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diff --git a/36018.txt b/36018.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3517aae --- /dev/null +++ b/36018.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7018 @@ +Project Gutenberg's At Boarding School with the Tucker Twins, by Nell Speed + +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: At Boarding School with the Tucker Twins + +Author: Nell Speed + +Release Date: May 2, 2011 [EBook #36018] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT BOARDING SCHOOL *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, +Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "Do you know, Miss Dum, you looked like Diana when you +stood on that rock?"--_Page 230._] + + + + +AT BOARDING SCHOOL WITH THE TUCKER TWINS + +By NELL SPEED + +AUTHOR OF "THE MOLLY BROWN SERIES," ETC. + +_WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS BY ARTHUR O. SCOTT_ + + NEW YORK + HURST & COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + Copyright, 1915, + BY + HURST & COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. LEAVING HOME 5 + II. ENTER THE TUCKERS 23 + III. GRESHAM 36 + IV. MY ROOMMATES 48 + V. LETTERS 60 + VI. THE FOUNDLING 69 + VII. KITTY'S FOSTER-FATHER 88 + VIII. ABOUT MATHEMATICS AND ME 102 + IX. FOOTBALL 110 + X. BOYS 123 + XI. LETTERS AND SEVERAL KINDS OF FATHERS 137 + XII. ANNIE'S MOTHER 147 + XIII. THE CONCERT 167 + XIV. THE SPREAD 176 + XV. HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS 191 + XVI. A VISIT FROM THE TUCKERS 201 + XVII. DEER HUNTING 210 + XVIII. THE MIGHTY HUNTER 227 + XIX. A VISIT TO RICHMOND 241 + XX. DINNER AT COUSIN PARK'S 259 + XXI. THE DESPERATION OF DUM 274 + XXII. MORE LETTERS 294 + XXIII. ZEBEDEE'S VISIT 300 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + "Do you know, Miss Dum, you looked like Diana when you + stood on that rock?" _Frontispiece_ + + They made such a racket that a sad, crooked face was + poked into the door 48 + + "From mother," exclaimed the girl, trembling with + excitement 156 + + Dum looked at me aghast. "Page, you here, and Dee" 271 + + + + +At Boarding School with the Tucker Twins. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +LEAVING HOME. + + +Leaving home to go to boarding school was bad enough, but leaving on a +damp, cold morning before dawn seemed to be about the worst thing that +could befall a girl of fifteen. I have noticed that whatever age you +happen to be seems to be the age in which hardships are the most +difficult to bear. + +Anyhow, there I was, only fifteen, facing the necessity of saying early +morning farewells, the first one of all to my comfortable bed, where I +had slept off and on, principally on, for those fifteen years. And now I +and my bed must part. + +"Day done bus'ed, Miss Page. The doctor is stirrin' an' you'd better +rise an' shine," and kind old Mammy Susan leaned yearningly over me. "I +hate to wake up my lamb. I knowd dis day would come when dey'd take you +'way from me, but I nebber did think 'twould be 'fo' dawn wif all de +long day 'head er me to be studyin' 'bout you. What yo' mammy goin' ter +do 'thout you, chile?" + +"Well, Mammy, we'll have to grin and bear it. I'll be home Christmas, +and that isn't so far off." I jumped out of bed and pulled my hat-tub +into the middle of the floor, ready for my daily cold sponge bath. +Probably I had inherited the habit of the cold bath from my English +grandfather along with the big hat-tub. + +"Law, chile, can't you leave off punishin' yo'self jes' dis onct? You +can't be to say dirty, an' dis here water is pow'ful cold." + +Mammy and I had had this discussion about my cold bath every morning +since I had been old enough to bathe myself. It was only after many +battles that she had stopped sneaking warm water into my big can. That +morning I let it pass, although the water was lukewarm. + +"Y'ain't mad wif yo' ole Mammy, is yer, honey chile? Looks like I didn't +have de heart to plunge my baby lamb into sho'nuf cold water on sech a +dark chilly day, wif her a-leavin' an' all. 'Tain't ter say warm now. I +jes' tempered it a leetle." + +"That's all right, Mammy. 'God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb' and +you, it seems, temper the water. They say there are lots of bathrooms at +Gresham, and I can have the water as deep and cold as I want it." + +"Well, don't you go drown yo'self in any er dem new-fashioned plumbin' +tubs, an' fer de lan's sake, Miss Page, don't you let yo'self be drawed +down inter none er dem was'e pipes," and Mammy Susan hurried off to +bring in the all too early breakfast. + +I dressed in my usual haste, putting on my nice blue traveling suit, +ordered by mail from New York. It was quite long, well down to my shoe +tops, and I felt very stylish and grown-up. I had never given any +thought to my appearance, and no one else in my life seemed to have +except Cousin Sue Lee and Mammy. I don't know just what Cousin Sue +thought about me, but Mammy thought I was the most beautiful creature +in the world and freely told me so. That morning as I put on the little +black velvet toque, also purchased by mail, I looked at myself very +critically in the mirror. + +"Page Allison, are you pretty or not? I, for one, think not. You've got +freckles on your nose and your mouth is simply huge. I'd like to say +something about your eyes to take the conceit out of you, but they look +so like Father's that I'd feel just like I was sassing him if I did. +Anyhow, I'm glad your hair curls." + +I had intended to sentimentalize over leaving my room and going out into +the world, but I forgot all about it, and grabbing my ready-packed +suitcase, also a mail order, I raced downstairs as Mammy Susan rang the +breakfast bell. + +Father was already in the dining-room, standing with his back to the +little wood fire that Mammy had kindled to cheer us up with. Mammy +always seemed to feel that when we were in any distress she must warm us +and feed us whether we were cold and hungry or not. That morning we were +neither, but we warmed by her fire and tried to choke down a great deal +of her batter bread and roe herring to show her we appreciated her +efforts. + +Father looked up as I came in and for a moment regarded me in speechless +amazement. + +"Why, honey, you almost took my breath away! You look so grown-up in the +new dress and hat. I didn't know you were so like your Mother, child," +and he drew me to him and kissed me. + +Father and I were as a rule not very demonstrative, but I clung to him +for a moment and he held me close with his long, wiry arm. + +"I wish I could take you to Gresham, honey, but old Mrs. Purdy is very +low and she expects me to be with her at the end." + +"That's all right, Father, don't you worry. There are certain to be +other girls on the train who are going to Gresham and I'll butt in on +them," I answered much more bravely than I felt. It did seem terribly +lonely and forlorn to be going off and installing myself in boarding +school. "I think it's fine that you can drive me over to Milton and put +me on the train. Last night when I heard such a knocking at the door I +was afraid I wouldn't see you in the morning because you'd be off on +some life or death mission. What was the matter?" + +"Oh, just Sally Winn's bread pills had given out and she was afraid she +would not last through the night without them." Father always took me +into his confidence about the bread pills he administered to the +hypochondriacs. + +"Do you know, Father, I believe if you charged midnight fees for those +bread-pill and pink-well-water prescriptions, that Sally Winn and some +more just like her would at least wait until morning to die." + +"Oh, well, little daughter, Sally's got lots of good in her, and trying +to die is the only excitement she has ever had in her whole life." + +"Well, I won't begrudge it to her but I do hate to have your rest +broken. Mammy," I said to Mammy Susan as she came in bearing a plate of +red-hot flannel cakes, "don't you let Father be too late getting into +his heavy underwear; and make a row every time he drives the colt until +he will stop it from sheer weariness. And, Father, you make Mammy take +her tonic; and don't let her go out in the wet dew waddling around +after her ducks. She will catch her death." + +"Susan, you hear Miss Page? Don't dare go in anything but dry dew. A few +inches on her skirt and her curls tucked up under her bonnet make her +think she's been taking care of us all these years instead of our taking +care of her." + +"Law, ain't she the spit of her Ma, Doc Allison? 'Cep fer yo' eyes. +Ain't quite so tall; but she's young yit in spite er sich a long +trailin' skirt. I's sorry to be de one to break de news, but de colt is +out dere a-prancin' an' pawin', an' ef you's a-goin' you'd better go." + +I had often pictured my going away and had always seen myself with +difficulty restraining my tears; but now the time had come and the colt +was cutting up, so I forgot to cry even when I told the dogs good-by; +and just as I was giving Mammy Susan a last hug, and if tears were ever +to come they must hurry, Father called to me to jump in, for he couldn't +hold the colt another minute. And in I was and away and not crying at +all but laughing, as we turned around on one wheel and went skimming +down the drive. + +The sun was all the way up at last and it wasn't a cold, damp day at +all, but promised to be fair and clear. We had a six-mile drive to the +station at Milton and the colt saw to it that we got there in plenty of +time. + +"Now, Page, be certain when you make the change at Richmond, if you have +to ask any questions to ask them of a man in brass buttons." + +"Yes, Father," and I smiled demurely, remembering how I always acted as +courier when we went on our trips. Father, being the most absent-minded +of men except where his profession was concerned, was not to be trusted +with a railroad ticket. + +Moving away on the train at last and waving good-by to his long, sad +face, made me realize that the knot was cut. What a good father he was! +How had we ever been able to make up our minds to this boarding school +scheme? Nothing but the certainty that my education was a very one-sided +affair and that I must broaden out a bit had determined Father; and as +for me, I longed to know some girls. + +I, who yearned for friends, was growing up without any. Fifteen years +old and I had never had a real chum! I couldn't remember my mother, but +I am sure she would have been my chum if she had lived. Mammy Susan did +her best and so did Father, but a little girl wants another little girl. +We had neighbors in plenty, but our county seemed to be composed of old +maids and childless widows with a sparse sprinkling of gray-bearded men. + +My mother's people were English and she had no relatives on this side of +the water. Father belonged to a huge family, all of them great visitors, +but so far as I knew, no children among them. All kinds of old maids: +rich and poor, gentle and stern, soft and hard, big and little, they all +managed once a year to pay their dear cousin, Dr. Allison, a visit at +Bracken. I did not mind their coming. The soft ones seemed to have been +little girls once, which was something. I used to think when I was quite +a little thing that the hard ones must have been little boys, because +of the statement in my Mother Goose that little boys were made of "Snaps +and snails and puppy dog tails,"--not nice soft collie pups' tails, +either, but the tight, hard kind that grew on Cousin Park Garnett's pug. + +Cousin Park Garnett was the rich, hard one whom I visited in Richmond +the winter before. On her annual visitation to us she had remarked to my +father: + +"Cousin James, are Page's teeth sound? White teeth like that are, as a +rule, not very strong. Her mouth is so enormous you had better look to +it that her teeth are preserved," and she pursed up her own thin lips +and put on her green persimmon expression. + +"Perfectly sound, I think, Cousin Park. Of course her teeth must be +preserved. As for her mouth being big, she'll grow up to it." But the +outcome of the conversation was that I had to visit Cousin Park and take +in the dentist. Think of the combination! Cousin Park took me to the +Woman's Club in the afternoon where we listened to a lecture on "The +Influence of Slavic Literature on the Culture of the Day." I was +longing for the movies but managed to keep my big mouth shut and listen +to the lecture, so I could tell Father about it and make him laugh. I +stayed in Richmond three days and did not speak to one single soul under +fifty. Even the dentist was old and tottering, so shaky that I was +afraid he would fall into my mouth. + +I saw loads of nice girls my own age skating on the sidewalk or walking +arm-in-arm chattering away very happily, but Cousin Park didn't know who +they were or did know and knew nothing to their credit. I was glad to +get back to Bracken where there were no girls to know. There were at +least the dogs at Bracken that I could talk to and race over the hills +with. Even Cousin Park could not doubt their royal pedigrees. + +It was dear little Cousin Sue Lee who persuaded Father and me both that +I ought to go to boarding school. Cousin Sue was the best of all +Father's female relatives. She was gentle and poor and had a job in the +Congressional Library in Washington. With all her gentleness, she was +sprightly and had plenty of what Father called "Lee spunk"; and with +all her poverty, she wore the sweetest clothes and always brought me a +lovely present every year and a nice shawl for Mammy or a black silk +waist or something or other to delight the old woman's heart. Cousin +Park never gave me anything,--not that I wanted her to. She would visit +us two weeks and then present Mammy with a dime, using all the pomp and +ceremony that a twenty-dollar gold piece would have warranted. + +"Jimmy," Cousin Sue had said one day (she was the only one of all the +cousins who called Father Jimmy), "I know you and Page will think I am +an interfering old cat, but that child ought to go to school. I am not +going to say a word about her education. She has an excellent education +in some things. I have never seen a better read girl of her age. But the +time may come when she will regret knowing no French, and she tells me +she stopped arithmetic last year and never started algebra." + +"Well, what good did algebra ever do you or me?" quizzed Father. + +"Now, Jimmy, don't ask such foolish questions. It's just something all +of us have to have. What good does your cravat do you? None; it's not +even a thing of beauty, but you have to have one all the same." + +"Oh, you women," laughed Father, "there's no downing you with argument." + +"But as I was saying," continued Cousin Sue, "it is not dear little +Page's education I am thinking of. It's something much more important. I +want her to know a whole lot of girls and make a million friends. Why, +I'm the only young friend the child has, and I am getting to be nearer +fifty than forty." + +And so we wrote for catalogues of schools and settled on Gresham. And +Cousin Sue sent for a bolt of nainsook and yards and yards of lace and +insertion and made up a whole lot of pretty underclothes for me. + +"Girls need a lot of things in this day and generation," I heard her say +to Father. "A great deal more than they used to when I was young. I am +determined Page shall not go off to school looking like an 'Orphan +Annie.'" + +"But, Sue, your holiday won't do you any good if you spend it all +sewing on the machine for my child," objected Father. + +"We'll get in Miss Pinky Davis to help and in a week's time Page will +have enough clothes to last her until she gets married,--that is, if she +does not follow the traditions of the family and be an old maid." + +It was a pretty well known fact that Cousin Sue had been a belle in her +day, and even now when she came back to visit in the County several +weather-beaten bachelor farmers would manage to have business at +Bracken. I have always noticed that an old maid who is so from choice +does not mind joking about it, but the others do. + +A country doctor is seldom a bloated bond-holder; so Cousin Sue and I +ordered, with great care and economy, the necessary things from New +York: suit, hat, gloves, shoes, up-to-date shirt waists and plenty of +middies, a raincoat, umbrella, etc. + +"Now, my dear," said my sweet cousin, "you can be perfectly sure that +your outfit is appropriate at least. Your clothes are stylish, +well-made and suitable to your age. I have always felt that young +people's clothes should be so right that they do not have to think about +them." + +As I sped away on the train to Richmond, I remembered what Cousin Sue +had said before she went back to the grind in Washington, and had a +feeling of intense satisfaction that my little trunk in the baggage car +held such a complete wardrobe that I would not have to bother my head +about it any more. Up to this summer, clothes had been my abomination, +but I had at last waked up to the fact that it made some difference how +I looked; and now I was going to look all right without any trouble to +myself. + +Train pulling into Richmond and still not a tear! "What is the matter +with you, Page Allison? When girls leave their childhood's home in books +they always weep suds. Don't you love your home as much as a stick of a +heroine in a book?" I knew I loved my home, but somehow it was so +delightful to be going somewhere and maybe getting to know a million +people, as Cousin Sue said I must. + +An hour's wait in Richmond! I rechecked my trunk, having purchased a +ticket to Gresham; then I seated myself to possess my soul in patience +until the 10.20 train should be called. The station in Richmond was +familiar enough to me, as Father and I took some kind of a trip every +year and always had to come through Richmond. As I have said before, I +attended to tickets and baggage when I traveled with Father, so I was +not in the least nervous over doing it now. + +"I must keep my eye open for girls who are likely to be going to +Gresham," I thought. "They'll all have on dark blue suits." That was a +rule of the school, the dark blue suit. "There's one now! But can she be +going?" And I thought of what Cousin Sue had said of "Orphan Annie." + +The girl was seated opposite me in the waiting room. She had just come +up the steps lugging a huge telescope, stretched to its greatest +capacity, and looking nervously around had sunk on a bench. She searched +feverishly through a shabby little hand-bag she was carrying and having +satisfied herself that the ticket she had just purchased was safe she +seemed to be trying to compose herself; but one could see with half an +eye that she was nervous and frightened. She glanced uneasily at the +clock every few minutes and constantly compared with it an Ingersoll +watch which each time she had to search for in her bag. Several trains +were called and every time she got up and made a rush for the gates, but +each time came back to her seat opposite me. + +Her blue dress was evidently homemade. The skirt dragged in the back and +the jacket was too short for the prevailing fashion. Her hat had been +worn as mourning and still had a little fold of crepe around the edge, +making a suitable setting for that tear-stained face. I couldn't tell +whether she was pretty or not, her features were so swollen with +weeping. Helen of Troy herself looked homely crying, I am sure. I +noticed that her throat was milk white and that the thick plait of hair +that hung down her back, mercifully concealing somewhat the crooked +seams of the ill-made jacket, was as yellow as ripe wheat. + +"Poor thing," I thought, "I believe I'll speak to her and see if I can +cheer her up some." But my philanthropic resolution was forgotten +because of the entrance into the waiting room and into my life, I am +glad to add, of the three most delightful and original persons I have +ever seen or known. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ENTER THE TUCKERS. + + +Two girls about my age and a youngish man were the arrivals. The girls +were dressed in blue serge, and I felt in my bones that they were going +to Gresham. They had an independent, easy way with them, and evidently +considered the youngish man a person whom they had a right to boss. + +"Let's sit here, Zebedee, and you go get the milk chocolate for me," +exclaimed one of the girls. + +"Don't forget my salted peanuts and a copy of 'Life,'" called the other, +as Zebedee hurried off to make the purchases at the newsstand in a +corner of the waiting room. + +"Elder brother," thought I, "and pretty good-natured to wait on those +girls so much." What nice looking girls they were, though. At the first +glance, they looked singularly alike, but as I examined them more +closely while Zebedee was gone, I saw points of dissimilarity. "They are +twins, for sure," I said to myself, "but I believe I am going to be able +to tell them apart." The one whom her sister called Dum had red lights +in her almost black hair and her eyes were hazel, while the one who +answered to the name of Dee had blue lights in her coal black hair and +her eyes were gray. Both of them had sharply defined brows, straight +noses, and broad, laughing mouths. Dum's chin was square and determined, +but in Dee's there lurked a dimple. They were exactly the same height +and both of them had fine athletic figures. + +"There you are, Tweedles," said the youngish man, addressing them both +as he pitched his purchases into their laps. "Who's going to wait on you +at boarding school, I'd like to know?" + +"Well, if you will make us have a roommate, I reckon she'll have to," +laughed Dee. + +"By the way, Zebedee, that is something I want to discuss with you," and +Dum squared her chin. "You make a great mistake in forcing a roommate +on Dee and me. We are not used to it, and we are not going to stand it." + +Zebedee squared his chin, too, and his blue eyes took on a stern +expression. "Not going to stand it, eh? Well, I say you are going to +stand it. We have discussed the matter threadbare already, and you must +trust me to know what is best for you sometimes." + +The stern light went out of his eyes and into them came a look of +infinite tenderness as he put an arm around Dum and held her close to +him. I certainly liked the looks of Zebedee, but what a name! He, too, +had an athletic figure, but not very tall, not much taller than the +girls, who were very well grown for fifteen. He had Dum's red black +hair, also her square chin, but Dee's dimple had found a place in the +middle of that determined chin. The three mouths were so alike that they +might have belonged to triplets, but his eyes were his own; ice blue +they were in color but there was nothing cold about them. They were the +kindest, merriest eyes; they seemed to see everything and feel +everything. Just now they were feeling very sorry for Dum, and as he +hugged her, big tears gathered in them. + +"Oh, Dum," exclaimed Dee, "now you have made him cry!" + +"No such thing. I'm not crying," and he shamelessly blew his nose. + +I afterwards learned that one of the characteristics of this delightful +trio was that they thought there was no more shame in crying than +laughing. They laughed in church if there was anything to laugh at, and +cried at a picnic or farce-comedy if anything turned up to move them to +tears. "We don't bawl," Dee said to me once, "we just leak. It is all a +matter of tear ducts. We can't help it any more than you could help +sneezing if someone shook pepper in your face." + +A train was called. It was not ours, but "Orphan Annie" jumped nervously +from her seat. She dropped her shabby little hand-bag, which she had +just opened for the hundredth time to make sure her ticket was safe or +to compare her Ingersoll watch with the clock in the station, and the +contents of the bag rolled to the floor. I dived to assist her and the +person called Zebedee did the same. Of course we bumped heads, and while +we were apologizing, Dum and Dee picked up the scattered belongings and +returned them to the poor, abashed girl. + +"I just knew you were going to Gresham," said Dee, handing her the +much-thumbed ticket, "and wondered how long it would take us to get to +the point of speaking to you." + +"You are for Gresham, too," said Dum, turning to me. "I have been +longing to know you. I might have known that old Zebedee would end by +butting in." + +Here Zebedee took off his hat and bowed to "Orphan Annie" and me as +though we were of the blood royal, and said with a most engaging manner: + +"We had best introduce ourselves and then all the conventionalities will +be observed. Conventionality is a mighty important thing for boarding +school girls to observe. These are the Tucker twins, called Tweedles +when you want both of them or aren't particular which one answers. This +red-headed one is Dum; this blue-headed one, Dee. They have other +official names, but somehow I can't remember them to-day. I am Jeffry +Tucker, at your service, the father of the Heavenly Twins." + +"Father! You, their father!" I gasped. + +"Certainly. Whose father did you think I was?" + +"James' and John's," I answered flippantly. + +"That's the reason we called him Zebedee," chorused the twins. "You know +the old gag: 'Who is the father of Zebedee's children?' No one ever +believes he is really a parent." + +I burst out laughing and so did "Orphan Annie." I was certainly glad to +see that she could laugh. Already the genial atmosphere that surrounded +the Tuckers had had its effect on her. The drawn expression was leaving +her countenance and the hearty laugh dispelled the mist in her eyes. The +knowledge that there were two other passengers for Gresham set her mind +at rest, and she evidently felt relieved. + +"My name is Page Allison." + +"Daughter of Dr. James Allison of Milton, I bet anything," ventured Mr. +Tucker. "Oh, do you know my father?" I asked joyfully. + +"Of course I do. We are of the same fraternity. Your eyes are so like +his, I came mighty near slipping you the grip. He was in the class of +'85 and I was in that of '99, but we have met at many fraternity +conventions. I am certainly glad to know his daughter." And while he did +not give me the fraternity grip, he gave me some kind of a grip that +tingled all the way up to my heart. + +"And won't you tell us your name?" said Dee kindly to the other +stranger. + +"Annie Pore," said the girl in a voice singularly full and rich. "I have +never been anywhere alone and I am so afraid I'll miss my train. That is +the reason I dropped my bag. I am so much obliged to all of you for +picking up my things." + +Her timidity seemed to disappear as she realized she was making friends. +As for me, I have never known what it was to be timid, and I felt at +home with the three Tuckers from the moment they entered the waiting +room; and from the time that Mr. Tucker and I bumped heads, I counted +them as the first three on the list of the million friends that Cousin +Sue said I must make. + +"Well, since we are all going to Gresham, suppose you young ladies hand +over your tickets to me and I will be courier for the crowd," said Mr. +Tucker. + +I gave him my ticket, also my reservation in the parlor car. It made no +difference how poor payments were, Father and I always traveled in +comfort. "It saves in the end to ride in a clean, comfortable coach," +Father declared. "Saves wear and tear on clothes and nerves." + +Annie Pore handed him her rumpled ticket. + +"This is all you have?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes, isn't that all right?" she entreated. "The man at the ticket +window assured me it was right." + +"Of course it is all right. Now there are five minutes before the train +will be called, so if you young ladies will excuse me, I'll run +downstairs to see that Tweedles' trunks are safe. By the way, have you +attended to your luggage?" he asked me. "And you?" turning to Annie +Pore. + +"Thank you, yes," I answered; but the other girl looked piteously at her +bursting telescope. "I haven't a trunk," she said simply. + +I felt mighty sorry for Annie. The Tucker twins did, too. I could tell +by their eyes. Dee's filled and Dum turned and walked to the steps with +her father. + +Dee whispered to me as she pretended to show me a picture in "Life": + +"He's gone to get her a ticket in the parlor car. Just like him! Such a +thoughtful Zebedee as he is! We mustn't let him know we are on. That +would make him raging. He will carry it off perfectly naturally, and he +is fully capable of any deceit to keep Annie Pore from finding it out." + +He had done exactly as Dee said he would do: got a chair in the parlor +car for "Orphan Annie." Right there I took myself to task for thinking +of the poor girl as "Orphan Annie," and I determined to control my +thoughts if possible and give her her proper name in my mind. Not that +Annie Pore sounded much more cheerful than the name I had given her. + +Our train was called and our kind courier bundled up bag and baggage and +hustled us through the gates and into the chair car before Annie Pore +had time to ask about it; and then he gave the Pullman conductor our +tickets and settled us and the train started, and the girl never did +know she was being treated to a privilege her ticket did not give her. + +We had a jolly trip and before it was over I knew a great deal about the +Tuckers, and they, in turn, a great deal about me, in fact, about all +there was to know. It was many a day, however, before we broke through +Annie Pore's reserve and learned that she was of English parentage, that +her mother had recently died and her father had a country store in a +lonesome little settlement on the river. No wonder the girl was so +scary. This was actually her first railroad journey. What traveling she +had done had been by boat, an occasional trip to Norfolk or Richmond +when her father went to town to buy his stock. + +There was an unmistakable air of breeding about her. Her accent was pure +and her English without flaw. In spite of her timidity, she had a +certain _savoir faire_. For instance, when Mr. Tucker announced that we +were to have lunch with him and ordered the porter to bring two tables +and put them up, Annie accepted the invitation with a quiet grace that +many a society woman could not have equaled. When she took off her ugly +hat, disclosing to view a calm white forehead with heavy, ripe-wheat +hair rippling from a part, I had no doubt of the fact that Annie Pore, +if not already a beauty, was going to be one when she grew up. + +It was only a buffet luncheon and there was not much on the menu to +choose from: baked beans, canned soup, potted meats, etc. + +"Not much to eat here," grumbled Mr. Tucker. + +"Eat what's put before you, Zebedee, and stop grouching," admonished +Dum. + +"Well, it's a pretty hard state of affairs when a fellow wants to give a +party and there is nothing to eat but these canned abominations." + +"I have a lunch box in my grip," I ventured; "maybe that would help out +some." + +"Trot it out, do!" cried Dee. + +And then Annie had the hardihood to untie the rope around her telescope +and bring out a bag of the very best and rosiest wine-sap apples I ever +tasted. She also produced a box of doughnuts she had made herself which +were greeted with enthusiasm. My lunch had been put up by kind old Mammy +Susan, and in her tenderness she had packed in enough to feed a +regiment. + +"Fried chicken!" exclaimed Dee, clapping her hands. + +"Columbus eggs!" shouted Dum. + +"Not really country ham?" questioned Mr. Tucker. "That is too good to be +true. You must excuse Tweedles and me, but we have been living in an +apartment and eating in the cafe, and some real home food has just about +got us going. When I asked you young ladies to lunch, I did not dream +that I would be able to treat you so royally." + +"Look, Zebedee, look! Clover-leaf rolls!" chorused the twins. + +"Stop tweedling and look over the menu and see what we shall order to +supplement with." Mr. Tucker called it tweedling when the girls spoke +in chorus as was their habit. + +We decided on cream of tomato soup, iced tea and butter, with Neopolitan +ice cream to top off with. I was certainly glad that, as usual, Mammy +Susan had paid no attention to my commands, and had done her own sweet +will in giving me enough lunch for half a dozen girls. + +"It's bes' to err on de side er plenty, honey baby," the old woman had +said when I demurred at the size of the lunch boxes. "Even ef you is +goin' to a land flowin' wif milk an' honey, a few rolls to sop in de +honey won't go amiss an' some chicken an' ham to wash down wif de milk +won't hurt none." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GRESHAM. + + +Gresham at last after a very pleasant trip! We had picked up blue-coated +girls all along the road, and by the time we reached the little town on +the outskirts of which our school was situated, the train seemed to be +running over with girls. + +"There must be a million of them," I thought; but as Gresham could only +accommodate one hundred and twenty-five, I was wrong. Some of them had +mothers or fathers with them, and some of them big brothers or sisters. +Most of them had some one; at least, most of the new girls. + +The old pupils hugged and kissed one another and all seemed to be glad +to get back to school. The new girls looked sad and miserable, even the +ones who had their mothers with them. And a few lonesome ones who had +brought themselves, like "Orphan Annie" (there, I slipped again and +called Annie Pore by that obnoxious name!) or me, looked like scared +rabbits. I wasn't scared a bit, and when I saw the old girls hugging and +loving one another, flaunting their intimacies, as it were, I said: + +"Don't you mind, Page Allison. You are going to know all of those girls +and like a lot of them, and a lot of them are going to like you; and +they are just a few of the million friends you are going to make." + +In the crowded confusion at the little station, I was separated from the +Tuckers and noticed that poor Annie was put in a bus filled with +Seniors, who looked at her rather askance. Her ungainly telescope was +piled up with the natty suitcases by the driver's seat, and I saw him +point at it and wink at the driver of the bus where I had found a seat. + +The girls in the bus with me were very kind and friendly. There were +several mothers along and they looked at me cordially, and in a few +minutes I knew the names of all the passengers and they knew mine. By +the time the straining horses had pulled the heavy bus through the +crooked streets of the quaint little town, up and down the many hills +and finally up the last long hill to Gresham School, the whole load of +girls and mothers had been jolted into an enforced intimacy. + +Bracken, my home, was situated in what persons from the mountains call a +flat country but which we call rolling, as it is when compared to the +tidewater counties. So the hills of Gresham seemed wonderfully steep to +me, and as we pulled to the top and stopped in front of the school, and +I realized we could actually see the mountains, I gave voice to a +long-drawn "O--h!" of delight. + +We piled out of the bus, and for a moment I stood looking at the +wonderful view before I even noticed the school building. + +"I am so glad you like it," said a soft voice at my side. It belonged to +a quiet-looking girl who had come up with us. She looked a little older +than the rest of the girls and certainly was much more dignified. "I +find if a new pupil notices the mountains first, she is pretty apt not +to kick because they have dessert only twice a week. One can't have +everything in this world, and a mountain view is more filling in the big +end than dessert." + +"It is splendid! You have been here a long time?" I asked. + +"Yes, many years; and now I am a pupil teacher. This place seems more +like home than any other in the world to me," and she took me by the +arm. "Come on with me, Page. I am going to call you Page and I do wish +you could call me Margaret, but now that I am a near teacher I have to +be called Miss Sayre. I am going to introduce you to Miss Peyton, the +principal." + +"Oh, you are kind to me and I am so much obliged!" + +"Give the bus driver your trunk check and in his good time he will +deliver your trunk. Come on, so you can get into the office before the +rush of Seniors." + +Just then the vehicle with Annie Pore in it, looking too forlorn for +words, came rattling up. Her hat was knocked over one eye and she had +lost all of the cheerfulness that she had gained on the train with the +delightful Tuckers. No one had paid any attention to her on the ride, +except to look her up and down and make whispered jokes at her expense. +I have found out that girls can be the most cruel creatures in the +world, just from pure thoughtlessness and lack of imagination. They +don't know how to "Put yourself in his place." They don't mean to hurt, +but they do hurt all the same. I found during the ensuing year that that +same busload of Seniors included many a fine character, but not one of +them seemed to have imagination enough to know what Annie Pore was +suffering. + +"Miss Sayre," I said impulsively, "please take this girl with you. I met +her on the train and she seems so forlorn." + +"We'll miss our chance to reach Miss Peyton ahead of the others, unless +we hurry," she said, looking a little impatient at my request. + +"I'm sorry. I think I ought to wait for her, but don't let me detain +you," and I went forward to meet poor Annie. + +Of course, Miss Sayre came, too. "I might have known that a girl who +noticed the mountains first thing would have character enough to do +what she thought was right," she whispered as she followed me. + +"This is Annie Pore, Miss Sayre," I said, as I helped the cramped girl +out of her uncomfortably small quarters. Miss Sayre shook her hand +cordially and I hoped Annie did not hear the titter as one of the +Seniors nudged another and said in an audible whisper: "Annie Pore, poor +Orphan Annie." I hated myself for having had the same thought. + +"Where is your trunk check, Annie? Give it to the bus driver," said Miss +Sayre, kindly. + +"I haven't a trunk," said Annie faintly, "just a telescope." + +"By their luggage ye shall know them," said a stylish girl who was +clambering out of the vehicle. She spoke in a rasping tone with a nasal +touch. + +Annie Pore made a ten strike right then and there with me and with all +of the girls who heard what she said, and those girls who did not hear +it soon heard about it. She drew herself up, no longer timid but with +what Dum Tucker afterwards called "Annie's stage presence," and in her +singularly clear, full voice, that voice that we were all to be so proud +of, said: + +"Not by their luggage ye shall know them, but by their voices." And with +a dignity that a sagging skirt and crooked-seamed jacket could not +lessen, Annie Pore walked to the front of the carry-all and demanded +from the grinning driver her bursting telescope. + +A shout went up from the Seniors. "Annie, Annie, 'rah, 'rah, 'rah!" + +"So, Mabel Binks, she got your goat that time," laughed a +bright-looking, auburn-haired Senior. + +"I don't know what you mean, Sally Coles. Orphan Annie's remark seemed +to me to be without point," and Mabel Binks haughtily demanded a very +swell new alligator bag from the front seat. + +"Well, if you don't know that your voice needs greasing, it is not for +me to break it to you, Mabel." Mabel flounced off, and all her stylish +clothes, beautifully-hanging skirt, well-cut jacket, and jaunty velvet +sailor hat, did not give dignity to her. + +Pandemonium reigned as we entered the spacious hall of the main +building. Girls, girls, girls! Little and big; fat and thin; pretty and +plain; laughing and crying; alone and attended, they swarmed over +everything. + +"We have lost our chance to get first at the principal, but I wouldn't +have missed seeing Annie Pore take down that common, purse-proud Mabel +Binks for a million, as poor as I am," whispered Miss Sayre. "You girls +sit here and wait for me, and as soon as there is an opening we'll slip +in." + +"Oh, how could I ever have made up my mind to leave my Father and come +here?" wailed Annie, crumpling up into an ignominious heap, all her +dignity gone. + +"Now look here, Annie Pore," I scolded, "anyone who could jaw back at a +Senior as you did just a moment ago has got backbone, and you have just +got to get a brace on you and cheer up." + +"Oh, but you are different. You make friends so readily. I am so easily +embarrassed," and the poor thing wept anew. + +"I don't make friends a bit more easily than you do. I just want to make +them, that's the difference. Haven't you made friends with me?" + +"Oh, have I really?" + +"Of course you have. Would I be ragging you this way if I didn't +consider myself your friend? Haven't you made friends with all three of +the Tuckers, and now with Miss Sayre?" + +Annie was somewhat consoled and tried to take a more cheerful view of +life. We had completely lost sight of our traveling companions. They had +evidently been admitted among the first to the principal's office. All +of the girls who were accompanied by their parents or guardians were +given preference in having their rooms assigned them, so that their +loved ones could see where the daughters were to be placed and then take +their departure on the outgoing trains. + +We were so hidden by the swarming girls, we despaired of ever being +found again by Miss Sayre; but I persuaded Annie that we would certainly +be placed by bedtime as both of us had been registered during the +summer; and in the meantime, it was rather fun to watch the girls and +try to guess where they came from and if any of them were to be in our +classes. + +Mabel Binks backed up against us, talking to an overdressed girl of +about nineteen. Both were dressed in the latest style. I knew what those +styles were from the fashion books that Cousin Sue Lee had bought when +we were planning my modest wardrobe. + +"I am thankful to say this is my last year at Gresham," said Mabel. "The +place has lost tone so. We came up in the bus with a most +remarkable-looking person. I am sure Mamma would not permit me to remain +if she knew Miss Peyton was allowing such ordinary girls to come here." + +Annie Pore's face was crimson and she looked ready to burst into tears, +but the overdressed girl, whose name, I afterwards learned, was +Josephine Barr, and who was a thoroughly kindly person, remarked: + +"Oh, yes, I heard about that girl. Sally Coles tells me she is +wonderfully pretty and quite a lady, also that she got a yell from the +Seniors for her quickness in responding to a sally from you." + +I pinched Annie's arm and whispered: "What did I tell you? Two more new +friends, Sally Coles and this big girl who has just punctured Mabel +Binks' conceit." + +"Come along, girls," and Miss Sayre pushed her way to our retreat. "I +think we can get into the office now. How do you do, Josephine? I am +glad to see you back," and she shook the big girl's hand cordially. "I +want to introduce you to two new girls and ask you to see that they meet +the crowd." + +"All right, Margaret, what you say goes. I was a freshy myself once and +know how it feels." She gave us a cordial grip and assured us we must +call on her if we needed anything, friendly counsel or protection or +even soothing syrup. + +"Jo is a fine old girl," said Miss Sayre, as she hooked one arm in mine +and the other in Annie Pore's and drew us into the office. (I noticed +that she had completely ignored Mabel Binks.) "She would fight to the +finish for her friends. Her clothes are impossible, but we mustn't judge +the poor thing by her clothes. They've got so much money, they don't +know what to do with it. I'm real sorry for her." + +It seemed a queer cause for pity to Annie and me, but Miss Sayre was +introducing us to Miss Peyton and we could not ask her why riches were +to be pitied. I liked Miss Peyton from the minute I saw her and I +believe she liked me. Her countenance was a noble one, her manner frank, +and her voice sounded like music. + +"I am going to put you into the room with some sisters, Page. I hope you +will get along well together. If everything is not pleasant, come +directly to me. You are No. 117 in Carter Hall. I will see all the girls +to-morrow and classify them. Miss Sayre, will you please get someone to +show Page her room? Now I will talk to Annie Pore and assign her her +roommate." And Miss Peyton went on quietly with what might have been a +confusing task, but which she managed as calmly as a Napoleon marshaling +his troops. + +I found my way to 117 Carter Hall with the help of an old girl. I was +naturally quite interested to know what the sisters were to be like who +were to be my roommates for the year. The door to 117 was open and I +heard sobbing. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MY ROOMMATES. + + +[Illustration: They made such a racket that a sad, crooked face was +poked into the door.--_Page 48._] + +"Heavens, I'm tired of tears!" I thought as my conductor left me with a +significant smile. "I'm actually damp from all of the weeping going on +around me." + +A stormy voice was raised in the room that I was about to enter, and I +stopped in the hall, not knowing just what to do. + +"Now what did I tell you?" said the stormy, sobbing voice. "Didn't I +tell you all along I was going to make myself just as disagreeable as I +could if you would put someone in with us? Aren't we going to be +miserable enough without you, without having some old stick-in-the-mud +hoisted on us from the country, to sleep in the room with us; and just +as like as not want the window shut at night; and rub her chapped face +all over with mutton-suet? Paugh, I can smell it now, the horrid stuff." + +"Now, Dum, cut it out. You don't even know that your roommate gets +chapped," said a whimsical voice. + +"The Tuckers!" I exclaimed, but naturally had a delicacy in entering, +after what I had heard Dum say about a roommate from the country. "Could +she know that I am the one?" I asked myself. + +"Well, how are Dee and I to fight it out the way you have brought us up +to do if we have got some old mutt in here with us? We might just as +well have left our boxing gloves at home." + +"Oh, Dum, you are making it hard for me," said poor Mr. Tucker. + +"That's good, I want to make it hard," sobbed the wretched Dum. + +"I have told you over and over that I think it best for you and Dee to +have to control yourselves more, and the only way to do it is to realize +how your tantrums affect other people. You are the best old Tweedles in +the world, but you have no self-control. I am surely sorry for your +roommate, whoever she may be." + +"Well," broke in Dee, "I think it all depends on who she is. I must say +it is some lottery. Roommates ought to be carefully chosen; one should +not just trust to this grab-bag method." + +"Well, how do you know Miss Peyton has not chosen someone she feels will +be suitable? I wish it would turn out to be somebody like the little +girl on the train. Don't you, Tweedles?" + +"Yes, yes!" tweedled Tweedles. "But no such luck." + +This reassured me and I knocked on the open door. There was perfect +silence, broken only by the sound of Dum's blowing her nose and Mr. +Tucker's clearing his throat; and then a faint little "Come in," from +both girls. + +"Oh, it's you! How good of you to come look us up!" exclaimed Mr. +Tucker. "We were afraid it was the hated roommate. Tweedles are treating +me so terribly because I insist on their having a roommate so they can +broaden out a bit and learn to control themselves some, which they will +never do so long as they stay together all the time. I'll leave it to +you, Miss Page, don't you think it will be best?" + +"Well, I have a delicacy in saying," laughed I. "You see, I am that +poor unfortunate, despised roommate. This is 117 Carter Hall, isn't it?" + +Then all the weeping was turned to laughter and the irrepressible +Tuckers, father and all, grabbed hands and danced around me singing, +"Gayly cheer the bride." They made such a racket that a sad, crooked +face was poked into the door, evidently feeling a duty to admonish, but +Zebedee in his most Zebedeeish humor, sang out in a friendly voice: + +"Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? Will +you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?" + +Then the strangest thing happened to that long, sad, crooked face. The +plain features were illuminated by a smile, the person who owned the +face came impulsively into the room, and after she had carefully shut +the door, she caught hold of hands with the crazy trio and the dance +went on; and all of us sang: + + "'Will you walk a little faster!' said a whiting to a snail, + 'There's a porpoise close behind us and he's treading on my tail. + See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! + They are waiting on the shingle--will you come and join the dance?'" + +Then the chorus: "Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you +join the dance?" + +I refused to play "frog in the middle" any longer and broke into the +dance, soon dropping into the unfamiliar tune but very familiar words of +the Lobster Quadrille. We sang all four of the verses from that immortal +nonsense. + + "'What matters it how far we go?' his scaly friend replied, + 'There is another shore, you know, upon the other side. + The farther off from England, the nearer is to France. + Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance.'" + +The owner of the long, sad, crooked face was also owner of a singularly +clear, true, well-trained voice, and Mr. Tucker's fresh baritone fitted +in finely, while Dum and Dee and I did the best we could with what +Nature had seen fit to endow us in the way of voices. Finally we girls +sank exhausted on the bare, uncovered beds, but Mr. Tucker and the +mysterious visitor stood clasping hands. + +"Jeff Tucker, what in Heaven's name are you doing at a young ladies' +boarding school?" + +"Entering my girls: Tweedles. And you, Jinny Cox, what are you doing +here?" And Mr. Tucker kept on shaking her hand. + +"I teach singing here. Have been here for years. And to think of your +girls being old enough to go to boarding school! It seems only yesterday +that you and dear little Virginia were leading the germans at the +University. I haven't seen you since you married. I meant to write you +when Virginia died, but somehow I just couldn't." + +"That was all right, Jinny. I knew how you felt without hearing from +you. She only lived a year, you know. Tweedles were just a few weeks old +when she died." And the dear man who a moment before had been so +cheerily singing the Lobster Quadrille, now wiped his eyes and seemed +given over to melancholy. + +"I want you to know our girls. This is Virginia," indicating Dum, "and +this, Caroline," meaning Dee. I was rather amused at the fact that +earlier in the day he could not remember their official names, as he +called them. "I named this one Virginia, thinking she was going to have +her mother's eyes, but the little monkey changed them on me and in a +twinkling turned herself into a hazel-eyed monster," and poor Zebedee +forgot to cry any more and began to laugh. "This is the much dreaded +roommate, Miss Page Allison, of Milton, Virginia. The wild orgy which +you so tactfully joined was in honor of the discovery that this young +lady was the roommate." + +"Well, girls, I am glad to see all of you and hope we can be great +friends. My name is Jane Cox. I can't remember any one having the +hardihood to call me Jinny for some sixteen or seventeen years. I +haven't danced for at least ten years. I don't know what the management +or the girls would think or say if they knew I had cut up this way. I +don't know what made me do it. I came to the door to stop the racket and +when I saw Jeff Tucker whirling around with three girls singing, 'Will +you, won't you, won't you, will you, will you join the dance?' my +discretion flew to the four winds. I just did have sense enough left to +shut the door. I forgot I was an old maid, teaching singing in a +boarding school." + +"It was simply splendid of you to come in and help us out," exclaimed +Dee. Dee was usually the one who knew what to say and when to say it. +Some persons call it tact, but I have always thought it was just a kind +heart that made her know what people wanted her to say. Cousin Sue Lee +was the same kind of natural-born social wonder. "I think your voice is +beautiful, and how on earth did you happen to know our tune?" + +"Why, child, your father and I made up that tune on a picnic once years +before you were born. Do you remember, Jeff, when we went to Monticello, +and how it rained? We composed the tune and improvised a Lobster +Quadrille to cheer up the bedraggled crowd. How Virginia did laugh! I +haven't thought of that tune for ages. Perhaps it is because I have not +been with the kind of people who would enjoy 'Alice in Wonderland.'" + +"Zebedee has put us to sleep with it ever since we were born," said Dum. +"I mean the tune." + +"And I have been reading Alice in Wonderland ever since I was born," I +ventured. + +"Well, I'm certainly glad to meet some kindred spirits at Gresham," said +Miss Cox, "and now, girls, I'm going to ask a great favor of the three +of you. I want you to keep to yourselves that I broke loose as I did. I +have hard enough work as it is keeping order during study hour when that +task falls to me, and if the girls ever found out that I was capable of +such high-jinks, I'd lose all control of them." We promised, but I, for +one, thought that the more human you find your pastors and masters to +be, the more apt you are to want to make things easy for them. Miss Jane +Cox was much older than I, but she had yet to learn that wisdom. + +"We'll all promise," we declared in unison. + +"But please break loose again, sometimes, Jinny," begged Mr. Tucker. +"The idea of your calling yourself an old maid! I bet you are not +thirty-five yet. I'm only thirty-six myself, and, goodness knows, I am +nothing but a kid!" + +"Teaching is a very aging occupation," sighed Miss Cox. "I don't mind +the singing, but it's teaching mathematics to the backward pupils that +adds ten years a season to my already full years. Do your girls sing, +Jeffry?" + +"Not so's you can notice it. Dum, here, is going to be a great sculptor; +and Dee is uncertain whether she wants to be a trained nurse or a +veterinary surgeon." + +"Vet'rinary surgeon? Surely you wouldn't let her go into such a +profession?" exclaimed Miss Cox with her twisted smile. + +"Why not? I'll let my girls go into any profession that appeals to them. +Dum loves to make mud pies and Dee loves to nurse sick puppies. Both of +them rather dirty arts, but 'Every man to his taste.'" + +Miss Cox had to leave us and go to attend to various duties, but before +going she assured Mr. Tucker that she would take especial care of all +three of his girls. You can fancy what it meant to me to be included. I +almost called him Zebedee, but I was afraid it might make him feel like +the father of triplets, so I refrained. + +It was almost time for the train which Mr. Tucker was to catch, as he +intended to take a sleeper back to Richmond that night. I felt the +tactful thing for me to do would be to leave the girls alone with their +father, so I told him good-by and went off to see how Annie Pore was +faring. + +I found her sitting in a forlorn heap in one of the neighboring rooms, +her hat and jacket still on; her disreputable telescope in the middle of +the room; and the expression on her face suited to the tragic muse. + +"Who's your cellmate, Annie?" said I, bursting in on her. + +"I don't know, but I know she will hate me." + +"Hate you, indeed! No one could hate you. Why don't you unpack and get +your things in order? I am going to stay with you until Mr. Tucker +leaves, so Tweedles can get a chance to be alone with him for a while. I +am rooming with them, you know. Our room is quite near you and we can +all be real chummy." + +The rooms were all perfectly bare and bleak-looking: white walls, white +iron beds, curtainless windows and carpetless floors. The pupils were +supposed to decorate their own rooms if they wanted them decorated. +Annie Pore had been put into a two-girl room a bit smaller than the one +assigned to the Tuckers and me, but otherwise exactly like it. + +"I am dreading a roommate," sighed the girl. "I have never slept in the +room with any one in my life." + +"Neither have I, but I am crazy about it. Just think what fun it will be +to have some one to talk to and giggle with." + +I could not fancy giggling with Annie Pore in her present melancholy +frame of mind, but I was sure that was a phase that would pass and she +would end by being as girlish as the next. She had too keen a sense of +humor to be lost in gloom forever. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +LETTERS. + + +From Caroline Tucker to her father, Jeffry Tucker. + + + Gresham, Sept. 18, 19--. + + Dearest Zebedee: + + You would have to be your own daughter to know how + much you can be missed. After you left the other + day, Dum and I cried so much we came mighty near + getting sick, but Page Allison came back and was + so ridiculous in her description of Annie Pore + sitting up in the bus full of Seniors with her + crepe hat cocked on one side, that we got to + laughing; and you know how easy it is to be + cheerful if someone only starts the ball + a-rolling. Page is splendid and takes the most + interest in life of anybody I ever saw. She makes + a lot of fun, but somehow it is never at anyone + but always with them. She loves dogs, too, so I am + sure to get on with her. + + I do think it was wise in you, dearest Zebedee, to + make us have a roommate, since that roommate + happens to be Page, because she certainly does do + us good; and already I find I am trying to "exert + more self-control," as you say when you are trying + to be Mr. Tuckerish. She hates blubbering and + never cries except when the dogs die or her father + reads poetry to her. I tell her that we don't + usually cry, either, that is, we don't bawl, but + just leak a bit. She says just leaking is rather + fascinating and shows temperament, and she wishes + she wasn't so dry-eyed and could express her + emotions in such a graceful way. + + Page has read a whole lot and knows reams and + quires of history, but never has studied any + French at all and has to go with the kids in + mathematics. She is real spunky about it, though, + and doesn't say a word about how humiliating it + must be to have to sit in a class with children of + twelve and even younger. + + She can write Latin like a house afire, but when + she translates we can hardly keep from giggling + outright, as she uses the funny old pronunciation + that Grandpa Tucker does. It seems she has learned + Latin entirely from her father. Miss Sears, the + Latin teacher, is trying to get her out of this + pronunciation, but she compliments her very much + on her knowledge of English derivatives. Page says + that is the side of Latin that interested her + father and he consequently taught it to her. + + Dum and I have had only one serious set-to since + you left us. I licked her. I wish you would send + Dum a dollar box of plasticine. She is restless + sometimes and I know she is itching to create, and + if she had the mud she could do it. Dum is being + awfully good about holding on to herself, and is + just as nice and polite to Page as can be, + although she did vow and declare that she was + going to make it so hot for any roommate we got + that the poor thing would have to leave. Of course + that was before we knew it was going to be our + luck to draw such a prize. There's the bell, so + good-by, dear old Zebedeedlums. + + Your own Tweedledeelums. + +Virginia Tucker to her father, Jeffry Tucker. + + + Gresham, Sept. 19, 19--. + + My darling Zebedee: + + Dee wrote yesterday so I waited until to-day, + although she declared she was not writing the kind + of thing to you that I was going to. I don't see + how she knew what I was going to write when I + don't know myself. + + There is one thing I want to say and that is: "the + old man always knows best." A roommate is a great + institution when she is as bully as Page Allison. + I was awfully afraid Dee was going to be rude, but + she hasn't been a bit. As for me, I have been a + little tin angel. You can ask Dee if I haven't. + + I am mighty sorry for Dee. She not only misses you + just as much as I do, but she misses old Brindle + almost as much as she does you. I don't see why + they won't let a bulldog go to boarding school. I + asked Dee if she gave you any more directions + about how to take care of Brindle, and she said + she hadn't even mentioned him she was so afraid of + splashing on her letter. + + Your friend Miss Cox has been in to see us and was + just as jolly as could be, but when the other + girls are around she treats us like perfect + strangers. The truth of the matter is she is + afraid of girls and does not understand them, nor + do they understand her. I got that from Page, who + is very analytical. Page says if she would let + herself go she would be the most popular teacher + in school, but as it is, while she is not + unpopular, she is not regarded at all. She is + awfully interesting but the girls don't know it. + They know she has a good voice and teaches with + good method but she might as well be a phonograph + for all the human interest they have in her. She + is coach for the backward and wayward in Math. I + believe Page Allison will have to have her, and I + bet on Page for drawing her out. + + I tell you that girl has done wonders with Annie + Pore. Every time she finds her crying she makes + her laugh, and you know no one but old Zebedee can + laugh and cry at the same time without going into + hysterics. Right to her face she calls her + "Melancholy Dane" and "Old Rain in the Face" and + all kinds of ridiculous names, and Annie simply + has to smile. There is one thing about Page: you + can always know she is going to say what she's got + to say right to your face. Usually when people are + that way their conversation is "yea, yea, and nay, + nay," but Page is not that way a bit. + + Dee and I have had only one bout and then Dee + knocked me out. It was a funny thing the way I let + down my guard, but I got to thinking about Dee's + dimple in her chin and how some day I was going + to make a stunning bust of her. You see Dee looks + mighty handsome when she boxes, with her head + thrown back, her neck like a column. I had sure + got her going that day and she had backed way up + in the corner, when the idea of making the bust + took possession of me--well, Dee made a stunning + bust of me, that's all. She tapped me on the nose + and drew the claret. + + The row was all about you. Dee said you must be + pretty near middle-aged and I said she was all the + way a plumb idiot, you were no such thing and + never would be. The fact that she tapped me does + not prove that you are or ever will be any such + thing. Page came in at the crucial moment and was + somewhat shocked to see us boxing, and was broken + up over the gore; but when she heard what the row + was about, she sympathized with me and offered to + put on the gloves and fight it out with Dee; but + she decided in her amusing way to argue it out + instead. + + She said: "If the pen is mightier than the sword, + surely the tongue is mightier than a pair of + boxing gloves." She proved to Dee's perfect + satisfaction that age was a matter of temperament + and that yours was eternal youth. Dee was + convinced and offered the _amende honorable_, + confessing herself beaten in argument. I begin to + think trial by combat not such a good way of + settling things, after all. It seems to me a quiet + debate is much the better way. + + Write to us soon. I heard one of the Seniors say + you were the most attractive-looking man she ever + saw. She thought you were our big brother and + meant for me to hear it and of course wanted me to + repeat it to you. Good-by, my darling old + Zebedeedidlums. I am sorry I made you cry twice on + the day you brought us up here. + + Your own, + Dumplingdeedledums. + +Annie Pore to her Father, Mr. Arthur Pore, Price's Landing, Va. + + + Gresham, Sept. 19, 19--. + + My dear Father: + + I am writing to you at my earliest opportunity. I + made the journey without any mishaps and in great + comfort. I was astonished to find how luxurious + traveling by rail is. I shall have to confess to + you that I talked to some persons I met on the + train. They were all of them going to Gresham and + were very kind to me. I found myself conversing + with them before I remembered your admonitions to + be very careful about making acquaintances. I know + in England it is very bad form, but I felt somehow + it would have been much worse form to hold myself + aloof when they were one and all so kind to me. + + The Institute of Gresham is admirable in every + particular. My instruction has been so thorough, + thanks to your unceasing efforts, that I find I + can take a very good stand. I have not divulged + that an Oxford graduate has been my teacher. I am + well up in Algebra, Latin and French, although my + French accent is not all that it should be. + + Miss Cox, the singing teacher, takes a great + interest in my voice but evidently has no personal + feeling for me. I am very grateful to you for the + sacrifices you have made to send me to boarding + school, and am endeavoring to take advantage of + every opportunity to perfect my education. + + Very respectfully, + Annie de Vere Pore. + +Page Allison to her father, Dr. James Allison, Milton, Va. + + + Gresham, Sept. 19, 19--. + + My dear old Father: + + I can hardly believe it is only a few days since + I left Bracken. It seems ages and eons. I have a + million things to tell you. I made friends with + some delightful people on the train, Mr. Jeffry + Tucker and his twin daughters, Dum and Dee. Mr. + Tucker says he knows you; and my eyes were so like + yours he came mighty near giving me the fraternity + grip. He is the youngest man to be grown up and + have almost grown-up daughters I ever saw. Their + mother is dead, too. So many mothers seem to be + dead. + + We made friends with another girl on the train, + Annie Pore from Price's Landing. She had never + been on the train before, but although she seemed + terribly shy and was dressed in a most pathetic + get-up, still she had all the bearing and + carriage of a _grande dame_. She is a half-orphan, + too, and I have a kind of idea that her father is + not to say so intimate with his daughter as some + other fathers who shall be nameless. She has been + writing to her paternal parent for the last hour, + and she actually copied the letter and seemed to + be writing with as much care as though it had to + be handed in. You don't want me to write that way + to you, do you? + + Gresham is splendid. It is a beautiful building, + red brick with great white columns, giving it the + look of a modern Parthenon. It is on top of a hill + overlooking the little town and has a beautiful + lawn with great chestnut trees and oaks. But best + of all is the view of the mountains. When it is + clear they seem quite close, almost as though we + could walk to them, and at other times they + disappear altogether. + + The first day or two the girls seemed to think if + they did not do a lot of bawling and blubbering + some one might think they did not love their + homes. Some of them cried because they could not + help it, but some of them, I verily believe, + rubbed onions in their eyes like the heartless + sisters in "Beauty and the Beast." I know no home + could be more beautiful than Bracken and I'll + wager anything that there isn't a dad in the world + better or more beloved than mine. And was there + ever a mammy like mine? I'm not even mentioning + the dogs, although they are not the least of my + blessings. And still, not a visible tear have I + shed. + + The first morning when I waked up in the strange + room and stared at the blank bare wall, it seemed + to me as though I simply could not stand it. I was + dreaming about Mammy Susan. I thought she was + pouring hot water into my tub again. My roommates + were still asleep, having wept themselves into a + state of coma. (I haven't told you that I am + rooming with Dum and Dee Tucker and I like it a + lot.) Well, I got up and went to the bathroom and + had the coldest bath I ever had in my life and + then I dressed in a hurry. I felt as though I must + get out before any one saw me. If I could have a + little run, maybe I could stave off the great wave + of homesickness that was going to swallow me up in + a minute. I raced along the corridor. + + I got onto a covered walk connecting the dormitory + with the main building, and there serene and + beautiful were the mountains stretched before me. + I didn't want to cry any more. A feeling of deep + peace and happiness came to me. I chanted aloud: + "I will look unto the hills from whence cometh my + help," etc. You mustn't think I don't love you and + Mammy Susan just as much as ever, for I do; but I + am having a good time and am going to learn a few + things, and am going to make loads and loads of + friends. + + My love to all the dear dogs and please give them + an extra bone for me. And tell dear Mammy Susan + that all of us on the train would have starved to + death if she hadn't put up all that good lunch. + I'll tell you about what I am studying in my next + letter. Good-by, + + Your own Page. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FOUNDLING. + + +"Well, Miss Peyton is some mobilizer," sighed Dee as she snuggled down +in her bed after our first study hall had been lived through at Gresham. +"Just to think, here we are hard at work when we have been here only two +days." + +"Well, I'm glad, for one," said Dum. "If they work us hard enough, we +won't get Zebedee-sick. That's what Dee and I call homesick. Wherever +Zebedee is, is home for us." + +"My Father and Bracken and Mammy Susan and the dogs are so mixed up in +my mind that I can't tell what or which or whom I miss most," and I +scrambled into bed in a great hurry just as the bell rang to warn us +that lights must be out in five minutes. I had not been twenty-four +hours with other girls before I had learned many things that girls know. +One of them was that the last one up has the chores to do, such as +raising the window at the bottom and pulling it down at the top, a +mighty chilly performance when clothed in nothing but a nightgown; also, +the tardy one has the light to put out. + +"Oh, you foxy creatures!" cried Dum. "I bet you haven't cleaned your +teeth, you've been in such a hurry to beat me to bed." + +"'Deed we have," we declared, "while you were calling on Annie Pore." + +"You haven't said your prayers, then," persisted Dum. + +"I have," I said. But Dee had neglected this means of grace and had to +crawl out of her nice, warm bed; and she and Dum knelt together. There +was silence for about three minutes; then Dum bounced into bed and +pulled the covers up to her square chin. There she lay, with eyes +closed. + +"Dum Tucker, you skipped something. I don't believe you said a single +thing but 'NowIlayme,'" and Dee stood over her sister like an avenging +angel. + +"What's it to you?" yawned Dum. "That's a matter between me and my +conscience. Open the window; and turn out the light; and crawl into bed +before our room gets reported." + +"Well, it was a matter between my conscience and me whether I said my +prayers at all; and you went and butt in on us. Now you take that +toploftical stand about you and your conscience! Well, you and your +conscience can just lie on the floor together." With which tirade, Dee +yanked Dum and all her bed clothes out on the floor. She then whisked +off the light and, quickly raising the window, jumped into bed. + +I wondered what would be the outcome of this battle and if it would have +to be settled according to the Tuckers' code of honor: a duel with +boxing gloves. But just then there was a sharp rap on the door. + +"Less noise, please," said a determined voice outside, "or I shall have +to report 117 to the principal." + +Dum lay on the floor convulsed with giggles. "Sh-h--." I warned. "Be +careful, or we'll all have to write pages from the dictionary for two +hours." + +"You won't have to, surely, when Dum and I made all the racket," +whispered Dee. + +"The teacher said '117,' and that means me, too. Can you get back into +bed? Is the foot untucked?" + +"I believe I can if I don't start giggling again," and Dum began to +squirm out of the covers. + +"Let me help," said the penitent Dee, and Dum was soon back in her cot +and silence reigned supreme. After a while I heard Dum whisper: + +"Say, Dee, I did skip. Conscience bids me confess to thee." + +"Well, Dum, I'll give it to you that you and your conscience are perfect +gentlemen," said Dee admiringly. + +"Thanks awfully," yawned Dum. "I know one thing, I'm a mighty sleepy +gentleman;" and in a trice the quiet breathing from the disheveled bed +told that Dum and her conscience were at rest. + +There were constant surprises in store for one who shared a room with +the Tucker twins. They certainly had the gift of infinite variety in +the kind of scrapes they could get themselves into. They usually got out +of scrapes as easily as they got into them by a certain frankness and +directness that would disarm Miss Peyton herself. They didn't break +rules, because they did things that nobody had ever thought of making +rules about. The principal at Gresham was not so farseeing as the +teacher in "Mary Had a Little Lamb," who seems to have made a rule about +lambs in school: + + It followed her to school one day, + Which was against the rule. + It made the children laugh and play + To see a lamb in school. + +One day when we were taking a sedate walk, the school out in full force +with two teachers to keep order along the blue-coated, black-hatted +lines, we saw by the roadside a little kitten, so young its eyes were +hardly open. + +"Poor little foundling!" "I wonder where it came from!" "I'd like to +pick him up!" ejaculated several of the girls, but Dee Tucker was the +one who acted. She was bringing up the rear with Miss Sears, the Latin +teacher. As they were passing the forlorn little feline, Miss Sears +stepped forward to admonish a couple who were talking too loudly. Dee +stooped and quickly scooped into her muff the poor pussy. No one saw her +and kitty very considerately said nothing. He lay there warm and +contented, dreaming he was back with his soft, loving mother, and +forgetting the rude hand that had put him into a bag with his brothers +and sisters. The bag had had a merciful hole, and he, being the runt of +the family, had fallen through before the proposed drowning came off. + +We marched on, all unconscious of the addition to our ranks. When we got +back to school and went up to our room to take off our hats, etc., I +noticed that Dee had very shining eyes and her dimple seemed to be +deeper, but she did not divulge to Dum and me what she had up her +sleeve, or rather her muff. I also noticed at supper that she swiped +some bread and very adroitly concealed it in her middy blouse. She also +very cleverly called the attention of every one at our table to the +autumn moon, that was peeping into the dining room window, and while +they were looking the other way, she filled a little vial with milk from +her glass. + +Naturally I said nothing, but adopted the watchful, waiting attitude, +certain that sooner or later I'd find out what Dee was up to. And I did, +all right. + +After supper we had an hour before study hall which we usually spent in +the gymnasium dancing. Dum and Dee had undertaken to teach Annie Pore +and me the new dances. All dances were new to poor Annie and me. I could +cut the pigeon wing and dance "Goin' to Church," which is a negro +classic (but the Tango and Maxixe with all of the intricate steps and +side-stepping seemed very difficult). But I must learn, and learn I did. +As for Annie, her sense of rhythm was so great that she took to dancing +as a duck does to water. She had to get over a certain self-consciousness +that was her ruling fault, but when the Victrola was started in one of +the tunes that would make a dead darkey want to get up and pat, why, +Annie would forget all about Annie and her ill-fitting clothes and +would sway to the music with the utmost abandon. + +I believe I have forgotten to tell whom Annie got for a roommate. It was +none other than Josephine Barr, the good-natured, dressy Senior, for +whom Miss Sayre felt so sorry because of her great wealth. I fancy Jo, +as we soon called her, was not very well pleased at first at having to +share a room with such a seemingly dismal person; but it was either +Annie or Mabel Binks, as all the other rooms were filled and Jo had not +registered in time to have much choice. + +She couldn't bear Mabel Binks; and she did feel sorry for the poor +little new girl who seemed so ready to dissolve into tears. Jo was the +best old thing in the world, with a heart as big as all outdoors and an +optimistic nature that was bound to influence Annie and make her more +cheerful; at the same time, Annie's breeding and careful speech had its +good effect on the husky Jo. Before the year was up, they were as +intimate as a Senior and Sophomore could be. + +On that famous evening which was afterward known as the "Kitten +Evening," Dee kept disappearing between dances. She would come back, +flushed and a little troubled-looking, but would go on with the dance +with a do-or-die expression. Study hour in the assembly hall from eight +to ten and then half an hour to get to bed before the bell rang for +lights out: that was the order of procedure. As we studied, I noticed +how Dee kept fidgeting and twisting. Dum noticed it, too, and the +fidgets seemed to be catching. We were on our honor not to speak during +study hour, and of course that settled the matter for the Tuckers and +me. Dee could squirm herself into a bowknot and Dum and I could die of +curiosity, and still honor forbade our making a sign to find out what +was the matter. + +I never spent such a long and unprofitable two hours in my life. I tried +to concentrate my attention on my lessons, but it was impossible with +Dee at the desk in front of me never still a minute. + +"The bell at last!" exclaimed Dee. + +"Well, your lessons have been Reeling and Writhing, Dee Tucker. I never +saw such a wiggler in my life." But Dee was off like a whirlwind, +without a word to Dum and me. She didn't even take her books with her or +gather up the scattered papers that were strewn over her desk. We +mercifully saved her some demerits by putting things in order for her. + +"What do you reckon is up with Dee?" said Dum anxiously. "She is either +brewing some mischief or is already in a scrape." + +We found the door to 117 carefully closed and Dee already in bed. How +she ever managed to get