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diff --git a/old/30075.txt b/old/30075.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 81157e4..0000000 --- a/old/30075.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5402 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Our Next-Door Neighbors, by Belle Kanaris Maniates
-
-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: Our Next-Door Neighbors
-
-Author: Belle Kanaris Maniates
-
-Illustrator: Tony Sarg
-
-Release Date: September 24, 2009 [EBook #30075]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS
-
-
-
-
-By Belle K. Maniates
-
-AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
-
-MILDEW MANCE
-
-OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: "What's your rush?" I asked, when I had overtaken him.
-FRONTISPIECE. _See page 114._]
-
-
-
-
-OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS
-
-By
-
-Belle Kanaris Maniates
-
-With illustrations by
-
-Tony Sarg
-
-Boston
-
-Little, Brown, and Company
-
-1917
-
-
-
-
-Copyright, 1917,
-
-By Little, Brown, and Company.
-
-All rights reserved
-
-Published February, 1917
-
-Norwood Press
-
-Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
-
-Presswork by The Colonial Press, Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
- I ABOUT SILVIA AND MYSELF 1
- II INTRODUCING OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS 9
- III IN WHICH WE ARE PESTERED BY POLYDORES 28
- IV IN WHICH WE TAKE BOARDERS 45
- V IN WHICH WE TAKE A VACATION 61
- VI A FLIRT AND A WOMAN-HATER 77
- VII IN WHICH NOTHING MUCH HAPPENS 90
- VIII PTOLEMY DISAPPEARS AND I VISIT A HAUNTED HOUSE 99
- IX IN WHICH WE SEE GHOSTS 123
- X IN WHICH WE MAKE SOME DISCOVERIES 138
- XI A BAD MEANS TO A GOOD END 152
- XII "TOO MUCH POLYDORES" 164
- XIII ROB'S FRIEND THE REPORTER 173
- XIV A MIDNIGHT EXCURSION 195
- XV WHAT MISS FRAYNE FOUND OUT 203
- XVI PTOLEMY'S TALE 213
- XVII ALL ABOUT UNCLE ISSACHAR'S VISIT 229
- XVIII IN WHICH I DECIDE ON EXTREME MEASURES 254
- XIX WHICH HAS TO DO WITH SOME LETTERS 267
- XX "THE MONEY WE EARNT FOR YOU" 276
-
-
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS
-
- "What's your rush?" I asked, when I had overtaken
- him. _Frontispiece_
- Uncle Issachar 10
- Dr. Felix Polydore 23
- "Lucien Wade!" she gasped. "Here are our letters to
- Beth and Rob." 80
- He pleaded eloquently to be taken with us. 102
- I babbled aimlessly to myself and then managed to
- pull together and beat it to the lake 126
- The landlady intears waylaid me 132
- I had to carry Diogenes most of the way 168
- Now and then above his howls, I heard Silvia's
- plaintive protests outside the door 192
- I held out my hand, which he shook solemnly, but
- with an injured air 224
- "He went to the front window and dropped a young
- kitten down on the old gent's head." 242
- "We heard a suppressed sneeze, and Rob pulled
- Emerald from underneath." 256
-
-
-
-
-OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOURS
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-_About Silvia and Myself_
-
-
-Some people have children born unto them, some acquire children and
-others have children thrust upon them. Silvia and I are of the last
-named class. We have no offspring of our own, but yesterday, today,
-and forever we have those of our neighbor.
-
-We were born and bred in the same little home-grown city and as a
-small boy, even, I was Silvia's worshiper, but perforce a worshiper
-from afar.
-
-Her upcoming had been supervised by a grimalkin governess who drew
-around the form of her young charge the awful circle of exclusiveness,
-intercourse with child-kind being strictly prohibited.
-
-Children are naturally gregarious little creatures, however, and
-Silvia on rare occasions managed to break parole and make adroit
-escape from surveillance. Then she would speed to the top of the
-boundary wall that separated the stable precincts from an alluring
-alley which was the playground of the plebeian progeny of the humble
-born.
-
-To the circle of dirty but fascinating ragamuffins she became an
-interested tangent, a silent observer. Here I had my first meeting
-with her. I was not of her class, neither was I to the alley born, but
-sailed in the sane mid-channel that ameliorates the distinction
-between high and low life.
-
-On this eventful day I was taking a short cut on my way to school. One
-of the group of alleyites, with the inherent friendliness of the
-unchartered but big-hearted members of the silt of the stream of
-humans, had proffered to little Silvia a chip on which was a patch of
-mud designed to become a fruitcake stuffed with pebbles in lieu of
-raisins and frosted with moistened ashes. Before the enticing pastime
-of transformation was begun, however, Silvia was swiftly snatched from
-the contaminating midst and borne away over the ramparts.
-
-Thereafter I haunted the alley, hoping for another glimpse of the
-little picture girl on the wall. At last I attained my desire. One
-Saturday afternoon I saw her coming, alone, down a long rosebush
-bordered path. A thrill ran through me. Our eyes met. Yet all I found
-to say was: "C'mon over."
-
-She responded to this invitation and I helped her over the wall. She
-looked longingly at the Irish playing in the mud, but a clean sandpile
-in my own backyard not far away seemed to me a more fitting
-environment for one so daintily clad.
-
-We played undisturbed for a never-to-be-forgotten half hour and then
-they found her out. Reprimanding voices jangled and the whole world
-was out of tune.
-
-Thereafter a strict watch was kept on little Silvia's movements and I
-saw her only at rare intervals, when she was going into church or as
-she rode past our house. She always remembered me and on such
-meetings a faint, reminiscent smile lighted the somber little face and
-her eyes met mine as if in a mysterious promise.
-
-She grew up an outlawed, isolated child deprived of her birthright,
-but in spite of the handicaps of so barren a childhood, she achieved
-young womanhood unspoiled and in possession of her early democratic
-tendencies.
-
-When I was making a modest start in a legal way, her parents died and
-left her with that most unprofitable of legacies, an encumbered
-estate. Then I dared to renew our acquaintance begun on the sandpile.
-She went to live with a poor but practical relation and was initiated
-into the science of stretching an inadequate income to meet everyday
-needs. In time I wooed and won her.
-
-We set up housekeeping in a small, thriving mid-Western city where I
-secured a partnership in a legal firm. Silvia had all the requisites
-of mind and manner and Domestic Science necessary to a "hearth-and
-home-" maker.
-
-We lived in a house which was one of many made to the same measure
-with the inevitable street porch, big window, trimmed lawn in front
-and garden in the rear. We had attained the standard of prosperity
-maintained in our home town by keeping "hired help" and installing a
-telephone, so our social status was fixed.
-
-There was but one adjunct missing to our little Arcadia. While at a
-word or look children flocked to me like friendly puppies in response
-to a call, to Silvia they were still an unknown quantity.
-
-I had hoped that her understanding and love for children might be
-developed in the usual and natural way, but we had now been married
-ten years and this hope had not been realized.
-
-She had tried most assiduously to cultivate an acquaintance with
-members of child-world, but into that kingdom there is no open sesame.
-The sure keen intuition of a child recognizes on sight a kindred
-spirit and Silvia's forced advances met with but indifferent response.
-She wistfully proposed to me one day that we adopt a child. My doubts
-as to the advisability of such a course were confirmed by Huldah, our
-strong staff in household help. In our section of the country servants
-were generally quite conversant with the intimate and personal affairs
-of the home.
-
-"Don't you never do it, Mr. Wade," she counseled. "Ready-mades ain't
-for the likes of her."
-
-When, in acting on this advice, I vetoed Silvia's lukewarm
-proposition, I was convinced of Huldah's wisdom by seeing the look of
-relief that flashed into my wife's troubled countenance, and I knew
-that her suggestion had been but a perfunctory prompting of duty.
-
-Time alone could overcome the effects of her early environment!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-_Introducing Our Next-door Neighbors_
-
-
-One morning Silvia and I lingered over our coffee cups discussing our
-plans for the coming summer, which included visits from my sister Beth
-and my college chum, Rob Rossiter. We wished to avoid having their
-arrivals occur simultaneously, however, because Rob was a woman-hater,
-or thought he was. We decided to have Beth pay her visit first and
-later take Rob with us on our vacation trip to some place where the
-fishing facilities would be to our liking. However, summer vacation
-time like our plans was yet far, vague and dim.
-
-[Illustration: Uncle Issachar]
-
-While I was putting on my overcoat, Silvia had gone to the window and
-was looking pensively at the vacant house next to ours.
-
-"I fear," she said abruptly and irrelevantly, "that we are destined
-to receive no part of Uncle Issachar's fortune."
-
-Uncle Issachar was a wealthy but eccentric relative of my wife. He had
-made us no wedding gift beyond his best wishes, but he had then
-informed us that at the birth of each of our prospective sons he
-should place in the bank to Silvia's account the sum of five thousand
-dollars. We had never invited him to visit us or made any overtures in
-the way of communication with him, lest he should think we were
-cultivating his acquaintance from mercenary motives.
-
-While I was debating whether the lament in Silvia's tone was for the
-loss of the money or the lack of children, she again spoke; this time
-in a tone which had lost its languor.
-
-"There is a big moving van in front of the house next door. At last we
-will have some near neighbors."
-
-"Are they unloading furniture?" I asked inanely, crossing to the
-window.
-
-"No; course not," came cheerfully from Huldah, who had come in to
-remove the dishes. "Most likely they are unloading lions and tigers."
-
-As I have already intimated, Huldah was a privileged servant.
-
-"They are unloading children!" explained Silvia, in a tone implying
-that Huldah's sarcastic implication would be infinitely more
-preferable. "The van seems to be overflowing with them--a perfect
-crowd. Do you suppose the house is to be used as an orphan asylum?"
-
-"I think not," I assured her as I counted the flock. Five children
-would seem like a crowd to Silvia.
-
-"Boys!" exclaimed Huldah tragically, as she joined us for a survey.
-"I'll see that they don't keep the grass off our lawn."
-
-Late that afternoon I opened the outer door of the dining-room in
-response to the rap of strenuously applied knuckles.
-
-A lad of about eleven years with the sardonic face of a satyr and
-diabolically bright eyes peered into the room.
-
-"We're going to have soup for dinner," he announced, "and mother wants
-to borrow a soup plate for father to eat his out of."
-
-Silvia stared at him aghast. She seemed to feel something compelling
-in the boy's personnel, however, and she went to the china closet and
-brought forth a soup plate which she handed to him without comment.
-
-In silence we watched him run across the lawn, twirling the plate
-deftly above his head in juggler fashion.
-
-The next day when we sat down to dinner our new young neighbor again
-appeared on our threshold.
-
-"Halloa!" he called chummily. "We are going to have soup again and we
-want a soup plate for father."
-
-"Where is the one I loaned you yesterday?" demanded Silvia in a tone
-far below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit, while her features assumed a
-frigidity that would have congealed father's favorite sustenance had
-it been in her vicinity.
-
-"Oh, we broke that!" he casually and cheerfully explained.
-
-With much reluctance Silvia bestowed another plate upon the young
-applicant.
-
-"Wait!" I said as he started to leave, "don't you want the soup
-tureen, too, or the ladle and some soup spoons?"
-
-"No, thank you," he answered politely. "None of the rest of us like
-soup, so we dish father's up in the kitchen. He doesn't like soup
-particularly, but he eats it because it goes down quick and lets him
-have more time for work."
-
-This time as he sped homeward, he didn't spin the plate in air, but
-tried out a new plan of balancing it on a stick.
-
-"I think," I suggested gently, when our young neighbor was lost to our
-sorrowful sight, "that it might be well to invest in another dozen or
-so of soup plates. I will see about getting them at wholesale rates.
-Our supply will soon give out if our new neighbors continue to
-cultivate the soup and borrowing habit."
-
-"I will buy some at the five cent store," replied Silvia. "I think I
-had better call upon them tomorrow and see what manner of people they
-can be."
-
-When I came home the next day it was quite evident that she had
-called.
-
-"Well," I inquired, "what do they keep--a soup house?"
-
-"They are literary people, the highest of high-brows. Their name is
-Polydore, and the head of the house----"
-
-"Mr. or Mrs.?" I interrupted.
-
-"The head of the house," pursued Silvia, ignoring my question, "is a
-collector."
-
-"So I inferred. Has he a large collection of soup plates?"
-
-"She collects antiquities and writes their history. He pursues
-science."
-
-"They were seemingly communicative. What did they look like?"
-
-"I didn't see them. After I rang I heard a woman's voice bidding some
-one not to answer the bell. She said she couldn't be bothered with
-interruptions, so I went on up the street to call on Mrs. Fleming, who
-told me all about them. She was also refused admittance when she
-called. On my way home I met that boy--that awful boy----"
-
-She paused, evidently overcome by the consideration of his awfulness.
-
-"He had been digging bait--"
-
-Again she paused as if words were inadequate for her climax.
-
-"Well," I encouraged.
-
-"He was carrying his bait--horrid, wriggling angleworms--in our soup
-plate!"
-
-"Then it is not broken yet!" I exclaimed joyfully. "Let us hope it is
-given an antiseptic bath before father's next indulgence in consomme.
-After dinner I will go over and try my luck at paying my respects to
-the soup savant."
-
-"They won't let you in."
-
-"In that case I shall follow their lead of setting aside all ceremony
-and formality and admit myself, as their heir apparent does here."
-
-After dinner and my twilight smoke, I went next door, first asking
-Silvia if there was anything we needed that I could borrow, just to
-show them there were no hard feelings.
-
-My third vigorous ring brought results. A slipshod servant appeared
-and reluctantly seated me in the hall. She read with seeming interest
-the card I handed to her and then, pushing aside some mangy looking
-portieres, vanished from view.
-
-She evidently delivered my card, for I heard a woman's voice read my
-name, "Mr. Lucien Wade."
-
-After another short interval the slovenly servant returned and offered
-me my card.
-
-"She seen it," she assured me in answer to my look of surprise.
-
-She again put the portieres between us and I was obliged to own myself
-baffled in my efforts to break in. I was showing myself out when my
-onward course was deflected by a troop of noisy children leaded by
-the soup plate skirmisher, who was the oldest and apparently the
-leader of the brood.
-
-"Oh, halloa!" he greeted me with the air of an old acquaintance,
-"didn't you see the folks?"
-
-On my informing him that I had seen no one but the servant, he
-exclaimed:
-
-"Oh, that chicken wouldn't know enough to ask you in! Just follow us.
-Mother wouldn't remember to come out."
-
-I was loth to force my presence on mother, but by this time my
-hospitable young friend had pulled the portieres so strenuously that
-they parted from the pole, and I was presented willy nilly to the
-collector of antiquities, who had the angular sharp-cut face and form
-of a rocking horse. She was seated at a table strewn with books and
-papers, writing at a rate of speed that convinced me she was in the
-throes of an inspiration. I forebore to interrupt. My scruples,
-however, were not shared by her eldest son. He gave her elbow a jog of
-reminder which sent her pencil to the floor.
-
-"Mother!" he shouted in megaphone voice, "here's the man next
-door--the one we get our soup plates from."
-
-She looked up abstractedly.
-
-"Oh," she said in dismayed tone, "I thought you had gone. I am very
-much engaged in writing a paper on modern antiquities."
-
-I murmured some sort of an apology for my untimely interruption.
-
-"I am so absorbed in my great work," she explained, "that I am
-oblivious to all else. I have the rare and great gift of concentration
-in a marked degree."
-
-I was quite sure of this fact. She took another pencil from a supply
-box and resumed her literary occupation. As my presence seemed of so
-little moment, I lingered.
-
-"Mother," shouted one of the boys, snatching the pencil from her
-grasp, "I'm hungry. I didn't have any supper."
-
-"Yes, you did!" she asserted. "I saw Gladys give you a bowl of bread
-and milk."
-
-"Emerald took it away from me and drank it up."
-
-"Didn't neither!" denied a shaggy looking boy. "I spilled it."
-
-He accompanied this denial by a fierce punch in his accuser's ribs.
-
-"Here!" said the author of Modern Antiquities, taking a nickel from
-her pocket, "go get yourself some popcorn, Demetrius."
-
-"I ain't Demetrius! I'm Pythagoras."
-
-"It makes no difference. Go and get it and don't speak to me again
-tonight."
-
-The boy had already snatched the coin, and he now started for the
-exit, but his outgoing way was instantly blocked by a promiscuous pack
-of pugilistic Polydores, and an ardent and general onslaught
-followed.
-
-I endeavored to untangle the arms and legs of the attackers and the
-attacked in a desire to rescue the youngest, a child of two, but I
-soon beat a retreat, having no mind to become a punching bag for
-Polydores.
-
-The concentrator at the writing table, looking up vaguely, perceived
-the general joust.
-
-"How provoking!" she exclaimed indignantly. "I was in search of an
-antonym and now they've driven it out of my memory."
-
-I politely offered my sympathy for her loss.
-
-"Did you ever see such misbehaved children?" she asked casually and
-impersonally as she calmly surveyed the free-for-all fight.
-
-[Illustration: Dr. Felix Polydore]
-
-"Children always misbehave before company," I remarked propitiatingly.
-"Of course they know better."
-
-"Why no, they don't!" she declared, looking at me in surprise,
-"they----"
-
-At this instant the errant antonym evidently flashed upon her mental
-vision and her pencil hastened to record it and then flew on at
-lightning speed.
-
-I was about to try to make an escape when a momentary cessation of
-hostilities was caused by the entrance of a moth-eaten, abstracted-looking
-man. As the _two-year-old_ hailed him as "fadder", I gathered that he
-was the person responsible for the family now fighting at his feet.
-
-"What's the trouble?" he asked helplessly.
-
-"She gave Thag a nickel," explained the eldest boy, "and we want it."
-
-The man drew a sigh of relief. The solution of this family problem was
-instantly and satisfactorily met by an impartial distribution of
-nickels.
-
-With demoniac whoops of delight, the contestants fled from the room.
-
-I introduced myself to the man of the house, who seemed to realize
-that some sort of compulsory conventionalities must be observed. He
-looked hopelessly at his wife, and seeing that she was beyond response
-to an S O S call to things mundane, he frankly but impressively
-informed me that I must expect nothing of them socially as their lives
-were devoted to research and study. The children, however, he assured
-me, could run over frequently to see us.
-
-I instinctively felt that my call was considered ended, so I took my
-departure. I related the details of my neighborly visit to Silvia, but
-her sense of humor was not stirred. It was entirely dominated by her
-dread of the young Polydores.
-
-"How many children are there?" she asked faintly. "More than the five
-you said you counted that first day?"
-
-"They seemed not so many as much. That is, though I suppose in round
-numbers there are but five, yet each of those five is equal to at
-least three ordinary children."
-
-"Are they all boys? Huldah says the youngest wears dresses."
-
-"Nevertheless he is a boy. They are all unmistakably boys. I think
-they must have been born with boots on and," conscious of the imprints
-of my shins, "hobnail boots at that. Even the youngest, a two-year
-old, seems to have been graduated from Home Rule."
-
-"I can't bear to think of their going to bed hungry," she said
-wistfully. "Think of that unnatural mother expecting them to satisfy
-their hunger by popcorn."
-
-"They didn't though," I assured her. "I saw them stop a street vender
-below here and invest their nickels in hot dogs."
-
-"Hot dogs!" repeated Silvia in horror.
-
-"Wienerwursts," I hastened to interpret.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-_In Which We Are Pestered by Polydores_
-
-
-Our life now became one long round of Polydores. They were with us
-burr-tight, and attached themselves to me with dog-like devotion,
-remaining utterly impervious to Silvia's aloofness and repulses. At
-last, however, she succumbed to their presence as one of the things
-inevitable.
-
-"The Polydores are here to stay," she acknowledged in a
-calmness-of-despair voice.
-
-"They don't seem to be homebodies," I allowed.
-
-The children were not literary like the other productions of their
-profound parents, but were a band of robust, active youngsters
-unburdened with brains, excepting Ptolemy of soup plate fame. Not that
-he betrayed any tendencies toward a learned line, but he was possessed
-of an occult, uncanny, wizard-like wisdom that was disconcerting. His
-contemplative eyes seemed to search my soul and read my inmost
-thoughts.
-
-Pythagoras, Emerald, and Demetrius, aged respectively nine, eight, and
-seven, were very much alike in looks and size, being so many pinched
-caricatures of their mother. To Silvia they were bewildering
-whirlwinds, but Huldah, who seemed to have difficulty in telling them
-apart, always classified them as "Them three", and Silvia and I fell
-into the habit of referring to them in the same way. Huldah could not
-master the Polydore given names either by memory or pronunciation.
-Ptolemy, whose name was shortened to "Tolly" by Diogenes, she called
-"Polly." When she was on speaking terms with "Them three" she
-nicknamed them "Thaggy, Emmy, and Meetie."
-
-Diogenes, the two-year old, was a Tartar when emulating his brothers.
-Alone, he was sometimes normal and a shade more like ordinary
-children.
-
-When they first began swarming in upon us, Silvia drew many lines
-which, however, the Polydores promptly effaced.
-
-"They shall not eat here, anyway," she emphatically declared.
-
-This was her last stand and she went down ingloriously.
-
-One day while we were seated at the table enjoying some of Huldah's
-most palatable dishes, Ptolemy came in. There ensued on our part a
-silence which the lad made no effort to break. Silvia and I each
-slipped him a side glance. He stood statuesque, watching us with the
-mute wistfulness of a hungry animal. There were unwonted small red
-specks high upon his cheekbones, symptoms, Silvia thought, of
-starvation.
-
-She was moved to ask, though reluctantly and perfunctorily:
-
-"Haven't you been to dinner, Ptolemy?"
-
-"Yes," he admitted quickly, "but I could eat another."
-
-Assuming that the forced inquiry was an invitation, before protest
-could be entered he supplied himself with a plate and helped
-himself to food. His need and relish of the meal weakened Silvia's
-fortifications.
-
-This opening, of course, was the wedge that let in other Polydores,
-and thereafter we seldom sat down to a meal without the presence of
-one or more members of the illustrious and famished family, who made
-themselves as entirely at home as would a troop of foraging soldiers.
-Silvia gazed upon their devouring of food with the same surprised,
-shocked, and yet interested manner in which one watches the feeding of
-animals.
-
-"I suppose he ought not to eat so many pickles," she remarked one day,
-as Emerald consumed his ninth Dill.
-
-"You can't kill a Polydore," I assured her.
-
-I never opened a door but more or less Polydores fell in. They were at
-the left of us and at the right of us, with Diogenes always under
-foot. We had no privacy. I found myself waking suddenly in the night
-with the uncomfortable feeling that Ptolemy lurked in a dark corner or
-two of my bedroom.
-
-Even Silvia's boudoir was not free from their invasion. But one door
-in our house remained closed to them. They found no open sesame to
-Huldah's apartment.
-
-"I wish she would let me in on her system," I said. "I wonder how she
-manages to keep them on the outside?"
