced that it was time she returned to the Rhinelander. Maybe she
+dreaded being left the only adult in the house, for as yet no mention
+had been made as to the disposal of her charges, Molly and Dolly.
+Certainly, she felt that having been burdened with their cares during
+the long summer she was entitled to a few days' rest before the
+beginning of a new school year. The lady added:
+
+"Besides all that, I shall have no more than sufficient time to
+arrange my specimens that I obtained in Markland."
+
+A short silence fell once more upon that company in the breakfast
+room, and somehow the brilliant sunshine seemed to dim as if a storm
+were rising; or was it but a mist of disappointment rising to
+Dorothy's eyes as she glanced from one to another and realized how
+well she loved them each and all, and how sad the parting was.
+
+But her last glance fell upon her Aunt Betty's face and she bravely
+smiled back into the kindly eyes so tenderly smiling upon her. After
+all, that was the Calvert way! To meet whatever came with "head erect
+and colors flying," and she, too, was Calvert. She'd prove it! Cried
+she, with that characteristic toss of her brown curls:
+
+"Well, if everybody _must_--what can I do to help? As for you two,
+darling 'father' and 'mother,' I hope nothing's going to take you away
+from Deerhurst all of a sudden, like the rest!"
+
+But there was, although there was no suddenness in this decision. As
+they presently informed her, the crippled ex-postman had made himself
+so useful at the sanitarium where he had spent the summer that he had
+been offered a permanent position there, at a larger salary than he
+had ever received as letter-carrier in Baltimore. He had also secured
+for his wife Martha a position as matron of the institution; and the
+independence thus achieved meant more to that ambitious woman than
+even a care-free home with her beloved foster-child. The death of
+their old aunt had released Martha from that separation from her
+husband which had so sorely tried her and, though sorry to part again
+from Dorothy, she was still a very happy woman.
+
+"We shall always love one another, Dolly dear, but we've come to 'the
+parting of the ways.' Each as the Lord leads, little girl; but what is
+the reason, now that Mrs. Calvert's grown-up party has ended, what is
+the reason, I say, that you don't give a House Party of your very
+own?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+CHOOSING THE GUESTS
+
+
+Those who must go went quickly. By trains and boats, the various
+guests who had gathered at Deerhurst to welcome Dorothy's home-coming
+had departed, and at nightfall the great house seemed strangely empty
+and deserted. Even Ma Babcock had relinquished her post as temporary
+housekeeper and had hurried across the river to nurse a seriously ill
+neighbor.
+
+"I may be back tomorrer and I may not be back till the day after
+never! I declare I'm all of a fluster, what with Mis' Calvert goin'
+away sort of leavin' me in charge--though them old colored folks o'
+her'n didn't like that none too well!--and me havin' to turn my back
+on duty this way. But sickness don't wait for time nor tide and
+typhoid's got to be tended mighty sharp; and I couldn't nohow refuse
+to go to one Mis' Judge Satterlee's nieces, she that's been as
+friendly with me as if I was a regular 'ristocratic like herself. No,
+when a body's earned a repitation for fetchin' folks through typhoid
+you got to live up to it. Sorry, Dolly C.; but I'll stow the girls,
+Barry and Clarry and the rest, 'round amongst the neighbors
+somewhere, 'fore I start. As for you, Alfy----"
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Babcock! Don't take Alfy away! Please, please don't!" cried
+Dorothy, fairly clutching at the matron's flying skirts, already
+disappearing through the doorway.
+
+Mrs. Babcock switched herself free and answered through the opening:
+
+"All right. Alfy can do as she likes. She can go down help tend store
+to Liza Jane's, t'other village, where she's been asked to go more'n
+once, or finish her visit to you. Ary one suits me so long as you
+don't let nor hender me no more."
+
+Not all of this reply was distinct, for it was finished on the floor
+above, whither the energetic farm-wife had sped to "pack her duds";
+but enough was heard to set Alfaretta skipping around the room in an
+ecstasy of delight, exclaiming:
+
+"I'm to be to the House Party! Oh! I'm to be to the Party!"
+
+But this little episode had been by daylight, and now the dusk had
+fallen. The great parlors were shut and dark. Prudent old Ephraim had
+declared:
+
+"I ain't gwine see my Miss Betty's substance wasted, now she's outer
+de way he'se'f. One lamp in de hall's ernuf fo' seein' an' doan' none
+yo chillen's go foolin' to ast mo'."
+
+So the long halls were dim and full of shadows; the wind had risen and
+howled about the windows, which were being carefully shuttered by the
+servants against the coming storm which Dinah prophesied would prove
+the "ekernoctial" and a "turr'ble one"; and to banish the loneliness
+which now tormented her, Dorothy proposed:
+
+"Let's go into the library. There's a fine fire on the hearth and the
+big lamp is stationary. Ephraim can't find fault with us for using
+that. We'll make out a list of the folks to ask. You, Alfy, shall do
+the writing, you do write such a fine, big hand. Come on, Molly girl!
+I'm so glad you begged to stay behind your Auntie Lu. Aren't you?"
+
+"Ye-es, I reckon so!" answered the little Southerner, with
+unflattering hesitation. "But it's mighty lonesome in this big house
+without her and West Point's just--just heavenly!"
+
+"Any place would be 'heavenly' to you, Molly Breckenridge, that was
+full of boys!" retorted Dolly. "But don't fancy you'd be allowed to
+see any of those cadets even if you were there. Beg pardon, girlie, I
+don't want to be cross, but how can I have a decent party if you don't
+help? Besides, there's Monty and Jim left. They ought to count for
+something."
+
+"Count for mighty little, seems if, the way they sneak off by
+themselves and leave us alone. Gentlemen, _Southern_ gentlemen,
+wouldn't act that way!"
+
+"Oh, sillies! What's the use of spoiling a splendid time? It's just
+like a cow givin' a pailful of milk then turnin' round and kickin' it
+over!" cried good-natured Alfy, throwing an arm around each girl's
+shoulders and playfully forcing her into the cheery library and into a
+great, soft chair. Of course, they all laughed and hugged one another
+and acknowledged that they had been "sillies" indeed; and a moment
+later three girlish heads were bending together above the roomy table,
+whereon was set such wonderful writing materials as fairly dazzled
+Alfaretta's eyes. So impressed was she that she exclaimed as if to
+herself:
+
+"After all, I guess I won't be a trained nurse nor a opera singer.
+I'll be a writin' woman and have just such pens and things as these."
+
+"Oh, Alfy, you funny dear! You change your mind just as often as I
+used to!"
+
+"Don't you change it no more, then, Dorothy C.?" demanded the other,
+quickly.
+
+"No. I don't think I shall ever change it again. I shall do everything
+the best I can, my music and lessons and all that, but it'll be just
+for one thing. I lay awake last night wondering how best I could prove
+grateful for all that's come to me and I reckon I've found out, and
+it's so--so simple, too."
+
+"Ha! Let's hear this fine and simple thing, darling Dolly Doodles, and
+maybe we'll both follow your illustrious example!" cried Molly,
+smiling.
+
+"To--to make everybody I know as--as happy as I can;" answered the
+other slowly.
+
+"Huh! That's nothing! And you can begin right now, on ME!" declared
+Miss Alfaretta Babcock, with emphasis.
+
+"How?"
+
+"Help me to tell who's to be invited."
+
+"All right. Head the list with Alfaretta Babcock."
+
+"Cor-rect! I've got her down already. Next?"
+
+"Molly Breckenridge."
+
+"Good enough. Down she goes. Wait till I get her wrote before you say
+any more."
+
+They waited while Alfy laboriously inscribed the name and finished
+with the exclamation:
+
+"That's the crookedest back-name I ever wrote."
+
+"You acted as if it hurt you, girlie! You wriggled your tongue like
+they do in the funny pictures;" teased Molly, but the writer paid no
+heed.
+
+"Next?"
+
+"Dorothy Calvert."
+
+"So far so good. But them three's all girls. To a party there ought to
+be as many boys. That's the way we did to our last winter's school
+treat," declared Alfaretta.
+
+"Well, there's Jim Barlow. He's a boy."
+
+"He's no _party_ kind of a boy," objected Molly, "and he's only--_us_.
+She hasn't anybody down that isn't us, so far. We few can't make a
+whole party."
+
+But Dolly and Alfy were wholly serious.
+
+"Montmorency Vavasour-Stark," suggested the former, and the writer
+essayed that formidable name. Then she threw down the pen in dismay,
+exclaiming:
+
+"You'll have to indite that yourself or spell it out to me letter by
+letter. He'll take more'n a whole line if I write him to match the
+others."
+
+"Oh! he doesn't take up much room, he's so little," reassured idle
+Molly, with a mischievous glance toward the doorway which the other
+girls did not observe; while by dint of considerable assistance Alfy
+"got him down" and "all on one line!" as she triumphantly remarked.
+
+"That's two boys and three girls. Who's your next boy?"
+
+"Melvin Cook. He's easy to write," said Dolly.
+
+"But he's gone."
+
+"Yes, Alfy, but he can come back. They'll all have to 'come' except we
+who don't have to."
+
+A giggle from behind the portières commented upon this remark and
+speeding to part them Dolly revealed the hiding figures of their two
+boy house-mates.
+
+"That's not nice of young gentlemen, to peep and listen," remarked
+Molly, severely; "but since you've done it, come and take your
+punishment. You'll have to help. James Barlow, you are appointed the
+committee of 'ways and means.' I haven't an idea what that 'means,'
+but I know they always have such a committee."
+
+"What 'they,' Miss Molly?"
+
+"I don't know, Mister Barlow, but you're--it."
+
+"Monty, you'll furnish the entertainment," she continued.
+
+The recipient of this honor bowed profoundly, then lifted his head
+with a sudden interest as Dorothy suggested the next name:
+
+"Molly Martin."
+
+Even Alfy looked up in surprise. "Do you mean it, Dorothy C.?"
+
+"Surely. After her put Jane Potter."
+
+James was listening now and inquired:
+
+"What you raking up old times for, Dorothy? Inviting them south-siders
+that made such a lot of trouble when you lived 'up-mounting' afore
+your folks leased their farm?"
+
+"Whose 'Party' is this?" asked the young hostess, calmly, yet with a
+twinkle in her eye.
+
+"All of our'n," answered Alfaretta, complacently.
+
+"How many girls now, Alfy?" questioned Molly, who longed to suggest
+some of her schoolmates but didn't like a similar reproof to that
+which fell so harmlessly from Alfaretta's mind.
+
+"Five," said the secretary, counting upon her fingers. "Me, and you,
+and her, and----five. Correct."
+
+"Mabel Bruce."
+
+"Who's she? I never heard of her," wondered Molly, while Jim answered:
+
+"She's a girl 'way down in Baltimore. Why, Dorothy C., you know she
+can't come here!"
+
+"Why not? Listen, all of you. This is to be _my_ House Party. It's to
+be the very nicest ever was. One that everyone who is in it will
+never, never forget. My darling Aunt Betty gave me permission to ask
+anybody I chose and to do anything I wanted. She said I had learned
+some of the lessons of poverty and now I had to begin the harder ones
+of having more money than most girls have. She said that I mustn't
+feel badly if the money brought me enemies and some folks got
+envious."
+
+Here, all unseen by the speaker, honest Alfaretta winced and put her
+hand to her face; but she quickly dropped it, to listen more closely.
+
+"Mabel was a dear friend even when I was that 'squalling baby' Alfy
+wrote about. I am to telegraph for her and to send her a telegraphic
+order for her expenses, though Aunt Betty wasn't sure _that_ would be
+acceptable to Mr. and Mrs. Bruce. To prevent any misunderstanding on
+that point, you are to make the telegram real long and explicit. I
+reckon that's what it means to be that committee Molly named. She'll
+make six girls and that's enough. Six boys--how many yet Alfy?"
+
+"Three. Them two that are and the one that isn't."
+
+"Mike Martin."
+
+Both Jim and Alfy exclaimed in mutual protest:
+
+"Why Dorothy! That fellow? you must be crazy."
+
+"No, indeed! I'm the sanest one here. That boy is doing the noblest
+work anybody ever did on this dear old mountain; he's making and
+keeping the peace between south-side and north-side."
+
+"How do you know, Dorothy?" asked Jim, seriously.
+
+"No matter how I know but I do know. Why, I wouldn't leave him out of
+my Party for anything. I'd almost rather be out of it myself!"
+
+Then both he and Alfaretta remembered that winter day on the mountain
+when Dorothy had been the means of saving Mike Martin from an
+accidental death and the quiet conference afterward of the two, in
+that inner room of the old forge under the Great Balm Tree. Probably
+something had happened then and there to make Dolly so sure of Mike's
+worthiness. But she was already passing on to "next," nodding toward
+Alfy, with the words:
+
+"The two Smith boys, Littlejohn and Danny."
+
+Jim Barlow laughed but did not object. The sons of farmer Smith were
+jolly lads and deserved a good time, once in their hard-worked lives;
+yet he did stare when Dorothy concluded her list of lads with the
+name:
+
+"Frazer Moore."
+
+"You don't know him very well, Dolly girl. Beside that, he'll make an
+odd number. He's the seventh----"
+
+"Son of the seventh son--fact!" interrupted Alfaretta; "and now we'll
+have to find another girl to match him."
+
+"I've found the girl, Dolly, but she won't match. Helena Montaigne
+came up on the train by which your Father John left for the north. You
+could hardly leave her out from your House Party, or from givin' her
+the bid to it, any way."
+
+"Helena home? Oh! I am so glad, I am so glad! Of course, she'll get
+the 'bid'; I'll take it to her myself the first thing to-morrow
+morning. But you didn't mention Herbert. Hasn't he come, too?"
+
+James Barlow nodded assent but grudgingly. He had never in his heart
+quite forgiven Herbert Montaigne for their difference in life; as if
+it were the fault of the one that he had been born the son of the
+wealthy owner of The Towers and of the other that he was a penniless
+almshouse child. Second thoughts, however, always brought nobler
+feeling into the honest heart of Jim and a flush of shame rose to his
+face as he forced himself to answer.
+
+"Yes, course. The hull fambly's here."
+
+Dorothy checked the teasing words which rose to her lips, for when
+ambitious Jim relapsed so hopelessly into incorrect speech it was a
+sign that he was deeply moved; and it was a relief to see Alfaretta
+once more diligently count upon her fingers and to hear her declare:
+
+"We'll never'll get this here list straight and even, never in this
+endurin' world. First there's a girl too many and now there's a girl
+too short!"
+
+"Never mind; we'll make them come out even some way, and I'll find
+another girl. I don't know who, yet, and we mustn't ask any more or
+there'll be no places for them to sleep. Now we've settled the guests
+let's settle the time. We'll have to put it off two or three days, to
+let them get here. I wish your cousin Tom Hungerford could be asked to
+join us but I don't suppose he could come," said Dolly to her friend
+Molly.
+
+"No, he couldn't. It was the greatest favor his getting off just for
+those few hours. A boy might as well be in prison as at West Point!"
+
+"What? At that 'heavenly' place? Let's see. This is Wednesday night.
+Saturday would be a nice time to begin the Party, don't you all
+think?"
+
+"Fine. Week-end ones always do begin on Saturday but the trouble is
+they break up on Monday after;" answered Molly.
+
+"Then ours is to be a double week-ender. Aunt Betty said 'invite them
+for a week.' That's seven days, and now Master Stark comes your task.
+As a committee of entertainment you are to provide some new, some
+different, fun for us every single one of those seven days; and it
+must be something out of the common. I long, I just long to have my
+home-finding House Party so perfectly beautiful that nobody in it will
+ever, ever forget it!"
+
+Looking into her glowing face the few who were gathered about her
+inwardly echoed her wish, and each, in his or her own way, resolved to
+aid in making it as "perfect" as their young hostess desired.
+
+Monty heaved a prodigious sigh.
+
+"You've given me the biggest task, Dolly Doodles! When a fellow's
+brain is no better than mine----"
+
+"Nonsense, Montmorency Vavasour-Stark! You know in your little insides
+that you're ''nigh tickled to death' as Alfy would say. Aren't you the
+one who always plans the entertainments--the social ones--at your
+school, Brentnor Hall? You're as proud as Punch this minute, and you
+know it, sir. Don't pretend otherwise!" reproved Molly, severely.
+
+"Yes, but--that was different. I had money then. I hadn't announced my
+decision to be independent of my father and he--he hadn't taken me too
+literally at my word;" and with a whimsical expression the lad emptied
+his pockets of the small sums they contained and spread the amount on
+the table. "There it is, all of it, Lady of the Manor, at your
+service! Getting up entertainments is a costly thing, but--as far as
+it goes, I'll try my level best!"
+
+They all laughed and Dorothy merrily heaped the coins again before
+him.
+
+"You forget, and so I have to remind you, that this is to be _my_
+Party! I don't ask you to spend your money but just your brains in
+this affair."
+
+"Huh! Dorothy! I'm afraid they won't go much further than the cash!"
+he returned, but nobody paid attention to this remark, they were so
+closely watching Dorothy. She had opened a little leather bag which
+lay upon the table and now drew from it a roll of bills. Crisp bank
+notes, ten of them, and each of value ten dollars.
+
+"Whew! Where did you get all that, Dorothy Calvert?" demanded Jim
+Barlow, almost sternly. To him the money seemed a fortune, and that
+his old companion of the truck-farm must still be as poor in purse as
+he.
+
+She was nearly as grave as he, as she spread the notes out one by one
+in the place where Monty had displayed his meager sum.
+
+"My Great-Aunt Betty gave them to me. It is her wish that I should use
+this money for the pleasure of my friends. She says that it is a first
+portion of my own personal inheritance, and that if I need more----"
+
+"More!" they fairly gasped; for ten times ten is a hundred, and a
+hundred dollars--Ah! What might not be done with a whole one hundred
+dollars?
+
+"'Twould be wicked," began James, in an awestruck tone, but was not
+allowed to finish, for practical Alfaretta, her big eyes fairly
+glittering, was rapidly counting upon her fingers and trying to do
+that rather difficult "example" of "how many times will seven go into
+one hundred and how much over?" "Seven into ten, once and three; seven
+into thirty--Ouch!"
+
+Her computation came to a sudden end. The storm had broken, all
+unnoticed till then, and a mighty crash as if the whole house were
+falling sent them startled to their feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE FIRST AND UNINVITED GUEST
+
+
+For an instant the group was motionless from fear; then Jim made a
+dash for the front entrance whence, apparently, the crash had come.
+There had been no thunder accompanying the storm which now raged
+wildly over the mountain top, and Alfy found sufficient voice to cry:
+
+"'Tain't no lightnin' stroke. _Somethin's_ fell!"
+
+The words were so inadequate to the description that Molly laughed
+nervously, and in relieved tension all followed James forward; only to
+find themselves rudely forced back by old Ephraim, gray with fear and
+anxiety.
+
+"Stan' back dere, stan' back, you-alls! 'Tis Eph'am's place to gyard
+Miss Betty's chillens!"
+
+He didn't look as if the task were an agreeable one and the lads
+placed themselves beside him as he advanced and with trembling hands
+tried to unbar the door. This time he did not repulse them, and it was
+well, for as the bolts slid and the heavy door was set free it fell
+inward with such force that he would have been crushed beneath it had
+they not been there to draw him out of its reach.
+
+"Oh! oh! oh! The great horse chestnut!" cried Dorothy, springing aside
+from contact with the branches which fell crowding through the
+doorway. Hinges were torn from their places and the marvel was that
+the beautifully carved door had not itself been broken in bits.
+
+Jim was the first to rally and to find some comfort in the situation,
+exclaiming:
+
+"That's happened exactly as I feared it would, some day; and it's a
+mercy there wasn't nobody sittin' on that piazza. They'd ha' been
+killed dead, sure as pisen!"
+
+"Killing generally does mean death, Jim Barlow, but if you knew that
+splendid tree was bound to fall some day why didn't you say so? We--"
+with a fine assumption of proprietorship in Deerhurst--"we would have
+had it prevented," demanded Dorothy.
+
+Already she felt that this was home; already she loved the fallen tree
+almost as its mistress had done and her feeling was so sincere, if
+new, that nobody smiled, and the lad answered soberly:
+
+"I have told, Dolly girl. I kept on tellin' Mrs. Calvert how that
+lily-pond she would have dug out deeper an' deeper, and made bigger
+all the time, would for certain undermine that tree and make it fall.
+But--but she's an old lady 't knows her own mind and don't allow
+nobody else to know it for her! Old Hans, the gardener, he talked a
+heap, too; begged her to have the pond cemented an' that wouldn't
+hender the lilies blowin' and'd stop trouble. But, no. She wouldn't
+listen. Said she 'liked things perfectly natural' and--Well, she's got
+'em now!"
+
+"Jim Barlow, you're--just horrid! and--ungrateful to my precious Aunt
+Betty!" cried Dorothy, indignant tears springing to her eyes. To her
+the fallen tree seemed like a stricken human being and the catastrophe
+a terrible one. "It's taken that grand chestnut years and years and
+years--longer'n you or I will ever live, like enough--to grow that
+big, and to be thrown down all in a minute, and--you don't care a
+mite, except to find your own silly opinion prove true!"
+
+"Hold on, Dolly girl. This ain't no time for you an' me to begin
+quarrelin'. I do care. I care more'n I can say but that don't hender
+the course o' nature. The pond was below; 'twas fed by a spring from
+above; she had trenches dug so that spring-water flowed right spang
+through the roots of that chestnut into the pond; and what could
+follow except what did? I'm powerful sorry it's happened but I can't
+help bein' common-sensible over it."
+
+"I hate common-sense!" cried Molly, coming to the support of her
+friend. "Anyway, I don't see what good we girls do standing here in
+this draughty hall. Let's go to bed."
+
+"And leave the house wide open this way?"
+
+Dorothy's sense of responsibility was serious enough to her though
+amusing to the others, and it was Monty who brought her back to facts
+by remarking:
+
+"The house always has been taken care of, Dolly Doodles, and I guess
+it will be now. Jim and I will get some axes and lop off these
+branches that forced the door in and prop it shut the best way we can.
+Then I'll go down to the lodge with him to sleep for he says there's a
+room I can have. See? You girls will be well protected!" and he nodded
+toward the group of servants gathered at the rear of the great hall.
+"So you'd better take Molly's advice and go up-stairs."
+
+Dolly wasn't pleased to be thus set coolly aside in "her own house"
+but there seemed nothing better to do than follow this frank advice;
+therefore, taking a hand of each of her girl friends, she led the way
+toward her own pretty chamber and two small rooms adjoining.
+
+"Aunt Betty thought we three'd like to be close together, and anyway,
+if we had all come that I wanted to invite we'd have to snug up some.
+So she told Dinah to fix her dressing-room for one of you--that's this
+side mine; and the little sewing-room for the other. She's put single
+beds in them and Dinah is to sleep on her cot in this wide hall
+outside our doors. It seemed sort of foolish to me, first off, when
+darling Auntie planned it, as if anything could happen to make us need
+Dinah so near; but now--My! I can't stop trembling, somehow. I was so
+frightened and sorry."
+
+"I'm sorry, too, and I'm scared, too; but I'm sleepier'n I'm ary one,"
+yawned Alfaretta.
+
+"I'm sleepy, too;" assented Molly; and even the excited Dorothy felt a
+strange drowsiness creeping over her. It would be the correct thing,
+she had imagined, to lie awake and grieve over the loss of Mrs.
+Calvert's beloved tree, which would now be cut into ignominious
+firewood and burned upon a hearth; but--in five minutes after her head
+had touched her pillow she was sound asleep as her mates already were.
+
+Outside, the storm abated and the moon arose, lighting the scenery
+with its brilliance and setting the still dripping trees aglitter with
+its glory. Moonlight often made Dorothy wakeful and did so on this
+eventful night. Its rays streaming across her unshaded window roused
+her to sit up, and with the action came remembrance.
+
+"My heart! That money! All those beautiful new bills that are to buy
+pleasant things for my Party guests! I had it all spread out on the
+library table when that crash came and I never thought of it again!
+Nobody else, either, I fancy. I'll go right down and get it and I
+mustn't wake the girls or Dinah. It was careless of me, it surely was;
+but I know enough about money to understand it shouldn't be left
+lying about in that way."
+
+Creeping softly from her bed she drew on her slippers and kimono as
+Miss Rhinelander had taught her pupils always to do when leaving their
+rooms at night, and the familiar school-habit proved her in good stead
+this time. Once she would have stopped for neither; but now folding
+the warm little garment about her she tiptoed past old Dinah, snoring,
+and down the thickly carpeted stairs, whereon her slippered feet made
+no sound. Quite noiselessly she came to the library door and pushed
+the portière aside.
+
+Into this room, also, the moonlight streamed, making every object
+visible. She had glanced, as she came along the hall, toward the big
+door, bolstered into place by the heavy settle and hat-rack; and the
+latter object looked so like a gigantic man standing guard that she
+cast no second look but darted within the lighter space.
+
+Hark! What was that sound? Somebody breathing? Snoring? A man's snore,
+so like that of dear Father John who used, sometimes, to keep her
+awake, though she hadn't minded that because she loved him so. The
+sound, frightful at first, became less so as she remembered those long
+past nights, and mustering her courage she tiptoed toward the figure
+on the lounge.
+
+Old Ephraim! Well, she didn't believe Aunt Betty would have permitted
+even that faithful servant to spend a night upon her cherished leather
+couch; but the morning would be time enough to reprimand him for his
+audacity, which, of course, she must do, since she stood now in Mrs.
+Calvert's place, as temporary head of the family. She felt gravely
+responsible and offended as she crossed the room to the table where
+three chairs still grouped sociably together, exactly as the three
+girls had left them.
+
+Ah! yes. The chairs were in their places, Alfaretta's list of guests
+as well, and even the little leather bag out of which she had drawn
+the wealth that so surprised her mates. But the ten crisp notes she
+had so spread out in the sight of all--where were they?
+
+Certainly nowhere to be seen, although that revealing moonlight made
+even Alfy's written words quite legible. What could have become of
+them? Who had taken them? And why? Supposing somebody had stolen in
+and stolen them? Supposing that was why he was sleeping in the
+library? Yet, if there had been thievery there, wouldn't he have kept
+awake, to watch? Supposing--here a horrible thought crept into her
+mind--supposing _he_, himself, had been the thief! She was southern
+born and had the southerner's racial distrust of a "nigger's" honesty;
+yet--as soon as thought she was ashamed of the suspicion. Aunt Betty
+trusted him with far more than she missed now. She would go over to
+that window and think it out. Maybe the sleeper would awake in a
+minute and she could ask him about it.
+
+The question was one destined to remain unasked. As she stood gazing
+vacantly outward, her hands clasped in perplexity, something moving
+arrested her attention. A small figure in white, or what seemed white
+in that light. It was circling the pond where the water-lilies grew
+and was swaying to and fro as if dancing to some strange measure. Its
+skirts were caught up on either side by the hands resting upon its
+hips and the apparition was enough to startle nerves that had not
+already been tried by the events of that night.
+
+Dorothy stood rooted to the spot. Then a sudden movement of the dancer
+which brought her perilously near the water's edge recalled her common
+sense.
+
+"Why, it's one of the girls! It must be! Which? She doesn't look like
+either--is she sleep-walking? Who, what can it mean?"
+
+Another instant and she had opened the long sash and sped out upon the
+rain-soaked lawn; and she was none too soon. As if unseeing, or
+unfearing, the strange figure swept nearer and nearer to the moonlit
+water, its feet already splashing in it, when Dorothy's arms were
+flung around it to draw it into safety.
+
+"Why--" began the rescuer and could say no more. The face that slowly
+turned toward her was one that she had never seen before. It was the
+face of a child under a mass of gray hair, and its expression
+strangely vacant and inconsequent. Danger, fear, responsibility meant
+nothing to this little creature whom Dorothy had saved from drowning,
+and with a sudden pitiful memory of poor, half-witted Peter Piper who
+had loved her so, she realized that here was another such as he. In
+body and mind the child had never grown up, though her years were
+many.
+
+"Come this way, little lady. Come with me. Let us go into the house;"
+said the girl gently, and led the stranger to the window she had left
+open. "You must be the odd guest I needed for my House Party, to make
+the couples even, and so I bid you welcome. Strange, the window should
+be shut!"
+
+But closed it was; nor could all the girl's puny pounding bring help
+to open it. Against the front door the great tree still pressed and
+she could not reach its bell; and confused by all she had passed
+through Dorothy forgot that there were other entrances where help
+could be summoned and sank down on the piazza floor beside her first,
+her uninvited guest, to wait for morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TROUBLES LIGHTEN IN THE TELLING
+
+
+But a few moments sufficed to show that this would not do. Despite her
+own heavy kimono she was already chilled by the air of that late
+September night, while the little creature beside her was shivering as
+if in ague, although she seemed to be half-asleep.
+
+She reasoned that Ephraim must have waked and closed the library
+window and departed to his own quarters. But there must be some way in
+which a girl could get into her own house; and then she exclaimed:
+
+"Why, yes! The sun-parlor, right at the end of this very piazza. All
+that south side is covered with glass and if I can get a sash up we
+can climb through. The place is as nice as a bedroom. Anyway, I'll
+try!"
+
+She left the stranger where she lay and ran to make the effort, and
+though for a time the heavy sash resisted her strength, it did yield
+slightly and her fresh fear that it had been locked vanished. Yet with
+her utmost endeavor she could lift it but a few inches and she
+wondered if she would be able to get her visitor through that scant
+opening.
+
+"I shall have to make her go through flat-wise, like crawling through
+fence bars, and I wonder if she will! Anyhow, I must try. I--I don't
+like it out here in the night and we'll both be sick of cold, and that
+would end our party."
+
+Dorothy never quite realized how that affair was managed.
+
+Though the wanderer appeared to hear well enough she did not speak and
+had not from the first. Probably she could not, but she could be as
+stubborn and difficult as possible and she was certainly exhausted
+from exposure. It was a harder task than lifting the great window,
+but, at last, by dint of pushing and coaxing, even shoving, the inert
+small woman was forced through the opening and dropped upon the matted
+floor, where she remained motionless.
+
+Dolly squeezed herself after and stooped above her guest, anxiously
+asking:
+
+"Did that hurt you? I'm sorry, but there was no other way. Please try
+to get up and lie down. See? There are two nice lounges here and lots
+of 'comfy' chairs. Shawls and couch-covers in plenty--Why! it'll be
+like a picnic!"
+
+The guest made no effort to rise but waved the other aside with a
+sleepy, impatient gesture, then fell to shaking again as if she were
+desperately cold. Dorothy was too frightened to heed these objections
+and since it was easier to roll a lounge to the sufferer than to
+argue, she did so and promptly had her charge upon it; but she first
+stripped off the damp cotton gown from the shaking body and wrapped it
+in all the rugs and covers she could find. She did not attempt to
+penetrate further into the house then, because she knew that Ephraim
+had bolted and barred the door leading thither. She had watched him do
+so with some amusement, early in the evening, and had playfully asked
+him if he expected any burglars. He had disdained to reply further
+than by shaking his wise old head, but had omitted no precaution
+because of her raillery.
+
+"Well, this may not be as nice as in my own room but it's a deal
+better than out of doors. That poor little thing isn't shivering so
+much and--she's asleep! She's tired out, whoever she is and wherever
+she came from, and I'm tired, also. I can't do any better till
+daylight comes and I'll curl up in this big chair and go to sleep,
+too," said Dorothy to herself.
+
+She wakened to find the sunlight streaming through the glass and to
+hear a chorus of voices demanding, each in a various key:
+
+"Why, Dorothy C!" "How could you?" "Yo' done gib we-all de wussenes'
+sca', you' ca'less chile! What yo' s'posin' my Miss Betty gwine ter
+say when she heahs ob dis yeah cuttin's up? Hey, honey? Tell me dat!"
+
+But Dinah's reproofs were cut short as her eye fell upon the
+rug-heaped lounge and saw the pile of them begin to move. As yet no
+person was visible and she stared at the suddenly agitated covers as
+if they were bewitched. Presently, they were flung aside; and revealed
+upon a crimson pillow lay a face almost as crimson.
+
+"Fo' de lan' ob lub! How come dat yeah--dis--What's hit mean, li'l gal
+Do'thy?"
+
+Dolly had not long been missed nor, when she was, had anybody felt
+serious alarm, though the girl guests had both been aggrieved that she
+should not have wakened them in time to be prompt for breakfast. They
+dressed hurriedly when Norah came a second time to summon them,
+explaining:
+
+"Miss Dorothy's room is empty and her clothes on the chairs. I must go
+seek her for she shouldn't do this way if she wants to keep cook good
+natured for the Party. Delaying breakfast is a bad beginning."
+
+Then Norah departed and went about her business of dusting; and it was
+she who had found the missing girl in the sun-parlor, and it had been
+her cry of relief that brought the household to that place.
+
+Demanded old Ephraim sternly:
+
+"Why fo' yo'-all done leab yo' baid in de middle ob de night an' go
+sky-la'kin' eround dis yere scan'lous way, Missy Dolly Calve't? Tole
+me dat!"
+
+"Why do you leave yours, to sleep on the library couch, Ephraim?" she
+returned, keenly observing him from the enclosure of her girl friends'
+arms, who held her fast that she might not again elude them.
+
+Ephraim fairly jumped; though he looked not at her but in a timid way
+toward Dinah, still bending in anxious curiosity over the stranger on
+the couch; and she was not so engrossed but that her turbaned head
+rose with a snap and she fixed her fellow servant with a fiercely
+glaring eye. Between these two equally devoted members of "Miss
+Betty's" family had always existed a bitter jealousy as to which was
+the most loyal to their mistress's interests. Let either presume upon
+that loyalty, to indulge in a forbidden privilege, and the wrath of
+the other waxed furious. Both knew that for Ephraim to have lain where
+Dorothy had discovered him, during that past night, was "intol'able"
+presumption, and at Dinah's care would be duly reported upon and
+reprimanded.
+
+Alas! The old man's start and down-dropped gaze was proof in Dorothy's
+opinion of a graver guilt than Dinah imputed to him, and when he made
+no answer save a hasty exit from the room her heart sank.
+
+"Oh! how could he do it, how could he!" and then honesty suggested.
+"But I haven't asked him yet if he did take the bills!" and she
+smiled again at her own thoughts.
+
+Attention was now diverted to Dinah's picking up the stranger from the
+couch and also departing, muttering:
+
+"I 'low dis yeah's a mighty sick li'l creatur'! Whoebah she be she's
+done fotched a high fevah wid her, an' I'se gwine put her to baid
+right now!"