in so rapidly, I could not see, unless she +followed the plan of "Diddle, diddle dumpling, my son, John." + +"Now, Dee Tucker, what is the matter with you?" begged Dum anxiously. + +"The matter with me?" said Dee with feigned coolness. "Nothing on earth, +my dear sister. What should be the matter with me? I am simply sleepy +and thought I would get into bed." + +"How about your teeth and your prayers?" + +"Cleaned 'em and said 'em," said Dee laconically, and she turned over +rather gingerly, I noticed, and pretended to have fallen into a deep +sleep. + +"She won't be able to keep it to herself very long," whispered Dum to +me. "If it is any fun, she can't be low enough not to share it; and if +it is trouble of some sort, she is sure to let us in on it. I'll take +the motto of Prosper le Gai: 'I bide my time.'" + +Respecting Dee's evident desire for silence, Dum and I went very quietly +to bed and had the light out long before it was time. + +A knock at the door! "Come in," called Dum. It was Annie Pore, very +apologetic at disturbing us. + +"It is ten minutes before lights out bell. I had no idea you had all +gone to bed. I was worried about Dee. Is she all right? She looked so +feverish." + +"Oh, yes, she's all right; just sleepy," said Dum politely. "Thank you +all the same, Annie." + +Annie softly closed the door. I heard strange sounds from Dee's bed but +could not tell whether she was laughing or crying. + +Another knock! + +"Come in," a little wearily from Dum. + +Miss Jane Cox this time! + +"Oh, girls, excuse me! I did not know you were in bed, I was a little +anxious about Dee." A snore from Dee's bed, rather melodramatic in tone. +"She seemed so upset during study hour. I was on duty and I did not know +whether she needed castor oil or a demerit." The snoring stopped. The +snorer was evidently deliberating. + +"I think she is all right now, Miss Cox," I ventured. "She went right +off to bed as soon as study hour was over. Maybe she won't have to have +either, demerit or oil. My private opinion is she had a flea down her +back, but she says she was just tired and sleepy." A gratified snore +from Dee and Miss Cox with a little snicker went to her room. + + "Night, Sable Goddess, from her ebon throne, + Now stretches forth a leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world." + +Lights out bell had rung, and the girls all along the corridors in +Carter Hall had gone to bed and to sleep. I had a feeling of impending +something, not necessarily evil, but excitement, at least. Dum was +breathing gently and regularly like a sleeping infant. Dee stirred every +now and then and occasionally muttered an unintelligible something. I +dozed but waked with a start. + +"Mieuw--mieuw--mieuw!" came in a heart-rending wail from Dee's bed. + +"Shhhh-shhhh! Poor ittle titty puss! Don't you cwy, honey child! +Shhh----" + +"Mieuw--mieuw-mieuw-mieuw!!!!" More subdued endearments from Dee. Dum +slept on, but I heard a door open way down the hall! Some teacher, with +sharp ears, no doubt. + +"Dee," I whispered, "put your little finger in its mouth and let it suck +until that busybody down the hall goes back into her room." There was +the sound of a door closing. + +"What is your advice, Page?" + +"Have you anything for it to eat?" + +"Bread and milk, but it won't eat." + +"Of course not, it is too little. Did you warm the milk?" I inquired. + +"No, how could I with no stove?" One of the rules of the institution +was: no alcohol stoves. + +"Wait a minute. I've got a candle that Mammy Susan put in my bag in case +of accidents." How I blessed the kind old woman who had thought of +everything. "Them newfangled lights may be mighty fine but if they 'cide +not to wuck some night, a good ole tallow can'le 'll come in mighty +handy, chile, also some saftest matches," she had said as she overrode +all my objections and tucked the life-saving candle and matches in my +already overworked grip. + +I got up, donned slippers and dressing gown, gently closed the window, +as the night was decidedly frosty, and found the matches and candle. We +did not dare to light the electric light because of the transom over the +door. Pussy might at any moment let out another wail, and then the +wakeful teacher, seeing the light, would make for our room. In feeling +for the table, I touched Dum's foot and she waked with a start. + +"What's the matter, Dee? Are you sick?" And Dum sat up in bed. + +"Shhh--No, Dum, she's not sick but the little kitty is hungry," I +whispered. + +"The _what_ is hungry?" + +"Not so loud, Dum dear, please! It's just a poor, miserable little +foundling of a kitty puss that I simply could not leave by the roadside. +I've got it in bed with me here." + +"Oh, Caroline Tucker! A nasty little cat in bed with you? What would +Zebedee say?" and Dum sniffed the air disdainfully. + +"He would say just what I say, Virginia Tucker, that it is a mighty +funny thing that you, who were in line before me and must have seen the +poor little wretched kitten first, didn't feel it your duty to rescue it +from its misery. I am ashamed of you, belonging to the S. P. C. A., +too," and Dee gave her little charge a brand new finger to suck. + +Things were looking rather serious: Dum and Dee calling one another +Virginia and Caroline and that in no modulated tones; and the candle +making such a bright light that I expected every minute to hear a +teacher rapping on our door. + +"Now, look here, Tweedles, both of you stop your fussing and 'tend to +the business in hand. You can fight it out to-morrow, but for Heaven's +sake, put all of your surplus energy now on getting the kitten fed and +quiet and 117 not in a deluge of demerits. Dum, get up and pin two middy +ties over the transom." + +Dum obediently carried out my instructions while I warmed the milk that +Dee had purloined from the supper table over the blessed candle. I +sweetened it a little and diluted it with water. I warmed it in Dee's +silver pin-tray, as we had no pan of any sort. + +"Dip your finger in here, Dee, and let the kitten taste it so it can +realize succor is near. It is lots too young to lap and will have to +suck a rag." + +Dum tore up an old handkerchief for me and in a little while kitty was +tugging away for dear life, one end of the bit of cambric in its pink +flannel mouth and the other in the pin-tray of milk. + +Dum was soon won over to the helpless little thing. "It is sweet, Dee, I +declare; let me hold it a minute." + +Dee magnanimously handed it over to her sister who held the pin-tray +very carefully and let kitty feed as tenderly as any young mother. It +soon got its fill and curled up and purred "just like a fairy buzz-saw," +Dum declared. + +"To think of a tiny cat like that knowing how to purr!" exclaimed Dee. + +"To think of a tiny cat like that having such enormous fleas on it," +shuddered Dum. "Here, take the beastie, I'm going back to bed before I +get full of 'em." + +"Yes, they are something awful," sighed Dee, "I am literally eaten +alive." + +"Poor old Dee! Change your nightgown and leave your bed to the pussy and +come snuggle in with me," said Dum. + +Pussy slept very well in Dee's bed, waking only about every two hours +and mewing for nourishment. Dee and I would get wearily up, warm the +milk and administer. + +"Oh, who could be a cat with kittens?" sighed Dee. + +Morning finally came and the problem of what to do with our adopted +child had to be faced. + +"Do you know what I'd do if I were you, Dee? I'd go right to Miss Peyton +and tell her all about it. I'll go with you. She would sympathize with +you, I really believe, and help you find a home for pussy," I said. + +"I'll go, too," cried Dum. + +Miss Peyton was fine. She seemed to think Dee had merely been imprudent, +not at all naughty. She agreed with Dee that it was a strange thing that +the whole line of girls and teachers should have passed the little waif +by. + +"Girls, I am proud and happy that you should have felt I was the person +to confide in. If all the school could only understand that I am their +friend and not just the principal and dealer in demerits. Of course you +can't keep the kitten in your room, but I will see that a good home is +found for it with someone who will take the trouble to feed it until it +can lap for itself. I think I know exactly the right person in the +village." + +We went from the principal's office in very happy and exalted states of +mind. + +"Isn't she wonderful?" exclaimed Dee. "Wasn't she splendid to us?" + +"She was fine," enthused Dum. "I am certainly relieved." + +I said to myself: "Miss Peyton was awfully nice, but it is plain to be +seen she is fond of cats. I wonder how she would have felt if it had +been an orphan snake or an abused Billy-goat!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +KITTY'S FOSTER-FATHER. + + +Tweedles and I were excused from the Gym exercises that afternoon with +the request that we meet Miss Peyton in her office at three o'clock. We +were there on time, you may be sure, and Dee had the kitty all done up +in a shoe box ready for the trip. We had christened him Oliver Twist, +because he kept on "hollering for more" all the weary night. + +Miss Peyton laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks over the +description of our trials during the night. When we found out that she +did not think it was so terribly wicked of Dee, we felt we could tell +her everything, even the middy ties over the transom and the fleas in +Dee's bed. + +"You poor girls must be nearly dead, aren't you?" she asked kindly. + +"Page and I feel right scrooch-eyed, but after the first feeding, Dum +slept through it all," laughed Dee. "I have more sympathy than ever for +poor Zebedee. That's what we call our Father, you know, Miss Peyton. He +had to bring up Dum and me on bottles as our little Mother died when we +were tiny babies. If one kitten could keep two girls awake most of the +night heating milk for it, don't you fancy two twins, like Dum and me, +could keep one man awake all the time?" + +"Didn't you have a nurse?" I asked. + +"Of course we did, all kinds and colors, but Dum and I wouldn't drink +unless Zebedee gave us the bottles. He says he was afraid the nurse +might not be sanitary and trusted no one but himself to fix the milk." + +"Poor old Zebedee!" sighed Dum, her eyes filling. "I don't see how we +could have been so mean to him." + +We had started on our quest for a friend for kitty, Miss Peyton leading +the way down toward the village. She seemed to be enjoying the little +outing as much as we were. + +"Your Father must be very patient," she said, putting her arm in Dum's +when she saw the hazel eyes filling at the thought of her Father. + +"Well, the funny part of it is, he is not one bit patient except with +Dee and me. Do you know, once he got dreadfully mad with the telephone +girl who kept on cutting him off when he was in the midst of some most +important business that could not wait, and every time he would try to +get connection again, the operator would say 'Line busy.' Now he knew +the line was not busy and the person on the other end was just as +anxious to be got as he was to get him, and, as I was saying, he got so +mad he pulled the telephone out by the roots." + +"Well, that was, to say the least, impulsive," and Miss Peyton laughed +like any schoolgirl. + +"You mustn't think Zebedee is bad-tempered," put in Dee. "He's got the +sweetest disposition in the world. He's just quick-tempered. He has +learned to control himself wonderfully but you know he is real young +yet." + +"Yes, I know," said Miss Peyton solemnly. + +"Tell us whom you are going to get to be kitty's foster father, Miss +Peyton," I said, purposely changing the subject. Not that I did not +take the keenest interest in everything pertaining to Mr. Tucker, but I +could see that the twins were both getting leaky, and it did seem a pity +to have a cloud cast over our delightful walk with Miss Peyton. + +"Indeed, I will," she said, giving me an approving nod. "It is dear old +Captain Pat Leahy. I hope you girls will like him as much as I do. He is +sure to like you. Of course he may not be able to keep the little thing +and then I don't know what we will do. Anyhow, let's not borrow trouble. +I know the dear man will do it for me if he possibly can. When I first +came to Gresham as a pupil----" + +"Oh, were you a pupil here?" we exclaimed in one breath. + +"Yes, indeed, I came here before I went to college. Gresham had not such +a grand building then and accommodated only about fifty girls. It was +more like a home school. Captain Leahy was then conductor on the local +train and took an especial interest in the Gresham girls. I shall never +forget how good he was to me on my first trip. I was lonesome and +shy----" + +"You, shy! Oh, Miss Peyton, were you, really?" + +"I should say I was. Why, Annie Pore is brazen beside what I was as a +child. Captain Leahy sat by me between stations and with his ready Irish +tongue cheered me up immensely. He treated me to peanuts and made me +laugh and gave me a new outlook on life. The poor fellow lost a leg in a +railroad accident about ten years ago, and ever since then has kept the +gate where the track crosses the main street of Gresham." + +"Does he like cats?" I asked. + +"Oh, yes, he adores them. That is the great bond of sympathy between us. +He loves cats and he loves flowers. He also has a great fondness for +young people. Here we are," and Miss Peyton pointed out the gate-house +where her old friend lived. + +It was just an ordinary little square box of a house painted the pumpkin +yellow that railroads are so partial to, but all around it were window +boxes, some of them filled with geraniums, some with Norway spruces and +English ivy. A moon flower had completely covered one side of the little +house, but the frost had touched the big leaves and they were dropping +off one by one. + +A grizzled old man with a long red beard and a peg leg was digging +around the geraniums as we approached. "Captain, I have brought some of +my girls to meet you," said Miss Peyton, holding out her hand to the old +man and introducing us. + +"And I am that proud to meet all of yez; and so will me cats be. The +poor critters long for some petticoats to cuddle oop to. A peg leg is +but cold comfort to a pussy when she is hankering for some women folk," +and with a hearty laugh the old fellow stumped to the door of his little +gate-house and called to the cats. Out they came, seven in all and a +motley crew. The Captain was very democratic and not particular about +the pedigree of his friends. + +"All cats are aristocratic if you just give 'em a chance," he would +declare when some cat snob would suggest that he go in for pure breeds. + +Six of the cats came to him and rubbed their backs against his good leg; +but the seventh, a large gray one with a mournful look in her eyes, +began to sharpen her claws on a long strip of sand paper he had tacked +to his wooden leg. We burst out laughing. It was the most comical thing +I had ever seen. + +"A little invintion of me own. There are no trees handy for the poor +critters to sharpen their claws on and I find this device saves me +furniture many a scratch." He stooped and laid his hand lovingly on the +mournful one, but she arched her back and moved over to the protection +of Dee's skirts. + +"What, schtill angry wid me, poor Bett? I had to have her kittens +drowned, all but one, and she can't forgive me, not that I blame her. +But what am I to do, Miss Peyton? Me house is schmall and Bett is that +prolific she could furnish kittens for all the ould maids in Christendom +in little or no toime." + +"Well, it is a problem, Captain Leahy, but I am sorry for Bett. Aren't +there enough old maids in Gresham to help you out some?" Miss Peyton +stooped down and picked up the poor bereaved mother who nestled +comfortably in her arms and began to purr loudly. + +"The demand doesn't come oop to Bett's supply, niver in the world," +laughed the old man. "But what am I thinking of keeping yez waiting out +here so long? Come in, come in!" I have never heard such a rich, +delicious voice as Captain Leahy's; and his brogue was as soft as the +purr of his cats. + +"Before we go in, I might as well tell you what has brought us to you +especially, Captain," said Miss Peyton. + +"What? You must schnatch me from me Fool's Paradise? I was after +thinking all the time you had come to see the ould man himself," and his +eyes twinkled mischievously. + +"So we did, dear Captain. We have come to see you because you are you, +and we need your help," answered Miss Peyton with her engaging smile +that somehow made one feel that her way was the best way. + +"Well, sitting is as cheap as standing and I want this peg leg to last +as long as I do. It is astonishing how fast they wear out. Come in, come +in, and tell me what it is you want me to help yez about," and he led +the way into his little house. + +It did not seem so small when you got in because it was so orderly. The +lower berth from a wrecked Pullman served him as seat by day and bed by +night. The very smallest cooking stove imaginable, almost a doll baby +size, polished like the boots of a dandy, was at one side. Over it was a +shelf with some blue and white china on it, and under the shelf a few +cooking utensils and a dish pan and biscuit board. + +"Sit down, sit down, and while the kittle is biling for tay, I can +listen to your trroobles." We seated ourselves on the Pullman seat while +the dear old man busied himself with the tea kettle. Bett, the bereaved +mother, still nestled in Miss Peyton's arms, but after a moment she +wriggled out and got into the box behind the stove. "You'd better look +after your baby, you ould rip. I'm thinking these ladies are that fond +of cats that they might be making off wid it." + +"That's just it, Captain Leahy, these ladies are fond of cats, one of +them especially," indicating Dee. "So fond of them that yesterday when +the whole school was out on the Valley Road taking the dignified walk +that is required, what should Miss Caroline Tucker do but rescue a poor +little lost kitten, mewing by the roadside, carry it home in her muff +without teacher or fellow pupil seeing her, and actually take it to bed +with her. But, girls, you tell Captain Leahy about it yourselves," which +we did at Miss Peyton's command. + +He enjoyed the prank as much as Miss Peyton and laughed until the blue +and white china danced on the little shelf. + +"And now I know very well what ye have come for. Ye want me to take a +boarder." + +"Oh, will you, please?" implored Dee. + +Bett, having nourished her lone offspring, now carried it in her mouth +for Miss Peyton's inspection, and Dee, seeing her, jumped up in great +excitement, dropping the box she had been holding so carefully and +waking up Oliver Twist in the fall. "Look, look! Bett's kitten looks +just like Oliver! I thought it was him at first." Dee was excited and we +all excused her English. Oliver began to cry aloud and Bett tore around +like one demented. + +"Well, Bett, old girl, your baby has been restored to yez. If this don't +beat all! On the Valley Road, yesterday, you say? I told that boy to be +careful of the hole in the bag, that the runt might fall through it, and +so he did. You call him Oliver, you say? Well, that is a handsome name +for such a poor mite, but maybe it will give him some ambition to grow +oop to it. There's an ould saying: 'If you escape drowning, you'll live +to be hanged.' I hope not, Oliver, I hope not." + +Now Bett, having one of her babies back, forgave her master and rubbed +herself against his good leg; and then such another washing as she did +give Oliver before she considered him fit to get into the box that she +called home! + +The kettle was boiling and the tea soon steeping in the pretty teapot. +The Captain put up a little table exactly like the ones on the train +and we had the merriest kind of a party. + +"Your cats are so fat, Captain, what do you feed them on?" asked Dee, in +her element with two cats in her lap. + +"An ould frind of mine, who is schteward on a diner saves me all the +schraps and the cats live high, higher than their master, by a long +shot. But do you know the windfall I have had lately, Miss Peyton?" + +"No; do tell me. I am so glad of any good fortune that comes to you, +Captain." + +"Bless your schwate heart for thim words! Well, I have always had a hard +toime about my shoes since I lost me limb. Such an accumulation of +rights as you never saw wid no one wanting of thim and no place to put +thim and feeling it was to say the least a sin to be throwing thim away, +when no doubt there was somewhere in the worrld a man who had lost his +lift leg who would give anything for thim. Well, I came on this +advertisement in a Washington paper: 'A man who has lost his left leg +would like to get into communication with one who has lost his right. +11 1/2 E.' I knew soon as I clapped eyes on it that some poor fellow was in +exactly me own dilimma. I did get into communication wid him and now I +am no longer trying to find a place for the right shoes I have no use +for and on the other hand I have enough of the lifts to last me a +lifetime. 11 1/2 E's too, exactly my size." + +"Well, that was a windfall surely," said Miss Peyton. ("More like a +footfall," muttered Dum.) "But, Captain, I thought you were going to buy +a fine jointed leg with a foot and then you would need your own right +shoes." + +"Oh, I have given oop the notion. You see my cats would miss the peg +something awful, wid no place to sharpen their little claws; and thin I +have found a poor widdy woman living down the track a piece and the +right leg of me pants do come in so handy for the poor thing to make +schuits for her little byes. It would seem a sin to use that warm cloth +to cover cork, whin some poor little lamb is shivering in the cold." + +"Ah, Captain, always thinking how you can be good to children and +cats," said Miss Peyton. + +Then with many thanks to the old Irishman for his hospitality and his +kindness and the good time he had given us, we took our departure. I +noticed that Dum, who had been very quiet and whose eyes had been misty +several times, especially when the Captain told of the fate of his +trouser legs, stepped back into the little house and I heard her whisper +to the old man: "Please, Captain, take this half dollar and buy some +toys for the little lambs who wear the pant legs." I happened to know it +was the whole of her week's allowance, too. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ABOUT MATHEMATICS AND ME. + + +I was a very difficult pupil to place, having been overeducated in some +subjects and absolutely neglected in others. I might have gone with the +seniors in English and History; was normal in Latin, that is, sophomore, +where girls of my age were put; was just beginning French; and had to go +with the kids in Mathematics. I had never played a game of tennis in my +life nor even seen a game of basketball, but I was naturally athletic +from the free country life I had led, and it was soon realized in +athletic circles that I would be on the team with a little coaching. + +I was glad to see that Miss Cox was to teach me Arithmetic. Miss Peyton +hoped I could get into Algebra by Christmas and then, with hard study +and earnest coaching, perhaps catch up with the class. I had a feeling +that Miss Cox and I were going to pull together if she could just let +herself go. Her manner in the class was rather wooden, but she was an +excellent teacher and the girls were quick to recognize that, so while +she was not popular, she was not disliked. + +I was such a stupid in Mathematics that I was afraid she might put me +down as a dunce and lose all interest in me, but the fact that I read +"Alice in Wonderland" seemed to be in my favor. + +"Page, I will not have you look upon yourself as hopeless in +Arithmetic," she said to me one day when I despaired of ever +understanding what seemed to me a very intricate problem. "Lewis Carroll +was a great mathematician and still he wrote the delicious classic that +you and I are so fond of. Now I think minds that appreciate the same +things must be similar. I believe there is a corner of your brain that +is absolutely unexplored and that corner corresponds to the great +fertile area in Lewis Carroll's. All it needs in you is working, +digging, cultivating to produce fruit." + +"Oh, Miss Cox, how splendid of you to look at it that way! I am going to +try awfully hard to work my poor, little, neglected, unused plot of +brain with all my might. If I can't grow anything but green persimmons, +that would be better than nothing." + +"Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision are the hard things. +If you look at it right, one side of Mathematics is really romantic." + +Father always said the way to control me was through my imagination and +Miss Cox had surely hit on my weakness. The result was that Mathematics +was no longer dry-as-dust to me. I found it had been a closed book +because I had never been interested enough to open it. I soon +outstripped the kids in my class and was put in a higher one. I had to +read frequent chapters of "Alice in Wonderland" to cheer me on, and Miss +Cox used to quote Lewis Carroll to me when she and I were alone. I found +the other girls in the classes looked upon her as nothing but a teacher +and she regarded them as mere pupils, to be taught conscientiously and +then dismissed. + +One day I sailed safely through a problem that was noted as a regular +stumper. As soon as the class was dismissed, Miss Cox exclaimed: + +"'Come to my arms, my beamish boy. You've slain the Jabberwock.' Page, I +really believe you are going to end by being a pretty good +mathematician." + +I answered: + + "'He thought he saw a Garden Door + That opened with a key: + He looked again, and found it was + A Double Rule of Three: + 'And all its mystery,' he said, + 'Is clear as day to me!' + +If I ever understand it, it will be thanks to you and Lewis Carroll!" + +The Tuckers had been to school pretty steadily all their lives, so they +were able to go into the sophomore class in everything. I bitterly +regretted that my education had been so erratic, but determined to make +the best of it. Dum helped me with my French and we tried to keep to our +rule of talking French at the table; but as we did what Mammy Susan +called our own "retching" and my vocabulary was somewhat limited, we +had to resort to English a great deal or go unfed. + +I know Dum and Dee felt sorry for me for being in a kids' class in +Mathematics. I didn't really mind nearly so much as they thought I did. +The kids were nice to me and I made some mighty good friends among them. + +There was one little bunchy girl named Mary Flannigan who turned out in +the end one of the best friends I ever had in my life. She was short and +stumpy, with scrambled red hair and a freckled face and the very keenest +sense of humor I had ever known. She was a year younger than I was but +very well up in her classes, and she had a genius for mimicry that was +irresistibly funny. She had some stunts that endeared her to all the +girls. She could do a dog fight or cats on the back fence; and could go +so like a mosquito that you were certain you would be bitten in a +moment. She was something of a ventriloquist, which made these +accomplishments especially delightful. + +Mary and I were put into Algebra at the same time, and to our joy Miss +Cox was to teach us. Mary had found out Miss Cox, too. Tweedles and I +had religiously refrained from telling any of the girls about her mad +revel on the day of our arrival, but we had tried to make them +understand what a very good old girl she was if you could just find her +out; and our attitude toward her was having its effect on the whole +school. Miss Cox, realizing that she was really liked and understood, +had a change of expression as well as heart. Her sad, crooked face was +now a happy, crooked face and she no longer saved her jokes for Tweedles +and me, but got them off indiscriminately, and very good jokes they +were, too. The classes in voice culture became more popular, and more +and more girls wrote home begging to be allowed to "take singing." + +I shall never forget Mary's and my first lesson in Algebra. Miss Cox +looked at us with her twisted smile. + +"Algebra is rather a poetical-sounding name, don't you think?" she asked +us. + +"Maybe it is," said Mary, "but I bet it takes it out in sounding so." + +"Oh, I don't know about that," and Miss Cox opened the book at the first +page and read as follows: "'In Algebra, the operations of Arithmetic are +abridged and generalized by means of Symbols.' That appeals to the +imagination somewhat, I think. 'Symbols which represent numbers.' Just +that word 'Symbol' sets me to dreaming. Arithmetic is the prose of +Mathematics where everything is stated and nothing left to the +imagination, but Algebra is very different. 'Known Numbers are usually +represented by the first letters of the alphabet, as a, b, c. Unknown +Numbers, or those whose values are to be determined, are usually +represented by the last letters of the alphabet, as x, y, z.' The +unknown numbers,--the mysterious numbers,--for what is unknown is in a +measure mysterious and what is mysterious is romantic or poetic. That is +the way I think of it. In working your Algebra, don't just look at it as +hard, dry facts to be mastered, but let x, y, z be the Great Unknown +that you are to find. Let the problem be a plot that you are to unravel +as Poe did 'The Gold Bug.'" + +You may well imagine that Mary and I set to with a will to get all we +could out of such a thrilling subject. There were times when we felt +that Miss Cox was drawing a little on her imagination to find poetry in +such an example as this, for instance: + + 4x^{-2/3}-3x^{-1/3}-27=0 + +On the whole, though, Algebra was much more interesting than Arithmetic, +and sometimes I had the realization that it did mean a lot to me; and +Mary said she felt the same way. Anyhow, in the early spring we were +able to take the sophomore tests and go on in that class. Miss Peyton +said she considered it really wonderful that I should have progressed so +rapidly, but I told her it was all due to Miss Cox's being so certain +that Lewis Carroll and I had similar brains. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FOOTBALL. + + +None of our crowd had reached what the grown-ups call "the boy age." We +had our heroes of romance that it was difficult for any of the male +persuasion in real life to live up to. Tweedles declared that Zebedee +was boy enough for them; although Dum thought if she ever met a Prosper +le Gai she might consider him; while Dee had an idea a boy like Laurie, +in "Little Women," would be some sport and she might be willing to knock +around with him a bit. Jane Eyre's "Mr. Rochester" was my beau ideal. + +"I want a dark, masterful lover who could tie the poker up in a bowknot +if he had a mind to; a rude man who could bring tears to my eyes by his +gruffness, and then, with the gentleness of a woman, soothe my aching +head." + +"Oh, Page," chimed in Annie Pore, "how could you want such a ruffian? I +like Henry Esmond, so kind and courteous and dignified----" + +"Yes, and as stiff as a poker. My 'Mr. Rochester' could tie him up in a +bowknot in no time----" + +"And soothe your aching head with him, too, I fancy. I think a man who +is rude enough to make a woman cry and strong enough to tie up pokers +would be more than likely to beat his wife with said poker." This from +Mary Flannigan, who was in our room during the discussion of our +favorite heroes. "I want 'Charles O'Malley' or nothing. Give me a man +who is gay and rollicking, at the same time good-tempered and kindly if +quick to fight withal." + +We had to laugh at Mary. She was such a little Mother Bunch, with her +crinkly red hair bushing out around her fat freckled face,--hardly a +likely person to attract a hero of romance. Mary wore as many petticoats +as Mammy Susan and all of them were tied around her waist with draw +strings. I verily believe that she and Mammy Susan were the only persons +left in the world who wore red flannel petticoats. In that day and +generation when slimiky skirts were the rage, you can fancy how Mary +looked with her gathered skirts. She also had a leaning toward deep +ruffles around her neck, which more than ever gave her the look of a +clown dog. + +She had a way of breaking into the conversation very much as the clown +dog breaks into the ring, and no matter how serious she was, we simply +had to laugh at her. She was very good-natured and not the least bit +touchy. We laughed at her general bunchiness just because we couldn't +help it, but one and all liked her for her good temper and ready wit and +respected her for her excellent standing in her classes, where she was +the youngest pupil. We also envied her the delightful stunts that I +believe I have mentioned before. + +"I'd rather be able to go like a dog, the way Mary can, than make the +finest statue of one that ever was done," sighed Dum. + +"Nonsense, Dum. Anybody can go like a dog with a little practice, but to +make one in clay is going some. But to return to our lovers: what do +you girls say to taking in the football game over at Hill-Top? The +seniors are going, one and all, and Miss Peyton says any of us can go +who wish. Miss Cox will chaperon the sophomores." + +Hill-Top was a boys' school on the other side of the village from +Gresham Academy, and young ladies from our school were always invited to +the match games there; and our school in turn sent a formal invitation +to the pupils of Hill-Top when an interesting basketball game was to be +played at Gresham. + +"Oh, do come, all of you. I've never seen a game of football in my life +and I'm just wild to," I begged. + +"I guess I won't go," said Annie. + +"Well, I think you've got another guess coming, unless you have a +powerful good reason," I exclaimed. + +"My only reason is that I am so embarrassed with boys," and poor Annie +gave her usual painful blush. + +"Oh, you won't have to speak to the boys. They never notice the Sophs, +anyhow, but give all their twaddle to the Juniors and Seniors. If a +boy, old enough to walk 'loney, breaks through Mabel Binks' guard, he is +a hero for fair," laughed Dee. + +So, Annie's objections overcome, we hurried her and Mary off to put on +their hats and wraps, and quickly donning our own, got downstairs just +in time to form in line with the Sophomores, who were starting under the +leadership of Miss Cox for the game at Hill-Top. + +"I'm glad to see you are going, Page," said Margaret Sayre, as she +hooked her arm in mine. "I am to help Miss Cox keep order, although I +don't really think I am needed. Sophomores are never boy crazy. The +Juniors are the ones, as a rule, that need quieting. Sometimes I wonder +where all the bad Juniors go to and where all the good Seniors come +from." + +"Well, I reckon the bad Juniors were once good Sophomores and they can +just as easily turn into good Seniors," I responded. + +The Juniors at Gresham were a rather wild lot and they had as a leader +Mabel Binks, who, although she was a Senior, chose her friends entirely +among the Juniors. The truth of the matter was, as Mammy Susan used to +say, Mabel would rather be a "king among buzzards than a buzzard among +kings." The Seniors would have none of her leadership and among them she +had to take a back seat; while the Juniors welcomed her to their ranks +with joy, not realizing why she had chosen them, and flattered by her +notice. + +The long line of girls, two abreast, wound its way through the streets +of the little town and out into the country again to the boys' school. +It was really a very pretty sight, this row of blooming, happy girls, +all ages and sizes, dressed in the universally becoming dark blue, with +their jaunty velvet sailor hats perched at every conceivable angle on +heads of hair of every conceivable color. + +"Doesn't Annie Pore look pretty in her new hat?" whispered Miss Sayre. + +These velvet sailors were ordered by the school and every pupil was +obliged to have one. All of us were glad that Annie was forced to +discard her forlorn-looking crepe hat that looked for all the world +like a last year's bird's nest. The black velvet sailor was exactly +right for her, throwing into pleasing contrast her milk-white skin, and +bringing out the wonderful tints in her ripe-wheat hair. Jo Barr with +wonderful tact had managed to change the hang of her dragging skirt and +it was now even around the bottom. + +"I think she is beautiful and she is really very fine in many ways. I +have grown so fond of her. All of us have. And I think Dum and Dee are +having a splendid effect on her spirits, for she is not nearly so +lugubrious." + +"Dum and Dee may be having a fine effect, too," laughed Miss Sayre, "but +a girl named Page Allison is doing her part. All the faculty notice it. +I wish someone like you could be in every class, someone to leaven the +whole lump with a certain quality of camaraderie. Annie Pore was as +forlorn a specimen of humanity as ever stepped out of a 'bus that first +day here, and now look at her!" + +Annie was laughing heartily as Mary Flannigan made a noise like a sick +kitten, throwing her voice, with her powers as a ventriloquist, so it +seemed to come from a clump of sumac by the roadside. Dee was peering +eagerly into the bushes before she caught on to the joke. Annie Pore +certainly did not look like the same girl. No one would think of +nicknaming her "Orphan Annie" now. The name clung to her, however, among +a certain class, thanks to Mabel Binks, who had not been able to forgive +or forget the laugh raised against her by Annie on the first day of +school. + +Hill-Top was built much in the same style as Gresham, and it, too, had +the Parthenon effect with its big white pillars. The view was not quite +so fine as ours, but from the little experience I had had of boys, I +imagined they did not go in for views to any great extent. + + "A primrose by the river's brink, + A common primrose was to him and nothing more." + +For that matter, I noticed that mighty few of the girls at Gresham +appreciated the view, and as Miss Sayre said, thought more of dessert +for dinner than of the view of the mountains. + +The game was just starting as we arrived, so we seated ourselves on the +benches provided for the visitors with as little stir as possible. Dum +got on the other side of me to put me on to the points of the great game +of football. + +"It seems too foolish and backwoodsy for me never to have seen a game," +I said, "but at Milton everyone is too old to do more than walk through +a set of croquet or too young to do more than bounce a rubber ball. +Father occasionally threatens to go up to Richmond for the +Virginia-Carolina game at Thanksgiving, but somebody is always coming or +going (I mean getting born or dying), and we have never made it yet." + +"Never mind, honey," and Dum gave me a hug, "you'll learn all the points +of the game to-day, and some time when we are back in Richmond, Zebedee +will give us a great football party. We always go to the Thanksgiving +game. I don't see what Zebedee will do without us this year." + +"Who, that good-looking pa of yours?" said Mabel Binks, who was seated +right in front of us, with the Juniors, as usual. "Why, I'll wager he +can find someone to take your place. I bet he's having a pretty good +time with you kids off his hands." + +Dum's hands clinched and unclinched. Her eyes were closed and her lips +moving. I had not lived with the Tucker Twins for several weeks without +finding out what that meant. When Dum did that way, it meant she was +trying to control her temper. Her lips formed these words: "Oh, God, +make me good! Don't let me biff Mabel Binks! Don't let me biff Mabel +Binks!" + +For a moment the wicked wish came into my heart that she would "biff +Mabel Binks"; but when I thought of the consternation it would arouse in +Gresham and the disgrace to our class, to say nothing of poor hot-headed +Dum, I felt ashamed of myself for harboring such a militant desire. I +slipped my hand over Dum's clenched fist and in a moment I felt it +relax. + +"Thank you, Page. God answered my prayer quicker than usual, thanks to +you," and Dum gave a great sigh of relief. "It seemed to me almost like +it would be wrong if I didn't hit her. Zebedee would fight for us any +day and I don't see why I can't fight for him." + +"Well, when you come down to facts, Dum, Mabel Binks did not say +anything derogatory of your father. She said he was good-looking and +intimated that he was naturally popular. I fancy she would like to go to +the Thanksgiving game herself with him. There is nothing for you to +fight about. I have an idea that Mr. Tucker can take care of himself +enough not to take her to the game at least," I whispered; and Dum +laughed aloud so that Mabel turned around and asked, "What's the joke?" +And Dum had the satisfaction of saying in honeyed tones: "One of the kid +jokes that I fancy you would not appreciate." + +The game of football at first impressed me as little more than a tangle +of legs, and a dog fight at Bracken had more sense to it; but as Dum +explained the points, I began to see some method in the seeming madness +of twenty-two boys lying down on one poor ball and yelling. Needless to +add, I very soon became as enthusiastic about that game as all other +games I ever had any knowledge of, and before the football season was +over I was as rabid a rooter as the Tuckers themselves. + +"I believe you are a born lover of games, Page," said Miss Sayre, +smiling as my enthusiasm got the better of me and I let out a piercing +shriek in honor of a short, bow-legged boy who had seized the ball at a +crucial moment and literally dodged his way through the Seniors and made +a goal. The game was between the Seniors and Sophomores, and of course +the Sophomores of Gresham were in honor bound to root for the Sophomores +of Hill-Top. + + "Who's all right? Who's all right? + Shorty!