-
-"I can tell you," confided Silvia. "Emerald and Demetrius went in one
-day and she dropped Demetrius out the window and kicked Emerald out
-the door. You know, Lucien, you are too softhearted to resort to such
-measures."
-
-"I was once," I confessed, "but I think under Polydore regime I am
-getting stoical enough to follow in Huldah's footsteps and go her one
-better."
-
-Our conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Diogenes.
-
-Silvia screamed.
-
-Turning to see what the latest Polydore perpetration might be, I saw
-that Diogenes was frothing at the mouth.
-
-"Oh, he's having a fit!" exclaimed Silvia frantically. "Call Huldah!
-Put him in a hot bath. Quick, Lucien, turn on the hot water."
-
-"Not I," I refused grimly. "Let him have a fit and fall in it."
-
-"He ain't got no fit," was the cheerful assurance of Pythagoras, as he
-sauntered in.
-
-"Your mother would have one," I told him, "if she could hear your
-English."
-
-"What is the matter with him?" asked Silvia. "Does he often foam in
-this way?"
-
-"He's been eating your tooth powder," explained Pythagoras. "He likes
-it 'cause it tastes like peppermint, and then he drank some water
-before he swallowed the powder and it all fizzed up and run out his
-mouth."
-
-"I wondered," said Silvia ruefully, "what made my tooth powder
-disappear so rapidly. What shall I do!"
-
-"Resort to strategy!" I advised. "Lock up your powder hereafter and
-fill an empty bottle with powdered alum or something worse and leave
-it around handy."
-
-"Lucien!" exclaimed my wife, who could not seem to recover from this
-latest annoyance, "I don't see how you can be so fond of children. I
-did hope--for your sake and--on account of Uncle Issachar's offer that
-I'd like to have one--but I'd rather go to the poorhouse! I'd almost
-lose your affection rather than have a child."
-
-"But, Silvia!" I remonstrated in dismay, "you shouldn't judge all by
-these. They're not fair samples. They're not children--not home-grown
-children."
-
-"I should say not!" agreed Huldah, who had come into the room. "They
-are imps--imps of the devil."
-
-I believe she was right. They had a generally demoralizing effect on
-our household. I was growing irritable, Silvia careworn. Even Huldah
-showed their influence by acquiring the very latest in slang from
-them. Once in a while to my amusement I heard Silvia unconsciously
-adopting the Polydore argot.
-
-As the result of their better nourishment at our table, the imps of
-the devil daily grew more obstreperous and life became so burdensome
-to Silvia that I proposed moving away to a childless neighborhood.
-
-"They'd find us out," said Silvia wearily, "wherever we went. Distance
-would be no obstacle to them."
-
-"Then we might move out of town, as a last resort," I suggested. "Rob
-says he thinks there is a good legal field in----"
-
-"No, Lucien," vetoed Silvia. "You've a fine practice here, and then
-there's that attorneyship for the Bartwell Manufacturing Company."
-
-My hope of securing this appointment meant a good deal to us. We were
-now living up to every cent of my income and though we had the
-necessities, it was the luxuries of life I craved--for Silvia's sake.
-She was a lover of music and we had no piano. She yearned to ride and
-she had no horse. We both had longings for a touring-car and we wanted
-to travel.
-
-"I've thought of a scheme for a little respite from the sight and
-sound of the Polydores," I remarked one day. "We'll enter them in the
-public school. There are four more weeks yet before the long summer
-vacation."
-
-"That would be too good to be true," declared Silvia. "Five or six
-hours each day, and then, too, their deportment will be so dreadful
-that they will have to stay after school hours."
-
-I thought more likely their deportment would lead to suspension, but
-forbore to wet-blanket Silvia's hopes.
-
-I made my second call upon the male head of the House of Polydore to
-recommend and urge that its young scions be sent to the public school.
-I had misgivings as to the outcome of my proposition, as the Polydore
-parents believed themselves to be the only fount of learning in the
-town. To my surprise and intense gratification, my suggestion met with
-no objections whatever. Felix Polydore referred me to his wife and
-said he would abide by her decision. I found her, of course, buried in
-books, but remembering Ptolemy's mode of gaining attention, I
-peremptorily closed the volume she was studying.
-
-My audacity attained its object and I proferred my request, laying
-great stress on the quietude she would gain thereby. She replied that
-attendance at school would doubtless do them no harm, although she
-expressed her belief that the most thorough educations were those
-obtained outside of schools.
-
-Silvia was wafted into the eighth heaven of bliss and then some, as
-the result of my diplomatic mission. Of course the task of preparing
-pupils out of the pestiferous Polydores devolved upon her, but she was
-actively aided by the eager and willing Huldah and between them they
-pushed the project that promised such an elysium with all speed. The
-prospective pupils themselves were not wildly enthusiastic over this
-curtailment of their liberty, but Huldah won the day by proposing that
-they carry their luncheon with them, promising an abundant supply of
-sugared doughnuts and small pies.
-
-Pythagoras foresaw recreation ahead in the opportunity to "lick all
-the kids," and I assumed that Ptolemy had deep laid schemes for the
-outmaneuvering of teachers, but as his left hand never made confidant
-of his right, I could not expect to fathom the workings of his mind.
-
-Early on a Monday morning, therefore, our household arose to lick our
-Polydore proteges into a shape presentable for admission to school.
-It took two hours to pull up stockings and make them stay pulled,
-tie shoestrings, comb out tangles, adjust collars and neckties, to
-say nothing of vigorous scrubbings to five grimy faces and ten
-dirt-stained hands.
-
-At last with an air of achievement Silvia corralled her round-up and
-unloaded the four eldest upon the public school and then proceeded to
-install the protesting Diogenes in a nursery kindergarten. Huldah
-stood in the doorway as they marched off and sped the parting guests
-with a muttered "Good riddance to bad rubbish."
-
-Silvia returned radiant, but her rejoicing was shortlived. She had
-scarcely taken off her hat and gloves when the four oldest came
-trooping and whooping into the house.
-
-"What's the matter?" gasped Silvia.
-
-"Got to be vaccinated," explained Ptolemy with an appreciative
-grin. Of all the Polydores he was the one who had least objected
-to scholastic pursuits, but he seemed quite jubilant at our
-discomfiture.
-
-We were somewhat reluctant to undertake the responsibility of their
-inoculation, especially after Ptolemy told us that his mother didn't
-believe in vaccination.
-
-"I'll take 'em down and get 'em vaccinated right," declared Huldah.
-"Their ma won't never notice the scars, and if one of you young uns
-blabs about it," she added, turning upon them ferociously, "I'll cut
-your tongue out."
-
-"Suppose there should be some ill result from it," said Silvia
-apprehensively.
-
-"Don't you worry!" exclaimed Huldah. "Most likely it won't amount to
-anything. It'll take some new kind of scabs to work in these brats.
-They're too tough to take anything. Come on now with me," she
-commanded, "and after it's done, I'll get you each an ice cream
-sody."
-
-Through Huldah's efficiency the vaccination was quickly accomplished
-and the children of our neighbor were reluctantly accepted by the
-school authorities.
-
-The Polydores were not parted by reason of dissimilarity of age or
-learning, as they were put into the ungraded room. To keep them there
-enrolled taxed to the utmost our ingenuity in the way of framing
-excuses for their repeated cases of tardiness and suspension.
-
-Silvia felt a little remorseful when she listened to the tale of woe
-recited to her by their teacher at a card party one Saturday
-afternoon.
-
-"She said," my wife repeated, "that yesterday Pythagoras brought two
-mice to school in his marble-bag and let them loose. She doesn't
-believe in corporal punishment, but she determined to experiment with
-its effect on Pythagoras, so she kept him and Emerald, who was
-slightly implicated, after school and sent the latter out to get a
-whip. When he came back he said: 'I couldn't find any stick, but
-here's some rocks you can throw at him,' and handed her a hat full of
-stones. This made her too hysterical to try her experiment, so she
-took away his recess for a week."
-
-"We ought to make her a present," I observed.
-
-"She said," continued Silvia, "that they had given her nervous
-prostration, but she had no time to prostrate, and if she didn't
-succeed in getting them graded by the coming fall term, she should
-accept an offer of marriage she had received from a cross-eyed man,
-and you know how unlucky that would be, Lucien!"
-
-"We may be driven to worse things than that by fall," I replied
-ruefully.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-_In Which We Take Boarders_
-
-
-Four weeks of unalloyed bliss and then the summer vacation times
-arrived, bringing joy to the heart of the Polydores and the teacher of
-the ungraded room, but deep gloom to the hearthside of the Wades.
-
-One misfortune always brings another. A rival applicant received
-the coveted attorneyship and we bade a sad farewell to piano,
-saddle-horse, automobile and journey, the furnishings to our Little
-House of Dreams.
-
-"I did want you to have a car, Lucien," sighed Silvia, regretfully,
-"and you worked so hard this last year, you need a trip. Won't you go
-somewhere with Rob--without me?"
-
-I assured her it would be no vacation without her.
-
-"Do you know, Lucien," she proposed diffidently, "I think it would be
-an excellent plan to invite Uncle Issachar to visit us. He knows no
-more about children than I do--than I did, I mean, and if he should
-see the Polydores he'd give us five thousand each for the children we
-didn't have."
-
-I wouldn't consent to this plan. I had met Uncle Issachar once. He was
-a crusty old bachelor with a morbid suspicion that everyone was
-working him for his money. I don't wonder he thought so. He had no
-other attractions.
-
-Perceiving the strength of my opposition Silvia sweetly and
-sagaciously refrained from further pressure.
-
-"We should not repine," she said. "We have health and happiness and
-love. What are pianos and cars and trips compared to such assets?"
-
-What, indeed! I admitted that things might be worse.
-
-Alas! All too soon was my statement substantiated. That night after we
-had gone to bed, I heard a taxicab sputtering away at the house next
-door.
-
-"The Polydores must have unexpected guests," I remarked.
-
-"I trust they brought no children with them," murmured Silvia
-drowsily.
-
-The next morning while we were at breakfast, the odor of June roses
-wafting in through the open window, the delicious flavor of red-ripe
-strawberries tickling our palate, and the anticipation of rice
-griddle-cakes exhilarating us, the millennium came.
-
-For the five young Polydores bore down upon us _en masse_.
-
-"Father and mother have gone away," proclaimed Ptolemy, who was always
-spokesman for the quintette.
-
-This intelligence was of no particular interest to us--not then, at
-least. We rarely saw father and mother Polydore, and they were
-apparently of no need to their offspring.
-
-Ptolemy's next announcement, however, was startling and effective in
-its dramatic intensity.
-
-"We've come over to stay with you while they are away."
-
-I laughed; jocosely, I thought.
-
-Silvia paid no heed to my forced hilarity, but ejaculated gaspingly:
-
-"Why, what do you mean!"
-
-"They have gone away somewhere," enlightened our oracle. "They went to
-the train last night in a taxi. They have gone somewhere to find out
-something about some kind of aborigines."
-
-"Which reminds me," I remarked reminiscently, "of the man who traveled
-far and vainly in search of a certain plant which, on his return, he
-found growing beside his own doorstep."
-
-Silvia paid no heed to my misplaced pleasantry. She was right--as
-usual. It was no time for levity.
-
-"I don't see," spoke my unappreciative wife, addressing Ptolemy, "why
-their absence should make any difference in your remaining at home.
-Gladys can cook your meals and put Diogenes to bed as usual."
-
-"Gladys has gone," piped Demetrius. "She left yesterday afternoon. She
-was only staying till she could get her pay."
-
-"Father forgot to get another girl in her place," informed Ptolemy,
-"and he forgot to tell mother he had forgotten until just before they
-went to the train. She said it didn't matter--that we could just as
-well come over here and stay with you."
-
-"She said," added Pythagoras, "that you were so crazy over children,
-that probably you'd be glad to have us stay with you all the time."
-
-My last strawberry remained poised in mid-air. It was quite apparent
-to me now that there was nothing funny about this situation.
-
-"Milk, milk!" whimpered Diogenes, pulling at Silvia's dress and making
-frantic efforts to reach the cream pitcher.
-
-Huldah had come in with the griddle-cakes during this avalanche of
-news.
-
-"Here, all you kids!" commanded our field marshal, as she picked up
-Diogenes, "beat it to the kitchen, and I'll give you some breakfast.
-Hustle up!"
-
-The Polydores, whose eyes were bulging with expectancy and
-semi-starvation, tumbled over each other in their eagerness to "hustle
-up and beat it to the kitchen." Our oiler of troubled waters followed,
-and there was assurance of a brief lull.
-
-"What shall we do!" I exclaimed helplessly when the door had closed on
-the last Polydore. I felt too limp and impotent to cope with the
-situation. Not so Silvia.
-
-"Do!" she echoed with an intensity of tone and feeling I had never
-known her to display. "Do! We'll do something, I am sure! I will not
-for a moment submit to such an imposition. Who ever heard of such
-colossal nerve! That father and mother should be brought back and
-prosecuted. I shall report them to the Society for the Prevention of
-Cruelty to Children. But we won't wait for such procedure. We'll
-express each and every Polydore to them at once."
-
-"I should certainly do that P.D.Q. and C.O.D.," I acquiesced, "if the
-Polydore parents could be located, but you know the abodes of
-aborigines are many and scattered."
-
-My remarks seemed to fall as flat as the flapjacks I was siruping.
-
-Silvia arose, determination in every lineament and muscle, and crossed
-the room. She opened the door leading into the kitchen.
-
-"Ptolemy," she demanded, "where have your father and mother gone?"
-
-He came forward and replied in a voice somewhat smothered by cakes and
-sirup.
-
-"I don't know. They didn't say."
-
-"We can find out from the ticket-agent," I optimistically assured
-her.
-
-"They never bother to buy tickets. Pay on the train," Ptolemy
-explained.
-
-My legal habit of counter-argument asserted itself.
-
-"We can easily ascertain to what point their baggage was checked," I
-remarked, again essaying to maintain a role of good cheer.
-
-But the pessimistic Ptolemy was right there with another of his
-gloom-casting retaliations.
-
-"They only took suit-cases and they always keep them in the car.
-Here's a check father said to give you to pay for our board. He said
-you could write in any amount you wanted to."
-
-"He got a lot of dough yesterday," informed Pythagoras, "and he put
-half of it in the bank here."
-
-Ptolemy handed over a check which was blank except for Felix
-Polydore's signature.
-
-"I don't see," I weakly exclaimed when my wife had closed the kitchen
-door, "why she put them off on _us_. Why didn't she trade her brats
-off for antiques?"
-
-Silvia eyed the check wistfully. I could read the unspoken thought
-that here, perhaps, was the opportunity for our much-desired trip.
-
-"No, Silvia," I answered quickly, "not for any number of blank checks
-or vacation trips shall you have the care and annoyance of those wild
-Comanches."
-
-"I know what I'll do!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I'll go right down to
-the intelligence office and get anything in the shape of a maid and
-put her in charge of the Polydore caravansary with double wages and
-every night out and any other privileges she requests."
-
-This seemed a sane and sensible arrangement, and I wended my way to
-my office feeling that we were out of the woods.
-
-When I returned home at noon, I found that we had only exchanged the
-woods for water--and deep water at that.
-
-I beheld a strange sight. Silvia sat by our bedroom window twittering
-soft, cooing nonsensical nothings to Diogenes, who was clasped in her
-arms, his flushed little face pressed close to her shoulder.
-
-"He's been quite ill, Lucien. I was frightened and called the doctor.
-He said it was only the slight fever that children are subject to. He
-thought with good care that he'd be all right in a few days."
-
-"Did you succeed in getting a cook to go to the Polydores?" I asked
-anxiously. "You'll need a nurse to go there, too, to take care of
-Diogenes."
-
-She looked at me reproachfully and rebukingly.
-
-"Why, Lucien! You don't suppose I could send this sick baby back to
-that uninviting house with only hired help in charge! Besides, I don't
-believe he'd stay with a stranger. He seems to have taken a fancy to
-me."
-
-Diogenes confirmed this belief by a languid lifting of his eyelids, as
-he feelingly patted her cheek with his baby fingers.
-
-I forebore to suggest that the fancy seemed to be mutual. Diogenes,
-sick, was no longer an "imp of the devil", but a normal, appealing
-little child. It occurred to me that possibly the care of a sick
-Polydore might develop Silvia's tiny germ of child-ken.
-
-"Keep him here of course," I agreed, "but--the other children must
-return home."
-
-"Diogenes would miss them," she said quickly, "and the doctor says his
-whims must be humored while he is sick. He is almost asleep now. I
-think he will let me put him down in his own little bed. Ptolemy
-brought it over here. Pull back the covers for me, Lucien. There!"
-
-Diogenes half opened his eyes, as she laid him in the bed and smiled
-wanly.
-
-"Mudder!" he cooed.
-
-Silvia flushed and looked as if she dreaded some expression of mirth
-from me. Relieved by my silence and a suggestion of moisture in the
-region of my eyes--the day was quite warm--she confessed:
-
-"He has called me that all the morning."
-
-"It would be a wise Polydore that knows its own parents," I observed.
-
-The slight illness of Diogenes lasted three or four days. I still
-shudder to recall the memory of that hideous period. Silvia's time and
-attention were devoted to the sick child. Huldah was putting in all
-her leisure moments at the dentist's, where she was acquiring her
-third set of teeth, and joy rode unconfined and unrestrained with our
-"boarders."
-
-Polydore proclivities made the Reign of Terror formerly known as the
-French Revolution seem like an ice cream festival. I don't regard
-myself as a particularly nervous man, but there's a limit! Their war
-whoops and screeches got on my nerves and temper to the extent of
-sending me into their midst one evening brandishing a whip and
-commanding immediate silence. I got it. Not through fear of
-chastisement, for fear was an emotion unknown to a Polydore, but from
-astonishment at so unexpected a procedure from so unexpected a source.
-Heretofore I had either ignored them or frolicked with them. Before
-they had recovered from their shock, Silvia appeared on the scene.
-
-"Diogenes," she informed them, "was not used to such unwonted quiet,
-and was fretting at the unaccustomed stillness. Would the boys please
-play Indian or some of their games again?"
-
-The boys would. I backed from the room, the whip behind me, carefully
-kept without Silvia's angle of vision. Before Ptolemy resumed his role
-of chief, he bestowed a knowing and maddening wink upon me.
-
-I wished that we had remained neighbor-less. I wished that the
-aborigines would scalp Felix Polydore and the writer of Modern
-Antiquities. Then we could land their brats on the Probate Court. I
-wished that this were the reign of Herod. I vowed I would backslide
-from the Presbyterian faith since it no longer included in its
-articles of belief the eternal damnation of infants. How long, O
-Catiline, would--
-
-A paralyzing suspicion flashed into the maelstrom of my vituperative
-maledictions. I rushed wildly upstairs to our combination bedroom,
-sickroom, and nursery, where Silvia sat like a guardian angel beside
-the Polydore patient.
-
-"Silvia," I shouted excitedly, "do you suppose those diabolical
-Polydore parents purposely played this trick on us? Was it a
-premeditated Polydore plan to abandon their young? And can you blame
-them for playing us for easy marks? Could any parents, Polydore, or
-otherwise, ever come back to such fiends as these?"
-
-"Hush!" she cautioned, without so much as a glance in my direction.
-"You'll wake Diogenes!"
-
-Wake Diogenes! Ye Gods! And she had also implored the brothers of
-Diogenes to continue their anvil chorus! This took the last stitch of
-starch from my manly bosom. Spiritless and spineless I bore all
-things, believed all things--but hoped for nothing.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-_In Which We Take a Vacation_
-
-
-Diogenes finally convalesced to his former state of ruggedness and
-obstreperousness. He continued, however, to cling to Silvia and to
-call her "mudder." To my amusement the other children followed suit
-and she was now "muddered" by all the Polydores.
-
-"I am glad," I remarked, "that they scorn to include me in their
-adoption. I wouldn't fancy being 'faddered' by the Polydores."
-
-"You won't be," Ptolemy, appearing seemingly from nowhere, assured me.
-"We've named you stepdaddy."
-
-"If it be possible, Silvia," I implored, "let this cup pass from me."
-
-"I am going down to the intelligence office today," replied Silvia
-soothingly. "Diogenes is well enough to go home now, and I can run
-over there every evening and see that he is properly put to bed."
-
-I went down town feeling like a mule relieved of his pack.
-
-When I came home that afternoon, I found Silvia sitting on the shaded
-porch serenely sewing. A Sabbath-like stillness pervaded. Not a
-Polydore in sight or sound.
-
-"Oh!" I cried buoyantly. "The Polydores have been returned to their
-home station!"
-
-"No," she replied calmly. "They told me at the intelligence office
-that it would be absolutely impossible to persuade, bribe, or hire a
-servant to assume the charge of the Polydore place."
-
-"I suppose," I said glumly, "that Gladys gave the job a double cross.
-But will you please account for the phenomenon of the utter absence of
-Polydores at the present period? Has Huldah at last carried out her
-oft-repeated threat of exterminating the Polydore race?"
-
-"Pythagoras," explained Silvia dejectedly, "has gone to the doctor's.
-He broke his wrist this morning. Diogenes is lost and Emerald has gone
-to look for him--"
-
-"Oh, why hunt him up?" I remonstrated. "Maybe Emerald, too, will get
-lost or strayed or stolen."
-
-"Huldah," continued Silvia, "has locked Demetrius in the cellar. I am
-unable to report on Ptolemy. Huldah is half sick, but she won't go to
-bed. She said no beds in Bedlamite for her. But I have a wonderful
-plan to suggest. There is relief in sight if you will consent."
-
-"I will consent to any committable crime on the calendar," I assured
-her, "that will lead to the parting of the Polydore path from ours.
-Divulge."
-
-"We both need a change and rest. Today I heard of a most alluring,
-inexpensive, unfrequented resort called Hope Haven. Unfashionable,
-fine fishing, beautiful scenery, twelve miles from a railroad, and a
-stage stops there but once a day."
-
-"If there is such a place, we'll go there at once, though why such an
-enticing spot should be unfrequented is beyond me. Do we leave the
-Polydores to their fate, or as a town charge?"
-
-"We'll leave them to Huldah. She offered to keep them here if we'd
-take the outing. She said she'd either give them free rein or beat
-their brains out."
-
-"Then I see where the Polydores land in a juvenile jail, or else I
-return to defend Huldah for a charge of murder. We'll take our
-departure by night--tomorrow night--and like the Arabs, or the
-Polydore parents, silently steal away."
-
-"Lucien," said Silvia constrainedly, when we had arranged the details
-of our plan, "if you wouldn't object too much, I should like to take
-Diogenes with us. He hasn't missed his mother, but I really believe
-he'd be homesick without me."
-
-"Take him, of course," I said. "He's manageable away from the others.
-I plainly see you've formed the Polydore habit, and maybe a partial
-parting from the Polydores would be wiser, but we'll take Diogenes as
-an antidote against too perfect a time. But I forgot to tell you that
-I had a letter from Rob today. He plans to come and make his visit
-now and will arrive next Monday. I'll write him to join us at Hope
-Haven. You must write down again for me the route we take to get
-there."