+
+Illness was always enough to enlist the old nurse's deepest interest
+and she had no further reproof for the delayed breakfasts or Ephraim's
+behavior.
+
+There followed a morning full of business for all. Jim Barlow and old
+Hans, with some grumbling assistance from the "roomatical" Ephraim,
+whose "misery" Dinah assured him had been aggravated by sleeping on a
+cold leather lounge instead of in his own feather-bed--these three
+spent the morning in clearing away the fallen tree, while a carpenter
+from the town repaired the injured doorway.
+
+When Dorothy approached Jim, intending to speak freely of her
+suspicions about the lost money, he cut her short by remarking:
+
+"What silliness! Course, it isn't really lost. You've just mislaid it,
+that's all, an' forgot. I do that, time an' again. Put something away
+so careful 't I can't find it for ever so long. You'll remember after
+a spell, and say, Dolly! I won't be able to write that telegram to
+Mabel Bruce. I've got no time to bother with a parcel o' girls. If I
+don't keep a nudgin' them two old men they won't do a decent axe's
+stroke. They spend all their time complainin' of their j'ints!"
+
+"Well, why don't you get a regular woodman to chop it up, then?"
+
+"An' waste Mrs. Calvert's good money, whilst there's a lot of idlers
+on her premises, eatin' her out of house and home? I guess not. I'd
+save for her quicker'n I would for myself, an' that's saying
+considerable. I'm no eye-servant, I'm not."
+
+"Huh! You're one mighty stubborn boy! And I don't think my darling
+Aunt Betty would hesitate to pay one extra day's help. I've heard her
+say that she disliked amateur labor. She likes professional skill,"
+returned the girl, with decision.
+
+James Barlow laughed.
+
+"I reckon, Dolly C., that you've forgot the days when you and I were
+on Miranda Stott's truck-farm; when I cut firewood by the cord and you
+sat on the logs an' taught me how to spell. 'Twouldn't do for me to
+claim I can't split up one tree; and this one'll be as neat a job as
+you ever see, time I've done with it. Trot along and write your own
+telegrams; or get that Starky to do it for you. Ha, ha! He thought he
+could saw wood, himself. Said he learned it campin' out; but the first
+blow he struck he hit his own toes and blamed it on the axe being too
+heavy. Trot along with him, girlie, and don't hender me talkin'."
+
+The "Little Lady of the Manor," as President Ryall had called her,
+walked away with her nose in the air. Preferred to chop wood, did he?
+And it wasn't nice of him--it certainly wasn't nice--to set her
+thinking of that miserable old truck-farm and the days of her direst
+poverty. She was Dorothy Calvert now; a girl with a name and heiress
+of Deerhurst. She'd show him, horrid boy that he was!
+
+But just then his cheerful whistling reached her, and her indignation
+vanished. By no effort could she stay long angry with Jim. He was
+annoyingly "common-sensible," as he claimed, but he was also so
+straight and dependable that she admired him almost as much as she
+loved him. Yes, she had other friends now, and would doubtless gain
+many more, but none could ever be a truer one than this homely,
+plain-spoken lad.
+
+She spied the girls and Monty in the arbor and joined them; promptly
+announcing:
+
+"If our House Party is to be a success you three must help. Jim won't.
+He's going to chop wood. Monty, will you ride to the village and send
+that telegram to Mabel Bruce?"
+
+The lad looked up from the foot he had been contemplating and over
+which Molly and Alfy had been bending in sympathy, to answer by
+another question:
+
+"See that shoe, Dolly Calvert? Close shave that. Might have been my
+very flesh itself, and I'd have blood poisoning and an amputation, and
+then there'd have been telegrams sent--galore! Imagine my mother--if
+they had been!"
+
+"It wasn't your flesh, was it?"
+
+"That's as Yankee as I am. Always answer your own questions when you
+ask them and save a lot of trouble to the other fellow. No, I _wasn't_
+hurt but I _might_ have been! Since I'm not, I'm at your service, Lady
+D. Providing you word your own message and give me a decent horse to
+ride."
+
+"There are none but 'decent' horses in our stable, Master Stark. I
+shall need Portia myself, or we girls will. You can go ask a groom to
+saddle one--that he thinks best. I see through you. You've just been
+getting these girls to waste sympathy on you and you shall be punished
+by our leaving you alone till lunch time. I'll write the message, of
+course. I'd be afraid you wouldn't put enough in. Only--let me think.
+How much do telegrams cost?"
+
+"Twenty-five cents for ten words," came the prompt reply.
+
+"But ten would hardly begin to talk! Is telephoning cheaper? You ought
+to know, being a boy."
+
+"Long distance telephoning is about as expensive a luxury as one can
+buy, young lady. But, why hesitate? It won't take all of that hundred
+dollars," he answered, swaggering a trifle over his superior
+knowledge.
+
+Out it came without pause or pretense, the dark suspicion that had
+risen in Dorothy's innocent mind:
+
+"But I haven't that hundred dollars! It's gone. It's--_stolen_!"
+
+"Dorothy Calvert! How dare you say such a thing?"
+
+It was Molly's horrified question that broke the long silence which
+had fallen on the group; and hearing her ask it gave to poor Dorothy
+the first realization of what an evil thing it was she had voiced.
+
+"I don't know! Oh! I don't know! I wish I hadn't. I didn't mean to
+tell, not yet; and I wish, I wish I had kept it to myself!" she cried
+in keen regret.
+
+For instantly she read in the young faces before her a reflection of
+her own hard suspicion and loss of faith in others; and something that
+her beloved Seth Winters had once said came to her mind:
+
+"Evil thoughts are more catching than the measles."
+
+Seth, that grand old "Learned Blacksmith!" To him she would go, at
+once, and he would help her in every way. Turning again to her mates
+she begged:
+
+"Forget that I fancied anybody might have taken it to keep. Of course,
+nobody would. Let's hurry in and get Mabel's invitation off. I think
+I've enough money to pay for a message long enough to explain what I
+want; and her fare here--well she'll have to pay that herself or her
+father will. I've asked to have Portia put to the pony cart and we
+girls will drive around and ask all the others. So glad they live on
+the mountain where we can get to them quick."
+
+"Dolly, shall you go to The Towers, to see that Montaigne girl?" asked
+Alfaretta, rather anxiously.
+
+"Yes, but you needn't go in if you don't want to, Alfy dear. I shall
+stay only just long enough to bid her welcome home and invite her for
+Saturday."
+
+"Oh! I shouldn't mind. I'd just as lief. Fact, I'd _admire_, only if I
+put on my best dress to go callin' in the morning what'll I have left
+to wear to the Party? And Ma Babcock says them Montaignes won't have
+folks around that ain't dressed up;" said the girl, so frankly that
+Molly laughed and Dorothy hastened to assure her:
+
+"That's a mistake, Alfy, dear, I think. They don't care about a
+person's clothes. It's what's inside the clothes that counts with
+sensible people, such as I believe they are. But, I'll tell you. It's
+not far from The Towers' gate to the old smithy and I must see Mr.
+Seth. I must. I'm so thankful that he didn't leave the mountain, too,
+with all the other grown-ups. So you can drop me at Helena's; and then
+you and Molly can drive around to all the other people we've decided
+to ask and invite them in my stead. You know where all of them live
+and Molly will go with you."
+
+"Can Alfy drive--safe?" asked Molly, rather anxiously.
+
+Dolly laughed. "Anybody can drive gentle Portia and Alfy is a mountain
+girl. But what a funny question for such a fearless rider as you,
+Molly Breckenridge!"
+
+"Not so funny as you think. It's one thing to be on the back of a
+horse you know and quite another to be behind the heels of another
+that its driver doesn't know! Never mind, Alfy. I'll trust you."
+
+"You can," Alfaretta complacently assured her; and the morning's drive
+proved her right. A happier girl had never lived than she as she thus
+acted deputy for the new little mistress of Deerhurst; whose story had
+lost none of its interest for the mountain folk because of its latest
+development.
+
+But it was not at all as a proud young heiress that Dorothy came at
+last to the shop under the Great Balm Tree and threw herself
+impetuously upon the breast of the farrier quietly reading beside his
+silent forge.
+
+"O, Mr. Seth! My darling Mr. Seth! I'm in terrible trouble and only
+you can help me!"
+
+His book went one way, his spectacles another, dashed from his hands
+by her heedless onrush; but he let them lie where they had fallen and
+putting his arm around her, assured her:
+
+"So am I. Therefore, let us condole with one another. You first."
+
+"I've lost Aunt Betty's hundred dollars!"
+
+Her friend fairly gasped, and held her from him to search her troubled
+face.
+
+"Whe-ew! That is serious. Yet lost articles are sometimes found. Out
+with the whole story, 'body and bones'--as my man Owen would say."
+
+Already relieved by the chance of telling her worries, Dorothy related
+the incidents of the night, and she met the sympathy she expected. But
+it was like the nature-loving Mr. Winters that he was more disturbed
+by the loss of the great chestnut tree than by that of the money.
+Also, the story of the stranger she had found wandering by the
+lily-pond moved him deeply. All suffering or afflicted creatures were
+precious in the sight of this noble old man and he commented now with
+pity on the distress of the friends from whom the unknown one had
+strayed.
+
+"How grieved they'll be! For it must have been from some private
+household she came, or escaped. There is no public asylum or retreat
+within many miles of our mountain, so far as I know. I wonder if we
+ought to advertise her in the local newspaper? Or, do you think it
+would be kinder to wait and let her people hunt her up? Tell me,
+Dolly, dear. The opinion of a child often goes straight to the point."
+
+"Oh! Don't advertise, please, Mr. Seth! Think. If she belonged to you
+or me we wouldn't want it put in the paper that--about--you know, the
+lost one being not quite right, someway. If anybody's loved her well
+enough to keep her out of an asylum they've loved her well enough to
+come and find her, quiet like, without anybody but kind hearted people
+having to know. If they don't love her--well, she's all right for now.
+Dinah's put her to bed and told me, just before I came away, that it
+was only the exposure which had made her ill. She had roused all
+right, after a nap, and had taken a real hearty breakfast. She's about
+as big as I am and Dinah's going to put some of my clothes on her
+while her own are done up. Everybody in the house was so interested
+and kind about her, I was surprised."
+
+"You needn't have been. People who have lived with such a mistress as
+Madam Betty Calvert must have learned kindness, even if they learned
+nothing else."
+
+Dorothy laughed. "Dear Mr. Seth, you love my darling Aunt Betty, too,
+don't you, like everybody does?"
+
+"Of course, and loyally. That doesn't prevent my thinking that she
+does unwise things."
+
+"O--oh!!"
+
+"Like giving a little girl one hundred dollars at a time to spend in
+foolishness."
+
+Dorothy protested: "It wasn't to be foolishness. It was to make people
+happy. You yourself say that to 'spread happiness' is the only thing
+worth while!"
+
+"Surely, but it doesn't take Uncle Sam's greenbacks to do that. Not
+many of them. When you've lived as long as I have you'll have learned
+that the things which dollars do _not_ buy are the things that count.
+Hello! 'By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way
+comes.'"
+
+The blacksmith rose as he finished his quotation and went to the wide
+doorway, across which a shadow had fallen, and from whence the sound
+of an irritable: "Whoa-oa, there!" had come.
+
+It was a rare patron of that old smithy and Seth concealed his
+surprise by addressing not the driver but the horse:
+
+"Well, George Fox! Good-morning to you!"
+
+George Fox was the property of miller Oliver Sands, and the Quaker and
+his steed were well known in all that locality. He was a fair-spoken
+man whom few loved and many feared, and between him and the "Learned
+Blacksmith" there was "no love lost." Why he had come to the smithy
+now Seth couldn't guess; nor why, as he stepped down from his buggy
+and observed, "I'd like to have thee look at George's off hind foot,
+farrier. He uses it----" he should do what he did.
+
+How it was "used" was not explained; for, leaving the animal where it
+stood, the miller sauntered into the building, hands in pockets, and
+over it in every part, even to its owner's private bedroom, as if he
+had a curiosity to see how his neighbor lived. Seth would have
+resented this, had it been worth while and if the miller's odd
+curiosity had not aroused the same feeling in himself. It was odd, he
+thought; but Seth Winters had nothing to hide and he didn't care. It
+was equally odd that George Fox's off hind foot was in perfect
+condition and had been newly shod at the other smithy, over the
+mountain, where all the miller's work was done.
+
+"It seems to be all right, Friend Oliver."
+
+"Forget that I troubled thee," answered the gray-clad Friend, as he
+climbed back to his seat and shook the reins over his horse's back, to
+instantly disappear down the road, but to leave a thoughtful neighbor,
+staring after him.
+
+"Hmm. That man's in trouble. I wonder what!" murmured Seth, more to
+himself than to Dorothy, who had drawn near to slip her hand in his.
+
+"Dear me! Everybody seems to be, this morning, Mr. Seth; and you
+haven't told me yours yet!"
+
+"Haven't I? Well, here it is!"
+
+He stooped his gray head to her brown one and whispered it in her ear;
+with the result that he had completely banished all her own anxieties
+and sent her laughing down the road toward home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+RIDDLES
+
+
+"There's a most remarkable thing about this House Party of ours! Every
+person invited has come and not one tried to get out of so doing!
+Three cheers for the Giver of the Party! and three times three
+for--all of us!" cried happy Seth Winters, from his seat of honor at
+the end of the great table in the dining-room, on the Saturday evening
+following.
+
+Lamps and candles shone, silver glittered, flower-bedecked and
+spotlessly clean, the wide apartment was a fit setting for the crowd
+of joyous young folk which had gathered in it for supper; and the
+cheers rang out as heartily as the master of the feast desired.
+
+Then said Alfaretta, triumphantly:
+
+"The Party has begun and I'm to it, I'm in it!"
+
+"So am I, so am I! Though I did have to invite myself!" returned Mr.
+Winters. "Strange that this little girl of mine should have left me
+out, that morning when she was inviting everybody, wholesale."
+
+For to remind her that he "hadn't been invited" was the "trouble"
+which he had stooped to whisper in Dorothy's ear, as she left him at
+the smithy door. So she had run home and with the aid of her friends
+already there had concocted a big-worded document, in which they
+begged his presence at Deerhurst for "A Week of Days," as they named
+the coming festivities; and also that he would be "Entertainer in
+Chief."
+
+"You see," confided Dolly, "now that the thing is settled and I've
+asked so many I begin to get a little scared. I've never been hostess
+before--not this way;--and sixteen people--I'm afraid I don't know
+enough to keep sixteen girls and boys real happy for a whole week. But
+dear Mr. Winters knows. Why, I believe that darling man could keep a
+world full happy, if he'd a mind."
+
+"Are you sorry you started the affair, Dolly Doodles? 'Cause if you
+are, you might write notes all round and have it given up. You'd
+better do that than be unhappy. Society folks would, I reckon," said
+Molly, in an effort to comfort her friend's anxiety. "I'm as bad as
+you are. It begins to seem as if we'd get dreadful tired before the
+week is out."
+
+"I'd be ashamed of myself if I did that, Molly, I'll go through with
+it even if none of you will help; though I must say I think it's--it's
+sort of mean for you boys, Jim and Monty, to beg off being
+'committees.'"
+
+"The trouble with me, Dolly, is that my ideas have entirely given
+out. If you hadn't lost that hundred dollars I could get up a lot of
+jolly things. But without a cent in either of our pockets--Hmm,"
+answered Monty, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+Jim said nothing. He was still a shy lad and while he meant to forget
+his awkwardness and help all he could he shrank from taking a
+prominent part in the coming affair.
+
+Alfaretta was the only one who wasn't dismayed, and her fear that the
+glorious event might be abandoned was ludicrous.
+
+"Pooh, Dorothy Calvert! I wouldn't be a 'fraid-cat, I wouldn't! Not if
+I was a rich girl like you've got to be and had this big house to do
+it in and folks to do the cookin' and sweepin', and--and rooms to
+sleep 'em in and everything!" she argued, breathlessly.
+
+"You funny, dear Alfaretta! It's not to be given up and I count on you
+more than anybody else to keep things going! With you and Mr. Seth--if
+he will--the Party cannot fail!" and Alfy's honest face was alight
+again.
+
+It had proved that the "Learned Blacksmith" "would" most gladly. At
+heart he was as young as any of them all and he had his own reasons
+for wishing to be at Deerhurst for a time. He had been more concerned
+than Dorothy perceived over the missing one hundred dollars, and he
+was anxious about the strange guest who had appeared in the night and
+who was so utterly unable to give an account of herself.
+
+So he had come, as had they all and now assembled for their first meal
+together, and Dorothy's hospitable anxiety had wholly vanished. Of
+course, all would go well. Of course, they would have a jolly time.
+The only trouble now, she thought, would be to choose among the many
+pleasures offering.
+
+There had been a new barn built at Deerhurst that summer, and a large
+one. This Mr. Winters had decreed should be the scene of their gayest
+hours with the big rooms of the old mansion for quieter ones; and to
+the barn they went on that first evening together, as soon as supper
+was over and the dusk fell.
+
+"Oh! how pretty!" cried Helena Montaigne, as she entered the place
+with her arm about Molly's waist, for they two had made instant
+friends. "I saw nothing so charming while I was abroad!"
+
+"Didn't you?" asked the other, wondering. "But it _is_ pretty!" In
+secret she feared that Helena would be a trifle "airish," and she felt
+that would be a pity.
+
+"Oh! oh! O-H!" almost screamed Dorothy, who had not been permitted to
+enter the barn for the last two days while, under the farrier's
+direction, the boys had had it in charge. Palms had been brought from
+the greenhouse and arranged "with their best foot forward" as Jim
+declared. Evergreens deftly placed made charming little nooks of
+greenery, where camp-chairs and rustic benches made comfortable
+resting places. Rafters were hung with strings of corn and gay-hued
+vegetables, while grape-vines with the fruit upon them covered the
+stalls and stanchions. Wire strung with Chinese lanterns gave all the
+light was needed and these were all aglow as the wide doors were
+thrown open and the merry company filed in.
+
+"My land of love!" cried Alfaretta. "It's just like a livin'-in-house,
+ain't it! There's even a stove and a chimney! Who ever heard tell of a
+stove in a barn?"
+
+"You have! And I, too, for the first time," said Littlejohn Smith at
+her elbow. "But I 'low it'll be real handy for the men in the winter
+time, to warm messes for the cattle and keep themselves from freezin'.
+Guess I know what it means to do your chores with your hands like
+chunks of ice! Wish to goodness Pa Smith could see this barn; 'twould
+make him open his eyes a little!"
+
+"A body could cook on that stove, it's so nice and flat. Or even pop
+corn," returned Alfaretta, practically.
+
+"Bet that's a notion! Say, Alfy, don't let on, but I'll slip home
+first chance I get and fetch some of that! I've got a lot left over
+from last year, 't I raised myself. I'll fetch my popper and if you
+can get a little butter out the house, some night, we'll give these
+folks the treat of their lives. What say?"
+
+Whatever might be the case with others of that famous Party these two
+old schoolmates were certainly "happy as blackbirds"--the only
+comparison that the girl found to fully suit their mood.
+
+When the premises had been fully explored and admired, cried Mr. Seth:
+
+"Blind man's buff! Who betters me?"
+
+"Nobody could--'Blind man's' it is!" seconded Monty, and gallantly
+offered: "I'll blind!"
+
+"Oh! no choosing! Do it the regular way," said Dolly. "Get in
+a row, please, all of you, and I'll begin with Herbert.
+'Intry-mintry-cutry-corn; Apple-seed-and-apple-thorn;
+Wire-brier-limber-lock; Six-geese-in-a-flock;
+Sit-and-sing-by-the-spring; O-U-T--OUT!' Frazer Moore, you're--IT!"
+
+The bashful lad who was more astonished to find himself where he was
+than he could well express, and who had really been bullied into
+accepting Dorothy's invitation by his chum, Mike Martin, now awkwardly
+stepped forward from the circle. His face was as red as his hair and
+he felt as if he were all feet and hands, while it seemed to him that
+all the eyes in the room were boring into him, so pitilessly they
+watched him. In reality, if he had looked up, he would have seen that
+most of the company were only eagerly interested to begin the game,
+and that the supercilious glances cast his way came from Herbert
+Montaigne and Mabel Bruce alone.
+
+Another half-moment and awkwardness was forgotten. Dorothy had
+bandaged the blinder's eyes with Mr. Seth's big handkerchief, and in
+the welcome darkness thus afforded he realized nothing except that
+invisible hands were touching him, from this side and that, plucking
+at his jacket, tapping him upon the shoulder, and that he could catch
+none of them. Finally, a waft of perfume came his way, and the flutter
+of starched skirts, and with a lunge forward he clasped his arms about
+the figure of:
+
+"That girl from Baltimore! her turn!" he declared and was for pulling
+off the handkerchief, but was not allowed.
+
+"Which one? there are two Baltimore girls here, my lad. Which one have
+you caught?"
+
+Mabel squirmed, and Frazer's face grew a deeper red. He had been
+formally introduced, early upon Mabel's arrival, but had been too
+confused and self-conscious to understand her name. He was as anxious
+now to release her as she was to be set free, but his tormentors
+insisted:
+
+"Her name? her name? Not till you tell her name!"
+
+"I don't know--I mean--I--'tain't our Dolly, it's t'other one that's
+just come and smells like a--a drug store!" he answered, desperately,
+and loosened his arms.
+
+Mabel was glad enough to escape, blushing furiously at the way he had
+identified her, yet good-naturedly joining in the laugh of the others.
+Though she secretly resolved to be more careful in the use of scents
+of which she was extravagantly fond; and she allowed herself to be
+blindfolded at once, yet explaining:
+
+"Maybe I shall have to tell who you are by just such ways as he did
+me. I never was to a House Party before and you're all strangers,
+'cept Dolly C., and anybody'd know her!"
+
+But it wasn't Dolly she captured. Susceptible Monty beheld in the
+little Baltimorean a wonderfully attractive vision. She was as short
+and as plump as he was. Her taste ran riot in colors, as did his own.
+He was bewildered by the mass of ruffles and frills that one short
+frock could display and he considered her manner of "doing" her hair
+as quite "too stylish for words." It was natural, therefore, that he
+should deliberately put himself in her way and try his best to be
+caught, while his observant mates heartlessly laughed at his
+unsuccessful maneuvers.
+
+But it was handsome Herbert upon whose capture Mabel's mind was set,
+and it was a disappointment that, instead of his arm she should clutch
+that of James Barlow. However, there was no help for it and she was
+obliged to blindfold in his turn the tall fellow who had to stoop to
+her shortness, while casting admiring glances upon the other lad.
+
+So the game went on till they were tired, and it was simple Molly
+Martin who suggested the next amusement.
+
+"My sake! I'm all beat out! I can't scarcely breathe, I've run and
+laughed so much. I never had so much fun in my life! Let's all sit
+down in a row and tell riddles. We'll get rested that way."
+
+To some there this seemed a very childish suggestion, but not to wise
+Seth Winters. The very fact that shy Molly Martin had so far forgotten
+her own self-consciousness as to offer her bit of entertainment argued
+well for the success of Dorothy's House Party with its oddly assorted
+members. But he surprised Helena's lifted eyebrows and the glance she
+exchanged with the other Molly, so hastened to endorse the
+proposition:
+
+"A happy thought, my lass; and as I'm the oldest 'child' here I'll
+open the game myself with one of the oldest riddles on record. Did
+anybody ever happen to hear of the Sphinx?"
+
+"Why, of course! Egypt----" began Monty eagerly, hoping to shine in
+the coming contest of wits.
+
+Seth Winters shook his head.
+
+"In one sense a correct answer; but, Jamie lad, out with it! I believe
+_you_ know which Sphinx I mean. All your delving into books--out with
+it, man!"
+
+"The monster of the ancients, I guess. That had the head of a woman,
+the body of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the
+paws of a lion, and a human voice;" answered Jim blushing a little
+thus to be airing his knowledge before so many.
+
+"The very creature! What connection had this beauty with riddles, if
+you please?"
+
+They were all listening now, and smiling a little over the old
+farrier's whimsical manner, as the boy student went on to explain:
+
+"The Sphinx was sent into Thebes by Juno for her private revenge. The
+fable is that he laid all that country waste by proposing riddles and
+killing all who could not guess them. The calamity was so great that
+Creon promised his crown to anyone who could guess one, and the
+guessing would mean the death of the Sphinx."
+
+"Why do you stop just there, Jim, in the most interesting part? Please
+go on and finish--if you can!" cried Dorothy.
+
+Mr. Winters also nodded and the boy added:
+
+"This was the riddle: What animal in the morning walks on four feet,
+at noon on two, and at evening on three?"
+
+"At it, youngsters, at it! Cudgel your brains for the answer. We don't
+want any mixed-anatomy Sphinxes rampaging around here," urged the
+farrier.
+
+Many and various were the guesses hazarded but each fell wide of the
+mark. Helena alone preserved a smiling silence and waited to hear what
+the others had to say.
+
+"Time's up! Five minutes to a riddle is more than ample. Helena has
+it, I see by the twinkle of her eyes. Well, my dear?"
+
+"I can't call it a real guess, Mr. Winters, for I read it, as James
+did the story. The answer is--_Man_. In his babyhood, the morning of
+life, he crawls or walks on 'all fours'; in youth and middle age he
+goes upright on two feet; and at evening, old age, he supplements them
+by a staff or crutch--his three feet."
+
+"Oh! how simple! Why couldn't I guess that!" exclaimed Molly,
+impatiently. "But who did solve the silly thing, first off?"
+
+"Oedipus; and this so angered the Sphinx that he dashed his head
+against a rock and so died."
+
+"Umm. I never dreamed there could be riddles like that," said Molly
+Martin; "all I thought of was 'Round as an apple, busy as a bee, The
+prettiest little thing you ever did see,' and such. I'd like to learn
+some others worth while, to tell of winter evenings before we go to
+bed."
+
+"I know a good one, please, Mr. Seth. Shall I tell it?" asked Frazer
+Moore. "Pa found it in a 'Farmers' Almanac,' so maybe the rest have
+seen it, too."
+
+"Begin, Frazer. Five minutes per riddle! If anybody knows it 'twon't
+take so long," advised Mr. Seth, whom Dolly had called "the Master of
+the Feast."
+
+     "What is it men and women all despise,
+     Yet one and all so highly prize?
+     Which kings possess not? though full sure am I
+     That for the luxury they often sigh.
+     That never was for sale, yet, any day,
+     The poorest beggar may the best display.
+     The farmer needs it for his growing corn;
+     Nor its dear comfort will the rich man scorn;
+     Fittest for use within a sick friend's room,
+     Its coming silent as spring's early bloom.
+     A great, soft, yielding thing that no one fears--
+     A little thing oft wet with mother's tears.
+     A thing so hol(e)y that when it we wear
+     We screen it safely from the world's rude stare."
+
+"Hmm. Seems if there were handles enough to that long riddle, but I
+can't catch on to any of them. They contradict themselves so," cried
+Dorothy, after a long silence had followed Frazer's recitation.
+
+Handles enough, to be sure; but like Dorothy, nobody could grasp one,
+and as the five minutes ended the mountain lad had the proud
+knowledge that he had puzzled them all, and gayly announced:
+
+"That was an easy one! Every word I said fits--AN OLD SHOE!"
+
+"Oh!" "A-ah!" "How stupid I was not to see!" "'The farmer needs it for
+his growing corn!'" cried the Master, drawing up his foot and
+facetiously rubbing his toes. "Even a farmer may raise two kinds of
+corn," suggested he and thus solved one line over which Jane Potter
+was still puzzling.
+
+Thereupon, Monty sprang up and snapped his fingers, schoolroom
+fashion:
+
+"Master, Master! Me next! Me! I know one good as his and not near so
+long! My turn, please!"
+
+They all laughed. Laughter came easily now, provoked even by
+silliness, and again a thankful, happy feeling rose in the young
+hostess's heart that her House Party was to be so delightful to
+everybody. Helena Montaigne now sat resting shoulder to shoulder with
+proud Alfaretta upon a little divan of straw whose back was a row of
+grain sheaves; Mabel was radiant amid a trio of admiring lads--Monty,
+Mike Martin, and Danny Smith; Herbert was eagerly discussing camp-life
+with shy Melvin, who had warmed to enthusiasm over his Nova Scotian
+forests; and all the different elements of that young assembly were
+proving most harmonious, as even smaller parties, arranged by old
+hostesses, do not always prove.
+
+"All right, Master Montmorency. Make it easy, please. A diversion not
+a brain tax," answered Seth.
+
+"'If Rider Haggard had been Lew Wallace, what would 'She' have been?'"
+
+"'Ben Hur'!" promptly shouted Frazer, before another had a chance to
+speak, and Monty sank back with a well-feigned groan. "I read that in
+the Almanac, too. I've read 'Ben Hur,' it's in our school lib'ry, but
+not 'She,' though Pa told me that was another book, wrote by the other
+feller."
+
+"I'll never try again; I never do try to distinguish myself but I make
+a failure of it!" wailed Monty, jestingly.
+
+"But Herbert hasn't failed, nor Melvin. Let's have at least one more
+wit-sharpener," coaxed Dorothy.
+
+But Herbert declined, though courteously enough.
+
+"Indeed, Dorothy, I don't know a single riddle and I never could guess
+one. Try Melvin, instead, please."
+
+The English boy flushed, as he always did at finding himself observed,
+but he remembered that he had heard strangers comment upon the
+obligingness of the Canadians and he must maintain the honor of his
+beloved Province. So, after a trifling hesitation, he answered:
+
+"I can think of only one, Dorothy, and it's rather long, I fancy. My
+mother made me learn it as a punishment, once, when I was a little
+tacker, don't you know, and I never forgot it. The one by Lord Byron.
+I'll render that, if you wish."
+
+"We do wish, we do!" cried Molly, while the Master nodded approvingly.
+
+So without further prelude Melvin recited:
+
+     "'Twas whispered in Heaven, 'twas muttered in Hell,
+     And Echo caught softly the sound as it fell;
+     On the confines of Earth 'twas permitted to rest,
+     And the Depths of the ocean its presence confessed.
+     'Twill be found in the Sphere when 'tis riven asunder,
+     Be seen in the Lightning and heard in the Thunder.
+     'Twas allotted to man with his earliest Breath,
+     Attends at his Birth and awaits him in Death;
+     It presides o'er his Happiness, Honor, and Health,
+     Is the prop of his House and the end of his Wealth.
+     Without it the soldier and seaman may roam,
+     But woe to the Wretch who expels it from Home.
+     In the Whispers of conscience its voice will be found,
+     Nor e'en in the Whirlwind of passion be drowned.
+     'Twill not soften the Heart; and tho' deaf to the ear
+     'Twill make it acutely and instantly Hear.
+     But in Shade, let it rest like a delicate flower--
+     Oh! Breathe on it softly--it dies in an Hour."
+
+Several had heard the riddle before and knew its significance; but
+those who had not found it as difficult to guess as Frazer's "Old
+Shoe" had been. So Melvin had to explain that it was a play of words
+each containing the letter H; and this explanation was no sooner given
+than a diversion was made by Mabel Bruce's irrelevant remark:
+
+"I never picked grapes off a vine in my life, never!"
+
+"Hi! Does that mean you want to do so now?" demanded Monty, alert. He,
+too, had grown tired of a game in which he did not excel, and eagerly
+followed the direction of her pointing, chubby finger. A finger on
+which sparkled a diamond ring, more fitting for a matron than a
+schoolgirl young as she.
+
+Along that side of the barn, rising from the hay strewn floor to the
+loft above, ran a row of upright posts set a few inches apart and
+designed to guard a great space beyond. This space was to be filled
+with the winter's stock of hay and its cemented bottom was several
+feet lower than the floor whereon the merry-makers sat. As yet but
+little hay had been stored there, and the posts which would give
+needful ventilation as well as keep the hay from falling inward, had
+been utilized now for decoration.
+
+The boyish decorators had not scrupled to rifle the Deerhurst
+vineyards of their most attractive vines, and the cluster of fruit on
+which Mabel had fixed a covetous eye was certainly a tempting one.
+The rays from two Chinese lanterns, hung near it, brought out its
+juicy lusciousness with even more than daylight clearness, and Mabel's
+mouth fairly watered for these translucent grapes.
+
+"That bunch? Of course you shall have it!" cried Monty, springing up
+and standing on tiptoe to reach what either Jim or Herbert could have
+plucked with ease.
+
+Alas! His efforts but hindered himself. The vine was only loosely
+twined around the upright and, as he grasped it, swung lightly about
+and the cluster he sought was forced to the inner side of the post,
+even higher than it had hung before.
+
+"Huh! That's what my father would call 'the aggravation of inanimate
+things'! Those grapes knew that you wanted them, that I wanted to get
+them for you, and see how they act? But I'll have them yet. Don't
+fear. That old fellow I camped-out with this last summer told me it
+was a coward who ever gave up 'discouraged.' I'll have that bunch of
+grapes--or I'll know the reason why! I almost reached them that time!"
+cried the struggler, proudly, and leaped again.
+
+By this time all the company was watching his efforts, the lads
+offering jeering suggestions about "sheets of paper to stand on," and
+Danny Smith even inquiring if the other was "practising for a climb on
+a greased pole, come next Fourth."
+
+Even the girls laughed over Monty's ludicrous attempts, though Mabel
+entreated him to give up and let somebody else try.
+
+"I--I rather guess not! When I set out to serve a lady I do it or die
+in the attempt!" returned the perspiring lad, vigorously waving aside
+the proffered help of his taller mates. "I--I--My heart! Oh! Jiminy!
+I--I'm stuck!"
+
+He was. One of the newly set uprights had slipped a little and again
+wedged itself fast; and between this and its neighbor, unfortunate
+Montmorency hung suspended, the upper half of his body forced inward
+over the empty "bay" and his fat legs left to wave wildly about in
+their effort to find a resting place. To add to his predicament, a
+scream of uncontrollable laughter rose from all the observers, even
+Mabel, in whose sake he so gallantly suffered, adding her shrill
+cackle to the others.
+
+All but the Master. Only the fleetest smile crossed his face, then it
+grew instantly grave as he said:
+
+"We've tried our hand at riddles but here's another, harder than any
+of the others. Monty is in a fix--how shall we get him out?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A MORNING CALL
+
+
+So ended the first "Day" of Dorothy's famous "Week."