--Shorty! Out of sight!" + +yelled the class for their bow-legged hero, and then the Seniors gave +him fifteen 'rahs. Seniors always have a special feeling for Sophomores +and a game between them is usually a very friendly bout. Of course the +Seniors do not exactly want to be beaten, but they take a great delight +in the prowess of their pet class. In spite of Shorty's good playing +and a great deal of good playing from the other ten Sophomores, the +Seniors won, which was quite meet and proper. The younger boys had put +up a good fight and were much applauded by their elders. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BOYS. + + +After the football game, some of the more self-assured boys came over to +the visitors from Gresham and singled out their friends to conduct them +to the tables on the lawn where the matron was serving ice cream. + +All the boys spoke to Miss Cox and seemed on the most friendly terms +with her. I remembered then that she went over to Hill-Top twice a week +for the purpose of training a chorus. She knew them all by name and +chatted with them very freely, much more freely than she did with any of +the girls, except Dum and Dee and me. + +"Evidently, Miss Cox understands boys better than she does girls and +they understand her," thought I. Her manner with them was frank and +natural, exactly as it had been with Mr. Tucker. + +A tall, good-looking boy was holding a laughing conversation with her +about the game. He it was who had saved the day for the Seniors when it +had looked as though the younger class would certainly win, owing to the +strategic movements of the popular Shorty. + +"Didn't the kid make a fine play, though, Miss Cox? It seemed a pity to +take the game from them; but I tell you, if the Sophomores won from the +Seniors there would be no living with them. They're rather a cocky lot +as it is, bless 'em." + +"Yes, they are fine boys and I wish they might have won just this once. +They worked so hard and you Seniors were playing so lazily you almost +let the game slip through your fingers. It would have been a good lesson +for your team if they had lost." + +"That's just what I tell them, Miss Cox. I hate lazy playing, even if +you are up against something easy. I believe in playing the game to the +best of your ability, if it's nothing but push-pins." + +I certainly liked the way that boy talked and agreed with him. I +unconsciously drew nearer to where he and Miss Cox were standing, not +with any idea of being introduced but because I was interested in what +they were saying. + +"No, you don't, Miss Buttinsky," was whispered in my ear, "Seniors first +when there is a good thing in sight," and Mabel Binks crowded in front +of me and deliberately joined the group around Miss Cox. An introduction +to the handsome football player naturally followed. I drew back abashed. +One of the most hateful things about Mabel Binks was that she usually +attributed her motives to other persons. She was determined to meet this +boy and she took for granted it was what I was after, too. + +I felt like employing Dum's method and praying not to "biff Mabel +Binks," but I was anxious to see what the outcome would be and if the +handsome youth, whose name I had learned was Harvie Price, would be +attracted by the charms of the stylish Mabel. Mabel was not a +bad-looking girl, rather handsome, in fact, but a trifle too vivid for +my taste. Her eyes were as black and shiny as new patent-leather shoes; +her abundant hair, coarse and curly; her lips too full and red; her +figure handsome but rather too well developed for a girl of seventeen. +She was always richly dressed and in the latest style. + +The idea of the directors of Gresham in having the pupils dress in blue +suits and black hats was to do away with the custom of overdressing +common to many boarding schools. They seemed to think that a blue suit +was a blue suit. They were vastly mistaken, however, as anyone with half +an eye could see by comparing Mabel Binks with Annie Pore. Annie Pore's +appearance I have described. Mabel's suit was a costly affair of +handsome cloth combined with velvet and trimmed with fur. The skirt was +slit, showing a cerise petticoat; a cerise crepe de Chine tie gave color +to her very V-necked blouse; and around her velvet sailor she had pinned +several large, fine ostrich plumes. The latest style of high-heeled +pumps with cut steel buckles were on her feet, making them a little too +prominent, considering their size and shape. Spotless white gloves +finished her costume; unless one might consider the strong odor of musk +perfume the finishing touch. She did look handsome and her clothes were +pretty and fine, but a little too fine for a football match. + +"Oh, Mr. Price," she gushed, "your playing was just grand. All of us +were just wild about it. I said 'it,' not 'you,' you understand," and +she giggled affectedly. "I think it was real noble of you to let the +kids get any points at all." + +"Yes, mighty noble," said Harvie Price, looking at his dashing admirer +rather quizzically, "so noble they came mighty near winning the whole +shooting match." + +"Isn't that ice cream they are serving over there?" she hinted. "I think +ice cream is simply grand." + +"Ah, Miss Binks, you praise my feeble game and ice cream with the same +words. Fortunately, ice cream is more easily taken in than I am. Hey, +you Shorty, come here," he called to the jolly-looking little Sophomore +who was trotting by. "I want to introduce you to Miss Binks. Mr. Thomas +Hawkins, Miss Binks. Shorty, she's dying for some ice cream." + +"Your humble servitor, madam," and Thomas Hawkins made a low bow. "Shall +I bring it to you or take you to it?" + +"Bring it here," said Mabel shortly. Just then Harvie Price saw Annie +Pore talking to Mary Flannigan and Dee. + +"Tell me who that girl is over there, the one with the thick yellow +plait," he asked Mabel. + +"Oh, that's 'Orphan Annie.' Isn't she a mess?" + +"Is her name Annie Pore?" + +"I believe it is or poor Annie, if you prefer." + +"Well, by Jove! Who would have thought it!" and Harvie Price without any +apology left the dashing Mabel and going up to Annie took her by both +hands. He shook them warmly and exclaimed: "Little Annie Pore, where on +earth did you come from? I am glad to see you." And Annie, without the +least embarrassment, was equally delighted to see him. + +"Oh, Harvie, I did not dream you were here. You've grown so I didn't +know you." + +"Grown! And what have you been doing? Certainly not standing still. And +how is everyone at the Landing? Geewhilikins, I'd like to spend another +summer there! Just think, it is five years since I have been there." + +"Everything is about the same. Your grandfather is rather more feeble +but as handsome as ever." + +"Yes, I know, poor old Grandad," said Harvie soberly. Annie told me +afterward that a family row had separated old General Price from his +son, Harvie's father, and for that reason the boy had not been allowed +to come to his ancestral home at Price's Landing. + +"And how is your father? As British as ever and still invisibly clothed +in blue paint?" + +"Yes, about the same," blushed Annie. + +"You know I like your father, Annie, and didn't mean anything," and the +boy looked very sorry that he had embarrassed his little friend. + +"That's all right, Harvie, but you know----" + +"Yes, I know," he said sympathetically. "Now come on and let's have some +ice cream. Who are your special friends? Introduce me and I'll take them +all." + +Dum and Dee and Mary Flannigan and I were of course the chosen few, and +as soon as Shorty had arranged so Mabel Binks could "take in" the ice +cream, he joined us and a very merry time we had. We met many boys and +liked most of them. They were a healthy, wholesome lot and almost as +much fun as girls. Miss Cox joined us and let herself go with as much +abandon as she had in the Lobster Quadrille. + +I have never seen anyone so happy as Annie Pore. She and Harvie Price +had been friends from the time they could walk. The boy had spent a +great deal of his time with his grandfather at Price's Landing and the +little English maid, whose father kept the country store, was the one +white child in the neighborhood whom the proud old aristocratic General +Price considered suitable to associate with his grandson. + +"You ought to see Mr. Pore," Harvie confided to me. "I tell you he is a +rare one. He is about the best educated man I ever met. Grandad says he +can think in Latin. Be that as it may, he can certainly teach it. I had +some lessons from him during one summer and have been grateful to him +ever since. He is awfully English and just as strict with Annie as can +be. Mrs. Pore was a beautiful woman and it seemed strangely incongruous +to see her in the country store measuring calico and what not. Grandad +used to say she looked like a Duchess at a Charity Bazaar. Nobody at +Price's Landing ever has known what brought Mr. Pore to keeping a +country store in a little Virginia village." + +"Maybe thinking in Latin wasn't nourishing," I suggested. + +"I fancy that was it," he laughed, "but why should an Oxford graduate +keep a country store for a livelihood? There must have been other +avenues open to him." + +"Perhaps his beautiful wife discovered she had a genius for selling at +Charity Bazaars, and when the time came to choose a profession, she +chose what she had shown talent for as an amateur," I hazarded. + +"Well, I see Miss Page Allison has some imagination and if she ever has +to choose a profession it should be novel writing." + +"Perhaps it will be," I said, "but I'd rather keep a country store than +do anything. You can see so many people that way, 'specially if you +have the postoffice in it." + +"You like people, then?" inquired the boy. + +"Like people? I should say I do. I just adore people; and I mean to know +just as many people as I can." + +"Well, that is the requisite for successful novel writing, so our +professor in English tells us: 'Know people and sympathize with them, +all kinds and conditions.' But tell me something, Miss Page, does Annie +sing? Mrs. Pore's voice brought old sinners to church that had not been +for many a year. She sang in the choir at the little old Episcopal +church at Price's Landing and although I was nothing but a kid,--you see +I have not been there for five years,--I used to thrill all over when +she chanted the _Te Deum Laudamus_." + +"Oh, yes, Annie's voice is splendid. Miss Cox is teaching her and I +believe she expects great things of her. We are to have a concert at +Gresham before long and then you can hear her." + +I looked over at a group of girls and boys where Dum and Annie were +talking very gayly with Tom Hawkins, alias Shorty, and smiled to think +of Annie's hesitancy in coming that day because she was so afraid of +boys, and then I laughed outright when I considered how little Shorty +resembled Dum's hero, Prosper le Gai. + +The ice cream that Shorty brought to Mabel Binks must have been as +bitter as gall, judging from the faces that young lady made while +devouring it, nor did it "set easy on her innards," as Mammy Susan would +put it. Could it be that she had literally turned green from jealousy +and the ice cream was innocent, after all? It must have been a bitter +pill to have the despised "Orphan Annie," with her kid friends, carry +off the most desirable young man at Hill-Top. + +"Aren't you feeling well, Mabel?" said the good-natured Josephine Barr, +as Harvie Price and I passed near her on our way to join the group where +my special friends were. + +"Yes, I'm just disgusted. Did you ever see such a beau grabber in your +life as that countrified Page Allison? And there's 'Orphan Annie' +actually posing as a belle! They make me sick." + +I did not hear what Jo answered, but I felt that Annie and I were safe +in her hands. My cheeks were burning as though Mabel had given me a real +slap. + +"Don't you mind, Miss Page. If girls only knew how fellows detest that +kind of thing! It must be awful to be a girl and not fight things out. +If a boy had insulted me as that girl did you just now, I'd either beat +him or get beaten in short order." + +"Well," I said, pulling myself together as I realized that after all +Mabel Binks was not much of a lady, "you see, I have already beaten her, +although I did not know at the time I was doing it. Annie and I have got +the 'beaux,' that is, if she means you and Shorty." + +"Bully for you! That's the way to talk. I see Miss Binks will not pull +off anything over you. Can Annie defend herself, too?" + +So I told him of the first day at Gresham and the cheer the Seniors gave +Annie because of her come-back at Mabel Binks. + +"Poor little Annie! I don't see how anyone could try to hurt her," and +the big boy looked very tenderly at his one-time playmate. "I am +certainly glad she has found such good friends at Gresham as you and +those wonderful twins, and also that nice little square Irish girl who +looks like a match for our Shorty." + +That night before lights out bell rang, we had a little chat in our +room. Mary and Annie had scurried across the hall in their kimonos. Dum +was in bed and Dee and I had unearthed some slight refreshment in the +way of crackers and sweet chocolate, which we passed around. + +"I bet Prosper le Gai would have played a dandy game of football," said +Dum, getting her sheets all crumby with crackers. "He always smiled in +battle. I noticed Harvie Price did, too." + +"Do you know, I think Harvie Price looked a little like Laurie in +'Little Women,'" said Dee. + +"I always did think so," exclaimed Annie. "When you were talking about +Laurie this morning I thought of Harvie. I never dreamed of seeing him. +I'm so glad you girls liked him." + +"I tell you he's all right," said Mary, "but I wouldn't be at all +astonished if Charles O'Malley wasn't just such another boy as Shorty +when he was a kid." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +LETTERS AND SEVERAL KINDS OF FATHERS. + + + From Page Allison to Miss Sue Lee, Washington, D. + C. + + My dearest Cousin Sue: + + You told me not to write to you until I had got + real settled and could give you some decided + opinions about the place and the people. I am + settled now and feel as though I had been born and + bred here. I just love it and am making loads and + loads of friends. + + First thing I must tell you how right my clothes + are. It is splendid not to have to think about + them, but just to put them on and know that they + are suitable. Some of the girls here are great + dressers, in spite of the endeavors of the + directors to put them into a kind of uniform, but + I can't see that their fine clothes make them any + more popular than the others. Do you know, Cousin + Sue, I'd rather be popular than be president? + + My roommates, the Tucker twins, are awfully + popular, but they don't care nearly so much about + it as I do. You see, they have been knowing lots + of people all their lives and I haven't. Sometimes + I am afraid I'll get kind of mealy-mouthed in my + anxiety to have people like me, and the only thing + that saves me from it is my hatred of fools and + snobs. I know I shouldn't hate fools because they + can't help it, but I think snobs ought to be + hated. + + We have become acquainted with some boys from + Hill-Top, the academy on the other side of the + town. They are real nice and I find I am not at + all embarrassed with them. They are not a bit + beauy or lovery (the Tuckers and I would hate + that), but they are just boys and have got lots + more sense than I expected to find in the male + sex. + + The Juniors here at Gresham are lots of them beau + crazy. They talk about boys from morning till + night. I do hope when I get to be a Junior I won't + go through that stage. Miss Sayre, a lovely girl + and too nice to me for anything, a pupil teacher + and at least nineteen, says she has never known + but one girl in her life who arrived at her age + without going through the stage of talking about + boys all the time, and she says that poor girl was + dumb and she took it out in making eyes. Dum and + Dee and I told her we'd cut out our tongues before + we'd make boys our sole topic of conversation, and + Miss Sayre just laughed and asked us if we would + gouge out our eyes, too. + + I am doing very well in my studies, and working + awfully hard. You see, we have to spend a certain + time over our books and learn in spite of + ourselves. French is coming easy to me and I + believe it is because Father has drilled me so + thoroughly in Latin. I am getting on top of + Mathematics by the hardest kind of climbing. At + first I felt as though I'd have to remove + mountains ever to learn a thing, but now I realize + I don't have to remove mountains, but just climb + them; and certainly as you climb you get an + outlook that you never dreamed of. + + Father writes very cheerfully but I am afraid he + is mighty lonesome. I feel very selfish to be off + here having such a good time when I know how hard + it is for him. I wish you would write him a nice + long letter. Your letters always do him good. + + I like Miss Peyton, our principal, ever and ever + so much; she is so just. All of the teachers are + pretty nice, but I am not getting quite as much + from the English Literature teacher as I hoped I + would. She is a good teacher, I have no doubt, but + not interesting. I have the feeling that she likes + what the textbooks tell her to, and has no taste + of her own. Her knowledge of poetry, for instance, + stops with the age of Tennyson. + + You know Father's extravagance and relaxation is + poetry, past, present and even future. He has been + reading poetry to me since before I could talk, + and a new poet is more interesting to him than a + new disease. He had never told me that poetry had + to arrive at a certain age, like veal or cheese, + before it was worthy to be taken in; and I brought + down the scorn and wrath of Miss Prince on my + devoted head and came mighty near getting enough + demerits to keep me in bounds a week, because I + asked her if she did not think Masefield's poem of + "The Dauber" had more atmosphere of the deep sea + in it than "The Ancient Mariner." She looked at me + very severely through her visible bi-focals and + said: "Miss Allison, this is a class in English + Literature; and matters foreign to the subject are + not to be discussed." + + I rather miss the reading I have always done. We + study so hard there is no time to read, and the + library is one of these donated ones. It has sets + of Dickens and Scott in such fine print that you + can't keep your place, a few odd volumes of + Thackeray, Milton and Pope, and the rest of the + shelves are crowded with books that some generous + patron evidently has had no use for himself. They + are the kind of books that Father says are good + enough to keep the doors open with or to put under + a rocker when you don't want to rock. + + There is a good encyclopedia and dictionary and + our textbooks are very complete. I believe it is + good for me to have to confine myself to the + textbooks for a while, but I shall be glad to be + at Bracken again and curl up on the sofa with the + dogs some dull old rainy day and read as long as I + can see. + + Some day I hope you will know my friends. I have + told them all about you and they think you are + splendid. The Tucker twins are going to stay a few + days at Bracken during the holidays, and I am to + be with them for a week-end in Richmond. It will + be a more agreeable visit than the time I spent + with Cousin Park Garnett, I fancy. By the way, + Cousin Park sent me a present the other day. You + could never guess what it is: a black and purple + crocheted shoulder shawl! I'm real glad to have it + because we are going to have a dicker party and it + will be the very thing to contribute. + + You don't know how much obliged I am to you for + the huge box of marshmallows. We have not opened + it yet, as we are saving up for a grand spread + that Dum and Dee and I are going to give. Good-by, + dear Cousin Sue. + + Yours devotedly, + PAGE. + + + Mr. Jeffry Tucker to the Misses Virginia and + Caroline Tucker. + + Richmond, Va. + November 28, 19-- + + My dearest Tweedles: + + How am I ever to get through Thanksgiving without + you? Of course I'm going to the game to root for + Virginia, but I'll be mighty lonesome. I've been + invited to join several parties, but I believe + I'll take old Brindle and go by my lonely. The + only pleasure I take in Thanksgiving is that it is + just a little nearer to Christmas, when I'll have + my babies back with me for a delirious three + weeks. + + I miss you so much that I can't remember what my + reason was for thinking it best for you to go to + boarding school. I must have had some good reason, + but it is swallowed up in misery over your + absence. Could it have been that you needed + training and to learn to control yourselves? + Foolish notion! When you come home you can fight + all over the shop if you've a mind; and sass your + pa until he crawls under the bed with Brindle; and + get late to your meals; and go around with holes + in your stockings; do anything, in fact, that your + fancy dictates. All I ask of you is to come home + the same old Tweedles, loving your poor, lonesome, + old Zebedee as much as ever. + + I am delighted that you are making so many good + friends. There is nothing in all the world like + friends and the ones made in early years are worth + all the others put together. + + Please remember me to Miss Page Allison and tell + her I saw her father the other day, and he was + looking mighty fit, considering he has not had her + to take care of him for so long. He had come up to + Richmond for a medical convention. I am glad you + are enjoying Miss Page so much. I liked her on + short acquaintance better than any friend you have + ever had. I am delighted that you have invited her + to spend some of the holidays with us. I asked Dr. + Allison if he could spare her to us for a few + days, and he said of course he could. You girls + seem to have a mutual admiration society. Miss + Page, according to Dr. Allison, is as enthusiastic + about my girls as my girls are about his girl. + + I am intensely gratified that the three of you + have kept up with the poor scared child we met on + the train. Such a wholesome trio would be sure to + be good for the timid, miserable little thing. You + must ask her to come to see us in Richmond if you + have not already done so. + + I am sending you a box of goodies for your + day-after-Thanksgiving spread. I am afraid some of + the things are contraband, but people who make + rules would not make them unless they expected + schoolgirls and their outrageous young fathers to + break them. I fancy I have concealed the true + nature of the contents of the box, and unless the + supervision is very thorough, it will pass muster + and the contraband articles find the way to their + destination--your little insides. Love to Jinny + Cox. + + Good-by, + ZEBEDEE. + + + Dr. James Allison to Miss Page Allison. + + Bracken, Sunday aft. + + My dear little daughter: + + I saw young Jeffry Tucker in Richmond last week + and what he had to tell me of my girl gratified me + greatly. I am not going to divulge to you what he + said, but you may know it was something pretty + nice. + + I miss you very much, my dear Page, but poor old + Mammy Susan is worse off than I am because she is + at home all the time and I am off on my rounds, + and when I am at home, thank God, I have books. I + do not mean to say that books take the place of my + girl, but I mean I can bury myself in them and for + the time being be oblivious to everything else. + + Sally Winn is still trying to die, poor woman. I + was called out in the wee small hours this morning + to help her cross the Styx. She has been more + determined than ever since Mrs. Purdy passed over. + She is very jealous and said this morning: "Betty + Purdy always was a pushing thing. She made out all + the time she didn't want to go but that's not so, + I know. She's been getting ahead of me all her + life. Pretended she married Purdy because he was + so bent on it that she had to. Everybody knows it + was just the other way, she was so bent on it, + Purdy had to." Of course you must have heard that + Mr. Purdy courted Sally first. I suggested that it + would be well if she tried to live and perhaps she + might console the widower; and do you know, I left + her with a much stronger pulse. + + I hope your Thanksgiving will go off finely. I + cannot tell you how we long for you, my dear; but + Christmas will soon be here, and in the meantime I + am going to bury myself in a new book I got in + Richmond last week. + + I am so glad for you to make these good friends + you write of. The Twins sound delightful. Tucker + is one of the best fellows I know. He is + ridiculously young to be the father of girls as + old as you. He is one of the cleverest newspaper + men in the South, so clever I wonder the South + keeps him. New York newspapers seem to suck in all + the bright men sooner or later. + + I am so glad your friends will come to Bracken for + a visit with you during the holidays, and I will + of course let you go to them for a visit. I may + run up to the city at the same time. Cousin Park + Garnett has made me promise to stay with her the + first time I go to Richmond, so I am afraid the + trip will not be altogether hilarious for me. + + The dogs send love to their mistress in yaps, + yowls and whines. Mammy says she hopes "you ain't + done wash all de meat off'n you in dem plumbin' + tubs." + + With much love, + FATHER. + + + From Mr. Arthur Ponsonby Pore to Miss Annie de + Vere Pore. + + Price's Landing, Va. + + My dear Annie: + + I am most gratified at the account you give of the + progress you are making in your studies. The + authenticity of your account is verified by the + report I have received from the principal of the + institution. + + I am surprised and grieved that you should find + your wardrobe not sufficient for your needs. There + is a vulgar tendency among all Americans to + overdress which you must avoid. Remember that in + your veins flows the blood of Ponsonby and de Vere + and that is more to be considered than all the + fine clothes in the world of the _nouveau riche_. + I will send you the box containing some old lace + and a white dress of your Mother's. If that is not + suitable, I think you had better not appear at + the concert of which you write. + + I also wish to warn you against undue intimacies + with persons of whom you know little or nothing. + The sacrifice I am making in sending you to + boarding school is not that you may amuse yourself + with friends no doubt beneath you in birth and + breeding but that you may perfect yourself in your + studies and cultivate your voice, which may prove + of material benefit to you. + + General Price called on me yesterday and told me + he had received a letter from his grandson, + Harvie, in which he had mentioned the fact that he + had met you at a football game. I hope you are not + wasting much of your time in such frivolous + pursuits. + + Yours truly, + ARTHUR PONSONBY PORE. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ANNIE'S MOTHER. + + +We were rather troubled about Annie Pore and what on earth she was going +to wear to the concert. Her wardrobe, not being extensive, was well +known to all of her friends and certainly there was nothing suitable in +it for a girl who was going to have to stand up on the stage and sing. + +"If she would only not be so proud," groaned Dum; "but who could say to +Lady Clara Vere de Vere, 'Let me lend you some of my duds?' Now I +shouldn't in the least mind borrowing anything from anybody if I thought +the person cared for me. Don't I wear the Liberty scarf your Cousin Sue +sent you every time I find it idle, and if I could borrow from you, +Page, why shouldn't Annie?" + +"Well, it is different, Dum, because Annie hasn't got anything. You +borrow the scarf just as a frill, but if it were a necessity I don't +believe you would." I had intense sympathy for Annie because I could +fancy what my own clothes would have been if dear Cousin Sue Lee had not +had them in charge. Miss Pinky Davis, our country dressmaker, would have +turned out just such another crooked seamed suit as Annie's if Cousin +Sue had not insisted on a mail order, and I know my shirtwaists would +have been big where they should have been little, and little where they +should have been big: and as for Middy blouses, there is no telling what +they would have looked like: rick-rack trimming on the collar, no doubt, +and ruffles around the tail. Cousin Sue did let Miss Pinky make me some +white evening dresses and they turned out all right because Cousin Sue +bridled Miss Pinky's fancy. + +"Let me see," said Dee, "as far as I can remember Annie has a blue serge +skirt, two white shirtwaists, one blue poplin one and a plaid silk +blouse for Sunday. I can't bear to think of her on the stage in any of +that array. Of course it makes no difference to any of us, but think of +that nasty Mabel Binks and her following! Ugh! I tell you one thing," +she added excitedly, "if any of them make Annie feel bad, they've got me +to fight." + +"Me, too," chimed in Dum. + +"Well, I can't see that that would help Annie's clothes much," I +laughed, "but it might keep you, Tweedles, from having apoplexy." + +"Dee, you've got so much tact, you go see Annie and find out what she is +going to wear," suggested Dum. + +"Oh, no, not me! I'm so afraid I might leak, and that would never do," +and Dee got out a handkerchief ready for emergencies. "You see, I feel +so bad about Annie and so desperately sorry for her that I have to cry +just thinking about her, and what would it be if she should get out her +poor little blouses and ask my advice? Just think of all the clothes Jo +Barr has, simply going to waste and how old Jo would love to dress Annie +up in them! Still, we all know that Annie would be cut to the quick at +the suggestion of such a thing. Oh, dear, oh, dear! I wonder what +Zebedee would do." + +"Well, I know what I am going to do," I said, uncurling myself from the +window sill where I could, by a good deal of craning of the neck, catch +a glimpse of my beloved mountains; "I'm going in and have it out with +Annie. She knows I love her and I don't believe I'll hurt her feelings. +I think she trusts us, and when you really trust people they simply +can't hurt your feelings unless you have a natural born chip on your +shoulder, which Annie hasn't." + +"Oh, Page, you are just like Zebedee," tweedled the twins. "That's what +he would do." + +I found Annie looking very like old Rain-in-the-Face. She was in a +forlorn heap on the floor; her eyes red; her ripe-wheat hair all +disheveled; and in her hand a crumpled letter. On the floor by her was +an unopened box which had just come by parcels post. + +Her "Come in" in answer to my knock had been more like a sob than an +invitation to enter. + +"What is it, dear Annie? Tweedles and I have just been talking about you +and we wonder if you know how much we love you. Do you?" + +"Oh, Page, I don't see how you can!" + +"Well, we do, and I said I believed you loved us enough to trust us. I +mean to understand that we could never hurt your feelings in any +possible way, just because we'd rather be boiled alive than hurt you." + +Annie looked up and smiled a rather watery smile, but a smile all the +same. + +"Now s'pose you trust me and tell me what is the matter. What are +friends for if you can't tell them your troubles?" + +"Oh, Page, I'd like to tell you, but it would seem so disloyal to my +Father." + +"You understand, Annie, that if you tell me anything it would be just +like telling it to a Father Confessor. I mean I'd never breathe a word +of it." It sounded as though I were full of curiosity, but while of +course I did want to know, my reason for pressing Annie was that I felt +she needed to let off steam, that is, her pent-up emotions. + +"I know you are the best friend any girl ever had and I believe I will +tell you all about everything." + +"Well, wash your face first and let me brush your hair while you talk." + +So Annie got up and bathed her face, and while I combed and brushed her +thick, yellow hair, she told me the following tale: + +"You see, Page, my Father is an Englishman and he is awfully proud. He +does not understand a little girl a bit nor did he understand my +beautiful Mother. He loved her, though, adored her, in fact, and I know +has never been happy one minute since she died; that's been about four +years now. He does not love me, though, I am afraid; but maybe I do him +an injustice and don't understand him. Anyhow, he is never chummy and +chatty with me like Mr. Tucker is with Tweedles." + +"I bet he does love you, Annie. My Father is not so intimate with me as +Mr. Tucker is with his girls, but I know he loves me. You see, Mr. +Tucker is almost the same age as his daughters and I fancy your Father +is much older than you are, just as mine is." And I went on brushing +her hair, knowing she was becoming calmer and beginning rather to enjoy +talking about herself. + +"My Father, you know, is very well born; in fact, his Father was a +baronet of very ancient stock and his elder brother now has the title +and estates. Father was educated for the church. He has an Oxford degree +and is very scholarly. However, after all his education, he did not want +to take orders. He felt that he had no vocation for the ministry, and he +and my grandfather had an awful row about it. You see, English younger +sons have to do something. Mother told me all this. Father has never +mentioned it to me. He occasionally reminds me that I am of good birth +and that is his only reference to England. Immediately after this row +with Grandfather, he met Mother and fell in love with her at first +sight. It was at a Charity Bazaar." + +"Oh----!" I exclaimed involuntarily, but made out I was sneezing. I +remembered the conversation I had held with Harvie Price about Mrs. Pore +and the Charity Bazaar. + +"Mother's people are noble, too. She was the daughter of a younger son +of the Earl of Garth, but she had not a penny to her name. When she met +my Father, she was visiting some very wealthy relatives who were +interested in her and preparing to launch her on the concert stage. +Mother had a wonderful voice, you know." + +"Yes, Harvie Price told me that all the old sinners in your county went +to church to hear her sing." + +"Well, Mother fell in love, too, and in spite of all that her rich +relatives had to say about her career, she married Father; and then what +did Grandfather, Sir Isaac Pore, do but stop Father's allowance? It was +not very much but it was enough for the young couple to live on if they +lived very simply. Sir Isaac thought he could force Father into taking +orders; but Father was opposed to doing this, feeling he was not suited +to the Church, and Mother upheld him in his resolve." + +"They were right, I think. It seems an awful sin to me for a man just to +go into the ministry for a living," I ventured. + +"Of course they were right. Then my parents were in a quandary. Father +had about two thousand dollars to his name and that wouldn't go very +far. They decided to come to America, he to go into some kind of +business and Mother to do something with her voice. They stayed in New +York for a year. He got some teaching, coaching boys for college, and +she sang in a church. Mother said they had a hard time. Father's manner +was proud and overbearing and he was so intolerant of Americans that he +lost pupils constantly. Then my brother was born and Mother had to give +up her position in the church." + +"Oh, I did not know you had a brother!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, he died before I was born. He lived five years, I believe. I think +that is one reason Father does not love me more. You see, all of his +hopes were settled on the boy, who was in line for the title. My uncle, +the present baronet, has no boys. Well, they got on the best they could +until the boy died. They went from place to place, Father always able to +get pupils because of his talents and education and always losing them +because of his proud intolerance. Mother had lots of tact and charm and +she was always smoothing things over and pacifying Father." + +[Illustration: "From Mother!" exclaimed the girl, trembling with +excitement.