-
-Silvia laughed hopelessly.
-
-"It never rains but it pours. I had a letter from Beth this afternoon,
-and she says she would like to come to us now. She arrives Monday.
-Here is her letter."
-
-"Great minds! It is quite a coincidence," I declared.
-
-"I thought it would be so nice to have Beth go with us to this
-resort."
-
-"It can't be done," I said. "That is, they can't both go. I am not
-going to let even Rob Rossiter slight my sister."
-
-"Still it would be a triumph to have her change his mind--or his
-heart. You know a woman-hater always succumbs to the right girl."
-
-"In books, yes!"
-
-I had been scanning Beth's letter and I laughed derisively as I read
-aloud: "'I am so curious to see those next-door children. When you
-first wrote of the "Polydores" I never once thought of them as
-children.'"
-
-"She thought exactly right," I told Silvia, and then continued
-reading: "'I supposed them to be something like tadpoles or polliwogs.
-I really think I shall enjoy them.'"
-
-"It would serve her right," I said, "to let her come and stay with
-them here in our absence. She'd get the cure for enjoyment all right.
-Rob wrote of them in the same strain and says he, too, is curious to
-meet the missing links."
-
-"Does she know," asked Silvia, "how Rob regards women?"
-
-"No; I've always made some excuse to her for not having them meet. I
-didn't want to hear her make disparaging remarks about him, and she
-is such a flirt, she'd try to draw him out and he would shut up like a
-clam."
-
-"Well, I think," decided Silvia, "that the best way out of it is to
-write Rob to postpone his visit and I will write Beth to come direct
-to Hope Haven."
-
-"Yes," I agreed, "that will be fine. She shall have charge of dear
-little Di and study the evolutions of the Polydores later."
-
-I approved this plan. So we wrote our letters and stealthily, but
-joyously, prepared for our getaway, leaving the house like thieves in
-the night and bearing the sleeping cherub, Diogenes.
-
-Silvia sighed in relief when we were aboard the train.
-
-"I feel quite chesty," she declared, "at being smart enough to outwit
-Ptolemy, the wizard."
-
-"I have the feeling," I observed forebodingly, "that they may be on
-the train or underneath it."
-
-The next morning we reached Windy Creek, the station nearest our
-destination, and continued our journey by stage.
-
-"People will think you have consoled yourself very speedily for the
-death of your first husband," I observed, as we were en route.
-
-"Why, what do you mean, Lucien?"
-
-"You know Diogenes addresses me as stepdaddy. It is the only word he
-speaks plainly."
-
-"Oh!" she exclaimed in perturbation, "I never thought of that! Well,
-we can explain to everyone, or I'll teach them to leave off the
-'step.'"
-
-"Not on your life!" I demurred.
-
-"He had better call you Lucien, then. Emerald calls his father
-'Felix.'"
-
-She at once began her tutelage of the bewildered Diogenes. After
-several stabs at pronouncing Lucien he managed to evolve "Ocean" to
-which he sometimes affixed "step" so that people to whom he was not
-explained doubtless thought me the latest thing in dances.
-
-Hope Haven was like most resorts--a place safe to shun. There was a
-low, flat stretch of woods in which a clearing had been made for a
-barn-like structure called a hotel, with rooms rough and not always
-ready. The beautiful recreation grounds mentioned in the advertising
-matter consisted of a plowed field worked over into a space designated
-as a tennis court and a grass-grown croquet ground.
-
-"Anyway," claimed Silvia hopefully, "it's a treat to see woods, water,
-and sky unconfined."
-
-She devoted the remainder of the morning to unpacking and after
-luncheon set off to explore the woods, borrowing from the landlady a
-little cart for Diogenes to ride in. My plan to go in swimming was
-delayed by my garrulous landlord.
-
-I was just starting for the lake when I heard sounds from the woods
-that alarmed the landlord but which I instantly recognized as the
-Polydore yell. A moment later I saw Silvia emerging at full speed into
-the open, drawing the cart in which Diogenes was doubled up like a
-jackknife. I hastened to meet them.
-
-"Oh, Lucien," exclaimed my wife tearfully, "we are bitten to bits!
-Just look at poor little Di!"
-
-I lifted the howling child from the cart. His face, neck, and hands
-were stringy and purplish--a cross between an eggplant and a round
-steak.
-
-"Mosquitoes!" explained Silvia. "They came in flocks and they
-advertised particularly 'no mosquitoes.'"
-
-A dour-faced guest paused in passing.
-
-"There aren't--many," she declared. "Very few, in fact, compared to
-the number of black flies, sand fleas, and jiggers. However, you'll
-find more discomfort from the poison ivy, I imagine."
-
-"Lucien," began Silvia in lament.
-
-"Never mind!" I hastened to console, "you are out of the woods now,
-and you won't have to go in again. I presume they have an antidote up
-at the house. I'll give you and Diogenes first aid and then we will
-all go down to the lake shore. You can both sit on the dock and watch
-me swim."
-
-They both brightened up, and when we reached the hotel the landlady
-provided a soothing lotion for the bites and stings.
-
-By the time we had started for the lake, the afflicted two were in
-holiday spirit again.
-
-I sought cover in a small shed called a bath-house and got into my
-swimming outfit and shot out from the dipping end of the diving-board
-into the water. When I came to the surface, Silvia, sitting beside
-Diogenes on the dock, shrieked wildly.
-
-"Oh, Lucien, there are snakes all around you! Come out, quick!"
-
-"They are only water snakes," I assured her.
-
-"I don't care what kind they are. They are snakes just the same."
-
-Diogenes instantly began to bellow for me to hand him a snake to play
-with.
-
-"He recognizes his own," I told Silvia, who, however, saw nothing
-amusing in my implication.
-
-When I came out of the water, the temperature had climbed several
-degrees and we were glad to seek the hotel parlor, which was cool and
-damp.
-
-After dinner Silvia put Diogenes to bed and we sat out on the veranda.
-I was enjoying my evening smoke and the feel of the night wind in my
-face. Silvia had just finished telling me that merely to be away from
-the Polydores was Paradise enough for her, and that she didn't care
-very much about the woods, anyway--the lake was sufficient, when her
-optimism was rudely jolted by the shrill, shudder-sending song of the
-festive mosquito.
-
-She fled into the parlor. The landlady, who seemed to have a panacea
-for all ills, suggested that she might tack mosquito netting around
-the little balcony extending from our bedroom, and then she could sit
-there in comfort when the mosquitoes bothered.
-
-"That's what the last lady that had that room did," she said, "but
-when she left, she took the netting with her. We keep a supply in our
-little store."
-
-Silvia immediately sought the hotel store and bought a quantity of the
-netting and a goodly stock of the mosquito lotion.
-
-That night as I was drifting into slumber, Silvia remarked: "Only one
-of the things I heard and read about this place is true."
-
-"Which one?" I asked between winks.
-
-"That it was unfrequented. I have seen only three guests besides us so
-far. How do they make it pay?"
-
-"The hotel is evidently only a side issue," I replied.
-
-"To what?"
-
-"To the store. Think of the quantities of lotion and netting they must
-sell in the season, which, you must know, is in the fall. The hunting,
-the landlord tells me, is very good, and his hotel is quite popular
-in October and November."
-
-"I think we had better stay, Lucien. Mosquitoes don't poison you."
-
-"Even if they did," I declared, "as a choice between them and the
-Polydores I would say, 'Oh, Mosquito, where is thy sting?'"
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-_A Flirt and a Woman-Hater_
-
-
-The next morning I arose early and screened in the little birdhouse
-balcony. There was a large piece of netting left and Silvia converted
-it into a robe and headgear for the swaddling of Diogenes.
-
-"He looks like the Bride of Lammermoor," I declared, as he went forth
-in this regalia.
-
-"Well, that's preferable to looking like a pest-house patient, as he
-did yesterday."
-
-His first-aid costume didn't find favor with the landlady, as it would
-seem indicative to the newly arrived of the features of the place.
-However, before another stage-coming was due, Di had rent his garment
-sufficiently to make it useless is a "skeeter skirt."
-
-During the morning I enjoyed my solitary swim with the snakes.
-Diogenes played football with the croquet balls and bruised one of his
-toes, besides hitting the landlady's child in the eye. Silvia went for
-a walk which had been pictured in the advertisements. She speedily
-returned, her ardor dampened.
-
-"There are so many sticks and stones and rocks," she said in a
-discouraged tone, "that there was no pleasure in walking. I nearly
-sprained my ankle."
-
-"Well, the real sport we haven't tried yet," I said. "We'll get a boat
-and take Diogenes and go for a row on the lake."
-
-This proposition met with instant favor. I put Silvia and Diogenes in
-the stern of the boat and pulled for the opposite shore. My endeavors
-to gain this point were balked by Silvia's remarkable conceptions of
-the art of steering craft. She was so serenely satisfied, however,
-with the way she performed her duties and the aid she thought she was
-giving me, that I forbore to criticize.
-
-In order to achieve a few strokes in the right direction, I asked her
-to get me a cigar from an inside pocket of my coat, which was on the
-seat in front of her. Then came the blight to our bliss. She looked in
-the wrong pocket and instead of producing a cigar, she extracted two
-letters with seals unbroken.
-
-[Illustration: "Lucien Wade!" she gasped. "Here are our letters to Beth
-and Rob."]
-
-"Lucien Wade!" she gasped. "Here are our letters to Beth and Rob.
-Well, it is my fault. I should have known better than to give them to
-you."
-
-"The plot thickens," I replied thoughtfully.
-
-"This is Monday. They must both be at the house now. What will they
-think!"
-
-"They will think we didn't receive their letters."
-
-"Isn't it unfortunate--" she began.
-
-"No," I replied. "I am not sure but what it is a good thing. It will
-give Rob a jolt to see that girls can be as nice as Beth is, and as
-for her, she is quite able to take care of the situation where a man
-is concerned."
-
-"But we must have Beth here. Maybe you'd better telegraph her."
-
-"Huldah understands conditions. She will send Beth on here."
-
-The next morning we took Diogenes and went down the road to meet the
-stage. As it came around the curve, we saw there were three
-passengers.
-
-"Tolly!" cried Diogenes with an ecstatic whoop.
-
-"Beth!" recognized Silvia.
-
-"Rob!" I ejaculated.
-
-The stage stopped to allow us to get in.
-
-Mutual explanations followed. Ours were brief and substantiated by the
-documents in evidence.
-
-"Now," I said turning threateningly to Ptolemy, "what did you come
-here for?"
-
-"To show them," indicating Beth and Rob, "how to get here and to look
-after Di so you and mudder could enjoy your vacation," he replied
-glibly.
-
-Beth laughed mirthfully.
-
-"Check! Lucien."
-
-"Didn't Huldah warn you," I asked her, "that our whereabouts were to
-remain unknown?"
-
-"Ptolemy," she replied, "is evidently a mind reader, for he told me
-where you were before I saw Huldah."
-
-"Why, Ptolemy, how did you know where we were?" asked Silvia.
-
-"I was on top of the porch when you told stepdaddy about coming. I
-didn't tell the others. I won't bother you any. And I know how to look
-after Di. You won't send me back, mudder," he pleaded, looking
-wistfully at the foam-crested water of the little lake.
-
-I wondered mutely if Silvia could resist the appeal in the eyes of the
-neglected boy when he turned his imploring gaze to hers, and the
-delight depicted in Diogenes' eyes at "Tolly's" arrival. She could
-not.
-
-"You may stay as long as we do," she said slowly, "if you are a good
-boy and will not play too rough with Diogenes."
-
-We had reached the hotel by this time, and with a wild "ki yi"
-Ptolemy dashed for the shore, dragging the delighted Diogenes with
-him.
-
-"It's only fair to Huldah to take one more off her hands," Silvia said
-apologetically.
-
-"Them Three is what bothers me," I complained. "If they, too, follow
-after, Heaven help them! I won't."
-
-"It's a good arrangement all around," declared Rob. "I judge it takes
-a Polydore to understand his ilk, so the kids can pair off together.
-Miss Wade will be company for you, while Lucien and I go fishing."
-
-He looked keenly at Beth as he spoke, but Beth was looking demurely
-down and made no sign of having heard him.
-
-Silvia and I went with Beth to her room, and then she told her story.
-
-"Knowing Lucien's failing, I was not surprised at receiving no
-response to my letter. When I got out of the cab in front of your
-house, a wild-looking boy, very bas-relief as to eyes, and who I felt
-sure must be Ptolemy of the Polydores, appeared. As soon as he saw me
-he gave utterance to a blood-curdling yell of--'Here she is!'
-
-"In response to his call three of his understudies came on with
-headlong greeting.
-
-"'You are Beth, aren't you?' Ptolemy asked me. Then he drew me aside
-and in mysterious whispers told me where you were and that you had
-written me to join you here. He added that stepdaddy never remembered
-to mail letters. I went within and interviewed Huldah who confirmed
-his information.
-
-"Presently I saw a taxi stop before the house.
-
-"'That's him!' exclaimed Ptolemy.
-
-"'Him who?' I asked.
-
-"'Rob somebody--stepdaddy's college chum. He wrote he was coming, and
-they thought they had postponed him.'
-
-"With a sprint of speed the four Polydores surrounded your Mr.
-Rossiter, all talking at once. I came to the rescue, of course, and
-explained the situation, and we decided to follow you.
-
-"Ptolemy was promoter for the trip and suggested the advisability of
-his accompanying us as courier and future nursemaid to Diogenes. He
-was intending to come anyway, but thought he'd wait for us. He had all
-his belongings packed."
-
-"He hasn't many except those he had on," said Silvia thoughtfully.
-
-"He has some swimming trunks, two collars, two shirts, some mismated
-socks, homemade fishing tackle and a battered baseball bat. We came
-away surreptitiously to escape detection by the trio left behind. I
-knew you wouldn't welcome his presence--but he said he was coming
-anyway, so we thought we might as well bring him and express him
-back."
-
-After visiting with Beth for a few moments, Silvia and I withdrew to
-talk matters over confidentially.
-
-"All's well that ends well," I quoth.
-
-"It hasn't ended yet," reminded Silvia. "I trust Ptolemy didn't reveal
-what you said about Rob's being a woman-hater and Beth a flirt."
-
-Ptolemy conveniently appeared just then, as he generally did in the
-midst of private interviews. Silvia asked him if he had repeated those
-remarks to Beth or Rob.
-
-"Why, no," he said. "I knew you didn't want her to know, because
-stepdaddy said so, and I thought he wouldn't like to be called that,
-and I wasn't going to give Beth away to him."
-
-"You're all right, Ptolemy!" I exclaimed, for the first time awarding
-him approbation.
-
-Out on the veranda we met Rob.
-
-"Say, those Polydores certainly have the punch and pep," he declared.
-"I'd like to have fetched the whole bunch along with me."
-
-"If you had," I replied dryly, "our life's friendship would have died
-on the spot."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-_In Which Nothing Much Happens_
-
-
-"Why Hope Haven?" asked Rob reflectively, when he had taken inventory
-of the possibilities of the resort.
-
-"Because," sighed Silvia, "so many hopes--vacation hopes--must have
-been buried here."
-
-Rob was of an investigating turn of mind, however, and he had heard
-from a native of H. H., as he had abbreviated the place, that there
-was a smaller lake, abounding in fish, farther on through the forest.
-It was so strongly fortified, however, by the formidable battalions of
-sharp-shooting insects that but few fishermen had ever been able to
-lay siege to it.
-
-Rob and I being poison proof decided to try our luck and pitch camp
-for a few days on the shores of this hidden treasure. As we had to
-send to town by the stage driver for the necessary supplies, we
-remained in H. H. the remainder of the day.
-
-We at once paired off in Noah's most approved style as Rob had
-outlined. Beth and Ptolemy went up shore, sticks and stones and rocks
-being no obstacles to their feet. Rob and I sought the society of the
-snakes, while Silvia and Diogenes, mosquito-netted, watched a game of
-croquet.
-
-We dined without the pleasure of the society of Ptolemy and Diogenes,
-who had been invited to sit at the table with the landlady's
-children. I might state, incidentally, that the invitation was never
-repeated.
-
-Beth was quite excited over her walk.
-
-"Ptolemy and I," she boasted, "made more of a discovery than Mr.
-Rossiter did. We found a haunted house, a perfectly haunted house."
-
-"I am not surprised," declared Silvia. "You couldn't expect any other
-kind of a house in such a region."
-
-"Where is it?" I asked, "and what is it haunted by?"
-
-"Insects," suggested Silvia.
-
-"You go around shore about two miles, only it's farther, as you have
-to make so many ups and downs over the rocks. Then you leave the shore
-and go through a low marshy stretch, sort of a Dismal Swamp, and then
-up a hill. After Ptolemy and I climbed to the top, we looked down and
-saw, hidden in a clump of lonely looking poplars, a small, rudely
-built house. We went down to explore and had hard work making our way
-through a thick growth of--everything. We crawled under some tangled
-vines and came up on the steps. The house was vacant, although there
-were a few old pieces of furniture--a couple of cots, a cook-stove,
-table, and chairs.
-
-"On our way home we met a woman who gave us a history of the house. An
-old miser lived there long ago. One night he was robbed and murdered,
-and his ghost still haunts the place. No one ventures in its vicinity,
-and she said most likely we were the first people who had gone there
-since the tragedy. She told us of a nearer way to reach it. You take
-the road to Windy Creek, and about two miles below here, turn into a
-lane and then go through a grove and over a hill."
-
-"You don't really believe the story, that is, the ghost part of it?"
-asked Rossiter.
-
-"N--o," allowed Beth. "Still, I'd like to. It makes it interesting.
-Ptolemy and I are going down there some night to see if we can find
-the ghost."
-
-"You won't see one," I assured her. "Ptolemy's presence would be
-sufficient to keep even a ghost in the background."
-
-"Ptolemy's a peach," declared Beth emphatically.
-
-"If he were older, you wouldn't think so," said Rob.
-
-"Why not?" asked Beth in surprise, or seeming surprise.
-
-He smiled enigmatically, and irrelevantly asked her if she wouldn't
-really be afraid to go to the haunted house at night with only Ptolemy
-for protection.
-
-She assured him she shouldn't be afraid of a ghost if she saw one, and
-that she shouldn't be afraid to go alone.
-
-Throughout the evening, which we spent in rowing, walking, and later
-at a little impromptu supper, I was interested in observing the
-puzzling behavior of Beth and my chum. I had expected that he would
-avoid her as much as possible and speak to her only when common
-politeness made conversation obligatory, and that she, a born
-coquette, would seek to add his scalp to her collection. Instead, to
-my surprise, their roles were reversed. He appeared interested in her
-every remark and looked at her often and intently. He was quite
-assiduous in his attentions which, strange to say, she discouraged,
-not with the deep design of a flirt to increase his ardor, but with a
-calm firmness that admitted of no doubt as to her feelings.
-
-"Your sister," he remarked to me as we were walking down to the lake
-for a swim just before going to bed, "is a very unusual type."
-
-"Not at all!" I assured him. "Beth is the true feminine type which you
-have never taken the trouble to know."
-
-"Oh, come, Lucien! Not feminine, you know. Though she is inconsistent."
-
-I resented the imputation hotly, but he only laughed and said that he
-guessed it was true that a man didn't understand the women in his
-family as well as an outsider did.
-
-"You think," I said, "just because she says she isn't afraid of
-ghosts--"
-
-"Not at all," he denied. "That wasn't the reason, but--I like her
-type, though I always supposed I wouldn't. It is a new one to
-me--anyway. I didn't think so young a girl as she--"
-
-Our discussion was cut short by the inevitable, ever-present Ptolemy,
-who came running up to us, clad in about four inches of swimming
-trunks.
-
-"Why aren't you in bed?" I demanded.
-
-"I was in bed, but it was so warm I couldn't sleep, and I went to the
-window and saw you coming down here, so I thought I'd come, too."
-
-I repeated Rob's remarks to Silvia when I returned to our room, and
-she betrayed Beth's confidences in regard to Rob.
-
-"She says she would like him if it were not for one trait that she
-dislikes more than any other in a man and that it was sufficient in
-her estimation to counterbalance all his good qualities."
-
-"What can she mean?" I asked bewildered. "I don't see a flaw in Rob,
-except for his being a woman-hater, and he surely hasn't betrayed that
-fact to her, judging from his manner toward her. I think he is making
-an effort to be nice to her on my account, and she doesn't appreciate
-it."
-
-"I asked her what the flaw was, and she flushed and said she couldn't
-tell me."
-
-"Well, I guess all around it is a good thing we are going off on our
-fishing expedition. I don't want my friend turned down by my sister,
-and I don't want my friend calling my sister a new type and
-unfeminine."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-_Ptolemy Disappears and I Visit a Haunted House_
-
-
-When Rob and I, with our camping outfit, drove off through the woods,
-Ptolemy's eyes followed us so enviously and he pleaded so eloquently
-to be taken with us that Rob was actually on the point of considering
-it.
-
-"See here, Rob Rossiter!" I exclaimed, "This is my vacation and all I
-came to this God-forsaken place for was to escape the Polydores. If he
-goes, I stay. You know I've always tried to meet issues, but this
-antique family has got me going."
-
-"All right," he yielded.
-
-After a drive of a few miles we came to the lake and pitched our tent.
-Two days of ideal camp life followed. The weather was fine, Rob was a
-first-class cook, and the sport was beyond our most optimistic
-expectation. We landed enough of the Friday food to satisfy the most
-fastidious fishing fiend, and the mosquitoes, finding we were
-impervious to their stings, finally let us alone.
-
-I forgot all business cares and disappointments, yes, even the
-Polydores; but on the morning of the third day Rob began to show signs
-of restlessness and spoke of the likelihood of my wife's being
-lonely.
-
-"Not with Beth and Ptolemy in calling distance," I told him.
-
-"But they will be off together," he replied, "and your wife will be
-alone with that _enfant terrible_. I fancy, too, that your sister
-isn't exactly a companion for your wife."
-
-"Well, that shows how little you know her. She and Silvia are great
-friends."
-
-"Oh, yes, of course they are friendly, but I mean their tastes are so
-different, and they are so unlike. Your sister doesn't care for
-domesticity."
-
-"Sure she does. You have turned the wrong searchlight on Beth. If you
-knew her, you'd like her."
-
-"I do like her," he declared. "It's too bad she--"
-
-He stopped abruptly and quickly changed the conversation. In spite of
-my efforts to renew the controversy about Beth, he refused to return
-to the subject.
-
-[Illustration: He pleaded eloquently to be taken with us.]
-
-In the afternoon, when I was doing a little scale work preparatory to
-cooking, a messenger from the hotel drove up with a note from Silvia
-which I read aloud:
-
-"Ptolemy has been missing for twenty-four hours. We are in hopes he
-has joined you. If not, what shall I do?"
-
-"We'll go back with you," said Rob to the man. "Just lend a hand here
-and help us pull up these tent stakes."
-
-"What's Ptolemy to me or I to him?" I asked with a groan, "can't we
-give him absent treatment?"