+
+At sight of the gravity that had fallen upon Seth Winter's face her
+own sobered, though she had to turn her eyes away from the absurd
+appearance of poor Monty's waving legs. Then the legs ceased to wave
+and hung limp and inert.
+
+The Master silently pointed toward the door and gathering her girl
+guests about her the young hostess led them houseward, remarking:
+
+"That looks funnier than it is and dear Mr. Seth wants us out of the
+way. I reckon they'll have to cut that post down for I saw that even
+he and Jim together couldn't move it. It's so new and sticky, maybe--I
+don't know. Poor Monty!"
+
+"When he kept still, just now, I believe he fainted. I'm terribly
+frightened," said Helena Montaigne, laying a trembling hand on Dolly's
+shoulder. "It would be so perfectly awful to have your House Party
+broken up by a tragedy!"
+
+Mabel began to cry, and the two mountain girls, Molly Martin and Jane,
+slipped their arms about her to comfort her, Jane practically
+observing:
+
+"It takes a good deal to kill a boy. Ma says they've as many lives as
+a cat, and Ma knows. She brought up seven."
+
+"She didn't bring 'em far, then, Jane. They didn't grow to be more
+than a dozen years old, ary one of 'em. You're the last one left and
+you know it yourself," corrected the too-exact Alfaretta.
+
+"Pooh, Alfy! Don't talk solemn talk now. That Monty boy isn't dead yet
+and Janie's a girl. They'll get him out his fix, course, such a lot of
+folks around to help. And, Mabel, it wasn't your fault, anyway. He
+needn't have let himself get so fat, then he wouldn't have had no
+trouble. I could slip in and out them uprights, easy as fallin' off a
+log. He must be an awful eater. Fat folks gen'ally are," said Molly
+Martin.
+
+Mabel winced and shook off the comforter's embrace. She was "fat"
+herself and also "an awful eater," as Dolly could well remember and
+had been from the days of their earliest childhood. But the regretful
+girl could not stop crying and bitterly blamed herself for wanting
+"those horrible grapes. I'll never eat another grape as long as I
+live. I shall feel like--like a----"
+
+"Like a dear sensible girl, Mabel Bruce! And don't forget you haven't
+eaten any grapes _yet_, here. Of course, it will be all right.
+Molly Martin is sensible. Let's just go in and sit awhile in the
+library, where cook, Aunt Malinda, was going to put some cake and
+lemonade. There'll be a basket of fruit there, too; and we can have
+a little music, waiting for the boys to come in," said Dorothy, with
+more confidence in her voice than in her heart. Then when Mabel's
+tears had promptly ceased--could it have been at the mention of
+refreshments?--she added, considerately: "and let's all resolve not to
+say a single word about poor Monty's mishap. He's more sensitive than
+he seems and will be mortified enough, remembering how silly he
+looked, without our reminding him of it."
+
+"That's right, Dorothy. I'm glad you spoke of it. I'm sure nobody
+would wish to hurt his feelings and it was--ridiculous, one way;"
+added Helena, heartily, and Dorothy smiled gratefully upon her. She
+well knew that the rich girl's opinion carried weight with these
+poorer ones and of Alfaretta's teasing tongue she had been especially
+afraid.
+
+Nor was it long before they heard the boys come in, and from the merry
+voices and even whistling of the irrepressible Danny, they knew that
+the untoward incident had ended well. Yet when the lads had joined
+them, as eager for refreshments as Mabel now proved, neither Jim, Mr.
+Seth, nor Monty was with them; and, to the credit of all it was, that
+the subject of the misadventure did not come up at all, although
+inquisitive Alfy had fairly to bite her tongue to keep the questions
+back.
+
+They ended the evening by an hour in the music room, where gay college
+songs and a few old-fashioned "rounds" sent them all to bed a
+care-free, merry company; though Dorothy lingered long enough to write
+a brief note to Mrs. Calvert and to drop it into the letter-box whence
+it would find the earliest mail to town.
+
+A satisfactory little epistle to its recipient, though it said only
+this:
+
+"Our House Party is a success! Dear Mr. Seth is the nicest boy of the
+lot, and I know you're as glad as I am that he invited himself. I
+thank you and I love you, love you, love you! Dolly."
+
+Next morning, as beautiful a Sunday as ever dawned, came old Dinah to
+Dorothy with a long face, and the lament:
+
+"I cayn't fo' de life make dat li'l creatur' eat wid a fo'k an'
+howcome I erlows he' to eat to de table alongside you-alls, lak yo'
+tole me, Miss Do'thy? I'se done putten it into he' han', time an' time
+ergin, an' she jes natchally flings hit undah foot an' grabs a spoon.
+An' she stuffs an' stuffs, wussen you' fixin' er big tu'key. I'se
+gwine gib up teachin' he' mannehs. I sutney is. She ain' no quality,
+she ain'."
+
+"But that's all right, Dinah. She's only a child, a little child it
+seems to me. And whether she's 'quality' or not makes no difference.
+I've talked it all over with Mr. Seth and he says I may do as I like.
+Whoever she is, she's somebody! She came uninvited and sometimes it
+seems as if God sent her. She can't understand our good times but I
+want her to share them. So, now that you say she is perfectly well,
+just let her take the place at table near the door where we settled
+she should sit. Let Norah wait upon her and I do believe the sight of
+all of us, so happy, will give some happiness to her. 'Touched of
+God,' some people call these 'naturals.' She's a human being, she was
+once a girl like me, and she's simply--_not finished_! She isn't a bit
+repulsive and I'm sure it's right to have her with us all we can."
+
+"She's a ole woman, Miss Do'thy, she ain' no gal-chile. He' haid's
+whitah nor my Miss Betty's. I erlow she wouldn'----"
+
+"There, there, good Dinah! You and I have threshed this subject
+threadbare. You are so kind to me, have done and will do so much to
+make my Party go off all right, that I do hate to go against anything
+you say. But I can't give up in this. That poor little wanderer who
+strayed into Deerhurst grounds, whom nobody comes to claim, shall not
+be the first to find it inhospitable. I've written Aunt Betty all
+about this 'Luna' and I know she'll approve, just as Mr. Winters does.
+So don't try to keep her shut up out of sight, any longer, Dinah dear.
+It goes to my heart to see her pace, pace around any room you put her
+in by herself. Like a poor wild animal caged! It fairly made me
+shiver to see her, yesterday, when you led her into the great
+storeroom and left her. She followed you to the door and peered, and
+peered, out after you but didn't offer to follow. As if she were
+fastened by invisible chains and couldn't. Then around and around she
+went again, playing with those bits of bright rags you found in the
+pocket of her own dress. I'm so glad she likes that red one of mine
+and that it fits her so well. So don't worry, Dinah, over the
+proprieties of your Miss Betty's home. There's something better than
+propriety--that's loving kindness!"
+
+Nobody had ever accused old Dinah of want of kindness and Dorothy did
+not mean to do so now. The faithful woman had been devoted to the
+unknown visitor, from the moment of discovering her asleep upon the
+sun-parlor lounge; but she could not make it seem right that such an
+afflicted creature, and one who was evidently so far along in life,
+should mix at all familiarly with all those gay young people now
+staying in the house. But she had never heard her new "li'l Missy"
+talk at such length before and she was impressed by the multitude of
+words if not by their meaning. Besides, her quick ear had caught that
+"Luna," and she now impatiently demanded:
+
+"Howcome you' knows he' name, Miss Do'thy, an' nebah tole ole Dinah?"
+
+"Oh! I don't know it, honey. Not her real one. That's a fancy one I
+made up. She came to us in the moonlight and Luna stands for moon. So
+that's why, and that's all! So go, good Dinah, and send your charge in
+with Norah. All the others are down and waiting and, I hope, as hungry
+for their breakfast as I am!"
+
+Dinah departed, grumbling. In few things would she oppose her "Miss
+Do'thy" but in the matter of this "unfinished" stranger she felt
+strongly. However, she objected no more. If Mr. Seth Winters, her Miss
+Betty's trusted friend, endorsed such triflin', ornery gwines-on, she
+had no more to say. The blame was on his shoulders and not hers!
+
+Since nobody knew a better name for the stranger than "Luna" it was
+promptly accepted by all as a fitting one. She answered to it just as
+she answered to anything else--and that was not at all. She allowed
+herself to be led, fed, and otherwise attended, without resistance,
+and if she was especially comfortable she wore a happy smile on her
+small wrinkled face. But she never spoke and to the superstitious
+servants her silence seemed uncanny:
+
+"I just believe she could talk, if she wanted to, for she certainly
+hears quick enough. She's real impish, witch-like, and she fair gives
+me the creeps," complained Norah to a stable lad early on that Sunday
+morning. "And I don't half like for Miss Dolly to 'point me special
+nurse to the creatur'. I'd rather by far be left to me bedmakin' an'
+dustin'. She may be one of them 'little people' lives at home in old
+Ireland--that's the power to work ill charms on a body, if they wish
+it."
+
+"True ye say, Norah girl. 'Twas an' ill charm, she worked on me not an
+hour agone. I was in the back porch, slippin' off me stable jacket
+'fore eatin' my food, an' Dinah had the creature by the hand scrubbin'
+a bit dirt off it. I was takin' my money out one pocket into another
+and quick as chain-lightnin' grabs this queer old woman and hides the
+money behind her. She may be a fool, indeed, but she knows money when
+she sees it! and the look on her was like a miser!"
+
+"Did you get it back, lad?"
+
+"'Deed, that did I! If there's one more'n another this Luny dwarf
+fears--and likes, too, which is odd!--it's old black Dinah; and even
+she had to squeeze the poor little hand tight to make its fingers open
+and the silver drop out. Then the creature forgot all about it same's
+she'd never seen it at all, at all. But Tim's learned his lesson, and
+'tis that there's nobody in this world so silly 't he don't know money
+when he sees it! 'Twas a she this time, though just as greedy."
+
+But if Norah dreaded the charge of poor Luna the latter made very
+little trouble for her attendant. She did not understand the use of
+knife and fork and all her food had to be cut up, as for a helpless
+infant; but she fed herself with a spoon neatly enough, though in
+great haste. Afterwards she leaned back in her chair and stared
+vacantly at one or another of the young folks gathered around that big
+table. Finally, her eyes rested upon the gaily bedecked person of
+Mabel Bruce and a smile settled upon her features; while so
+unobtrusive was she that her presence was almost forgotten by the
+other, happy chatterers in the room.
+
+"Who's for church?" asked Mr. Winters, with a little tap on the table
+to secure attention. "Hands up, so I can count noses!"
+
+Every hand went up, even Luna following the example of the rest, quite
+unknowing why. Seeing this, Dorothy must needs leave her seat and run
+around to the poor thing's chair and pat her shoulder approvingly.
+
+"The landau will hold four, and it's four miles to our church. Who is
+for that?" again demanded the Master.
+
+There was a swift exchange of glances between him and the young
+hostess as she returned:
+
+"Shall I say?"
+
+"Aye, aye!" shouted Monty, with his ordinary fervor. The considerate
+silence of his house-mates concerning his mishap in the barn had
+restored his self-possession, and though he had felt silly and
+awkward when he had joined them he did not now.
+
+"Very well. Then I nominate Jane, Molly Martin, Alfaretta, and Mabel
+Bruce, for the state carriage," said Dorothy.
+
+"Sho! I thought if that was used at all 'twould be Helena and the
+other 'ristocratics would ride in that," whispered the delighted Alfy
+to Jane.
+
+But the young hostess had quickly reflected that landaus and other
+luxurious equipages were familiar and commonplace to her richer guests
+but that, probably, none of these others had ever ridden in such
+state; therefore the greater pleasure to them.
+
+The Master produced a slip of paper and checked off the names:
+
+"Landau, with the bays; and Ephraim and Boots in livery--settled.
+Next?"
+
+"There's the pony cart and Portia," suggested Dolly.
+
+"Helena and Melvin? Jolly Molly, and Jim to drive? Satisfactory all
+round?" again asked the note-taker; and if this second apportionment
+was not so at least nobody objected, although poor Jim looked forward
+to an eight-mile drive beside mischievous Molly Breckenridge with some
+misgiving.
+
+"Very well. I'll admit I never tackled such an amiable young crowd.
+Commonly, in parties as big as this there are just as many different
+wishes as there are people. I congratulate you, my dears, and may
+this beatific state of things continue till the end of the chapter!"
+cried Mr. Seth, really delighted.
+
+"Why, of course, Mr. Winters. How could we do otherwise? In society
+one never puts one's own desires in opposition to those of others.
+That's what society is for, is what it means, isn't it? Good breeding
+means unselfishness;" said Helena, then added, with a little flush of
+modesty: "Not that I am an oracle, but that's what I've read and--and
+seen--abroad."
+
+"Right, Miss Helena, and thank you for the explanation. And apropos of
+that subject: What's the oldest, most unalterable book of etiquette we
+have?"
+
+Nobody answered, apparently nobody knew; till Melvin timidly ventured:
+
+"I fancy it's the Bible, sir. My mother, don't you know, often remarks
+that anybody who makes the Bible a rule of conduct can't help being a
+gentleman or gentlewoman. Can't help it, don't you know?"
+
+Old Seth beamed upon the lad who had so bravely fought his own
+shyness, to answer when he could, and so prove himself by that same
+ancient Book a "gentleman."
+
+"Thank you, my boy. You've a mother to be proud of and she--has a
+pretty decent sort of son! However, we've arranged places for but half
+our number. As I said the distance is four miles going and it will
+seem about eight returning--we shall all be so desperately hungry. We
+might go to some church nearer except that at this distant one there
+will be to-day a famous preacher whom I would like you all to hear. He
+is a guest in the neighborhood and that is why we have this one
+chance. Come, Dolly Doodles. You're the hostess and must provide for
+your guests. How shall eight people be conveyed to that far-away
+church?"
+
+"I've been thinking, Master. There's the big open wagon, used for
+hauling stuff. It has a lot of seats belonging though only one is
+often used. So Ephy told me once. We could have the seats put in and
+the rest of us ride in that."
+
+"Good enough. The rest of us are wholly willing to be 'hauled' to
+please our southern hostess. The rest of us are--let's see."
+
+"You, Mr. Seth; Littlejohn and Danny; Mike and Frazer; Luna and me.
+Coming home, if we wish, some of us could change places. Well, Mabel?
+What is it? Don't you like the arrangement?"
+
+"Ye-es, I suppose so. Only--you've put four girls in our carriage and
+four boys in your own. That isn't dividing even; and if it's such an
+awful long way hadn't we--shouldn't--shan't we be terrible late to
+dinner?"
+
+Poor Mabel! Nature would out. That mountain air was famous for
+sharpening every newcomer's appetite and it had made hers perfectly
+ravenous. It seemed to her that she had never tasted such delicious
+food as Aunt Malinda prepared and that she should never be able to get
+enough. A shout of laughter greeted her question but did not dismay
+her, for the matter was too serious; and she was greatly relieved when
+the Master returned, kindly and with entire gravity:
+
+"Little Mabel is right. We shall all be glad of a 'snack' when service
+is over and before we start back. Dolly, please see that a basket of
+sandwiches is put up and carried along. Also a basket of grapes. Some
+of us are fond of grapes!" he finished, significantly, and that was
+the only reference made to the episode of the night before.
+
+But there was one more objector and that outspoken Alfy, who begged of
+Dorothy, in a sibilant whisper:
+
+"Do you mean it? Are you really goin' to take that loony Luna to
+meeting?"
+
+"I certainly am. She is not to be hidden, nor deprived of any pleasure
+my other guests enjoy. Besides, somebody who knows her may see and
+claim her. Poor thing! It's terrible that she can't tell us who she is
+nor where she belongs!"
+
+"Hmm. I'm glad she ain't goin' to ride alongside of me, then. Folks
+will stare so, on the road, at that old woman rigged out like a girl."
+
+"Never mind, Alfy dear. Let them stare. She's delighted with the red
+frock and hat, and it's something to have made her happy even that
+much. Remember how she clung to those bits of gay rags Dinah found on
+her? She certainly knows enough to love color, and I shall keep her
+close to me. I'd be afraid if I didn't her feelings might be hurt
+by--by somebody's thoughtlessness."
+
+"Mine, I s'pose you mean, Dorothy C. But--my stars and garters! Look
+a-there! Look round, I tell you, quick!"
+
+Dolly looked and her own eyes opened in amazement. Framed in the long
+window that reached to the piazza floor stood a curiously garbed old
+man holding firmly before him two tiny children. He wore an old black
+skull cap and a ragged cassock, and he announced in a croaking voice:
+
+"I pass these children on to you. I go to deliver the message upon
+which I am sent;" and having said this, before anyone could protest or
+interfere, he was disappearing down the driveway at an astonishing
+pace, as if his "message" abided not the slightest delay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A MEMORABLE CHURCH GOING
+
+
+"Of all things! If that don't beat the Dutch!" cried Alfaretta, and at
+sound of her voice the others rallied from their amazement, while Mr.
+Winters begged:
+
+"Run, lads, some of you and stop that man. Owen Bryan spoke of a
+half-crazy fanatic, a self-ordained exhorter, who had lately come to
+the mountain and lived somewhere about, in hiding as it were. An
+escaped convict, he'd heard. Run. He mustn't leave those children
+here."
+
+Jim and Frazer were already on the way, obedient to the Master's first
+words, without tarrying to hear the conclusion of his speech. But they
+were not quick enough. They caught one glimpse of a ragged, flying
+cassock and no more. The man had vanished from sight, and though they
+lingered to search the low-growing evergreens, and every hidden nook
+bordering the drive, they could not find him. So they returned to
+report and were just in time to hear Dorothy and Molly questioning the
+babies, for they were little more than that.
+
+They were clad exactly alike, in little denim overalls, faded by many
+washings and stiff with starch. Their feet were bare as were their
+heads, and clinging to one another they stared with round-eyed
+curiosity into the great room.
+
+"Oh! aren't they cute! They're too funny for words. What's your name,
+little boy? If you are a boy!" demanded Molly.
+
+The little one shook her too familiar hand from his small shoulder and
+answered with a solemnity and distinctness that was amazing, when one
+anticipated an infantile lisp:
+
+"A-n an, a ana, n-i ni, anani, a-s as, Ananias."
+
+Monty Stark rolled over backward on the floor and fairly yelled in
+laughter, while the laughter of the others echoed his, but nothing
+perturbed by this reception of his, to him, commonplace statement,
+master Ananias looked about in cherubic satisfaction.
+
+Then again demanded Molly of the other midget.
+
+"What's yours, twinsy? For twins you must be!"
+
+Evidently tutored as to what would be expected of her the other child
+replied in exact imitation of her mate and with equal clearness:
+
+"S-a-p sap, p-h-i phi, sapphi, r-a ra, Sapphira."
+
+Utter silence greeted this absurd reply, then another noisy burst of
+laughter in which even the really disturbed Master joined.
+
+"Surely a man must be out of his mind to fasten such names on two such
+innocents! But they must be taken elsewhere. Deerhurst must not
+become a receptacle for all the cast-off burdens of humanity. I must
+go ask Bryan all he knows about the case," said Mr. Seth, as soon as
+he had recovered his gravity.
+
+But Dorothy nodded toward the great clock and with a frown he observed
+the hour. If they were to make ready for their long drive to church,
+yet be in time for the beginning of the service, they must be making
+ready, so he consented:
+
+"I don't suppose any great mischief can be done by their remaining
+here till we get back; but----"
+
+"Why not take them with us, Teacher?" asked Alfaretta. "We could take
+one in the lander with us." Her tone was as complacent as if the
+vehicle in question were her own and her head was tossed as she waited
+for his reply.
+
+But it was Dorothy who forestalled him and her decision was so
+sensible he did not oppose it:
+
+"Beg pardon, Mr. Seth, but I think we would better take them. If we
+leave them they may get into mischief and the servants have enough to
+do without worrying with them. They're so little we can tuck them into
+the big wagon with us and it won't hurt even babies to go to church.
+But I wonder which is which! Now they've moved around and changed
+places I can't tell which is Ananias and which Sapphira! Poor little
+kiddies, to be named after liars!"
+
+"I know. This one has a kink in its hair the other one hasn't. I think
+it was Sapphira. Or--was it Ananias? Baby, which are you?"
+
+Neither child replied. They clung each to the other and stared at this
+too inquisitive Molly Breckenridge with the disconcerting stare of
+childhood, till she turned away and gathering a handful of biscuits
+from the table bade them sit down and eat. She forbade them to drop a
+single crumb and they were obedient even to absurdity.
+
+A half-hour later the three vehicles were at the door and the happy
+guests made haste to take the places allotted them; the big wagon
+following last, with Luna smilingly, yet in a half-frightened clutch
+of Dorothy, sitting on the comfortable back seat. Mr. Seth had lifted
+her bodily into the wagon and she had submitted without realizing what
+was happening to her till the wagon began to move. Then she screamed,
+as if in terror, and hid her face on Dolly's shoulder.
+
+"Doan' take he'. 'Peah's lak she's done afeered o' ridin'. Nebah min',
+Miss Do'thy. Some yo' lads jes' han' he' down to Dinah and she'll be
+tooken' ca' ob, scusin' dey is a big dinnah in de way an' half de
+he'ps' Sunday out. Han' 'er down!"
+
+However, without physical force this was not to be done. When Jim
+strove to lift her, as he might easily have done in his strong arms,
+she clung the closer to her little hostess and screamed afresh. So he
+gave up the attempt and turned his attention to the twins, the last
+arriving members of this famous House Party.
+
+There was no reluctance about them--not the slightest. They were
+fairly dancing with impatience and Ananias--or was it Sapphira?--was
+already attempting to enter the "wagging" by way of climbing up the
+"nigh" horse's leg, while her--or his--mate clung to the spokes of the
+forward wheel, wholly ready to be whirled around and around with its
+forward progress.
+
+"Evidently, these babies aren't afraid to ride!" cried Dorothy,
+laughing yet half-frightened over the little creatures' boldness.
+"Please set them right on the bottom, between your knees and
+Littlejohn's, Mr. Seth! Then they'll be safe. And there, Luna dear,
+poor Luna, you see we're off at last and--isn't it just lovely?"
+
+Luna made no more response than usual but her hidden face sank lower
+and more heavily upon Dorothy's shoulder, till, presently, she was
+sound asleep. Then Mike Martin climbed back over the seats to the spot
+and deftly placed his own cushion behind the sleeper's head. Dolly
+thanked him with a smile but wondered to see him stare at the
+sleeper's face with that puzzled expression on his own. Then he
+scratched his head and asked in a whisper:
+
+"Can you tell who she looks like? Terrible familiar, somehow, but
+can't guess. Can you?"
+
+Dorothy shook her head.
+
+"No, I've never seen another like her. I hope I never will."
+
+"If we could think, we might find her folks and you could get rid of
+her," continued the lad.
+
+"I don't know as I'm so anxious to be rid of her. I do believe she's
+happy--happier than when she came--and--Look out! If the wagon goes
+over another thank-ye-ma-am and you're still standing up you'll likely
+be pitched over into the road. My! But the horses are in fine fettle
+this morning!"
+
+A fresh jolt made Mike cling fast to escape the accident she suggested
+and he returned to his place, riding on the uncushioned seat as
+cheerfully as any knight errant of old. Dorothy was his ideal of a
+girl. She had taught him the difference between bravery and bullying
+and she had been his inspiration in the task to which he had pledged
+himself--to be a peacemaker on the mountain. Once, her coolness and
+courage had saved his life, and on that day he had promised to fulfil
+her desire, to bridge the enmity between south-side and north-side.
+His methods had not always been such as Dorothy would have approved
+but the result was satisfactory. In school and out of it, peace
+prevailed on the "Heights," and Mike Martin was a nobler boy himself
+because of his efforts to make others noble.
+
+There was a little stir of excitement in the small country church when
+Seth Winters and his following of young folks entered it, and by mere
+force of numbers so impressing the ushers that the very front pews
+were vacated in their behalf, although the farrier protested against
+this. However, he wasn't sorry to have his company all together, and
+motioned Dorothy into the same pew with himself, and to a place
+directly under the pulpit. Into this, also, they led the still drowsy
+Luna, Dorothy gently settling her in the corner with her head resting
+upon the pew's back, and here she slept on during most of the service.
+Here, also, they settled the twins, but could not avoid seeing the
+curious and amused glances cast upon this odd pair as they trotted up
+the aisle in Dorothy's wake.
+
+"Two peas in a pod," whispered one farmer's wife to her seat neighbor.
+
+"Where'd they pick up two such little owls? They're all eyes and
+solemn as the parson himself, but them ridiculous clothes! My heart!
+What won't fashionable folks do next, to make their youngsters look
+different from ours!" returned the other. Nobody guessed that the
+funny little creatures were an accidental addition to the House
+Party; and after the strangers were settled nobody was further
+concerned with them.
+
+The service began and duly proceeded. The singing was congregational
+and in it all the young people joined, making the familiar hymns seem
+uncommonly beautiful to the hearers; and it was not till the sermon
+was well under way that anything unusual happened to divert attention.
+Then there came a soft yet heavy patter on the uncarpeted aisle and
+two black animals stalked majestically forward and seated themselves
+upon their haunches directly beneath the pulpit. With an air of
+profound interest they fixed their eyes upon the speaker therein and,
+for an instant, disconcerted even that self-possessed orator.
+
+"Ponce and Peter! Aunt Betty's Great Danes! However has this
+happened!" thought poor Dorothy, unable quite to control a smile yet
+wofully anxious lest the dogs should create a disturbance. However,
+nothing happened. The Danes might have been regular worshipers in the
+place for all notice was accorded them by the well trained
+congregation; and after they were tired of watching the minister the
+animals quietly stretched themselves to sleep.
+
+Their movement and the prodigious yawn of one had bad results. The
+twins had been having their own peaceful naps upon the kneeling bench
+at Mr. Seth's feet, but, now, with the suddenness native to them,
+awoke, discovered the dogs, and leaped out of the pew into the aisle.
+There they flung themselves upon the dogs with shrieks of delight. It
+was as if they had found old friends and playmates--as later
+developments proved to be true.
+
+Poor Mr. Winters stared in consternation. He detested a scene but saw
+one imminent; and how to get both dogs and babies out of that sacred
+place without great trouble he could not guess. But Dorothy put her
+hand on his arm and gently patted it. She, too, was frightened but she
+trusted the animals' instincts; she was right. After a moment's
+sniffing of the twins, they quietly lay down again and the twins did
+likewise! and though they did not go to sleep again they behaved well
+enough, until growing impassioned with his own eloquence the speaker
+lifted his voice loudly and imploringly.
+
+That was a sound they knew. Up sprang one and shouted: "Amen!" and up
+sprang the other and echoed him!
+
+The minister flushed, stammered, and valiantly went on; but he never
+reached the climax of that sermon. Those continually interrupting
+groans and "Amens!" uttered in that childish treble, were too much for
+him. A suppressed titter ran over the whole congregation, in which all
+the Deerhurst party joined though they strove not to do so; and amid
+that subdued mirth the clergyman brought his discourse to a sudden
+end.
+
+The benediction spoken there was a rush for the door, in which the
+Great Danes and the twins led; riotously tumbling over one another,
+barking and squealing, while the outpouring congregation stepped aside
+to give them way.
+
+Happy-hearted Seth Winters had rarely felt so annoyed or mortified,
+while Dorothy's face was scarlet even though her lips twitched with
+laughter. These two lingered in their places till the clergyman
+descended from his pulpit and prepared to leave the church. Then they
+advanced and offered what apologies they could; the farrier relating
+in few words the story of the morning and disclaiming any knowledge as
+to the identity of the twins or how the dogs had been set loose.
+
+"Don't mention it. Of course, I could see that it was accidental, and
+it isn't of the slightest consequence. Doubtless I had preached as
+long as was good for my hearers and--I wish you good morning," said
+the minister, smiling but rather hastily moving away.
+
+Mr. Winters also bowed and followed his party out of doors. But he
+wasn't smiling, not in the least; and it was a timid touch Dorothy
+laid upon his arm as she came to the big wagon to take her place for
+the drive home. He looked down at her, and at sight of tears in her
+eyes, his anger melted.
+
+"There, there, child, don't fret! It was one of those unavoidable
+annoyances that really amount to nothing yet are so hard to bear.
+Here, let me swing you up. But we must get rid of those youngsters!
+Sabbath day or not I shall make it my business so to do at the
+earliest possible moment. By the way, where are they now?"
+
+For a moment nobody could say, though the Deerhurst wagons waited
+while the lads searched and all the regular congregation departed to
+their homes. Then called Mabel from her seat of honor in the landau:
+
+"Dolly Doodles, whilst we're waiting we might as well eat our lunch."
+
+For once Mabel's greediness served her neighbors a good purpose. Mr.
+Seth promptly replied, with something like a wink in Dorothy's
+direction:
+
+"Couldn't do better. There's the church well, too, a famous one, from
+which to quench our thirst. There's an old saying that 'Meal time
+brings all rogues home' and likely the presence of food may attract
+our little runaways. Indeed, I've half a mind to leave them behind,
+any way. 'Pass them on' to the world at large as that old man 'passed
+them on' to us."
+
+To this there was protest from every side, even Alfaretta declaring
+she had never heard of such a heartless thing! But she need not have
+feared, and Dorothy certainly did not. She knew the big heart of her
+old friend too well; and producing the basket of sandwiches she went
+about offering them to all.
+
+Nobody declined although Monty triumphantly exclaimed:
+
+"We haven't any right to be so hungry for an hour yet, 'cause if the
+dogs hadn't come to church we'd have been kept in that much longer."
+Then still munching a sandwich he set about to bring water for all, in
+the one tin dipper that hung by the well, the other lads relieving him
+from time to time.
+
+They were all so merry, so innocently happy under the great trees
+which bordered the church grounds, that the Master grew happy, too,
+watching and listening to them and forgot the untoward incident of the
+service; even forgot, for a moment, that either twins or dogs existed.
+Then, after both fruit and sandwich baskets had been wholly emptied
+and all had declared they wanted no more water, the cavalcade prepared
+to move; Dorothy begging:
+
+"Can Luna and I sit on the front seat, with Littlejohn driving, going
+back? See, she's no longer afraid and I always do love to ride close
+to the horses."
+
+"Very well. Here goes then," answered Mr. Seth gently lifting
+Luna--wholly unresisting now and placidly smiling--to the place
+desired while Dolly swiftly sprang after. Then the others seated
+themselves and Ephraim cracked his whip, the landau leading as
+befitted its grandeur.
+
+Then there were shrieks for delay. From Molly Breckenridge at first,
+echoed by piping little tongues as the lost "twinses" came into sight.
+Over the stone wall bordering the road leaped Ponce and Peter,
+dripping wet and shaking their great bodies vigorously, the while they
+yelped and barked in sheer delight. Behind them Ananias and Sapphira,
+equally wet, equally noisy, equally rapturous, and beginning at once
+to climb into the richly cushioned landau as fast as their funny
+little legs would permit.
+
+Then came another shriek as, rather than let her beautiful clothes be
+smirched by contact with the drenched children, Mabel Bruce drew her
+skirts about her, gave one headlong leap to the ground, and fell
+prone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+CONCERNING VARIOUS MATTERS
+
+
+The laughter which rose to the lips of some of the observers was
+promptly checked as they saw that the girl lay perfectly still in the
+dust where she had fallen, making no effort to rise, and unconscious
+of her injured finery.
+
+"She'd better have kep' still an' let 'em wet her," said Alfy, nudging
+Jane Potter.
+
+"She ain't gettin' up because she can't," answered Jane and sprang out
+of the landau, to kneel beside the prostrate girl; then to look up and
+cry out: "She's hurt! She's dreadful hurt!"
+
+Unhappy Mr. Winters set his teeth and his lips were grim. "If ever I'm
+so misguided as to engineer another young folks' House Party, I
+hope----"
+
+He didn't express this "hope" but stooped and with utmost tenderness
+lifted Mabel to her feet. She had begun to rally from the shock of her
+fall and opened her eyes again, while the pallor that had banished her
+usual rosiness began to yield to the returning circulation. Already
+many hands were outstretched to help, some with the dipper from the
+well, others with dripping wooden plates whereon their luncheon had
+been packed. Mabel pushed the plates aside, fretfully, explaining as
+soon as she could speak:
+
+"If that gets on my clothes--they're so dusty--Oh! what made me--Oh!
+oh! A-ah!"
+
+Then she began to laugh and cry alternately, as the misfortune and its
+absurdity fully appeared, and Helena saw that the girl was fast
+becoming hysterical. Evidently, in their wearer's eyes, the beautiful
+frock now so badly smirched and the white gloves which had split
+asunder in her fall were treasures beyond compute, and Helena herself
+loved pretty clothes. She felt a keen sympathy in that and another
+respect--she had suffered from hysteria and always went prepared for
+an emergency. Stepping quietly to Mabel's side, she waved aside the
+other eager helpers, saying:
+
+"I'm going to ride back in the landau, Alfy, please take my place in
+the cart. Here, Mabel, swallow a drop of this medicine. 'Twill set you
+right at once."
+
+Her movements and words were as decided as they were quiet and Mabel
+unconsciously obeyed. She submitted to be helped back into the
+carriage and as Helena took the empty seat beside her, Ephraim drove
+swiftly away.
+
+Thus ignored the dripping twins stared ruefully after the vanishing
+vehicle and Mr. Seth looked as ruefully at them. But Molly begged:
+
+"Let them go in the cart with us. Alfy's frock and mine will wash,
+even if they soil us. One can ride between Jim and me and Melvin and
+Alfy must look after the other. Let's choose. I take Ananias. I just
+love boys!"
+
+"Be sure you've chosen one then," laughed Jim as he rather gingerly
+picked up one infant and placed it behind the dashboard. He had on his
+own Sunday attire and realized the cost of it, so objected almost as
+strongly as Mabel had done to contact with this well-soused youngster.
+"Say, sonny, what made you tumble in the brook? Don't you know this is
+Sunday?"
+
+"Yep. Didn't tumble, just _went_. I'm no 'sonny'; I'm sissy. S-a-p
+sap, p-h-i----" began the little one, glibly and distinctly.
+
+"You can't be! You surely are Ananias! Your hair is cut exactly like a
+boy's and you wear boy's panties! You're spelling the wrong name. Look
+out! What next?" cried Molly anxiously, as the active baby suddenly
+climbed over the back of that seat to join her mate behind. There
+master Ananias--or was it really Sapphira?--cuddled down on the rug in
+the bottom of the cart and settled himself--herself--for sleep.