--_Page 156._] + +"She must have loved him a whole lot not to have pacified him with a big +stick," I thought, but I did not give utterance to my reflection. + +"They finally landed in Norfolk. I was born there, so you see, I am a +Virginian. While at Norfolk, Mother heard of the country store at +Price's Landing which could be bought for very little. She had come into +possession of a small legacy, and she immediately bought the store and +all the stock and we moved there and have been there ever since." + +"English people are always getting small legacies. I never heard of +Americans getting them," I said as I plaited Annie's hair in the great +rope that was the envy of us all. + +"We really have prospered at Price's Landing. Mother took charge of the +store a great deal and by her graciousness won customers, and when once +people get used to Father, they don't seem to mind his stiffness so +much; everybody but me; somehow, I'm always afraid of him," and Annie +looked very sadly at the crumpled letter in her lap. + +"Mother was so gay and cheerful; I wish I could be like her. She would +sing at her work and Father would smile and look almost happy when he +would hear her voice." + +"Don't you sing at your work ever?" I asked. + +"No, no, I am so afraid of disturbing Father." + +"I bet he'd like it. Why don't you try? Your voice must be like your +Mother's." + +"Oh, I couldn't--really, Page. Well, to go on: + +"Mother used to play a lovely game with me, and no one knew we were +playing it, which made it just so much more fun. We used to pretend +while we were keeping store that it was a Charity Bazaar----" (I laughed +aloud) "especially when dear old General Price came in for anything. You +see, most of the people at Price's Landing, while very kind and good, +are quite ordinary; but General Price is very aristocratic and fine, and +we could play the game with him to perfection. He had so much manner +that sometimes it almost seemed that he was playing, too." This was too +delicious, and here was I sworn to secrecy! I certainly did want to tell +Harvie Price, but a Father Confessor must keep many good things to +himself. + +"Mother died when I was eleven." I made a rapid calculation how long +poor Annie must have been wearing the old crepe hat. "Since then, Father +and I have looked after the store together and now we have a clerk," +only Annie called it "clark." "We are not so poor as we used to be and +the books show we are making a very comfortable living, but Father saves +and saves. He started doing it before Mother died and it worried her a +lot. She said he used to be a great spender and she had to do the +saving, but when money began to come more easily he seemed to hate to +part with it. She made him promise before she died that I should go to +boarding school or I know it would never have come about. Of course he +doesn't know how girls of the day dress and how odd I look, but even if +he did know I believe he would let me be ridiculous rather than spend +money on anything that he considered unnecessary." Annie's eyes +flashed, which was an improvement on the eternal tears she seemed so +prepared to shed. + +"I am going to let you read this letter from him so you can see," and +she handed me the crumpled sheet. It was the letter which is in the last +chapter. + +It was certainly some letter. I could not help comparing it with the one +I had just received from my Father, and also one that Tweedles had read +me from their Zebedee. I hardly knew what to say but I knew what to +think, and that was that one of the so-called "vulgar Americans" ought +to give him a good beating! + +"Well, Annie, I wouldn't mind that letter. Your Governor evidently +doesn't understand girls. Let's have a look in the box." We cut the +string and took off the outside wrapper. The box was tightly corded. + +"It is just as Mother left it," sighed Annie. "He didn't even open it to +see if the things in it were of any value for me. I'm glad he didn't, +because I like to feel that I am untying her knots myself." + +We didn't cut those strings, but Annie carefully and reverently picked +loose the knots. When the top was taken off the box, there was a faint +smell of dried rose leaves. The contents were carefully wrapped in blue +tissue paper. "To keep the things from turning yellow with age," +whispered Annie. + +I felt somehow as though I were at a funeral. Annie didn't cry, though, +as one might have expected, but her countenance shone with a kind of +subdued light and she looked like an angel. She shook out a soft, white, +crepe de Chine dress made over silk. It looked as fresh as though it had +just come from the dressmaker's. In another wrapper was a lovely real +lace scarf and in yet another some white silk stockings. + +"Oh, Annie, Annie!" and I jumped up and down for joy. "They are exactly +right for you! And see how carefully they have been packed! Not a +wrinkle in the dress! Here, take off your clothes and try it on." + +"Mother wore it at the Charity Bazaar where she met Father. Her rich +cousin had just had it made for her," and the excited child began to +take off her shabby blouse and skirt. + +"All you will need for the concert is white slippers and you will surely +wear mine just to let me know you love me," I begged. + +Annie flushed and I was afraid her stubborn pride was going to master +her, but she astonished me by saying: "Yes, I will wear them if you will +lend them to me. I remember Mother told me she had to borrow slippers +from a friend that night, but she knew her friend loved her and so did +not mind." + +I slipped the dress over her head, but as she pushed her arm into the +sleeve she stopped and drew her hand quickly out. + +"Wait, the sleeve is pinned." So it was, and pinned through a letter +that was sealed and addressed to Annie. + +"From Mother!" exclaimed the girl, trembling with excitement. "Every now +and then I find a little note from her. She knew she could not live for +a long time before she died." Out fluttered two ten-dollar bills and a +five wrapped in a tiny penciled note. + + My Darling: + + The time may come when you will wish to wear this + dress that I have saved so carefully for you; and + when that time comes you may also want a little + money that perhaps you will not have, money for + clothes, I mean. I give you this twenty-five + dollars for your very own, to spend as your needs + require. It is not much, but it may help you to + look like other girls. Fathers do not always + understand what girls need, but Mothers know. I + earned this money myself, giving singing lessons + to the blacksmith's daughter and you helped me by + keeping store while I taught, so you can take + added pleasure in spending it. + + MOTHER. + +Something happened right here that was to say the least unexpected: I, +Page Allison, gave up and cried like a baby. I know I hadn't cried so +since old Buster, my pointer, died. And Annie Pore, instead of bawling, +which she would have been perfectly justified in doing, never shed a +tear; but with that exalted look on her face, which she had worn from +the time she opened the box, she actually comforted me by patting me on +the back and smoothing my hair. + +"Page, Page, it's all right; don't be so miserable," she said as she +endeavored to soothe me. So I blew my blooming nose and made her go on +trying on the dress. It was a wonderful fit, just a little too long for +a girl of fifteen, but we hemmed it up in no time. Strange to say, +although the dress was more than twenty years old, it was not out of +style but cut very much according to the prevailing mode. The truth of +the matter is that Dame Fortune is quite like the old preacher who wrote +a barrel of sermons, and when he had preached them all, he just turned +the barrel up-side-down and began again. Fashions and styles get put in +the barrel only to appear again after so many years. + +"Have you a catalogue for a mail-order house, Page? Because I want to +spend my money right off." + +"Yes, I'll get it for you just as soon as my nose dies down a little. I +don't want Tweedles to know I've been crying. What are you going to +get?" + +"Plenty of middy blouses and a good skirt to wear with them, some +dancing slippers and some kind of simple dress I can put on in the +evening, if the money can be stretched to it." + +I was sure it could with careful ordering; and in a few minutes I +thought my nose would bear inspection, so I went back to 117 to get the +catalogue. Tweedles was out visiting, so I did not have to run the +gauntlet of their curiosity. + +Annie and I soon found exactly the right things in my wonder book, and +we had the letter written ordering the things before the warning bell +rang for visiting to cease. + +"I fancy Father would be awfully cut up if he could know I am spending +all of this money on my clothes; but he needn't know anything about it. +I can wear my old things during the holidays and next summer----" + +"Oh, Annie," I broke in, "you are making an awful mistake if you do not +let your Father know all about this letter from your Mother, and take +him into your confidence immediately. It wouldn't be fair to him if you +didn't." + +"Not fair to Father! I never thought of such a thing. I am afraid he +will be awfully angry with me." + +"How could he be? Aren't you doing exactly what your Mother tells you +to? I tell you, honey, it pays every time to be perfectly frank. You try +and see if it doesn't." + +The warning bell rang and I had to beat a hasty retreat, but before I +went I kissed poor little Annie and she clung to me and whispered: "I +know you are right and I'll write to Father to-morrow and send him +Mother's letter." + +"That's a good girl; but, Annie, get your letter off to New York for +your things first before the Governor has time to veto it." + +"Well, what ho!" exclaimed the twins as they tore in to our rooms, +undressing as they came to beat the lights out bell to bed. "Tell us all +about Annie!" + +"There's nothing to tell," I declared, making the mental reservation +that there was nothing I could tell, "except that her father sent her a +pretty white crepe de Chine dress that she is going to look charming in, +and she has consented to borrow my white slippers for the occasion." + +"Oh, how splendid!" cried Dum. But Dee looked at me very solemnly and +said: "Page Allison, I know where to put my confidence. Annie Pore has +told you the story of her life and wild horses could not drag it from +you. I wouldn't have even known she had told if your precious little +freckled nose wasn't as red as a cherry." I felt awfully foolish but I +borrowed my policy from the Tar Baby "an' kep' on sayin' nothin'." + +After the light was out, I gave a little audible chuckle as I lay there +going over in my mind the very exciting happenings of the evening. I +chuckled to think what Mabel Binks would say if she knew the despised +"Orphan Annie" was the granddaughter of a baronet on her father's side +and the great-granddaughter of an earl on her mother's. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE CONCERT. + + +The concert was a great affair. They had not only the singing and +playing from the musical pupils, but refreshments afterward and a little +reception. Many of the townspeople came and the boys from Hill-Top. Our +Assembly Hall was full to overflowing. Miss Jane Cox was in a highly +nervous state. + +"I have two pupils who will sing flat," she confided to me, "and if they +do it to-night, I'll die of mortification." + +"Well, Annie Pore is going to do you credit, anyhow, I feel sure," I +said, hoping Miss Cox would take a more cheerful view. + +"Yes, I am looking to her to save the day. Have you seen her? She looks +beautiful." + +I had seen her; in fact, I had hooked her up. My slippers fitted finely +and Annie's dress was without doubt the best-looking one on the stage +that evening. + +Mabel Binks headed the programme with a flashy selection on the piano. +She was in her element, showing off. Everything about her proclaimed _le +dernier cri_ of fashion. Even her hair was the latest creation of twists +and rolls. Her hands were covered with rings and her arms had several +bracelets in the form of snakes coiling around them. These rings and +bracelets had a way of clicking ever so slightly but just enough to +accentuate the effect that her performance was a purely mechanical one. + +"Pianola," whispered Dee to me. Dee and I had captured dear old Captain +Leahy and made him sit between us. The old fellow was in fine feather +and full of jokes. Miss Peyton smiled approval when she saw that we had +taken care of her old friend, who always came to the school +entertainments by her especial invitation. + +"And do ye call that music? I'd rather hear 'Sweet bye and bye' played +on the whistle of an engine by a freight engineer on our line than that +rattle bang. The freight engineer puts some sowl into his worrk, some +meaning. He wants to let his frinds know he is a-cooming home, and his +wife to know that 'tis toime to put on the frying pan and get the pot to +b'iling. But that, what does that mean? Nothing but nimble fingers. +There's no heart in it,--just noise." + +We heartily agreed with the old man, but at the close of Mabel's +performance there was such a storm of applause from the Juniors who were +her especial admirers that the perfunctory clapping from the rest of the +audience was completely drowned. She bowed and smiled and rattled her +bangles and then sat down and played "Annie Laurie" with her foot on the +loud pedal all the time, and with all the variations possible to weave +around the beautiful old air. + +"Now isn't that too Mabel Binksy for anything?" hissed Dum in my ear. +She was right behind us sitting next to Harvie Price, who had sought us +out on his arrival at Gresham. "She knows perfectly well that Annie Pore +is to sing 'Annie Laurie,' and she chose that for her encore +deliberately and without the knowledge of Miss Cox or the piano teacher, +either. Cat!" + +"And why should ye insult poor pussy so, Miss Tucker?" asked the +Captain, who had overheard Dum's remark. "I haven't a cat to me name who +would do such a trick." + +Annie followed Mabel immediately. I wondered if she would be upset by +Mabel's having just played her song, but she was not a whit. She +whispered to Miss Cox, who was to play her accompaniment and they +evidently decided to change the program. + +As Annie came on the stage, I verily believe half of the girls did not +at first recognize her. Her dress had that unmistakable air that a good +dressmaker can give, and twenty years had not diminished the style; but +it was Annie's walk and manner that astonished everyone, even her best +friends. Could this be the same, tearful little Annie? She wasn't really +little, but I always had thought of her as small just because she seemed +to need protection. She was quite as well grown as the Tuckers and a +little larger than I was. Her carriage had dignity, and there was a +poise and ease to her that is rare in a school girl. Miss Cox played the +opening bars to Tom Moore's beautiful and touching song, "Believe me if +all those endearing young charms," and Annie sang with the simplicity +and confidence of a great artist. + + Believe me, if all those endearing young charms, + Which I gaze on so fondly to-day, + Were to change by to-morrow and fleet in my arms, + Like fairy gifts fading away, + Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art, + Let thy loveliness fade as it will, + And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart + Would entwine itself verdantly still. + + It is not while beauty and youth are thine own, + And thy cheek unprofaned by a tear, + That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known, + To which time will but make thee more dear! + No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets, + But as truly loves on to the close, + As the sunflower turns to her god when he sets + The same look which she turned when he rose. + +There is something in that song that touches everyone, old and young. As +Annie finished, for a moment there was perfect silence and then such an +ovation as the little English girl did have! Old Captain Leahy beat his +peg leg on the floor. "Forgetting me manners in me enthusiasm," he +declared. Annie bowed and smiled, no more flustrated than Alma Gluck +would have been. + +"Did you ever see such stage presence?" whispered Dee. "Why, she is more +at home there than we are in 117 in our kimonos." + +"That's because she loves to sing and knows she can do it," and at the +risk of being considered Annie's claque, I started fresh applause which +was taken up by the whole audience; and after another whispered +conference with Miss Cox, Annie sang again. This time it was "Bonnie, +sweet Bessie, the maid of Dundee." These were songs her mother had +taught her, and I could almost fancy the spirit of the mother had +entered into the daughter. + +"I could almost see her mother as she sang," Harvie Price said to me +later on. "I believe Annie's voice is going to be stronger than her +mother's and it has the same note of pathos in it. Why, it was all I +could do to keep from sobbing when she sang 'Sweet Bessie.' And did you +see Shorty? Why, Shorty had his face buried in his hands, and now he +pretends he has caught a bad cold! Isn't she pretty, too? The old man +must have loosened up some to get that swell dress for her. Grandfather +wrote me the other day that Mr. Pore is so economical these days that he +won't go to church because he does not want to part with his nickel. He +says he is making money, too, on the store, since there is absolutely no +competition at the Landing." + +"I am so glad you liked her dress," I answered, nearly dead to tell this +nice, sympathetic boy all about it; but keeping to my role of Father +Confessor, I naturally said nothing about how she came by it. + +"I am hoping I can spend part of next summer with my grandfather," +continued Harvey. "You know my Governor and his Father fell out about +politics and I had to stop going there, but, thank goodness, they have +made up now. Father would vote for Roosevelt, while Grandfather thinks +anybody belonging to him must be a Democrat. And not long ago Father +decided that President Wilson was, after all, about the best President +we have ever had, so he wrote to Grandfather and said he was sorry he +had ever voted for a Republican; and now the row is over and the family +is reunited. Grandfather is very arbitrary and of course it is hard to +live with him, but he is the kindest and most generous old man, and I +truly love him." + +"Annie Pore says he is charming and delightful and that her mother cared +so much for him," I said, feeling that that much of Annie's talk with me +it would be all right to repeat. This conversation with Harvie was after +the concert when we were having refreshments in the Gymnasium. The +concert had gone off very well. Miss Cox was jubilant because her pupils +who would sing flat had refrained for the occasion. Miss Cox herself had +sung delightfully and had won the heart of old Captain Leahy by giving +"The Wearing of the Green" as an encore. + +When the programme was all over and everyone had done the best she +could, Miss Peyton made a little speech and said that by especial +request from some of the older guests Miss Annie Pore was to sing "Annie +Laurie." + +That was really the treat of the evening. We were delighted because it +made Mabel Binks so mad. + +"I am some weary of that sob stuff from 'Orphan Annie,'" I heard her say +to one of the Hill-Top boys. + +"Why, I think it is great!" was his unsympathetic reply. "And what a +little beauty she is, too!" + +Once off the stage, Annie's shyness returned in full force, but it soon +wore off under the genial good fellowship of the Tuckers and Mary +Flannigan, and Harvie's big-brother air of pride in her success, and +Shorty's funny reproaches for making him catch such a bad cold. She +looked very happy, and not even Mabel Binks could mar her cheerfulness, +although she plainly heard Mabel say to a Junior: "I wonder who lent her +that dress. It certainly looks familiar to me and anyone could see it +was shortened for the occasion." + +My stitches were not so small as they might have been! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE SPREAD. + + +Saturday night was a great time for spreads as there was no study hall +on that evening and the girls could come early and stay late. A grand +feast was in preparation at 117 Carter Hall. Mr. Tucker had sent a box +that had passed inspection at the office, although it was filled with +contraband articles; but as he wrote Tweedles, they wouldn't make rules +if they did not expect them to be broken. + +"My, I'm glad Miss Peyton doesn't put us on our honor not to have cake +and such," said Dee as she opened up a box stamped with the name of a +well-known drygoods firm and plainly marked in a masculine hand: +"Virginia's Shoes, the fourth pair she has had since Spring and she must +be more careful and have her old ones half-soled." + +"Isn't old Zebedee a peach? Look! Tango sandwiches!" (The catalogue to +Gresham plainly says: "Nothing but crackers, fruit and simple candy is +allowed to be eaten in the rooms.") + +"Here are olives done up to look like shoe polish," said I, diving into +the big box. "And what is this big round parcel at the bottom?" On it I +read: "Caroline's winter hat. I think you are a very vain girl to insist +on your winter hat just to wear it home on the train for Christmas. I +hope it is not mashed but think it would serve you right for thinking so +much about your appearance." The hat proved to be a great caramel cake, +stuck all over with English walnuts, packed so carefully it was not a +bit mashed. Jars of pickle masqueraded shamelessly as Uneeda Biscuit, +being ingeniously pasted up in the original wrappers. Cream cheese and +pimento sandwiches came dressed as graham wafers; and a whole roasted +chicken had had a very comfortable journey buttoned up in Dum's old +sweater, with a note pinned over its faithful breast saying that Dum +must make out with that sweater for another season as Mr. Tucker could +not put up with her selfish extravagance. + +We heard afterward that Miss Sears, whose duty it had been to inspect +this box before it was delivered to the girls, had said that she was +surprised to find that Mr. Jeffry Tucker did not spoil the twins nearly +so much as she had been led to believe. In fact, he seemed to be rather +strict with them and quite critical. For instance, an old sweater that +he expected Dum to wear through the season was not really fit to be seen +in! + +There were several boxes of candy, besides all the other goodies. They +were all marked peppermint but were really candied fruit, chocolates, +nougat and what not. + +"I tell you, Zebedee is some provider when he gets started," said Dee. +"I'm glad I didn't eat much dinner and I intend to eat no supper at +all." + +We were taking stock of our eatables before supper bell so we could see +how many girls we could invite to the spread. It was etiquette at +Gresham to give a girl fair warning when a spread was under way, so she +could save space and not go and fill up in the dining-room. We wanted +to avoid feeling like the old countryman who had his first experience +with a table d'hote dinner. Not knowing there was to be so much +following the first course, he ate too much of it, and afterward loudly +lamented: "Thar I sot chock full er soup." + +Annie Pore was, of course, on the list and funny little Mary Flannigan +and the two Seniors, Sally Coles and Josephine Barr. They had been +especially nice to our crowd and we were anxious to show them some +attention. That made seven in all. + +"We've really got food for one more or even two," declared Dee, "but +maybe we had better go easy because there is really not room for more." + +117 was rather crowded with the three beds, two bureaus, three chairs +and a table, and seven girls would just about fill it to overflowing. It +did not look like the bare cell that had so appalled us on our day of +entering Gresham. We now had a scrim curtain at the window; rugs on the +floor; Tweedles had pretty Roman blankets on their beds with bright +sofa cushions; while I had a beautiful log cabin quilt that Sally Winn +had pieced for me in between her different death throes. The walls were +literally covered with pennants from many schools and colleges with a +few pictures that Dum had stuck in her trunk, purloined from their +apartment in Richmond. + +"I don't believe Zebedee will ever miss them, and they mean a lot to +me," she had said when Dee had expressed astonishment on her producing +them from her trunk. "I am so constituted that I've just got to have +something beautiful to look at every now and then." The room was +pleasant and cozy but the crowded walls rather got on my nerves. Bracken +was so big and simple (some people would have called it bare) that I +could not get used to such a conglomeration in a bedroom. I kept my +taste to myself, however, as they were two to one, and no doubt my ideas +of decoration were very old-fashioned and out of date. + +Sally Coles and Jo Barr, whom we sought out before supper, were glad to +accept and vowed they would eat not a bite before the feast so that +they could come perfectly empty. Of course Annie Pore and Mary Flannigan +were holding themselves in readiness for the arrival of the promised box +from Mr. Tucker, and the news of its having come safely to hand was +greeted with enthusiasm. + +You get tired of any steady food except home food and sometimes you +think you are tired of that, but as a rule you are pretty glad to get +back to it. I fancy the table at Gresham was kept up about as well as +any boarding school, but we knew that as sure as Tuesday was coming, +roast veal was coming, too; and Wednesday would bring with it veal +potpie; Thursday, beefsteak; and Friday, fish; Saturday, lamb stew with +dumplings; Sunday, roast chicken; and Monday, not much of anything. This +certainty bored us, and sometimes I used to think if I couldn't find +something in the potpie besides veal, I'd scream. I had to do a lot of +looking at the mountains on Wednesday, somehow. + +A spread was a godsend, and an invitation to one was not as a rule given +in vain. As Sally Coles and I fox-trotted together in the Gym after +supper, she whispered in my ear: "It's certainly good of you kids to ask +Jo and me. We're crazy about coming." + +"We think it's pretty nice of you Seniors to come. You didn't even know +we are to have caramel cake, either, did you?" I answered. + +"Heavens, no! I'm mighty glad we didn't accept Mabel Binks's bid to a +Welsh rarebit in her room. We fibbed and told her we had a partial +engagement. It was just with each other but we didn't tell her that, and +now you Sophomores have saved our souls by making our imaginary +engagement a real one. I hate to tell even a white lie, but I'd hate a +deal more to have to go to a spread of Mabel Binks's giving. Don't you +know the hammers will be flying to-night? Can't you hear Mabel and those +rapid Juniors she runs with knocking everything and everybody?" + +"Yes, I reckon the only way to save your skin is to stay with her and +help knock. But how does she manage a rarebit when we are not allowed to +have chafing dishes?" + +"Manages the same way you and the Tuckers manage to have caramel cake, I +fancy. We are not allowed to have cake, either. Of course it is easier +to hide a cake than it is a chafing dish, especially if the cake is +sliced and there are a half-dozen empty girls to help. I believe some of +the girls keep their chafing dishes under their mattresses. Did you hide +your cake well before you came down to supper? It would be the +psychological moment for some busybody to make an inspecting tour--and +then, good-by, cake!" + +"Oh, you scare me to death!" and I grabbed Dee, who was whirling by, +trying a brand new step with a giddy Junior, and, whispering Sally's +warning to her, we beat a hasty retreat. Our beloved cake was on the +table covered with a napkin just as we had left it, seemingly, but on +raising the cloth we discovered that a great wedge had been cut out of +it. + +"Well, of all the mean tricks!" spluttered Dee. "Who do you s'pose----?" + +"Thank goodness, they only took about a fourth! What is left is enough +to give all seven of us fever blisters. Caramel cake with nuts in it +always gives me fever blisters," I laughed. + +"But I don't mind. I'll take the cake, fever blisters and all, every +time." + +"Me, too! Well, I hope that the thief will have a mouth full of them," +said Dee vindictively. + +"Well, honey, it's a sight better to have some mean girl take off one +fourth than some teacher in her mistaken zeal take off the whole thing +and give us demerits, besides. Here's your handkerchief," I said, +picking up a little pink crepe de Chine one from the floor. + +"Not mine, I don't possess such a thing. Don't you know Zebedee and Dum +and I use the same sized handkerchiefs? When we want a handkerchief, we +want a handkerchief, not a little pink dab. It must be yours." + +"No, I haven't any crepe de Chine ones. Here's an initial--B. It +certainly is scented up." The finishing touch to Mabel Binks's costume +on the afternoon we had seen the game at Hill-Top came back to me +suddenly: the strong odor of musk. The handkerchief smelt exactly the +same way. + +"Well, Dee, I reckon it won't take a Sherlock Holmes to say who took the +cake, now. Let's not give her back her hanky until to-morrow. If we took +it to her to-night she would know that we are on to her, and she would +be just mean enough to peach on us and have our cake seized." So we +determined, like Dee and Prosper le Gai, to "bide our time." + +What a spread we did have and what fun! Dum turned up with two more +girls, members of our class, and there was enough and to spare. Mr. +Tucker was as lavish as Mammy Susan herself. We had no plates or +glasses, but we had plenty of box tops for dishes and our toothbrush +mugs served as loving cups to drink the very sour lemonade Dee made in +the water pitcher. The same knife carved the chicken, then cut the cake. +The olives, always difficult to extract from the bottle, were poured +into the soap dish which I had scoured hard enough to suit the most +squeamish. + +"My, what good eats!" exclaimed Jo Barr. "And how did you ever smuggle +that cake within the lines?" We showed her the wrapper it had come in +and the stern note from Mr. Tucker. + +"Well, if that doesn't beat all! I tell you there is nothing like being +smart enough to keep the eleventh commandment: 'Thou shalt not get found +out.' I had a whole fruitcake taken bodaciously from me last year. I am +always breaking the eleventh." And that was so. Poor Jo always got +caught up with. + +"Well, I tell you one thing," said the wise Sally, "that cake had better +skidoo until danger of inspection passes. Teachers are a suspicious +lot." + +I just got it whisked under a down cushion on Dee's bed when there was a +sharp rap on the door. "Come in," we called in a chorus. It was Miss +Sears, rather astonished at our ready invitation to enter. + +"Oh, girls, having a spread, are you," glancing sharply at the +innocent-looking packages of crackers and peppermint candy without +coming all the way into the room. "Well, I hope you will have a nice +time." + +"Won't you join us, Miss Sears?" asked Dum sweetly. + +"Oh, thank you, no. I am on inspection duty to-night," and she closed +the door, never seeing that Jo had wrapped the roasted chicken up in a +spangled scarf she was sporting. That chicken had had all kinds of +dressing in its fat, young life: first its own feathers; then the +dressing, which is really the un-dressing; then the dressing, which is +really the stuffing; then Dum's old sweater; and now Jo's fine scarf. + +We proceeded then to put the good, appetizing food where nothing short +of an X-ray could inspect. So thorough were those nine girls that not a +crumb of cake nor scrap of sandwich was left to tell on us. The chicken +bones were some problem but we decided that if each girl took a bone and +disposed of it, it would simplify matters somewhat. Sally got the +wishbone and said she was going to gild it and put it on her "memory +string." + +When we had eaten to repletion, we demanded stunts from those gifted +that way. Mary did a dog fight and new turn she had just mastered: +going like a mouse. + +"I wish I could think it was a mouse who nibbled the cake," sighed Dum. +"It kind of hurts me all over to feel that somebody did it." + +"Well, if it was a mouse, I bet it sounded like this," and Mary imitated +Mabel Binks's nasal speech until we almost had hysterics. + +"Why do you fancy she took only a hunk instead of the whole cake?" I +asked. "It would have been so much more like her to take it all." + +"That's the reason she only took part. She thought by behaving out of +character she would throw us off the scent," suggested Sally. + +"Well, if she wanted to throw us off the scent, she shouldn't have +dropped her handkerchief," said Dee. "But let's forget it and think of +something pleasant. Annie, you sing, please," and she handed Jo's guitar +to the blushing Annie. Annie was always embarrassed when she had to sing +before a few persons. She got her "stage presence" when there was a real +audience. + +"What shall it be?" asked Annie. + +"Oh, something real sentimental and lovesick," demanded Sally, who was +supposed to be engaged; and with a little humorous twinkle in her +usually sad eyes, Annie sang "Sally in our Alley." + + Of all the girls that are so smart + There's none like pretty Sally; + She is the darling of my heart, + And she lives in our alley. + There is no lady in the land + Is half so sweet as Sally; + She is the darling of my heart, + And she lives in our alley. + + Of all the days that's in the week + I dearly love but one day-- + And that's the day that comes betwixt + A Saturday and Monday; + For then I'm dressed all in my best + To walk abroad with Sally; + She is the darling of my heart, + And she lives in our alley. + +Then Dum and Dee stood back to back and buttoned themselves up in their +sweaters, which they had put on hindpart-before and impersonated the +two-headed woman, Milly-Christine, singing a duet, "The mocking bird is +singing o'er her grave," in two distinct keys. That was an awfully +funny stunt and one the Tuckers had made up themselves. Before we had +half exhausted the talent of the assembled guests, the bell rang to warn +us that lights must soon be out and we had to break up. + +The next morning there was a fine crop of fever blisters due to the very +rich cake. Annie Pore and Sally Coles were the only ones who escaped +with a whole skin. When I handed Mabel Binks her smelly, pink, crepe de +Chine handkerchief, I noticed that her rather full lips were decorated +with a design similar to my own. + +"Here's your handkerchief," I said. "Cake with caramel and nut filling +is awfully rough on the complexion, isn't it?" And the girl had the +decency to blush. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. + + +I could hardly believe that it was I, Page Allison, who had been off to +boarding school. Bracken was so exactly as I left it and I dropped so +easily into my old habits and customs, that I felt as though I had only +dreamed I had been away. The dogs almost ate me up for joy, and Mammy +Susan had three kinds of hot bread for supper. Father and I chatted away +for dear life for a while, and then we just as naturally settled down to +a quiet evening of reading, as though I had merely been over to Milton +to mail a letter. He was vastly pleased to have me back, and every now +and then looked over his glasses at me with a very happy smile on his +dear, old, lean, weather-beaten face; and I lay curled up in a big +Sleepy-Hollow chair simply devouring the last "Saturday Evening Post" +that I had bought on the train coming from Gresham, feeling that I had +about the pleasantest home and the best father and kindest Mammy Susan +and the finest dogs on earth. + +"Mr. Tucker tells me you have asked him down to hunt," I said as I +surprised a loving glance from Father. + +"Yes, yes, I thought it would be nice if he could come when his girls +pay you their promised visit. He is mighty good company. I declare he +can keep a whole party in a good humor," and Father chuckled, evidently +in remembrance of some witticism of Mr. Tucker's. "We are thinking of +getting up a deer hunt over in the swamp. Jo Winn shot a good-sized buck +last month and I am told a great many persons have seen deer in the +distance lately." + +This was over in a corner of our county where many small rivers and +creeks formed a perfect network, making very inaccessible, marshy land. +The hunting was as a rule pretty good and during the winter we feasted +quite royally on wild turkey, partridge and rabbit. Deer, of course, +were not so plentiful, but an occasional one was shot. It seems strange +that Virginia, the first state settled, should still be boasting big +game. + +"I wish you could take us. Dum and Dee would like it a lot." + +"And you, I fancy, would just go along out of politeness," he teased. + +"Well, you know I'd rather get killed myself than kill anything, but the +Tuckers have their own guns and often go hunting with their father. I +believe they are very good shots." + +"If you think they can stand the trip, we'll take them. I know you can +stand what I can stand, unless boarding school has made you soft. Let me +feel your arm--ah, as hard as ever." + +"That's basketball and gym work. I'd have been soft, indeed, if I hadn't +gone in for athletics. I'm so glad we can go. I'll write to the twins to +bring their guns and rough clothes." + +Christmas day came and went with plenty of good cheer and happiness, but +none of the hurry and bustle of the present-day Christmas in town. At +Bracken we knew nothing about white tissue paper and Christmas seals and +bolts of red and green ribbon. Our simple gifts to one another were +exchanged without much ceremony; and then Father and I got into his +buggy, with the colt ready to run twenty miles if he could get the bit +between his teeth, and distributed baskets and bags of candy, nuts and +oranges to our many poor neighbors, colored and white. We always had a +box of oranges for the holidays and simple candy and mixed nuts by +wholesale quantities. + +"I'd like to take these things around on Christmas Eve and let the +little children think Santa Claus brought them, but I know the mothers +would give them their share right away and then there would be nothing +for Christmas day." + +"Well, I believe they think 'Docallison' is a kind of Santy, anyhow," I +said, as we whizzed up to a particularly poor-looking cabin that seemed +to be simply running over with little nigs. The grimy window was black +with their dusky faces and the doorway was so full that the children in +front were being pushed out onto the rickety excuse for a porch. + +"Howdy, Aunt Keziah! I hope you and your family are well this beautiful +morning," called Father, pulling in the colt and taking from between his +knees a large hamper literally running over with sweets. + +"Chris'mus gif'! Chris'mus gif'!" came in a chorus from all the little +mouths. Aunt Keziah hobbled out, smacking the little blacks as she came +with a very horny hand; but they seemed to take it as a kind of +pleasantry and bobbed up grinning from ear to ear. + +"Shet ep, yer lims er Satan! Cyarn't yer see Docallison's colt ain't +go'nter stan fer no sich yellin's? Chris'mus gif', Docallison! Chris'mus +gif', Miss Page!" + +This last came with a voice as soft as the wings of a dove, while the +tone in which she had admonished the little darkies had been as rough as +a nutmeg grater. You could hardly believe the two voices had issued from +the same lips. Aunt Keziah was the neighborhood "Tender": that is, she +minded the children whose natural guardians had gone away for one reason +or another,--sometimes to work in the cities, sometimes as house +servants for the county families, where such encumbrances as offspring +were not welcome. She was paid a small sum for each child and always +spoke of them as "bo'ders." + +Aunt Keziah had her charity, too, (as who has not?) and supported +several orphans. These she treated with especial kindness, and always +made the "bo'ders" wait until the objects of charity were helped to +"ash-cake an' drippin's." + +Father lifted out the heavy basket and the pickaninnies swarmed like +flies around a molasses barrel. + +"Git back, thar, you kinky-haided Gabe. You know you ain't nothin' but a +bo'der. You let dis here lil orphant Minnie git fust grab," and Gabe got +back and Minnie came proudly up and got her bag of candy and nuts. We +had tied the treat up in separate packages so there could be no broken +hearts. Mammy Susan had reported that Aunt Keziah had two new ones, +Milly Jourdan's twins, making fourteen in all. + +"What did you name the twins, your new boarders, Aunt Keziah?" I asked. + +Aunt Keziah demanded one thing from her patrons and that was that she +be allowed to name her charges. No matter what their names had been up +to the time they entered her domain, they had to be rechristened. A big +boy who had been called Bill for eight winters was now known as +Clarence. Mary Banks was Chrystobel and Mump Davis, a raw-boned, +fiery-looking boy, part Indian, seethed and chafed under the _nom de +guerre_ of Fermentation. The charity orphans kept the names their +mothers had seen fit to give them, out of respect for the departed. + +"Well, Miss Page, I studied a long time 'bout them thar twins. Naming is +moughty important fer boys special, sence matrimony cyarn't in no way +improve 'em, an' I done decided to call 'em Postle Peter an' Pistle +Paul." + +"Capital, capital!" laughed Father. "I hope Postle Peter and Pistle Paul +are healthy. You raise the strongest children in the county, Aunt +Keziah." + +"Yassir, Docallison," said the old woman with a toothless grin. "They's +a right likely pair. The reason my bo'ders an' all is so healthy is +'cause I make 'em wash theyselves. An' ev'y las' one er 'em is gotter +have two shuts or shifts to they backs er I won't tend 'em. An' what +they ain't a wearin', I puts in a pot an' biles. De boys gits a big +washin' on Chusdays an' Fridays, an' de gals on Wednesdays an' Sat'days. +Sometimes whin de lil gals all gits washed of a Sat'day night, it looks +like it's a kinder pity to was'e all them hot suds what ain't ter say +dirty, so I picks out a boy er so dat done got siled some, and makes him +take a extra scrub, jist fer luck. As fer eatin's, dey don't git nothin' +but corn braid an' drippin's wif lasses on Sunday ef I kin make out to +have 'em, but dey gits a plenty of what dey do git and de victuals +'grees wif 'em, an' I don't never have a nigger a month 'fo he's as fat +as a possum." + +"Well, Aunt Keziah, you are doing a fine work, raising healthy citizens. +I hope you will have a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. There +are toys enough to go around in the bottom of the basket and here's a +pound of tea for you and some tobacco for your pipe and some chocolate +drops that are easy to chew." + +"Thank yer, thank yer. Docallison, specially fer de sof' candy. I always +did useter have a sweet tooth but now I ain't got nothin' but a sweet +gum, but I's got dat all right." + +Just then the colt, tired of standing, made a bolt and all we could do +was to wave good-by to the funny old woman and her fourteen charges. + +"Old Aunt Keziah is bringing up those children according to the +teachings of modern science, even to sterilizing their shirts and +shifts, and she doesn't know there is such a word as germ. I fancy the +many cracks in the cabin wall where you can see daylight are partly +responsible for the health of the 'bo'ders.' I find more sickness among +the colored people where their cabins are better built and airtight. +Ventilation is avoided like the plague," said Father as he got the colt +under control and we went spinning off to some more "pensioners," as he +called them. + +The doctor's buggy was finally emptied of its load and we skimmed back +home with the colt as fresh as ever, agreeing that we would not give up +horses for all the automobiles under the sun. There is an exhilaration +that comes from driving a good horse that I do not believe a car can +give one, no matter how fine the car or expert the driver. + +Mammy Susan had a dinner for us that was fit for kings and queens. It +seemed a pity to cook so much for just Father and me, but some of that +dinner found its way to many a cabin where Father felt it was most +needed; and then on Christmas Day the dogs were given extra rations and +not limited to their one big feeding of corn meal and salt, scalded and +baked in a great pan until it was crisp. On this day of days they had a +bone apiece and all kinds of good scrapings. + +After dinner we settled ourselves to enjoy the Christmas books, of which +there were many, as our tastes were well known. Father's patients were +considerate enough not to send for him all afternoon. Not a soul got +sick on this happy Christmas day. Even poor Sally Winn did not try to +die. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A VISIT FROM THE TUCKERS. + + +The Tuckers arrived, and Tucker-like, neither at the time nor by the +route expected. I was just calling Sam to hitch Peg (short for Pegasus) +to the surrey to drive to Milton to meet them, when the unaccustomed +toot of an automobile attracted my attention. It was tearing down our +avenue at breakneck speed. Dee was at the wheel with Mr. Tucker beside +her, and Dum was bouncing around alone on the back seat. + +"Beat the train! By Jove, I thought we could!" exclaimed Mr. Tucker, +when he spied me at the yard gate. "We were so afraid you might have +started for Milton. That's the reason we were violating the speed +limit," and they all piled out, the girls hugging me and kissing me and +Mr. Tucker almost hugging me and not quite kissing me. + +"It was such a grand day we couldn't resist coming in the car," tweedled +the twins, "but if you had started for Milton before we got here, we +would have died of mortification." + +When I told them I had not even had Peg hitched up yet, they were +delighted. + +"A mounted policeman chased us just as we were leaving Manchester, but +we dusted him so Tweedles and I are hoping he did not get our number," +said Mr. Tucker. + +I called Sam to bring in the grips and rugs. + +"I am sorry he can't take your steed around to the stable, Mr. Tucker, +but we don't know a thing about automobiles at Bracken." + +"Leave it where it is, maybe we can have a spin later on." + +We went into the house, where the open wood fires made everything bright +and cheerful, although not very warm for persons who are accustomed to +steam heat. Mammy Susan in a stiffly starched purple calico dress with a +gay bandanna handkerchief on her head was ready to greet the guests. + +"Well, bress the Lord, an' you done come all the way from town in that +there fire wagon. I hearn the horn a tootin' and a rushin' like mighty +wings, and I says, says I: 'Susan Collins, 'tis the Angel Gabr'el a +comin' fer you.' So I clap on my clean head hankcher an' a starched +apron tow be ready fer the Resrection." + +"Mammy Susan, we've heard a lot about you. Page talks about you all the +time at school," said the twins, shaking the old woman warmly by the +hand. + +"Well, now, does she? Mammy's baby don't fergit her any more'n Mammy +fergits her baby. An' is this your pa? Well, save us, ef you don't look +more like somebody's great-grandson than anybody's pa." + +"Well, they do treat me like a stepson, sometimes, Mammy," laughed Mr. +Tucker. "If I could only take on the looks of years without the years, +I'd be glad, and maybe I could command more respect." + +"Why don't you grow some whiskers, then? They ain't nothin' so ageyfying +as whiskers on a young man." + +"I'll do it, I'll do it!" exclaimed Mr. Tucker. + +"Yes, and you do and we'll pull 'em out," Tweedles declared. + +"Well, here am I a-gassin' when I ought to be settin' a little lunch fer +the travelers." + +"Oh, we had lunch on the way," the three of them declared. "We were not +going to be any trouble to you by coming so much earlier than we were +expected." + +"Oh, now, you must be hungry," I said. "It won't take Mammy Susan a +minute." + +"Cose they's hungry, child. Can't I tell hungry folks soon as I claps +eyes on 'em? Maybe they did eat a snack in that there chariot of fire, +but the way they come down the abenue was enough to jolt down a +Christmus dinner, plum puddin' an' all, an' plum puddin' takes a heap er +joltin'," and Mammy Susan hastened out to "set a little lunch,"--which +the Tuckers later declared was a feast. + +They were hungry and cold, in spite of their protestations to the +contrary, and cold turkey and country ham with the delicious little +cornmeal cakes that Mammy could stir up and bake in half a minute +disappeared like magic. + +"Such coffee!" and Mr. Tucker rolled up his eyes in ecstasy. "And real +cow cream! I tell you, Tweedles, as soon as you finish getting this much +needed education, we've got to get out of an apartment and into a house +where we can do some real housekeeping and have some home cooking." + +"You ought to be made to eat at Gresham for a month or so, Zebedee, and +you would think the cafe is pretty fine," said Dee. "The grub at Gresham +is not so bad, but there is such a deadly sameness to it." + +"Well, the grub may be tejus," broke in Mammy, who had just come in with +a heaped-up plate of corn cakes, "but it must hab suption in it, 'cause +lil Miss Page is growd in width as well as wisdom, and you two young +twin ladies is got cheeks like wine-saps." + +"You are right, Mammy, the food must be pretty good to keep them so fat +and rosy," said Mr. Tucker, helping himself plentifully to the dainty +little cakes. + +"Yassir," and Mammy had a sly twinkle in her kind old eyes, "an' that +there caffy whar you gits yo' victuals mus' be dishin' out some +nourishment, too, 'cause you ain't to say peaked lookin'." + +How we did laugh at Zebedee, and as for him, he got up and gave Mammy a +little hug. The Tuckers all knew how to take jokes on themselves. + +"She certainly did get you, Zebedee," teased Dum. "You were trying to be +so Mr. Tuckerish, too, admonishing Dee and me for complaining about the +food at Gresham." + +Father came in soon from his rounds and greeted the visitors in his +kindly hospitable way. Mr. Tucker was to have several days' holiday from +his newspaper and Father said the neighborhood was in an extremely +healthy condition, owing to the clear, cold weather, and he did not +expect to be overworked; so the gentlemen began immediately to plan +their hunts. Dum and Dee were wild at the prospect of going on the deer +hunt. + +"I saw Jo Winn this morning, daughter," said Father, "and he will go +with us. He has a cousin from New York who is visiting him and he wants +to take him." + +"Well, if the cousin has no more conversation than Jo he certainly will +not bore us with his chatter," I said. "Now, how about lunch, Father? We +must give Mammy some warning, because she gets flustrated if we come at +her too suddenly." + +"To-morrow suits Jo and his kinsman, and it will suit us, too, I think. +Tell Mammy how many of us there are and tell her to put up twice as much +lunch as you think she should. That ought to be 'most enough. We'll want +the big camping coffee pot and a skillet and some salt; also some sliced +bacon, ground coffee and sugar, and a little flour to roll the rabbits +in. We may make a fire and cook some if we get cold and have good luck +in the morning." + +I went out to the kitchen to interview Mammy, Tweedles following me, and +then we had to go see the dogs. Dee approved of them and they heartily +approved of her. Dum did not have the passion for them that Dee and I +had, but she liked them well enough. The dogs licked her hand +respectfully and then jumped up on Dee and knocked her down and had a +big romp. + +How delightful it was to have some companions of my own age at my +beloved Bracken! The Tuckers wanted to see everything and go everywhere. +We visited the horses in the stable and the cows in the pen and climbed +up in the hay loft to hunt for eggs that a sly old blue hen refused to +lay in the proper place. + +"It's just like Grandpa Tucker's, only nicer," declared Dum. "Grandpa +treats us as though we were about two years old and treats Zebedee as +though he had just arrived in his teens, so when we go there, while we +have splendid times, we are being told what not to do from morning till +night." + +"Well, nobody ever has told me not to do things," I said. "Mammy Susan +grumbles when she thinks I am too venturesome, but she has always ended +by letting me have my own way; and Father says he thinks my way is about +as good as anybody's way." + +"Well, isn't it funny you are not spoiled?" tweedled the girls. + +"I believe I used to be spoiled when I was a tiny thing; but Father says +if people grow up spoiled, it is because they lack sense, and he always +said he knew I had sense enough to live down the spoiling that he and +Mammy Susan just couldn't help giving me." + +"I believe Dr. Allison is right, Dee," said Dum very solemnly, "and when +we are unruly with Zebedee I know it is not the fault of our early +training that we love to lay it on, but just plain lack of sense." + +"Well, I'm going to try to be mighty good, then," exclaimed Dee. "If +there is anything in the world I hate, it's stupidity." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +DEER HUNTING. + + +It was a glorious morning. Of course we had to get up before the sun +thought of such a thing. Indeed, there was a crazy, old, lop-sided, +dissipated-looking, gibbous moon still hanging on to life when we came +piling out of the warm, lighted house and climbed into the two vehicles +waiting for us. Father and Mr. Tucker were to go in Father's buggy, and +the girls and I were very snug, three on the seat of the runabout, with +the lunch and coffee pot bouncing around in the back, and the Tuckers' +guns carefully stowed under the seat. + +Jo Winn joined us at Milton, the New York cousin in the buggy with him. +We were curious to see the cousin, whom Father had reported as being +"quite likely." Jo was as good as gold and perfectly intelligent with a +keen sense of humor, but he was as silent as the tomb. His sister Sally +was the greatest chatterbox in the world, I am sure. She simply never +stopped talking except on those occasions when she was doing her best to +"shuffle off this mortal coil," and then she seemed to be not able to +stop talking long enough to die thoroughly. Just when the grave was +yawning for her (or maybe because of her) she would think of something +she simply had to talk about and come back to life. + +The Winns were F. F. V.'s, in that they were among the first families in +Virginia, if not of Virginia. They were not aristocrats, certainly. They +came of good pioneer stock who were tillers of the soil in the +seventeenth century and still were in the twentieth. They had lived on +the same tract of land for two centuries and a half, and in America that +should stand for aristocracy, but somehow with the Winns it never had. +They had no desire to be considered great folk and so they never were. +The war between the states had left them as it had found them, in fairly +prosperous circumstances. Never having owned slaves, the emancipation of +the negroes did not affect them one way or the other. Having always +done their own sowing and reaping, they could still do it. The family +had never been much on marrying, and now there were none left but the +hypochondriacal old maid Sally and her younger brother Jo. + +I had given the twins a history of the Winns as we spun over to Milton. +Pegasus was in fine feather, which seems a strange thing to say of a +horse, but of one whose name suggests wings, perhaps it is appropriate. + +"I fancy Jo is so silent because Sally talks so much," suggested Dum. + +"Maybe it is the other way and Sally talks so much to make up for Jo's +silence," I said; "but I hope the cousin from New York will strike a +happy medium." + +"A 'cousin from New York' always sounds so exciting and just as like as +not he'll come from Hoboken. Dr. Allison says he is about twenty-five, +so I reckon he'll not notice us kids, anyhow. It won't break our hearts, +that's sure," and Dee tossed her blue-black head in disdain of all +males. + +Jo and the cousin were waiting for us at the crossroads. The cousin was +a good-looking young man with blue eyes and light hair, very picturesque +in a brand new hunting suit, leggins and all. + +"They won't stay new long," I whispered to the girls, "with Jo's hounds +flopping all over them." + +Jo was forced to open his mouth and speak, as it was up to him to +introduce the cousin, but he did it in as few words as possible. + +"Mr. Kent--Miss Allison." And then an appealing glance at me gave me to +understand that the matter was in my hands, so I took up the social +burden and introduced Jo and Mr. Kent to the Tuckers. Mr. Reginald +Kent,--that was the picturesque name that went with the picturesque +corduroy suit,--proved himself to be a young man of resources. He had no +idea of taking the long drive to the spot of the possible deer alone +with the silent Jo, the hounds wallowing all over his new clothes. + +"See here," he exclaimed, "I think one of us fellows ought to get in +with the young ladies. They might need some protection on the trip." Jo +looked very much amused at my needing protection and the twins certainly +looked buxom enough to take care of themselves without the help of Mr. +Reginald Kent. + +"Well, sort yourselves in a hurry," called Father. "The colt won't stand +another minute and I don't want to get too far ahead of the rest of +you." + +"Let me get in with Mr. Winn," begged Dee. "I'm crazy to ride with the +dogs." Jo's dogs were the only ones going, although the pack at Bracken +plead piteously to be allowed to join the party. It seemed best not to +take too many, and Jo's dogs were so well trained that the men had +decided on them. + +Mr. Reginald Kent squeezed his new corduroys between Dum and me, and Dee +jumped into the buggy with the grinning Jo. Dee declared later that Jo +talked as much as most men and was a very agreeable person; but I fancy +the real truth of the matter was that Dee chattered away at her usual +rate, and that Jo was such an eloquent listener Dee never did discover +that she was doing all the talking. Certainly they found a topic of +interest to both of them in the dogs, and as talking about the dogs +meant patting the dogs, the dogs naturally were pleased. + +Our cavalier proved to be very cheerful and very complimentary. He was +evidently much pleased to escape the silent Jo. We liked him in spite of +his fulsome compliments, and when we gave him to understand that +flattery was not the way to curry favor with us, he became more natural +and we had a very amusing time with him. It turned out that he did not +live in Hoboken as Dee had predicted, but in the heart of New York City. +He was employed by an advertising firm, not only as a writer of +advertisements, but also as illustrator. + +"Of course there is no pleasant way of making a living," he said, "but I +long to get out of this commercial art and into regular illustrating." + +"But I adore ads," exclaimed Dum. "Dee and Zebedee and I always read +every word of them and Zebedee says you can find more pure fiction in +them than in the magazine proper--or improper." + +"Well, after this I shall do my work more enthusiastically and more +conscientiously, knowing there is a chance of its coming under such +eyes," and Mr. Kent's glance of admiration into Dum's hazel eyes gave +her to understand he was speaking of those particular eyes and not Dee's +and Zebedee's. I rather expected to see Dum give him a back-hander, but +instead she blushed in rather a pleased way, just as any young girl +should on receiving such a compliment from a handsome young man from New +York. + +The roads in our county are much improved, thanks to the automobilists +who have worked such reforms throughout the whole country. On that +morning they were hard and dry, even dusty, and we went spinning along +through the frosty air, Father ahead with the colt behaving as though it +were a hurry call and every moment counted. I was next in line and Peg +was giving me all I could do to hold her in. She seemed to want to let +us all see that an upstartish colt could trot no faster than she could. +I was rather glad that Mr. Reginald Kent had taken a fancy to hazel eyes +instead of gray, as I needed my gray eyes to pick a smooth road for +Peg. Jo Winn and Dee were just far enough behind us to keep out of our +dust, and occasionally we could hear Dee's ringing laugh and an unusual +guffaw from the silent Jo. + +"You see now why we couldn't come in your automobile, as Mr. Tucker +wanted," I said to Dum, as Father wheeled the colt sharply to the left +into a forest of pines where scrub oaks and chinquepins almost concealed +a very poor excuse for a road. + +"Come on, Daughter," Father called back to me; "we'll keep close +together through the woods, as there is no dust." + +I really believe that the road through that pine forest is the very +worst road in Virginia, and that is saying a good deal, as my beloved +state has only recently awakened to the fact that it reflects on her +standing to be noted as having the worst roads in the Union. That +particular road had great granite bowlders; ruts that threatened to +swallow us; gnarled tree roots that stretched across the path as though +they meant to trip us up; and sometimes even a fallen trunk over which +we would have to bounce, testing the springs of our vehicles to their +utmost endurance. + +"Well, I reckon little Henry Ford" (that is what the Tuckers called +their car), "would have been ditched long before this," gasped Dum, as +one wheel took a bowlder and the other a deep rut. + +"Miss Allison, I haven't asked you to let me assist you in driving, just +because I know you can do it so much better than I can," said Mr. Kent. +"I'd have turned over there as sure as I'm born." + +"Well, I came mighty near doing it," I laughed. "If Dum's hat had not +been on the side and tilted toward the bowlder, we would have landed in +the ditch, I know. We had just about an ounce's weight in our favor." + +"I guess it's a good thing I part my hair in the middle in these +hairbreadth escapes. Just think, suppose it had been parted on the left +side and had counterbalanced Miss Dum's hat tipped toward the right! +Over we would have gone." + +Just then a Molly Cotton-tail jumped up out of the bracken and the dogs +set up a fearful howling. It was all Jo Winn and Dee could do to hold +them in their places. Mr. Tucker and Dum looked longingly at their guns +but the colt would not stand for shooting going on so close to him, and, +besides, when people go out for deer they do not want to begin on +rabbits. So little Miss Molly got off for that time at least. + +I was glad. There is something in my make-up that recoils from killing +anything. To be sure, I am fond of a rabbit's hind leg, about as good +eating as one can find, but when I am picking on one of those hind legs +I have to close my mind carefully to the fact that that same hind leg +has helped to carry some Bre'r Rabbit through many a briar patch. If the +image comes to me of a perky little white tail scurrying through the +bushes with the eager dogs in pursuit, I simply have to give up eating +the delectable morsel and Mammy Susan has to broil me some bacon. + +"Hi, there, Uncle Peter," called Father to an old negro man approaching +on a mule, a great sack of corn balanced on his pommel, "don't tell me +you are not at home when we are coming to see you." + +"Well, Docallison, I done tech bottom in de meal bag dis very mawnin', +an' I was jes' a takin' some cawn to de mill; but efn de quality folks +is a comin' ter see me, I kin sho make out wif de scrapin's till anudder +day." + +"We are going to try our luck with the deer, Uncle Peter, and I thought +we would leave our teams at your cabin and get you to bring our +provisions over to Falling Water in your wheelbarrow." + +"'Visions, you say? Well, efn you's goin' ter have 'visions, dey ain't +no us'n my goin' ter de mill fer days ter come. 'Visions from Bracken +means dat Mammy Susan done had her say-so, and dat ole nigger 'oman is +sho a amplified perfider. They'll be 'nuf leavins ter feed de multitude +on Mount Aryrat." And Uncle Peter turned his willing mule's head around +and led the way to his cabin. + +Click! Click! went Mr. Kent's pocket camera. "Exactly the type I am +looking for! Now, Miss Dum, when you look through the advertisements +several months from now, be sure to notice a certain molasses that is to +be put on the market. Uncle Peter will be there taking his corn to the +mill so he can have a 'pone to sop in de 'lasses.' Oh, look at the +cabin! Isn't it charming?" + +It was indeed a typical log cabin. It was old, very old, but Uncle Peter +kept it in good repair, patching the mortar in the chinks from time to +time and propping up the great stone chimney that stood at about the +angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. On the door and walls were tacked +many coon skins. That is the method employed for curing the skins, and +Uncle Peter made quite a little money selling coon skins. He had only a +small clearing around his cabin but a good cornfield down in the creek +bottom. + +"'Light, 'light," said Uncle Peter, "Rosana will be that proud ter +'ceive you. She been throwing rocks all mornin' at that ole Shanghai +rooster who would crow fer comp'ny. Co'se Rosana didn't know de comp'ny +was a goin' ter be white folks. She done' low it would be some er dem +low-down niggers tother side er de swamp what is always a-comin' empty +and gwine away full." + +Aunt Rosana squeezed herself sideways through the cabin door. She was a +mountain of flesh, with about as much shape as a football. Indeed, she +looked very like the potato babies Mammy Susan used to make me: a big +potato for the body; a little potato for a head, stuck on with a match; +feet and arms of peanuts; and a face scratched on with a kitchen fork. +Her voice sounded like hot mashed potato as she bade us welcome. + +"Well, efn I won't hab ter gib dat ole Shanghai rooster a extry handful +er wheat! Here I been a-was'in' time all mornin' tryin' ter make him +shet up his 'nostigatin' fer comp'ny, not thinkin' he was a-crowin' fer +quality. I mought a-knowed he wouldn't er crowed so loud an' clear fer +nuthin' but niggers, an' swamp niggers, at dat," and a laugh shook her +huge body, reminding me of the "bowl full of jelly." + +We were glad to stretch ourselves after the long drive, and Aunt Rosana +took us into her cabin while the men of the party attended to +unhitching the horses. The cabin was spotless, although the one room it +boasted was kitchen, parlor and bedroom in one. A great fireplace almost +the entire length of one side of the room was really the kitchen. Aunt +Rosana scorned iron stoves and still did her cooking with pot-hooks and +Dutch ovens. Even now, hanging from one hook, was a singing black iron +kettle and from another a covered pot from which issued an aroma that +told me that Uncle Peter was going to have cabbage for dinner. Homemade +rag rugs covered the floor almost entirely, but wherever a spot of oak +flooring showed, it was gleaming white with much scrubbing. + +A great four-poster had the place of honor opposite the fireplace. It +was a bed fit for the slumbers of kings and princes. Many families in +Virginia will exhibit just such beds and proudly tell you that in those +beds Lafayette and Washington had slept. I don't know how Uncle Peter +and Aunt Rosana happened to have it, but I know that the beautiful old +bed had never harbored a more worthy couple. The patchwork quilt, with +its intricate rising-sun pattern, was Aunt Rosana's handiwork. The +walls were decorated with brilliant chromos, calendars dating back into +the 'seventies and on up to date. + +The twins were charmed with the place and their interest was most +flattering to Aunt Rosana. She showed them all her treasures, even her +photograph album. + +"And who are all of these people?" asked Dum, who was politely looking +at every photograph. + +"Lor', chile, I dunno. Peter bought dat ere album at a sale ober in de +nex' county. Ev'ybody in de book is white, an' dey looks like quality +ter me; but dese days yer can't tell. Some er de quality is lookin' +moughty stringy an' de oberseer class is pickin' up so dey is kinder +mergin' inter great folks." + +"What's this up your chimney?" queried Dee, peering up the great flue. + +"Oh, dat's whar I smokes my meat. They's some shoulders up dar; an' some +sides er baking wif a streak er fat an' a streak er lean as pretty as +any you kin buy in de city. An' them's my little chany valuebowles what +I been collecking of sence I was a baby," said Aunt Rosana to Dum, who +was examining a great array of little china ornaments on top of a large +old highboy. + +There were little china girls kissing little china boys; little baskets +with turtle doves on the handles; pink puppies and green cats, some of +them meant for match safes and some of them purely ornamental; little +cups and saucers of every shape and hue; little pitchers with big ears +and some with no ears at all. I have never been in a cabin of +self-respecting colored people where there was not a chest of drawers or +a table filled with similar treasures. I know Aunt Rosana thought as +much of her "chany valuebowles" as Father did of his books, and her +sensations when Dum almost dropped a little shell-covered box was just +what Father's would have been if he had seen a careless reader turn down +a page in one of his beloved books, or bend back the covers of one of +his first editions. + +"Do look at this," begged Dum of Mr. Kent, who had just entered the +cabin. She held up in her hand a china cow of a decidedly lavender hue +with horns and hoofs of gilt, and quoted: + + "'I never saw a purple cow; + I never hope to see one; + But I can tell you, anyhow, + I'd rather see than be one.'" + + "'Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow"-- + I'm sorry now I wrote it! + But I can tell you, anyhow, + I'll kill you if you quote it!'" + +laughed Mr. Kent, taking the fearful and wonderful animal in his hands +and examining it with great interest. "Isn't this place delightful? If I +had only brought my sketching things instead of my gun, I'd stay here +and paint. I'm going to ask Aunt Rosana to let me take some time +exposures of the interior of her cabin. Just look at that bed and that +fireplace! Thank goodness, I've got my camera with a perfectly new film +good for twelve exposures." + +"Well, Gawd be praised dat ole Shanghai gib me warnin' of comp'ny comin' +an' I done stirred my stumps an' straightened up some, efn my room's +goin' ter git its Dager'type took," and Aunt Rosana's flesh quivered +with delight. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE MIGHTY HUNTER. + + +The pictures were soon taken and we were on our way to the low country. +Everyone carried a gun but me. Uncle Peter brought up the rear with a +wheelbarrow laden with the "'visions." + +It was a long walk but such a delightful one that we never once thought +of getting tired. Our way lay through a pine forest and was up hill and +down dale. Tweedles and I were as well able to take the walk as any of +the male persuasion, although it took some time to make Mr. Kent +understand that we could get along without his assistance. He would help +Dum over a worm fence, much to Dee's and my amusement, as we knew that +Dum could vault it with one hand, just as we did. + +"I never saw such independent young ladies as you three," he confessed +after a daring leap we had made over a gulch. "The girls I know in New +York expect to be assisted over every gutter." + +"Maybe that's their town manner, and if they were turned loose in the +country they might help themselves as well as we can," I suggested. "To +tell the truth, it makes me fall down if anyone helps me." + +"Do you know," whispered Dee to me, "I verily believe that Reginald Kent +person is getting stuck on Dum? I hope he won't shoot her. I don't +believe he ever carried a gun before in his life. He handles it like a +walking stick." + +"He's real nice, don't you think?" I asked. + +"Oh, yes, nice enough, but I can't see why Dum lets him boost her over +every stick and stone. She's perfectly able-bodied. She looks to me as +though she rather liked to be treated like a boneless vertebrate," and +Dee looked very disgusted. The fact was that Dum was taking the helping +just as she was taking the compliments: in a perfectly natural, girlish +way. + +"Fond of the country?" asked Mr. Tucker, glancing with an amused +twinkle at Mr. Kent's nonchalant manner of holding his gun. + +"Oh, yes, fond enough, what I know of it. I've had to stick pretty close +to Broadway all my life. I spent a summer down here with the Winns once +when I was a kid and that's about the only country I've known." + +"Haven't you hunted before?" questioned Dum, jumping back from the +barrel of Mr. Kent's new gun that was pointing ominously at her. + +"Well, I've shot the 'shoots' at Coney Island, and have practiced at +hitting the bull's-eye in the galleries at that gay resort until I can +ring the bell every time, but that is the extent of my experience," and +Mr. Kent looked a little wistful. "I'd be mighty glad of some pointers +from any of you that have had more." + +"Well, point your gun, barrel down," tweedled the twins. + +"Ah, so, I see," he said, grasping his gun in a more sportsmanlike +manner, and all of us breathed a sigh of relief. I had been in terror +for fear he might ring a b-e-l-l-e or hit some eye not in a bull ever +since we left Aunt Rosana's cabin. "I'm awfully green," continued the +young man, modestly. "I cut a poorer figure turned loose here in the +country than old Uncle Peter would on the Great White Way." + +"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Tucker kindly. He seemed rather impressed by +Mr. Kent's frankness and modesty. Indeed, the young New Yorker could not +cut a poor figure anywhere. He was well grown and sturdy and had an +athletic swing to his walk due not only to much work in a gymnasium but +to the "magnificent distances" he had been compelled to walk in New +York. + +I have noticed that town-bred persons as a rule walk much better than +country-bred. When they get on rough ground they walk as though it were +smooth, while country people when they strike pavements look as though +they were still getting over plowed ground. Reginald Kent, if he did not +know how to carry a gun, knew how to carry himself. With shoulders back, +chin in and head well up, he stepped along like a West Pointer; while +Jo Winn slouched with shoulders bent and head forward. + +We chatted away very merrily until we came to the creek where the party +was to separate. There was not much chance of any game, big or little, +with such a crowd tramping through the woods. It was agreed that Father, +Mr. Tucker and Jo Winn should cross the creek and go on to the river, +where they were to take a skiff, owned by old Uncle Peter and kept +moored at a certain spot, known to Father; from there they were to go +into the marshes; and, later on, come down the river and join us at the +mouth of the creek. We were to keep on straight down the creek with +Uncle Peter and Mr. Kent, who earnestly desired to stay and "take care" +of the ladies. + +"I'm going to change my loads for rabbits," said Dee, suiting the action +to the word. "This big shot would tear a rabbit all to pieces and I +believe we are more apt to see rabbits than deer." + +Mr. Kent followed suit but Dum kept "loaded fur b'ar," as she expressed +it. Dee soon got a rabbit, which she wept over. + +"She always does that," explained Dum. "She shoots things for the love +of shooting and then bawls because she has taken an innocent life." + +We had one of Jo's dogs with us. The other two had gone with the three +men to stalk the possible deer. Our dog started up several rabbits and +Mr. Kent joyously got two of them. + +"Gee, this beats clay pigeons and shooting galleries," he declared. "I +feel like a man-eating lion now; since I have tasted blood, I'll never +be content to go back to my quiet, uneventful life." + +We pitched camp near the mouth of the creek on a cliff overlooking the +river. Uncle Peter and I made a fire and skinned the rabbits, while the +Tuckers and the cavalier went off in search of more game. Under a great +ledge of rock we found some snow left from a storm we had before +Christmas, and after washing the rabbits well and letting them stand in +cold water long enough to get out the animal heat, we buried them in the +snow: "Ter git the fraishness out'n em," explained Uncle Peter. + +I always loved to mess around a campfire, and Uncle Peter proved a most +delightful companion. + +"I like this a lot better than killing things, Uncle Peter," I said. + +"Sho, child, so do I. I've been a-huntin' all my life, but it ain't been +fer pleasure. I hunts fer a livin' an' I wouldn't shoot nothin' fer the +love er killin' any mor'n I'd go dig taters fer exercise. I digs taters +fer taters. I done tuck de libbuty of bringin' some sweet taters I made +dis year fer ter roas' fer you-alls dinner," and the old man pulled a +bag from the wheelbarrow that held great sweet potatoes almost as big as +my head. + +"They's nothin' so 'lectable as sweet taters what is roasted in de +cam'fire. Jes' put 'em down in de ashes and kiver 'em over an' den +fergit 'em, jes' fergit 'em. Dey can't cook too long 'kase de mo' de +outside burns de mealier de inside is go'nter git," and Uncle Peter +piled on more brushwood and raked the hot ashes over the yams. + +Every now and then we heard a shot off in the direction of the Amazons +and their so-called protector. I did hope the girls were having good +luck and would come back with game of some sort. Uncle Peter and I got +out the "'visions" and began to prepare for the hunters who, experience +told us, would come along soon, hungry as wolves. + +"Killin's a mighty ap'tizin' spo't," laughed Uncle Peter, "an' victuals +cooked in de open seems ter be mo' tasty-like dan de ones in kitchens." + +First we fried the bacon and then put it in a covered pan to keep hot, +and used the bacon grease to fry the rabbits, which we had seasoned very +highly and rolled in flour. I filled the coffee pot with fresh water +from a bubbling spring near by, and, resting it on two stones about six +inches apart, I raked out hot coals, and soon it began to heat up. I had +just completed this culinary feat when Uncle Peter whispered to me: + +"Look, chile, down yander by the ribber!" + +The cliff where we had pitched our little camp overlooked the river, and +about a hundred yards from the base of our cliff was a graveled ford, +or shallows. The scrub growth was close down to the water's edge but +stretching out into the stream was a little sandy beach. Beyond the +scrub growth rose the dark pines, and an occasional oak with its great +bare branches towered above all meaner trees. From the underbrush had +stepped a young buck. He was picking his way daintily across the pebbles +to the water's edge. How beautiful he was! I wanted our guests to have +good sport, but I longed with a longing that was almost a prayer that no +one with a gun was seeing what Uncle Peter and I were seeing. What wind +there was came from his direction so he got no scent of us, and he drank +his fill with unconcern, as though he lived in the "forest primeval." +Then he proudly raised his antlered head and stood a moment sniffing the +air. + +"Bang!" rang out a shot, whizzing close to my ear, and "Bang!" came the +echo from the cliff. The young buck stood a moment as though sculptured, +and not until the echo answered did he drop. It almost seemed that the +echo had been the good shot that had laid low this possible future +leader of herds. + +"Oh, the pity of it! The pity of it!" my heart cried out. Turning, I saw +my friends on a ledge of rock farther down the river; Dum, with her +smoking gun still raised to her shoulder, an exalted look on her face +and her black hair with the coppery lights tumbling all about her, an +Amazon, indeed; Dee, crumpled up in a little heap, her hands over her +face. + +"Hurrah!" shouted Reginald Kent, beside himself with excitement. + +Dee jumped up from her crumpled heap and clambered down the cliff, tears +streaming down her face and great sobs shaking her body. She fortunately +had on waterproof boots, because she thought no more of water than she +did of land. She splashed right across the shallow ford and, kneeling +down by the poor deer, she buried her tear-stained face on his twitching +shoulder. + +Just then the skiff with Mr. Tucker, Father and Jo Winn came round a +bend in the river. + +"Hello! What's this?" called Mr. Tucker in some alarm, seeing his +daughter kneeling on the sand by an expiring stag. "Where's Dum? What's +happened?" + +"It's just Dee, deedling," called out Dum. "I shot the deer and now +Dee's breaking her heart." + +"O--h, O--h, but he recognized me just before he died!" sobbed Dee. "I +could tell by the way he looked at me." + +"It was a good thing he did 'recognize' you," grinned Jo Winn. "If he +had not, he might have gored you. An injured buck is a right dangerous +thing to fool with." + +We comforted Dee as best we could and praised Dum for her shot. Soon we +were gathered around our campfire, and then Uncle Peter and I came in +for our share of praise for the good dinner we had cooked. + +"We'll feast on venison to-morrow," said Father. + +"Ah, never!" shuddered Dee. "I couldn't, not after he recognized me." + +"Maybe Molly Cottontail, whose hind leg you seem to be enjoying so, +would have recognized you, too, if she had ever seen you before," +teased Mr. Tucker. "Now, Miss Page, here, has such a tender heart she +can't eat rabbit that she has seen running in the woods but contents +herself with bacon." + +"Have you no pity, then, for the poor faithful hogs?" asked Father. +"They no doubt enjoy life as much as the deer or Bre'r Rabbit. That is +perhaps bacon from one of old Sally's offspring; and, Page, you used to +play with those pigs when they were little as though they were kittens. +I have no doubt all of the litter would recognize you. When we begin to +sentimentalize about our food, we had better 'open our mouths and shut +our eyes,' as there is no telling to what lengths it may lead us." + +"But, Doctor, you know 'Pigs is pigs,'" broke in Mr. Tucker, and the +discussion ended with a laugh. + +After dinner the gentlemen made another excursion across the river but +came back without having seen even a deer track. They got a few +partridges, however, and some rabbits and were content. We started home +through the pine forest a very happy, merry party. + +Mr. Reginald Kent stuck closer than a brother to Dum's side, and Mr. +Tucker, who was walking with me, and I overheard this conversation +between the infatuated young New Yorker and the ingenuous Dum: + +"Do you know, Miss Dum, you looked like Diana when you stood on that +rock and aimed at the deer? I wanted to paint you awfully bad and did +click the camera on you. I hope you don't mind." + +"Oh, no, I don't mind if it will help you any in your advertising. Are +you going to put me in the 'lasses ad, too?" + +"Oh, now, Miss Dum, quit your kidding! You know I didn't mean I wanted +to paint you for advertising, I meant for myself." And then Dum blushed. + +Mr. Tucker frowned. He evidently did not relish his girls getting old +enough to be talked to that way. + +"Miss Dum, will you do me a great favor?" continued Mr. Kent. "I want +more than anything in the world a lock of your hair. It is the most +wonderful hair I have ever seen. Sometimes it looks black, and then in +another light it is almost red. When it came down while you were aiming +at the deer, it was like copper in the sun. Please give me just a little +lock to take back to New York with me." + +"I am afraid Zebedee would not like for me to cut my hair," answered Dum +primly. "But I tell you," she added generously, "I can save you the +combings, if you would like them." + +Mr. Reginald Kent looked rather nonplused and Mr. Tucker handed me his +gun to hold while he rolled in the leaves for very joy. As we were +bringing up the rear, nobody saw this pantomime but me, and I was as +glad as Dum's father that she was not going to be grown up for a while +yet. + +Mr. Kent was to go back to New York on the following day; in a little +more than a week Dum would be in boarding school; and it would of +necessity be many a day before the two could meet again. Perhaps the +next time they do meet, Dum will have grown to the age when she will +know that to offer a young man combings in lieu of a lock is not +conducive to romance. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +A VISIT TO RICHMOND. + + +Those were certainly three mad, merry days I spent in Richmond with the +Tuckers. Poor Father had to go to Cousin Park Garnett's and he just +hated it. But he had promised her that the first time he went to +Richmond he would stay at her house, and stay he had to. + +The Tuckers met us at the station in little Henry Ford. It had been only +a few days since they had been with us at Bracken, but we had much to +talk about and a great deal of news to exchange. + +"Father is having the deer skin tanned to make a rug for our room at +Gresham, and the antlers are to be mounted for a hat-rack," exclaimed +Dum. + +"Sally Winn tried to die last night, and I drove over to Milton with +Father, and Jo told me he thought you, Dee, were the most sensible lady +he had ever met," I managed to get in. + +"He promised me a pointer pup; I hope he won't forget it. Brindle had a +fight yesterday and is all bunged up from it. I know you are dying to +meet Brindle," said Dee. + +"No doubt she is pining away for that honor," teased Mr. Tucker, "but +don't you think she could wait until after luncheon? How about it, Miss +Page?" + +"Well, if Brindle can stand it, I fancy I can," said I. And so we went +to a delightful restaurant, where we had a scrumptious luncheon (I know +no other word to express it): Lynhaven oysters on the deep shell; +Hampton spots so beautifully cooked that it must have made them glad to +be caught and fried; shoestring potatoes vying with the fish in charm; +Waldorf salad, with everything in it but the kitchen stove, as Dee +declared. + +Cousin Park was not expecting Father until the afternoon, so he was +spared to us for a little while, much to his delight and ours. + +"Now, what shall we have for dessert?" asked our genial host. "Tweedles +always wants pie,--cocoanut, as a rule." + +"Pink ice cream for me," said Father. "Did you ever see a country Jake +that didn't want pink ice cream as soon as he hit the city?" + +"What seasoning?" laughed Mr. Tucker. + +"I don't care, just so it's pink." + +"I believe I'll have what Father has. I like it pink, too." + +"Well, cocoanut pie for mine," ordered Dum. + +"And lemon meringue for mine," ordered Dee. + +"You are not like the young man who never ate lemon meringue pie because +it messed up his ears so, are you, Dee?" said Mr. Tucker; and so our gay +little luncheon proceeded. + +"My, how I hate to go to Cousin Park's!" sighed Father. "She is kind in +a way, but so--so--ponderous." + +"Poor Father!" and I patted his knee under the table, "I do wish you +didn't have to go." + +"Well, I have plenty of engagements that will keep me busy, and I won't +have to do much more than eat and sleep there. But it is her long formal +dinners that bore me so." + +"Well, you have simply got to have dinner with us to-morrow, Saturday, +evening at the Country Club, and no doubt these girls will have you +fox-trotting before the evening is over," and Mr. Tucker would not take +"No" for an answer,--not that Father was very persistent in his refusal. +We dropped the dear man at Cousin Park's great, dark house and he had +the look of "Give up all hope ye who enter here." + +The Tuckers had a very attractive apartment in a large, new, up-to-date +building, but I could fancy the havoc that Dum and Dee caused whenever +they resorted to the gloves to settle their disputes. The place was so +full of nicknacks that one could hardly turn around. There were really +enough of what Mammy Susan called "doodads" to decorate a mansion, and +all of these things were crowded into a not very large apartment. Some +of the things were very beautiful and all of them were interesting, but +if they belonged to me I would pack about half of them away in storage. + +I thought of a colored woman in the country who lived in a very small +cabin with six little children falling over her feet all the time, and +she used to pray fervently, "Oh, Gawd, gimme grace not ter git so +pestered dat I'll throw ary one er dem out do's." I am afraid I would +have been so pestered with all of the doodads that I would surely have +thrown some of them outdoors. + +"Miss Page, I have been trying to persuade Tweedles to help me to get +rid of some of the mess in these rooms," said Mr. Tucker, almost as +though he had read my mind. "I feel the stuffiness of it even more since +our visit at Bracken." That was it, the simplicity of Bracken had +spoiled me for overcrowded rooms. + +"But Zebedee, everything we want to get rid of is just the thing you +think most of, and the things that you think superfluous are our special +treasures," complained Dum. + +"Well, I am afraid we'll have to wait until you get some kind of +education, and then, if stocks is riz, we'll move into a house big +enough to spread out in." + +Their rugs were beautiful and their pictures I have since found out were +very fine. At that time, however, they did not seem very good to me. +The taste in art of a fifteen-year-old girl who has seen next to no +pictures is not to be relied upon; and no doubt my taste was abominable. + +Brindle took me to his heart and made me perfectly at home. He was a +bow-legged, brindle bull with undershot jaw and eyes like damson jam. +Dee loved him next to Zebedee and Dum; and I know cried herself to sleep +many a night at boarding school, longing for her pet. He was certainly a +very human person, or rather dog, I should say, and ruled the Tuckers +with a rod of iron. He actually made Mr. Tucker get out of a chair that +he, Brindle, had taken a fancy to, and he curled himself up on the seat +with a haughty sniff that made us scream with laughter, until Dee +insisted that we control our merriment, as Brindle did not like to be +laughed at. + +"It is his one fault," she said; "he has not a very keen sense of +humor." + +"He has one other, Dee," said Mr. Tucker; "he does smell like a dog, you +must admit." Dee had to admit it, but declared she thought a dog should +smell like a dog and not like a tuberose; so the discussion ended. + +We took in the movies that afternoon. I don't know how many of them, but +it was great fun. + +"Zebedee won't usually let us go without him," said Dee, "but he thinks +you are dignified enough to hold us down." + +"Me--dignified? Why, father thinks I am as wild as a March hare!" + +"Well, Zebedee says you know when to be quiet. Zebedee likes you a lot, +Page," declared Dum. "If you weren't exactly what you are, Dee and I +would be awfully jealous of you. What you blushing about?" Such a +double-barreled compliment would make an old pair of leather saddle bags +blush; and a girl of my thin skin naturally took on a rosy hue, that Dee +declared put me out of the chaperone class. + +That evening we went to a vaudeville performance. Mr. Tucker's newspaper +connection gave him the _entree_ anywhere in the house, so we were very +grand in box seats. A particularly amusing black-faced artist was giving +a song-and-dance when Dee exclaimed: + +"Look up there in the balcony!" And what should we see but Father's dear +old lean, solemn face convulsed with merriment. Zebedee--I mean Mr. +Tucker--went up and made him join us. + +"How did you escape Cousin Park?" I asked. + +"Oh, she thinks I am in solemn conclave with some of my professional +brethren! I didn't exactly tell a lie, but I acted one. It was either +that or burst a blood vessel. You know my Cousin Park, do you not, Mr. +Tucker?" + +"Y-e-s, I know her, but she never seems to know me. With Mrs. Garnett, +one must have either plenty of very blue blood or more than plenty of +very yellow gold. I've got blue blood to burn, but no yellow gold, as +you know. There must be something radically wrong with me in her eyes. +What it is, I don't know; nor do I much care. I was very fond of her +husband. Major Peyton Garnett was a good friend to me. I admired him +immensely." + +"Yes, the Major was a fine old gentleman," said father. He afterward +told me that one reason he had to escape from Cousin Park's presence or +break a blood vessel was that she had so many unkind things to say of +Mr. Jeffry Tucker, the old croaker that she was! "I am sorry for you, +Page, but you are in for a Sunday dinner at Cousin Park's." I groaned in +agonized anticipation. "I couldn't get out of it for you, my child, she +made such a point of it. She is our kinswoman, and we have to show her +some respect." + +"Well, thank goodness, this time I don't have to go to the dentist's, +too! The combination of Cousin Park and the dentist is a strong one, I +can tell you. If you can stand her, Father, I reckon I can." + +"That's my good girl," said Father, patting my shoulder, and Mr. Tucker +gave me a warm and friendly glance and said: + +"Tweedles and I will see that you get there late and come away early." + +It seems to me I laughed more at that vaudeville performance than +anybody in the theater. I had seen very few shows in my life, and +everything was new and fresh to me. I was not bored even by the strong +man who seemed to be so tiresome to the audience, and no joke was too +much of a chestnut to be scorned by me. To have Father with us, too, +made my cup of happiness full to the brim. + +The next evening, Saturday, we had dinner at the Country Club, and +stayed for the dance afterward. The Country Club was a beautiful +building with spacious grounds, golf links, tennis courts, and a view of +the James River that appealed to me very much. The dinner was fine, and +Father and I had a splendid time. + +"I am glad to escape all the meals I can at the apartment house cafe," +confessed Mr. Tucker. "When Tweedles are away, I eat anywhere but at +home." + +"You are an extravagant piece," said Dee. + +"But I have my regular meals served for Brindle," laughed Mr. Tucker. + +"Oh, that alters the case, then!" exclaimed Dee. "Brindle should have +just as good food as people, with a variety of vegetables." + +What a ballroom floor they had at that clubhouse! I had never danced, as +I said before, until I went to school, but I had been an apt pupil +because I was such an eager one, and now knew enough of the modern +dances to get along very well. I had never in my life danced with a man. +At school we took turns guiding, and I was much sought after because of +my being so untiring. + +"Miss Page, you are the guest of honor and I am the host, so it is in +order that you give me this first dance." And Mr. Jeffry Tucker bowed in +front of me as though I were a great society belle. + +The Tuckers were all born dancers, and as I glided away with Mr. Tucker, +I remembered what Miss Jane Cox had said about his leading the germans +at the University with his little sweetheart Virginia, afterward his +wife. A great wave of pity for the poor little dead wife swept over me, +and I came very near missing step in a rather intricate dance we were +attempting. It must have been so sad to die and leave such a delightful +husband and the twins, who were such charming girls that they must have +been cunning little babies. What a vigorous presence was Jeffry +Tucker's! He must have been a lover that any girl would have been happy +with. I hoped if I ever did have a lover that he would be the kind that +I fancied Mr. Tucker must have been. Something made me blush as my +thoughts dwelt on my ever having a lover. + +"My, what a color dancing gives you!" exclaimed my partner. "A minute +ago you looked so sad I wondered what you were thinking of, and now you +are as rosy as the dawn." + +"'It is darkest just before dawn,' you know," I answered. I wondered +what he would have said had he known what I was thinking of when I +looked so sad. And then a strange thing happened, and the kind of thing +has happened very often in my life when I have been with Mr. Tucker: he +took up my thoughts almost as though he had read them and said: + +"I was thinking of my little girl wife, Virginia. I so often think of +her when I dance. She and I danced our youth away. She was a wonderful +dancer. She had the same smooth glide that you have. I hate a hoppy +dancer," and with his usual disregard of appearances he wiped his eyes +in which the big tears had gathered. I did feel so sorry for him, I +actually had the hardihood to pat him on the shoulder where my left hand +rested, but I could not say anything to him, I felt so choky. The sun +came out in a very few moments, however, and he smiled into my eyes, and +we finished the dance without ever losing a step. I know Mr. Jeffry +Tucker is the only person in the world who could cry and dance at the +same time. His tears were sincere, too, quite as sincere as his dancing, +and he certainly put his whole soul into every step he took. + +"Miss Page, you have been mighty good to Tweedles. I don't know how to +thank you for it," he said, as the music stopped and left us stranded +across the ballroom from Father and the twins, also, who had been +dancing with some college boys, home for the holidays. + +"Me good to them! Why, they are good to me, as good as gold!" + +"Oh, I know what you have done for them. They control themselves so much +better than they used to and are so much more considerate in every way. +I see your influence at every turn. They haven't had a fight since they +came home and actually listen when I talk, whether I have anything to +say or not." I had to laugh at this. I had really made the girls come to +their senses about fighting when they disagreed. Even with gloves on, it +was a very boisterous way of settling disputes; and we had a rule at 117 +Carter Hall, instituted by me, that a fine of one penny was imposed when +any of us interrupted, unless the speaker had had the floor out of all +reason. + +We found the girls enthusiastic over the dancing, and Father having as +good a time as any of us. It was his first experience in seeing the much +written and talked-of new dances, and he was greatly interested. + +"Why, daughter, you dance beautifully!" he said fondly, as I squeezed in +by him. "If you have learned as much Latin and French at Gresham as you +have dancing, you will be a highly-educated young woman." + +"Well, I can't promise that," I laughed; "but I know how to conjugate +'to dance' both in Latin and French." + +"Well, to be able to conjugate as well as dance means you are becoming +very erudite. That is a very pretty step that Dum has been taking. Is +that the fox-trot? It looks easy, too." + +"It is easy, Doctor Allison," answered Dum, "and now they are going to +dance it again. Come on and try!" And to the delight and astonishment of +all of us, Father was on the floor with Dum fox-trotting with a +precision that made us know he had been watching the dancers very +carefully and had been mentally dancing for some time. I know he had not +danced for at least sixteen years, but, like Miss Jane Cox, once a +dancer, always a dancer. + +"This is more fun than Gresham," whispered Dee to me, when we stopped to +rest a minute between dances. The college students had been very +attentive and the twins and I had danced every dance. Who should come +rushing up to us at this moment but Mabel Binks! She embraced us +noisily, and one would have thought we were her long-lost sisters. We +were coldly polite, but she overlooked our want of cordiality and +fastened herself on to us. There was nothing for us but to introduce her +to Father and Mr. Tucker and the young men who had been dancing +attendance on us. That was what she wanted, and the dead set she made at +Mr. Tucker showed what she considered big game. The festive Mabel, who +lived in Newport News, was stopping in Richmond for a few days on her +way back to Gresham. She was visiting an old cousin who, she volubly +explained, was too selfish to do anything for her pleasure. She had with +difficulty persuaded her to bring her to the Country Club, and now they +were there the cousin either wouldn't or couldn't introduce her to any +men. + +"I can just shift for myself, I'll let her know!" the dashing girl +exclaimed. "The wall is not meant for me to hold up, and if no one will +ask me to dance, I'll get out and do a _pas seul_!" + +"I should like to see that _pas seul_, but first will you do me the +extreme honor to dance this with me?" said Mr. Tucker, with mock +grandiloquence. + +"Dee-lighted!" gushed Mabel, and was soon engaged in a boisterous +hopping match with Mr. Tucker. + +"I could kill Zebedee!" said Dum through clenched teeth. "I believe that +Binks thing came through Richmond with the hope of meeting him, and here +he tumbles at the first shot and goes off dancing with her as though +it---- Oh, I can't talk about it, it makes me so furious. Look how they +are romping, too! I dare Dee or me to romp that way." + +I could but recall the views Mr. Tucker had so recently expressed to me +about dancers who hopped, and here he was jumping around like a hen on a +hot griddle, and as far as I could see, enjoying himself very much. I +sympathized with Dum; while I did not feel called upon to get into a +rage and clench my teeth, I was a little disappointed in my kind host. I +felt very young and shy all of a sudden. Mabel, as she triumphantly bore +off the prize, had in a most condescending way tossed me her +handkerchief and gloves with a "Here, child, hold these for me!" That I +would not do. The heavy smell of musk that hung around all of Mabel's +belongings sickened me; and why should she make a catch-all of me, +anyhow? I put them down disdainfully on a chair, meeting with Dum's +hearty approval by my act, and then had a nice quiet dance with Father, +who proved to be as good a partner as one could want. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +DINNER AT COUSIN PARK'S. + + +Sunday dawned and with it the consciousness that I had to go through the +ordeal of dinner with Cousin Park. Oh, how I hated the thought of it! We +had slept late after the unusual hours we had kept the night before, and +Mr. Tucker had kindly had our breakfast sent up from the cafe. + +"That's to make up for treating us the way he did last night," said Dum, +buttering her cakes as she sat up in bed. + +"Treating us what way?" inquired Dee. + +"Dancing with that Binks abomination. He knew he had no business to do +it." + +"Why, Dum," I said, determined to cool her down if possible, "I don't +really see how Mr. Tucker could have done otherwise. A schoolmate who +from all appearances is devoted to his daughters, joins our group and +lets it be known that she is dying to dance, indeed is thinking of +dancing alone. Why, there was no way for a gentleman to behave than just +exactly as Zeb--I mean Mr. Tucker--did behave. I would have been pleased +if my Father had done exactly as yours did, and I believe Father would +if her innuendos had been addressed to him." + +"Well, Doctor Allison would never have hopped as Zebedee did. What I +hate to think about is the way that girl is going to tell all the girls +at school about our handsome young Father and how he devoted himself to +her. I bet she comes here to-day on some pretext or other." + +"Well, I'll sic Brindle on her if she does. He can't stand cats!" hissed +Dee, who was becoming worked up by Dum's evident passion. + +"Well, I'll tell you one thing: the ruder you are to Mabel the more +polite your Father will be; and the more polite you are, the more +indifferent Mr. Tucker will be," I admonished. + +"How did you get so wise, old Solomon?" asked Dum, in rather muffled +tones through a mouthful of flannel cakes. + +"Why, Mammy Susan says, 'Men folks an' mules is moughty sim'lar; jes' +nachally contrary-wise. Ef yer want 'em ter go ter de mill, make out +dey's got ter stay in de parsture, an' jes' ter spite yer dey'll run all +de way ter de mill.'" + +"Well, we'll make out Zebedee has got to go to the mill and he'll want +to stay in the pasture. Mabel Binks is more like a mill than a pasture," +said Dum, rather taken with my philosophy. + +"Yes, and 'All is grist that comes to her mill,' too," declared Dee. "I +am going to try the plan on Zebedee this minute," and she bounced up and +donning slippers and kimono went in to the living room where Mr. Tucker +was deep in the Sunday paper. She left the door slightly ajar and Dum +and I could plainly hear the conversation. + +"Good morning, Zebedee," and the sound of a hearty kiss. "It was awfully +good of you to have breakfast sent up to us. We did not mean to +oversleep." + +"Glad to do it, Tweedledeedles. I thought all of you would be tired +after tripping the light fantastic toe almost into Sunday morning." + +"Say, Zebedee, Page has to go to her Cousin Park's to dinner to-day, so +don't you think it would be nice to have Mabel Binks to dinner with +us?" + +Dum gasped and started to rush into the sitting room, without the +formality of a kimono, but I grabbed her and with a warning finger +quieted her. + +"Oh, come now, Dee, I should think you and Dum would be content to spend +your last Sunday at home quietly with your poor old lonesome Zebedee. I +can't see what you want with Miss Binks. She is much older than you, +Tweedles, and not a bit the kind of person I should encourage you to +have as an intimate. I get the names of your schoolmates mixed, but +wasn't she the girl you wrote me was so purse-proud and unfeeling in her +treatment of that nice ladylike little girl from Price's Landing?" + +"Ye--s, but I thought you liked her pretty well last night." + +"Why, I never gave her a thought! She so plainly asked me to dance with +her that I had to do it; but that was all. She is showily handsome and +amusing enough in the daring way in which she talks, but nay, nay, not +for me!" + +More sounds of kissing, and then: "Now run on and all of you get dressed +in a hurry so we can take a nice spin with Henry Ford and go to church +before Miss Page has to be delivered over to the Dragon." + +"What's that smell, Zebedee? The hall is reeking with a terrible odor," +asked Dee, sniffing suspiciously. + +"I can't imagine. I was afraid you and Dum and Miss Page had gone in for +musk. The whole apartment is permeated with it." Dee went out into the +little hall connecting the girls' bedroom with the living room and poked +around the hatrack, where the odor seemed to be strongest. + +"Here it is," she cried, "in your overcoat pocket!" + +"Oh, that wretched girl's gloves! She asked me to hold them for her just +before we left the club, and I must have put them in my pocket. Hang 'em +outside the bathroom window. That smell is enough to make all of us +faint. Please turn my pocket inside out, so it can air." + +"What did I tell you?" and Dee burst into the bedroom, waving the +smelly gloves as she came; "the minx made Zebedee keep her gloves just +so she could get around here. We'd better dress in a hurry so we can be +ready to receive her. She might eat up poor Zebedee without his knowing +what got him," and she scornfully hung the offensive kids out the +bathroom window. + +Mabel Binks did come before Dum and I were quite dressed, but Dee was +installed in the living room waiting for her with Brindle at her side +ready to sic on Mabel if she showed signs of walking off with the +handsome young father. + +"Oh, you naughty man, I am almost sure you purloined my gloves last +night!" we heard her say, in her loud and strident tones. "I thought I +would stop in on the way to church to get them." + +"Yes, he did hook them from you," said Dum, making her appearance like a +whirlwind. "Zebedee is great on that. He steals girls' gloves all the +time and gives them to Dee and me. We never have to buy any. All the +girls get him to hold their gloves for them and then he brings them home +to us and we divide them up. Here yours are. Zebedee did not know whose +they were, but we recognized the perfume you are so fond of. They are +too big for us, so we were not going to row over them." Mr. Tucker sat +dumfounded during this tirade of Dum's, and as for me, I had to dive +back in the room from which I was emerging to get my countenance +straightened out. + +Dee buried her nose in Brindle's neck and made such a funny little noise +trying to keep back her laughter that Brindle growled and wrinkled up +his neck in a most ominous manner. Mabel took the gloves, and for once +her aplomb deserted her. She beat a hasty retreat with good-bys that +were scarcely audible. + +I fully expected that Mr. Tucker would admonish Dum for the ridiculous +fabrication of which she had been guilty, but he seemed to forget all +about the behavior befitting a parent, and caught us by the hand and in +a moment we were dancing the Lobster Quadrille and singing lustily, +"Will you, won't you, won't you, will you, will you join the dance?" + +"Now hurry up and get on your hats and jackets and we will speed little +Henry Ford to church." And off we went in a Christian frame of mind and +at peace with the whole world, especially Dum, who had scored heavily +over the detested Mabel. + +The hour for dinner at Cousin Park's had at last come. How slowly I +walked up the broad stone steps leading to her fine house! The same +lugubrious butler opened the door that had performed that office when I +visited Cousin Park on that other memorable occasion. He had the air of +one who is letting in the mourners. I involuntarily glanced at the door +bell to see if by any chance crepe could be hanging from it. + +This butler's appropriate name was Jeremiah, and he was what is known as +"a blue-gum nigger." I smiled when I greeted him, and for a moment he +showed his blue gums in a vain attempt at cheerfulness, but he quickly +subsided into his habitual gloom. I recalled what Mammy Susan had said +to me many a time. "Be mighty keerful, honey; don' nebber cross a +blue-gum nigger, fer de bite er one is rank pizen and sho death." + +Cousin Park was seated in state in her ugly, handsome, oiled-walnut +parlor. The room was of noble proportions and might have been pretty, +but Cousin Park had happened to marry the genial Major at the period +when oiled walnut was the prevailing style, and her whole life had been +built on the oiled-walnut basis ever since. Her costly velvet carpets +still came right to the edge of the floor and were snugly tacked close +to the baseboard. No hardwood floors and rugs for her. + +The heavy furniture was deeply carved, and if the unwary visitor forgot +himself for a moment and attempted to lounge in his chair he was quickly +brought to a sense of propriety by a carved pineapple getting him +between his shoulders or maybe a bunch of grapes striking him in the +small of his back. I usually tried to sit on the horsehair sofa. Long +practice in riding bareback had given me a poise that enabled me to be +very comfortable seated thus without sliding off. The pictures were hung +close up to the ceiling according to the style in vogue in times gone +by. They were mostly dark portraits in heavy gilt frames and they +glared down at you as though they resented your intrusion into their +mausoleum. + +Father was seated forward in his chair, trying to avoid the pineapple, +and on his face was an expression like that of a little boy who has been +taken to church and fears every minute to be questioned as to the text. +I rather expected our stern relative to tell him to go wash his hands +for dinner. He jumped up and hugged me enthusiastically, and I felt +ashamed that I had hated so to come. Cousin Park gave me an upholstered +embrace and I made for the horsehair sofa, that seemed friendly and +yielding in comparison with Cousin Park. + +"Well, so you have torn yourself away from those Tuckers long enough to +do your duty, have you?" I scented a battle from afar, but determined to +be good and not say anything to make my cousin angry. No doubt she was +hungry and would be more agreeable as soon as dinner was announced. + +"It is kind of you to ask me to dinner, Cousin Park, and I am glad to +come," I meekly replied. And thinking maybe it would be tactful to +change the subject, I said to Father: "How do you feel after dancing +last night?" + +"Fine, daughter; I never had such a good time in my life." + +"Cousin James! You--dancing! You are surely jesting--you--you--a man of +your age!" + +"Oh, I'm not so awfully old, Cousin Park! There were men on the floor +ten years older than I am--bank presidents, eminent surgeons, and +several judges, all dancing the new dances with the utmost abandon." + +"Well, where on earth did you learn the new dances, Cousin James?" + +"Well, I never saw them danced before, so it must have been by a +correspondence course." And Father winked at me. + +The sepulchral butler came in to announce dinner just at this crucial +moment when his irate mistress looked as though she would burst her +tight black satin basque in which she had been so compactly hooked. He +quavered in a sad voice: "Dinner is served," but his tone reminded me of +Jeremiah, Chapter IX, first verse: "Oh, that my head were waters and +mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night!" + +[Illustration: Dum looked at me aghast. "Page, you here, and +Dee!"--_Page 271._] + +The dining room was one degree more cheerful than the parlor, as instead +of the portraits there were Audubon prints and the Marriage of +Pocahontas. A heavy walnut sideboard laden with massive silver almost +filled one side of the room. The table was precisely set and the food +may have been good, but everything was so ponderous, including the +hostess, that when we got through with the long tiresome courses I felt +like the old wolf that Mammy Susan used to tell about. He swallowed +seven little kids whole and then, while he slept by the water's edge, +the Widow Goat came and ripped him open, took out the dear little kids +and put in their place seven huge stones. The old wolf was naturally +thirsty after this surgical operation, and so was I when I had packed in +and hammered down roast chicken, boiled hominy, mashed potatoes, baked +rice, macaroni and I don't know what besides, except that we topped off +with a plum pudding that was the last straw. + +I longed for sleep with an intensity that was truly painful, and I could +see that poor dear Father was desperate. The conversation at the table +was as heavy and starchy as the food. Father and I could not help +comparing it to the gay little dinner we had enjoyed the night before at +the Country Club. + +Cousin Park's manner was always dictatorial, even when she was the +visitor instead of the hostess, and on that day she seemed to think she +was born to boss the Universe. She picked on me most of the time and I +let her do it, knowing Father must have had his share of correction, but +when she began on my friends, the darling Tuckers, I got a little +restive. Mammy Susan always told me: "Don't sass old folks till dey fust +sass you," and I began to feel that old folks were sassing me +considerably. I smiled to myself, remembering that Mr. Tucker had told +me that when the Major died, at his funeral they sang "Peace, perfect +peace," and the pall bearers themselves could hardly keep from grinning +to think what a far from peaceful time the poor Major had had on earth. + +Father came to my rescue when our masterful cousin finally sprung this +mine on us: "I am astonished, Cousin James, that you should have no more +sense of propriety than to let Page visit that Jeffry Tucker without a +chaperon." + +"Why, Cousin Park, you astonish me! Page is visiting Mr. Tucker's +daughters, her schoolmates. They are all three very young to have a +question of propriety brought up." + +"I don't care, a woman is never too young or too old to be made the +subject of gossip," and Cousin Park creaked ominously. + +"Well, that being the case, I think it is highly improper and imprudent +for me to be visiting you, unless we can look upon Jeremiah as a +chaperon." + +And Cousin Park, knowing herself to be worsted, sighed a great, heaving +sigh and looked sadly at the Major's portrait, as though if he had been +alive he would have protected her. + +How glad we were to hear the toot of Henry Ford and to know that our +time in purgatory was over. The fresh air took away that awful +drowsiness, and the cheerful talk of the Tuckers as we spun out into +the country made us forget the deadly conversation we had been forced to +be a party to. Father had an engagement for supper with a medical +brother, and he was to go back to Bracken the next day. + +"Blood may be thicker than water," he said. "In fact, to-day it was so +thick you couldn't stir it, but never again do I intend to make a visit +at Cousin Park Garnett's. Why, I feel as though that blue-gum nigger had +bitten me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE DESPERATION OF DUM. + + +Back at Gresham and trying to get into harness! Some of us kicked over +the traces, feeling our oats, as it were; and Dum got the bit between +her teeth and came very near running all the way home before we could +stop her. + +It was hard to get into what Mr. Mantilini calls "the demnition grind" +after three weeks of untrammeled freedom. The whole school seemed +restive and the teachers were not much better than the pupils. Miss +Peyton had to drive her coach very carefully. Her infinite tact showed +itself constantly. A word of warning here, a slight tightening of the +reins there, just a little tap to the ones who seemed inclined to +laziness, and soon we were trotting along the road of knowledge just as +though we had not been kicking up our heels in the green pastures. All +but Dum, she could not get back to work. + +"If the year were only half over, but it's only the middle of January +now! We've got months and months to wait before we see Zebedee again. +When we once get into February, I can stand it better. I can't and won't +study, and as for demerits--let 'em give me all they want to. Let 'em +put me in bounds. I don't want to go off of the old place. What fun is +it to walk down into that dinky little village keeping step like +convicts? I'd rather have striped clothes like convicts than these old +stupid blue things. There is some variety in stripes but this eternal, +and everlasting dark blue--ugh! I hate it!" + +"But, Dum," I expostulated, "if you get so many demerits you will not +only be in bounds but you'll have to write pages and pages of +dictionary." + +"I'll see 'em make me. 