-
-"You're positively inhuman, Lucien," protested Rob. "The boy may be at
-the bottom of the lake."
-
-"Not he! He was born to be hung."
-
-All this time, however, I had been active in making preparations for
-departure, as I knew that Silvia would feel that we were responsible
-for Ptolemy's safety, and her anxiety was reason enough for me to
-hasten to her.
-
-Rob was quite jubilant on our return trip and declared that the fish
-came too easily and too plentifully to make it real sport, but I felt
-that I had another grudge to be charged up to the fateful family.
-
-We found Silvia pale from anxiety, Beth in tears, and Diogenes loudly
-clamoring for "Tolly." We learned that the afternoon before, Silvia
-and Beth had gone with the landlady for a ride, leaving Diogenes in
-Ptolemy's care, but on their return at dinner time, Diogenes was
-playing alone in the sandpile.
-
-Nothing was thought of Ptolemy's absence until bedtime, and they had
-then sent out searching parties to the woods and the lake shores.
-Finally it occurred to Beth that he might have gone to join Rob and
-me, so they sent the messenger to investigate.
-
-"He must be lost in the woods somewhere," said Beth tearfully, "and
-he will starve to death."
-
-Rob actually touched her hand in his distress at her grief.
-
-"Ptolemy is too smart to get lost anywhere," I declared. "He knows
-fully as much about woodcraft as he does about every other kind of
-craft. He's one of his mother's antiquities personified. But haven't
-you been able to find anyone who saw him after you went for your
-ride?"
-
-"No; even the hotel help were all out on the lake."
-
-"And he left Diogenes here, absolutely unguarded?"
-
-"Well!" admitted Silvia, "he tied Diogenes to a tree near the
-sandpile."
-
-"Then he must have gone away with malice aforethought," I said,
-"and Diogenes is the only one who knows anything about his last
-movements."
-
-I lifted the child to my knee, and speaking more gently to him than I
-had ever done, I asked:
-
-"Di, did you and Tolly play in the sandpile yesterday?"
-
-He was quite emphatic in his affirmative.
-
-"Well, tell Ocean: Did Tolly go away and leave you?"
-
-"Tolly goed away," he confirmed.
-
-"Oh, Lucien!" protested Beth, laughing. "He's too little to know what
-you are talking about or to remember."
-
-"Lucien's ruling passion strong in death," murmured Rob. "He can't
-help cross-examining the cradle even!"
-
-"Which way," I resumed, ignoring these interruptions, "did Tolly
-go--that way?" pointing towards the woods.
-
-"No! Tolly goed--" and he trailed off into his baby jargon which no
-one could understand, but he pointed to the lake.
-
-"What did he say when he went away; when he tied the rope around
-you?"
-
-"Bye-bye."
-
-"What else?"
-
-Diogenes' intentions to be communicative were certainly all right, but
-not a word was intelligible. As he kept picking at his dress and
-pointing to it, I finally prompted:
-
-"Did Tolly pin a paper to Di's dress?"
-
-"'m--h'--m."
-
-"Bravo, Lucien!" applauded Rob. "They say you can induce a witness to
-admit anything."
-
-"What did Di do with the paper?" I continued.
-
-The word he wanted evidently being beyond his vocabulary and speech,
-he made a rotary motion with his fist. The gesture conveyed nothing to
-our minds, but was instantly recognized and interpreted by the
-landlady's little girl, who said he meant a windmill such as she had
-sometimes made for him.
-
-"What did Di do with the windmill?" I asked.
-
-He pointed to the sandpile, which I investigated and found a stick
-planted therein. I pulled it up and saw a pin sticking in the end of
-it. Further excavation revealed a crumpled piece of paper on which was
-written in Ptolemy's round hand:
-
- "Want to see kids. Am going home. Tell Beth I bet she dasent go to
- the haunted house alone at night. Ptolemy."
-
-"Poor Huldah!" sighed Silvia.
-
-"I thought he was having the time of his life here," said Rob.
-
-"He was sore," declared Beth, "because you and Lucien wouldn't take
-him with you on the fishing trip. He was moping by himself all the
-morning."
-
-"Trying to think up some new deviltry," I theorized, "to make us feel
-bad."
-
-"No," asserted Silvia, "I think he really misses the boys. The
-Polydores, for all their scrappings, are very clannish. But how do you
-suppose he got down to Windy Creek?"
-
-"He could catch plenty of rides along the way, but what is puzzling me
-is how he got the money to pay his fare."
-
-"He seemed very well provided with cash," informed Rob. "I tried to
-pay for his ticket down here, but he insisted on buying it himself."
-
-Silvia worried so much about what might happen to him en route that
-after dinner I motored to Windy Creek with some tourists who had
-stopped at the hotel in passing.
-
-I called up long distance and after some delay got in communication
-with our house. Ptolemy himself answered and assured me he had arrived
-all "hunky doory", that Huldah, who was out on an errand, was "hunky
-doory", and that the kids were all "hunky doory." In fact, his
-cheerful tone indicated that the whole universe was in the beatific
-state described by his expressive adjective.
-
-I was really ripping mad at his taking French leave and so giving
-Silvia cause for her anxiety, but I forbore to reprimand him by word
-or tone, lest he get even by "coming back" literally. I did tell him
-how the loss of the note for twenty-four hours had caused a general
-excitement, but he felt no remorse for his share in the situation,
-blaming Diogenes entirely and bidding me "punch the kid's face" for
-unpinning the note.
-
-On my return from Windy Creek I was fortunate enough to fall in with a
-farmer who lived near the hotel. He was driving some sort of a machine
-he called an _autoo_. He was an old-timer in the vicinity and related
-the past, present, and pluperfect of all the residents on the route. I
-had a detailed and vivid account of the midnight visitor of the
-haunted house.
-
-"I'd jest naturally like to see what there is to it," he said. "Not
-that I am afeerd at all, only it's sort of spooky to go to a lonesome
-place like that all alone. If I could git some one to go with me, I'd
-tackle the job, but I vum if every time I perpose it to anyone they
-don't make some excuse."
-
-"I'm on," I declared. "I don't dread ghosts near as much as I do some
-living folks I know."
-
-"Right you air," chuckled the old man. "If you say so we'll go right
-off now jest as sure as shootin'. We may be ghosts ourselves
-tomorrow."
-
-I assured him I was quite ready to encounter the ghost, so he
-jubilantly turned the machine from the road into a grass-grown lane.
-We zigzagged for some distance and then got out and went on foot
-through a grove. The moon and the stars were half veiled by some
-light, misty clouds, so that the little house didn't show up very
-clearly, but as we came to the top of the hill, we saw something that
-shook even my well-behaved nerves.
-
-From a window in the roof-room extended a white arm and hand, with
-index finger pointing threateningly and directly toward us.
-
-My farmer friend turned quickly and fled toward the grove. I followed
-fleetly. "What's your rush?" I asked, when I had overtaken him.
-
-"I just happened to remember," he explained gaspingly, "that there's a
-pesky autoo thief in these 'ere parts. Bukins had his stole jest last
-night."
-
-The lights on his machine must have reassured him as to its safety
-when we emerged from the woods into the open, but he didn't lessen his
-speed. We got in the "autoo" and soon said good-by to the lane. At one
-time I believed it was good-by to everything, but at last we gained
-the highway, right side up.
-
-"Well!" I said, when we were running normally again on terra firma,
-"that was some little old ghost,--beckoned to us to come right in,
-too!"
-
-"You seen it then!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I'm mighty glad I had an
-eyewitness. Folks wouldn't believe me."
-
-"They probably won't believe me, either," I assured him. "I am a
-lawyer."
-
-"You don't tell me! Well, it did jest give me a start for a minute.
-I'd like to hev gone in and seen it nigh to, if I hadn't happened to
-think of this 'ere autoo. You see I ain't got it all paid for yet. I'm
-jest clean beat. You don't mind my takin' a leetle pull at a stone
-fence, do you?"
-
-"I guess not," I assented somewhat dubiously, however. "That was a
-rail fence we took a pull at back in the lane, wasn't it? Of course,
-if we shouldn't happen to clear the stone fence as well as we did the
-rail fence, it might be more disastrous."
-
-"Oh, land!" he said with a cackling laugh, "I ain't meanin' that kind
-of a fence. I mean the kind you--Say! You ain't one of them
-teetotalers, be you?"
-
-"Only in theory," I replied, "but this stone fence drink is a new one
-on me. What's it like?"
-
-He stopped the "autoo" and pulled a bottle from an inner pocket.
-
-"You kin taste it better than I kin tell it," he declared. "Take a
-pull--a condumned good one."
-
-I rarely imbibed, confining my indulgences to the demands of
-necessity, but I thought that the flight of Ptolemy, the ghostly
-encounter, and my Mazeppa--wild ride all combined to constitute an
-occasion adequate to call for a bracer in the shape of a stone fence,
-or anything he might produce.
-
-I took what I considered a "condumned good one" from the bottle and it
-nearly strangled me, but I followed the aged stranger's advice to take
-another to "cure the chokes" caused by the first one. On general
-principles I took a third and then reluctantly returned him the
-bottle.
-
-"Here's over the moon," he jovially exclaimed as he proceeded to make
-my attempt at a "condumned good one" appear most niggardly.
-
-"May I ask," I inquired when my feeling of nerve-tense strain had
-vanished, and I felt as if I were treading thin air, "just what is in
-a stone fence?"
-
-"Well, what do you think?" he asked slyly.
-
-"I think the very devil is in it," I replied.
-
-"Well, mebby," he admitted. "It's two-thirds hard cider and one-third
-whisky. It's a healthy, hearting drink and yet it has a leetle come
-back to it--a sort o' kick, you know. But this is where I live,"
-pointing to a farmhouse well back from the road, "but I am goin' to
-run you on to your tavern though."
-
-The hotel was dark, save for a light in my room. I invited him in, but
-he was anxious to "git hum and tell the folks", so I gave him some
-cigars and went in to "tell my folks."
-
-I found them in the room waiting for me. That is, Beth was in the
-room, sitting by the table and pretending to read. Silvia and Rob were
-out in the little balcony. They came inside as soon as they heard my
-voice.
-
-"Oh, was he there?" asked Silvia anxiously.
-
-"Yes," I replied. "He answered the telephone himself."
-
-I was feeling quite exhilarated by this time. My wife looked a perfect
-vision to me. Beth, I thought, was some sister, and Rob the best
-fellow in the world. Even the Polydores at long range, and under the
-ameliorating influence of stone fences, seemed like fine little
-fellows--rather active and strenuous, to be sure, but only as all
-wholesome children should be.
-
-Silvia was relieved at the announcement of Ptolemy's safety, but very
-much disappointed that I did not succeed in interviewing Huldah and
-finding out something about domestic affairs.
-
-I assured her that everything was "hunky doory" at home, praised the
-telephone service, my expedition to town, and painted my return ride
-with "the honest farmer" in glowing terms. I was suddenly halted in my
-eulogy by becoming aware of an amazed expression on my wife's
-countenance, a most suspicious glance in Beth's wide-open eyes, and a
-very knowing wink from Rob.
-
-"Lucien," said Silvia severely, "I believe you've been drinking. I
-certainly smell spirits."
-
-"Maybe you do," I replied jocosely. "I certainly saw spirits. I went
-to the haunted house on my way back."
-
-"I thought Windy Creek was a dry town," remarked Rob innocently.
-
-"It is," I assured him, "but I rode home with an old man--a farmer."
-
-"Does he run a blind pig?" asked Rob.
-
-"It was more like a pig in a poke," I replied.
-
-"Lucien," exclaimed Silvia reproachfully, "you told me two years ago,
-after that banquet to the Bar, that you were never going to touch wine
-or whisky again. What did that horrid old man give you?"
-
-"A stone fence. That's what he said it was anyway."
-
-"It's a new one on me," commented Rob.
-
-"There was a new toast went with it. He drank to 'over the moon.'"
-
-"You must have gone there all right and taken all the shine from the
-moon-man," said Rob.
-
-"Lucien," asked Beth, "did you really go to that haunted house?"
-
-Again I was moved to eloquence, and I told of the farmer's yearning,
-the fulfillment, the beckoning hand and the beating of the retreat at
-length.
-
-"Are you sure," asked Rob, "that you didn't take that stone fence
-before you visited the haunted house?"
-
-"I know," I replied, loftily, "that a lawyer's word is worthless, but
-seeing is believing. We will all visit the haunted house tomorrow
-night and I'll make good on ghosts."
-
-This plan was unanimously approved, and then Silvia suggested that she
-thought I had better go to bed. I had no particular objection to doing
-so.
-
-"Lucien," she said solemnly, when we were alone, "I want you to
-promise me something. I want you to give me your word that you will
-never take another stone wall."
-
-I did this most readily.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-_In Which We See Ghosts_
-
-
-The next morning Rob tried earnestly and vainly to drive a wedge in
-Beth's good graces, but she treated him with a casual tolerance that
-finally put him in an ill humor which he took out on me with many a
-gibe at my "stone fence spirit."
-
-Men of my profession who have to deal with facts rather than fancy are
-not believers in the supernatural. I was sure that the extending arm
-and the beckoning finger were there, but belonged to no ghost. It
-might have been a curtain blowing out the window or a fake of some
-kind. But I knew that unless there was some kind of a showing in a
-ghostly way that night, I should never hear the last of my stone fence
-indulgence, so I resolved to make a preliminary visit alone by
-daylight and rig up something white to substantiate my spectral
-narrative.
-
-I didn't find an opportunity to escape unseen until late in the
-afternoon, when I went, ostensibly, for a solitary row on the lake.
-
-I landed and came by a circuitous route to the haunted house. The calm
-security of sunshine, of course, prevented any shivers of anticipation
-such as I had experienced the night before. On passing one of the
-windows on my way to the front entrance, I glanced in, stopped in
-sheer fright, stooped and backed to the next window, which was
-screened by a labyrinth of vines through which I peered. I am sure I
-lost my Bloom of Youth complexion for a few moments. I babbled
-aimlessly to myself and then managed to pull together and beat it to
-the lake with as much speed as my farmer friend had shown in his
-retreat. I made the boat and the hotel in double quick time.
-
-[Illustration: I babbled aimlessly to myself and then managed to pull
-together and beat it to the lake]
-
-I felt no misgivings now as to the promise of a sensation that night,
-and that sustaining thought was all that propped my flagging spirits
-throughout the day, but I resolved to keep my little party at safe
-distance from the house.
-
-"Say we keep our nocturnal noctambulation under our hats," proposed
-Rob.
-
-When this proposition was translated to Silvia, she entirely approved,
-so, committing Diogenes to the Polydores' Providence, we left the
-hotel at half past eleven for a row on the lake by moonlight.
-
-When we descended the slope leading to the House of Mystery, I
-cautioned silence and a "safety-first" distance.
-
-"Ghosts are easily vanished," I informed them. "They don't seek
-limelight, and I want you to be sure to see this one."
-
-As we came to the untrodden undergrowth we heard a weird, wailing
-sound that would have curdled my blood had I not glanced in the window
-that afternoon and so, in a measure, been prepared for this--or
-anything.
-
-"Look!" whispered Beth. "The arm!"
-
-Silvia looked at the roof window and with a stifled shriek of terror
-turned and fled up the hill, Rob chivalrously pursuing her.
-
-Beth was pale, but game.
-
-"What can it be, Lucien?" she whispered. "Do we dare go in to see?"
-
-"I wouldn't, Beth," I vetoed quickly. "Maybe some lunatic or
-half-witted person has taken up abode here."
-
-"Lucien!" called Rob peremptorily.
-
-I turned quickly. He was at the top of the hill, half supporting
-Silvia. I ran toward them, followed by Beth.
-
-"It isn't a ghost, of course, Silvia," I said soothingly, and then
-repeated my supposition about the lunatic.
-
-"Of course I don't believe in ghosts," said Silvia shudderingly, "but
-it's an awful place and those sounds are like those I have heard in
-nightmares."
-
-"We'll hurry back to the hotel and forget all about it," I urged.
-
-I rowed the boat and Silvia sat opposite me. Beth and Rob were in the
-stern and I had to listen to their conversation.
-
-"Of course I felt a little creepy," she admitted, "but then I like to
-feel that way, and I wasn't afraid."
-
-"No, of course, you wouldn't be," he replied somewhat ironically.
-"You're the new woman type."
-
-"No, I am not," she denied. "I wish I were. Silvia's really the
-strong-minded type."
-
-"She didn't act the part when she saw the ghost," he retorted.
-
-"It's very unusual for her nerves to give way. Silvia's quite a
-surprise to me this summer, but I think those funny Polydores have
-upset her more than Lucien realizes."
-
-I wondered if she were right, and once again murderous wishes toward
-the Polydores entered my brain, and I made renewed vows about
-disposing of them on our return home.
-
-One thing, however, had been accomplished by our expedition. Silvia
-was more lenient in her judgment on my indulgences of the preceding
-night.
-
-By the time we pulled in at the landing, Silvia had recovered her
-equilibrium.
-
-"Lucien, what the devil do you suppose was in that house?" asked Rob,
-when we were putting up the boat.
-
-"Loons and things," I allowed.
-
-"But what was that white arm?"
-
-"Some fake thing the village wag has put up to scare the natives."
-
-Next morning's stage brought some new arrivals, and among them were
-two college students who at once were claimed by Beth. She played
-tennis with one and later went rowing with the other. Rob smoked and
-sulked, apart.
-
-My farmer friend had been garrulous and rumors of the ghost and the
-haunted house had come to the ears of the hotel inmates, thereby
-causing a pleasurable stir of excitement. A number of them announced
-their intention of visiting the place. They asked me to be their
-guide, but I refused.
-
-"It was interesting," I said, "but I think it would be a bore to see
-the same ghost twice."
-
-"I am sure I don't care to go again," was Silvia's emphatic reply
-when asked to be one of the party.
-
-"Ghosts are scientifically admitted and explained," growled Rob, "so I
-don't see anything to be excited about."
-
-Beth accepted the offer of escort of one of the students, so Silvia,
-Rob, and I remained at home. The night was quite cool, and we played
-cards in our room. When the party returned, Beth joined us. She looked
-rather out of sorts.
-
-"Oh, yes," she replied in answer to Silvia's eager inquiry. "We saw
-the ghost. I don't know whether it was the same little old last
-night's ghost or a new one. He showed more of himself this time
-though. He had two arms and a veiled head out of the window. As soon
-as our crowd glimpsed it, they all fled quicker than we did last
-night. Those two students fell all over each other and left me in the
-lurch."
-
-"What could you expect," asked Rob, "from such ladylike things? They
-ought to be kept in the confines of the croquet ground. If they are a
-fair specimen of the kind you have met, no wonder you--"
-
-[Illustration: The landlady intears waylaid me]
-
-He stopped abruptly.
-
-"No wonder what?" she asked quickly.
-
-"Nothing," he replied glumly.
-
-When I came down to breakfast the next morning, the landlady in tears
-waylaid me.
-
-"Oh, Mr. Wade," she began in trouble-telling tone, "this affair about
-the ghost is going to hurt my business. Some of those folks say they
-are going home, and they will tell others and--"
-
-"I'll fix the ghost story. Just leave it to me!" I assured her
-optimistically, as we went into the dining-room.
-
-There were only enough guests to fill one long table, and every one
-was excitedly dissecting the ghost.
-
-I took my seat and also the floor.
-
-"I hate to dispel your illusions," I said cheerfully, "but the fact
-is, I made a daylight investigation of the haunted house. First I
-looked in the window and I saw--"
-
-"Oh, what did you see?" chorused a dozen or more expectant voices.
-
-"A lot of--mice."
-
-"Oh!" came in disappointed and skeptical tones.
-
-"But, the ghost, Mr. Wade?"
-
-"Yes! The arms and the head?"
-
-"A fake figure put up by some practical joker for the purpose of
-frightening timid people and encouraging the credulous. I didn't want
-to spoil your little picnic, so I kept still."
-
-"Those sounds, Lucien!" reminded Silvia.
-
-"Were from a cat chorus. They were prowling about the house."
-
-"You're sure some lawyer, Mr. Wade," doubtfully complimented my
-grateful landlady, as we went out of the room after breakfast.
-
-"Lucien," asked Rob _sotto voce_, joining me on the veranda, "why
-don't the cats you speak of catch that lot of mice?"
-
-Fortunately Beth came up to us, and I didn't have to explain.
-
-"Oh!" she said with a shudder. "I'll never go near that awful place!
-I'd rather see a perfectly good ghost, or a loon, or a lunatic any day
-than a mouse."
-
-"You're surely not afraid of a mouse!" exclaimed Rob.
-
-"Why not?" she asked coolly as she walked on.
-
-"I told you she was feminine," I reminded him.
-
-He shook his head.
-
-"I can't understand," he remarked, "why a girl who is afraid of mice
-should be--"
-
-"You don't understand anything about women," I interrupted.
-
-"You're right, Lucien. I don't, but your sister is surely the greatest
-enigma of them all."
-
-I rented the stone fence farmer's "autoo" and took Silvia and
-Diogenes to a neighboring town that afternoon. We didn't get back to
-the hotel until dinner time.
-
-"What have you been up to all day, Rob?" I asked.
-
-"Numerous things. For one, I strolled down to the haunted house."
-
-"What did you see?" cried the women.
-
-"I saw four--"
-
-"Ghosts?" asked Beth.
-
-I shot him a warning glance.
-
-"Young tomcats playing tag with the mice."
-
-I corralled Rob outside after dinner.
-
-"For Heaven's sake!" I implored. "Don't disturb Silvia's peace of
-mind. Did you go inside?"
-
-"No; I was sorely tempted to, but refrained out of deference to the
-evident wishes of my host, but really, Lucien, we should--"
-
-"I have only ten more days off, Rob. Don't make any unpleasant
-suggestions."
-
-"I won't," he said promptly.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-_In Which We Make Some Discoveries_
-
-
-Diogenes, who, for a Polydore, had been quite placid since Ptolemy's
-departure, caused a commotion by disappearing the next morning. As he
-was possessed of a deep desire to go in the lake and get a little
-snake, he had been, when not under strict surveillance, tied to a tree
-with enough leeway in the length of rope to allow him to play
-comfortably.
-
-By some means he had managed to work himself loose from the rope and
-had evidently followed Ptolemy's example. I suggested calling up
-Huldah and asking if he had arrived yet, but I met with such chilling
-glances from Silvia and Beth that I got busy and organized searching
-parties, who reluctantly and lukewarmly engaged in the pursuit. Rob
-and I took the shore. After we had walked some little distance, we met
-a woman and stopped for inquiry. She said she had seen a child of
-about two years, clad in a blue and white striped dress and a big hat,
-going over the hill in company with a boy of about eight.
-
-"Are you going on to the hotel?" I asked.
-
-On her replying that she was, I told her to inform them that she had
-met me and that the lost child was located.
-
-Rob and I then kept on over the hill, and when we neared the haunted
-house, we heard hair-raising sounds.