+
+Neither Alfy nor Melvin interfered with these too-close small
+neighbors; but withdrawing to the extreme edges of the seat left them
+to sleep and get dry at their leisure. After that the homeward drive
+proceeded in peace; only Herbert calling out now and then from his
+place in the big wagon to make Melvin admire some particular beauty of
+the scene, challenging the Provincial to beat it if he could in that
+far away Markland of his own.
+
+"But you haven't the sea!" retorted Melvin, proudly.
+
+"We don't need it. We have the HUDSON RIVER!" came as swiftly back;
+and as they had come just then to a turn in the road where an ancient
+building stood beneath a canopy of trees, he asked: "Hold up the
+horses a minute, will you, Littlejohn? I'd like our English friend to
+say if he ever saw anything more picturesque than this."
+
+"This" was a more than century-old Friends' meeting-house. Unpainted
+and shingled all over its outward surface. "Old shingle-sides" was its
+local name, and a lovelier location could not have been chosen even by
+a less austere body of worshipers.
+
+Meeting had been prolonged that First Day. The hand clasp of neighbor
+with neighbor which signaled its close had just been given. From the
+doorways on either side, the men's and the women's, these silent
+worshipers were now issuing; the men to seek the vehicles waiting
+beneath the long shed and the women to gossip a moment of neighborhood
+affairs.
+
+Mr. Winters was willing to rest and "breathe the horses" for a
+little, the day being warm and the drive long, and to observe with
+interest the decorous home-going of these Plain People; and it so
+chanced that the big wagon, where Dorothy sat on the front seat with
+Luna resting against her, halted just beside the entrance to the
+meeting-house grounds. From her place she watched the departing
+congregation with the keen interest she brought to everything; and
+among them she recognized the familiar outlines of George Fox, the
+miller's fine horse; and, holding the reins over its back, Oliver
+Sands, the miller himself. So close he drove to the big wagon that
+George Fox's nose touched Littlejohn's leader, and the boy pulled back
+a little.
+
+"Huh! That's old Oliver in his First Day grays! But he's in the
+grumps. Guess the Spirit hasn't moved him to anything pleasant, by the
+look," he remarked to Dorothy beside him.
+
+"He does look as if he were in trouble. I don't like him. I never did.
+He wasn't--well, nice to Father John once. But I'm sorry he's unhappy.
+Nobody ought to be on such a heavenly day."
+
+If Oliver saw those watching beside the gate he made no sign. His fat
+shoulders, commonly so erect, were bowed as if he had suddenly grown
+old. His face had lost its unctuous smile and was haggard with care;
+and for once he paid no heed to George Fox's un-Quakerlike gambols,
+fraught with danger to the open buggy he drew. A pale-faced woman in
+the orthodox attire of the birthright Friends sat beside the miller
+and clung to him in evident terror at the horse's behavior. It was she
+who saw how close the contact between their own and the Deerhurst
+team, and her eye fell anxiously upon the two girlish figures upon the
+front seat of the wagon. For a girl the unknown Luna seemed, clad in
+the scarlet frock and hat that Dorothy had given; while Dolly,
+herself, clasping the little creature close lest she should be
+frightened looked even younger than she was.
+
+"Sisters," thought Dorcas Sands, "yet not alike." Then casting a
+second, critical glance upon Luna she uttered a strange cry and
+clutched her husband's arm.
+
+"Dorcas, thee is too old for foolishness," was all the heed he paid to
+her gesture, and drove stolidly on, unseeing aught but his own inward
+perturbation which had found no solace in that morning's Meeting.
+
+Dorcas looked back once over her shoulder and Dorothy returned a
+friendly smile to the sweet old face in the white-lined gray bonnet.
+Then the bonnet faced about again and George Fox whisked its wearer
+out of sight.
+
+"I declare I'd love to be a Quakeress and wear such clothes as these
+women do. They look so sweet and peaceful and happy. As if nothing
+ever troubled them. Don't you think they're lovely, Littlejohn?"
+
+"Huh! I don't know. That there Mrs. Sands--Dorcas Sands is the way
+she's called 'cause the Friends don't give nobody titles--I guess
+there ain't a more unhappy woman on our mountain than her."
+
+"Why, Littlejohn! Fancy! With such a--a good man; isn't he?"
+
+"Good accordin' as you call goodness. He ain't bad, not so bad; only
+you want to look sharp when you have dealings with him. They say he
+measures the milk his folks use in the cookin' and if more butter goes
+one week than he thinks ought to he skimps 'em the next. I ain't stuck
+on that kind of a man, myself, even if he is all-fired rich. Gid-dap,
+boys!"
+
+With which expression of his sentiments the young mountaineer touched
+up the team that had rather lagged behind the others and the
+conversation dropped. But during all that homeward ride there lingered
+in Dorothy's memory that strange, startled, half-cognizant gaze which
+gentle Dorcas Sands had cast upon poor Luna. But by this time, the
+afflicted guest had become as one of the family; and the fleeting
+interest of any passer-by was accepted as mere curiosity and soon
+forgotten.
+
+After dinner Mr. Winters disappeared; and the younger members of the
+House Party disposed themselves after their desires; some for a
+stroll in the woods, some in select, cosy spots for quiet reading; and
+a few--as Mabel, Helena, and Monty--for a nap. But all gathered again
+at supper-time and a happy evening followed; with music and talk and a
+brief bedtime service at which the Master officiated.
+
+But Dorothy noticed that he still looked anxious and that he was
+preoccupied, a manner wholly new to her beloved Mr. Seth. So, as she
+bade him good-night she asked:
+
+"Is it anything I can help, dear Master?"
+
+"Why do you fancy anything's amiss, lassie?"
+
+"Oh! you show it in your eyes. Can I help?"
+
+"Yes. You may break the news to Dinah that those twins are on our
+hands for--to-night at least. I'm sorry, but together you two must
+find them a place to sleep. We can't be unchristian you know--not on
+the Lord's own day!"
+
+He smiled his familiar, whimsical smile as he said this and it
+reassured the girl at once. Pointing to a distant corner of the room,
+where some considerate person had tossed down a sofa cushion, she
+showed him the ill-named babies asleep with their arms about each
+other's neck and their red lips parted in happy slumber.
+
+"They've found their own place you see; will it do?"
+
+"Admirable! They're like kittens or puppies--one spot's as good as
+another. Throw a rug over them and let them be. I think they'll need
+nothing more to-night, but if they do they're of the sort will make it
+known. Good-night, little Dorothy. Sleep well."
+
+After a custom which Father John had taught her, though he could not
+himself explain it, Dorothy "set her mind" like an alarm clock to wake
+her at six the next morning and it did so. She bathed and dressed with
+utmost carefulness and succeeded in doing this without waking anybody.
+Those whose business it was to be awake, as the house servants, gave
+her a silent nod for good-morning and smiled to think of her energy.
+The reason appeared when she drew a chair to a desk by the library
+window and wrote the following letter:
+
+     "MY DARLING AUNT BETTY:
+
+     "Good-morning, please, and I hope you'll have a happy day.
+     I've written you a post card or a letter every day since you
+     went away but I haven't had one back. I wonder and am sorry
+     but I suppose you are too busy with your sick friend. I hope
+     you aren't angry with me for anything. I was terrible sorry
+     about somebody--losing--stealing that money! There, it's
+     out! and I feel better. Sorrier, too, about it's being
+     _him_. Well, that's gone, and as you have so much more I
+     guess you won't care much. Besides, we don't need much.
+     Dear Mr. Seth is just too splendid for words. He thinks of
+     something nice to do all the time.
+
+     "Yesterday we went to church and so did the dogs and the
+     twins. I haven't told you about them for this is the first
+     letter since they came and that was just after breakfast
+     Sunday. A crazy man brought them and said he'd 'passed them
+     on.' They're the cutest little mites with such horrible
+     names--Ananias and Sapphira! Imagine anybody cruel enough to
+     give babies those names. They aren't much bigger than
+     buttons but they talk as plain as you do. They said 'A-ah!'
+     and 'A-A-men!' in the middle of the sermon and stopped the
+     minister preaching. I wasn't sorry they did for I didn't
+     know what they'd do next nor Luna either. They three and Mr.
+     Seth are the uninvited, or self-invited, ones and they're
+     more fun than all the rest. Mabel fell out the carriage, or
+     jumped out, and spoiled her dress and fainted away.
+
+     "My House Party is just fine! Monty got stuck in the barn
+     and had to be sawed apart. I mean the barn had to be, not
+     Monty; and not one of us said a word about it.
+
+     "I'm writing this before the rest are up because afterward I
+     shan't have a minute's chance. It's a great care to have a
+     House Party, though the Master--we call Mr. Winters that,
+     all of us--takes the care. I don't know what we would do
+     without him, and what we can without that stolen money.
+     Monty says if he had that or had some of his own, he'd be
+     able to manage without any old Master, he would. That was
+     when he wanted to go sailing Sunday afternoon and Mr. Seth
+     said 'no.'
+
+     "Monty's real smooth outside but he has prickly tempers
+     sometimes; and I guess he--he sort of 'sassed' the Master,
+     'cause he refused to give us any money to hire a sail boat
+     and Monty hadn't any left himself. But it all blew over. Mr.
+     Seth doesn't seem to mind Monty any more'n he does his
+     tortoise-shell cat; and he's a very nice boy, a very nice
+     boy, indeed. So are they all. I'm proud of them all. So is
+     Mabel. So is Molly B. Those two are so proud they squabble
+     quite consid'able over which is the nicest, and the boys
+     just laugh.
+
+     "Oh! I must stop. It's getting real near breakfast time; and
+     dear Aunt Betty, will you please send me another one hundred
+     dollars by the return of the mail? I mean as quick as you
+     can. You see to-day, we're going around visiting
+     'Headquarters' of all the revolution people. There's a lot
+     of them and they won't cost anything to see; but to-morrow
+     there's 'The Greatest Show on Earth' coming to Newburgh and
+     I _must_ take my guests to it. I really must.
+
+               "Good-by, darling Aunt Betty.
+                    "DOROTHY.
+
+     "P. S.--I've heard that people can telegraph money and that
+     it goes quicker that way. Please do it.
+
+               "D.
+
+     "P. P. S.--Mr Seth says that this Headquartering will be as
+     good as the circus, but it isn't easy to believe; and Melvin
+     isn't particularly pleased over the trip. I suppose that's
+     because our folks whipped his; and please be sure to
+     telegraph the money at once. The tickets are fifty cents
+     a-piece and ten cents extra for every side-show; and Molly
+     and I have ciphered it out that it will take a lot, more'n
+     I'd like to have the Master pay, generous as he is. Isn't it
+     lovely to be a rich girl and just ask for as much money as
+     you want and get it? Oh! I love you, Aunt Betty!
+
+               "DOROTHY; for sure the last time."
+
+One of the men was going to early market and by him the writer
+dispatched this epistle. Promptly posted, it reached Mrs. Calvert that
+morning, who replied as promptly and by telegram as her young relative
+had requested. The yellow envelope was awaiting Dorothy that evening,
+when she came home from "Headquartering" with her guests, and she
+opened it eagerly.
+
+But there seemed something wrong with the message. Having read it in
+silence once--twice--three times, she crumpled it in her hand and
+dashed out of the room scarlet with shame and anger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HEADQUARTERS
+
+
+"Well, lads and lassies--or lassies and lads, it's due you to hear all
+I've found out concerning Ananias and Sapphira. I don't believe that
+those are their real names but I've heard no other. The curious old
+man who left them here is, presumably, insane on the subject of
+religion. He appeared on the mountain early in the summer, with these
+little ones, and preëmpted that tumble-down cottage over the bluff
+beyond our gates. Most of you know it by sight; eh?"
+
+"Yes, indeed! It looks as if it had been thrown over the edge of the
+road, just there where it's so steep. Old Griselda, the lodge-keeper's
+wife I live with claims it's haunted, and always has been. Hans says
+not, except by tramps and such," answered James Barlow.
+
+"Tramps? Are tramps on this mountain? Oh! I don't like that. I'd have
+been afraid to come if I'd known that!" protested Molly Breckenridge
+with a little shiver.
+
+Of course they all laughed at her and Monty valiantly assured her:
+
+"Don't you worry. I'm here." Then added as an after-thought, "and so
+are the other boys."
+
+Laughter came easily that Monday morning and it was Monty's turn to
+get his share of it, and he accepted it with great good nature. They
+were such a happy company with almost a whole week of unknown
+enjoyment before them, and the gravity of Mr. Seth's face did not
+affect their own hilarity. Dorothy had confided to Alfaretta that she
+had written to Mrs. Calvert for "another hundred dollars" and the
+matter was a "secret" between these two.
+
+"You, Alfy dear, because you never had, and likely never will have, a
+hundred dollars of your own, may have the privilege of planning what
+we will do with mine. That's to prove I love you; and if you plan nice
+things--real nice ones, Alfy--I'll spend it just as you want."
+
+Sensible, but not too-sensitive, Alfaretta shook her head, and asked:
+
+"Do you know how to make a hare pie?"
+
+"Why, of course not. How should I? I'm not a cook!"
+
+"First catch your hare! You haven't got your money yet and I shan't
+wear my brains out, plannin' no plans--yet. You couldn't get up nicer
+times'n the Master does, and he hasn't spent a cent on this House
+Party, so far forth as I know, savin' what he put in the collection
+plate to church, yesterday. Come on; he promised to tell all he'd
+found out about the twinses and all the rest of us is listenin' to him
+now."
+
+So Dorothy had followed to the wide piazza where the young people had
+grouped themselves affectionately about their beloved Master; who now
+repeated for the newcomers' information:
+
+"The old man is the children's grandfather, on their father's side.
+The twins are orphans, whom the mother's family repudiate, and he has
+cared for them, off and on, ever since their father died, as their
+mother did when they were born."
+
+"Oh! the poor little creatures!" cried Helena Montaigne, and snuggled
+a twin to her side; while there were tears in Molly Breckenridge's
+eyes as she caressed the other.
+
+"I said 'off and on.' The off times are when the old man is seized by
+the desire to preach to anyone who will listen. Then he wanders away,
+sleeps where the night finds him, and eats what charity bestows.
+Ordinarily, he does not so much as place the babies anywhere; just
+leaves them to chance. When they are with him he is very stern with
+them, punishing them severely if they disobey his least command; and
+they are greatly afraid of him. Well, here they are! I've tried to
+place them elsewhere, in a legitimate home; but I hesitate about an
+Orphanage until--Time sometimes softens hard hearts!" with this
+curious ending Mr. Winters relapsed into a profound reverie and
+nobody presumed to disturb him.
+
+Until Mabel Bruce suddenly demanded:
+
+"Where's their other clothes?"
+
+The farrier laughed. Mabel was an interesting study to him. He had
+never seen a little girl just like her; and he answered promptly:
+
+"That's what neither Norah nor I can find out. Only from the
+appearance of some ashes in the fireplace of the hut I fear they have
+been burned. I took Norah down there early this morning, for a woman
+sees more than a man, but even she was disappointed. However, that's
+easily remedied. One of the Headquarters we shall visit is in
+Newburgh, where are also many shops. Some of you girls must take the
+little tackers to one of these places and outfit them with what is
+actually needed. Nothing more; and I will pay the bill."
+
+"Beg pardon, Mr. Seth, but you will not! I will pay myself," cried
+Dorothy, eagerly.
+
+"With what, Dolly dear? I thought you were the most impecunious young
+person of the lot."
+
+"I am--just now; but I shan't be long," answered the young hostess,
+with a confident wink in Alfaretta's direction. To which that
+matter-of-fact maid replied by a contemptuous toss of her head and the
+enigmatical words:
+
+"Hare pie!"
+
+"Wagons all ready, Mr. Winters!" announced a stable boy, appearing
+around the house corner.
+
+"Passengers all ready!" shouted Danny Smith, perhaps the very happiest
+member of that happy Party. Never in his short, hard-worked life had
+he recreated for a whole week, with no chores to do, no reprimands to
+hear, and no solitude in distant corn-fields where the only sound he
+heard was the whack-whack of his own hoe. A week of idleness, jolly
+companionship, feasting and luxury--Danny had to rub his eyes,
+sometimes, to see if he were really awake.
+
+"All ready, all?"
+
+"All ready!"
+
+Much in the order of their Sunday's division they settled themselves
+for the drive to Newburgh, where the first stop was to be made, except
+that Molly Breckenridge declared she must ride beside Dorothy, having
+something most important to discuss with her friend. Also, she
+insisted that the twins ride with them, on the wagon-bottom between
+their feet.
+
+"They can't fall out that way, and it's about them--I'll tell
+everybody later."
+
+It was an hour when nobody wished to dash the pleasure of anybody
+else, so Mr. Seth nodded compliance; saying:
+
+"Then I'll take this other little lady alongside myself!" and lifted
+Luna to the place.
+
+This time she showed neither fear nor hesitation. She accepted the
+situation with that blankly smiling countenance she wore when she was
+physically comfortable, and the horses had not traveled far before her
+head drooped against the Master's shoulder, as it had against
+Dorothy's, and she fell asleep.
+
+"Poor thing! She has so little strength. She looks well but the least
+exertion exhausts her. Like one who has been imprisoned till he has
+lost the use of his limbs. I wonder who she is! I wonder, are we doing
+right not to advertise her!" thought the farrier; then contented
+himself with his former arguments against the advertising and the fact
+that Mrs. Calvert would soon be coming home and would decide the
+matter at once.
+
+"Cousin Betty can solve many a riddle, and will this one. Meanwhile,
+the waif is well cared for and as happy as she can ever be, I fancy.
+Best not to disturb her yet."
+
+When the wagon stopped at the door of the old stone Headquarters on
+the outskirts of Newburgh city, Helena said:
+
+"It will save time, Mr. Winters, if some of us drive on to the
+business streets and do the shopping for these twins. I'm familiar
+with this old house--have often brought our guests to see it; so I
+could help in the errands."
+
+"And I!" "And I!" cried Molly and Dolly, together. "Our school used
+to come here to study history, sometimes, right from the very things
+themselves. Besides--" Here Molly gave her chum such a pinch on the
+arm that Dolly ended her explanation with a squeal.
+
+So it was quickly settled. Mr. Winters handed Helena his purse, which
+she at first politely declined to take--having designs herself in that
+line. But when he as courteously and firmly insisted, she took it and
+said no more. Helena Montaigne would never carry her own wishes to the
+point of rudeness; yet in her heart she was longing to clothe the
+really pretty children after a fancy of her own. However, she put this
+wish aside, and the three girls with the orphans were swiftly driven
+to the best department stores the city afforded.
+
+Here trouble awaited. At the statement that one was a girl and one a
+boy--which her own perception would not have taught her--the
+saleswoman produced garments suitable for the two sexes.
+
+"Now which shall I fit first?" she asked smiling at the close
+resemblance of the pair.
+
+"Why, ladies first, I suppose!" laughed Helena and moved one child
+forward. The other immediately placed itself alongside, and Molly
+exclaimed:
+
+"Now, I don't know which is which! Anybody got a ribbon? or anything
+will answer to tie upon one and so distinguish them. Baby, which are
+_you_?"
+
+The twin she had clasped smiled at her seraphically but made no reply;
+merely cocked its flaxen head aside and thrust its finger in mouth. At
+once its mate did likewise, and Helena tossed her hands in comical
+dismay.
+
+"Oh! Get the ribbon, please! Then we'll make them _spell_ themselves
+and tie the mark on before we forget."
+
+So they did; and the attendant listened in amusement to the
+performance; till finding themselves of so much interest to others the
+midgets began again glibly to spell and--both together. Prancing and
+giggling, fully realizing their own mischievousness, the babies made
+that hour of shopping one which all concerned--save themselves--long
+remembered. Also, if there were the slightest difference between the
+garments selected for them they set up such a violent protest that
+peace could only be restored by clothing them alike.
+
+So they emerged from the establishment clad in snowy little suits that
+seemed as fitting for a girl as for a boy, with pretty hats which they
+elected to wear upon their backs, and sandals on their stubby
+feet--the nearest approach to shoes to which they would submit. A big
+box of suitable underwear was put into the wagon and they were lifted
+in after it, while Molly begged to walk a block or two till she found
+a confectioner's.
+
+Here she expended all her pocket-money, and climbing back beside
+Dorothy politely opened her big box and offered it to her friends.
+Incidentally, to the twins; who stared, tasted, and stared again!
+
+"My heart! I don't believe they have ever tasted candy! They don't
+know what it means!" cried Molly, laughing.
+
+They soon found out. In a flash they had seized the pasteboard box and
+snuggled it between them. Then with it securely wedged beneath their
+knees they proceeded to empty it at lightning speed.
+
+"Why! I never saw anything eat like that, not even a dog! You can't
+see them swallow!" said Helena, amazed. "They're getting themselves
+all daubed with that chocolate, too--The pity!"
+
+"Give it back to me, at once!" commanded Molly sternly, but she spoke
+to unhearing ears. Then she tried to snatch it away, but they were too
+strong for her, as anybody who has ever thus contested with sturdy
+five-year-olds can guess.
+
+"They'll make themselves ill! and they'll ruin their new clothes. What
+will Mr. Winters say? Molly, how could you!" wailed Dorothy. "I wish
+we'd never brought them. I mean, I wish you hadn't thought of candy. I
+wish----"
+
+"You'd hold your tongue!" snapped Molly, so viciously that her friends
+both stared and Dolly said no more. "I don't mean to be so horrid,
+girls, but it is so vexatious! I'd spent all I had and meant it to be
+such an addition to our picnic dinner in the woods. I'm
+ashamed--course--and I apologize. Though I remember Miss Penelope says
+that apologies and explanations are almost worse than useless.
+Besides----"
+
+Here Molly paused and looked at Dorothy most meaningly; but whatever
+she meant to say further Dolly stopped by a shake of her head, adding:
+
+"Now it's my turn to apologize, Helena dear, but there's something we
+two have in mind that we want to spring on the whole lot of you at
+once. Will you forgive and wait?"
+
+"Surely. But--those children! I hope we'll get back to the others soon
+and that Mr. Winters will have more influence with them than we've
+had."
+
+It proved that he had. One glance and word from him and the twins
+cowered as if they expected cruel blows, and without the slightest
+resistance permitted him to take away the nearly empty box.
+
+"Doesn't look very tempting now, I think. Best throw it away,
+especially as I had already provided sweeties for the crowd. Now,
+lads, westward ho! It's nearly dinner time again, and I believe it's
+being with so many other hungry youngsters makes me one too!" cried
+the Master, stepping to his place and saying with an air of authority
+which nobody disputed: "Hand over the twins. I'll take them under my
+care for the rest of this day!"
+
+The Headquarters which they were next to visit, and on whose grounds
+they were to picnic, was bordered by a stream that just there widened
+into a little lake. As they approached the place, cramped by their
+long ride, most of the lads left the wagons to finish the distance on
+foot.
+
+"Ever hear the story of General Lafayette and this creek, Melvin?"
+asked Herbert. "Good enough to tell and not against your side either."
+
+"Go on," said Melvin, resignedly. "I fancy I can match any yarn of
+yours with one of my own, don't you know."
+
+"Can't beat this. In those days there was no bridge here, not even a
+footbridge. One had to ford the stream. The General was going to a
+party at that very house yonder and was in his best togs. Course, he
+didn't want to get his pumps wet so he hired an Irishman--more likely
+a Britisher--to carry him over. Half way over--a little slip--not
+intentional, of course!--and down goes my General, ker-splash! Just
+this way it was! Only it's turn and turn about, now. Young America
+totes old England and----"
+
+"Lads, lads! That footbridge is unsafe! See! The plank's gone in the
+middle--Oh! the careless fellows!"
+
+Having been a boy himself the farrier was prepared for pranks; and the
+good-natured badinage between Herbert and the young Canadian had
+aroused no anxiety till now. He had been near enough to hear Herbert's
+recital of the Lafayette incident but had merely been amused.
+Now--Oh! why didn't they keep to the wide, safe bridge, that wagons
+used!
+
+Already it was too late even for his warning. Herbert had only meant
+to catch up the slighter Melvin, scare him by pretending to drop him,
+but in reality carry him pick-a-pack safely to the further shore. He
+considered himself an athlete and wished to show "young England how
+they do things in Yankeeland," and with a shout he darted forward.
+Headlong he came to the spot above the water where no foothold was--a
+space too wide for even his long legs to cover, and all the watchers
+shivered in fear.
+
+But from his elevation on Herbert's back, Melvin had already seen the
+chasm and as if he had been shot from a catapult--he cleared it!
+
+"Hip, hip, hooray! England forever!" yelled Frazer Moore and every
+other lad in the company added his cheers.
+
+Then Melvin, from his side the chasm, doffed his cap and bowed his
+graceful acknowledgments for his country's sake. And at sight of that
+the girls cheered, too, for Herbert had already regained his feet in
+that shallow stream and they could see that he had taken no hurt
+beyond a slight wetting.
+
+"Never mind that. He'll dry off, same as the twins did," laughed Molly
+Breckenridge. Which he did, for the sun was warm and his plunge had
+been a brief one; and in fact this "little international episode," as
+Monty called it, but served to increase the jollity of that day.
+
+Such a day it proved; without cloud or untoward incident to mar its
+happiness; and as they wandered here and there, inspecting for the
+last time the historical spot which had given them hospitable shelter,
+none dreamed of any mishap to come. Even the twins were tired enough
+to behave with uncommon docility, beyond continually removing from one
+another the ribbon which should have designated Ananias from Sapphira.
+
+"They've changed it so often I've really forgotten which is which, but
+I'm sure--that is I think--I'm really positive--that the hair with a
+kink belongs to Sapphira! After all, that isn't such a dreadful name
+when you say it softly," said Molly.
+
+"I think this is the loveliest old house I ever saw. I'd just like to
+stay here forever, seems if. The funny roof, so high up in front and
+away down, low almost as the ground behind. The great chimney--think
+of standing in a chimney so big you can look straight up, clear
+through to the sky!" murmured studious Jane Potter.
+
+"'Tisn't as big as the Newburgh one, and they haven't any such Hessian
+boots, though it does have a secret staircase and chamber," answered
+Jim who, also, was greatly interested in the ancient building. "But
+come on, Janie; they're getting ready to leave."
+
+"In just a minute. Just one single minute, 'cause I shan't ever likely
+come here again, even if I do live so near it as our mountain."
+
+Home through the twilight they drove, for kindly Seth couldn't abridge
+for his beloved young folks that long, delightful day; and they were
+ready to declare, most of them, that even the circus to come could
+hardly be more enjoyable than this day's "Headquartering" had been.
+
+It was then, on that happy return, that Dorothy had found the telegram
+awaiting, and had caught it up with a loving thought of her indulgent
+Aunt Betty. Then her happiness dashed as by cold water she had flown
+out of the room and shut herself in her pretty chamber to cry and feel
+herself the most unhappy girl in all the world.
+
+Twice had Norah come to her door to summon her to supper before she
+felt composed enough to go below among her guests.
+
+Over and over she assured herself that none of them should ever know
+how badly she had been treated. Nobody, of course, except Alfaretta,
+and the first thing that girl would be sure to ask would be:
+
+"Have you caught your hare?" In other words: "Did she send the money?"
+
+But in this she did poor Alfy great injustice. It had needed but one
+glance to tell her--being in the secret--what sort of an answer had
+come to Dorothy by way of that unexplained yellow envelope. Well, it
+was too bad! After all, Mrs. Betty Calvert must be a terribly stingy
+old woman not to give all the money she wanted to her new-found, or
+new-acknowledged great niece! Huh! She was awful sorry for Dolly
+Doodles, to have to belong to just--great aunts! She'd rather have Ma
+Babcock, a thousand times over, than a rich old creature like Dolly
+had to live with. She would so!
+
+Therefore it was not at all of news from town that warm-hearted
+Alfaretta inquired, as Dorothy at last appeared in the supper room,
+but with an indifferent glance around:
+
+"Why, where's Jane Potter?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MUSIC AND APPARITIONS
+
+
+Where, indeed, was good Jane Potter! The least troublesome, the most
+self-effacing, staidest girl of them all.
+
+"Didn't she ride home with _you_?"
+
+"Why no. I supposed she did with _you_. That is--I never thought."
+
+"But--somebody should have thought!" cried Dorothy, diverted from her
+own unhappiness by this strange happening.
+
+"Yes, and that 'somebody' should have been myself," admitted Mr. Seth,
+after question had followed question and paling faces had turned
+toward one another.
+
+"Are you sure she isn't in her room?" asked Helena.
+
+"Sure as sure. I thought it funny she didn't come to clean herself, I
+mean put on her afternoon things; but I guessed she was too tired,
+and, anyway, Jane never gets mussed up as I do," answered Molly
+Martin, tears rising in her eyes.
+
+The Master rose from his unfinished meal.
+
+"Then we've left her behind and the poor child will be terrified. I'll
+have one of the work horses put to the pony cart at once, and go back
+for her. I'd like one of you lads to go with me. I might need
+somebody."
+
+Jim rose and Herbert, and, oddly enough, Mr. Winters nodded to
+Herbert; adding to Dorothy:
+
+"Have a bottle of milk and some food, besides a heavy wrap sent out to
+the cart. She will have missed her supper."
+
+"But you and Herbert are missing yours, too. I shall send something
+extra for you two and mind you eat it. I--I'm sure you'll find Jane
+all right only maybe frightened," said Dorothy, doing her utmost to
+banish anxiety from her friends, though she felt troubled enough in
+her own mind. If it had been any other girl but Jane, the steady!
+
+However, there was the long evening to get through, even though the
+rescuing party made their best speed. Many miles stretched between the
+old mansion and this with the distance to cover twice; and all the
+time there lay on the hostess's heart the burden of her own personal
+grief. But she mustn't think of that. She must not. She was a Calvert,
+no matter what Aunt Betty said. A gentlewoman.
+
+Only yesterday Helena had explained that a gentlewoman, "in society,"
+had no thought save for the comfort of others. Well, she was in
+"society" now, and--She almost wished she wasn't! She'd rather have
+been a poor little girl, unknowing her own name, who'd never dreamed
+of being an heiress and who'd have been free to run away and hide and
+cry her eyes out--if she wished!
+
+So she put her best efforts to her task of entertaining and a jolly
+evening followed; though now and then one or another would pause in
+the midst of a game and ask:
+
+"Ought we to be carrying on like this, while we don't know what's
+happened to Janie?" Then the spirit of fun would sway them all again;
+for, as Alfaretta practically put it: "Whether we laugh or cry don't
+make any difference to her. Time enough to solemn down when we find
+out she's hurt."
+
+They were rather noisily singing the old round of "Three Blind Mice,"
+with each particular "mouse" putting itself into its neighbors' way,
+so that the refrain never would come out in the proper order, when it
+was caught up by lusty voices in the outer hall and Mr. Seth's deep
+tones leading.
+
+"They've come! They've come--and it must be all right, else they
+wouldn't sing like that!" cried Molly Martin, infinitely relieved on
+her friend's and room-mate's account; she and the sedate Jane being as
+close chums as Dolly and the other Molly were.
+
+"The Campbells Are Coming," whistled Herbert merrily, and with the air
+of a courtier led the embarrassed Jane into the midst of the circle.
+She jerked her hand away with the reproof:
+
+"Don't be silly! I've made trouble enough without acting foolish over
+it."
+
+She seemed so completely ashamed of herself that Dorothy pitied her
+and hastened to put her arm about her and say:
+
+"Why should you think of trouble to anybody else since you're--alive?"
+
+"Alive! Did you think I might be dead, then? That makes it worse,
+still. I was never in the slightest danger. I was only just a--dunce."
+
+"You couldn't ever be that, Jane Potter!" cried Molly Martin,
+enthusiastically embracing the restored one from her other side.
+
+But Jane shook herself free from the caresses of both and calmly
+explained:
+
+"Since you'll all want to know I may as well tell just how thoughtless
+I was. I wanted to find that secret staircase Jim had told about, and
+the hidden chamber above it, under the roof. I couldn't at first. It
+led out of the paneled chamber, he said, where all the side walls
+looked like doors and only one of them would move. Finally, after I'd
+tried 'em all, and that took some time, I slid one open. It was the
+secret stair; nothing but a close sealed cupboard, so little that even
+I could hardly squeeze up it. It wasn't a regular stair, only tiny
+three-cornered pieces of board nailed in the back angles, first one
+side and then another. They are far apart and some are gone. I thought
+I'd never get up the thing, but I hadn't stayed behind to be worsted
+by a sort of old grain-chute like that."
+
+"Weren't you scared? Didn't you feel as if some enemy were after you?"
+Molly Breckenridge interrupted to ask.
+
+Jane coolly sat down and glanced contemptuously at the questioner. All
+the company felt a trifle disappointed by Jane's manner. They had
+expected a more exciting revelation.
+
+"What should I be afraid of? I haven't any enemies, as I know."
+
+"But it must have been very dark in such a place, a shut-in box like
+that," protested Helena, who as well as the others thought Jane might
+have made more out of her adventure.
+
+"No, it wasn't, not there. The panel-door let the light through from
+the big room where there are no blinds or curtains. All the light
+there was--only dusk, you know--came through. It was at the top, after
+I'd climbed off the top step into the hidden chamber that it got
+dark--black as night. Because, you see, I accidentally hit my foot
+against the trap-door and it fell shut. That's all. I ain't dead, you
+see, and there's nothing to be sorry for except the trouble I gave Mr.
+Winters and this boy. I've told them I was sorry, so that's all there
+can be done about it now. Anyway I've learned something, and that is
+how a prisoner must feel, shut up in a box like that."
+
+A sort of groan came from the further side of the room where the
+Master had sunk into a great chair as if he were utterly weary. Then
+he said:
+
+"I'm glad Jane is so philosophical. I think she doesn't know just how
+dangerous her situation was. The 'hidden chamber' under the roof was
+nothing but a closely sealed box, without any possible ventilation.
+Nobody could have lived long shut up in that space, breathing the
+vitiated air. It was well we found her, and you must all thank God for
+a tragedy averted. Nor would I have thought of looking there for her
+if Jim hadn't remembered talking with her about the place and told
+Herbert just as we started. He'd inspected it himself, had read of it,
+yet even I who had visited that old mansion many times didn't know of
+its existence."
+
+"Oh! I wish you'd told us all, Jim Barlow, when we were there! I think
+it was selfish mean of you not to, when we were sight-seeing on
+purpose," pouted Jolly Molly.