'You can lead a horse to water but you cannot +make him drink.' They can tell me to write the dictionary all they want +to, but I've yet to see the man, woman, or child who can make me write +anything. I just won't and that's an end of it." + +"But what will your Father think?" I asked, hoping to get on her better +side by appealing to her love for her adored Zebedee. + +"Think? 'He can think like young niggers think: buckeyes is biscuit.'" + +This made me roar, as it was a saying I had told the twins that Mammy +Susan had taught me when I was a child. There was no persuading the +headstrong Dum. She had the bit between her teeth and she was rushing +straight to destruction. She got zero in her classes during the day, and +that night in study hall she spent the time making cunning little +brownies out of the colored clay she had brought in her pocket. She did +not open a book except for the purpose of propping it up on her desk to +conceal the little lifelike figures she was so busy modeling. + +Dee gazed at her with an agonized expression on her face and I gave her +many an appealing glance, but she merely made a face at me and went on +with her sculpture. Where was it to end? Zero for that day's lessons and +many preceding days; and not a single one prepared for next day. She +seemed perfectly careless of the teacher who was keeping study hall, as +though she invited reproval; but it so happened that Miss Sears, who was +on duty that night, did not seem to notice Dum's behavior. When the +study hall was over, the reckless girl picked up all her brownies and +carried them carefully on her open book up to her room, right under Miss +Sears's nose. + +"She must be crazy," whispered Dee to me, "and Miss Sears must be in +love or blind or something. She didn't see how Dum was cutting up." + +"Well, Dum was certainly reckless. I thought every minute she was going +to be called down. You've got to be either good or careful, and Dum was +certainly neither." + +Miss Sears beckoned to me and I fell back, and the Tuckers went on to +117. + +"Page," said Miss Sears, "Miss Peyton is rather worried over Virginia +Tucker. Of course I saw how she was conducting herself during study +hall, but Miss Peyton has decided the best way to get hold of Dum is to +let her alone for a while. The rest of the school is back in working +order, but she is as wild as a deer. Miss Peyton asked me to take you +into our confidence and see if you can help us some. Will you keep a +pretty sharp eye on Dum?" + +"You mean tell on her if she gets into scrapes?" I asked, flushing +painfully. + +"My dear girl, no. You would not be the kind we would go to if we wanted +an informer. We want you to try to influence Dum to quiet down, and let +her realize that she must get to work. Demerits seem to have no effect +on her. I verily believe she enjoys getting as many as she can. You have +lots of influence with those girls, and I believe a talk from you would +do her more good than being brought up before the faculty," and Miss +Sears looked at me very kindly. + +"Well, I'll do my best but I can't promise that Dum will listen to me." +I did not like to say that I had already done what I could, but I +determined to try, try again. + +Dum had her brownies ranged in a line on the bureau and under each she +had tucked one of her visiting cards, on which she had written +something. Dee looked sad and Dum defiant. + +"I was just telling Dum," began Dee. + +"Never mind what you were telling Dum," interrupted the outrageous girl. +"It's none of your business nor is it Page Allison's if I get into +scrapes. I reckon I'm old enough to take care of myself without the +assistance of persons no older nor wiser than I am." + +"So you are, but you owe a penny for interrupting Dee; that's +twenty-five cents since the holidays," I said sternly. + +"I don't care if I do. I don't intend to pay it. I need my money for +other things besides this foolishness." + +I looked at Dum in amazement. She and Dee often were rude to each other +but in the three months that I had known them, neither one of them had +been anything but scrupulously polite to me. I realized that silence +would be the better part of valor in this encounter, so I prepared for +bed without saying a word. I gave a warning glance at Dee, and she, ever +tactful, held her peace. Dum was evidently disappointed, as she was +simply "sp'iling for a fight." + +We got to bed as lights out bell rang and in a moment everything was +perfectly quiet. I did not go to sleep immediately but pondered over +what Miss Sears had said. "How can I best help Dum?" I asked myself. I +must keep an eye on her and still not let her know it. It was hard to +take her rudeness without giving her as good as she sent, but I felt +that a real loss of temper on my part would mean an equal loss of +influence. I dropped off to sleep with Dum on my mind. + +It must have been a little after midnight when I awakened, and something +prompted me to glance at Dum's bed. It was a bright night, the moon not +full, but big enough to make everything in the room visible. A light +snow was on the ground, which aided the lighting powers of the moon by +reflection. + +Dum's bed was empty. Her nightgown was on the floor and her clothes +which I had seen her throw on the chair near her bed were gone. I got up +in an excitement that made my heart go like a trip hammer and found her +hat and jacket gone, too. "Dee, Dee," I said in as quiet a voice as I +could command, "Dum is gone!" + +"Gone! Gone where?" said poor sleepy Dee. + +"I don't know, but it is up to us to find out. Get into your clothes as +fast as you can. I don't believe she has been gone long, her bed is so +warm." + +I had felt it as soon as I jumped out of mine. Dee shuddered at this +announcement of mine. She said afterward it sounded like the report of a +coroner's inquest. + +Fire engine horses could not have sprung into their harness quicker than +Dee and I did into our clothes. In a twinkling we were wrapped in our +warm sweaters and had donned hats and rubbers, the last not only because +of the snow but to deaden our footsteps down the long corridors. I got +ready a moment sooner than Dee and I struck a match and read one of the +cards Dum had stuck under the little clay brownies: "To Miss Peyton as a +parting token of appreciation of her discipline." I gasped with +astonishment. Dum was crazy surely, perfectly daft. + +"What is on the card?" asked Dee anxiously. + +"Oh, just some of Dum's nonsense! Hurry!" I did not think I had better +tell Dee. It sounded like a last farewell. + +We found the front door unlocked. She had certainly gone out recently, +as the watchman made his rounds every hour and it was then 12:20 by the +big clock in the hall. I know the wisest thing for us to have done would +have been to warn the watchman and let Miss Peyton know, but somehow I +felt that we could cope with Dum by ourselves; and I also knew that the +offense that Dum was guilty of was a very serious one and might mean +that she would be expelled from Gresham. + + "The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow, + Gave a luster of midday to objects below." + +So, thank goodness, the prints of Dum's tennis shoes were quite plain to +us. I was relieved to see that they went toward the village. I had had a +nameless fear of the lake. On we sped! Once we saw where poor Dum had +evidently paused and then turned back for a few yards. That encouraged +me more than anything we had found out yet. She was softening and +relenting. + +"What do you suppose she means to do, Page?" panted Dee. + +"She is trying to make that 12:40 train to Richmond. There she is!" + +We had turned a sharp corner and there about a hundred yards ahead of us +was Dum. She had almost reached the crossing where Captain Leahy had his +unique abode. One minute more would land her at the station, and already +we could hear the far-off whizzing of the approaching express. There was +a light in the little gatehouse and just at that moment the dear old man +emerged and began to let down his gate. + +"Well, Saints preserve us! And what maid travels so late? Why, if she +isn't one of the sponsors of Oliver." Dum stopped stockstill in the +road. + +"Captain Leahy, I'm going to take that midnight train to Richmond. Will +you flag it for me?" + +"And sure I'll do anything to please the ladies, but aren't ye young +and tinder to be after taking such a thrip at this toime o' night?" + +"But I have to go. I could never go back to Gresham now, and it would be +best for me to go straight to my Father." + +Dee and I had advanced silently, thanks to our rubber shoes, and we now +came up behind the old Irishman and Dum. + +"Come on, Dum, you can get back to Gresham before the watchman makes his +one o'clock rounds if you hurry." + +Dum looked at me aghast. "Page, you here, and Dee!" + +"Where should I be but with my twin? We have never spent a night apart +yet, Dumplingdeedledums." Dee's tact had won the day. That was Mr. +Tucker's pet name for Dum, and Dee using it at such a time brought Dum +to her senses. "What would Zebedee think and say of this escapade?" was +what came to Dum's mind. + +"Good-night, Captain, I reckon I won't go to Richmond to-night. We'll +have to hurry to get in before one. That's the 12:40 now whistling for +the crossing." And before the old man could get his breath, we had +scurried away over the light fall of snow like so many rabbits. + +It was uphill most of the way back to Gresham, but we made short work of +it. If I had not been so desperately afraid the watchman would discover +that the front door was unlocked before we got back and perhaps raise an +alarm, I would have enjoyed our run immensely. The moon went behind a +great black cloud, but we knew our way well enough not to be dependent +on her light. Not one word did we speak, but saved our breath for this +real fox-trot. + +At the school at last! I tried the great door, almost afraid to breathe. +It yielded to my push and we were in the dark hall. I had just sense +enough left to lock the door, and then we flew up the steps and were +safe in our room without having encountered the watchman. + +"Quick work!" I gasped, falling on my bed. "Down to the station and back +in forty minutes!" + +But safety was not ours yet. We heard a door open down the corridor and +light-slippered steps approaching 117. + +"In bed with you, quick!" exclaimed Dum; and without the formality of +night dresses, we jumped into bed, only taking the precaution to remove +our hats. Diving under the covers with only our noses sticking out, we +were to all appearances as lost to the world as the seven sleepers. + +It was a teacher who had evidently heard a suspicious noise and had come +out to investigate. She stopped a minute in front of our door and then +gently turned the knob. "All quiet along the Potomac!" She stood a +minute listening to Dum's "gently taken breath" and Dee's lifelike +snore, and then quietly retired on tiptoe; and in a moment we heard her +door close at the end of the corridor. If we got dressed like engine +horses going to a fire, we got undressed like boys seeing who can get +into the swimming hole first. + +Dum kissed us both good-night, or rather good-morning, but said never a +word about what her intentions had been nor the reasons for her +flitting. We were asleep in a minute and the next morning I had to pinch +myself to see if it had not been a dream. Our damp skirts and overshoes +and each girl's hat under her bed was all that made me realize that we +had been on that mad chase at midnight after the irrepressible Dum. + +"Girls, you are both bricks!" exclaimed Dum, rubbing her eyes as the +relentless rising bell tolled out. "Just think! If you had not come for +me, I would have been in Richmond by this time and poor old Zebedee +disgraced for life. There is nothing I can do to make it up to you----" + +"Yes, there is," chorused Dee and me, "get to work again." + +"I wasn't quite through what I was saying, but I am not going to impose +the fine that you owe for interrupting, and I am going to pay my fine +that amounts to a quarter now. I was awfully ashamed of not paying it +last night, but you see I just did have enough money to get me to +Richmond if I traveled on a day coach, so I had to let my debts of honor +slide. I have been a bad, rude, unreasonable girl and I am just as sorry +as I can be. I deserve to be expelled. I don't know what has been the +matter with me but I believe I have been getting ready to go to the home +for the criminally insane. I hated the school; I hated the teachers; I +hated lessons and rules; I just wanted Zebedee. He was the only person I +wanted and I wanted him so bad I was just going to have him." Dum got +out one of the gentlemen's handkerchiefs that she and Dee used and wept +copiously. "Do you reckon we'll be found out?" + +"Not a bit of it," I reassured her. "The blessed snow that was in that +black cloud hiding the moon last night has covered up all our rabbit +tracks, and when we take our walk this afternoon I am going to slip out +of line long enough to warn Captain Leahy not to tell on us. Now, Dum, +you get back to bed and stay there all day. I am going to tell Miss +Peyton you don't feel quite up to snuff, which is certainly so. You jump +in and study all your back lessons that you have missed and catch up +with your classes. It will take a day of diligent work to do it because +you have loafed ever since we got back to school, and by to-morrow +morning you will feel reconciled to life and take your place again." + +"Well, that would be kind of pleasant, but bring me up enough breakfast, +'cause I am not too ill to eat; and before you go down, hand me those +brownies I made last night," and Dum reduced the inoffensive little +works of art to Limbo with one squeeze of her hand. "I was leaving one +of them for each teacher. I wanted to make them into devils but thought +maybe that would be a little too sassy. I don't feel a bit that way now. +I may model some angels to-day if I can get time after I have mastered +all my back work." + +Miss Peyton was easily persuaded by me that a day in bed would restore +Dum to health and reason. She said she had hoped I could do something +with the refractory twin and she was going to trust to me, since I was a +doctor's daughter and no doubt had inherited some skill as a healer. + +That afternoon, when we took our walk, Dee and I got permission from the +teacher in charge to stop a moment at the crossing, presumably to call +on Oliver and see how much he had grown. + +"Captain Leahy," I cried, "you won't tell anyone about our being down +here last night, will you?" + +"And phwat do ye take me for?" he asked. "Didn't I see that ye were +after saving the little twinlet and that she was crazy with +homesickness? I mind too well the time many years ago when I got off of +that very express just as Miss Peyton, then a wee slip of a maid, was +after boarding it; and I took her by the hand and led her back to +Gresham, she weeping bitterly all the toime. She was half mad for the +sight of her folks and had run away from school." + +"Miss Peyton!" we exclaimed in one breath. "Not Miss Peyton, the +principal?" + +"The same," he answered; "and this is the first toime, so help me, that +I have mintioned it to a livin' sowl." + +"Well, we'll never tell, Captain," I said, grasping his hand. + +"And don't I know that? Would I be divulging the loiks to ye if I did +not know the stoof ye are made of? I just tell ye so ye can know that +I'll keep the little twinlet's secret as long as I have Miss Peyton's. +If I iver tell it, it will be when she cannot be hurt by it, and some +other poor little lamb can be oop-lifted." + +"You want us to tell Dum, don't you?" asked Dee. + +"For sure! And all of you come have tea with me soon and bring Miss +Peyton." + +We joined the line of blue-coated girls after a sharp run and then had +to make up things to say about Oliver, because we had forgot even to ask +about him. + +Miss Cox spoke to me on the way to supper that evening. She looked +worried and her face was crookeder than ever, but her eyes had a very +kind light in them. + +"Did I wake you last night, Page, when I opened your door?" + +"Oh, was that you?" I involuntarily exclaimed. + +"I had an idea some of you were awake," and the kindly woman smiled at +my ingenuous acknowledgment. "I was afraid to knock, hoping you were +asleep, so I tried the door and peeped in. I did not mean to be spying, +but I have been very uneasy about Dum lately. I was afraid she needed +some friendly advice. I had been writing late and had not been able to +get to sleep, and I was almost certain I heard the front door open and +shut. I simply could not rest without making sure that you three girls +were safe in your downies. I had thought I heard something some forty +minutes before but tried to make myself think I was just a foolish, +nervous old maid." + +I felt very foolish during this talk and could hardly look kind Miss Cox +in the eye, but I did not consider it to be my secret and I said +nothing. Mammy Susan always said: "The saftest thing in fly time is ter +keep yo' mouf shet," and I felt that this was fly time for me. + +"I have written to Mr. Tucker," Miss Cox continued. "I don't want the +twins to know it, but I felt it was my duty as an old friend of both +their parents to let him know how miserable Dum is." + +"Oh, I have written, too!" I cried. "I wish I could stop my letter now, +but it is too late. Poor Mr. Tucker will think things are in a terrible +way with Dum. I believe she is herself again now after a day in bed, but +I just felt I must let him know that an early visit from him would be +advisable. I wouldn't let Tweedles find out for a million that I have +done it." + +"Well, you keep my secret and I'll keep yours. I am glad the Tuckers, +father and daughters, have such a wholesome friend as you," and Miss Cox +pressed my hand warmly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +MORE LETTERS. + + + From Miss Jane Cox to Mr. Jeffry Tucker. + + My dear Jeff: + + I feel it my duty to write you in regard to your + daughter Virginia. I told you I would look after + your girls and I have tried to, but since the + holidays Dum has been very difficult and the + teachers hardly know how to cope with her. My + private opinion is that the child is longing so + for you that she is in a fair way to be made sick + by it. A vacation of three weeks seems to be very + upsetting and a great many of the pupils find it + hard to get back into line, but Dum does not even + want to, so far as I can see. + + I do not mean to complain of Dum. You surely + understand that, but I want to let you know the + state of affairs. I am writing entirely on my own + hook as your friend and the friend of the other + little Virginia, companion of my youth. I fancy + Miss Peyton would not approve of my doing it, as + she feels able to master poor Dum by kindness; but + I have studied her closely and feel that I + understand her temperament better than our beloved + principal. I have been afraid the child might take + it into her head to run away from school. It is + not that she does not like Gresham. I believe she + likes it very much. She is popular with the whole + school and has many friends. She is a good student + and has done well up to the time she returned from + Richmond. Since that time her marks have been + zero. + + Page Allison, who has a very good influence on all + the girls with whom she comes in contact, is + looking after her and she may be able to bring her + to reason; but in the meantime, my dear Jeff, I + want you to write to Dum very often,--of course + not mentioning the fact that you have heard from + me,--and give her hopes of a visit from you in the + near future. That would mean everything to her. + + Of course, an attempt to run away from school + would be a very serious fault if discovered, + because of the effect on the rest of the pupils. I + don't want to alarm you, but I feel that I would + be a poor friend indeed if I did not let you know + of the trouble your little daughter is in a fair + way to get herself into. Dee is back at work and + doing finely, although as a rule she is not a + better student than Dum. I am told that during + study hall this evening Dum made no effort to + concentrate on her lessons, but spent the whole + time modeling grotesque little figures in colored + clay. + + Hoping you will take this information as it is + meant, not thinking that I am a "tattle tale tit," + but that I have the welfare of the children of my + old friends very much at heart, and that it would + be a cowardly and selfish act for me to hold back + for fear of being misunderstood, I am, + + Your sincere friend, + JINNY COX. + + + From Mr. Jeffry Tucker to Miss Jane Cox. + + Jinny dear: + + You always were a trump, and I can never express + to you the gratitude I feel for the letter you + have written me about my poor little headstrong + Dum. She was particularly docile about returning + to school, but as I told her good-by at the + station she had a kind of smoldering look in her + eyes that bodest no good. She has the most + generous and kind heart in the world, but has + always been the more difficult of the twins to + manage. The matter is she has an artistic + temperament, but I have been trying to conceal + this fact from her all her life, as I think when a + person once discovers he has an artistic + temperament, he can commit any crime in the name + of his temperament and feel that the world must + forgive him. I want my little Virginia to + understand that it is up to her to behave just as + well as the ordinary folks who have no temperament + to speak of. I am writing to her by this mail, but + of course she is never to know you wrote to me. I + am coming up to Gresham for a little visit just as + soon as my strenuous duties will permit, and then + I hope we can have another Lobster Quadrille. + + I am very thankful that Tweedles has such a + delightful companion as Miss Page Allison. She has + improved them more than all the schooling in the + world would. I am also thankful beyond measure + that they have found such a friend as you are, + dear Jinny. Keep on being good to them and if Dum + shows further signs of insubordination, please + telegraph me. I'll come, if no newspaper is + published from this office for a month! Thanking + you again, dear friend, in my name and also for + the little Virginia, companion of your youth, + + Very truly yours, + JEFFRY TUCKER. + + + From Page Allison to Mr. Jeffry Tucker. + + Dear Mr. Tucker: + + I can't bear to worry you, but I think you ought + to know that Dum wants to see you mighty bad. She + has been very restless since we got back to + Gresham; and while she is quieter now and says she + is going to study hard and be a model pupil + henceforth, I am afraid she will break down + because she has so many demerits to work off. Miss + Peyton has been very kind and patient, but of + course it would not be fair to the other students + to let up on Dum; and I believe she has enough + demerits to keep her in bounds for about three + weeks. + + Now please don't think I am bossy, but if you + could write her and tell her that you think you + might get up to Gresham in about three weeks, that + would give her some ambition to work off those + marks and not get any others. You see, if she is + in bounds when you come, she can't see much of + you. + + I don't want Tweedles to know I am writing this to + you, but if you should mention having got a letter + from me, you can call it a "bread and butter + letter." + + You were so kind to me on my visit to the girls. I + had about the gayest and best time I ever had in + my life, and I do want to thank you for it. + + Very sincerely, + PAGE ALLISON. + + + Miss Page Allison, from Mr. Jeffry Tucker. + + My dear Miss Page: + + Your word is law! In three weeks' time I will be + in Gresham. I don't consider you a bit bossy but + very sweet and kind and wise. Thank God, my poor + little Dum has made such a friend. I wish I could + flatter myself that I could call you friend as my + girls can. I thank you from my soul for your + interest in Tweedles. + + Most gratefully, + JEFFRY TUCKER. + + + Mr. Jeffry Tucker to his daughters, Virginia and + Caroline. + + Dearest and best beloved Tweedles: + + Surely "'tis an ill wind that blows nobody any + good!" Know you that there has been a big + shooting scrape up in the mountains, and it is of + such importance that I have decided to cover the + trial myself instead of sending a reporter. This + trial comes off in a little over three weeks, and + as Gresham is on the way, I am going to stop off + to see my babies, and hope they will be glad to + have their old Zebedee with them for a day or so. + I'll manage to get there on Saturday afternoon and + stay until Monday night. Be good girls until then, + so you will not have any hateful demerits to work + off. + + I miss you so much, more than I did at first, but + I'm trying to be a very good boy and stick to + business. I can hardly wait to see you. Give my + kindest regards to Miss Page, and tell her not to + get any demerits between now and the time of my + visit, as she must do whatever the Tuckers do on + that visit. + + YOUR OWN ZEBEDEE. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +ZEBEDEE'S VISIT. + + +Mr. Tucker's promise of a visit did all that I knew it would for Dum. +She worked off her demerits without a murmur; studied her lessons +diligently; soon caught up in her classes; and was altogether an +exemplary Dum. + +If his promise of a visit worked such wonders, his visit completed the +miracle. We had already come through our mid-year examinations, some +with flying colors and some with tattered banners like the poor +Confederate flags that you see in the Valentine Museum in Richmond,--but +the thing was that we were through and none of our little crowd of +cronies had failed. Annie Pore carried off the honors in Latin, thanks +to the drilling she had been brought up on by the severe Oxford +graduate. Dum was easily first in mathematics. Dee seemed to know the +physiology off by heart. History was Mary Flannigan's forte and not a +date from Noah's flood to the San Francisco earthquake could stump her. +Literature was what most interested me, and it would have been silly not +to get an honor when it did seem so easy. + +We were rather proud of our achievements as a coterie of chums, and Miss +Peyton, as a reward of merit, let all of us go to the station to meet +Mr. Tucker, accompanied by Miss Cox. + +How good it was to see him! I believe I was almost as glad as Tweedles. +He looked very boyish indeed as he swung off the Pullman, a suitcase in +one hand and a great basket, neatly covered with purple paper, in the +other. + +"I know what that purple paper means," cried Dee from afar. "He's been +to Schmidt's and that basket's full of goodies." + +So he had, and, Zebedee like, had a proposition for pleasure. I have +seldom seen Mr. Tucker that he did not have some scheme on hand for +amusement for someone, and the best thing about it was that he usually +was ready to partake of the fun himself; and his partaking of it meant +there was twice as much fun as there would have been without him. + +"There's skating on the lake surely?" he asked. + +"Yes! Yes!" in chorus. + +"Well, come along, and I'll get permission from your Lord High +Executioner to take all of you skating, and we'll have supper on the +bank. What do you say to that, Jinny?" + +"Splendid! I haven't skated for years, though." + +"Have you got your skates?" + +"Oh, yes; you see this is all the home I have, so I've got everything I +possess here." + +"And you girls? All of you have skates that fit and shoes to skate in?" + +"Yes! Yes!" And off we went, the gayest crowd imaginable. Of course Miss +Peyton let us go. No one had ever refused Mr. Tucker anything in reason, +I am sure, nor had he ever asked for anything out of reason. + +"Will you have enough food for such a crowd? Had you not better come +back to Gresham to supper?" asked Miss Peyton. + +"Never fear. I have food enough for a dozen boys. I'll take good care of +all of them and bring them back at bedtime." + +There was another crowd on the lake when we got there: a party of +Greshamites, Juniors and Seniors, and some boys from Hill-Top. The ice +was perfect, and while the air was cold, it was not cutting but dry and +invigorating. We put our basket in a safe place; that is, a place where +everyone could see it. Mr. Tucker said the way to lose things, +especially food, was to hide it. So he placed it on top of a little +hillock overlooking the lake, where it looked like a great bunch of +violets against the patches of snow. + +Our skates did fit and our shoes were suitable, so we were on the ice in +no time. One of the most irritating things under Heaven is to go skating +with persons whose skates don't fit or whose heels are too high or soles +too thin. I had learned to skate on the duck pond at home; and while on +the duck pond my stroke had been necessarily limited, I found when I got +on the broad lake I could hold my own very well. + +Annie Pore was timid and faltering if she tried to skate alone but did +very well if she had a partner. Mary Flannigan, singularly ungraceful +but a real racer, with flapping arms and bowed legs, could get over the +ice faster than the fleetest boy from Hill-Top. The twins skated well, +as they did everything in the way of athletics, and wonderfully handsome +they looked skimming over the lake arm in arm. + +Miss Cox was a revelation to us all. She had not skated for years but +her stroke was as sure as it had ever been and in five minutes she and +Mr. Tucker were doing the double Dutch roll together, now frontward, now +backward, with all kinds of intricate strokes. I suddenly realized that +with all of her crooked homeliness, Miss Cox was far from plain. Her +figure was singularly graceful and her head very well set. + +The boys cheered as they approached the far bank, where the ice was a +little better. + + "Who's all right? Who's all right? + Miss Cox, Miss Cox! Out of sight!" + +I was supporting Annie Pore, so was necessarily going slowly, and I +heard one of the Juniors say to Mabel Binks, who was looking very +handsome in a red silk sweater and cap to match: "Who's the man with +Miss Cox? They are some skaters, for sure." + +"Oh, hello!" exclaimed Mabel. "If that ain't my beau from Richmond!" + +I did not hear any more, but I felt amused a little and indignant a good +deal. Harvie Price was among the boys and he immediately skated up and +got in between Annie and me. He was a strong skater and soon we found +ourselves doing stunts with him that we had not dreamed possible. + +"That Dutch roll is not so hard when you get the hang of it. See, like +this--raise your right foot, not too high--strike out with your left, a +good long stroke, and then down with your right, crossing the left. Just +look at us! We are not quite up to Mr. Tucker and Miss Cox, but we +surely are good enough to have some notice taken of us." And so we were. + +"Pride goeth before a fall," however, and just as we were getting the +hang of the stroke, we ran plump into Mary Flannigan and Shorty, who +were having a race backward, and the five of us fell into an +ignominious heap. Nobody was hurt, not even feelings! Mr. Tucker picked +me up and skated off with me. + +"Who was that good-looking young fellow you were skating with?" + +"Oh, that was Harvie Price. He's a mighty nice boy, and an old friend of +Annie Pore's." + +"And that little runty boy with the bright face, the cause of your +recent disaster, who was he?" + +"Tommy Hawkins,--Shorty! Isn't he nice-looking?" + +"Yes, very! I'm going to ask these boys to stay and have supper with us. +You introduce me, and then I'll make myself known to the teacher I see +over there; and if I include him in the invitation, maybe I can get +permission for the boys to stay." + +Of course the boys were delighted and with a great deal of finesse, Mr. +Tucker ingratiated himself into the affections of the teacher who had +them in charge, a Mr. Anderson, and he accepted for himself with +alacrity and gave the boys permission. + +"I wish I had grub enough for the whole ship's crew of them," sighed Mr. +Tucker. "If there is anything in the world I like, it is to give a boy a +treat. But seven of us and Mr. Anderson and the two boys will just about +clean up my basket. I wanted to ask four boys so we could 'balance all,' +but I was so afraid of running short." + +Mabel Binks had been circling around us, determined to attract Mr. +Tucker's attention. He had given her a polite bow but held tightly to my +hands and skated on by her. She was a good skater and her red sweater +showed off her figure to great advantage. Dum and Dee came racing up to +us and we all caught hold of hands and went the length of the lake +together. + +"Don't we four get on well together, Zebedee?" exclaimed Dee. + +"We certainly do," he answered heartily. "Miss Page seems to be just the +oil needed to make us, salt, pepper, vinegar, hot Tuckers into a +palatable dressing." + +"Look here, Zebedee, it is up to you to skate with that despicable +thing, Mabel Binks," and Dum looked sternly at her parent. + +"I don't see it that way," he answered coolly. + +"Well, you see she has gone around claiming you as her Richmond beau who +came up to Gresham to see her, and now she says that I won't let you +skate with her." + +"Too bad, that," he laughed. "Well, honey, you can tell her that you +have no influence over me at all. You could not keep me from skating +with her nor can you make me do it." + +The machinations of Mabel, however, were beyond our ken. She came +bearing down on us, all sails spread as it were. We tacked as best we +could, but the determined girl turned at that moment and skated backward +right into our line. Dee, who was next to me, broke and avoided her, but +I got the collision full force and went down with an awful whack, with +Mabel's hundred and fifty pounds right on top of me. + + "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, + Gang aft a-gley." + +Mabel had meant to occupy the center of the stage herself, and here was +I, Page Allison, knocked senseless for a moment by the fall, while +Mabel was simply pulled off me by the infuriated Zebedee and left to +shift for herself. Dum said she looked awfully silly as she got unaided +to her feet. Of course I could see nothing, as I was so dazed by the +fall that at first I lay with my eyes closed. In a moment the crowd of +skaters had gathered, and Dee told me it was like a dog fight, everybody +trying to see at once. + +"Page, little Page, are you dead?" were the first words that I heard, +and Mr. Tucker's face the first one I saw. + +"Dead? I should say not! I'm not even hurt. Let me get up," and I caught +hold of his ready hand and struggled to my feet. + +"She's not hurt! She's all right!" he called to the anxious Tweedles who +had been pushed back by the curious crowd, and he wiped the ever-ready +tears from his eyes. Then the boys from Hill-Top gave me a yell, our +especial yell that we sophomores used at moments of supreme victory: + + "Ice cream--soda water--ginger ale, pop! + Sophomores! Sophomores! Always on top!" + +"I wish I had been," I said ruefully; and there was a general laugh. + +A whistle from Gresham warned the girls that it was time to go back to +the school, and in a short time the Hill-Top boys had to leave, all but +Harvie and Shorty and the tutor, Mr. Anderson. + +We piled more brush on the fire that had been started to warm toes by, +and in a little while we had a blaze that, as dusk came on, lighted up +the whole lake and made up for the lack of a moon. + +I never saw such a wonderful lunch as Mr. Tucker had brought. There were +sandwiches of all kinds; cream cheese and pimento, chicken, ham, tongue +and lettuce. There was a great jar of chicken salad, beaten biscuit, +cheese straws, olives, pickles and salted almonds, and a chocolate cake +even larger than Dum's so-called best hat that Mr. Tucker had sent for +the Thanksgiving spread. + + "Bleat, my little goat, bleat, + Cover the table with something to eat," sang +Dum. "Zebedee, you seem to me to be working magic. I don't see how all +those things could have been packed in that basket." + +"If yours had been the task to 'tote' it this far, you would have +thought there was more than that in it," he answered. + +"Well, ours will be the task to help 'tote' it back," said Dee in tones +muffled by cream cheese. + +The crowning wonder of the repast was some great thermos bottles that +finally emerged from the bottom of the capacious basket. One was filled +with hot coffee and the other with hot chocolate, and lying snugly by +them was a jar of whipped cream. + +"Well, by the great jumping jingo, what next?" said Shorty. And then +funny Mary Flannigan used her ventriloquist's powers and made a noise +exactly like a puppy trying to get out of something, and Shorty bit. He +dived into the basket to the assistance of the imaginary canine! + +The coffee and chocolate were smoking hot, in spite of the long journey +they had taken. Mr. Tucker had made a clever calculation, also, as to +the number of guests, so the drinkables just did go around. + +"I thought I heard Miss Binks say she was going to have supper with +you," said Harvie Price to Dum. + +"Ah, indeed! I fancy she did intend to, but after she made a hole in the +ice with poor little Page, I reckon she forgot to wait for her +invitation." + +We ate up every crumb of that supper and the little birds who hoped to +feast on what we left must have had but poor pickings. + + "We shan't have to say: + 'Bleat, bleat, my little goat, I pray, + And take the table quite away,'" laughed Mr. Tucker. "If I had been +twins instead of Tweedles, I'd have brought twice that much." + +We had had enough, and much gayety and good-humored repartee had made it +a very delightful party. Mr. Anderson proved very agreeable and made +himself pleasant to everybody. Miss Cox was happy and full of fun, and +even Annie Pore forgot to be shy and actually rolled Shorty in a patch +of snow because he stole a piece of chocolate cake, all icing, that she +was saving for the last mouthful. + +Everything must have an end, even skating parties and books--but there +will be more skating parties and more books, too. + +On the way back to Gresham, Mr. Tucker divulged to us that he had a +scheme for pleasure, and if we girls, one and all, studied hard, and if +Miss Cox would promise to be as blind to our faults as she honorably +could, we were all of us included in the scheme! He had engaged a +cottage at Willoughby Beach for the month of July and there we were to +camp out and live the simple life. + +"Oh, how grand!" we gasped together. + +We had something to look forward to now and knew that the last half of +the year would fly by. We could hardly wait for the camping time to +come,--and I just hope my readers are as anxious to hear about my +"Vacation with the Tucker Twins" as I am anxious to tell them about it! + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Varied hyphenation was retained. This includes words such as Cotton-tail +and Cottontail; gatehouse and gate-house. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At Boarding School with the Tucker +Twins, by Nell Speed + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT BOARDING SCHOOL *** + +***** This file should be named 36018.txt or 36018.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/1/36018/ + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, +Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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