-
-"If I hadn't been here before," remarked Rob, "I should think that
-Sitting Bull had been reincarnated and was reviving the warrior war
-whoops."
-
-We paused on the threshold. A human windmill of whirling legs and
-arms--Polydore legs and arms--flashed before our eyes.
-
-"Stop!" I thundered.
-
-The flying wheel of arms and legs slacked, ran a few times, then
-slowly stopped, and the Polydore quintette assumed normal positions.
-
-"Halloa, stepdaddy!"
-
-A landslide composed of Emerald, Pythagoras, and Demetrius started
-toward me. I side-stepped and let Rob receive the charge.
-
-"Line them up now, for attention," I directed Ptolemy. "I have
-something to say to you all."
-
-Ptolemy knocked the three terrors up against the wall, and I picked up
-Diogenes, who had a bump as big as an egg on his head.
-
-"I told you," said Ptolemy to Pythagoras, "that if you brought Di down
-here they'd get on our trail. He wanted to see Di," he explained, "so
-he sneaked over there and got him."
-
-"We were wise before today," I informed him. "I saw you all day before
-yesterday."
-
-"And I discovered you yesterday," added Rob.
-
-Ptolemy looked rather crestfallen, and then, seeming to consider that
-my discovery had been succeeded by inaction, which must mean
-non-interference, he heartened up.
-
-"Now," I demanded, "I want you to begin at the time you left the hotel
-and tell me everything and why you did it."
-
-"I wasn't having any fun after you two went off camping," he began
-lugubriously. "I couldn't hang around women folks all the time. I
-wanted boys to play with."
-
-I saw a gleam of sympathy and understanding come into Rob's eyes.
-
-"A harem of hens," he muttered.
-
-"I knew we could all have a grand time here and not be a bother to
-mudder, or Huldah or anyone, and it seemed too bad for this nice house
-to be empty, and no one anywhere else wanting us."
-
-I felt my first gleam of pity for a Polydore and wiped Diogenes'
-dirty, moist face carefully with my handkerchief.
-
-"So I went home and told Huldah I had come after the boys to take them
-back with me."
-
-"And told her we had sent for them?" I asked sharply.
-
-He flushed slightly at my tone.
-
-"No; I didn't tell her so. She got that idea herself, and I didn't
-tell her different."
-
-"When did you come?"
-
-"I came the same night that you telephoned, and took the train you and
-mudder came on. We got to Windy Creek in the morning. We fetched all
-our stuff here from home. I bought it."
-
-"Right here," I said, "tell me where you got the money to buy your
-stuff and to pay your fare here."
-
-"I cashed father's check."
-
-"I didn't know he left you one."
-
-"He didn't, except the one he gave me to give you for our board. You
-told mudder you wouldn't touch it, and it seemed a pity not to have it
-working."
-
-Visions of a future Polydore doing the chain and ball step flashed
-before my vision.
-
-"And they cashed it for you at the bank?"
-
-"Sure. Father always has me cash his checks for him."
-
-"What amount did you fill in?" I asked enviously.
-
-"One hundred dollars. There's a lot more in the bank, too."
-
-"How did you get your truck here from Windy Creek?" asked Rob.
-
-"We divided it up and each took a bunch and started on foot, and some
-people in an automobile, going to the town past here, took us in and
-brought us as far as the lane. We've been having a fine time."
-
-"What doing?" asked Rob interestedly.
-
-"Fishing, sailing on a raft, playing in the woods all day and--"
-
-"Playing ghost at night," said Pythagoras with a grin.
-
-"Who made that ghost in the window?" I demanded.
-
-"I did. I rigged up an arm and put it out the window the afternoon I
-left, hoping Beth would come down and see it, but we've got a jim
-dandy one now."
-
-"That was quite a shapely arm," said Rob. "Where did you learn
-sculpturing?"
-
-"Oh, I rigged it up," he said casually.
-
-"What did you bring in the way of supplies?"
-
-"Bacon, crackers, beans, candy, popcorn, gum, peanuts, pickles,
-candles, matches, and butter," was the glib inventory.
-
-"You may stay here," I said, "until we go home, but you are not to
-stir away from the woods about here and not on any account to come
-near the hotel, or let it be known that you are here. And you are to
-end this ghost business right off. Now, Di, we'll go home to mudder."
-
-"No!" bawled Di. "Stay with boys. Mudder come here."
-
-At least this was Ptolemy's interpretation of his protest.
-
-I threatened, Rob coaxed, and Ptolemy cuffed, but every time I started
-to leave and jerk him after me, he uttered such demoniac yells I was
-forced to stop.
-
-"Wish it was night," said Emerald regretfully. "Wouldn't he scare
-folks though! How does he get his voice up so high?"
-
-"Poor little Di!" said a voice commiseratingly from the doorway. "Was
-Ocean plaguing him?"
-
-Beth gathered the child in her arms, and his howls changed to sobs.
-Rob stood petrified with amazement at her appearance.
-
-"Don't want to go," said Diogenes between gulps.
-
-"Needn't go!" promised Beth. "Stay here with me, and we'll have dinner
-with the boys and then we'll go home and get some ice cream."
-
-"All yite," agreed the appeased Polydore.
-
-"May Lucien and I stay to dinner, too?" asked Rob humbly.
-
-"No," she replied icily.
-
-"But, Beth," I remonstrated. "Silvia will be worrying about Di. How
-can we explain?"
-
-"Silvia has gone to Windy Creek for the day. You see, I met that woman
-you sent to the hotel, and she told me she saw Di going over the hill
-with a boy, and I suddenly seemed to smell one of your mice, so I sent
-the woman on her way, and told Silvia you and Rob had found Diogenes.
-Just then some people she knew came along in a car and asked her to go
-to Windy Creek. I made her go and told her I'd look after Di."
-
-"You're a brick, Beth!" applauded Ptolemy.
-
-"If you boys will be very careful and not let anyone besides us know
-you are here, so mudder will not hear of it, for though she'd like to
-see you"--this without a flicker or flinch--"we want her to have a
-nice rest. I'll come over every day except tomorrow and bring things
-from the hotel store, and bake up cookies and cake for you."
-
-A yell of approval went up.
-
-"Why can't you come tomorrow?" asked the greedy Demetrius.
-
-"Because I've promised to go to the other end of the lake on a picnic.
-All the people at the hotel are going."
-
-"I'll come tomorrow and spend the whole day with you," promised Rob.
-"We'll have a ride in the sailboat and do all sorts of things."
-
-"Why, aren't you going on that infernal picnic?" I asked.
-
-"No; I'll have all the picnic I want over here. Like Ptolemy I feel
-that I want to play with some of my own kind."
-
-Beth looked at him approvingly; then she said a little sarcastically:
-
-"Maybe you'll change your mind--about going on the picnic, I
-mean--when you see the new girl who just came to the hotel on the
-morning stage. She's a blonde, and not peroxided, either."
-
-"That would certainly drive him down here, or anywhere," I laughed.
-
-"Oh, don't you like blondes?" she asked innocently.
-
-"He doesn't like--" I began, but Ptolemy rudely interrupted with an
-elaborate description of a new kind of fishing tackle he had bought.
-
-Then Beth bade Pythagoras build a fire in the cook-stove while she
-set the room to rights.
-
-"We'll eat out of doors," she said, "I think it would be more
-appetizing."
-
-"How did you get here?" Rob asked her as we were leaving.
-
-"I rowed over."
-
-"May I come over and row you back?" he asked pleadingly.
-
-She hesitated, and then, realizing that she could scarcely manage a
-boat and Diogenes at the same time, assented, bidding him not come,
-however, until five o'clock.
-
-"She'll have enough of the Polydores by that time," I said to Rob on
-our way home.
-
-"Do you know," he said reflectively, "I like Ptolemy. There's the
-making of a man in him, if he has only half a chance. I didn't suppose
-your sister understood children so well or was so fond of them. She
-looked quite the little housewife, too."
-
-"You'd discover a lot of things you don't know, if you'd cultivate the
-society of women," I informed him.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-_A Bad Means to a Good End_
-
-
-When we were setting out on the proposed picnic the next day, Rob made
-himself extremely unpopular by announcing his intention to spend the
-day otherwise. The new blonde girl gave him fetching glances of
-entreaty which he never even saw. He made another sensation by
-proposing to keep Diogenes with him. To Silvia's surprise, Diogenes
-voiced his delight and chattered away, I suppose, about playing with
-the boys, but fortunately no one understood him.
-
-"Won't you change your mind and come, too?" he asked Beth.
-
-She seemed on the point of accepting and then firmly declined.
-
-When we returned at six o'clock, Rob and Diogenes were awaiting us.
-There was something in Rob's eyes I had not seen there before. He had
-the look of one in love with life.
-
-"Did you have a nice time playing solitaire?" asked Silvia.
-
-"I had a very nice time," he replied with a subtle smile, "but I
-didn't play solitaire. You know I had Diogenes."
-
-"Diogenes apparently had a good time, too," said Silvia, looking at
-the child, who was certainly a wreck in the way of garments. "What did
-you do all day, Rob?"
-
-"We went out on the water, played games, and had a picnic dinner
-outdoors."
-
-"You had huckleberry pie for one thing," she observed, with a glance
-at Diogenes' dress, "and jelly for another, and--"
-
-"Chicken, baked potatoes, milk, cake, and ice cream," he finished.
-
-"Where did you get ice cream?" she asked.
-
-"I went down to a dairy farm and got a gallon."
-
-"A gallon!" she exclaimed. "For you and Diogenes?"
-
-"We didn't eat it all," he said guardedly. "I gave what we didn't eat
-to some stray boys."
-
-"I hope Di won't be ill."
-
-"He won't," asserted Rob. "I am sure he is made of cast iron."
-
-Throughout dinner Rob remained in high spirits. He kept eyeing Beth in
-a way that disconcerted her, and then suddenly he would smile with the
-expression of one who knows something funny, but intends to keep it a
-secret.
-
-Presently Silvia left us and went upstairs to give Diogenes a bath
-before she put him to bed.
-
-"You've had two days' freedom from the last of the Polydores," I
-called after her. "Doesn't it seem delightful?"
-
-"Lucien," she answered slowly, "I've really missed the care of him. I
-was lonesome for him all day."
-
-"He isn't such a bad little kid when he is out from Polydore
-environment," I admitted, regretting that he had been restored to it.
-
-"Now tell us all about your day with the boys," Beth asked Rob, when
-we were left alone. "It really does seem too bad to keep a secret from
-Silvia, and yet it is a case of where ignorance is bliss--"
-
-"It would be folly to be otherwise," finished Rob. "Well, Diogenes and
-I left here with a boat load of supplies in the way of provender and
-things for the boys. I had to tie Diogenes in the boat, of course, so
-he would not try some aquatic feat. He objected and yelled like a
-fiend all the way. I was glad there was no one at the hotel to come
-out and arrest me for cruelty to children. Of course before we landed,
-his cries were heard by his brothers and they were all at the water's
-edge. They made mulepacks of themselves and transferred the commissary
-supplies. The ice cream and bats and balls which I found at the store
-made quite a hit.
-
-"We played baseball, fished, and had a spread on the shore. Then
-Ptolemy and I rowed out to where the sailboat was. I explained the
-mysteries of the jib and he caught on instantly. We took in the other
-Polydores and sailed for a couple of hours. Then we all went in
-swimming."
-
-"Not Diogenes!"
-
-"Certainly. I tucked him under my arm and he seemed perfectly at home,
-although greatly disappointed because we didn't succeed in catching a
-snake.
-
-"I finally landed them all safely under the roof of the Haunted House,
-and Ptolemy assured me it was the best day of his young life. In
-appreciation of the diversions I had afforded him, he made a
-confession which proved such good news to me that I was a lenient
-listener and exacted no penalty."
-
-"What was it?" I asked.
-
-"He told me that on the day of Miss Wade's and my arrival at your
-house, he had made a misstatement to each of us and had not repeated
-to us accurately what he had overheard you telling Silvia when he was
-on the porch roof. Miss Wade, what did he tell you about me?"
-
-"He said that Lucien said that your only failing was that you were
-daffy over women and made love to every one you saw."
-
-"Oh, Beth!" I cried, light bursting in, "and you believed that little
-wretch?"
-
-"I did."
-
-"Then that is why you have been so--"
-
-"Yes--so--" repeated Rob grimly.
-
-"Well, I never did have any use for a man-flirt, and I was awfully
-disappointed, for I had thought from what Rob said that you were a
-man's man."
-
-"And then, of course, when for the first time in my life I began being
-interested in a woman--in you--I played right into that little scamp's
-hands."
-
-"He is a man's man, Beth," I said warmly. "What Ptolemy heard me say
-was that Rob was a woman-hater."
-
-"I am not!" declared Rob indignantly--"just a woman-shyer, but I
-haven't finished with Ptolemy's confession. I wonder, now, if either
-of you can guess what he told me was Miss Wade's characteristic."
-
-"I don't dare guess," laughed Beth.
-
-"What I did say about Beth was that she was a born flirt."
-
-"I am not!" protested my sister, in resentment.
-
-"I should prefer that appellation to the one he gave you. He said you
-were strong-minded and a man-hater."
-
-Even Beth saw the irony of this.
-
-"I asked him," continued Rob, "what his motive was, and he said
-'Stepdaddy didn't want Beth to know about the man-hater business,' so
-he took that means of throwing you off the track.
-
-"I took the occasion to talk to him like a Dutch uncle, though I don't
-know exactly what that is. I think it was the first time anything but
-brute force had been tried on him. I must have touched some little
-flicker of the right thing in him, for he was really contrite and
-seemed to sense a different angle of vision when I explained to him
-what havoc could be worked by the misinformation of meddlers. He
-promised me he'd try to overcome his tendency to start things going
-wrong."
-
-I made no comment, but it occurred to me that Ptolemy was a shrewd
-little fellow, and that there had been wisdom back of his strategic
-speeches to Beth and Rob, for he had taken the one sure course to make
-them both "take notice."
-
-"So, Beth," said Rob, and her name seemed to come quite handily to
-him, "can't we cut out the past ten days and begin our acquaintance
-right?"
-
-"I think we can," she answered.
-
-"I had better go upstairs," I suggested, "and tell Silvia that
-Diogenes doesn't need a bath, seeing he has been in swimming."
-
-Neither of them urged me to remain, so I went up to our room and found
-Silvia tucking Diogenes under cover.
-
-"What did you come up for?" she asked. "I was just coming down to join
-you."
-
-"Beth is treating Rob so--differently, that I thought it well to
-retreat."
-
-"I am so glad! Whatever came over the spirit of her dreams?"
-
-"They've just discovered in the course of conversation that Ptolemy as
-usual crossed the wires and told Beth Rob was a flirt, and then
-informed Rob that Beth was strong-minded and a man-hater."
-
-"Oh, the little imp!" she exclaimed indignantly.
-
-"I don't know. It worked, anyway, so Ptolemy was the bad means to a
-good end."
-
-"How did they ever happen to discover what he had done?"
-
-"They caught on from something Rob said," I told her, feeling again
-guilty at keeping my first secret from her.
-
-"It will be a fine match for Beth," said Silvia. "Rob is such a
-splendid man, and then he has plenty of money. He can give her
-anything she wants."
-
-I winced. I think Silvia must have been conscious of it, even though
-the room was dark, for she came to me quickly.
-
-"I wish I could give you--everything--anything--you want, Silvia."
-
-"You have, Lucien. The things that no money could buy--love and
-protection."
-
-Well, maybe I had. I had surely given her protection from the
-Polydores, though she didn't know to what extent.
-
-"I am going to give you more material things, though, Silvia. When we
-go home, I shall start to work in earnest and see if I can't get
-enough ahead to make a good investment I know of."
-
-"I'd rather do without the necessities even, Lucien, than to have you
-work any harder than you have been doing. We must let well enough
-alone."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-"_Too Much Polydores_"
-
-
-The next morning at breakfast, Beth announced that she and Rob were
-going to spend the day camping in the woods.
-
-Silvia and I tried not to look significantly at each other, but Beth
-was very keen.
-
-"We will take Diogenes with us," she instantly added.
-
-"Oh, no!" protested Silvia. "He'll be such a bother. And then he can't
-walk very far, you know."
-
-"He'll be no bother," persisted Beth. "And we'll borrow the little
-cart to draw him in."
-
-"Yes," acquiesced Rob. "We sure want Diogenes with us."
-
-"I'll have them put up a lunch for you," proposed Silvia.
-
-"No," Rob objected. "We are going to forage and cook over a fire in
-the woods."
-
-"Then," I proposed to Silvia with alacrity, "we'll have our first day
-alone together--the first we have had since the Polydores came into
-our lives. I'll rent the 'autoo' again, and we will go through the
-country and dine at some little wayside inn."
-
-"Get the 'autoo', now, Lucien," advised Beth privately, "and make an
-early start, so Rob and I can take supplies from the store without
-arousing Silvia's suspicions."
-
-"I don't believe," said Silvia disappointedly, when we were "autooing"
-on our way, "that they are in love after all, or that he has
-proposed, or that he is going to."
-
-"Where did you draw all those pessimistic inferences from?" I asked.
-
-"From their both being so keen to take Diogenes with them."
-
-"Diogenes would be no barrier to their love-making," I told her. "He
-couldn't repeat what they said; at least, not so anyone could
-understand him."
-
-Many miles away we came upon a picturesque little old-time tavern
-where we had an appetizing dinner, and then continued on our aimless
-way. It was nearly ten o'clock when we returned to the hotel, where
-the owner of the "autoo" was waiting.
-
-Rob came down the roadway.
-
-"Where's Beth?" asked Silvia.
-
-"She has gone to bed. The day in the open made her sleepy."
-
-When Silvia had left us, the old farmer said with a chuckle: "I can't
-offer you another swig of stone fence."
-
-"It's probably just as well you can't," I replied.
-
-"I'd like to be introduced to one," said Rob, who appeared to be
-somewhat downcast. "I sure need a bracer."
-
-"What's the matter, Rob?" I asked when we were lighting our pipes. "A
-strenuous day? Two in rapid 'concussion' with the Polydores must be
-nerve-racking."
-
-"Yes; I admit there seemed to be 'too much Polydores.' We all had a
-happy reunion, and I devoted the forenoon to the entertainment of the
-famous family so I could be entitled to the afternoon off to spend
-with Beth. At noon we built a fire and cooked a sumptuous dinner. Beth
-baked up some things to keep them supplied a couple of days longer.
-After dinner I asked her to go for a row. She insisted on taking
-Diogenes along, and the others all followed us on a raft. So I decided
-to cut the water sports short, and Beth and I started for a walk in
-the woods. Three or more were constantly right on our trail. I begged
-and bribed, but to no avail. They were sticktights all right, and," he
-added morosely, "she seemed covertly to aid and abet them. When we
-started for home, I found that the young fiends had broken the cart,
-so I had to carry Diogenes most of the way, and of course he bellowed
-as usual at being parted from the whelps."
-
-[Illustration: I had to carry Diogenes most of the way]
-
-"They aren't such 'fine little chaps' after all," I couldn't resist
-commenting. "Familiarity breeds contempt, you see. I am sorry Diogenes
-had so much of their society. He'll be unendurable tomorrow. Well, you
-had some day!"
-
-"So did the Polydores. Demetrius and Diogenes fell in the fire twice.
-Emerald threw a finger out of joint, but Ptolemy quickly jerked it
-into place. Pythagoras was kicked off the raft twice, following a
-mutiny. Demetrius threw a lighted match into the vines and set fire to
-the house. They said it was a 'beaut of a day', though, and urged us
-to come tomorrow and repeat the program. By the way, they went across
-the lake on their raft yesterday and bought a tent of some campers.
-They have pitched it in the woods beyond the house."
-
-When I went upstairs Silvia met me disconsolately.
-
-"He didn't propose," she said disappointedly. "She wouldn't let him."
-
-"Did you wake her up to find out?" I asked.
-
-"She hadn't gone to bed and she wasn't sleepy. She was trimming a
-hat."
-
-"Why wouldn't she let him propose, if she cares for him?" I asked
-perplexedly.
-
-"Well, you see," explained Silvia, "that when a girl--a coquette girl
-like Beth--is as sure of a man as she is of Rob, she gets a touch of
-contrariness or offishness or something. She said it would have been
-too prosaic and cut and dried if they had gone away for a day in the
-woods and come back engaged. She wants the unexpected."
-
-"Do you think she loves him?" I asked interestedly.
-
-"She doesn't say so. You can't tell from what she says anyway. Still,
-I think she is hovering around the danger point."
-
-"She'd better watch out. Rob isn't the kind of a man who will stand
-for too much thwarting," I replied.
-
-"If he'd only play up a little bit to some one else, it would bring
-things to a climax," said my wife sagely.
-
-"There's no one else to play up to. The blonde left today because it
-was so slow here."
-
-"Maybe some new girl will come tomorrow," said Silvia, "or there's
-that trim little waitress who is waiting her way through college. He
-gave her a good big tip yesterday. I think I will give him a hint."
-
-"It wouldn't help any. He wouldn't know how to play such a game if you
-could persuade him to try. He'd probably tell the girl his motive in
-being attentive to her and then she'd back out. Maybe, after all, Beth
-doesn't love him."
-
-"I think she does," replied my wife, "because she is getting
-absent-minded. She let Diogenes go too near the fire. His shoes are
-burned, his hair singed, and his dress scorched. He woke up when I
-came in and he was so cross. He acted just the way he does when he is
-with his brothers."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-_Rob's Friend the Reporter_
-
-
-Silvia's vague prophecy was fulfilled. When the event of the day, the
-arrival of the stage, occurred, a solitary passenger alighted, a slim,
-alert, city-cut young woman.
-
-She looked us all over--not boldly, but with a business-like
-directness as if she were taking inventory of stock, or acting as
-judge at a competition. When her blue eyes lighted on Rob, they
-darkened with pleasure.
-
-"Oh, Mr. Rossiter!" she exclaimed, "this is better than I hoped for."
-
-They shook hands with the air of being old acquaintances, and he
-introduced her to us as "Miss Frayne, from my home town."
-
-She went into the office, registered, and sent her bag to her room.
-Then she asked Rob if she might have a talk with him.
-
-They walked away together down to the shore and she was talking to him
-quite excitedly. Rob suddenly stopped, threw back his head and laughed
-in the way that it is good to hear a man laugh.
-
-"Miss Frayne must be a wit," observed Beth dryly.
-
-I looked at her keenly. Something in her eyes as she gazed after the
-retreating couple told me that Silvia's surmise was right, and that
-Miss Frayne might be just the little punch needed to send Beth over
-the danger point.
-
-"I rather incline to the belief that Ptolemy told the truth in the
-first place," she continued, and then looked disappointed because I
-did not contradict her.
-
-I decided not to reveal, for the present anyway, what I knew of Miss
-Frayne, of whom I had often heard Rob speak.
-
-"She can't be going to stay long," said Silvia hopefully. "She didn't
-bring a trunk."