+
+"Wish't I had, now, since you all seem to care. I didn't think then
+anybody--I mean--I didn't think at all, except for myself," frankly
+answered the lad, which made them laugh again and so restored their
+ordinary mood.
+
+"Well, it's about breaking up time. I move that Dorothy C. give us a
+bit of music from her violin," said the Master, smiling upon his
+beloved child.
+
+She smiled in return but it was such a wan little attempt that it
+pained more than pleased him. Something was sorely troubling sunshiny
+Dolly and he wondered what, not knowing the purport of her begging
+letter to Mrs. Calvert nor what the telegram had said. He feared she
+was still grieving about the lost one hundred dollars and could
+sympathize in that, for he also grieved and puzzled. He made up his
+mind to ask her about it at the first opportunity; meanwhile, there
+was the obliging girl already tuning her violin and asking from her
+place beside the mantel piece:
+
+"What shall it be--when I've done squeaking this way?"
+
+"Yankee Doodle!" "God Save the King!" cried Herbert and Melvin,
+together; and immediately she began, first a strain of one, then the
+other, till even the mischievous petitioners cried that they had had
+enough of that medley and would be glad of a change.
+
+One after another she played the selections asked, watching with
+curiosity which all the others shared, the strange effect her music
+had on Luna. The waif now seemed to consider herself entirely one of
+the Party--the "Silent Partner," Danny called her; for though she
+never spoke she had learned to keep close to some one or other of the
+young folks, and so to avoid that big room where Dinah had placed her
+earlier on her visit. She took no part in any of their games but
+watched them with that vacant smile upon her wrinkled face, keeping
+out of the way of being jostled by cuddling down in some corner just
+as the twins did. Indeed, there was a close intimacy between the three
+"uninvited"; the little ones promptly realizing that no matter how
+mischievous they had been and how much they deserved punishment, they
+would be unmolested in Luna's neighborhood. She paid scant attention
+to them, no more than she did to anything, except gay colors and
+music. She slept much of the time, and just as the twins did; cuddled
+upon the floor or lounge or wherever drowsiness had overcome her. Yet
+let even the faintest strain of music be heard and she would instantly
+arouse, her eyes wide open and her head bent forward as one intently
+listening; and the strangest part of this attraction was that she
+dumbly realized the sort of melody she heard.
+
+At the jumble of the two national airs she had smiled, then frowned,
+and finally looked distressed. It was this expression upon the dull
+face she watched that had made Dorothy give over that nonsense, even
+more than the protests of her mates; and now as Molly begged:
+
+"Something of your own making-up, Dolly Doodles!" she let her bow
+wander idly over the strings, until a sort of rhythmic measure came to
+her; fragments she knew of many compositions but bound into a sheaf,
+as it were, by a theme of her own.
+
+It was a minor, moving melody and slowly but effectually touched the
+heart of every listener. Melvin leaned back in his chair and closed
+his eyes, picturing to his sometime homesick soul a far-away Yarmouth
+garden, with roses such as bloomed no other where and a sweet-faced,
+widowed mother gently tending them.
+
+Helena pondered if she did right to be in this house, a guest, with
+her own home so near and her parents thus deserted of both their
+children, and unconsciously she sighed.
+
+James Barlow and Jane Potter, after the habit of each, drifted into
+thought of the wide field of learning and the apparent hopelessness of
+ever crossing far beyond its boundaries. "The worst of studying is
+that it makes you see how little bit you can ever know;" considered
+the ambitious lad, while Jane regretted that she had not been left in
+peace in that old house from which she had been rescued and so have
+had the chance of her life to learn history on the spot.
+
+More or less, all within the sound of that violin grew thoughtful; but
+it was upon poor, "unfinished" Luna that the greatest stress was
+wrought. She did not rise to her feet but began to creep toward the
+player, inch by inch, almost imperceptibly advancing as if drawn
+forward by some invisible force.
+
+Presently they all became aware of her movement and of nothing else,
+save that low undercurrent of melody that wailed and sobbed from the
+delicate instrument, as the player's own emotions ruled her fingers.
+
+Even the Master sat erect, he who made a study of all mankind, touched
+and influenced beyond himself with speculations concerning this aged
+woman who was still a child.
+
+"Music! Who knows but that was the key to unlock her closed
+intelligence? Oh! what a pity that it came so late! But how sad is
+Dorothy's mood to evoke such almost unearthly strains! It's getting
+too much for her and for that helpless creature. I must stop it;"
+thought the farrier, but didn't put his thought into action. Just then
+he could not.
+
+"Makes me think of a snake charmer I saw once," whispered Monty Stark
+to Littlejohn.
+
+"Ssh! Luna's cryin'! Did you ever see the beat? Alfy Babcock, stop
+snivellin' as if you was at a first class funeral!" returned master
+Smith, himself swallowing rather hard as he happened to think of his
+mother bringing in her own firewood.
+
+Luna had reached the spot directly before Dorothy and was on her knees
+looking up with a timid, fascinated stare. Her small hands were so
+tightly clasped that their large veins seemed bursting, and great
+tears chased one another down her pink, wrinkled cheeks. Her close
+cropped head was thrown back and her back was toward the windows over
+which no curtains had been drawn. In her gay frock, which firelight
+and lamplight touched to a brilliant flame color, she must have
+appeared to one beyond the panes like a suppliant child begging pardon
+for some grave misdoing.
+
+Suddenly Alfaretta screamed, and Molly Breckenridge promptly echoed
+her; then bounded to Dorothy's side and snatched the violin from her
+hands.
+
+"Stop it, Dolly, stop it! I couldn't help doing that, for in another
+minute you'd have had me and--and everybody crazy! What made you----"
+
+"Why, Alfaretta! Whatever is the matter? Why do you stand like that,
+pointing out into the night as if you'd seen a ghost?" demanded Jane
+Potter, going to her schoolmate and shaking her vigorously. "Don't
+yell again. It's--it's more frightful to hear you than it was to be
+locked up in that hidden chamber, with a spring-locked trap shut
+between you and liberty." Which was the only admission this
+self-contained young person ever gave that she had once known fear.
+
+Alfy gulped, shivered, and slowly answered:
+
+"So I did. It--was a ghost. Or--or--just the same as one!
+A--lookin'--a lookin' right through the window--with his face--big
+and white--He--he wore a hat----"
+
+"Wise ghost! Not to cavort around bare-headed on a damp September
+night!" cried Monty, as much to reassure his own shaken nerves as
+those of the mountain girl.
+
+"Dorothy's music was so strange--weird you might say--that she's made
+us all feel spooky; but we have no apparitions at Deerhurst, let me
+tell you," said Herbert, consolingly.
+
+"Huh! You may say what you like, but that one apparited all right. I
+seen it with my very own eyes and nobody else's!" retorted Alfaretta,
+with such decision and twisting of good English that those who heard
+her laughed loudly.
+
+The laughter effectually banished "spookiness" and as now poor Luna
+sank down upon the floor in her accustomed drowsiness, her enwrapt
+mood already forgotten, the Master lifted her in his strong arms and
+carried her away to Dinah and to bed. But as he went he cast one keen
+glance toward the windows, where nothing could now be seen--if ever
+had been--save the dimly outlined trees beyond. Yet even he almost
+jumped when Jim, having followed him from the room, touched his arm
+and asked:
+
+"What do you s'pose sent old Oliver Sands to peekin' in our windows?"
+
+
+
+
+ [Illustration: THE GHOST AT THE WINDOW.
+ _Dorothy's House Party._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MORNING TALKS
+
+
+"Did anybody ever know such a succession of beautiful days?" asked
+Helena, next morning, stepping out into a world full of bird-song and
+sunshine. "And without doing anything extraordinary, nothing that
+anybody in the world couldn't have done, what a happy time we're
+having. Why, Dolly darling, you--what's wrong, honey? Are you in
+trouble? Can I help you?"
+
+Dorothy had been sitting on the broad piazza, waiting for her guests
+and breakfast, a very sober, worried girl. But she now sprang up to
+greet her friend and tossing back her dark curls seemed to toss away
+anxiety also. A smile rose the more readily, too, for at that moment
+there came around the corner Monty Stark and Danny Smith, kindred
+spirits, each singing at the top of his voice:
+
+     "The elephant now goes round and round,
+       The band begins to play,
+     The little boys under the monkeys' cage
+       Had better get out of the way--
+       Better get out of the wa-a-a-ay!"
+
+"Mornin' ladies! And let me assure you there'll be peanuts and pink
+lemonade enough to go around; for Daniel, my friend here, has just
+unearthed a quarter from one of his multitudinous pockets and I'll
+agree--to-lay-it-out-for-him-to-the-best-possible-advantage--Right
+this way, ladies and gentlemen, only ten cents to see the Double
+Headed Woman and to witness the astonishing feat of an Anaconda
+Swallowing his own Skin! Right this way, only ten----"
+
+"Monty Stark, behave yourself! The place for you, young sir, is in the
+monkeys' cage, not _under_ it! What have you horrid boys been doing
+out there in the barn so early, waking tired little girls out of their
+beauty-sleep?" demanded Molly B., appearing on the scene and
+interrupting the boy's harangue.
+
+"Oh! Just doing a few stunts. Practising, you know, against they call
+on us to take part in the 'ceremonies.' But it's a pity about that
+beauty-sleep. You needed it and I apologize! I mean I never saw you so
+charming! Hooray for the circus!"
+
+"Hooray!" answered Herbert, coming through the doorway, a twin on
+either arm. "Say it, 'Nias! Say it, 'Phira!"
+
+The youngsters squirmed to get away, to slide down out of the boy's
+grasp, but he held them securely till, at last grown desperate, one of
+them began gravely and distinctly to recite the doggerel which Monty
+and Daniel had just sung.
+
+The performance received great applause and amid the jests and
+laughter all turned to follow the summons to breakfast; Herbert
+restraining the little ones long enough to adjure them to: "Mind,
+you've promised! And you know what happened to some folks you're named
+for! No, I shouldn't have said that, poor innocents! I mean you must
+do what I told you or you'll lose what I promised."
+
+"Yep. We's do it, we's do it! I wants my brekkus!" answered one, while
+the other echoed: "Brekkus, brekkus!"
+
+Herbert placed them at a small low table in the corner where Dinah had
+decided they must eat, or "take deir meals; fo' as fo' eatins, dey's
+cwyin' fo' dem all de whole endu'in time! 'Peahs lak dem li'l ones
+nebah would get filled up an' nebah had ernough yet in dis yere
+world."
+
+Yet once at table nobody could find fault with their behavior, except
+for the extreme rapidity with which they stowed away their rations.
+They seemed afraid to drop a crumb or mess themselves in any way and
+the furtive looks they shot out from beneath their long lashes were
+pitiful, as if they feared their food would be snatched from them and
+themselves punished with blows. That many blows had been administered,
+Dinah had early found out, since when bathing them she saw the scars
+upon their poor little bodies.
+
+This had been sufficient to reconcile her to the extra care and labor
+their presence imposed upon her; for labor, indeed, they caused. For
+instance: stealing into the kitchen where Aunt Malinda had set upon
+the hearth a big pan of bread "sponge," to rise, they industriously
+dotted its top with lumps of coal from the hod, in imitation of a
+huckleberry pudding which had appeared at table. They even essayed to
+eat the mixture; but finding this impracticable set to work to force
+one another down into the pan of dough--with sufficient success to
+ruin the new suits they wore as well as Aunt Malinda's "risin'."
+Having discovered that sugar was sweet they emptied a jar of what
+looked like it into a fine "floating island" and turned the custard to
+brine. They hid Ephraim's glasses, and Dinah's bandana; they unloosed
+the dogs, let the chains be fastened ever so securely; they opened the
+gate to the "new meadow" and let the young cattle wander therein; and
+with the most innocent, even angelic expressions, they plotted
+mischief the livelong day. But they redeemed all their wickedness by
+their entire truthfulness. Despite their handicap of names, they
+acknowledged every misdemeanor and took every punishment without a
+whimper.
+
+"They're regular little imps! But, alanna, what'd this big house be
+widout 'em and their pranks?" cried poor Norah, laughing and frowning
+together, when called upon for the third time that morning to change
+the youngsters' clothes; the last necessity arising from the fact that
+they had filled the bathtub and taken a glorious dip without the
+formality of removing their garments. "You're the plague of my life,
+so you are; but poor motherless darlin's, I can't but love you! And
+sorra the day, when him 't you belongs to comes for you again!"
+
+When that morning's meal was over, the Master planned their day as had
+become his habit. Said he:
+
+"A circus day and the first day of the county fair, as this is, will
+crowd the streets of the city with all sorts of teams and people. I've
+decided not to risk Mrs. Calvert's horses in Newburgh to-day. We can
+all go up by train and have no anxiety about anything. It's but a
+down-hill walk, if a rather long one, from here to our own station,
+and in town there'll be plenty of stages to carry us to the grounds.
+Jim has consented to ride over on horseback early and secure our
+places on the front row of seats, if this is possible. I've seen no
+reserved seats advertised, but I don't like those insecure upper
+benches--or boards--of the tiers of scaffolding, where a fellow has to
+swing his feet in space or jab his toes into the back of the spectator
+below. Besides, I always did like to be close to the 'ring' when I go
+to the circus."
+
+"O, Teacher! As if you ever went!" cried Alfaretta, giggling.
+
+"Go? Of course I go every chance I get--to a real country
+circus--which isn't often. There's nothing so convinces me that I am
+still a little boy as the smell of tanbark and sawdust, and the sound
+of the clown's squeaking voice!"
+
+They laughed. It was so easy and so natural to laugh that morning.
+Even Helena, who had enjoyed many superior entertainments, felt her
+pulses thrill in anticipation of that day's amusement; and she meant
+to let herself "go" for all the fun there might be, with as full--if
+not as noisy an abandon--as any "mountain girl" among them.
+
+Continued Mr. Seth, closely observing Dorothy who, alone of all the
+company, was not smiling: "Now, for the morning. I suggest that you
+pass it quietly at home; tennis, reading, lounging in hammocks--any
+way to leave yourselves free from fatigue for the afternoon. Dinah
+says 'Y'arly dinnah'; because all the 'help' want to go to the circus
+and I want to have them. So we must get the dishes washed betimes, for
+the 'Greatest Show On Earth' opens its afternoon performance at two
+o'clock sharp precisely to the minute! and I, for one, cannot,
+positively cannot, miss the Grand Entrance! Umm. I see them now, in
+fancy's eye, the cream colored horses, the glittering spangles, the
+acrobats in tights, the monkeys, the--the----"
+
+"Oh! Don't say any more, dear Master, or I shall have to ride over
+with Jim this morning and see the street parade!" cried Molly
+Breckenridge clasping her plump hands in absurd entreaty, while every
+lad present looked enviously upon the thus honored James.
+
+"_I_ could buy circus tickets if I put my whole mind to it. How about
+you, Littlejohn Smith?" observed Monty.
+
+"Give me the cash and let me try!"
+
+Danny said nothing but his eyes were wistfully fixed upon vacancy,
+while Frazer Moore sadly stated:
+
+"All I ever did see about a circus--so far--was the parade. I run away
+to that--once."
+
+"And got a lickin' for it afterwards, I remember," commented Mike
+Martin.
+
+This was too much for the discipline of that dear old "boy," Seth
+Winters, and he cried:
+
+"See here, lads! I can't stand for that. Nor need I be afraid of
+fatigue for _you_. Nothing will tire a single boy of the lot, to-day,
+except missing some part of this delectable Show! Scamper! Scatter!
+Trot! Vamoose! In short, run to the stables and see if there are
+horses enough to go around, counting in the workers. There'll none of
+them be needed at Deerhurst to-day. Then you can all ride to town with
+our treasurer and put your horses up at the big livery on the High
+Street back of the town. See to it that they are made perfectly safe
+and comfortable for the day, and tell the proprietor that they are to
+be looked after for me. Here, Jamie lad, is an extra ten dollar bill.
+Use it judiciously, for anything needed, especially for luncheon for
+eight hungry boys. Better get that at some reputable restaurant and
+not on the grounds. Also, one of you meet the rest of us at the
+station at one o'clock with the tickets. Our whole big Party will make
+our own Grand Entrance!"
+
+"Oh! thank you, thank you!"
+
+With a simultaneous cry of rapture the lads sped stablewards, leaving
+some rather downcast girlish faces behind them.
+
+"I--I can ride horseback," said Molly B., with a sigh.
+
+"So can I; and 'tain't far to our house. I guess Pa Martin'd have let
+me have old Bess to ride on," responded the other Molly.
+
+"Shucks! Molly M. How'd you look, rockin' along on that old mare?
+Besides, you couldn't keep in sight, even, of the way them boys'll
+tear along. Another besides; you know, well's I do, that Mr. Martin
+wouldn't hold with no such nonsense as your trapesin' after a circus
+parade. Who wants to, anyway? We're born girls and we can't be boys,
+no matter how much we try. Since I ain't let to go I'd rather--I guess
+I'd rather stay to home and crochet some lace," said practical
+Alfaretta and pushed back from table.
+
+"Wait a minute, Alfy. There's something else I've got to say. It has
+been a secret between Dolly and me, but of course we can't keep it
+always and I can't a minute longer. It's this: We two girls have
+adopted for all their lives the two twins! We've adopted them with our
+pocket-money," proudly stated Molly B.
+
+"Molly! Molly!" cried Dorothy, her face aflame and her eyes swiftly
+filling.
+
+"Yes I shall tell, too. Secrets are the killingest things to bear. I
+expect Papa will scold and Auntie Lu make fun but I'm doing it for
+charity. I shall put away every bit of my allowance to educate my--my
+son--and I shall call him Augustus Algernon Breckenridge. I thought
+you might as well know," and with this startling statement the Judge's
+daughter threw back her head and eyed the company defiantly.
+
+The girls stared, all save Dorothy, and the Master laughed, while from
+their corners the twins echoed a shrill cackle; then immediately began
+to practice the somersaults which Herbert had been at such pains to
+teach them. Then Molly rose, with what she considered great dignity,
+and, forcing Ananias to stand upon his feet, said in a sweet maternal
+tone:
+
+"Come, my little boy. I want you to keep nice and rested till I take
+you to the circus." Then she led him away, Sapphira tugging at her
+skirts and Alfaretta remarking:
+
+"Guess you'll have to adopt the pair, Molly Breckenridge. Them two
+stick closer'n glue!"
+
+In another moment all but the Master and Dorothy had left the room,
+and seizing this opportunity he called her to him.
+
+"Dolly Doodles, I want to talk with you a little. Let's go out to the
+old barn--I mean the new one--and have a visit. We haven't had any
+cosy confidence talks, remember, since this House Party began."
+
+It was the very thing she craved. Frank and outspoken by nature, long
+used to telling everything to this wise old friend, they had no sooner
+settled themselves upon the straw divan, than out it came, with a
+burst of sobs:
+
+"Oh! dear Mr. Seth, I'm so unhappy!"
+
+"Yes, child. I've seen it. Such a pity, too, on a circus day!"
+
+"Please, please don't tease me now. Aunt Betty thinks--thinks--I
+hardly know--only--read that!"
+
+From the tiny pocket of her blouse she pulled the fateful telegram and
+thrust it into his hand. He had some ado to smooth it out and decipher
+the blurred writing, for it had been wet with many tears and
+frequently handled.
+
+"You have made me dangerously angry. You must find that money.
+Heretofore there has been no thievery in my house." Signed, "Mrs.
+Elisabeth Cecil Somerset-Calvert."
+
+The farrier whistled softly, and slowly refolded the document; then
+drew Dorothy's wet face to his shoulder and said:
+
+"Yes, little girl, we must find that money. We must. There is no other
+way."
+
+"But how can we? And why should she--she be so angry after having told
+me I was all the world to her and that all she had was mine, or would
+be."
+
+"Well, dearie, 'would be' and 'is' are two widely differing
+conditions. Besides, she is Betty Calvert and you are you."
+
+"That's no answer, as I can see."
+
+"It is all the answer there is. She is an old, old lady though she
+doesn't realize it herself. All her life long she has been accustomed
+to doing exactly what she wished and when she wished. She has
+idealized you and you have idealized her. Neither of you is at all
+perfect--though mighty nice, the pair of you!--and you've got to fit
+yourselves to one another. Naturally, most of the fitting must be on
+your part, since you're the younger. You will love each other dearly,
+you do now, despite this temporary cloud, but you, my child, will have
+to cultivate the grace of patience; cultivate it as if it were a
+cherished rose in your own old garden. It will all come right, don't
+fear."
+
+"How can it come right? How ever in this world? I've promised to adopt
+one of the twins and Molly trusts me in that and I haven't a cent. I'm
+poorer than I used to be before I was an heiress. Molly will never
+believe me again. Then there's all this expense you're paying--the
+circus tickets and railway fares and all. It was to be _my_ House
+Party, my very own, to celebrate my coming into my rightful name and
+home and it isn't at all. It's yours and--Oh! dear! Oh! dear! Nothing
+is right. I wish I could run away and hide somewhere before Aunt Betty
+comes home. I shall never dare to look at her again after I've made
+her 'dangerously angry.' What can that mean? I used to vex Mother
+Martha, often, but never like that. Oh! I wish I was _her_ little girl
+again and not this----"
+
+Seth laid his finger on her lip and the wish she might have uttered
+and bitterly regretted was never spoken. But the old man's face was
+grave as he said:
+
+"You did not know, but my Cousin Betty means that you have excited her
+beyond physical safety. She has a weak heart and has always been
+cautioned against undue agitation. It has been a sad business
+altogether and I wish you had had more confidence in me and come to me
+with that letter before you sent it. As for the 'expenses' of your
+Party--it is yours, dear, entirely--they are slight and my
+contribution to the general happiness. The only real thing that does
+matter, that will be most difficult to set straight is--your suspicion
+of old Ephraim. It was that I believe which angered Mrs. Calvert, far
+more than the money loss, although she is exact enough to keep a cent
+per cent account of all her own expenses--giving lavishly the
+meanwhile to any purpose she elects. Poor Ephraim! His heart is
+wellnigh broken, and old hearts are hard to mend!"
+
+Dorothy was aghast.
+
+"Does he know? Oh! has anybody told him that I suspected him?"
+
+"Not in words; and at first he didn't dream it possible that his
+honesty could be doubted. But--that's the horrible part of
+suspicion--once started it's incurable. Side glances, inuendoes,
+shrugged shoulders--Oh! by many a little channel the fact has come
+home to him that he is connected in all our minds with the loss of
+your one hundred dollars. Haven't you seen? How he goes about with
+bowed head, with none of his quaint jests and 'darkyisms,' a sober,
+astonished old man whose world is suddenly turned upside down. That's
+why he refused my money this morning which I offered him for his
+circus expenses. 'No, Massa Seth, I'se gwine bide ter home.' Yet of
+all the family of Deerhurst, before this happened, he would have been
+the most eager for the 'Show.' However, he refuses; and in a certain
+way maybe it is as well. Otherwise the place would be left unguarded.
+I should keep watch myself, if I didn't think my Dorothy and her mates
+were better worth protecting than all Deerhurst.
+
+"So now, shorten up that doleful countenance. The mischief that has
+been done must be undone. Aunt Betty must come home to a loving,
+forgiving child; old Ephraim must be reinstated in his own and
+everybody's respect; and to do this--that money must be found! Now,
+for our friends--and brighter thoughts!"
+
+"That money _shall_ be found! I don't know how, I cannot guess--but it
+shall!" answered Dorothy with great confidence, born of some sudden
+inspiration. The talk with the Master had lightened her heart and it
+was with a fine resolution to be everything that was dutiful and
+tender toward Aunt Betty that she left the barn and rejoined her
+mates.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH
+
+
+Deerhurst was deserted.
+
+With a down-sinking heart old Ephraim had watched the last of the
+merry-makers vanish through the gateway, even gray haired Hans and
+Griselda joining their fellow employees on this trip to the circus.
+The watcher's disappointment was almost more than he could bear. His
+love of junketing was like a child's and for many days, as he drove
+his bays about the countryside, he had gloated over the brilliant
+posters which heralded the coming of "The Greatest Show on Earth." He
+had even invited Aunt Malinda to accompany him at his expense, and now
+she had gone but he was left.
+
+"Hmm. It do seem pow'ful ha'd on me, hit sutney do. But--if all dem
+folkses is suspicionin' 't ole Eph'aim is a t'ief--My lan', a T'IEF!
+Not a step Ah steps to no ca'yins' on, scusin dey fin's Ah isn't. If
+my Miss Betty was to home! Oh! fo' my Miss Betty! She's gwine tole
+dese yeah Pa'ty folks somepin' when she comes ma'chin' in de doah. Dey
+ain' no suspicions ertwixt my Miss Betty an' me."
+
+His thoughts having taken this course Ephraim found some comfort. Then
+the responsibility of his position forced itself to mind. No, he
+couldn't go stretch himself on the back porch in the September
+sunshine and sleep just yet. Though it was against all custom and
+tradition in that honest locality, he would lock up the whole house.
+He would begin at the front door and fasten every window and entrance
+even to the scullery. There should nothing more be missing, and no
+more suspicion fixed on a poor old man. He didn't yet know who had set
+the miserable idea afloat in the beginning, and he didn't dream of its
+being Dorothy. He had found himself strangely questioned by the other
+servants and had met curious glances from the visitors in the house.
+Finally, a stable lad had suddenly propounded the inquiry:
+
+"What did you do with that money, anyway, Ephy? If you don't hand it
+back pretty soon there'll be trouble for you, old man."
+
+He had returned indignant inquiries himself, at last worming the whole
+matter out; and then, with almost bursting heart, had gone to Seth
+Winters with his trouble. The farrier had comforted as best he could,
+had assured the old negro of his own utmost faith in him, but--he
+could not explain the absence of the money and his assurances had been
+of small avail.
+
+Whenever he was alone poor Ephraim brooded over the matter. He now
+avoided his fellow workers as much as he could. His appetite failed,
+his nights were sleepless, and Dinah impressively declared that: "He's
+yeitheh been hoodooed or he stole dat money." She was inclined to
+accept the first possibility, but with the superstition of her race
+felt that one was about as derogatory as the other. So nobody, except
+Mr. Winters, had been very sorry to have him stay behind on this
+occasion when jollity and not low spirits was desirable.
+
+At last when all was secure, the care-taker retired to his bench and
+his nap, and had been enjoying himself thus for an hour or so, when
+the sound of wheels and somebody's "Whooa-a!" aroused him.
+
+"Ah, friend! Can thee afford to waste time like this?" demanded a
+blandly reproving voice; and Ephraim opened his eyes to behold George
+Fox and his owner reined up before him. He knew that equipage and
+wondered to see it at Deerhurst, whose mistress, he knew, had scant
+liking for the miller.
+
+"Yes, sah. I'se reckon Ah c'n afford hit; bein' mo' inclined to take
+mah rest 'an to go rampagin' eroun' to circuses an' such. On yo' way
+dar, sah?"
+
+"I? _I!_ On my way to a circus? Thee must know little of a Friend's
+habits to accuse me of such frivolity. Where is that Seth Winters?"
+asked Oliver Sands, well knowing what the answer would be and having
+timed his visit with that knowledge.
+
+"He's done gone to de Show, sah. He natchally injoys a good time. Yes,
+sah, he's one mighty happy ole man, Massa Seth Winters is, sah."
+
+"One mighty----" began the miller then checked himself. "I came--but
+thee will answer just as well. I'd like to inspect that new barn
+Elisabeth Calvert has put up; and, if thee will, show me through her
+house as well. I've heard of its appointments and Dorcas, my wife, is
+anxious to learn of the range in the kitchen. Thee knows that
+women----"
+
+Again the visitor paused, suggestively, and Ephraim reflected for a
+moment. He knew that his Miss Betty was the soul of hospitality and
+might upbraid him if he refused to show a neighbor through the
+premises. Even strangers sometimes drove into the park and were
+permitted to inspect the greenhouses and even some of the mansion's
+lower rooms. He had heard such visitors rave over the "old Colonial"
+appointments and knew that Deerhurst's mistress had been secretly
+flattered by this admiration.
+
+Ah! but that was before this dreadful thing had happened! When--before
+somebody had stolen, some unknown thief had been within those walls!
+
+"Well, sah, Ah is sutney sorry but, sah, when I'se lef' to care-take,
+sah, I care-takes. Some uddah time, when Miss Betty done be yeah,
+sah, sutney, sah----"
+
+The negro's exaggerated courtesy affronted Oliver Sands. It was not
+his policy to contest the point, and if he had fancied he could
+persuade this loyal care-taker to admit him that he might search the
+house as he had searched many other houses of late, he silently
+admitted his own mistake and drove away with no further word than:
+"Gid-dap, George Fox!"
+
+But he drove home with head on breast and a keen disappointment in his
+heart; which expressed itself in a stern rebuke to his wife as he
+entered her kitchen and met her timid, inquiring glance:
+
+"Thee has maggots in thy head, Dorcas Sands. I advise thee to get rid
+of them."
+
+She might have retorted with equal truth: "So is thee maggotty,
+Oliver, else would thee do openly that which should bring thee peace."
+
+But being a dutiful wife she kept silence, though she brooded many
+things in her tender heart; and the incident passed without further
+comment than Seth Winters's ambiguous remark, when Ephraim told of the
+miller's call: "So the leaven is working, after all."
+
+But while this trivial affair was happening at Deerhurst, the train
+had swiftly carried the household to the hill-city a few miles up the
+river; and almost before they were comfortably settled in the crowded
+car, the conductor was announcing: "Newburgh next! All out for
+Newburgh!"
+
+"Here we are! And here's our stage! We've chartered a whole one to
+carry us up the hill. A hard climb and no time to lose!" called out a
+boyish voice and Herbert's tall shoulder shoved a path through the
+throng. "There's another empty over yonder, if the 'help' speak quick
+enough!"
+
+But Aunt Malinda standing bewildered and Dinah indignantly correcting
+somebody for jostling her, rather delayed this operation; so, at a nod
+from the Master, Jim Barlow made a bee line for the vehicle and
+stoutly held it as "engaged!" against all comers.
+
+"It's a case of every man for himself!" laughed Monty, squeezing his
+fat body toward the group of girls which was standing apart, amazed
+and somewhat dismayed by the press of people. "Oh! Don't get worried,
+Molly, by a little jam like this. Wait till you see the grounds. I
+declare it seems as if everybody between New York and Albany had come
+to the 'Show.' It is a big one, I guess, and the Parade was fine.
+Sorry we didn't bring all of you, pillion, old-style, so you could
+have seen it, too."
+
+"Monty, stop! It's cruelty to girls to harrow up their feelings that
+way! As if we didn't all _think_ 'pillion' and long to suggest it,
+only our diffidence prevailed. But come! Mr. Seth has piloted the
+servants to their stage and is waiting for us!" answered Molly
+Breckenridge and was the first to spring up the narrow steps at the
+rear of the rickety omnibus and run to its innermost corner, where she
+extended her arms to receive her "son" whom she had kept in charge
+during the ride in the car. The other Molly had passed him on to her,
+he submitting in wide-eyed astonishment at all the novelty of this
+trip. Helena held Sapphira as closely, and Dorothy's arm was tightly
+clasped about Luna's waist, who, oddly enough, was the least
+affrighted of them all.
+
+"Won't the horses be afraid? Supposin' they should run away!" cried
+Molly Martin, who had seldom been in the town and never on such an
+occasion as this.
+
+"Pooh! Them horses won't run 'less they're prodded into it. They look
+as if they'd been draggin' stages up and down these hills all their
+lives and never expected to do anything else," answered Alfaretta,
+quickly. "Don't you get scared, Molly, I ain't."
+
+Indeed, of all that happy party Alfaretta was, maybe, the happiest.
+Her face was one continual smile and her chatter touched upon
+everything they passed with such original remarks that she kept them
+all laughing. Seth beamed upon her from his place beside Luna, and was
+himself delighted to see that Dorothy was now as gay as any of the
+others. For the time being any worries she had had were forgotten; and
+it was she who exclaimed in astonishment, as they came to the grounds
+and climbed out of the stage:
+
+"'Do I wake or am I dreaming'! If there isn't Miss Penelope
+Rhinelander! and Miss Greatorex is with her! True, true! Who'd ever
+believe _they'd_ come to a circus!"
+
+"Reckon they'd say they did it to study natural history--elephants and
+things!" laughed Molly, waving her hand vigorously to attract the
+attention of her old teachers.
+
+But they did not see her, so occupied were they in endeavoring to be
+of a crowd and yet not in it.
+
+"Shucks! There's Dr. Sterling! That I worked for last year and went
+trampin' with last summer! Who'd ha' believed a _minister_ would go to
+a circus!" now almost shouted Jim Barlow.
+
+"Why, I would, laddie. I'll warrant you that every grown-up in the
+town who has a child friend he can make an excuse of to bring here has
+done it! Funny they should offer excuses, when there isn't a man or
+woman but, at sound of a circus band, remembers their childhood and
+longs to attend one once more. For myself, I prefer a good,
+old-fashioned 'show' to the finest opera going. The one touches my
+heart, the other my head. But here we are, and Miss Helena, I see
+you're beginning to perk up, now you find yourself in such good
+company."
+
+For he had overheard that young lady, despite her morning's resolution
+to "do just as the rest did and forget it was silly," remark to Mabel
+Bruce in confidence that:
+
+"If I'd known, even dreamed, that we should have to mix with such a
+rabble, I should have stayed at Deerhurst!"
+
+This was when they had had to scramble for their stage; and Mabel had
+affectedly replied:
+
+"Me too. My folks never do like to have me make myself common; and
+this organdie dress will be torn to ribbons."
+
+Seth had smiled then, overhearing, and bided his time. Well he
+understood how one emotion can sway an entire crowd, and he but waited
+till they should have arrived to see even these contemptuous lassies
+catch the "circus spirit." So he couldn't resist this little jest at
+Helena's expense, which she took now in great good nature; by then
+they had come to the entrance to the big tent where the chief
+performance would be given.
+
+This entrance was guarded by a wooden stile, from which a narrow
+canvas-covered passage led to the inner door. At the stile tickets
+were sold, and these were in turn taken up by the collector at the end
+of the passage which opened directly into the tent.
+
+"Speaking of crowds! Was ever such another one as this!" gasped Melvin
+Cook, as he found himself in the swirl of persons seeming to move in
+two directions, as, indeed, they were. Then he looked around for his
+friends and to his consternation saw Molly Breckenridge tossed to and
+fro in a hopeless effort to extricate herself, and that she held one
+of the twins by hand, till suddenly the child fell beneath the very
+feet of the crowding adults.