-
-"She doesn't need one," replied Beth. "She is probably one of those
-mannish girls who believe in a skirt and a few waists for a
-wardrobe."
-
-When Rob and the newcomer returned, he seemed to be monopolizing the
-conversation in a very emphatic and earnest manner. As they came up
-the steps to the veranda, we heard her say:
-
-"Very well, Mr. Rossiter, I will do just as you say. I have perfect
-confidence in your judgment."
-
-They passed on into the hotel and Beth jumped up and went down toward
-the lake.
-
-"Did you ever hear Rob speak of this Miss Frayne?" asked Silvia.
-
-"Often. She is engaged to his cousin, and is a reporter on a big
-newspaper."
-
-"Why didn't you say so? Oh, Lucien," she continued before I could
-speak, "were you really shrewd enough to see which way the wind was
-blowing?"
-
-"Sure. After you set my sails for me last night."
-
-Just then Rob came out of the hotel.
-
-"Say, Lucien, I want to see you a minute. Come on down the road."
-
-"We've got some work ahead," he said when we were out of Silvia's
-hearing.
-
-"What's up?" I asked.
-
-"Miss Frayne is up--and doing. What do you suppose her paper sent her
-here for?"
-
-"For a rest, or to write up the mosquitoes of H. H."
-
-"H. H. is all right, only it happens they stand for Haunted House."
-
-"Not really?"
-
-"Yes, really. The rumors of the house and the ghost, greatly
-elaborated, of course, reached the Sunday editor of the paper Miss
-Frayne is on, and he sent her up here to revive the story of the
-murder, translate the ghost, and get snapshots of the house. She was
-quite keen to have me take her there at once, so she could commence
-her article, but I headed her off, so she wouldn't discover the summer
-boarders at the hotel annex. I assured her that daytime was not the
-time to gather material and the only way she could get a proper focus
-on the ghost and acquire the thrills necessary for an inspiration was
-to see the place first by night."
-
-"If she would view Fair Melrose aright," I quoted, "she must visit it
-in the pale moonlight, but you were very clever to delay her visit
-long enough for us to get over there and warn the enemy. If she had
-gone down there and caught the Polydores unawares, she would have come
-back here and revealed our secret, and there would be the end of
-Silvia's vacation."
-
-"To tell the truth, Lucien, I wasn't thinking so much of that as I was
-of Miss Frayne's interests. You see she has come a long ways for a
-story and if it collapsed from her ghostly expectations to a showdown
-of four healthy boys, the blow might mean a good deal to her in a
-business way. I think we had better let Ptolemy plant a ghost just
-once more for her. You know you made him take a reef in the flapping
-of ghostly garments. Can't we resurrect the specter and restore the
-wails just for tonight, and bring her over here at the witching
-hour?"
-
-"Sure we will," I agreed heartily. "She shall have her ghost and all
-the trappings. It will give the Polydores the time of their lives."
-
-"Let's go over there now and put Ptolemy next so he can get busy on
-his spirits." We went down to the shore and pulled off. Midway across
-the lake, Rob suddenly rested on his oars and asked:
-
-"Where did Beth go?"
-
-"Back to first principles," I replied. "She thinks, judging from your
-excited, earnest manner in addressing Miss Frayne and your rushing
-frantically away for a walk with her before she had removed the travel
-dust, that Ptolemy was quite correct, after all, in declaring you to
-be a 'ladies' man.'"
-
-"Didn't you explain to her who Miss Frayne was?" he asked.
-
-"No," I replied. "I am on my vacation and I am not doing any
-explaining, professionally or otherwise."
-
-He swung the boat around.
-
-"Starboard!" I cried. "Don't you know a trump card when you see it?"
-
-Again he rested on his oars and stared at me.
-
-"What do you mean, Lucien? If you have a grain of hope for me, please
-let me in."
-
-I repeated Silvia's theories.
-
-"I am not going to win her that way," he said slowly, "not by playing
-a part."
-
-"Well," I declared, "if you go back to the hotel now, you can't
-explain Miss Frayne to Beth, because she went for a walk with old
-Professor Treadtop."
-
-He turned the boat again.
-
-"Silvia won't come to the Haunted House, will she?" he asked.
-
-"No, indeed. Nothing would induce her to."
-
-"Then you bring Miss Frayne here tonight and I'll bring Beth. And I'll
-be sure that there are no double boats lying around loose. I'll have
-two at the dock, see?"
-
-"I see your system," I replied, "but I am not sure how I can explain
-Miss Frayne to Silvia. Silvia is not in the least narrow-minded, but
-still to leave the hotel at midnight with a perfectly strange young
-woman--"
-
-"You can tell her I want a clear field for Beth. She will see it is in
-a good cause."
-
-The Polydores greeted us rapturously and roughly. When I had restored
-order, and they were once more right side up, I addressed the chief of
-the bandits.
-
-"Ptolemy," I began, "a young lady, who is a reporter for a big
-newspaper, has come from many miles away to write up the haunted house
-and the ghost, and they will be pictured out in the Sunday edition."
-
-Ptolemy's eyes glistened, and "Them Three" were instantly "at
-attention."
-
-"Oh, say, stepdaddy," begged the young chief, "let me play ghost right
-for her, just once, will you?"
-
-"You may for tonight," I said, "but you will have to be very careful
-and not overdo the matter, for she isn't the kind that is easily
-fooled. She's had to keep her eyes and wits sharpened, else she
-wouldn't be on a newspaper, so I want you to be very careful and not
-bungle. Make a neat job of it."
-
-"I'll do it up brown, you bet!" he cried gleefully.
-
-"Naw, do it up white," drawled Pythagoras.
-
-"Show me your ghost stuff by daylight," I demanded, "and let me see
-how you are going to rig him up."
-
-He brought forth a head and shoulders and arms that were ghastly even
-in sunlight, and proceeded to explain them.
-
-"I got this skull out of father's study, and the arms came off a
-skeleton mother had in her antiquities. I dressed them up in a pillow
-case and the white cotton gloves are Huldah's. I can get some
-phosphorus in the woods and put it in the eyes. And Demetrius bought
-two electric flashlights yesterday, and Pythagoras can snap them once
-in a while from the lower windows."
-
-"You are some little property man," said Rob in admiration. "But tell
-me who produces those heart-rending shrieks?"
-
-"That was Pythagoras who did the high ones. And Em came in with low
-groans. Show 'em, boys."
-
-Pythagoras uttered high-trebled, thin-toned whines and ever and anon
-Emerald added a _basso profundo_ accompaniment, making a combination
-that was most trying to the ears at close range.
-
-"I don't know," said Rob, "as I want Beth subjected to such a
-realistic performance. We will loiter in the distance."
-
-"Your rehearsal," I assured Ptolemy, "is very good, but you must
-remember that Miss Frayne is used to encountering things far more
-terrible than ghosts. She may insist on coming right in here to
-investigate. Of course, if she does, I can't refuse or she'll think I
-am afraid, or else that I put up a fake ghost here, myself."
-
-"We'll lock the door with a chair," suggested Emerald.
-
-"She'll be quite capable of breaking into a little house like this,
-but I'll keep her back until you have time to haul in your ghost and
-make a quick and quiet getaway by a back window. Then another thing,
-she'll be over here tomorrow morning to take some pictures of the
-house, so by sunrise I want you all to take up your abode in the tent
-you have in the woods and stay there until I come and tell you the
-coast is clear."
-
-"We're dead on," assured Ptolemy. "I'm glad there's going to be
-something doing. We're getting tired of being here alone. I had to tie
-Demetrius up this morning. He was bound to go over to the hotel and
-see mudder."
-
-"Don't one of you dare to make such an attempt," I said peremptorily.
-"You keep right on here for a few days. Some of us, either Rob, or
-Beth and I will drop over every day. If you play your ghost just as I
-tell you and keep out of sight, I'll bring you over some ice cream
-tomorrow."
-
-"Bring me a bigger bat."
-
-"Bring me a mitt."
-
-"Bring me a boat," came in chorus from Ptolemy, Emerald, and
-Demetrius.
-
-"What'll you give me to stay here?" asked Pythagoras, who was a born
-bargain-driver.
-
-"I'll give you a licking if you don't stay," was the only offer he
-gleaned from me.
-
-"Be good boys," adjured the softhearted Rob, "and I'll bring you
-everything I can find at the hotel."
-
-It was long past the luncheon hour when we returned. We found Miss
-Frayne wondering at Rob's sudden disappearance and Beth was
-accordingly mystified.
-
-I planted myself directly in front of Miss Frayne.
-
-"May I take you to the haunted house tonight at the yawning
-churchyard hour?" I asked. "I am most eminently fitted to be your
-guide, for I was the first one of this assembly to see the ghost _in
-toto_."
-
-"He saw it over a stone fence," remarked Rob.
-
-"Indeed you may, thank you very much," she said enthusiastically.
-
-Silvia's face was a study.
-
-"And will you come with me, Beth?" asked Rob. "Of course, the ghost is
-an old story to us, but we really should hover in Lucien's wake out of
-regard to the conventions."
-
-"Is Miss Frayne interested in ghosts?" asked Beth.
-
-Miss Frayne turned and answered the question.
-
-"Not personally," she admitted frankly, "but the newspaper I am on is,
-and they sent me up here to get a story."
-
-"Oh, you are a reporter?"
-
-"Yes; on the _Times_."
-
-"She won't be one long, though," asserted Rob cheerfully, "because she
-is going to marry my cousin in the fall."
-
-Beth's expression remained neutral at the announcement, but I noticed
-throughout the afternoon that she was extremely affable toward Miss
-Frayne, and that she had the whiphand again with Rob, and meanwhile he
-seemed to be gathering a grim determination to do or die.
-
-"Lucien, how did you come to ask Miss Frayne to go to that awful place
-tonight?" asked Silvia when we had gone to our room for a siesta,
-which seemed impossible by reason of the bellowing of Diogenes, who
-balked at being required to lie down.
-
-"Rob asked me to," I informed her, when I had cowed Diogenes, "so he
-could have a free field for Beth. I believe he planned this
-expedition so he could storm the citadel."
-
-She reflected.
-
-"Well, maybe he is wise. Girls like Beth have to be taken by storm
-sometimes. I shouldn't wonder if Rob could be a bit of a bully, too,
-but--"
-
-She ended her speculations in a shriek.
-
-"Oh, Lucien! Diogenes has jumped out the window."
-
-We rushed down stairs, Silvia informing the guests in transit of the
-awful catastrophe.
-
-Silvia paused at the door opening on to the veranda.
-
-"I can't see him," she said faintly, closing her eyes. "You'll have to
-tend to it alone, Lucien."
-
-Beth was already at the telephone, which connected with the country
-doctor's. Rob joined me. We located our window, and began hunting
-underneath for the pieces.
-
-"Where in the world do you suppose he landed?" asked Rob.
-
-Just then the missing one came around the house clasping a bologna
-sausage in his fist.
-
-"Ye Gods and little Polydores!" exclaimed Rob.
-
-I caught Diogenes by the arm and rushed him in to Silvia.
-
-I found her in company with an old colored mammy, who was laundress
-for the hotel.
-
-"Sho'," she was saying, "I done gwine by de windah with ma baby cab
-full o' cloes, an' dis yer white chile done come tumblin' down an'
-fall right in ma cab. Now, what do you think o' dat? I reckon I was
-nevah so done clean skeert afoah in ma life. An' ef de chile didn't
-grab one of ma bolognas and done git out de cab an' run around de
-house."
-
-"Oh," cried Silvia, "poor little baby! Come to mudder. Lucien, where
-are you going with him?"
-
-I had picked up the acrobatic Polydore and was going up the stairs two
-at a time. I gained our room, locked the door and proceeded to give
-the "poor little baby" all that was coming to him. Now and then above
-his howls, I heard Silvia's plaintive protests outside the door, but I
-finished my job completely and satisfactorily, and laid the penitent
-Polydore in his little bed. Then I went out into the hall, feeling
-better than I had in months.
-
-Silvia essayed to pass me, but I took her arm and led her to a recess
-in the hall.
-
-"I am convinced," I told her, "that we have Diogenes as a permanent
-pensioner on our hands, so it was up to me to show him where to get
-off. You can't go to him for a quarter of an hour."
-
-We went down stairs and I was sure I read suppressed regret in the
-faces of most of the guests at learning of the soft place in which
-Diogenes' lot had been cast. Silvia tearfully told Rob and Beth of my
-cruelty.
-
-[Illustration: Now and then above his howls, I heard Silvia's plaintive
-protests outside the door]
-
-"Do him good!" approved Rob heartily.
-
-"How mean men are!" declared Beth indignantly. "I am going up and
-comfort the poor little thing."
-
-I held up the key to the room with a grin, and she had to content
-herself by making unkind remarks about me.
-
-At the expiration of the allotted time, I handed Silvia the key. She
-took it from me without a word or a look. It was quite evident I was
-in wrong.
-
-In half an hour my wife came down, carrying Diogenes, who, dressed in
-fresh white clothes, was a good picture of an angel child. She passed
-me and went to a remote corner of the veranda and sat down. When he
-spied me, he leaped from her arms and ran to me.
-
-"Ocean," he said propitiatingly, "me love oo."
-
-I took him up. His arms clasped about my neck, and over his curly
-head, I winked at Silvia and Beth.
-
-Rob roared.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV
-
-_A Midnight Excursion_
-
-
-The night was Satan's own: dark, wind-shrieking, and Polydorish. No
-one saw us leave the hotel when, at a late hour, we started on our
-little excursion. On account of the darkness and the poor landing near
-the haunted house, we decided to go by the overland route. I managed
-to purloin a lantern from the kitchen to light our path.
-
-Rob and Beth kept behind Miss Frayne and myself, and in spite of the
-wildness of the weather, he was evidently pleading his suit, for now
-and then above the roar of the wind, I heard his ardent voice.
-Apparently Beth had not yet given him any encouragement.
-
-Going down the lane my lantern underwent a total eclipse, so we had a
-Jordan-like road to travel. Miss Frayne was quite impervious to
-unfavorable conditions, as it was a matter of bread and butter to her,
-she said, and she was accustomed to braving worse storms than this,
-and anyway she hadn't come here for a summer picnic.
-
-When we came into the grove it was so dark, I lost my bearings.
-
-"Why didn't we bring a flashlight?" asked Beth.
-
-"There were none at the hotel," I told her.
-
-"I know some boys," said Rob with a little laugh, "who would have lent
-us one--maybe."
-
-Fortunately we were well provided with safety matches and after
-striking a box or so, we gained the open. A rise of ground hid the
-house, but when we climbed to the top, the ghost loomed up ghastlier
-than ever.
-
-I felt the business-like Miss Frayne start and shiver as a little
-scream escaped her. I didn't wonder. Even I, knowing that it was an
-illusion and a snare, felt my flesh creeping as I looked at the
-ghastly thing in the window.
-
-Every now and then according to schedule a light flashed from the
-windows below. And then came the blood-curdling sounds--whimpers and
-groans that were rivaling the whistling of the wind.
-
-"This is awful!" said Miss Frayne in a hoarse whisper.
-
-"Do you want to go inside the house?" I asked.
-
-"No--o! I couldn't. Not tonight."
-
-We were some little in advance of Rob and Beth. When one spectral
-sound came like a tense whisper, Miss Frayne turned and fled, and of
-course I followed her. We could not see our two companions, but
-suddenly in an interim of wind and ghost whispers, we heard Beth say:
-
-"Yes, Rob. I think we should really be cosier in a story-and-a-half
-cottage than we should in a bungalow."
-
-"Ye Gods!" muttered Miss Frayne, "did he propose in the face of that
-awful Thing?"
-
-"Ship ahoy!" I called.
-
-"Oh, didn't you go inside?" asked Rob.
-
-"Go in! I wouldn't go inside that place; not if I lose my job on the
-paper. What can it be? You don't seem to mind it, Miss Wade."
-
-"Well, you know," said Beth apologetically, "this is my third
-performance."
-
-We were now down the hill out of sight of the gruesome, ghastly window
-display, and Miss Frayne gained courage as we retreated.
-
-"Of course I don't believe in ghosts," she said, "but what do you
-suppose that is?"
-
-"I had a theory," I said, "that it is the work of a lunatic, but I've
-since concluded it is due to practical jokers. I'll tell you what I'll
-do. If you wait here, I'll investigate and see what I can find out for
-you."
-
-"Oh, would you really dare, Mr. Wade? I don't believe men ever have
-creepy nerves," she exclaimed.
-
-I began to feel ashamed of my deception.
-
-"I wouldn't go, Lucien," warned Rob, coming to my rescue. "There may
-be a gang of desperadoes in there, or counterfeit money-makers, or
-something of that kind. Besides, I have a far more interesting piece
-of news than anything the ghost could give you."
-
-"Rob!" protested Beth.
-
-"We know it already," I laughed. "It's to be a story-and-a-half
-high."
-
-"I think I am getting material for quite a story," declared Miss
-Frayne.
-
-I knew Beth's dislike of scenes and display of emotions--mock
-heroics--she called them, so I made no congratulatory speeches of the
-bless-you-my-children order, but presently under the cover of
-darkness, I felt a little hand slipped in mine, and my clasp was
-eloquent of what I felt.
-
-"I hope," said Miss Frayne, "that daylight will make me so ashamed of
-my cowardice that I can come down here and take some pictures and go
-inside the house."
-
-"We'll all come with you," promised Beth. "There's safety in
-numbers."
-
-When we were back at the hotel I managed to have a few words with Rob
-before we went upstairs.
-
-"Bless the ghost!" he said cheerily. "When Beth first glimpsed it, she
-just turned and fell into my arms. She was really frightened for the
-first time. I shall feel under obligations to Ptolemy for a
-lifetime."
-
-"Thank goodness!" I ejaculated fervently, "that I am under no
-obligations to a Polydore. Ptolemy certainly did put up the most
-ghastly thing in the way of ghosts. The lights in the eyes of the
-skeleton were frightful."
-
-"Did you see the ghost?" asked Silvia sleepily, when I came in.
-
-"Yes; same old ghost, only more of him," I assured her.
-
-She was asleep before I had uttered this reply.
-
-"Silvia," I said, "I have a more startling piece of news for you than
-that."
-
-She sat bolt upright.
-
-"Are they engaged, Lucien?"
-
-"They are. They are building their castle--I mean their story-and-a-half
-cottage already."
-
-Alas for my own desire to sleep! I had so effectually awakened Silvia
-that she planned Beth's trousseau, the wedding, honeymoon, and the
-furnishing of their house before she subsided.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV
-
-_What Miss Frayne Found Out_
-
-
-We had planned to go to the haunted house at nine o'clock the next
-morning, but owing to my dissipation of the night before, it was long
-after the appointed hour when Silvia awoke me.
-
-I hurried down stairs and ate my breakfast in solitude. I inquired for
-Beth and Rob, but the waitress told me they had left the dining-room
-at seven o'clock and gone for a walk in the woods. She said it with a
-knowing smile that told me she, too, must be a "sister of the Golden
-Circle."
-
-"And Miss Frayne?" I asked.
-
-"She went down the road over an hour ago."
-
-Evidently her courage had come up with the sun. I was greatly
-disturbed at the chance of her stumbling over one or more Polydores,
-and Rob didn't want to let the cat out of the bag until her article
-was written, as he believed that if the ghostly spell were broken, she
-would lose her "punch."
-
-I was unable to think of any plausible explanation to offer Silvia as
-to why I should start in pursuit, and I wished all sorts of dire
-calamities on Rob's blond head. Lovers were surely blind and selfish.
-
-About ten o'clock they came strolling in.
-
-"We didn't know it was so late," said Beth cheerfully, "but the boys
-will keep in the woods all right."
-
-"With her nose for news, there is no telling how far into the woods
-Miss Frayne's investigation will take her."
-
-"Say we go down by the lane and meet her," proposed Beth, "so that if
-she has run across the boys we can explain to her why we desire
-secrecy from Silvia."
-
-"You and Rob go," I advised. "It would seem odd to Silvia if we didn't
-ask her to go with us."
-
-So the newly engaged couple started down the road, but in their
-self-absorption they didn't notice the turn to the lane, and they got
-half way to Windy Creek before they came back to earth and the hotel.
-Miss Frayne still had not shown up, and I began to have misgivings
-lest the Polydores had locked her up in the house, but finally just as
-we were having a happy family gathering and discussing the new event
-under the shade of the one resort tree, she came excitedly up to us.
-
-"Such an interesting morning as I have had!" she exclaimed
-enthusiastically. "I made some corking pictures of the place, and I've
-found out about not only that ghost, but all ghosts--the whole race of
-ghosts."
-
-I hurriedly interrupted her and made elaborate and jumbled apologies
-for not keeping our engagement, which evidently bored her and
-mystified Silvia.
-
-"I am glad I went alone," she finally replied. "Otherwise I might not
-have got such an interesting interview."
-
-Beth, Rob, and I made frantic and appealing gestures to her behind
-Silvia's back, but she didn't seem to notice them.
-
-"Whom did you interview, the ghost?" asked Silvia.
-
-"No, indeed. Some very interesting and unusual people who are staying
-there."
-
-I threw her a wildly beseeching glance and Beth and Rob began at the
-same time to ply her with distracting questions. I think she seemed to
-divine that there was something in the situation that was not to be
-explained, but Silvia interrupted them.
-
-"Do let Miss Frayne tell us about her interview," she said. "We all
-seem to be very talkative today."
-
-I saw there was no way to dodge the denouement, so I awaited the
-finale in dread desperation. It proved to be more of a stunner than I
-had expected.
-
-"I went down the lane," she said, "and through the grove, up the
-little hill, and laughed at myself for the hallucinations of the night
-before. There were no ghosts visible and the door to the haunted
-house was hospitably open. I stood on the hill long enough to make
-some pictures and then went on. I walked up the steps fearlessly and
-looked within. A woman, an untidy, disheveled-looking woman, sat at a
-table writing furiously in just the same breathless way I write when I
-have a scoop, and the presses are waiting open-mouthed for my copy.
-
-"She looked up and scowled at my intrusion.
-
-"'Don't bother me,' she said, and continued writing.
-
-"I went through the house and came outside again where I met an
-absent-minded, spectacled man. I told him who I was and of my object
-in coming to the house. Then he showed signs of coming to.
-
-"'Oh, the ghost!' he said. 'That is what brought me here. My wife is
-interested in more tangible, more material things. We have just
-returned from a long journey, and when we were nearly to our
-destination, our place of residence, I happened to read in a paper
-about this haunted house and its apparition, so we came right up here
-this morning to remain overnight and see if the article were true.'
-
-"I told him how successful I had been and he became quite alert and
-enthusiastic. He showed me why I should not have been alarmed, because
-ghosts, he said, were scientific facts. He then explained to me at
-length how the gases from the dead arise and form a nebulous vapor or
-a vaporous nebula. It sounded very simple and plausible when he told
-me, but I can't seem to remember it. Fortunately I have it all down in
-writing."
-
-Silvia's eyes and mine had met in speechless horror since she had
-mentioned the "writing woman."
-
-"Lucien!" Silvia now said in a tragic, hoarse whisper--"the
-Polydores!"
-
-"Oh, do you know them?" asked Miss Frayne. "Dr. Felix Polydore, the
-eminent LL.D. or something like that."
-
-"The whole family are D's," I said.
-
-"His wife is the highest of high-brows, and they are averse to
-interviews. They moved to a small city sometime ago to be secluded.
-Just think of my opportunity! I have them headlined! 'The Haunted
-House of Hope Haven. Ghost that appears at midnight scientifically
-explained by the distinguished Dr. Felix Polydore.'"
-
-"I think we are in luck," I said to Silvia, on second thoughts. "We
-will take them home by the nape of the neck and deliver their children
-into their keeping to have and to hold."
-
-"I can't turn Diogenes over to them," she said plaintively.
-
-"Diogenes!" repeated Miss Frayne in astonishment.
-
-I then narrated to her the history of our next-door neighbors, and how
-they planted their five children upon us.
-
-"We had better go down at once and see them," said Silvia, "before
-they escape. No telling where they might take it in their heads to
-go."
-
-"We will," I said, "we'll go soon after luncheon."
-
-"Thrice blessed haunted house," quoted Rob. "It gave me Beth, and it
-has restored the parents of the wise Ptolemy and 'Them Three.'"
-
-"And gave me a ripping story," said Miss Frayne.
-
-Just then the gong sounded, and after luncheon while I was comfortably
-tipped back in a chair, my feet on the veranda rail, seeing in the
-smoke from my pipe dream visions of Polydoreless days, a faint cry
-from Silvia brought me back to earth.
-
-"Lucien, look!"
-
-I looked.
-
-My chair came down to all fours and my feet slipped from the rail.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI
-
-_Ptolemy's Tale_
-
-
-Four defiant, determined-looking Polydores came up the steps and bore
-down upon us. Then Silvia as usual thought she saw land ahead.
-
-"Oh, boys," she asked hopefully, "did your father send for you to meet
-him here? And when is he going to take you home?"
-
-"Didn't I tell you," I thundered at Ptolemy, "that you were not to
-leave that house--"
-
-"It left us," interrupted Emerald with a grin.
-
-"Went up in smoke," added Pythagoras blithely, "ghost and all."
-
-"Four minutes quicker," said Demetrius, "and it would have took father
-and mother, too."
-
-"Oh, is it the haunted house they are talking about?" asked Miss
-Frayne joyfully. "What a story I'll have!"
-
-Life to Miss Frayne seemed to be one story after another. Well, it was
-certainly becoming the same way to us.
-
-"Did the ghost set fire to the house?" asked Beth.
-
-"What are you all talking about," demanded Silvia, "and how did you
-know these boys were there? How long have you been here?" she asked,
-turning to Ptolemy.
-
-"I told you," I repeated angrily to the subdued boy, "not to leave.
-Those were plain orders. If the house did burn up, you could have
-stayed in your tent in the woods."
-
-Ptolemy's lips twitched faintly.
-
-"The house burned up and all our clothes and our stuff to eat, and our
-bats and things, and father and mother went away and I didn't know
-what to do, so--I came here. But we'll go back to our own house. We
-have learned to cook. Come on, boys."
-
-"You'll stay right here with me, son," and Rob's hand came down
-intimately on Ptolemy's shoulder.
-
-"It isn't likely we'll turn them out into the woods, when they haven't
-a roof over their heads," declared Silvia, drawing Emerald to her
-side.
-
-"I think you are absolutely inhuman, Lucien," cried Beth. "I don't see
-what has changed you so," and she proceeded to make room for
-Pythagoras in the porch swing.
-
-"Did the fire scare you?" asked Miss Frayne gently, as she put her
-arms about Demetrius.
-
-"Et tu, Brute? Well, I plainly see this is no place for an inhuman,
-childless, married man," I said with a laugh, walking down the
-veranda.
-
-In the doorway I met Diogenes, who raised his chubby arms invitingly.
-
-"Up, up, Ocean!" he begged sweetly.
-
-I lifted him to my shoulder, and then turned and walked triumphantly
-back to the family group.
-
-"Now," I said, "here is the whole d-dashed family. And I propose that
-each keep unto his charge the child he has now under his wing."
-
-Miss Frayne quickly relinquished the dirty Demetrius. Beth shrank away
-from Pythagoras.
-
-As I seated myself still holding Diogenes, his brothers sprang toward
-him in greeting, but he spat at one, kicked at another, and pulled the
-hair of a third, although he patted Ptolemy's cheek gently.
-
-"Now, we'll have this affair thrashed out," I declared in my most
-authoritative, professional manner, and I then proceeded to explain to
-Silvia the housing of the Polydores, and our strategies to keep their
-arrival a secret simply on her account.
-
-"Because you know," interpolated Beth, with a consideration for the
-feelings of the young Polydores--a consideration they had never before
-encountered--"we wanted you to have a nice rest."
-
-Silvia looked quite penitent and remorseful for her seeming lack of
-appreciation of our combined efforts. When I had answered all her
-inquiries satisfactorily, Miss Frayne's curiosity regarding the
-progeny of the eminent Polydores had to be fully relieved.
-
-"And do you mean that the scribbling lady I saw at the table is really
-the mother of these five boys?" she asked, unable to grasp the fact.
-
-"Yes; and the father hereof is the man who explained the ghosts to you
-so scientifically that you cannot remember what he said. Now, Ptolemy,
-we'll hear your story of the fire and the whereabouts of your parents.
-Take your time and tell it accurately."
-
-"Well, you see we did just as you said to, and took the ghost out of
-the window and went out to the woods early this morning so as not to
-let the paper lady see us."
-
-"Oh!" cried Miss Frayne, "am I the paper lady? I begin to see
-daylight. Are these boys the ghost perpetrators, and were you in on
-the put-up job?"
-
-"You're a good guesser," I replied.
-
-"And why wasn't I taken into your confidence?"
-
-"For two reasons. First, because your friend Rob said you'd get better
-results for copy--more inspirations and thrills, if you weren't behind
-the scenes on the ghost business,--and then we didn't want to tell you
-about the presence of the Polydores lest inadvertently you betray the
-fact to my wife. Now, proceed, Ptolemy."
-
-"After we were in the woods, I heard an automobile coming down the
-lane, and I went up near the edge of the woods and peeked out behind a
-tree, and pretty soon I saw father and mother come over the hill and
-go in our haunted house, so I came up there and hid under the window
-and heard mother say: 'What an ideal place to write this is. It looks
-as if I might really get a chance to write unmo--'
-
-"'--lested,'" I finished for him.
-
-"I guess so," he allowed. "Well, she began writing, so I didn't go in,
-but when father came outside I went up to him and told him you and
-mudder were at the hotel and that we were all with you. He told me
-they came up here to write an article for some big magazine about the
-ghost. He hired an automobile down at Windy Creek to bring them up to
-the house and the man was going to come back for them tomorrow
-morning. I didn't let on the ghost was a fake, because I thought he'd
-be so disappointed to have all his trouble for nothing, and he'd be
-mad at me for swiping his skull. I told him a paper lady was coming
-and then I went back to the woods. He went down with me to see the
-boys, and he said he would come back and have lunch with us. Mother
-doesn't ever stop to eat at noon when she is writing.
-
-"He went back and talked to the paper lady and pretty soon he came
-down and ate with us. I told him all about how we couldn't get any
-girl to do the work for us and so we had been living with you, and how
-Di got sick and mudder was all worn out taking care of him and came
-down here to rest, and that you wouldn't cash the check, so I did and
-was spending it and he said that was all right." Here Ptolemy flashed
-me a most triumphant glance.
-
-"He said you must be paid for all your expense and trouble, so he made
-out a check and gave it to me and told me to make mudder a nice
-present. He ain't so bad when he ain't thinking about dead stuff. When
-he felt in his pocket for his check book, he found a letter he had got
-yesterday and forgotten to open, so he read it then and found it was
-from some magazine, and the man said he'd pay his and mother's
-expenses to go to Chili and write up some stuff about--something. So
-father said they must go at once."
-
-"Not to Chili!" I exclaimed.
-
-"Yes; we all went up to the house with him and I took mother's pencil
-and paper away so she would have to listen. She was wild for Chili,
-and I had to go and hunt up a farmer who had a machine to take them
-down to Windy Creek. Father signed another blank check for you and
-said you could board us with it or do anything you thought best.
-
-"Then mother took a lot of papers out of her bag, some stuff she had
-written and didn't get suited with, and she stuffed them in the stove
-and set fire to them. Then we all went down to the lane to see father
-and mother off and when we got back the house was on fire. The chimney
-burned out."
-
-"Guess mother must have written some hot stuff," said Emerald.
-
-"It was burning so fast," continued Ptolemy, "that we didn't dast go
-in to save anything and all our food and clothes and balls and bats
-and fishing tackle are gone, and we didn't know what to do, or what to
-eat, and so--we came here."
-
-"You did just right, Ptolemy," I admitted. "I shouldn't have called
-you down--not until I heard your story, anyway."
-
-I held out my hand, which he shook solemnly, but with an injured air.
-
-"Do you mean to tell me," asked Miss Frayne, "that your father and
-mother went away without seeing the baby?"
-
-Ptolemy flushed a little.
-
-"You see," he explained apologetically, "mother gets woolly when she
-writes and she's forgotten there's Di. She thinks Demetrius is the
-youngest. She's mad about writing. If she sees a blank paper
-anywhere, she ain't happy until she has written something on it, and
-the sight of a pencil makes her fingers itch."
-
-[Illustration: I held out my hand, which he shook solemnly, but with an
-injured air]
-
-"Take warning, Miss Frayne," I said, "and don't get too literary."
-
-"Some day," resumed Ptolemy, "mother'll get the antiques all out of
-her system and then she'll remember us."
-
-I liked the boy's defense of his mother, and I began to see that Rob
-was right in thinking there were possibilities in the lad, but it was
-Silvia's influence that had developed them, for in the days when he
-borrowed soup plates of us, there had been no redeeming trait that I
-could discern.
-
-And while I was recalling this, I heard Silvia saying to him kindly:
-"And in the meantime, I'll be 'mudder' to you."
-
-"So will I," chimed in Beth.
-
-"I'll be a big brother," offered Rob.
-
-"I'll be next friend, Ptolemy," I contributed.
-
-Strange to say, my offer seemed to make the most impression on him. He
-came to me and gazed into my eyes earnestly.
-
-"I'll do just as you say," he promised.
-
-"Where do we'uns come in?" asked Pythagoras, with one of his satanic
-grins.
-
-Miss Frayne saved the day.
-
-"You all come in with me," she said, "and have lunch. I haven't eaten
-since breakfast, and I understand there is warm ginger cake and
-huckleberry pie. Aren't you hungry?"
-
-"You bet," spoke up Pythagoras. "We only had coffee, peanuts, and
-beans down in the woods, and father ate the beans and drank all the
-coffee."
-
-"We're out of the frying pan into the fire," said Silvia woefully,
-when we were alone.
-
-"I wish the Polydore parents had gone up in smoke," I declared.
-
-"Then your last hope of getting rid of the children would have gone up
-in smoke, too," argued Beth.
-
-"No; in case of the demise of their parents, we could have turned them
-over body and soul to the probate court," I informed her.
-
-"We will fill out this blank check for any amount, Lucien," declared
-Silvia, "that will induce a housekeeper to take charge of their house.
-I shall keep Diogenes, though, until he is older."
-
-"I wouldn't mind Ptolemy, either," I admitted. "I shall be interested
-in seeing what I can make of him, and he hasn't a bad influence over
-Diogenes, but I'll be hanged if anything would induce me to have 'Them
-Three' Chessy cats running wild over us. They can live in their house
-alone, or be put in a reformatory. We won't have them. We're under no
-obligations, pecuniary or moral, to look after them."
-
-"I think, Lucien, we might as well go home now. We've had a good rest
-and a good time, and I am anxious to be back and see how Huldah is
-getting on."
-
-As Huldah had never mastered two of the three R's, we had not been
-able to receive any reports from her.
-
-"I'll tell you what we'll do," proposed Beth. "Rob and I will take all
-the Polydores save Diogenes, and go home tomorrow and prepare the
-house and Huldah for the overflow. Then you two can come on with
-Diogenes the next day."
-
-"Good idea, Beth!" I approved. "I'd hate to face Huldah, unprepared,
-with the return of the Polydores _en masse_."
-
-"I am glad," said Silvia, "that Huldah has been having a rest from
-them for a few days."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII
-
-_All About Uncle Issachar's Visit_
-
-
-The next morning's stage carried seven passengers to Windy Creek, as
-Miss Frayne with a big roll of "copy" also took her departure.
-
-Diogenes had been quite docile and amenable to my rule since the
-licking I gave him, so we had a pleasant and comfortable return
-journey on the following day.
-
-"I hope, Lucien," said Silvia, "you won't refuse to cash this check
-for a good amount. The Polydore parents may never show up, and it's
-only right we should be reimbursed for their keep."
-
-"I will cash it," I assured her, "and use it for a housekeeper or else
-send the boys off to a school. I should like very much to have it out
-with Felix Polydore, but, as you suggest, I may never have the
-opportunity to see him at close range."
-
-Beth, Rob, and Ptolemy met us at the station.
-
-"Where are 'Them Three'?" I asked hopefully.
-
-"Huldah is feeding them little pies hot from the kettle--the kind she
-cooks like doughnuts, you know."
-
-"Huldah cooking for 'Them Three'!" I exclaimed. "She must have passed
-into her second childhood. She grudged them even an apple to piece
-on."
-
-"She has pampered them ever since our return," said Rob.
-
-"Poor Huldah! She must indeed be afflicted with softening of the
-brain," I decided.
-
-"She has probably been so lonely, shut in here by herself," said
-Silvia, "that even 'Them Three' looked good to her."
-
-In the hallway Huldah met us. She was beaming with pleasure, but
-except in her bearing toward the children, she was quite normal.
-
-"We've all had a real good rest," she observed, "and you do look so
-well, Mrs. Wade. My! but this place has been lonesome. I'm glad we're
-all together again."
-
-"Now, Silvia, shut your eyes," directed Beth, "and come into the
-library. Ptolemy has bought you a present with the check his father
-gave him."
-
-"Beth helped me pick it out," said Ptolemy.
-
-Beth led the way into the library, and we followed.
-
-"Open your eyes."
-
-Silvia gave a little cry of pleasure, and looking over her shoulder, I
-beheld a baby grand piano.
-
-"Oh, Ptolemy!" she cried, giving him a fervent kiss and fond hug, "I
-can never let you do so much."
-
-"Oh, yes," he said, flushing a little under the endearments which were
-doubtless the first ever bestowed upon him. "Father's got a whole lot
-of money grandpa left him and it's fixed so he can't draw out only so
-much each year. He said the board and bother of us was worth more than
-this and we'll all enjoy the music. But Thag and Em and Dem ain't to
-touch it. I'll knock tar out of the first one that comes near it."
-
-I was disconsolate. I didn't see how we could return it and I didn't
-want the Polydore web woven any tighter. To think of Silvia's
-receiving from them what it had been my longing to give her! But as I
-was to learn later, she was to acquire much more than a piano from the
-eminent family.
-
-After dinner Silvia asked Huldah to come in and hear the music, and
-when Silvia's repertoire was exhausted, we gave our faithful servant
-all the little details of our trip which Beth had not supplied.
-
-"Now tell us, Huldah, how things went along here," said Silvia.
-
-"Well, you think some wonderful things happened to you all on your
-trip mebby--ghosts and proposals," looking at Beth and Rob, "and fires
-and Polydores, but back here in this quiet house something happened
-that has your ghosts and things skinned by a mile."
-
-"Oh, dear!" cried Silvia apprehensively, "what is it?"
-
-"Break it very gently, Huldah," I cautioned. "You know we've borne a
-good deal."
-
-"Your uncle Issachar was here for a couple of days."
-
-She certainly had made a sensation.
-
-"Not Uncle Issachar! Not here?" exclaimed Silvia incredulously.
-
-"Yes, ma'am. He came the next day after Beth and Mr. Rossiter and
-Polly left. I told him you'd gone away for a little vacation and rest.
-I didn't let on that I knew where you had gone, because I didn't want
-him straggling up there, too, or sending for you to come back. He said
-your absence would make no difference to his plans; that he never let
-nothing do that. He come to pay a visit and he should pay one."
-
-"Yes," said Silvia feebly. "That sounds like Uncle Issachar."
-
-"I told him to make himself perfectly at home; that every one did that
-to this place, and he said he would. I'd just slicked up the big front
-room upstairs and I seen to it that he had everything all right. I
-cooked the best dinner I knew how, and he said it was the first white
-man's meal he had eat since his ma died, so I found out what she used
-to cook and fed him on it. Them three kids and him eat like they was
-holler. I guess if Polly hadn't took them away your grocery bill would
-'a looked like Barb'ry Allen's grave.
-
-"Well, as I was saying, your uncle he eat till he got over his
-grouches, and like enough he'd be here eating yet, if he hadn't got a
-telegraph to hit the line for home, some big business deal, he said,
-and I guess it was a great deal, for he licked his chops and smacked
-his lips over it, and he give me a ten dollar bill to get a new dress
-and each of Them Three one dollar fer candy."
-
-"The old tightwad!" I exclaimed. "It was your cooking, sure, that made
-him loosen up that way."
-
-"Tightwad nothing!" she declared indignantly. "You won't think he was
-tight-wadded when you read this here letter he left for you. He told
-me what was in it, and I've just been busting to tell it to Beth, but
-I waited for you to know it first."
-
-With great excitement Silvia opened the letter, read it, gasped,
-re-read it, and then in consternation handed it to me.
-
-"Read it aloud, Lucien," she bade. "Maybe I can believe it then."
-
-This was the letter.
-
- "My dear Niece:
-
- "I was sorry not to see you, but glad to learn that, as every wise
- and good woman should do, you are raising a fine family--a family
- of _sons_, which is what our country most needs. Your son
- Pythagoras informed me that you had taken your oldest child,
- Ptolemy, and your youngest, Diogenes, with you, I am glad you left
- three such promising samples for me to see.
-
- "As you have five sons, I have, agreeable to my promise, placed in
- your name in the First National Bank of your city the sum of
- twenty-five thousand dollars.
-
- "Your affectionate uncle,
- "Issachar Innes."
-
-"Huldah," I asked, "did you tell him the Polydores were our
-children?"
-
-"Me?" she repeated indignantly. "Me tell a lie like that! No; I didn't
-get no chance to tell him anything about them. 'Them Three' done the
-telling. The first thing that one"--pointing to Pythagoras--"said was,
-'Mudder went away and took the baby, Diogenes, with her.' And then
-that next one"--indicating Emerald--"said: 'Yes, and our oldest
-brother, Ptolemy, went on with Beth to see them.'
-
-"The old gent asked them all their names and ages and he was so
-pleased and said he thought it was just fine for you to raise five
-sons, so I didn't have no heart to tell him no different. 'Twan't none
-of my business anyhow. Then 'Them Three' kept talking about stepdaddy,
-and your Uncle Issachar asks 'Who the devil is he? Did my niece marry
-again?' And I told him as how Mr. Wade was all the husband you ever
-had, and that stepdaddy was nothing but a sort of pet-name the kids
-had give Mr. Wade."
-
-"I told him," said Demetrius, "that stepdaddy was cross to us
-sometimes and not as nice as mudder, and he said--"
-
-"You shut up," commanded Huldah quickly, "and let me talk."
-
-"No," I intercepted, "I'd really be interested in hearing what he told
-Uncle Issachar. What was it, Demetrius, that your great-uncle said to
-you?"
-
-"He said," stated the imp, darting his tongue out in triumph at his
-victory over Huldah, "that he always thought you was a stiff."
-
-"He didn't say nothing of the kind!" declared Huldah. "He said you was
-stiff-necked, and that he presumed you would act more like a
-stepfather than the real thing. Well, as I was saying, he asked their
-names, and he liked them fine. Said they were so classy."
-
-"Didn't he say classic, Huldah?" inquired Rob.
-
-"Mebby. What's the difference?" snapped Huldah.
-
-"None," I assured her quickly, dodging a definition.
-
-"She told him--" began Emerald.
-
-"You shut up," again adjured Huldah, "or I'll never bake you one of
-those small pies no more."
-
-"Oh, please, Huldah," I coaxed. "Let us hear everything. I've always
-told you my life's secrets, and I don't mind what you or the boys told
-him."
-
-"Well, I suppose what he was going to tattle was that I thought the
-old gent might feel hurt, 'cause none of them was named after him, so
-I told him Polly's middle name was Issachar."
-
-"Why, Huldah," remonstrated Silvia.
-
-"Well, he's always wanted a middle name, and he's never been baptized,
-so you can stick it in and have him ducked next Sunday and then that
-will square that. 'Them Three' stuck to him like a hive of bees, and I
-was scairt for fear they'd let the cat out of the bag, and so long as
-they had put it in, I thought it might just as well stay in, but they
-were just as slick as grease in all they said. They'll hang in that
-rogues' gallery yet."
-
-"I suppose they were pretty--strenuous," said Silvia with a sigh.
-
-"They was more than that. The first afternoon right after dinner when
-he was sitting on the front porch, sleeping peaceful and snoring, that
-there one--" pointing to Pythagoras--
-
-"Tattle-tale!" he began, but I administered a cuff and he subsided
-into surprised silence.
-
-[Illustration: "He went to the front window and dropped a young kitten
-down on the old gent's head."]
-
-"He," said Huldah, looking pleased at this little attention to the
-boy, "went to the front window and dropped a young kitten down on the
-old gent's head. It clawed something fierce. We had just got things
-going smooth again when Emmy got one of his earaches. I roasted an
-onion and put in his ear, and what did he do but take it out of his
-ear and slip it down your poor uncle's back."
-
-"Why didn't you beat them?" I asked indignantly.
-
-"Because the old gent did that. He put 'em across his knee, and
-believe me, it was some licking they caught. They didn't let out a
-whimper and that pleased him."
-
-"Huh!" said Emerald. "Thag don't know how to cry. He hasn't got any
-tears, and old Uncle Iz didn't hurt me, because, you see, when I heard
-Thag getting his, I went and stuffed the Declaration of Independence,
-that book of stepdaddy's that Demetrius tore the pictures out of, in
-my pants."
-
-"Go on!" urged Rob delightedly. "What else did you all do? Uncle must
-have had some time. It would make a fine scenario. 'The first visit of
-the rich uncle.'"
-
-"Well," resumed Huldah. "One of 'em put red pepper in the old man's
-bed, and he like to sneeze his head off, but he said as how sneezing
-was healthy, and showed you'd got rid of a cold."
-
-"He never got on to the pepper," said Demetrius gleefully.