+
+"My baby! Oh! O-oh!" screamed Molly, and an instant's halt followed,
+but the jam was to be immediately resumed.
+
+Fortunately, however, that instant had been sufficient for tall Jim
+Barlow to stoop and lift the child on high.
+
+"Hang on to me, Molly! I'll kick and jam a way through. 'Twill be over
+in a minute, soon's we get to the inside and have--you--got--your
+ticket?"
+
+"Ye-e-es! But--but--I'll never come to a
+circus--again--never--never----"
+
+"You haven't got to this one yet," returned Jim, breathlessly. Then he
+discovered Mr. Winters standing inside the tent, and extending his
+arms to receive the uplifted little one which Jim at once tossed
+forward like a ball.
+
+At last they were all inside. The Master had been more fortunate in
+piloting his especial charges, Luna and Sapphira, through that
+struggling mob; but it was in a tone of deep disgust that he now
+exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! the selfishness of human nature! A moment's delay, a touch of
+courtesy, and such scenes would be avoided. The struggle for 'first
+place,' to better one's self at the expense of one's neighbor, is an
+ugly thing to witness."
+
+"But, Teacher, when you get in such a place you have to just do like
+the rest and act piggish, too," said Alfaretta. "I guess I know now
+how 't one them panics that you read about, sometimes, could happen.
+If one them jammers went crazy, or scared, all the rest would too,
+likely."
+
+"Exactly, Alfaretta. But, let's think of pleasanter things. Let's
+follow James."
+
+After all, though Mr. Winters had doubted there would be, the lad had
+secured reserved seats and on "the front row near the entrance," just
+as that gentleman had desired; so presently, they had arranged
+themselves upon the low-down bench where, at least, their feet could
+touch bottom; and where with a comical air the farrier immediately
+began to sniff the familiar odor of fresh turned sod covered with
+sawdust, and turning to his next neighbor remarked:
+
+"I think I'm nine years old, to-day, nine 'goin' on' ten."
+
+But his facetiousness was wasted upon sedate Jane Potter; who did not
+even smile but reflected:
+
+"If that old man's going to talk silly I'll change places with
+Alfaretta. And if the performance isn't to begin right away I'll just
+walk around and look at the animals' cages."
+
+She did this, laying her handkerchief and jacket on her vacated seat,
+though her host called after her:
+
+"You may not be able to get your place again, in such a crowd."
+
+However, if she heard she did not turn back and was presently out of
+sight in the line of promenaders continually passing. Also, his own
+face grew sober at the sound of thunder, and he clasped his arm more
+protectingly around Luna's waist, who sat on his other side, and
+counselled Dorothy, just beyond:
+
+"Do you and Molly keep close care of the twins. There's a storm
+brewing and timid people may stampede past us toward the door."
+
+"Why, would anybody be afraid in a big tent like this?" asked Dolly,
+surprised.
+
+"Some might. But--Hark! Hooray! Here we come!"
+
+The band which had been playing all the time now broke into a more
+blatant march, a gaily accoutred "herald" galloped forth from a wide
+opening at the rear of the tent, then turned his steed about to face
+that opening, waving his staff and curveting about in the most
+fantastic manner. Then the silence of expectation fell upon that mass
+of humanity, the promenaders settling into any seats available, warned
+by men in authority not to obstruct the view of those on the lower
+benches.
+
+As a cavalcade of horses appeared Mr. Winters looked anxiously down
+into Luna's face. To his surprise it showed no interest in the scene
+before her but was fast settling into its habitual drowsiness.
+
+"Well, after all, that's best. We could not leave her behind and I
+feared she would be frightened;" he observed to Dorothy.
+
+"Yes, I'm glad, too. Keep still, 'Phira! You must keep still, else you
+may be hurt. Wait. I'll take you on my lap, as Molly has 'Nias.
+Now--see the pretty horses?" answered Dorothy, and involuntarily
+shivered as a fresh thunderclap fell on her ears.
+
+Alfaretta leaned forward to remark:
+
+"It's begun to rain! But isn't it cute to be under a tent and just let
+it rain! Ah! My soul! Ain't they beautiful? Look, girls, look, them
+first ones is almost here! A-ah! them clowns! And monkeys--to the far
+end there's real monkeys ridin' on Shetland ponies! Oh! my heart and
+soul and body! I'm so glad I come!"
+
+She finished her comments, standing up and swaying wildly from side
+to side, till somebody from the rear jabbed her shoulders with an
+umbrella point, loudly commanding: "Down front! Down front!"
+
+She dropped into her seat with a shriek, which somebody somewhere
+promptly caught up and echoed, while at that same instant a flash of
+lightning illuminated even that interior which had grown so strangely
+dark, and on the instant came a terrific crash.
+
+Another woman screamed, and Seth Winters's face paled. He knew how
+very little it would now take to start a panic. But the band played
+the louder, the performers went round and round the great ring, the
+clowns frolicked and the monkeys pranked, and he inwardly blessed the
+discipline which kept every player to his post, as if such electric
+storms were every day incidents.
+
+"What are those men doing to the roof?" suddenly demanded Molly Martin
+of her neighbor, James, calling his attention to the sagging canvas
+and the employees hurrying hither and thither to lift it on the points
+of great poles. Then would follow a splash of water down the slope
+from the central supporting pole of that flimsy roof, dashing off at
+the scalloped edges upon the surrounding ground.
+
+"Water's heavy. I guess they're afraid it'll break and douse the
+people. Hi! But that was a teaser! It don't stop a minute and it's
+getting blacker'n ink. Never heard such a roar and it don't let up a
+second. They'll have to stop the performance till it slacks up,
+and--What fools these folks are that's hurrying out into that
+downpour!"
+
+"Maybe--maybe--they're safer outside. Rain won't hurt--much--but
+circus tents are sometimes blown down--I've read----"
+
+"Now come, Alfy Babcock, just hold your tongue! Rough way to speak but
+I mean it. Hear what the Master said? How it was mighty easy to start
+a panic but impossible to stop one, or nigh so? Everyone that keeps
+still and behaves helps to make somebody else do it. Here, boy, fetch
+them peanuts this way? Dip in, Alfy, I'll treat, and I see the
+lemonade feller's headed this way, too. Whilst we're waitin' we might
+as well----"
+
+Even Jim's philosophy was put to the test just then, for with a peanut
+half-way to his lips his hand was arrested by another terrific crash
+and the swishing tear of wet canvas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+IN THE GREAT KITCHEN
+
+
+Still the band played on. The cavalcade paced round and round the
+ring, while a hundred workmen--it seemed--swarmed to the repair of the
+torn tent. Fortunately, the injured portion was that occupied as
+dressing rooms and stables for the performers, so that few of the
+audience suffered more than fright. Indeed, most of the spectators
+realized as Mr. Winters had done, the danger of panic and the wisdom
+of composure, so remained in their places.
+
+Also, with the same suddenness that had marked its rising the storm
+ended and the sun shone out. One mighty sigh of relief swept over
+those crowded tiers of humanity, and the indefatigable band struck up
+a new and livelier note. The tight-rope dancer sprang lightly into the
+ring and went through her hazardous feats with smiling face and airy
+self-confidence; the elephants ascended absurdly small stools, and
+stood upon them, "lookin' terribly silly, as if they knew they were
+makin' guys of themselves," so Mike Martin exclaimed, though he still
+kept his fascinated eyes upon their every movement. There was the
+usual bareback riding and jumping through rings: the trapeze, and the
+pony quadrille; in short, all that could be expected of any well
+conducted "Show," while above all and below all sounded the clown's
+voice in a ceaseless clatter and cackle of nonsense.
+
+Laughter and badinage, peanuts and pink lemonade; men and women turned
+back to childhood, smiling at the foolishness enacted before them but
+more at their own in thus enjoying it; and the "Learned Blacksmith"
+who had pondered many books finding this company around him the most
+interesting study of them all.
+
+It was this that he loved about a circus; and, to-day, at their first
+one, the faces of Ananias and Sapphira held his gaze enthralled.
+
+"Dolly, Dolly Doodles! Do watch them!" he cried for sympathy in his
+delight. "Did ever you see eyes so bright? Mouths so wide agape? and
+happiness so intense! Ah! if those to whom they belong could see them
+now, all hardness would vanish in a flash!"
+
+Dorothy looked as he desired, but her glance was less of admiration
+than of anxiety. She had seen what he did not see and was hearing what
+he did not; a face and figure somberly different from the tri-colored
+one of the clown, and a voice more raucously insistent than his.
+
+All at once the twins also saw and heard. Their attention was
+clutched, as it were, from those adorable monkeys a-horseback, which
+had come once more to the very spot before where they stood, and whom
+in their baby-souls they envied frantically.
+
+"HIM!" shrieked Ananias.
+
+"H-I-M!" echoed Sapphira, all her pretty pink-and-whiteness turned the
+pallor of fear.
+
+There was a flash of bare feet and blue-denimed legs and the terrified
+twins had leaped the velvet-topped barrier bordering the ring and were
+scurrying heedlessly away, how and where they cared not except to be
+safe from that "Him" whose memory was a pain.
+
+"My soul! They'll be killed--the little rascals!" cried Jim, and
+leaped the barrier, in pursuit.
+
+"He can't catch 'em! I'll help!" and fat Monty rolled himself over the
+fence.
+
+"What's up, boys?" demanded Frazer Moore; and, perceiving, added
+himself to the rescuing party. Ditto, Mike; then Littlejohn and Danny.
+This was the chance of a lifetime! to be themselves "performers." Only
+Melvin and Herbert rose, hesitating, amazed--and, seeing the little
+ones, whom everybody tried to catch and who eluded every grasp, in
+such imminent peril of trampling horse-hoofs, they also followed the
+leader.
+
+Even Mr. Winters rose to his feet and watched in deep anxiety the
+outcome of this escapade, and the darting nimbleness of two small
+figures which everybody, from the ring-master down, was chasing like
+mad. Only the trained horsemen and their following troupe of monkeys
+kept on unmindful; while from the seats on every side ran shouts of
+laughter. To most of those onlookers this seemed a part, a
+delightfully arranged part, of the entertainment. Only those nearest,
+and the farrier was one of them, realized that the strange old man
+with the croaking voice was an alien to that scene. A half-crazed old
+man who felt called upon to deliver his "message" of warning to a
+sinful world, at all times, seasons, and places. He had stumbled upon
+this as a fine field and, unbalanced though his mind was, it had yet
+been clear enough for him to purchase a ticket and enter in the
+customary way.
+
+"Oh! will he take the twins away?" asked Dorothy, clasping her hands
+in dismay. "And will they--be--killed!"
+
+"I think not, to both questions. Evidently he has not perceived the
+children though they were quick enough to discover him. The pity! that
+one should inspire such fear in his own household! But, see! See!"
+
+Mr. Winters forgot the old exhorter for the moment and laughed aloud.
+
+In the ring the clown had, at first, pretended to join in the pursuit
+of the nimble runaways, but only pretended. Then he suddenly perceived
+that they were growing breathless and had almost fallen beneath the
+feet of a mighty Norman horse. The man beneath his motley uniform rose
+to the emergency. Catching the bridle of a near-by pony, he flung the
+monkey from its back, scooped the babies up from the ground, set them
+in the monkey's place and, mounting behind them, triumphantly fell
+into line.
+
+It was all so quickly done that its bravery was but half appreciated;
+and the absurdly grinning mask which he now waggled from side to side,
+as if bowing to an outburst of applause, roused a roar of laughter. As
+for Ananias and Sapphira--their felicity was complete. The stern
+grandparent was forgotten and the only fact they knew was this
+marvelous ride on a marvelous steed, and most marvelous of all, in the
+friendly grasp of the tri-colored person behind them.
+
+Mr. Winters turned from them for a moment, at the sound of a scuffle
+near by. An instant's glance showed him that the poor fanatic was
+being roughly handled by some employees of the circus, and he stepped
+forward protesting:
+
+"Don't do that! He'll go quietly enough if you just ask him. He's a
+feeble old man--be gentle!"
+
+"But we want no 'cranks' in here creating a disturbance! Enough has
+happened this performance, already!"
+
+ [Illustration: THE TWINS AND CLOWN ON THE SHETLAND PONY.
+ _Dorothy's House Party._]
+
+"Jim! James Barlow! Herbert Montaigne!" These two were the only ones
+left still in the ring of the lot who had pursued the runaway twins,
+the others having shamefacedly retreated as soon as they saw the
+children were safe. They looked toward the Master yet lingered to
+receive the twins whom their captor was now willing to resign; they
+struggling to remain and a mixed array of flying legs and arms
+resulting.
+
+However, neither screams nor obstreperous kicks availed to prolong
+that delectable ride, and presently the little ones found themselves
+back in the grasp of a bevy of girls who made a human fence about
+them, and so hedged them in to safety.
+
+"Lads, I must leave you to see our girls safe home. Do so immediately
+the performance is over and it must be nearly now. This poor old chap
+is ill and bemused by his rough handling. I'm going to take him to a
+hospital I know and have him cared for. I'll go down to Deerhurst as
+soon as I can but don't wait for me. Come, friend. Let us go;" and
+linking his strong arm within the weak one of the man, scarce older
+yet so much frailer than he, he walked quietly away, the fanatic
+unresisting and obedient.
+
+With the Master's departure the glamour faded from the "Show"; and at
+Helena's suggestion the whole party promptly made their exit.
+
+"It's a wise move, too, Helena. We can catch the five o'clock train
+down and it won't be crowded, as the later one will be. I fancy we've
+all had about all the circus we want--this time. Anybody got a rope?"
+said Herbert.
+
+"What in the world do you want of a rope?" asked his sister.
+
+"I think if we could tie these irrepressibles together we could better
+keep track of them."
+
+There were some regretful looks backward to that fascinating tent,
+when the older lads had marshalled their party outwards, with no
+difficulty now in passing the obstructing stile; but there were no
+objections raised, and the homeward trip began. But they had scarcely
+cleared the grounds when Molly Martin paused to ask:
+
+"Where's Jane Potter?"
+
+"Oh! hang Jane Potter! Is she lost again?" asked Danny Smith. Then
+with a happy thought, adding: "I'll go back and look for her!" In this
+way hoping for a second glimpse of the fairy-land he had been forced
+to leave.
+
+Whereupon, his brother reminded him that he had no ticket, and no
+fellow gets in twice on one. Besides, that girl isn't--Hmm.
+
+"She's probably lingered to study biology or--or something about
+animals," observed Monty. "Any way, we can afford to risk Jane Potter.
+Like enough we shall find her sitting on the piazza writing her
+impressions of a circus when we get home."
+
+They did. She had early tired of the entertainment and had been one of
+the first to leave the tent after the accident to it. Once outside,
+she had met a mountain neighbor and had begged a ride home in his
+wagon. Jane was one to be careful of Jane and rather thoughtless of
+others, yet in the main a very good and proper maiden.
+
+But if they did not delay on account of Jane they were compelled to do
+so by the twins.
+
+"These children are as slippery as eels," said Molly, who had never
+touched an eel. "I'll lend my 'son' to anybody wants him, for awhile.
+I'd--I'd as lief as not!" she finished, quoting an expression familiar
+to Alfy.
+
+"And I'll lend 'Phira!" added Dorothy.
+
+She had tried to lead the little one and still keep her arm about
+Luna, who by general consent was always left to her charge.
+
+"All right. Give her here!" said Frazer; while Herbert whistled for a
+waiting stage to approach. But as it drew near and the girls began to
+clamber in, preparatory to their ride stationwards, Ananias jerked
+himself free and springing to one side the road began a series of
+would-be somersaults. It was an effort on his part to follow Herbert's
+instructions--with doubtful success. Of course, what brother did
+sister must do, and Sapphira promptly emulated her twin.
+
+"Oh! the mud! Just look at them! How can we ever take them in that
+stage with us?" asked Mabel Bruce, in disgust.
+
+But the happy youngsters paid no attention to her. Having completed
+what Herbert had taught them to call their "stunt" they now approached
+their instructor and demanded:
+
+"Candy, what you promised!"
+
+"All right. Driver, we'll stop at the first confectioner's we pass and
+I'll fill them up."
+
+"But, Herbert, you should not. Don't you remember how ill they were
+from Molly's supply? And I do say, if you led them into this scrape,
+getting themselves in such a mess, you'll have to ride in front and
+keep them with you."
+
+Herbert made a wry face. He was always extremely careful in his dress
+and his sister's just suggestion wasn't pleasant. However, he made the
+best of it and no further untoward incident marked that day's outing.
+
+Arrived at home they found Jane calmly reading, as has been told, and
+no other one about except old Ephraim, who had not unfastened the
+doors for "jes one l'il gal," but now threw them wide for the "House
+Party." Then he retreated to the kitchen, where Dorothy found him
+stirring about in a vain attempt to get supper--a function out of his
+line.
+
+"Now, Ephy, dear, you can't do that, you know! You're a blessed old
+blunderer, but one doesn't boil water for tea in a leaky coffee-pot!
+Wait! I'll tell you! I'll call the girls and we'll make a 'bee' of it
+and get the supper ourselves, before Aunt Malinda and Dinah and the
+rest get back. They'll be sure to stay till the last----"
+
+"Till the 'last man is hung'!" finished Alfaretta, with prompt
+inelegance.
+
+"Oh! I'm just starving!" wailed a boyish voice, and Monty rushed in.
+
+"So are we all, so are we all!" cried others and the kitchen rang with
+the youthful, merry voices.
+
+Ephraim scratched his gray wool and tried to look stern, but Dorothy's
+"Ephy, dear!" had gone straight to his simple heart, so lately wounded
+and sorrowful. After all, the world wasn't such a dark place, even if
+he had missed the circus, now that all these chatterers were treating
+him just as of old. They were so happy, themselves, that their
+happiness overflowed upon him.
+
+Cried Jim Barlow, laying a friendly hand on the black man's shoulder:
+
+"Come on, Ephy, boy! If the girls are going to make a 'bee,' and get
+supper for all hands--including the cook--let's match them by doing
+the chores for the men. The 'help' have done a lot for us, these days,
+and it's fair we do a hand's-turn for them now! Come on, all! Monty,
+you shall throw down fodder for the cattle--it's all you're equal to.
+Some of us will milk, some take care of the horses, everybody must do
+something, and I appoint Danny Smith to be story-teller-in-chief, and
+describe that circus so plain that Ephraim can see it without the
+worry of going!"
+
+"Hip, hip, hooray! Let's make a lark of it!" echoed Herbert, now
+forgetful of his good clothes and eager only to bear his part with the
+rest.
+
+"Well, before we begin, let's get the twins each a bowl of bread and
+milk and tie them in their chairs, just as Dinah does when they
+bother. They mustn't touch that candy till afterward, though I don't
+know how Herbert ever kept it from them so long," said Molly
+Breckenridge, adjusting a kitchen apron to her short figure by tucking
+it into her belt.
+
+"I know! I sat on it!" called back the lad and disappeared barnwards.
+
+Luna was placed in her corner and given a bowl like the twins, and the
+girls set to work, even Jane Potter asking to help.
+
+"What all shall we cook? I can make fudges," said Molly.
+
+"Fudges are all right--you may make some, but I want something better
+than sweets. Helena, you're the oldest, you begin. Suggest--then
+follow your suggestions. Fortunately we've a pretty big range to work
+on and Ephraim can make a fire if he can't make tea. It's burning
+fine. Hurry up, Helena, and speak, else Alfaretta will explode. She's
+impatient enough," urged Dorothy.
+
+"Once--I made angel food," said Helena, rather timidly. "It didn't
+turn out a real success, but I think that was because I didn't use
+eggs enough."
+
+"How many did you use?"
+
+"A dozen."
+
+"Try a dozen and a half. There's a basket of them yonder in the
+storeroom and everybody must wait on everybody's self. Else we'll
+never get through. I'll light up, it's getting dark already," answered
+Dorothy who, as hostess, was naturally considered director of affairs.
+
+"Well, Alfy! What will you do?"
+
+"I can fry chicken to beat the Dutch!"
+
+"Hope you can," laughed Helena. "I'm not fond of Dutch cookery, I've
+tried it abroad. They put vinegar in everything."
+
+"But where will you get chicken to fry?"
+
+"There's a whole slew of them in the ice-box, all ready fixed to cook.
+I suppose Aunt Malinda won't like it, to have me take them, if she's
+planned them for some other time, but there's plenty more chickens in
+the world. Come along, Jane Potter, and get a pan of potatoes to peel.
+That's the sitting-downest job there is. Molly Martin, you can make
+nice raised--I mean bakin'-powder biscuit--there's the flour barrel.
+Don't waste any time. Everybody fly around sharp and do her level
+best!"
+
+After all it was Alfaretta who took charge, and under her capable
+direction every girl was presently busy at work.
+
+"I'm going to make pies. Two lemons, two punkins, two apples. That
+ought to be enough to go around; only they'll all want the lemon ones.
+'Christ Church,' Teacher told me when I made him one once. Said 'twas
+the pastry cook at Christ Church College, in England, 't first thought
+them out. I can make 'em good, too. What you goin' to make, yourself,
+Dorothy Calvert?"
+
+"I reckon--pop-overs. Mother Martha used to make them lovely. They're
+nothing but eggs and flour and--and--I'll have to think. Oh! I know.
+There's an old recipe book in the cupboard, though I don't believe
+Malinda can read a word in it. She just spreads it out on the table,
+important like, and pretends she follows its rules, but often I've
+seen it was upside down. Do you know how she makes jelly?"
+
+"No, nor don't want to. We ain't makin' jelly to-night, and do for
+goodness' sake get to work!" cried Alfaretta, imparting energy to all
+by her own activity. "Ma says I'm a born cook and I'm going to prove
+it, to-night, though I don't expect to cook for a living. Jane Potter,
+you ought to know better than peel them 'tatoes so thick. 'Many
+littles make a mickle,' I mean a lot of potato skins make a
+potato--Oh! bother, do right, that's all. Just because Mrs. Calvert
+she's a rich 'ristocratic, 'tain't no reason we should waste her
+substance on the pigs."
+
+Jane did not retort, but it was noticeable that thereafter she kept
+her eyes more closely on her work and not dreamily upon the floor.
+Presently, from out that roomy kitchen rose a medley of odors that
+floated even to the workers out of doors; each odor most appetizing
+and distinct to the particular taste of one or another of the lads.
+
+"That's fried chicken! Glad they had sense enough to give us something
+hearty," said Monty, smacking his lips.
+
+Herbert sniffed, then advised: "I'll warrant you that Helena will try
+angel cake. If she does, don't any of you touch it; or if you think
+that isn't polite and will hurt her feelings, why take a piece and
+leave it lie beside your plate. Wonder if they'll ever get the supper
+ready, anyhow."
+
+"Afraid it'll be just 'anyhow,'" wailed Monty. "Those girls can't cook
+worth a cent."
+
+"Don't you think that, sir. Our up-mountain girls are no fools. I hope
+Alfaretta Babcock will make pies, I've et 'em to picnics and they're
+prime," said Mike Martin, loyally.
+
+"Well, I only hope they don't keep us too long. I begin to feel as if
+I could eat hay with the cattle."
+
+After all, the young cooks were fairly successful, and the delay not
+very great. Most of them were well trained helpers at home, even
+Dorothy had been such; but this time she had failed.
+
+"Three times I've made those things just exactly like the rule--only
+four times as much--and those miserable pop-overs just will not pop!
+We might as well call the boys and give them what there is. And----"
+
+At this moment Dorothy withdrew her head from a careful scrutiny of
+the oven, and--screamed! The next instant she had darted forward to
+the imposing figure framed in the doorway and thrown her arms about
+it, crying:
+
+"O, Aunt Betty, Aunt Betty! I'm a bad, careless girl, but I love you
+and I'm so glad, so glad you've come!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AUNT BETTY TAKES A HAND
+
+
+That picnic-supper! The fun of it must be imagined, not described.
+Sufficient to say that it was the merriest meal yet served in that
+great mansion; that all, including Mrs. Calvert, brought to it
+appetites which did not hesitate at "failures," and found even
+Helena's angel cake palatable, though Herbert did remark to his next
+neighbor:
+
+"If they'd had that kind of leathery stuff instead of canvas to cover
+that circus tent it would never have broken through, never in the
+world!"
+
+Not the least delighted of that company were the servants, who
+returned late from their outing, and had had to walk up the mountain
+from the Landing; they having lingered in the hill-city till the last
+possible train, which there were no local stages to meet.
+
+"And to think that our Miss Dorothy had the kindness to get supper for
+us, too! Sure, she's the bonniest, dearest lass ever lived out of old
+Ireland. Hungry, say you? Sure I could have et the two shoes off my
+feet, I was that starved! And to think of her and them others just
+waitin' on us same's if we was the family! Bless her! And now I'm
+that filled I feel at peace with all the world and patience enough to
+chase them naughty spalpeens to their bed! See at 'em! As wide awake
+now as the morn and it past nine of the night!" cried Norah, coming
+into the room where the twins were having a delightful battle with the
+best sofa cushions; Mrs. Calvert looking on with much amusement and as
+yet not informed who they were and why so at home at Deerhurst.
+
+The chatter of tongues halted a little when, as the clock struck the
+half-hour, Mr. Seth came in. He looked very weary, but infinitely
+relieved at the unexpected return of the mistress of the house, and
+his greeting was most cordial. Indeed, there was something about it
+which suggested to the young guests that their elders might wish to be
+alone; so, one after another, they bade Mrs. Betty good-night and
+disappeared.
+
+Dorothy, also, was for slipping quietly away, but Aunt Betty bade her
+remain; saying gently:
+
+"We won't sleep, my child, till we have cleared away all the clouds
+between us. As for you, Cousin Seth, what has so wearied you?
+Something more than chaperoning a lot of young folks to a circus, I
+fancy."
+
+"You're right. The afternoon performance was a pleasure; the ride home
+a trial."
+
+"With whom did you ride?"
+
+"Oliver Sands."
+
+"Indeed? How came----"
+
+"It's a long story, Cousin Betty. Wouldn't we better wait till
+morning?"
+
+"Don't you know how much curiosity I have? Do you want to keep me
+awake all night?" demanded the lady. But she believed that her old
+friend had some deep perplexity on his mind and that it would be a
+comfort to him to share it with her. "Is it something Dorothy may
+hear?"
+
+"Certainly, if you wish. Already she knows part. Has she told you how
+the twins came here?"
+
+"Somebody told, I forget who. All of the young folks talked at once,
+but I learned that they had been dropped on our premises, like a
+couple of kittens somebody wished to lose."
+
+"Exactly; and though he did not personally 'drop' them, the man who
+most heartily wishes to lose them is miller Oliver Sands. They are his
+most unwelcome grandchildren."
+
+"Why, Cousin Seth!" "Why, Master!" cried the hearers, amazed.
+
+"True. Their mother was Rose Sands, whom her father always
+believed--or said--was ruined by the foolish name her mother gave her.
+His sons were like himself and are, I believe, good men enough, though
+tainted with their father's hardness."
+
+"Hardness. That suave old Quaker! But you're right, and I never liked
+him."
+
+"Nor I, I'm sorry to say, but I don't wish to let that fact stand in
+the way of fair judgment. The man is in trouble, deep trouble. I'm not
+the only one who has noticed it. His behavior for awhile back has been
+most peculiar. He neglects his business, leaves the fruit in his
+vineyards and orchards to go to waste, and to his workmen's question:
+'What shall we do next,' returns no answer. He has taken to roaming
+about the country, calling at every house and inspecting each one and
+its surroundings as if he were looking for something he can't find.
+His face has lost its perpetual smile--or smirk--and betrays the fact
+that he is an old man and a most unhappy one."
+
+"Huh! I've no great sympathy for Oliver Sands. He has wronged too many
+people," said Mrs. Calvert, coldly. "But if those children are his
+grandchildren, what are they doing here?"
+
+"I'm coming to that. His daughter, Rose, 'married out of meeting,' and
+against her father's will. He turned her out of doors, forbade her
+mother ever to see or speak to her again, and though--being a
+Friend--he took no oath, his resolution to cast her off was equivalent
+to one. That part of my tale is common neighborhood gossip."
+
+"I never heard it," said Mrs. Betty.
+
+"No; such would scarcely be retailed to you. Well, Rose took refuge
+with her husband's people, and all misfortune followed her flight from
+her father's house. Her mother-in-law, her consumptive husband, and
+herself are dead; she passing away as the twins came into the world.
+The father-in-law, who was only a country-cobbler, but a profoundly
+religious man, became half-crazed by his troubles, and though I
+believe he honestly did his best by the babies left on his hands, they
+must have suffered much. They have never been so happy as now and I
+hope----"
+
+"Please, Mr. Seth, let me tell! Aunt Betty, if you'll let me, I want
+to adopt Sapphira!"
+
+"Adopt--Sapphira! You? A child yourself?"
+
+"Yes, please. I'll go without everything myself and I'd work, if I
+could, to earn money to do it. Molly is going to adopt Ananias. It
+will be lovely to have some object in life, and some the Seniors at
+the Rhinelander adopted some Chinese babies. True. They pay money each
+month, part of their allowance, to do it; so we thought----"
+
+But Aunt Betty was leaning back in her chair and laughing in a most
+disconcerting manner. It's not easy to be enthusiastic on a subject
+that is ridiculed and Dorothy said no more. But if she were hurt by
+having her unselfish project thus lightly treated, she was made
+instantly glad by the tender way her guardian drew her close, and the
+gentle pat of the soft old hand on her own cheek.
+
+"Oh! you child, you children! And I made the mistake of thinking you
+were as wise as a grown-up! We'll attend to the 'adoption' case, by
+and by. Let Cousin Seth say his say now."
+
+"Well, finally, the old man, Hiram Bowen, forsook his old home, sold
+his few belongings and came here to our mountain. He must have had
+some sense left, and realized that he was not long for this world,
+because though until lately he has been unforgiving to Oliver Sands
+for the treatment of Rose, he now sought to interest her father on the
+little ones' behalf. I've learned he made frequent visits to
+Heartsease, the Sands' farm, but only once saw its owner. But he often
+saw Dorcas, the wife, and found her powerless to help him; besides, he
+did not mend matters, even with her, by explaining that he had named
+the twins as he had--'_after her husband, and herself!_' He told her
+that she and Oliver were living liars, because the Scripture commanded
+Christians to look after their own households and they did not do so."
+
+"But how could her heart, the heart of any woman, remain hard against
+the sight of her orphan grandchildren?" demanded Mrs. Calvert,
+impatiently. "I've met that Dorcas Sands on the road, going to meeting
+with the miller, and she looked the very soul of meekness and
+gentleness."
+
+"So, I believe she is; but she never saw the children. I told you he
+was crazed, partially; and despite the fact that he felt their
+mother's family should care for the orphans he did not want to give
+them up, permanently. He felt that in doing so he would be consigning
+them to a life of deceit and unscrupulousness."
+
+"How strange! And, Seth, how strange that you should know all this.
+It's not many days since that old man 'passed them on' to us. You must
+have been busy gathering news," commented Mrs. Betty.
+
+"I have; but the most of it I learned this afternoon, when I was
+taking the fanatic to the Hospital. Dolly, you tell her about his
+harangue in the tent and what the twins did there. It will give a
+diversion to my thoughts, for it _was_ funny!"
+
+So Dolly told and they all laughed over the recital, and in the
+laughter both Mrs. Calvert and Dorothy lost the last bit of constraint
+that had remained in their manner whenever either chanced to remember
+the missing one hundred dollars and the sharpness of the telegram.
+
+Mrs. Calvert resumed:
+
+"You say, taking him to the Hospital. Have you done that, then? And
+how came you with Oliver Sands? The last man in the world to be drawn
+to Newburgh to see a circus."
+
+"Not the circus, of course, but the county fair. He got up enough
+interest in ordinary affairs to drive to the fair grounds to see his
+cattle safely housed. He will have, I presume, the finest exhibit of
+Holstein-Friesians on the grounds. He always has had, and has carried
+off many first premiums. He's on the board of managers, too, and they
+had a business meeting at the Chairman's, which is next door to St.
+Michael's--the semi-private establishment where I took Bowen. He was
+just unhitching George Fox, to come home, as I stepped out of the
+Hospital grounds and met him."
+
+"So you asked him for a lift down?" asked Aunt Betty, smiling.
+
+"No, I didn't ask. He was so preoccupied, and I so full of what poor
+old Hiram had told me, that I just 'natchally' stepped into the rear
+seat without the formality of a request. Truly, I don't think he even
+noticed me till we were well out of the city limits and on to the
+quiet back road. Then I asked: 'How much will you pay, Friend Oliver,
+toward the support of Hiram Bowen at St. Michael's Hospital?'
+
+"Then he heard and noticed. Also, he tried to get rid of his
+passenger; but I wouldn't be set down. He gave me a rather strong bit
+of his opinion on meddlers in general and myself in particular, and
+finding he had me on his hands for all the distance here he said not
+another word. It was 'Quaker Meeting' in good earnest; but I felt as
+if I were riding with a man of iron and--it tired me!"
+
+"Oh, you dear Master! Did you have any supper?" suddenly demanded
+Dorothy, with compunction that she hadn't thought of this earlier.
+
+"Oh! yes. Some little girls were holding a sidewalk 'fair' for the
+benefit of the children's ward and, while the authorities inside were
+arranging for Hiram's bestowal, I bought out their stock in trade and
+we ate it all together. I do love children!"
+
+Aunt Betty rose and turning to Dorothy, remarked:
+
+"That should be a much better use for your money when you find it than
+adopting the grandchildren of a rich old Hardheart! Come, child, we
+must to bed; and to-morrow, we'll take home the twins. 'Pass them on'
+to Heartsease."
+
+"Oh! must we? But, maybe, they won't keep them there. Then, course,
+you wouldn't leave them just anywhere, out of doors, would you?
+Besides, I don't know what Molly will say. She's perfectly devoted to
+her 'son,' 'Nias."
+
+"Do you not? Then I know very well what her Aunt Lucretia and his
+honor, the Judge, will say; I fancy that their remarks will have some
+weight! But I'm not hard-hearted, as you suggest, and we shall see
+what we shall see!" answered Aunt Betty, in her bright, whimsical way;
+adding as she bade Mr. Winters good-night and kissed Dorothy just as
+if no "cloud" had ever been between them:
+
+"I am glad to be at home. I am so glad to come, even thus late to the
+House Party."
+
+And though she had said the misunderstanding that had made both
+herself and Dolly so unhappy "should be set right that very night,"
+maybe this was her way of "setting" it so.
+
+Thus ended another Day of that Wonderful Week, but the morning proved
+rainy and dark.
+
+"No day for going to the County Fair," remarked Mrs. Calvert as she
+appeared among the young folks, just as they came trooping in to
+breakfast. "We must think of something else. What shall it be? Since
+I've invited myself to your Party I want to get some fun out of it!"
+
+Helena thought she had never seen anything lovelier than this charming
+old lady, who moved as briskly as a girl and entered into their
+amusements like one; and when nobody answered her question she
+volunteered the suggestion:
+
+"Charades? Or a little play in the big barn?"
+
+"Just the thing; the charades, I mean. There would hardly be time for
+getting ready for a play, with parts to study and so on. We might plan
+that for Friday evening, our last one together. But do you, my dear,
+gather part of your friends about you and arrange the charades. Enough
+of us must be left for audience, you know. Well, Dorothy, what is it?
+You seem so anxious to speak?"
+
+"Why not 'character' studies and make everybody guess. There's that
+attic full of trunks I discovered one day. Surely they must be full of
+lovely things; and oh! it's so jolly to 'dress up'! Afterward, we
+might have a little dance in the barn--May we, may we?"
+
+"Surely, we may! Dinah has the keys to the trunks, only I warn you--no
+carelessness. It's one of my notions to preserve the costumes of the
+passing years and I wouldn't like them injured. You may use anything
+you find, on the condition of being careful."
+
+That rainy day promised to be the merriest of all; and Dorothy had
+quite forgotten some unpleasant things, till, breakfast being over and
+most of the company disappearing in pursuit of Dinah and her keys to
+the treasure-trunks, Aunt Betty laid a detaining touch upon her arm
+and said:
+
+"But you and I, my dear, will have a little talk in my room."
+
+Down went her happiness in a flash. The "misunderstanding" had not
+been passed by, then; and as yet there had been no "setting right."
+Mrs. Calvert's face was not stern, saying this, but the girl so
+thought. Indeed, had she known it, Aunt Betty shrank more from the
+interview and the reproof she must give than did the culprit herself.
+However, shrinking did no good, and immediately the Mistress had
+seated herself she began:
+
+"What grieved me most was your suspicion of Ephraim. Dorothy, that
+man's skin may be black but his soul is as white as a soul can be. He
+has served me ever since he was able to toddle and I have yet to find
+the first serious fault in him. The loss of the money was bad enough,
+and your scant value of it bad. Why, child, do you know whose money
+that was?"
+
+"I--I thought it was--mine."
+
+"It was--God's."
+
+"Aunt--Betty!" almost screamed Dorothy in the shock of this statement.
+
+"Yes, my dear, I mean it. He has given me a great deal of wealth but
+it was His gift, only. Or, His loan, I might better call it. I have to
+give an account of my stewardship, and as you will inherit after me,
+so have you."
+
+For a moment the girl could not reply, she was so amazed by what she
+heard. Then she ventured to urge:
+
+"You said you gave it to me for my House Party. How could it be like
+that, then?"
+
+"So I did. I 'passed it on,' as poor Hiram Bowen did the twins. Then
+it became your responsibility. It was a trust fund for the happiness
+of others, and for their benefit. Why, just think, if you hadn't been
+so careless of it, how much good it would have done even yesterday,
+for that very old man! Then dear Seth wouldn't have had to tax his
+small income to pay for a stranger's keep. Ah! believe me, my Cousin
+Seth spends money lavishly, but never unwisely, and always for others.
+When I said 'dangerously angry' I meant it. I am, in some respects,
+always in danger, physically. I shall pass out of your life quite
+suddenly, some day, my darling, but I do not wish to do so by your
+fault.
+
+"Now, enough of lectures. Kiss me and tell me that hereafter you will
+hold your inheritance as a 'trust,' and I shall trust you again to the
+uttermost. Next I want you to go over every incident of that night
+when you mislaid the money and maybe I can hit upon some clue to its
+recovery."
+
+It was a very sober Dorothy who complied. It didn't seem a very
+pleasant thing to be an heiress. She had found that out before, but
+this grave interview confirmed the knowledge; and though they
+discussed the subject long and critically, they were no nearer any
+solution of the mystery than when they began.
+
+"Well, it is a strange and most uncomfortable thing. However, we can
+do no more at present, and I'd like you to take a little drive with
+me."
+
+"This morning, Aunt Betty, in all this rain? Ought you? Won't you get
+that bronchitis again? Dinah----"
+
+"Dinah is an old fuss! She never has believed that I'm not soluble in
+water, like salt or sugar. Besides, I'm not going 'in the rain,' I'm
+going in the close carriage, along with you and the babies with the
+dreadful names. I'm going to have them renamed, if I can. Run along
+and put on your jacket. I think I've solved the riddle of my neighbor
+Oliver's unhappiness and I'll let no rain hinder me from making him
+glad again."
+
+"Dear Aunt Betty, will you do this for a man you do not like?"
+
+"Of course. I'd do it for my worst enemy, if I knew--and maybe this
+poor miller is that. What ails that man is--remorse. He hasn't done
+right but I'm going to give him the chance now, and see his round face
+fall into its old curves again."
+
+But good and unselfish as her mission was, for once the lady of
+Deerhurst's judgment was mistaken.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A MARVELOUS TALE AND ITS ENDING
+
+
+Oliver Sands was shut up in his private office. It opened from another
+larger room that had once been tenanted but was now empty. The
+emptiness of the great chamber, with its small bed and simple
+furnishings, both attracted and repelled him, as was witnessed by the
+fact that he frequently rose and closed the door, only to rise again
+directly and open it again. Each time he did this he peered all about
+the big room, whose windows were screened by wire netting as well as
+by a row of spruce trees. These trees were trimmed in a peculiar
+manner and were often commented upon by passers along the road beyond.
+All the lower branches, to the height of the window-tops, were left to
+grow, luxuriantly, as nature had designed. But above that the tall
+trees were shaven almost bare, only sufficient branches being left to
+keep them alive. Also, beyond the trees and bordering the road was a
+high brick wall, presumably for the training of peach and other fruit
+trees, for such were carefully trained to it.
+
+But the same wondering eyes which had noticed the trees had observed
+the wall, where indeed the fruit grew lusciously after a custom
+common enough in England but almost unknown in this region.
+
+"Looks like both trees and wall were planned to let light into that
+side the house and keep eyes out. But, has been so ever since
+Heartsease was, and nothing different now."
+
+No, everything was outwardly unchanged, but his home was not like his
+home, that morning, when Mrs. Betty Calvert came to call. The rain
+that had kept him within had sent him to pass the hours of his
+imprisonment in his "den," or office, and to the congenial occupation
+of looking over the cash in his strong box. He was too wise to keep
+much there, but there had been a time when the occupation had served
+to amuse the inmate of the big room, and he was thinking of her now.
+
+Indeed, when there came a knock on the outer door he started, and
+quickly demanded: "Well?"
+
+"Oliver, Betty Calvert, from Deerhurst, has called to see thee," said
+the trembling voice of Dorcas.
+
+"Why? What does she want?"
+
+"To bring thee news. To bring thee a blessing, she says."
+
+"I will come."
+
+He rose and locked the strong box, inwardly resolving that its
+contents must be placed in the bank when next he drove to town, and he
+again carefully closed the door of the further room. But if there had
+been any to observe they would have seen his face grow eager with hope
+while his strong frame visibly trembled. He was not a superstitious
+man but he had dreamed of Deerhurst more than once of late and news
+from Deerhurst? A blessing, Dorcas said?
+
+He entered the living-room, cast one eager glance around, and sat
+down. He had offered no salutation whatever to Mrs. Calvert and the
+gloom had returned to his face even more deeply. Dorcas was standing
+wringing her hands, smiling and weeping by turns, and gazing in a
+perfect ecstasy of eagerness upon Ananias and Sapphira, huddled
+against Dorothy's knees. She held them close, as if fearing that cross
+old man would do them harm, but they were not at all abashed, either
+by him or by the novelty of the place.
+
+"Well, Oliver Sands, you like plain speech and use it. So do I--on
+occasion. I have brought home your grandchildren, Rose's children.
+Their grandfather on the other side has been committed to an
+institution and will give you no trouble. He 'passed them on' to my
+household and I, in turn, 'pass them on,' to yours, their rightful
+home. You will feel happier now. Good-morning."
+
+"What makes thee think he is unhappy?" ventured Dorcas, at last
+turning her eager gaze away from the twins.
+
+"All the world sees that. He's a changed man since last we met, and I
+suppose his conscience is troubling him on account of the way he
+treated Rose and her children. Their demented grandfather, on the
+other side, gave them horrible names. I'd change them if I were you.
+Good-morning."
+
+But if the miller had not sought to detain her nor responded to her
+farewell, Dorcas caught at her cloak and begged:
+
+"Wait, wait! Oliver, does thee hear? Elisabeth Calvert is going. She
+is leaving Rose's babies! What--what--shall I do? May I keep them
+here? Say it--Oliver speak, speak, quick! If thee does right in this
+thing mayhap the Lord will bless thee in the other! Oliver, Oliver!"
+
+He shook her frail hand from his sleeve but he spoke the word she
+longed to hear, though the shadow on his face seemed rather to deepen
+than to lighten and astute Betty Calvert was non-plussed. She had so
+fully counted upon the fact that it was remorse concerning his
+treatment of his daughter which burdened him that she could not
+understand his increased somberness.
+
+But he did speak, as he left the room, and the words his wife desired:
+
+"Thee may do as thee likes."
+
+Then Mrs. Calvert, too, went out and Dorothy with her; strangely
+enough the twins making no effort to follow; in fact no effort toward
+anything except a pan of fresh cookies which stood upon the table!
+and with their fists full of these they submitted indifferently not
+only to the desertion of their friends but to the yearning embraces of
+their grandmother.
+
+"Oh! what perfectly disgusting little creatures! Didn't mind our
+leaving them with a stranger nor anything! Weren't they horrid? And it
+didn't make him look any happier, either, their coming."
+
+"No, they were not disgusting, simply natural. They've been
+half-starved most of their lives and food seems to them, just now, the
+highest good;" said Aunt Betty, as the carriage door was shut upon
+them and they set out for home. "I cannot call it a wasted morning,
+since that timid little woman was made glad and two homeless ones have
+come into their own. But--my guess was wide of the mark. It isn't
+remorse ails my miller neighbor but some mystery still unsolved. Ah!
+me! And I thought I was beautifully helping Providence!"
+
+"So you have, Aunt Betty. Course. Only how we shall miss those twins!
+Seems if I couldn't bear to quite give 'Phira up. Deerhurst will be so
+lonesome!"
+
+"Lonesome, child! with all you young folks in it? Then just imagine
+for an instant what Heartsease must have been to that poor wife. Shut
+up alone with such a glum, indifferent husband, in that big house. I
+saw no other person anywhere about, did you?"
+
+"No, and, since you put it that way, of course I'm glad they're to be
+hers not Molly's and mine."
+
+"The queer thing is that he was so indifferent. I thought, I was
+prepared to have him rage and act--ugly, at my interference in his
+affairs; but he paid no more attention than if I had dropped a couple
+of puppies at his fireside. Hmm. Queer, queer! But if I'm not mistaken
+his young relatives will wake him up a bit before he's done with
+them."
+
+After all, though Dorothy had hated to leave the other young folks on
+such an errand, through such weather, and in some fear of further
+"lectures," the ride to Heartsease had proved delightful. She wouldn't
+have missed the rapture on lonely Dorcas Sands's pale face for the
+wildest frolic going and, after all, it was a relief to know the
+"twinses" could do no more mischief for which she might be blamed; and
+it remained now only to appease the wrath of Molly Breckenridge when
+she was told that her adopted "son" had been removed from her
+authority without so much as "By your leave."
+
+Naturally, Molly said nothing in Mrs. Calvert's presence, but vented
+her displeasure on Dorothy in private; until the latter exclaimed:
+
+"You would have been glad, just glad, Molly dear, to hear the way the
+poor old lady said over and over again: 'Rose's children! Rose's
+children!' Just that way she said it and she was a picture. I wish I
+was a Quaker and wore gray gowns and little, teeny-tiny white caps and
+white something folded around my shoulders. Oh! she was just too sweet
+for words! Besides--to come right to the bottom of things--neither of
+us _could_ adopt a child, yet. We haven't any money."
+
+"Pshaw! We could get it!"
+
+"I couldn't. Maybe you could; but--I'm glad they're gone. It's better
+for them and we shouldn't have been let anyway, and--where's Helena?"
+
+"Up garret, yet. They're all up there. Let's hurry. They'll have all
+the nicest things picked out, if we don't."
+
+They "hurried" and before they knew it the summons came for luncheon.
+After that was over Danny Smith and Alfaretta Babcock mysteriously
+disappeared for a time; returning to their mates with an
+I-know-something-you-don't sort of an air, which was tantalizing yet
+somehow suggested delighted possibilities. The afternoon passed with
+equal swiftness, and then came the costume parade in the barn; the
+charades; and, at last, that merry Roger de Coverly, with Mrs. Betty,
+herself, and Cousin Seth leading off, and doing their utmost to teach
+the mountain lads and lassies the figures.
+
+All the servants came out to sit around and enjoy the merry spectacle
+while old Ephraim, perched upon a hay-cutter plied his violin--his
+fiddle he called it--and another workman plunked away on his banjo
+till the rafters rang.
+
+"Oh, such a tangle! And it seems so easy!" cried Jane Potter, for once
+aroused to enthusiasm for something beside study. "Come on, Martin!
+Come half-way down and go round behind me--Oh! Pshaw! You stupid!"
+
+Yet uttered in that tone the reproof meant no offense and Jane was as
+awkward as her partner, but the dance proved a jolly ending for a very
+jolly day. Only, the day was not ended yet; for with a crisp command:
+
+"Every one of you get your places an' set round in a circle. It's
+Danny's and my turn now, and--Come on, Daniel!" Alfaretta vanished in
+the harness room.
+
+Danny followed, rather sheepishly, for despite his love of fun he
+didn't enjoy being forced into prominence; and from this odd retreat
+the pair presently emerged with great pans of snowy popped-corn,
+balanced on their heads by the aid of one hand, while in the other
+they carried each a basket of the biggest apples even Melvin had ever
+seen; yet the wonder of the Nova Scotian apples had been one of his
+proudest boasts.
+
+"Jump up, Jim, in your 'Uncle Sam' clothes and fetch the jugs out.
+Fresh sweet cider, made to farmer Smith's this very day! There's nuts
+in there all cracked, for some of you other fellows to bring and
+tumblers and plates 't Aunt Malinda let us take. We've had ice-cream
+and plum-puddin' and every kind of a thing under the sun and now we're
+going to have just plain up-mounting stuff, and you'll say it's prime!
+Danny and me done this. We planned it that night Monty got stuck--Oh!
+my soul, I forgot!"
+
+"Never mind. I don't care," said Monty; and, maybe to prevent another
+doing so, promptly related for Mrs. Calvert's benefit the tale of his
+misadventure. Indeed, he told it in such a funny way that it was plain
+he was no longer sensitive about it; and he finished with the remark
+that:
+
+"If Deerhurst folks don't stop feeding me so much I may even get stuck
+in that big door!"
+
+The quiet sitting and talking after so much hilarity was pleasant to
+all and tended to a more thoughtful mood; and finally clapping her
+hands to insure attention Molly Breckenridge demanded:
+
+"A story, a story! A composite story! Please begin, Mrs. Calvert:
+'Once upon a time----' Then let Helena, my Lady of the Crinoline take
+it up and add a little, then the next one to her, and the next--and so
+on all around the ring. The most fun is to each say something that
+will fit--yet won't make sense--with what went just before. Please!"
+
+"Very well: 'Once upon a time and very good times they was, there was
+a Mouse and a Grouse and a Little Red Hen and they all lived in the
+one house together. So wan day, as she was swapin' the floor, they met
+a grain o' cor-run.' 'Now, who'll take that to the mill?' 'I won't,'
+says the Mouse. 'Nayther will I!' say the Grouse. 'Then I'll aven have
+to do it mesel,' says the Little Red--Next!"
+
+Irish Norah was in ecstasies of laughter over her mistress's imitation
+of her own brogue, and all the company was smiling, as Helena's
+serious voice took up the tale:
+
+"'Twas in the dead of darksome, dreadful, dreary night, when the
+Little Red Hen set forth on her long, lonely, unfrequented road to the
+Mill. The Banshees howled, the weird Sisters of the Night made
+desperate attempts to seize the Grain of Corn--Next!"
+
+"Which, for safe keeping the fearless Little Red Hen had already
+clapped into her own bill--just like this! So let the Banshees howl,
+the Weird Sisters Dree their Weird--for Only Three Grains of Corn,
+Alfy! Only Three Grains of Corn!" cried Monty, passing his empty
+plate; "and I'll grind them in a mill that'll beat the Hen's all
+hollow! while Jane Potter--next!"
+
+"For the prisoner was terrified by the sounds upon the roof and after
+brief deliberation and close investigation he came to the conclusion,
+'twas a snare and a delusion to toy with imagination and fear
+assassination till the hallucination became habituation and his mental
+aberration get the better of his determination toward analyzation
+of the sound upon the roof. Of the pat, pat, patter and the clat,
+clat, clatter of small claws upon the roof! Then with loud
+cachinnation--Next!"
+
+"To drive the Little Red Hen off from the roof he sprang up and bumped
+his head against it; and the act was so unexpected by said Hen that
+she flew off, choked on her grain of corn and--Next!" cried Jim, while
+everybody shouted and Mrs. Calvert declared that she had never heard
+such a string of long words tied together and asked:
+
+"How could you think of them all, Jane?"
+
+"Oh! easily enough. I'd rather read the dictionary than any other
+book. I've only a school one yet but I've most enough saved to buy an
+Unabridged. Then----"
+
+"Oh! then deliver us from the learned Jane Potter! Problem: If a small
+school dictionary can work such havoc with a young maid's brain will
+the Unabridged drive her to a lunatic asylum? or to the mill where the
+Little Red Hen--Next!" put in Herbert, as his contribution.
+
+"The little Red Hen being now corn-fed, and the Mill a thing she never
+would reach, the Mouse and the Grouse thought best to put an end to
+her checkered career and boil her in a pot over a slow fire; because
+that's the way to make a fowl who had traveled and endured so much
+grow tender and soft-hearted and fit to eat, corn and all, popped or
+unpopped--Pass the pan, Alfaretta! while the pot boils and the Little
+Red Hen--Next!" continued Littlejohn Smith, with a readiness which was
+unexpected; while Molly B. took up the nonsense with the remark that:
+
+"The Little Red Hen has as many lives as a cat. All our
+great-great-great-grandmothers have heard about her. She was living
+ages and--and eons ago! She was in the Ark with Noah--in my toy Ark,
+anyway; and being made of wood she didn't boil tender as had been
+hoped; also, all the lovely red she wore came off in the boil
+and--what's happening? 'Tother side the ring where Dolly Doodles is
+holding Luna with both hands and staring--staring--staring--Oh! My!
+What's happening to our own Little Red Hen!"
+
+What, indeed!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE FINDING OF THE MONEY
+
+
+In this instance the Little Red Hen was Luna. As always when possible
+she had seated herself by Dorothy, who shared none of that repugnance
+which some of the others, especially Helena, felt toward the
+unfortunate. She had been cleanly if plainly clothed when she arrived
+at Deerhurst, but the changes which had been made in her attire
+pleased her by their bright colors and finer quality.
+
+The waif always rebelled when Dinah or Norah sought to dress her in
+the gray gown she had originally worn or to put her hair into a snug
+knot. She clung to the cardinal-hued frock that Dorothy had given her
+and pulled out the pins with which her attendants tried to confine her
+white curls. In this respect she was like a spoiled child and she
+always carried her point--as spoiled children usually do.
+
+Thus to-night: To the old nurse it had seemed wise that the witless
+one should go to her bed, instead of into that gay scene at the barn.
+Luna had decided otherwise. Commonly so drowsy and willing to sleep
+anywhere and anyhow, she was this night wide awake. Nothing could
+persuade her to stay indoors, nothing that is, short of actual force
+and, of course, such would never be tried. For there was infinite
+pity in the hearts of most at Deerhurst, and a general feeling that
+nothing they could do could possibly make up to her for the
+intelligence she had never possessed. Also, they were all sorry for
+her homelessness, as well as full of wonder concerning it. The
+indifferent manner in which she had been left uncalled for seemed to
+prove that she had been gotten rid of for a purpose. Those who had
+lost her evidently did not wish to find her again. Yet, there was
+still a mystery in the matter; and one which Mrs. Calvert, coming
+fresh upon it, was naturally resolved to discover. The poor thing was
+perfectly at home at Deerhurst now, and judging by her habitual smile,
+as happy as such an one could be. But though the mistress of the
+mansion felt that her household had done right in sheltering the
+wanderer and in allowing her to partake of all their festivities, she
+did not at all intend to give a permanent home to this stranger. She
+could not. Her own plans were for far different things; and since she
+had, at last, been so fortunate as to bestow the twins in their
+legitimate home, she meant to find the same for Luna.
+
+So the guest who was both child and woman had carried her point and
+was one in the ring of story-tellers. She paid no heed to what was
+going on but amused herself with folding and unfolding her red skirt;
+or in smoothing the fanciful silk in which Dorothy appeared as a belle
+of long ago.
+
+The pair were sitting on a pile of hay, leaning against a higher one,
+and Dorothy had been absorbed in listening to the composite story and
+wondering what she should add to it. Her head was bent toward Luna and
+she dreamily watched the movements of her neighbor's tiny wrinkled
+hands. Suddenly she became aware that there was a method in their
+action; that they were half-pulling out, half-thrusting back,
+something from the fastening of the scarlet blouse.
+
+This something was green; it was paper; it was prized by its
+possessor, for each time Dorothy moved, Luna thrust her treasures back
+out of sight and smiled her meaningless smile into the face above her.
+But Dorothy ceased to move at all, and the dreaminess left her gaze,
+which had now become breathlessly alert and strained.
+
+She watched her opportunity and when again Luna drew her plaything
+from her blouse, Dorothy snatched it from her and sprang to her feet,
+crying:
+
+"The money is found! The money is found! My lost one hundred dollars!"
+
+Strangely enough Luna neither protested nor noticed her loss. The
+drowsiness that often came upon her, like a flash, did so now and she
+sank back against her hay-support, sound asleep.
+
+All crowded about Dorothy, excited, incredulous, delighted, sorely
+puzzled.
+
+"Could Luna have stolen it, that foolish one?"
+
+"But she wasn't in the house the night it was lost. Don't you
+remember? It was then that Dolly found her out by the pond. It
+couldn't have been she!"
+
+"Do you suppose it blew out of the window and she picked it up?"
+
+"It couldn't. The window wasn't opened. It stormed, you know."
+
+Such were the questions and answering speculations that followed
+Dorothy's exclamation, as the lads and lassies found this real drama
+far more absorbing than the composite tale had been.
+
+Mrs. Calvert and Mr. Seth alone said nothing, but they watched with
+tender anxiety to see Dorothy's next action. That it satisfied them
+was evident, from the smiles of approval gathering on their faces and
+the joyous nodding of the gray heads. Their girl hadn't disappointed
+them--she was their precious Dorothy still.
+
+She had gone straight to where old Ephraim and his cronies now sat in
+a distant part of the barn, enjoying their share of the good things
+Alfy and Danny had provided, and kneeling down beside him had laid the
+roll of money on his knee. Then audibly enough for all to hear, she
+said:
+
+"Dear Ephraim, forgive me, if you can. This is the money I lost, the
+ten crisp ten-dollar bills. Count them and see."
+
+"No, no, li'l Missy! No, no. An' fo' de lan', doan you-all kneel to a
+pore ole niggah lak me! Fo' de lan', Missy, whe'-all's yo' pride an'
+mannehs?"
+
+Her posture so distressed him that she rose and said, turning to her
+friends that all might hear:
+
+"It was I, and I alone, who put that money out of sight. I remember
+now as clearly as if it were this minute. That red frock was the one I
+wore that night when Luna came. There is a rip in it, between the
+lining and the outside of the waist. It was an oversight of the
+maker's, I suppose, that left it so, but I never mended it, because it
+made such a handy pocket, and there was no other. I remember plain.
+When the crash came I gathered up the money and thrust it into that
+place. Instinct told me it was something to be cared for, I guess,
+because I'm sure I didn't stop to think. Then when I went to bed I
+must have been too excited to remember about it and left it there. The
+next day I gave that frock to Luna and she has worn it ever since. How
+long before she found the 'pocket' and what was in it, she can't tell
+us. We've heard the 'help' say how quickly she noticed when money was
+around and I suppose she's been afraid we'd take it from her; although
+she didn't resent it just now when I did. Oh! I am so ashamed of
+myself, so ashamed!"
+
+Nobody spoke for a moment, till Ephraim rose and taking his fiddle
+solemnly played the Doxology. That wasn't speaking, either, in a
+sense; but it told plainer than words the gratitude of the simple old
+man that the shadow on his character was banished forever.
+
+Seth Winters nodded his own gray head in understanding of the negro's
+sentiment, while Dorothy sped with the bills to lay them in her Aunt
+Betty's lap, and to hide her mortified countenance upon the lady's
+shoulder. Thence it was presently lifted, when Mrs. Calvert said:
+
+"Now the lost is found, I'd like to inquire what shall be done with
+it? It'll never seem just like other money to me or to my forgetful
+darling here. Let's put it to vote. Here's my notebook, Dolly; tear
+out a few leaves and give a scrap of the paper to each. Pass the
+pencil along with them and let each write what she or he thinks the
+most beneficent use for this restored one hundred dollars."
+
+So it was done; even those among the servants grouped inside the great
+doors, having their share of the evening's sport, even among these
+those who could write put down their wish.
+
+Then Jim Barlow collected the ballots and sorted them; and Seth
+Winters's face shone with delight when it proved the majority had
+voted:
+
+"For the old man at St. Michael's."
+
+So at once they made him take the money in charge; and it made all
+glad to hear him say:
+
+"That will keep the poor old chap in comfort for many a day," for he
+would not damp their joy by his own knowledge that Hiram Bowen's days
+could not be "many," though he meant that they should be the most
+comfortable of all that pain-tormented life.
+
+"Well, our rainy day has proved a blessed one! Also, the storm is over
+and to-morrow should bring us fair weather for--the County Fair! All
+in favor of going say Aye!" cried the Master.
+
+The rafters rang again and again, and they moved doorwards, regretful
+for the fun just past yet eager for that to come; while there was not
+a young heart there but inwardly resolved never again to harbor
+suspicion of evil in others, but to keep faith in the goodness of
+humanity.
+
+Meanwhile, what had this rainy day seen at Heartsease Farm? Where the
+twins of evil names had been left to their new life, and their
+maternal grandfather had so coolly turned his back upon them, while
+they satisfied their material little souls with such cookies as they
+had never tasted before.
+
+Dorcas let them alone till they had devoured more than she felt was
+good for them, and until Ananias turning from the table demanded:
+
+"Gimme a drink."
+
+"Gimme a drink!" echoed his mate; and the old lady thought it was
+wonderful to hear them speak so plainly, or even that they could speak
+at all. But she also felt that discipline should begin at once; and
+though not given to embellishment of language she realized that their
+"plain speech" was not exactly that of the Friends.
+
+"Thee tell me thy name, first. Then thee shall drink."
+
+"A-n an, a, ana, n-i ni, a-s as, Ananias."
+
+"S-a-p sap, p-h-i phi, r-a ra," glibly repeated the girl, almost
+tripping over her brother in her eagerness to outdo him.
+
+Dorcas Sands paled with horror. Such names as these! Forced upon the
+innocent babes of her Rose! It was incredible!
+
+Then, in an instant, the meekness, the downtroddenness of the woman
+vanished. Her mission in life was not finished! Her sons had gone out
+from her home and her daughter was dead, but here were those who were
+dearer than all because they were "brands" to be saved from the
+burning.
+
+"Hear me, Rose's Babies! Thee is Benjamin, and a truth-teller; and
+thee is Ruth. Let me never hear either say otherwise than as I said.
+Now come. There is the bench and there the basin. The first child that
+is clean shall have the first drink--but no quarreling. Birthright
+Friends are gentle and well mannered. Forget it not."
+
+The sternness of mild people is usually impressive. The twins found it
+so. For the rest of that day, either because of the novelty of their
+surroundings or their difficulty in mastering--without blows--the
+spelling of their new names, they behaved with exceptionable
+demureness; and when, in some fear their grandmother dispatched
+Benjamin to Oliver's office to announce dinner, the miller fairly
+stared to hear the midget say:
+
+"Thee is to come to dinner, Oliver. Dorcas says so. Thee is to make
+haste because there is lamb and it soon cools. Dorcas says the lamb
+had wool once and that thee has the wool. Give it to me; Oliver. B-e-n
+ben, j-a ja, m-i-n min, Benjamin. That's who I am now and I'm to have
+anything I want on this Heartsease Farm because I'm Rose's baby. The
+Dorcas woman says so. Oliver, _did thee know Rose?_"
+
+This was the "plain speech" with a vengeance! The miller could
+scarcely credit his own ears and doubting them used his eyes to the
+greater advantage. What he saw was a bonny little face, from which
+looked out a pair of fearless eyes; and a crown of yellow hair that
+made a touch of sunlight in that dark room. "Did he know Rose?"
+
+For the first time in many a day he remembered that he _had_ known
+Rose; not as a rebellious daughter gone astray from the safe fold of
+Quakerdom, but as a dutiful innocent little one whom he had loved.
+Rising at last after a prolonged inspection of his grandson, an
+inspection returned in kind with the unwinking stare of childhood, he
+took the boy's hand and said:
+
+"Very well, Benjamin, I will go with thee to dinner."
+
+"But the wool? Can I have that? If I had that I could wrap it around
+Sap--I mean R-u ru, t-h thuh, Ruth, when it's cold at night and Him's
+off messagin'."
+
+"Yes, yes. Thee can have anything if thee'll keep still while we ask
+blessing."
+
+The face of Dorcas glowed with a holy light. Never had that silent
+grace been more earnestly felt than on that dark day when the coming
+of "Rose's babies" had wrought such a happy effect on her husband's
+sorrowful mood. True she also was sorrowful, though in less degree
+than he; but now she believed with all her heart that this one
+righteous thing he had done--this allowing of the orphans to come
+home--would in some way heal that sorrow, or end it in happiness for
+all.
+
+All afternoon she busied herself in making ready for the permanent
+comfort of her new-found "blessings." She hunted up in the attic the
+long disused trundle-bed of her children; foraged in long-locked
+cupboards for the tiny sheets and quilts; dragged out of hiding a
+small chest of drawers and bestowed the twins' belongings therein,
+bemoaning meanwhile the worldliness that had selected such fanciful
+garments as a trio of young girls had done. However, there was plenty
+of good material somewhere about the house. A cast-off coat of
+Oliver's would make more than one suit for Benjamin; while for little
+Ruth, already the darling of her grandmother's soul, there were ample
+pieces of her own gowns to clothe her modestly and well.
+
+"To-morrow will be the Fifth day, and of course, though he seems so
+indifferent we shall all go to meeting. And when the neighbors ask:
+'Whose children has thee found?' I shall just say 'Rosie's babies.'
+Then let them gaze and gossip as they will. I, Dorcas, will not heed.
+There will be peace at Heartsease now Rosie has come home--in the dear
+forms of her children."
+
+Thus thought the tender Friend, sitting and sewing diligently upon
+such little garments as her fingers had not touched for so long a
+time; but the "peace" upon which she counted seemed at that moment a
+doubtful thing.
+
+The day had worn itself out, and the miller had tired of indoors and
+his own thoughts. From the distant living-room he had been conscious
+of a strange sound--the prattle of childish voices and the gentle
+responses of his wife. His heart had been softened, all unknown to
+himself even, by a sorrow so recent it absorbed all his thought and
+kept him wakeful with anxiety; yet it was rather pleasant to reflect,
+in that gloomy afternoon, that he had given poor Dorcas her wish.
+Those twins would be a great trouble and little satisfaction. They
+were as much Bowen as Sands; still Dorcas had been good and patient,
+and he was glad he had let her have her wish.
+
+Ah! hum! The clouds were lifting. He wondered where those children
+were. He began to wonder with more interest than he had felt during
+all that endless week, what his workmen were doing. Maybe he would
+feel better, more like himself, if he went out to the barn and looked
+about. By this time the cows should be in the night-pasture, waiting
+to be milked, those which were not now in the stalls of the County
+Fair.
+
+That Fair! He would have hated it had he not been a Friend and known
+the sinfulness of hatred. But there were cattle lowing--it sounded as
+if something were wrong. Habit resumed its sway, and with anxiety over
+his cherished stock now re-awakened, he passed swiftly out.
+
+"Oliver, thee has forgotten thy goloshes!" called his thoughtful
+spouse, but he paid her no heed, though commonly most careful to guard
+against his rheumatism.
+
+"Who left that gate open? Who drove that cow--her calf--Child! is thee
+possessed?"
+
+Mrs. Betty Calvert was a true prophet--the twins had certainly waked
+their grandsire up a bit! The explanation was simple, the disaster
+great. They had tired of the quiet living-room and had also stolen out
+of doors. Animals never frightened them and they were immediately
+captivated by the goodly herd of cattle in the pasture. To open the
+gate was easy; easy, too, to let free from its small shed a crying
+calf. Between one cow and the calf there seemed a close interest.
+
+"We oughtn't ha' did that! That big cow'll eat that little cow up. See
+Sapphi--Ruth, see them stairs? Let's drive the little cow up the stair
+past the big wagons and keep it all safe and nice," suggested
+Benjamin.
+
+So they did; much to the surprise of the calf who bounded up the
+stairs readily enough, kicking its heels and cavorting in a most
+entrancing fashion; but when they tried to bar the big cow from
+following, she rushed past them and also ascended the stairs in a
+swift, lumbering manner. The relationship between the big and little
+cow now dawned even upon their limited intelligence, though there
+still remained the fear that the one would devour the other.
+
+Then the twins turned and gazed upon one another, anxiety upon their
+faces; till spying the master of the premises most rapidly approaching
+they rushed to meet him, exclaiming:
+
+"The little cow's all safe but how will we get the big cow down?"