-
-"In the morning, that second one put a toad in his new uncle's pocket,
-and Emmy broke his specs. Then Meetie he dropped his watch. They used
-his razor to cut the lawn with. And then they took him down to the
-creek to go fishing, and they put the fish in Uncle's silk hat, and
-and----"
-
-"Stop!" implored Silvia, who was now in tears. "Uncle Issachar
-believes them mine! Ours! And that I brought them up! Oh, why did we
-ever go away?"
-
-"Oh, pshaw," exclaimed Huldah comfortingly, "he said you had brung
-them up fine; that they were no mollycoddles or Lizzie boys, and he
-didn't suppose you had so much sense as to leave them natural."
-
-"A left-handed one for mudder," laughed Beth.
-
-"He must be a very peculiar man--ready for the asylum, I should say,"
-commented Rob.
-
-"He would have been if he'd stayed any longer, or else I would have
-been," declared Huldah.
-
-"Couldn't you make them behave, someway?" asked Silvia.
-
-"Well, at first I tried to, and every time I pinched one of 'em when
-the old gent wasn't looking, or knocked 'em down when I got 'em alone,
-they would threaten to tell who they was, and then when I seen how
-your uncle liked the way they acted, I just let 'em go it, head on.
-And seeing as how they each brung you five thousand, I've treated 'em
-best I know how. They're worth it, now. They done one thing more that
-was awful. Could you stand it to hear?" turning to Silvia.
-
-"Please, Silvia," implored Rob.
-
-"Well," argued Silvia faintly. "I suppose we might as well know the
-worst."
-
-"You see the old gent didn't always get up to breakfast with the kids
-and one morning when I brought in the cakes Emmy looked up and
-grinned. I nearly dropped the plate. He had both sets of the old man's
-false teeth in his mouth. I got 'em back in his room without his
-waking, but I'd have liked a picture of Emmy."
-
-"Pythagoras," I demanded, when we had recovered from this recital,
-"why didn't you tell him who you were, and how you all came to be
-here with us?"
-
-"Because she is our mudder, and we are going to stay with her, always.
-We've got a snap. So has father and mother. And Ptolemy told us that
-if you ever got any kids, you'd get five thousand each for them, and I
-thought we'd just make that much for you. So we played Uncle Iz for
-it. Easy money, all right, all right."
-
-"Talk about fine financiering," quoth Rob. "'Them Three' will surely
-land on Wall Street."
-
-But poor Silvia had no heart for humor and was weeping silently.
-
-"Why, look here, my dear," I said in consolation, "this is a very
-simple matter to adjust. In the morning when you feel better, just
-write a full explanation of the affair and inclose your check for
-twenty-five thousand."
-
-Silvia quickly wiped away her tears.
-
-"I'll do it tonight, Lucien. I feel better now. I never thought of
-writing."
-
-Huldah and "Them Three" looked most lugubrious.
-
-"The old skinflint won't miss it as much as I would a penny," declared
-our faithful handmaiden. "And I'm sure you've earnt that twenty-five
-thousand if anyone ever did. You've had as much care and worry about
-them brats as you would if they'd been your own."
-
-"Huldah," I said severely, "there is a pretty stiff penalty for
-obtaining money under false pretences."
-
-"After all the pains we took to make things lively for him, so he
-wouldn't get bored and think he was having a poor time!" regretted
-Pythagoras.
-
-"And us watching every word we spoke so as not to give it away,"
-wailed Emerald.
-
-"Cake's all dough," muttered Demetrius.
-
-Ptolemy regarded the three disapprovingly. He had the old inscrutable
-look, the look that foreboded mischief, in his eyes.
-
-"You bungled, you fool kids!" he said in disgust, "and Huldah, what
-did you want to let on to mudder for that he thought we was hers? You
-ought to have torn up the note he left and just said he'd put
-twenty-five thousand in the bank for her."
-
-"Huh! you're just jealous because you weren't in the Uncle Izzy deal
-yourself," jeered Pythagoras. "You always think you're the only one
-that can do anything right."
-
-"I wish you had been here, Polly," said Huldah, "I am sure you could
-have worked it through somehow."
-
-"I wish I had stayed and put it across," he answered. "If you and the
-kids would only learn not to blab everything you know. It's the only
-way to work anything. Minute you tell a thing, it's all off."
-
-There was still a great deal of development work to be put on
-Ptolemy's moral standard.
-
-"You'll find, my lad," remonstrated Rob, "that honesty is the best
-policy."
-
-"I'd have been perfectly honest about it," he defended. "I would have
-told him the truth, and how our parents had deserted us, and how
-mudder took us in when we were homeless and was bringing us up like
-her own because she hadn't got any, and how stepdaddy wanted to turn
-us out, and she wouldn't let him, and then he would have decided
-against stepdaddy and given mudder the money so she could keep us."
-
-"Ptolemy," I said warningly, "there is a way of telling the truth, or
-rather of coloring white lies with enough truth to make them deceive,
-that is more dishonorable than an out and out lie."
-
-"Tell me, Ptolemy," asked Silvia, "how did you know about that offer
-of five thousand dollars for each child?"
-
-"I overheard it," he said guardedly; "but I can't remember where."
-
-"He heard me say so," confessed Huldah.
-
-"It was when he first come here and he was making us so much trouble,
-and I told him it was too bad we had to have other folks' brats around
-when, if we only had our own, they'd be bringing in something."
-
-The recital now broke up and Silvia sat down to write a long
-explanatory letter to Uncle Issachar. The next morning I procured her
-a check from the First National Bank and she filled it out.
-
-"Oh!" she said with indrawn breath, when she had asked me how to write
-twenty-five thousand dollars, "I never expected to be able to sign my
-name to a check for such an amount."
-
-"You never will again, I fear," was my sad prophecy.
-
-"It must feel rich," said Beth, "just to have a large check pass
-through your fingers."
-
-"Them Three" came the nearest to tears that they were able to do.
-
-"We worked so hard for it," they sighed.
-
-"So did I!" muttered Huldah.
-
-"I couldn't live a double life," declared Silvia.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII
-
-_In Which I Decide on Extreme Measures_
-
-
-Everyone in our house, which was now filled to overflowing--in fact,
-there were Polydores on sofas and in beds on the floor--save Silvia
-and myself, was on the alert for a response to the letter during the
-succeeding few days. Knowing Uncle Issachar, we felt sure he would
-make no response, or notice the matter in any way save to cash the
-check promptly.
-
-The monotony was somewhat relieved by the difficulties under which
-Beth and Rob were pursuing their courtship. On the third evening
-succeeding our return, Silvia and I started upstairs early to give
-them a chance to have the exclusive use of the library, the Polydores
-having all been sent to bed. As we were making some plausible excuse
-for going to our room, Beth remarked with a smile:
-
-"Your motive in retiring so early is commendable, but of no particular
-benefit to Rob and me. The Polydores, like the poor, we always have
-with us."
-
-"I saw that every one of them except Ptolemy was in bed at eight
-o'clock last night and the night before," said Silvia. "You don't mean
-to tell me--"
-
-"Yes, I do mean," laughed Beth. "Not Ptolemy, though. He has become
-too dignified to spy on us, but last night as we sat here on the
-settee, we heard a suppressed sneeze, and Rob pulled Emerald from
-underneath."
-
-"How in the world did he ever squeeze under there?" I asked, gazing at
-the slight space between the floor and settee.
-
-[Illustration: "We heard a suppressed sneeze, and Rob pulled Emerald from
-underneath."]
-
-"He did look a little flattened, as if he had been put in a letter
-press," said Rob. "I gave him a dime to go to bed and stay there. Beth
-and I had just resumed our conversation when a still, small voice
-said: 'I'll go to bed for a dime, too.' I then hauled Demetrius from
-behind the davenport."
-
-"And the night before," said Beth, "when we were sitting on the porch,
-Pythagoras rolled off the roof, where he had been listening to us, and
-came down into the vines."
-
-"Now I'll stop that," I declared. "I'll tie them in their beds and
-lock the doors and windows."
-
-"No," refused Rob. "I'd like to try to circumvent them by their own
-weapons of wits. I have a little plan which I don't dare whisper to
-you lest their long-range ears get in their work. We are just about to
-start for a walk."
-
-"In this pouring rain!" protested Silvia.
-
-"We like the rain," he replied, "and we--are not going far."
-
-Pythagoras entered the room just then and looked astounded and
-disappointed when he saw Beth and Rob departing.
-
-"We are going out to a small party," Rob remarked to me, casually.
-
-It was after eleven when we heard them returning.
-
-"Do you suppose they have been walking all this time?" said Silvia in
-concern. "Beth wore no rubbers."
-
-The next day was Sunday and Huldah put into execution a plan for
-procuring one happy hour each week. This plan was the admission of the
-Polydores, _en masse_, to one of the Sunday schools. She chose the
-church most remote from home so they would be a long time going and
-coming, which she said would "help some."
-
-"Now," said Beth, as she watched them march away, "I can dare to tell
-you where we spent last evening. We were at the Polydore house next
-door. There is a little vine-screened porch on the other side of the
-house. Rob managed to open one of the windows and brought out a couple
-of chairs. It was as snug as could be."
-
-"I'll corral them every night," I said, "until you make your getaway,
-and I'll give you the key so you can go inside when it is cool or
-stormy."
-
-"We'll go around the block by way of precaution," said Rob.
-
-Presently Huldah returned from the Sunday school with triumphant
-mien.
-
-"They made them all into one class and put a redheaded woman with
-spectacles in for their teacher. I gave them street car tickets to
-come home on."
-
-When the Polydores returned, however, they were dragging Diogenes
-along and he looked quite weary.
-
-"Didn't you come home on the street car?" I asked Ptolemy.
-
-"No; we sold our tickets and got ice cream sodas," he explained. "We
-took turns carrying Diogenes on our backs."
-
-"You only had one ticket for yourself, and two half fares for Thag and
-Emmy," said Huldah suspiciously. "I thought Meetie and Di could ride
-free. You couldn't have sold them tickets for enough for sodies."
-
-"Rob gave us three nickels to put in the plate," said Pythagoras. "We
-only put in one of them, seeing we were all in one family and one
-class. That gave us four nickels for ice cream sodas and the clerk
-gave Di half a glass some one had left."
-
-"I gave you a penny for Di to put in," said Huldah. "What did you do
-with that?"
-
-"We wanted him to put it in, and when they took up the collection, he
-wouldn't give it," said Emerald. "I tried to take it away from him
-and he swallowed it. The redhead teacher was awful scared, but I told
-her he was used to swallowing things and that you said he carried a
-whole department store in his insides."
-
-"Poor little Di," said Silvia; "it's the only way he has of keeping
-things away from you all."
-
-That night I saw to it personally that each and every Polydore was in
-his little bed. It should have aroused my suspicions that none of them
-rebelled, or had evinced the slightest degree of interest or curiosity
-when Beth and Rob announced their intention of going out for the
-evening.
-
-At ten-thirty the lovers returned, bringing in Pythagoras, who was
-clad in his pajamas.
-
-"Where did you pick him up?" I asked in astonishment.
-
-"He picked us up," said Beth.
-
-"He was wise, maybe, in discovering where we were," said Rob, "but he
-fell down when he tried to work off the ghost screeches on us. We
-recognized them at once, and ran him down inside, so our party broke
-up."
-
-"Come here, Pythagoras," I commanded.
-
-He obeyed promptly and fearlessly.
-
-"How did you know they were there, and when did you go over there?"
-
-"I was playing over in our house today," he replied, "and I found one
-of Beth's hairpins with the little stones in, in the big chair, so I
-knew that was where they hid last night. As soon as you went down
-stairs tonight, I got out the window and slid down the roof and came
-over to scare them."
-
-"You've missed a lot of sleep the last few nights," I said quietly,
-"so you will have to make it up. You can stay in bed all day
-tomorrow."
-
-"Hold on, Lucien!" exclaimed Rob. "Tomorrow's the big baseball game of
-the season, and I promised to take them all."
-
-"So much the better," I said. "He will learn to mind."
-
-Pythagoras looked as if he had been struck, and quickly put his arms
-across his eyes. In a moment his shoulders were heaving. At last I had
-found a vulnerable spot in the stoic, and I began to relent.
-
-"See here, Pythagoras," I said, "if I let you up in time to go to the
-game, will you promise me something?"
-
-"Anything," came in a muffled voice.
-
-"Will you promise not to spy on Beth and Rob and keep Emerald and
-Demetrius from doing it?"
-
-"Yes," he promised quickly, his arm coming down and his face
-brightening. "Sure I will, but I did want to hear what they said."
-
-"Why?" asked Rob interestedly.
-
-"We're getting up a show, and Em is going to take the part of a girl
-and he spoons with Tolly, and we didn't know what to have them say to
-each other."
-
-"I'll rehearse you on the play, and prompt you," said Beth with a
-little giggle.
-
-"Come on upstairs with me now," I said to Pythagoras.
-
-When I landed him at his door, he leaned up against me, and rubbed his
-cheek against my arm.
-
-"Thank you for letting me go to the game," he said.
-
-I found myself responding to his affectionate advance. This would
-clearly never do. I couldn't let another Polydore squeeze himself into
-my regard.
-
-"Silvia," I said abruptly, as I came into our room, "we must really
-make some immediate plan for disposing of the Polydores, or, at
-least, of 'Them Three.'"
-
-"Huldah is managing them tolerably well," demurred Silvia. "Since they
-depreciated in market value from five thousand per to nothing, she has
-resumed her former harsh treatment of them."
-
-"Well, we are not going to keep them," I replied with finality. "We
-are under no obligations to do so. I am going to put them in a school
-for boys and use the blank check Felix Polydore left to pay for their
-tuition."
-
-"I suppose that is what we will have to do," she admitted with a
-little sigh. "Yet, Lucien, it doesn't seem quite right. If they are in
-a boys' school, they will keep on right along the same lines. They
-need home influence and contact with women. Demetrius is fond of music
-and will sit still and listen when I play. Emerald obeyed me today the
-first time I spoke, and I even thought I saw a glimmer of good in
-Pythagoras."
-
-I didn't tell her that this glimmer was what had decided me to dispose
-of him.
-
-"It would, doubtless, be better for them to stay," I admitted, "but I
-am not going to be a martyr to the cause. They are going."
-
-The next morning I wrote for catalogues and prospectus to the
-different schools, and I felt as if three old men of the sea had been
-lifted from my shoulders.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX
-
-_Which Has to Do with Some Letters_
-
-
-One morning when I came down to my office, I found a letter postmarked
-from the city in which Uncle Issachar lived addressed to me. I opened
-it and found inclosed, with seal unbroken, the letter Silvia had
-mailed to her uncle and which she had marked "personal." There was a
-note addressed to me accompanying it:
-
- "Dear Sir:
-
- "I am returning herewith your personal letter to Mr. Innes, as he
- has gone to South America and left no forwarding address. Should
- such be received from him at any future date, you will be duly
- notified thereof.
-
- "Very truly yours,
- "Chester K. Winslow,
- "Secretary."
-
-I read the above to Silvia at luncheon. She was grievously disappointed
-because her uncle had not received her letter of explanation.
-
-"It is most fortunate," she said, "that I sent it in one of your
-office envelopes."
-
-As usual, she had found the bright spot she always looked for and
-generally discovered.
-
-"I wouldn't care," she said, "to have Uncle Issachar's private
-secretary or the dead-letter office know all our private affairs, but
-I shall feel like an impostor until Uncle Issachar is undeceived."
-
-"I feel a hunch," said Rob, "that Uncle Issachar will run across
-Doctor Felix and his wife down there in Chili and find you out."
-
-"He may run across the Polydores," I replied, "but he'll never find
-out from them that they are the parents of Silvia's children. They
-would not mention a subject in which they have so little interest."
-
-"But," argued Beth, "naturally they'd tell him where they lived, and
-then, of course, he'd say he had a niece living in the same town. They
-would inquire her name and inform him that they were her near
-neighbors, and then he'd tell them what fine sons you have, and then,
-of course, the Polydores would claim their own."
-
-"Which theory goes to show," said Silvia, "how little you know Uncle
-Issachar and the Polydore seniors. He would not think of speaking to
-strangers, and if he did, he wouldn't say any of those usual
-conversational things you mentioned. The Polydores wouldn't be
-interested, in the least, in knowing he had a niece unless she
-happened to know something about antiques, and if he should describe
-her children, she wouldn't recognize them."
-
-After luncheon I went out on the porch. While I sat there, the mail
-carrier came along and handed me a letter--a returned letter. It was
-directed in Ptolemy's round hand to Mr. Issachar Innes. He had
-evidently used the envelope to Silvia's letter to her uncle as his
-model, for the address was written in the same way. "Personal" was
-added in the left-hand corner, and his name and our house number was
-in the upper left-hand corner.
-
-I went into the library where my wife, Beth, Rob, and Ptolemy were
-sitting.
-
-"Ptolemy," I said, handing him the letter, "here is your communication
-to Uncle Issachar, returned."
-
-He lost some of his usual _sang froid_ and appeared quite disconcerted.
-
-"Why, Ptolemy," exclaimed Silvia in consternation, "what in the world
-did you write to Uncle Issachar about?"
-
-Ptolemy had recovered and was quite himself again.
-
-"About us," he said innocently. "As the oldest of our family, I
-thought I ought to do a little explaining."
-
-"And I think," I said, looking at him keenly, "that we have the right
-to know what your explanation was."
-
-Ptolemy handed me over the letter.
-
-"Read it aloud," he said, with the air of one who is proud of his
-productions.
-
-Rob's eyes shone in anticipation.
-
-I broke the seal. A note from the secretary fell out. It was an
-apology for not returning the letter sooner, but it had been
-inadvertently mislaid. I then read aloud the letter Ptolemy had
-written:
-
- "Dear Uncle Issachar
-
- "I am sorry Diogenes and I were away when you were here. You
- thought the others were fine, but you should have seen--Diogenes.
- I hope you will send mudder back her check, because there is lots
- of things she needs, and it takes a lot of money to take care of
- all us. You see our own father and mother don't want to be
- bothered with us and they went away and left us, and so we are
- living with mudder the same as if we were really her adopted
- children, and if her own would have been worth five thousand per
- to you, I think her adopted children ought to be worth half as
- much anyway, so it would only be fair to send her a check for
- $12,500 anyway, and if you are a good sport like the kids said you
- were, you'll send back her check.
-
- "Yours truly,
- "P. Issachar Polydore Wade."
-
-Rob's laughter was so free and spontaneous that I had to join in
-against my will. Ptolemy, who had seemed a little apprehensive of the
-verdict, looked accordingly relieved.
-
-"That's a fine letter, young man," approved Rob. "Stepdaddy ought to
-take you into his law firm."
-
-"No," declared Beth. "I think Ptolemy has inherited his mother's gift.
-He should be a writer."
-
-"Not on your life!" cried Ptolemy with feeling. "I want to live
-things instead of writing about them."
-
-A tear or two came into Silvia's eyes.
-
-"It was very sweet in you, Ptolemy, to try to get the money for
-mudder."
-
-I felt that all this commendation was bad for Ptolemy, and that it was
-up to me to take a reef in his sails.
-
-"It was a well-meant letter, Ptolemy," I said, "and I know that your
-motive was unselfish, but it is very poor policy to meddle in other
-people's affairs. Meddlers are mischief makers in spite of their good
-intentions. I am very glad it did not fall into Uncle Issachar's
-hands."
-
-Ptolemy looked sufficiently squelched.
-
-"By the way, Silvia," I said. "I wrote Mr. Winslow and told him not to
-forget to forward Uncle Issachar's address as soon as he possibly
-could do so, as I had matters of importance to communicate to him."
-
-"He may travel about like father and mother," said Ptolemy, again
-regaining confidence, "so why don't you put that check for twenty-five
-thousand in the Savings Department and get the interest on it
-anyway?"
-
-"I think, Ptolemy," said Rob, "that you are too good a financier,
-after all, to become a lawyer. I will go back to my first conviction
-that you should be a promoter."
-
-"We'll give him to Uncle Issachar," I proposed, "for a partner."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX
-
-_"The Money We Earnt for You"_
-
-
-Life went on uneventfully save for the dire doings of "Them Three."
-Knowing that they were to be sent to school, they were having their
-last fling at life untrammeled. September came, and Rob set the day
-for his departure, as he was going home to arrange his affairs, so he
-and Beth could leave for an extended honeymoon trip. I planned to go
-with Rob and install the Polydore three in their distant school. They
-were so despondent at leaving, as the time drew near, that a feeling
-of gloom hung over the household, all the members of which, even to
-Huldah, urged me to relent. But I remained adamant until the evening
-before the day set for the dissolution of the Polydore family, when
-something happened that changed all our plans.
-
-We were assembled in the library in a state of forced cheerfulness
-when the doorbell rang. I answered it, and receipted for a telegram
-which I opened and read in the hall. It was from Chester K. Winslow.
-
-"Silvia," I said gravely, as I returned to the library, "your Uncle
-Issachar is dead. Died in South America. Heart disease. Very sudden."
-
-Conflicting emotions were depicted in Silvia's expression.
-
-The thought uppermost in all our minds was expressed simultaneously by
-"Them Three."
-
-"Gee! Then you can keep the money we earnt for you."
-
-"You know," interpolated Rob in soft-pedaled tone, "they are going to
-train school children toward the military--teach the young ideas how
-to shoot, as it were. It won't be long before they are ordered to
-Mexico to protect us."
-
-"If Them Three ever meets that there Viller man," commented Huldah
-confidently, "the fur will fly some."
-
-"Lucien," said Silvia thoughtfully, "we are under obligations to these
-children, you see, after all."
-
-"Yes," I acknowledged with a sigh, "seeing they are now ours, bought
-and paid for, I suppose we'll have to treat them as such."
-
-"You wouldn't send your own kids away to school," said Pythagoras
-significantly.
-
-"No," I reluctantly allowed, answering the protest of Pythagoras, "and
-we won't send you. You will all go to the public school tomorrow."
-
-The deafening Polydore powwow that followed made me hope that Uncle
-Issachar had met with his just deserts.
-
-
-
-
-"By the author of Mildew Manse."
-
-AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
-
-By BELLE K. MANIATES
-
-Illustrated. 12mo. $1.00 net.
-
-A book for the many who are weary of problem novels. How prosperity came
-to the Jenkins family, how Amarilly got an education, how the Boarder
-married Lily Rose and built the Annex, and the adventures of the rector's
-surplice, are told in a wholesome little story, between whose covers await
-many laughs, and a tear or two as well.
-
-Amarilly is blessed with a large family and amiable neighbors, and their
-doings are amusing, but her fancies and devices are captivating.... The
-little heroine is all right.--_New York Sun._
-
-The sort of story which pulls at the heartstrings of all readers who like
-a real and genuine character.... No one can afford to miss the sweet humor
-and helpful cheeriness which the author serves in generous
-measure.--_Boston Globe_.
-
-"Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley" is a dear companion for vacation days
-and comes deservedly under the books of real amusement.... Dear Amarilly!
-she brightens every hour spent with her.--_Buffalo News_.
-
-LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers
-
-34 Beacon Street, Boston
-
-
-
-
-
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