+
+How, indeed! Oliver Sands was too angry to speak. For well he knew
+that it would require the efforts of all his force of helpers to drive
+that valuable Jersey down the stairs she had not hesitated to go up
+when driven by maternal love.
+
+With one majestic wave of his hand the miller dismissed his
+grandchildren to the house and Dorcas; but so long and so hard he
+labored to lure that imprisoned quadruped from his carriage-loft,
+that, weary, he went early to bed and slept as he had not for nights.
+So, in that it seemed his "waking up" had proved a blessing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE STORY OF THE WORM THAT TURNED
+
+
+The morning proved fair and cool, ideal weather for their visit to the
+County Fair; but Mrs. Calvert decided that a whole day there would be
+both inconvenient and too fatiguing. Now that she was at home the
+management of the House Party had been turned over to her by tacit
+consent, and she had laughingly accepted the trust.
+
+"This was to be Dorothy's affair, but it's been more Mr. Winters's
+than hers and now more mine than his. Well, I like it. I like it so
+exceedingly that I propose to repeat the experiment some time. I love
+young people; and am I not quite a young person myself?"
+
+"Of course, you are, dear Aunt Betty! The youngest of us all in some
+things, Mr. Seth says!"
+
+"So the farrier has been talking, eh? Well, I want to talk a bit, too.
+In a multitude of counselors there is wisdom--as we have the highest
+authority to believe; and the case in question is: Shall we, or shall
+we not, take Luna to the Fair?"
+
+They were all grouped on the big piazza, after their early lunch,
+waiting for the wagons to come from the stables and carry them to the
+city beyond; and as Mrs. Betty asked this question a hush of surprise
+fell on them all. Finally, said Helena:
+
+"We have taken her, she has gone with us, on all our jaunts. Doesn't
+it seem too bad to leave her out of this?"
+
+One after another as the lady nodded to each to speak the answer was
+frankly given, and Dorothy remarked:
+
+"It's about half-and-half, I guess. Yes, I know she does go to sleep
+in all sorts of queer places and at the strangest times, but I hate to
+leave her."
+
+"Then if she goes she must wear her own clothes."
+
+"Why, Aunt Betty, please? Of course, I don't want to see her in that
+red frock again--I'd like to burn that up so nobody would ever see it
+and be reminded how careless and unjust I was. But there's a pretty
+blue one she could have."
+
+"That's not my reason, dearie. I think it has been a mistake, kindly
+meant, to dress her as you have; that is for longer than was necessary
+to freshen her own soiled things." She paused and Alfy remarked:
+
+"She's the proudest thing for them bright colors. Red, and green, and
+blue--ary one just sets her smilin'. Besides, once Dinah tried to put
+back her old brown dress and Luna wouldn't let her. Just folded her
+arms up tight and didn't--didn't look a mite pleasant."
+
+Those who had seen Luna on the rare occasions when she showed anger
+smiled at this mild description of her appearance then.
+
+"I don't know as Dinah would be bothered with her, Aunt Betty, and
+Norah has a sick headache. But--I'll stay and take care of her if you
+don't want her to go," said Dorothy.
+
+It was an effort to say this and dreading that her offer might be
+accepted the girl turned her face away to hide her disappointment; but
+whatever Mrs. Calvert's answer might have been she was not to hear it
+then.
+
+Because there was Jim Barlow beckoning to her in a mysterious manner
+from behind a great hydrangea bush and looking vastly excited over
+something. So it was a relief to murmur: "Excuse me a minute, Aunt
+Betty," and to respond to that summons.
+
+"Dolly, there's a man here wants to see you."
+
+"A man? To see me? and not Aunt Betty? Who is he?"
+
+Jim answered rather impatiently to this string of questions.
+
+"I said a man, didn't I. He said he'd rather see you because he knows
+you, that is you gave him a lift on the road once in your pony cart
+and talked real sensible----"
+
+"Couldn't have meant me, then, could he, Jim?"
+
+"Don't fool, Dorothy. He looks as if he was in some trouble. He's the
+head man from Oliver Sands's grist-mill. Some relation to the miller,
+I've heard, and lives with him. Hurry up and don't hender the raft of
+us any longer'n you can help. Tell him, whatever his business is,
+'twill have to wait, 't we're going to the Fair and all the teams are
+ready----"
+
+"Yes, I'll hurry. Where is he?"
+
+"In that little summer-house beyond the lily pond. That's where he
+said he'd go. Get rid of him quick, for the horses don't like to stand
+after they're harnessed."
+
+"All right, I'll try!" Gayly waving her hand in the direction of the
+piazza, she sped across the lawn to a group of silver birches, and the
+spot in question. Solidly roofed, with vine covered sides, and good
+board floor, the out-of-door building was a pleasant place, and had
+been greatly enjoyed by all the House Party. It was well furnished
+with wicker tables, chairs, and lounges, and heavy matting covered the
+floor. It was empty now except for the old man awaiting Dorothy, and
+his first remark showed that he appreciated this bit of outdoor
+comfort.
+
+"It's real purty in here, ain't it? Anybody could spend a night here
+and take no hurt, couldn't she?"
+
+"Why, ye-es, I suppose so; if anybody wished. James told me you asked
+for me. What is it, please, for we're just on the point of starting
+for the County Fair, and I don't like to delay the others."
+
+"Hmm. Yes. I suppose so. Hmm. Yes. Thee is the little girl that's had
+such a story-paper kind of life, isn't thee? Don't remember me, but I
+do thee. Gave me a ride once after that little piebald nag thee
+swopped Oliver's calf for. Thee sees I know thee, if thee has forgot
+me and how my floury clothes hit the black jacket thee wore, that day,
+and dusted it well, 'Dusty miller' thee laughed and called me, sayin'
+that was some sort of plant grows in gardens. But I knew that. Dorcas
+has a whole bed of it under her kitchen window. Hmm. Yes."
+
+Dorothy tapped her foot impatiently, but did not sit down. Would the
+man never tell his errand? Finally, as he lapsed into a reverie she
+roused him, saying:
+
+"What is your errand, please?"
+
+"It's to help an old man in trouble. It--the--I don't find it so easy
+to begin. But--is there a little old woman here, no bigger than a
+child? Is she here? Is she safe?"
+
+This was a question so unexpected that Dorothy sat down the better to
+consider it; then greatly wondering, answered:
+
+"Yes, there is an afflicted little creature here. Why? What do you
+know about her?"
+
+"All there is to know, child! All there is to know. Thee sees a most
+unhappy man before thee, lass."
+
+"Who is Luna? How came she here? Tell me, quick, quick; and if you
+know her home?"
+
+"Verily, I know it, since it's my own, too. It's a long story, a long
+lane, but the worm turned. Ah! yes. It turned."
+
+Dolly began to think her visitor was crazy and springing up ran toward
+the house, saying:
+
+"I'm going for Aunt Betty. I'd rather you told your errand to her."
+
+The man did not object, and, greatly surprised by the imperative
+summons though smiling at her darling's excitement, Mrs. Calvert left
+her guests and followed the girl through the shrubbery to the arbor
+where the vines hid her from the curious glances of those she had
+left.
+
+"Something's up! I wonder what?" exclaimed Monty Stark.
+
+"Whatever it is, if it concerns us we shall be told in due time; and
+if it doesn't--Hmm," answered Helena.
+
+"Stand corrected, Miss Montaigne; but bet a cookie you're as curious
+as all the rest of us."
+
+"Well, yes, I am; though I never bet--even cookies. Now let's talk of
+something else till they come back. I know they'll not be long."
+
+Nor were they; for down in the summer-house, with Elisabeth Calvert's
+compelling gaze upon him, the visitor told his tale.
+
+"Thee can look upon me, lady, as the worm that turned. I am a poor
+relation of Oliver Sands and he felt he owned me."
+
+"That man? Are we never to hear the end of Oliver Sands? He's the 'Old
+Man of the Mountain', in truth, for his name is on everyone's lips,"
+cried Mistress Betty, crisply, yet resigning herself to the chair
+Dorothy pushed her way.
+
+"Thee never said truer. He is the biggest man up-mounting in more
+ways'n one. I've not wasted more love on him than many another but I
+hadn't no call to break his heart. Hark, thee. I'll be as short as I
+can.
+
+"When Oliver's mother died he was a boy and I was. She----"
+
+"Beg pardon, please; but this afternoon I really have no time to learn
+the family history of my neighbor."
+
+"But I have to tell thee part, to make thee understand. When his
+mother died, a widow, she left them two children, Oliver and Leah. He
+was a big boy, smart and trustable, and Leah was almost a baby. Her
+mother knew then that the child wasn't like others, she'd talked it
+with me, I bein' older'n him; but he didn't know it and from the time
+she was born he'd just about worshiped that baby. When she was dying
+Mehitabel made him promise, and a Friend's promise is as good as
+another man's oath, 't he'd always take care of little Leah and love
+her better'n anybody in the world. That nobody, even if he should grow
+up and marry and have children of his own, should ever come betwixt
+her and him. Well, 'twas a good spell before he found out 't he was
+brother to a fool. That's plain speech but I'm a Quaker. When he did
+find out, 'twas a'most more'n he could bear. He give out to anybody
+that asked, how 't she was sickly and had to be kept private.
+
+"Elisabeth Calvert, she _has_ been kept private, all her life long,
+till I let out the secret. He and Dorcas and me, and the children
+while they lived at the farm, we was the only ones ever had to do with
+care of her or saw her even. I worked on for him, he makin' the money,
+I gettin' shorter wages each year, besides him investin' 'em for me as
+he pleased.
+
+"But I'm old. I want a home of my own; and lately I've been pestering
+him to let me go. He'd always make excuse and talk plausible how 't he
+couldn't spare me nohow. I knew he told the truth, since if I left
+he'd have to get in strange help and it might get out 't his sister's
+sickness was plain want of brains. That'd have nigh killed him, he's
+so proud; to be pointed at as 'Oliver Sands, that's brother to a
+fool'."
+
+"Well, well. This is exceedingly painful to hear, but to what does it
+tend?" asked Mrs. Calvert.
+
+"Just this, Elisabeth. One day I got nursin' my wrongs and forgettin'
+my blessings, and the devil was on hand to give me the chance. Dorcas
+was off nursing a sick neighbor, Oliver was to Newburgh on some Fair
+business, and there wasn't nobody in the house but me and Leah. I took
+an old horse and wagon, 't he'd been meaning to sell, to the
+sales-stable at the Landing; and I coaxed Leah to come take a ride.
+She come ready enough. She didn't have much fun, anyway, except
+sitting with him in the office such times as he was lookin' over his
+accounts and reckonin' his money. She liked that. She always liked to
+handle money. That proved her a Sands, even if she was imbecile!
+
+"Thinks I, I'll break his pride. I'll make him know 't he ain't no
+better than other folks, even if he does speak in meeting. I meant to
+carry her clear to the Landing and let things take their chance while
+I cleared out for good. But when I'd got as far as here I begun to get
+scared on her account. I'd set out to humble Oliver but I liked Leah,
+poor creatur'! and I'd forgot I might be hurtin' her the worst. She'd
+never been 'mongst folks and they might treat her rough. So then I
+remembered this little girl, and how there was talk 'round about her
+having a passel of young folks to visit her. So I thought Leah would
+have a chance amongst 'em and I fetched her in and laid her right in
+this summer-house, on that bench yonder and covered her with a shawl I
+saw. She was asleep as she is a lot of the time, and didn't notice.
+
+"Then I went on to the Landing, left the rig to the stable, and took
+the cars for York. I've been there ever since. I never meant to come
+back; but there's something about this mountain 't pulls wanderers'
+feet back to it, whether or no. And--is Leah here?"
+
+"Rather it was your own guilty conscience that brought you back. Yes,
+I suppose it is 'Leah'--the witless waif my Dorothy found. And now I
+understand my poor neighbor's trouble. I am proud myself. Ah! yes I
+can understand! After the silence of a lifetime, how he shrank from
+publishing what he seems to have considered a disgrace to a gossiping
+world. But he was wrong. Such pride is always wrong; and he has spent
+a most unhappy time, searching with his own eyes everywhere but never
+asking for his lost Leah! but he was cruel in that, as cruel as
+misguided; and as for you, sir, the sooner you get upon your wicked
+feet and travel to Heartsease and tell its master where the poor thing
+may be found--the better for yourself. I think such an act as you
+committed is punishable by the strictest rigor of the law; but whether
+it is or not your own conscience will punish you forever. Now----"
+
+Mrs. Calvert stopped speaking and rose. She had never been so stately
+nor so severe and Dorothy pitied the poor old man who cowered before
+her, even while she was herself fiercely indignant against him. By a
+clasp of Mrs. Betty's arm she stayed her leaving:
+
+"Wait a moment, Aunt Betty, please. It's just as bad as you say, he's
+just as bad; but--he's terrible tired and old. He looks sick, almost,
+and I've been thinking while he talked: You let me stay at home, take
+Portia and the pony cart and carry Luna--Leah--and him back to
+Heartsease right away. May I, please?"
+
+"But to miss the Fair? He should have the unpleasant task of
+confessing himself, and nobody else to shield him."
+
+"Please, Aunt Betty, please! I found her. Oh! let me be the one to
+give her back!"
+
+Mrs. Calvert looked keenly into her darling's eyes, and after a
+moment, answered:
+
+"I might be willing; but should you desert your guests? And if you do,
+what shall I say to them for you?"
+
+"Just this: that a messenger has come who knows where Luna belongs and
+that I'm going with him to take her home. That'll make it all right.
+You might tell Dinah to keep Luna--Leah--I came pretty near her name,
+didn't I?--to keep her contented somewhere till I come for her and to
+put on her own old clothes. I have a feeling that that proud old
+miller would like it better that way."
+
+There was a mist in Aunt Betty's eyes as she stooped and kissed the
+eager face of her unselfish child; but she went quietly away and did
+as she was asked. Left in the summer-house alone with Dorothy Eli
+Wroth relapsed into silence. He had had hard work to make himself
+unburden his guilt and having done so he felt exhausted; remarking
+once only:
+
+"Thee may be sure that the worm hurts itself too when it turns. Thee
+must never turn but kiss the cheek which smites thee."
+
+After which rather mixed advice he said no more; not even when all the
+other carriages having rolled out of the great gateway, Dorothy
+disappeared in search of Portia and the cart; nor did he cast more
+than one inquiring glance upon Leah, sitting on the front seat beside
+the girlish driver. As for the other, she paid him no more heed than
+she did to anything else. She might have been seeing him every day,
+for all surprise she evinced; and as for resentment against him she
+was too innocent to feel that.
+
+The ride was not a long one, but it seemed such to Dorothy. At times
+her thoughts would stray after her departed friends and a wish that
+she were with them, enjoying the novelties of the County Fair, disturb
+her. But she had only to glance at the little creature beside her to
+forget regret and be glad.
+
+Also, if her tongue was perforce silent, her brain was busy, and with
+something of her Aunt Betty's decision, she intended to have her say
+before that coming interview was finished.
+
+All was very quiet at Heartsease when she reached it. Even the twins
+were abnormally serious, sitting on the wide, flat doorstep of the
+kitchen entrance, and looking so comical that Dolly laughed. For the
+Fifth Day meeting Dorcas had clothed them properly. Her ransacking of
+old closets had resulted in her finding a small lad's suit, after the
+fashion of a generation before. A tight little waist with large
+sleeves, which hung over the child's hands, and a full skirt completed
+the main part of his costume; while his nimble feet were imprisoned in
+stout "copper-toes," and a high-crowned, narrow-brimmed hat covered
+his already shorn head. Such was Benjamin, in the attire of his uncle
+at his own age.
+
+As for Sapphira-Ruth,--a more bewitching small maiden could not be
+imagined. She wore her mother's own frock, when that mother was five.
+Its cut was that of Dorcas's own, even to the small cap and kerchief,
+while a stiff little bonnet of gray lay on the step beside her. Ruth's
+toes also shone coppery from under her long skirt; and the restraint
+of such foot gear upon usually bare feet may have been the reason why
+the little ones sat sedately where they had been placed without
+offering to run and meet their old friend.
+
+Eli Wroth started to get out of the cart, but Dorothy had a word to
+say about that.
+
+"No, sir, please! You sit still with Leah and hold the horse. I'm
+going in first to speak to Mr. Sands, but I'll come back."
+
+Tapping at the kitchen door, she stooped to kiss the twins, receiving
+no further response than to see Benjamin wipe her kiss away; Ruth, as
+a matter of course, immediately doing the same.
+
+Nor was there any answer to her knock, and since the door was ajar she
+pushed it wide and entered. Dorcas sat there asleep; her work-worn
+hands folded on her lap, her tired body enjoying its Fifth Day rest.
+
+Oliver was invisible but Dorothy softly crossed to a passage she saw
+and down that, stepping quietly, she came upon him alone in his
+office. The door to that inner, secluded room--Leah's room, she
+understood at a glance--this door was open, and the miller sat as if
+staring straight into it. So gently Dolly moved that he did not hear
+her, and she had gone around him to stand before his face ere he
+looked up and said:
+
+"Thee? thee?"
+
+"Yes, I. Mr. Sands, I know the whole story, and I'm sorry for you. I'm
+more sorry though for the little old woman who belongs in that room.
+It's pleasant enough but it has been her prison. It has deprived her
+of lots of fun. If I should bring her back to it, would you let her go
+out of it sometimes, into the world where she belongs? Would you let
+her come to visit me? Would you take her to meeting with you as is her
+birthright? Would you put your pride aside and--do right? If I would
+bring her back?"
+
+For a moment he stared at her as if he did not understand; then all
+that gloom which had so changed him vanished from his face and he
+answered with that promise which to a Quaker is better than an oath:
+
+"I would. I will! If thee can bring her!"
+
+A moment later Leah's hand was in her brother's and Dorothy had left
+them alone, and thus the House Party neared its end, to become but a
+happy memory to its soon to be homeward speeding guests. The thoughts
+of the young hostess were even now turning wholly to the future, her
+brain teeming with marvelous plans. What these were and how fulfilled
+in "Dorothy in California," to those interested, the story will be
+told.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+"Friday! And to-morrow we part!" said Molly Breckenridge, with more of
+sadness on her sunny face than was often seen there. "It's been such a
+perfectly enchanting Week of Days, and this is the last one left! Oh!
+dear! Oh! I do hate good-bys. Saying that and packing one's trunk are
+two just unbearable things and make one wish, almost, that the nice
+times had never begun."
+
+"Yes, beginnings are grand; but endings--Hmm. I agree with you, Miss
+Molly," echoed a boyish voice so close to her elbow that the girl
+wheeled briskly about to see who spoke.
+
+"Why, Melvin Cook! Are you down in the dumps, too? I didn't know boys
+had--had feelings, don't you know."
+
+He ignored her mockery and answered gravely:
+
+"They do feel a deal more than they get credit for. A boy daren't cry
+and be silly like a girl----"
+
+"Thanks, awfully!"
+
+"He just has to keep everything bottled up. That's why he acts rude
+sometimes. I fancy that's what's amiss with the two Smiths yonder.
+They've been literally punching each other's heads because Danny
+happened to remark that Littlejohn would have to work the harder when
+he got home, to make up for this week's idleness. And----"
+
+"Here comes the Master and he doesn't look at all like crying! Why
+he's holding his hands above his head and--yes, he's clapping them!
+Call all the others with that new bugle of yours, and let's go meet
+him! Toot-te-toot-te-toot!"
+
+Melvin obediently raised the handsome instrument which Dorothy had
+given him the night before, and which Mrs. Calvert had bought for him
+in the hill-city. It had not come from the County Fair but from the
+best establishment for such ware and Melvin was delighted with it.
+There had been a "keepsake" for each and all. For Jane Potter her
+"unabridged"; for Alfaretta, who had never minded rain nor snow, a
+long desired umbrella; for Jim a Greek lexicon; for Mabel Bruce an
+exquisite fan; and after the tastes of all something they would always
+prize. In fact, Mrs. Calvert had early left the Fair and spent her
+time in shopping; and Seth knew, if the younger ones did not, that far
+more than the equivalent of the famous one hundred dollars had been
+expended to give these young folks pleasure.
+
+"Oh! what is it, Master! What is it? Have you settled on the play?
+Will you assign the characters and let us get to studying, so we can
+make a success of it to-night?" cried Helena, rather anxiously.
+
+"I have settled on the play. Rather it has been settled for me. As for
+characters they will need no study, since each and all are to appear
+in this most marvelous drama in their own original selves."
+
+"Why, Mr. Seth, what do you mean? You look so happy and yet as if
+something had made you feel bad, too;" said Dorothy, slipping her hand
+into his as he dropped it to his side.
+
+"Oh! I tell you I am happy! So will many another be, 'up-mounting' on
+this auspicious day. Talk about partings--there are going to be
+meetings, meetings galore. In short, I won't mystify you any longer
+though I am half-mystified myself. Attention! Leah Sands will give a
+House Party this afternoon at Heartsease Farm and we and all who'll
+accept are bidden to attend at three o'clock sharp."
+
+"Leah--that's Luna? How can she do a thing like that?"
+
+"Well, it can be done in her name, I reckon. Just as this was
+Dorothy's and somebody else managed it; eh, lassie? The Friends speak
+when the Spirit moves. At last, by the power of grief and remorse, by
+the power of Love, the Spirit of unselfishness and humility has moved
+upon the heart of Oliver Sands. One is never too old to learn; and,
+thank God, some are never too old to acknowledge their ignorance! He
+isn't, and to prove it he is doing this thing. His messengers are
+speeding everywhere. Caterers from Newburgh have had hurry-up orders
+to provide a bountiful feast and old Heartsease Farm is to be the
+scene of an 'Infair' that will beat Dorothy's to--smithereens! I mean,
+begging her ladyship's pardon, in point of size. Leah is to be the
+guest of honor, since she cannot preside; but be sure she'll not
+disgrace her proud brother since at Dorothy's Party she has learned
+how harmless are even strangers. Yes, I can safely say that Leah made
+her debut with us. Now, who'll accept? Don't all speak at once!"
+
+But they did. So joyfully, so earnestly, that the Master clapped hands
+over ears and, laughing, hurried away, while Mrs. Calvert beamed upon
+them all, the dearest hostess who had ever lived--so one and all
+declared.
+
+The scene at Heartsease? It is useless even to try to depict that.
+Sufficient to say it was a marvelous Party; and he who marveled most
+was the giver of the Party himself. Because where he might easily have
+expected absences and "regrets" came hastening guests to shake him by
+the hand, to forgive hard dealings, to rejoice with him that she who
+had been lost, in every sense, had been found.
+
+And when, at last, the young folks from Deerhurst tore themselves
+away and walked homeward over the moonlit road, it was with the
+feeling that this last outing of their Week of Days had been the
+dearest and the best.
+
+Partings? They had to come; but when on the Saturday morning the last
+guest had disappeared and Dorothy stood alone beside Aunt Betty on the
+broad piazza, there might be tears in her brown eyes, but there was no
+real heaviness in her heart.
+
+God had given her a home. He had given her this dear old lady to love
+and serve, and the girl had already learned that there is joy only in
+Loving Service.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+ [Illustration: DOROTHY AND AUNT BETTY, ALONE AT HOME.
+ _Dorothy's House Party._]
+
+
+
+
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+with zest and hearty sympathy.
+
+ Turquoise and Ruby.
+ Ten full-page illustrations.
+
+ The Girls of Mrs. Pritchard's School.
+ Ten full-page illustrations by Lewis Baumer.
+
+ A Madcap.
+ Eight full-page illustrations by Harold Copping.
+
+ The Manor School.
+ Ten full-page illustrations.
+
+ A Bevy of Girls.
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+
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+
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+
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+
+ Comrades on the Farm, or the Mystery of Deep Gulch.
+ Comrades in New York, or Snaring the Smugglers.
+ Comrades on the Ranch, or Secret of the Lost River.
+ Comrades in New Mexico, or the Round-up.
+ Comrades on the Great Divide (in preparation).
+
+     _Ralph Victor is probably the best equipped writer of
+     up-to-date boy's stories of the present day. He has traveled
+     or lived in every land, has shot big game with Sears in
+     India, has voyaged with Jack London, and was a war
+     correspondent in Natal and Japan. The lure of life in the
+     open has always been his, and his experiences have been
+     thrilling and many._
+
+     --_"Progress."_
+
+ CHATTERTON-PECK CO.
+ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+_Specimen Chapter from_
+
+COMRADES IN NEW MEXICO
+
+BY RALPH VICTOR.
+
+_Published by Chatterton Peck Co._
+
+"We will ride part of the way with you," suggested Fleet, "and see you
+safe on the road."
+
+"If you are going," advised the major, "the sooner you get away the
+better."
+
+"Then I am going to get off at once," announced Chot.
+
+It was but a few moments before the horses were saddled and the little
+cavalcade started. After accompanying him for some half dozen miles
+the others bade Chot "adios" and returned to the ranch.
+
+It was still early evening for the days were now very long, when Chot
+arrived at El Perro Negro, but unlike the other to be remembered
+evening there were but few persons about and these few paid no
+attention to him. He attended to his horse and as the supper hour was
+already over he asked the landlord to get him something to eat. The
+inner man satisfied he was off early to bed.
+
+The night passed without any disturbance although he slept as Fleet
+would express it "with one eye awake" and with the coming of daylight
+he was astir. He fed his horse and gave him a rub down preparatory to
+an early start.
+
+On his way to the shed that morning, he noticed several men whom he
+had not before seen. Among them he observed the outlaws Jose and
+Miguel. He paid no attention to them however until they came up beside
+him. He was engaged in currying his horse.
+
+"That is a good beast you have there," said Miguel. "Cuanto? How much
+for him?"
+
+"Good morning," responded Chot, and continued, "He isn't for sale."
+
+"Your horse?" went on the man.
+
+"No," said Chot, shortly. "He isn't mine."
+
+"Where do you come from?" asked Miguel.
+
+"I came from Captain Benson's," said Chot, guardedly, thinking it wise
+not to speak of Rosado.
+
+"Isn't that Mr. Shelton's horse?" asked Jose.
+
+"Yes," said Chot. "Do you know the owner?"
+
+The man muttered something which Chot could not understand.
+
+"Then you come from Rosado?" questioned Jose. This after a pause
+during which he eyed Chot narrowly.
+
+"I have been stopping there," answered Chot.
+
+"Are you going back there?" asked Miguel.
+
+"I am going to meet Mr. and Mrs. Shelton," replied Chot, getting
+somewhat uneasy under the insistent questioning.
+
+"That is what I told you," remarked Jose to Miguel, as the men started
+back to the Inn.
+
+"I wonder what it was he told him?" mused Chot. "The best thing I can
+do is to get away from here as quickly as possible."
+
+As soon as Chot could get his breakfast he was off on his way, having
+seen nothing more of the bandits.
+
+From Estrada a good part of the journey was along the course of a
+stream that came down from the mountains and as the road was good Chot
+urged his horse on, but in spite of all his efforts the animal lagged;
+so that when at noon he stopped to rest in a small grove, he was much
+less than half way to Rosado. The presence of the bandits at the Inn
+had disquieted him and as soon as the worst of the heat was over he
+re-saddled his horse to resume his journey.
+
+As he was starting off, as a matter of precaution he glanced back over
+the road and was disturbed to see two horsemen rapidly approaching.
+
+"The quicker I can get away from here the better," he thought, and he
+urged his horse on as fast as he could.
+
+"They may be all right," he reflected, "but I don't like the looks of
+it and it will be just as well to keep out of their way."
+
+"I wonder what is the matter with Brownie," he cogitated after a bit,
+for in spite of all his efforts the horse's pace became more labored
+and slower. His pursuers, if such they were, were rapidly gaining on
+him.
+
+"They may be after me and they may be only traveling in this
+direction," he reasoned, "but I am going to find out. I will ride over
+to the woods, it is out of my way and off the trail, if they follow
+I'll know they are after me."
+
+Turning his horse's head in the direction of the forest he proceeded
+as fast as he could. Looking back after a few moments he saw that the
+men had changed their course and were plainly headed toward and
+rapidly gaining on him. His position was decidedly unpleasant. The
+outlaws he was sure, had recognized him as one of the comrades who
+were visiting at the hacienda, and of whom they had heard enough,
+through Took, to regard as dangerous enemies and to be gotten out of
+the way. Whether they knew that the comrades had discovered the secret
+of the lost river or not, they were evidently anxious to be rid of
+them.
+
+"I can't successfully resist them if they attack me," reasoned Chot,
+"I wish I had brought a gun of some kind. As it is the only thing I
+can do is to try and elude them." Chot thought quickly. "If I can jump
+from the saddle into one of the trees I won't leave any trail and they
+won't know where I have gone. I'll try it anyhow," he said to himself,
+"even if I fail I won't be any worse off, for my mount is laboring
+painfully."
+
+The wood which he was now approaching was of very heavy timber and
+little underbrush had grown up between the trees. The trees themselves
+were well scattered yet were so large, their wide spreading branches
+interlaced. Even the lower branches were so high that Chot could not
+reach them with his extended hand. Climbing now on to the saddle he
+got first on his knees, as he and his chums had practiced in their
+efforts to imitate the tricks of the cowboys at the hacienda, then on
+to his feet; here he balanced himself for an instant. While the horse
+was loping along under his persistent urging he came to a slightly
+sagging branch, grasping it he sprang into the tree. Quickly he drew
+himself up out of sight of any one below.
+
+He had scarcely succeeded in doing this when the bandits, who were
+only a short distance behind him when he entered the woods, were heard
+galloping below him.
+
+"We have got him now," he overheard Jose saying to his companion.
+
+"Don't be too sure of that," objected Miguel. "They are devils those
+Americans."
+
+"A fig for your devils," returned Jose. "If I can get my hands on him
+I will take care of him all right."
+
+"You want to pray the saints they don't get their claws on you,"
+retorted Miguel.
+
+Further words he could not catch as they rode along.
+
+"I wonder what will be the next move," thought Chot as he made his way
+to better security farther up in the tree. "I think I will study up
+flying machines when I get out of this. A pair of wings would come in
+handy just now."
+
+Chot was not long left in doubt for in ten minutes the men came back
+through the woods, evidently in search of him.
+
+"What did I tell you," expostulated Miguel. "I knew he would get away
+somehow."
+
+"He hasn't got away yet," growled the other, stopping beneath the tree
+in which Chot had taken refuge. "He disappeared in the woods somewhere
+and I am going to find him. He is somewhere between this locality and
+the edge of the wood where we found his horse. Say but you did not
+give him a big enough dose. The animal ought to have played out hours
+ago."
+
+"So they tried to poison my horse," was Chot's thought.
+
+"I am going to find him," repeated Jose.
+
+"Quiza!" said Miguel, looking about him, "Maybe you will and maybe you
+won't. If he were human where could he go? There is no place here
+where he could hide."
+
+"He is here somewhere," retorted Jose, "and I am going to search him
+out. He knows too much and I am going to get rid of him. He must be up
+a tree and so he must come down."
+
+"Carambo! no," said Miguel. "Nothing but a cat could go up a tree so
+quick. We were just behind him. See there are the marks of his
+horse's hoofs, the animal never stopped in his stride. The boy went
+off just like that," and Miguel blew across his hand with an
+expressive little puff. "Same as they did in the cave. Better leave
+him alone. No good will come of it."
+
+Chot, who had climbed up into the tree as high as he dared, now drew
+himself close to the trunk and waited for the next move on the part of
+his pursuers which was not long in coming. He could not see the
+speakers below, but of a sudden his attention was attracted to an
+adjoining tree. Chot had noted that the branch upon which he was
+resting his hands for partial support, was of a remarkable length and
+stretched out till it met and overlapped a branch of the next nearest
+tree. Some motion upon the branch of the farther tree caught his eye.
+To his horror he made out some sort of a wild beast stealthily
+approaching. Its yellow eyes were on a level with his own. He gazed in
+fascinated terror. Truly his predicament was hopeless. There seemed no
+way for him to cope with one enemy or the other. To remain where he
+was, would be to become the sure prey of the wild beast. To make any
+move for defense would call to the attention of the outlaws his hiding
+place.
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+WORLD-WIDE ADVENTURE SERIES
+
+_By Edward S. Ellis_
+
+Cloth, 12mo., stamped in colors and gold. Handsomely illustrated.
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+
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+introduction here. All are bright, breezy, and full of life,
+character, and adventure. They cover a wide field, and consequently
+appeal to all classes of young folks.
+
+ The Telegraph Messenger Boy;
+ Or, The Straight Road to Success
+
+In this tale life in a country town is well described. There is a
+mysterious bank robbery, which fills the community with excitement.
+There is likewise a flood on the river; and through all this whirl of
+events the young telegraph messenger exhibits a pluck and sagacity
+sure to win the admiration and approval of all wide-awake boys.
+
+Other Volumes in this Series:
+
+ From the Throttle to the President's Chair
+   Tad; or "Getting Even" with Him
+     Through Jungle and Wilderness
+       A Waif of the Mountains
+         Down the Mississippi
+           Life of Kit Carson
+             Land of Wonders
+               Lost in the Wilds
+                 Up the Tapajos
+                   Lost in Samoa
+                     Red Plume
+
+ CHATTERTON-PECK COMPANY
+ New York
+
+
+
+
+THE FRONTIER BOYS
+
+BY CAPT. WYN. ROOSEVELT.
+
+This noted scout and author, known to every plainsman, has lived a
+life of stirring adventure. In boyhood, in the early days, he traveled
+with comrades the overland route to the West,--a trip of thrilling
+experiences, unceasing hardships and trials that would have daunted a
+heart less brave. His life has been spent in the companionship of the
+typically brave adventurers, gold seekers, cowboys and ranchmen of our
+great West. He has lived with more than one Indian tribe, took part in
+a revolution at Hawaii and was captured in turn by pirates and
+cannibals. He writes in a way sure to win the heart of every boy.
+
+ Frontier boys on the overland trail.
+ Frontier boys in Colorado, or captured by Indians.
+ Frontier boys in the Grand Canyon, or a search for treasure.
+ Frontier boys in Mexico, or Mystery Mountain.
+
+Finely illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. Attractive cover design. Price 60c.
+per volume.
+
+ CHATTERTON-PECK. CO.
+ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Note:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters’ errors;
+otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the
+author’s words and intent.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY'S HOUSE PARTY***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 28805-8.txt or 28805-8.zip *******
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